Gamasutra takes a Mea Culpa

Remember when Gamasutra thought WotLK would sell only 5 million copies? Well, they were wrong...

Patch 3.2 next week?

Boubouille believes patch 3.2 is now finalized, which means we should be seeing it on live realms next Tuesday. And a lot is changing, some of which I am not entirely happy about (more DK nerfs much?). On a high note, however, we get Children's week part 2!

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.
• Isle of Conquest, the new 40 vs. 40-player siege-style battleground is now available for testing.
• 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.
• Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

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.
• 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.
• 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 Triumph.
• The existing achievements to collect 1, 25, 50, etc. Emblems of Heroism, Valor, and Conquest have been converted to Feats of Strength since Heroism and Valor Emblems are no longer attainable.
• New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.
• 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.
• 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. The naming scheme of the spells to summon the different totem sets has been changed to make it less confusing for players:
• Call of Fire (Totem Bar 1, the first one gained at level 30) is now named Call of the Elements.
• Call of Water (Totem Bar 2) is now named Call of the Ancestors.
• Call of Air (Totem Bar 3) is now named Call of the Spirits.
• Call of Earth (the spell to recall all summoned totems) is now named Totemic Recall.
• 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 can be enabled through an interface option in the Development settings.
• Character names can now be colorized according to class in the chat frame through an interface option in the Development settings.
• Casting bars under a target's portrait will now indicate whether or not the cast can 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.
• 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.
• 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.

WoW to partially relaunch in China

Massively is reporting that NetEase is being allowed to conditionally release WotLK in China on 30 July. We'd previously discussed the problems WoW was having in China, which turned out to be a boon for the Taiwanese servers (if you want to call it that).

Coming to a screen near you

Variety is reporting this morning that Sam Raimi has been tapped to direct the film adaptation of the World of Warcraft. I'm at the same time enthusiastic, and tepid about the project because previous game adaptations have been flops (Dungeon Siege anyone?), yet this is Sam Raimi we're talking about here. Lets just say I remain guardedly optimistic about this film.

Now I know exactly why

I had my first full day foray in PVP on my Rogue yesterday. I've been PVPing here and there during my leveling, but PVPing as combat. Admittedly my gear while leveling was nothing special, indeed even sub-par, but the point of PVPing while you level wasn't to rack up the kills or wow the field, its to earn some honor. So it didn't really matter to me how I performed from battle to battle, and I took away no strong lessons.

But yesterday I finally dual-specced, as all the reading I had done indicated Assassination (Mutilate spec) was the only way to PVP as a Rogue these days. I'm still in mostly blues (level 78+) but I have picked up the Valor bracers, Trollwoven shoulders, Titanium Impact Band, my Engineering epic head piece, Titansteel Shanker (main hand dagger), Librarians Papercutter (off-hand dagger), and got my first piece of epic PVP gear yesterday (gloves). And I saw first hand just how easy it is to PVP as a Rogue. Even with my still way sub-optimal gear I was wrecking most clothies, or at least severely roughing them up. I still don't have the oomph to burn down most Mages (Ice) before they blink then chain snare me to death, but everyone I encountered yesterday certainly knew I had been there.

Its just incredible how much control that spec gives you, and how little effort it takes to pull it off. I've been on the receiving end of plenty of Rogues on different toons, but as I don't arena all of it has been in Battlegrounds and a lot of the time you are involved in some sprawling fight. So I was often killed by a Rogue while I was fighting someone else. But now I can see it from the opposite side and I am saying of all the classes I have played this far, this is probably the second easiest class to PVP with (Paladin being the first). It'll be hilarious to see once I get a full set of PVP gear and some truly nice weapons.

Busy, busy, busy

I really wanted to hit level 80 on my Rogue over the weekend, as I've had much less time during the week recently to play. Where normally I would have hit level 80 long since, I was still moribund in the 75-76 range. The downtime, whatever it is from quest to quest, has only made things that much worse. So there I was, still at level 75 on Thursday and determined to hit 80 by the weekend. By dinner time on Sunday I did.

I did note that even without the Summer Festival XP buff I still hit level 78 by the end of Grizzly Hills thanks to the heirloom shoulders. Normally I'm through Grizzly Hills and into Sholazar Basin before I hit level 78, so this was a big improvment and probably the only reason I hit 80 over the weekend. If I ever decide to roll another alt in the future (perish the thought) I'm definately going to be picking up the heirloom chest piece that will be released next patch too. With both I'd definately hit 80 by the end of Grizzly Hills, or very shortly afterward.

