MMO-Champion released some further balance changes in Cataclysm:

I find most of these rather interesting.  The Thorns change has me rather perplexed.  I’ll have to rely on someone who has beta access (*cough*Lissanna*cough*) to let me know how this now scales with spellpower.  Unless it’s going to give a huge damage burst to a tank for threat, I really don’t get the purpose of Thorns.  The Moonkin form change was needed, or it would have made the form pointless in 25man raids.

Thoughts/gripes/complaints?

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According to Ghostcrawler on the Cataclysm Beta forums, here are the class synergy thoughts for Cataclysm as of today:

Balance druids will be providing spell haste and spell damage increases.
Agility and Strength – Death Knight, Shaman, Warrior
Armor – Shaman, Paladin
10% AP – Marksmanship Hunter, Enhancement Shaman, Blood Death Knight, Paladin
Burst Haste – Shaman, Mage
3% Damage – Beast Mastery Hunter, Arcane Mage, Retribution Paladin
Health – Warlock (probably Destruction), Warrior, Priest
Mana Pool – Mage, Warlock (probably Affliction)
Mana Regen — Paladin, Shaman, Warlock (probably Affliction)
Replenishment — Shadow Priest, Frost Mage, Survival Hunter, Destruction Warlock, Retribution Paladin
5% Crit — Fury Warrior, Feral Druid, Subtlety Rogue, Elemental Shaman
20% Melee Attack Speed — Shaman, Frost Death Knight, Retribution Paladin, Survival Hunter
5% Spell Haste — Shaman, Balance Druid, Shadow Priest, Destro Warlock
6% Spell Power — Mage, Shaman
10% Spell Power — Elemental Shaman, Demonology Warlock, Fire Mage
5% Stats — Paladin, Druid

12% Armor Debuff — Warrior, Rogue, Druid, Hunter
10% Physical Damage Debuff — Warrior, Druid (probably bear), Protection Paladin, Warlock, Blood Death Knight
30% Bleed Damage Debuff — Arms Warrior, Feral Druid, Subtlety Rogue
30% Cast Speed Slow — Warlock, Rogue, Arcane Mage
5% Spell Crit Chance Taken — Fire Mage, Warlock (probably Demonology), Mage (possibly Frost)
25% Healing Taken — Arms Warrior, Fury Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Frost Mage, Shadow Priest
10% Melee Attack Speed Debuff — Warrior, Death Knight, Feral Druid, Protection Paladin
4% Physical Vulnerability — Arms Warrior, Combat Rogue, Frost Death Knight
8% Spell Damage Taken — Warlock, Unholy Death Knight, Balance Druid, Assassination Rogue

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Sorry for my late posts, I’m trying to catch up on a lot of old things as well as move IRL.

The latest data-mine from MMO-Champion shows a lot of changes to the balance tree, including a change in a core change in Moonkin form, now causing it to grant 5% spell haste instead of spell crit.  With the changes to Wrath, this may not be such a bad idea.

Balance

• Starsurge now also generates 10 Lunar or Solar energy.
• Wrath of Cenarius is now named Lunar Shower.
• Lunar Guidance now generates an additional 2/4/6 Lunar or Solar Energy. (Down from 5/10/15)
• Moonkin Form now increases spell haste by 5%. (Old – Spell crit)
• Genesis now increases the damage and healing done by your periodic spell damage and healing effects and by Swiftmend by 2/4/6%. (Up from 1/2/3%)
• Nature’s Grace now has a 100% proc rate for all ranks. increasing your spell casting speed by 5/10/15% for 3 sec.

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The re-vamped masteries have been released with the last beta build to Cataclysm.    Courtesy of MMO-Champion:

• Restoration – Increases the potency of your heal over time spells by up to 20% based on the current health level of your target (lower health targets are healed for more). Healing increased further by mastery rating.
• Feral – Increases the damage absorbed by your Savage Defense ability by 32% and increases the damage done by your Cat Form bleed abilities by 20%. Absorb and damage increased further by mastery rating.
• Balance – Increases the bonus damage from Eclipse by 12%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.

I’m still curious whether mastery is still going to put all the eggs in the Eclipse basket.  Granted Eclipse is being revamped, but still…

Thoughts?

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It’s hard to say what our class looks like so far, since most of the classes’s dynamics are disabled (Eclipse indicates a 0% buff to damage when reaching the 100 energy) + Starsurge (which hits for tons of damage btw) always increase Lunar Energy.
What i can tell you :
Starsurge is very nice. Hardest hitting spell in my spellbook so far, with a knockdown that lets you cast an extra starfire if you have a melee on you.
Jumping around casting moonfire costing 45 mana is hours of free fun.
I’ve picked up Heart of the Wild from feral tree to get increased intellect, with 2 points in Furor. Since lvl 80 doesnt let you get Master Shapeshifter, i prefered waiting till lvl 85 to get it.
Moonkin form was pretty much nerfed to the ground. You only get 120% armor contribution (my health dropped so fast when a rogue ganked me I didnt have time to hit barkskin), we lost the 15% damage reduction while stunned and no new skins for Worgen or Troll (so far).

Also, Insect Swarm isn’t trainable yet (probably will be implemented as a baseline spell when you chose Balance as a spec)
Grim portrait of our situation, you say?
Fear not, for this is only Beta and many changes are sure to come.

Edit #1 : For those of you with Feral off-spec, Pre-made characters don’t come with any feral weapon — or a tanking set. Feral talents are probably the farthest away from functionning (most of them are “go to trainer!” statused, but once at the trainer, you can’t train them)          Heck, Bear form isnt traineable!

