World of Warcraft

[Sie]

In the entire history of World of Warcraft, Warlocks have never - ever- consistantly "owned" Rogues, CLoS or no CLoS.

And I still maintain that no one can tell exactly how the game will play at 70 - the entire chuck of my post you edited out of quoting me states that.

What you have to understand about this nerf Dan is several things. One being that it has shit on the PvE viability an primarily PvE tree of the Warlock class. In fact, to even call it a nerf is an understatement because it is in reality a huge stone age leap backwards. The spell power bonus is now WORSE than it was before the Affliction tree was pimped post 2.0. And pre 2.0, it was a **** joke at high level already. Not only that, but it is a reduction that negatively scales with gear - it gets worse as Warlocks level up! It makes no logical sense at all.

Many Warlocks, including myself have stated that Affliction is currently a bit too strong and that toning it down a bit would be absolutely fine. But this just takes the piss - they haven't toned it down, they've cut its bollocks off with a rusty knife.

It's about Blizzard finally giving the Warlock an identity and then a week before we can really get going with it, and purely because of community peer pressure, they yank the rug from under our feet and drop the affliction Lock back into the **** stone age from whence the class clawed its way up from. A real case of 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

It is said that the reason for the nerf was to balance Demonology a bit but its actually ended up screwing over Affliction big style.

Nothing about it says "carefully considered dmg reduction". Its a flat out knee jerk response to dampen the fury of Warlock naysayers. It's not even mentioned in the patch notes despite being one of the most significant nerfs in recent times.

A nerf born out of the lack of understanding most Warcraft players have which was only amplified by the dreaded, evil patch that is 2.0.1. A poisoned apple that patch was indeed.

[Sie]

Something else I've noticed.

The class that seems to be perpetuating this nerf as justified the most are....hunters. Read what you will from that.

[ED]

OK explain to nubs like me why its such a nerf, from what ive read its 10%. Does that mean 10% less dps? does that mean a dot will tick for 300 instead of 333? Explain this to people like me who have never had spellpower or a cast bar.

[The_Rev]

Its been nerfed to below its 1.12 coeffients. Its actually worse now than it was when we only had 31 points and everyone thought it was shit. For PvP they nerfed the hell out of Warlock crowd control, which was okay we were told as we wouldnt be forced to rely on crowd control as affliction damage was going to be competitive. But its the PvE side of the thing that has really upset a lot of people.

Its quite possibly the single biggest nerf in the history of the game. The other "big" one was weapon speed normalization which affected five or six classes (depending on how you feel about Druids) and was only a temporary thing because it was actually a gear nerf, not an ability nerf.

This one seems to be justified "because its a Warlock spell" and no other reason. Its insane how SW:P (which was massively superior anyway) remains unaffected.

If you cast your mind back to when we were doing BWL and MC and Warlocks were under performing because the only way we could go endgame was to be shadowbolt spammers and not be as good as mages was the big concern of an entire class have had the tree which gave them identity (dig out you instruction manual. It says Locks are debuffers, dotters) has just been closed again for reasons which i can only assume are because we have been the delay to TBC. Its been late, people have had nothing to do except PvP and farm gear that is on a par with BWL/AQ40. Then use that gear on other people in more PvP. Add that to the fact that no one has got this extra stamina that we are supposed to be getting and you can start to see why its off to change something a week before TBC goes live.

This stuff was supposed to be set for level 70 raiding. They nerf the shit out of it for level 60 PvP which is going to be defunct in a matter of days?

[Risso]

Ah did nasty Blizz do something bad to the poor ickle lockie wockies? Just the bastard hunters to go then!

[The_Rev]

And Paladins!

I just dont get nerfing the PvE tree for PvP reasons though. Especially as the Battlegrounds will be (relatively) deserted when the Dark Portal springs open.

[Risso]

Can't wait for TBC now, just hope they haven't cocked that up too. I wouldn't worry TOO much about PvE, as I think your minds are still thinking about BWL type dungeons, which just aren't going to be as important any more. Can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to doing 5 mans again, when the skill of the 5 people involved is WAY more important than gear or spec.

[The_Rev]

My concern is i wanted to dot stuff though.

When you get Hunters, Rogues, Mages firing off WTFCRITS left right and centre stuff dies before dots can tick. More so with the huge nerf.

[Risso]

In terms of damage how much of a nerf is it though, what damage will an average dot do now? (I spend all day doing sums, buggered if I can be arsed to work it out when I'm at home!).

