As Matt Rossi is analyzing in more detail, the attunement requirement for Karazhan has been removed, although at least one person in the raid does need to have the key to get in the door. How do we know? New patch notes.

Here, in full, is everything that's changed in the latest iteration of Blizzard's official test realm patch notes, brought to you, as always, by the power of diff. Much of this has been covered on WoW Insider already, because Blizzard is slow to update the patch notes; the stuff that looks new to me is in bold (which in this particular case is only that the new Mortal Strike-esque effect on Flametongue Weapon applies to Flametongue Totem as well).

• Removed: "The benefits of drinking out of combat have been delayed. It will now take five seconds before the full benefit of the mana regeneration will come into effect." (now restricted to arenas only)
  
• [Druid] Lifebloom will no longer cause error messages when interacting with Spellsteal or while the Druid is under the effects of a Mind Control.
• Mage
• Improved Blink: This talent no longer reduces the mana cost of Blink. Instead, it increases the chance for all attacks to miss the Mage by 25% for 2/4 sec after Blink is cast.
• Icy Veins no longer stacks with Power Infusion (as well as Bloodlust/Heroism from the last patch notes)
• Mana Shield: This spell will now get a percentage of the Mage's bonus to spell damage as an additional effect.

• [Priest] Added "reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20%" to the new effect of "increasing their spell haste by 20%". Does not stack with Icy Veins or Bloodlust/Heroism.
• Shaman:
• Flametongue Weapon damage effects for rank 3 and above now also reduce healing done to the target by 50% and lasts 5 seconds.
• Flametongue Totem damage effects now also reduce healing done to the target by 50% and lasts 5 seconds.
• The Global Cooldown of all Totems has been reduced to 1 seconds, down from 1.5 seconds.
• Shamanistic Rage is now a Physical ability instead of a Magic spell, and thus is no longer dispellable. It now reduces all damage taken by 30% and gives your successful melee attacks a chance to regenerate mana equal to 30% of your attack power. This lasts for 15 seconds with a 2 minute cooldown.
• Toughness will now also reduce the duration of movement impairing effects on you by 10/20/30/40/50%.
• Warlock:
• Emberstorm now also reduces the cast time of your incinerate spell by 2/4/6/8/10%.
• Life Tap: This spell now has only 3 ranks. Each now costs a fixed percentage of maximum health to cast, and grants the same fixed percentage of maximum mana: Rank 1 is 5%, Rank 2 is 12%, and Rank 3 is 20%.
• PvP:
• when making a calculation for rating gains and losses at the end of a match, the calculation will use the higher of the personal or team ratings on the opposing team
• The benefits of drinking out of combat have been delayed while in the Arena. It will now take four seconds before the full benefit of the mana regeneration will come into effect.
• Battleground Rune Buffs:Speed, Restoration, and Berserking buffs received from battleground runes will no longer cause Stealth or Prowl to break.
• Dungeons & Raids:
• [CoT: Old Hillsbrad] Durnholde Lookouts no longer spawn in the Heroic version of the instance. The placement of creatures around Durnholde Keep in Heroic mode is now identical to that of Normal mode.
• [KZ] Players will no longer need the Master's Key to enter Karazhan. The gates to Karazhan will still require the Master's Key to be unlocked.
• Items:
• Deathwing Brood Cloak: These cloaks are now bound on equip instead of bound on pickup.
• PvP Relics: The bonus resilience from Idols, Librams, and Totems is no longer stackable by swapping between multiple relics.
• Shaman PvP Boots: The pre-Burning Crusade bonus to increase Ghost Wolf speed no longer works for players over level 60.
• Skull of Gul'dan: This item now shares its cooldown with other similar trinkets.
• Elites in Blade's Edge Plateau Regions: These creatures now have an increased chance to drop rare depleted items.

Tags: flametongue, patch-2.4, patch-note-watch, patch-notes, ptr, shamans, warlock

Filed under: Patches, News items