Uldum Intro

Glyphs UI

New Launcher

Cataclysm Concept Art

You can find the gallery here.

Character Creation

Listen to them here, I know some are missing. Thanks to Jolesole for transcripts.

Goblin

The wily cunning goblins of Kezan have lived in relative peace for generations.
Though some of their race sided with the marauding orcs during the second war, most goblins have remained neutral throughout the various conflicts between the Alliance and Horde.
Ruled over by corrupt yet highly affluent trade princes, the goblins created a virtual paradise for themselves throughout the islands of the South Seas.
Their ingenious feats of engineering and vast trade fleets helped make their island, Capital of Kezan, one of the great technological wonders of the world, but now as the elements themselves rise up in anger across the world, the goblins mechanical paradise will be put to the test, for very soon fate will force them to choose sides in a conflict that will shake the very history of the world.

Worgen

Led by their indomitable King Genn Greymane, the proud citizens of Gilneas once stood with the Alliance against the vile orcish Horde that sought to conquer all of Lordaeron.
Gilneas survived but in the chaotic years following the Second War, the mighty kingdom drew ever inward distrustful of their formal allies, the Gilneans erected a mighty wall at the borders of their land closing off their nation and their hearts from an ever-darkening world.
Now, many years later as the seemingly unstoppable undead scourge marches across Lordaeron, human civilization teeters on the brink of destruction as war and terror close in all around them.
The citizens of Gilneas are faced with one terrible truth, their mighty wall cannot hold back the dead for much longer and worse, rumors of a new threat have arisen within the kingdom's borders, feral nightmare creatures that walk upright as men but hunt and howl as wolves.

Blood Elf

The past few years have seen unprecedented changes within the eternal land of Quel'Thalas.
The blood elves, following the will of their crazed leader Kael'thas Sunstrider channeled dangerous chaotic magics to transform their sacred Sunwell into a gateway of unspeakable evil.
While Kael'thas and his demonic masters were eventually defeated, a different kind of transformation occurred within the Sunwell itself, as a dying Nauru sacrificed it's life essence to reignite the Sunwell into a fount of Holy energy.
Now the Blood Elf reagent Lor'themar Theron sees a new hope on the horizon for his people. Over time, the Sunwell's light could cure the Blood Elves of their cursed state, but many still cling to the Arcane powers their procured, and are hesitant to relinquish them.
As one of the remaining Blood Elves, you must fight to protect Quel'Thalas and help redeem the soul of your ancient people.

Troll

Exiled years ago from their lands in Stranglethorn Vale, the Darkspear trolls attempted to make a new life for themselves amongst the races of the Horde. Under the leadership of the noble warchief Thrall, Vol'Jin and his savage trolls had at last found the honor and purpose they've been searching for, but now under the rule of headstrong Garrosh Hellscream, the trolls fear that the Horde could tear itself apart. Vol'Jin knows that whatever threats loom ahead, whether they be within the Horde or from without, it is cunning trolls like you who will fight to preserve the honor of the Horde.

Draenei

Empowered by the holy light and the undying strength of their convictions, the Draenei led the charge against the demonic Burning Legion in Outland. Now with the legion's defeat, they have completed the desperate mission that first brought them to Azeroth. Through some Draenei were sent back to Outland to revitalize their former civilization, the majority have vowed to remain and uphold their sacred commitment to the Alliance. Driven by a powerful vision, the immortal prophet Velen believes that a great war between the darkness and the light is fast approaching and that Azeroth will be its principle battleground. As one of Velen's chosen you must stand bravely before the shadow and ensure that your people are ready for the war to come.

Dwarves

Great change has come to the enduring halls of Ironforge, obsessed with the working of the Titans, the dwarves retrieved their creator's mystical tablets from the fable city of Ulduar. Activating one such tablet King Magni Bronzebeard fell prey to a terrible curse that fused his statue-liked form into the diamond heart of Ironforge itself. To compound this tragedy, Magni's estranged daughter Moira arrived, claiming her Father's throne for herself and for her infant dark iron son.
To avert civil war, the dwarves created the council of Three Hammers, an uneasy coalition that would share power equally amongst the clans. Now with political upheaval rising within the Kingdom and the great Cataclysm ravaging the surrounding lands, the future of Ironforge falls to brave dwarves like you.

Tauren

Great tragedy has rocked the Tauren tribes and shaken their once stalwart devotion towards the Horde, a disagreement between the new orc warchief Garrosh Hellscream and the beloved Tauren chieftain Cairne Bloodhoof led to a duel that ended in Cairne's death.
With his loss the vile matriarch Magatha Grimtotem launched a murderous attack attempting to seize control of Thunderbluff for herself, however Cairne's brave son, Bane Bloodhoof successfully repeled the attack and banished the surviving Grimtotem to the farthest reaches of the land.
Under Bane's hopeful leadership, the Tauren people now seek to heal their wounds and restore the balance between the various factions of the Horde.
To this end a new generation of Tauren Sunwalkers has arisen, to lead their people into the light of the new dawn and the promise of rebirth.
As a proud tribesman of Mulgore you must uphold the honor of your people and safeguard the lands of your Ancestors.

Forsaken

Though Lady Sylvanas and the Forsaken final took vengeance upon their hated enemy, The Lich King, their dark crusade in Northrend proved costly. Betrayed by Grand Apothecary Putetress at the Battle of the Wrathgate, the Forsaken’s devious plague of death was unleashed upon both the Alliance and Horde to calamitous event. Unbeknownst to Sylvanas, Putress and his demonic ally Varimathras had taken control of the Undercity. As a result, the Forsaken were wrongfully blamed for the traitorous atrocities. Though the Undercity was eventually retaken, Sylvanas and her followers still bear the weight of Putress’s sins. Mistrusted by the other members of the Horde, the Forsaken must prove their loyalty to the cause and redeem themselves from their supposed treachery. To this end, Sylvanas has bolstered her defenses within the Tirisfal Glades and readied her undead forces for any contingency. As one of the forsaken, you must use your cunning and viciousness to slay any who would pose a threat to Sylvanas’s rule. Be it undead, human, or otherwise.

Class Changes

Druid Changes

Balance

• Starsurge - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Solar Beam - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Starfall - Damage increased to 325 to 473 from 225 to 373.
• Hurricane - Damage increased to 323 damage from 242.
• Nature's Majesty - Now works with all spells.
• Innervate - Causes the target to regenerate mana equal to 20% of the casting Druid's maximum mana pool over 10 sec. Down from 33%.
• Lunar Shower - Moonfire damage increase under Lunar Shower increased to 15/30/45% from 2/4/8%.
• Lunar Guidance - No longer increaess Solar Beam radius.
• Force of Nature - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Moonglow - Reduces the Mana cost of your damage and healing spells by 3/6/9%.
• Wrath - [With][Without]Starsurge[Generates 13 Lunar Energy.][]
• Starfire - [With][Without]Starsurge[Generates 20 Solar Energy.][]

Restoration

• Heart of the Wild - Now grants 2/4/6% Intellect instead of 5/10/15% mana.
• Revitalize - When you periodically heal with your Rejuvenation or Lifebloom spells, you have a 8/16/24% chance to instantly regenerate 3% of your total mana. This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 sec.
• Lifebloom - Now costs 7% Base Mana, up from 5% Base Mana. Duration increased to 10 sec from 7 sec.
• Regrowth - Duration reduced to 6 sec from 21 sec.
• Tranquility - Level earned decreased to 1 from 30. Heals 5 nearest people. 8 sec duration added.

Feral

• Furor - Now also increases your maximum mana by 5/10/15% instead of increasing Intellect.
• Thrash - Cooldown increased to 6 sec from 5 sec.
• Swipe - Swipe nearby enemies, inflicting 215% weapon damage. Up from 125%.
• Swipe - Swipe nearby enemies, inflicting 427 damage. Damage increased by attack power. Up from 321 damage.

Death Knight Changes

Blood

• Death and Decay - Now scales slightly better.
• Blood Boil - Now scales slightly better.

Mage Changes

Arcane

• Blink - Now costs 12% Base Mana, down from 21% Base Mana.
• Arcane Intellect - Now also grants 6% spellpower.

Fire

• Hot Streak - Buff duration increased to 15 seconds, up from 10.
• Blast Wave - Damage decreased to 850 to 1,004 from 1,159 to 1,312. (Down 25%)
• Flamestrike - Damage increased to 733 to 922 from 526 to 715. (Up 33%)

Frost

• Brain Freeze - Now works with Fingers of Frost when instant cast buff is up.
• Fingers of Frost - No longer buffs Frostfire Bolt.

Rogue Changes

Subtlety

• Cloak of Shadows - Now grants 200% spell resistance increase, up from 100%. (Maybe now it will work properly!)
• Redirect - Level earned increased to 83 from 81.

Combat

• Combat Readiness - Level earned decreased to 81 from 83.
• Fan of Knives - Instantly whirl around, releasing a spray of throwing knives at all targets within 8 yards, causing 80% weapon damage. Up from 60%.
• Kick - Now costs 15 Energy, down from 25 Energy.

Assassination

• Venomous Wounds - Each time your Rupture or Garrote deals damage to an enemy that you have poisoned, you have a 30/60% chance to deal 1 additional Nature damage and to regain 10 Energy. If an enemy dies while afflicted by your Rupture, you regain energy proportional to the remaining Rupture duration.

Shaman Changes

Elemental

• Rolling Thunder - Now grants 2% mana, up from 1%.
• Elemental Reach - No longer increases Thunderstorm's radius.

Restoration

• Improved Water Shield - Now also works with Greater Healing Wave.
• Chain Heal - Heals the friendly target for 3,111 to 3,245, then jumps to heal additional nearby targets. If cast on a party member, the heal will only jump to other party members. Prioritizes healing most injured party members. Each jump reduces the effectiveness of the heal by [With][Without]Glyph of Chain Heal[20%][30%]. Heals 4 total targets.

Enhancement

• Unleash Elements - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Mental Quickness - Now also reduces the mana cost of shock spells by 60%.
• Elemental Resistance Totem - Level earned increased to 62 from 1
• Ghost Wolf - Turns the Shaman into a Ghost Wolf, increasing speed by 40%[With][Without]Glyph of Ghost Wolf[ and regenerating 10% of your maximum health every 5 sec][]. As a Ghost Wolf, the Shaman is less hindered by effects that would reduce movement speed.(10% likely a bug)

Warlock Changes

Destruction

• Empowered Imp - Now your Imp's Firebolt's have a 2/4% chance to cause your next Soulfire spell to be instant cast within 8 sec. Down from 6/12%.
• Burning Embers - Name changed from Burning Embers [NNF] to Burning Embers.
• Backdraft - Now only works with Shadow Bolt, Incinerate and Chaos Bolt.
• Chaos Bolt - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Shadowflame - No longer fears.
• Soul Leech - Your Shadowburn, Soul Fire and Chaos Bolt instantly restore 1/2% of your total health and mana when they deal damage and also grant Replenishment. Down from 5/10%.
• Immolate - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Rain of Fire - Range increased to 35 yd from 30 yd.

Affliction

• Soul Swap - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Haunt - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Seed of Corruption - Damage increased to 1,211 to 1,355 Shadow damage from 890 to 1,035 Shadow damage.
• Drain Mana - Now costs 12% Base Mana, down from 17% Base Mana.
• Drain Life - Now costs 12% Base Mana, down from 17% Base Mana. Drains the life from the target, causing 1 Shadow damage and restoring 5% total health the caster every 1 sec. Lasts 3 sec.[With][Without]Soulburn[|CFFE55BB0Soulburn: Cast time reduced by 50%.|R][]
• Death Coil - Range decreased to 30 yd from 40 yd.
• Corruption - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Life Tap - You Life Tap for 20% of your total health, converting 75% of that into mana.

