So speculate how long until MOP? June, August, October, December or ?

[chaos5061]

Druid & Death Knight.

From Wowhead:
Death Knight
Level 15

Corpse Explosion and Outbreak removed.
Vile Spew: 30 Runic Power. Causes an undead minion to erupt in a shower of bile, dealing 249 Shadow damage to all enemies within 40 yards of the minion, and infecting t hem with Blood Plague and Frost Fever.
Unholy Blight: 1.5 minute cooldown. Surrounds the Death Knight with a vile swarm of unholy insects for 10 sec, stinging all enemies within 10 yards every 1 sec, infecting them with Blood Plague and Frost Fever.

Level 30

Bone Shield removed.
Replaced with Icy Grip: Reduces the cooldown on your Death Grip spell by 15 sec and causes your Death Grip to reduce the movement speed of the target by 50% for 6 sec.
Anti-Magic Zone:
New: Places a large, stationary Anti-Magic Zone that reduces spell damage done to party or raid members inside a spell by 75%. The Anti-Magic Zone lasts for 10 sec or until it absorbs 10106 spell damage.
Old: Places a large, stationary Anti-Magic Zone that reduces spell damage done to party or raid members inside a spell by 75%. The Anti-Magic Zone lasts for 10 sec or until it absorbs 10114 spell damage.

Level 45

Death's Advance:
New: Movement-impairing effects may not reduce you below 75% of normal movement speed.
Old: While your Unholy Runes are both depleted, movement-impairing effects may not reduce you below 75% of normal movement speed.

Level 60

Death Pact:
New: Drain vitality from an undead minion, healing the Death Knight for 50% of his maximum health and causing the minion to suffer damage equal to 50% of its maximum health.
Oldrain energy from an undead minion, healing the Death Knight for 25% of her maximum health.
Death Siphon:
New: Deal 2920 Shadow damage to an enemy, healing the Death Knight for 75% of damage dealt.
Old: Consumes a Death Rune to deal 3116 Shadow damage to an enemy, healing the Death Knight for 75% of damage dealt.

Level 75

Runic Corruption:
New: When you land a damaging Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike, you have a 45% chance to activate Runic Corruption, increasing your rune regenration by 100% for 3 sec.
Old: When you land a damaging Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike, your rune regeneration rate is increased by 100% for 3 sec.

Level 90

Gorefiend's Grasp:
New: Shadowy tendrils coil around all enemies within 20 yards (hostile or friendly), dealing 2324 Shadow damage and pulling them to the target's location.
Old: Shadowy tendrils coil around all enemies within 20 yards (hostile or friendly), dealing 2543 Shadow damage and pulling them to the target's location.
Remorseless Winter:
New:
Surrounds the Death Knight with a swirling tempest of frigid air, dealing 374 Frost damage to enemies within 8 yards, every 1 sec for 8 sec. Each time Remorseless Winter deals damage, it reduces enemy movement speed by 15%, stacking up to 5 times. Upon receiving a fifth application, an enemy will be stunned for 6 sec.
Old: Surrounds the Death Knight with a swirling tempest of frigid air, dealing 3777 Frost damage to enemies within 8 yards, every 1 sec for 8 sec. Each time Remorseless Winter deals damage, it reduces enemy movement speed by 15%, stacking up to 5 times. Upon receiving a fifth application, an enemy will be stunned for 6 sec.
Desecrated Ground:
New: Corrupts the ground in a 8 yard radius beneath the Death knight, dealing 1125 Shadow damage every second for 10 sec. While standing in this corruption, the Death Knight is immune to crowd control effects.
Old: Corrupts the ground in a 8 yard radius beneath the Death knight, dealing 1246 Shadow damage every second for 10 sec. While standing in this corruption, the Death Knight is immune to crowd control effects.

Druid
Level 15

Feline Swiftness:
New: Increases your movement speed by 15%.
Old: Increases your movement speed by 10% and by an additional 20% while in Cat Form.
Displacer Beast:
New: Teleports the Druid up to 20 yards forward and activates Cat Form and Prowl.
Old: Teleports the Druid up to 20 yards in a random direction, purging all periodic damage effects and providing stealth for 10 sec. Attacking or taking damage cancels this effect. Using this ability activates Cat Form.
Tireless Pursuit removed, the movement-related components of the Level 60 ability Wild Charge took its place:
New: Grants a movement ability that varies by shapeshift form (15 sec cooldown):
Non-shapeshifted: Fly to an ally's position.
Bear Form: Charge to an enemy, immobilizing them for 4 sec.
Cat Form: Leap behind an enemy, dazing them for 3 sec.
Moonkin Form: Bound backward.
Travel Form: Leap forward 20 yards.
Aquatic Form: Increases swim speed by an additional 200% for 5 sec.
Old: Grants a movement ability that varies by shapeshift form:
Non-shapeshifted: Fly to an ally's position and your next healing spell costs no mana.
Bear Form: Charge to an enemy, immobilizing them and granting you 30% haste.
Cat Form: Leap behind an enemy and cause your next Ravage to cost no energy, not require stealth, and have no positioning requirement.
Moonkin Form: Bound backward and gain 20 Lunar or Solar Energy, whichever is more beneficial to you.
Travel Form: Leap forward 20 yards and take 20% reduced damage for 10 sec.
Flight Form: Increases flight speed by an additional 20% for 30 sec.
Aquatic Form: Increases swim speed by an additional 200% and take 20% reduced damage for 10 sec.

