A few days ago we posted Part 1 of 3 of the class change previews. Well here are the remaining 2 parts! Interestingly, PvP Warriors around the world will be celebrating the huge penalty reduction from changing stances (it is now a flat 20 rage loss, 10 rage loss with Tactical Mastery). As well, while Mages will be saddened to see that their preview list is not that big, they should note that their updates are very vague, and could therefore turn out to be huge changes!

We are planning a lot of exciting content for patch 3.1.0, and we are doing a three-part preview series on upcoming class changes. Please keep in mind, that this list is not at all comprehensive, and subject to change.

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.

Mage

• Improved Water Elemental – this talent has been removed and replaced with a new talent that grants Replenishment (similar to Shadow priests).

• We are also working on a way to give frost mages Ice Lance “Shatter combos” in PvE.

• We are also working on more survivability for Fire spec in PvP.

• We are also working on making Spirit a more useful and interesting stat for all mages.

Paladin

• Blessing of Kings – this spell is now a base ability trainable by all paladins.

• Exorcism – this spell now causes damage to all types of enemy targets. However, it always critical strikes undead or demon targets. This change should make sure paladin damage doesn’t drop when going from Naxxramas to later tiers of content.

• Shield of the Templar now causes your Avenger’s Shield and Shield of the Righteousness to silence targets for 3 sec. The old damage bonus of this talent has been folded into Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield, and Shield of the Righteousness.

• Ardent Defender, Improved Hammer of Justice, One-Handed Weapon Specialization and more have had their ranks reduced.

• Guarded by the Light – no longer reduces the mana cost of shield spells, but now has a 50/100% chance to refresh Divine Plea duration.

• Judgements of the Just – now also reduces the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 10/20 seconds and increases the duration of the Seal of Justice stun effect by 0.5/1 second.

Hunter

• Consumable ammunition has been removed from the game. Arrows and bullets no longer stack, but are not consumed. Ranged attack speed bonus gained from quivers and ammo bags will be preserved in a different capacity.

• A new tier of hunter pet talents have been added. In particular, this allows Beastmaster hunters to improve their damage per second (DPS) with their 51 point talent.

• Hunting Party – this talent has been reduced to 3 ranks and also grants a passive bonus to the hunter.

• Piercing Shots – this talent has been changed. Your Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 10/20/30% of damage dealt for 8 sec.

• Sniper Training – this talent has been changed. After standing still for 6 sec, you gain a 2/4/6% damage bonus to Steady, Aimed and Explosive Shot.

• We are also looking to add additional trap functionality to Survival.

Death Knight

• Gargoyle and Unholy Blight have swapped talent positions. Gargoyle’s damage has increased and runic power cost per time has decreased.

• Pestilence – this spell no longer causes damage but just spreads diseases. Blood Boil is intended to be the general area attack, and has been changed to be castable on targets with no diseases on them, but does extra damage if diseases are present.

• Unbreakable Armor now absorbs a flat amount of damage that increases as your armor increases. It no longer boosts armor.

• The Frost tree has been shuffled. Among other things, PvP talents such as Endless Winter are closer to the top of the tree where Blood and Unholy death knights can access them.

• Sudden Doom – this talent now procs a Death Coil rather than requiring an additional button click. It works similarly to shamans’ Lightning Overload.

• Magic Suppression and Blood of the North have been reduced to 3 ranks for the same benefit.

• Blood Gorged now grants armor penetration instead of expertise.