Today's blue stuff includes mage/dk talent changes and a new holiday for live servers.
Olympic Games Event
- Tabard & Pet !Every two years the Spirits of Competition grow especially fervent... and now is that time! Both Alliance and Horde wear this tabard into the Battlegrounds to honor the spirits, seekign to defeat all enemies and earn their favor.
[*]To get the new tabard, you only have to play one battleground. Winning or losing doesn't matter, if you stay for the duration of the battle you will be mailed a Competitor's Tabard.
[*]To get the new pet, you must defeat your rivals in any of the Battlegrounds. With every victory, there is a chance that a Gold Medallion will be mailed to you.
As far as it looks, the tabards are permanent and it might be your only chance to get one ... before the next Olympic Games in 2 years. This event goes live August 8th at midnight server time and lasts until the 25th.
Quote from Blizzard staff
Mage (WotLK - Skills List / Beta Talent Calc. / Official Beta Talent Calc.)
This is a totally new comparison between the talents from the latest beta build (8714) and the latest revision of the official talent calculator.
Arcane
* Arcane Shielding
Decreases the mana lost per point of damage taken when Mana Shield is active by 17/25% (Previously 10/20%) and increases the resistance granted by Mage Armor by 25/50%.
* Improved Countespell chance to silence has been removed. You will now luckily silence the target for 2/4 seconds.
* New Talent: Torment of the Weak: All damage done to slowed targets is increased by 1/2/3 %.
* Spell Power moved from tier 7 to tier 10.
* Mind Mastery now increases spell power by 3/6/9/12/15 % instead of 5/10/15/20/25 %
* Incanter´s Absorption moved from tier 9 to tier 7.
* Missile Barrage moved from tier 10 to tier 9
* Netherwind presence moved from tier 9 to tier 10.
* Arcane Barrage mana cost reduced from 610 to 592.
Fire
* Impact proc chance changed from 2/4/6/8/10% and is now 4/7/10%. Additionally, it now procs from ALL damaging spells and isn't restricted to fire spells anymore.
* Molten Shields causes your Fire Ward and Frost Ward spells to have a 15/30% chance to reflect the warded spell while active. In addition, your Molten Armor has a 50% chance to affect ranged and spell attacks.( Previously only procced on Fire Ward with a 10/20 % chance)
* Blast Wave mana cost reduced from 930 to 620.
* Fiery Payback reworked: When below 35% health all damage taken is reduced by 10/20% and your Pyroblast spell´s cast time is reduced by 1.8 seconds while the cooldown is increased by 2.5 seconds. (Previously: When below 35% health all physical and Fire damage taken is reduced by 10/20% and your Pyroblast spell´s cast time is reduced by 1.75 seconds.
* Living Bomb mana cost reduced from 1010 to 980. Now does 115 Fire damage every 2 seconds for 6 seconds ( previously 130 Fire damage every 2 seconds for 6 seconds), range increased from 10 yards to 35 yards, explodes after 12 seconds for 759 Fire damage (previously 520 Fire damage) and will now knock all targets up in the air( previously burned mana and damaged equal to the amount drained ).
Frost
* Frost Warding reworked: Increased the armor and resistances given by your Frost Armor and Ice Armor spells by 25/50%. In addition, gives your Frost Ward and Fire Ward a 15% chance to negate the warded damage spell and restore mana equal to the damage caused. (Previously increased the armor and resistances given by your Frost Armor and Ice Armor spells by 15/30%. In addition, gave your Frost Ward a 10/20% chance to reflect Frost spells and effects while active)
* Elemental Precision moved from tier 1 to tier 2.
* Ice Floes moved from tier 6 to tier 1. Now affects Icy Veins instead of Ice Barrier.
* Improved Frost Nova talent removed.
* Arctic Reach now affects Deep Freeze as well.
* Frost Channeling now reduces mana cost of Frost spells with 4/7//10% instead of 5/10/15%.
* New Talent: Cold as ice: Reduces the cooldown of your Cold Snap, Ice Barrier, Deep Freeze and Summon Water Elemental spells by 10/20%.
