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4.2 Patch Notes

General
  • New Daily Quests: The Regrowth and Molten Front
    • A large assortment of all-new daily quests and rewards are now available in Hyjal, where players can help the Guardians of Hyjal push back the allies of Ragnaros and establish a forward operating base in the Firelands! In order to partake in the Regrowth and Molten Front daily quests, players must have at least completed Mount Hyjal up to and including the quest Aessina’s Miracle. Once this quest has been completed, players should speak with Matoclaw in the Sanctuary of Malorne to take part in the Regrowth efforts.
  • New Quest Chain: Elemental Bonds
    • A New quest line is now available to level-85 Horde and Alliance characters, bringing brave adventurers to Thrall’s aid. The Call of the World-Shaman, the quest which will point players toward Thrall and The Nordrassil Summit, can be obtained at the Earthshrines in Stormwind or Orgrimmar.
  • New Raid: The Firelands
    • Located within the Elemental Plane, the Firelands is an all-new 10- and 25-player raid featuring normal and Heroic difficulties! Battle-hardened veterans of the Horde and Alliance now have an opportunity to strike at Ragnaros the Firelord and his loyal servants by venturing into their domain via Sulfuron Spire in Mount Hyjal.
  • New Legendary Item: Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest
    • Steadfast raiders have an opportunity to embark on a series of quests to create an all-new legendary caster staff. In order to begin the process of assembling the staff, players must first kill a Molten Lord in the Firelands, or have completed any of the achievements Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, or Throne of the Four Winds. Once any of these achievements have been unlocked, players can accept the quest A Legendary Engagement from Ziradormi in Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar, or Coridormi atop the Wizard’s Sanctum in Stormwind (players who have already completed any of these achievements are immediately eligible for this quest). Players who become eligible for the quest series by killing a Molten Lord in the Firelands will automatically receive the quest Your Time Has Come, leading them to the start of the questline. The legendary item questline is only available to druids, mages, priests, shaman, and warlocks.
  • New User Interface Feature: Dungeon Journal
    • A host of dungeon information is now built into the user interface via the all-new Dungeon Journal. This feature can be accessed via a new button in the Navigation tray from anywhere in the world. Boss background story, encounter details, abilities, and loot can be viewed with the Dungeon Journal for all bosses which have been integrated into the new system (this includes bosses for all Cataclysm dungeons and raids). Additional dungeons are planned to be incorporated in future updates.
  • Recruit-A-Friend now awards bonus experience and free level grants to level 80, up from level 60.

Achievements

  • Bear-ly Made It (new achievement): Save all four prisoners before they are sacrificed in Zul’Aman on Heroic difficulty.

Classes: General

  • All healing critical strikes now heal for 2 times a normal heal (+100%), up from 1.5 times a normal heal (+50%).
  • Players are once again free to dance in combat (without causing graphic errors). Other animations, such as attacks, will take precedence over dancing. The dance animation will be suppressed until the higher priority animation is complete. Fun has been unnerfed.
  • Buffs
    • All class abilities which place a buff on friendly targets no longer generate any threat. This goes for raid-wide buffs like Mark of the Wild and Power Word: Fortitude, as well as triggered effects such as Blessed Resilience or Fingers of Frost, and single-target buffs like Dark Intent and Hysteria. The exception is buffs which directly cause healing or damage, such as Thorns or Renew. Abilities such as these still generate normal threat.
  • Crowd Control
    • Many crowd control abilities no longer cause creatures to attack players when they are cast. The creature will not attack the player when the crowd control wears off, and nearby creatures will not become hostile to the player either. However, if a visible player gets too close to the target creature, the creature will remember and attack the player when the crowd control effect wears off. The intent is to make it easier for dungeon groups to manage crowd control assignments and pulling packs of hostile NPCs. The abilities affected by this change are: Hibernate, Entangling Roots, Wyvern Sting (will still cause hostility when it begins to deal damage), Freezing Trap, Polymorph, Repentance, Shackle Undead, Blind, Hex, Bind Elemental, Banish, Seduction.
  • Pets
    • The Aggressive pet stance has been removed and replaced with the Assist stance. This stance will cause the player’s pet to attack the player’s target. The pet will not change targets unless the master attacks a new target for a few seconds.
    • The Defensive pet stance will now only cause the player’s pet to attack enemies which attack the pet or the master.
  • Spell Interrupts
    • When interrupted while casting a single-school spell such as Mind Flay or Frostbolt, players will now be able to cast dual-school spells such as Mind Spike (Frost and Shadow schools) or Frostfire Bolt (Frost and Fire schools). However, being interrupted while casting a dual-school spell will still interrupt all respective schools as intended.
  • Stats
    • Death knights, paladins, and warriors no longer receive any bonus to their chance to dodge from Agility. Their base chance to dodge is now a fixed 5%.
    • Death knights, paladins, and warriors now receive 27% of their Strength bonuses as parry rating, up from 25%. This conversion still only applies to Strength above and beyond their base Strength.
  • General Class Bug Fixes
    • Players should no longer incorrectly receive a message stating they interrupted a spell cast when they did not.
    • Action bars will no longer briefly disappear when characters that have a stance bar enter a vehicle.

Death Knights

  • Obliterate base damage has been reduced to 150% weapon damage, down from 160%.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Frost
      • Hungering Cold now has a 1.5-second cast time.
      • Might of the Frozen Wastes now increases two-handed weapon damage by 3/7/10%, down from 4/8/12%.
    • Unholy
      • Unholy Might now increases Strength by 20%, up from 5%.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Dark Succor has been redesigned. Rather than placing a 15% maximum health floor on Death Strike healing while in Frost or Unholy Presence, it causes the next Death Strike within 15 seconds after killing a foe that yields experience or Honor Points to heal for at least 20% of the death knight’s maximum health (still requires Frost or Unholy Presence).
  • Death Knight Bug Fixes
    • The talent Killing Machine can now properly be triggered from off-hand attacks as well as main-hand attacks.

Druids

  • Druids now gain 1 attack power per point of Strength, down from 2. They continue to gain 2 attack power per point of Agility while in Cat Form or Bear Form. In addition, Cat Form’s scaling rate from gear upgrades was slower than other classes, which was causing them to fall behind in damage with higher item levels. To counter the Strength change and improve scaling, the following changes have been made. All numbers cited are for level-85 druids.
    • Ferocious Bite damage has been increased by 15%. In addition, its base cost has been reduced to 25 energy and it can use up to 25 energy, for up to a 100% damage increase.
    • Mangle (Cat) damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 540% weapon damage, up from 460%, and bonus damage has been lowered to 302.
    • Rake initial damage on hit now deals the same damage as each periodic tick (and is treated the same for all combat calculations). Periodic damage now gains 14.7% of attack power per tick, up from 12.6%, and base damage per tick has been lowered from 557 to 56. There is a known issue with Rake’s tooltip being incorrect from this change will be corrected in a future patch.
    • Ravage damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 950% weapon damage, up from 850%, and bonus damage has been lowered to 532.
    • Savage Roar now grants 80% increased damage to melee auto attacks, up from 50%. The Glyph of Savage Roar remains an unchanged bonus of 5% to that total.
    • Shred damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 540% weapon damage, up from 450%, and bonus damage has been lowered to 302.
  • Entangling Roots and the equivalent spell triggered by Nature’s Grasp no longer deal damage.
  • Innervate now grants an ally target 5% of his or her maximum mana over 10 seconds, but still grants 20% of the druid’s maximum mana over 10 seconds when self-cast.
  • Omen of Clarity clearcasting buff from now lasts 15 seconds, up from 8 seconds.
  • Starfire damage has been increased by approximately 23%.
  • Swipe (Cat) now deals 600% weapon damage at level 80 or higher, down from 670%.
  • Wrath damage has been increased by approximately 23%.

Talent Specializations

  • Balance
    • Earth and Moon’s duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 12.
    • Fungal Growth spell visual effect has been updated to be less visually intrusive and more aesthetic.
    • Lunar Shower has been redesigned. When casting Moonfire, the druid gains Lunar Shower. Lunar Shower increases the direct damage done by Moonfire by 15/30/45%, and reduces the mana cost by 10/20/30%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 3 seconds. While under the effects of Lunar Shower, Moonfire generates 8 Solar Energy, and Sunfire generates 8 Lunar Energy. The amount of Lunar/Solar Energy gained does not change based on the number of points spent in the talent, or stacks of Lunar Shower. Those druids who wish to delay transition in or out of an Eclipse state should now cast the one of their two basic attacks which will not move the Eclipse bar (either Starfire or Wrath).
    • Solar Beam has a new spell effect.
    • Wild Mushroom: Detonate can now also trigger Earth and Moon, in addition to Starfire and Wrath.

Feral

  • Bear damage abilities were scaling too fast with higher gear levels compared to other tanks, so the following balance changes have been made. All the numbers cited are for level 85 characters; numbers will be lower for lower-level characters.
    • Faerie Fire (Feral) base damage has been raised to 2950, up from 679. Attack power scaling has been decreased to 10.8%, down from 15%.
    • Maul base damage has been raised to 35, up from 8. Attack power scaling has been decreased to 19%, down from 26.4%.
    • Pulverize weapon damage percent has been decreased to 60%, down from 80%. Damage per Lacerate application has been increased to 1623, up from 361.
    • Mangle (Bear) weapon damage percent has been decreased to 190%, down from 260%. Bonus damage has been increased to 3306, down from 754.
    • Swipe base damage has been increased to 929, up from 215. Attack power scaling has been decreased to 12.3%, down from 17.1%.
    • Thrash initial base damage has been increased to 1042, up from 339. Initial damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 9.82%, down from 19.2%. Periodic base damage has been increased to 581, up from 189. Periodic damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 1.67%, down from 3.26%. In addition, a bug was corrected where armor decreased the periodic damage done by this ability.
    • Lacerate initial base damage has been increased to 3608, up from 2089. Initial damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 5.52%, down from 7.66%. Periodic base damage has been increased to 69, up from 16. Periodic damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 0.369%, down from 0.512%.
  • Natural Reaction damage reduction has been increased to 9/18%, up from 6/12%.

Restoration

  • Symbiosis (Mastery) has been removed and replaced with Harmony. Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 10%, and casting direct healing spells grants an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 seconds. Each point of mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%. Healing Touch, Nourish, Swiftmend, and the initial heal from Regrowth are considered direct healing spells for the purposes of this Mastery. All other healing from druid spells is considered periodic.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Berserk duration increase is now 10 seconds, up from 5.
    • Glyph of Ferocious Bite has been redesigned. It now causes Ferocious Bite to heal the caster for 1% of maximum health for each 10 energy used.
    • Glyph of Innervate now causes the druid to gain 10% of his or her maximum mana over 10 seconds when Innervate is used on a friendly target, in addition to Innervate’s base effect.
  • Set Bonuses
    • The 4-piece Balance druid tier 11 PvE set bonus, Astral Alignment, now provides a total of 15% critical strike chance with 3 charges, decreasing by 5% per charge, instead of 99% decreasing by 33% per charge. This change was made because the set bonus proved so valuable it was not possible to upgrade out of the set into tier 12. To compensate, changes have been made to Starfire and Wrath (listed at the top of the druid class section).
    • The 2-piece Restoration druid tier 11 PvE set bonus has been redesigned to work with the new Restoration druid mastery. Druids with this bonus now receive the bonus to Spirit while the Harmony mastery bonus to periodic healing is active.
  • Druid Bug Fixes
    • It is no longer possible in some encounters to use Feral Charge when closer than its minimum range.

