Build 9014 info.

[Holyssa]

This build number

*crushes her Brewfest goggles*

...I'm sorry. It had to be done!

Death Knight (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Skills

Blood

* Blood Tap now lasts 20 seconds.

Frost

* Howling Blast damage has been increased. (From 192-208 to 259-281 for Rank 5)

* Obliterate damage has been slightly lowered. (From 252 + 126 per disease to 238.5 + 119.25 per disease for Rank 3)

Unholy

* Death and Decay damage has been increased. (From 52 DPS to 62 DPS for Rank 4)

Talents

Blood

* Dancing Rune Weapon cooldown has been increased from 2 to 3 minutes.

* Bloody Vengeance doesnt affect frost and shadow damage anymore.

* Abomination's Might range has been increased from 20 to 45 yards.

* Bladed Armor now increases your attack power by 1/2/3/4/5 for every 180 armor value you have. (Old - 1/2/3/4/5 strength for every 400 armor value)

Frost

* Tundra Stalker now increases the damage of Icy Touch by 20/40/60/80/100%.

* Guile of Gorefiend doesn't affect Rune Strike anymore, now affects Howling Blast.

Unholy

* Reaping doesn't affect Pestilence anymore, now affects Blood Strike

* Blood-Caked Blade changed - Your auto attacks have a 5% chance to cause a Blood-Caked Strike, which hits for 25% (up from 20%) weapon damage plus 12.5% (up from 10%) for each of your diseases on the target.

Glyphs

* Glyph of Rune Strike - Increases the critical strike chance of your Rune Strike by 10% but increases cost by 5 (down from 50) runic power.

Druid (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Skills

Feral

* Mangle - Cat damage increased from 160% normal damage to 200% normal damage. Additional damage increased as well. (507 to 634 for Rank 5)

* Rake damage has been increased. (from [ 6% of AP + 387 ] to [ 18% of AP + 1161 ] for Rank 7)

* Swipe now affects an unlimited amount of targets

Talents

Balance

* Nature's Splendor now increases the duration of Lifebloom by 2 seconds. (Down from 3)

Feral

* Protector of the Pack now reduces the damage you take by 1/2%. (Down from 3%)

Glyphs

* Glyph of Regrowth - Increases the healing of your Regrowth spell by 20% if your Regrowth effect is still active on the target. (Old - Increases the amount of your initial Regrowth heal by 50% if your Regrowth effect is still active on the target.)

* Glyph of Aquatic Form - Increases your swim speed by 50% (up from 20%) while in Aquatic Form.

Hunter (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Skills

Beast Mastery

* Aspect of the Wild (Rank 4) now increases Nature resistance by 130. (Up from 70)

* Aspect of the Viper changed to : The hunter takes on the aspect of the viper, causing ranged attacks to regenerate mana but reducing your total damage done by 50%. Mana gained is based on the speed of your ranged weapon.

* Aspect of the Beast has been changed and re-added to the game. The hunter takes on the aspects of a beast, becoming untrackable and increasing melee attack power of the hunter and the hunter's pet by 10%. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.

Marksmanship

* Aimed shot mana cost reduced from 11% of base mana to 8%. Casting time changed from 2.5 sec to instant. Cooldown increased from 6 seconds to 10 seconds. Damage reduced to about 25% of the old value. (Lowered from 1570 to 408 for Rank 9)

* Kill Shot damage now deals 200% weapon damage (down from 205%). Additional damage nerfed as well. (Down from [ 40% of RAP + 1200 ] to [ 40% of RAP + 650 ] for rank 3)

* Multi-Shot mana cost has been increased from 8% of base mana to 9%.

* *New Spell* - Fires a Black Arrow at the target, slowing the target's movement speed by 70%. While the movement speed effect holds, the damage done by your ranged shots are increased by 15% on the target. Lasts for 6 sec. (6% of base mana, 5-35 yd range, Instant cast, 12 sec cooldown)

Survival

* Freezing Arrow now breaks on any damage. (Old - The ice has a chance to break on damage.)

* Freezing Trap now breaks on any damage. (Old - The ice has a chance to break on damage.)