This past few days, I've noticed the number of times I've been two shot by mages has gone up quite a bit. Coincidence maybe, but a lot of the AV's I've done they've been way ahead of Locks and huntards in the damage stakes.

Last I night I actually beat an equally geared paladin one on one, both starting from full health and mana. True story. It took about 10 minutes for one of us to die, the game nearly finished before he finally carked it!

[The_Rev]

We wait and see.

Currently the nerf on 2.01 stuff is a -23% on the benefit from gear on corruption, and a -37% on the benefit from gear on a fully talented Curse of Agony. It slides up and down with gear of course, but these figures were posted by someone who had a similar gear level to me and access to the Test Realm.

The "-10%" thing was an expected nerf in the "average" warlock according to the blue post. Of course, this is including all of those who are using Shadowbolt as the main source of their DPS (Demonology and Destruction specs) but its much higher for Affliction who's two main sources of damage are the spells which have been nerfed.

Its seems kinda crazy that this was brought in to slow down what a Lock with a Felguard could do with his dot damage while having all the other things Demonology had. Thats why there has been a massive outcry at this because the tree that is affected most by this doesnt appear to have anything to do with the reasoning behind it.

And you will be getting two shot more and more and more as time goes by. People are getting the Rank 12-14 gear now. Gear that is on a par with BWL/AQ40 DPS gear. Once you could shrug and accept that you were outgeared, now that everyone has it you are taking a 5k pyroblast up the arse from someones alt who only dinged 60 three weeks ago. This patch with its free gear was implemented to keep peoples interest in a heavily delayed expansion at a time of year when Wii's, 360's and in America PS3's were being handed out as xmas gifts. Has it made Azroth a better place to be? I dont think so.

[The_Rev]

The Burning Crusade

Several years have passed since the Burning Legion's defeat at the Battle of Mount Hyjal - and the races of Azeroth have continued to rebuild their once shattered kingdoms. With renewed strength, the heroes of the Horde and Alliance have begun to explore the broken lands beyond the Dark Portal. What dangers or rewards await mortal champions in Draenor? And what will the Alliance and Horde do when they discover that the demons they thought vanquished have returned to renew their terrible Burning Crusade?

General

* A stirring of events has begun throughout Azeroth and rumor points to the Dark Portal as its source.

* Mazk Snipeshot in Booty Bay now sells bullets.

* The Auction House now sorts by buyout price first, then by current price. This should filter all of the items with outlandish buyout prices to the bottom of the list.

* Players will now need to be level 58 to pass through the Dark Portal. (The Burning Crusade Expansion must be installed.)

* Collector Edition pets are now blue items and a confirmation dialogue will appear to prevent accidental deletion.

* Pets will no longer attack targets that are under the influence of crowd control (sheep, banish, etc.).

* The title "Scarab Lord" can now be chosen in game for select players.

PvP

* Players can use the /teamquit or /teamdisband command in order to leave an Arena team.

* A new bracket has been added to Alterac Valley for level 61-70.

* Added a sorting function so that the battleground and scoreboard can be sorted by any of the categories.

* Healthstones and summoned warlock pets will no longer cost a soulshard to summon in the Arena preparation area. All summoned items and pets will be dismissed on leaving the arena.

* The last pet a player had summoned will be resummoned outside the Arena upon leaving.

Druids

* Due to various talent changes, all Druids will have all their talent points refunded.

* "Feline Swiftness" has been renamed "Feral Swiftness". The dodge % increase now also applies to Bear and Dire Bear Forms.

* "Improved Moonfire" has been reduced to 2 ranks, for a 5/10% bonus.

* "Insect Swarm" has had its damage on all ranks increased. The mana cost of ranks 1 and 3 has been increased. The mana cost of ranks 4,5 and 6 has been decreased.

* "Nurturing Instinct" now grants its benefit at all times, but the bonus has been reduced to 25/50% of Strength.

* "Improved Starfire" has been renamed to "Celestial Focus" and now also increases the chance to resist casting pushback when casting Wrath by 25/50/70%.

* "Blood Frenzy" benefits have merged with "Primal Fury".

* "Improved Leader of the Pack" has been reduced to 2 ranks for 2/4% total health healed.

* "Pounce" no longer requires the druid to be behind the target.

* "Barkskin" is now usable while stunned.

* Druids now need substantially less agility per dodge.

* "Dire Bear Form" armor bonus increased to 450% and health bonus changed to a 25% percent health increase instead of a flat increase.

* The Health bonus of "Bear Form" has changed to a 25% percent health increase instead of a flat increase.