Hunters

  • Multi-shot damage has been reduced. It now deals 120% weapon damage at level 80 or higher, down from 137%.
  • Traps now scale with hunter stats such as hit, expertise, spell penetration and attack power as intended.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Marksmanship
      • Careful Aim now grants additional critical strike chance against targets over 90% health, up from 80% health.
    • Survival
      • Black Arrow damage done has been increased by roughly 40%.
  • Pets
    • 10 new rare tamable beasts have been added, each of which provides a unique taming challenge. Will you be the first hunter to tame Deth’tilac, the rarest and most powerful of them all? Players will need to progress through the Hyjal Regrowth and Molten Front daily questing areas in order to unlock access to the full gamut of taming challenges.
    • Intervene (Pet Tenacity) has been redesigned. The pet runs at high speed toward a group member, reducing the damage done by the next melee or ranged attack made against them equal to 50% of the pet’s total health.

Mages

  • Arcane Blast damage done has been reduced by 5%.
  • Pyroblast cast when Hot Streak is not active was doing slightly less damage than the Hot Streak version. Its damage has been increased so that both versions of Pyroblast now do the same amount of damage.
  • Spellsteal mana cost has been increased by 100%.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Fire
      • When Impact spreads Living Bomb, it will only be spread to two additional targets. The net effect is that if the mage’s most recent Living Bomb target is the same as their Impact target, that target will no longer lose the Living Bomb effect. If Living Bomb is active on multiple targets when the Impact effect is cast, Living Bomb will remain active on the most recent Living Bomb target, and will be added to two other nearby targets.
    • Frost
      • Deep Freeze and Ring of Frost will cause diminishing returns on each other, in addition to the spells they normally share diminishing returns with.

Paladins

  • Divine Light mana cost has been increased to 35% of base mana, up from 30%.
  • Flash of Light mana cost has been increased to 31% of base mana, up from 27%.
  • Guardian of Ancient Kings uses the new Assist pet stance functionality.
  • Holy Light mana cost has been increased to 12% of base mana, up from 10%.
  • Rebuke, Divine Shield and Divine Protection have new icons.
  • Seal of Righteousness now can be activated by any melee ability, not just single target melee abilities. This adds Hammer of the Righteous (the physical component) and Divine Storm to the list of abilities that can activate this seal. In addition, Seal of Righteousness procs can now be critical effects.

Talent Specializations

  • Holy
    • Beacon of Light can no longer be dispelled. In addition, it now transfers 100% of the heal from Holy Light, but still 50% of the heal from other spells.
    • Denounce has been redesigned. It still reduces the mana cost of Exorcism. However, it no longer has a chance on Holy Shock of making Exorcism free and instant. Instead, it has a 50/100% chance to prevent the Exorcism target from causing critical effects for the next 6 seconds. This effect can be dispelled.
    • Holy Shock mana cost has been decreased to 7% of base mana, down from 8%.
    • Illuminated Healing (Mastery) has been adjusted slightly so that if a paladin refreshes an existing copy of his or her own Illuminated Healing on a target, the new absorption amount will be added into the old absorption amount and the duration will be reset. The total absorption created can never exceed 1/3 of the casting paladin’s health.
    • Infusion of Light can now lower the cast time of Flash of Light by 0.75/1.5 seconds, in addition to Holy Light and Divine Light. In addition, the old Denounce spell overlay effect has been transferred to Infusion of Light since Denounce is no longer a proc.
    • Speed of Light now increases movement speed when Holy Radiance or Divine Protection are cast. In addition, this talent now reduces the cooldown of Holy Radiance by 13/26/40 seconds, up from 10/20/30.
    • Walk in the Light now improves Word of Glory healing by 30%, in addition to its current effects.
    • Protection
      • Ardent Defender has a new spell effect.
      • Guarded By The Light no longer interacts with Holy Shield in any way.
      • Hammer of the Righteous mana cost has been lowered to 10%, down from 12% to match Crusader Strike.
      • Holy Shield has been redesigned. This talent is now an activated ability off the global cooldown. It grants 20% increased block amount to a paladin’s shield blocks for 10 seconds, with a 30-second cooldown.
      • Judgements of the Wise now procs on attempt rather than on strike, which means judgements that miss can still grant mana. This is to help ensure Protection paladins are not starved for mana if they aren’t capped on hit rating.
    • Retribution
      • Inquiry of Faith now increases Inquisition duration by 66/133/200%, up from 50/100/150%.
      • The Seals of Command talent now makes Seal of Righteousness hit an unlimited number of melee targets, instead of only 2 additional targets.
      • Selfless Healer can no longer be dispelled and cannot be stolen via Spellsteal; and, in addition to its current effects, it lowers the cooldown of Word of Glory by 5/10 seconds.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Seal of Truth expertise bonus now also works when Seal of Righteousness is active.

Priests

  • Devouring Plague damage done has been decreased by 12%.
  • Mind Blast damage done has been increased by 12%.
  • Shadowfiend uses the new Assist pet stance functionality.
  • Shadow Word: Death damage done has been increased by 12%.
  • Shadow Word: Pain damage done has been decreased by 12%.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Shadow
      • Mind Flay damage done has been increased by 12%.
      • Psychic Horror no longer has a forward facing requirement, making it consistent with other non-projectile-based crowd control spells.
      • Sin and Punishment’s Vampiric Touch backlash fear effect no longer has diminishing returns.
      • Vampiric Touch damage done has been decreased by 12%.
  • Priest Bug Fixes
    • Players will no longer prematurely cancel a channeled spell when clicking on the Lightwell.

Rogues

  • Cloak of Shadows cooldown is now 2 minutes, up from 90 seconds. In addition, Cloak of Shadows is no longer on the global cooldown.
  • Combat Readiness and Cloak of Shadows now share a cooldown.
  • Blind duration against enemy NPCs is now 1 minute, while the duration against players remains 8 seconds.
  • Stealth now once again begins its cooldown once the rogue leaves Stealth.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Assassination
      • Assassin’s Resolve damage bonus has been increased to 20%, up from 15%.
      • Vile Poisons now increases poison damage by 12/24/36%, up from 7/14/20%.
    • Combat
      • Savage Combat now increases attack power by 3/6%, up from 2/4%.
      • Vitality now increases attack power by 30%, up from 25%.
    • Subtlety
      • Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Cloak of Shadows by 15/30 seconds, up from 10/20, and now also reduces the cooldown of Combat Readiness by 15/30 seconds.
      • Hemorrhage base damage has been increased by 40%.
      • Sanguinary Vein damage to bleeding targets has been increased to 8/16%, from 5/10%.

Shaman

  • Fire Nova damage has been increased by 15%.
  • Lightning Shield and Water Shield can no longer be dispelled.
  • Unleash Elements is now in the Nature school, and thus can no longer be used if a shaman’s Nature school has been locked out.
  • Unleash Wind now deals 175% weapon damage, up from 125%.
  • Water Shield has had its internal cooldown reduced to 3.5 seconds, once again matching other shields. The amount of mana restored when Water Shield procs has been reduced by 50%.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Elemental
      • Call of Flame now also causes Fire Nova to add 3/6 seconds to the duration of Flame Shock auras on targets that Fire Nova damages.
      • Lava Flows now grants a 30/60/90% haste buff when a Flame Shock effect is dispelled, up from 10/20/30%.
      • Thunderstorm now reduces the movement speed of players it knocks back by 40% for 5 seconds.
    • Enhancement
      • Stormstrike now deals 225% weapon damage, up from 125%.
    • Restoration
      • Improved Water Shield has been redesigned and renamed Resurgence. When Water Shield is active, Resurgence causes critical direct heals to restore mana (Resurgence rank 2 is roughly equal to 150% of the old Improved Water Shield value when a Healing Wave or Greater Healing Wave critically hits, and scaled down accordingly for faster or multi-target spells).
      • Mana Tide now grants 200% of the caster’s Spirit, down from 400%.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Unleashed Lightning (new Prime glyph) allows Lightning Bolt to be cast while moving.
  • Set Bonuses
    • The 4-piece Elemental shaman PvP set bonus (Gladiator’s Thunderfist set) has been redesigned. It now causes Lightning Shield to generate an extra charge, rather than consuming one, when it is triggered by receiving damage, up to a maximum of 3 (9 with the Rolling Thunder talent).

Warlocks

  • Soul Fire is now available at level 20, down from level 54.
  • Soul Harvest has a new spell effect.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Soul Swap now applies a 30-second cooldown to Soul Swap, up from 15 seconds.
  • Warlock Bug Fixes
    • It is no longer possible to leave combat while channeling Drain Soul.

Warriors

  • Overpower now has a 1.5-second cooldown and global cooldown (Taste for Blood’s Overpower cooldown has not changed).
  • Recklessness and Deadly Calm can no longer be used at the same time. One cannot be used while the other is active, but using one does not put the other on its full cooldown.
  • Retaliation, Recklessness and Shield Wall no longer have stance requirements.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Arms
      • Two-Handed Weapon Specialization weapon damage increase has been lowered to 12%, down from 20%.
    • Fury
      • Dual Wield Specialization weapon damage increase has been lowered to 5%, down from 10%.
  • Warrior Bug Fixes
    • It is no longer possible in some encounters to use Charge when closer than its minimum range.

