Friday, July 18, 2008

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.

No comments: