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World Of Warcraft: Patch 2.3.2 And You

You've read the patch notes, you've gotten the first wave of UI errors, and you might've noticed that Onyxia Deep Breathes more, but overall what does patch 2.3.2 mean for you?

If you're a mage you've gotten quite a bit of love this time around, which is nice because the last time your class got seriously looked at your damage coefficient got nerfed. Ice Block, the mage version of Divine Shield, has officially become a trainable ability granted at level 30. In it's place you've got Cold Snap, whose old place further down on the tree was given to a new talent: Icy Veins. This lovely 20 second ability grants you a 20% haste buff and makes your spells 10% more likely to freeze your target. With only a 3 minute cooldown, this seems like it'll be of great help to arena mages, who rely on roots and fast casts to keep their opponents locked down.

If you're a shaman your elemental shields have had their mana cost substantially reduced, which is nice because lightning shield always seemed a bit overpriced. Water shield has, yet again, been retuned. Now it grants you 50mp5 while it's active and lasts 10 minutes.

If you're a hunter you're able to freezing trap two (or more if you're deep survival) mobs at a time again. Low rank arcane shots finally are getting attack power factored in, which is nice for the younger hunters out there. For all you crazy people that are going after the ghost wolf pet pet leveling has been increased to match the new leveling speed. To round out the changes, Aspect of the Viper has been buffed, so if you're having mana problems in raids your prayers have been answered.

If you're a retribution paladin your world has officially been rocked, as the big change to Crusader Strike has gone live. No longer will spell damage factor into your instant attack, now it's simple an instant 110% damage blow. This is part of a larger change in retadin itemization to allow them to fully use DPS warrior gear, similar to the recent changes that reduced the usefulness of strength for feral druids. Also, you're getting back 80% mana from judged seals now rather than 50%, so enjoy the extra mana.

If you're a restoration druid prepare to put away your massive +heal clickies, as lifebloom will no longer maintain your highest trinketed value as it rolls. Now every time you renew it the value gets set to whatever your +healing is at that moment. Feral druids got a small buff to ravage, their version of ambush, to the tune of an extra 35% damage.

If you're a rogue you're getting a bit of love this time around, as ambush is going from 250% weapon damage to 275%, a nice little buff for an unfortunately underused ability (are there even any dagger rogues left?) Hemorrhage has had it's initial damage reduced from 125% to 110% but the additional damage has been buffed, which will hopefully lead an overall increase in DPS. Shadowstep, a fun if somewhat useless ability, has been further buffed in hopes of creating a more tantalizing subtlety tree, granting a 70% move speed buff for 3 seconds after using it. No more shadowstepping behind a moving target only to have them outrun you before you stop lagging. Also, the Sinister Calling talent now increases damage by both Hemorrhage and Backstab by up to 10% at 5 points.

And if you're none of the above, then enjoy the reduced latency thanks to the removal of the Nagle algorithm. And no, I don't know what it is either.