Level 30

No Changes.

Level 45

Faerie Swarm received an updated tooltip--the 6 sec cooldown in Cat and Bear form is gone, as well as the minor damage dealt while in Bear Form.
New: Grants an improved version of Faerie Fire that also reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 15 sec. This talent replaces Faerie Fire.
Old: Decreases the target's armor by 12% for 5 min and reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 15 sec. While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible. Deals 16 damage when cast from Bear Form. Useable in all shapeshift forms, but incurs a 6 sec cooldown while in Bear Form or Cat Form. This talent replaces Faerie Fire.

Level 60

Soul of the Forest replaces Wild Charge--it keeps the non-movement related aspects of that talent.
Aessina's blessing grants a benefit which varies by your combat specialization.
Balance: When a Lunar Eclipse ends you gain 20 Solar Energy and when a Solar Eclipse ends you gain 20 Lunar Energy.
Feral: Your finishing moves grant 2 Energy per combo point.
Guardian: Mangle now generates an additional 2 Rage.
Restoration: You gain 50% haste for your next spell when you cast Swiftmend.

Level 75

Demoralizing Roar has been updated to Disorienting Roar--now usable in all shapeshift forms.
New: Invokes the spirit of Ursol to roar, disorienting all enemies within 10 yards for 4 sec. Useable in all shapeshift forms.
Old: The Druid roars, disorienting all enemies within 10 yards for 4 sec. Using this ability activates Bear Form.
Bear Hug was changed to Mighty Bash--there is no longer a positional damage component and the cooldown is reduced.
New: Invokes the spirit of Ursoc to stun the target to 5 sec. Useable in all shapeshift forms. 50 sec cooldown.
Old: Melee attack that stuns the target and deals 10% of the Druid's health in damage every 1 sec for 3 sec. Effect canceled if the Druid moves away, attacks, or takes any other action. Using this ability activates Bear Form. 1 min cooldown.

Level 90

Master Shapeshifter, an ability that tried to synergize melee abilities with spell damage, was replaced with Dream of Cenarius:
New: Wrath, Starfire, Starsurge, and melee abilities increase healing done by your hext healing spell by 30%.
Non-instant casts of Nourish, Healing Touch, and Regrowth increase the damage done by your next damaging spell or ability by 30%.
Each of these bonuses lasts 30 sec and cannot be gained more often than once every 30 sec.

[chaos5061]

Hunter & Mage

From Wowhead:
Hunter
Level 15

Former level 15 talents removed, level 45 talents become 15.

Level 30

Wyvern Sting:
New: A stinging shot that puts the target to sleep for 30 sec. Any damage will cancel the effect. When the target wakes up, the Sting causes 2829 Nature damage over 6 sec. Only one sting per Hunter can be active on the target at a time.
Old: A stinging shot that puts the target to sleep for 30 sec. Any damage will cancel the effect. When the target wakes up, the Sting causes 3093 Nature damage over 6 sec. Only one sting per Hunter can be active on the target at a time.

Level 45

Former 60 talents became 45.

Level 60

Former 75 talents became 60.

Level 75

Former 90 talents became 75.

Level 90

All new talents.
Glaive Toss: You hurl two glaibes in front of you 30 yards, dealing 1XXX damage to all enemies and reducing their movement speed by 50%. The Glaives will return back to you, also dealing damage and snaring targets they hit. If Glaive toss hits at least 2 enemies in both directions, the cooldown is reset.
Powershot: You wind up a powerful shot, dealing 1XXX damage to all targets in front of you within 20 yards (width). The damage done is increased on targets furhter away:
15-30 yards: Double damage, Stunned 1 sec
30-50 yards, Tripple damage, Stunned 2 sec
Blinding Shot: You fire a magical projecticle, tethering the enemy and any other enemies within 10 yards to the landing arrow. Increases all damage they receive from you by 15%. If they move 15 yards from the arrow, they are stunned for 10 sec (5 sec PvP).

Mage
Level 15

Talents remained relatively unchanged.
Scorch now does 1058 Fire damage, up from 927.

Level 30

Ice Barrier is now on a 25 sec cooldown, up from 20, and absorbs less damage.
Mana Shield replaced with Temporal Shield.
New: 3% of base mana. Instant cast. 25 sec cooldown. Envelops you in a temporal shield for 4 sec. Damage taken while shielded will be undone over 6 sec.
Old: Absorbs 1801 damage, draining mana instead. Drains 1.0 mana per damage absorbed. When your Mana Shield is destroyed, all enemies within 6 yards are knocked back 12 yards. Lasts 1 min.
Blazing Speed now increases your movement speed by 150% for 1.5 sec instead of 50% for 4 sec. It also can only be activated after taking a hit greater than 2% of your total health.

Level 45

Ring of Frost now lasts 10 seconds instead of 12.

Level 60

Cold Snap now finishes the cooldown on Cone of Cold instead of Water Elemental and restores 20% of your health instead of 10% of mana.

Level 75

Level 90 talents (Arcane Bomb, Living Bomb, and Frost Bomb) are now level 75 talents. No more polymorphs!