* Winter´s Chill now affects Arcane, Fire and Frost Spells. Proc chance is now 33/66/100% (previously 20/40/60/80/10%).
* Shattered Barrier tooltip changed: Gives your Ice Barrier spell a 50/100 % chance to freeze all enemies within 10 yards for 8 seconds when it is destroyed. (Previously: Gives your ice barrier spell a 50/100% chance to trigger a Frost Nova when it is destroyed)
* Empowered Frostbolt spell power co-efficiency increase changed to 5/10% (previously 2/4/6/8/10%) and critical strike chance increase reduced from 1/2/3/4/5% to 2/4%.
* Improved Water Elemental will now increase the duration of your Summon Water Elemental spell by 5/10/15 seconds and your Water Elemental restores mana to all party or raid members an amount equal to 1/2/3% of their total mana every 5 seconds. (Previously restored party and raid members health equal to 1/2/3% of their total health every 5 seconds.)
Death Knight (WotLK - Skills List / Talent Calc. / Official Beta Talent Calc.)
I'll assume that most of the Death Knight players are following the beta news very closely, this is only a difference between the new version of the Blizzard talent calculator, and the last one. Check this post for the first batch of changes.
Blood
* Butchery - Changed to generate 1 runic power per 3 sec. while in combat instead of 2 runic power per 3 sec.
* Abomination Strength - Changed to read "Your Blood Strikes and Heart Strikes have a 50% chance and your Obliterates have a 100% chance to increase the total Strength of raid members within 20 yards by 10% for 10 sec."
* Sudden Doom - Now also procs off of Heart Strikes.
* Vampiric Blood - Whenever you have no Blood Runes active, you have a 30/60/100% chance of increasing the amount of health generated through spells and effects by 60% for 10 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 90 sec.
Frost
* Improved Icy Touch - Your Icy Touch does an additional 20/30% damage and your Frost Fever reduces melee, ranged and casting speed by an additional 2/3%.
* Improved Icy Talons - Your Icy talons effect increases the melee, ranged and casting speed of the entire raid by 15% for the next 20 sec.
* Chillbrains - Victims of your Frost Fever disease are Chilled, reducing movement speed by 10/20/30% for 6 sec.* Endless Winter - Changed to read "Your Mind Freeze and Frost Strike have a 30/60/100% chance to cause Frost Fever.
* Frost Aura - Increases your Frost Resistance by 32. While in Frost Presence, all party members within 45 yards take 2/4% less damage from magic.
Unholy
* Virulence - Increases your chance to hit with your spells by 3% and reduces the chance that your spells and diseases you cause can be cured by 10/20/30%.
* Dirge - Your Plague Strike, Degeneration and Raise Dead generate 25/75% additional runic power.
* Unholy Rune Mastery - When you cause damage to a diseased victim, there is a 10% chance that the time it takes for your Unholy Runes to activate will be cut in half for the next 5 sec.
* Blood Caked Blade - Changed to 3 ranks, "Your melee attacks and abilities have a 15% chance to apply 50% of their damage to the damage done by an existing Blood Plague on the target. This ability cannot occur more than once per 10 sec."
* Morbidity - Reduces the runic power cost of a Death Coil by 10 and reduces the cooldown of Death and Decay by 10 sec.
* Ebon Plaguebringer - Your Crypt Fever morphs into Ebon Plague, which increases vulnerability to magic by 4/9/13% in addition to increase the damage done by diseases.
* Rage of Rivendare - Your spells and abilities deal 2% more damage to targets infected with Blood Plague.
Shaman (WotLK - Skills List / Talent Calc. / Official Beta Talent Calc.)
The shaman calculator was changed slightly but only to fix some typo errors we didn't report in the past for obvious reasons. They're not "real" changes and I'm merely adding them for people who thought they could be real in the first place.
Elemental
[*]Concussion affects Thunderstorm and Lava Burst once again.
Enhancement
[*]Improved Shields mana increase on Water Shield orbs is back to 5/10/15%
Restoration
[*]Rank 2 of Improved Earth Shield increases the amount of charges for your Earth Shield by 2 again.