In any event, now comes the real work as I get my Rogue geared--some of which will require rep grinds--enough for raiding. PUGs being what they are, I really don't expect to be able to complete the daily every day but I'll certainly try. He's my project character at the moment, and I'm looking at him as a long term project, so if I miss a daily here and there I won't feel too badly about it.

There were some interesting things that were said late last week that I didn't get a chance to blog about because I was busy grinding the Rogue up. One of which was concerning Warriors (the Druid and Warrior Q&A's were posted). Apparently Blizzard feels Warriors have too much down time, even when taking Blood Thirst into account, which is a Fury warrior talent that grants a small amount of health regeneration while doing damage. I haven't played my Warrior in a very, very long time, but as I recall, yes Warriors do have some down time issues. Afterall they can't heal themselves and are subject to all the same problems I just went through on the Rogue while leveling. When I read that it made me very curious to see the Rogue Q&A, because I wonder if they will address the same concern for the Rogue class as well.

I don't think the issue of down time is with Rogues and Warriors per se, but with pure, non-pet DPS classes in general. Death Knights sort of bridge the wall between the pet/non-pet DPS classes, but since they have a range of self-healing abilities baked into the class they're really the exception to what I'm relating here anyway. Which is to say that Hybrids have a big advantage while leveling because they can heal. Particularly if mana usage is incidental, like it is with a Paladin who has ample mana regenration. On my Druid I would pop out of animal form periodically and apply a couple HOTs, then keep on truckin. On my Paladin (post Divine Storm) I often wouldn't have to heal at all, but if I did it was usually a single lesser heal and he too would be ready to go. Pure non-pet DPS classes have to eat the damage and then sit and eat, or bandage. The min down time after every few fights really adds up over the course of leveling and gives them a decided disadvantage not only in the leveling process but in the consumption of consumables as well.

I can see where Blizzard might be hesitant in giving Rogues and Warriors too much of a self-healing ability because that could be very destabalizing in PVP (as if Rogues aren't that already). But right now they simply have nothing and that's not really fair to those who play those classes. I think perhaps the best way to go is to follow the Feral Druid model for Rogues by introducing a talent that gives periodic healing procs in the 3-4% range. Rogues would have to give something up in order to spec into it, so it would probably balance out over the long term and would probably be something Rogues only picked up for leveling or questing as it wouldn't be needed for raiding or PVP. Warriors on the other hand might be a bit more tricky. Blood Thirst is fairly far down in the Fury tree, so Blizzard would either have to move it up so Arms and Prot warriors could have access to it, or introduce something similiar in the Arms tree.

Did Blizzard repeat their mistakes?

Back in October I pondered whether Blizzard would repeat the mistakes they made in the Burning Crusade. After six months of Wrath, and knowledge of plans for patch 3.2 we have plenty to look at in answer to that question.

As the day dawned on the Burning Crusade back in 2007 the obvious question for everyone was where to begin. And the answer to that was in Hellfire Penninsula, where everyone went to begin their journey through Outland. I remember those days well as I can remember the utter frustration I lived in trying to accomplish quests during those first few days. The quests weren't the issue, the issue rather was in trying to cram everyone on a given realm through the same starter zone at the same time, was. That lesson was perhaps one of the greatest lessons Blizzard would take away from Burning Crusade as they started looking at the next expansion.

Unlike in the Burning Crusade, Blizzard did well in Wrath by creating multiple starting zones. The reasoning is obvious, but the unfortunate side of it was that it made little or no difference on the first night and into the first week or two. The initial quest hubs in both zones are small and any more than a handful of people at either of them overwhelms the area and causes delay and frustration for those waiting to get the quests done. Once the glut of people finally got through the starter quest hubs and out of the the first two zones things started to run nicely, but oh those first few nights!

Unfortunately I'm not sure there really is a lot Blizzard can truly do outside of instancing or using phase technology to further stretch the population out. WoW's popularity is its source of strength, but also the source of its greatest problem in this regard. Simply too many people competing for the same mobs in the same area at the same time. In Vanilla WoW there were something in the nature of 4-5 million players, but by the height of the Burning Crusade there were around 9 million players and as many as 11.5 million players now. It must be difficult enough to develop a zone and hardware infrastructure that accounts for the current number of players, but then to have to deal with the totally unknowable--how many players to plan for in the next expansion--well, that just takes this to a whole different level, so it will be interesting to see how they handle this in the next expansion.

