WoW ForeverClass Changes
WoW Forever Paladin and Druid Trees Rebuilt: Oath of Light, Shieldsworn and Bloom
Blizzard rebuilt the Paladin and Druid talent trees in a server update at the end of October and documented every change in its November 2 notes. Paladins lose Salvation and gain Oath of Light, Shieldsworn and Unsealed Wrath; Druids get Bloom, two Feral capstones in place of Berserk and much harder-hitting Cat Form attacks. Wowcalc's talent calculator already uses the new trees.
- Announced:
- Published:
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Paladins: Righteous Fury at level 10, Salvation removed
Paladin tanks now train
Righteous Fury at level 10, the level at which other tanks get their tanking stance, instead of 16. It raises all threat you generate by 33% and threat from Holy damage by a further 90%.
Salvation, Mass Salvation, Revoke and Blessing of Light are removed. Without Salvation, no Paladin can lower other players' threat, which is why Blizzard raised every tank's threat in the same update. Judgement of Fury now lasts 3 seconds (was 4).
Holy: Oath of Light and Boundless Light
Oath of Light (row 4) swears an oath to protect one ally for 5 minutes, increasing the healing of your
Holy Light,
Flash of Light and
Holy Shock on them by an amount that grows with your level. It costs 8% of base mana and has no cooldown, and only one oath can be active.
Boundless Light (row 5, 2 points) adds 15/30% critical strike chance to Holy Shock on allies who are not under your oath.
Holy Power now raises the critical healing bonus of your Holy spells by 10–50% instead of adding critical strike chance.
Divine Precision moves to row 4 as a 2-point talent worth 4/8% hit with Holy spells (was 6/12/18%) and now also shortens Silence effects on you by 10/20%. Voice of Truth is removed.
Light's Vigil now works only on allies; its offensive use is gone.
Spiritual Focus and
Improved Seals spread over 5 points and
Reverence over 2, with the same maximum.
Holy Conduit moves in from Retribution, and
Divine Favor,
Illumination and
Purifying Power move up a row.
Protection: Shieldsworn turns Holy Strike into a shield strike
Shieldsworn, the new 31-point talent, takes 4 seconds off the cooldown of
Holy Strike and makes it strike with your shield: it triggers your talents that activate on a block without spending their charges or starting their cooldowns, and lets you block spells for 6 seconds.
Holy Shield moves up to row 5 and
Templar's Bulwark to row 3. Templar's Bulwark is now a Magic effect that can be dispelled.
Stoicism is new on row 5: Stun and Charm effects on you last 10/20% less.
Sacred Duty moves to row 2 and no longer adds Stamina. It still shortens the cooldowns of
Divine Shield,
Divine Protection and Templar's Bulwark by 30/60 seconds, and now also shortens Forbearance by 5/10 seconds.
Iron Creed drops to 3 points: 10/20/30% more Holy Strike threat and 2/4/6% damage reduction for 6 seconds.
Improved Righteous Fury reaches 9% damage reduction (was 6%), and
Swift Judgement now unleashes your active Seal without sharing a cooldown with Judgement.
Shield Specialization becomes 2 points for 15/30% more block value and a 50/100% chance to restore 4% of your maximum Mana when you block. Improved Seal of Fury and One-Handed Weapon Specialization are removed, and
Divine Intellect moves in from Holy.
Retribution: Unsealed Wrath and a stronger Conviction
Unsealed Wrath replaces Twist of Light as the 31-point talent and requires
Repentance. Your melee attacks store a copy of your active Seal for 15 seconds, up to 3 times; landing an attack with a different Seal consumes them, giving each stored Seal its normal chance to activate.
Conviction moves to row 2 and now gives 2/4/6% critical strike chance with all spells and attacks (was 1–5% with melee attacks).
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization moves to row 4, increases Holy as well as Physical damage by 2/4/6%, and lowers your threat by 7/14/20% while you wield a two-handed weapon.