* "Swipe" has had its threat bonus multiplier removed.

* "Maul" has had its threat bonus multiplier changed to a flat value similar in threat per time to "Heroic Strike".

* "Regrowth" has had its mana cost reduced by approximately 18%.

* "Tree of Life" healing bonus now increases the healing received by your party members instead of the healing dealt by your party members.

* The "Tranquility" base amount healed per second has increased by approximately 273%. The radius of effect has increased from 20 yards 30 yards. Mana cost has increased by 40%. The Cooldown has increased from 5 minutes to 10 minutes. The Duration has decreased from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.

* "Mangle" will not stack multiple copies from multiple forms or druids anymore. This was never intended behavior. The percentage modification on bleeds has increased from 25% to 30% and "Mangle" now increases the damage from "Shred" as well. In addition, "Mangle" will now benefit from the damage boost from "Tiger's Fury".

* "Enrage" will now show up in the combat log and in floating combat text.

* "Lifebloom" will now correctly consume clearcasting.

* "Predatory Instincts" has had its tooltip adjusted to indicate it only works in feral forms, and that it increases damage by a percent, not damage bonus by a percent.

* If a spell is resisted, it will no longer break stealth.

* "Tree of Life's" bonus healing aura will now reactivate correctly when "Banish" wears off.

* Shapeshifted druids will now be able to speak to npcs while shapeshifted.

Hunters

* "Multi-Shot" has had its mana cost adjusted back to a value closer to its pre 2.0.1 version.

* If your pet has been recently revived by using "Call Pet", it will no longer reset back to full health.

* If a Hunter "Wyvern Stings" an enemy already asleep from "Wyvern Sting", the "Wyvern Sting" sleep will now be reapplied correctly.

Mages

* "Frost Nova" (Water Elemental Spell) has been renamed to "Freeze".

* "Ice Lance" is now correctly affected by "Elemental Precision".

* "Ice Armor"is now correctly affected by "Elemental Precision".

* "Frost Armor" is now correctly affected by "Elemental Precision".

* Mages will no longer see line of sight errors if the target moves behind an obstacle after the spell "Arcane Missiles" has begun casting.

* "Blazing Speed" no longer PROCs while the caster is mounted.

Paladins

* "Blessing of Might" now also increases ranged attack power.

* "Improved Righteous Fury" now also reduces all damage taken while active by 2/4/6%.

* "Improved Divine Shield" (Protection Talent) has been renamed "Sacred Duty" and now also increases total Stamina by 3/6%.

* "Improved Resistance Auras" has been renamed "Spell Warding", reduces all spell damage taken by the Paladin and is no longer tied to Resistance Auras.

* We have fixed a bug where the damage bonus from "Holy Guidance" was being added to physical attacks.

* "Divine Illumination's" duration has been increased to 15 sec, from 10 sec.

* There will no longer be a slight delay on receiving the buff from "Light's Grace" when it occurs.

* The bonus "Avenger's Shield" receives from bonus spell damage effects has been increased.

Priests

* "Mass Dispel" will no longer cause stealthed Rogues and prowling Druids to lose stealth.

* "Surge of Light" (Holy Talent) can no longer be triggered by using items.

Rogues

* Due to various talent changes, Rogues will have all talent points refunded.

* "Evasion" (Rank 2) now reduces the chance that ranged attacks will hit the Rogue by 25%, reduced from 50%. It is now available at level 50.

* The "Cloak of Shadows" cooldown has been reduced to 1 min, from 2 min. Now a trainable ability at level 66.

* "Shadowstep" (New Subtlety Talent) attempts to step through the shadows and reappear behind your enemy. Your next "Ambush", "Backstab" or "Garrote" ability is increased by 20% and lasts 10 sec. This is only usable while stealthed.

* "Premeditation" (Subtlety Talent) has had its range increased to 30 yards.

* "Preparation" now only resets the cooldown of the "Evasion", "Sprint", "Vanish", "Cold Blood", "Adrenaline Rush" and "Premeditation" abilities.

* "Wound Poison" now causes damage and reduces all healing by 10%, stacks up to 5 times.

* The Cooldown for "Blind" has been reduced to 3 min, from 5 min.

* There is no longer a random chance the effect of "Sap" will end (i.e. removed the heartbeat resist check). The effect will still end early when the target is damaged.

* Each rank of "Weapon Expertise"now provides 5 weapon skill.

* "Surprise Attacks" now increases the damage from "Sinister Strike", "Backstab", "Shiv" and "Gouge" by 10% instead of 8%.

