Cataclysm-class-changes
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Cataclysm Class Changes: Druid
As we've been expecting, we now have the first glimpse of what the druid class will be like in Cataclysm. These changes are straight from Blizzard, and they provide great insight into where the designers want to take things. Please remember that these changes are for the beta and will very likely be modified as the expansion nears release. Some of the major highlights: Thrash (Level 81): Thrash deals damage and causes all targets within 10 yards to bleed every 2 seconds for 6 seconds. The intent here is to give bears another button to hit while tanking. Talents will affect the bleed, such as causing Swipe to deal more damage to bleeding targets. 5-second cooldown. 25 Rage. Stampeding Roar (Level 83): The druid roars, increasing the movement of all allies within 10 yards by 40% for 8 seconds. Stampeding Roar can be used in cat or bear form, but bears might have a talent to drop the cooldown. Wild Mushroom (Level 85): Grows a magical mushroom at the target location. After 4 seconds the mushroom becomes invisible. Enemies who cross the mushroom detonate it, causing it to deal area-of-effect damage, though its damage component will remain very effective against single targets. The druid can also choose to detonate the mushroom ahead of time. This is primarily a tool for the Balance druid, and there will be talents that play off of it. No cooldown. 40-yard range. Instant cast. Unlike the other healers, Restoration druids will not be receiving any new spells. Restoration druids will have a new talent called Efflorescence, which causes a bed of healing flora to sprout beneath targets that are critically healed by Regrowth. Tree of Life is changing from a passive talent to a cooldown-based talent, similar to Metamorphosis. The full Blizzard announcement after the break.
Cataclysm Class Changes: Hunter
As we've been expecting, we now have the first glimpse of what the hunter class will be like in Cataclysm. These changes are straight from Blizzard, and they provide great insight into where the designers want to take things. Please remember that these changes are for the beta and will very likely be modified as the expansion nears release. Some of the major highlights: Cobra Shot (level 81): A new shot that deals Nature damage instead of Physical damage. This ability will share a cooldown with Steady Shot. This will give hunters an alternative to Steady Shot on heavily-armored targets, and we will have talent incentives in the Beast Mastery tree to make this a signature shot. Trap Launcher (level 83): When used, the next trap can be shot to a location within 40 yards. This provides the current Freezing Arrow treatment to all traps and, as a result, we will be removing the current ability Freezing Arrow. Camouflage (level 85): The hunter enters an obscured state that prevents him or her from taking ranged damage. Hunters will no longer use mana; instead the class will use Focus. A solid look at focus is after the break. Ammo removed. Pet storage changed, 3 pets you can carry around and use (only one out) -- many more able to be stored. The full Blizzard announcement after the break.
Cataclysm Class Changes: Rogue
As we've been expecting, we now have the first glimpse of what the rogue class will be like in Cataclysm. These changes are straight from Blizzard, and they provide great insight into where the designers want to take things. Please remember that these changes are for the beta and will very likely be modified as the expansion nears release. Some of the major highlights: Redirect (available at level 81): Rogues will be getting a new ability to help them deal with changing targets. Redirect will transfer any active combo points to the rogue's current target, helping to ensure combo points aren't wasted when swapping targets or when targets die. Combat Readiness (level 83): Combat Readiness is a new ability that we intend rogues to trigger defensively. While this ability is active, whenever the rogue is struck by a melee or ranged attack, he or she will gain a stacking buff called Combat Insight that results in a 10% reduction in damage taken. Smoke Bomb (level 85): The rogue drops a Smoke Bomb, creating a cloud that interferes with enemy targeting. Enemies who are outside the cloud will find themselves unable to target units inside the cloud with single-target abilities. Enemies can move inside the cloud to attack, or they can use area-of-effect (AoE) abilities at any time to attack opponents in a cloud. In PvP, this will open up new dimensions of tactical positional gameplay, as the ability offers a variety of offensive and defensive uses. In PvE, Smoke Cloud can serve to shield your group from hostile ranged attacks, while also drawing enemies closer without the need to rely on conventional line-of-sight obstructions. Smoke Cloud lasts 10 seconds and has a 3-minute cooldown. Weapon specializations are gone. The full Blizzard announcement after the break.
Cataclysm Class Changes: Death Knight
As we've been expecting, we now have the first glimpse of what the death knight class will be like in Cataclysm. These changes are straight from Blizzard, and they provide great insight into where the designers want to take things. Please remember that these changes are for the beta and will very likely be modified as the expansion nears release. Some of the major highlights: Necrotic Strike (level 83): Necrotic Strike is a new attack that deals weapon damage and applies a debuff that absorbs an amount of healing based on the damage done. Dark Simulacrum (level 85): The death knight strikes a target, applying a debuff that allows the death knight to copy the opponent's next spell cast and unleash it. Our plan is to move the most interesting and fun tanking talents and abilities to Blood. For example, you will likely see Vampiric Blood and Will of the Necropolis remain, while Bone Shield will move over from Unholy. The full Blizzard announcement after the break.
Analysis of the priest Cataclysm class preview
You've probably seen the summary of the upcoming priest changes for Cataclysm, and now we're pleased to bring you our columnists' analysis of what these changes might mean. Our resident priests put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) as soon as the changes were announced, and you can check out the analyses below: Discipline and holy priest analysis by Dawn Moore Shadow priest analysis by Fox Van Allen If you haven't seen them yet, make sure to check out the list of upcoming changes. We'll continue to analyze these class changes as they're released, and don't forget that we're also looking for guest posts on these subjects.
The Art of War(craft): What the new Cataclysm dispel mechanics mean for PvP
The world as we know it is going to change. We're taking a break from our soon-to-be-obsolete (but still ultimately useful until Cataclysm comes out, at any rate) introductory guides to focus on something that will shake the foundations of World of Warcraft PvP. A few days back, Zarhym took to the forums to explain how Blizzard was going to change dispel mechanics in Cataclysm, and boy, were they big changes. So big that we have to simply set aside whatever it is we're doing and try to wrap our heads around how it's going to affect PvP. Here's some of what Zarhym said: Zarhym Druids will be able to dispel defensive magic, curses, and poison. Paladins will be able to dispel defensive magic, diseases, and poison. Priests will be able to dispel defensive magic, offensive magic, and disease. Shaman will be able to dispel defensive magic, offensive magic, and curses. source While he goes into detail a lot more in that post and through several other posts on the forums, that small nugget of the planned changes in Cataclysm should already give us an idea of where they're headed. PvP is going to change. All healing specs -- not classes -- will gain defensive dispels against magic, the most common debuff type in the game. Most team compositions will have at least one member capable of removing magical debuffs and capable of dealing with almost all forms of crowd control. That's huge.
Cataclysm Class Changes: Warrior analysis
Well, hey, how about that Inner Rage, huh? I seem to recall asking for something like that a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I can see the future. In which case, where are these insights when big lottery jackpots are on the line? So far, looking over the warrior changes I see some good, some bad, some very good and some we don't know yet. So let's get down to brass tacks, as it were. Bornakk Heroic Leap (Level 85): This ability makes the character leap at their target and apply the Thunder Clap ability to all enemies in the area when they land. Heroic Leap will be usable in Battle Stance and shares a cooldown with Charge, but the Juggernaut and Warbringer talents will allow Heroic Leap to be used in any stance and possibly while in combat. The cooldown for this ability might be longer than the Charge ability, but it will also apply a stun effect so you can make sure the target will still be there when you land. source I really have nothing negative here. I hope they can make it work out, since in Wrath the biggest issue with this ability was its targeting. I assume they're getting around that by making it require a target to work, as the language seems to indicate.
