Updated Patch 2.3 Test notes with more class changes
The PTR isn't up for another hour, but changes are already happening for Patch 2.3. First, the Guild Banks will not be active yet and will be turned on later in the Testing process.Also, many new class changes have been added to the notes. Here are all the class notes with the new changes in bold:
Druids
* Barkskin: It is no longer possible to cast this spell while Cycloned.
* Cure Poison and Abolish Poison are now usable in Tree of Life Form.
* Cure Poison, Abolish Poison and Remove Curse range increased to 40 yards.
* Entangling Roots: It is no longer possible for multiple Druids to have Entangling Roots on the same target. In addition, it will now always be removed correctly if multiple Druids overwrite each other's Entangling Roots.
* Feral Attack Power: Items that granted bonus attack power in Cat, Bear, Dire Bear, and Moonkin forms have been re-evaluated. In almost all cases, the attack power on the item has been increased. This change corrects an issue where feral weapon damage was not keeping up with other classes in its rate of increase.
Druid notes (and all other classes) continued in full after the jump!
* Force of Nature: This ability will no longer automatically break stealth on victims in its casting area. Nearby stealthed characters may still be attacked if they are too close to the summoned Treants.
* Heart of the Wild: This talent no longer provides 4/8/12/16/20% bonus Strength in Cat Form. Instead it provides 2/4/6/8/10% bonus attack power.
* Hibernate: This spell will now always be removed correctly if multiple Druids overwrite each other's Hibernate.
* Intensity (Restoration) increased to 10/20/30% mana regeneration.
* Primal Fury: This talent will now be learned correctly even if purchased while the Druid is dead.
* Rebirth cooldown reduced to 20 minutes, from 30 minutes.
* Remove Curse is now usable in Moonkin Form.
* Shapeshifting Spells: Some of these spells were causing additional unintended threat. That additional unintended threat has been removed.
* Soothe Animal: This spell now properly consumes Nature's Swiftness.
* Tranquility now gains additional benefit from spell damage and healing bonuses.
Hunters
* Arcane Shot (Ranks 6 and above) now dispel 1 Magic effect in addition to their normal damage.
* Explosive Trap: The initial damage dealt by this trap is now also increased by 10% of your ranged attack power.
* Immolation Trap: The total damage dealt by this trap is now also increased by 10% of your ranged attack power.
* Misdirection: This spell will now always be removed correctly if multiple Hunters overwrite each other's Misdirection.
* Readiness: This talent now finishes the cooldown on Kill Command.
* Serpent Sting, Immolation Trap and Explosive Trap all gain additional damage based on ranged attack power.
* Serpent Sting: The total damage dealt by this sting is now also increased by 10% of your ranged attack power.
* Steady Shot: Tooltip clarified to indicate base weapon damage is used in the damage calculation.
* Trueshot Aura (Marksmanship) no longer costs mana to cast and will last until cancelled.
* Wyvern Sting (Survival) is now instant cast and has a maximum duration of 10 seconds in PvP.
Mages
* Arcane Intellect and Arcane Brilliance mana costs reduced.
* Arcane Meditation (Arcane) increased to 10/20/30% mana regeneration.
* Detect Magic removed. All players may now see their target's beneficial effects at all times.
* Evocation now regenerates 15% of total mana every 2 seconds rather than increase Spirit based regeneration.
* Fire Ward and Frost Ward now gain additional benefit from spell damage bonuses. Base absorb values of ranks 5 and 6 have been reduced.
* Hypothermia duration increased to 45 sec.
* Ice Barrier now gains additional benefit from spell damage bonuses. Base absorb values of ranks 5 and 6 have been reduced.
* Improved Fireball: The reduction in damage coefficient caused by this talent has been removed.
* Improved Frostbolt: The reduction in damage coefficient caused by this talent has been removed.
* Polymorph: It is no longer possible to polymorph a player and have that player remain mounted. In addition, it will now always be removed correctly if multiple Mages overwrite each other's Polymorph.
* Portal Spells: Portal spells to capital cities can no longer be cast in battlegrounds.
* Remove Curse range increased to 40 yards.
* (NEW SPELL) Ritual of Refreshment available on trainers at level 70.
