Greed is Good

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

People aren't very sure of what's going live with Patch 4.0.3a, and what will be added on December 7th with the actual release of the expansion. Will people be able to visit the new zones added to the old world such as Uldum or Mount Hyjal?

TC: Well, obviously those zones have been patched to players. They won't be available until players can level up. What we've done is kind of early stages... we've done a bit of terrain phasing to make them unavailable. But we're not gonna be surprised when players find a way to get in.

Ultimately what matters is that they can't actually do any of the quests until they're Cataclysm account enabled.

What about things like the professions updates, Archaeology, PvP changes and the guild leveling system? Are those all features of Cataclysm or can players expect any of those in The Shattering?
TC: Those features are all part of Cataclysm.

How about race and faction changes? Will I be able to change my Mage from Human to Dwarf right whne it comes out? Or will we have to wait a certain period of time before the new race options become available?
TC: They'll be able to do that right away. So for any of the combos that are available, we currently expect players to be able to do the race change into those as soon as The Shattering happens.

The revamp of Azeroth was an insane amount of work and the results look amazing. Are you happy with the final result and what do you think are the zones players should definitely check after the release of the patch?
TC: Definitely happy with the results. It's been a long time coming for sure. I'm really proud of what the team's been able to accomplish. I think an absolute must for zones to check out would be like... Westfall, Stonetalon, Silverpine. Those are some of my personal favorites, and I'm sure players will decide for themselves what they think are the coolest. But I really dig those myself.

Are there any quests that stand out to you as something really awesome players must experience?
TC: Just the storylines as a whole in those zones that I mentioned. Things like what it means to be Horde in Stonetalon, stuff like that. There's also uncovering everything that's happening in Westfall. It's all really good stuff. That's why I say those zones in general, more from a combination of gameplay and visuals rather than just a visual standpoint.

During Blizzcon 2009, you mentioned plans to revamp the racials for all the races to make them as cool and useful as Worgen and Goblin's, but only made a few tweaks in the end. Is there any reason why you changed your mind?
TC: Well, I mean the racials are extremely dicey to change. It's very difficult to change those without creating far-reaching problems in the game. They're like a multiplier on the class stuff. So I think we tend to be a little more conservative with changing, where with class stuff where we're pretty aggressive about making significant changes.

Interestingly I think the racials are something that a lot of players are comfortable with and get used to over time. We've managed to contain them to be pretty small, and I definitely have fears that if we go and do a big overhaul that we would actually turn them into more than they really need to be, and cause problems for the game in doing so.

While I definitely can't say racials are perfect as they are now -- they're not perfect -- I feel like they're at a level where considering all the balance difficulties in Cataclysm going into the game, in 2009 I think that in some ways we were tackling too many balance problems and fundamental changes at the same time. I don't think an overhaul to racials is something we could add to that mix.

You announced during Blizzcon that new enhanced maps would be added to the game and would include the loot and abilities lists. Don't you think it removes an interesting part of raiding where people actually learn the encounters?
TC: It is a feature we're interested in, and it's something we'll be actively working on. The idea is that when you look at your dungeon map you would see a listing of the bosses in there. Right now you can kind of see the skulls for where the bosses are, but you'll get a lot more information on them. You'll be able to mouse over them... or whatever... and get like a tooltip on what the boss is, what their abilities are, and a general sense of how the encounter is supposed to play.

How is The Shattering going to happen? Should we expect an epic ending to the pre-Cataclysm event and elemental invasions?
TC: The culmination, we're already at the final stage of the event that builds up to The Shattering. The final "event" is the in-game cinematic. And that's really what the transition is for players, that players will play through this event that's building up and then at some point... just because of the realities of the code, we have to flip a switch.

So we're going to be doing that during maintenance when The Shattering happens, and so when players log back in for the first time, it's a very small patch for players, and be introduced to the cinematic. That's suppose to be what happened while you were asleep. Conceptually, this is what just happened while you weren't controlling your character.

That being said, where will players be when they log in? I know in beta it sent people to either the outside of Orgrimmar or the outside of Stormwind. Have you guys finalized where people are going to actually log in?
TC: Yeah they'll log in alive at the nearest graveyard of the zone they were at. So let's say they were in the middle of Arathi Highlands, they would be standing wherever the nearest graveyard is to where they were logged out at. So they're not like falling through the air to their deaths when they log in.

