Catalcysm changes! *epic music etc*

[SwampFae]

I just hope that we get some clarification regarding PVE aspects, as there are no points whatsoever leading us to understand (even if superficially) how they plan to divert the focus from white damage to ability-based one.

As for PVP, they don't want Rogues to rely on CD's to survive toe-to-toe, so they added a new CD. This is a bit Pimp My Ride'ish at first glance... "Yo, I put a CD in yo CD so you can CD while you CD". It still doesn't address the everlasting kiting problem, as we are not warriors to intercept targets, and lolstep hasn't been viable in ages (and this part applies to target swapping PVE fights as well).

Time will tell what they have in mind, but I'm feeling the class is straying a tad to far into mini-Fury Warrior territory.

Luckily they are still playing around with things just to see what it does when put into practice

 

[Naamoo]

Druids changes

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)
In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm we’ll be making several changes to class talents and abilities. Here you will get a glimpse into some of the changes we have in store for the druid. The information you’re about to read is certainly not complete, and is only meant to act as a preview of some of the exciting new things to come. Let’s kick things off by checking out some of the new druid spells and abilities!

New Druid Abilities

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. The goal of this ability is to give both bears and cats a little more situational group utility. 3-minute cooldown. No cost.

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.


Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

In addition to the new abilities listed above, we intend to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics with which you’re already familiar. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of our goals for each spec.

* All heal-over-time spells (HoTs) will benefit from crit and haste innately in Cataclysm. Hasted HoTs do not reduce their duration, but instead add additional HoT ticks. Haste will also benefit Energy generation while in cat form.
* Unlike the other healers, Restoration druids will not be receiving any new spells. They have plenty to work with already, and our challenge instead is to make sure all of them have a well-defined niche. A druid should be able to tank-heal with stacks of Lifebloom, spot-heal a group with Nourish and Regrowth, and top off lightly wounded targets with Rejuvenation.
* We want to add tools to cat form and depth to bear form. If a Feral cat is going to fill a very similar niche to that of a rogue, warrior or Enhancement shaman, it needs a few more tools -- primarily a reliable interrupt. Bears need to be pushing a few more buttons just so the contrast between tanking and damage-dealing is not so steep.
* Barkskin will be innately undispellable.
* We will be buffing the damage of Mangle (cat) significantly so that when cat druids cannot Shred, they are not at such a damage-dealing loss.
* Druids will lose Abolish Poison with the dispel mechanics change, but Restoration druids will gain Dispel Magic (on friendly targets) as a talent. All druids can still remove poisons with Cure Poison and remove curses with Remove Curse.



New Talents and Talent Changes

* Tree of Life is changing from a passive talent to a cooldown-based talent, similar to Metamorphosis. Mechanically, it feels unfair for a druid to have to give up so much offense and utility in order to be just as good at healing as the other classes who are not asked to make that trade. We are exploring the exact benefit the druid gets from Tree of Life. It could strictly be better healing, or it could be that each heal behaves slightly different. You also will not be able to be banished in Tree of Life form (this will probably be true of Metamorphosis as well). Additionally, we would like to update the Tree of Life model so that it feels more exciting when you do decide to go into that form. Our feeling is that druids rarely actually get to show off their armor, so it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time.
* We want to make the Feral cat damage rotation slightly more forgiving. We do not want to remove what druids like about their gameplay, but we do want to make it less punishing to miss, say, a Savage Roar or Rake. The changes here will be on par with increasing the duration of Mangle like we did for patch 3.3.3.
* Balance druids will have a new talent ability called Nature’s Torrent, which strikes for either Nature or Arcane damage depending on which will do the most damage (or possibly both), and moves the Eclipse meter more (details below). The improved version of Nature’s Torrent also reduces the target's movement speed. 10-second cooldown.
* 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.
* We plan on giving Feral cats and bears a Kick/Pummel equivalent -- an interrupt that is off the global cooldown and does no damage. We feel like they need this utility to be able to fill the melee role in a dungeon or raid group, and to give them more PvP utility.
* We want to make sure Feral and Balance druids feel like good options for an Arena team. They need the tools to where you might consider a Feral druid over an Arms warrior, or a Balance druid over a mage or warlock. Remember that the PvP landscape will probably look pretty different for Cataclysm with a focus on rated, competitive Battlegrounds.



Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Balance

* Spell Damage
* Spell Haste
* Eclipse


Eclipse: We are moving Eclipse from a talent into a core mechanic of the class and making it less random. Balance druids will have a new UI element that shows a sun and a moon. Whenever they cast an Arcane spell, it will move the UI closer to the sun, and buff their Nature damage. Whenever they cast a Nature spell, it will move the UI closer to the moon, and buff their Arcane damage. The gameplay intention is to alternate Arcane and Nature spells (largely Starfire and Wrath) to maintain the balance.

Feral (Cat)

* Melee Damage
* Melee Critical Damage
* Bleed Damage


Feral (Bear)

* Damage Reduction
* Vengeance
* Savage Defense


Bleed Damage and Savage Defense: Feral druids will receive two sets of passive bonuses depending on whether the druid is in cat or bear form. Bleed Damage will be improved for cats. Savage Defense is the current bear mechanic for converting crits into damage absorption and will be improved for bears.

Vengeance: This is a mechanic to ensure that tank damage (and therefore threat) doesn’t fall behind as damage-dealing classes improve their gear during the course of the expansion. All tanking specs will have Vengeance as their second talent tree passive bonus. Whenever a tank gets hit, Vengeance will give them a stacking attack power buff equal to 5% of the damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of the character’s unbuffed health. For boss encounters we expect that tanks will always have the attack power bonus equal to 10% of their health. The 5% and 10% bonuses assume 51 talent points have been put into the Feral tree and the druid is in bear form -- these values will be smaller at lower levels. Remember, you only get this bonus if you have spent the most talent points in the Feral tree and are in bear form, so you won’t see Balance, Restoration, or Feral druids in cat form running around with it. Vengeance will let us continue to make tank gear more or less the way we do today -- there will be some damage-dealing stats, but mostly survival-oriented stats. Druids typically have more damage-dealing stats even on their tanking gear, so the Vengeance benefit may be smaller, but overall the goal is that all four tanks do about the same damage when tanking.

Restoration

* Healing
* Meditation
* HoT Scale Healing


HoT Scale Healing: HoTs will do increased healing on more wounded targets. The mechanic is similar to that of the Restoration shaman, but with HoTs instead of direct heals. In Cataclysm, we anticipate druids using a greater variety of their spells so there is a distinction between healing and HoT healing.

We hope you enjoyed this preview, and ask that you provide your initial thoughts and feedback on what was presented here. Please keep in mind, what you’ve just reviewed is a work in progress and as we move closer to the Cataclysm beta, you’ll see these changes as well as others continue to develop in response to testing and feedback.

 

[Naamoo]

My 2 cents on the change, cant comment on the bear/cat changes, sounds ok, but ill leave that to Madrak

Resto . . . in the middle on the ToL metamorphosis change, dont like it being an 'on use trinket', but the form did look ugly, all it needed was a new skin tbh. The crit and haste on HoTs sounds sweeeeet, cannot wait for that

Boomkins, now where do i start. The Eclipse change was needed, my first thoughts are not that it will do what blizzard want, i can see haste stacking and charging up arcane power by spamming wrath, then spamming starfire, but we shall see

Wild Mushroom (Level 85): Grows a magical mushroom at the target location.

Invisible proximity mine?! Tbh, this will have alot of jokes made about it, already has, with druids being the mushroom farmers and also the drug dealers of WoW now.

Boomkins will also get new names, Shroomkin is my fav atm.

I shall finish with this:

Druid, Druid, Druid, Druid
MUSHROOM, MUSHROOM
ARGH a rogue, a fucking rogue!!!

 

[SwampFae]

[Response]: Catalcysm changes! *epic music etc*

Posted today by: Thyvene
In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we’ll be making lots of changes and additions to class talents and abilities across the board. In this preview, you’ll get an early look at what's in store for the mage class, including a rundown of some of the new spells, abilities, and talents, and an overview of how the new Mastery system will work with the different talent specs.

New Mage Spells

• Flame Orb (available at level 81): Inspired by Prince Taldaram’s abilities in Ahn'kahet and Icecrown Citadel, this spell allows the mage to cast a flaming orb that travels in front in a straight line, sending beams that cause fire damage to passing targets. Once it’s cast, the mage is free to begin casting other spells as the Flame Orb travels. While the spell will be useful to any spec, Fire mages will have talents that improve it, possibly causing the Flame Orb to explode when it reaches its destination.
  