Champion of the Light now gives spell damage equal to 12–60% of your Intellect and cuts the cast time of
Hammer of Wrath by up to 1 second.
Vengeance now requires
Seal of Command and stacks up to 5 times.
Turn Evil is new on row 5: it speeds up
Turn Undead, shortens its cooldown and lets it affect Demons.
Vindication no longer raises Attack Power, Instrument of Law and Twist of Light are removed, and
Sanctified Judgement moves to row 2.
Two tooltips in the current game client don't match the notes yet:
Vengeance still says it stacks up to 3 times, and
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization still mentions only Physical damage.
Druids: harder-hitting Cat Form and two Feral capstones
Feral Druids get one of the largest damage increases in the update.
Shred now deals 200% weapon damage (was 155%),
Claw 140% (was 110%) and
Ravage 435% (was 350%), while
Rip,
Rake,
Ferocious Bite and
Pounce gain about 25%.
Bear Form and
Dire Bear Form add 115% threat (was 50%). Ferocious Bite gets a new rank 1 at level 24, and Druids learn Poised at level 32: out of combat at full Energy, your next Energy ability costs 10 less.
- Berserk is removed. Row 7 now offers two capstones:
Primal Bite for Bear Form, which requires
Leader of the Pack, and
Shifting Power for Cat Form, which requires
Predatory Discipline.
Lacerate is now a 1-point talent on row 4 rather than a spell every Druid learns, with two new ranks so it can be taken earlier. Predatory Discipline sits beside it: Ferocious Bite still deals extra damage for your excess Energy but no longer spends it.
Rend and Tear raises your damage against bleeding targets by up to 15% (was 10%).
Furor moves to Feral and
Heart of the Wild to Restoration, and
Predatory Strikes and
Natural Instinct swap columns.- Leader of the Pack and
Moonkin Form again raise all types of critical strike chance and don't stack with each other.
The current game client still shows
Rend and Tear at up to 10%; the 15% comes from Blizzard's notes.
Balance and Restoration: Bloom replaces Gift of the Earthmother
Bloom (row 3): when your
Rejuvenation or
Regrowth runs its full duration, the target is instantly healed for 100% of your Spirit, or 50% if the effect is dispelled. It replaces Gift of the Earthmother.
Wild Growth now has a 3-second base cast, and
Naturalist cuts it by up to 0.5 seconds while raising all your damage by up to 10% (was 5%).
Swiftmend can only consume your own Rejuvenation or Regrowth.
Reflection and
Subtlety swap rows.- In Balance,
Genesis raises periodic damage and healing by up to 10% (was 5%), and
Starfire deals about 40% more base damage.
What Paladins and Druids should do
- Rebuild your talents in the Paladin and Druid calculators, which already use the new trees. Builds made before the end of October no longer fit.
- Holy Paladins: keep
Oath of Light on your main tank and spend Holy Shock on everyone else, where
Boundless Light makes it more likely to crit. - Protection Paladins can tank dungeons with Righteous Fury from level 10.
- Feral Druids: rows 4 and 7 each offer a Bear and a Cat choice: Lacerate and
Primal Bite for Bear, Predatory Discipline and
Shifting Power for Cat. - Restoration Druids: let Rejuvenation and Regrowth run their full duration when you can, because
Bloom only heals in full when they expire on their own. - Other classes' changes are in our launch tuning overview.
On Wowcalc
- October 30 hotfixes: Druid and Paladin talent reworkPatch notes
PaladinTalent calculator
DruidTalent calculator
Righteous FurySpell
Holy StrikeSpell
ShredSpell
ClawSpell
RavageSpell
StarfireSpell
Oath of LightTalent
Boundless LightTalent
ShieldswornTalent
StoicismTalent
Unsealed WrathTalent
ConvictionTalent
Turn EvilTalent
BloomTalent
Primal BiteTalent
Shifting PowerTalent
Predatory DisciplineTalent
LacerateTalent
Sources
Official announcements this article summarizes, in its own words.
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