Hmm, I'd like to see how they are going to make the Enhance and Elemental Shaman more PvP viable.

I don't like the Chain Lightning change. It took one of our nukes and turned it into a pseudo-AoE. As for the totem streamlining, I think it's about time they did that. I (and others, I'm sure) suggested that change quite a while ago.

That's not enough to fix Shamans in PvP. They need to tell us what else they have in store before I can say any more.

The Hunger for Blood change is going to rock big time in PvE. Now we don't have to worry about putting it in our rotation. The Adrenaline Rush change seemed like a no-brainer. 5 minutes, when everything else was 3, or 1? I don't know if Combat will keep up with Assassination, but the buffs are nice so far.

Gimped? I disagree with your review of the discipline tree. =)

That being said, the change is good. I assume most disc priests will take those talent points and swap them into PW: Barrier.

I'm really stoked about PW:Barrier and party-specific Prayer of Healing. Now I won't have to flipflop group makeups on certain boss fights. I actually think it goes very far forward in terms of making groups more transparent in raids. I am interested to see the mechanics behind PW:B though -- I wonder if it'll be a ranged-based smart shield (like CoH) or a strict party based shield. And, if the latter, if it'll have the same limits that the current prayer of healing does.

I'm not sure I understand how blizzard is going to implement the new Hunger for Blood -- will be an always on ability that only activates when bleeds are on a target, like the damage bonus on shred? Or will it be an ability that still have to be manually activated when a bleed is applied, like overpower?

Totem streamlining ftw. FOR THE WIN.

Seconded My Disc priest is awesome.

Looking forward to the totem combines.

I think you were referring to the Disc/Holy spec that was very popular in TBC, right? Full disc definitely got some good lovin for WotLK, this just solidifies it as a great option compared to going holy where you focus more on enchancement and boosts opposed to straight full-blown healing. I think it's great!

I know a couple priests from BHA that will really like the chance and not having to spec halfway into Disc to get spirit buff. Now they have a great reason to go deeper holy or have a lot of reason to try out full Disc, whichever they choose and not feel like they are losing out on anything

Those were fake notes that were a bunch of stuff people knew were coming mixed with some things that the author decided would be a good idea.

Don't expect it unless you see it written by a blue.

I'm curious since I tend to lack paying attention to them all that often, but does this give more reason to use healing/mana totems, or is it more like "now my mana totem I always use will give some healing too"?

Have the rogue gods been appeased, or is this just a step in the right direction you think?

Definitely.

Blizzard actually explained the priests' roll by spec before announcing these changes, which you can find on MMO-Champion:

The Role of the Priest
The priest is a caster class that uses Holy and Shadow magic. Priests can only wear cloth armor and have a limited selection of weapons, but do most of their damage and healing from range. They make up for their low armor with spells that offer protection and healing.

Discipline -- this is a healing tree that emphasizes survival and single-target healing. Discipline specializes in damage absorption and prevention rather than restoring health, although they are very capable in that department too.

Holy -- this is a healing tree that has a spell suited for every situation. Holy priests can heal groups, heal individuals, heal tanks, or do all three in a single encounter. They are better at group healing than Discipline priests, but don't have as many damage prevention capabilities.

Shadow -- this tree sacrifices healing for damage. Shadow priests can restore health and mana to their group while casting their spells. Like the Shadow damage of warlocks, Shadow priest damage tends towards drains and damage over time spells.

Warrior, Druid, and Warlock notes.

Guess I have to wait until tomorrow for the hunter info.

WOW

Destro gets replenishment.

Affliction gets a steamline of DoTs (Corruption will give Siphon Life, Siphon Life spell removed).

Weakness/Recklessness now 1 curse

Loos pretty awesome so far, love the "several talents have been reduced in points, others have been removed" general comment at the end

This way of allowing ferals to scale with an offensive stat is.....interesting. assuming a 5k AP bear with a 40% crit rate spamming lacerate or swipe every GCD and you're looking at a 1250 damage shield every 2-3 seconds. huh. Suddenly stacking crit and AP is VERY VERY important.

They also buffed feral faerie fire and "nerfed" sunder armor. that'll make all the rogues and hunters I run with happy.

Warrior: You now gain rage when damage done to you is absorbed, such as through a Power Word: Shield.

Awww.... now how are we supposed to cheese off warriors as they pull?

You should look into the mitigation absorbtion affects have on tanks taking damage. If you throw in the healing and shields Disc priest >>>> holy. Holy is more raid/group healing, disc is single target.

Atleast you can still cheese off Prot Pallies since they haven't announced that we receive mana gained in the same situation

It's definitely a nice change for warrior tanking, but if you're going in with a pally tank, then they just lose mana continuously until they actually take damage and get a heal. Hrrrmmmm....

Agreed.

I suspect it's a bit of a wash. You lose having to cast out yet another dot every X seconds (which saves you the GCD atleast), but you lose out on the additional damage from casting that spell.

From what I understand, right now Affliction will still toss out CoA, Corr, UA and Haunt. Possibly adding in Immolate too, all of which have different CDs. This should allow you do to something else in that time too before refreshing 4 DoTs instead of 5 or 6.

I suspect they will make it easier for Affliction to ramp up Shadowbolt too and give it a little better synergy since it's not really something Destro uses all that often, and having those low Destro talents for shadowbolt are becoming more appealing with the added 5% crit.