X-Perl UnitFrames 3.2 3.0.3c Release

X-Perl UnitFrames 3.0.3c Release
EditByBrothersoft: Supports Game Version: 3.1.0

Much enchanced from Nymbia's Perl UnitFrames, and a complete replacement for Blizzard's default unit frames, including raid frames and raid tools, with little remaining of the original Nymbia code.

Range Finder (combined with optional health check and/or debuff check) for all frames based on spell or item range test.

HoT Monitor will Highlight units clearly that have your own active Heal over time spells. Regardless of how many other heal over time buffs are on the raid members, you can keep track of your own ones and when they expire.

Debuff Highlighting in standard debuff colours on all friendly frames. Priority given to show debuffs that you can cure first.

Raid Frames, buff icons, MT list units and some other portions or X-Perl are Created on demand. Saving a lot of time and memory at system startup. Defering the creation of many parts of X-Perl to when they are actually required. And of course, most often outside of raids they are never required and are never created.

Raid Target icon support for Target, Target's Target, MT Targets.

Raid Tooltip will show combat rezzers available (druids with Rebirth ready (or very soon available) and any normal rezzers out of combat) if you bring up tooltip of a dead person.

In-combat indicators for all units.

3D Portraits for player, pet, target, focus, party. Optional. Of course this may degrade your framerate somewhat because you are displaying more 3D character models that without this option. But some like it pretty, and it does look cool.

Red and Green combat flashes for frames when player, pet, target, party, partypets, raid take damage/heals. Useful indication of things happening.

And more X-Perl UnitFrames 3.0.3c.

WoW Hacks Blog is here, just check for more information!!

Description of Atlasloot Enhanced 5.05.01

Description of Atlasloot Enhanced 5.05.01 BSEditor: Supports Game Version: 3.1.0

It can access full item tooltips, show drop rates, allow items to be chat linked and to use the dressing room.

Features

- Drop Rates: Appended to the bottom of the tooltip of an item when moused over (if available).
- Dressing Room: Control-click items to show them in the Dressing Room.
- Price Preview: See the prices for token items like PvP rewards.
- DKP systems: Simply edit the file 'dkp.lua' using data from localization.en.lua (for the item ID numbers) and your guild's fixed price values to allow for DKP values to be shown in the tooltip. The stubs of some Lucifron items have been included to get you started and show you how it's done.
- Security: AtlasLoot flags as unsafe any items it detects that may cause you to be disconnected from the server if you try to link it in the chat window. To attempt to get the item information from the server, simply right-click on it. Note: you may get disconnected if the item is not available on your server.
- Instance Loot: All instance loot from every Dungeon (Normal and Heroic) and Raid.
- World Raid Bosses: Highlord Kruul, Azuregos, Dragons of the Nightmare, Doom Lord Kazzak and Doomwalker.
- Factions: WoW Factions and Burning CRUSADE factions rewards.
- PvP: World PvP Items, Battleground Items including low level items, Honor rewards - Weapons and Armor, Arena Rewards - Weapons and Armor for All Seasons.
- Sets: ZG, AQ20, AQ40, Dugeon 1, 2 and 3, Tier 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Armor sets, Pre-60 sets, Crafted Sets, Crafted Epic Weapons, Tabards, Rare Mounts, Legendary Items, World BoE Epic Weapons, Heroic Token rewards.
- World Events: Skettis, Abyssal Council, Ethereum Prison, etc.
- Season Events: Feast of Winter Veil, Hallow's End, Brewfest, etc.
- And more.

Chinese WoW partial relaunch pics, comparison shots of censorship

MMOsite.com has nabbed some pictures of the return to the Chinese World of Warcraft. As you know if you've been paying attention, the game has been offline over there for a few months now, but the game just recently got approved to go back online, and so they're in the middle of a "partial relaunch" (which I believe is taking the form of a closed beta) and the servers are crowding up again. As you can see, there's a stampede (much like ours) going on in Thunder Bluff -- looks like players are happy to be online again.

They also have some comparison images of the censorship found over there. Anything with skulls or bones on it is out, and the offending images have been replaced with piles of dirt and bags and debris. Blood appears as black oil rather than red liquid, and even player corpses are out. As you can see, everywhere players die, there are instead little graves and tombstones around. Very interesting. No idea if this actually "helps" in China (or what the point of the censorship is -- seems as though it's a cultural thing, more like it's a respect for death and dead bodies rather than worrying about whether people will be disturbed by the mention of violence), but of course the government over there has final say on what goes into the game, and apparently this is what they approved. Hopefully Chinese players will be headed back to Northrend before long.

Chinese Warcraft casemod is awesome

A few things about this Warcraft-flavored PC casemod, seen over on this Chinese website. First: it's awesome. Warcraft art is faithfully recreated, and as you can see, there's a nice Horde montage on one side, Alliance on the other, and the Dark Portal sitting right there in front. Second: it's probably pretty old -- most of that art is from the game's original release four years ago.

So it's probably not exactly the latest and greatest in Warcraft PC designs (though it might be a little later than the ghost train pirate art). But still, it looks great. And I definitely wouldn't mind wandering around Azeroth on that rather than my current gigantic black tower of a PC.

Update: Turns out the case is for sale. That is, if you want to spend $299 on a case.

[via Technabob]

WOW Death to spell power plate

WoW In a recent set of posts on the subject of Prot Paladins wearing holy gear in PvP, Ghostcrawler mentioned that Prot Paladins are not intended to be able to out heal Holy Paladins in the same gear and that fixes are intended that will remove their ability to do this. I'd like to offer a suggestion: destroy all spell power plate. Destroy it! Destroy, destroy, destroy! Exterminate it! Extirpate it from the surface of Azeroth! Perhaps in a Cataclysm of some kind. (Except Judgement. That can stay.)

My reasoning isn't to nerf Holy Paladins as healers. I love all healers equally. Rather, my idea here is to incorporate a class design that's been picking up steam since the end of Burning Crusade. Back before patch 3.0 dropped, two Paladin specs wore spell plate, Holy and Protection. Since that was two specs out of a possible six plate wearing talent specializations (2/6 = 1/3 = roughly 33 percent, I'm not doing a repeating) that meant that there was a fairly sizable minority that wanted the stuff.

Flash forward to Wrath of the Lich King. There are now three plate wearing classes. Two of them (six total talent specs) have absolutely no use for spell plate. The one class that does use spell plate? Well, the Protection tree was revamped, so tanking Paladins don't wear it. Retribution has been giving spell plate the stink eye forever. So we now have 1 out of 9 possible specs wearing the stuff, and yet it drops everywhere. There's no reason spell plate needs to exist, much less be a protected species by Blizzard when they went out of their way to do away with tanking leather, for example.

Of course, what will Holy Paladins do without spell plate? Much as Protection Paladins needed a means to keep their mana up and their threat intact when they switched away from the stuff, Holy will need talents and abilities that can convert the stats on physical plate (we'll assume DPS plate, as it seems weird that Holy would use tanking plate) to healing power.

Frankly, the Holy Paladin is an anomaly in the way Paladins play. Both Ret and Prot paladins wade into the thick of the fray while Holy is forced to stand around in the back and heal. Combine this with Holy's unique healing niche of being a primary tank/single target healer (to be fair, Beacon of Light does provide some group healing utility, and I'm sure dedicated Paladin healers could detail far more) and you end up with a class that tends to stand in one place spamming heals on one target a lot of the time. There are, however, ways that you could convert the Holy Paladin into a healer who actually ran into melee in order to provide his heals.

The first thing that comes to mind is changing Divine Intellect so that it converts a stat like Strength or Stamina into Intellect rather than simply adding more int by percentage. Then change Holy Guidance so that it grants a percentage of Attack Power as Spell Power. Then what? Well, we'd then need to expand the power of Seals and Judgments so that a holy paladin in full DPS gear could run into melee, unload his Judgement on a target and it would convert the damage he or she would normally deal into healing for his or her group or raid. There's lots of ways this could be accomplished - a talent like Beacon of Light that you placed on a target that directly converted the damage the Paladin would deal into AoE healing, perhaps, or a beefed up Judgement of Light that stacked with the Paladin's attacks to provide really significant group healing but which required the Paladin to keep attacking to keep the stack up. There could be a specific Holy Paladin Aura that provided a small but noticeable group heal or even a Heal over Time effect on a designated target (think Blessing of Renewal) where the damage the Paladin deals creates healing on those with that specific blessing. You'd have to watch how the numbers work: either the Blessing provides a fraction of the Paladin's DPS or the Paladin's damage is instead converted to healing, so that while he or she has to stay in melee range she's still providing healing and not actual damage to the group or raid.

This is just one path, of course, and I have neither the skill nor the resources of the entire Blizzard dev team who can come at this problem from all sorts of angles I'm aware I'm missing. Still, however they decide to solve the issue of spell power plate on a tanking class in PvP and the unexpected healing power it gives, I'd really like to lobby for the complete and total annihilation of all spell power plate. Destroy! Destroy!

The making of the World of Warcraft

Eurogamer has a nice long look at the early days of World of Warcraft, way before Northrend and Outland and even Molten Core, back when the question wasn't just how big the game would get, but whether Blizzard, a company known for their polish rather than their size, could pull off an entry in this new MMO genre. They've interviewed some of Blizzard's luminaries, and the piece offers a really good look at what it was like at Blizzard even before WoW's release, when they were hashing out some of the ideas and mechanics that have now set the bar with World of Warcraft: the stylistic Warcraft look, and questing as storytelling (originally, they thought they'd only do quests through the starting levels, and then have the game move to a grinding, monster-killing stage towards the end, but players said the game was boring without quests).

There are all kinds of great little tidbits in here: originally, Warcraft III was planned with the over-the-shoulder look that WoW now has, and that's one of the reasons they wanted to create a more straightforward RPG game. Tom Chilton showed up on the team about a year before WoW's release, and to his surprise, the game was almost completely unfinished -- the level cap was only 15, the talent system wasn't implemented, the AH or mail systems weren't in, PvP wasn't in at all (of course, even at release it was pretty barebones), and endgame raiding was nonexistent. Most of the things we think of as intrinsic to the World of Warcraft -- even things like the Horde and Alliance not speaking to each other -- were debated and almost not in at all as they moved towards release.

