The test realms for patch 2.2 grind on, and it looks like a new build is being pushed, since the patch notes on the European forums got updated. Here are the changes I found in the new notes; some we knew were around, like voice chat, and some we had been promised, like anti-AFK measures for battlegrounds.

• Voice Chat - The new Voice Chat feature is now available in game. Players will need to go into the options menu under Sound & Voice to activate it. Volume sliders are available for the microphone, speakers, and game-audio fade (which automatically lowers the game audio when a voice communication is received), as is a "push-to-talk" setting. Right-clicking on a player's name now includes the option to mute or unmute that player. Muting another player blocks all voice chat from him or her; the ignore feature now blocks both voice chat and text chat from that player.
• Chat Channels- New Chat Channel controls and functionality are now available under the chat tab in the Social Window of the interface. The interface will now show the channels players are in or are available, depending on the area of the world they are in, along with new private channel controls.
• A new feature for reporting players as being AFK in battlegrounds by right clicking has been added. When enough reports are registered, a 30 second debuff will begin to count down. Once the timer is up a new debuff will appear that will prevent the player from gaining any honor while it is on. This debuff can be negated as soon as the player engages in combat.

• Daze: Defense skill will no longer reduce the chance players have to receive the Daze effect when attacked from behind by enemies.
• Non-combat pets now have the tag "Companion" instead of "Minion".
• Damage and health leech effects always affect flying players even if they are immune to the rest of the spell's affects while in flight.
• Dueling players may not use a Lightwell that they didn't create themselves. [Damn! There goes one of Lightwell's few uses.]
• [Hunter] Raptors can now learn Dash.
• [Rogue] The following changes had been present in previous builds of 2.2, but appear to have been reverted:
• Blind duration reduced to 8 seconds, cooldown reduced to 1 minute, Blinding Powder is no longer required to use.
• Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Blind by 8/15 seconds.
• [Shaman] Earth Shield is now canceled at logout.
• Ankhs now stack to ten.

And that's all the changes I found. Why did they revert the Blind changes? I liked the idea of a reagentless Blind, although I'm not sure about the duration reduction.

Tags: notes, patch2.2, patches, ptr, voicechat

Filed under: Patches, News items