Heirloom Updates

Patch 7.3 introduced an undocumented change to heirlooms, which is that they now change primary stats to match your spec just like all of the other armor does. For example if you’re in a healing spec on your Paladin, the primary stat on your ‘looms will be Int, and if you swap over to a melee spec, then the primary stat will swap over to Str without you having to change your gear at all.

If you’ve been playing this game for a long time and already have a full collection of the heirlooms, then this change means almost nothing, except that you don’t have to bother with carrying around multiple sets of heirlooms while you’re leveling if you’re one who swaps to one spec for questing and another for dungeons/PvP. If you’re new to the game and haven’t completed a collection yet, then this change means you just saved yourself a small fortune in heirloom and upgrade item purchases. Potentially.

Secondary Stats
This is the part that doesn’t change, so technically if you want to be optimized to the teeth in all situations then you would still need to buy all of the various heirlooms to make sure you can cover that for the different specs. How anal you want to be about optimization is up to you. If you’re trying to save gold and don’t want to buy a full set of heirlooms, then the secondary stat that I suggest you focus on most often is Haste. If you want to be optimized all the time, then buy all of the armor pieces out there.

The other half of the class-specific heirloom guides are nearly done and will be coming out soon™.

 

New Heirlooms in 4.3

In Patch 4.3 the Darkmoon Faire is going to get a nice little revamp (details here). I’ve never been too big on the faire beyond abusing the vendors there to get high selling mats for cheap vendor prices that I could toss on the AH for a quick, easy profit. My lack of interest almost made me ignore the information regarding the faire, but I was bored anyway (and about to leave work for the day) so I figured I might as well take a look.

Most of what the notes mentioned weren’t bad, but nothing that would get me otherwise interested in the DMF, until I stumbled onto this:

“We have adorable companion pets inludin’ a fez-wearing monkey, a plethora of profession recipes, toys, balloons, souvenirs, delectable carnival snacks and beverages, heirlooms for the little ones, and even replicas of long-lost suits of armor that we’re offering for your Transmogrification needs.”

Unfortunately for us, there’s no more mention of heirlooms in the article, so we don’t know for sure what it refers to. It could be new heirlooms, it could be existing heirlooms, or it could be other items all together that they simply used the word to describe. Without the details, one can only hope and imagine.

But wait… we do have details!

 

Call to Arms: Update

According to Wowhead there was some clarification made by Blizzard last night in regards to Call to Arms, particularly about the extra incentive reward.

The extra items and such that you get come in the Satchel of Exotic Mysteries, which is similar to the satchels you get for running random dungeons while you level. Except for one very key point – these satchels are BoA, meaning you can farm randoms on your tanking alt and send the rare mounts or pets to your main. If you get your hands on the Baron’s mount, but you’ve already got one, just send it over to another one of your alts.

There was also false information put out in relation to the flasks and elixirs. Rather than being suited to the spec of the tank/healer that you get the satchel on they will be randomly generated so that you have a variety of flasks to send to different characters (or sell on the AH if you don’t have one that can use it).

They also clarified that the drop rate of the rare mounts is going to be exactly the same as the actual mount drop rate from the bosses that drop them, which addresses one of my concerns that I hadn’t vocalized yet.

I think making these items BoA does give it a lot more potential to be successful as players will be more likely to switch to their alts when they don’t have anything pressing to do and queue up for a random at a chance to win those mounts for their main. It also has the potential to overcome the problems I mentioned yesterday about tanks getting the items they’re interested in and then not using the Dungeon Finder anymore. Being able to send them to other toons is a pretty big deal in my opinion.

As for whether or not this will help it be more than just a band-aid fix, I think this will definitely add some more longevity to it, but I’m not convinced this is the definitive answer. As far as mounts are concerned, as they’re the major draw here, I don’t know how long a series of ground mounts is really going to thrill people in a world we can now fly in, but at least they did pick some of the more sought-out mounts to use for it.

I do think that this was a big step in the right direction for being such a small change, and at this point I’m ready to kick back and watch to see how it all turns out. Making them BoA may very well encourage a large number of players to tank on their alts to win mounts for their mains, which may prove to be just the kind of response that Blizzard is looking for.

 

Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms

In case you’re behind on your 4.1 information, like I was, there’s a new drama queen in town called Call to Arms. Before I get into it, lets have a look at it:

In patch 4.1 we’ll be introducing Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms, a new system intended to lower queue times. Call to Arms will automatically detect which class role is currently the least represented in the queue, and offer them additional rewards for entering the Dungeon Finder queue and completing a random level-85 Heroic dungeon.

Any time the Dungeon Finder queue is longer than a few minutes for level-85 Heroics, the Call to Arms system kicks in and determines which role is the least represented. In the case of tanking being the least represented role, the “Call to Arms: Tanks” icon will display in the Dungeon Finder UI menu where class roles are selected, and will also display on the UI when the queue pops and you are selected to enter a dungeon. Regardless of your role, you’ll always be able to see which role currently has been Called to Arms, if any.

Call to Arms is meant to lower wait times by offering additional rewards for queuing as the currently least represented role. To be eligible for the additional rewards you must solo queue for a random level-85 Heroic in the role that is currently being Called to Arms, and complete the dungeon by killing the final boss. Every time you hit these requirements (there is no daily limit) you’ll receive a goodie bag that will contain some gold, a chance at a rare gem, a chance at a flask/elixir (determined by spec), a good chance of receiving a non-combat pet (including cross faction pets), and a very rare chance at receiving a mount. The pets offered come from a wide variety of sources, and include companions like the Razzashi Hatchling, Parrot Cage (Cockatiel), and Tiny Sporebat, but the mounts are those specifically only available through dungeons (not raids), like the Reins of the Raven Lord from Sethekk Halls, Swift White Hawkstrider from Magisters’ Terrace, and Deathcharger’s Reins from Stratholme.

This system is meant to address the unacceptable queue times currently being experienced by those that queue for the DPS role at max level. The long queue times are, of course, caused by a very simple lack of representation in the Dungeon Finder by tanks, and to some extent healers. We don’t feel the tanking and healing roles have any inherent issues that are causing the representation disparity, except that fulfilling them carries more responsibility. Understandably, players prefer to take on that responsibility in more organized situations than what the Dungeon Finder offers, but perhaps we can bribe them a little. While this system gives tanks and healers something extra, the incentive is being provided so that we can help players in the DPS role get into more dungeons, get better gear, and continue progressing.

While the gold, gems, flasks, and elixirs are OK incentives, we knew we needed something more substantial. We had briefly considered Valor Points and epics, but decided that wouldn’t be working toward the goal of helping DPS players progress, and ultimately wouldn’t keep tanks and healers in the Dungeon Finder system for very long. We settled on pets and dungeon-found mounts as they’re cosmetic/achievement items that players tend to try to get on their own, so why not change that up and offer them a chance to get some of those elusive pets and mounts in a way that also helps other players? Even if they don’t get a pet or mount, or get one they already have, the gold and other goodies still feel rewarding enough that it won’t feel like a waste of effort.

We think it’s a pretty solid incentive to get tanks and healers queuing, give max-level players another way to collect the pets and mounts they so desire, and above all, to improve wait times for DPS players sitting in queues. In the case of lower level dungeons, it’s actually not uncommon for DPS to be the least represented role, and so if this new system works out and we’re pleased with the results, we may consider applying this same mechanic to lower level dungeons as well.

So to sum that up, tanks and healers potentially receive extra rewards for solo-queuing for random heroics. If you’re DPS then you’re basically screwed out of the deal. The rewards are some extra gold (no amount mentioned), a low chance of rare gems or flasks/elixirs suited to your spec, a good chance at receiving vanity pets, and a rare chance at a mount.

The idea is to shorten queue times for DPS by offering more rewards to the tanks and healers who are in shorter supply and in essence the reason for your DPS queue taking so freaking long. When there’s 50 of you waiting to team up with 8 of them, you’re going to have to wait your turn.

Drama
The primary point of drama on this is that it’s statistically impossible for DPS to ever get anything out of this deal, so four of the game’s ten classes which are pure DPS classes (no tank or healing spec) are given the inverted hybrid tax by never even having the option of changing spec to benefit from this. The next point of drama comes in which items are being rewarded, particularly the mounts, as people in many cases dedicated a great deal of time to farming those mounts and now people are theoretically getting them “for free”.

I love the irony in looking at my feed reader this morning looking for people who posted about Call to Arms and found that Cold had a new post on Opportunity Cost of Free Items, which applies quite well to the current situation. So remember here, DPS, they aren’t actually getting these items “for free”, they’re having to do the same content that you are. Granted, DPS get nothing but a theoretical faster queue time, but the DPS wouldn’t get anything at all if those tanks/healers hadn’t queued in the first place.

Now seems like a good time to mention that while I’m an obsessive altoholic, I am a DPS. My main during BC/Wrath was a Mage and my main right now is a Shadow Priest. Sure, I can heal on the Priest, but I suck at it and it’s not what I like or want to do on her. I do have six level 85 toons, two of which are tanks and one that’s a healer, but they don’t get any play time.

To give you a little bit of hope at least, this does give me at least a small stirring of interest in actually playing my Paladin again. I don’t think I’ll bother taking my healers out, but I might do some tanking for another chance at that stupid Baron’s mount that I’ve tried to farm over 300 times and still never even seen it drop.

Visible Problems
The major problem with the system is that it doesn’t actually address the issue of queue times, it simply puts a band-aid on it that will last for a short while and then fall off as the PUG tanks claim the items they want and then stop queuing. Several people have written about problems they see with the system, but the one that I felt was the best read without being over the top ranty or dismissive was Kurn with Why Bribery Won’t Help – Much.

There are always new toons to be leveled and new players joining the game, so the tank and healing pools do get refreshed all the time, but it’s not like every tank out there is going to spend a few hours in LFG every night for the next two years. Basically, the pool is going to constantly dwindle down even though it won’t disappear completely, but we will eventually get back to the point where we are right now.

Another good post I saw on the matter came from Thisius at DoTs and ‘Locks who pointed out that the real issue with people not wanting to queue as tanks and heals is more often the actual community, the people running with them that feed them nothing but criticism and insults or who do stupid crap to make their jobs harder and thus turn them off of tanking all together or at least turn them off of using LFG as opposed to guild runs. Though I would expand the suggestion of giving the tank the ability to kick people to instead give it to whichever of the tank/healer it is that got the Call.

For many people this band-aid will work great for the time that it’s useful, and then things will slide back to how they are right now once all of the special items have been collected. Eventually those tanks and healers are going to get the pets and mounts they want and then they’ll have no more reason to bother with heroics. Not to mention they’ve likely ran enough of them in trying to get those mounts that they’ve got every possible gear upgrade twice over.

Going back to Thisius’s post, we may very well see even more bad attitudes in LFG thanks to this once the dungeon is finished and the DPS see the tank score a rare mount. While some people like myself might congratulate the tank on their new mount, this may very well piss off the DPS to the point that they become dickish where perhaps they weren’t before. And I’m sure you’ll have tanks/healers that will flaunt it and do their best to piss you off even if you didn’t mind before. Just keep in mind that this particular problem is with the players, not something Blizzard has or hasn’t done.

Hidden Issues
This is where I go ahead and turn the tables a little bit to point out some of the things that not everybody thinks about or is aware of. And for this I’m going to quote one of my friends on twitter, @Feisttherogue, “Fact: the DPS role in WoW has the highest skill cap, fiercest competition, and most objectively measurable performance. The new system takes those players most able to ensure a new tank or healer succeeds OUT of the system, by denying them incentives. All while making it easier for those least prepared to take part to flood the matchmaking system and lower the quality of everyone’s run.”

It’s a simple truth that you cannot get through dungeons at the proper character/gear level without a tank and healer. They are vital roles and even more vital at this early point in the expansion. But good DPS is just as vital and potentially even more so with the recent changes to healing. The point here is that every single person in that group plays an important part in the outcome of any dungeon run. If you don’t have the DPS then those bosses aren’t going down. If you don’t have a tank then your healer’s going to die, and if you don’t have a healer then you’re all going to die. Round and round we go, everyone does their job and we all win, do it not and we all fail.

Feist makes an excellent point here that many people don’t understand or don’t take the time to consider. A somewhat poor tank can still perform well overall if the DPS can throttle their agro and use CC, and if the healer knows how to work within their mana budget, and a somewhat poor healer can still keep everyone alive if the tank is especially good or well geared and your DPS are strong enough to kill the mobs before they pose a major threat and can avoid unnecessary damage like standing in bad stuff. Tanks and healers can’t compensate for fail DPS, though.

So there’s the biggest “hidden” issue, that we’re denying rewards to what are potentially the most important factor in overall success/failure. In defense of this particular problem, at least Blizzard made the rewards mostly vanity items and that all of them can be obtained outside of the Call to Arms system. But, I think they would be better served by giving additional rewards to those dealing with the long queues than by giving them to those with instant queues.

My Thoughts
I applaud Blizzard in acknowledging that there’s a problem and making steps to overcome it. I don’t think this system is the answer, but it will serve as a decent short term band-aid. As a DPS, I really don’t care what rewards other people get if it really does result in shorter queues for me.

Blizzard, “..the incentive is being provided so that we can help players in the DPS role get into more dungeons, get better gear, and continue progressing.” They hope to accomplish that by rewarding tanks and healers to speed up queues for DPS. I haven’t sat down long enough to say “this” is what they should have done, as it will work better because of x, y and z. I have thought about it and gotten a couple of ideas, but I haven’t sat to think about the drawbacks of those suggestions.

I think they could better address the issue of gearing if they simply increased the amount of DPS gear that dropped. My point really is that rather than rewarding tanks and healers for queuing, they should reward DPS for enduring the longer queue times. Granted, that might make some tanks/healers queue as DPS instead, thus lengthening the queues, but at least it’s more directed at the real problem which is gearing up DPS.

By giving the DPS more gear you’re potentially addressing both issues at once. If you drop more DPS gear in dungeons then the DPS get geared faster and then stop running LFG because they already have the gear they need from them, thus lessening the DPS pool and increasing queue rates for the others. If you reward more Justice Points to the DPS then those who can spec into a tank/healing role are more likely to do so once they’ve earned the points to purchase their gear to fill that other role. Pure DPS of course wouldn’t benefit from it beyond purchasing heirlooms or professions mats, but Pure DPS are used to being screwed like that as their reward is (supposedly) higher DPS values than Hybrid DPS. Not that I’m justifying the screwing of the pures, that’s a whole other blog post all it’s own.

Like I said, I don’t think this is a bad short term fix for the issue at hand, but I don’t think it’s worth anywhere near the amount of drama that it’s caused so far. I do think that this is the wrong approach overall though, I feel that the DPS should be more rewarded for their longer queues instead of giving even more rewards to those with already near instant queues. I wouldn’t mind giving an extra 10 minutes to the queue if it meant I was going to get extra items, though I also wouldn’t mind cutting 10 minutes off of my queue if it meant someone else gets extra items.

[EDIT: Forgot the section below.]
Speculative Problem
What most people are speculating will happen is that people will stay in their DPS gear, swap over to a tank/healing spec, and expect you to carry them through the dungeon so that they can get their freebies while you do all of the work. I can see some people trying to do this, I certainly wouldn’t put it beyond some of the players I’ve seen in my day, but this kind of reaction always provokes and eyeroll from me.

This situation is just like any other – there’s potential for both bad and good. There are dicks in the world, the system will be abused. But, there are still plenty of good players out there who will take advantage of the system as well. We all have different experiences with different aspects of this game, we find parts that we love and parts that we hate. We can both do the exact same content, maybe even in the same guild/group, and both come to different conclusions as to how enjoyable it was or was not. My experience with LFG for example has been very positive; I don’t run into morons or dickheads very often, but it does still happen even to me. Other people have had little-to-no good experiences in LFG at all and refuse to use it.

The fact is you’re not going to get a decent supply of good new tanks and healers if they’re never given an opportunity to try it out and succeed. Some of them are going to fail, you’ll have tanks that leveled in a DPS spec and have mostly DPS gear, but they’re working towards getting a decent set of tank gear and they’re looking for some practice. With any luck they’ll start in non-heroics, but some of them will not. The same applies to healers, of course.

Keep in mind that with the stat changes in Cataclysm it is significantly easier for someone who doesn’t have “tank” gear to step into the tanking role because Defense no longer exists as a stat. He’s probably lacking some Stamina and his avoidance stats could probably use some help as well, but his DPS gear will also give him better threat generation (in theory) so at least the healer should be able to focus primarily on him. Most of the healers (non-Paladin) can make a fairly smooth transition from DPS spec to healing spec while still using their caster DPS gear.

That doesn’t really get across the point I was trying to make…

Alright, let me put it this way – don’t jump to extreme conclusions. Yes, it’s going to happen, but you’re not going to have DPS-tanks in every single heroic you ever run. If you only run a handful, then yeah you might have a handful of them and thus assume that they’re all like that, but that’s just your particular experience up to that point. Give the little guy a chance before you shoot him in the head and leave his body to rot, he just might grow up to surprise you.