* Resisted spells will no longer break "Stealth"/"Vanish".

* Combo points added to a target should not be reset until you add a combo point to a different target.

Shaman

* "Earth Shock" no longer causes increased threat.

* "Frost Shock" now causes increased threat.

* The training cost for "Strength of Earth Totem (Rank 5)" is now correct.

* "Nature's Guardian" will now work properly even when you don't have an enemy targeted.

Warlocks - nerfed to ****!

* Melee damage of "Felguard" has been reduced.

* The damage increase component of "Soul Link" has been improved. The damage mitigation component has been reduced.

* The cooldown of "Shadowfury" has been reduced to 20 sec, from 1 min.

* The mana cost of "Soul Fire" has been reduced by approximately 45%.

* The feedback from dispelling "Unstable Affliction" is now affected by "Shadow Mastery".

* Pets will again have their mana reset to full in addition to their health when first summoned.

* "Demonic Resilience" will now properly reduce pet damage taken.

* Fire objects in the game world (bonfires, braziers) will no longer trigger "Nether Protection".

* When a Warlock is under the effects of "Backlash" and "Nightfall", only one of the effects will be consumed by a "Shadow Bolt" cast.

* The bonus that the spells "Corruption" and "Curse of Agony" receive from bonus spell damage effects has been decreased by approximately 10%.

Warriors

* "Weapon Mastery" Rank 2 of this talent now grants full immunity to "Disarm" mechanics, and will properly display "Immune" when a "Disarm" is attempted.

* "Slam's" swing time is no longer slowed by damage taken.

* "Rampage's" rage cost has been reduced to 20.

* The daze portion of "Piercing Howl" will now still land even if the target is already snared.

* The bonus threat of "Devastate" on all ranks has been increased. Bonus threat will no longer decrease as ranks increase.

Items

* The energy gained from "Thistle Tea" now decreases with levels past 40.

* "Idol of Ferocity" now increases "Claw" and "Rake" damage instead of reducing energy cost.

* "Idol of Brutality" now increases "Maul" and "Swipe" damage instead of reducing rage cost.

* "Idol of Health" now provides bonus healing on "Healing Touch" instead of reducing its cast time.

* The rage gained from "Gri'lek's Charm of Might" now decreases with levels past 60.

* The energy gained from "Renataki's Charm of Trickery" now decreases with levels past 60.

* "Renataki's Charm of Beasts" no longer resets the cooldown on Arcane Shot.

* "Wushoolay's Charm of Nature" now provides haste rating instead of reducing "Healing Touch" cast time.

* "Wushoolay's Charm of Spirits" now increases "Lightning Shield" damage by a flat amount instead of a percentage.

* "Hazza'rah's Charm of Destruction" now increases spell crit rating instead of spell crit percent.

* "Hazza'rah's Charm of Magic" now increases Arcane spell damage instead of providing a spell crit bonus.

* "Tidal Charm" Now has a chance of failure against targets over level 60.

* "The Black Book" now provides a flat amount of spell power, attack power, and armor to your pet, instead of by a percentage.

* "Rune of Metamorphosis" now reduces mana cost of shapeshiting by a flat amount, instead of by a percentage.

* "Lifegiving Gem" now provides 1500 healing and bonus max health instead of a percentage of your max health.

* "Venomous Totem" now increases damage dealt by "Instant Poison" and "Deadly Poison" instead of increasing poison land chance.

* "Natural Alignment Crystal" now increases Nature spell damage by a flat amount instead of by a percentage.

* "Pristine South Seas Kelp" now provides spell crit rating instead of spell crit chance.

* "Devilsaur Tooth" now grants your pet crit rating instead of a guaranteed crit.

* "Wail of the Banshee" now has a chance of failure against targets over level 60.

* The threat reduction from "Fetish of the Sand Reaver" now decreases with levels past 60.

* The threat reduction from "Eye of Diminution" now decreases with levels past 60.

* "Stygian Buckler" now has a chance of failure against targets over level 60.

* "Horned Viking Helmet" now has a chance of failure against targets over level 60.

* "Gnomish Mind Control Cap" now has a greater chance of failure against targets over level 60.

* "Goblin Rocket Helmet" now has a chance of failure against targets over level 60.

* "Clutch of Foresight" now has a chance of failure against targets over level 60.

* "Flash Bomb" now has a chance of failure against targets over level 60.

* The "Green Dragon Mail" Set +15% mana regenerationhas been replaced with 20 mana per 5 sec.

