A new build of the beta has just been deployed, implementing some of the changes the developers discussed during the recently concluded chat on Twitter, as well as a slew of new spells and abilities. There are no official patch notes yet -- and it may take a while considering this is merely a beta build -- but Nihilum has cobbled together some of the confirmed changes and put them up as a work in progress. Everything is still being collated at this point, so keep checking this post for updates. Here are some of the interesting points from the patch so far:

• Holy Power for paladins has been implemented
• New talent trees are up
• Warriors get their own version of Consecrate

Check out the rest of the changes after the jump.

Class changes

Death Knight
Blood

• Dark Simulacrum - Cooldown reduced to 1 minute from 2 minutes, now costs 20 Runic power, up from 0.

Frost

Unholy

Druid
Balance

• Fungal Growth - NYI tag removed.
• Improved Eclipse - When you critically hit with Starfire, you have a % chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 0%. When you critically hit with Wrath, you have a ${*0.6}% chance of increasing your critical strike chance with Starfire by 0%. Each effect lasts 45 sec and each has a separate 30 sec cooldown. Both effects cannot occur simultaneously.(Talent, ) Effect length increased.

Feral

Restoration

Hunter
Beast Mastery

• Beastmastery Hunter - Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Steady Shot, Cobra Shot, and Volley by 70%.(Instant cast, )

Mage
Arcane

• Slow Fall - Now earned at level 32 instead of 26.
• Mana Shield - Now earned at level 46 instead of 52.
• Mage Armor - Now earned at level 68 instead of 64.
• Conjure Mana Gem - Now earned at level 48 instead of 46.
• Arcane Intellect - Now earned at level 52 instead of 48.
• Arcane Explosion - Now earned at level 58 instead of 56.

Fire

• Scorch - Now earned at level 26 instead of 32.
• Molten Armor - Now earned at level 64 instead of 54.
• Frostfire Bolt - Now earned at level 56 instead of 68.
• Dragon's Breath - Now earned at level 1.
• Living Bomb - Now earned at level 1.
• Combustion - Now earned at level 1.
• Blast Wave - Now earned at level 1.

Frost

• Frostbolt - Now learned at level 7 instead of 8.
• Frost Nova - Now learned at level 8 instead of 9.
• Frost Armor - Now earned at level 54 instead of 7.
• Ice Barrier -Now earned at level 1.
• Deep Freeze - Now earned at level 1.
• Cold Snap - Now earned at level 1.

Paladin
Holy

• Speed of Light - Casting Holy Shock grants 5/10/30?% spell haste for your next Flash of Light, Holy Light or Divine Light, and casting Healing Hands grants you 10/20/60?% movement speed for $85497d. Also lowers the cooldown on Healing Hands by 10/20/30 sec at all times.
• Denounce - You have a $h% chance when any of your Holy spells get a critical effect to make your next Exorcism spell instant and cost no mana.
• Tower of Radiance (NYI) - Directly healing the target of your Beacon of Light has a % chance to generate Holy Power.
• Light of Dawn - Send a wave of healing energy before you, healing all friendly targets up to 30 yards away for $s1.

Protection

• Divine Sacrifice - now Divine Guardian, simply reduces damage taken by raid members in the area by 20% for the duration.
• Wrath of the Faithful - Increases the damage by 10/20% and critical strike chance by 10/20% of your Holy Wrath spell.
• Grand Crusader - When your Shield of Righteousness and Hammer of Righteousness deal damage, they have a $h% chance of refreshing the cooldown on your next Crusader Strike and causing it to hit for $s2% additional damage.
• Shield of the Templar - Increases the critical strike chance of your Shield of Righteousness by 5/10%. In addition, your Shield of Righteousness critical strikes have a $h% chance of making your next Judgement a critical strike.

