Grabbed these from MMO-Champion

Elemental
Skills

• Lava Burst mana cost reduced, damage increased, and it will now only consume your own Flame Shock.

Talents

• Thunderstorm (Tier 11) knockback increased to 20 yards. (Previously 6 yards)
• Lightning Mastery (Tier 6) no longer affects Lava Burst.
• Elemental Fury moved from Tier 5 to Tier 3. It is now 5 ranks and increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Searing, Magma, and Fire Nova Totems and your Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by 20/40/60/80/100%. (Previously did 100% with 1 talent point)
• Call of Thunder moved from Tier 3 to Tier 5. It now only costs 1 talent point and increases the critical strike chance of your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Thunderstorm spells by an additional 5%.

Enhancement
Talents

• Maelstrom Weapon (Tier 10) changed to - When you critically hit with a melee weapon, you have a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to reduce the cast time of your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Burst, Lesser Healing Wave or Healing Wave spell by 20%. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts 15 sec.
• Spectral Transformation removed.
• *New Talent* Earthen Power (Tier 9) - Your Earthbind Totem has a 50/100% chance to also remove all snare effects from you and nearby friendly targets when it pulses.
• *New Talent* Lava Lash (Tier 8 ) - You charge your off-hand weapon with lava, instantly dealing 100% off-hand Weapon damage. Damage is increased by 25% if your off-hand weapon is enchanted with Flametongue. Instant Cast. 6 sec cooldown.
• Unleashed Rage moved from Tier 8 to Tier 6.
• Stormstrike (Tier 7) now affects Frost and Fire damage as well. Will now only affect your own spells.
• Mental Quickness moved from Tier 6 to Tier 8.
• Weapon Mastery (Tier 6) is now 3 ranks and increases damage you deal with all weapons by 4/7/10%. (Previously 2/4/6/8/10%)
• Toughness (Tier 4) now reduces the duration of movement slowing effects on you by 6/12/18/24/30%. (Previously 10/20/30/40/50%)
• Thundering Strikes (Tier 2) now affects spells as well as melee attacks.

Restoration
Talents

• Spirit Link (Tier 11) now breaks when being the target of an effect which breaks on taking damage (Example: Polymorph). It also now has a 10 sec cooldown.
• Ancestral Aweakening (Tier 9) now affects the lowest percentage health player and heals for 10/20/30% of the amount healed. (Previously affected the lowest health player and healed for 7/13/20%)
• Nature’s Guardian (Tier 7) now has an 8 sec cooldown. (Previously 5 sec)

Glyphs

• Glyph of Renewed Life - All stats increased by 5% for 1 min when you Reincarnate.

This was posted yesterday by Koraa on the Beta forums:

Here are some followup posts made by Koraa in the same thread:

Thanks to MMO Champion for compiling this list

Elemental
Talents

• Thunderstorm (Tier 11) damage reduced and knockback increased to 6 yards.
• Storm, Earth and Fire (Tier 10) changed to - Your Lightning Bolt gains an additional 2/4/6/8/10% of your spell power, your Earth Shock’s range is increased by 1 yards and the periodic damage done by your Flame Shock is increased by 10/20/30/40/50%.
• Lava Flows (Tier 9) now increases the amount of bonus spell damage on your Flametongue Weapon by an additional 15/30/45%. (Previously 20/40/60%)

Enhancement
Talents

• Maelstrom weapon (Tier 10) now reduces the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave, Healing Wave, and Chain Heal as well.
• Shamanistic Focus (Tier 3) changed - Reduces the mana cost of your Shock spells by 45%.

Restoration

• Tidal Waves (Tier 10) changed to - You have a 20/40/60/80/100% chance after you cast Chain Heal to lower the cast time of your next Lesser Healing Wave or Healing Wave spell by 30%. In addition, your Healing Wave gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus healing effects and your Lesser Healing Wave gains an additional 2/4/6/8/10% of your bonus healing effects.
• Ancestral Awakening (Tier 9) changed so that the spirit heals for 7/13/20% of the amount you healed. (Previously was 20/40/60%)
• Nature’s Guardian (Tier 7) now has a 5 sec cooldown. (Previously was 8 sec)

New Shaman patch notes for Beta

• Anticipation (Enhancement): Now is a 3-point talent, down from a 5-point talent and now reduces the duration of disarm effects on you by 16/25/50%.
• Healing Grace (Restoration): Healing Way and Ancestral Fortitude are now affected by the dispel resistance portion of this talent.
• Tidal Focus (Restoration): Now works with Earth Shield.

New glyph has been added:

• Glyph of Ghost Wolf — Your Ghost Wolf form regenerates an additional 1% of your maximum health every 5 sec.

Concerning the undocumented change to Thunderstorm (knock back changed from 15yards to 5yards):

Concerning Shamans having so many abilities to use in PVP and being limited by the Global Cooldown (GCD) - someone complained about the new Wind Shock skill being on the GCD, to which we have this reply:

Sorry for the few days of downtime, I was spending all weekend moving into my new house Anyhow, here’s the goods!

