Some thoughts from the 2013-24-07 ptr 5.4 patch notes.
Just on the things I cared about or which stuck out for me. May change as the PTR progresses, and may change when included in the live game.
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shit, my 4.0 (cataclysm) grinding has been obliterated.. which I guess is fine since I have 5.0 (Pandaria) grinding.
Restoration Druids supplant Discipline Priests. ∞
- Restoration: Causes Wrath to deal 20% more damage and heals a nearby friendly target for 100% of the damage done.
- Ysera’s Gift replaces Nature’s Swiftness, and heals the Druid for 5% of their maximum health every 5 seconds. If the Druid is at full health, it will heal the most injured friendly target nearby instead.
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Nature’s Vigil when activated, causes healing spells now trigger an additional heal on a nearby ally for 25% of the amount healed. This is in addition to the existing effect where it damages a nearby enemy target for 25% of the healing done.
Hunters ∞
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Counter Shot is now a baseline interrupt ability learned by all Hunters at level 22.
- Silencing Shot is no longer a talent and is now an ability that replaces Counter Shot for Marksman Hunters.
- Deterrence now has a 3-minute cooldown (up from 2 minutes) but has 2 charges.
- Disengage now has a cooldown of 20 seconds (down from 25 seconds).
- Readiness has been removed.
- Revive Pet no longer requires the Hunter to have line-of-sight to their pet.
- Stampede damage dealt by pets when the ability is used outside of an Arena or Battleground is no longer reduced by 75%
- Binding Shot is no longer a Marksman Hunter ability and is once again a talent.
- Explosive Trap no longer shares a cooldown with Black Arrow but can no longer activate Lock and Load.
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A Murder of Crows now deals 40% more damage.
- (Makes it mandatory for boss fights lacking adds, at least for non-beastmasters)
- Aspect of the Iron Hawk now reduces all damage taken by 10%, down from 15%.
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Spirit Bond now regenerates 3% of total health every 2 seconds while the Hunter’s pet is active (up from 2%).
- (Invulnerability while farming.)
- Glyph of Enduring Deceit: Camouflage also reduces spell damage taken by 10% (not entirely sure where that’s coming from, since camoflage is cancelled when attacked)
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Glyph of Mending now speeds up the periodic effect of Mend Pet to restore health to the pet every 1 second doubling the total amount healed over 10 seconds.
Mages ∞
- frost nuke: Mastery: Frostburn has been replaced by Mastery: Icicles. When the Mage damages an enemy with their Frostbolt, and Frostfire Bolt (14% + 1.75% per Mastery) of the damage done is stored as an Icicle for 15 seconds. Mastery: Icicles also increases the Water Elemental’s Water Bolt damage by (14% + 1.75% per Mastery). Up to 5 Icicles can be stored at once. Casting Ice Lance launches all stored Icicles at the target.
- no ramp-up: Frostbolt no longer increases the damage of any spells. The damage for those spells have been increased instead.
- Ice Lance damage has been increased by 48%.
- elemental: Waterbolt damage has been increased by 25%.
- Ice Floes now has 3 charges (up from 2 charges), and has a 20-second cooldown (down from 45 seconds).
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Rune of Power now has an increased effective range. The Mage can remain up to 8 yards away from their Rune of Power and still receive benefits to mana regeneration and spell damage (up from 3 yards).
- (Makes it much more effective/easy to use, especially for odd-movement encounters.)
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Temporal Shield now also reduces damage taken by 15% while active in addition to existing effects.
Paladins ∞
- Seal of Insight no longer has a chance to restore mana on attacks.
- Inquisition now lasts 20 seconds per charge of Holy Power consumed, up from 10 seconds.
- New Talent: Evil is a Point of View. Evil is a Point of View allows the Paladin to use Turn Evil on players and beasts.
- Sacred Shield for Holy Paladins can now be active on more than one target at a time, but the talent now costs mana, and has 3 charges with a 10-second recharge.
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Selfless Healer in addition to its current effects, now also causes Judgment to generate a charge of Holy Power for Holy Paladins. Stacks of Selfless Healer now reduce the cast time, mana cost, and improve the effectiveness of Divine Light, Flash of Light, and Holy Radiance.
- (I’m not entirely sure where this one is going.. judgement had its mana cost increased, so it looks like another paladin healing style is being developed)
- Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice: Hand of Sacrifice no longer transfers damage taken by the target to the Paladin.
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Glyph of Denounce now causes Holy Shock to reduce the cast time of the next Denounce by 0.5 seconds, and the effect can stack up to 3 times.
- (zomg denounce spam?)
- Glyph of Holy Wrath now also allows Holy Wrath to stun Aberrations.
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Glyph of the Battle Healer has been redesigned. The glyph now causes Seal of Insight to heal the most wounded raid or party member instead of the Paladin.
- (another smart heal added to the game, sigh)
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Glyph of Pillar of Light: Critical heals on other players display a small pillar of light at their location briefly.
Priests ∞
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Hymn of Hope now prefers to target healers when it grants mana. Healers will always be picked before non-healers, regardless of how much mana they have.
- (Haha, getting pissed off about Warlocks with low mana has payed off.)
- Leap of Faith no longer has a facing requirement.
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Rapture now energizes the Priest for 100% of the mana cost of Power Word: Shield When the shield is fully consumed or is dispelled (used to energize the Priest with mana equal to 150% of their spirit). This is the modified mana cost for Power Word: Shield, after being reduced by Rapture’s passive effect.
- (oh my fucking god)
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Spirit Shell duration has been reduced to 10 seconds (down from 15 seconds), and the damage absorption shield’s effectiveness can now be reduced through Battle Fatigue.
