It’s been said many times that Blizzard is comfortable with Frost being the dual wielding tree for Death Knights from now on, to give a different flavor to the tree and to distinguish it from the other 2 trees. But we know that is wasn’t always that way as evidenced by the many Frost specced tanks back in the day wielding two-handed weapons. Eventually dual wielding became more and more accepted for Frost and then Blizzard added the Threat of Thassarian talent to really support it. The small problem with dual wielding one handed weapons was that it never had any strength on them, a stat that was most desirable for Death Knights. Some of them had just attack power while some had agility and attack power but never strength. Basically they were making use of weapons that were intended more for hunters or even rogues. This is going to change in the Cataclysm expansion, according to Ghostcrawler. Finally Blizzard is going to make dps one handers with Strength on them to fill this need for Death Knights. This is especially important because of the stats changes in the expansion. Right now Death Knights are making do because of the attack power on these weapons but that’s going down the drain in the expansion. Since Death Knights, along with Warriors and Paladins, will get their attack power from Strength this is really needed. This brings me to another related issue. It seems to me that when the new stats system gets rolled in, these current dual wielding Death Knights could be screwed until they get new weapons with Strength on them. Logic suggests that with the new stats system, these weapons could be useless to Death Knights. The attack power that Death Knights want from these weapons will be gone and since they’re really hunter weapons, that attack power could turn into Agility instead of Strength. Unless they some flat attack power on these weapons just like they’re keeping some flat spell power on caster weapons, there’s really going to be a problem. Post from: WOW Obsessed

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Strength based DPS 1h weapons in Cataclysm

We’re going to see a pretty significant amount of tweaks, changes and even removal of how stats will work in the Cataclysm expansion, giving the feel that it’s not only Azeroth’s landscape that’s changing. CM Eyonix recently wrote a pretty long post in the forums about the changes we can expect to see with several stats and systems that revolve around them. moonkin dancing in the snow All this talk about stats changing may have you asking how it’s going to affect you, especially with the gear you have on right now. This is especially important because these stats changes are going to be implemented not when the expansion comes out but shortly before. CM Eyonix also compiled the following list of changes you should expect to see as your current gear undergoes the stats changes: For all tanks, except Druids: * No more Defense on gear. Existing Defense becomes Dodge, Parry, or Block Rating. * No more Block Value on gear. Existing Block Value becomes Block Rating. * You’ll have as much Stamina as you’re used to, though you may notice your tanking plate has a bit less Stamina than a comparable piece of DPS plate, since we tend to take the gem budget out of your most attractive stat. * Bonus Armor on gear will go down slightly. For melee DPS class, druid tank, or hunter: * A lot more Stamina. Bear-form Stamina scaling will be lowered as a result. * Strength if you wear plate. Agility if you wear mail or leather. * Existing Attack Power becomes Agility and Stamina.Armor Penetration becomes Haste or Crit. * No Intellect on melee gear. Hunters won’t need Intellect since they will no longer use mana. Shaman and Retribution paladins will get mana and spell damage in other ways. For DPS caster: * A lot more Stamina. * All of your Spell Power converted to Intellect and Stamina. * No Spirit. You won’t miss Spirit, though, because you won’t need it for DPS or mana regen. [author's note: I sure hope they get something in return for the spirit loss. After all spirit was part of the stat budget for some of their gear, so hopefully the spirit turns into intellect and stamina] For healers: * A lot more Stamina. * All of your Spell Power converted to Intellect and Stamina. * Spirit instead of MP5. You’ll probably be happy with Spirit, though, because mana regen is going to matter more than it does currently. Healing paladins and shaman will benefit more from Spirit than they do currently. For Balance druids or Elemental shamans: * You will still share gear with Restoration druids and shaman. * Your gear will have Spirit on it. It won’t have Hit on it. * You will have a talent that converts Spirit to Hit. We will adjust talents accordingly so that you want about as much Spirit as, say, a warlock wants Hit. * Hit on rings and other such gear will still benefit you. * Raid buffs will no longer boost Spirit, so you shouldn’t find yourself unexpectedly over the Hit cap because of buffs. So when this change gets implemented, don’t be surprised to see all these changes like wondering why you have more stamina or less armor or wondering where all your spell power in your gear went. It’s a great idea to know exactly what to expect instead of getting surprised and this is a great way to do that. Post from: WOW Obsessed

