In case you haven’t already seen it, MMO-Champion has posted information on class skills and talents presented at the WWI. The break-down can be found here: Wrath of the Lich King Skills and Talents.

Unfortunately, no information on hunter (or paladin) skills and talents yet. But, the good news is that, despite the fact that most of this information will likely be subject to change, it is at least somewhat credible in that it came directly from the Blizzard Invitational (as opposed to “leaked” alpha info).

So, for all you hunters with alts, or non-hunters (or paladins), go check out what new abilities you might have to look forward to in the upcoming expansion!

Things I’m Looking Forward To

As many long-time readers know, I’ve got an army of alts. I’ve got a 70 priest that alternates between Shadow and Discipline, as well as a 69 Combat Rogue, and various other alts in their 30s. (Incidentally, I’ve decided to level my druid next.) So this info isn’t by any means irrelevant to me at the moment, despite the distinct lack of hunter specifics. Here are some of the things I’m looking forward to:

For my priest:
Talent: Aspiration

(Rank 2) Reduces the cooldown of your Inner Focus, Power Infusion and Pain Suppression spells by 20%.

Power Infusion and Pain Suppression, in particular, are the really neat talents of the Disc tree, and easily my favorites. I love tossing around Pain Suppression on rogues and dps warriors, and they love me in return. And what caster doesn’t love Power Infusion? I think my favorite fight, so far, for these two abilities is the Gruul fight. I consistently use both whenever their cooldown is up, and having that cooldown (2 minutes) reduced by 20% (bringing them both down to 96 seconds) will be really great.

Talent: Grace

(Rank 3) Your Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Penance spells bless the target with Grace, reducing damage done to the target by 3%, and increasing healing done to the target by 3%. This effect will stack up to 3 times.

While 3% doesn’t sound like a whole lot at first glance, I think this talent will provide some definite food for theorycrafting. First, it stacks. Second, it increases healing done by 3%, which I would assume means from all healers. Keeping a Disc priest on the MT for Grace buffs, I think, will likely become par for the course in WotLK.

Talent: Dispersion

You disperse into pure shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% health and mana every 1 sec for 6 sec.
5 min cooldown.

Shadow priests will get a rough equivalent to Evocation? That’s pretty neat!

Ability: Hex of Weakness

(Rank 8)Weakens the target enemy, reducing damage caused by 55 and reducing the effectiveness of any healing by 20%. Lasts 2 min.
Instant cast, 470 Mana, 30 yd range.

Well, that might’ve been nice on the Warp Splinter fight…

Ability: Mind Sear

Causes an explosion of shadow magic around the enemy target, causing 481 to 519 Shadow damage every 1 sec for 5 sec to all targets within 10 yards.
Channeled, 545 Mana, 30 yd range.

Yay! Shadow priest AoE!

For my rogue:
Ability: Fan of Knives

Instantly throw both weapons at all targets within 8 yards, causing 100% weapon damage.
Instant, 5 yd range, 30 sec cooldown

There’s already been some hub-bub about this one, and for obvious reasons. Its long been a complaint for rogues, particularly those not of the Combat persuasion (who lack Blade Flurry), that rogues lack any form of AoE damage, when every other class at least has something. Well, rogues, here ya go.

Talent: Murder Spree

Step through the shadows from enemy to enemy within 10 yards, attacking an enemy every .5 secs with both weapons until 5 assaults are made. Can hit the same target multiple times.
2 min cooldown

This just sounds so insanely awesome, doesn’t it? I think that’s probably one of my favorite things about rogue: the imagery and descriptions for abilities and talents are so evocative. I think, in practice, this talent may not be as awesome as it sounds. We’ll have to see what the theorycrafters have to say.

Talent: Prey on the Weak

Your normal melee critical strike damage is increased by 5% when the target has less health than you (as a percentage of total health).

So now there will really be a reason to keep rogues alive! Its about time. Rogues are always the first (well, maybe second, if the tank goes down) to die, it seems. This will give healers more incentive to keep them topped off.

There are a ton of other skills and talents described in the article, and I would definitely recommend checking them out! Which ones are you particularly excited about? Is there anything Blizzard has added that you’ve been dying to have? Is there something they’ve missed that you’re hoping they’ll add?