And this is only the first part of a larger series, so we'll look for part two next week. Great read, and very interesting to see that the developer team on this game is as times as split up and unorganized as their forums. Even before we started QQing and arguing about gameplay and how it should be done, they were fighting the same fights right up until release.
Tags: blizzard, chris-metzen, development, eurogamer, gameplay, genre, history, jeff-kaplan, mechanics, mmo, molten-core, northrend, outland, questing, tom-chilton, world-of-warcraft, wow

Onyxia returns in Wow Patch 3.2.2

You read that right. In honor of WoW's 5-year anniversary, in the upcoming Patch 3.2.2, Onyxia will make her triumphant return to the world of Azeroth!

The patch will convert Onyxia's Lair to a 10- and 25-player dungeon, along with new items whose models match the old-school gear available in the vanilla instance, like Tier 2 helms. Additional rewards include a 310% speed flying mount modeled after Onyxia herself!

As a bonus, anyone who logs in during the 5-year anniversary event in November will get an Onyxia Whelpling pet.

The full announcement after the break!


The full announcement reads as follows:

She has lurked in her lair and done battle with the many brave adventurers who travelled to that familiar location over the years. Now, in honor of the World of Warcraft 5-year anniversary, the dreaded brood mother Onyxia is being revamped to make a return to the forefront of Azeroth, as part of our big plans for the upcoming 3.2.2 content patch.

This permanent update to Onyxia will convert the dungeon into 10- and 25-player modes. We will be adding new items to Onyxia's loot table that have the same model as some of the classic loot from this dungeon, like Tier 2 helms, with stats updated to match the current level of content. There will be a special new item too: a normal drake-sized 310% speed flying mount modeled after Onyxia herself called an Onyxia Broodling. We will also be updating the encounter mechanics to be more fitting for modern raiding, but we can guarantee players will get to experience the frightening horror of deep breaths once again.

Then for a limited time, after the 5-year anniversary event officially begins in November, anybody who logs in will receive an Onyxia Brood Whelpling pet.

We're very excited to bring this classic encounter back to provide a fun new experience for both new and veteran players. Further details will be available in the near future, and we will be setting up the Public Test Realms soon to help test out this fight along with all the new content we have planned for the patch. Keep an eye on the forums for updates!
Tags: breaking, cataclysm, more-dots, mount, ony, onyxia, onyxia-mount, onyxia-whelpling, onyxia-wow, onyxias-lair, patch-3.2.2, raid, raiding, tier-2, whelps, whelps-left-side, wow-5-year-anniversary, wow-5th-anniversary, wow-cataclysm, wow-onyxia, wow-patch-3.2.2, wow-raiding, wow-tier-2

WoW Patch 3.2.2 patch notes

World of Warcraft's Patch 3.2.2 is on the PTR far, far earlier than any of us had expected. The patch notes have just now been made available by Wryxian over on the official EU forums. This small content patch that will celebrate WoW's fifth anniversary contains the return of Onyxia as was announced recently, along with a number of class tweaks, some larger than others. You can read them in full below.

General
The Brood Mother Returns

After years of lurking in her lair battling the many brave adventurers who travelled from afar to challenge her, Onyxia returns to commemorate World of Warcraft's five-year anniversary.

Onyxia has been scaled to offer new challenges to level 80 players and is now available for testing in 10- and 25- player modes.
Adjustments have been made to the encounter to keep it fit for modern raiding, but the fundamental experience of fighting the Brood Mother will remain, as will the horror of the Deep Breaths!
Some classic items Onyxia offered level 60 players will have their stats adjusted appropriately for level 80 players.
Brood of Onyxia, a very rare 310%-speed mount modeled after Onyxia herself will be available for the luckiest of challengers. Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process. Death Knights
Pets

Gnaw: This death knight ghoul ability now has a 1-minute cooldown. Druids
Talents

Balance

Moonkin Form: This form now also reduces the damage the druid takes while stunned by 15%.
Typhoon: The knockback distance from this spell has been increased to match Thunderstorm.
Feral Combat

Predatory Strikes: This talent now also causes the druid's finishing moves to provide a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make the next Nature spell with a cast time below 10 seconds instant cast. Mages
Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 130% instead of 200%.
Talents

Arcane

Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it. Paladins
Righteous Fury: The bonus threat from Holy spells caused by this talent has been reduced from 90% to 80%.
Talents

Protection

Judgements of the Just: The reduction in cooldown to Hammer of Justice provided by this talent has been reduced to 5/10 seconds instead of 10/20 seconds.
Touched by the Light: This talent now provides 20/40/60% of the paladin's strength as spell power instead of 10/20/30% of the paladin's stamina.
Retribution

Seal of Command: This ability now chains to strike up to 2 additional targets when it is triggered by an attack. Rogues
Fan of Knives: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 30%.
Talents

Combat

Throwing Specialization: This talent no longer causes Fan of Knives to interrupt spellcasting.
Subtlety

Honor Among Thieves: A 1-second cooldown is now enforced on how often a rogue can gain combo points from his party via this talent. Dungeons & Raids
Shadowfang Keep

Wailing Guardsman: Screams of the Past will no longer have multiple applications on a target. Recast time has been increased. Items
Glyphs

Glyph of Mind Flay: This glyph no longer reduces the magnitude of the movement reduction on the Mind Flay victim. User Interface
The size of the Focus Frame can now be adjusted via the Interface Options menu.
For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the US UI & Macros Forum:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114 Bug Fixes
Balance of Power: Misleading tooltip reworded. The tooltip previously reported an incorrect value for the increased chance to hit with spells. The actual benefit of the talent is unchanged.
Divine Aegis: Ranks 1 and 2 now work with Holy Nova.
Trap Mastery: Tooltip now states the correct amount of snakes summoned. Tags: onyxia, patch-3.2.2, patch-3.2.2-changes, patch-3.2.2-wow, world-of-warcraft-patch-3.2.2, wow-3.2.2-changes, wow-new-patch, wow-patch, wow-patch-3.2.2, wow-patch-news

WoW Patch 3.2.2 PTR is up for the EU

Wow, okay, we didn't see that coming, at least not this fast. European Blue Wryxian announced this morning on the official forums that the PTRs are back up for testing patch 3.2.2. Character copy is up for both pre-mades and your own characters (the wait time is currently an hour but this is definitely going to change). There are four realms being offered, two PvP and two PvE: Remulos, Brill, Fordring and Naralex. So far, the PTRs seem limited to EU-only but we're sure America can't be far behind. We'll update you with more as we have more but in the meantime, if you have a European account, click here to download the client and copy over a character.

WoW.com is currently hopping onto the PTR as quickly as we can to find anything and everything we can, so keep an eye on the site.

Update: Patch notes are in the process of going up. We'll have them over here on WoW.com as well as soon as we're able.

WoW Patch 3.2 Release Patch Notes

Tips: WoW Patch 3.2, World of Warcraft patch 3.2 release, WoW 3.2 Release, WoW 3.2 Guides, WoW patch 3.2 Guides, WoW Patch 3.2 Notes

Included with the patch update is a fresh copy of the WOW patch 3.2 patch notes. These notes come directly from the updater that you'll download to update your game.

Please be aware that Blizzard has lately been releasing an updated version of these later in the day. We'll update these notes, in this post, if that happens.

There are some major highlights to WoW patch 3.2 that we've known about for awhile. They include:

• A new battleground in the Isle of Conquest


• A new 5, 10, and 25 person dungeon/raid in the Crusaders' Coliseum


• Significant changes to mounts requirements


• Class changes


• A major update to the Argent Tournament


• Arena Season 7 (which will begin sometime soon)

World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.2.0

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

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

Call of the Crusade

• Since the opening of the Argent Tournament in northeastern Icecrown, adventurers have journeyed from across Azeroth and beyond to prove their worth in the heart of the Lich King's domain. Under thundering skies the tournament's participants hone the arts of war and face off in bone-shattering jousting matches to earn the right to be called champions. Yet these heroes have yet to face the greatest challenge of all: the Crusaders' Coliseum. Formidable Horde and Alliance champions, ferocious beasts, and Scourge lieutenants are just some of the opponents awaiting adventurers in this gladiatorial arena. Few will survive the coliseum's perils, but the Argent Crusade is confident that the worthy heroes who do emerge victorious will be ready to join the offensive against Icecrown Citadel and end the Lich King's reign of terror.

Isle of Conquest

• Off the coast of Northrend, Horde and Alliance forces are locked in an epic struggle for a tiny island rich in resources. Known as the Isle of Conquest, this rocky battleground's proximity to Icecrown makes it a highly prized base in the war against the Lich King. Both factions have deployed devastating weapons to drive each other from this strategic location. Day and night the ground trembles under lumbering siege vehicles while monstrous airships pummel enemy positions with fiery cannons. The bloody conflict spreads to every corner of the island as new heroes arrive to aid their factions. It remains to be seen whose banner will wave triumphantly over the Isle of Conquest and at what cost victory will be achieved.

General

• Construction of the Crusaders' Coliseum is complete. New raid normal and Heroic modes for the Crusaders' Coliseum can be toggled using the Dungeon Difficulty setting. This applies to 10 and 25-player versions. 10-player (normal), 25-player (normal), 10-player (Heroic) and 25-player (Heroic) all share separate raid lockout timers.
  


• Trial of the Champion
  
  
  
  • 5-player (normal and Heroic mode) dungeon.
  
  
  • Daily quest added to the Heroic daily dungeon quest giver.


• Trial of the Crusader
  
  
  
  • 10 and 25-player (normal mode) raid dungeon.


• Trial of the Grand Crusader
  


• 10 and 25-player (Heroic mode) raid dungeon.


• Crusaders' Tribute: Active on Heroic difficulty only, the tribute system will limit players on the number of attempts the raid is allotted each week. Additional rewards can be earned depending on the number of attempts left in the tribute run each week when the final boss is defeated.
  


• Head to the new 40 vs. 40-player siege-style Battleground, the Isle of Conquest, to vie for control of a strategic location with a host of resources sought by the Horde and Alliance.
  
  
  
  • Two level brackets are available: 71-79 and 80.
  