Talents

Beast Mastery

* Kindred Spirits does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects anymore.

Marksmanship

* Readiness has been removed from Survival Tree and moved to Tier 5 of Marksmanship Tree.

* Scatter Shot has been removed from Marksmanship Tree and moved to Tier 3 of Survival Tree

* Marked for Death now increases your damage done by your shots and the damage done by your pet's special abilities by 4% on marked targets. (Down from 8%)

* Focused Aim doesn't affect Aimed Shot anymore and now also increases your chance to hit by 1/2/3%.

Survival

* Readiness has been removed from Survival Tree and moved to Tier 5 of Marksmanship Tree.

* Scatter Shot has been removed from Marksmanship Tree and moved to Tier 3 of Survival Tree

* Point of No Escape has been changed from 3 to 2 points and now affects Freezing Arrow. Critical strike chance increased changed to 3/6% (up from 2/4/6%)

* Surefooted has been moved from Tier 4 to Tier 2 and doesn't increase hit chance anymore.

* Lock and Load now has a 2/4/6% chance to proc on periodic damage. (Down from 5/10/15%)

* Trap Mastery has been moved from Tier 3 to Tier 9 and now increases the duration by 30% of both Freezing and Frost Trap.

* T.N.T. has been moved from Tier 2 to Tier 4.

Glyphs

* Glyph - Aimed Shot - Reduces the mana cost of your Aimed Shot ability by 20%. (Old - Decreases the cast time of Aimed Shot by 0.5 sec.)

Mage (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Skills

* Evocation cooldown has been reduced from 8 minutes to 5 minutes.

Talents

Fire

* Living Bomb doesn't knock up all targets in the air anymore.

Frost

* Deep Freeze doesn't deal damage anymore. Now only stuns the target for 5 seconds.

Talents

Arcane

* Missile Barrage now affects Arcane Barrage as well. Rank 5 proc chance changed from 12% to 20%.

Fire

* Hot Streak now affects Fire Blast as well

* Empowered Fireball renamed to Empower Fire. Now affects Frostfire Bolt as well

Frost

* Frostbite has been moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1.

* Frost Warding has been moved from Tier 1 to Tier 2.

Paladin (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Skills

Holy

* Divine Plea changed to : You gain 25% of your total mana over 15 sec (Old - 10 sec), but the amount healed by your spells is reduced by 100%. (Old - 50%)

Talents

Holy

* Judgements of the Pure now lasts 1 minute. (Up from 30 seconds)

* Infusion of the Light now reduces the cast time of your next Holy Light spell by 0.5/1sec. (Down from 1.25/2.5 sec)

Retribution

* Judgement of the Wise has been changed to grant you 33% of your base mana instead of 20% of your maximum mana.

Glyphs

* Glyph of Exorcism - Your Exorcism also interrupts spellcasting for 2 sec.

* Glyph of Flash of Light - Your Flash of Light heals for 50% less initially, but also heals for 140% (down from 200%) of its inital effect over 15 sec.

* Glyph of the Warhorse - Removed

* Glyph of the Wise - Reduces the mana cost of your Seal of Wisdom spell by 50%.

Priest (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Skills

Holy

* Holy Nova mana cost changed from 33% of base mana to 25% of base mana.

Talents

Discipline

* Improved Inner fire has been moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2

* Improved Power Word: Fortitude has been moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3.

* Twin Disciplines now Increases the damage and healing done by your instant spells by 1/2/3/4/5%. (Old - Increased spell power)

Holy

* Guardian Spirit now heals the target of 50% of their maximum health

Shadow

* Twisted Faith now works when your target is afflicted by Shadow Word: Pain instead of Mind Flay.

Glyphs

* Glyph of Fading - Reduces the mana cost of your Fade spell by 30%. (Down from 50%)

* Glyph of Spirit of Redemption - All heals cast while Spirit of Redemption is active have a 20% chance to increase the remaining duration of Spirit of Redemption by 5 sec. (Down from 20 seconds)

Rogue (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Talents

Assassination

* Focused Attacks now gives 2 energy regardless of the rank.