Demonology

• Aura of Foreboding - New spell. When your Hand of Gul'dan lands, all enemies within 4 yards will be rooted for 2/3 sec and stunned for the same duration if they are still within the Curse of Gul'dan aura 6 sec afterword. (Rank 1, Demonology, Warlock)
• Unending Breath - Now part of Demonology.
• Demonic Rebirth - 2 minute cooldown added.
• Cremation - Increases the damage done by your Hellfire by 15/30%, and your Hand of Gul'dan has a 50/100% chance to refresh the duration of your Immolate on the target.
• Inferno - Name changed from Inferno [NYI] to Inferno.
• Hand of Gul'dan - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd. 15 sec duration added. Summons a falling meteor down upon the enemy target, dealing 1,662 to 1,822 Shadow damage and erupts an aura of magic within 4 yards, causing all targets within it to have an increased 10% chance to be critically hit by any of your demons for 15 sec.
• Soulburn - Duration increased to 15 sec from 10 sec.
• Decimation - Free Soul Fire removed.

Paladin Changes

Protection

• Vindication - Now only works with primary targets.
• Grand Crusader - Now only works with primary targets.
• Sanctuary - Now also reduces all damage taken by 3/7/10%.

Retribution

• Judgement - No longer will heal the paladin on proc.
• Pursuit of Justice - New effect added. You have a 50/100% chance to gain a charge of Holy Power when struck by a Stun, Fear or Immobilize effect.
• Selfless Healer - Increases the healing of your Word of Glory by 50/100% when used to heal others. Up from 30/60%.

Holy

• Conviction - New spell. Gives you a 1/2/3% bonus to damage and healing for 15 sec after causing a critical effect from a weapon swing, spell, or ability. This effect stacks up to 3 times. (Rank 1, Holy, None
• Daybreak - New spell. Your Flash of Light, Holy Light and Divine Light have a 15/30% chance of resetting the cooldown on your Holy Shock. (Rank 1, Holy, None)
• Word of Glory - Consumes all Holy Power to heal a friendly target for 1,585 to 1,697 per charge of Holy Power. Up from 1,312 to 1,423 per charge.
• Tower of Radiance - Healing the target of your Beacon of Light with Holy Shock, Flash of Light, Holy Light or Divine Light has a 33/66/100% chance to generate a charge of Holy Power.
• Divine Plea - Cooldown increased to 2 min from 1 min. You gain 10% of your total mana over 15 sec, but the amount healed by your healing spells is reduced by 50%. Down from 25% of your total mana.
• Infusion of Light - Now works with Holy Light instead of Flash of Light.
• Denounce - New effect added. Reduces the mana cost of Exorcism by 25/50%.
• Consecration - Scaling decreased.
• Arbiter of the Light - No longer works with Holy Light.
• Seals of the Pure - No longer works with all Seals. Increases the damage done by your Seal of Righeousness, Seal of Truth and Seal of Justice by 5/10/15%.
• Blazing Light - Name changed from Healing Light to Blazing Light. Increases the damage of your Holy Shock and Exorcism by 10/20%.
• Exorcism - Now costs 20% Base Mana, down from 8% Base Mana. Cooldown of 6 sec removed.
• Lay on Hands - Cooldown decreased to 10 min from 20 min.

Warrior Changes

Arms

• Sweeping Strikes - Your melee attacks strike an additional nearby opponent. Lasts 30 sec sec.
• Anger Management - Now grants 25% more rage from damage done.

Fury

• Inner Rage - Tooltip corrected. Whenever you achieve maximum Rage you enter an Enraged state, increasing damage caused by all abilities by 15% and increasing Rage cost by 50%. This effect is immediately cancelled when your Rage total drops below 31.
• Bloodsurge - Name changed from Slam! to Bloodsurge.
• Dual Wield Specialization - Allows you to equip one-hand and off-hand weapons in your off-hand, and increases the damage done by your offhand weapon by 0%.

Protection

• Sentinel - Now also grants 15% block chance.
• Bastion of Defense - Critical hit reduction only works in Defensive stance,

Hunter Changes

Beast Mastery

• Focused Aim - No longer works with Aimed Shot or Volley.
• Focus Fire [NNF] - Cooldown decreased to 15 sec from 30 sec.
• Cobra Shot - Range increased to 5 - 40 yd from 40 yd.
• Widow Venom - Range increased to 5 - 40 yd from 40 yd. One venom per hunter restriction removed.
• Improved Kill Command - Increases the critical strike chance of your Kill Command by 5/10%.

Survival

• Serpent Spread - Targets hit by your Multi-Shot are also afflicted by your Serpent Sting equal to 6/9 sec of its total duration.
• Serpent Sting - Range increased to 5 - 40 yd from 40 yd.
• Explosive Shot - Range increased to 5 - 40 yd from 40 yd.
• Scatter Shot - Range increased to 5 - 20 yd from 20 yd.
• Black Arrow - Range increased to 5 - 40 yd from 40 yd.
• Camouflage - 3 sec duration removed. Now lasts 1 min.
• Point of No Escape - No longer works with Freezing Arrow.
• Thrill of the Hunt - You have a 5/10/15% chance when you Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot or Black Arrow you instantly regain 40% of the focus cost of the shot.

Marksmanship

• Steady Shot - Range increased to 5 - 40 yd from 40 yd.
• Chimera Shot - Range increased to 5 - 40 yd from 40 yd. Now does $RAP*0.24+0 damage instead of 190% weapon damage.
• Aimed Shot - Range increased to 5 - 40 yd from 40 yd. Cast time changed to 3 sec from 2 sec. A powerful aimed shot that deals ranged weapon damage plus ${$RAP*0.40+0}.
• Concussive Shot - Range increased to 5 - 40 yd from 40 yd.
• Arcane Shot - Range increased to 5 - 40 yd from 40 yd. Now also causes weapon damage and bonus.
• Multi-Shot - Fires several missiles, hitting your current target and all enemies within yards of that target for 55% of weapon damage.
• Auto Shot - Range increased to 5 - 40 yd from 40 yd.

Misc Changes

Inscription

• Enchanting Vellum - Cast time reduced to 1.5 sec from 2 sec.
• Glyph of Pyroblast - Name changed from Glyph of Ice Armor to Glyph of Pyroblast.
• Glyph of Dragon's Breath - Name changed from Glyph of Water Elemental to Glyph of Dragon's Breath.
• Glyph of Cone of Cold - Name changed from Glyph of Remove Curse to Glyph of Cone of Cold.
• Glyph of Divine Protection - Name changed from Glyph of Spiritual Attunement to Glyph of Divine Protection.
• Glyph of Divine Favor - Name changed from Glyph of Holy Light to Glyph of Divine Favor.
• Glyph of Righteousness - Name changed from Glyph of Righteous Defense to Glyph of Righteousness.
• Glyph of Word of Glory - Name changed from Glyph of Flash of Light to Glyph of Word of Glory.
• Glyph of Rebuke - Name changed from Glyph of Seal of Command to Glyph of Rebuke.
• Glyph of Seal of Insight - Name changed from Glyph of Seal of Light to Glyph of Seal of Insight.
• Glyph of Light of Dawn - Name changed from Glyph of Seal of Wisdom to Glyph of Light of Dawn.
• Glyph of Focused Shield - Name changed from Glyph of Avenger's Shield to Glyph of Focused Shield.
• Glyph of Totemic Recall - Name changed from Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave to Glyph of Totemic Recall.
• Glyph of Water Shield - Name changed from Glyph of Water Mastery to Glyph of Water Shield.
• Glyph of Grounding Totem - Name changed from Glyph of Mana Tide Totem to Glyph of Grounding Totem.
• Glyph of Lava Burst - Name changed from Glyph of Lava to Glyph of Lava Burst.
• Glyph of Conjuring - Name changed from Glyph of Frost Armor to Glyph of Conjuring.
• Glyph of Insight - Name changed from Glyph of Blessing of Wisdom to Glyph of Insight.
• Glyph of Long Charge - Name changed from Glyph of Charge to Glyph of Long Charge.
• Glyph of Truth - Name changed from Glyph of Sense Undead to Glyph of Truth.
• Glyph of the Arctic Wolf - Name changed from Glyph of Water Shield to Glyph of the Arctic Wolf.
• Glyph of Demoralizing Shout - Name changed from Glyph of Mocking Blow to Glyph of Demoralizing Shout.
• Glyph of the Monkey - Name changed from Glyph of Frost Ward to Glyph of the Monkey.
• Glyph of Justice - Name changed from Glyph of the Wise to Glyph of Justice.
• Glyph of Slam - Name changed from Glyph of Rending to Glyph of Slam.
• Glyph of Bloodthirst - Name changed from Glyph of Execution to Glyph of Bloodthirst.
• Glyph of Raging Blow - Name changed from Glyph of Whirlwind to Glyph of Raging Blow.
• Glyph of Seal of Truth - Name changed from Glyph of Seal of Vengeance to Glyph of Seal of Truth.
• Glyph of Bloody Healing - Name changed from Glyph of Bloodthirst to Glyph of Bloody Healing.
• Glyph of Dazing Shield - Name changed from Glyph of Seal of Righteousness to Glyph of Dazing Shield.
• Glyph of Furious Sundering - Name changed from Glyph of Vigilance to Glyph of Furious Sundering.
• Glyph of Shamanistic Rage - Name changed from Glyph of Totem of Wrath to Glyph of Shamanistic Rage.
• Glyph of Templar's Verdict - Name changed from Glyph of Divine Storm to Glyph of Templar's Verdict.
• Glyph of Slow - Name changed from Glyph of Living Bomb to Glyph of Slow.
• Glyph of Intimidating Shout - Name changed from Glyph of Enraged Regeneration to Glyph of Intimidating Shout.
• Glyph of Shield of the Righteous - Name changed from Glyph of Shield of Righteousness to Glyph of Shield of the Righteous.
• Glyph of Mana Shield - Name changed from Glyph of Eternal Water to Glyph of Mana Shield.
• Forged Documents - New spell. (Inscription, None)
• Forged Documents - Now part of Inscription.
• Swiftsteel Inscription - Now part of Inscription.
• Lionsmane Inscription - Now part of Inscription.
• Inscription of the Earth Prince - Now part of Inscription.
• Felfire Inscription - Now part of Inscription.
• Fortune Card - Now part of Inscription.
• Darkmoon Card of Destruction - Now part of Inscription.
• Book of Blood - Now part of Inscription.
• Lord Rottington's Pressed Wisp Book - Now part of Inscription.
• Dungeoneering Guide - Now part of Inscription.
• Divine Companion - Now part of Inscription.
• Battle Tome - Now part of Inscription.
• Origami Slime - Name changed from Origami Butterfly to Origami Slime. Now part of Inscription.
• Origami Rock - Now part of Inscription.
• Origami Beetle - Name changed from Origami Rat to Origami Beetle. Now part of Inscription.
• Etched Horn - Now part of Inscription.
• Manual of the Planes - Now part of Inscription.
• Runed Dragonscale - Now part of Inscription.
• Notched Jawbone - Name changed from Engraved Icebear Jaw to Notched Jawbone. Now part of Inscription.
• Tattooed Eyeball - Now part of Inscription.
• Silver Inlaid Leaf - Now part of Inscription.
• Cataclysm Reclamation: Blacksmithing - Now part of Inscription.
• Cataclysm Reclamation: Enchanting - Now part of Inscription.
• Cataclysm Reclamation: Jewelcrafting - Now part of Inscription.
• Cataclysm Reclamation: Leatherworking - Now part of Inscription.
• Cataclysm Reclamation: Tailoring - Now part of Inscription.
• Adventurer's Journal - New spell. (Inscription, None)
• Scroll of Intellect IX - New spell. (Inscription, None)
• Scroll of Strength IX - New spell. (Inscription, None)
• Scroll of Agility IX - New spell. (Inscription, None)
• Scroll of Spirit IX - New spell. (Inscription, None)
• Scroll of Stamina IX - New spell. (Inscription, None)
• Scroll of Protection IX - New spell. (Inscription, None)
• Glyph of Colossus Smash - New spell. (Inscription, None)
• Focused Shield - Name changed from Glyph of Avenger's Shield to Focused Shield.
• Glyph of Righteousness - New spell. Reduces the mana cost of Seal of Righteousness by 50%.

