Druid and Paladin talents get reshuffled, and the podcast hides a riddle: WoW Forever digest, November 1

Talents: what turned up on the servers

On October 31, Wowhead went through changes Blizzard has already pushed to the live Forever servers. The servers are open for name reservation right now, so the changes show up in the game data. They aren't in the development notes, and Wowhead says outright that they're subject to change.

We're not touching the site yet. If these changes hold at launch, we'll update the builds in our leveling and PvP guides, the class pages, and the talent calculator. Already planned a Druid or Paladin build? Keep in mind that some talents moved to different rows.

Druid

All three Druid trees were rebuilt, and a lot of talents changed places.

• Balance. Genesis now boosts periodic damage and healing by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Feral. Lacerate is a new talent, and Berserk is gone. Leader of the Pack now raises all crit chance, not just melee and ranged. Primal Bite hits harder (42/62/77, up from 26/38/59) and moved. Shifting Power's cooldown dropped from 16 seconds to 8.
• Restoration. Bloom is a new talent. Naturalist now also cuts Wild Growth's cast time, and its damage bonus went up to 2/4/6/8/10%. Swiftmend needs your own Regrowth or Rejuvenation on the target now, not just anyone's. Wild Growth has a 3-second cast.

Paladin

Paladins got the most changes. The trees look pretty different, and there are several new talents.

• Holy. New talents Boundless Light and Oath of Light. Divine Precision is down to 2 ranks and gives 8% Holy spell hit at max rank instead of 18%, but it also shortens silences on you by 20%. Holy Power now raises the crit healing bonus by 10/20/30/40/50% instead of crit chance. Improved Seals goes up to 5 ranks and 15% (it was 3 ranks and 9%). Light's Vigil no longer triggers off enemies. Reverence is down to 2 ranks from 3, with the same 30% mana regen at max rank. Spiritual Focus now has 5 ranks and tops out at 70%.
• Protection. Righteous Fury now comes at level 10 instead of 16. Holy Shield does 32% less damage and costs 100 mana instead of 150. Improved Righteous Fury cuts damage taken by 3/6/9%, up from 2/4/6%. Iron Creed is down to 3 ranks from 5, with 30% more threat at max rank instead of 15%, but only 6% damage reduction instead of 10%. Sacred Duty no longer gives Stamina, but at max rank it takes 10 seconds off Forbearance. Shield Specialization is down to 2 ranks from 3, with the same values at max rank. Shieldsworn and Stoicism are new, Swift Judgement has a new effect, and Templar's Bulwark can now be dispelled.
• Retribution. Champion of the Light goes up to 5 ranks from 3. Spell damage at max rank stays the same, but it now also cuts Hammer of Wrath's cast time by 1 second. Conviction is down to 3 ranks from 5 and boosts all spells by 6% (it was 5%). One spell was pulled from the tree, and Turn Evil is a new ability. Two-Handed Weapon Specialization now only raises physical damage and cuts threat by 20% at max rank. Unsealed Wrath has a new effect, and Vindication no longer raises attack power.

Mage

• Arcane. Arcane Blast now gives 12% Intellect per stack instead of 15%, its mana cost goes up by 100% instead of 175%, and the buff lasts 18 seconds instead of 15. Arcane Resilience now has 3 ranks, the third one gives armor equal to 75% of your Intellect, and it moved up to row 1. Missile Barrage moved down to row 2, and Arcane Focus is gone.
• Fire. Improved Fireball was renamed Accelerant, and it now also speeds up Arcane Wrath. Critical Mass caps at 6% crit at rank 3 (it was 10% at rank 5). Improved Fire Blast moved to row 3. Incineration gives 10% crit to Fire Blast, Ice Lance, Arcane Blast, and Scorch at rank 5 (it was 6% at rank 3).
• Frost. Ice Lance does 300% bonus damage to frozen targets instead of 200%, but it now has an 8-second cooldown. Ice Barrier raises Frost damage by 15% instead of 3%, and by another 5% instead of 3% while the shield is up. Winter's Chill boosts your next Cone of Cold by 20% instead of 5%. Arctic Reach now also extends Ice Lance's range. Elemental Precision was renamed Precision and now raises hit for all spells, not just some.

Other classes

• Priest. Shadow Word: Death now hits the Priest back for 30% of the damage instead of 10%. Holy has a new talent, Holy Binding.
• Warlock. Improved Drains now boosts Drain Mana instead of Wrack.
• Warrior. Revenge now scales with 25% of attack power at every rank.
• Hunter. In the Beast Mastery tree, Pathfinding moved from row 2 to row 3.

A riddle on the podcast whiteboard

In the sixth podcast episode, the whiteboard behind Aggrend read "Shen'Serrar lezal melor'na adala fal," and players got to work on it right away. We already know "Shen" from the Skyborne, where it means hidden, and "Serrar" shows up in Quel'Serrar, where it means blade. So, hidden blade.

The rest looks like the Darnassian phrase "Shanna melor'ne adal fal," which means "the truth is a guiding light." The only unknown word is "lezal." Players are guessing at something like "the hidden blade is our guiding light."

Here's the hook. In Classic, Warriors and Paladins earned Quel'Serrar through Onyxia, and she's in Forever's first raid tier. Secret hunters are already digging, but with the game not out yet, there isn't much to test. My money's on a hidden quest around Onyxia, though that's just a guess for now.

The beta in numbers

Blizzard posted its beta wrap-up. About one character in five was Skyborne, and players made more than 600,000 Forsaken Paladins. Pretty clear what people were most excited about.

Upcoming dates

• November 2: meet the developers in Irvine, California.
• November 3: name reservation closes.
• November 4, 3 p.m. Pacific: WoW Forever launches.
• December 9: the first raids, Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit, and Onyxia's Lair.