• Time Warp (level 83): Grants a passive Haste effect much like Bloodlust or Heroism to party or raid members. It also temporarily increases the mage's own movement speed. Time Warp will be exclusive with Bloodlust and Heroism, meaning you can’t benefit from both if you’ve got the Exhaustion debuff, though the movement-speed increase will still work even when under the effects of Exhaustion.
  
• Wall of Fog (level 85): Creates a line of frost in front of the mage, 30 yards from end to end. Enemies who cross the line are snared and take damage. The mana cost will be designed to make Wall of Fog efficient against groups, not individuals. This spell is intended to give mages a way to help control the battlefield, whether the mage is damaging incoming enemies (Blizzard can be channelled on top of Wall of Fog) or protecting a flag in a Battleground. 10-second duration. 30-second cooldown.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

In addition to introducing new spells, we're planning to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics you're familiar with. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.


Arcane Missiles is being redesigned to become a proc-based spell. Whenever the mage does damage with any spell, there is a chance for Arcane Missiles to become available, similar to how the warrior’s Overpower works. The damage and mana cost of this spell will be reworked to make it very desirable to use when available. This change should make gameplay more dynamic for the mage, particularly at low levels.


We are planning to remove spells that don't have a clear purpose. Amplify Magic, Dampen Magic, Fire Ward, and Frost Ward are being removed from the game, and we may remove more.


The ability to conjure food and water will not become available until higher levels (likely around level 40), as we're making changes to ensure mages generally won’t run out of mana at lower levels. Once mages learn how to conjure food and water, the conjured item will restore both health and mana.


Scorch will provide a damage bonus to the mage's fire spells. Our goal is for Scorch to be part of the mage's rotation and a useful damage-dealing ability, even if someone else is supplying the group with the spell Critical Strike debuff. Scorch will provide the mage with more specific benefits, which can also be improved through talents.


New Talents and Talent Changes


Arcane Focus will now return mana for each spell that fails to hit your target, including Arcane Missiles that fail to launch. We want Arcane mages to have several talents that play off of how much mana the character has and give the player enough tools to manage mana.


The talent Playing with Fire will reduce the cooldown of Blast Wave when hit by a melee attack, instead of its current effect.


Pyromaniac will grant Haste when three or more targets are getting damaged by the effects of your damage-over-time (DoT) fire spells.


The Burnout talent will allow mages to cast spells using health when they run out of mana.


Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses



Arcane

• Spell damage
• Spell Haste
• Mana Adept

Fire

• Spell damage
• Spell Crit
• Ignite

Frost

• Spell damage
• Spell Crit damage
• Deathfrost

Mana Adept: Arcane will deal damage based how much mana the mage has. For example, Arcane mages will do much more damage at 100% mana than at 50% mana. If they begin to get low on mana, they will likely want to use an ability or mechanic to bring their mana up to increase their damage.



Ignite: All direct-damage fire spells will add a damage-over-time (DoT) component when cast. The flavor will be similar to how Fireball works; however, the DoT component will be much stronger.



Deathfrost: Casting Frostbolt places a buff on the mage that increases the damage for all frost, fire, and arcane spells. The only damage spell that won't be affected by this buff is Frostbolt.

Source

 

[SwampFae]

Found this little post earlier today, dated yesterday.

Posted yesterday by: Slorkuz
Wrath of the Lich King hit store shelves November 13, 2008 and quickly became the fastest-selling PC game of all time. Since its release, we've continued to expand on its content and tell the story of the Lich King and many others who have been touched by the Scourge’s emergence in Azeroth. From the initial release of World of Warcraft to The Burning Crusade, and then again with Wrath of the Lich King, we have steadily learned, grown, and have pushed ourselves to become better designers, and we'd like to take a moment to share with you some of the development team's recent highlights, as well as a glimpse into the future. As our mission statement says, we continue striving to provide the most epic entertainment experiences ever.

The Rise and Fall the Lich King

After feedback from the community indicated some disappointment with being unable to interact more directly with the story surrounding Illidan, we made a concerted effort to reconnect everyone with the story of the Lich King and the struggles of Azeroth against the Scourge. From the moment of entry into Northrend, the story began to play out, and the heroes of Azeroth were asked to take on the challenge the Lich King and the Scourge presented them.