  
  • Defend the walls of your keep and protect your general by killing enemy players and destroying their siege vehicles.
  
  
  • Capture the Docks, Gunship Hangar, or Siege Workshop for access to destructive siege vehicles or strategic attacks on your enemy's base.
  
  
  • Capture the Refinery or Quarry for their resources to garner reinforcements, a steady flow of bonus honor and a 15% increase to siege vehicle damage for each of these capture points your team controls.
  
  
  • To claim victory, bust through the enemy's keep walls (or find other ways to get inside) and kill their general, or obliterate your opponents until their reinforcements are depleted.


• The Argent Tournament Expands
  
  
  
  • All new Argent Crusader daily quests and rewards have been added for players with the Crusader title. Rewards include a new Argent Crusader banner and tabard (which can port players to the tournament grounds), a mounted squire (can periodically run bank, mail or vendor errands for the player), a paladin-exclusive Argent Crusader Charger mount and new heirloom items.
  
  
  • All new Silver Covenant and Sunreaver daily quests and rewards have been added for players exalted with these factions. Rewards include tabards, new ground and flying mounts and a new pet.
  
  
  • Just when you thought you had seen the last of the Black Knight, he makes his astonishing return to the tournament. Wait, didn't you kill him?


• New Dungeon Loot Feature
  
  
  
  • Players will now be able to trade soulbound items with other raid or group members that were eligible for the loot. This system will work like the Item Buy Back system and allow 2 hours for players to trade an item after it has been looted. Players who choose to enchant or add gems to the item will get one last confirmation before losing the ability to trade the item.


• New druid art for Cat Form and Bear Form has been added. There are now five unique color schemes for each form and faction. Changing hair color (night elves) or skin tone (tauren) via the barbershop will change the look of one's cat and bear forms.

PvP

• Arenas
  
  
  
  • Beginning with season 7, players will no longer have access to the newest season's weapons or shoulder armor and will not qualify for the Gladiator title/rewards with ratings from the 2v2 bracket alone. Ratings obtained through 3v3 and 5v5 game play will be required for these rewards, while the rest of the newest season's items will remain available to players in all brackets (standard rating restrictions still apply).
  
  
  • Dalaran Sewers
    
    
    
    • The entire Arena has increased in size by 25%.
    
    
    • Mounts can now be used in this Arena.
    
    
    • The position and collision of the crates on the central platform has been modified.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Ring of Valor
    
    
    
    • The flame wall has been removed.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Ruins of Lordaeron
    
    
    
    • Alcoves have been removed from the starting chambers.
    
    
    • The collision around the central tomb has been smoothed out to prevent players from becoming stuck on the terrain as often.
  
  


• Battlegrounds
  
  
  
  • Battleground experience has arrived!
    
    
    
    • Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).
    
    
    • Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar - both located near the Battlemasters in either city - and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.
    
    
    • Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.
    
    
    • Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.
    
    
    • Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would've been accumulated if experience gains were enabled cannot be recovered.
  
  
  • Battlemasters in major cities affiliated with specific Battlegrounds have been replaced with a Battlemaster for each faction that will allow players to queue for any Battleground. Battlemasters for specific Battlegrounds will still be seen around the cities during corresponding Battleground holiday weekends.
  
  
  • When standing at a capture point that you control, you will gain a buff called Honorable Defender. This buff grants +50% honor gained from kills. This currently affects Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest.
  
  
  • Arathi Basin
    
    
    
    • The time it requires to capture a base has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
    
    
    • The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
  
  
  • Eye of the Storm
    
    
    
    • The time it requires to capture the center flag has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds
    
    
    • The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
  
  
  • Strand of the Ancients
    
    
    
    • The faction starting on attack/defense will now be randomized at the start of each match.
  
  
  • Warsong Gulch
    
    
    
    • There is a now a 20-minute timer on this Battleground. After that time, the team with the most flag captures wins. If this would result in a tie, the team that captured the first flag wins. If neither side has captured a flag, then the game ends in a tie.


• Wintergrasp
  


• Against the Odds: This achievement has been removed and converted to a Feat of Strength.


• Industrial Warfare: This achievement has been removed.


• To provide players with a more transparent notification of when Wintergrasp battles occur, as well as better control zone population and stability, several changes have been made.
  
  
  
  • Players now have the option to queue for Wintergrasp from a Wintergrasp Battlemaster in any capital city or by simply entering the Wintergrasp zone.
  
  
  • Queuing will begin 15 minutes before each battle. If chosen, you will automatically be teleported to the zone. Any players in the zone who have not been chosen from the queue will be teleported out when the battle begins.
  
  
  • The queue system remains active for the entire battle. As soon as a player leaves, a new one will be chosen from the queue.
  
  
  • Trying to enter Wintergrasp during an active battle for which you have not been chosen will teleport you out. Please note that, as you are now able to fly over Wintergrasp, you will only be teleported out if you try to land and join the battle.
  
  
  • Level 80 players get higher priority in the queue than lower level players. In addition, a random selection of queued players will be taken from both the Battlemasters and the zone itself.
  
  
  • The queue will accept up to 120 players from each faction, resulting in a maximum battle of 240 players at a time.


• Wintergrasp factories can no longer be damaged or destroyed.

Dungeons and Raids

• Dungeon and Raid ID Extensions
  
  
  
  • In order to allow for parties and raids to progress through instances at their own pace, players can now extend an instance ID on an individual basis.
  
  
  • Existing or recently expired IDs can be extended via the Social tab under Raid by clicking on Raid Info.
  
  
  • The ID of any instance to which a player is saved can be extended. Doing so will extend the instance lock period by the same amount of time as the original lock (i.e. extending an Ulduar instance ID will add 7 days, a Heroic: Halls of Lightning instance ID will add 24 hours, and a Zul'Gurub instance ID will add 3 days to the instance lock time).
  
  
  • An ID can be extended more than once.
  
  
  • An extension can be reversed on an individual basis provided the player does not do anything in the instance during the extended instance lock period that would save that player to the instance.


• Emblem System Changes
  
  
  
  • Both the 10 and 25-player instances of the Crusaders' Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
  
  
  • Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
  
  
  • The Heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Conquest.
  
  
  • New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.


• 25-player raids will no longer be referred to as Heroic versions of a raid, as there is a new distinction between normal and Heroic modes for both 10 and 25 player versions of the Crusaders' Coliseum.


• The Nexus: The Oculus & The Eye of Eternity
  
  
  
  • Drakes used by players in these instances will now scale in health and damage according to the rider's average item level.


• Ulduar
  
  
  
  • Players can now use Blink, Shadowstep, and Demonic Teleport while participating in the illusion events in the Yogg-Saron encounter.
  
  
  • Ominous Clouds in the Yogg-Saron encounter are now more vocal about touching players and should no longer sometimes appear to be in the wrong place for certain players.
  
  
  • An Immortal Guardian targeted for Empowering Shadows in the Yogg-Saron encounter will now become a 'Marked Immortal Guardian' while targeted.
  
  
  • Crusher Tentacles in the Yogg-Saron encounter spawn a little slower in 25-player mode allowing a bit more time for players to clear out the Illusion room.
  
  
  • Empowering Shadows in the Yogg-Saron encounter now targets a maximum of three Immortal Guardians in 25-player mode.
  
  
  • Yogg-Saron's health has been reduced by 20% in the final stage of his 25-player mode.
  
  
  • Winter Jormungars will no longer put everyone in the zone in combat when they emerge from a Snow Mound. Additionally, Snow Mounds will now disappear when all their jormungars have emerged.

Races: General

• Axe Specialization (Orc): The weapon bonus from this effect now applies to fist weapons in addition to axes.


• Tauren now have the option of changing skin tone by visiting the barber shop.

Items: General

• Agility: The amount of agility required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This change required recalibrating the amount of dodge a player has with 0 agility by a slight amount as well, so all players will see their dodge percentage vary a small amount.


• Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.


• On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren's Lucky Coin, Lavanthor's Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier-8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier-5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier-5 warrior Shield Block bonus.


• Dodge Rating: The amount of dodge rating required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply.


• Item Buy Back Feature Revised
  
  
  
  • The Item Buy Back time will now expire if the player enchants or sockets an item. Players will see a confirmation dialog box now when they attempt to enchant or add gems to an item giving them a last chance to reconsider.
  
  
  
  


• Items with Triggered Effects: These items generally have cooldowns on how often they can be triggered. Those cooldowns are now triggered each time the item is equipped (example: A trinket has a 45-second cooldown on an effect triggered by player attacks; when a player equips that item, the effect will be unable to be triggered for the first 45 seconds it is worn).


• Mounts
  
  
  
  • The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
  
  
  • Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.
  
  
  • Journeyman Riding (Skill 150): Can now be learned at level 40 for 50 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 40 directing them back to the riding trainer.
  
  
  • Expert Riding (Skill 225): Can now be learned at level 60 for 600 gold from trainers in Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold for Alliance; Thrallmar for Horde). Flight speed at this skill level has been increased to 150% of run speed, up from 60%.
  
  
  • Artisan Riding (Skill 300): Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold or Valiance Expedition for Alliance; Thrallmar or Warsong Offensive for Horde).
  
  
  • In order to further equalize the number of purchasable mounts available to each race, a new 60% speed ground mount has been added for night elves, and a new 100% speed ground mount has been added for the undead.
  
  
  • Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.
  
  
  
  


• Mana Regeneration: All items that provide "X mana per five seconds" have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%.


• Parry Rating: The amount of parry rating required per percentage of parry has been reduced by 8%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply. Parry still diminishes more quickly than dodge.


• Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. In addition, the amount of resilience needed to reduce critical strike chance, critical strike damage and overall damage has been increased by 15%.

Classes: General

• All pets now receive 40% of their master's resilience and 100% of their master's spell penetration. In addition, if a player is at their appropriate spell hit chance or hit chance maximum, their pet will be at the maximum for spell hit chance, hit chance, and expertise. If they are below the maximum, their pet will be proportionately below those maximums.


• Replenishment: This buff now grants 1% of the target's maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of 0.25% per second. This applies to all 5 sources of Replenishment (Vampiric Touch, Judgements of the Wise, Hunting Party, Enduring Winter Frostbolts and Soul Leech).