Currency

  • Conquest & Honor Points
    • All existing Conquest Points in the Currency tab have been converted to Honor Points. Any points above the Honor Point cap must be spent within the next week before Season 10 starts. Once Season 10 begins, all Honor Points exceeding the 4,000 point cap will be converted into gold at a rate of 35 silver per point and mailed to characters.
    • The minimum cap on Conquest Points earned per week from Arenas is now 1350 at 1500 or less Arena rating. The maximum cap is now 2700 at 3000 or more Arena rating. The cap continues to scale non-linearly between those two points. For comparison, during season 9 the cap ranged between 1343 and 3000.
    • The game now separately tracks different Conquest Point caps for Battlegrounds and Arenas. Battleground ratings receive a bonus of 22.2% to the cap they generate, meaning the cap from Battleground rating now ranges between 1650 and 3300. Players may earn a total number of Conquest Points per week equal to the higher of these two caps, but once players have reached the cap for either Arenas or Battlegrounds, they can no longer earn Conquest Points from that source. Conquest Points from Battleground holidays only count toward the total Conquest Point cap.
      • Example: During the first week of Season 10 everyone starts with a rating below 1500. Therefore, the cap from Rated Battlegrounds will be 1650 and the cap from Arena rating will be 1350. In the first week, the character wins enough Arena matches to reach the 1350 point cap. After that point, Arena wins will no longer grant Conquest points for the week. However, the character can still earn up to 300 additional points, but can only earn those points from either Rated Battlegrounds, or from the Conquest Point bonus for holiday and/or daily random Battlegrounds. The following week the cap will be recalculated based on the character’s ratings, and it is possible Arena rating could now generate the higher cap. The second week, the character’s cap from Arena rating is 1800, and the cap from Rated Battlegrounds is 1650. The character has a total cap of 1800 Conquest points for the week. Up to 1650 points can be earned from Rated Battlegrounds, but the last 150 must come from a different source.
  • Valor & Justice Points
    • All existing Valor Points in the Currency tab have been converted to Justice Points. Any points above the Justice Point cap will be converted into gold at a rate of 47 silver per point and mailed to characters.
    • The maximum number of Valor Points which can be earned in a week from any and all applicable dungeons and raids is now 980, down from 1250.
      • The maximum number of Valor Points awarded for completing Rise of the Zandalari dungeons remains at 980.
      • The maximum number of Valor Points awarded for completing Heroic dungeons remains at 490.
      • The number of Valor Points awarded for killing a boss in the Firelands is 120 in 10-player mode, and 140 in 25-player mode.
      • The number of Valor Points awarded for killing Occu’thar in Baradin Hold is 120 in 10-player mode, and 140 in 25-player mode.
      • The number of Valor Points awarded for killing a boss on Heroic difficulty in The Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, and Throne of the Four winds is 35 in 10-player mode, and 45 in 25-player mode.

Dungeons & Raids

  • Raid Profiles have been added which allow players to save the raid window user interface layout based on type of content (i.e. 10-player raids, 25-player raids, Battlegrounds, etc.) for future use.
    • Players can select PvE, PvP, specialization, and group size. Each Raid Profile type will then automatically setup going forward.
    • This feature is available for 5-player content as well when Use Raid-Style Party Frames is selected in the Interface options.
    • Raid Profiles can list groups horizontally as well as vertically.
  • A Raid button has been added to the Navigation tray which will bring players straight to the Raid window in the Social pane.
  • Baradin Hold
    • Occu’thar has broken free from his cage and presents an all-new boss challenge to players in 10- and 25-player arrangements who control Tol Barad.

The Bastion of Twilight

  • The damage modifier on normal difficulty has been reduced for Arion, Elementium Monstrosity, Feludius, Ignacius, and Terrastra.
  • One of each type of bound elemental in the Ascendant Council chamber has been removed.
  • Bound Deluge’s Frost Whirl ability now deals 50% less damage.
  • Arion
    • Chain Lightning damage and chain distance has been reduced.
  • Cho’gall
    • Health, melee damage, Health of Corrupting Adherent, Depravity damage, Corrupting Crash damage, Flaming Destruction damage, and Unleashed Shadows damage have all been reduced by 20%.
    • Corrupting Crash and Depravity
      • The amount of Corruption they give has been reduced to 5, down from 10.
    • Corrupted Bite effect caused by Blood of the Old God has been reduced.
    • Damage taken from Corruption of the Old God per Corrupted Blood has been reduced from 3% per stack to 2% per stack.
    • Debilitating Beam damage has been reduced by 20%.
    • The duration of Twisted Devotion has been reduced by 25%.
  • Dragon Siblings
    • Health, melee damage, Twilight Meteorite damage, Devouring Flames, Blackout damage, Unstable Twilight damage, Twilight Zone damage, Twilight Blast damage, and Fabulous Flames damage have all been reduced by 20%.
  • Elementium Monstrosity
    • Electrical Instability damage has been reduced.
  • Feludius
    • Damage due to being frozen while Waterlogged has been reduced.
  • Magmaw
    • Damage and hit points have been reduced by 20%.
    • Lava Parasites have been diminished.
    • Lava Spew damage, Magma Spit damage, Massive Crash damage, and Infectious Vomit damage have all been been reduced.
    • Mangled Lifeless no longer instantly kills, and its damage has been reduced.
    • Parasitic Infection has been decreased.
  • Maloriak
    • Health, damage, Aberration health/damage, Arcane Storm damage, Prime Subject damage, Flash Freeze/Shatter damage, and Scorching Blast damage have all been decreased by 20%.
    • The Aberration stacking damage buff has been decreased.
    • Prime Subjects no longer fixate, and are no longer immune to taunt effects.
  • Nefarian
    • Health and melee damage has been reduced by 20%.
    • Animated Bone Warriors take 33 seconds to fall over, down from 50. In addition, fewer Animated Bone Warriors spawn.
    • Blast Nova cast time has been increased.
    • Chromatic Prototype health has been reduced by 20%.
    • Electrocute damage has been reduced by 30%.
    • Magma Stacking debuff effect has been reduced by 75%.
    • Nefarian’s Shadowblaze cast frequency cannot increase beyond 1 once every 15 seconds.
    • Onyxia health and melee damage has been reduced by 20%.
    • Shadowflame Barrage damage has been reduced by 20%.
    • Tail Lash damage has been reduced by 50%.
    • Omnotron Council
      • Health, Melee damage, Electrical Discharge damage, Lightning Conductor damage, Health of Poison Bomb, Incineration Security Measure damage, and Arcane Annihilator damage have all been reduced by 20%.
      • Barrier absorb amount has been increased by 100%.
      • The cooldown on Power Conversion (Converted Power chance) has been increased.
      • Flamethrower damage has been reduced by 40%.
      • Static Shock caused by Unstable Shield damage and Poison Bomb damage has been decreased by 50%.
  • Deadmines
    • Vanessa VanCleef (Heroic difficulty) now has a sweet, sweet voice to accompany her dialog.
  • Throne of the Four Winds
    • Al’Akir
      • Acid Rain now stacks every 20 seconds, up from 15.
      • Electrocute now pulses every 1 second, up from 0.5.
      • Feedback duration has been increased to 30 seconds, up from 20.
      • Health, damage, and Wind Burst damage have all been reduced by 20%.
      • Lightning and Lightning Rod recast time has been increased.
      • Lightning Strike friendly chain damage has been reduced by 50%.
      • Static Shock will no longer be used on normal difficulty in phase 1 or phase 2.
    • Conclave of the Four Winds
      • Rohash, Anshal, Nezir melee, Ravenous Creeper health/damage, Ravenous Creeper toxic spores damage, Hurricane damage, Sleet Storm damage, Permafrost damage , Slicing Gale, and Wind Blast damage have all been reduced by 20%.
      • Gathering Strength cast time has been increased.
      • Ice Patch slow effect is now 5% per stack, up to 10 stacks, down from 10% per stack, up to 30 stacks, and damage has been reduced by 20%.
      • Wind Chill damage has been decreased by 20% and now increases damage taken by 5% per stack.
  • Zul’Gurub
    • All cauldron buffs are now usable while mounted.
    • High Priestess Kilnara’s death now turns off the flaming tiki mask gauntlet.
    • High Priest Venoxis’s death now removes the poison from the plants at the start of the dungeon.
  • Dungeon & Raid Bug Fixes
    • Bosses are now immune to the shrinking effect from Gnomish Shrink Ray.
    • The achievement Aberrant Behavior should no longer incorrectly reset its kill tracking during the Maloriak encounter in Blackwing Descent.
    • Anshal’s Soothing Breeze should no longer cause combat pets to behave erratically in Throne of the Four Winds.
    • Raid Marker icons are now visible in all phases of boss encounters.

Guilds

  • Guild Finder
    • Long comments will now work and not be cut off in the display.
  • The daily guild experience cap has been increased by 25%.
  • The weekly guild reputation cap has been increased by 25%.
  • The guild experience cap is now removed at level 20, down from level 23.
  • The Reins of the Dark Phoenix, purchased from the Guild Vendor, has had its art improved. It’s now less transparent and indisputably more awesome.

Items

  • If a player wins a Need roll under the Need Before Greed system on a Bind on Equip item, the item will become Soulbound to that player. The item will remain unbound if won via a Greed roll.
  • Applicable tier 11 items now cost Justice Points.
  • Darkmoon Card: Hurricane damage done when triggered has been increased by 40%, however, it can no longer deal critical strikes and no longer receives any modifiers to its damage from the equipping player.
  • The Keyring bag slot has been removed to make room in the user interface for new features.
    • Keys which no longer serve a purpose in the game will be removed from player inventories. Compensation for the keys will be automatically provided in the form of each key’s vendor sell price in gold.
    • Keys which are obsolete quest items will be removed from player inventories.
    • Keys which may still be of use to players will be transferred to regular inventory space. If a player’s bags are full, these keys will sit in a backlogged inventory until sufficient space is made available. Once space is opened, the keys will appear in regular inventory upon the player logging out or switching zones.

PvP Items & Rewards

  • Applicable Season 9 items now cost Honor Points.
  • Gladiator Weapons
    • Season 10 Conquest Point weapons will only be purchasable once a required minimum sum of Conquest Points has been reached during the current season. For example, Ruthless Gladiator’s Pike costs 3400 Conquest Points to purchase. However, players must first earn a total of 7800 Conquest Points during Season 10 before they are able to purchase it.
    • Season 9 Honor Point weapons will only be purchasable once a required minimum sum of Honor Points has been reached during the current season. For example, Vicious Gladiator’s Pike costs 3400 Honor Points to purchase. However, players must first earn a total of 7250 Honor Points during Season 10 before they are able to purchase it.
    • Once the minimum sum of points required to purchase weapons is reached, all available weapons can be purchased for their listed costs. The point requirement is not reset once a purchase is made.
    • Weapon tooltips from the vendor will let players know how many more Conquest or Honor Points must be earned in the current season before the item can be purchased.
  • Rated Battleground Rewards
    • New PvP ground mounts, the Vicious War Wolf (Horde) and Vicious War Steed (Alliance), will be awarded to players for completing achievements to win 75, 150, and 300 Rated Battlegrounds respectively, rather than for being in the top .5% of the ladder at the end of each season as with Arenas. This award system is to better compliment the spirit of Battlegrounds. One account-bound mount will be awarded for each achievement unlocked, allowing players who obtain 150 and 300 Rated Battleground wins to earn this mount a second and third time. The additional mounts earned can then be sent to alt characters, given they’re account-bound. These mounts are awarded as soon as an associated achievement is unlocked and do not correspond with end-of-season rewards.
  • Set Bonuses
    • The 2-piece resilience bonus from Cataclysm PvP sets no longer stacks. If a player wears 2 pieces each from 2 different Cataclysm sets, the player will only receive the 400 resilience rating bonus once. This change does not apply to PvP sets from prior expansions.

