Blizzard Details Class Changes for World of Warcraft Patch 3.1

Blizzard have just applied a big patch to WoW with patch 3.08, but the “real deal” will only come a bit later, when the MMORPG’s developers release the World of Warcraft Patch 3.1. As expected, it will bring a lot of changes and fixes, and we have a list of all class changes you should expect to see in the upcoming patch (via Boomtown). So, without further ado, here is the complete class by class change list in the upcoming WoW patch 3.1:

Priest
– Divine Spirit – this spell is now a core ability available to all priests.
– Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as Power Word: Shield for your whole group).
– Several area of effect (AOE) heal spells have been improved: Prayer of Healing can be cast on any groups in your raid party. Holy Nova’s mana cost has been reduced. Circle of Healing now heals for more.
– Shadow priest PvP survivability has been improved: Shadow Form now reduces magic as well as physical damage. Dispersion now removes snares.
– Penance – this spell can now be targeted on the priest.
– Serendipity – this talent now reduces the cast time of Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing when Binding Heal or Flash Heal are cast.
– We are also working to give Holy additional PvP utility.

Rogue
– Hunger for Blood – instead of a self-buff, this ability can only be used when there is a bleed effect on the target. However, it has no stacks and grants a 15% damage bonus.
– Adrenaline Rush – the cooldown on this ability has been lowered.
– Lightning Reflexes – reduced to 3 ranks. In addition to 2/4/6% dodge, this talent now also grants 4/7/10% passive melee haste.
– Killing Spree – while this ability is active, the rogue does 20% additional damage.
– Savage Combat – now causes 2/4% physical damage done.
– Mace Specialization – this talent now grants haste in addition to armor penetration.

Shaman
– Chain Lightning – now jumps to 4 targets but does less damage. We wanted to make the distinction between Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning more clear.
– Storm, Earth and Fire – this talent now increases all damage done by Flame Shock, not just periodic damage.
– Spirit Weapons – now reduces all threat, not just melee threat.
– Unleashed Rage – reduced to 2 ranks, now also increases your critical strike chance with melee attacks by 1/2%.
– Totem streamlining: The Mana Spring and Healing Stream Totems have been combined. The Disease Cleansing and Poison Cleansing Totems have been combined.

Warlock
– Improved Shadow Bolt – this talent now provides a 5% spell critical strike buff (similar to Improved Scorch).
– Improved Soul Leech – this talent now provides Replenishment (similar to shadow priests)
– Drain Soul now has a chance to produce Soul Shards even if the target doesn’t die.
– Siphon Life no longer as an active ability but the talent grants the old Siphon Life effect to Corruption.
– Curse of Recklessness and Curse of Weakness have been combined into one spell
– Consume Shadows – this Voidwalker ability is no longer channeled but has a cooldown.
– Several other warlock talents have had their ranks reduced, their effects changed or removed. This list includes but is not limited to Demonic Empathy, Shadow Embrace, Eradication, Suppression, and Pandemic.
– Additional new talents have been added.

Druid
– Savage Defense – this is a new passive ability. When a druid in Dire Bear form deals a melee critical strike, the druid gains a damage shield equal to 25% of their attack power. The next hit completely removes the shield regardless of how much damage was done.
– Survival of the Fittest has had its bonus armor reduced to compensate for the above increase in damage mitigation.
– Faerie Fire (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 5%. See Sunder Armor in the warrior update below for additional details.
– Thorns and Nature’s Grasp can be cast in Tree of Life form.
– Survival Instincts now works in Moonkin form.
– Replenish – to avoid confusion, this talent has been renamed “Revitalize.” It now also works with Wild Growth.
– We are also looking at increasing the sustained (not burst) damage of feral druids in cat form.

Warrior
– Changing stances now has a much reduced cost: you lose a maximum of 20 rage (10 with Tactical Mastery). For example, if you have 100 rage and change stances, you will have 80 rage remaining. If you have 10 rage and change stances, all of your rage is lost. In addition, we may change the penalties associated with some stances.
– You now gain rage when damage done to you is absorbed, such as through a Power Word: Shield.
– Blood Frenzy now causes 2/4% physical damage done.
– Sunder Armor (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 4% per application, and is now a single rank. Creature armor has been globally reduced so that debuffed targets should take about the same damage from physical attacks that they did before this change. The net effect should be that this debuff is slightly less mandatory in PvE and is not disproportionately more powerful against cloth targets in PvP.
– We are also adding increased damage to Arms, possibly through Overpower or Slam.
– We are also looking at granting rage when the warrior blocks, dodges or parries.