Combat

* Vitality increases your Energy regeneration rate by 8/16/25%. (Up from 3/6/10%)

* Blade Twisting changed to : Increases the damage dealt by Sinister Strike and Backstab by 5/10%, and your damaging melee attacks have a 10% chance to Daze the target for 4 sec.

* Aggression has been moved from Tier 5 to Tier 4. Now increases the damage done by Sinister Strike, Backstab, and Eviscerate abilities by 3/6/9/12/15%. (Up from 2/4/6/8/10%)

Glyphs

* Glyph of Garrote - Reduces the duration of your Garrote ability by 3 sec and increases the total damage it deals by 20%. (Old - Increases periodic damage dealt by Garrrote by 45%, but decreases the duration by 3 sec.)

* Glyph of Preparation - Decreases the cooldown of Preparation by 2 min. (Old - Your Preparation ability also instantly resets the cooldown of Blade Flurry, Dismantle, and Kick.)

Shaman (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Skills

Enhancement

* Fire Resistance Totem now increases fire resistance by 130 (Up from 70) and lasts 5 minutes. (Up from 2 minutes)

Talents

Elemental

* Totem of Wrath now lasts 5 minutes. (Up from 2 minutes)

Enhancement

* Maelstrom Weapon proc chance changed from 20/40/60/80/100% on critical hit to 3/6/9/12/15% when you deal damage with a melee weapon. Now affects Chain Heal as well.

* Dual Wield Specialization now Increases your chance to hit while dual wielding by an additional 1/2/3%. (Down from 2/4/6%)

* Stormstrike doesn't affect Fire or Frost damage anymore.

* Unleashed Rage now increases both melee and ranged attack power and works within 45 yards. (Old - Affected only melee AP, 20 yards)

* Flurry now increases your attack speed by 5/10/15/20/25% (Down from 10/15/20/25/30%) for your next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike.

Restoration

* Ancestral Awakening now affects Riptide as well

* Improved Water Shield now affects Riptide as well

Warlock (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Skills

Affliction

* Curse of Doom now summons a Doomguard only if the target yields experience or honor.

* Haunt now heals you for 100%. (Down from 200%)

* Drain Soul now causes four times the normal damage if the target is at or below 25% health

Demonology

* Demonic Circle now lasts 6 minutes.

* Inferno now summons an infernal under the command of the caster for 1 minute. (Down from 5 minutes)

Destruction

* Chaos Bolt now deals Fire damage instead of Chaos damage

* Conflagrate can now be cast on targets afflicted by Shadowflame

Talents

Affliction

* Everlasting Affliction doesn't affect Shadow Bolt anymore but affects Haunt instead.

Demonology

* Demonic Pact doesn't work with enslaved demons anymore

Warrior (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Skills

Arms

* Thunder Clap now affects an unlimited amount of targets

Fury

* Battle Shout attack power increase has been lowered from 550 to 548.

Protection

* Revenge isn't labeled as causing a high amount of threat anymore. Damage has been doubled. (From [ 9.3% of AP + 652 ] to [ 20.7% of AP + 1454 ] for rank 9)

* Shield Slam damage has been slightly increased. (From 756-794 to 990-1040 for Rank 8 )

Talents

Arms

* Sword Specialization proc effect now cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds.

Fury

* Armored to the Teeth now Increases your attack power by 3 for every 180 armor value you have. (Old - Increased Strength by 1/2/3 for every 400 armor value)

Protection

* Sword and Board now has a chance to proc from Revenge as well.

* Vigilance now transfers 10% of the target's threat to the warrior instead of just reducing it.

Glyphs

* Glyph of Resonationg Power - Reduces the rage cost of your Thunder Clap ability by 5. (Old - Increases the maximum targets affected by your Thunder Clap ability by 4.)

My god. This. Build. Sucks. A$$.

Give your local Holy pally a big hug next time you see him/her...the Divine Plea changes are a f*cking joke, and nearly insta-cast Holy Light went bye-bye. Perhaps they fear pallies being (GADZOOKS) useful in their precious e-sport? /sigh

Poor shammies...not only did Maelstrom get it's knees capped, but you guys lose a LOT of hit rating. Stormstrike is now plain ol' Nature damage again, and flurry is...oh damn I'll just say it: what the f*ck is Blizzard doing?? It's like giving a child that toy firetruck he always wanted for Christmas, then suddenly taking it away and saying "Oh that's too fancy. Here, have this Hot Wheels miniature instead! It's just like it, see?"