[*]All the ranks of Tidal Waves have a chance to lower the casting speed by 30%.
Warlock (WotLK - Skills List / Talent Calc. / Official Beta Talent Calc.)
[*]Curse of Exhaustion range is back to 30 yards.
Blue posts
For the latest updates you can always check the blue tracker.
Quote from Blizzard staff
Additional Debuff Slots in WotLK
We would like to increase the number of debuff slots, yes, and we most likely will. Unfortunately, this is very complicated to do tech wise. It greatly increases the amount of bandwidth for the server, for example, and also for the client (you).
When designing new talents, we try very hard to not add more debuff slots, though with the addition of a brand new class it's sort of unavoidable. In a nutshell, yes we realize the debuff slot stuff is an issue now and will be in the future and we're working on it. (Source)
Raids & Dungeons Achievements RetroactivityOk, for everything 25-person and above, we added the full loot table checks on BoP items - Gruul, Mag, Vashj, Kael, Illidan, Archimonde, Kil'Jaeden, Onyxia, Ragnaros, Nefarian, C'Thun
Dungeon bosses and anything that requires less than 25 people will check any quests but no items. We can not check the Heroic Daily Quests or Dungeon Daily Quests as they are repeatable and not tracked accurately by our system. (Source)
Raids & Dungeons Achievements Retroactivity #2
[*]Also, you have to have the items in your inventory or bank. If you deleted them you will not get credit and the GM's will not restore items for achievements.
[*]Tier 4/5/6 Armor parts bought from BoP tokens dropping from bosses are also counted, you will get the achievement.
[*]The Quel'Serrar quest counts for Onyxia. You don't even need the sword. The quest is good enough.
Class changes on the official talent calculatorThe option for the web team (and the beta builds for that matter) is to wait until things feel pretty stable (which could be ...?) or just take a snapshot of everything at that current moment, knowing it will quickly be out of date again. I think they figured (and probably correctly given the number of hits) that fans would just as soon see a reasonably updated calculator than wait for a perfect one. They work with us pretty closely.
It won't be final until we ship. Maybe not even then. (Source)
Druid (Skills List / Talent Calc.)
Lifebloom Changes #2 (See the original post
In the case of Lifebloom, it's too good in both aspects of the game. Again, it's not our intention to merely just reduce the effectiveness of Lifebloom, but to also introduce new healing mechanics (Flourish, Nourish, talents like Living Seed and the improvements to Tree of Life) to compensate.
HoTs are intended to be effective in HPS and efficient, but have the drawback of requiring time to heal. The issue today is that you'll HoT a player who got hit by a big AOE, and some other class will use a downrank direct heal and cause you HoT to be ineffective. This is being addressed through downrank penalties. We want other classes to say "Hey, I could heal that guy back up who just got hit by that AOE, but I'll let the Druid do it instead and preserve my mana." Note that I'm not saying random AOE damage is not what HoTs are only intended to be for, I'm just using that as an example.
Mage (Skills List / Talent Calc.)
Fingers of Frost Changes
We'll be addressing this by allowing it to work on your next 2 or so spells, instead of just one. (Source)
Priest (Skills List / Talent Calc.)
Inner Fire
It will be changed to spell power, so that it's useful to Shadow Priests too. Regarding the charges, they're likely to stay. The spell is dirt cheap because of the charges. If we removed them, we'd have to up the mana cost. A Warrior who keeps his shout up in fights is usually regarded as better than those who don't, similar to a Priest who keeps his Inner Fire up vs those who don't.
Unlikely also that it will be made undispellable, we're not even sure if we like the Mage/Warlock armors being undispellable. The dispel system in general (junk buffs, RNG resists) is something we'd also like to address as a whole. (Source)
Warlock (Skills List / Talent Calc.)