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I’ve been able to get my hands on a Beta invitation (through a friend’s account). I’ll let you guys know my reactions to Moonkin changes and gameplays. I’ll be questing and dungeoning to have a feeling of everything in-game. Tune in later this week !

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It appears the talent trees have been completely revamped, with the highest talent being a 31 point talent. I have yet to reread and digest how this is going to play out, but I will post more as I understand it. Feel free to give your opinions here.

P.S. I may be back.

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A few of you might have been luckily chosen to be in the Closed Beta already, and if you are, you have experienced the new changes to deal with our haste soft cap.

It seems developpers have listened to our whining, because most of the changes asked for were delivered :

Haste caps and Nature’s Grace — We’re addressing the haste situation in a few ways. We’re going to up the cast time of Wrath to 2.5, up from 2 sec base (so 2 sec after you get Starlight Wrath). This should help the clipping issues. In general, your haste and crit stats won’t be as inflated as they were in Wrath of the Lich King so it will be more unlikely for you to reach caps for those stats. However, we are also considering short term haste power gains to scale off of your existing haste values. What that means is that instead of just increasing your haste by 20%, it instead will increase the haste value on your paper doll (or rather, the sum of how much haste you have itemized) by a percentage. So the more haste you have, the stronger the effect of Nature’s Grace is.

I think these changes are very interesting. This will make Haste once again a very valuable stat (one of our masteries, should you remember), this will push back the haste soft cap and the haste won’t be as inflated as in WOTLK’s retarded ilevels.

You guys make sure to check out the whole article about Eclipse changes and Nature’s grace changes on MMO-Champion

Bets are open. Who says we’re going back to BC era, when haste was stacked like no tomorrow ?:)

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If you’re a follower of MMO-Champion, you’ll notice that Blizzard has officially request that they cease and desist from posting Cataclysm content.  All Cataclysm content has been removed, and this has currently broken our Alpha talent calculator.

I plan on leaving the current Cataclysm information available on the Nest.  I think we’re small enough to fly under Blizzard’s radar, however if for some reason they too ask me to pull it, I will.

Let’s hope the Friends & Family open finishes quickly and beta begins, so the non-disclosure agreement may be lifted!

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MMO-Champion has just leaked the Cataclysm Alpha Talent Trees.  There’s quite a few changes so far for Balance:

Solar Beam (30 yd range, 1 minute cooldown, 11 pt talent): You summon a beam of solar light over the enemy target’s location, Disorienting all enemy targets under the beam for 3 sec. and silencing all enemy targets under the beam while it is active.  Solar Beam lasts for 10 sec.

Lunar Justice (16 pt talent): When you kill a target that yields experience or honor, a ray of moonlight will shine underneath the fallen enemy  instantly restoring 2% of your base mana to you or the first ally who stands underneath it.  Lunar Justice lasts for 15 sec.

Starsurge (30 yard range, 15 second cooldown, 21 pt talent, requires Solar Beam): You fuse the power of the moon and sun, launching a devastating blast of energy at the target.  Causes 1025 to 1027 Spellstorm damage to the target and knocking them down.

Lunar Guidance (3 ranks, 26 point talent, requires Starsurge): Increases the radius of your Solar Beam by 2 yards, and your Starsurge also instantly generates 5 Lunar or Solar energy, depending on which is greater.

Improved Moonkin Form (3 ranks, 31 pt talent):  You also grant 2% spell critical chance to all nearby friendly party and raid targets within 100 yards while in Moonkni Form.  Read:  Looks like Moonkin Form will not give raid buffs and will only give armor, but improved Moonkin Form will give 6% spell crit.  No mention of mana return either.

Wrath of Cenarius (36 pt talent, 3 ranks):  While moving, the direct damage of your Moonfire spell is increased by 5% and it’s mana cost is reduced by 10% for 3 sec.  This effect can stack up to 3 times and lasts 3 sec., but is refreshed as long as you are in movement.  Note:  Wrath of Cenarius used to give us 20% boost to Starfire spell power and 10% boost to Wrath.  It looks like was not moved to any other talent and was lost.

Eclipse (41 pt talent, 3 ranks):  Increases the amount of Lunar or Solar energy generated from your Starfire and Wrath by 12%, and when critically hit by a melee or ranged attack, you will instantly generate Lunar or Solar Energy.

Fungal Growth (46 pt talent, requires Force of Nature, 2 ranks):  When your Treants die or your Wild Mushrooms are triggered, you spawn a Fungal Growth at its wake covering the area within 8 yards, slowing all enemy targets by 35%.  Lasts 10 sec.

Blessing of the Grove (RESTO Tier 1, 2 ranks):  Increases the healing done by your Rejuvenation by 2%, the direct damage of your Moonfire by 3% and the damage done by your Claw and Mangle by 2%.

Fury of the Stormrage (26 pt RESTO talent, 3 ranks): You have a 2% chance when you cast Nourish to cause your next Wrath spell to be instant cast and cost no mana, and when you Moonfire a target t that is at or under 25% health you have a 0% chance to cause your next Starfire to be instant cast.  Fury of the Stormrage lasts for 8 sec.

I’m running late for work so I can’t give a full synopsis until later tonight, but it looks like so far they’ve focused on PVP viability for both Restoration and Balance, but the PvE abilities look a bit weak (especially considering the loss of Wrath of Cenarius).  I’ll post a more detailed analysis later.

Thoughts?

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