Oh, say bye-bye to putting CoD on a squirrel in an attempt to summon a hooved friend.

* Living Bomb doesn't knock up all targets in the air anymore.

Since when did Living Bomb make people pregnant? I'm gonna use protection when flying in Northrend from now on. >.>

[Kadi]

Paladin (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Skills

Holy

* Divine Plea changed to : You gain 25% of your total mana over 15 sec (Old - 10 sec), but the amount healed by your spells is reduced by 100%. (Old - 50%)

Talents

Holy

* Judgements of the Pure now lasts 1 minute. (Up from 30 seconds)

* Infusion of the Light now reduces the cast time of your next Holy Light spell by 0.5/1sec. (Down from 1.25/2.5 sec)

Retribution

* Judgement of the Wise has been changed to grant you 33% of your base mana instead of 20% of your maximum mana.

Glyphs

* Glyph of Exorcism - Your Exorcism also interrupts spellcasting for 2 sec.

* Glyph of Flash of Light - Your Flash of Light heals for 50% less initially, but also heals for 140% (down from 200%) of its inital effect over 15 sec.

* Glyph of the Warhorse - Removed

* Glyph of the Wise - Reduces the mana cost of your Seal of Wisdom spell by 50%.

Shaman (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Talents

Elemental

* Totem of Wrath now lasts 5 minutes. (Up from 2 minutes)

Restoration

* Ancestral Awakening now affects Riptide as well

* Improved Water Shield now affects Riptide as well

My god. This. Build. Sucks. A$$.

Hold me. *sniffle*

The ONE buff they gave holy pallies is really more useful for shockadins than healers. It's also too far into the holy tree to be useful for any 'hybrid' spec as well, so it's essentially useless to Ret and Prot pallies. It is also CLEARLY a 'shockadin' talent and not a 'healer' talent, as explained below:

In order for a healer to use the talent and 10% 'spell' and 'melee' (LOL) haste buff, they would have to get off their 'grid/healbot' crutches, as they'd actually have to target the bad guy and do *gasp* dps in order for the judgement to work. It also requires extra downtime for the global cooldown twice per minute (which, granted, is better than twice per 30 seconds). Also, pally judgements only have a 10 yard range! which means that the healer would have to get practically into melee range as well. This is a definite distraction as the Pally Healer's one useful niche is in single-target (ie: tank) healing, and this would detract from our ability to focus on it.

So tanks, get your shield blocks ready! You're gonna need them.

This just adds fuel to my current belief that my new main for raiding will be my shaman as Elemental spec. My pally will go Ret and be mostly for PVP and some fun 5-mans where I don't go crazy playing Melee. I might try my hand at raiding as melee since ret pallies in beta really are fun, but it would be a bit of a steep learning curve for me to do it effectively. If I need to play a healer, I'm more likely to take my Shaman resto than take my pally Holy at this rate.

Edited October 1, 2008 by Kadi

[Kailand]

Hunter (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))

Skills

Beast Mastery

* Aspect of the Wild (Rank 4) now increases Nature resistance by 130. (Up from 70)

* Aspect of the Viper changed to : The hunter takes on the aspect of the viper, causing ranged attacks to regenerate mana but reducing your total damage done by 50%. Mana gained is based on the speed of your ranged weapon.

* Aspect of the Beast has been changed and re-added to the game. The hunter takes on the aspects of a beast, becoming untrackable and increasing melee attack power of the hunter and the hunter's pet by 10%. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.

Marksmanship

* Aimed shot mana cost reduced from 11% of base mana to 8%. Casting time changed from 2.5 sec to instant. Cooldown increased from 6 seconds to 10 seconds. Damage reduced to about 25% of the old value. (Lowered from 1570 to 408 for Rank 9)

* Kill Shot damage now deals 200% weapon damage (down from 205%). Additional damage nerfed as well. (Down from [ 40% of RAP + 1200 ] to [ 40% of RAP + 650 ] for rank 3)

* Multi-Shot mana cost has been increased from 8% of base mana to 9%.

