Cataclysm class previews

[Jozef]

The feral ones sound interesting, crowd controllers will need to be on the ball as letting their mob get too close to a thrashing bear would be bad.

Maybe a stupid question but are they bringing crowd control back to the game? Been missing that a bit in WotLK.

[Amberley]

A BIT!!!! is it ever used now?

[Daffyd]

Maybe a stupid question but are they bringing crowd control back to the game? Been missing that a bit in WotLK.

Yes.  Not to the point of Magisters Terrace but more than it has been.

[Dar]

A BIT!!!! is it ever used now?

Then you never played HoR properly (or with me) but yes, its rare and most players see it as a penalty because either the tank is bad or the group is not strong enough when they use it, 'cause we all want to do AoE, right?

Edit:
Anyone else noticing that the majority of the high level spells are aimed at pvp?
Example: DK's

Necrotic Strike (level 83): Necrotic Strike is a new attack that deals weapon damage and applies a debuff that absorbs an amount of healing based on the damage done. For context, imagine that the death knight can choose between doing 8,000 damage outright with a certain ability, or dealing 6,000 damage and absorbing 4,000 points in incoming heals with Necrotic Strike -- the burst is smaller, but a larger overall amount of healing would be required to bring the target back to full health.

(...)
Dark Simulacrum (level 85): The death knight strikes a target, applying a debuff that allows the death knight to copy the opponent's next spell cast and unleash it. Unlike Spell Reflection, Dark Simulacrum does not cancel the incoming spell. In general, if you can't reflect an ability, you won't be able to copy it either.

Necrotic Strike sounds cool but is really not usefull in pve. there are only a few bosses in pve that actually heal.  I don't really see why we need to get such an ability. We already have 3 (!) interrupts
Dark Simulacrum... as far as i know reflect is rarely used in pve (correct me if i'm wrong). It would be very wrong to copy any spell of the princes of the bloodcounsil for example, or even the mark that saurfang does.

another example is the hunter:

Camouflage (level 85): The hunter enters an obscured state that prevents him or her from taking ranged damage. The character would still be subject to melee or area-of-effect attacks, and dealing or taking damage will break the Camouflage effect. The hunter can move and set traps when under Camouflage, and will receive a damage bonus when attacking while under Camouflage (which will then break the effect).

Cool, very cool, but.... how am i going to use that in PvE besides a small damage boost as an opener? (even more spells to press before starting the fight... i already have 7! (Misdirect, Kill command, Hunters mark, Black Arrow, Viper Sting, Rapid Fire, explosive shot   = my opening))

[Jozef]

Dark Simulacrum... as far as i know reflect is rarely used in pve (correct me if i'm wrong). It would be very wrong to copy any spell of the princes of the bloodcounsil for example, or even the mark that saurfang does.

You cant reflect spell from raid bosses. The only spells you can reflect are from other players and some trash mobs.

[Choleric]

Maybe a stupid question but are they bringing crowd control back to the game? Been missing that a bit in WotLK.

I will enjoy seeing this return, although it will probably mean random heroics with pugs become far less dependable.  I think the dpsmeter:strategy ratio is definately more on the side of pew focus, too much gearscore/recount watching and not enough actual strategy (aside from raid bosses - at least until the raid is geared sufficiently to burn through certain aspects of some fights).  LotRO is a good example of a game where learning your class is more important than hitting buttons in the right order - ask about rotation in LotRO and you will be shown the door to WoW.  Real heroes fight with their brains - everyone knows this.

[Splishy]

I fully agree Chol - I've missed my sheep button

[Sessander]

Crowed control FTW. Missed it alot since TBC.

[Nerdanel]

This mage update might bring nerda back from under the dust he's been collecting. Am feeling a fire respec coming up as well me wants to be a fire orb conjuring gnome
The new forst ability might be worth looking into as well as i'm missing a descent pve frost build atm ingame.

[Daffyd]

Finally, the paladin

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.

[Dar]

They look pretty awesome if you ask me. Blinding shield will cause some pain in pvp, but thats cool. the other two abilities sound very cool too.

I don't know alot about paladins, but i do know alot of them can't read. QQ'ers on the forum are yelling all over, esp about:

One change we’re considering is lowering Divine Shield’s duration by a couple of seconds

and they go yell "THEY NERF UZ TO DEATH!"... a couple of seconds... its not like they are going to reduce it to a couple of seconds, but by a couple of seconds.

all in all i think all classes can be pretty contempt with all the changes. (except trees maybe)

[Jozef]

I don't know alot about paladins, but i do know alot of them can't read. QQ'ers on the forum are yelling all over

Just dont read forums. Most ppl who complain dont know there class. The only thing they know that if they press those buttons in that order they will win in pvp or stay alive in pve.

[Splishy]

I'm actually dead chuffed with those pally changes, even more so than the mage changes. Pally buff management has long been a pain, particularly in PUGs so anything that simplifies things is good for me. Getting a short-range AoE heal is win too.

[Daffyd]

Getting a short-range AoE heal is win too.

And a pet, don't forget the pet!

[Faphnir]

Glad they avoided giving Paladins a HoT and homogenising the healing classes further 

[Daffyd]

Glad they avoided giving Paladins a HoT and homogenising the healing classes further 

My pet hate: People who want challenging 5 man content and 10 man raids then complain about homogenization.  If you want A or B then the only way to get it is C.  If you want to be a special and unique snowflake then welcome back to 40 man raiding and nobody to raid with.

[Splishy]

Glyphed holy light gives a HOT...

[Choleric]

Glyphed holy light gives a HOT...

Stirrer

[Daffyd]

Glyphed holy light gives a HOT...

Healing Hands is a PBAoE HoT too, my point is that neither means all the classes are suddenly identical.

For a mechanic to matter it has to be potentially lethal, if it's potentially lethal then it has to be counterable by everyone who might need to counter it.  This is the whole point behind the cleansing/debuff changes, right now all debuffs even in the more difficult (using the term loosely) 5 mans are pointless and ignoreable.  In Cataclysm you know that every group will have a healer and that healer will be able to remove magic debuffs, therefore you can now add some SERIOUSLY nasty debuffs knowing that it's healer failure and not group makeup that's to blame if you then die.

All healers need to be able to handle all situations or all encounters are trivialised by one or more classes (hello Loken).  Bring the player not the class, your class choice is about flavour and playstyle not about being unique.

[Faphnir]

Glyphed holy light gives a HOT...

Does it? I thought Glyph of Holy Light was only an AOE heal.