• Silence, Strangulate, Silencing Shot, and Arcane Torrent: These abilities will also apply a 3-second Interrupt effect against non-player controlled targets, making them more versatile against creatures immune to silencing effects.

Death Knights

• Due to significant talent changes, all death knight talents will be reset for players.


• Blood Plague: Damage done increased by 15%.


• Chains of Ice: Now reduces movement by 95% instead of 100%. The main effect of this change will be that targets of Chains of Ice will not have to re-issue a movement command to continue moving.


• Frost Fever: Damage done increased by 15%.


• Frost Presence: 10% bonus health reduced to 6% bonus stamina.


• Frost Strike: This ability can now be dodged, parried, or blocked. Weapon damage bonus reduced to 55%, down from 60%.


• Icebound Fortitude: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Blood
    
    
    
    • Bloody Strikes: This talent now provides 5/10/15% increased damage to Blood Strike instead of 15/30/45%.
    
    
    • Dancing Rune Weapon: This ability now has a fixed duration of 12 seconds (which can still be modified by its glyph) and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
    
    
    • Veteran of the Third War: Stamina bonus reduced to 1/2/3%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Frost
    
    
    
    • Blood of the North: Reduced to a 3-point talent. Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 3/6/10%. There is now a 33/66/100% chance whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates.
    
    
    • Lichborne: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.
    
    
    • Threat of Thassarian: New 3-point talent. When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strikes have a 30/60/100% chance to also deal damage with your off-hand weapon. Off-hand strikes are roughly one half the effect of the original strike.
    
    
    • Toughness: This talent now grants 2/4/6/8/10% armor instead of 3/6/9/12/15%, placing it in line with similar abilities of other classes.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Unholy
    
    
    
    • Desecration: This talent has been reduced to 2 points for 25/50% snare and no longer increases damage done by the death knight. It has also been moved one tier earlier in the tree and its spell effect has been made more transparent.
    
    
    • Desolation: New talent. This talent is in the position formerly occupied by Desecration. It causes Blood Strikes to increase all damage the death knight deals by 1/2/3/4/5% for 12 seconds.
    
    
    • Scourge Strike: Weapon damage bonus reduced to 40%, down from 45%. Damage increased by 10% per disease on the target, down from 11%.
    
    
    • Summon Gargoyle: The gargoyle now flies lower to the ground, making it susceptible to melee attacks. This ability now has a fixed duration of 30 seconds and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
    
    
    • Unholy Blight: This talent has been redesigned. It no longer deals damage to nearby targets. Instead, when you deal damage with Death Coil, the target will take periodic damage for 10 seconds equal to 20% of the damage done by Death Coil. This damage accumulates in the same way as Ignite and Deep Wounds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Druids

• Enrage: This Bear Form ability now generates 20 rage initially, and 10 rage over the next 10 seconds. The armor penalty is unchanged.


• Flight Form: Can now be learned at level 60. Flight speed increased to 150%.


• Flight Form and Swift Flight Form: Now benefit from a paladin's Crusader Aura.


• Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 3 minutes. This means each use of Innervate will give half as much mana as before, but it will be available twice as often.


• Lifebloom: The final heal that occurs when this spell blooms has been reduced by 20% on the base and on the spell power coefficient.


• Mangle: Ranks 4 and 5 base points reduced by about 11%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.


• Rake: Ranks 6 and 7 base points on initial and periodic damage reduced by about 7%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.


• Rip: Ranks 8 and 9 base points and points per combo point reduced by about 6%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.


• Savage Defense: The animation for gaining this buff will no longer make the bear stand upright


• Shred: Ranks 8 and 9 base points reduced by about 10%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.


• Swift Flight Form: Druids who have acquired a mount able to go 310% flight speed will now also go that speed while in this form.


• Swipe (Cat): Percent of weapon damage done reduced from 260% to 250%.


• Travel Form: Can now be learned at level 16.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Balance
    
    
    
    • Balance of Power: Now reduces all spell damage taken by 3/6%, rather than reducing the chance to be hit by spells by 2/4%.
    
    
    • Eclipse: The Starfire and Wrath buffs from this talent are now on separate 30-second cooldowns. In addition, it is not possible to have both buffs active simultaneously.
    
    
    • Owlkin Frenzy: Now also restores 2% base mana every 2 seconds for the duration (10 seconds) in addition to its current effects.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Feral Combat
    
    
    
    • King of the Jungle: This talent now reduces the mana cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form by 20/40/60%.
    
    
    • Primal Tenacity: This talent no longer reduces the mana cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Restoration
    
    
    
    • Empowered Touch: Now also increases the amount of bonus healing effects for Nourish by 10/20%.
    
    
    • Improved Barkskin: No longer provides dispel resistance to all effects on the druid, but now reduces the chance your Barkskin is dispelled by an additional 35/70%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Hunters

• Aspect of the Cheetah: Can now be learned at level 16.


• Deterrence: This ability now allows the hunter to parry spells and attacks from behind as well as in front. Now has a new visual spell effect.


• The time that traps will exist in the world after being put down has been reduced to 30 seconds, down from 1 minute.


• Frost Trap: Will no longer "fizzle" on targets immune to snare effects, however Lock and Load will not succeed when using Frost Trap if the target is immune to snare effects.


• Snake Trap: The Mind-numbing Poison effect has been reduced to a 30% increase in casting time, down from 50% to match similar effects.


• Traps now have separate 30-second cooldown categories: Fire (Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow), Frost (Freezing Trap, Frost Trap) and Nature (Snake Trap). A hunter can have one trap of each category placed at one time.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Beast Mastery
    
    
    
    • Catlike Reflexes now also reduces the cooldown of your Kill Command ability by 10/20/30 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Survival
    
    
    
    • Entrapment: This talent no longer works with Immolation Trap or Explosive Trap.
    
    
    • Lock and Load: Now has a 22-second cooldown. The Lock and Load effect cannot be obtained on targets immune to snare effects when Frost Trap is used.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Pets
    
    
    
    • Roar of Sacrifice: Redesigned. This ability can now be used on any friendly target to make that target immune to critical strikes, but the hunter pet takes 20% of all damage taken by that friendly target. Cooldown is now 1 minute, up from 30 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Mages

• Arcane Blast: Mana cost reduced by 12%.


• Frost Bolt, Cone of Cold, Frost Ward, Ice Armor, Frost Armor, Frost Nova, Ice Lance, and Ice Barrier: The mana cost on these spells has been reduced by approximately 15%.


• Invisibility: Can no longer be interrupted by a hostile action or damage done during the 3-second Fade time, however an invisible mage is still vulnerable to Stun and Silence effects.


• Mirror Image: Images will no longer trigger the death sound when their time expires.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Fire
    
    
    
    • Empowered Fire: In addition to its existing effects, this talent now also grants a 33/67/100% chance to regain 2% of base mana each time the Ignite talent deals damage.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Frost
    
    
    
    • Empowered Frostbolt: Instead of increasing critical strike chance by 2/4%, this talent now reduces the cast time of Frostbolt by 0.1/0.2 seconds.
    
    
    • Permafrost: In addition to its existing effects, this talent now also causes the mage's Chill effects to reduce healing received by the victim by 7/13/20%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Paladins

• Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.


• Charger: Can now be learned at level 40.


• Crusader Aura: This ability now also grants its flying speed increase to a druid's Flight Form and Swift Flight Form.


• Exorcism: Now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can once again be used on players.


• Hand of Reckoning: Redesigned. Now does damage only when the target does not currently have the caster targeted, but damage done increased to 50% of attack power, occurring after the taunt effect is applied.


• Judgements: Some of these attacks were considered ranged and some melee. They are all now considered melee attacks that can't be dodged, parried or blocked.


• Judgement of Light: Now heals for 2% of the attacker's maximum health instead of a variable amount based on the spell power and attack power of the judging paladin.


• Lay on Hands: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 10/20% instead of increasing the target's armor.


• Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.


• Sacred Shield: When a paladin casts Flash of Light on a target with this buff, they also now place a heal-over-time effect on the target, healing that target for 100% of the Flash of Light amount over 12 seconds.


• Seal of Blood: This ability has been removed.


• Seal of the Martyr: This ability has been removed.


• Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage. In addition, the damage-over-time effect is now considered a melee attack instead of a spell attack and the effects from these seals can only be triggered by auto-attacks and Hammer of the Righteous.


• Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%. In addition, the benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player's level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player's level.


• Warhorse: Can now be learned at level 20.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Holy
    
    
    
    • Beacon of Light: The healing amount on the Beacon of Light target is now based on the total healing done (including over-healing) instead of the effective healing done. Radius increased to 60 yards. Multiple Paladins can now have this active on the same target. Buff indicating a player is within range of the Beacon target is no longer displayed.
    
    
    • Divine Intellect: This talent now gives 2/4/6/8/10% increased intellect instead of 3/6/9/12/15%.
    
    
    • Illumination: This talent now returns 30% of the mana cost of the spell instead of 60%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Protection
    
    
    
    • Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Any damage that takes the paladin below 35% health is reduced. This reduction applies only to the portion that pushes the paladin below 35% health (example: a paladin at 50% health takes a 40% hit; the first 15% hits as normal while the next 25% is reduced). In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead heal the paladin for up to 10/20/30% of maximum health depending on the paladin's defense rating (example: a paladin with defense equal to only 5 times his or her level will receive no healing from the talent, while a paladin who is immune to critical strikes from boss creatures through defense will receive the maximum amount).
    
    
    • Guarded by the Light: This talent will no longer cause Divine Plea's duration to be refreshed by using Judgement of Wisdom, Judgement of Justice, or Judgement of Light.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Retribution
    
    
    
    • Art of War: Now only applies to melee critical hits, but will make your next Flash of Light or Exorcism instant. In addition, this talent now provides notification in the floating combat text when it activates.
    
    
    • Crusader Strike: Damage reduced to 75% weapon damage to match the new 4-second cooldown. Mana cost reduced to 5% of base mana.
    
    
    • Seal of Command: Redesigned. This seal now deals 36% weapon damage on every swing, and deals substantially less judgement damage.
    