Level 90

Three new talents.
Invocation: Your Evocation spell no longer has a cooldown, but you no longer have any base mana regeration. Completing an Evocate causes you to deal 20% increased spell damage for 30 sec.
Rune of Power: 30 yd range. 1.5 sec cast. 10 sec cooldown. Places a Rune of Power on the ground, which lasts for 1 min. While standing in your rune of power, your mana regeneration is increased by 100% and your spell damage is increased by 15%. Only 2 Runes of Power can be placed at one time. Replaces Evocation.
Incanter's Shield: Instant cast. 25 sec cooldown. Absorbs damage, converting the damage into mana, up to a maximum of 30% of your maximum mana. Lasts 8 sec. When your Incanter's is destroyed, you gain 30% increased spell power for 15 sec.

[chaos5061]

Rogue & Warlock

From Wowhead:

Rogue
Level 15

No change yet.

Level 30

Deadly Throw's damage is slightly buffed.

Level 45

Leeching Poison had the mechanics clarified slightly.
New: Coats your weapons with a Non-Lethal Poison that lasts for 1 hour. Your melee attacks have a 50% chance to poison the target, and all your subsequent weapon strikes against the poisoned target will heal you for 10% of damage dealt.
Old: Coats your weapons with a poison that lasts for 1 hour. Subsequent weapon strikes against the poisoned target will heal you for 10% of damage dealt.
Improved Recuperate is removed.
New talent, Elusiveness: Your Feint ability also reduces all damage taken by 30% for 5 sec.

Level 60

No changes yet.

Level 75

No changes yet.

Level 90

All new level 90 talents.
Shuriken Toss: 40 Energy. Instant cast. 30 yd range. A ranged attack that deals 1,179 Physical damage to an enemy target. Generates 1 combo point.
Versatility: Your Redirect ability now has no cooldown.
Anticipation: When one of your attacks generates a combo point on a target that already has five combo points, you gain an Anticipation charge, up to a maximum of 5. When you perform an offensive finishing move on an enemy, any Anticipation charges are consumed to grant you an equal number of combo points on that target.

Specialization Abilities

New level 87 ability: Shroud of Concealment
Instant cast, 5 min cooldown
Extend a cloak that wraps party and raid members within 20 yards in shadows, concealing them from sight.
New level 72 ability: Shadow Walk
Instant cast, 1 min cooldown
Significantly increases Stealth effectiveness for 6 sec.
New level 30 passive buff: Swiftblade's Cunning
Increases the melee and ranged attack speed of all party and raid members within 100 yards by 10%.
Energetic Recovery now works off of Slice and Dice instead of Recuperate. Regain 8 energy every 2 sec.
Fleet Footed is now a passive ability for all specs.

Warlock
Level 15

Harvest Life:
New: Drains the life from all enemies within 15 yards of the target, causing 107 Shadow damage and restoring 4% of the caster's total health every 1 sec. Lasts 6 sec.
Drains the life from all enemies within 15 yards of the target, causing 117 Shadow damage and restoring 4% of the caster's total health every 1 sec. Lasts 6 sec.

Level 30

No Changes

Level 45

Dark Bargain moved from Level 60 to Level 45.
Removed: Spell Drain
Sacrificial Pact now absorbs 300% of the demon's health as damage, instead of an unlimited amount for 10 seconds.
New: Your demon sacrifices half its current health to shield its master for 300% of the sacrificed health. Lasts 20 sec. 1 min cooldown
Old: Your demon sacrifices half its health to prevent all damage you would take for 10 sec. 3 min cooldown.

Level 60

Dark Bargain is replaced by the new talent Unbound Will
New: Purges all stuns, disorients, roots and Magic effects from the warlock. Costs 25% of the Warlock's maximum health. 20 sec cooldown.

Level 75

The increased damage and health from Grimoire of Sacrifice now lasts for 15 minutes instead of 5.

Level 90

Archimonde's Vengeance now does more damage, lasts for a shorter period of time, and passively damages the enemy.
New: Curse an enemy, causing them to suffer 30% of all damage you take. Lasts 10 sec. Enemies who attack you suffer 5% of all damage they deal to you. This effect is disabled while on cooldown.
Old: Curse an enemy, causing them to suffer 25% of all damage you take. Lasts 15 sec.
Mannoroth's Fury now boosts the radius of AoE spells instead of being splash damage from single-target spells.
New: Increases the radius of your non-talent Area of Effect spells by 200%.
Old: Shadowbolt, Incinerate and Malefic Grasp deal 10% splash damage to enemies between you and your target. You can activate this ability to increase the splash amount to 100% for 20 sec. The passive effect ceases until the cooldown resets.

[chaos5061]

Warrior

From Wowhead:
Warrior
Level 15

Warbringer:
New: Your Charge also knocks a target to the ground and stuns it for 3 sec.
Removed: Your Charge also roots a target for 5 sec.