Archaeology

• Pewter Drinking Cup - Name changed from Silver Drinking Cup to Pewter Drinking Cup.
• Bone Gaming Dice -
• Worn Hunting Knife -
• Ceramic Funeral Urn -
• Silver Neck Torc -
• Stone Gryphon -
• Voodoo Doll - Now part of Archaeology.
• Lizard Foot Charm - New spell. This is a small, mummified foot of a jungle lizard. Any magic it once contained has long since been drained. (Archaeology, None)
• Fetish of Hir'eek - New spell. Hir'eek is one of the animal spirits worshipped by southern trolls. Hir'eek's totemic animal is the bat. Jeklik, a high priestss of Zul'Gurub was one of Hir'eek's most famous followers. (Archaeology, None)
• Belt Buckle with Anvilmar Crest - New spell. Modimus Anvilmar was the high king of the dwarves before the War of the Three Hammers and is depicted by the great statue at the gates of Ironforge. This brass buckle might have belonged to a member of his house guard or a servant. (Archaeology, None)
• Wooden Whistle - New spell. A small whistle carved from oak. It might have been used to summon a pet or mount or possibly used as a child's toy. It appears to have been chewed on by an animal or young dwarf. (Archaeology, None)
• Preserved Fern - New spell. Ferns are primitive plants that have stems, leaves and roots but no seeds or flowers. They reproduce via spores, much like mushrooms. In ancient times, ferns occupied the niche that flowering plants do today. (Archaeology, None)
• Black Trilobite - New spell. Trilobites are exctinct crustaceans that apparently were once quite diverse and numerous across Azeroth. Myths persist of living trilobites of supposedly epic proportions. (Archaeology, None)
• Archaeology - New spell. Allows an archaeologist to find artifact fragments and complete artifacts up to a maximum potential skill of 150. (Journeyman, Archaeology, None)
• Scrap of a Silk Dressing Gown - New spell. This mesh is finely woven, possibly of spider silk. The scrap is a silvery white that subtly shifts color in the light. It's a wonder that it has endured years of being buried in the earth. (Archaeology, None)
• Inlaid Ivory Comb - New spell. While the most valuable jewels have gone missing, this cosmetic item must have been worth a small fortune back in its day. A series of tiny nautilus shells decorate one side, while the inscription 'Lament for lost Zanara' is visible on the other. (Archaeology, None)
• Highborne Pyxis - New spell. This is a small box of delicate ceramic, probably used to store cosmetics, jewelry or other small items belonging to a Highborne lady. The clasp is of silver and fashioned to look like two acorns and a holly leaf. (Archaeology, None)
• Fossilized Hatchling - New spell. When you finished assembling this tiny skeleton through some eldritch magic, the little critter sprang back to life. He's a pretty good pet. Since he's a skeleton he doesn't eat much. (Archaeology, None)
• Cloak Clasp with Antlers - New spell. This clasp is fashioned of lacquered wood carved to resemble stag antlers. On the reverse is engraved the name 'Pyramond' in Darnassian. (Archaeology, None)
• Jade Asp with Ruby Eyes - New spell. This tiny figurine could possibly be a representation of High Priest Venoxis, though snakes of all types are venerated throughout troll culture. The delicate jaws on this figurine can be closed, presumably to draw blood from a finger. (Archaeology, None)
• Feathered Gold Earring - New spell. The feathers are probably from scarlet and green macaws, though they have been well preserved. The gold is twisted to appear like thorns or veins. The pin used to pierce the ear looks particularly painful. (Archaeology, None)
• Moltenfist's Jeweled Goblet - New spell. Even among dark iron dwarf kings, Moltenfist's avarice was legendary. This goblet, while once of high craftsmanship, has seen better days. It has been partially melted by exposure to lava or dragon fire. (Archaeology, None)
• Archaeology - New spell. Allows an archaeologist to find artifact fragments and complete artifacts up to a maximum potential skill of 225. (Expert, Archaeology, None)
• Archaeology - New spell. Allows an archaeologist to find artifact fragments and complete artifacts up to a maximum potential skill of 300. (Artisan, Archaeology, None)
• Archaeology - New spell. Allows an archaeologist to find artifact fragments and complete artifacts up to a maximum potential skill of 375. (Master, Archaeology, None)
• Archaeology - New spell. Allows an archaeologist to find artifact fragments and complete artifacts up to a maximum potential skill of 450. (Grand Master, Archaeology, None)
• Archaeology - New spell. Allows an archaeologist to find artifact fragments and complete artifacts up to a maximum potential skill of 525. (Illustrious Grand Master, Archaeology, None)

Misc Changes

• Dark Phoenix - New spell. Summons and dismisses a rideable Dark Phoenix. (Mounts, None)
• Goblin Mini Hotrod - New spell. Rides and parks a Mini Goblin Hotrod. (Mounts, None)
• Dark Phoenix Hatchling - New spell. Right Click to summon and dismiss your baby dark phoenix. (Companions, None)
• Rustberg Seagull - New spell. Right Click to summon and dismiss a Rustberg Seagull. (Companions, None)
• Armadillo - New spell. Right Click to summon and dismiss your Baby Armadillo. (Companions, None)
• Fishing - New spell. Equip a fishing pole and find a body of water to fish. Right-Click on the bob in the water when it splashes to catch your fish. Higher skill increases your chance of fishing successfully in higher level areas. (Illustrious Grand Master, Fishing, None)
• Field Bandage: Dense Embersilk - Name changed from Dense Embersilk Bandage to Field Bandage: Dense Embersilk.
• Dense Embersilk Bandage - New spell. (Upgrade, First Aid, None)

New Icons

Blue Posts

Zul'Gurub Gone?

Zul'Gurub is gone as a raid instance come Cataclysm.

Retribution: What are we supposed to be?

You guys worry way too much about what buckets you're supposed to be in. It seems every time I come to the forums, I am asked to define someone's role. :)

In PvE, the only roles are tank, dps and healing. In PvP, the only roles are dps and healing (except for very specific circumstances like tanking Drek in AV). Situationally you might be called upon to carry a flag or defend a tower, but that's what you're doing at the moment, not what your talent spec is all about. There are 30 talent trees. They're all a little different. PvP doesn't have positions like quarterback, grenadier, left fielder, drum major or striker. Use all of the abilities you have in order to support your allies and be successful. If you're a Ret paladin, you should focus on melee dps, because that's where your strongest abilities lie.

Sometimes when I do try and explain how we think a spec should work, I often regret it. I'll say something like how Ret is supposed to be a melee dps class, and keep getting asked "Then why do we have heals?" or "Why should someone take me over a rogue if I'm just melee?" Trying too hard to label things is always going to result in a simplistic answer.

I'm not trying to dismiss the question. It's just not the way we think about things.

Lack of Seal for Holy Pally

Seal of Insight will improve your mana regen and self healing. It will give you a little of each if you only Judge and give you more (but not a broken amount) if you're ever in a position where you can melee the target. There is also a glyph to improve your healing while Insight is active. I'll concede that running a Seal is probably more important for a Ret or perhaps even Prot paladin than a Holy paladin, but there's still no reason not to do so.

Ouch @ Lifetap Change

Life Tap scaling with spellpower was proving hard to balance. We buffed Drain Life as well, so you should be able to Life Tap once and then Drain Life your way back up.

Streaming Launcher Improvements

We recently released a new Cataclysm beta launcher that allows you to stream game data while you play. We've received a lot of feedback from you regarding this new feature, and that feedback has allowed us to improve the player experience significantly.

In the next beta patch, you'll receive a new Cataclysm beta launcher that includes several updates to in-game streaming. Here's a quick preview of some of the upcoming changes:

• Improved three-stage progress bar
• Download speed improvements
• Detailed peer-to-peer connection information
• Bandwidth detection, which will improve the play experience of those with low bandwidth
• New UI with a Cataclysm-inspired theme
• Many bug fixes

Phone Apps

We would like to remind you that we have phone apps for both iPhones and Android phones. You can get the iPhone version here and the Android version from here

Blue Posts

The best news of the week!

UI Addon Functionality Returning

With the release of the next beta patch, we plan to re-enable the ability for players to use third-party addons. Many of the core user interface features are now implemented in the beta test and functional, so we feel it’s a good time to open up the field for developing and testing UI modifications.

Be sure to continue leaving us feedback about all of the new user interface features here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26560766722&sid=2000

Feedback about the new guild interface can be provided to us here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26560766721&sid=2000

Goblins? Patch? Today?

We do not plan to patch today, though we plan to have a great deal of new content in the upcoming patch. You'll get access to new zones and dungeons, and potentially an increase in level cap to 85.

I'll check in on the issue with goblins. I know it's a high priority and I'd like to play mine again as well -- which should make very high priority. ;p

It has been a very quiet week, hopefully Friday's patch (if there is one) is interesting! Have some blue posts while you wait.

Volley

We think Multi-Shot is a more interesting ability and can fill the hunter AE niche (along with Explosive Trap). We'll have to change Multi-Shot from the current version to get it there. I'm very sorry if for some unusual reason Volley was your favorite spell as a hunter. We've been trying to consolidate abilities and free up some bar space and having multiple AEs that competed with each other seems like a good area to hit up. The Volley and Multi-Shot niches were very similar, which resulted in the latter being dead. We wanted to pick one and we though Multi-Shot felt more huntery and less "clunky" (to use a favorite Wow forums term).

Do consider that you won't be AE'ing yourselves through Cataclysm content the way you do currently. When you do need to AE, hunters will have the tools to do so. In situations where you do have to AE, you are probably not also trying to CC. When you're back to the level of trivializing lower level content, nobody is going to say "Don't bring a hunter. Their AE spam isn't spammy enough." We don't consider easily breaking rogues out of stealth a good reason to keep Volley around.

I think that hits most of the reasonable concerns. I care much less about addressing the unreasonable ones. :)

Man, have we come a long way from "AE is only for trash."

Oceanic - Guild Screenshot Beta Contest

We're proud to announce a brand new contest open exclusively to residents of Australia and New Zealand. We're looking for some tightly knit guilds who are ready to rumble their way into our World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta test.

We want you to share screenshots of your guild's greatest triumphs and proudest achievements with us. Whether you and your mates just took down the Twilight Destroyer or you've crushed Kel'thuzad for the first time, we want to witness the milestones of your success. Each guild master who submits a winning screenshot will win 10 invitations to the World of Warcraft Cataclysm beta test for their guild. The contest will be on for five weeks and each guild is limited to just one submission. We'll pick five winners each week for a total of 25 winning submissions from eligible participants, starting August 27, 2010.

Before entering the contest, be sure to read the full contest rules for details and eligibility: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/contests/cataclysm-beta/sea.html

New Cataclysm Zone Q&A: Azshara

Delve into the mysteries of Azshara with game designers Craig Amai and Dave Kosak, who talked with us about the Horde's northward expansion and the rise of the Bilgewater Cartel as part of our ongoing coverage of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Adventure, conflict, and, of course, profit await those who enter the newly re-imagined Azshara!

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/features/azshara.html

Hillsbrad

An excellent new quest narrated by a less than excellent guy!

Blue Posts

Holy Paladin tree

We removed the prereq chain from Divine Illumination to Aura Mastery and Light of Dawn. We had the prerq in there to make sure paladins didn't skip over a powerful group utility talent in a perhaps selfish attempt to enhance their personal healing per second, but we do acknowledge that it is far less useful in say 5-player dungeons.

Shaman 12803 changes discussion

That's not our definition. If you bring an 8% attack power buff and someone else brings a 10% attack power buff, then the other guy will generally be more desirable. If you have an 8% attack power buff but a talent that brings it up to 2% (and only that), then you have a talent you probably don't want to spend and feel dumb spending whenever the 10% guy isn't around. This is the case with many talents in Lich King, such as Improved Blessing of Might. These are the class of talents that we said we would remove (and then proceeded to do so).