    
    • Vindication: Redesigned. Now lowers target attack power, is consistent and does not stack with Demoralizing Shout.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Priests

• Prayer of Healing: The percentage of spell power this spell gains in healing (per target) has been reduced from 80.7% to 52.6%.


• Psychic Horror: This spell no longer has an invisible missile, so there is no travel time before the spell takes effect.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Discipline
    
    
    
    • Penance: Cooldown increased to 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Holy
    
    
    
    • Inspiration: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target's armor.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Shadow
    
    
    
    • Dispersion: Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.
    
    
    • Improved Mind Blast: Redesigned. Now, in addition to reducing the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by .5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds, while in Shadowform your Mind Blast also has a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to reduce all healing done to the target by 20% for 10 seconds.
    
    
    • Vampiric Touch: The amount of damage done when this spell is dispelled has been doubled.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Rogues

• After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Combat
    
    
    
    • Sword Specialization: This talent is now called Hack and Slash and applies to axes as well as swords.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Subtlety
    
    
    
    • Shadow Dance: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute. Now lasts 6 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Shamans

• A customizable totem bar will now be available for shamans allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems.


• All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards.


• Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes.


• Chain Heal: Jump distance increased by 25% to 12.5 yards. In addition, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%.


• Earth Shock: Redesigned. This spell no longer interrupts spell casting, but rather reduces melee attack speed by 10% for 8 seconds (exclusive with similar effects such as Thunder Clap).


• Ghost Wolf: Can now be learned at level 16. While in this form, snaring effects may not bring the shaman below base normal run speed.


• Wind Shock: Has been renamed Wind Shear and no longer shares a cooldown with Flame, Frost or Earth Shock.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Enhancement
    
    
    
    • Maelstrom Weapon: Now also has a chance to reduce the cast time of Hex.
    
    
    • Shamanistic Rage: Cooldown is now 1 minute, down from 2 minutes. Successful melee attacks now have a chance to generate mana equal to 15% of the shaman's attack power, down from 30%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Restoration
    
    
    
    • Ancestral Healing: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target's armor.
    
    
    • Cure Poison and Cure Disease: Combined into a single spell, Cure Toxins.
    
    
    • Earth Shield: Dispel effects will now remove charges of Earth Shield rather than the entire aura.
    
    
    • Healing Way: Redesigned. Rather than providing a chance of increasing Healing Wave spells on a friendly target, this talent now innately increases the effectiveness of the shaman's Healing Wave by 8/16/25%.
    
    
    • Mana Tide Totem: Totem health now equal to 10% of the shaman's health.
    
    
    • Nature's Guardian: Redesigned. Now has a fixed 100% proc rate, has a 30-second internal cooldown and increases the shaman's maximum health by 3/6/9/12/15% for 10 seconds.
    
    
    • Nature's Swiftness: Cooldown is now 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.
    
    
    • Tidal Waves: No longer reduces the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave by 30%. It instead now provides +25% critical strike chance to Lesser Healing Wave, along with the previous 30% cast time benefit to Healing Wave.
    
    
    • Improved Water Shield: This talent now has a 10/20/30% chance to be triggered by Chain Heal, and the charges of Water Shield are no longer consumed by this talent.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Warlocks

• Banish: Effect will now be cancelled if Banish is recast on a banished target.


• Dreadsteed: Can now be learned at level 40.


• Felsteed: Can now be learned at level 20.


• Shadowflame: The angle of the cone effect on this ability was inadvertently very small, making it difficult to use. Its cone is now the same size as similar spells, such as Cone of Cold.


• Soulshatter cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Affliction
    
    
    
    • Pandemic: Now also increases the critical damage bonus of Haunt by 100%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Demonology
    
    
    
    • Fel Domination cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 15 minutes.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Destruction
    
    
    
    • Empowered Imp: The warlock's critical hit chance is increased to 100%, up from 20% for the next spell cast after the Imp critically hits a target.
    
    
    • Fire and Brimstone: Reduced to 2/4/6/8/10% increased damage from Incinerate and Chaos Bolt on targets afflicted with Immolate, down from 3/6/9/12/15%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Warriors

• Battle Shout: Radius increased to 30 yards.


• Bloodrage: This ability now generates 20 rage initially, and 10 rage over the next 10 seconds. The health cost is unchanged.


• Commanding Shout: Radius increased to 30 yards.


• Execute: This ability now never costs more than a total of 30 rage. The tooltip for Sudden Death has been revised to remove reference to that maximum, since the ability now behaves that way even when untalented.


• Shield Slam: The benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player's level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player's level.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Fury
    
    
    
    • Armored to the Teeth: This talent now provides 1/2/3 attack power per 108 armor, up from per 180 armor.
    
    
    • Bloodsurge: Notification that Slam has become instant now appears in floating combat text.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Protection
    
    
    
    • Devastate: Weapon damage and bonus per Sunder Armor on the target increased by 100%. This ability now requires a shield to be equipped.
    
    
    • Shield Specialization: Now provides 5 rage on a block, dodge or parry instead of 2 rage on a block.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

User Interface

• The quest log is now double-paned for more easily viewing quest information. The list of all quests a player has will show in one pane, while the quest details of any highlighted quest will display in the next.


• Character name auto-completion for the chat frame, pop-ups, and mail interface is now active


• Character names can now be colorized according to class in the chat frame. This feature can be enabled through the chat settings by right-clicking on a chat window.


• Casting bars under the target frame, focus frame and nameplates will now display as shielded if the cast cannot be interrupted.


• Druids will now be able to see their mana bars when shape-shifted.


• Item Comparisons: Holding the shift key while hovering over an item will now display the stat differences with the item currently equipped in the relevant slot.


• Item Level: A new option has been added under Display in the Interface Options to show the item level on item tooltips.


• Macros and scripts will no longer be able to target totems by name.


• New Feature Icons: Options recently added to any of the options menus will now display a yellow exclamation point next to them to indicate that they are new features.


• Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.


• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Graphics

• The frame rate for those with Shadow Effects enabled under the Ultra Video settings has been improved.

World Environment

• Wolvar and Gorloc orphans have arrived in Dalaran and need your help! Players can find out more by visiting the Eventide District (completing the quests being offered for this event will not count toward any Children's Week achievements). Players have a limited amount of time to care for these orphans before they take their leave. They will then return again for the regularly-scheduled Children's Week next year.


• Portal areas in all major cities now offer a portal to the Blasted Lands near the Dark Portal.


• Once crossing through the Dark Portal, players can access a flight path directly from the Stair of Destiny to Shattrath.


• A new zeppelin docking ramp has been added to Thunder Bluff allowing Horde players easier transport to and from Orgrimmar.


• The local Postal Service has grown tired of walking so far each day to collect mail and has decided to install a large number of new mailboxes in Stormwind, Undercity, Darnassus and Orgrimmar.


• Mathiel in Darnassus has finally earned himself enough money from your repair bills that he was able to buy himself an anvil.

Quests

• The ravasaur trainer Mor'vek has returned to Un'Goro and will offer to help Horde players raise and train a Venomhide Ravasaur as a mount... if they can survive the creature's deadly poison.

Achievements

• A Brew-FAST Mount: A new Feat of Strength achievement for acquiring any epic Brewfest mount.


• Have Keg, Will Travel: Now requires either a Brewfest mount or using Brewfest Hops to transform yours into one.

Professions

• Alchemy
  
  
  
  • All stackable potions now stack to 20.
  
  
  • Added a new pattern for Flask of the North, usable by players with a high alchemy skill. The recipe is purchased from Northrend trainers. Flask of the North increases your spell power, attack power or strength for 1 hour and is usable in Arenas. It is not consumed when used.
  
  
  • Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion no longer usable in arenas. Amount of health and mana has been increased, and the cooldown reduced.
  
  
  • Five new epic gem transmute recipes are available from the Northrend trainer. The recipe for transmuting a Cardinal Ruby can be learned from a quest, given by Linzy Blackbolt in Dalaran.
  
  
  • The Mixology benefits from Northrend elixirs and flasks have been increased.
  
  
  • Rage potions can now be used by druids.
  
  
  
  


• Cooking
  
  
  
  • Blackened Dragonfin Recipe: Now only requires 1 Dragonfin Angelfish.
  
  
  • Chef's Hat is now superior quality and allows the chef to cook faster.
  
  
  • Increased the drop rate for recipes from the Outland Daily Cooking quests.
  
  
  • Increased the chance to get a bonus Dalaran Cooking Token from the Spice Bag.
  
  
  • The recipe for Captain Rumsey's Lager can now be randomly found in the quest reward Crate, Barrel, or Spice Bag from the cooking dailies.
  
  
  
  


• Enchanting
  
  
  
  • Values on Northrend ring enchants increased.
  
  
  
  


• Engineering
  
  
  
  • Added a new Mind Amplification Dish attachment for helmets, allowing engineers to control other humanoid targets. Some restrictions apply: does not work in Arenas, dish sometimes reverses targets, unable to stack with other stat-improving head enchantments and makes your helmet look... stylish? This attachment provides a passive bonus of 45 stamina.
  
  
  • Added a schematic for a Goblin Welding Beam that can heal friendly mechanical or vehicle units.
  
  
  • Alarm-o-Bot functionality changed. Materials required reduced.
  
  
  • Box of Bombs no longer requires an anvil.
  
  
  • The Cobalt Frag Bomb now incapacitates enemies within a 3-yard radius. A short cast time was added, but they are usable while moving. This change applies to any Cobalt Frag Bombs already created. The existing recipe now makes 3 at a time.
  
  
  • Engineers can now learn to create a portable Wormhole Generator for Northrend. The Wormhole allows them to travel to different locations in Northrend, although the locations are sometimes in dangerous places.
  
  
  • Flying Machine: The level requirement needed to learn how to build and use this machine has been reduced to level 60, down from level 70, and the engineering skill level reduced to 300, down from 350. Material costs reduced.
  
  
  • Gnomish Engineers and Goblin Engineers can now switch profession specializations for a fee.
  
  
  • Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications.
  
  
  • Increased the passive bonuses provided by Springy Arachnoweave, Flexweave Underlay and Nitro Boosts.
  
  
  • Mote Extractor now has innate tracking for gas clouds while it is in your inventory. Tracking of gas clouds has been removed from goggles.
  
  
  • A new repair bot has been added, and his name is Jeeves. He is the ultimate gentleman robot butler, able to perform all the mundane tasks of repairing, selling and buying junk for your entire raid. Additionally, he can open bank boxes for skilled engineers (350+). Jeeves is not destroyed when used, but due to pressing engagements, can only be summoned once an hour. The schematic for this handsome robot was said to be hidden within the parts of another robot - hoping to be found by an engineer one day.
  
  
  • Nitro Boosts: Now have a 5-second duration.
  
  
  • Potion Injectors now increase the amount gained by 25% when used by engineers. Quantity produced by recipes for Runic Healing and Mana Injectors has been increased.
  
  
  • Reduced the materials needed to create all engineering Dragonlings, and reduced their cooldowns, although they still cannot be used in Arenas.
  
  
  • Significantly reduced the cooldown on MOLL-E.
  
  
  • The Spynocular belt attachment has been changed to a Frag Belt. The Frag Belt periodically produces a Cobalt Frag Bomb that can be used from the belt every 6 minutes (never runs out!).
  
  
  • A Steam-Powered Auctioneer has been added to the Dalaran Like Clockwork engineering shop, allowing access to one's faction Auction House. The Steam-Powered Auctioneer was programmed with a superiority chip, and will only interact with Grand Master engineers.
  
  
  • Transporter devices are no longer classified as trinkets and can be used directly from your inventory.
  
  
  • The Ultrasafe Bullet Machine and Saronite Arrow Maker schematics have been simplified to create a full stack of the appropriate ammunition. No longer requires an anvil. Reduced the materials required to make this ammunition.
  
  
  • World Enlarger: Cooldown reduced to 15 minutes, down from 1 hour.
  
  
  
  


• Fishing
  
  
  
  • Players with 300 or higher cooking have a chance to find a Waterlogged Recipe in the Bag of Fishing Treasures awarded by the Northrend fishing dailies. This item can be traded to other players and rewards several Dalaran Cooking Rewards when turned in.
  
  
  
  


• Herbalism
  
  
  
  • Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6).
  
  
  • Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health. No longer affected by global cooldown.
  
  
  
  


• Inscription
  
  
  
  • Added a new Glyph of Claw for young feral druids who haven't yet obtained Mangle. Scribes can learn this glyph from the trainer.
  
  
  • Master's Inscriptions increased.
  
  
  
  


• Jewelcrafting
  
  
  
  • Dragon's Eye gems stat bonuses increased. In addition, these gems are no longer prismatic and must be matched to the appropriate colored socket to activate an item's socket bonus.
  
  
  • New recipes have been added for cutting epic gems and can be purchased using Dalaran Jewelcrafter's tokens.
  
  
  • Icy Prism now has a chance of yielding an epic gem.
  
  
  • Raw epic gems can be obtained via the following means:
    
    
    
    • Prospecting Titanium Ore
    
    
    • Alchemy transmutations
    
    
    • Purchased with honor
    
    
    • Purchased with Emblems of Heroism
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Leatherworking
  
  
  
  • Added recipe for Heavy Knothide Leather to leatherworking trainers (rather than a vendor recipe). Changed several recipes to use Heavy Knothide Leather instead of regular Leather.
  
  
  • Fur Lining values increased.
  
  
  
  


• Mining
  
  
  
  • Toughness (Rank 6) provides more stamina.
  
  
  
  


• Skinning
  
  
  
  • Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating.
  
  
  
  


• Tailoring
  
  
  
  • Embroideries improved.
  
  
  
  

Items

• Feral Druid PvP Gloves (seasons 3 and 4): Maim bonus changed from the Interrupt bonus used in The Burning Crusade Arena seasons to the cost reduction used in Wrath of the Lich King Arena seasons.


• Glyphs
  
  
  
  • Death Knights
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Unholy Blight: Changed to increase damage done by the updated Unholy Blight talent by 40%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Druids
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Paladins
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Righteous Defense: Now also increases the chance for Hand of Reckoning to hit.
    
    
    • Glyph of Seal of Command: Redesigned to cause the Paladin to gain 8% of base mana each time the paladin judges Command.
    
    
    • Glyph of Seal of Blood: Changed to Glyph of Holy Wrath, which reduces its cooldown by 15 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Rogues
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Shadow Dance: Now increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 2 seconds, down from 4 seconds.
    
    
    • Glyph of Tricks of the Trade: Now increases the duration of the damage bonus effect instead of increasing the damage bonus.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Shamans
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Healing Wave: The amount of healing the shaman receives is now based on the entire healing amount, including over-healing.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Warlocks
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Lifetap: Duration of the buff from this glyph increased to 40 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Idol of the Corruptor: The agility buff from this idol is now exclusive with the agility buff from Idol of Terror.


• Mage Tier-7 2-Piece Bonus: Now grants 25% additional mana from mana gems, down from 40%.


• Non-Combat Pets: 8 new pets have been added (not including Argent Tournament rewards). Raptor Hatchlings can be found on rare and elite raptors throughout the game world. In addition, an Obsidian Raptor Hatchling can be purchased from Breanni in Dalaran.


• Tome of Cold Weather Flight: New heirloom item. Players who have reached level 80 can now purchase this book for 1,000 gold from Hira Snowdawn, the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran. Similar to other heirloom items, this item can be mailed to other characters of the same realm, account and faction. The book is consumed when read training the character in Cold Weather Flying. Requires level 68.


• Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings: This item's stats and level have been increased to match the power level of healer weapons coming from the Coliseum 25-person normal difficulty instance. In addition, each time Val'anyr is equipped, Blessing of Ancient Kings will be placed on a 45-second cooldown before it can occur.

Bug Fixes

• Death Knights
  
  
  
  • Anti-Magic Shell: The tooltip for this ability will now reflect modifications from the Magic Suppression talent.
  
  
  • Blood-Caked Blade: The damage from this talent is no longer normalized to weapon speed.
  
  
  • Chilblains: Icy Clutch can no longer miss when Frost Fever hits, however, when Frost Fever is dispelled Icy Clutch will also be dispelled.
  
  
  • Dancing Rune Weapon: The rune weapon will no longer cast Corpse Explosion.
  
  
  • Desecration: No longer causes unnecessary combat logging.
  
  
  • Horn of Winter: Learning rank 2 of this ability caused players to unlearn rank 1, such that it no longer appears in their spellbook. It is now possible to relearn that rank, and death knights will no longer "forget" rank 1 when they learn rank 2.
  
  
  • Lichborne: The buff from this ability can now be cancelled.
  
  
  • Raise Ally: Using the Gnaw ability while under the effects of this spell will now initiate auto-attack. In addition, the damage done has been changed from a flat value to a percentage of weapon damage.
  
  
  • Raise Dead: This spell will no longer give two errors when the casting player lacks the reagent to cast it.
  
  
  • Rune of Razorice: Each death knight can now have his or her own copy of this debuff on the target.
  
  
  • Rune of Spellbreaking: Tooltip now indicates the effect from this enchantment does not stack with other effects which reduce the duration of Silence effects (including not stacking with a second copy of this enchantment). In addition, now reduces damage from Holy spells.
  
  
  • Rune of Spellshattering: Now reduces damage from Holy spells.
  
  
  • Summon Gargoyle: Corrected the inaccurate tooltip which claimed a Gargoyle could last up to 40 seconds, when in fact 30 seconds has always been the maximum.
  
  
  • Rune of Razorice: Corrected a bug where this applied to frost damage done by others.
  
  
  
  
• Druids
  
  
  
  • Bash: Tooltip now specifies that the Interrupt effect only occurs on non-player targets.
  
  
  • Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form: Mana energizes that occur while in these forms will now appear in the combat log and floating combat text.
  
  
  • Cyclone: Victims of Cyclone can no longer receive healing from health drain effects such as Devouring Plague while they are affected by Cyclone.
  
  
  • Dash: Druids who have not learned Track Humanoids will now retain the benefit of Dash while shifting out of and back into Cat Form.
  
  
  • Druids should no longer be removed from a form after using any engineered bombs.
  
  
  • Maim: Tooltip now specifies that the Interrupt effect only occurs on non-player targets.
  
  
  • Natural Perfection: Now properly triggered by periodic critical strikes.
  
  
  • Nature's Grasp: This talent will no longer be triggered spuriously by some ranged abilities such as Heroic Throw.
  
  
  
  
• Hunters
  
  
  
  • All ranks of Sonic Blast now properly have an 80 Focus cost.
  
  
  • Black Arrow Ranks 5 and 6 training costs have been lowered significantly.
  
  
  • Furious Howl: Ranks 1-5 will no longer give slightly more attack power than is listed in their tooltips.
  
  
  • Lock and Load: The tooltip for this talent has been updated to indicate that it also works with Explosive Trap.
  
  
  • Roar of Sacrifice: Damage transferred to pet is now considered Nature damage.
  
  
  • The tooltip for Improved Tracking has been slightly re-written to indicate that it only works on the hunter, and works on melee damage as well.
  
  
  • T.N.T. (Rank 3): Now indicates that the talent works with Black Arrow.
  
  
  
  
• Mages
  
  
  
  • Arcane Instability: Tooltip reworded to clarify design intent.
  
  
  • Burning Determination: Some Silence and Interrupt effects that did not trigger this talent will now trigger it properly, including Shield of the Templar, Garrote and Gag Order.
  
  
  • Combustion: Fire spell misses will no longer trigger this talent.
  
  
  • Conjure Refreshment: Rank 1 food will no longer overwrite the drink buff from rank 2 food.
  
  
  • Fireball: Periodic damage from this spell can no longer trigger Combustion.
  
  
  • Living Bomb: Periodic critical strikes from this ability can now trigger Ignite and Hot Streak.
  
  
  • Mirror Image: The mirror images will no longer complete casts of Frostbolt on targets which are Polymorphed at the time their Frostbolt channel finishes.
  
  
  • Molten Armor: Critical strikes from the effect on this armor will no longer trigger Ignite.
  
  
  
  
• Paladins
  
  
  
  • Auras: Any paladin aura active at the time of the paladin's death now automatically reactivates when the paladin returns to life.
  