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Stats changes and your current gear

When the Cataclysm expansion was announced, they also announced that they were going to change stats to make things simpler. They announced that they would be changing and even removing entirely some stats from gear; like how casters would get their spell power from intellect or how mp5 would be removed completely so all healers will get their mana regen from spirit. CM Eyonix made a pretty comprehensive post that outlines a lot of stat changes we’re going to see in the expansion. The post gives some new information on new changes and gives some more details on changes we’ve already heard of before. You can click on the link above to see whole post but I’d like to touch on a few interesting points listed in the post. As I said what’s listed below is just part of the whole thing. * Spell Power and Attack Power You probably already know this but just to be clear, attack power and spell power will no longer appear on most items. Basically Spell Power will usually be taken from intellect while Attack Power will be taken from Strength for Plate wearers and Agility for Mail and Leather wearers. * Spirit This stats is being changed so only healing gear will have it (which includes resto shammies and holy paladins because they’ll be using spirit too). Other casters will have other ways to regain their mana, while Balance Druids and Elemental Shamans will make some use of it too (more on this below). Raid buffs that increase Spirit like Blessing of Kings will now just increase the other primary stats. The 5 second rule and other aspects of the mana regen system will also likely change. * Haste Melee classes will get more benefit from haste by letting you recover resources like energy faster. * Parry Parry will no longer be a 100% avoidance stat like dodge is. Basically it will mitigate 50% of the next two attacks that land. * Defense Defense is going out the window so existing defense will turn into shield block, dodge or parry. Tanks will become uncrittable (then whole point of currently being defense capped) by shifting into Bear Form, using Defensive stance, Righteous Fury or Frost Presence. * Spell ranks and weapon skills Both stats are being removed from the game. Spells will have one rank and will scale with level. All classes will start with all the weapons they can use learned and there will no longer be a need to improve on them. * Elemental shamans and Balance Druids As mentioned earlier, spirit will only appear on healing gear. Elemental Shamans and Balance Druids will share in the healing gear that Restoration Shamans and Druids will use. Since healing gear doesn’t have +hit, they will have talents that will convert Spirit into +hit. Since raid buffs will no longer increase spirit, Elemental Shamans and Balance druid who are not hit capped will not find themselves suddenly hit capped due to buffs. Post from: WOW Obsessed

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More details on Stats changes for Xpac

We’ve seen existing classes get applied to new races when they allowed Draenei Shamans and Blood Elf Paladins in The Burning Crusade expansion and we’ve also seen existing races get a new class with Death Knights for Wrath of the Lich King. We’ve all had to wait until the expansion came out to access them so it really isn’t a shock that the new race/class combinations announced before won’t be available before the Cataclysm expansion comes out , according to the Developer Chat on Twitter the other day. class character creation Of course you can argue that in those previous examples there was a new race or a new class involved while save for the Goblins and the Worgen, these are existing races and existing classes. So yes, if Blizzard wanted to, they could allow us access to the new race/class combinations like Troll Druid or Dwarf Shaman right now because there’s no new race or class involved. I think the most important thing about waiting for the expansion to allow access to these new combinations is setting up the right structure to make them feel like they not only belong but that the experience would be great. When trying to make sense of the new combinations and how they fit with the lore, there’s talk about Dwarf Shamans making sense because of the Wildhammer Tribe and Troll Druids making sense because of the Horde friendly Shatterspear Tribe and speculation that their proximity to Moonglade allowed them to learn how to be Druids. I remember when Cataclysm was announced there was a theme that the new race/class combos are a result of seeking other ways to defeat the new threat. So there really isn’t much point to seeking the help of these allies and resorting to alternative methods (like Tauren wielding the Light aka Tauren paladins) before the Cataclysm happens. In the Developer Chat in Twitter, they also made mention of making some changes to the starting zones. We already heard about what’s going to happen to the Trolls and the Gnomes in the next minor patch and that’s just a prelude to what’s happening in the expansion. It’s a better idea to hold off on the new combinations so that players could get the most out of these new changes to the starter zones rather than allowing them now and having less players appreciate the changes in the expansion. Post from: WOW Obsessed

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Wait for Xpac for new race/class combos