Once you get beyond the buff itself, there are a variety of ways it is produced by a character. Sometimes it's a base spell. Sometimes it's a talent. Sometimes it's a passive aura. Sometimes it's a proc. Sometimes it goes away when the dude dies. Sometimes it lasts for a duration. We're not interested in making all of these parameters identical, and we think the game would suffer from a pervasive sameness were we to do so. We also think most raiders are sensible enough not to disqualify someone because his buff isn't produced in the absolute most convenient way possible. "Our dps would go up 2% if we had 10% attack power instead of 8% attack power" seems like a reasonable sentiment. "Our dps would go up if the range on this buff were longer" seems like you're really down in the weeds of things to actually worry about.

Polymorph

Pretty much. The crowd control spells were never designed around the existence of haste. Asking anyone to interrupt a 1.1 second Polymorph isn't reasonable. Health pools are going to be a lot larger, so control is going to play a larger role than burst compared to the live environment. On the other hand, dispels are more expensive in Cataclysm and you can waste a dispel now if there is nothing there to dispel.

I never follow this line of thinking. Yes, making it harder to have a [very fast] cast time requires more haste. But you have to make a big trade off for that haste, such as having a lower crit chance for your damage spells. That seems like a reasonable enough trade off that you'll at least have to consider it.

You can argue that haste is over-valued in PvP because of the risk of interruption, which is much less of a big deal in PvE. Therefore making the cost per stat of haste higher in PvP seems perfectly reasonable. I wouldn't call that "exacerbated dominance." I'd say it's adjusting it to its actual value in PvP compared to other stats.

More changes coming later tonight/tomorrow.

Achievements

• From Hell's Heart I Stab at Thee - Defeat the Whale Shark in Vashj'ir (despite or perhaps because of the fact that he drops no loot).
• Warrior Duelist/Gladiator - Earn the Duelist or Gladiator title as a Warrior.
• Guild Arena Team = 2200 Rating - Earn a 2200 rating in the arena with a team composed entirely of guild members.
• The First Rule of Ring of Blood is You Don't Talk About Ring of Blood - Complete the Ring of Blood quests in Nagrand, Zul'Drak and Twilight Highlands.
• Beware of the 'Unbeatable?' Pterodactyl - Complete the joust quests in Mount Hyjal up to and including X.
• In a Thousand Years Even You Might be Worth Something - Complete the Harrison Jones Coffer of Promise quests in Uldum.
• Round Three. Fight! NYI - Complete the Ring of Blood quests in Twilight Highlands up to and including X.
• Better numbers added to some do X quests in a zone achievements.
• There are a few more that involve running a Cataclysm dungeon with a guild group or earning different Arena titles.

Dungeons/Raids in LFD

• Lost City of the Tol'vir - DUNGEON
• Blackwing Descent - RAID
• The Bastion of Twilight - RAID
• Throne of the Four Winds - RAID
• The Vortex Pinnacle - DUNGEON
• The Stonecore - DUNGEON
• Halls of Origination - DUNGEON
• Grim Batol - DUNGEON
• Blackrock Caverns - DUNGEON
• Deadmines - DUNGEON
• Shadowfang Keep - DUNGEON

Class Changes

Druid Changes

Balance

• Starlight Wrath - Reduces the cast time of your Wrath and Starfire spells by 0.15/0.25/0.5 sec. Up from 0.1/0.2/0.3 sec.
• Fungal Growth - Name changed from Fungal Growth [NYI] to Fungal Growth.
• Wild Mushroom - Max of 3 mushrooms, down from 5.
• Moonkin Aura - Level earned decreased to 10 from 40.
• Cyclone - Cast time changed to 2 sec to 1.5 sec.
• Insect Swarm - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Moonkin Form - While in this form your Arcane and Nature spell damage is increased by 10%.
• Moonfury - Added new effect, Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Wrath, Moonfire, Starfire, Insect Swarm and Starfire spells by 100%.
• Starfire - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Moonfire - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Entangling Roots - Range increased to 35 yd from 30 yd. Cast time changed to 2 sec to 1.5 sec.
• Faerie Fire - Range increased to 35 yd from 30 yd.
• Wrath - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Thorns - Now costs 36% Base Mana, up from 17% Base Mana. Cooldown of 45 sec added. Duration reduced to 20 sec from 10 min. (Error?) Thorns sprout from the friendly target causing 447 Nature damage to attackers when hit. Lasts 20 sec.

Feral

• Furor - Went from Restoration to Feral.
• Stampede - Name changed from Improved Feral Charge [NNF] to Stampede.
• Mangle - Cooldown of 6 sec removed.
• Lacerate - Now stacks 3 times, down from 5.

Restoration

• Heart of the Wild - Went from Feral to Restoration.
• Nature's Cure - New spell. Empowers your Remove Corruption spell to also remove a magic effect from a friendly target.
• Naturalist - Now a 2 rank talent. Reduces the cast time of your Healing Touch and Nourish spells by 0.25/0.5 sec.
• Gift of the Earthmother - Now a 3 rank talent. Increases he healing done by the bloom effect of your Lifebloom by 5/10/15%, and your Rejuvenation spell also instantly heals for 5/10/15% of the total periodic effect.
• Revive - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Wild Growth - Now costs 27% Base Mana, down from 55% Base Mana.
• Living Seed - When you critically heal a target with Swiftmend, Regrowth, Nourish or Healing Touch spell you plant a Living Seed on the target for 10/20/30% of the amount healed. The Living Seed will bloom when the target is next attacked. Lasts 15 sec.
• Tree of Life - No longer reduces movement speed?
• Swift Rejuvenation - Name changed from Empowered Rejuvenation [TBR] to Swift Rejuvenation. Reduces the global cooldown of your Rejuvenation by 0.25/0.5 sec.
• Empowered Touch - Increases the healing done by your Healing Touch and Nourish spells by 5/10%, and your Nourish spell has a 50/100% chance to refresh the duration of your Lifebloom on targets.
• Fury of Stormrage - Reduces the mana cost of your Wrath spell by 50/100%, and you have a 5/10% chance when you cast Nourish or Healing Touch to cause your next Wrath spell to be instant cast and cast no mana. Fury of Stormrage lasts for 8 sec.
• Rebirth - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Nature's Bounty - Increases the critical effect chance of your Regrowth spell by 20/40/60% (up from 10/20/30%), and you have a 33/66/100% (up from 20/40/60%) chance when you critially heal with Healing Touch and Nourish to reduce the remaining cooldown of your Swiftmend spell by 0.5 sec.

Death Knight Changes

Blood

• Heart Strike - Instantly strike the target and up to two additional nearby enemies, causing 100% weapon damage plus 819 on the primary target, increased by an additional 10% for each of your diseases on the target. Any additional enemies struck take 25% less damage than the previous target.
• Blood Strike - Now grants 10% damage per disease, down from 12.5%.

Unholy

• Raise Dead - No longer requires a corpse or dust.

Mage Changes

Arcane

• Polymorph - Cast time changed to 2 sec, up from 1.5 sec. (Applies to all mage Polymorph spells)

Rogue Changes

Subtlety

• Serrated Blades - Your Eviscerate has a 10/20% chance per combo point to refresh your Rupture on the target to its original duration. Up from 6/12%.
• Smoke Bomb - Radius reduces to 8 yds from 10.

Shaman Changes

Elemental

• Fulmination - New spell. When you have more than 3 Lightning Shield charges active, your Earth Shock spell will consume any surplus charges, instantly dealing their total damage to the enemy target.

Enhancement

• Rolling Thunder - New spell. When you deal damage with Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning while your Lightning Shield ability is active, you have a 30% chance to recover 1/2% of your mana and to generate an additional Lightning Shield charge, up to a maximum of 0/9 charges.
• Elemental Weapons - Increases the passive bonuses granted by your Flametongue Weapon and Earthliving Weapon abilities by 20/40%, the damage of your extra attacks from Windfury Weapon by 20/40%, and the effectiveness of the ongoing benefits of your Unleash Elements ability by 25/50%.
• Elemental Resistance Totem - Level earned decreased to 1 from 62.
• Windfury Weapon - Unleashing this enchantment deals 20% of weapon damage to the target enemy and increases the Shaman's melee attack speed by 50% for 12 sec. Changed from 50% of weapon damage to the target enemy and increases the Shaman's melee attack speed by 20%.

Warlock Changes

Destruction

• Incinerate - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Fel Flame - Range increased to 35 yd from 30 yd.
• Bane of Havoc - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Shadow Bolt - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Soul Fire - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Shadowburn - Range increased to 35 yd from 20 yd.

Affliction

• Doom and Gloom - Increases the critical strike chance of your Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom by 4/8%. Down from 5/10%.
• Drain Mana - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd. Duration reduced to 3 sec from 5 sec.
• Curse of the Elements - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Bane of Agony - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Curse of Weakness - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Curse of Tongues - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Fear - Range increased to 30 yd from 20 yd. Cast time changed to 2 sec to 1.5 sec.
• Death Coil - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Seed of Corruption - Range increased to 35 yd from 30 yd.
• Unstable Affliction - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Drain Soul - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Bane of Doom - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Drain Life - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd. Duration reduced to 3 sec from 5 sec.

Demonology

• Demonic Rebirth - New spell. If your summoned demon dies, you gain the Demonic Rebirth effect reducing the cast time of your next summon demon spell by 50/100%. Lasts for 10 sec. (Rank 1, Demonology, None)
• Demon Soul - Now costs 15% Base Mana, up from 1 Soul Shard.
• Demonic Aegis - Increases the amount of health generated through spells and effects granted by your Demon Armor by 25/50%, and increases the amount of health regenerated by your Fel Armor by 50/100%.
• Fel Armor - No longer grants spell power from spirit.
• Master Summoner - Reduces the casting time of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard Summoning spells by 0.5/1 sec (down from 2/4 sec) and the Mana cost by 50/100% (up from 20/40%).
• Summon Imp - Cast time changed to 6 sec, down from 10 sec.
• Summon Succubus - Cast time changed to 6 sec, down from 10 sec.
• Summon Voidwalker - Cast time changed to 6 sec, down from 10 sec.
• Summon Felhunter - Cast time changed to 6 sec, down from 10 sec.
• Summon Felguard - Cast time changed to 6 sec, down from 10 sec.

Paladin Changes

Protection

• Shield of the Righteous - 6% Base Mana cost removed.

Retribution

• Long Arm of the Law - Your Judgement has a 50/100% chance to increase your movement speed by 45% (up from 30%) for 4 sec when used on targets at or further than 15 yards from you.
• Zealotry - No longer requires 3 stacks of Holy Power to use.
• Templar's Verdict - 20% Base Mana cost removed.
• Divine Purpose - The following attacks have a 40% chance to generate Holy Power. Changed from 20/40%.
• Divine Storm - 20% Base Mana cost removed.
• Inquisition - 20% Base Mana cost removed. No longer exclusive with Holy Shield.

Holy

• Holy Radiance - Name changed from Healing Hands to Holy Radiance.
• Illumination - Now a 2 rank talent. After getting a critical effect from your abilities you gain mana equal to 15/30% of the base cost of the spell.
• Cleanse - [With][Without]Sacred Cleansing[Cleanses a friendly target, removing 1 Poison effect, 1 Disease effect, and 0 (1?) Magic effect.][Cleanses a friendly target, removing 1 Poison effect and 1 Disease effect.]

Hunter Changes

Beast Mastery

• Focus Fire [NNF] - Now grants ranged haste instead of ranged attack speed.
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera - Name changed from Aspect of the Monkey [NNF] to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera. Whenever you are hit by a melee attack, the cooldown of your Disengage is instantly reduced by 2/4 sec. Whenever you are hit by a ranged attack or spell, the cooldown of your Deterrence is instantly reduced by 4/8 sec. These effects have a 2 sec cooldown.
• Cobra Shot - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.
• Viper Venom - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.
• Scorpid Venom - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.
• Widow Venom - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.