Players were able to experience Naxxramas as a level-80 dungeon and face down another of the Old Gods, Yogg Saron in Ulduar. In order to better prepare for the trials facing them in Icecrown Citadel, the Argent Crusade set up camp in Icecrown to hold a tournament meant to hone Azeroth’s finest heroes into a force the Lich King couldn’t afford to ignore.

Today, thousands of players continue to enter into the Icecrown Citadel to face one of the most feared villains in Warcraft history. We’ve seen the rise of Arthas to the Frozen Throne as the Lich King and we’ve seen his fall at the hands of the greatest champions of Azeroth.

In order to get more players into these encounters, we improved upon what was once known as the Looking for Group system and transformed it into the Dungeon Finder System. Within the system, players have been able to get together with each other from all over their battlegroup and reap additional rewards that have helped them get the gear they need to venture into Icecrown Citadel and take part in an event that has been the culmination of seven years of story.

We also implemented our Quest Tracking feature, dual spec support, updated badge and reward system and much more.

The end of the Lich King is not the end of our plans for World of Warcraft, however, and the story carries on.

The Ruby Sanctum

Within Wyrmrest Temple are the chambers of the aspects and a new 10- and 25-player raid dungeon currently in development, the Ruby Sanctum. Here players will encounter the Black Dragonflight as they make an assault on the Red Dragonflight in a bid to weaken them before their master Deathwing’s reemergence into Azeroth out of the fiery depths of Deepholm. This encounter will be similar to the Obsidian Sanctum and grant all-new rewards for players looking for a new challenge.
With so many epic adventures to partake in within Northrend, the community asked, “What’s next?” We answered at last year’s BlizzCon, “Cataclysm.”

Cataclysm

As we announced at last year’s BlizzCon, we’ve been hard at work on our third expansion, Cataclysm. This new expansion advances the story of Azeroth and introduces new content for both beginning and end-game players. It will introduce two new races, new dungeons, new class and race combinations, and a change to the very face of Azeroth as we know it.
http://www.wow-europe.com/cataclysm/
http://forums.wow-europe.com/board.html?forumId=11838959&sid=1
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=12947281618&sid=1

Two New Races

In the expansion we will be introducing goblins into the Horde, as they begin their journey in their homeland, the Isle of Kezan. Meanwhile, behind the Greymane wall, the fate of the people of Gilneas will be revealed at last as they join the Alliance as worgen.

Each race will have its own unique starting zones in which players will get to know the story of these two races. As a part of the story progression, the land itself will be changing via phasing to enhance the experience.

The World Trembles

Much of Azeroth will be changing as a result of Deathwing’s eruption from Deepholme deep within Azeroth. We have been making great progress and have nearly finished all of our expected changes in Kalimdor and much of Eastern Kingdoms. Some areas will still be familiar, while others will be more drastically transformed.

In addition to the changes to familiar territories, we are also currently working on adding great new high-level content zones such as Mount Hyjal and the Sunken City of Vashj’ir.

http://www.wow-europe.com/cataclysm/features/

Operation Gnomeregan

The gnomes have been long without a home to call their own. As a young gnome you are told that the benevolent dwarves who have taken you in will aid you in your bid to grow strong so that you might reclaim Gnomeregan once more.

To that end, we are introducing a new quest line and event by which players can take part in taking the first steps to do just that by recapturing Gnomeregan’s surface and reclaiming a small portion of their former home. Once this area has been reclaimed, all new gnomes will start in this reclaimed territory.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/3p9/gnomeregan.xml
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/3p9/gnomeregan2.xml

Zalazane’s Fall

We are also currently working on a new quest line and event by which players can take part in joining with Vol’jin, leader of the trolls, in the taking of the Echo Isles from Zalazane, who now controls these islands.

Once the islands have been claimed in the name of the Darkspear tribe, all new trolls will begin within their own starting zone and begin reforging the troll nation into a semblance of its former glory.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/3p9/echoisles.xml

Database Upgrades

With the addition of so many great new features, we wanted to make sure that our infrastructure was in place to fully support them. To that end, we will be performing additional database hardware upgrades prior to the release of Cataclysm. This will allow all players to experience this new expansion as intended.

While we do not have specific dates to share at this point in time, we will be working to communicate when these upgrades occur to ensure the best possible experiences during this time and continuing into the future.

World of Warcraft Development Team

Now, I know many are waiting for the Paladin preview.
According to Wryxian, it will be posted tomorow (April 14th).