Level 30

Second Wind:
New: Whenever you are struck by a Stun or Immobilize effect, you generate 20 Rage over 10 sec. Whenever you take direct damage, you have a 10% chance to regenerate 10% of your total health over 10 sec.
Old:Whenever you are struck by a Stun or Immobilize effect you generate 20 Rage and 5% of your total health over 10 sec. Whenever you take direct damage, you have a 10% chance to regenerate 3% of your total Health over 5 sec.
Impending Victory replaces Victory Rush:
30 sec cooldown. Instantly attack the target causing 31 damage and healing you for 10% of your maximum health. If used within 30 sec after you kill an enemy that yields experience or honor, heals for 20% of your maximum health.

Level 45

Throwdown and Cripple removed.
Level 60 Disrupting Shout moved to 45.
Staggering Shout:
40 sec cooldown. Causes all enemies within 20 yards that are snared to become rooted for 5 sec.

Level 60

Rude Interruption and Gag Order removed.
Bladestorm:
New: You become a whirling storm of destructive force, striking all targets within 8 yards for 75% weapon damage every 1 sec for 6 sec. During a Bladestorm, you are immune to movement impairing and loss of control effects, but can be Disarmed, and you can only perform shout abilities.
Old: You become a whirling storm of destructive force, instantly striking all nearby targets
for 150% weapon damage and continuing to strike all nearby targets every 1 sec for 6 sec. During a Bladestorm, you are immune to movement impairing and loss of control effects,
but can be Disarmed, and you can only perform shout abilities.
Shockwave:
New: Sends a wave of force in front of you, causing 40 damage and stunning all enemy targets within 10 yards in a frontal cone for 4 sec.
Old: Sends a wave of force in front of you, causing 43 damage and stunning all enemy targets
within 10 yards in a frontal cone for 4 sec.

Level 75

Level 75 talents became level 90 talents.
Mass Spell Reflection:Your Spell Reflection protects you from an additional spell and protects party and raid members within 2o yards from a single spell for 5 sec.
Safeguard: Run at high speed towards a party or raid member, removing all movement effects upon you, intercepting the next melee or ranged attack made against them and reducing their damage taken by 20% for 6 sec.
Vigilance: Focus your protective gaze on a party or raid member, transferring 30% of damage taken to you for 12 sec. During the duration of Vigilance, your Taunt has no cooldown and attacks against the target cause you to become Enraged for 6 sec.

Level 90

Deadly Calm:
New: You enter a battle trance, causing your next 3 Heroic Strike or Cleave attacks to cost no rage and cause 50% extra damage. Lasts 15 sec.
Old: You enter a battle trance, causing your next 3 Heroic Strike or Cleave attacks to cost no rage. Lasts 15 sec.
Bloodbath now has a 1 min cooldown down from a 2 min cooldown.
Storm Bolt:
New: Hurl your weapon at an enemy causing 50% weapon damage and stunning the target for 3 sec. Deals an additional 300% weapon damage to targets that are permanently immune to stuns. Replaces Heroic Throw.
Old: Hurl your weapon at an enemy causing 100% weapon damage and stunning the target for 3 sec. Deals an additional 300% weapon damage to targets that are permanently immune to stuns. Replaces Heroic throw.

[chaos5061]

From Blizzard:
I cannot overstate how much we appreciate all of the feedback we get. We spend a lot of time reading it all, and compiling it, and sharing it between teams here. Nonetheless, if the measurement of successful feedback is that the developers implement a suggested idea, then expectations are too high.

We are going to continue to work on all of the talent trees until Mists is released.

What is being done with spell crit for DPS specs?
Our baseline assertion is that all spells and abilities will crit for double damage. There are a few exceptions to this, such as Elemental shaman getting a 2.5x crit multiplier, but the default is 2x for everyone now.

Yes, this means that Enhancement shaman spells and rogue Poisons will crit for double damage.

Are all tanks across the board losing a taunt?
We’re currently trying a design where no tanks have AE taunts, other than Mocking Banner (which we intend to be used more as a tool to redirect streams of adds to you).

Rogue
The new Shiv will apply concentrated effects of the active utility poison. Those effects are not included in the poison tooltips currently available on the calculator, but here are the current versions:

Crippling Poison – Reduces the target’s speed by 70% for 12 seconds.
Mind-Numbing Poison – Increases the casting time of an enemy's next spellcast within 8 seconds by 100%.
Wound Poison – Reduces the target’s healing received by 50% for 6 seconds.
Leeching Poison – Instantly restores 5% of the Rogue’s health.
Paralytic Poison – Roots the target in place for 4 seconds.


Shiv can still proc poison normally when it's triggered.

Also, for those who were curious, it's looking like it will be about a 3 second cast time to swap poisons in combat. So, you won't be flip flopping between poisons on a whim, but if it's really clutch to swap to a different poison, then it's not totally out of the question.

So does this mean that Poisons will still be on the Spell Crit table? In other words, Agility will still not affect their chance to crit?
No. Poisons crit chance will be based on your melee crit chance.

Yeah they should take the stun off of the actual poison and swap it with this effect as the stun is really random.
Well, yes. The random part is kind of important though.

An additional controllable stun that's on a different DR would be excessive. On the other hand, if it's on the same DR as CS and KS then that's... not good. By putting the root on Shiv and leaving the stun on the poison stacking we avoid that entirely, and rogues get a sweet stun that's on the random proc DR instead.

Despite the title of the thread (which I will callously change), we're interested in player feedback on the shiv change as a whole, though. So what do you think?