Paladins
* Blessing of Light: Lower ranks of Flash of Light and Holy Light are now properly penalized when used with this Blessing.
* Cleanse and Purify range increased to 40 yards.
* Crusader Strike (Retribution) cooldown reduced from 10 to 6 seconds.
* Exorcism mana cost reduced.
* Hammer of Wrath mana cost reduced.
* Holy Wrath mana cost reduced.
* Improved Seal of the Crusader (Retribution) benefits folded into the base spell. This talent now gives the benefits of the Sanctified Crusader talent instead.
* Judgement of Light: The combat log will now show the mana gained from rank 5 of this ability as Judgement of Light instead of Seal of Light.
* Pursuit of Justice (Retribution) is now 3 ranks and increases movement speed by 5/10/15% and also reduces the chance you'll be hit by spells by 1/2/3%.
* Sanctified Crusader (Retribution) renamed Sanctified Seals, which now increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and melee attacks by 1/2/3% and reduces the chance your Seals will be dispelled by 33/66/100%.
* Vengeance (Retribution) duration increased from 15 to 30 seconds.
* Vindication (Retribution) frequency and duration increased and now reduces all attributes by 5/10/15%, not just Strength and Agility.
* Weapon Expertise (Protection) renamed Combat Expertise, now increases expertise by 1/2/3/4/5 and total Stamina by 2/4/6/8/10%.
Priests
* Chastise (NEW) is now available to Dwarf and Draenei priests at level 20. Chastise causes Holy damage and incapacitates the target for 2 seconds.
* Circle of Healing: The base amount of healing from this spell has been reduced along with increasing the bonus it receives from bonus healing effects. Characters with more than 1338 healing will see their Circle of Healing heal for more than previous patches. Characters with less than 1338 healing will see their Circle of Healing heal for less.
* Cure Disease and Abolish Disease range increased to 40 yards.
* Divine Spirit: It is no longer possible for a target to simultaneously have Divine Spirit rank 5 and Prayer of Spirit Rank 1 icons showing at the same time.
* Elune's Grace (Night Elf) effect changed to reduce chance to be hit by melee and ranged attacks by 20% for 15 seconds. There is now only 1 rank of the spell.
* Fear Ward is now available to all priests at level 20. Duration reduced to 3 minutes, cooldown increased to 3 minutes.
* Fixed a bug where the global cooldown was triggered when shifting out of Shadowform.
* Holy Fire: The tooltip on rank 4 has been adjusted.
* Inner Focus: Rank 4 will now properly affect Lightwell.
* Inner Focus: This effect is now properly consumed by casting Mind Soothe.
* Meditation (Discipline) increased to 10/20/30% mana regeneration.
* Pain Suppression (Discipline Talent) is now usable on friendly targets, instantly reduces the target's threat by 5%, reduces damage taken by 40% and its cooldown has been reduced to 2 minutes.
* Prayer of Healing, Circle of Healing and Holy Nova (healing effect) now gain additional benefit from spell damage and healing bonuses.
* Power Word: Fortitude, Divine Spirit, Prayer of Fortitude and Prayer of Spirit mana costs reduced.
* Power Word: Shield now gains additional benefit from spell damage and healing bonuses. Base absorb values of ranks 10, 11 and 12 have been reduced.
* Shackle Undead: This spell will now always be removed correctly if multiple Priests overwrite each other's Shackle Undead.
* Shadow Word: Death: Resilience no longer reduces the backlash damage from this spell.
* Starshards (Night Elf) is no longer channeled, costs 0 mana, is now a Magic effect, lasts 15 seconds, causes damage every 3 seconds and has a 30 second cooldown.
Rogues
* All poisons will now enchant the weapon for 1 hour, increased from 30 minutes
* Blind is now a physical (no longer a poison) attack. Reagent requirement removed. Now shares the same diminish category as Cyclone and is now diminished in PvE as well as PvP.
* Fleet Footed (Assassination) now increases movement speed by 8/15%.
* Kick: Interrupting a channeled spell with this ability will now always properly prevent casting spells from the same spell school for 5 sec.
* Precision: This talent now also applies to ranged weapons.
* Remorseless Attacks: This talent can no longer be triggered by the death of a rogue's target dummy or other pet.
