With a firm release date of August 28, 2012 now set for 5.0.4 (I.E. two weeks from today), it is safe to say that we are in the closing stretch of class changes and balancing. Another build was released today with typical results: nerfs, though they weren’t just limited to Shadow Priests. Here’s a recap on our changes:

• [b][url=http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=2944]Devouring Plague[/url][/b] on hit and per tick damage reduced by about 9%, diluting the effectiveness of our [b][url=http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=77486]Mastery[/url][/b] further.
• [b][url=http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=15407]Mind Flay[/url][/b] damage reduced by 15%, which is overkill even for a ‘filler’ spell at this point.
• [b][url=http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=8092]Mind Blast[/url][/b] damage reduced by 15% also, which makes our only baseline nuke feel more like a wet noodle. This nerf also affects how good [b][url=mop.wowhead.com/spell=109175]Divine Insight[/url][/b] is, and this also reduces how much total damage [b][url=http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=2944]Devouring Plague[/url][/b] does when DI is selected as a talent choice (it is a viciously intertwined cycle between this talent and these two abilities).
• [b][url=http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=48045]Mind Sear[/url][/b] damage reduced by 59%! I don’t know how much AoE is needed in T14, but we’re definitely not going to be on top in those situations.
• [b][url=http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=10060]Power Infusion[/url][/b] had its duration buffed by 33% from 15sec to 20sec (and is now only castable on yourself). This should have a significant effect on where profiles with PI rank overall on mostly stationary/low movement encouters.

On the bright side, neither of our baseline DoTs were altered. These changes are probably going to see our DoTs become more important and, thus, Haste become a more important stat even after the DP+2 breakpoint.

More detailed analysis will be up once I can run some sims (probably posted Thursday).