Professions

  • Engineering
    • D.E.H.T.A. has recently placed a great number of critters under their protection, especially rabbits and squirrels. Because of this, Flintlocke’s Woodchucker has been re-fitted to use wild chickens until an “agreement” can be reached.
  • Skinning
    • Players can no longer skin corpses already being actively skinned or looted by other players.

PvP

  • Arenas
    • The individual Matchmaking Rating column has been removed from the Arena scoreboard.
    • The Ring of Valor has been added to the Arena rotation once again. Players no longer start the match on elevators at the center of the map. They now begin the match in starting rooms on opposite sides of the Arena.
  • Battlegrounds
    • The individual Matchmaking Rating column has been removed from the Rated Battleground scoreboard and replaced with a team Matchmaking Rating.
    • Eye of the Storm has been added into the rotation as a 10-man Rated Battleground. The tug-of-war style capture points have been replaced with Arathi Basin style capture points to better support 10v10 competition. This change applies only to Rated Battlegrounds. Eye of the Storm is otherwise still a 15-player Battleground with tug-of-war style capture points.
    • Warsong Gulch has been added back into the Rated Battleground rotation.
    • War Games
      • Many improvements have been made to the War Games interface. It now has its own panel for ease of use and raid/group leaders are the only ones who can challenge another group to War Games.

Quests & Creatures

  • There are no longer oddities in the critical strike and dodge chance of lower-level creatures.
  • Creatures will now display smooth energy regeneration for players.

Races

  • All character races now have a /roar sound.

User Interface

  • The Interface Options screens have changed size to match the Video and Audio screens. This allows for a larger Compact Unit Frames Profiles panel.
  • Addons will no longer be able to intelligently swap items by working with the built-in Equipment Manager.
  • The order in which characters are listed at the Character Selection screen can now be rearranged and saved.
  • The cast bar can now be moved to display below the Character frame.
  • Character talent specializations can now be viewed on mouseover of the Battlegrounds Scoreboard.
  • There is now a Dismiss Pet option on unit frames.
  • The durability character display will now show items as yellow when they are below 20% durability, instead of when items have 5 durability or less.
  • The Macros window and Spellbook can now both be open at the same time to allow for more intuitive macro creation. In addition, the Macros window has a Save/Cancel button.
  • It is now easier to change the language of the game client to any language available in the region.
  • A target or focus target can be selected within the mini-map tracking (does not include enemy players).
  • Vendors now display currency types they use.

Technical

  • The Blizzard Launcher now utilizes Universal Plug and Play for port configuration. If your router supports UPnP it will automatically open the ports that it requires and your downloads will be unrestricted.

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By Nihonga – June 28, 2011

World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.1

World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.1

Notes for all World of Warcraft patches can be found here.

Rise of the Zandalari

The days when great troll empires stretched across ancient Kalimdor are long past. Millennia of war and internal strife have stripped these nations of their power, lands, and glory. As Azeroth recovers from the destruction of the Cataclysm, the world’s divided troll populations face a bleak future. These dark times have spurred the trolls of the Zandalar, the historically wise and scholarly tribe from which all trolls originated, to take drastic action. They have embarked on a bold crusade to save their race by uniting trolls into a single mighty empire. With the Zandalari’s aid, the fallen capitals of the Gurubashi and Amani nations-Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman-are already rebuilding, replenishing their forces for a bloody campaign to expand their territories.

Yet Vol’jin and his Darkspear trolls are not aligned with the Zandalari. They have sworn to stand with their Horde comrades-and even work with the Alliance-should the trolls ignite a new war on Azeroth. Soon, Vol’jin might be forced to act on his promise, for if the Gurubashi and Amani are left to their own devices, the world will know the legendary strength and savagery of the ancient troll empires once again.

Guild Challenges

Built into the Info panel of the guild user interface, Guild Challenges are weekly tasks guild groups can tackle for additional guild experience, achievements, and gold. At the top of the guild user interface Info pane, a new Guild Challenges section is displayed and broken into three categories: Dungeons, Raids, and Rated Battlegrounds. Any guild group will qualify for Guild Challenges credit and there is a set number of times each challenge can be completed per week.

Guild Finder

Guild Finder is a new system designed to enable easier and faster guild recruitment. Guild leaders and players who are looking for a guild to call home will use the Guild Finder to meet one another and begin communications that can lead to a prosperous membership. Whether you’re a guild leader looking to fill your ranks or a player looking for a guild that meets your strictest requirements, the Guild Finder provides an easy way to make new friends!

Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms

A new system intended to lower queue times, Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms offers additional rewards for queuing as the currently least represented role. To be eligible for the additional rewards you must solo queue for a random level-85 Heroic in the role that is currently being Called to Arms, and complete the dungeon by killing the final boss. Every time you hit these requirements (there is no daily limit) you’ll receive a goodie bag that will contain some gold, a chance at a rare gem, a chance at a flask/potion, a good chance of receiving a non-combat pet (including cross faction pets), and a very rare chance at receiving a mount.

General

  • Conquest Points are now purchasable from the Valor Quartermasters at 250 Conquest Points per 250 Valor Points.
  • Honor Points are now purchasable from the Justice Trade Goods vendors at 250 Honor Points per 375 Justice Points.
  • Justice Points are now purchasable from the Honor Trade Goods vendors at 250 Justice Points per 375 Honor Points.
  • Resilience scaling has been modified for linear returns, as opposed to increasing returns. Under the new formula, going from 30 resilience to 40 resilience gives players the same increase to survivability as going from 0 to 10. Resilience now scales in the same way armor and magic resistances do. A player with 32.5% damage reduction from resilience in 4.0.6 should see their damage reduction unchanged in 4.1. Those with less than 32.5% will gain slightly. Those with more will lose some damage reduction, increasingly so as their resilience climbs.
  • A dead player can now be resurrected by targeting them using the Party or Raid Frame even if they have released. No more hunting for corpses.

Achievements

  • A new feat of strength with an associated title, “the Camel-Hoarder”, has been added for players that have bested Dormus and obtained the Reins of the Grey Riding Camel — because there must always be a Camel-Hoarder.
  • PvP
    • The following Battleground achievements have been permanently removed from the game, as they do not function correctly with the achievement tracking system: Guild Gankin’ in Gilneas, Guild Gulch, The Peak of Perfection, The Perfect Guild Storm, Storming the Beach.
  • Rated Battlegrounds
    • The achievements to win 100 rated Battlegrounds have been renamed to “Veteran of the Alliance” and “Veteran of the Horde”, and now award those titles.
    • Achievements to win 300 rated Battlegrounds have been added, awarding the “Warbound” and “Warbringer” titles to the Alliance and Horde respectively.
  • Arathi Basin
    • The achievement “We Had It All Along *cough*” now requires the player to win Arathi Basin by 50 points or less, up from 10 points or less.
  • The Battle for Gilneas
    • The achievement “Jugger Not” now requires the player to win The Battle for Gilneas by 100 points or less, up from 10 points or less.
    • The achievement “Out of the Fog” requires the player to defend 2 bases in a single battle, down from 3.
    • The achievement “One Two Three You Don’t Know About Me” requires the player to assault 2 bases in a single battle, down from 3.
    • The achievement “Not Your Average PUG’er” now requires 10 total flag defenses, down from 50.
    • The achievement “Battle for Gilneas All-Star” now requires a single flag assault and flag defense in a battle, down from 2.
  • Achievements Bug Fixes
    • The guild rated Battleground title achievements should now properly be awarded.
    • Valor and Conquest Points are displaying the correct values when tracked for achievements.

Classes: General

  • All non-damaging interrupts off the global cooldown will now always hit the target. This includes Pummel, Kick, Mind Freeze, Rebuke, Skull Bash, Counterspell, Wind Shear, Solar Beam, Silencing Shot, and related player pet abilities.
  • Several persistent ground effects now display different visuals for hostile and friendly players. The following spells have the same visual effects for friendly players, but new alternate visuals for hostile players: Ring of Frost, Consecration, Desecration, Wild Mushroom, Flare, Ice Trap, Power Word: Barrier, Smoke Bomb, and Hand of Gul’dan. As a general rule, the alternate effects have a red tint or hue indicating they are created by an enemy player.

Death Knights

  • Dark Simulacrum now works on numerous additional spells in dungeon encounters.
  • Raise Ally has been redesigned to be a battle resurrection, analogous to Rebirth. It is instant cast, but costs 50 Runic Power to use, and has a 10-minute cooldown. It shares the same global battle resurrection cap with Rebirth and Soulstone.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Blood
      • Blood Shield now only works while in Blood Presence.
      • Death Strike self-healing no longer generates threat.
    • Frost
      • Blood of the North (passive) now permanently converts both Blood Runes into Death Runes. There is no longer any proc interaction with Blood Strike required to activate Death Runes.
      • Frost Strike now deals 130% of weapon damage, up from 110%.
      • Howling Blast damage has been increased by 20%. To compensate, the area-of-effect splash now does 50% of the single-target damage, down from 60%. The net result of this change leaves the area-of-effect damage roughly the same as 4.0.6 numbers. In addition, Howling Blast now has a facing requirement.
    • Unholy
      • Desecration no longer triggers when an applicable strike hits a snare-immune target. This is primarily to avoid unnecessary spell effect clutter during boss encounters.
      • Rage of Rivendare again applies 15/30/45% additional damage to Plague, Scourge, and Festering Strike, up from 12/24/36%.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Raise Ally is now Glyph of Death Gate, and makes Death Gate cast 60% faster.
  • Death Knight Bug Fixes
    • Runeforging no longer displays a skill-up UI element.

Druids

  • Lacerate bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased initial damage done.
  • Efflorescence has a new spell effect.
  • Enrage no longer increases physical damage taken.
  • Lifebloom’s bloom effect has been reduced by 20%.
  • Prowl has a new icon.
  • Savage Defense has been redesigned slightly. Instead of a single charge absorption, it now places an absorption effect on the druid absorbing up to 35% of the druid’s attack power (modified by mastery, if applicable) in damage and lasting 10 seconds. There are no longer any charges on the effect.
  • Stampeding Roar’s duration has been increased to 8 seconds, up from 6. The movement speed effect has been increased to 60%, up from 40% and is no longer cancelled by cancelling shapeshift form.
  • Swipe (Bear) cooldown has been reduced to 3 seconds, down from 6, and is now on trainable at level 18 (training cost has been reduced). In addition, the bonus threat from this ability has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.
  • Swipe (Cat) damage has been doubled.
  • Thrash bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.
  • Druids now innately have 100% pushback protection from damage while channeling Tranquility.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Balance
      • Starsurge damage has been reduced by 20%.
      • Solar Beam is now more responsive when enemies move into or out of it.
    • Feral
      • Berserk is no longer on the global cooldown.
      • Feral Swiftness now also causes Dash and Stampeding Roar to have a 50/100% chance to instantly remove all movement impairing effects from the affected targets when used.
    • Restoration
      • Gift of Nature (passive) also reduces Tranquility’s cooldown by 2.5/5 minutes.
      • Efflorescence has been redesigned. It creates a healing zone at the feet of a Swiftmend target, but this healing zone now restores health equal to 4/8/12% of the amount healed by Swiftmend to the three most injured targets within 8 yards, every 1 second for 7 seconds. This periodic effect now also benefits from spell haste, but the individual ticks cannot be critical effects. In addition, Living Seed is no longer a prerequisite talent for Efflorescence.
      • Malfurion’s Gift now reduces the cooldown of Tranquility by 2.5/5 minutes.
      • Nature’s Swiftness now also increases the healing done by the affected nature spell by 50%.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Rake is now Glyph of Pounce, which increases the range of Pounce by 3 yards.
  • Druid Bug Fixes
    • The troll druid models for Flight Form and Swift Flight Form has slimmed down to be more in scale with other druid flight forms.
    • Druids should no longer have UI issues after leaving a vehicle.

