Yet Another Warlock Nerf

Warlock

• Curse of Shadows: This spell has been removed.
• Curse of Elements: This spell now applies to Arcane and Shadow damage, as well as Frost and Fire.
• Demonic Sacrifice: This ability will now interact correctly with the Spirit Guide resurrection system in battlegrounds. A sacrificed pet will not be resummoned on death, and will not prevent keeping a record of the most recently created pet.
• Health Funnel: This ability will now cancel channeling when the target pet is Banished.
• Ritual of Summoning: The mana cost of this spell will now be properly deducted when cast.
• Summon Felsteed is now available at level 30.

I’ can’t think of any reason why Curse of Shadows will be removed. Sure, it’s a great change and a lot of players (not only warlocks) will be happy about it; it will be much more convenient now in raids and 5-mans also, but I don’t remember convenience ever being a reason for such changes (buffs?).

There’s a few other changes that caught my attention also.

ROGUE

• Cheat Death: This talent has been rebalanced significantly. Killing blows are no longer 100% absorbed. If the Rogue is below 10% health, the killing blow is still completely absorbed; if the Rogue is over 10% health, enough damage will be absorbed to reduce the Rogue’s health down to 10%. For the following 3 seconds, damage is not always reduced by 90%; it is now reduced by a maximum of 90%, depending on how much resilience the Rogue has. The damage reduction will be four times the damage reduction resilience causes against critical strikes.

Rogue’s Cheat Death is obviously nerfed, which will probably make about 84% of WoW players very happy. I read about something like this a couple of weeks ago on WoM, and it seems Jasi is either psychic or Blizzard actually listens to their customers (blasphemy!). Will this end the need for rogues to wear PvE gear in arenas, only time will tell. Hopefully the change will go through.

There wasn’t supposed to be any PvP balancing changes till WotLK - who would of guessed, huh.

HUNTER

• Growl: Pets will no longer generate additional threat from this ability based on attack power buffs cast on them. Attack power buffs on their master will still indirectly increase the threat generated by the pet’s Growl

I really hope I won’t have to read any more posts on hunter blogs about Growl after this.

DRUID

• Barkskin: The cost of this spell is now reduced by Tree of Life Form.

More mana is always good.

Magister’s Terrace

• The Stun component to the Sunblade Mage Guard Glaive Throw has been removed and the Bounce range reduced.
• Vexallus and Kael’thas are now tauntable in Heroic mode.
• Vexallus’ damage caused by Pure Energy has been decreased.
• Kael’thas’ Arcane Sphere has had its visual size increased. His Arcane Sphere attack has had its range decreased and the damage/second of Phase two on Normal mode has been decreased. (Heroic mode remains unchanged.)
• Sunblade Warlocks have had their damage reduced slightly.
• Fel Crystals in the Selin Fireheart encounter have had their health reduced slightly.
• Warlord Salaris and Kagani Nightstrike have had their damage output reduced slightly.

I did a few dozen runs in MgT, and while some were simply terrible, I mostly enjoyed the instance since it was actually challenging. Those are some serious nerfs here, which will make this instance more popular and even more profitable. If you ever need Void Crystals, that’s the place to go to.

QUESTS

• Increased the drop rate of Pristine Yeti Horns from Winterspring Ice Thistle Matriarchs and Patriarchs.

It’s probably not important to most of you, but this is THE most annoying quest I ever did. Took like 4 hours of grinding, honestly.

BUG FIXES

• Players will now correctly receive a Battleground Mark message for the marks that are received at the end of a battle.

I’m guessing this has something to do with Mind Controlling players so they don’t receive marks *hint*

OTHER

• Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.

Not saying it’s bad, but why?

• Invisibility Potions: These potions now are on the same cooldown as other combat consumable potions (such as mana potions.)

I heard from a mage buddy about Invisibility potions triggering a 10-minute cooldown on Mana Emeralds - anyone care to shed some light? What do you think, will this affect shoulder size on human male models?

If you want to read the full patch notes, guess where to go.