New class changes came in earlier today, and it seems Blizzard has changed their minds on Lifetap and Flametongue again. As of now, all previous changes on Lifetap and Flameongue have been reverted back to the way it was.

As Kalgan said: “Yes the flametongue revert was intentional. After putting it through its paces we felt like we’d gone too far on that one.”

Another change that’s been noticed on the PTR is, AoE effect spells like, Cleave, Multi-Shot, Swipe, Chain Lightning will no longer hit targets that are under CC, like Polymorph. (Finally!)

Here are the notes -

Priest:

Mass Dispell now affects a maximum of 10 friendly targets and 10 enemy targets.

Shaman:

Changes to Flametongue (both weapon and totem) have been reverted. The healing reduction debuff has been removed.

Warlock:

Lifetap changes have been reverted back to 2.3 values.
( Converts 20/65/130/210/300/420/580 health into 20/65/130/210/300/420/580 mana)

As most of you have already noticed, some of the season 4 items and item models have been released.

We will have a full update on it once we get a full list.

Rogues! Those of you who has been devastated by the new looks for season 3 maces, it’s been reverted back. I guess after all, Blizzard can identify the difference between ugly and extremely ugly.

BT gems will soon be purchasable with heroic badges as well, which makes me wonder, just exactly how many heroic badges are we going to need for everything? o_O

One last interesting point, Kalgan posted a chart on the WoW forums regarding class representation in arenas.

Here’s what he said:

“No other warlock nerfs are planned for 2.4. One of the things we look at is class representation in arenas (although normalized for class popularity). In this particular chart, a value of 100% means the class is represented as we’d expect, a value over 100% means the class is represented that much more often than we’d expect, a value below 100% means they’re represented less than we’d want (obviously this chart doesn’t include a spec breakdown in any way).

This chart is set at 2200+ rating.

                 2v2     3v3     5v5

     Druid	276.0%	184.0%	80.5%

     Hunter	43.0%	50.2%	43.0%

     Mage	8.7%	96.0%	96.0%

     Paladin	19.7%	29.5%	147.4%

     Priest	113.3%	164.8%	185.4%

     Shaman	37.8%	50.4%	138.6%

     Rogue	144.2%	175.1%	61.8%

     Warlock	149.2%	93.2%	111.9%

     Warrior	130.4%	90.7%	79.3%

Here’s 1850…

     Druid	184.0%	138.0%	92.0%

     Hunter	50.2%	50.2%	50.2%

     Mage	61.1%	87.3%	87.3%

     Paladin	68.8%	88.4%	137.6%

     Priest	133.9%	133.9%	154.5%

     Shaman	75.6%	88.2%	138.6%

     Rogue	154.5%	154.5%	82.4%

     Warlock	121.2%	102.5%	102.5%

     Warrior	90.7%	85.0%	85.0%

Locks are doing pretty well overall, but what had us worried was that it appeared to us a month ago or so as though warlocks were on an uptrend. However, the evidence is strong that that trend is reversing, which means significant nerfs aren’t really what we want right now. (we really don’t know where those numbers will settle down)”

Tags: PvP · News

Earlier tonight Blizzard announced on their official website that the test Arena Tournament realm is finally available.

You can access it by downloading the PTR, and the realm name should show up on the realm list.
You will be able to create any level 70 classes you want, and you will be able to purchase the gears needed from vendors!

As far as I know, the latency is fairly stable on the server as of now, and praying it will stay this way!

The Arena Tournament Item List was also released earlier tonight, as of now, only the Merciless Gladiator sets and Veteran sets are available, not sure if it will remain this way but we will find out!

Flametongue had a short update as well, it’s debuff now removes 25% of healing efficiency on the target for 5 seconds and stack up to two times. The duration remains 5 seconds.

Tags: PvP · News

Finally the PTR patch notes has been updated, mostly things’ are as expected,
not only has the changes previously extracted directly from the game files been confirmed, new changes has also been added. After nearly three arena seasons, Blizzard has finally decide to give enhancement Shaman some love!

Anyways here are the class change notes -

Druid:

Lifebloom - the healing coeffcient has been reduced. This spell will no longer cause error messages when interacting with Spellsteal or while the Druid is under the effects of a Mine Control.
Nuturing Instinct increases your healing spells by up to 50/100% of your Agility, and increases healing done to you by 10/20% while in Cat Form.

Mage:

Improved Blink: This talent no longer reduces the mana cost of Blink. Instead, it increases the chance for all attacks to miss the Mage by 25% for 2/4 sec after Blink is cast.
Icy Veins no longer stacks with Bloodlust, Heroism, or Power Infusion.
Mana Shield: This spell will now get a percentage of the Mage’s bonus to spell damage as an additional effect. (That’s 50% of your spell damage)

Priest:

Power Infusion: Infuses the target with power, increasing their spell haste by 20% and reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20%. Lasts for 15seconds. This will not stack with other haste effects, such as Heroism, Bloodlust, or Icy Veins.