Hunters

  • Deterrence no longer requires a melee weapon to be equipped.
  • Explosive Trap now has a new spell effect.
  • Master’s Call now has a new spell effect.
  • Multi-Shot damage has been increased by 250%.
  • Tame Beast now tames pets to match the hunter’s level, rather than 3 levels below.
  • Pets
    • The Feed Pet ability now instantly heals 50% of the pet’s health. Cannot be used in combat. Requires diet-appropriate food.
    • The Happiness/Pet Loyalty System has been removed. Hunters will no longer have to manage Happiness for their pets, and the previous damage bonus for pets being happy will now be baseline for all tamed pets.
    • Bloodthirsty no longer generates Happiness.
    • Carrion Feeder no longer restores Happiness.
    • Guard Dog no longer causes Growl to generate additional Happiness.
    • Summoned pets now start with 100 focus, up from 0.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Mend Pet is now Glyph of Lesser Proportion, which decreases the size of the pet slightly.
  • Hunter Bug Fixes
    • Hunters will no longer automatically acquire a new target if the current target dies in the middle of a cast.
    • Aimed Shot and Steady Shot should no longer start casting Auto Shot on a new target when the “Stop Auto Attack” option enabled.
    • Auto Shot now automatically turns off until reactivated once Freezing Trap is cast on an enemy player.
    • Deterrence: The area damage of the paladin ability Hammer of the Righteous will no longer hit hunters with Deterrence active.
    • Distracting Shot and Multi-Shot are now properly 40-yard range.
    • Intervene (Tenacity pet ability) range has been increased so that the pet will properly intercept attacks.
    • Multi-Shot now properly has a 1-second global cooldown.
    • Scatter Shot’s disorient effect should no longer sometimes be broken by the hunter’s Auto Shot.

Mages

  • Arcane Blast cast time has been reduced to 2.0 seconds, down from 2.35 seconds. In addition, the stacking effect of Arcane Blast now increases the damage done by Arcane Explosion, and Arcane Explosion does not consume that effect.
  • Arcane Explosion damage has been increased by 30%.
  • Arcane Missiles damage has been increased by 13%.
  • Blizzard damage has been increased by 70%.
  • Frost Armor has been reworked:
  • It now reduces physical damage taken by 15%, instead of providing 20% additional armor.
  • The Chilled proc from Frost Armor can no longer proc Fingers of Frost.
  • The attack speed slow from the Chilled proc is now 20%, down from 25%, but it also affects ranged attack speed.
  • Frost Armor also no longer increases Frost resistance.
  • Frostbolt damage has been increased by 10%.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Arcane
      • Arcane Barrage damage has been increased by 13%.
      • Improved Arcane Explosion now also reduces the mana cost of Arcane Explosion by 25/50%.
    • Fire
      • Combustion no longer has a global cooldown.
      • Ignite is no longer triggered from periodic critical effects.
    • Frost
      • Fingers of Frost bonus damage applied to Ice Lance has been increased to 25%, up from 15%.
      • Ice Barrier base damage value has been increased by approximately 120%. In addition, the benefit from spell power has been increased by approximately 8%.
      • The root effect from Shattered Barrier now shares diminishing returns with the root from Improved Cone of Cold.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Frost Armor (new glyph): Frost Armor also causes the mage to regenerate 2% of maximum mana every 5 seconds.

Paladins

  • Righteous Fury now persists through death.
  • Word of Glory now has a 20-second cooldown.
    • Talent Specializations
      • Holy
        • Aura Mastery: This ability no longer increases the benefit granted by Crusader Aura.
        • Illuminated Healing shield duration is now 15 seconds, up from 8 seconds. In addition, Illuminated Healing has been increased to provide 1.5% effect per mastery, up from 1.25%.
        • Walk in the Light (passive) removes the cooldown of Word of Glory.
      • Protection
        • Divine Guardian cooldown is now 3 minutes, up from 2.
        • Grand Crusader will now generate a charge of Holy Power if the Avenger Shield it procs is used within 6 seconds.
        • Sacred Duty can now be activated by Avenger’s Shield in addition to Judgements. The effect now lasts 10 seconds, down from 15.
      • Retribution
        • Divine Storm now generates 1 point of Holy Power if it hits (i.e. successfully lands on) 4 or more targets.
        • Sacred Shield’s internal cooldown has been increased to 60 seconds, up from 30.
    • Paladin Bug Fixes
      • Avenger’s Shield can no longer be blocked.
      • Judgements of the Just debuff can no longer trigger talents and other effects.
      • Seal of Truth: Fixed a tooltip error that stated swings at targets with Censure fully stacked dealt 9% weapon damage. They actually dealt 15% damage and the tooltip has been updated accordingly.

Priests

  • Divine Aegis duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 12.
  • Dispel Magic can only be used on the casting priest as a baseline effect.
  • Priests now innately have 100% pushback protection from damage while channeling Divine Hymn and Hymn of Hope.
  • Holy Fire damage has been increased to be approximately 30% higher than Smite.
  • Inner Will and Inner Fire now last until canceled.
  • Mind Sear damage has been doubled.
  • Power Word: Shield duration has been reduced to 15 seconds, down from 30.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Discipline
      • Absolution (new passive) enables priests to use Dispel Magic on up to 2 harmful effects on friendly targets.
      • Atonement now works with Holy Fire in addition to Smite.
      • The direct damage portion of Holy Fire can now trigger Evangelism.
      • Power Word: Barrier’s cooldown has been increased to 3 minutes, up from 2, and its effect has been reduced to 25%, down from 30%.
      • It is now possible to remove Weakened Soul effects that were a result of another priest’s Power Word: Shield through Strength of Soul.
    • Holy
      • Absolution (new passive) enables priests to use Dispel Magic on up to 2 harmful effects on friendly targets.
      • Chakra now lasts until canceled, up from 1 minute.
      • Holy Word: Sanctuary healing done has been increased by 35%. In addition, it has a new spell effect.
      • Surge of Light can now also trigger from Binding Heal.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Divine Accuracy now also affects Holy Fire in addition to Smite.
  • Priest Bug Fixes
    • Surge of Light is now being applied to Smite at rank 1.

Rogues

  • Recuperate base effect now heals 3% per tick, up from 2%.
  • Stealth base cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10, and the movement penalty from being in Stealth has been removed.
  • Tricks of the Trade now has a 100-yard range, up from 20.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Combat
      • Improved Recuperate now adds 0.5%/1% to the health restoration effect of Recuperate, down from 1%/2%.
    • Subtlety
      • Cheat Death now reduces damage taken by 80% while in effect, down from 90%. Its internal cooldown has been raised to 90 seconds, up from 60.
      • Nightstalker now reduces the cooldown of Stealth by 2/4 seconds, and instead of negating the movement penalty from Stealth, it adds a 5/10% movement speed bonus (stacking with other effects) while Stealthed.

Shaman

  • Fire Nova has been redesigned and decoupled from shaman Fire totems. Instead, it now pulses the Fire Nova effect from each target that is afflicted by the shaman’s own Flame Shock debuff. It now damages all enemies except the target hit by Flame Shock. The ability’s cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10.
  • Grounding Totem cooldown has been increased to 25 seconds, up from 15.
  • Magma Totem now lasts for 60 seconds, up from 21.
  • Stoneclaw Totem’s area-of-effect threat pulse no longer affects critters.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Elemental Combat
      • Earthquake is no longer a channeled spell. It now has a 2-second cast time, lasts for 10 seconds, and has a 10-second cooldown. Its damage has been reduced by 40% from its channeled version.
    • Enhancement
      • Improved Fire Nova has been redesigned and replaced by a talent called Seasoned Winds. When an enemy spell cast is successfully prevented with Wind Shear, the shaman gains magical resistance (in an amount equal to what a protection totem/aura would grant, stacking with such buffs) to the spell school(s) of the interrupted spell (except for Holy spells), lasting 10 seconds.
    • Restoration
      • Cleansing Waters now has a 6-second internal cooldown.
      • Deep Healing now benefits all heals, not just direct heals.
      • Earth Shield healing done by Restoration shaman has been reduced by 20%.
      • Nature’s Blessing has been improved to 6/12/18% bonus direct healing on Earth Shielded targets, up from 5/10/15%.
      • Spirit Link Totem (new talent) reduces damage taken by all party and raid members within 10 yards by 10%. This lasts 6 seconds, and every second it is active the health of all affected players is redistributed among them, such that each player ends up with the same percentage of their maximum health. This counts as an Air totem and has a 3-minute cooldown.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Grounding Totem: The increased cooldown of Grounding Totem applied by this glyph has been reduced to 35 seconds, down from 45 seconds.
  • Shaman Bug Fixes
    • The tooltips for shaman healing spells are now displaying correct values when points are distributed into any rank of the Spark of Life talent.

Warlocks

  • Dark Intent: The friendly target of this ability now receives 1% (stacking 3 times to 3%) periodic spell damage and healing bonus instead of 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%). The casting Warlock still receives 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%).
  • Rain of Fire damage has been increased by 25%.
  • Seed of Corruption damage has been increased by 20%.
  • Soulstone can now be used in combat to resurrect a targeted dead player.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Affliction
      • Haunt damage has been increased by 30%.
      • Shadow Mastery (passive) has been increased to 30%, up from 25%.
      • Unstable Affliction damage done when it is dispelled has been doubled, but this damage can no longer be critical.
    • Demonology
      • Mana Feed now restores more mana (four times as much) when the warlock is using a Felguard or Felhunter.
  • Pets
    • Doomguard’s damage has been increased by 50%. The Doomguard is intended to be the best guardian for single-target damage, and the Infernal the best when there are multiple targets.
    • Lash of Pain (Succubus) damage now scales with level, reducing the damage done at lower levels such that it will deal 50% damage at level 20, and 100% damage at level 80 and above.
    • Shadow Bite (Felhunter) damage and effect has doubled.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Soul Swap now increases the cooldown of Soul Swap by 15 seconds, up from 10 seconds.