  
  • Beacon of Light: Multiple paladins can now have this buff active on the same target. In addition, the beacon target will no longer lose the buff while under the effects of Cyclone or Banish.
  
  
  • Blessing of Sanctuary: This talent and Vigilance will now both be able to be cast on the same target without sometimes overwriting each other.
  
  
  • Exorcism: Now properly has a 100% chance to be a critical strike when cast on death knights using Lichborne.
  
  
  • Eye for an Eye: Now properly triggered by periodic critical strikes. In addition, the tooltip incorrectly stated that 20% damage is reflected, when it is actually 10%. Tooltip fixed.
  
  
  • Hammer of Justice: Tooltip now specifies that the Interrupt effect only occurs on non-player targets.
  
  
  • Hand of Sacrifice: Casting this spell on a target with Divine Sacrifice active will now generate an error message instead of wasting the cooldown.
  
  
  • Heart of the Crusader: The effect from this talent will no longer be removed if a paladin without this talent overwrites the judgement placed by a paladin who does have the talent.
  
  
  • Holy Shield: It is no longer possible to have two ranks of this ability active at the same time.
  
  
  • Judgements: All paladin judgements are now properly considered as melee attacks that cannot be dodged, blocked or parried. Previously Seal of Light, Seal of Wisdom, Seal of Justice and Seal of Righteousness would cause the judgement to be considered a ranged attack.
  
  
  • Judgement of the Just: The effect from this talent will no longer be removed if a paladin without this talent overwrites the judgement placed by a paladin who does have the talent.
  
  
  • Judgement of Vengeance: Inaccurate combat log tooltip corrected.
  
  
  • Judgement of Corruption: Inaccurate combat log tooltip corrected.
  
  
  • Pursuit of Justice: This talent will no longer sometimes be deactivated when leaving a battleground.
  
  
  • Sacred Shield: This buff will no longer have any effect if the target is another player engaged in a duel. In addition, the heal from this buff will no longer cause the paladin to stand, and it is no longer possible for two paladins to both have the spell active on one target.
  
  
  
  
• Priests
  
  
  
  • Blessed Resilience: Now properly triggered by periodic critical strikes.
  
  
  • Divine Aegis: This talent will now work properly if the priest moves out of range of his or her target as the effect is resolving.
  
  
  • Divine Hymn: This spell now works correctly with the trinket Illustration of the Dragon Soul. Mana Burn: Fixed a bug where Mana Burn did not cause fear effects to break when the fear victim had an absorb shield on.
  
  
  • Mass Dispel: This spell now triggers some types of trinkets it did not trigger before (such as Flow of Knowledge).
  
  
  • Pain Suppression: No longer can be cast while under the effects of Incapacitate or Cyclone.
  
  
  
  
• Rogues
  
  
  
  • Honor Among Thieves: Periodic critical strikes now grant combo points for rogues with this talent.
  
  
  • Killing Spree: Error message when no targets are in range has been changed to "Out of Range."
  
  
  • Master of Subtlety: Being under the effects of Cyclone when the buff from this talent is about to expire will no longer make it last indefinitely.
  
  
  • Overkill: Being under the effects of Cyclone when the buff from this talent is about to expire will no longer make it last indefinitely.
  
  
  • Shiv: Deadly Poison will now apply properly when Shiv is the attack used to break a Gouge.
  
  
  • Tricks of the Trade: Using this ability on a target affected by Cyclone or Banish will no longer place the ability on permanent cooldown and will instead give an error message.
  
  
  • Turn the Tables: Rank 2 of this talent will now work properly with raid members, and not just party members.
  
  
  
  


• Shamans
  
  
  
  • Elemental Devastation: Tooltip revised to indicate it does not work with critical strikes from periodic damage.
  
  
  • Elemental Focus: Tooltip revised to indicate it does not work with critical strikes from periodic damage.
  
  
  • Elemental Oath: Tooltip revised to indicate it does not work with critical strikes from periodic damage.
  
  
  • Flametongue Weapon: Fixed tooltip error.
  
  
  • Frostbrand Weapon: Fixed a bug where rank 9 was not scaling properly with a shaman's spell power.
  
  
  
  
• Warlocks
  
  
  
  • Demonic Circle: The visual for this spell should now despawn when the warlock dies or when the warlock otherwise loses the aura that allows transport to the circle.
  
  
  • Immolate and Unstable Affliction: All ranks of these two spells will now overwrite each other.
  
  
  • Improved Imp: Each time an Imp is summoned it will recast Blood Pact (if autocast is on), forcing it to benefit from this talent, even if the Imp was not summoned at the time the talent was learned.
  
  
  • Improved Shadow Bolt: Redesigned slightly. Instead of a 100% chance to apply a 1/2/3/4/5% critical strike increase on the target, it now has a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to apply a 5% critical strike increase.
  
  
  
  
• Warriors
  
  
  
  • Berserker Rage: Tooltip clarified to indicate this ability breaks existing Fear, Sap, and Incapacitate effects.
  
  
  • Bladestorm: Now properly removes the Snare effect of Desecration in all cases.
  
  
  • Blood Craze: Now properly triggered by periodic critical strikes.
  
  
  • Execute: Focused Rage and the Dreadnaught Battlegear set bonus will now properly reduce the cost of Execute.
  
  
  • Slam: The combat log tooltip will no longer list which rank of Slam was used. Previously it incorrectly listed rank 8 for all ranks of Slam.
  
  
  • Vigilance: This talent and Blessing of Sanctuary will now both be able to be cast on the same target without sometimes overwriting each other.
  
  
  
  
• Items
  
  
  
  • Adamantite Scope: Attaching this scope to an item will now cause it to become soulbound as intended.
  
  
  • Badge of the Swarmguard: Will no longer cause a weapon swing animation when it triggers.
  
  
  • Cenarion Set: No longer reduces the (nonexistent) cooldown on Hurricane. Instead, the set bonus increases the damage done by Hurricane by 15%.
  
  
  • Commendation of Bravery: No longer useable when player is already at the maximum honor allowed.
  
  
  • Deadly Gladiator's Dreadplate: The set bonus will now trigger properly from Crippling Poison.
  
  
  • Death Knight PvP Glove Bonus: The runic power gain no longer appears in the combat log.
  
  
  • Death Knight Tier-7 Set: Fingers of the Damned now has a detailed combat log tooltip.
  
  
  • Frostweave Net: Using this item no longer causes the user to break shapeshifts.
  
  
  • Glyphs
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Beacon of Light: This glyph will no longer grant its duration increase twice when Beacon of Light is cast on self.
    
    
    • Glyph of Corpse Explosion: This glyph will no longer cause the model on target dummies to change.
    
    
    • Glyph of Death Strike: Tooltip typo corrected.
    
    
    • Glyph of Disease: Blood Plague will now last its correct full duration when refreshed by this glyph.
    
    
    • Glyph of Freezing Trap: The effect from this glyph will now log properly.
    
    
    • Glyph of Healing Wave: The heal from this glyph will no longer benefit twice from the Purification talent.
    
    
    • Glyph of Overpower: Fixed a bug where sometimes parries would not trigger the glyph. In addition, this glyph will now only make Overpower available for 6 seconds after a parry, instead of indefinitely.
    
    
    • Glyph of Power Word: Shield: The heal from this glyph can now cause Divine Aegis.
    
    
    • Glyph of Shadow: This glyph can now be triggered by critical strikes from periodic damage.
    
    
    • Glyph of Shocking: Fixed tooltip error on Macintosh game client.
    
    
    • Glyph of Shadowflame: The effect from this glyph will now work properly when multiple Warlocks use Shadowflame on the target.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Gnomish Mind Control Cap: Paladins who break the harmful effect from this item by using Divine Shield will now properly gain the Forbearance debuff.
  
  
  • Goblin Dragon Gun: This item will no longer spam the combat log with cast messages.
  
  
  • Heavy Netherweave Net: Using this item no longer causes the user to break shapeshifts.
  
  
  • Major Arcane Protection Potion: Vendor price lowered to match other similar potions.
  
  
  • Nightsong Battlegear: The 2-piece set bonus will no longer sometimes be triggered by other periodic damage other than those listed in the tooltip.
  
  
  • Pandora's Plea: Corrected a tooltip issue.
  
  
  • Randomly generated uncommon (green) and rare (blue) quality items in Wrath of the Lich King had stat values that were lower than intended. All Wrath of the Lich King uncommon and rare items with random suffixes ("of the Bear") have had their stat values increased significantly.
  
  
  • Reins of the Icemaw Matriarch: This vehicle will now leave bear footprints instead of barefoot footprints.
  
  
  • Reticulated Armor Webbing: Tooltip corrected to no longer claim that this item only works on plate items.
  
  
  • Saronite Bomb: This item will no longer cause threat against nearby targets just outside the targeting circle.
  
  
  • Scrolls: Scrolls which grant agility, intellect, spirit, strength, or stamina will now report an error message and no longer consume and waste the scroll when the target has a more powerful buff to that stat.
  
  
  • Sif's Remembrance: Sound and animation added to trinket effect.
  
  
  • Sigil of Arthritic Binding: The bonus damage from this relic is now added after diseases have increased damage by a percentage, instead of before.
  
  
  • Trinkets: Various trinkets which did not work properly with channeled area-of-effect spells will now work with those spells. This includes (but is not limited to) Illustration of the Dragon Soul, Darkmoon Card: Greatness, and Egg of Mortal Essence.
  
  
  • Warrior PvP Glove Bonus: Tooltip reworded slightly.
  
  
  • Wintergrasp Commendation: No longer useable when player is already at the maximum honor allowed.
    
  
  
• Professions
  
  
  
  • Enchant Weapon - Black Magic: This enchantment can now be triggered by some spells it did not previously work with, including Curse of Agony, Blizzard, and Typhoon.
  
  
  • Guardian Gloves: Now correctly marked as uncommon quality.
  
  
• Events
  
  
  
  • Hallow's End: Putting out fires for this event will no longer trigger effects from items, talents and set bonuses.
  
  
  • Noblegarden: Loot windows will no longer periodically close while the looting player is transformed into a rabbit.
  
