Latest WotLK beta changes

Elemental: Convection (Tier 1) is now a 3 points talent, reducing the mana cost of Shock, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Thunder and Lava Burst spells by 4%/8%/12% (Old version : 5 points and 2/4/6/8/10%).

Elemental Precision increases your chance to hit with Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by 2/4/6% and reduces the threat caused by these spells by 4/7/10% (Old version : 1/2/3% hit and 10/20/30% threat).

Astral Shift now has a 33/66/100% chance to shift into the Astral Plane reducing all damage taken by 30% (Old version : 100% chance to reduce all damage taken by 10%/20%/30%).

Thunderstorm range increased from 10 to 12 yards, damage increased from 595-679 to 640-729, knockback stays 20 yards.


Enhancement: Improved shields now increases the amount of Mana Shield orbs by 10% instead of 5%, improvements to Lightning Shield and Earth Shield stay the same.

Shamanistic Rage now gives your successful melee attacks a chance to regenerate mana equal to 15% of your attack power. (Old version : mana regeneration equal to 30% of your attack power)

Maelstrom Weapon now reduces the casting time of any spell by 4/8/12/16/20% when you critically hit with a melee weapon. (Old version : was only affecting Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst)

Feral Spirit now lasts 45 seconds instead of 30 seconds.

Restoration: Nature's Guardian cooldown has been changed from 8 to 5 seconds. Spirit Link now also breaks if a shared damage would reduce a target's health below 20%.

The Maelstrom change could be nice. An instant CH or HW certainly can't hurt. Longer wolves is nice.
Half the amount on SR is bad. Hopefully the go back to the old 30s duration, but I don't forsee that.

I'm a Loot Sponge!

Well it was a pretty nice weekend of raiding. Friday went fairly well, We cleared the first 5 bosses in BT. I sat out the first 3, which went pretty smooth. We had a couple of new people we were trying out, and they performed well.

I came in after Akama, and we wiped on Gorefiend a few times. Some people are still having issues with constructs... to be fair myself included. I got ghosted, was just ready to go to the safe spot, when I got pounded and died in the raid. Anyways we got he down and lo and behold Shadowmoon Destroyer's Drape. None of the hunters bid on it,and I had more dkp than the rogues, so it was mine! Woot! Its a pretty nice upgrade from Dory's Embrace. I was very happy. Especially after Wednesday's raid where we just had the worst luck on Archimonde, and had to leave him up.

So last night we set out to finish up BT. Well at least clear to Illidan. And we wiped on RoS. Not a stellar start. But we got it together and downed him. Then we one shotted Mother. Council has been a bear for us. The pull gets us a lot, with our mage tank getting pwned. So it was a pleasant surprise when we one shotted them. Left us over 2 hours to try and get Illidan down!

We wiped twice to eye beams in phase 2 due to miscommunication between the shard tanks and the raid leader. One wipe in phase 4 when the warlock tank took 2 huge hits right away, then we just pwned him the forth go. Picture perfect. I wouldn't say he's on farm status, but I definitely think we should have no problem downing him every week. And he drops... Skull of Guldan and another Cursed Vision of Sargeras! Curse you gorefiend for making me spend my dkp on your cloak. But our rogue leader had his T6 helm and decided to pass, and the hunter who bid had just spent his dkp on both T6 legs and Forest Prowler's Helm, so my 3 DKP wins! Cursed Vision for me! So long Cataclysm Helm You have served me faithfully. So two best in slot upgrades for me for the weekend. I was stoked.

Illidan went down so fast we still had almost an hour of raid time left, so we decided to go and finish off Archie. Wiped a couple of times, once at 13% when the tank got feared. But we got him down, and what should drop? WhyMidnight Chestguard of course. Remarkably no one else wanted this wonderful loot. A third best in Slot item!

At this point All I have left before sunwell is trinkets and Illidan's Signet ring.

Nice. :)