* Riposte is now subject to diminishing returns in PvP.
* Rogue's Deadly Throw missile speed increased significantly and snare duration increased slightly.
* Ruthlessness now only affects melee finishing moves. It no longer works with Deadly Throw.
* Shadowstep (Subtlety) can now be used at any time, not only while stealthed. Threat caused by next Ambush, Garrote or Backstab is reduced by 50%. Cooldown increased to 40 seconds.
Shaman
* Chain Heal: The tooltips on tanks 1-3 have been adjusted.
* Chain Lightning cast time reduced to 2.0 (from 2.5), mana costs reduced, benefit from spell damage reduced appropriately.
* Cure Poison and Cure Disease range increased to 40 yards.
* Earth Shield: This spell will now always be removed correctly if multiple Shaman overwrite each other's Earth Shield.
* Earth Shock: Interrupting a channeled spell with this spell will now always properly prevent casting spells from the same spell school for 2 sec.
* Elemental Focus (Elemental) now reduces the mana cost of the next 2 damage spells by 40%.
* Frost Shock is no longer subject to diminishing returns.
* Grounding Totem: This totem is now destroyed upon redirecting any spell to itself.
* Lightning Bolt cast time reduced to 2.5 (from 3.0 where applicable), mana costs reduced, benefit from spell damage reduced appropriately.
* Lightning Mastery (Elemental) cast time reduction reduced to .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 seconds.
* Lightning Overload (Elemental) now has a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to occur and the additional spell causes half damage and no additional threat.
* Mana Spring Totem effect increased.
* Mental Quickness (Enhancement) now also increases spell damage and healing equal to 10/20/30% of your attack power.
* Two-Handed Axes and Two-Handed Maces are now trainable by all Shaman at the appropriate weapon masters. The Enhancement talent has been replaced by Shamanistic Focus.
* Shamanistic Focus (New Enhancement Talent): After landing a melee critical strike, you enter a Focused state. The Focused state reduces the mana cost of your next Shock spell by 60%.
* Shamanistic Rage (Enhancement) now also reduces all damage taken by 30% for the duration.
* Spirit Weapons (Enhancement) threat reduction increased to 30% from 15%.
* Rockbiter Weapon: For ranks 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 the increased damage resulting from this enchantment has been reduced slightly to match the intended numbers given in the tooltip. Ranks 1, 2, 3, and 9 are unchanged.
* Water Shield: This spell no longer costs any mana to cast and its duration has been shortened. At the end of its duration, it now grants mana for any remaining globes. In addition, the mana granted per globe has been substantially increased.
* Windfury Weapon: This enchantment can no longer be triggered while you are disarmed.
Warlock
* Banish can no longer be cast on targets tapped by other players or groups.
* Conflagrate: The Immolate debuff will now always be removed correctly when this spell is cast.
* Drain Life and Siphon Life now reduce the amount healed when the warlock is affected by healing reducing effects (e.g. Mortal Strike, Wounding Poison).
* Hellfire: This spell will no longer cause enemy spells to increase casting time or reduce channel time. It will also no longer prevent flag captures in Battlegrounds.
* Nether Protection (Destruction) now has a new, more distinct visual effect.
* Ritual of Souls now takes significantly less time to cast and complete.
* Seed of Corruption detonation will now obey line of sight.
* Shadow Embrace: This talent's effect can no longer trigger other effects.
* Shadow Ward: This spell now gains additional benefit from spell damage bonuses. Base absorb value of rank 4 has been reduced.
* Soul Siphon (Affliction) now increases damage by 2/4% and no longer affects Drain Mana.
Warrior
* Charge will work more often when targets are up against unpathable areas like walls and poles.
* Defiance (Protection) now also grants 2/4/6 weapon expertise.
* Devastate (Protection) now combines the effects of Sunder Armor into its effect. It is also now affected by all talents and items that affect Sunder Armor.
* Disarm is now subject to diminishing returns in PvP.
* Improved Berserker Stance (Fury) now also reduces all threat caused while in Berserker Stance by 2/4/6/8/10%
* Improved Intercept and Weapon Mastery have swapped locations in the talent trees.
* Intervene will no longer place you in combat.
* Hamstring now has a 10 second duration when used on PvP targets.