Warriors

  • Charge and Intercept no longer have diminishing returns on their stun effects.
  • Colossus Smash now ignores 50% of a hostile player’s armor (PvP), but continues to ignore 100% of a non-player character’s armor (PvE).
  • Heroic Throw is now available from trainers at level 20.
  • Heroic Leap is no longer on the global cooldown, similar to other warrior movement abilities.
  • Inner Rage is now available at level 56.
  • Intercept now has a 1.5-second stun, down from 3 seconds.
  • Pummel is now usable in all stances.
  • Rallying Cry (new ability) is available from trainers at level 83. It temporarily grants the warrior and all party or raid members within 30 yards 20% of maximum health for 10 seconds. After the effect expires, the health is lost. It has no cost, no stance requirements, and is not on the global cooldown. It has a 3-minute cooldown, but also shares a cooldown with Last Stand.
  • Shield Bash has been removed from the game.
  • Spell Reflection cooldown has been increased to 25 seconds, up from 10.
  • Whirlwind now has its cooldown reduced by 6 seconds when it deals damage to 4 or more targets. The Whirlwind effect caused by Bladestorm remains unchanged.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Arms
      • Improved Hamstring now reduces the global cooldown on Hamstring by 0.25/0.5 seconds in addition to its current effects.
      • Juggernaut no longer adds 2 seconds to the Charge stun, but instead lowers the cooldown of Charge by 2 seconds (to 13 seconds total without the glyph).
      • Lambs to the Slaughter now causes Mortal Strike to refresh Rend in addition to its current effects.
      • Strikes of Opportunity value per point of mastery has been increased by 10%.
    • Fury
      • Precision (passive) now increase auto-attack damage by 40%, in addition to the 3% hit it offers currently.
      • Unshackled Fury now only grants 2 base points of mastery, down from 8.
    • Protection
      • Shield Mastery no longer affects the cooldown of Spell Reflection, however, it now allows Shield Block to proc a second aura that reduces magic damage by 7/14/20% for 6 seconds.
      • Gag Order now applies to Pummel and Heroic Throw, giving these abilities a 100% chance to silence the target for 3 seconds. In addition, Gag Order lowers the cooldown of Heroic Throw by 30 seconds.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Spell Reflection reduces the cooldown of Spell Reflection by 5 seconds, up from 1 second.

Dungeons & Raids

  • Rise of the Zandalari
    • Zul’Aman is now a level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon. Players with a minimum average item level of 346 or higher can access this dungeon via the Dungeon Finder.
    • Zul’Gurub is now a level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon. Players with a minimum average item level of 346 or higher can access this dungeon via the Dungeon Finder.
    • Both Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman exist in a separate tier in the Dungeon Finder above the current level-85 Heroic dungeons. Players can randomly queue for either dungeon by selecting the Rise of the Zandalari setting.
  • Dungeon Finder
    • The Dungeon Finder now attempts to avoid putting damage-dealing classes with the same armor type in a group.
    • Players will now get bonus rewards 7 times per week (while earning less than 980 Valor Points) instead of once a day when using Dungeon Finder.
    • When there is only 1 player left in a Dungeon Finder group, they will now be able to queue for replacements as long as they queue within 2 minutes or stay in the dungeon.
    • The Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms will now identify which class role is currently the least represented in the queue, and offer them additional rewards for entering the Dungeon Finder queue and completing a random level-85 Heroic dungeon.
      • The least represented class icon will show within the Dungeon Finder to indicate the role that is eligible to earn the bonus reward.
      • Players must queue solo with the currently indicated least represented class (by the system) and complete the dungeon up to and including the final boss in order to be eligible for the bonus reward.
      • The bonus reward will be displayed to eligible (system identified as least represented) classes within the UI.
      • Once the dungeon is completed the eligible player will receive a Satchel of Exotic Mysteries (account bound) with various potential rewards including: gold, rare gems, non-combat pets, and (very rare) mounts.
  • Blackrock Caverns
    • Aura of Arcane Haste now has a clearer visual on the bearer of the aura.
    • Bound Flames in the Karsh Steelbender encounter no longer create Lava Pools when they are killed.
    • The Short Throw ability used by Twilight Sadists has had its range reduced to 10 yards.
  • Blackwing Descent
    • Atramedes
      • Searing Flames now causes a 6-second cooldown on Modulation.
      • Searing Flames no longer increases Sound on players.
      • Players should no longer be able to avoid the first period damage tick of Searing Flame, and Searing Flame now ticks every 2 seconds. The damage of Searing Flame has been increased to compensate for it ticking less frequently.
    • The Bile-O-Tron 800 in the Chimaeron encounter is now more resistant to being knocked offline many times in rapid succession.
    • Flash Bomb (Golem Sentry ability) now has a more clear warning visual.
    • Magmaw now triggers a raid emote when summoning Lava Parasites.
    • Maloriak
      • Maloriak now has a brief windup before beginning to channel Arcane Storm, slightly increasing the amount of time players have before the spell begins to deal damage.
      • Further improvements have been made in the Maloriak encounter to avoid Flash Freeze targeting the tanks.
    • Nefarian’s End
      • The damage of Shadowflame Barrage has been reduced by 15% (10-player normal and Heroic difficulty only).
      • The damage of Tail Lash has been reduced by 20% (10-player normal and Heroic difficulty only).
  • The Bastion of Twilight
    • Dragon Siblings
      • Blackout can now be dispelled on Heroic difficulty.
    • Cho’gall
      • The health of Blood of the Old God on 10-player Heroic difficulty has been lowered by roughly 20%.
      • The health of Darkened Creations on 10-player Heroic difficulty has been lowered by roughly 20%.
      • The corruption gained from Corruption: Accelerated on 10-player Heroic difficulty has been lowered slightly.
      • Knockbacks and Deathgrip can now be used to interrupt players that are converted by Cho’gall.
    • Sinestra
      • Twilight Slicer is now less likely to target two healers at once.
      • Wrack will avoid jumping to tanks.
  • Deadmines
    • Ragezone cast by Defias Blood Wizards now only increases damage dealt, no longer increasing damage taken.
  • Dire Maul North
    • The Gordok Courtyard Key in Fengus’s Chest is now replenished after several seconds.
  • Grim Batol
    • Bleeding Wound damage from General Umbriss has been lowered by 20%.
    • Malignant Trogg now moves more slowly.
    • The Encumbered damage bonus from Forgemaster Throngus has been reduced by 50%.
    • Invoked Flaming Spirits should prefer non-tank targets to fixate on.
    • The Twilight Flame Patch from the Twilight Drake has been removed.
    • The cooldown portion of the Twisted Arcane buff cast by Azureborne Seers has been removed.
  • Halls of Origination
    • Temple Gardian Anhuur should now properly go into his shield phase at 33% even if he was channeling his 66% shield phase.
  • Lost City of Tol’vir
    • Soul Fragments that spawn during the High Prophet Barim encounter should now perform an emote when they merge with the Harbinger of Darkness.
  • The Mechanar
    • The Cache of the Legion now unlocks when Gatewatcher Gyro-kill is gyro-killed.
  • The Stonecore
    • The patrol path of the Stonecore Bruiser before Ozruk has been reduced.
    • Ground Slam now has a pre-cast visual on the ground in front of Ozruk. In addition, Ground Slam’s damage and radius have been reduced.
    • High Priestess Azil’s Seismic Shard now has a more obvious warning visual.
  • Stratholme
    • Postboxes no longer require keys to open, because really, who locks their postboxes anymore when they’re all undead? It’s just people sending coupons for brains anyway.
    • The Postmaster now spawns when 3 of any postbox are opened.
  • Throne of the Tides
    • Gilgoblin Hunters’ Poisoned Spear direct and periodic damage has been reduced.
    • Gilgoblin Aquamages’ Tsunami damage has been reduced.
    • Visual effects during the Lady Naz’jar have been improved for clarity.
    • Blight Beasts summoned during the Ozumat encounter now deal less damage with Aura of Dread.
  • Uldaman
    • The Staff of Prehistoria is no longer required to open the door in the Map Room.
    • Baelog’s chest has been given new loot. If it’s grey it’s good, right?
  • Vortex Pinnacle
    • The Air Nova ability triggered when a Gust Soldier is killed has had its knockback effect reduced.
    • Altairus now spawns closer to the center of his platform, away from the edge.
    • Temple Adepts and Ministers of Air now wait 2 seconds before starting a spell cast when they are first engaged.
  • Wailing Caverns
    • The maze section has been removed to make the overall dungeon more accessible and quicker to complete. Nearby creatures and bosses have been adjusted to compensate.
  • Zul’Farrak
    • Troll Cages no longer require the Executioner’s Key to open.
  • The gold amounts awarded for the following encounters have been substantially reduced: Flame Leviathan, Magtheridon, Gruul the Dragonkiller, Doom Lord Kazzak, and all encounters in Karazhan.
  • Dungeon & Raid Bug Fixes
    • The tooltip for the Luck of the Draw buff now dynamically updates based on how many stacks are present.
    • The tooltip for Stolen Power during the Nefarian’s End encounter now displays the correct bonus percentage.
    • Drake vehicles now properly animate when attacking in the air.

Guilds

  • The criteria on many of the profession-related guild achievements has been significantly reduced.
  • Guild Challenges
    • These challenges can be found in the Info pane of the guild UI.
    • Guild Challenges fall into three categories: Dungeons, Raids, and Rated Battlegrounds.
    • Each challenge can be completed a set number of times per week. Guild groups participating in level-appropriate Heroic or normal difficulty dungeons and raids, or rated Battlegrounds, will automatically qualify for challenge credit.
    • Each time a Guild Challenge is completed, the guild will be awarded experience and gold deposited directly into the Guild Vault, as well as the opportunity to earn all-new achievements. A popup or “toast” will be displayed to confirm a Guild Challenge has been completed (similar to achievement alerts).
    • Guild experience earned via Guild Challenges will be awarded above the daily cap. The experience cap will move forward relative to the amount of experience obtained through completing Guild Challenges (similar to rested experience for characters).
    • Guilds already at the level cap will be awarded substantially more gold in place of guild experience.
    • Gold rewards are deposited into the guild bank once the guild reaches level 5. The text for the Cash Flow guild perk has been updated appropriately.
  • Guild Finder
    • A new Guild Finder button will now appear on the Micro Menu for guild leaders, as well as players without a guild.
    • A Guild Interests field allows players to form a guild around common interests: Questing, Dungeons, Raids, PvP, and Role Playing.
    • An Availability field allows players to note whether or not weekdays or weekends are better for playing.
    • The Class Roles field allows players to indicate the role or roles they are capable of, and willing to fill.
    • A Comment box is also available for supplying additional information.
    • Once a player has filled out the Guild Interests field, the Browse Guilds tab allows them to find guilds actively recruiting via the Guild Finder. Guilds listed here are displayed according to common interests.
    • The Requests tab tracks all recruitment requests submitted by an unguilded player, or submitted to the leader of a selected guild.
  • The Guild Perk, Cash Flow, no longer prints out text to the Chat Log. Instead, the daily amount deposited is shown in the Guild Vault Money Log. In addition, players can view the weekly contribution in a new window at the bottom of the Money Log.
  • Two new custom guild tabards have been added as Guild Rewards. The tabards are account bound and offer a bonus to gaining guild reputation.
  • The Reins of the Dark Phoenix, purchased from the Guild Vendor, has had its art improved. It’s now less transparent and indisputably more awesome.
  • The amount of guild experience rewarded for rated Battleground guild group wins has been dramatically increased.
  • Players are now rewarded guild experience for Honorable Kills in the field.
  • Players are now rewarded guild experience for Battleground wins in Battleground brackets up to level 80.
  • Arena teams are now awarded guild experience for wins. The entire team must be members of the same guild to earn this experience.