Posted today by: Wryxian
We are thankful for all the paladins and their patience in having to wait just a bit longer than others to get their Cataclysm class preview. While we had initially announced that we were planning to post the Paladin preview on Friday, April 16, we can now reveal that it will instead be posted on Wednesday, April 14!

 

[Windzarko]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/features/hyjal.html

...dude.

 

[thatbloke]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/features/hyjal.html

...dude.

...sweet!

 

[Elincia]

.... Dude

Sounds too good to be true

Can hardly wait anymore

 

[Windzarko]

I'm willing to bet that the demigod they'll try to bring back is Cenarius. Also love that they're bringing back other ones like Avianna and suchlike; it's like they've killed off some of the big faces from the past (Kael'thas, Illidan, Arthas, Malygos etc), then smashed the world up, and are now repopulating it with a mix of new faces and bringing back some of the cool old ones as well.

 

[Marqo]

If it IS Cenarius who is coming back, I'm hoping he'll have the opportunity for some karmic retribution against the son of the person that killed him. We have to get rid of Garrosh somehow, right?

 

[SwampFae]

Posted today by: Wryxian
Mount Hyjal, a historic piece of land long shielded by Malfurion Stormrage from adventurers so that the world tree, Nordrassil, could heal. In the wake of Deathwing’s cataclysmic return, a simple shielding of dense foliage will no longer do the trick. Mount Hyjal now lies exposed to the Elemental Plane of fire, where a very angry Ragnaros plots his revenge against all life on Azeroth.

By the looks of this, it may very well be Cenarius and Malfurion among others.
Time will tell

 

[Elincia]

If it IS Cenarius who is coming back, I'm hoping he'll have the opportunity for some karmic retribution against the son of the person that killed him. We have to get rid of Garrosh somehow, right?

Haha, great idea

 

[Marqo]

And here are the Pala changes:

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm we’ll be making several changes to class talents and abilities across the board. While this list only outlines some of our plans for the paladin class, we want to give you a look at the new high-level abilities and an overview of how the new Mastery system will work with each talent spec.

New Paladin Spells

Blinding Shield (level 81): Causes damage and blinds all nearby targets. This effect might end up only damaging those facing the paladin’s shield, in a manner similar to Eadric the Pure's ability Radiance in Trial of the Champion. The Holy tree will have a talent to increase the damage and critical strike chance, while the Protection tree will have a talent to make this spell instant cast. 2-second base cast time. Requires a shield.

Healing Hands (level 83): Healing Hands is a new healing spell. The paladin radiates heals from him or herself, almost like a Healing Stream Totem. It has a short range, but a long enough duration that the paladin can cast other heals while Healing Hands remains active. 15-second cooldown. 6-second duration.

Guardian of Ancient Kings (level 85): Summons a temporary guardian that looks like a winged creature of light armed with a sword. The visual is similar to that of the Resurrection spell used by the paladin in Warcraft III. The guardian has a different effect depending on the talent spec of the paladin. For Holy paladins, the guardian heals the most wounded ally in the area. For Protection paladins, the guardian absorbs some incoming damage. For Retribution paladins, it damages an enemy, similar to the death knight Gargoyle or the Nibelung staff. 3-minute cooldown. 30-second duration (this might vary depending on which guardian appears).

Next you will find a list of some of the paladin spell and ability changes, followed by our intentions for improving each talent tree for the release of Cataclysm. There will be further changes, but those revealed below should offer some insight into our goals.


Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

Crusader Strike will be a core ability for all paladins, gained at level 1. We think the paladin leveling experience is hurt by not having an instant attack. Retribution will be getting a new talent in its place that either modifies Crusader Strike or replaces it completely.
Cleanse is being rebalanced to work with the new dispel system. It will dispel defensive magic (debuffs on friendly targets), diseases, and poisons.
Blessing of Might will provide the benefit of Wisdom as well. If you have two paladins in your group, one will do Kings on everyone and the other will do Might on everyone. There should be much less need, and ideally no need, to provide specific buffs to specific classes.
Holy Shock will be a core healing spell available to all paladins.