* *New Spell* - Fires a Black Arrow at the target, slowing the target's movement speed by 70%. While the movement speed effect holds, the damage done by your ranged shots are increased by 15% on the target. Lasts for 6 sec. (6% of base mana, 5-35 yd range, Instant cast, 12 sec cooldown)

Survival

* Freezing Arrow now breaks on any damage. (Old - The ice has a chance to break on damage.)

* Freezing Trap now breaks on any damage. (Old - The ice has a chance to break on damage.)

Talents

Beast Mastery

* Kindred Spirits does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects anymore.

Marksmanship

* Readiness has been removed from Survival Tree and moved to Tier 5 of Marksmanship Tree.

* Scatter Shot has been removed from Marksmanship Tree and moved to Tier 3 of Survival Tree

* Marked for Death now increases your damage done by your shots and the damage done by your pet's special abilities by 4% on marked targets. (Down from 8%)

* Focused Aim doesn't affect Aimed Shot anymore and now also increases your chance to hit by 1/2/3%.

Survival

* Readiness has been removed from Survival Tree and moved to Tier 5 of Marksmanship Tree.

* Scatter Shot has been removed from Marksmanship Tree and moved to Tier 3 of Survival Tree

* Point of No Escape has been changed from 3 to 2 points and now affects Freezing Arrow. Critical strike chance increased changed to 3/6% (up from 2/4/6%)

* Surefooted has been moved from Tier 4 to Tier 2 and doesn't increase hit chance anymore.

* Lock and Load now has a 2/4/6% chance to proc on periodic damage. (Down from 5/10/15%)

* Trap Mastery has been moved from Tier 3 to Tier 9 and now increases the duration by 30% of both Freezing and Frost Trap.

* T.N.T. has been moved from Tier 2 to Tier 4.

Glyphs

* Glyph - Aimed Shot - Reduces the mana cost of your Aimed Shot ability by 20%. (Old - Decreases the cast time of Aimed Shot by 0.5 sec.)

Hunters need a hug too... they now have taken all viability from the survival tree. Aspect of the Beast.... melee power boost to a hunter which will never be used as it it never used now... at least we can tell who the melee huntards are and avoid them at all costs. Scatter shot in the survival tree... LOL. Why don't they make it trainable? Surefooted has been nerfed to the point of uselessness (no more chance to hit) so why even pick it up? What this build is nerfing survival to the point of being the near equivalent of a 0/0/0 build, while buffing marks to the point were it doesn't make sense to spec anything but marks. So in the expansion don't count on any hunters being mana batteries.

[Baracko]

Sorry, Pallies... thats stinky.

This is the first time Ive really had a complaint with Blizz' changes to enhancement shaman. I realize there are countless changes to both arms/fury warriors and enh. shaman, but to nuke one or the other because the other has the ability just doesnt make much sense. Its honestly par for the course... they've been doing it to other classes over the past few years... why not us.

Ah well... I hate leveling so Ill probably stay the class I am... we'll probably still be useful.... I guess.

[Perthes]

Aspect of the Viper changed to : The hunter takes on the aspect of the viper, causing ranged attacks to regenerate mana but reducing your total damage done by 50%. Mana gained is based on the speed of your ranged weapon.

Okey im now seriously depressed...

GRRR If this doesnt get a lesser damage reduction then i will sure lvl this toon to 80 but then put him on the shelf and leave him alone.. Rogue.. Here I come!!! GRRR

[Waldonnis]

My thoughts over the last few builds that have gone up on the beta server can best be summed up by saying:

Yay, boo, grrr, wtf??, interesting, that's strange, makes some sense, *facepalm*, and it's about time.

Playing almost every class in the game at cap level offers a unique perspective and makes things look less "nerfish" when you view the compensating controls going on with other classes or via game mechanics changes. That being said, I'm somewhat boggled by some of the changes that nearly gut the effectiveness of several talent trees (and even some entire classes).