Items

  • Account Bound Items
    • Many “Account Bound” heirlooms are now labeled as “Battle.net Account Bound”, meaning that they can also be traded or mailed to characters that are on different World of Warcraft accounts under the same Battle.net account.
    • Mail sent to characters on the same Battle.net account now arrives instantaneously, as it does for the same World of Warcraft account.
    • Mailing account-bound items to characters of the opposite faction on the same Battle.net account will now correctly translate faction-specific items to their appropriate equivalent.
    • All trade goods available for purchase with Honor or Justice Points from the associated commodities vendors have had their prices reduced by 50%.
    • Maelstrom Crystals are now available for purchase with Honor or Justice Points from the associated commodities vendors.
  • The PvP Horde and Alliance trinkets have a new spell effect.
  • Item Sets
    • The current damage-dealing death knight 4-piece raid set bonus now also grants increased attack power when Killing Machine triggers, as well as when the death knight gains Death Runes).
    • The current Holy paladin 4-piece raid set bonus now grants 540 Spirit for 6 seconds after casting Holy Shock.
    • The current healing priest 4-piece raid set bonus no longer requires a target to be under the effects of Weakened Soul for the priest to receive the Spirit bonus. Instead the benefit will be granted each time the priest’s Penance spell heals a target.
    • The caster shaman 4-piece PvP set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Grounding Totem by 3 seconds, up from 1.5.
  • Item Bug Fixes
    • Players are now properly seated on stone drake and wind drake models.
    • Stone drakes no longer clip into the ground when attacked.
    • Many pieces of crafted epic armor have had sockets added.
    • Furious Gladiator’s Greatsword (and other swords with the same model) no longer disappear when wielded.
    • Random enchantment items (of the bear, of the whale, etc.) no longer use obsolete item modifiers such as attack power or spell power.

Professions

  • All major cities will now have every type of profession trainer and their associated trade supply vendors.
  • New Cooking and Fishing Dailies have been added to Darnassus, Ironforge, Thunder Bluff, and Undercity.
  • Alchemy
    • Flask of Steelskin now grants 450 Stamina, up from 300. The Mixology bonus for alchemists remains at 120 Stamina.
  • Archaeology
    • Seven new rare items have been added.
    • Players now have a much smaller chance of getting a dig site for a race for which they have completed all rare finds.

PvP

  • The rate at which Honor Points are earned has been doubled.
  • Arenas
    • Arena matchmaking can now extend beyond a team’s Battlegroup.
  • Battlegrounds
    • Battleground raid leaders can now move players from other realms among raid subgroups.
    • The Focused Assault and Brutal Assault buffs have changed.
      • After 3 minutes of both teams having the flag, both flag carriers will get Focused Assault, which increases damage taken by 10%.
      • Every minute afterward, an additional stack will be applied to increase damage taken by an additional 10%.
      • After 7 minutes, Brutal Assault will be applied in place of Focused Assault. In additional to the damage debuff, this debuff also caps the player’s movement speed at 100%. The damage taken debuff works the same and will add 10% to the debuff up to a maximum of 100% damage taken.
    • Arathi Basin
      • Arathi Basin is now available as a 10v10-player rated Battleground.
      • Flags should now cap in 7 seconds, down from 8.
    • The Battle for Gilneas
      • Flags should now cap in 7 seconds, down from 8.
      • Graveyard Changes
        • Players who die at a control point that they own will now be teleported to the next closest graveyard, instead of the one at which they died.
        • If a player’s team owns the Mine and Waterworks, and dies at Waterworks, they will be teleported to the Mine.
        • If an Alliance player’s team only owns Lighthouse, and dies at Lighthouse, they will respawn at their base.
        • If a Horde player’s team owns Waterworks and Mine, and dies at Lighthouse, they will respawn at Waterworks.
    • Twin Peaks
      • Graveyard Changes
        • Players will now only spawn at their base graveyard when they die in the enemy base.
        • Defending players will respawn at the middle graveyard.
        • Midfield players will respawn at the middle graveyard.
        • Attacking players will respawn at their base graveyard.
    • Warsong Gulch
      • The graveyards outside both bases have been lowered in elevation and are no longer on the same plane as the main flag room entrances to either respective base.

Quests & Creatures

  • A handful of quests have been added to Northern Barrens to provide more level 18-20 content. Look for new quests at Nozzlepot’s Outpost and Darsok’s Outpost.
  • Loot from the creatures Garr, Julak-Doom, Mobus, Akma’Hat, Xariona, and Poseidus has been adjusted to be commensurate to their rarity and invested effort.
  • Quest Bug Fixes
    • Agatha is now always present to provide quests for newly created undead characters.
    • Players properly sit on Bastia’s back during the quest “To the Cliffs” on the Lost Isles.
    • There should no longer be phasing issues during the quest “Detonation” in Redridge Mountains.
    • “Blackriver Skirmish” in Grizzly Hills now awards Honor Points.
    • The vehicle for the quest “Tailgunner!” in Uldum now aims in the correct direction.

Races

  • The gnomish racial ability, Escape Artist, is no longer affected by the global cooldowns triggered by other abilities.
  • The human racial ability, Every Man for Himself, has a new spell effect.
  • Race Bug Fixes
    • Worgen females have learned how to laugh out loud.

User Interface

  • Like the Focus Frame, the character Unit and Target Frames can now be unlocked and moved to one’s content.
  • Spells bound to a key now start to be cast when the button is pressed down by default, instead of waiting for the key to go up. This is an option that can be turned off in the Interface menu under Combat. Mouse clicking has not changed and operates on mouse click up.
  • Targets and focus targets now display on the mini-map.
  • Moved Video and Sound to a new “Options” screen.
  • Added a network category to the new Options screen and included the two network checkboxes.
    • The Network category contains the options “Optimize network for speed” and “Enable IPv6 when available”. “Optimize network for speed” will be enabled by default, and will send packets more frequently at the cost of higher bandwidth. The higher bandwidth may lead to disconnects for some players who have limited bandwidth. Players getting disconnected frequently should try unchecking this box.
  • Visual Settings Updates
    • Removed the red bar preventing the overall graphics slider from going to ultra based on computer specs.
    • When a player moves the overall slider to a setting that would have previously been prevented, any option that can’t go as high as that setting will get the warning icon with a tooltip explaining why it can’t go higher. For example: a player sets the overall slider to Ultra and the water setting can only go to Fair. The water setting would automatically switch to Fair.
    • Support for DirectX 11 can now be found in the Advanced tab of the Options screen.
  • At the login screen:
    • Moved the “Reset User Options” button from the popup window that appears when clicking Options to the actual Options window.
    • Clicking Options now goes directly to the Video tab of the Options screen.
    • Removed the now-unneeded popup.
  • The New Features (!) Option screen has been updated:
    • Cast action keybinds on key down (Combat)
    • Pick Up Action Key (ActionBars)
    • Nameplate Motion Type (Names)
    • Graphics API (Advanced)
    • Network category

Posted in Blue Tracker, Cataclysm, Class, Development, Patch Notes.

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By Nihonga – April 26, 2011

Lunar Festival Updates

Here’s the link from last years Lunar Festival walkthrough. There are a few changes due to the Shattering but I will update the original post as I come across the changes.

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By Nihonga – January 23, 2011

Just Saying…

Running my healy priest in any dungeon, it baffles me why we make it harder than it has to be. I’d rather you do average DPS because you’re making it easier on me and the tank than spam party chat with your e-peen meters…

CC options by class

Death knight

  • Army of the Dead Summons a bunch of ghouls to fight for the death knight. It isn’t CC in a traditional sense, but in a pinch, it will lighten the damage load off the healer and tank.
  • Chains of Ice Reduces a target’s movement by 60% for 8 seconds. Great for delaying when a mob reaches the tank.
  • Hungering Cold Traps all enemies around the death knight in blocks of ice for 10 seconds, but damage will break it. It’s a great panic button but not as strong for an initial pull due to its short duration and long cooldown.

Druid

  • Cyclone A very brief CC that keeps a target from moving, casting spells, or acting in any way. It doesn’t last very long, but works great.
  • Entangling Roots Holds a mob in place for 30 seconds but does not keep it from acting.
  • Hibernate Puts an animal to sleep for 40 seconds; only works on beasts and dragonkin.

Hunter

  • Freezing Trap Traps a single target in a block of ice; can be broken by damage.
  • Wyvern Sting Puts a target to sleep for a short time. Hunters do have to spec into survival to get this.

Mage

  • Polymorph Turn your target into a critter for up to 1 minute. You can spam this ability over and over, but any damage to the target breaks it.

Paladin

  • Repentance Forces a target to sleep for up to 1 minute. Paladins must spec into retribution to get this talent.

Priest

  • Mind Control The priest’s player takes control of a target, making it an ally for a short term. This brings the side benefit of decreasing the number of mobs in a pack, since the other NPCs will instantly kill the mind control target.
  • Shackle Undead Only works on undead.

Rogue

  • Sap Renders the target unable to act for up to 1 minute.

Shaman

  • Bind Elemental Renders a target unable to act for up to 50 seconds; only works on elementals.
  • Hex Turns the target into a frog for up to 1 minute; damage can break it.

Warlock

  • Banish Renders a target incapable of acting or being affected for up to 20 secondsl only works on demons and elementals.
  • Fear The target runs around in fear for up to 20 seconds, unable to control its own actions.
  • Seduction Prevents the target from taking any action for up to 20 seconds; actually cast by the warlock’s Succubus.

Warrior

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By Nihonga – January 14, 2011

Guild Experience Changes for 4.0.6

Zarhym

We have redefined the definition of a Guild Group for 5-player dungeons.

  • If 3 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 50% of the normal rate.
  • If 4 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 100% of the normal rate.
  • If 5 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 125% of the normal rate.
  • Also note that Heroic dungeons offer a 1.5x multiplier on all guild experience earned.

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By Nihonga – January 14, 2011

Insane in the Membrane Not Achieveable in Cataclysm

Head over to Saate.net for the full read but this is the issue in a nutshell:

Bloodsail Buccaneer Rep and Shendralar reputation gains are going away.

Booty Bay Bruisers are not attackable on the beta.

Shendralar Libram Turnin quests are not available on the beta.