Will the thrown weapon talents have a chance to apply one or both active poisons?
We're not sure about this yet. It's more likely that we'll apply damage poisons than the non-lethal ones, especially in the case of Shuriken, because a fairly spammable ranged snare is probably too good.

Sorry, guys. You can still use Shuriken + Deadly Throw though!

If I have Deadly Brew, will Shiv amplify that Crippling Poison effect in addition to my active poisons?
No. Deadly Brew isn't the same as having Crippling actually active.

For clarification, how exactly do active poisons work? One lethal, one utility, both with potential to proc from both weapons?
One Lethal, one Non-Lethal, and both poisons are effectively on both weapons. Whenever you land either a mainhand or off-hand strike, you have a chance to apply both your Lethal and Non-Lethal poison.

How does poison proccing work now, and what does that mean for weapon speed.
Poison procs are largely unchanged, except, y’know, for all poisons being percentage-based in the future. We’re looking to get rid of the "fast 1.4 speed dagger" thing. The plan is for offhand daggers to just be daggers and interchangeable with main hand daggers. So we're anticipating Assassination and Subtlety rogues will use 1.8/1.8 daggers for the most part, while Combat will use a 2.6 main hand and a 1.8 offhand dagger. I know some of you noticed a Main Gauche change, and the intention isn’t a nerf. If it needs adjustment, it’s important to remember that numbers are still in flux.

On a separate note, while we don’t have an elegant system in place for it, we do know that a lot of Combat rogues want to at least have the appearance of dual wielding swords/axes/maces. There are a lot of hurdles, but maybe we’ll find a good way to deliver on that. No promises though! So, again, don’t get your hopes up too high.

So, how about an offensive dispel using the shiv system (perhaps as an alternative to Mind Numbing)?
It's something we might consider, but if too many people have access to an effect like that, then magic buffs are increasingly devalued, and that causes all kinds of problems. For example, something like Hand of Protection is cool, but significantly less meaningful if too many classes out there can remove it with a button press. So, we'll think about it, but don't get your hopes up.

Is Mind Numbing nerfed, now that it won’t affect all casts for the duration?
That's a bit of a misunderstanding. Base Mind-Numbing is unchanged and works as it does now. The new Shiv effect stacks on top of the base Mind-Numbing, and is more than triply effective on the single next spellcast.

Any chance of a sweet UI element warning the rogue that he’s approaching 5 stacks of paralytic poison, or letting him know that it went off?
Making it easier to track buffs and debuffs in the UI, including using the Spell Alert system, is something we're always looking at.

Y U NERF CRIPPLING?
Sadly, because it was too good -- which is pretty much the same reason anything ever gets nerfed. Basically, we're looking to chill out some of the passive, automatically-applied snares on some classes get because there's no real gameplay to them beyond just I touch you and you're snared.

Crippling is an important tool though, and we didn't want to take it away entirely. By lowering the base snare and allowing Shiv to still apply the -70% form, snaring opponents or kiting other melee classes that also have snares becomes something you'll need to think about and manage.

Is Crippling going to last 12 seconds in PVP now, instead of 8 seconds?
Nay. PvP durations are capped at 8 (and nothing should break that rule), but PvP durations aren’t shown in the tooltips.

Under the proposed system, it looks like it won’t be possible to take both Paralytic and Leeching Poison. Will we have to have to choose between Paralytic and Crippling?
You can take both Paralytic and Leeching, but you'll be able to actively make use of one at a time. That said, switching poisons isn't necessarily impossible in the heat of combat -- the cast time on swapping will be fairly short.

That said, we're taking a look at the decision involved in the current placement of the different Poison-related talents, and that's something we may reevaluate. Still early days yet – and that applies to everything in this list.

But Daxx! RAWR RAIDING! What's this PvP nonsense?
We'd like Shiv to be useful when raiding too, and increasing the availability of such effects makes it easier to design encounters that permit them to shine. It bears mentioning that, even now, the various Shiv effects could be useful in existing raid encounters. There’s no reason to expect that they couldn't be useful in Mists raid design too.

Also, there's more to PvE than raiding. Just because a talent isn't useful when you're fighting Ultraxion doesn't mean it isn't useful in PvE at large. There's still leveling (remember, tier 1 talents should ideally be relevant and useful to a level 15 player!), outdoor dailies, the upcoming challenge modes, and more to consider.

Sooooo… Does this mean that rogue damage might go up if we lose some control/mobility/survivability?
We want rogue PvE damage to remain top-tier. But yes, if rogues end up with less control or mobility or survivability, and they have to choose among those areas, then that allows us to safely improve their damage potential in PvP while keeping the class balanced overall.

Any chance you guys will consider making Wound a lethal poison?
There's a chance, we'll have a look.

[chaos5061]

Mage
Fear not! Mages will still have all their Teleports and Portals. At this point, we decided to hide them from the talent calculator to reduce clutter.

What is "base mana regeneration"? How does mana regen work for casters (or mages)?
Healers get a significant amount of mana regeneration from Spirit, even during combat. Additionally, all mana users have a small amount of mana regeneration -- currently about 1% of maximum mana per second. With Invocation, that 1%/sec is removed. Things like Innervate will still allow you to regenerate mana, but you won’t passively regenerate any with Invocation.