* The "Vestments of Transcendence" Set +15% mana regeneration has been replaced with 20 mana per 5 sec.

* The "Stormrage Raiment Set" +15% mana regeneration has been replaced with 20 mana per 5 sec.

* The Thunderclap set bonus for "Conqueror's Battlegear" is no longer cumulative with the "Thunderclap" talent.

* The reduction in cooldown on Rapid Fire from the "Striker's Garb" Set bonus is no longer cumulative with the "Rapid Killing" talent.

* The Paladin abilities Flash of Light and Holy Light will again correctly use charges from the "Zandalarian Hero Charm".

* The Paladin abilities Flash of Light and Holy Light will again correctly activate charges from the "Talisman of Ascendence".

* Collector's Edition pets are now be blue items.

Professions

* Enchantments

o The Crusader Enchantment now decreases in potency for wielders above level 60.

o The Icy Chill Enchantment now decreases in potency for wielders above level 60.

o The Lifestealing Enchantment now decreases in potency for wielders above level 60.

* Blacksmithing/Leatherworking specialization has changed with specialization providing recipes to make powerful items that only you can wear. You can now unlearn a blacksmithing or leatherworking specialization and learn a different one by finding the appropriate NPC, paying the fee to unlearn your old specialization, and then find the new specialist to learn a new one. Also, all of the old blacksmithing/leatherworking recipes that required specialization no longer require it and can be learned by any blacksmith/leatherworker.

* Silver/Golden/Mystic/Runic Spellthread have been increased in power.

User Interface

* The Auction House will now sort items first by buyout price then by current price.

* Added a new option to the Looking for Group and Looking for More panel to choose Heroic Mode Dungeons.

* Players will now be able to pull out a pet window to see all the pets in the raid.

* Added Ranged and Spell stats as a display option for the G15 keyboard.

* Updated the Sound Options menu to include a checkbox for Hardware Acceleration and a slider for Sound Channels.

o PC default is "Hardware Acceleration = ON" and "Sound Channels = LOW".

o Players that experience poor system performance can set "Hardware Acceleration=OFF" which may improve performance but will disable any EAX (reverberation) effects supported by their sound card.

o Players with more powerful systems can raise the "Sound Channels" slider to increase the number of simultaneous sounds in the game, providing a more immersive soundscape.

o Mac users will not have a checkbox or slider available due to the Mac's default setting of "Hardware Acceleration = OFF" and the "Sound Channels = HIGH".

* API Changes

o NEW: Dismount()

o NEW: equippable = IsEquippableItem(item)

o NEW: link = GetInboxItemLink(index)

o NEW: button = GetMouseButtonClicked() -- Returns the name of the button that triggered a mouse down/up/click/doubleclick event.

o NEW: hasMacro = CursorHasMacro()

o NEW: "item", itemID, link = GetCursorInfo() OR "spell", slot, "spell" or "pet" = GetCursorInfo() OR "macro", index = GetCursorInfo() OR "money", amount = GetCursorInfo()

* Macro Features

o NEW: /dismount

o /castsequence will equip items if they need to be equipped, and use them otherwise.

o The following commands now support the [target=unit] macro option syntax: /startattack, /petattack, /target, /assist, /focus

o If you add a #showtooltip line to your macro, it will show the tooltip of the item or spell in addition to the normal visual feedback.

o A unit's name can be used anywhere a unit token can be used. e.g. if you had the player Desmondia in your party, /cast [target=Desmondia] Flash Heal, would cast Flash Heal on her. This will only work for the player, pet, party members and pets, and raid members and pets. You can use "-target" or "-pet" to indicate the target or pet of the named unit, e.g. /cast [target=Desmondia-target,harm] Shadow Word: Pain

* Key Bindings

o Holding down ctrl, alt, shift, x will check keybindings in the following order: ALT-CTRL-SHIFT-X, CTRL-SHIFT-X, ALT-SHIFT-X, ALT-CTRL-X, SHIFT-X, CTRL-X, ALT-X, X

o Key bindings that directly cast spells or use items now respect the self-cast modifier.

