The beta client was patched against last night, and the process was nice and smooth. The realms were actually up earlier than their estimate, which was a shocking difference from what we see on Live realms. Of course, Live realms see maintenance at the same time, so maybe that was the difference. The patch wasn't a big one by any means, it was actually quite small compared to the last one.

This patch is mostly Mage and Shaman changes, but it also contained the beginnings of Blizzard's built-in threat meter. I can't say its the greatest implementation ever, but it's a start and the information it provides is already proving itself infinitely useful to mod authors such as the fellow behind Omen. More on that another time though, you're here for the patch notes and the patch notes I shall provide. Check behind the cut for the recent changes according to the candlestick.

Mages

• Arcane Fortitude moved to tier 2, increased to 3 ranks, now increases armor equal to 50/100/150% of Intellect.
• Arcane Subtlety now reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by 15/35%, and no longer reduces the resistance of targets.
• Arctic Reach now also affects Deep Freeze.
• Blast Wave now knocks all affected targets back.
• Elemental Precision moved to tier 2.
• Empowered Fireball reduced to 3 ranks, now increases damage by 5/10/15% of spell power.
• Empowered Frostbolt reduced to 2 ranks, increases damage by 5/10% of spell power and increases critical hit chance by 2/4%.
• Flame Throwing moved to tier 3.
  
• Frost Channeling now reduces mana cost of all spells by 4/7/10%.
  
• Frost Warding now increases armor and resistances of Frost/Ice Armor by 25/50%, now gives Frost Ward and Fire Ward a 15/30/5 chance to negate damage caused and restore mana equal to damage caused by the warded spell.
  
• Ice Floes renamed Cold as Ice, now reduces cooldown of Cold Snap, Ice Barrier, Summon Water Elemental, and Deep Freeze by 10/20%.
  
• Improved Counterspell now always silences the target for 2/4 seconds.
  
• Improved Fire Blast moved to tier 1, reduced to 2 ranks, reduces the cooldown by 1/2 seconds.
  
• Improved Flamestrike moved to tier 2, renamed World in Flames, now increases the critical hit chance of Flamestrike, Blast Wave, Dragon's Breath, Living Bomb, Blizzard, and Arcane Explosion by 2/4/6%.
  
• Improved Frost Nova renamed Ice Floes, moved to tier 1, increased to 3 ranks, now reduces cooldown of Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Ice Block, and Icy Veins by 7/14/20%.
  
• Magic Absorption reduced to 2 ranks, increases resistances by .5/1 point per level, and restores 1/3% of total mana on a resist.
  
• Master of Elements now affects all spell criticals.
  
• Mind Mastery reduced to 3/6/9/12/15%.
  
• Molten Shields now gives Fire Ward and Frost Ward spells a 15/30% chance to reflect the warded spell.
  
• Prismatic Cloak (Arcane)increased to 3 ranks for 1/2/3% and now also reduces the fade time of Invisibility by 1/2 seconds.
  
• Pyroblast cast time has been reduced to 5 seconds.
  
• Shatter no longer has a prerequisite.

Shaman

• Flametongue Weapon: Now has a passive spell damage.
  
• Nature's Blessing no longer increases spell damage from Intellect, and the effect has been reduced to 5/10/15% from 10/20/30%. This is in result of the new spell power system. Players should notice little to no change in the power of the spell relevant to healing spells.
  
• New Talent: Tidal Force- Increases the critical effect chance of your Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave and Chain Heal by 60%. Each critical heal reduces the chance by 20% and lasts 20 seconds.
  
• Stoneclaw Totem: Health of the Stoneclaw totem is increased by 5% of the Shaman's total health.
  
• The range of all "friendly totems" has been increased to 30 yards, up from 20.
  
• Totemic Mastery talent removed and replaced with "Tidal Force".

PvP - Arenas

• Buffs that have 30 seconds or less remaining will be removed once the game starts. However, the mage spell "Invisibility" is not affected by this change.

Tags: arcane-fortitude, arcane-subtlety, arctic-reach, beta-patch, blast-wave, deep-freeze, elemental-precision, empowered-fireball, empowered-frostbolt, flametongue-weapon, ice-floes, natures-blessing, nethaera, tidal-force, totemic-mastery, tweet-this, wotlk, wotlk-beta, wrath, wrath-beta

Filed under: Mage, Shaman, Patches, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King, Arena