What is the range for Alter time concerning the "moves too far away" part?
100 yards. It’s mostly just to indicate that it won’t reverse taking a portal to Dalaran or something.

Is AM a proc?
Yes, Arcane Missiles is still activated via a proc from your other direct damage spells.

Does Arcane Bomb have a target limit?
Currently, no. We’re hoping it won’t be needed.

Invisibility and Greater Invisibility say that you’re “untargettable”. Does that mean that we’re not actually invisible anymore?
No, you still turn invisible, just it has been. It still breaks on damage. You still are completely cleared of threat when you turn invisible (either after 3sec for Invisibility, or instantly for Greater Invisibility).

For Rune of Power, if the mage has two already out will we be able to cast another one or do we have to wait till the first one is gone?
Casting a third will replace the first. This is similar to how Wild Mushrooms works for druids right now. By the way, two Runes of Power will not stack.

Warrior
Traditionally AE threat is hardest to maintain for warriors, how will this carry forward in MOP?
Thunder Clap is free for Protection warriors, and it applies a dot. Shield Slam and auto attack to generate rage for Shield Block.

Most other offensive attacks are free (for Protection), except for Heroic Strike and Cleave, which are intended to be used only in times of excess rage (which should be less common than today, but still occur with reasonable frequency).

Improving tanking rotations is always challenging. If tanks have too many abilities to manage, then they are overwhelmed in fights that require a lot of boss positioning or add management. If tanks have too few abilities or a very simplified resource, then they get bored on single-target boss fights with limited movement.

Part of our design intent is to have tank resources tie into survivability instead of threat, since we (and tanks) place more emphasis on the former.

Priest
The intent of Spirit Shell is to provide a frequent-use absorb that recreates some of the gameplay where Disc priests put absorbs on lots of their teammates. This was a style many Disc priests told us they enjoyed, but was difficult to balance with Power Word: Shield (since PW:S is instant).

At this point, think of Spirit Shell as Heal and Power Word: Shield as Flash Heal.

Evangelism is a spec spell for both Holy and Disc (at least for the moment – things could still change). The talent calculator appears to be incorrect on this. Shadow has Dark Evangelism.

Death Knight
But we loved Corpse Explosion!
Yes. You do. So do we. Unfortunately, requiring a corpse felt like too steep a requirement for a competitive talent. We would like to still add Corpse Explosion in some form as a glyph. In the meantime, hey presto! - Unholy Blight is back.

Paladin
There are some incorrect mana costs displayed in the talent calculator for some Protection and Retribution Paladins spells right now. For example, Consecration actually costs 7% of base mana, not 22%. *At the moment; subject to change.

They currently are designed such that they are mana positive while doing their damage and going through their tanking rotations, and stay near full mana the whole time. Mana should not be a consideration to their rotation, rather, it will act as a limit on how much off-healing and other utility spells they can cast.

Does Holy Insight mean Intellect plate is going away?
No. That passive (and appropriate classes should have an equivalent) gives casters larger mana pools than non-casters of the same class. Mana no longer increases with Intellect, but we still want to make sure that, for example, a Holy paladin can cast more heals than a Retribution paladin.

Druid

The Druid will select a raid or party member and cast Symbiosis on them.
The target cannot be another Druid.
The target gains a buff that tells them what spell they have temporarily learned, and that spell temporarily appears in their spellbook, and they can drag it to an action bar.
The Druid’s Symbiosis button will become the ability they gained from the target class.
The Symbiosis link is cancelled if: the Druid clicks off the Symbiosis buff, or the Druid or the target changes continents or enters or exits an instance, or the Druid or the target changes talent specializations.
Symbiosis fails to cast if Symbiosis is already active on that target.
Symbiosis cannot be cast in combat.
For the non-Druid target, the icon will revert to a placeholder (uncastable) Symbiosis icon when Symbiosis ends, but will become the Symbiosis-granted ability again the next time Symbiosis is cast on that target.
The ability gained from Symbiosis is always something chosen to match the Druid’s specialization and the target’s combat role.
The target always gets the same spell unless they change combat roles. A Druid of a given specialization always gets the same spell from each different class. If there is a change of specs, there is a change of spell.


Here are some examples of spells gained through Symbiosis. The spells shared focus on utility, cooldowns, and survival. (Adding Fireball to a Moonkin’s rotation sounds cool on paper, but wouldn’t actually be fun in the long run.)

Balance: Chains of Ice, Mirror Image, Mass Dispel
Feral: Feign Death (Play Dead!), Frost Nova, Soul Swap
Guardian: Ice Trap, Fear Ward, Consecration
Restoration: Ice Block, Hand of Sacrifice, Leap of Faith
Hunter: Dash
Warlock: Rejuvenation
Holy Paladin: Rebirth
Arms/Fury Warrior: Enrage
Enhancement/Elemental Shaman: Solar Beam

There are a lot more coming, but we'll keep some surprises for now, and many are still subject to change after testing. Including all of those just listed.

Warlock

Ember Tap will be received at a later level and will cost Embers.
Conflagrate has a 2.0 spell power coefficient (still working on this; subject to change).
Malady is a level 3 spell that is replaced by Immolate (Destruction) or Corruption (Demonology/Affliction).
Dark Soul is a replacement for Demon Soul based on spec. We’re experimenting with the exact mechanics.