* Frame Methods

o UPDATED: protected, explicit = Frame:IsProtected() -- New 'explicit' return value

* Tooltip Methods

o NEW: isUnit = Tooltip:IsUnit("unit")

o NEW: name = Tooltip:GetUnit()

o NEW: name, link = Tooltip:GetItem()

o NEW: name, rank = Tooltip:GetSpell()

o Added several script handlers which are called when the tooltip is set to a unit, item, or spell: OnTooltipSetUnit, OnTooltipSetItem, OnTooltipSetSpell

* Cooldown Indicators

o There's a new cooldown indicator frame that replaces the previous model file. The old syntax: should be replaced by

* Secure Templates

o Added an action type "attribute" to secure action buttons which sets an arbitrary attribute on an arbitrary frame.

o Added support for state header resizing and re-parenting on state changes.

* Saved Variables

o Arrays that are stored as saved variables are now saved using lua's array initializer syntax for optimal memory usage and performance on load.

* Bug Fixes

o Unit frames will respond to modified clicks by default.

o Action buttons no longer use shift-click to pick up actions, but instead use shift-drag. This frees up the shift modifier for use in macros or as a self-cast modifier.

o MovePad will work again.

o Fixed taint issues with the unit menus (dueling, dismissing pets, etc.)

o Fixed taint issues with CloseLoot()

o Fixed taint issues with PickupContainerItem()

o Fixed taint issue with raid UI not showing in combat (buttons in main raid UI are no longer secure unit buttons)

o Fixed /reply in macros

o Fixed a bug where /petattack would target the nearest unit, not the nearest live enemy unit.

o The macro "button:N" conditional will work with either the real button clicked or the state-header-remapped button that launched the macro.

o /click now works with secure action buttons

o Fixed issue whereby creating Textures/FontStrings from a template used the template name instead of the specified region name.

Mac

* The "Enable sound in background" option is now implemented, default on Mac is "on" as before.

* Fixed an issue with SetBindingItem, SetBindingSpell, SetBindingMacro LUA functions.

* Addressed a graphics issue where changing the WorldFrame's coordinates would show a field of the fog color in the area outside of the world view instead of black, on NVIDIA GPU's, when indoors, with Full Screen Glow enabled.

* Addressed a graphics issue affecting NVIDIA GeForce3 and GeForce 4Ti GPU's when certain particle effects were visible on screen such as Naxxramas loot.

* Music looping is now fixed.

Bug Fixes

* Characters on your friends list that are deleted will now properly be removed from the friends list.

* Players will now be put back into the cross-realm battleground raid group after relogging from a force quit.

* You will now be able to remove players from other realms from your ignore list after leaving the battleground.

* Players who return from a disconnect in an Arena battle will now be correctly credited as being alive by the scoreboard.

* When you craft an item with a random property, it will now display it has random properties in the crafting UI.

* Characters will no longer be rooted in place until logout when being force-quit during the opening cinematic.

* Pet statistics will now appear in green when being buffed by an outside source.

* You should now get the mail indicator when your inventory is too full after leaving a battleground.

* Spell penetration should now properly update on the character sheet.

* Certain throwing weapons will no longer be consumed when used as a throwing weapon.

* Certain throwing weapons have had a damage range added to their tooltip.

* Reduced the cost of some battleground rewards.

* The druid Restoration Talent "Tree of Life" healing buff is no longer being removed from the Druid if afflicted by a "Banish" spell.

* "Moonkin Form" and "Tree of Life" form now have a casting animation for "Warstomp".

* The druid talent skill "Tree of Life" now has a swimming animation.

* Adjusted the tooltip for Barkskin to reflect the proper functionality.

* "Insect Swarm" Rank 6 will now benefit from the clearcasting effect from "Omen of Clarity".

* The hunter spell "Volley" has had its tooltip updated to reflect that it is channeled.

* The hunter spell "Flare" will now properly reveal Mages that used "Invisibility".

* The tooltip for the crit bonus granted to feral druid from the talent "Predatory Instincts" will now reflect the proper amount.

* The hunter Marksmanship ability "Silencing Shot" is now triggering the "Auto-Shot" ability after using the ability.

* "Misdirection" will now redirect the threat from "Distracting Shot".

* "Serpent Sting's" initial, non-threatening application no longer consumes a charge of Misdirection.

* "Disengage" now reduces threat on the misdirected target and also consumes one charge of "Misdirection".

* Hunter Survival talent "Wyvern Sting" at Rank 4 will now cause the correct amount of damage as indicated in the tooltip.

* The hunter Survival Talent "Readiness" will now finish the cooldown of the ability "Wyvern Sting".

* Mages using "Molten Armor" on themselves and being hit while casting "Arcane Missiles" or "Blizzard" will no longer cancel the spells.

* The mage spell "Ice Armor" will now be affected by the talent "Frost Warding".

* "Spellsteal" and "Detect Magic" now benefit from the mage talent Arcane Focus.