How exactly will The Shattering transition over into Cataclysm on the 7th? Is 4.0.3a going to set it up so players will go seamlessly from Wrath to Cataclysm at midnight, or will you still need to restart the realms?
TC: Yeah, when we launch on December 7th that will be very seamless, and that's designed to not require server downtime. That will be more like it was with Burning Crusade and Lich King, at the stroke of midnight... boom you can go to the new areas.

Is there anything you would have liked to keep around after revamping Azeroth that you couldn't due to it not making any sense lore-wise? The Tirion Fordring quest series in Eastern Plaguelands, as an example.
TC: Yeah, I mean that's definitely an example of a really cool quest line. There are also things about, you know, some of the new zones are amazing and unquestionably better. Westfall, it's definitely nostalgia in the old Defias Brotherhood. So, I think that for sure in a couple years, or even in a year we'll have the nostalgia of 'Oh I miss some of this old content.'

That's inevitable, even if the new stuff is... I guess, objectively better.

What are your thoughts on Death Knight design in 4.0.3a? Many DKs in the beta seem to feel they are in poor shape and desperately need more work. An example being Frost going relatively untouched after the tree downsizing.
TC: Interestingly we did the Best Buy developer chat, and it's funny because I could swear I saw a comment from all of the classes that felt they definitely needed more work and were not up to par with the other classes. In a lot of ways that's kind of the nature of it. Things are changing, and there's no doubt in my mind that some specs come out below where we want them to be. But I can't say for sure which ones those are. We need more data before we really know.

The reality is the set we have from beta inevitably is very limited in a lot of ways. What we're saying about balance will be very different two months from now, than right now. Even with some of those, some of these claims are going to prove to be true, but we can't necessarily chase every single one of these claims because a lot of them will be completely wrong.

Speaking to Death Knights in particular, I know that both the Unholy and Frost trees are things the guys have been looking into and trying to make them about right. But I think they might be closer than people give them credit for.

Do you feel that recent reductions to self healing (in beta) for DKs, Shadow Priests, and Affliction Warlocks takes away a certain appeal from these classes? For a lot of players having a certain level of self sufficiency is a major draw to play these specs and in Cataclysm that facet of these classes has been seriously diminished.
TC: That's definitely very deliberate. Through a good chunk of the end of beta, for the last couple months, self healing in beta was really out of control. That goes beyond just the specs that you mentioned. Obviously there's like Rogues with Recuperate, Warrior Second Wind kind of stuff. Some of that spills over into in PvE, some does not, but in large part I'd say a lot of the self healing stuff generally was ok in PvE but it tended to be a significant problem in PvP. And this is whether you're talking about battlegrounds, or arenas, or dueling or whatever.

So a lot of that stuff was stuff that we deliberately started to reign under control. Some of that is a side effect of the fact that a lot of the mechanics for healing have changed. Healing has, in a sense, become less powerful than it was before. That inherently made all the self healing stuff seem more powerful. Especially when you compound that with a lot of the self healing stuff is done as a percentage of the health bar.

And we kept increasing the health players got at 85, so health pools at 85 -- those percentage based self heals -- started to become incredible when compared to Renew and stuff like that.

In 4.0.1, and 4.0.3 that's live now, Arcane Mages become kind of a one-button-wonder with Arcane Blast. Is there anything in The Shattering that you're going to try to do to address that?
TC: I feel like for the most part it addresses itself as you go up to level 85. A lot of that is due to the way the mana pools are structured at 80. I guess the interesting gameplay for Arcane in terms of managing your mana pool didn't really happen at level 80. At 85 it pretty dramatically changes how the gameplay works out. You really have to manage your Arcane Blast otherwise it will drain you quickly and then you're just kind of done. So the idea is how much you Arcane Blast, or kind of cool off your stack with an Arcane Missiles or Arcane Barrage.

--Kody Note: At this point we were out of questions thanks to the Best Buy developer chat answering most of what we had, so I tried to come up with more based on the 4.0.3a patch notes. I didn't want to ask questions already answered just for the sake of article size, where possible.

With the new talent system, do you see this finally being the death of the "hybrids must be below pures" philosophy? Hybrids can't really support all roles sufficiently anymore with a single spec.
TC: I don't think it's as much of a philosophical decision, as it is... some of that is inherent to the fact that we reigned in healing to a fair amount. The amount of health you can fill with a direct heal. So that has a direct consequence on how much of a health pool they're able to heal with one spell. Philosophically we still want hybrids to feel hybridy, and we try to build in mechanics to allow Resto Shaman to do some damage and vice-a-versa we want an Elemental Shaman to throw a heal every now and then.