Survival

• Serpent Spread - Name changed from Serpent Spread [NNF] [NYI] to Serpent Spread. Targets hit by your Multi-Shot are also afflicted by your Serpent Sting equal to 30/60% of its total duration.
• Serpent Sting - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.
• Explosive Shot - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.
• Scatter Shot - 35 Focus cost removed. Range increased to 20 yd from 15 yd.
• Black Arrow - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.
• Camouflage - Now costs 20 Focus, down from 45 Focus. You camouflage, blending into into your surroundings, causing you and your pet to be untargetable and providing stealth while stationary. You can lay traps while camouflaged, but any damage done by you or your pet will cancel the effect. Cannot be cast while in combat. Lasts for 1 min.

Marksmanship

• Termination - Name changed from Termination [NNF] to Termination.
• Posthaste - Name changed from Posthaste [NNF] to Posthaste.
• Sic 'Em! - Name changed from Sic 'Em! [NNF] to Sic 'Em!.
• Chimera Shot - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.
• Steady Shot - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.
• Marked for Death - Name changed from Marked for Death [TBR] to Marked for Death. Your Arcane Shot and Chimera Shot have a 50/100% chance to automatically apply your Hunter's Mark ability instantly onto the target.
• Bombardment - No longer increases Volley critical strike chance.
• Silencing Shot - No longer does damage.
• Auto Shot - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.
• Concussive Shot - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.
• Arcane Shot - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.
• Aimed Shot - Range increased to 40 yd from 35 yd.

Priest Changes

Holy

• Twirling Light - New spell. When you deal damage with Smite, Holy Fire, or Holy Word: Chastise your next Flash Heal is instant at 75% reduced mana cost, but heals for 30/60% of the amount. Lasts for 10 sec. (Rank 1, Holy, Priest)
• Revelations [NNF] - New spell. While in a Chakra state, your Holy Word: Chastise ability will transform into a different ability depending on which state you are in. Holy Word: Serenity (Heal) - Instantly heals the target for 262, and increases the critical effect chance of your healing spells on the target by 25% for . 45 sec cooldown. Holy Word: Aspire (Renew) - Instantly heals the target for 638 and another 798 over . 15 sec cooldown. Holy Word: Sanctuary (Prayer of Healing) - Blesses the ground with Divine light, healing all within it for 1826 every 2 for 15 sec. Only one Sanctuary can be active at any one time. (Passive, Holy, None)
• Holy Word: Chastise - New spell. Chastise the target for 544 to 653 Holy damage, and Immobilizing them for 2 sec. (Level 1, Holy, Priest)
• Serendipity - When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 10/20% (up from 6/12%) and mana cost reduced by 5/10%. Stacks up to 2 times. Lasts 20 sec.
• Holy Concentration - Increases the amount of mana regeneration while in combat by an additional 10/20%.

Shadow

• Mind Flay - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Devouring Plague - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Mind Sear - Range increased to 35 yd from 30 yd.
• Mind Spike - Range increased to 35 yd from 30 yd.
• Mind Control - Range increased to 30 yd from 20 yd. Cast time reduced to 2 sec from 3 sec.
• Mind Blast - Range increased to 40 yd from 30 yd.
• Darkness - Spell haste increased by 1/2/3%. Changed from spell damage.

Discipline

• Renewed Hope - Increases the critical effect chance of your Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Heal and Penance (Heal) spells by 5/10% (up from 3/6%) on targets afflicted by the Weakened Soul effect.

Misc Changes

• Drake of the East Wind - Name changed from Unknown color Storm Drake to Drake of the East Wind. Now part of Mounts.

Interview

Blue Posts

Leveling speed

We are looking for as much feedback as we can get on the guild advancement leveling speed and experience gain. Please use this thread to report any feedback you have. As much info as you can give on the size of the guild, active members and what you were doing to earn the guild experience would be extremely helpful.

We know that not all of the ways to earn guild experience are active yet (rated bg's for example), but they will be soon. The feedback on how it feels with just quests / bosses now would still be useful.

We will be tuning the values to get where we need to be until they feel right. Your input on this is greatly appreciated. =)

Thanks!

How to make improved shield wanted by ele

In the next beta build (or the one after that), you will see two important changes to Elemental shaman. First, you will use Lightning Shield (for damage!) instead of Water Shield. Second, you will want to use Earthquake for AE over Fire Nova. These changes, especially the former, will provide Elemental shaman with a bit of an upgrade in the rotation over what you're used to in LK.

I don't want to oversell it, because players have a tendency to imagine herds of glittering ponies when left to their own imaginations, but it should be a fun change.

Protection Paladin

I think if Hammer of the Righteous went back to its old design of hitting 3 targets, you'd see the forums swarming with paladins in a few weeks demanding some way to AE, such as... removing the cooldown on Consecrate again. There is no way to change the Prot paladin rotation up without changing some core abilities, and we are committed to changing the Prot rotation up.

We have some room to experiment with the proc rates for Grand Crusader, but remember that the more often it procs, the weaker it has to hit.

NBC's "The Event" Wants You to Go to BlizzCon

Thanks to NBC's "The Event Sweeps," players have another shot at tickets for BlizzCon 2010. Five lucky winners will be selected to receive one pair of tickets for entry to BlizzCon, October 22-23, 2010.

Head to http://www.theeventsweeps.com for a chance to win!

18/08 New Cataclysm Zone Q and A: Darkshore

Game designers Luis Barriga and Craig Amai sat down with us to discuss upcoming changes to Darkshore's landscape, the fate of Auberdine, and the challenges of redesigning an old-world zone from the ground up in this World of Warcraft: Cataclysm content preview.

Check out the new Q and A on the Cataclysm site now!
http://www.wow-europe.com/cataclysm/features/darkshore.html

Holy Paladin tree

We removed the prereq chain from Divine Illumination to Aura Mastery and Light of Dawn. We had the prerq in there to make sure paladins didn't skip over a powerful group utility talent in a perhaps selfish attempt to enhance their personal healing per second, but we do acknowledge that it is far less useful in say 5-player dungeons.

New Game Tips

• You can turn your character by holding the Right Mouse Button and moving the mouse. You can look around by holding the Left Mouse Button and moving the mouse.
• Remember: Don't stand in the fire!
• Remember: Click on the Lightwell!

New Currency Types

• Conquest Points
• Tol Barad Commendation
• The Real Honor Points

Blue Posts

Cataclysm Box Art and CE Contents Revealed!

We're excited to reveal the Collector's Edition and Standard Edition Boxes for Cataclysm. In addition to showing the box art for the first time, we're also ready to reveal the contents of the Cataclysm Collector’s Edition—an exclusive art book, behind-the-scenes DVD, in-game pet, and more.

For pictures and a complete list of the contents, check out the Collector's Edition website. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/features/collector.html

Read the press release here. http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?100817

Videos

WotLK finally approved in China, Class Changes done, how about a few Blue Posts!

So... what will disc do??

Some of you guys can be so extreme sometimes. :) Less emphasis on shields doesn't have to mean never, ever cast shields. Your mastery doesn't have to be junk just because you cast actual heals sometimes.

A typical Icecrown Disc priest today might have a healing breakdown that looks something like this:

40% Power Word: Shield
35% Divine Aegis
8% Glyph of PW:S
7% Prayer of Mending
4% Divine Hymn
2% Flash Heal
1% Penance
3% Other

Imagine that instead of 75% shields, you do 50-60% shields and the rest is made up by Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal and Penance. So instead of doing most of your healing, shields are down to doing only a majority of your healing. :)

Warrior Changes - 12759

The numbers on Inner Rage are very easy to adjust. I wouldn't obsess over the current ones too much.

We don't want warriors to sit around autoattacking until they proc Inner Rage all of the time. We also don't want them to be bummed when they slip into it. It's there so that if you get 100 rage and can't spend it fast enough that you aren't overly penalized. I realize some of you think that can't ever, ever happen with the new numbers, but we haven't seen enough high-end PvP or raiding to be convinced yet.

The numbers just need to be such that you play normally until you get Inner Rage and continue to play normally if it happens. Changing your behavior to try and hit it ASAP or avoid it isn't what we're going for.

Say you're at 75 rage and the rage still seems to be coming in fast. You start using Heroic Strike on cooldown. One of two things is going to happen. Either you can bleed off the excess rage, or you can't. If you can't bleed it off with Heroic Strike, then there is nothing else you can do. Your rage is going to hit 100 and everything else will be wasted. If that happens, then things can go one of two ways: you can just waste all that rage and be sad, or you can convert some of that rage into extra damage (since it would have been wasted anyway).

You can see what that is like today by just hitting Rend, or some other cheap attack and nothing else. Your rage climbs to 100 and stays there. In fact, we had to slow down rage generation for levels 1-10 because the new basic "Strike" attack doesn't consume rage faster than you generate it, especially once you start using Charge.

The world where Inner Rage somehow steals your rage can't really exist because you already had more rage than you could possibly spend. If you got there because you forgot to hit Heroic Strike, then you were just playing badly -- that's not Inner Rage's fault. The best you can argue is that you were in a strange fluke where you suddenly went to 100 rage very quickly, but after a couple of Heroic Strikes, you were going to be fine again so Inner Rage stole that rage. But even in that case, the ability turns off after some minimal threshold, so you can get back to normal quickly.

A lot of you seem to basing your opinions around crits, but that was never the issue in our minds. Inner Rage was designed for situations where you couldn't spend rage fast enough. Examples might include being stunned (which turns on Second Wind), using Raging Calm (which pools your ragE), having to run away from the boss while taking damage (say an encounter like Gruul), or getting Heroism / Lust right when you also take a lot of damage (maybe after running a little bit).

Believe me, if we hit a situation where Inner Rage never procs for anyone, then we'll happily remove it or redesign it. We're just not going to be convinced that will be the case by vague hunches or back of the envelope theorycrafting. We want to see it in action.

Again, you're just looking at the ability as "sometimes, your abilities cost more," which of course makes it sound terrible. In your hypothetical situation though, you are taking so much damage that you can't spend your rage fast enough. You hit 100 and then theoretically got to 120 or 150 or possibly 200 rage. Except all of the rage beyond 100 is just gone into vapor. Inner Rage lets your convert some of that excess rage into damage and gets you down below 100 rage again so that you aren't wasting it. If for example we let the rage bar go to 500, then we wouldn't need the ability because you'd never waste anything. So you are comparing 45 rage Mortal Strikes that hit harder to 45 rage Mortal Strikes (the normal cost, plus all the rage you wasted) that hit for the normal amount.

And as I said above, maybe 50% isn't the right number. However if for example the numbers were 10% more rage for 50% more damage, every warrior strategy guide would say "Don't hit ANY buttons until you get to 100 rage," which we don't think would be very fun.

Also, CAPS and MULTIPUNCTUATION make my arguments STRONGER!!! :)

Protection Warrior

I'm not sure why you feel that the new Shield Spec is required. If you struggle with rage it might be nice, but there are other solutions to that too. We left it as 3 points because it's a nice talent for backfill potential. If you have 1 spare point, you get a little bit of benefit out of it (compared to say talents that have a 33/66/100% chance to work with 1/2/3 talent points).

I would get Toughness and Shield Mastery, no question. You either need 2/3 Incite or 2/2 Hold the Line and then 2 more talent points to get deeper.

In the deeper tiers, I would consider Last Stand, Bastion of Defense, Devastate, Sword and Board and Shockwave to be non-negotiable. Heavy Repercussions, Improved Revenge and Warbringer are very close to being non-negotiable. The others are up to debate or your individual style.

[Bug] New Call Pet

Here is the way the new Call Pet works.

At some higher level (25?) you get "Call Pet 2." If you have a second pet (e.g. Festus), it will change the spell name to "Call Festus" instead. You can then call either pet 1 or 2, so long as you dismiss the other one first. Dismissing no longer affects happiness because we want you to be able to do it often.

Eventually you will get Call Pet 3-5 as well. If you ever want more pets than you are able to call, you need to visit the stable and swap some into "deep storage."