Shaman:

Flametongue Weapon damage effects for rank 3 and above now also reduce healing done to the target by 50% and lasts 5 seconds.
Flametongue Totem damage effects now also reduce healing done to the target by 50% and lasts 5 seconds.(???)
Ghost Wolf: Cast time reduced to 2 seconds, down from 3.
The Global Cooldown of all Totems has been reduced to 1 seconds, down from 1.5 seconds.
Healing Grace: This talent now reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by 10/20/30%.The resistance to being dispelled modifier from this talent now applies correctly to Water Breathing.
Rockbiter Weapon: Tooltip and error messages have been adjusted slightly.
Shamanistic Rage is now a Physical ability instead of a Magic spell, and thus is no longer dispellable. It now reduces all damage taken by 30% and gives your successful melee attacks a chance to regenerate mana equal to 30% of your attack power. This lasts for 15 seconds with a 2 minute cooldown.
Toughness will now also reduce the duration of movement impairing effects on you by 10/20/30/40/50%.
(Removed from notes) Nature’s Swiftness and Elemental Mastery now share a 10 second cooldown.

Warlock:

Emberstorm now also reduces the cast time of your incinerate spell by 2/4/6/8/10%.
Life Tap: This spell now has only 3 ranks. Each now costs a fixed percentage of maximum health to cast, and grants the same fixed percentage of maximum mana: Rank 1 is 5%, Rank 2 is 12%, and Rank 3 is 20%.

Changes to Arena system and a tiny bug fix for battleground has also made it to the front page Arena:

Arena:

Matchmaking: If a queued player has a personal rating higher than their team rating, the matchmaking system will now use the highest personal rating of a queued member of that team for matchmaking purposes, instead of the team rating. In addition, when making a calculation for rating gains and losses at the end of a match, the calculation will use the higher of the personal or team ratings on the opposing team.
The benefits of drinking out of combat have been delayed while in the Arena. It will now take four seconds before the full benefit of the mana regeneration will come into effect.

Battlegrounds:

Battleground Rune Buffs: Speed, Restoration, and Berserking buffs received from battleground runes will no longer cause Stealth or Prowl to break.

Tags: PvP · News

The new builds has just been release on the PTR, and as Blizzard promised, new changes has been added to Lifetap and, of course, the long awaited buff to enhancement tree for Shamans.

Shaman:

Update: The global cooldown on casting totems has been reduced. It is now 1 second instead of 1.5

Feb 27th should be named Shaman Day imo.

Flametongue Weapon now reduces the effectiveness of healing spells on your target by 50%. Lasts 5 seconds and refresh every hits.

All I can say is WoW, a passive MS added to NORMAL attacks. That’s going to be superior to Rogue’s Wound Poison as well as free to maintain unlike Warrior’s. However, Enhancement Shamans usually pair up with one of those 2 because they’re able to snare the target reliably, unlike Frost Shock or Earthbind.

Toughness now increases your armor value from items by 2/4/6/8/10% and reduces the duration of movement impairing effects on you by -10/20/30/40/50%.

Another sweet change, many Enhance specs can already include several points in Toughness, now everyone will want to max it. With Hamstring and Crippling Poison(already removable via Remove Poison) sticking only for 5 and 6 seconds, the field is definitely looking brighter for Enhance.

Shamanistic Rage now let you regenerate mana equal to 30% of your attack power instead of 15. Duration reduced to 15 seconds. (Was 30seconds)

Sounds like a nerf, although you do get mana back twice as fast, you lose out on 15 seconds of 30% damage reduction. I guess undispellable 30 seconds of 30% reduction sounded like too much to the devs.

Warlock:

Lifetap now converts 5/12/20% maximum life into 5/12/20% maximum mana.

Nothing huge here, other than making Lifetap garbage at lower ranks.

Looks like they meant it when they said they wanted Enhancement to be viable for 2v2. With ability to healing debuff on AUTO attacks and 50% reduction on snare durations, Enhancement Shamans won’t be taken lightly once these goes live. (Don’t forget the instant Ghost Wolf from previous PTR build - will be powerful with snares at 50% duration.)

Tags: PvP · News

More undocumented changes came in today, but as for now, they are raw information directly from game files and has not been confirmed on PTR yet!

Druid
Nurturing instincts now increases healing done to you by 10%/20% while in Cat Form and isn’t affected by your Attack Power anymore.

Mage
Arctic reach now increases Ice Lance along with Frostbolt and Blizzard

Priest
Mana burns tooltip has been change from Drains to Destroys
Power Infusion now reduce Mana cost of all spells by -20%

Shaman
The Ghost Wolf Speed bonus on a few level 60 PVP items no longer affects players above level 60.

We don’t yet know if the tool tip change for Mana burn will actually affect the spell directly yet,
but people are suspecting that this might mean Mana Burn will no longer be affected by resilience, we will just have to wait and find out when PTR comes back, whenever that may be.

Tags: PvP · News