Just a quick note: if you didn't get into the Cataclysm beta, you can now download the regular public test realm client and try out the new talent builds and class changes. I've put a short summary of the choicest tweaks below, but here's one: ammo is gone .
Death Knights have had their Frost and Blood presences switched, and the Blood tree overhauled to become the dedicated DK tanking tree. Hunters can now keep five pets with them and switch them on the fly - you can also store 20 pets in your stable. Gotta catch 'em all!
A sore one for you: all types of armour now cost about the same to repair - as much as plate, that is. Now, when you wipe, everybody gets to rage quit.
But the big deal is the talent revamp. Talent trees are now 31 points of fun, clickable abilities - none of this "2% STA from items per talent point" crap. Those passive stat boosts unfold as you choose a tree and increase your 'Mastery' stat, found on high level items.
You don't get to fly around Onyxgrimmar though. Not yet.
Classes: General
- Many class talents, spells, and abilities have been overhauled, added, or removed.
- All spell and ability tooltips will now display damage averages rather than minimum and maximum damage potential. This feature is on by default but can be changed via the Display settings under User Interface options.
- Ammo has been removed from the game.
- The character levels at which classes gain new spells and abilities have changed.
- Many item and class stats have been changed or removed.
- Rage has been normalized.
- Spells and abilities no longer have multiple ranks and now scale with character level.
- Talent trees have been altered. All player talent specializations have been reset, allowing for free re-specialization.
- Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
- Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend.
- Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
- Once a talent specialization has been chosen, players may only place points in the primary tree until at least 31 points have been spent there.
Death Knights
- A dedicated tanking tree (Blood) has been implemented.
The effects of Blood Presence and Frost Presence have been exchanged.
- The way in which runes recharge has changed.
Druids
- A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids.
Warriors
- Warriors can now equip shields in any equipment slot, including the main hand and face.
- (Not really)
Hunters
- Five pets can now be stored with the hunter at all times. Any one of these five pets can be summoned via the Call Pet ability.
- Focus has replaced mana as a new resource.
- Hunters now start with a pet at level 1.
- The Stable will now store 20 pets. If a pet is moved into the Stable, its talents are wiped.
Mages
- There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for mage portals. Clicking on the Teleport or Portal buttons will expand the list of choices available.
Paladins
- Paladins now have a new resource bar.
Warlocks
- There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for warlock pets. Clicking on this single button will open up the list of available pets to summon.
- Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.
Items
- Resilience no longer reduces the chance a player will be critically hit by an opponent.
- Durability: cloth, leather, and mail now have as many points of durability as plate, making the repair cost on death much closer to equal for all classes.
Professions
- The glyph system has been updated to now feature three different types of glyphs. Many class glyphs have been added, altered, or moved to different glyph types.
User Interface
- Spell Alerts have been added to notify players when procs on select spells and abilities occur. A visual notification will display around the character and the activated ability will be highlighted on the action bar.
- The Arena Teams pane has been improved.
- The Character pane has been redesigned. Character stats can now be shown or hidden via the Show All Details/Hide All
- Details button on the bottom left. When shown, all character stats will be visible in a window to the right of the pane. Stat sections can be reorganized by clicking and dragging them up or down the pane.
- The Professions panes now have more filtering and search functionality, as well as buttons to easily link recipes in the chat frame.
- A Professions screen has been added to the Spellbook to better display the details of a character's primary and secondary professions.
- Many of the yellow System Messages that would display in the chat frame when leveling up have been removed.
- New text animations now alert players as they level up, also providing information on when new talents, spells and abilities are available.
- Professions and Class Trainers windows have been altered to more clearly display available and upcoming purchases.
- New Raid frames are in now. They can also be used in place of the standard 5-player party interface via the User Interface options.
- The Spellbook interface has been improved for greater ease-of-use and visual appeal.