 

Patch Notes: 4.1

Here are the patch notes for 4.1 as of today, 02/24/2011. Posting here primarily for those people who cannot view official sites while at work. Taken from MMO-Champion.

Yep guys, the first major content patch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is almost completed it’s development stage and we are getting ready to push some early updates onto the Test Realms. So you may ask: What will be there in 4.1 Test Realms (I believe you will do so right?)? So, here it comes!

Remnants of the Gurubashi Tribe
Originally released in Patch 1.7, the classic 20-man raid Zul’Gurub will open its gate once again, bringing new stories, new encounters and fully refined items! Zul’Gurub is now a level-85 Heroic 5-man dungeon, to help the Cataclysm dungeons provide a higher tier of contents. Players may find level 353 epic items in this Heroic dungeon. You have to meet a mininum average item level of 346 to enter it.

The Return of Zul’Aman
The fan-favorite level 70 10-man raid Zul’Aman is also reborn as a level-85 Heroic 5-man dungeon. Zul’Aman and Zul’Gurub will both appear in the Heroic Dungeon list in the LFD tool, providing level 353 epic loot. You also have to meet a mininum average item level of 346 to enter.

Since Zul’Aman is back, you might be curious on whether the rare mounts will be back? Yes, we’re proud to annouce that new rare-drop Raptor, Tiger and Warbear mount will be available, while the old mounts still have their unique beauty in hand. We will share a lot more on obtaining the new mounts.

Class Design
Though we only hope to do a small mount of balance changes in Patch 4.1, you can still expect multiple updates. The following are the ones we currently can share with you. Keep in mind these changes do not reflect all changes in Patch 4.1, and are not promised to be in the early Test Realm updates.

First we want to balance the area attack potentials between different damage dealing talents, you can expect changes regarding this one in the testing phase.

Inner Rage is now trainable at level 56. Originally it was given to solve the rage overflow problems, but it’s not an issue to Warriors these days. We have implemented Warriors a new level 83 ability: Rallying Cry.

Colossus Smash now ignores 70% of target’s armor, down from 100%. We’ll buff the damage of other Fury and Arms damage dealing abilities to compensate that.

Word of Glory: We hope Retribution and Protection Paladins occasionaly do the right healing to others, but as we know Paladins sometimes feel that Holy Power is only for the healing. We rather like these specs use more Holy Power on damage abilities, and occasionally heal.

More to Come
We are still developing more features, updating balace changes and fix bugs for Patch 4.1. We will update the Test Realms in the upcoming days and weeks, and bring you more information on this.

Achievement Changes
Dungeons & Raids
Cataclysm Dungeon
It’s Not Easy Being Green Do not get hit by Bloodvenom, Pool of Acrid Tears, or Venomous Effusion in the High Priest Venoxis encounter in Zul’Gurub on Heroic difficulty.
Gurubashi Headhunter Defeat Gub, Mortaxx, Kaolema, Mor’Lek, the Florawing Hive Queen, a Lost Offspring of Ghaz’Ranka, and the Gurubashi Master Chef in Zul’Gurub on Heroic difficulty.
Tunnel Vision Defeat Halazzi in Zul’Aman on Heroic difficulty without killing any of his totems.

Exploration
Cataclysm
Explore Vashj’ir no longer requires to explore Fireplume Trench

Eastern Kingdoms
Explore Hillsbrad Foothills no longer requires to explore Lordamere Internment Camp, requires Brazie Farmstead instead.

General
Petting Zoo Collect 100 unique companion pets.
Menagerie Collect 125 unique companion pets.
Vial of the Sands Learn how to transform into a dragon and carry an ally.
Cataclysmically Delicious Sample 100 different kinds of food.
Drown Your Sorrows Drink 50 different types of beverages.
Thirty Tabards Equip 30 unique tabards.

Player vs. Player
Strand of the Ancients
Steady Hands now requires you to disarm 2 seaforium charges in a single battle, down from 5.

Professions
Fishing
The Limnologist now requires you to catch 45 different fishes, down from 48.
The Oceanographer now requires you to catch 31 different fishes, down from 33.