And the same would go for a Druid and such, but if the tuning isn't there to support it then that's something you'll see us adjust over time. And that's pretty much a straight-forward tuning, it wouldn't require a radical change in design for those specs to heal reasonably well.

The Mortal Strike debuff was reduced again, from 25% to 10%. Is there any specific reason for this? Is it that you don't want it to be as powerful as it was because it didn't work well with the healing changes?
TC: We don't really want, at least in a perfect world, it to be a determining factor for what class you bring to PvP. We feel like at 10% it falls in line with pretty much every other buff and debuff in the game. It'll have its impact and has an effect, but it's not going to completely swing things one way or the other. Kind of like Power Word: Fortitude doesn't do that either. So we're where we would like for it to be, but at the same time it is certainly a useful tool for balancing the power of healing in PvP independently of PvE. So it's there as a tool if we need to take advantage of it again.

I can't say it will never get more powerful again, it's just our hope that it won't need to be as powerful as it's been in the past.

Are the updated versions of Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep going to be available in The Shattering?
TC: Yes and no. The normal versions will be available, but the Heroic versions will require being 85. So you'll need Cataclysm to do the Heroic difficulties.

--Kody Note: And this was going to be the last question, then another about those poor, ignored Blood Elves and Draenei popped into my head.

Most of the changes to the cities focus on Ogrimmar and Stormwind, with slight sprinklings elsewhere. Is Deathwing trying to drop a hint that even he doesn't want to visit The Exodar?
[laughing]

TC: Yeah... I think that's what he's trying to say. Just happened to not be along his desired flight path.

[more laughing]

TC: You know, he wants to do the maximum destruction that people are actually going to notice, and Deathwing noticed that there aren't as many people in some of those cities, so what's the point in terrorizing that?

I actually do have one more question related to the Blood Elf and Draenei areas. Are those still going to be, like, instanced zones or will they be a part of the continents now?
TC: They're still on their own 'world tab' is what we call it. We did some experimentation with trying to attach those to the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor continents, but that was going to take a whole lot of production time that was going to be better spent elsewhere on content the players were going to get better use out of.

--Kody Note: And one more then we're out of time!

The experience changes for 71-80, are those the only you've made recently?
TC: No, we actually did increase the experience required for 84-85 from what it was at in beta. That one was a little bit too short. Other than that, yeah everything else is staying the same. At least for now.

Mounts and Items Removed in 4.0.3

Originally Posted by Lylirra (Source)

As stated in the Under Dev page (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/), patch 4.0.3 brings about The Shattering, a cataclysmic event that will forever change the face of Azeroth. As we prepare to raise the level cap and introduce two new races with the Cataclysm expansion, it's important to keep in mind that the game world is going through tremendous changes that will affect the availability of certain rare mounts and items.

Swift Zulian Tiger
Zul'Gurub is changing from a raid to a leveling zone in 4.0.3, and this mount will no longer be obtainable.

Swift Razzashi Raptor
This mount will also no longer be obtainable after the change to Zul'Gurub.

Razzashi Hatchling
With the change to Zul'Gurub this non-combat pet will no longer be obtainable. (Update - The Razzashi Hatchling is still obtainable in Patch 4.0.3a)

Tome of Polymorph: Turtle Mage
This tome will continue to be available through other means.

Crusader's White/Black Warhorse and Swift Alliance Steed/Swift Horde Wolf
As the attempt-based tribute system is being removed from Heroic Trial of the Crusader, the Argent Crusade Tribute Chest will no longer spawn, and these mounts will no longer be obtainable

Reins of the Blue Drake
This mount will once again be available from defeating 10-player Malygos without needing to use the Dungeon Finder. The Reins of the Azure Drake will only be available on 25-player Malygos.

Mimiron's Head
This mount will change to be a very low drop chance when defeating 25-player Yogg'Saron with no Keepers assisting you

Invincible
This mount will change to be a very low drop chance when defeating Heroic 25-player Lich King

Although we have no current plans to introduce new ways to obtain the Zul'Gurub mounts, pets, and the tribute mounts, they may return should we find a place where they fit in the future.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.0.3a

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/patchnotes/

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/un...testrealm.html

The Shattering of Azeroth
In the frigid wastes of Northrend, the final battle against the merciless Lich King ended in victory for Azeroth's defenders. Upon returning home, veterans of the unforgiving conflict against the Scourge were showered with praise for their valiant sacrifices, while the honorable dead were mourned. Yet as hope flared anew in the wake of the Lich King's fall, Azeroth's native elemental spirits grew confused and erratic, setting off a series of deadly natural disasters. Horde and Alliance leaders scrambled for clues about the troubling state of the world, but nothing could have prepared them for what was to come.

