holy s(haman)hit!

As the Cataclysm client has become leaked from the newly started Alpha, the data-miners have started their work, revealing not only lots and lots of screenshots, but also some of the many revamped talents. Amazingly enough, shamans are one of those. So, I sat down and took a bit further look at them, to see what’s going to change, in contrast to my earlier post on the announced previews.

Spirit -> Hit:
While it’s a thing I covered in my previous post, on the subject of Cataclysm Class-changes, we’ll be getting our hit from spirit, coming from an addition to the “Elemental Precision“-talent, that now causes 100% of our hit to be converted to Spell Hit rating. Of course, it’ll still be giving the flat 3% as well. However, if the talent-description is completely right… it’s 101% from spirit and 4% passive hit. I’m pretty sure that’s a rounding error however. The conversion completely fits with itemization, as they’re equally valued on items. For now, I sadly can’t find a good comparison, but it’s true enough at least.

However, there’s a hidden bonus, that most probably won’t see at the first glimpse: You also have some passive spirit. Granted, all spirit-buffs, or those giving base-stat bonuses, are being removed – but the passive is still there. For me, that’s a free 144 hit rating, which surely is quite a bit (which is 3.81% hit, if the rating system continue as it is now). It could however, very likely, be that base spirit is being wiped too, but that’s too early to say yet.

Lava Surge:
An interesting addition, that I didn’t really expect at first, especially combined with a fair bit of luck. Imagine an overloaded Lava Burst, followed by a Lava Surge proc, which is quickly used with Elemental Mastery and another Overload after that. That’s of course after an Unleashed Flametongue from the start. Ouch!

All the others…:
Earthquake, Acute Overload and Wrathful Totems aren’t really news, so I won’t really go into details with those, since I already covered it in my previous post. They sure look interesting, however. And, they somehow confirm the suspicion above of oddly rounded percentages.

Call Cpt. Obvious:
I can’t wait.

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