* Mace Specialization (Arms) now has a reduced chance to occur but generates 7 rage instead of 6.
* Pummel: Interrupting a channeled spell with this ability will now always properly prevent casting spells from the same spell school for 4 sec.
* Shield Bash: Interrupting a channeled spell with this ability will now always properly prevent casting spells from the same spell school for 6 sec.
* Shield Slam (Protection) now always tries to dispel one Magic effect on the target.
* Sweeping Strikes and Deathwish have swapped locations in the talent trees.
* Sweeping Strikes (Fury) now lasts 10 seconds and affects your next 10 swings.
* Tactical Mastery: This talent also now grants greatly increased threat from Mortal Strike and Bloodthirst when in Defensive Stance.
* Weapon Mastery (Arms) now reduces duration of Disarm effects against you by 25/50% rather than giving you a 50% chance to avoid or full immunity to Disarm effects.
* Whirlwind: This ability now strikes with both weapons when a Warrior is dual-wielding.
Filed under: Patches, News items, Classes
Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 news





Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
RanWitScissorz Oct 12th 2007 7:19AM
@20 - Why should warriors be happy about having a 50% chance to be disarmed instead of the current immunity? I don't punch very hard, and most classes that I would want to disarm, usually have some alternative to do in the mean time, while disarmed, unlike warriors who can only punch for the most part. The changes are great for those of us who are 31/30 (minus disarm).
But for those of my brothers who are fury, bloodlust is a very nice ability for using to burn up some dps. Plus why would weapon mastery be in the fury tree, weapon mastery just sounds like an arms talent, same with sweeping strikes.
Scott Oct 12th 2007 7:47AM
@21 Actually, it is not even a 50% chance to be disarmed, it is only a 50% reduction in the duration of the disarm. Six of one, half a dozen of the other, you might say, but it basically means there is no way to avoid getting disarmed. The only difference is how long we will be disarmed for.
"Weapon Mastery (Arms) now reduces duration of Disarm effects against you by 25/50% rather than giving you a 50% chance to avoid or full immunity to Disarm effects."
RanWitScissorz Oct 12th 2007 8:17AM
Either way, its a nerf compared to immunity, which was my point.
Chris Anthony Oct 12th 2007 9:06AM
I somehow missed this in the first round of patch notes, so I'll complain here:
* Fear Ward is now available to all priests at level 20. Duration reduced to 3 minutes, cooldown increased to 3 minutes.
So let's make sure that I have this straight: Fear Ward used to be a situationally useful spell in non-boss PVE, since if I knew my party was going into a fight where fear would be used, I could Fear Ward everybody beforehand (and prevent wipes due to feared players running into other groups of mobs). Now, Fear Ward is functionally useless in non-boss PVE, since I can only Fear Ward one player at a time thanks to the massively increased cooldown. Even in boss fights, I get to pick between warding myself and the tank, and since the cooldown and the duration are identical, there's still the risk of a fear going off in the moments between when the cooldown is up and when my finger comes down on the hotkey.
So, essentially, Blizzard has taken a spell that was situationally useful in PVE and exaggeratedly useful in PVP (have warlocks not figured out that Fear Ward only blocks one fear effect?) and turned it into a spell that's functionally almost useless in PVE and probably less useful in PVP.
As a draenei priest, I'd like to extend my special thanks to all of my fellow non-dwarf/draenei priests who cried about not having this spell. Seriously, thanks a $%^&*(@ lot.
@16: Primal Fury is a talent, not a trained spell. You can select talents when you're dead, yes.
-Chris A.
http://www.etherjammer.com/blog/
brent Oct 12th 2007 9:14AM
*Hypothermia duration increased to 45 sec.
Is this really needed? Annoying.
Dyermaker Oct 12th 2007 9:47AM
Blizzard made it clear that Retribution issues would be addressed in 2.3. They did not want to boost PvP, but wanted to address raid viability/utility. What they have delivered... well, the polite thing to say is they have this completely backwards.
Retribution Paladins are already having threat issues with the DPS we currently have. The increases to DPS, will only exacerbate the issue even further. Addionally, the one raid utility they brought to the raid was moved such that it makes more sense to use it with a paladin in a different role!