Holy paladins, already in a really bad situation with scaling and mana regen woes, got a nice one-two combo donkey-punch/uppercut...but no comparable reduction in spirit-based regen for priests/druids (and resto shaman seem to have gotten a tiny buff in the regen department). This coming along with a marked increase in haste gear in Wrath...seriously, do they really WANT us all to be ret? Maybe it's time for me to try out another spec finally. I knew about (and agree with) the JotW change, at least...a certain holy/ret spec in beta was basically never out of mana (EVER), which was obviously too good and made them unkillable healing machines. I still look at the holy tree wondering why anyone would really, really want to invest in the later talents...still looking...still looking...

Don't get me started on mages...I could go on for pages. I will say that they took the only fun ability that fire was getting and made it unfun (while still costing a buttload of mana). And deep freeze was a bit wacky powerful with damage, but oh how I will miss three-shotting well-geared DKs with it Oh, and arcane......yeah.

Oh, and Perthes, don't QQ too much about AotV being changed to reduce your damage...take a look at mage's evocation some time and consider the cooldown and the fact that we do ZERO dps while gaining only a portion of our mana bar back (and that's just one class' example, others exist as well). I really don't like some of the hunter changes (understatement), but think some of the others are interesting once I tried them out. Things often look a lot less useful than they are when written out descriptively any way.

[Perthes]

Well heck... It seems to be a wide array of nerfs happening across different classes.. Heck.. i might be surprised to find that the nerfs are okey for some classes and might wanna stay where I am at.. but just reading about them.. makes me wanna spank the cats..

[Holyssa]

Many blue posts today reacting to the nerfs.

Oh, Lake Wintergrasp is now Lake LOLgrasp long before it even hits Live. Why?

Just to confirm the previous reply; this was only temporary during the beta. You will not be able to collect Arena points from Lake Wintergrasp.

Joy.

[Kadi]

Holy paladins, already in a really bad situation with scaling and mana regen woes, got a nice one-two combo donkey-punch/uppercut...but no comparable reduction in spirit-based regen for priests/druids (and resto shaman seem to have gotten a tiny buff in the regen department). This coming along with a marked increase in haste gear in Wrath...seriously, do they really WANT us all to be ret? Maybe it's time for me to try out another spec finally. I knew about (and agree with) the JotW change, at least...a certain holy/ret spec in beta was basically never out of mana (EVER), which was obviously too good and made them unkillable healing machines. I still look at the holy tree wondering why anyone would really, really want to invest in the later talents...still looking...still looking...

I've been wondering the same thing about the upper level holy talents. It really is sad that Ret almost has better talents that would benefit healers in the upper branches of their tree than Holy does. I also agree that the JotW talent change is really pretty trivial. If a ret pally really needs more mana than that talent gives, they can just use seal/judgement of wisdom for awhile. Right now, I'm playing with an almost pure ret build with 5 points in holy and probably about 8 points in prot (for the strength buff and a few points and eventually a few points in blessing of kings. I still boggle at blessing of kings costing 5 points now). It seems to work pretty well, and I think that even though Ret pallies lost the ability to refresh judgements with crusader strike they will still be useful in a party/raid.

Oh, and Perthes, don't QQ too much about AotV being changed to reduce your damage...take a look at mage's evocation some time and consider the cooldown and the fact that we do ZERO dps while gaining only a portion of our mana bar back (and that's just one class' example, others exist as well).

Yup, the Divine plea ability was changed to match Evocation, basically. No ability to do any healing and longer time to regen the mana. Maybe this is when they're supposed to stop healing to run into melee to do their judgement for their haste buff? *boggles*

[Kadi]

Many blue posts today reacting to the nerfs.

A few other interesting notes from these posts...

Paladins: However, we are getting feedback that they may be struggling with mana and perhaps even with boredom. To help with both of these potential problems, We are going to change Divine Plea to only reduce your healing by 20% (up from 100%). However, the original nerf to the spell was partially because of it being difficult to stop a paladin in PvP, so we are going to make the effect dispellable.

Hopefully they apply this same change to mages' Evocation as well. I don't understand though how it's supposed to get rid of the BOREDOM issue for pallies.