We are discussing just giving you Call Pet 2-5 at the same level, to make this a little less confusing. Getting the ability to swap from a fourth to a fifth pet isn't nearly as exciting as getting the ability to call a second one.

The Call Pet button is a flyout. You can put this button on your bar and expand it to pick a particular pet. In this way, you only sacrifice one button to calling all your pets. If you like having all your pets separately, then you can either drag the individual pets to your bar. You can even drag them from the Call Pet flyout.

Warlocks work almost exactly the same way with regard to the flyout. Warlocks have no dismiss button, but instead summoning takes a cast instead of being instant like with the hunter.

Relics have Stats

You are looking at existing, Wrath of the Lich King, items. Those are currently only used by those classes, so there isn't a great motivation or need to change them.

Cataclysm-level relics can be used by any paladin, shaman, druid or DK, though there may still be some class-specific ones from time to time.

The "on paper" design of the Lich King relics sounds pretty cool: you have your choice of which of your spells or abilities you care about the most. Maybe a Resto druid takes the Rejuv idol over the Regrowth idol. In reality, what happens is that we make 3 druid idols per tier so the Resto druid is stuck with whatever idol we make. If we make the Rejuv idol, awesome. If we make the Lifebloom idol, probably less awesome (or at least much more situational). Of course we could just make the Rejuv idol every tier, but really that's not much different than the stats. The procs are designed to mostly be always up, so it's just clutter in the buff section of your UI.

With the new model, there is less risk of having the "bad luck" of having a bad relic for an entire tier for your spec. In fact, it should even offer a little more choice because you could choose the crit relic over the haste relic. Currently you don't get a choice because we have to offer such specialized relics. The gem socket is to make them at least feel slightly different from the ranged items that can shoot.

To be brutally honest, I wouldn't call our ranged weapon slot a success for any class. Warriors, rogues and all wand users don't care much about their ranged weapon slot except as a stat stick. Warriors and rogues use their ranged weapons once in awhile, but we really don't like the model where a caster wands everything while leveling instead of using their actual spells. The only class that really cares about the ranged slot is the hunter, and they in turn don't care much about their melee weapon. Furthermore, the hunter doesn't get the same kind of stat budget out of their primary weapon that the melee guys do. Believe me, we have had many meetings just to discuss the ranged slot. We don't have a solution yet that we think is better than the current Cataclysm implementation, but it's the kind of thing we're going to keep working on for a long time.

Creature Damage Output Changes

We're currently investigating issues with creature spell damage scaling. The intent is definitely not for players to have to rest after every single solo pull.

Melee damage, on the other hand, seems about right, but may undergo some fine tuning.

Keep the feedback for specific lethal creatures and deadly points of interest coming. We're looking at everything submitted.

Many of these may not be changes at all, as the old version being compared to is buggy. Thanks Blizzard! (NSFW Text)

Achievement Changes

• Guild Level 5 - Reach guild level 5.
• Guild Level 10 - Reach guild level 10.
• Guild Level 15 - Reach guild level 15.
• Guild Level 20 - Reach guild level 20.
• Guild Level 25 - Reach guild level 25.
• It All Adds Up - Spend at least 1,000,000 gold on guildmember repairs.
• Time To Open A Savings Account - Loot 1,000,0000 gold from creatures as a guild.
• Guild Vault (wip) - Purchased all 8 guild bank tabs.
• That's a Lot of Travel Time - Complete 50,000 quests as a guild.
• Guild Classic Dungeonmaster - Complete the classic dungeon achievements in a guild group.
• Guild Deadmines - Complete the Deadmines in a guild group.
• Working as a Team - Obtain 525 skill points in all professions and secondary professions.
• We are Legendary - Obtain the following legendary weapons. Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros, Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker, Warglaives of Azzinoth, Thori'dal, the Stars' Fury, Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings, Shadowmourne.
• Glory of the Cataclysm Raider - Complete every Cataclysm Raid achievement and at least 4 protodrakes of various flavors Reward: Reins of the UKNOWN Storm Drake
• Cataclysm Dungeonmaster - Reward: Reins of the Volcanic Stone Drake
• Placeholder quest achievements added for the classic zones, requiring ~1000 quests per zone.
• Skill level 525 profession achievements added.
• Archaeology - Profession skill level achievements added.

Class Changes

Druid Changes

Feral

• More cleanup from Dire Bear Form removal.
• Feral Instinct - New spell. Reduces the chance enemies have to detect you while Prowling. (Passive, Feral, Druid)
• Shapeshifter - New spell. Reduces the mana cost of all shapeshifting by 60%. (Rank 1, Feral, None)
• Thrash - Damage amounts changed. Deals ${$AP*0.192+1210} damage, and causes all targets to bleed for ${$AP*0.033+210} over 6 sec.
• Savage Roar - Now autoattack damage done by 50%. Changed from increasing physical damage.
• Master Shapeshifter - All forms increased to 4% from 2%.
• Survival Instincts - Cooldown increased to 5 min from 3 min. Duration reduced to 12 sec from 20 sec. Reduces all damage taken by 60% for 12 sec. Only useable while in Bear Form or Cat Form.
• Mangle - Range of 100 yd removed.
• Frenzied Regeneration - Duration increased to 20 sec from 10 sec. Increases maximum health by 30%, increases health to 30% (if below that value), and converts up to 10 rage per second into health for 20 sec. Each point of rage is converted into 3% of max health.
• Heart of the Wild - Now increases your maximum mana by 5/10/15%. Changed from increasing your Intellect by 2/4/6%.
• Enrage - Now increases physical damage taken by 10% instead of reducing armor.
• Bash - No longer interrupts NPC casts.
• Maim - No longer interrupts NPC casts.
• Swipe - Swipe nearby enemies, inflicting 321 damage. Damage increased by attack power. Damage increased from 60 damage.

Balance

• Celestial Focus - Name changed from Nature's Focus to Celestial Focus
• Starsurge - Level earned decreased to 10 from 25.
• Genesis - Increases the damage and healing done by your periodic spell damage and healing effects and by Swiftmend by 2/4/6%. Up from 1/2/3%.
• Dreamstate - Regenerate mana equal to 3% of your Intellect every 5 sec, even while casting. Down from 10%.
• Lunar Guidance -Increases the radius of your Solar Beam by 2/4/6 yards, and your Starsurge also instantly generates an additional 2/4/6 Lunar or Solar energy, depending on which is greater.
• Moonfury - Name changed from Vengeance to Moonfury. Arcane and Nature spell damage increased by 25%.
• Soothe - Name changed from Soothe Animal to Soothe. 15 sec duration removed. Soothes the target, dispelling all enrage effects.

Restoration

• Nature's Focus - Name changed from Restoration Druid to Nature's Focus.
• Gift of Nature - New spell. Healing increased by 25%. (Passive, Restoration, Druid)
• Naturalist - Reduces the cast time of your Healing Touch and Nourish spells by 0.15/0.35/0.5 sec. No longer grants increased physical damage.
• Furor - Gives you 33/66/100% chance to gain 10 Rage when you shapeshift into Bear Form, and you keep up to 33/66/100 of your Energy when you shapeshift into Cat Form, and increases your total Intellect by 2/4/6%.

Death Knight Changes

Unholy

• Dirge - Your Plague Strike, Blood Strike, and Icy Touch abilities generate 5/10 additional runic power.
• Morbidity - Increases the damage and healing of Death Coil by 5/10/15% and Death and Decay by 10/20/30%.

Mage Changes

Arcane

• Teleport: Tol Barad - New spell. Teleports the caster to Tol Barad. (Level 85, Arcane, Mage)
• Portal: Tol Barad - New spell. Creates a portal, teleporting level 85+ group members that use it to Tol Barad. (Level 85, Arcane, Mage)
• Arcane Barrage - Level earned decreased to 10 from 60.
• Improved Polymorph - This effect cannot occur more often than once every 10 sec.
• Arcane Power - When activated, your spells deal 20% more damage[With][Without]Glyph of Arcane Power[.][ while costing 20% more mana to cast.] This effect lasts 15 sec.
• Teleport: Orgrimmar - Level earned increased to 24 from 22.
• Mana Shield - Cooldown increased to 12 sec from 10 sec.

Fire

• Cauterize - Now works over 6 seconds instead of 4 seconds.
• Improved Flamestrike - Reduces the casting time of your Flamestrike spell by 50/100% and gives you a 50/100% chance that your Blast Wave spell will also automatically Flamestrike the same location if two or more targets are affected by the Blast Wave.
• Frostfire Bolt - Cast time reduced to 2.5 sec from 3 sec. Damage range widened to 611 to 838 Frostfire damage from 666 to 806 Frostfire damage. DoT removed. Now slows for 40% for 9 sec, changed from 20%.
• Hot Streak - No longer works with Pyroblast.
• Molten Fury - Increases damage of all spells against targets with less than 35% health by 4/8/12%.
• Molten Shields - Reduces the global cooldown of your Mage Ward spell by 1 sec and your Mage Ward triggers the Blazing Speed effect when it dissipates from absorbing damage.
• Impact - Gives your damaging spells a 5/10% chance to cause the next Fire Blast you cast to stun the target for 2 sec and spread any Fire damage over time effects to nearby enemy targets within 12 yards. Up from 4/7%.
• Improved Fire Blast - Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire Blast spell by 4/8% and increases its range by 5/10 yards. No longer affects cooldown.
• Pyroblast - Level earned decreased to 10 from 20. Now causes 1,156 to 1,379 Fire damage and an additional 757 Fire damage over 12 sec. Up from 1,096 to 1,319 Fire damage and an additional 720 Fire damage over 12 sec.
• Fireball - Hurls a fiery ball that causes approximately 765 to 992 Fire damage. No longer does DoT. Damage increased from 650 to 876 Fire damage.
• Blast Wave - Now has a 70% slow, up from 50%.

Frost

• Freeze - Now costs 12% Base Mana, down from 25% Base Mana.
• Improved Freeze - Gives your Water Elemental's Freeze spell a 33/66/100% chance to grant 2 charges of Fingers of Frost.
• Curtain of Frost - Now has a 70% slow, up from 50%.
• Fingers of Frost - Gives your Chill effects a 10/20/30% chance to grant you the Fingers of Frost effect, which causes your next Ice Lance, Frostfire Bolt, or Deep Freeze spell to act as if your target were frozen. Fingers of Frost can accumulate up to 2 charges and lasts 15 sec. Up from a max of 15%.
• Ice Floes - Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Ice Block, Cold Snap, Ice Barrier, and Icy Veins spells by 7/14/20%.

Rogue Changes

Subtlety

• Improved Ambush - Now part of Subtlety.
• Energetic Recovery - Empowers your Recuperate ability, causing its periodic effect to also restore 4/8/12 Energy.
• Tricks of the Trade - Duration reduced to 20 sec from 30 sec. Transferred threat is not permanent, and will fade after 30 sec.
• Blind - Now costs 15 Energy, down from 30 Energy. Range increased to 15 yd from 10 yd.
• Sap - Now costs 35 Energy, down from 65 Energy. Range increased to 10 yd from 5 yd.

Combat

• Sprint - Cooldown decreased to 1 min from 3 min. Duration reduced to 8 sec from 15 sec.
• Lightning Reflexes - Increases your chance to dodge enemy attacks by 3/6/9% and your attack speed by 2/4/6%.

Assassination

• Venomous Wounds - Now grants 5/10 energy. Up from 3/6.
• Mutilate - Level earned decreased to 10 from 40.
• Cold Blood - No longer works with DoTs.
• Murderous Intent - When you Backstab an enemy that is below 35% health, you instantly recover 15/30 Energy.