New Talents and Talent Changes

We want to ease off the defensive capabilities of Retribution and Holy paladins slightly. We think the powerful paladin defenses have been one of the things holding Retribution paladins back, especially in Arenas. One change we’re considering is lowering Divine Shield’s duration by a couple of seconds. Having said that, Retribution does pretty well in Battlegrounds, and Battlegrounds will be a much bigger focus in Cataclysm since they can provide the best PvP rewards. Furthermore, the healing environment of Cataclysm is going to be different such that a paladin may not be able to fully heal themselves during the duration of Divine Shield to begin with, so this may not be a problem.
We feel Retribution paladins need one more mechanic which involves some risk of the player pushing the wrong button, making the rotation a bit less forgiving. In addition, we want to add to this spec more PvP utility. Right now the successes of the Retribution paladin in PvP seem to be reduced to either doing decent burst damage, or just being good at staying alive.
We want to increase the duration of Sacred Shield to 30 minutes and keep the limit to one target. The intention is that the paladin can use it on their main healing target. That said, we would like to improve the Holy paladin toolbox and niche so that they don’t feel quite like the obvious choice for tank healing while perceived as a weak group healer.
We want to add to the Holy tree a nice big heal to correspond with Greater Heal. Flash of Light remains the expensive, fast heal and Holy Light is the go-to heal that has average efficiency and throughput. Beacon of Light will be changed to work with Flash of Light. We like the ability, but want paladins to use it intelligently and not be constantly healing for twice as much.
Holy paladins will use spirit as their mana regeneration stat.
Protection paladins need a different rotation between single-target and multi-target tanking. Likewise, we're looking to add the necessity to use an additional cooldown in each rotation.
Holy Shield will no longer have charges. It will be designed to improve block chance while active, and will continue to provide a small amount of damage and threat.


Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Holy
Healing
Meditation
Critical Healing Effect

Meditation: This is the spirit-to-mana conversion that the priest, druid, and shaman healers also share.

Critical Healing Effect: When the paladin gets a crit on a heal, it will heal for more.

Protection
Damage Reduction
Vengeance
Block Amount

Vengeance: This is the damage-received-to-attack-power conversion that all tanks share.

Block Amount: We want to keep the kit of the paladin as a tank who blocks a lot. So by contrast, the warrior tank will sometimes get critical blocks, but the paladin will absorb more damage with normal blocks.

Retribution
Melee Damage
Melee Critical Damage
Holy Damage

Holy Damage: Any attack that does Holy damage will have its damage increased.

This concludes this Cataclysm preview for the paladin class. The development of these changes will continue to evolve in the coming months. Please be sure to provide any feedback and thoughts you might have on what was covered here.

Looking quite nice; I like the addition of some more heals and providing some spells to players earlier. I also like the beacon nerf, as it currently is a bit like cheating. And that Guardian cooldown sounds quite nice for those moments where you really need the heals; especially together with wings. The blind also looks interesting, though mainly for PvP Holydins I think. The Might/Wis change is also quite useful. If they would change Sanctuary to be an addition to Kings that gives the additional effects, the paladin buff system would be even better.

 

[Windzarko]

They won't add Sanc to Kings, they don't want to have talents that buff buffs. It's likely that the effect will be worked into the Prot spec as a baseline effect, and the new BoM and the "new" BoK (which is current BoK but without increasing Spirit) will become baseline, raid-wide effects.

From a purely Ret perspective... I'm unimpressed. Pretty boring Masteries (yes, they're nice, but not very interesting), and nothing new or nicely adding to end-game apart from the awesome angel summon. I know they haven't finished announcing stuff, though. Just wish they could've given more of a hint as to what exactly is changing for Ret's playstyle...

 

[Marqo]

I think they're not yet sure about how to change the Ret style, in particular what way to fuck up your rotation they're planning on adding. That would explain the lack of news on that front. Adding more spells to the rotation is not really needed, but a thorough redo of how current spells work together is in order. Blizz never really gets Ret Paladins right for more than a single expansion, it seems. The Holy changes sound lovely though, as I said already. Might not switch to my mage or druid for Cata after all...

And yeah, your idea for Sanc makes more sense and will probs be what they'll go with.

 

[Windzarko]

Blizz never really gets Ret Paladins right

That was the only bit you needed to say

Was talking with Brad, and we basically was of similar minds; hoping for either something like feral druids in that ability A buffs all abilities for a short time, ability B buffs ability C for a short time, and you juggle that around, or for some sort of almost combo-points-esque system like expending stacks of Seal of Corruption of the Vengeance effect or something to fuel certain attacks.