Without warning, the corrupted Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, erupted from the stone heart of Deepholm, the domain of earth within the Elemental Plane. Jagged fissures were torn across the earth, and monstrous waves pummeled coastal regions. From Thousand Needles to the Blasted Lands, the surface of Azeroth was reforged through violent upheavals. Now, the Horde and the Alliance must defend their homes against Deathwing and his minions, burdened by the unsettling fact that the world as they know it has changed... forever.

Azeroth Shattered

• Deathwing's return has had an immeasurable impact throughout the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Players will notice drastically altered terrain, thousands of new quests from levels 1-55, and updated level ranges for some zones to improve the questing flow.

New Race/Class Combinations

• In the wake of a world on the brink of destruction, members of the Horde and Alliance have taken to new cultures and studies, mastering crafts previously foreign to them. Many existing playable races now have new class combinations. Check the official World of Warcraft: Cataclysm website for a breakdown of the new combinations.

General

• The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm cinematic trailer and login screen have been added to the game.
• Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 has been reduced by 20%, which increases leveling rate by 25%.

Classes: General

• Due to several talent revisions for select classes, druids, paladins, priests, and shaman have had their talent trees reset.
• The damage and healing done by players from levels 1-79 has been retuned, with the base points of almost all spells and abilities reduced. This was done to bring combat times at low levels to a more reasonable length. For most abilities that deal weapon damage, the weapon damage percent now rises per level until level 80, and starts at a lower percent.
• Healing Rain, Efflorescence, Holy Radiance, Holy Word: Sanctuary now have a diminished effect when healing more than 6 players at once.
• Mortal Strike, Furious Attacks, Wound Poison, Widow Venom, Permafrost, Improved Mind Blast, Monstrous Bite, and Legion Strike now reduce healing by 10%, down from 25%.
• Effects which are broken from taking too much damage (Fear, Frost Nova, Entangling Roots, etc.) now break automatically from about half as much damage taken as before.

Death Knight (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Death Pact now heals for 25% of maximum health, down from 40%.
• Death Strike now heals for 25% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds, down from 30%, and will heal for a minimum of 7% of maximum health, down from 10%. The tooltip may not yet be updated to reflect this change.
• Icebound Fortitude now provides 20% damage reduction, down from 30% (now 50%, down from 60% when talented), and has a 3-minute cooldown, up from 2 minutes.

Blood

• Rune Tap now heals for 10% of maximum health, down from 15%. The tooltip may not yet be updated to reflect this change.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Rune Tap now heals for 5% of maximum health, down from 10%.

Bug Fixes

• Frost Fever critical strikes now apply the correct amount of bonus damage.

Druid (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Bear Form now provides 10% bonus health, down from 20%.
• Nourish no longer consumes Omen of Clarity.
• Rejuvenation has had its mana cost increased by 30%.
• Soothe now has a 1.5-second cast time.
• Swipe (Cat Form) can now be used even if the druid does not have a primary target selected.
• Thorns: beginner tooltip revised to no longer imply the spell could be kept up at all times. In addition, Thorns damage has been reduced by 60%.

Balance

• PvP set bonus redesigned. While not in an Eclipse state, critical attacks against the druid restore 5 Solar or 7 Lunar energy, whichever is more beneficial. This effect can only occur once every 6 seconds.

Feral

• Brutal Impact now increases the mana cost of spells on the victim by 5/10% for 10 seconds, down from 15/30%.
• Leader of the Pack now heals for 4%, down from 8%.
• Survival Instincts now provides 50% damage reduction, down from 60%, and its cooldown has been lowered from 5 minutes to 3 minutes.
• Swipe (Bear Form) damage has been reduced by 20%.
• Vengeance is no longer cleared on exiting Bear Form, and instead is cleared upon entering Cat Form.