Shaman Changes

Elemental

• Acuity - Increases your critical strike chance with all spells and attacks by 1/2/3%. Down from 5/10/15%.
• Lava Burst - Damage increased to 961 to 1,204 Fire damage. Up from 744 to 987 Fire damage.
• Thunderstorm - Level earned decreased to 10 from 60.
• Lightning Bolt - Casts a bolt of lightning at the target for 578 Nature damage. Damage increase from 462 Nature damage.
• Chain Lightning - Damage increased to 753 to 886 Nature damage from 589 to 723 Nature damage.
• Eye of the Storm - Reduces the cast time of your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst spells by 0.5 sec, and the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting those spells by 70%.
• Elemental Warding - Reduces magical damage taken by 4/8/12%.
• Magma Totem - Now costs 18% Base Mana, down from 27% Base Mana.

Restoration

• Totem of Tranquil Mind - New spell. Summons a Totem of Tranquil Mind with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 5 min, causing party or raid members within 30 yards to lose 30% less casting or channeling time when damaged. (Level 74, Restoration, Shaman)
• Cleansing Waters - When your Cleanse Spirit successfully removes a harmful effect, you also heal the target for 958 to 1,039/1,956 to 2,036.

Enhancement

• Lava Lash - Level earned decreased to 10 from 41. You charge your off-hand weapon with lava, instantly dealing 200% of that weapon's damage to an enemy target. Up from 150%.
• Maelstrom Weapon - When you deal damage with a melee weapon, you have a chance to reduce the cast time and mana cost of your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Burst, Hex, or any healing spell by 20%. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts 30 sec.
• Totem ranges back to 40 yds.
• Mental Quickness - Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 50% of your attack power.

Warlock Changes

Destruction

• Cataclysm - Name changed from Destruction Warlock to Cataclysm. Increases Fire spell damage by 25%. Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting any spell by 70%.

Affliction

• Shadow Mastery - New spell. Increases Shadow spell damage by 25%. (Passive, Affliction, Warlock)
• Amplify Curse - Name changed from Affliction Warlock to Amplify Curse. Reduces the global cooldown of your Bane, Curse and Corruption spells to 1 sec.
• Unstable Affliction - Level earned decreased to 10 from 50.
• Seed of Corruption - .[With]Soulburn: Seed of Corruption Soulburn: Your Seed of Corruption detonation effect will afflict Corruption on all enemy targets. The Soul Shard will be refunded if the detonation is successful.

Demonology

• Suppression - New spell. Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting any spell by 70%. (Passive, Demonology, None)
• Inferno [NYI] - Name changed from Inferno to Inferno [NYI].
• Master Demonologist - Name changed from Demonology Warlock to Master Demonologist. Increases your Fire and Shadow spell damage by 15%.
• Soulburn - Cooldown increased to 45 sec from 30 sec.
• Nemesis - Reduces the cooldown of your Soulburn, Demonic Empowerment and Metamorphosis spells by 15/30%.
• Summon Felguard - Level earned decreased to 10 from 50.
• Create Soulstone - Now only gives back 30% health. Down from 60%.

Paladin Changes

Protection

• Wrath of the Lightbringer - Now part of Protection. Increases the damage by 10/20% and critical strike chance by 10/20% of your Judgement, Holy Wrath and Hammer of Wrath.
• Shield of the Righteous - Cooldown of 6 sec removed. Slam the target with your shield, causing Holy damage. Consumes all applications of Holy Power to determine damage dealt: 1 Holy Power: 20% Attack Power, 2 Holy Power: 60% Attack Power, 3 Holy Power: 120% Attack Power
• Hallowed Ground - Increases the damage of your Consecration by 20/40% and decreases its mana cost by 40/80%.
• Grand Crusader - When your Crusader Strike or Hammer of the Righteous deal damage, they have a 10/20% chance of refreshing the cooldown on Avenger's Shield.
• Vindication - Your Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous have a 50/100% chance to reduce physical damage done by targets by 5/10% for 10/30 sec.
• Hand of Reckoning - No longer does damage.
• Sacred Duty - Your Judgements have a % chance of making your next Shield of the Righteous a critical strike. Lasts 15 sec.
• Hammer of the Righteous - Level earned decreased to 1 from 70. Cooldown decreased to 4.5 sec from 8 sec. Hammer the current target for 30% weapon damage, causing a wave of light that hits all targets within yards for 30 Holy damage. Grants a charge of Holy Power.
• Touched by the Light - Now grants 6% hit.
• Avenger's Shield - Level earned decreased to 10 from 50. Cooldown decreased to 24 sec from 30 sec. Damage chnaged, Hurls a holy shield at the enemy, dealing 3,010 to 3,216 Holy damage, silencing them, interrupting for 3 sec, and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Affects 3 total targets.
• Shield of the Templar - Now reduces the cooldown of Avenger's Shield by 3/6/9 sec. Up from 2/4/6.
• Hammer of Justice - No longer interrupts NPC casts.
• Holy Shield - 10% Base Mana cost removed. Using Shield of the Righteous or Inquisition increases your block chance by 15% for 20 sec.
• Divine Shield - Avenging Wrath restriction removed.

Retribution

• Eternal Glory - New spell. Your Word of Glory has a 20% chance not to consume Holy Power. (Rank 1, Retribution, None)
• Eternal Glory - New spell. Your Word of Glory has a 40% chance not to consume Holy Power. (Rank 1, Retribution, None)
• Long Arm of the Law - New spell. Your Judgement has a 50% chance to increase your movement speed by 30% for 4 sec when used on targets at or further than 15 yards from you. (Rank 1, Retribution, None)
• Long Arm of the Law - New spell. Your Judgement has a 100% chance to increase your movement speed by 30% for 4 sec when used on targets at or further than 15 yards from you. (Rank 2, Retribution, None)
• Improved Judgement - New spell. Increases the range of your Judgement by 10 yards. (Rank 1, Retribution, None)
• Improved Judgement - New spell. Increases the range of your Judgement by 20 yards. (Rank 2, Retribution, None)
• Rule of Law - New spell. Increases the critical effect chance of your Crusader Strike, Holy Shock and Word of Glory by 15%. (Rank 3, Retribution, None)
• Sanctity of Battle (NYI) - Name changed from Improved Crusader Strike to Sanctity of Battle (NYI).
  Haste effects lower the cooldown of your Crusader Strike.
• Templar's Verdict - Now does 30/110/225% weapon damage. Down from 55/125/225%.
• Seals of Command - Your damaging Seals now also deal 7% weapon damage each time you swing, and your Seal of Righteousness now hits up to 2 additional targets. Down from 15%.
• Divine Purpose -The following attacks have a 20/40% chance to generate Holy Power:- Judgement- Exorcism- Templar's Verdict- Divine Storm- Inquisition- Holy Wrath.
• Inquisition - Duration reduced to 4 sec from 10 sec.
• Divine Storm - 1 Holy Power: 22% Weapon Damage, 2 Holy Power: 74% Weapon Damage, 3 Holy Power: 150% Weapon Damage. Up from 22/50/90%.
• Inquiry of Faith - Increases the periodic damage done by your Seal of Truth by 10/20/30%, and the duration of your Inqusition by 50/100/150%.
• Sanctified Wrath - Now allows the use of Hammer of Wrath at all times during Avenging Wrath.
• Crusader Strike - Cooldown increased to 4.5 sec from 4 sec.
• Judgement of Truth - Name changed from Judgement of Vengeance to Judgement of Truth.
• Seal of Truth - Deals 16% weapon damage at 5 stacks, down from 33%.
• Judgements of the Wise - Your Judgement grants you 50% of your base mana over 10 sec. Up from 40%.
• Eye for an Eye - Now has a 20/40% proc chance, up from 5/10%.

Holy

• Spiritual Focus - In addition, grants you hit rating equal to 100% of any Spirit gained from items or effects.
• Light of Dawn - Now consumes all Holy Power to increase healing by 10% per application.
• Clarity of Purpose - Reduces the casting time of your Holy Light and Divine Light spells by 0.15/0.35/0.5 sec.
• Improved Concentration Aura - Now a 2 rank talent.
• Blessed Life - Cooldown of 2 sec added. All attacks against you have a 50/100% chance to cause you to generate Holy Power. This effect cannot occur more than once every 2 seconds.
• Divine Favor - Cooldown increased to 3 min from 1 min. Duration increased to 20 sec from 15 sec. Increases your spell casting haste by 20% and spell critical chance by 20% for 20 sec.
• Holy Shock - Level earned decreased to 10 from 40.
• Consecration - Now costs 55% Base Mana, up from 22% Base Mana
• Exorcism - Cooldown decreased to 6 sec from 10 sec. Causes ${205/2+0.15*$SPH+0.15*$AP} Holy damage to an enemy target. If the target is Undead or Demon, it will always critically hit.

Warrior Changes

Arms

• Strike - New spell. A simple strike that deals 50% weapon damage. Use once you have sufficient rage. (Level 1, Arms, Warrior)
• Tactical Mastery - You retain up to an additional 25/50 rage when you change stances. Up from 5/10.
• Colossus Smash - Now works with all attacks.
• War Academy - Now also works with Cleave.
• Sudden Death - You keep 5/10 rage after using Execute. Up from 3/7.
• Mortal Strike - Level earned decreased to 10 from 40.
• Retaliation - Level earned increased to 62 from 56.
• Drums of War - Reduces the rage cost of your Shield Bash, Pummel, and any shouts which cost rage by 50/100%.
• Battle Stance - A balanced combat stance. Increases damage done by 5%. Decreases damage taken by 5%.
• Heroic Strike - Level earned decreased to 12 from 1.

Fury

• Single-Minded Fury - No longer works with Cleave.
• Bloodrage - Level earned increased to 16 from 8.
• Bloodsurge - Your Bloodthirst and Raging Blow hits have a 7/14/20% chance of making your next Slam instant for 5 sec.
• Precision - Now grants hits to attacks instead of melee weapons.
• Bloodthirst - Level earned decreased to 10 from 40.
• Enrage - Now has a 9 second duration, up from 4 seconds.
• Cleave - Level earned decreased to 24 from 26. Now costs 30 Rage, up from 10 Rage. Cooldown of 3 sec added. No longer consumes excess rage to do more damage.
• Berserker Stance - An aggressive combat stance. Increases damage done by 10%.

Protection

• Impending Victory - Now part of Protection. Using Devastate on a target with 20% or less health has a 25/50% chance to allow the use of Victory Rush but that Victory Rush only heals for 5% of your health.
• Sentinel - Name changed from Vitality to Sentinel. Increases your total Stamina by 15% and you generate 50% additional rage from attacking targets that are not targeting you.
• Revenge - Level earned increased to 40 from 16.
• Sunder Armor - Level earned increased to 18 from 12.
• Stance Mastery - Level earned increased to 58 from 28.
• Shield Block - Level earned increased to 28 from 18.
• Defensive Stance - A defensive combat stance. Decreases damage taken by 10%. Increases threat generated by 45%.

Hunter Changes

Beast Mastery

• Call Pet 2 - Name changed from Call Pet 1 to Call Pet 2. Now part of Beast Mastery. Level earned increased to 18 from 1. Summons your second pet to you.
• Call Pet 3 - Name changed from Call Pet 2 to Call Pet 3. Now part of Beast Mastery. Level earned increased to 42 from 1. Summons your third pet to you.
• Call Pet 4 - Name changed from Call Pet 3 to Call Pet 4. Now part of Beast Mastery. Level earned increased to 62 from 1. Summons your fourth pet to you.
• Call Pet 5 - Name changed from Call Pet 4 to Call Pet 5. Now part of Beast Mastery. Level earned increased to 82 from 1. Summons your fifth pet to you.
• Animal Handler - New spell. Attack Power increased by 25%. (Passive, Beast Mastery, None)
• Focused Aim - New spell. Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Cobra Shot, and Volley by 70%. (Passive, Beast Mastery, None)
• Fervor - Name changed from Fervor [NNF] to Fervor.
• Aspect of the Fox - The hunter takes on the aspects of a fox, allowing you to shoot Steady Shot and Cobra Shot while moving and causing you to gain 2 Focus whenever you take damage.
• Cobra Shot - Deals weapon damage plus 950 in the form of Nature damage and increases the duration of your Serpent Sting on the target by 6 sec. Generates 9 Focus.
• Kill Command - Range increased to 100 yd from 45 yd. The pet must be within 5 yards of the target to Kill Command.
• Frenzy - Your pet gains 2/4/6% attack speed after attacking with a Basic Attack, lasting for 10 sec and stacking up to 5 times. Up from 1/2/3%.
• Dismiss Pet - No longer reduces pet happiness by 50.
• Call Pet 1 - Name changed from Call Pet to Call Pet 1. Summons your first pet to you.