  
• Technical


• There is a known UI rendering issue with the Intel 965 Mobile Express chipset drivers on Windows Vista prior to version 7.15.10.1559 (December 2008). Please contact your laptop manufacturer for an updated driver if you are experiencing difficulties. In case of continued problems, add the following lines to the Config.wtf file as a workaround: SET fixedFunction "1".

World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 PvP Guide

World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 is finally here, and is anyone else kind of surprised by how fast things are coming these days? To be fair, as most of my co-workers here at WoW.com have assessed, this newest wow patch 3.2 is one of the more lackluster patches in a while considering it merely appends to much of existing content (the Argent Tournament). There's a smattering of stuff for raiders, soloists, hardcores and casuals, but what's in store for wow PvP enthusiasts?

There are a lot of major changes in this patch that will impact PvP greatly, one being the blanket change to Resilience which now affects all damage taken, rather than just critical hits. Another is the effective neutering of the wow 2v2 Arena bracket with the change blocking access to the best weapons and end-of-season rewards. A third big change coming is the introduction of a brand new Battleground, the Isle of Conquest, which is the technically the first 40-man raid instance since the original Naxxramas. There's also the whopping introduction of experience gain in Battlegrounds, too. Caught your breath yet? There are a lot of other things in between, and we'll take a closer look at everything after the jump.

Resilience

What does the change to Resilience mean? Basically, longer Arena matches. Resilience now reduces all damage done by enemy players by the same proportion. It is one of the best changes Blizzard has made for PvP. To balance the buff, the resilience rating needed to reduce critical strike chance, critical strike damage, and overall damage has been raised by 15%. This translates, in my fuzzy math, to a 94.3 resilience rating required per 1% reduction as opposed to what used to be 82.

It's a significant buff, considering that there's a trend towards minimizing burst damage in PvP which is usually the result of critical strikes. This means that there'll be a lot more non-crit damage going around, which means that Resilience will come into play a lot more. This results in slower games, particularly with the latest PvP gear, which has progressively higher resilience ratings than past seasons'.

This indirectly impacts burst teams, or teams that essentially rely on training one target until that target is dead. Most prominent among these sorts of teams are the cleave teams of double melee or even the less common 4-DPS 5v5 teams. Over the past few seasons, Blizzard has been working to remove burst elements that don't allow an opponent to react - from nerfing Engineering items to adjusting class abilities and now overall damage reduction.

Ghostcrawler talks about the changes in depth over at the forums, and we've pointed to respected PvP blogger Ming for his take on Resilience, as well. The bottom line is that Resilience becomes hands down the most desirable stat for PvP, just as it should be. The tradeoffs in raw stats is more than made up for the raw damage reduction and players using PvE gear in PvP situations will be at a severe disadvantage. Resilience gems and enchantments will rise in value, as well, as dedicated PvP players will refocus on the most important stat for that aspect of the game.

WoW 2v2 Arena

Many players view Patch 3.2 as the death knell of 2v2 Arenas, which was crippled deliberately by Blizzard in an attempt to shift the emphasis to bigger brackets. The popularity of 2v2 rested on the fact that it is simply easier to manage, resulting in more teams and, consequently, more games. It was high on the list of problems that Ghostcrawler listed were plaguing World of Warcraft PvP.

The change guts the 2v2 bracket as a means for competitive Arena play as players aiming to get the shoulders, weapons, and Gladiator title (and accompanying Frost Wyrm), will abandon the bracket wholesale. On the other hand, because the change still allows access to Season 7's Relentless Gladiator items save for the most prestigious items, the bracket will become more casual-friendly. If the matchmaking rating is reset at the start of Season 7 - which might be likely - the absence of hardcore Arena players will make the bracket more accommodating to casuals and those stepping into the Arenas for the first time.

This change also results in 3v3 becoming the most popular bracket, which would suit Blizzard just fine considering it's the 'money' bracket where virtually all professional competition happens, anyway. 3v3 is easier to assemble and organize than 5v5, while still being open to a wide variety of class/spec comps and representation. Expect 3v3 to become the harshest bracket for competitive Arena play on live realms, with massively improved queue times and wilder shifts in ratings gains or losses.

WoW Isle of Conquest

Wow Patch 3.2 stands to be one of the most significant patches for PvP in some time. The introduction of a new Battleground midway through an expansion is a very good sign that Blizzard is serious about putting some renewed focus on the Battlegrounds. In particular, this new Battleground map isn't just some small or even mid-sized map as we'd seen at the launch of Burning Crusade or Wrath. It's a massive, Alterac Valley meets Wintergrasp-style epic map with elements we'd never seen in the game before.

This is what makes Patch 3.2 so significant for PvP, more than anything. While any raid content will lose relevance as soon as the next raid with better tier gear comes out - or worse, new max levels - Battlegrounds have a playability that lasts for years. The Isle of Conquest is going to be around much longer than Naxxramas, Ulduar, or even Icecrown when it finally comes out. It will be played by characters of a wider level bracket and well through the next expansion. In short, a Battleground is an excellent investment in terms of developer hours.

And what a Battleground the Isle of Conquest is! Borrowing elements from Alterac Valley (reinforcements, generals), Arathi Basin (capturable flags), and Wintergrasp/Strand of the Ancients (siege vehicles, destructible buildings), the newest Battleground adds even more elements such as aerial assault and a progressively variable Honor flow. It's guaranteed to be a popular Battleground, providing great fun, a new experience, and considerable Honor which is useful in obtaining a good selection of Arena gear.

More than anything in Patch 3.2, I can guarantee that Isle of Conquest is the one content that will eat up a lot of hours of players' game time. Naturally, it comes with its host of Achievements, as well, and the Master of Isle of Conquest meta. We'll get to writing an Overachiver's guide once we've seen it live for a while, so stay tuned.


Experience in Battlegrounds

We haven't even touched upon one of the most game-changing aspects of Patch 3.2, which is the introduction of experience in the Battlegrounds. Corollary to this is the ability to toggle xp gains on or off for a token fee. I won't even bother with the implications of this, but I'll focus on the fact that it will now be possible to grind through levels purely through PvP. That's pretty insane, and it's something I would've appreciated years ago but I'm sure I'll find handy when the next expansion hits.

This also has deep implications for the twink community, who will now find themselves facing other twinks as Battleground queues will be separate for players who have xp gain toggled off and those who have it toggled on. It's something many have been asking for, and is a win-win situation for hardcore twinks and casual players who are merely leveling and want to enjoy the Battlegrounds without getting stomped on. Those interested in the xp toggle feature can approach experience eliminators Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar (they're stealthed, so look carefully).

It's also important to note that experience in the Battlegrounds will be awarded for actually completing tasks in the map, such as capturing flags or defending nodes, instead of from Honorable Kills. While this won't make an impact on max level Battlegrounds (more on that later), it will have the effect of players in lower level brackets actually working together to win. Imagine that.

Other small things

Koralon the Flame Watcher

While technically a PvE encounter, Koralon is the third big baddie to show up in the Archavon family vault. As with his predecessors, Koralon drops 'free' PvP gear and should always be a weekly stop for anyone serious about gearing for PvP. This continues the tradition of controlling Wintergrasp for some of the best possible gear in both PvP and PvE. It's highly likely that Koralon's loot table will resemble Emalon's, where non-set pieces will drop along with set pieces of Season 7 or Tier 9.

New Wintergrasp queue system

As if killing Wintergrasp's epic-ness through the change in the quests from daily to weekly wasn't enough, Blizzard has instituted a queueing method for Wintergrasp that will limit the number of players in the zone to 200 (100 per faction) throughout any given battle. While it retains some of its scope - 200 players is still a pretty darned lot - it loses some of its appeal as a non-instanced zone. I mean, what's the point of having it non-instanced if Blizzard limits its participants?

Obviously, it's a technical limitation where Blizzard's ambition exceeded their servers' capacity, but the structured queue system is good in that it removes the whole 'LFM Wintergrasp, PST so-and-so' that happens before every match. Will it do anything to curb Wintergrasp's popularity? No. In fact, this will likely increase it considering players will be assured of a hard limit to the zone which, assuming Blizzard calculated it right, will result in minimal lag. Expect better, smoother Wintergrasp games this time around.

WoW Season 7

WoW Patch 3.2 also heralds the start of Arena Season 7, which will also see a multiple tier gear system first introduced in Season 6. If the new season begins as scheduled, it marks the shortest Arena season yet and reaffirms the trend towards shorter Arena seasons - Season 5 and 6 lasted for 17 weeks each. If this is any indication, there's a good chance that Season 7 will have roughly the same length.

Blizzard also finally removed the annoying fire from the Orgrimmar Arena, allowed mounts in an enlarged Dalaran Arena, and alcoves have been removed from Lordaeron Arena. What does this mean? Better fights, quite simply. The flames, for example, were one random element that simply had no place in competitive play.

One interesting note is that the removal of the 2v2 bracket from contention for end-of-season rewards means there will be no Gladiators from 2v2. This means fewer Gladiators overall unless Blizzard tweaks the system. A few more changes in the Arena system seem inevitable considering Season 6 saw players hit the 3000 rating ceiling, which was never intended. Overall, Season 7 looks to be an interesting chapter in the history of Arena play, and it should be fully expected that like Season 6 before it, this season will be friendlier to casuals than ever.

General Battleground improvements

Blizzard changed some things in the Battlegrounds that will ensure that matches will be fast and furious - there is now a 20-minute time limit imposed on Warsong Gulch, and the resource requirements in Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm have been lowered from 2000 to 1800. Furthermore, they have implemented a buff called Honorable Defender, which increases Honor gained from Honorable Kills by 50% if players are within the proximity of capture points in Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, and the Isle of Conquest. This should mark the beginning of the end for fighting on roads.

Conclusion

While Patch 3.2 might be lackluster for the PvE crowd, it is about the best patch for PvP in a long time. Pretty much everything in this patch, even balance changes to classes, will contribute to a better PvP experience overall. From the longer Arena matches to more populous upper brackets, this patch changes the PvP landscape significantly. From permanent twinks to improved Resilience, from new Battlegrounds to better Battlegrounds play... so many things will change about PvP that it will feel fresh and fun once again.