Cataclysm Class Changes: Warrior
As we've been expecting, we now have the first glimpse of what the warrior class will be like in Cataclysm. These changes are straight from Blizzard, and they provide great insight into where the designers want to take things. Please remember that these changes are for the beta and will very likely be modified as the expansion nears release. Some of the major highlights: Inner Rage (Level 81): Whenever the character reaches a full 100 Rage, he or she will gain a buff that causes attacks to consume 50% more Rage and do 15% more damage for a short amount of time. Gushing Wound (Level 83): This ability will apply a bleed effect to the target. If the target moves, the bleed gains an extra stack and refreshes its duration, up to a maximum of three stacks. It's baaack! Heroic Leap (Level 85): This ability makes the character leap at their target and apply the Thunder Clap ability to all enemies in the area when they land. "...we're planning to try out a talent called Single-Minded Fury that is parallel to Titan's Grip and will provide a large boost to the damage of a pair of one-handed weapons." The full Blizzard announcement after the break.
Analysis of the shaman Cataclysm class preview
Now that you have the basic upcoming shaman changes for Cataclysm, we're happy to bring you detailed analysis of what the changes mean to your class and spec. Our class columnists have been hard at work and have put together a series of posts detailing exactly what the changes mean for you, what's good and bad about them, and how they're going to shape the future of the game. Check out the analyses below: Elemental shaman analysis by Mike Sacco Enhancement shaman analysis by Rich Maloy Restoration shaman analysis by Joe Perez Don't forget to read over the entire list of upcoming shaman changes as well! Other classes will have their analyses come out in a similar fashion soon. And don't forget, in addition to commenting, we're also looking for guest posts on the shaman changes. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
Call for posts: Upcoming Cataclysm Class Changes
Unless you've been living under a rock you know that Blizzard is getting set for a major Cataclysm info dump over the next week. This kind of information sparks a lot of comments and intelligent discussion, and WoW.com wants to feature it prominently. To that end, we're looking for short guest posts on what you think about the changes to your class. We're going to operate this guest posting opportunity much like we did our BlizzCon 2010 opinions. Write a paragraph or two, sign up for Seed, and then go and submit it on the Seed project page. If it's something we like we'll post it and you'll get paid $10! Easy and awesome. You can find out more about the guest writer program in our announcement post and at our Contributing to WoW.com page. A couple things to note: If you write a really great comment here, feel free to submit it through our Seed page too! No penalty for leaving a comment and submitting it through Seed. We're expecting to get a ton of submissions for this, so we're not going to be able to publish all the great thoughts and opinions we get, even though we want to. If you'd like you can include a short bio about yourself, things like your character name, guild, server, blog, etc... Totally optional, though. The sooner you get these in the better! We'll be publishing our first batch of guest posts in the next day or so, and will continue to do so every couple days for the next week or so. This project closes on April 19th at 11:59 p.m. EST. We hope that you all keep this in the back of your mind in the next few days as all this info gets released. So many of you know this game so well, we're excited to be able to feature your knowledge and opinions to the masses! If you have any questions, just leave a comment here or email seed@wow.com and we'll get back to you. Edit: Please note, this submission should be based off the upcoming Cataclysm class changes, released April 7th through April 16th.
Cataclysm class previews coming soon
In a surprising middle-of-the-night blue post, Bashiok has announced the schedule for an upcoming series of Cataclysm class change previews. The series will start this upcoming Wednesday, April 7th, and continue through to the 16th. The schedule is as follows: Shaman - April 7 Priest - April 7 Warlock - April 7 Warrior - April 8 Death Knight - April 8 Rogue - April 8 Hunter - April 9 Druid - April 9 Mage - April 9 Paladin - April 16 (More details on this in the blue post) This is just one more step in the deluge of Cataclysm info being passed on to us before the beginning of the encroaching beta phase of testing. Expect more and more of this in the next few weeks, because we're certain to see it. Check behind the cut below for the full blue post from Bashiok. It's a long one.