Restoration

• Empowered Touch now procs from Healing Touch as well as Nourish.
• Heart of the Wild: the Bear Form Stamina bonus from this talent is now 2/4/6%, down from 3/7/10%.
• Malfurion's Gift no longer has Fury of Stormrage as a prerequisite talent.
• Natural Shapeshifter now also increases Tree of Life duration by 5/10 seconds.
• Revitalize is now a 2-point talent, down from 3. It provides a 20% chance to return 1/2% of the druid's total mana on periodic heals from Lifebloom or Rejuvenation. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12 seconds.
• Swift Rejuvenation is now a 1-point talent, down from 2. The global cooldown reduction this talent provides to Rejuvenation remains 0.5 seconds.
• Symbiosis: heal-over-time spells (Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom) can no longer benefit from this Mastery merely by refreshing themselves. A different heal-over-time spell must be present.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Healing Touch now reduces the cooldown on Nature's Swiftness by 10 seconds after using Healing Touch, up from 5 seconds.
• Glyph of the Treant (new) allows druids to keep the original treant Tree of Life look... if they must. Must they?

Bug Fixes

• Blood in the Water now refreshes Rip to the correct value.
• Flight Form now properly appears in the trainer window before Expert Riding is learned.

Hunter (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• All special attacks based on weapon damage (except Scattershot) are now normalized.
• Scare Beast is now available at level 36, up from level 14, and has had its training cost updated.
• Deterrence is now available at level 78, up from level 36, and has had its training cost updated.
• Disengage is now available at level 14, down from level 78, and has had its training cost updated.

Glyphs

• The level requirements for glyphs that affect Scare Beast, Deterrence, and Disengage have been altered to correspond with the level changes of these abilities.

Bug Fixes

• The Core Hound pet ability Ancient Hysteria now places its own unique debuff on affected players that has the same effect as Sated and Exhaustion.
• Certain pets should no longer forget how to Dash.

Mage (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Arcane Blast now increases damage of the next Arcane Blast by 10% per stack, down from 20%, reduces cast time by 0.1 seconds per stack, and increases the mana cost by 150%, down from 175%. In addition, the base cast time of Arcane Blast has been lowered to 2.35 seconds.
• Arcane Explosion now costs 15% of base mana, down from 18%.
• Arcane Missiles damage has been increased by 5%.
• PvP set 4-piece bonus changed to increase damage by 5% instead of providing 5% Haste.

Arcane

• Arcane Barrage damage has been increased by 5% and its cooldown is now 4 seconds, down from 5 seconds.
• Arcane Concentration: Now has a much higher chance (13/27/40%) of entering a Clearcasting state. This effect cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds. The tooltip still states that there is a 3/6/10% chance, as it averages out to approximately the same chance with the internal cooldown applied.
• Arcane Specialization again increases arcane damage by 25%.

Fire

• Blazing Speed no longer dispels movement slowing effects (it still dispels effects that totally stop movement).
• Fire Specialization again increases periodic fire damage effects by 25%.
• Molten Shields now also causes Blazing Speed to dispel movement slowing effects in addition to its current functionality.
• Pyroblast base mana cost is now 17%, down from 22%.

Frost

• Deep Freeze: the cooldown on this ability is no longer reduced by Haste.
• Early Frost now reduces Frostbolt cast time by 0.3/0.6 seconds, down from 0.35/0.70 seconds.
• Fingers of Frost proc chance is now 7/14/20%, down from 10/20/30%.
• Frost Specialization again increases all damage against frozen target by 25%.
• Reactive Barrier is now triggered by any damage which causes the mage's health to be below 50%, even if the mage was already below 50%.
• Shatter now also increases Frostbolt damage by 10/20% against frozen targets.
• Shattered Barrier duration is now 2/4 seconds, down from 3/6 seconds.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Evocation now heals for 40%, down from 60%.
• Glyph of Deep Freeze now increases damage done by Deep Freeze by 20% (no longer increases Frostbolt damage against Deep Frozen targets).

Bug Fixes

• Improved Polymorph now correctly shares diminishing returns with controlled stuns.

Paladin (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Exorcism damage has been increased by approximately 50%.
• Holy Radiance now has reduced effectiveness on targets over 8 yards away from the paladin.
• Seal of Truth: periodic damage from Censure reduced by 25%.

Holy

• Beacon of Light now lasts 5 minutes, up from 60 seconds.
• Blessed Life: the effects of this talent cannot occur more than once every 8 seconds, up from every 2 seconds.
• Illuminated Healing absorb shield now absorbs 10% of the total amount healed, up from 8%. Each point of Mastery increases the effect by an additional 1.25%, up from 1%.
• Light of dawn has been redesigned. It no longer has an enforced cooldown, now costs Holy Power instead of mana, and scale in direct proportion to the amount of Holy Power used. In addition it now heals the 5 most injured group targets (including self) in a 30-yard frontal cone.
• Protector of the Innocent no longer triggers from self-heals.

