Patch 3.1 class changes for Mages, Hunters, Death Knights, and Paladins
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 5th 2009 at 11:12PM
As expected, tonight we're getting a sampling of the class changes for Mages, Hunters, Death Knights, and Paladins. This comes after a day of more 3.1 class changes.Big changes from this release include:
- Consumable ammunition removed from the game!
- Hunter's will get additional trap talents via the Survival tree
- Mages will now have a mana replenishment spell
- Paladin's Blessing of Kings is now a base ability
- Paladin's Exorcism will now damage all enemy types
- Death Knight's Pestilence will now only spread diseases
After the break are all the changes released thus far.
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.
Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.Filed under: Hunter, Mage, Paladin, News items, Death Knight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Ed (Sindarin, Hydraxis US) Feb 5th 2009 11:16PM
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.
I can't be the only one who is thinking "WHAAAAA..... YIPPEE?!" at this, can I? :D
Kitsune Feb 5th 2009 11:27PM
I'm still wondering over the finer points of it, ie: are they doing away with ammo completely (wouldn't they just say that if they were) or are they just finding another way to institute it.
But honestly, the idea of having a 5th *real* bag to use has me happier than I can put into words. :)
belligerent Feb 5th 2009 11:42PM
What's difficult to understand about the change to ammo?
The ammo slot on your Character sheet will still be there, but now Ammo will function EXACTLY like thrown weapons.
Honestly, I can't believe they didn't do this before, as they had basically done the same thing with thrown weapons. I'm very happy about this change.
Also, I bet that they could implement the same thing with shards, but are more hesitant to do so because it's... really the only unique things that make warlocks different than other casters, pets aside.
I think that either making them stackable with the new drain soul mechanic, or better yet having just 1 that you "charge" would work.
Mysty Feb 5th 2009 11:55PM
now they've gotta remove soul shards, or else NEEEEEEEEEEEEEERDDDDDDD RAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEE!!!
Rockape Feb 6th 2009 12:02AM
Kinda sucks if your an Engineer though...but they can make it up to me by implementing bow crafting
Plastic Rat Feb 6th 2009 12:42AM
Because keeping track of actually putting bullets into my goddamned gun was JUST TOO DAMNED HARD?!
Gods, I friggin give up on this game. Soon you won't even need a bot, you'll be able to complete a raid just by training your cat to tap one button on the keyboard every few seconds.
Off to go see if Hello-Kitty Island Adventure offers less user molly codling.
M Feb 6th 2009 8:43AM
MMO-Champion posted some images found in the game files that looked like potential ammo icons, some time ago. It seemed like there was potential for different types of arrows, unless they're for different types of ranged trap-shots (like Freezing Arrow now).
What seems logical, is that you will buy (or pick up as drops) ammo "types" which function as ammo and which degrade in the same way thrown weapons degrade, and repaired in the same way. Costs to repair will be approximately the same as they are now (or a little more expensive, knowing Blizzard). They will consume a single bag slot. I'm -hoping- these ammo items will have really high durabilities, comparable to a full container of ammo.
Oh, and Plastic Rat, just because you are either not a Hunter and don't care, or you are a Hunter and just an idiot (or both), the reason for this change is to free up a bag slot that was formerly only for ammunition. It also allows Blizzard to better use ammo items as boss drop rewards.
Dobmeister Feb 6th 2009 9:57AM
I am so very relieved I didn't shell out the cash to start upgrading my quivers and ammo pouches through the Wottulk faction leatherworking recipes.
I'm guessing it will now become "I purchase either level 1 or level 80 arrow, or level 77 crafted bullet; this arrow/bullet complements my dps accordingly and will magically retreat through the exit wound of the target to be fired again." [Grassy Gnoll anyone?]
The uniqueness of Thori'dal is fading somewhat.
Matazuma Feb 5th 2009 11:18PM
Consumable ammunition has been removed
O MEE GAWD
Kolo Feb 5th 2009 11:18PM
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.