WOTLK stuff

All totems are now considered on the "Physical" school, and no longer magical spells.
Ancestral Knowledge (Enhancement): Now increases your Intellect by 2/4/6%, instead of increasing your total Mana by 2/4/6/8/10%.
Call of Flame (Elemental): Now also increases the damage of your Lava Burst spell by 2/4/6%.
Call of Thunder (Elemental) now also increases the critical strike chance of your Thunder spell.
Concussion (Elemental) now increases the damage of your Thunder and Lava Burst spells.
Convection (Elemental) is now a 3-point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Now lowers the mana cost of Thunder and Lava Burst.
Earth's Grasp (Elemental) is now a tier-1 talent, up from tier-2.
Elemental Detestation (Elemental) is now a tier-2 talent, up from tier-4.
Elemental Focus (Restoration): Now also can proc off Lesser Healing Wave and Healing Wave, and can be used on all healing spells.
Elemental Fury (Elemental) now requires Elemental Focus as a pre-requisite
Elemental Precision (Elemental): Chance to hit reduced to 1/2/3% from 2/4/6%, but threat reduction increased to 10/20/30% up from 4/7/10%.
Enhancing (Enhancement) Totems is now a Tier 1 talent, up from Tier-2.
Flametongue Totem is now a flat spell damage totem. All ranks have been modified.
Frostbrand's snare effect has been increased to 50%, up from 25%.
Ghost Wolf's mana cost is now 13% base.
Grace of Air Totem has been removed. (Agility has been rolled over into Strength of Earth Totem)
Improved Fire Totems (Elemental) is now (again) Improved Fire Nova Totem. It now has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets for 2 sec.
Improved Lightning Shield (Enhancement) is now Elemental Shields, and is in Tier-1.
New ranks have been added of Water Shield, starting at level 20. (Level 20, 27, 34, 41, 48, 55, 62, 69)
New Spell: Earthliving Weapon - Imbue the Shaman's weapon with earthen life. Increases healing done by x and each heal has a 20% chance to proc Earthliving on the target, healing an additionaly over 12 sec. Lasts 30 minutes.
New Talent: Cleanse Spirit (Restoration) - Cleanse the spirit of a friendly target, removing 1 poison effect, 1 disease effect, and 1 curse effect.
New Talent: Elemental Shields (Enhancement): Increases the damage done by your Lightning Shield orbs by 5/10/15%, increases the amount of mana gained from your Mana Shield orbs by 5/10/15% and increases the amount of healing done by your Earth Shield orbs by 5/10/15%.
New Talent: Mental Dexterity (Enhancement) - Increases your Attack Power by 33/66/100% of your Intellect.
Rockbiter ranks 5 through 9 have been removed. Windfury Weapon is intended to replace Rockbiter at level 30.
Shapeshifting will no longer cancel Water Walking.
Shield Specialization (Enhancement) - Now a 2-point talent, and increases the chance to block with attacks by 10/20%, and increases the amount blocked by 5/10%.
Stoneskin Totem now increases armor instead of reducing physical damage.
Storm Reach (Elemental): Now also increases the radius of your Thunder spell by 10/20%.
Strength of Earth Totem now also increases agility.
Tranquil Air Totem has been removed. (Threat is being addressed by modifications to the base threat of players and/or "baked" into tanking abilities.)
Unleashed Rage is now raid wide.
Windfury Totem is now a flat 20% melee haste totem. All ranks have been modified.
Windwall Totem has been removed.
Wrath of Air is now a flat 10% spell haste totem.

Thoughts on the news so far:
WF totem seems to be a bit of a nerf. 20% chance to proc an extra attack should be about the same as 20% haste as far as I can see, and you lose out on the bonus AP on the extra attack.

Adding agi to SoE is nice... hopefully they don't lower the bonuses, but I definitely can see that happening

Windwall removed who cares

WoA depends on your spell power I guess At lower gear levels its a nerf, at higher levels its a buff. Although FT now give spell power now... hmm.

Tranquil Air removed. Well lets see the new threat mechanics I guess. Seems like a nerf.

I also found this reported on Wow insider.

Weapon Specialization (which gives special abilities based on which weapon type the Shaman uses) will likely be removed
Improved Shamanistic Rage (which made Shamans using SR immune to all movement impairing effects and stuns at 2 points) will also probably be removed.
Wryxian mentioned a possible replacement for Weapon Specialization: Each melee critical hit would give a stacking buff that reduces cast time by 20% and lasts for 15 seconds. That would mean that at 5 stacks, you'd get a free instant cast spell.
Feral Spirit, the 51 point enhancement ability that summons ghost wolves to aid the Shaman, may be getting a second look as well.

F*CK!
Weapon spec was going to be awesome.
and there goes our anti-CC
The stacking cast time reduction is only any good if you get to 5 stacks, because otherwise we only cast instants anyway. I can see how maybe if you get to 5 you'd get a free LB which might be nice.

Anyways, I'm pretty bummed about these latest notes. I have a nasty feeling that they will be messing with WK weapon imbue as well.

Illidan Stormrage : DEAD!

Been a bit behind on updates. We took down Council on 7/3 and spent the next 2 raid nights working on Illidan. This reset it took us a bit longer than normal to clear, so we only got 1.5 hours on him on Sunday. So with one full night left this reset, we set ourselves to kill Illidan. Well, by we I mean my guild. I put myself on backup, because the fight is just so melee unfriendly and our other enhancement Shaman is now working nights most of the time, and hadn't gotten in for him yet. So I took one for the team at sat it out. It killed be listening in on Vent. 3% wipe, 3%wipe, 2%, 4%, they were getting so close, and I so wanted to be there. Finally at 15 minutes after raid time they decided to give it one more go, and Down he went.

Woot!

Supremus dropped Choker of Endless Nigtmaresfor me. Biggest EP upgrade I could get aside from the Cursed Vison of Sargeras short of Sunwell.