Retribution

• Templar's Verdict - An instant weapon attack that causes a percentage of weapon damage. Consumes all applications of Holy Power to increase damage dealt:

1 Holy Power: 55% Weapon Damage

2 Holy Power: 125% Weapon Damage

3 Holy Power: 225% Weapon Damage

• Art of War - chance to trigger on all attacks, only benefits Exorcism.
• Improved Crusader Strike - increases damage by 15/30% and reduces cooldown by .5/1 sec.
• Rebuke - Interrupts spellcasting and prevents any spell in that school from being cast for $d.
• Wrath of the Lightbringer - Increases the critical strike chance of your Holy Wrath ability by 25/50% and reduces the cooldown of your Avenging Wrath ability by $/1000;s2 sec.
• Zealotry - 31 point talent. Your Crusader Strike generates 3 stacks of Holy Power per strike for the next $d. Requires 3 stacks of Holy Power to use.

Priest
Discipline

Holy

Shadow

Rogue
Subtlety

Combat

• Revealing Strike - Now learned at level 1.

Assassination

• Venomous Wounds - Each time your Rupture or Garrote deals damage to an enemy that is afflicted with your poison, you have a 30/60% chance to deal 1 additional Nature damage and to regain 3/6 Energy.(Talent, ) Energy gain added.
• Venomous Vim - Each time your Rupture or Garrote deals damage to an enemy that is afflicted with your poison, you have a chance to regain Energy.(Instant cast, )
• Deadly Momentum - After killing an opponent that yields experience or honor, you have a 50% chance to increase the critical strike chance of your next attack by 40%, and to refresh your Slice and Dice and Recuperate abilities to their original duration.(Talent, ) (Two ranks, one is new and one is old)
• Deadened Nerves - Reduces all damage taken by 3/7/10%.(Talent, ) Up from 2/4/6%.

Shaman
Elemental

• Improved Lava Lash - Increases the damage of your Lava Lash ability by 15/30%, and by an additional 10/20% for each of your applications of Searing Flames on the target, consuming those applications in the process.(Talent, ) Up from 10/20% and 7/14%.
• Feral Spirit - Now earned at level 1.
• Earthquake - Now earned at level 1.
• Shamanistic Rage - Now earned at level 1.
• Ancestral Knowledge - Now Elemental, was Enhancement.

Restoration

Enhancement

Warlock
Destruction

• Shadowflame - Targets in a cone in front of the caster take 519 Shadow damage and feared in horror while taking an additional 408 Fire damage over 6 sec.(25% Base Mana, Instant cast, 25 sec cooldown, ) Fear added, cooldown up from 15 seconds.
• Shadowburn - Only usable on enemies that have less than 20% health.
• Nether Protection - After being hit with a spell, you have a 10/20/30% chance to gain Nether Protection, reducing all damage by that spell school by 15% for 8 sec.(Talent, )
• Improved Soul Fire - You increase your spell haste by 7/15% for 15 sec after you Soul Fire a target at or above 80% health. This effect has a 30 sec cooldown.(Talent, )
• Emberstorm - Reduces the cast time of your Soul Fire by 0.5/1 sec and your Incinerate by 0.125/.25 sec.(Talent, )
• Destruction Warlock - No longer increases chance to hit. Down from 1/2 sec.
• Burning Embers - Your Soulfire and your Imp's Firebolt cause a Burning Ember damage-over-time effect on the target equal to 15/30% of the damage done lasting 7 sec. The damage done by your Burning Ember effect cannot exceed ${$SP*1.0+0}/${$SP*0.2+0} total damage.(Talent, )
• Bane - No longer reduces Soul Fire cast time.
• Backlash - Gives you a 13/26% chance when hit by a physical attack to reduce the cast time of your next Shadow Bolt or Incinerate spell by 100%. This effect lasts 8 sec and will not occur more than once every 8 seconds.(Talent, ) Up from 8/16%

Affliction

• Pandemic - Now a talent.
• Jinx - Your Curse of the Elements also effects all nearby enemy targets within 20/40 yards of the cursed target, and your Curse of the Weakness also reduces the targets energy, rage, focus or runic power generation by 5/10% while active.(Talent, )
• Bane of Doom - Curses the target with impending doom, causing 2,213 Shadow damage every 3 sec. When Bane of Doom deals damage, it has a 25% chance to summon a Demon guardian. Only one Bane per Warlock can be active on any one target.(15% Base Mana, 1 min duration, Instant cast, 30 yd range, 1 min cooldown, Causes 3200 Shadow damage after 1 min., )
• Affliction Warlock - Reduces the global cooldown of your Bane, Curse and Corruption spells to 1 sec. Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting any spell by 70%.(Instant cast, ) Corruption added and chance to hit removed.