^ Can someone explain this to me? I'm not a hunter, but as engineer this seems like they removed possibly the one useful thing we had.
Hideaki Feb 5th 2009 11:56PM
Once upon a time, thrown weapons were consumed like arrows and bullets. You put a stack in your ranged slot and lost them as you used them. Then they were turned into their current incarnation, a permanent item. I'm going to assume that arrows will act in a similar fashion. For example, instead of having a stack of Sharp Arrows, you would just have one item called Sharp Arrows that you "equip" into your ammo slot.
Not only does this open up bagspace and take out a money sink, but it gives the option of more ammunition awards, with special rare and epic quality arrows and bullets being able to drop from bosses or available as badge and PvP awards.
FoxOfWar Feb 6th 2009 1:35AM
Very good points Hideaki.
Ammunition rewards... *drools*
Sminus Feb 6th 2009 4:00AM
Ammo Rewards?
Great! More stuff for hunters to roll on!
MartynArygos Feb 5th 2009 11:18PM
"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. "
Holy !@*$^
If this goes live I will be one happy hunter.
Rilthas Feb 5th 2009 11:20PM
I especially enjoy the pally changes to bok and Exorcism. So whats going to take bok's place?
Krick Feb 6th 2009 12:12AM
I'm sure that you will still have to use talent points to get Improved Blessing of Kings. Normal BoK will likely suck.
I'm more than a little concerned about the silencing effects of Avenger's Shield. Many times, I want to throw my shield at caster mobs in a trash pull to get aggro. Currently, the mobs will just stand there and try to nuke me from a distance and they can be sheeped where they stand without fear of me accidentally breaking it. If they're silenced, they'll head straight for me, giving a lot less time for proper sheep distance.
Also, regarding exorcism, I have mixed feelings. As it is, pally tanking has turned into "cooldown hell" and I don't really use exorcism all that much. I don't see how I'm supposed to work yet another cooldown into my rotation.
Before the expansion, I found playing a pally tank somewhat relaxing... line of sight shield pull, consecrate, profit. Now, it feels a lot like playing Guitar Hero on hard difficulty, and I really dislike Guitar Hero.
...
Krick
http://www.tankadin.com
Azradesh Feb 6th 2009 2:49AM
@ Krick
In that stituation let the mage/s do a "sheep pull" then use consecration as the rest reach you.
Muse Feb 6th 2009 3:52AM
Tankadins probably don't need to add Exorcism to their rotation; far as I can tell, they're doing okay as-is. But it is very well-placed for retri, who at times have up to 3 seconds of auto-swinging rotations.
And now that we already have a ranged pulling tool in the form of the all-specs taunt, I guess making Exorcism work on everything wasn't quite as big a leap as it was before.
DeathPaladin Feb 6th 2009 10:13AM
The change in Exorcism is great for Ret paladins, since it actually gives some variety to their rotation.
It also makes the Glyph of Exorcism MUCH more useful.
JDM Feb 6th 2009 10:39PM
@Azradesh:
It's completely viable to do it that way, but it creates two issues. They're nothing major, but Paladin tanks will forever QQ about them.
1. The Paladin will have to wait even longer to A.S. the incoming mobs, since A.S. loves to whack the CC. I seem to recall A.S. getting a "buff" recently that increased it's range? Mhmm.
2. If there is no Paladin threat on the CC'd mob from an initial A.S., the first place the CC'd mob goes to when broken is? Yep, the healer. Provided you got yourself a competent Mage who can keep the CC going, it isn't a huge deal, but we all know how many of us Mages are idiots. This is an issue because by the time the Paladin is done dealing with the melee mobs, they have little to no mana left to get some burst threat on the CC as it's popping.
ANYhow, with competent groups, it doesn't really matter, you'll get the pulls down with little effort and a little communication. 'Sides, with WotLK, tons of people have realized that CC is something that is -very- rare, and unnecessary. All the tanks just gather everything up and let the DPS nuke em down.