If you want to get Insane in the Membrane (It’s a Feat of Strength, we ‘ve seen others go away) after Cataclysm drops, and you’re not even close, your best bet is to raise Bloodsail to maximum Honored and Shrendralar to Exalted prior to Cataclysm.  At least this way you will still be able to get the Feat of Strength although there is no guarantee they will just make it go away completely.

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By Nihonga – October 26, 2010

Cataclysm Cinematic

Might want to head over to youtube.com to watch this…

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By Nihonga – October 18, 2010

Patch 4.0.1 Issues Addressed

Ghostcrawler on Class balance

Rather than try and address multiple threads, I’m just going to plop our current thoughts in this one post. Please excuse the brevity.

1) We think Fury, Arms, Feral cat and Retribution dps is too low and we will be buffing them.

2) We think mage dps is too high, especially Fire, and will be nerfing it.

3) We think Shadow priest dps is too high, but that’s largely a result of Shadow Word: Death spam, which is tough on healers. We’ll be fixing that.

4) We think Destro warlock dps is too high, but that’s largely a result of Searing Pain spam, which is tough on tanks. We’ll be fixing that.

5) As we suspected, PvP dps is just too high given that the health pools of Cataclysm haven’t kicked in yet. While competitive PvP is over for the moment, we still want the environment to feel better so we will be buffing resilience. This change might be reverted at level 85. There will probably be more changes after another night of raiding and BGs. Many of the bug fixes we have made today will affect dps as well. Stay tuned.

Bornakk on Missing Enchantments

Since the release of patch 4.0.1 yesterday, we’ve received reports from players that a few of their item enchantments are now missing. After further investigation into the cause and potential solutions, we’ve come to the unfortunate conclusion that we will not be able to restore these enchantments.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, but we will not be able to replace or otherwise reimburse players for their lost enchantments.

Bashiok on Warlock Pets Renamed

…the ritual came to a close and a demon of untold power (but limited stature) was pulled through the void, kicking and biting and gnashing its teeth, forcibly bound to the mortal world. The warlock, a quizzical expression on his face, regarded his familiar, who was in fact now quite unfamiliar, and inquired, ‘Who in the hell are you?’Since the release of 4.0.1, more than a few warlocks have noticed that their pets are in fact no longer their familiar demonic servants, and instead appear to be new entities with different names. We’ve been able to pinpoint the cause of the issue, which should be resolved by tomorrow for any warlocks that log in for the first time from then on. We’ve also been able to determine that we will be able to restore any renamed warlock pets to their original pre-4.0.1 names during next week’s scheduled maintenance.

For those of you who like your new pet names, we’re working on a feature for a future patch that will allow you to refresh your summons and essentially generate a random pet name without having to level a new warlock.

Raid Issues
A hotfix for the targeting issues with Festergut and Putricide is currently being deployed. Lady Deathwhisper’s mana pool should be back to normal now. We’ve deployed a hotfix for that issue. Toravon the Ice Watcher will now spawn properly. A hotfix for this issue has been deployed.

Lylirra on Guild UI Changes

For those of you reporting issues promoting or demoting guild members to a rank that has the ‘Requires an Authenticator’ permission enabled, I have a bit more information for you. As noted in the main post, if a player attaches an Authenticator to his or her Battle.net account, it may take a few days before guild controls will recognize the Authenticator and allow that player’s characters to be moved to a protected guild rank. Since this feature is new with patch 4.0.1, though, this sort of ‘checking’ has to occur globally?so it’ll be roughly 72 hours from the first time a character logs in after patching before it will be eligible for an Authenticator-required rank. This wait period will still apply even if a player has had an Authenticator attached to their account for months (or even years).

Apologies for the confusion!

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By Nihonga – October 14, 2010

World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.0.1

World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.0.1

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/patchnotes/
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

Cataclysm Systems Patch

  • World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be in stores on December 7, 2010 and the time has come to prep for the official launch by implementing its first major patch. Players can experience many major game and user interface systems updates in the first official patch for the upcoming third expansion, patch 4.0.1. 

General

Cataclysm Launcher Update

  • The new Cataclysm Launcher allows you to stream game data while you play. This will reduce the time you spend downloading, installing, and patching World of Warcraft. We’d like to get your feedback on the toolset and gameplay experience. Please head to the forums here for additional information: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=14574501095&sid=1

Reforging

  • Players can now visit special Reforging NPCs in capital cities located near Enchanting trainers. 40% of any one secondary stat on an item can be can be allocated to add a new secondary stat to the item. The stat being added cannot already exist on the item. An item cannot have more than one reforged stat at a time, though the Reforging of an item can be undone and changed. 
Dungeons & Raids
 
Flexible Raid Lock System
  • Icecrown Citadel and Ruby Sanctum now use the new Flexible Raid Lock system. This system provides the opportunity for a character to defeat each raid zone’s encounters once a week. A character may now complete the encounters during the week with different raids of either 10 or 25 players.
  • Learn more about this feature by visiting our official forums here: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=14713237976&sid=1

Icecrown Citadel

  • The Chill of the Throne effect has been removed. 

Currency

PvE Currency Changes

  • All Emblems of Frost and Emblems of Triumph have been converted to new Justice Points.
  • Any dungeon or raid which awarded these emblems will reward Justice Points instead. Anything below Emblems of Triumph, including badges from The Burning Crusade dungeon and raid content, have been converted into gold and sent to players via the in-game mail system.
  • Any bosses players defeat that are level-appropriate to them award Justice Points.
  • All items that previously cost emblems or badges of any type now cost Justice Points.
  • Higher-tier Valor Points will be awarded to players who kill dungeon and raid bosses in the latest tier of PvE content after the launch of Cataclysm. 

PvP Currency Changes

  • All Arena Points, Honor Points, Battleground Marks of Honor, Stone Keeper’s Shards, Venture Coins, and Spirit Shards have been converted into new Honor Points.
  • Honor Points will be awarded instead of these currencies, with the exception of Arena Points.
  • Higher-tier Conquest Points will be awarded to players competing in each of the latest Arena or Rated Battleground seasons after the launch of Cataclysm. 
  • For more information on the changes to the currencies and conversion rates for each type, please visit our Cataclysm forum: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=14574620792&sid=1

Classes: General

  • Many class talents, spells, and abilities have been overhauled, added, or removed. 
  • All spell and ability tooltips will now display damage averages rather than minimum and maximum damage potential. This feature is on by default but can be changed via the Display settings under User Interface options.
  • Ammo has been removed from the game.
  • The character levels at which classes gain new spells and abilities have changed.
  • Many item and class stats have been changed or removed.
  • Mastery rating has been added as a new stat which provides unique benefits for characters based on class and talent specialization. Mastery rating does not currently exist on items in the game, however, Reforging can be used to add Mastery rating as a secondary stat to existing items.
  • Rage has been normalized.
  • Spells and abilities no longer have multiple ranks and now scale with character level.
  • Talent trees have been altered. All player talent specializations have been reset, allowing for free re-specialization.
  • - Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
  • - Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend.
  • - Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
  • - Once a talent specialization has been chosen, players may only place points in the primary tree until at least 31 points have been spent there.
  • - The initial announcement regarding these talent tree changes can be found on our Cataclysm forum: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=13817049255&sid=1

Death Knights

  • A dedicated tanking tree (Blood) has been implemented.
  • The effects of Blood Presence and Frost Presence have been exchanged.
  • The way in which runes recharge has changed.

Druids

  • A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids.

Hunters

  • Five pets can now be stored with the hunter at all times. Any one of these five pets can be summoned via the Call Pet ability.
  • Focus has replaced mana as a new resource.
  • Hunters now start with a pet at level 1.
  • The Stable will now store 20 pets. If a pet is moved into the Stable, its talents are wiped.

Mages

  • There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for mage portals. Clicking on the Teleport or Portal buttons will expand the list of choices available.

Paladins

  • Paladins now have a new resource bar.

Warlocks

  • There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for warlock pets. Clicking on this single button will open up the list of available pets to summon.
  • Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.

Items

  • Resilience no longer reduces the chance a player will be critically hit by an opponent.
  • Durability: cloth, leather, and mail now have as many points of durability as plate, making the repair cost on death much closer to equal for all classes.

Professions

  • The glyph system has been updated to now feature three different types of glyphs. Many class glyphs have been added, altered, or moved to different glyph types.

User Interface

  • Spell Alerts have been added to notify players when procs on select spells and abilities occur. A visual notification will display around the character and the activated ability will be highlighted on the action bar.
  • The Guild Interface has been redesigned to incorporate additional functionality, including new sorting and organizational options.
  • The Arena Teams pane has been improved.
  • The Character pane has been redesigned. Character stats can now be shown or hidden via the Show All Details/Hide All Details button on the bottom left. When shown, all character stats will be visible in a window to the right of the pane. Stat sections can be reorganized by clicking and dragging them up or down the pane.
  • The Professions panes now have more filtering and search functionality, as well as buttons to easily link recipes in the chat frame.
  • A Professions screen has been added to the Spellbook to better display the details of a character’s primary and secondary professions.
  • Many of the yellow System Messages that would display in the chat frame when leveling up have been removed.
  • New text animations now alert players as they level up, also providing information on when new talents, spells and abilities are available.
  • Professions and Class Trainers windows have been altered to more clearly display available and upcoming purchases.
  • New Raid frames are now available. They can also be used in place of the standard 5-player party interface via the User Interface options.
  • The Spellbook interface has been improved for greater ease-of-use and visual appeal. 
  • For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114

Graphics

  • Improved water and lava rendering system (Video Options – Liquid Detail on the Graphics Panel)
  • Dynamic Sunshafts effect (Video Options – Sunshafts on the Graphics Panel)
  • Multi-monitor support (Video Options – Monitor on the Graphics Panel)
  • OpenGL Hardware Cursor support for Windows (Video Options – Hardware Cursor on the Advanced Panel)
  • Experimental support for DX11 (enabled by passing ‘-d3d11′ on the command line or adding SET gxApi “d3d11″ to the Config.WTF file)

Posted in Cataclysm.

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By Nihonga – October 12, 2010

Cataclysm Release Date?

From WoW Insider…

Approximately 37 million of you, in a row, tipped us off tonight about an email from Amazon. This email told people that Cataclysm’s release date was Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010, and that those who pre-ordered from Amazon would get it soon after between Nov. 26 and Nov. 29 (due to shipping and the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday).

Amazon is not a reliable source for release dates. They are often wrong. But it is “odd” that they’re saying something now, so close the date. We’ve previously heard a rumor that Nov. 2 might be another release date, and we know that Cataclysm is on track for a 2010 release, barring something nuts.

Until Blizzard announces the date itself, we don’t know exactly when Cataclysm will be released. So until then, just grab a towel and don’t panic.

And let me just make it real clear: WoW Insider is not claiming Nov. 23 is Cataclysm’s release date. We’re just reporting on what has happened with Amazon emails.

Head over to WoW Insider for more Cataclysm info.

Posted in Cataclysm.

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By Nihonga – September 27, 2010

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