Concerning totems survivability in PVP

Some WotLK patch notes listed on MMO Champion back on the 2nd

The NDA has been lifted, below are the current patch notes for WotLK

Shaman patch notes are listed below, Hit the link for a full set of notes

• All totems are now considered on the “Physical” school, and no longer magical spells.
• Ancestral Knowledge (Enhancement): Now increases your Intellect by 2/4/6%, instead of increasing your total Mana by 2/4/6/8/10%.
• Call of Flame (Elemental): Now also increases the damage of your Lava Burst spell by 2/4/6%.
• Call of Thunder (Elemental) now also increases the critical strike chance of your Thunder spell.
• Concussion (Elemental) now increases the damage of your Thunder and Lava Burst spells.
• Convection (Elemental) is now a 3-point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Now lowers the mana cost of Thunder and Lava Burst.
• Earth’s Grasp (Elemental) is now a tier-1 talent, up from tier-2.
• Elemental Detestation (Elemental) is now a tier-2 talent, up from tier-4.
• Elemental Focus (Restoration): Now also can proc off Lesser Healing Wave and Healing Wave, and can be used on all healing spells.
• Elemental Fury (Elemental) now requires Elemental Focus as a pre-requisite
• Elemental Precision (Elemental): Chance to hit reduced to 1/2/3% from 2/4/6%, but threat reduction increased to 10/20/30% up from 4/7/10%.
• Enhancing (Enhancement) Totems is now a Tier 1 talent, up from Tier-2.
• Flametongue Totem is now a flat spell damage totem. All ranks have been modified.
• Frostbrand’s snare effect has been increased to 50%, up from 25%.
• Ghost Wolf’s mana cost is now 13% base.
• Grace of Air Totem has been removed. (Agility has been rolled over into Strength of Earth Totem)
• Improved Fire Totems (Elemental) is now (again) Improved Fire Nova Totem. It now has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets for 2 sec.
• Improved Lightning Shield (Enhancement) is now Elemental Shields, and is in Tier-1.
• New ranks have been added of Water Shield, starting at level 20. (Level 20, 27, 34, 41, 48, 55, 62, 69)
• New Spell: Earthliving Weapon - Imbue the Shaman’s weapon with earthen life. Increases healing done by x and each heal has a 20% chance to proc Earthliving on the target, healing an additionaly over 12 sec. Lasts 30 minutes.
• New Talent: Cleanse Spirit (Restoration) - Cleanse the spirit of a friendly target, removing 1 poison effect, 1 disease effect, and 1 curse effect.
• New Talent: Elemental Shields (Enhancement): Increases the damage done by your Lightning Shield orbs by 5/10/15%, increases the amount of mana gained from your Mana Shield orbs by 5/10/15% and increases the amount of healing done by your Earth Shield orbs by 5/10/15%.
• New Talent: Mental Dexterity (Enhancement) - Increases your Attack Power by 33/66/100% of your Intellect.
• Rockbiter ranks 5 through 9 have been removed. Windfury Weapon is intended to replace Rockbiter at level 30.
• Shapeshifting will no longer cancel Water Walking.
• Shield Specialization (Enhancement) - Now a 2-point talent, and increases the chance to block with attacks by 10/20%, and increases the amount blocked by 5/10%.
• Stoneskin Totem now increases armor instead of reducing physical damage.
• Storm Reach (Elemental): Now also increases the radius of your Thunder spell by 10/20%.
• Strength of Earth Totem now also increases agility.
• Tranquil Air Totem has been removed. (Threat is being addressed by modifications to the base threat of players and/or “baked” into tanking abilities.)
• Unleashed Rage is now raid wide.
• Windfury Totem is now a flat 20% melee haste totem. All ranks have been modified.
• Windwall Totem has been removed.
• Wrath of Air is now a flat 10% spell haste totem.

Read the rest of this entry »

After the jump, you can see the full patch notes. Listed immediately below are those that are most relevant to Shamans - if you feel I have missed any summary items, please let me know!

General

• Dispel effects will no longer attempt to remove effects that have 100% dispel resistance.
• Parry Rating, Defense Rating, and Block Rating: Low-level players will now convert these ratings into their corresponding defensive stats at the same rate as level 34 players.
• Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.

Shaman

• Earth Elemental: This pet will now leash back to its totem when pulled beyond 50 yards away.
• Lightning Overload: This talent will no longer do excessive damage when used with Lightning Bolt Ranks 2-10.

Mages

• Frost Armor, Ice Armor, Mage Armor, and Molten Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.

Warlocks

• Demon Skin, Demon Armor, and Fel Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.

Dungeons and Raids

• Sunwell Plateau
  • Kilâ??jaeden Encounter
    • Sinister Reflections are now interruptible.