Outdoor PVP objectives. Unlike the Burning Crusade where I think all accounts indicate world PVP objectives were largely a failure, Wintergrasp has been incredibly successful. In the end, too successful and Blizzard has had to take successive steps to "de-incentivize" players from participating in Wintergrasp matches. In patch 3.2 they're going to go even further and make Wintergrasp (during each match) into a psudo-instance and limit the number of players that can participate in the battle.

In Burning Crusade there were four areas that featured world pvp objectives--Hellfire peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Terrokar forest, and Nagrand. With the exception of Zangarmarsh, the objectives and PVP implementation were sound enough but didn't account for population. And none featured any long term incentive to participate. Hellfire Peninsula is argueably the most successful of the four, if for no other reason than it was the single start zone for all characters coming into the Outlands. Taken together there were just too many world PVP areas, that spread whatever level of world PVP there was out to too great a degree, and there really wasn't any reason to continue participation beyond a finite period of time. Introduction of daily PVP quests related to each of these zones didn't do much to change that because there were not enough rewards from any area and honor could be more easily, and more quickly earned elsewhere.

Wintergrasp changed that paradigm entirely. I'm not ignoring the other smaller world pvp areas in Grizzly Hills for any other reason than they--in my experience (5 80's at this point)--are areas you pass through to complete quests while leveling then largely never visit again. So Wintergrasp was the answer to the failure in the Burning Crusade. Blizzard created a large zone with dynamic objectives, and offered a multitude of rewards for participation that enticed people to continue taking part day after day, and week after week. Best of all the zone offered something that no battleground offered previously--access to a raid dungeon that offered very good rewards in its own right. Blizzard knocked the ball out of the park on this one and deserves continued praise for it.

Dungeons--heroic and otherwise, and Raids are a bit more murky. In the Burning Crusade the clear emphasis was to run 5-man dungeons to obtain your "dungeon set", which was clearly intended for you to use at the initiation of your raiding experience. Outside of dungeon set pieces, or a few other items here and there, the loot was largely ignored. Especially in Heroic dungeons, where the loot tables were almost identical to the non-heroic version of the dungeon. By the time you were able to run a given heroic in the first place you probably had most, or all of your dungeon set so whether you continued to run specific factional dungeons became a question of rep rewards and the daily quest which gave you additional badges of justice. By the time you were raiding you really only ran 5-man dungeons for the badges, which gave you access to a large assortment of epic items through a vendor. That stayed largely the same through out the Burning Crusade as the badge vendor was updated a handful of times with new loot.

In Wrath the overall system wasn't changed all that much, though Blizzard did untie specific dungeons from specific reputations through the new championing system. They also removed "dungeon sets", which now means anyone can run any dungeon--or not run one--because the loot you require in order to begin your raiding experience is much more varied and easily obtainable. Reputation rewards are also more easily obtainable because of Championing and the emphasis on daily quests for each faction.

Whereas there seemed to be a greater incentive and need to run dungeons in Burning Crusade--even after you began raiding, that isn't really the case in Wrath. In Wrath, once you begin raiding, you largely lose interest in running 5-man dungeons. You might run the daily for the extra badges, but by and large, people simply do not run the number of dungeons once they start raiding as they did at the same point in the Burning Crusade which of course has a detrimental impact on those who are leveling alts and trying to gear up in order to get raid ready.

Blizzard recognized this problem and is addressing it in patch 3.2 by changing the emblems that drop from heroic bosses. They had to do something because it was already very easy to gain exalted with any reputation--even independently from dungeons--so nothing I can think of in regards to reputations would have sufficed. Instead they going to enable you to obtain the Emblems of Conquest (will be the second highest level of "badges" in patch 3.2) from any heroic boss, which will give you access to item level 226+ and below items from the badge vendors in Dalaran. That will incentivize people to run 5-man dungeons to a higher degree, but only so long as there are rewards which people want. I haven't see any mention thus far regarding adding new items to the badge vendors, so someone like me that has been raiding for a while will still have no more incentive to run 5-man dungeons post patch 3.2 than I did before. I already have more than a hundred badges of conquest and nothing what so ever to spend them on.

All in all I'm not entirely sure Blizzard created a better system in Wrath than we had in Burning Crusade. In some respects its better, but in others I think it's inferior to what we had.

Raiding, on the other hand, is much better. Blizzard recognized in Burning Crusade that people still had too little access to raid content. Burning Crusade was clearly better than in Vanilla in regards to access, but they carried over paradigms from vanilla into Burning Crusade such as keying, specific quests that had to be accomplished in specific order, and gearing before you could gain access to the next raid dungeon. Mid-way through the Burning Crusade Blizzard dropped most keying requirements, which immediately gave access to new raid content to more players. That of course didn't mean a given person would be any more successful in a new dungeon than they were in an different one, but people seemed to be happy with just having access. And Blizzard quickly saw this as key.