Quests
2500 Daily Quests Complete Complete 2500 daily quests.
Justly Rewarded Make 30,000 gold from quest rewards.

Kalimdor
Bloodmyst Isle Quests now requires 60 quests, down from 65.
Stonetalon Mountains Quests now requires 55 quests, down from 60.

Reputation
40 Exalted Reputations now rewards “The Exalted” title
50 Exalted Reputations now properly requires 50 reputations, no longer rewards “The Exalted”

Statistics
Dungeons & Raids
Tracking statistics have been added for all Cataclysm encounters. (Mostly used by addons)

Spell Changes
Companion Pets
Landro’s Lichling Right Click to summon or dismiss Landro’s Lichling. Instant
Landro’s Lil’ XT Right Click to set down or pick up your Landro’s Lil’ XT action figure. Instant
Nightsaber Cub Right Click to summon and dismiss your Nightsaber Cub. Instant
Panther Cub Right Click to summon and dismiss your panther cub. Instant
Winterspring Cub Right Click to summon and dismiss your Winterspring cub. Instant

Mounts
Armored Razzashi Raptor Summons and dismisses a rideable Armored Razzashi Raptor. 1.5 sec cast
Beryl Fire Hawk Summons and dismisses a rideable Beryl Fire Hawk. This is a flying mount. 1.5 sec cast
Crimson Fire Hawk Summons and dismisses a rideable Crimson Fire Hawk. This is a flying mount. 1.5 sec cast
Flameward Hippogryph Summons and dismisses a rideable Flameward Hippogryph mount. This is a flying mount. 1.5 sec cast
Mottled Drake Summons and dismisses a rideable Mottled Drake. 1.5 sec cast
Savage Raptor Summons and dismisses a rideable Savage Raptor. 1.5 sec cast
Swift Zulian Panther Summons and dismisses a swift Zulian panther. 1.5 sec cast

Blacksmithing
Blacksmithing: Elementium Earthguard now gives +170 Strength, down from 190. now gives 117 Mastery Rating, down from 127. now gives 117 Hit Rating, down from 127. Now has a Blue Socket (Socket Bonus: +15 Stamina)
Blacksmithing: Elementium Stormshield now gives +170 Intellect, down from 190. Now gives +122 Spirit, down from 127. Now gives 112 Haste Rating, down from 127. Now has a Red Socket (Socket Bonus: +10 Intellect)

Engineering
Engineering: Cardboard Assassin can now be used once every minute, down from 5 minutes.
Engineering: Synapse Springs now increases your highest primary statistic instead of Intellect.

Inscription
Inscription: Dust of Disappearance now requires 1 Blackfallow Ink, down from 2.

Leatherworking
Leatherworking: Assassin’s Chestplate now gives +321 Agility, down from 341. Now gives 173 Hit Rating, down from 183. Now gives 243 Critical Strike rating, down from 253. Now has a Red Socket (Socket Bonus: +10 Agility)
Leatherworking: Belt of Nefarious Whispers now gives +233 Agility, down from 253. Now gives 174 Hit Rating, down from 184. Now gives 134 Mastery Rating, down from 144. Now has a Red Socket (Socket Bonus: +10 Agility)
Leatherworking: Corded Viper Belt now gives +233 Agility, down from 253. Now gives 159 Critical Strike rating, down from 169. Now gives 159 Mastery rating, down from 169. Now has a Red Socket (Socket Bonus: +10 Agility)
Leatherworking: Dragonkiller Tunic now gives +231 Agility, down from 341. Now gives 249 Haste rating, down from 259. Now gives 163 Mastery rating, down from 173. Now has a Red Socket (Socket Bonus: +10 Agility)

Death Knight (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Frost
Blood of the North now Permanently transforms your Blood Runes into Death Runes. Death Runes count as a Blood, Frost, or Unholy Rune.

Unholy
Dark Transformation now has a 100 yards range, up from 60.
Death’s Advance now prevents movement-impairing effects from reducing you below 60/75% of normal movement speed, down from 75/100%.
Shadow Infusion now increases Ghoul damage by 6%, down from 8%.

Druid (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Feral
Mangle now deals 260% normal damage plus 754, up from 235% plus 682.
Maul now scales from 26.4% of Attack Power, up from 24%.
Thrash now deals [202 + 12.8% of AP] to [249 + 12.8% of AP] damage instead of [202 + 15.4% of AP] damage. Bleed damage now scales from 6.51% of AP, down from 7.8%.