Paladins: We understand that some Holy paladins still feel that their movement and group healing mechanics aren't sufficient yet. However, we still like Bacon of Light , Holy Shock and talents like Infusion of Light to help with these problems.

.....

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

WTF? Holy shock is a SINGLE TARGET heal so how the hell is that supposed to help with multitarget healing?!? Oh wait... that's for movement, so beacon of light must be for multitarget. Wait, ######, that only allows us ONE additional target! yeah, that'll make it aaallllll better. /wrists

Well okay, I did notice that they were trying to incorporate more use of holy shock into a pally healer's list of buttons to push, but it isn't worth the mana in a PVE situation. Flash of light will have about the same cast time when you consider the global cooldown, and costs half the mana for almost the same amount of healing. What holy shock/infusion of light really does is put more burden on a holy pally's already strained mana pool, and I don't think that the divine plea change is enough to offset it. To me, it really is more of a PVP combo for that 'zomg quick heal!' ability they need.

I have to admit, though, when I had the holyshock/infusion of light combo coupled with sheath of light from ret (before they moved it), it was awesome to have an instant heal slightly better than a flash of light PLUS a hot for additional healing. That is one firetruck they took away, and I guess understandably so.

Hunters: Polar Bear Cub -- This wasn't intended to be a tamable pet, and it looked ridiculous.

No way! It was like the cutest. pet. ever!

[Waldonnis]

Hopefully they apply this same change to mages' Evocation as well. I don't understand though how it's supposed to get rid of the BOREDOM issue for pallies.

Not a chance in hell of that happening. Evocation is a channeled spell for mages and is as prone to interrupt as ever. It also screams "counterspell/spell lock/kick/breathe on me" since you can see the animation from space (not terribly useful in PvP...dying is a far better mana replenishment technique in BGs and you have to pole hump in Arena to pull it off there). There's no point to making it able to be dispelled nor would it really do jack to change it otherwise regarding damage (we do zero damage because we are unable to cast at all while chanelling it).

WTF? Holy shock is a SINGLE TARGET heal so how the hell is that supposed to help with multitarget healing?!? Oh wait... that's for movement, so beacon of light must be for multitarget. Wait, ######, that only allows us ONE additional target! yeah, that'll make it aaallllll better. /wrists

Well okay, I did notice that they were trying to incorporate more use of holy shock into a pally healer's list of buttons to push, but it isn't worth the mana in a PVE situation. Flash of light will have about the same cast time when you consider the global cooldown, and costs half the mana for almost the same amount of healing. What holy shock/infusion of light really does is put more burden on a holy pally's already strained mana pool, and I don't think that the divine plea change is enough to offset it. To me, it really is more of a PVP combo for that 'zomg quick heal!' ability they need.

I have to admit, though, when I had the holyshock/infusion of light combo coupled with sheath of light from ret (before they moved it), it was awesome to have an instant heal slightly better than a flash of light PLUS a hot for additional healing. That is one firetruck they took away, and I guess understandably so.

It had some limited synergy going on, but yeah, it's not nearly as useful as they make it sound for group healing, especially given the cooldown on the ability itself, which makes it entirely unspammable to begin with. I think they were more talking about how "fire and forget" it was and that it could be chained with HL to be more useful in group healing situations. Personally, that whole combo *is* interesting, but just smacks of "we don't know what else to do, so try this out". Once a few folks started doing Arena, they realised it wasn't exactly what they had in mind...and thus, it started getting the "special treatment". Sadly, I think this is one case where the designers built a trap, then fell into it: if they improve paladins more on an AoE healing front, they run the risk of diminishing the strengths that other healers have over paladins (which cost them a bit in efficiency)...vs. being stuck with a "broken spec" with paladins still unable to cope with AoE damage situations making them the easy sit choice for raid encounters. I don't envy the designers on this one, but they created the quandry they're in now.

Hunters: Polar Bear Cub -- This wasn't intended to be a tamable pet, and it looked ridiculous.

No way! It was like the cutest. pet. ever!

Yep, I'm sad to see that go...they were adorable.