In Wrath they addressed the issue of access by creating raid content without key requirements. And raid content was created to smooth out the linear aspect of raiding. They also overlapped the difficulty of raid dungeons to a greater extent than I believe happened in Burning Crusade, which means a raid team has more choice in what they can raid in Wrath than previously. In Burning Crusade you had to clear Karakhan and obtain the gear the latter bosses in Karazhan offered before you could really hope to go on to Gruuls. And you had to obtain the gear offered by Gruul before you could really--largely--be successful in Mag's lair. There was some overlap between SSC and TK, but you clearly had to earn a majority of gear obtainable from both of those before you could go on to Mt. Hyjal and then onto Black Temple.

In Wrath you are largely expected to begin your raiding experience in Naax, but you can (and probably largely do) dip into Obsidian Sanctum for some easy loot from Sartharian. In Wrath Blizzard added another aspect to the raiding experience with "hard modes" that are essentially psudo-tiers of new content in existing raid dungeons. Sartharian can be killed after killing his three guardians for a given set of loot. Once your team starts to gear up and becomes a little more powerful you can start to kill Sartharian with at least one of his guardians for access to better, and more loot. Its a way to offer higher level difficulty to raiders without requiring new raid dungeons and at the same time enables access to everyone.

Blizzard also addressed another aspect of the raid environment in Wrath--the initial raid difficulty. In Burning Crusade Karazhan was a fairly difficult raid to start out with. People still speak about hating the Shade of Aran. In Wrath, Naax was purposefully made easier, enabling more people to get into Naax, and to be successful. So the leap from 5-man/heroic 5-mans is not nearly so great in Wrath as it was in Burning Crusade.

Blizzard also addressed the greatest complaint about the raiding environment in BC, which was the jump from Kara to the rest of the BC raid content. Kara was a 10-man raid, but everything else was 25-man. That created all sorts of raid/guild drama and was the source of many sleepless nights as guilds worked to field two 10-man teams and then meld them together in order to continue raiding post Kara. It had already been a great difficulty for guilds to adapt from the previous 40-man raids to 10-man, so then jumping t0 25-man dungeons was simply a hassle than a lot didn't need or appreciate. Over the course of weeks and months the issues worked out--either by guilds imploding and people spreading out to different guilds, or through creation of multiple raid teams in each guild.

But I'm glad Blizzard learned from that mistake in the Burning Crusade. All raid dungeons feature 10-man and 25-man versions. Guilds can focus on 25-man content or 10-man content as they desire and hit no road blocks along the way that would dramatically shake up a raid team. Most guilds focus on the 25-man content because of the better gear, allowing individuals to form friend groups for the 10-man versions, or to pug them for gear supplementation. It works out very well and has been well received in Wrath.

Unlike the 5-man dungeons, I think Blizzard clearly did better with the raiding. Not only were they successful with their desire to increase access but their creation of hard-modes and achievements adds an additional element to the whole that gives raid teams accomplishments to strive for beyond the basic elements of the dungeon.

Saylah's multi-boxing adventure continued

Saylah over at Mystic World has been entertaining us recently with news about her multi-boxing adventure. And she's posted two (this and that) recent updates that are well worth reading, so take a moment to catch up on the discussion.

Mechwarrior revival on the horizon?

I've previously posted about my avid desire to see a Mechwarrior MMO. And had been awaiting further information on developmental plans since I first heard about Microsoft selling the rights a couple years ago. It's now being reported that a new PC/Console version of Mechwarrior is in the works. Not a continuation of previous Mechwarrior games, but a full "reboot" with single/multi-player play modes.

I will of course purchase and play this game, but if this isn't to be an MMO I certainly hope they truly learn from previous failures of the series. Create a foundation that enables players and developers to introduce custom missions and player-vs-player (PVP) scenarios. One of the areas that I think was most poorly supported in previous games was the instant combat system that quickly grew stale. Enabling players to create their own scenarios and then play them would tap into a tremendous amount of developmental capacity, but also enliven an aspect of the game that had seriously lagged behind in previous incarnations.

With no information related to what the game will ultimately be like, I can envision a wide range of game play. I'd love to see something that enables one to play in a true galaxy-wide war that reenacts the invasion of the clans. Able to play from the inner-sphere, or clan perspectives you could tip the scales one way or the other. In other words, a non-linear missioning system with the consequences of each battle determining the eventual outcome of the war. How much fun would that be?