Imps and Destructive Reach
Imp's spells will now be affected by Destructive Reach. (Source)
Warlock and mage DPS
Warlocks got to crazy land with the % modifiers to their damage output (specifically with Demonic Sacrafice), that's been toned down. Warlocks should never be able to out DPS a Mage with no pet out. Alike a Hunter, their pet should factor into their total damage output. Warlocks that sacrifice pretty much all utility talents should come very close to Mage DPS, but those who invest in group/raid utility should be lower. (Source)
Death Knight (Skills List / Talent Calc.)
Death Knights and PvP
We didn't touch Chilblains yet because we don't want all PvP DKs to have to go deep Frost. We're considering moving it way up in Frost (though the top of Frost is kinda nice as it is) or doing something else entirely.
One change we did make is to let the slow portion of Chains of Ice be a separate debuff that is physical and therefore not-dispellable. That isn't intended to be the single massive change that fixes any potential DK PvP problems, but I did want to mention it. (Source)
Improved Icy TouchBase Icy Touch: 15% debuff
Improved Icy Touch: 1/2/3% more debuffIcy Talons: 4/8/12/16/20% melee hasteImproved Icy Talons: 20% melee haste for the raid
I know these things change quickly. It will all settle down. (Source)
Death Knight talent changes on the official calculatorThere are 4 death knight diseases: Blood Plague, Frost Fever, Crypt Fever / Ebon Plague, and Unholy Blight. At most you can get a 4 disease multiplier on Blood Strike and similar abilities, but the abilities are scaled for that. Blood and Frost do more damage in other ways to make up for Unholy's extra diseases.
I think the new talent calculator did catch us midway through some Unholy revisions. We fixed up Blood first and Frost second just because that's what you see left to right .
There is a great new Unholy talent with some nice Unholy Blight synergy.
We have only just begun evaluating the raid stacking issues so it would be premature to comment on all of that. Best guess is that Blood, Frost and Unholy will each bring an awesome raid buff or debuff, but no single benefit that is so good that *every* raid needs one of each. The catch is that the same holds true of every tree of every class. Don't assume that every raid has to have Windfury just out of tradition. Don't assume that an Enhancement shaman is mandatory at all. I'll detail more when the process is farther along.
I think they had trouble with the last build but hopefully there will be a new one out soon. (Source)
Death Knight DiseasesI mentioned the only 4 diseases that the death knight gets. All those others have gone away. (Sad face.)
The class was too chaotic, we were using too many debuff slots, and Blood Strike was either going to be terrible with few diseases or insane with tons of diseases. A refinement was in order.
So 4.
Improved Corpse Explosion was cut in favor of more interesting talents. The Frostfever rune was replaced with something like the old Frozen Rune Weapon, now called Razorice. Death and Decay has no disease, which actually lets its damage come up higher (and it has a nice threat multiplier too). Don't worry -- Icy Touch and a single Pestilence can disease almost everyone. The whole thing just clicks better now. You only have to worry about keeping up 2 diseases most of the time, since Crypt Fever / Ebon Plague applies automatically. That just leaves Unholy Blight (see below).
The web team that puts up the talent calculators has done awesome in the face of very rapidly changing trees, but some stuff gets caught mid-change. Improved Icy Talons for example is 20% haste -- same as talented Windfury. Abomination's Might is 10% attack power, same as Unleashed Rage.
Unholy Blight counts as a disease while it lasts. It also causes Blood Plague. So in essence it causes two diseases for purposes of things like Blood Strike, Death Strike, Obliterate and Blood Boil that scale off diseases. If you have Crypt Fever or Ebon Plague, that disease appears automatically so you end up with 3 diseases from Unholy Blight. (Source)
Dancing Rune Weapon / Unholy Blight
I believe the Dancing Rune Weapon can refresh your Blood Plague, but it can't apply another stack.
I think I answered Unholy Blight in another thread or two, but it is counted as a disease and it applies Blood Plague. So that's two for one spell, three if you have Crypt Fever. A lot of what we wanted to do with the tree overhaul was apply synergy wherever possible. So Unholy Blight is a great lead-in for Blood Boil, and it works well with Death and Decay (here, cower in my Blight) or the new talent which does something similar (but in a very cool way, at least once we get real art). (Source)
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