Protection

• Divine Bulwark now grants 2.25% less block chance per point of Mastery, up from 2%.
• Holy shield no longer increases chance to block. Instead, it increases the amount blocked by an additional 10%, for a total of 40% damage blocked.
• Shield of the Righteous: Contribution of attack power halved (now 60% with full Holy Power) and base damage brought up so that a level 85 paladin in Heroic dungeon gear deals the same damage with no Vengeance, but Vengeance has less impact.
• Shield of the Templar now reduces the cooldown of Guardian of Ancient Kings by 40/80/120 seconds, down from 1/2/3 minutes.
• Wrath of the Lightbringer now increases Crusader Strike and Judgement damage by 50/100%, up from 30/60%.

Retribution

• Crusade now also has a proc on kill to increase the healing done by the paladin's next Holy Light by 100/200/300% for 15 seconds, in addition to its current effects.
• Divine Storm: This ability has been redesigned. It no longer consumes Holy Power and instead costs 5% of base mana. It shares a cooldown with Crusader Strike and hits all nearby enemies for 60% weapon damage.
• Pursuit of Justice now has an 8-second internal cooldown, shared with Blessed Life.
• Rebuke no longer initiates Auto Attack.
• Sanctity of Battle now also causes Divine Storm's cooldown to be reduced by Haste effects.
• Zealotry no longer consumes 3 Holy Power, but still requires 3 Holy Power to use.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Beacon of Light now makes Beacon of Light free, instead of increasing the duration by 30 seconds.
• Glyph of Divinity has been redesigned. It now grants the paladin 10% of maximum mana upon use.
• Glyph of Light of Dawn now increases the total number of most injured targets healed by 1.

Priest (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Binding Heal now provides roughly double the amount of healing.
• Prayer of Healing has had its mana cost reduced by nearly 30% and its base points and Spell Power coefficient increased by 20%.

Discipline

• Divine Aegis is now always triggered by Prayer of Healing in addition to critical heals from all other spells.
• Grace has been increased to 4/8% stacking 3 times, up from 2/4% stacking.
• Inner Focus now works with Binding Heal, but no longer works with Heal.
• Power Word: Barrier has been redesigned. It no longer acts as a shared absorb shield. Instead, all affected friendly targets take 30% reduced damage for the duration of the shield, which is now 10 seconds, down from 25 seconds.

Shadow

• Shadow Orbs: redesigned slightly. The Shadow Orbs continue to increase damage done by Mind Blast and Mind Spike and stack up to 3 times, but now when the priest casts Mind Blast or Mind Spike (consuming the orbs), the priest gains a 15-second duration buff (Empowered Shadow), which increases the damage done by all Shadow periodic spells. Empowered Shadow does not stack. Mastery increases the damage bonus of Shadow Orbs and Empowered Shadow by the same amount, 10% with the base 8 Mastery, and an additional 1.25% per Mastery.
• Vampiric Embrace healing to the caster has been reduced to 6%, down from 12% (there was a tooltip error which stated that the self-healing amount was 15%). Party members still receive 3% healing.

Bug Fixes

• Dark Archangel now correctly increases the damage done of certain abilities by 4%.

Rogue (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Deadly Poison base damage and attack power coefficient have been increased by 30%.
• Recuperate now restores 2% of maximum health, down from 3%.
• Venomous Wounds base damage and attack power coefficient have been increased by 30%.

Combat

• Aggression now increases damage of Sinister Strike, Backstab, and Eviscerate by 7/14/20%, up from 5/10/15%.
• Bandit's Guile now gives 10/20/30% increased damage as the rogue gains greater insight, up from 5/10/15%.

Subtlety

• Executioner no longer affects Recuperate.

Bug Fixes

• Bandit's Guile now applies more consistently to all of the abilities it's supposed to modify.
• Player guardians and temporary pets now stop attacking when a rogue uses Vanish, but city guards will not.

Shaman (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Chain Heal mana cost increased from 17% to 20% of base mana.
• Earthliving Weapon now only has 25% of its full chance to proc from a single hop of Chain Heal.