The possibilities are endless when you consider how this could work from a solo and multi-player perspective.

They could go even further by introducing new content through semi-regular patches that doesn't just introduce new units and abilities, but truly unfolds new chapters of an overarching storyline. Release would kick off with the invasion and the early struggle to hold back the clans and obtain new technology (or if played from the clan perspective, the struggle to retake Terra). Patch one could take place a year later (say 4-5 years in real-time) and would feature in the inner-sphere with newer, better technology and hellbent on pushing the clans back. Perhaps even back to the clan home-worlds. What comes after that? Who knows.

Not so nerdish afterall?

It seems that our compatriots on the Internet, that had until recently considered "gaming" to be for the nerds are finally catching the fever. Yahoo is reporting that in the current economic climate the gaming population is growing 10 times faster than the Internet population. And a whopping 22% increase from last year. I figured out long ago that gaming was actually a much cheaper form of entertainment than nearly anything else, and great fun to boot. Unfortunately for the gaming industry, I'm one of the millions that plays just one game at a time and usually a single MMO to the exclusion of everything else. So they don't make a great deal of money off me year to year. Back before MMOs when PC or Console games were hotly anticipated people would rush out to buy the latest offering, blow through it and then wait for the next game to be released. Gamers could easily spend more than one or two hundred dollars a month buying all the hyped games.

Now there is serious competition from the online MMO community and many gamers have abandoned the frantic pace of PC/Console game purchases. Where once they might have spent more than a hundred dollars a month on gaming, they now spend $14.99 on an MMO subscription each month. Yahoo reports that many of these new gamers are currently playing free-to-play games, but it's probably a realistic expectation to see a portion of them graduate to other PC/Console games or MMOs at some point.

The influx of new gamers is testament to the glut of new free-to-play MMOs (traditional PC installs and Browser games) that have been released in recent months, or are currently in development (see MMORPG.com). Unfortunately where there is money, there is also fraud. In the never ending quest for your dollars, how long will it take the RMT community to pursue those new gamers? For one such company, that pursuit has already begun apparently.

[update] Another good article about Evony/Civony

Are they serious?

Universal Pictures has won a four-studio bidding war to pick up the film rights to the classic Atari video game "Asteroids." So.... not just one, but four studios thought it would be an awesome idea to, you know, make a film based on Asteroids?

Which part of quality over quantity don't they seem to understand??

More on the subscription question

Eurogamer ran an article with a few links to other articles, including this one on Yahoo that ran on 24 June.

Among other things, it said....

Many World of Warcraft players in mainland China have also migrated to the Taiwan server during the transition, even though that means a slower connection and having to start a new account, the Blizzard representative said.

The flood was so bad that...

The flood of players has caused waits up to several hours to log into the Taiwan server during peak evening hours, local media said.

Tobold sticking to his guns

In followup to yesterday's tussle with Tobold over what I see as highly flawed logic, Tobold posted a couple more comments to yesterday's post. According to Tobold there are no--zero--Chinese accounts right now due to the loss of license by the9, and the rumor that NetEase will not receive permission from the Chinese government to activate WoW until the Chinese courts have adjudicated lawsuits filed by the9. MMO-Champion just happened to run a timely post of their own yesterday that stated a Chinese guild had the world-first kill of Yogg+0 kill. Tongue in cheek, I posted that to his blog and his reply was:

So you think that Taiwan is an inseperable part of China? You communist!
;)

Again, this story is about millions of mainland Chinese players losing access
to their characters. The fact that they can make a NEW account and start over at
level 1 on a Taiwanese or even US server doesn't change anything. They can't
MOVE their existing characters.

I won't get wrapped up in the whole Taiwan/China bruh ha ha, but my point is that Chinese players that had been playing on Chinese servers had moved en masse to Taiwanese servers. There have been ample reports of this nature in the months leading up to Tobold's blog post yesterday so I do not agree with his logic here. It does matter because the premise of the blog post indicating that the WoW subscriber base was down to 5 million is based entirely on the loss of those Chinese accounts on Chinese servers. Once a Chinese player moves from a Chinese server to a Taiwanese server the net effect is 0. One loss to Chinese server, and one gain to Taiwanese server. 11,499,000 players at the loss, an 11,500,000 players at the gain.

An individual character has nothing to do with the discussion what so ever since we're speaking about the player base. An account is an account is an account, regardless of where it's hosted.