WoW 4.0.1 is here! Impressions…

I got the patch installed pretty late so I didn’t get a lot of play time. Still, I setup a new talent tree and hopped in a random to how things go. Got dropped in a Uk. Then WoW crashed. After logging back in some asshat in the random was spamming ‘go go go’. So uh, we go’d.

First pull went ok, you know the two guys? No problem. Second pull, the one with the 8 guys? Yeah, that didn’t go so well. It’s at that point I realized consecrate is now on a 30s cooldown and still last 10 seconds. SO instead of being up 100% of the time, it’s up 33% of the time. I also no longer have Seal of Command and Seal of Truth (Vengeance) only affects primary target now. Holy Shield no longer exist, nor does Blessing of Sanctuary – both contributors to AOE threat. Hammer of the Righteous DOES still affect multiple targets, and now without a 3 target limit, but it does less damage and shares a cooldown with Crusader Strike. Overall I feel nerfed and there’s a distinct lack of… something missing from the rotation. Holy shield is gone and consecrate had it’s CD tripled.

A couple specific notes:

• Imp Judgement increases range by 10 yards, 2 points. 30 yard judgment is sick.
• Holy Shield still exist, but it’s a proc from a couple abilities adding 15% block, it used to be 30% (I think) and dealt holy damage to attack
• Shield of the Righteous used to be my hardest hitting attack. And it still is, if I rarely use it. It’s based off Holy Power now dealing 20%, 60% and 120% of AP pending on how much Holy Power you have. Obviously 120% is better than 20%. But in order to get that I have to use Crusader Strike or Hammer three times, both on a 3s cooldown. So 10 seconds into a fight I can hit a guy hard.
• Spiritual Attunement apparently no longer exist. Nor does the talent that refreshes Divine Plea. We gained Judgment of the Wise: 30% base mana over 10s – we’ll see
• Ardent Defender is now an activated ability lasting 10s, 3m cooldown healing for 15% health upon death, instead of a passive ability also reducing damage when at low health. Major nerf.
• Sanctuary is now a passive buff reducing chance to be crit by 6% (weird since no crit is now built into Righteous Fury, perhaps a tooltip mistake), reduces damage by 10% and regens mana by 3% after a dodge or parry. It used to have a holy damage backlash (aiding in aoe threat, now nerfed)

Ok, enough bitching. I’ll check out more tomorrow.