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Written by Webmaster   
Monday, 23 February 2009 14:27

Blizzard LogoAll the classes have their info up! As changes are made, we'll keep this post up to date.

So Blizzard has announced some upcoming class changes which sound especially exciting! I've included the entire text of the changes in this post, all prettied up with links for you—just click the "Continue Reading" link to see. More will be added as the info is released, of course—so keep checking back!

Please keep in mind that this list is not at all comprehensive, and subject to change. :)

Death Knight

  • Summon Gargoyle and Unholy Blight have swapped talent positions. The Gargoyle’s damage has increased and runic power cost per time has decreased.
  • Pestilence – this spell no longer causes damage but just spreads diseases. Blood Boil is intended to be the general area attack, and has been changed to be castable on targets with no diseases on them, but does extra damage if diseases are present.
  • Unbreakable Armor now absorbs a flat amount of damage that increases as your armor increases. It no longer boosts armor.
  • The Frost tree has been shuffled. Among other things, PvP talents such as Endless Winter are closer to the top of the tree where Blood and Unholy death knights can access them.
  • Sudden Doom – this talent now procs a Death Coil rather than requiring an additional button click. It works similarly to shamans’ Lightning Overload.
  • Magic Suppression and Blood of the North have been reduced to 3 ranks for the same benefit.
  • Blood Gorged now grants armor penetration instead of expertise.

Druid

  • Savage Defense – this is a new passive ability. When a druid in Dire Bear Form deals a melee critical strike, the druid gains a damage shield equal to 25% of their attack power. The next hit completely removes the shield regardless of how much damage was done.
  • Survival of the Fittest has had its bonus armor reduced to compensate for the above increase in damage mitigation.
  • Faerie Fire (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 5%. See Sunder Armor in the warrior update below for additional details.
  • Thorns and Nature's Grasp can be cast in Tree of Life form.
  • Replenish – to avoid confusion, this talent has been renamed “Revitalize.” It now also works with Wild Growth.
  • We are also looking at increasing the sustained (not burst) damage of feral druids in Cat Form.

Hunter

  • Consumable ammunition has been removed from the game (!). Arrows and bullets no longer stack, but are not consumed. Ranged attack speed bonus gained from quivers and ammo bags will be preserved in a different capacity.
  • A new tier of hunter pet talents have been added. In particular, this allows Beastmaster hunters to improve their damage per second (DPS) with their 51 point talent.
  • Hunting Party – this talent has been reduced to 3 ranks and also grants a passive bonus to the hunter.
  • Piercing Shots – this talent has been changed. Your Aimed Shot, Steady Shot and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 10/20/30% of damage dealt for 8 sec.
  • Sniper Training – this talent has been changed. After standing still for 6 sec, you gain a 2/4/6% damage bonus to Steady, Aimed and Explosive Shot.
  • We are also looking to add additional trap functionality to Survival.

Mage

  • Improved Water Elemental – this talent has been removed and replaced with a new talent that grants Replenishment (similar to Shadow priests).
  • We are also working on a way to give frost mages Ice LanceShatter combos” in PvE.
  • We are also working on more survivability for Fire spec in PvP.
  • We are also working on making Spirit a more useful and interesting stat for all mages.

Paladin

Priest

Rogue

  • Hunger For Blood – instead of a self-buff, this ability can only be used when there is a bleed effect on the target. However, it has no stacks and grants a 15% damage bonus.
  • Adrenaline Rush – the cooldown on this ability has been lowered.
  • Lightning Reflexes – reduced to 3 ranks. In addition to 2/4/6% dodge, this talent now also grants 4/7/10% passive melee haste.
  • Killing Spree – while this ability is active, the rogue does 20% additional damage.
  • Savage Combat – now causes 2/4% physical damage done.
  • Mace Specialization – this talent now grants haste in addition to armor penetration.

Shaman

Warlock

Warrior

  • Changing stances now has a much reduced cost: you lose a maximum of 20 rage (10 with Tactical Mastery). For example, if you have 100 rage and change stances, you will have 80 rage remaining. If you have 10 rage and change stances, all of your rage is lost. In addition, we may change the penalties associated with some stances.
  • You now gain rage when damage done to you is absorbed, such as through a Power Word: Shield.
  • Blood Frenzy now causes 2/4% physical damage done.
  • Sunder Armor (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 4% per application, and is now a single rank. Creature armor has been globally reduced so that debuffed targets should take about the same damage from physical attacks that they did before this change. The net effect should be that this debuff is slightly less mandatory in PvE and is not disproportionately more powerful against cloth targets in PvP.
  • We are also adding increased damage to Arms, possibly through Overpower or Slam.
  • We are also looking at granting rage when the warrior blocks, dodges or parries.
Please post your comments and thoughts here! These are some pretty major changes, and I'm curious to see what you guys think.

Source
Priest, Rogue, Shaman: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14910002204
Warlock, Druid, Warrior: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14910422662
Mage, Paladin, Hunter, Death Knight: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14910003268