WoTLK Beta Patch 8962 Implemented

Yet another patch, build 8962 has been added to the Wrath of the Lich King Beta and it brings even more changes for all classes.

Perhaps one of the most noticeable but not surprising of the changes in this build is that the group buffs Prayer of Fortitude, Gift of the Wild and Arcane Brilliance are going to affect the whole raid. This is consistent with the plan to make abilities that affect the group like totems, warrior shouts, and other such buffs go raid wide. No surprise here but still very nice to read since this will definitely help mages, priests and druids save up on buying the reagents since they won’t be casting it as often.

Another talked about change in this build is the dreaded nerf to Resto druids. Lifebloom got hit bad with the mana cost of Lifebloom was increased and it’s healing got reduced. Blizzard already mentioned that they never intended Lifebloom to be as good as it is now in live so Lifebloom really had this coming. Just ask some people how overpowered this spell can be especially in PvP. Another piece of bad news for resto druids is that their 51 point talent got nerfed to the ground with it healing for 350 from the original 1610 and I think the mana cost got increased a bit too and to make things worse it also got renamed to Wild Growth.

Another thing I noticed is that Frost mages got some of their talents condensed in ranks (like Shatter and Ice Shards) while still maintaining their effects. Some of their talents even got buffed like Frozen Core affecting all spell schools instead of just fire and frost.This is a nice buff for them.

Warlocks got some strange changes too. The one thing I find strange is the one to Amplify Curse, which reduces the global cooldown of curse by 0.5 seconds. I’m gonna miss this being able to increase the effect of the next curse but I guess a passive GCD reeuction for curses is nice. Also, spellstones and firestones look interesting now and this might give warlocks a reason to put points in Master Conjurer finally. Spellstones increase periodic damage and give spell haste while firestones increase direct damage and spell crit. Even without master conjurer, this change gives destro locks a reason to use firestones and affliction locks a reason to use spellstones.

For the list of all the changes in beta build 8962, visit MMO Champion here.