* The mage spell "Arcane Blast" will now receive the mana reduction benefits from "Clearcasting".

* The mage spell "Fire Ward" rank 6 will now properly overwrite previous ranks of "Fire Ward".

* "Ice block" will now make a mage immune to "Avenger's shield".

* "Blazing Speed" will now remove movement impairing effects when it procs.

* Casting "Ice Lance" will no longer consume the mage's talent "Presence of Mind" buff.

* "Arcane Missiles" will no longer continue to channel after the target is dead.

* "Ice Lance", "Frost Armor", and "Ice Armor" will now receive the benefits from the mage talent Elemental Precision.

* The mage Fire talent "Critical Mass" will now properly update on the character sheet UI.

* The paladin holy talent "Holy Guidance" will now effect damage from "Seal of Righteousness".

* "Benediction" will now decrease the mana cost of "Seal of Blood".

* "Shadow Word Death" will no longer do damage to the casting priest when resisted.

* "Holy Fire" (rank 9) cast time has been adjusted for consistency with all other ranks of "Holy Fire" to 3.5 seconds.

* The priest Discipline talent "Reflective Shield" will no longer cause the recipient of the shield to perform a cast animation every time the shield reflects damage.

* "Prayer of Mending" no longer procs the heal when all damage is absorbed.

* Priests backlash effect of "Shadow Word: Death" will now properly be applied and can no longer be resisted.

* The visual effect of "Shadowform" will no longer persist if disabled while mounted.

* Updated the tooltip on "Cloak of Shadows" with the additional line, "Does not remove effects that prevent you from using Cloak of Shadows."

* The rogue Assassination Talent "Quick Recovery" will no longer refund energy back to the Rogue if a finishing move is partially blocked.

* A "Vanished" rogue will no longer be taken out of their "vanished state" when they resist a spell.

* The rogue Assasination talent "Find Weakness" will now work properly with the finishing move "Deadly Throw".

* Using the rogue ability "Mutilate" when not behind your target will no longer initiate combat.

* The rogue ability "Slice and Dice" will no longer be reported twice in floating combat text when used.

* "Mind-Numbing Poison" will no longer stack with both "Curse of Tongues" and "Slow".

* The shaman talent "Totemic Mastery" will now increase "Wrath of Air Totem's" radius.

* The shaman talents "Elemental Mastery","Shamanistic Rage" and the troll racial "Berserking" can no longer be used in "Ghost Wolf" form.

* The shaman "Greater Fire Elemental" and "Greater Earth Elemental" will now spawn in with full health.

* The shaman abilities "Water Shield" and "Earth Shield" can no longer be over written by lower ranks.

* The shaman talent "Mental Quickness" will now properly reduce the casting cost of "Bloodlust" and "Heroism".

* The damage dealt from "Greater Fire Elemental" and "Greater Earth Elemental" is now displayed in the combat log.

* The shaman Restoration talent "Totemic Focus" will now be applied to "Earth Elemental Totem" and "Fire Elemental Totem".

* "Lightning Overload" no longer incorrectly charges mana for the free Lightning Bolt.

* "Rockbiter Weapon" no longer charges twice the listed mana when cast.

* The warlock talent "Demonic Resilience" does will now properly reduce the amount of damage pets are taking.

* "Unstable Affliction" is now improved by the talent "Shadow Mastery".

* Pyroclasm will now properly function with all ranks of "Soul Fire" and "Hellfire" rank 4.

* The warlock Demonology talent "Fel Intellect" (all ranks) will now properly affect Felhunter intellect.

* Crit chance of the spell "Incinerate" is now being affected by the 2nd rank of the Warlock Destruction talent "Devastation".

* Warlock pet "Felguard" will now use the appropriate sounds.

* Warlock pet "Imp" will now correctly receive their spell damage bonus.

* Using a grimoire to teach your demon pet a spell while it is under the effects of "Banish" will no longer consume the grimoire, but the pet is immune and will not learn the spell.

* Warriors with full "Weapon Mastery" talent will now be shown to have immunity towards disarm.

* The "Shield Bash" rank 4 daze effect will now properly slow the target and has had its tooltip updated.

* Warriors will no longer being re-entered into a combat state if the character switches stances after killing a mob.

* "Second Wind" will no longer improperly proc off of a mob's daze.

[Risso]

* "Earth Shock" no longer causes increased threat.

* "Frost Shock" now causes increased threat.

* The training cost for "Strength of Earth Totem (Rank 5)" is now correct.

