Sabo
Veteran
Frost Mage
Losses
- Ray of Frost: moved to a level 100 talent.
- Ice Barrier now scales off total health instead of spell power and versa.
Gains
- Ice Nova: Looks to be a 40y, ranged Frost Nova that freezes for 2s. It is interesting to note that the tooltip doesn’t say anything about damage interrupting the effect. This could have Shatter/Ice Lance implications as you could have a guaranteed big crit regardless of incoming damage on your target.
- ???Illusion: 2m appearance change on a 10m cd.
- Fire Blast: instant, castable while casting other spells, 12s cd.
- Remove Curse: curse cleanse on an 8s cd.
Ret Paladin
Losses
- Execution Sentence nuke. Replaced with an instant 3hp dump with a 20% damage buff for 12s on a 30s cd.
- Crusader Strike: cd increased to 6s.
Gains
- ???Tyr’s Deliverance: AoE heal
- Judgement now grants 1hp.
- Art of War: a passive BoJ reset from auto attacks that scales with haste. Tooltip says (4+ Haste) ppm. I’m not exactly sure how to interpret that.
Resto Shaman
To my eyes, Resto Shaman mechanics have been untouched.
Elemental Shaman
Losses
- Maelstrom generation has been nerfed across the board.
- Earth Shock now costs 60 maelstrom to cast.
- Level 15 talents have all been changed. Gone are: Path of fLame, Earthen Rage, and Totem Mastery. All three are underwhelming in their own right, imho.
Gains
- The level 15 talents replacements are all better than the old options. Exposed Elements: Earth Shock doubles your next Lightning Bolt damage. Echo of the Elements: grants 2 charges of Lava Burst, yeah boi. Third is Elemental Blast: initial damage and a 10s crit/haste/mastery buff on a 12s cd. It’s nice to actually have some decent choices now.
- Flame Shock doesn’t consume maelstrom to cast and has a 3s longer duration, up from 15s to 18s.
- LEVEL 29 MASTERY??? Wowhead’s BfA talent calculator has Elemental Shamans mastery available at level 29. Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning have a 15% chance to trigger a second, weaker cast on the same target, but generate less maelstrom. This is very, very interesting. Could this be Blizzard’s balancing factor with the nerf to maelstrom production?
These are just my findings from being bored at work today and are in no way exhaustive. I’d love to see other specs be given a little run-down like this because outside of these 3 classes my knowledge of nuances is limited.
Losses
- Ray of Frost: moved to a level 100 talent.
- Ice Barrier now scales off total health instead of spell power and versa.
Gains
- Ice Nova: Looks to be a 40y, ranged Frost Nova that freezes for 2s. It is interesting to note that the tooltip doesn’t say anything about damage interrupting the effect. This could have Shatter/Ice Lance implications as you could have a guaranteed big crit regardless of incoming damage on your target.
- ???Illusion: 2m appearance change on a 10m cd.
- Fire Blast: instant, castable while casting other spells, 12s cd.
- Remove Curse: curse cleanse on an 8s cd.
Ret Paladin
Losses
- Execution Sentence nuke. Replaced with an instant 3hp dump with a 20% damage buff for 12s on a 30s cd.
- Crusader Strike: cd increased to 6s.
Gains
- ???Tyr’s Deliverance: AoE heal
- Judgement now grants 1hp.
- Art of War: a passive BoJ reset from auto attacks that scales with haste. Tooltip says (4+ Haste) ppm. I’m not exactly sure how to interpret that.
Resto Shaman
To my eyes, Resto Shaman mechanics have been untouched.
Elemental Shaman
Losses
- Maelstrom generation has been nerfed across the board.
- Earth Shock now costs 60 maelstrom to cast.
- Level 15 talents have all been changed. Gone are: Path of fLame, Earthen Rage, and Totem Mastery. All three are underwhelming in their own right, imho.
Gains
- The level 15 talents replacements are all better than the old options. Exposed Elements: Earth Shock doubles your next Lightning Bolt damage. Echo of the Elements: grants 2 charges of Lava Burst, yeah boi. Third is Elemental Blast: initial damage and a 10s crit/haste/mastery buff on a 12s cd. It’s nice to actually have some decent choices now.
- Flame Shock doesn’t consume maelstrom to cast and has a 3s longer duration, up from 15s to 18s.
- LEVEL 29 MASTERY??? Wowhead’s BfA talent calculator has Elemental Shamans mastery available at level 29. Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning have a 15% chance to trigger a second, weaker cast on the same target, but generate less maelstrom. This is very, very interesting. Could this be Blizzard’s balancing factor with the nerf to maelstrom production?
These are just my findings from being bored at work today and are in no way exhaustive. I’d love to see other specs be given a little run-down like this because outside of these 3 classes my knowledge of nuances is limited.