Balance
Moonfury now increases Arcane and Nature spell damage by 10%, down from 15%.

Hunter (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Beast Mastery
Aspect of the Hawk now increases ranged attack power by 2000, up from 637.

Mage (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Arcane
Arcane Blast now costs 5% of base mana, down from 7%.

Fire
Ignite now procs from non-periodic Fire damage spells.

Frost
Frostburn now increases your damage against Frozen targets by 5%, down from 20%.

Paladin (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Holy
Divine Light now costs 30% of base mana, down from 33%.
Flash of Light now costs 27% of base mana, down from 30%.
Walk in the Light (Mastery) now removes the cooldown on your Word of Glory.
Word of Glory now has a 20 sec cooldown.
Aura Mastery now improves the effect of Devotion Aura, Resistance Aura, and Retribution Aura instead of all auras.
Conviction now procs from non-periodic spells.

Protection
Divine Guardian now has a 3 min cooldown, up from 2 min.

Retribution
Divine Storm now grants a charge of Holy Power if it hits 4 or more targets.
Sacred Shield now cannot occur more than once every 60 sec, up from 30 sec.

Priest (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Discipline
Absolution (Mastery) *New* – Enables your Dispel Magic spell to be cast on friendly targets to remove 2 harmful magical effects.
Dispel Magic can now only be casted on yourself to remove harmful effects, and now only removes 1 beneficial spell from enemies, down from 2.
Power Word: Shield now costs 34% of base mana, up from 25%. Now lasts 15 sec, down from 30 sec.
Divine Aegis now lasts 15 sec, up from 12 sec.

Holy
Absolution (Mastery) *New* – Enables your Dispel Magic spell to be cast on friendly targets to remove 2 harmful magical effects.
Body and Soul now increases the target’s movement speed by 12/25%, down from 30/60%.

Shadow
Shadow Power now increases Spell damage by 15%, down from 25%.

Rogue (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Combat
Recuperate now restores 3% of maximum health, up from 2%.
Improved Recuperate now increases Recuperate’s ability to restore by an additional 0.5/1% of your maximum health, down from 1/2%.

Subtlety
Stealth now has a 4 sec cooldown. Apparently no longer reduces your speed.
Tricks of the Trade now has a 100 yards range, up from 20 yards.
Nightstalker now increases your speed while stealthed by 5/10%, down from 7/15%. Now reduces the cooldown of Stealth by 2/4 sec, down from 3/6 sec.

Shaman (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Elemental
Earthquake base damage has been reduced by 40%.
Fire Nova now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards. Cooldown reduced from 10 sec to 4 sec. Now Ignites your Flame Shock spell on any nearby enemies, causing each of them to emit a wave of flames that deals 647 to 724 Fire damage to every other enemy within 10 yards.
Improved Fire Nova has been replaced with Seasoned Winds – When you successfully prevent an enemy spellcast with Wind Shear or Grounding Totem, you gain [if (PL<=70) then PL else if (PL<=80) then PL+(PL-70)*5 else PL+(PL-70)*5+(PL-80)*7] resistance to that spell's magical school for 10 sec. (PL = Player Level, and if you're wondering, that's basically the same resist aura as any other spell)

Restoration
Purification now increases the effectiveness of healing spells by 25%, up from 10%.

Warlock (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Nothing! But I have a hug for you!

Warrior (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Fury
Intercept now stuns for 1 sec, down from 3 sec.
Whirlwind now has its cooldown reduced by 6 sec. if it deals damage to 4 or more targets.

Arms
Rallying Cry *New* (Level 83) – Temporarily grants you and all party or raid members within 30 yards 20% of maximum health for 10 sec. After the effect expires, the health is lost. 3 min cooldown, Instant
Colossus Smash now bypass 70% of armor instead of 100%.
Mortal Strike now deals 175% weapon damage, up from 150%.
Overpower now deals 145% weapon damage, up from 125%.
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (Mastery) now increases damage dealt with 2H weapons by 20%, up from 10%.
Improved Hamstring now also reduces the global cooldown of Hamstring by 0.5/1 sec.
Improved Slam now increases Slam's damage by 20/40%, up from 10/20%
Juggernaut now reduces the cooldown of Charge by 3 sec but no longer increases the stun duration.