It makes me feel as if Blizzard is nothing more than doublespeak.
Bob Oct 12th 2007 10:18AM
YOU GOT TO BE JOKING? The DW/SS swap a buff to fury warriors? I think not! I am a fury warrior and primarily DPS in raids (with the odd bit of tanking when the MTs don't show up) and I must say, the only time we have multiple targets is when we don't have enough CC for the pull, like some of the trash in SSC, and even then we have to be carefull with abilities like whirlwind and cleave because of sheeps and traps, and even then, the adds go down quickly as it is and we very rarely wipe. What I am trying to say is Sweeping Strikes is a useless ability for fury warriors, hell, even for arms warriors it is useless, but I bet that they will use it alot more (esp in arena) than what fury warriors will. This is quite a big nerf, that extra 20% is an awesome buff, it knocks my BT crits upto 3k+ and really helps on long fights to being able to pop it twice, say on VR, and being able to use it with your execute spam is awesome, because thats when I jump up the DPS meters. IMO blizzard should make sweeping strikes just like blade flurry, it increases attack speed aswell as hitting two targets.
I think what blizzard are trying to do is to push warriors in to the tanking role instead of DPSing in pve and if they don't want to tank then they have to PvP, its the only alternative. Deathwish was the heart and soul of fury, it was one of the best talents for any dps warrior and now, blizzard just killed fury warriors, GG YOU FUCKHEADS!
BLIZZARD, YOU ARE SHIT.
native Oct 12th 2007 10:34AM
druids can't stack entangling roots! OMG! WTF Blizzard! you've totally destroyed druids with this nerf. You say you care but you don't. You never call back. You say you love us but why do you roll over when we try to talk in bed at teh end of the day? there's someone else isn't there?
you've broken my heart and my class blizz. this is quite possibly the most epic nerf ever.
the game is broken now. i'm quitting.
:P
rmcdonough50 Oct 12th 2007 11:41AM
There are some minor situational nerfs to warriors here depending on your spec, but overall I think these make sense. Losing Deathwish for fury warriors will cost a little bit of single target dps on boss fights, but gaining 10% less threat and having both weapons strike on a WW will make up for that 10-fold. WW strikes multiple targets, but it's still an instant weapon damage attack that all fury warriors use against single targets as well. Having our off-hand strike that target will significantly increase our dps. Gaining Sweeping Strikes just makes us that much more useful on aoe packs (I'm assuming it can now be cast in Berserker Stance), and we don't have to mess with switching to a 2H.
On the arms side, all pvp warriors forgo Endless Rage because they've had to go deep into the fury tree to get Deathwish and Imp Intercept, and now that changes. Deathwish was useful in pve, but it's essential in pvp for the fear immunity. Now arms warriors can go all the way down the tree to get Endless Rage and have a lot more flexibility with the remainder of their points. They can do 20 in fury to get Enrage, or they can experiment with points in protection and get Last Stand, which can be a game-breaker in pvp.
As for the disarm nerf, let's try and remember that warriors are one of the few classes that can actually disarm, so start making use of it. When you get disarmed yourself just slap on a shield, refresh your shouts or throw down a Thunderclap, and move on. It'll only be a minor inconvenience.
The only downside to this (if you can call it that) is now dual-wield fury is clearly the best pve dps spec. I know a lot of warriors like doing pve dps with a 2H MS/Imp Slam build, but with buffed dual-wield WW's and 10% less threat for going all the way down the fury tree, I think that's clearly a better pve spec now. It still might be worth it to have 1 warrior in the raid use a 2H build for Blood Frenzy, but that warrior's own numbers will suffer compared to an equally geared dual-wielder.
nekorb Oct 12th 2007 1:43PM
So i see no mention of arena 1 gear moving to honor points.... is it still gonna happen?
Tuching Nov 10th 2007 5:07AM
I totally agree with dierle about the buff to fury warriors, The whirlwind is gonna be twice as effective, whats bad about that?!(well nearly twice as). Also...losing deathwish for fury and giving it to arms.. i dunno sounds weird to me fury do wanna give it to bosses with dam and in raid pve multiple target whacking can be scary for a tank to deal with. sure, i can hit 5 enemies, but whats the point if i over aggro and die?