* "Nature's Guardian" will now work properly even when you don't have an enemy targeted.

Wow! Great stuff.

"Shaman have had all talent points refunded, and their character reset. Choose something else. We can't be bothered any more.

Regards, Blizz"

[ozvillafan]

The Burning Crusade

Shaman

* "Earth Shock" no longer causes increased threat.

* "Frost Shock" now causes increased threat.

* The training cost for "Strength of Earth Totem (Rank 5)" is now correct.

* "Nature's Guardian" will now work properly even when you don't have an enemy targeted.

Wow. Must have spent all of 5 minutes on that. Thanks for nothing.

Meanwhile, Pallies get a further buff to their buffs. Go figure.

* Enchantments

o The Crusader Enchantment now decreases in potency for wielders above level 60.

Well that's just dandy. Spent 60g yesterday getting Crusader put on, damnit! It will now be largely useless within, what? 2 levels?

* Blacksmithing/Leatherworking specialization has changed with specialization providing recipes to make powerful items that only you can wear. You can now unlearn a blacksmithing or leatherworking specialization and learn a different one by finding the appropriate NPC, paying the fee to unlearn your old specialization, and then find the new specialist to learn a new one. Also, all of the old blacksmithing/leatherworking recipes that required specialization no longer require it and can be learned by any blacksmith/leatherworker.

So specialization is largely useless then. You cant make money from it since you can only make things for yourself.

Oh, and thanks for letting me learn the old recipes.....

... since nobody wants them now.

Anybody else feel totally worked over?

[Risso]

* "Earth Shock" no longer causes increased threat.

* "Frost Shock" now causes increased threat.

What IS the point of that? The point about earth shock was that you could silence NPC casters, and drag agro back from mages and priests if you had to (not Locks though obviously). Earth Shock plus Rockbiter were great for off tanking.

But anyway Oz, I've had a revelation, and that revelation is Stoneclaw totem! I last used this I think while questing in the Thousand Needles, in that cave with all the harpies, and haven't bothered to train it since about Rank 4. But it turns out it rather nicely taunts those druid tree things for a good few seconds, bunching them all up rather nicely for a CL or magma totem strike.

Next challenge, think of a reason for using Windwall Totem!

[ozvillafan]

* "Earth Shock" no longer causes increased threat.

* "Frost Shock" now causes increased threat.

What IS the point of that? The point about earth shock was that you could silence NPC casters, and drag agro back from mages and priests if you had to (not Locks though obviously). Earth Shock plus Rockbiter were great for off tanking.

I'm a bit surprised at this too.

So silencing an opponent doesn't cause threat....

... but slowing their movement while they are already in melee with someone else does?

What next? Earthbind totem gains aggro? And what does this mean for mobs that run?

Daft.

But anyway Oz, I've had a revelation, and that revelation is Stoneclaw totem! I last used this I think while questing in the Thousand Needles, in that cave with all the harpies, and haven't bothered to train it since about Rank 4. But it turns out it rather nicely taunts those druid tree things for a good few seconds, bunching them all up rather nicely for a CL or magma totem strike.

Nice! I will have to make a button for that mostly useless totem now :winkold:

Next challenge, think of a reason for using Windwall Totem!

I use it every time I fight a hunter....

... and it does nothing.

[Risso]

I use it every time I fight a hunter....

... and it does nothing.

yeah that 64 damage reduction makes all the difference against 2000 aimed shot crits!

[ozvillafan]

Heh heh... it's just like dropping a stoneskin totem against a fury warrior or rogue. Pointless.

[The_Rev]

Imagine that in cloth!

[Risso]

Heh heh... it's just like dropping a stoneskin totem against a fury warrior or rogue. Pointless.

Healing stream totem actually benefits from plus healing now though, so full resto plus decent gear gets it ticking along at a fair old rate.

Fury warriors are just rogues without all the intensely annoying stuns and interrupts. Piece of cake.

[ozvillafan]

Healing stream totem actually benefits from plus healing now though, so full resto plus decent gear gets it ticking along at a fair old rate.

Which always made me wonder why Mana spring doesn't do the same. Ok, it's not healing, but couldn't it work off your existing mana regen?

Fury warriors are just rogues without all the intensely annoying stuns and interrupts. Piece of cake.

Not when you are dual wielding. It's a close fight, but execute usually wins it for the warriors.

Had that happen in AB the other day, so I popped and frost shocked the last 3% of the warrior's health and then bandaged. He then chased me around for the rest of the game