Demonology

• Summon Infernal - Summons a meteor from the Twisting Nether, causing 200 Fire damage and stunning all enemy targets in the area for 2 sec. An Infernal rises from the crater, under the command of the caster for 1 min. The Infernal deals strong area of effect damage, and will be drawn to attack targets afflited by your Bane of Agony or Bane of Doom spells.(80% Base Mana, 45 sec duration, 1.5 sec cast, 30 yd range, 10 min cooldown, )
• Summon Doomguard - Summons a Doomguard to fight beside you for 45 sec. The Doomguard will assist you by attacking the target which is afflicted by your Bane of Doom or Bane of Agony spell, and will sometimes dispel harmful magic effects from you.(80% Base Mana, Instant cast, 10 min cooldown, )
• Nemesis - Reduces the cooldown of your Demonic Empowerment, Metamorphosis, and Fel Domination spells by 15/30%.(Talent, ) Up from 10/20%.
• Mana Feed - Now a talent.
• Impending Doom - Reduces the cooldown of the Bane of Doom damage effect by 5/10/15 sec., and you have a 5/10/15% chance when you Shadow Bolt, Hand of Gul'dan or Incinerate to reduce the cooldown of your Demon Form by 6 sec.(Talent, )
• Hellfire - Ignites the area surrounding the caster, causing 83 Fire damage to himelf/herself and 83 Fire damage to all nearby enemies every 1 sec. Lasts 15 sec.(64% Base Mana, 15 sec duration, Instant cast, Damages self and all nearby enemies., )
• Demonology Warlock - Increased chance to hit removed.
• Demonic Pact - Increases your spell damage by 2/4%, and your summoned demon grants the Demonic Pact effect to all nearby friendly party and raid members. The Demonic Pact effect increases spell power by 10%.(Talent, )
• Demon Leap - Min range removed?
• Dark Arts - Reduces the cast time of your Imp's Firebolt spell by .25/.5/.75 sec, increases the attack power bonus of your Felguard's Demonic Frenzy by 1/2/3% and increases the damage done by your Felguard's Shadow Bite by 5/10/15%.(Talent, )
• Cremation - Now a talent.
• Ancient Grimoire - Increases the duration of your Infernal and Doomguard summons by 10/20 sec.(Talent, ) UP from 6/12 sec.

Warrior
Arms

• Thunder Clap - Duration increased to 30 seconds, up from 10.
• Throwdown - Knocks the target to the ground and stuns it for 5 sec.(15 Rage, 5 sec duration, 5 yd range, 45 sec cooldown, Stunned., Talent, )
• Rend - Wounds the target causing them to bleed for 422 damage plus an additional ${0.2*6*((5WB+5wb)/2+$AP/14*5WS)} (based on weapon damage) over 15 sec.(10 Rage, 15 sec duration, Instant cast, 5 yd range, Bleeding for 5 plus a percentage of weapon damage every 3 seconds., ) Damage increase.

Protection

• Glyph of Shield Wall - Shield Wall now reduces damage taken by 40%, but increases its cooldown by 2 min.(5 sec cast, )
• Impending Victory - Using Shield Slam on a target with 20% or less health has a $h% chance to allow the use of Victory Rush but that Victory Rush only heals for 5% of your health.
• Thunderstruck - Your Thunder Clap leaves a crackling zone of energy on the ground for 5 sec, dealing $85640s1 damage every sec to enemies that cross it.

Fury

Check back on this post throughout the day as it will be edited as more information trickles in.

---

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.

---

Tags: cat-beta, cata-beta, cataclysm-beta, cataclysm-game, cataclysm-guide, cataclysm-news, expansion, expansion-three, next-xpac, third-expansion, world-of-warcraft-beta, world-of-warcraft-cataclysm, world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-beta, wow-4.0, wow-4.0.2, wow-beta, wow-cataclysm, wow-cataclysm-beta, wow-expansion, wow-expansion-beta, wow-guide, wow-third-expansion

Filed under: News items, Cataclysm