Blizzard released their official beta-preview talent calculators and are listing Ancestral Knowledge being back to increased mana instead of increased INT. They say "Talent calculator stats may differ from those seen in the Wrath of the Lich King beta, as they may reflect more current information", but I'm dubious. Still, it's a bit worrying. Perhaps I'm reading that statement wrong and they mean the ones in the beta are the more current ones, but I don't think I am.

About hit rating, has it already been implemented as "universal" hit rating on the test realm ? If so it would be nice to have some feedback

The website development is always behind the curve, the stuff *in* beta is more recent.

Yes its implemented. Not sure what you mean by "feedback."

Well for instance does it have the same value as melee hit rating ? Or spell hit rating ? or something else ?

Just a quick note. Don't forget that Shield Spec may be nice for Resto/Ele in PVP.

Issues with re-gemming may be eased by the fact that green JC cut (Delicate Bloodstone) offers 12 Agi, 2 more than BC purple cut (Delicate Crimson Spinel).
So hopefully, with tier pieces stat rearranged to reflect updated relative stat weights, we will just re-gem with green gems and move on.

Shield Spec doesn't exist anymore. Finally.

On the current version of the talent tree shown on the bliz wotlk site, there isn't a Shield Spec.

EDIT: Mind you, I'm not sure I trust that talent tree as far as I can throw it, given that it has Spectral Transformation as a 5 point (bugged) talent

Its not on the beta client either. The talent is gone as Moogle said.

I wish they'd replaced with something else. Tier 1 talents kind of suck for a lowbie shaman leveling up now. You're improving itemization that you don't have or totems that you don't have. I know thats beyond most of our care/concerns, but it matters to somebody.

Improving Stoneclaw and SoE can be seen as ok-ish move if one decides to level Enhancement from beginning. Leveling as Elemental will probably be more smooth anyways, and arrival of Water Shield with Elemental Focus may just keep it going untill DW respec at lvl 40, at which point you simply take Ancestral Knowledge at Tier 1.

There a few other differences in the Blizz talent calculator that haven't been mentioned yet.

While Lava Burst is still mentioned in the tier one talent Convection, it is not listed in the talents Concussion or Call of Flame. In previous builds mentioned on this thread, Call of Flame was taken along with Elemental devestation, but it now reads: "Increases the damage done by fire totems by 15%"

Also, Maelstrom Weapon reads differently: "When you critically hit with a melee weapon, reduce the cast of your next spell by 20%. Stacks 5 times. lasts 15 seconds"
So, apparently, it can make any spell instant cast, not just LB, CL, or LvB.

EDIT: That's IF the blizz calculator is completely accurate. As stated above, i don't quite trust it either.

Malan, please can you summarize the undocumented changes, facts, probabilities, wild guesses and open questions of the beta - of course, for the enhancement shamans? Like the first post in the old theorycraft thread?
Right now its pretty confusing sometimes - at least for me - and i think, it will help us to get the bigger picture.

Oh, and make it as first post please

Thanks in advance

I explicitly stated: "The blizz talent calculator", which was mentioned the posts above mine prior.
Malan just commented on the shield talent's disappearance being reminiscent to the current beta.
The MMO-champion talent calculator is how I'm basing the changes to convection, concussion, and Call of Flame due to the differences between it and the newly released blizz version.

EDIT: The two talent calculators I'm referencing: Blizz talent calculator and MMO-Champion.

2nd EDIT: The MMO-champion calculator seems to have the shield talent removed as well, but the differences I've mentioned between maelstrom weapon and call of flame between the two is still prevalent.

I don't think there's a real need to do this so early in the beta. A lot of things aren't finalized with our spec, and shaman in general. Keeping up with the thread and asking specific questions should be good enough until things solidify more.

Just to be certain, our new damage cycle goal is to get 5 crits then have lavabolt consume a flame shock to proc ED, right? So provided we can get 5 crits in 12 seconds, ED will always be up? Or am I missing something.

Even if the swing timer is reset by LB, can't SS cause melee hits to happen before the swing timer is up? (like it does after a warstomp or ghost wolf). So with an 8s SS cooldown and 10.5s to cast LB we shouldn't lose much melee dps time at all.

SS does not reset swing timer.

Concerning ED uptime -- you also have to consider the fact that Lava Burst can be resisted. It is two roll system and you cant get spell hit to 100%.

Speaking of which is the value of hit unified in sense that same amount hit rating gives same % to hit. As from what i can remember offhead currently you need less spell hit rating for 1% hit with spells than with physical hit rating for 1% hit.

Vulajin did some rating conversion tests here, only up to 75 (the cap in Alpha) though.

But the values are still seperate. At 75 it appears melee hit costs 21.9 and spell hit costs 17.5. At 70 those ratings are 15.77 and 12.62 respectively.

Alpha chars were unlocked last night so I have my lvl 75 shaman back (only without 2 pc T6 and no Sunwell OH) for testing purposes. Unfortunately it looks like Lava Burst can't be trained right now, the trainers display the spell but refuse to let me purchase it.

Oh and the tooltip for Maelstrom on Beta still says it only reduces cast time for LvB, LB and CL. I tested it out and thats all it works on right now.

That may indicate that the bliz web site IS a bit more up to date.

I have a question for beta testers:

None of the items I have seen posted have spell hit on them. Catser ityems have spell power, mp5. generic crit rating, and sometimes special effects. The melee items have AP, armor reduction, generic crit rating, melee hit rating, and melee haste rating.


Are the items just not listing a generic hit rating? Why dont caster items have hit rating at ALL. Does the melee hit rating on melee items change your spell hit rating?

same thing for haste rating.

I looked here World of Raids | WotLK New Items and Dungeon Pages Updated and on thottbot.

Because you don't really need hit rating as a caster while levelling. Realistically, you're not going to be continually fighting many mobs above you're level if you're doing it right.

Whaddya mean, "now?"

Options were +5% shield block (when leveling with 2H was faster) or +5% mana (which didn't get you an extra spell until you were much higher level).

At least you have an SoE totem at level 10.

two responses

1) If thats the case why do we have gear with melee hit. Bad assumption IMHO. Im not going to gem for hit while leveling, but if I get some it WILL help when you end up fighting mobs 1-2 levels higher than you. Especially since my enh gear has some hit on it already.

2) Your missing the point. What Im asking is why the gear I have seen has a seperate melee hit and melee haste value. My understanding was that they were combined along with crit, which DOES seem to be combined in the gear.

About point number 1 check DW penalty and furtheron we get not a single spell hit which is something most (i do not dare to say all just in case, but probably all) casters get. They are combined, but the effect per rating might be different as it is now.