Wild Imps has not been cut. The code for it simply wasn't ready in time for this talent calculator update. Here, I'll show it to you!



Here is what Dark Soul looks like today:

[chaos5061]

Power of the Aspects Buff will be going up next maintenance.

[chaos5061]

From Blizzard:
During the scheduled server maintenance on the week of February 28, the “Power of the Aspects” spell will grow more powerful, reducing the health and damage dealt of all enemies in the Dragon Soul raid by 10%. This spell will grow progressively stronger over time to reduce the difficulty and make the encounters more accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic difficulties, but it will not affect the Raid Finder difficulty.

Don’t need the help of the Dragon Aspects? The spell can be disabled by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of Dragon Soul.

We hope you continue to enjoy Dragon Soul, and that these changes encourage you to attempt a higher difficulty, or just keep pushing to down that next boss.

[chaos5061]

From Game Informer:
A new, unannounced game from Blizzard Entertainment will be free-to-play, according to a new report. Develop says a source told the website the studio is working on a free-to-play project, but couldn't provide additional details.

Blizzard is currently working on its next-generation MMO, Project Titan. It's unclear if this report is linked to that game. The company is also finishing up Diablo 3 and StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.

A Blizzard spokesperson declined to comment on the report.

[chaos5061]

Hotfixes 2-23-12

From Blizzard:
February 23

General

A completed character race change should no longer clear your active quests.
Multiple hunters attacking the same target should now see the proper benefit from Noxious Stings.

Dungeons and Raids

All players identified as tanks in Raid Finder are now automatically labeled as assistant leaders.
Firelands

Lava Wielder's Lava attack should now hurt players in the area of the visual effect.

Items

The Blast of Corruption effect from Rathrak, the Poisonous Mind will no longer hit creatures that are very far away when used with the Fire Nova ability.
Ruthless Gladiator's Footguards of Alacrity, Ruthless Gladiator's Boot of Cruelty, and Ruthless Gladiator's Boots of Alacrity have received a +25 Stamina increase.
Cataclysmic Gladiator's Armwraps of Accuracy and Cataclysmic Gladiator's Armwraps of Alacrity have received a +22 Stamina increase.
Cataclysmic Gladiator's Waistband of Accuracy, Cataclysmic Gladiator's Waistband of Cruelty, Cataclysmic Gladiator's Boots of Alacrity, Cataclysmic Gladiator's Boots of Cruelty, and Cataclysmic Gladiator's Footguards of Alacrity have received a +20 Stamina increase.

Quests and Creatures

The quest Heeding the Call is no longer available to players.

[chaos5061]

64-bit Client Prevents Patching to 4.3.3

From Blizzard:
Having our 64-bit test client installed will prevent you from patching to the upcoming 4.3.3 version of World of Warcraft. If you attempt to patch with the 64-bit files in your World of Warcraft folder, you will receive this error:

In order to patch successfully, you must delete the following files from inside your World of Warcraft folder:

Wow-64.exe (PC)
MovieProxy.exe (PC)
Battle.net-64.dll (PC)
World of Warcraft-64.app (Mac)

We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may cause, but please be aware that since the 64-bit client is still in a testing state that complications such as this may happen from time to time. Thank you.

[chaos5061]

Just to let you know you don't have to delete the 64 bit files. You can move them to a different folder and then move them back after the patch.

[cabby]

That won't work Chaos. Tried it and the old 64 bit client files cause errors even after the patch. Have to keep an eye on the 64 bit thread on the WoW forums and wait for a new 64 bit build from Blizzard on the files.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3988300405

[chaos5061]

Yeah I just saw about the new 64 build coming with the new patch this morning. So now you need to delete it and Blizzard will be releasing a new build soon.

[chaos5061]

Cataclysm Post Mortem -- Quest Design with Dave "Fargo" Kosak Pt.1

From Blizzard:
To kick-off our World of Warcraft: Cataclysm post mortem series, we sat down with World of Warcraft Lead Quest Designer Dave “Fargo” Kosak to discuss his thoughts on questing in Cataclysm.

Q: What were your main goals going into Cataclysm?
Certainly from a quest design standpoint our primary goal with Cataclysm was to remake the old world, specifically the 1-60 questing experience. World of Warcraft was released in 2004, and we've learned so much in the years since about what constitutes good MMO gameplay. We wanted to make sure that the game was relevant to new players coming in, and walking up and down the length of the Barrens on foot over and over just didn’t do it for us anymore.

Remaking the entire old world -- 46 zones! -- was ambitious. Actually, it was ludicrous. It was like re-releasing a whole game in the course of an expansion cycle. Then we added a couple new races and their starting zones on top of that. I’m not sure how we convinced ourselves we could make it happen, but somehow we pulled it together.

Q: Are you happy with how the old world re-vamp turned out?
I am. Leveling up a new character to 60 nowadays is a great deal of fun. Every zone has stories to play out, with interesting nooks and crannies and plenty of hidden gems or references for players who remember the pre-Cataclysm world. Zones like Ashenvale now live up to their premise (intense Horde-vs.-Alliance combat), and previously empty zones now have a lot of character (see: Azshara). The content just flows. It's still World of Warcraft, but the quests have a modern feel, with lots of action and storytelling.