- (So it’s even less useful now.)
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Lightspring is now baseline for all Holy Priests and the ability has been renamed to Lightwell.
- (finally)
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Shadowform now increases the Priest’s armor by 60%, but no longer reduces all damage taken by 15%.
- (hrmph)
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Shadowy Apparitions now creates a shadowy version of the Priest that floats towards the target and deals damage. The apparitions are now treated as a missile, and is no longer an attackable creature.
- (I suspect this will be a significant dps boost)
- Angelic Feather now increases allies’ movement speed by 80%, up from 60%, and feathers placed in the world have a duration of 10 minutes (up from 5 minutes).
- Divine Insight for Discipline Priests now has a 100% chance to activate its effect after using Penance (up from 40%), and now displays an effect in the UI when it’s active.
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From Darkness, Comes Light
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Discipline, Holy: Now also has a chance to activate its effect on cast for these following spells; Penance, Circle of Healing, Prayer of Mending, and Prayer of Healing.
- (now that penance does it, it becomes valuable for discipline priests)
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Shadow: Now has a 20% chance to activate its effect for Shadow Priests (up from a 15% chance).
- (significant dps boost)
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- Mindbender now deals 10% more damage, and mana return has been increased by 20%.
- Twist of Fate’s damage and healing threshold to activate has been increased to 35% (up from 20%).
- Glyph of Dark Binding’s effect is now baseline
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Glyph of Focused Mending causes Prayer of Mending to only bounce between the target and the caster.
- TODO – make a smart-macro to do this on my liteassist
- Glyph of Fear Ward now reduces the cooldown on Fear Ward without reducing its duration.
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Glyph of Reflective Shield now causes Power Word: Shield to reflect 70% of the damage absorbed (up from 45%).
- (cough, sputter..)
- Glyph of Feathers: Causes the Priest’s healing spells to momentarily grant angelic wings.
- Glyph of Inspired Hymns: A spirit appears above the Priest while channeling Hymns.
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Glyph of Shifted Appearances: Void Shift causes the Priest and their target to exchange appearances for several seconds.
Shamans ∞
(Yes the official Blizzard plural of Shaman is Shamans)
- Chain Heal’s effectiveness will no longer decrease with each jump (up from a 30% reduction to healing with each jump).
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Earth Elemental Totem’s summoned Greater Earth Elemental will no longer taunt off players that are tank-specialized.
- (oh hey, it’s no longer suicidal)
- Healing Rain’s radius has been increased to 12 yards, up from 10 yards.
- Riptide’s mana cost has been reduced by 25%.
- Conductivity has been redesigned. Casting Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, Healing Surge, or Chain Heal, increases the duration of Healing Rain by 3 seconds. Damaging an enemy with Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Earth Shock, or Stormstrike increases the duration of Healing Rain by 3 seconds.
- Healing Tide Totem is no longer a talent and is a baseline ability for all Shamans. Additionally, this totem will now heal 12 raid members (up from 5) when used in a 25-player instance.
- New Talent: Rushing Streams. Rushing Streams replaces Healing Tide Totem talent, increases healing done by Healing Stream Totem by 15%, and causes the totem to heal 2 targets at once.
- Stone Bulwark Totem’s initial damage absorption shield now absorbs an additional 33% in damage.
- New talent: Totemic Persistence. Summoning a second totem of the same element no longer causes the first totem to be destroyed. Only one non-Fire totem can benefit from this effect at a time.
- Flametongue Weapon effect now increases Lightning Bolt damage by 30%, up from 20%.
- Glyph of Chaining now increases the cooldown on Chain Heal by 2 seconds, down from a 4 second increase.
- Glyph of Riptide reduces the initial direct healing of Riptide by 75%, down from a 90% reduction to healing.
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Glyph of Spirit Wolf: Ghost Wolf can be now be used while the Shaman is a ghost.
Warlocks ∞
- Soul Swap no longer does any damage, and now copies damage-over-time effects instead of just moving them without needing a glyph. Copied effects now once again preserve their power and duration. Duration has been reduced to 6 seconds (down from 20 seconds).
- Harvest Life no longer replaces Drain Life. Harvest Life is now a passive talent that increases Drain Life’s damage by 50%, and healing by 150%. The talent no longer turns the ability into an area-of-effect spell.
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Kil’jaden’s Cunning no longer reduces movement speed, and will now allow the Warlock to cast Incinerate, Malefic Grasp, and Shadow Bolt while moving.
- (warlocks are now hunters)
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Soul Link now transfers 20% of damage taken by the Warlock to their pet, and 3% of all damage dealt by the Warlock will be returned as healing for the Warlock and their pet. This ability is always active while the Warlock’s pet is active.
Pet Battles ∞
- Critter type’s passive effect now makes critters immune to roots, stuns, and sleep effects.
- Dragonkin type’s passive effect now activates after an attack brings a target’s to below 50% health, up from 25%.
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Magic type’s passive effect now caps damage taken at 35% of maximum health, up from 40%.
Items ∞
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All permanent item enhancements provided by Enchanting, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring, and various vendors and quests are now able to be applied to items of any level. This means all enchantments can now be applied to heirloom items.
Heroic grinding removed
- Epic quality (purple) Valor items sold by the Shado-Pan Assault now have their reputation requirements reduced to Friendly or below, and have their Valor Point cost reduced by 34%.
- Epic quality (purple) Valor items sold by all other Mists of Pandaria faction quartermasters no longer have reputation requirements, and will now cost Justice Points instead of Valor.
- Rare quality (blue) items have their Justice Point cost reduced by 75%.
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No changes for items that require an Exalted reputation.