Survival

• Serpent Spread [NNF] [NYI] - New spell. Targets hit by your Multi-Shot are also afflicted by your Serpent Sting equal to 50% of its total duration. (Rank 1, Survival, Hunter)
• Serpent Spread - New spell. Targets hit by your Multi-Shot are also afflicted by your Serpent Sting equal to 50% of its total duration. (Rank 2, Survival, Hunter)
• Into the Wilderness - Name changed from Survival Hunter to Into the Wilderness. Attack Power increased by 25%.
  Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Steady Shot, Cobra Shot, and Volley by 70%.
• T.N.T. - When you deal periodic damage with your Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap or Black Arrow you have a 6/12% chance to trigger Lock and Load. Up from 4/8%.
• Hunter vs. Wild - Increases your total Stamina by 4/7/10%.
• Lock and Load - Proc chance increased to 50/100%.
• Explosive Shot - Level earned decreased to 10 from 60.
• Hunting Party - Additional effect added, Ranged and Melee Attack Speed - Increases ranged and melee attack speed by 20%.
• Noxious Stings - Now 2 ranks at 25/50%. Also increases your damage done on targets afflicted by your Serpent Sting by 5%.
• Misdirection - Duration reduced to 20 sec from 30 sec. Transferred threat is not permanent, and will fade after 30 sec.

Marksmanship

• Artisan Quiver - New spell. Attack Power increased by 25%. (Passive, Marksmanship, Hunter)
• Focused Aim - Name changed from Marksmanship Hunter to Focused Aim.
• Improved Steady Shot - Now grants ranged attack speed instead of ranged haste.
• Go for the Throat - Your ranged auto-shot critical hits cause your pet to generate 5 Focus. Up from 3 focus.
• Aimed Shot - Level earned decreased to 10 from 20.
• Multi-Shot - Now costs 40 Focus, down from 60 Focus.

Priest Changes

Holy

• State of Mind - New spell. Your successful Heal, Renew, Prayer of Healing or Smite spell casts increase the duration of your corresponding Chakra state by 4 sec. (Passive, Holy, None)
• State of Mind - New spell. Your successful Heal, Renew, Prayer of Healing or Smite spell casts increase the duration of your corresponding Chakra state by 3 sec. (Passive, Holy, None)
• Chakra - Name changed from Inner Focus to Chakra. Went from Discipline to Holy. Now costs 6% Base Mana. When activated, your next Heal, Renew, Prayer of Healing or Smite spell will put you into a corresponding Chakra state. Lasts for 30 sec. Heal - Increases the critical effect chance of your Heal spell by 10%, and your Heal refreshes the duration of your Renew on the target. Renew - Increases the healing done by your Renew spell by 10%, and reduces the global cooldown of your Renew spell by .5 sec. Prayer of Healing - Increases the healing done by your area of effect spells by 10% and reduces the cooldown of your Circle of Healing by 2 sec. Smite - Increases your total damage done by Shadow and Holy spells by 15%.
• Holy Focus - Name changed from Holy Priest to Holy Focus.
• Spiritual Healing - New spell. Healing increased by 25%. (Passive, Holy, Priest)
• Serendipity - Name changed from Deliverance [NNF] to Serendipity. Now a 2 rank talent. When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 6/12%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 20 sec.
• Holy Concentration - Now a 2 rank talent. Your mana regeneration from spirit is increased by 10/20% for 8 sec after you critically heal with Heal, Greater Heal or Empowered Renew.
• Blessed Resilience - Critical hits made against you have a 30/60% chance to prevent you from being critically hit again for 6 sec. Stacks with Focused Will again.
• Empowered Healing - Increases the healing done by your Flash Heal, Heal, Binding Heal and Greater Heal by 5/10/15%. Down from 6/12/18%.
• Spirit of Redemption - No longer grants increased spirit.
• Desperate Prayer - Cooldown increased to 2 min from 45 sec.
• Inspiration - Now 2 ranks at 5/10%.
• Divine Fury - Duration removed. Reduces the casting time of your Smite, Holy Fire, Heal and Greater Heal spells by 0.15/0.35/0.5 sec.

Shadow

• Shadow Power - New spell. Spell damage increased by 25%. (Passive, Shadow Magic, Priest)
• Blackout - New spell. Increases the critical damage of your Shadow spells by 100%. (Passive, Shadow Magic, Priest)
• Sin and Punishment - Name changed from Sin and Punishment [NYI] to Sin and Punishment. Now part of Shadow Magic.
  When your Vampiric Touch is dispelled, the dispeller and all nearby enemy targets within 6 yards have a 50/100% chance to be instantly feared in horror for 3 sec.
• Paralysis - New spell. When you critically hit with your Mind Blast, you cause the target to be unable to move for 4 sec. (Rank 2, Shadow Magic, None)
• Paralysis - New spell. When you critically hit with your Mind Blast, you cause the target to be unable to move for 2 sec. (Rank 1, Shadow Magic, None)
• Harnessed Shadows - Name changed from Empowered Shadow Orbs to Harnessed Shadows. Rank changed from Rank 1 to Rank 2. Increases the chance for you to gain a Shadow Orb when dealing damage with your Mind Flay and Shadow Word: Pain by 4/8%, and you have a 50/100% chance to gain a Shadow Orb when critically hit by any attack.
• Dark Thoughts - Name changed from Shadow Priest to Dark Thoughts. Additional effect, All threat generated reduced by 30%.
• Mind Spike - Now also increases the critical strike chance of your next Mind Blast on the target by 30%. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Improved Devouring Plague - Your Devouring Plague instantly deals damage equal to 15/30% of its total periodic effect.
• Twisted Faith - Increases your chance to hit with shadow spells by 1/2%, and grants you spell hit rating equal to 50/100% of any Spirit gained from items or effects.
• Vampiric Touch - No longer deals damage if dispelled.
• Harnessed Shadows - Name changed from Empowered Shadow Orbs [NNF] to Harnessed Shadows.
• Shadow Word: Death - Cooldown decreased to 10 sec from 12 sec. Damage increased 11%.
• Mind Melt - Now stacks 2 times, down from 3.
• Mind Flay - Level earned decreased to 10 from 20. Duration reduced to 3 sec from 5 sec.
• Improved Mind Blast - While in Shadowform your Mind Blast also has a 33/66/100% chance to reduce all healing done to the target by 25% for 10 sec. Up from 60% max.

Discipline

• Inner Will - 30 min duration added.
• Renewed Hope - Now also works with Heal.
• Grace - Now also works with Heal.
• Penance - Level earned decreased to 10 from 60.
• Twin Disciplines - Increases the damage and healing done by your instant spells and the damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield by 2/4/6%.
• Focused Will - Now stacks with Blessed Resilience.
• Inner Fire - Charges removed?

Misc Changes

• Lil' Deathwing - New spell. Right Click to summon and dismiss Lil' Deathwing. (Companions, None)
• Eat the Egg - New spell. Eat the egg (Companions, None)

No class changes anytime soon, sorry!

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Misc

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Misc

• The amount of experience required to reach new guild levels has been substantially reduced.
• Masteries and Armor bonuses are in game on trainers.
• Master Riding costs 5000g for very fast flying mounts. (310% for all)
• Flight path points added to maps
• Relic slots have sockets and stats now, no special effects.
• You must now find the portal to queue for LFD.

Blue Posts

Hunter

We're still following this discussion. Some players are making some good points and we have addressed some of these in our most recent builds. Here is a quick update on some of the issues being discussed:

Focus -- We think we're in a much better spot for focus regen now. Our goal has been for focus to be a resource you spend on your higher damage shots, which is regenerated passively at a rate lower than energy regen, but faster than energy if you are using Steady / Cobra (which can only be done while stationary). At the lower regen rates, we found it felt bad if you couldn't Steady / Cobra rather than Steady / Cobra feeling like a bonus. We think we're closer to the sweet spot now, but please let us know (preferably after you've actually tried it rather than prophesizing doom).

Aspects -- We're not happy with the way the Hawk vs. Fox choice is playing out. We think that ultimately either damage or focus regen is going to win out and the other aspect won't get much use. For now, we are going back to Hawk being used for damage and regen. We'll discuss other potential uses for Fox. Changing Aspects will not affect focus regen.

Mobile damage -- This is always a touchy subject. In our testing, we found that it wasn't fun with the current implementation when hunters had to move around a lot, especially in PvP. This is why we are giving up on the current Aspect of the Fox design. We also significantly reduced the focus cost per damage of Arcane Shot, so that it is usable under almost all circumstances. We've also removed the focus costs on several utility abilities (e.g. Concussive Shot, Intimidation, Bestial Wrath, Scatter Shot, etc.) One potential use for Aspect of the Fox is to generate additional focus when you take damage, but we don't want to get back into a world where you are "aspect twisting" when someone comes into melee with you in PvP.

Survival -- We're still iterating a lot on this tree in particular. We agree it's probably the least polished of the hunter trees so far. The reason is that we just have it in for Survival hunters.

Pets -- As I posted in another thread recently, a pet scaling pass is underway. We still plan to do passes on the hunter pet talents and abilities as well. With the design that allows you to swap pets often in the field, we want to make sure that there are some interesting choices in which pet you use for a given situation. Provided they are all crabs.

In case I need to say it, the last two sentences of the last two paragraphs are not meant to be taken seriously. :)

Hunter Pet Damage

Pet scaling is getting a massive overhaul at the moment. For starters, we still intend for pets to scale with all of the master's stats for things like hit, haste and crit. For the big stats, our current plan is something like this:

Ferocity (damage) -- 50% of master's AP, 40% health, 50% armor
Tenacity (tanking) -- 35% of master's AP, 50% health, 70% armor
Cunning (utility) -- 40% of master's AP, 40% health, 60% armor

Warlock pets will be getting a similar pass. In general, we want pet dps to be 20-30% of player dps. Note that this is a lot lower than current BM and Demo lock numbers. Pet damage as BM will still be higher than Marks or Survival though, and we want BM to be competitive overall with Marks and Survival. (Ditto for locks.)

Moonkin form pointless ?

We've had a lot of discussions about Moonkin form, as you might guess. We know opinions range among the player base from "cut it" to "make me stay in my adorable form all the time." At first we were trying to make it more of an option, so that cuddly-hating Balance druids could choose the spec without the shapeshift. After much discussion though, we're going to go back to a Balance druid = Moonkin Form design. We'll put some more damage into the Moonkin Form.

Shadowpriests & Cata (feedback + suggestions)

Phantasm -- Having a 2 sec immunity is something we may consider, but we also don't want snares in PvP to be quiet as prevalent as they are today.

Mind Melt -- The timing of the Mind Melt buff interaction with Mind Spike sounds like a bug and will be fixed.

Shadowy Apparition -- It sounds like there are a lot of bugs still with the implementation. The way we intend for it to work is that the Apparitions are shades of your character and will attack the correct target (the one with SW:Pain on it). We have already fixed several bugs relating to Shadowy Apparition interacting with Shadow Orbs and Mind Blast.

Silencing Shot

We're going to take the damage off of Silencing Shot. It's supposed to be a situational utility ability, not something you macro into every shot.

Creature Damage Output Changes

Creature damage output has been increased from roughly level 65 and up. These increases scale upward with level. Creatures in exterior zones at level 80 now have 2.5 times the damage output they did previously in beta, 3.2 times at level 81, and 4 times at level 82 and up.

We’d like to get your feedback about how combat feels with creatures in level 80-85 exterior zones, including spawn rates and number of creatures in specific locations in each zone. Please let us know if this feels adequately challenging, or if there is a little too much face rocking going on.