Q: But what didn't work out so well?
We really spread ourselves thin and taxed the team. The original plan was to totally re-do a handful of high-priority zones, but to leave a lot of the zones that worked mostly alone. We categorized them into "red," "yellow," and "green" zones. The idea behind the green zones (for example, Loch Modan) was just to tweak the quest flow to be a little smoother, but not to make any major changes.

The reality is that even the green zones really needed a lot of love. Once we got in there, it was all or nothing: we ended up completely re-doing a lot of green zones so that they met our new quest design standards. We came up with a nickname: "watermelon" zones. They were green on the outside, until you got in there and started poking around. . . .

Where that hurt us was when it came time to do the max-level content, the 80-85 zones. The content there turned out well, but the experience is inconsistent across the board -- Uldum feels totally different from Hyjal, which in turn feels different from Vashj'ir. The design decisions and efforts we made didn't always yield the desired results.

Q: Tell us more about the level 80-85 zones -- what worked and didn’t?
We were aiming for a really global feel with Cataclysm, so we set the max-level zones in varied environments all over the world (underwater, across deserts, in the elemental plane of earth, etc). However, as a result, they ended up not feeling as connected as we'd like. You get widely different experiences in zones that aren’t geographically related to one another. That's something important that we're keeping in mind moving forward – World of Warcraft works best when there's a sense of place. A connected world to explore.

We feel the storytelling in Cataclysm was strong. Whether assembling the ancients in Hyjal, rescuing your drowned crew in Vashj'ir, or reassembling the world pillar in Deepholm, there’s a strong sense of plot in every zone. Players participated in stirring stories, like bringing the Dragonmaw into the Horde via a violent coup or reuniting the Wildhammer Dwarves with a crazy wedding. These were memorable moments and shared experiences.

The downside to creating these stories is that the zones on the whole ended up being way too linear. For example, because we wanted to show your character re-growing the burning devastation of Mount Hyjal, there was really only one way to play that zone: you started at point A, and you worked your way through to point Z. Pretty glorious the first time, but frustrating on your second or third character because there's only one way to do it, and no way to skip around. That's a lesson we’re going to carry forward for sure. We want big sweeping stories, but we want to give players the freedom to explore those stories on their own terms.

Q: Places like Hyjal also used a lot of phasing to show the world changing.
We have a massive phase shift halfway through the story that changes the terrain for nearly a third of the zone. It's epic, right? But it can be a real pain for players when so much of the world changes like that. Phasing is like a story sledgehammer: it gets the job done, but at best it splits up players and at worst it totally confuses them.

We're going to be a lot more careful going forward. The Firelands dailies in patch 4.2 gives you a much better idea of our future direction. There were sweeping visual changes to the world as you progressed, but there’s very little actual phasing. For the most part, everyone is playing together on the same map. That’s important to us. Looking ahead, we’re going to be a lot smarter about how we show changes to the world, and we’re going to do everything we can to avoid splitting players up.


Q: Talk more about the 4.2 patch. Were the Firelands dailies a hint of what’s to come?
Definitely. With those dailies we were able to engage a lot of players, myself included. (I was the first quest designer on the team to get the mount and all the achievements on the live servers -- suck it up, slackers!) Previously, "doing dailies" meant hitting the same quest givers for the same three quests, usually in a static place. Here we were able to deliver a sense of progression and a story that unfurled over the course of a few weeks, all as you did a constantly changing set of quest objectives in a dynamic environment. We think that worked out well.

Moving forward, we're going to look for more opportunities like this -- ways to keep people engaged and cool things to do solo with your max-level character. We've got ambitious plans.

Q: Patch 4.2 also had the Aggra and Thrall questline, "Elemental Bonds." Did that meet your expectations? How do you feel about Thrall's character development?
That's a tricky one -- we’ve got mixed feelings. The essential story is a good one, and we really wanted to portray all the inner struggles Thrall is going through. Here’s a guy that stepped down as Warchief and had to rediscover himself as a shaman in order to save the world. And he's haunted by his decisions: he’s afraid of what’s to come, paralyzed by doubt, angry at what Garrosh did to Cairne . . . the guy's a mess. We figured out a way to show all that internal tension, and we wrapped it up in a story that demonstrates how his mate, Aggra, will literally go to the ends of the world to pull him through this. It's a powerful love story, and a story about finding one’s inner focus.


But we had to do a lot of things to make it work in the game. We needed to make a quest that 500 people could do simultaneously without getting in each other's way. We wanted a quest that players could do solo, no matter what their skill level. We didn’t know if the player was decked out in raid gear or level 85 greens, so we had to keep it simple. We somehow made all of it work under those restrictions, and we filled the screen with some killer imagery (I love the vision of Thrall immersed in the Abyssal Maw). But ultimately the quests themselves ended up not being as compelling from a gameplay perspective as we would have liked. Many players blew through them once and never looked back.

I really think we can do better. Cataclysm was in many ways Thrall’s story, but it was hard for players to follow his development over the course of the expansion. Going forward we want to convey a clearer narrative, delivered in the context of solid gameplay. We have some ideas on how to do that, and we’re also going to keep experimenting. This is important to us -- we talk about ways to tackle this problem all the time.