Elemental

• Elemental Reach now also increases Searing Totem range by 7/15 yards.
• Fulmination now has a Spell Alert visual associated with it, which appears when the shaman gets to 9 Lightning Shield charges.

Warlock (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Bane of Agony damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Bane of Doom damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Corruption damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Death Coil damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Drain Life damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Drain Soul damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Immolate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Incinerate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Rain of Fire damage has been increased to be more comparable to other area-of-effect abilities.
• Searing Pain damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Seed of Corruption damage has been reduced to be more comparable to other area-of-effect abilities.
• Shadowbolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Soul Fire damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Demonology

• Hand of Gul'dan damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Destruction

• Chaos Bolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Conflagrate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Shadowburn damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Bug Fixes

• Drain Life: The Soulburn version of this was charging 17% of base mana instead of 12% like the normal version. This has been corrected.

Warrior (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Cleave damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
• Execute damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
• Heroic Strike damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
• Overpower now does 125% weapon damage, down from 150%.
• Rend base damage has been reduced by approximately 17% and percent of weapon damage per tick lowered to 25%, from 30%.
• Shield Block now only increases block chance by 25%, but excess block that pushes avoidance plus block to over 100% is now converted to critical block chance.
• Slam now costs 15 rage, down from 20, and now does 125% weapon damage, down from 150%.
• Victory Rush damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
• Whirlwind now does 65% weapon damage, down from 75%.

Arms

• Mortal Strike now does 150% weapon damage, down from 185%.
• Second Wind now heals for 2/5% of total health, down from 5/10%.
• Strikes of Opportunity now does 100% weapon damage, down from 115%.

Fury

• Blood Craze now heals for 1/2/3% of total health, down from 2.5/5/7.5%.
• Bloodthirst damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
• Raging Blow now does 110% weapon damage, down from 150%.
• Unshackled Fury now gains approximately 50% more benefit per point of Mastery.

Protection

• Critical Block now grants an equal amount of block chance and critical block chance (1.5% each per point of Mastery).
• Devastate no longer provides bonus threat.
• Shield Slam: Contribution of attack power reduced to 60%, down from 75%, and base damage brought up so that a level 85 warrior in Heroic dungeon gear deals the same damage with no Vengeance, but Vengeance has less impact. In addition, Shield Slam no longer generates 30% bonus threat from its damage.
• Vigilance no longer provides 3% damage reduction, but still refreshes Taunt and provides Vengeance.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Bloody Healing increases the healing received from Bloodthirst by 40%, down from 100%.
• Glyph of Intimidating Shout no longer causes targets to flee slowly, but roots them instead.
• Glyph of Shield Wall increases damage reduction to 60%, but increases the cooldown from 2 minutes to 4 minutes (talented).

Bug Fixes

• Taste for Blood should once again proc on every other tick of Rend.

Achievements

• The Gladiator reward mounts now award Master Riding.
• What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been now awards Master Riding.

Items

• Mysterious Egg now takes only 3 days to turn into a Cracked Egg and has a slightly greater chance of awarding the Reins of the Green Proto-Drake.
• PvP set bonuses now provide 70 of stats such as Agility, Intellect, and Strength (down from 100) at 2 pieces, and 180 of these stats (down from 300) at 4 pieces.

Professions

• Perfect Gem Cutting and Mixology have been removed as trainable skills and are instead passives profession abilities. When players reach the appropriate skill levels, they will start getting bonuses from Mixology (they must know the recipe to gain the benefit) and/or cutting perfect gems (depending on their profession, of course).

Alchemy

• Alchemy recipes now require Crystal Vials. Deathwing broke all the others because he's mean (or because he didn't want alchemists to carry 5 different vials around with them).

Engineering

• The Engineering Tinkering enchants will no longer provide their bonus stats, but the activated effects will stack with other enchants. In 4.0.1 the stats were there (but hidden) and are now removed.

Bug Fixes

• Several epic gem transmutes that were missing from the trainer have been added back.

Bug Fixes

• Certain area-of-effect abilities are no longer ignoring the area-of-effect damage cap.
• Mobs and NPCs should no longer appear to randomly gain or lose health during combat.
• Re-summoning pets in Battlegrounds should no longer count towards a player's total healing done.

Known Issues

• Some tooltips may not reflect the most recent changes to certain abilities.
• Worgen hunters are currently unable to learn Dual Wield.

The achievement Explore Tol Barad will not be possible to complete upon release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.