Items

• Brutal Gladiatorâ??s Pummeler has had its Stamina value increased to the appropriate value.

User Interface

• Target buff/debuff timers that appear when you cast a spell are now more visible.
• Added the following macro commands: /targetenemyplayer, /targetfriendplayer.
• Added key bindings for tab targeting players.
• Ctrl-Tab and other target nearest friend functions will no longer target you.
• Targeting using /target will prefer live targets over dead ones.
• You can no longer click the minimap to cast ground targeted spells.

Bug Fixes

• The mage spell, Counterspell now shows in the combat log.
• Talented abilities that cost a percentage of base mana will no longer display an incorrect mana cost when inspected by a player of a different class or level.
• Greater Elementals summoned by a shaman will now properly have a combat log entry.
• A message will now appear in the combat log if a debuff is removed by normal melee attacks.
• It is no longer possible to dispel Shattered Sun Pendant buffs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Now that we are in the second day of Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational, and the fervor over the Diablo 3 announcement has simmered down a bit - here are some changes that have been mentioned for the Shaman class. Some of these are very very nice, and it sounds like Blizzard might actually be listening to the Shaman community (ala the totem changes in WotLK).

Crowd Control and Anti-Crowd Control
This has pretty much been the bane of the Shaman class, especially in PvP. We had no reliable crowd control, other than a snare (Frostshock, and to a lesser extent, Frostbrand Weapon). There has been a very loud outcry from the Shaman community for the last several years concerning this. Patch after patch, we Shaman never got the CC or anti-CC we were clamoring for. Now, with WotLK, we might just be getting there. How so?

Well first off, we are getting an actual CC ability, called Hex. This 1.5 second cast spell will turn the target into a frog. The affected target can move, but cannot attack or use spells. Much like the hex from the Shaman NPC characters. There is currently a 1 minute cooldown on this spell, but this may change. Also, damaging a hexed target does not break the effect. That means a target can be hexed and focus-fired down quickly.

Next up, and I don’t think this was talked about at the WWI, but has been data-mined from data files, is the Enhancement talent Improved Shamanistic Rage. This 2 point talent, branching sideways from Shamanistic Rage will give the Shaman a 50/100% chance to avoid all forms of Stun, Snare and Movement Impairing effects, while under the effect of Shamanistic Rage. Alpha talent tree here.

In the Elemental Tree, the new talent Storm, Earth and Fire gives a chance of minor crowd control. This talent gives the Shaman’s Frostshock spell a 5/10/15/20/25% chance to root the target in place for 2 seconds. Nothing super major, but it’s a nice addition. This talent it deep into the Elemental tree, but it also adds two other bonuses: Earth Shock’s range is increased by 1/2/3/4/5 yards and Flame Shock’s periodic damage is increased by 20/40/60/80/100%. Very nice indeed!

Weapon Enchantments
Blizzard has heard the Shaman’s cries for changes to the weapon enchantments. As you probably already know, we had four different enchantments, with only one - Windfury Weapon - being used in almost all situations. Blizzard has headed our calls and has taken action! Rockbiter Weapon is going away. In it’s place, we will be receiving Earthliving Weapon, which gives a +Healing bonus to the Shaman. Flametongue will give +Spell Damage and Frostbrand will more reliably snare targets. Windfury Totem will not be a weapon enchantment anymore. Instead it will be a buff, and can be used in bear form or with poison (for Druids and Rogues) amongst other things. This also seems to suggest that it will stack with our personal Windfury Weapon!

Totems
Blizzard is stating that they will be combining many totems together. For example, Strength of Earth and Grace of Air will be combined into one totem. But the biggie: Totems will now affect the entire raid. This can be seen as both a positive thing and a bad thing. On one hand, all raid members get some totem lovin’ while on the other hand, taking into account that they are combining some totems - why would you need more than one or two Shaman? Also, totems will not be spells anymore, but will be physical actions. This means you can drop totems when you are silenced, and they cannot be counterspelled!

As well as totems now affecting the entire raid, it seems Unleashed Rage will as well!

There are various other changes and talents that have been known about already, many of which you can view at the WotLK wiki.

So what do you think of the upcoming changes?

The Brewfest event is current up for testing on the PTR. Some quick notes:

• There will be two purchasable mounts this time
  • A Kodo for Horde players only
  • A Ram for Alliance players only
• There is a event-only boss, named Coren Direbrew (pic below). He is located in the Grim Guzzler inside Blackrock Depths. Instead of having to clear all the way to the tavern every time, Blizzard has installed a teleporter that will whisk you on down there. This time around, you get to fight him!
  His drops:
  • [Coren's Lucky Coin]
  • [Dark Iron Smoking Pipe]
  • [Direbrew Hops]
  • [Empty Mug of Direbrew]
  • [Direbrew's Shanker]
  • [Brightbrew Charm]
  • [Balebrew Charm]