World of Warcraft Patch 3.1.3 Initial Patch Notes
by Adam Holisky 
May 26th 2009 at 9:50PM
After the break you'll find the patch notes for Patch 3.1.3. This patch will not be appearing on the PTR, and will instead be making its way directly to the live realms. There is no date set for the live realms release at this time.These notes are only the initial notes and subject to change. You have been warned.
Some highlights:
- Druid Tier 8 Balance Set: The 4-piece bonus no longer has its effect consumed by Starfire casts in progress when it triggers. The chance for the effect to be triggered has been reduced down to 8%, as it was originally inflated to compensate.
- Hunter's Mark: The ranged attack power bonus from this ability has been increased from 300 to 500.
- Improved Barkskin: This talent now also grants 80/160% additional armor while in Travel Form or not shapeshifted.
- Overkill: Talent redesigned. Now increases energy regeneration by 30% while stealthed, and for 20 seconds after breaking stealth.
The full notes after the break!
World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.1.3
The latest patch notes can always be found at http://w
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://w
Death Knights
- Frost Presence: Armor bonus is now 60% down from 80%.
Druids
- Improved Barkskin: This talent now also grants 80/160% additional armor while in Travel Form or not shapeshifted.
- Improved Tree of Life: The armor bonus to Tree of Life Form from this talent has been reduced to 67/133/200% bonus armor.
Hunters
- Hunter's Mark: The ranged attack power bonus from this ability has been increased from 300 to 500.
- Master Marksman: This talent now also decreases the cost of Aimed Shot and Chimera Shot by 5/10/15/20/25%.
Paladins
- Eye For An Eye: This talent now deals 5/10% of the critical strike damage taken by the paladin back at the attacker.
- Hand of Freedom: The base duration of this buff has been reduced from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.
Rogues
- Overkill: Talent redesigned. Now increases energy regeneration by 30% while stealthed, and for 20 seconds after breaking stealth.
Warlocks
- Chaos Bolt: This spell no longer ignores damage reduction effects of the target.
Warriors
- Blood Frenzy: This talent now provides 5/10% haste instead of 3/6%.
- Bloodthirst: Cooldown reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds, and rage cost reduced from 30 rage to 20 rage.
- Juggernaut: This talent now also increases the cooldown on Charge by 5 seconds.
Items
- Death Knight PvP Gauntlets: The chance to refresh a Frost Rune when casting Chains of Ice has been removed. When equipped, these gloves now generate 5 additional runic power whenever Chains of Ice is used.
Dungeons
- Ulduar
- Mimiron
- The flight time of Rocket Strikes has been increased, and Rocket Strikes will try to prefer players at range.
- The Leviathan Mk II component of the V-07-TR-0N will become stunned during Phase 4 when the VX-001 component begins to cast the P3Wx2 Laser Barrage ability.
- Proximity mines now deal less damage and have a lower duration. A small arming time has also been added so proximity mines will not immediately detonate on creation.
- The flight time of Rocket Strikes has been increased, and Rocket Strikes will try to prefer players at range.
- Mimiron
Bug Fixes
- Druid Tier 8 Balance Set: The 4-piece bonus no longer has its effect consumed by Starfire casts in progress when it triggers. The chance for the effect to be triggered has been reduced down to 8%, as it was originally inflated to compensate.
- Ice Layered Barrier: Upgraded to item level 232. In addition, the stats in the tooltip have been correctly adjusted to 78 spell power, 48 haste rating, 16 mana per 5 seconds, 52 Intellect, and 50 Stamina.
- Pulsing Spellshield: The stats listed in the tooltip for this item were incorrect and have been adjusted. This item provides 69 spell power, 34 haste rating, 42 critical strike rating, 45 intellect, and 45 stamina.
Filed under: Patches, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Phantom May 26th 2009 10:02PM
another Arms nerf >.<
i regret getting Dual Spec for my warrior should just stayed prot
slimj091 May 26th 2009 10:18PM
arms got another slight nerf, but a nice buff to blood frenzy. i say it even's out.. if not an overall buff imo
about juggernaut. we could always go back to not being able to use it in combat at all again. and have to go back to stance dancing to intercept wasting rage in the process.
love the bloodthirst buff btw. tho i think they can still do a bit more to buff fury to be comparable to other hybrid dps classes.
thevitruvianman May 27th 2009 7:13AM
The bloodthirst buff is kind of interesting. Reducing the cooldown on BT should give all fury warriors a slight DPS boost, but the interesting part is the significantly lowered rage cost. If anything, that will help undergeared warriors more than those in Ulduar gear, since they are the ones most likely to suffer from rage starvation. Of course, the extra rage still means more heroic strikes for those in top end gear, but the benefit will be felt the most by warriors with more modest equipment.
A clever and subtle way of addressing the warrior gear scaling problem, although I don't think on it's own it will be enough (although obviously I'm biased towards saying that :P)
jsz May 26th 2009 10:00PM
"Overkill: Talent redesigned. Now increases energy regeneration by 30% while stealthed, and for 20 seconds after breaking stealth."
I like the sound of that
Cat May 27th 2009 12:21AM
omg that seems like a massive buff for trash FoK.... sweeeeeeeet
e-girl May 27th 2009 4:49AM
Is there going to be a Talent Point refund then?
Calavera May 27th 2009 7:54AM
Indeed sounds interesting, gonna be fun to see how it plays out.
I'm guessing it's kind of a nerf for the out of stealth burst, but making it a bit more sustainable?
Dogstar6 May 27th 2009 10:36AM
Finally, Rogues get a little love. Hot.
Joe May 26th 2009 10:02PM
What the hell... Another Juggernaut nerf? Although nice fury buffs!
VSUReaper May 26th 2009 10:44PM
Juggernaut: This talent now also increases the cooldown on Charge by 5 seconds.
WTF!?!?!? Almost want to ask why bother taking the talent in the first place now. So it was powerful in the first place. OK, fine.
Then they nerfed the crit, that was fair. At the same time they nerfed a glyph that went with it. Fair enough, we abused it.
But now 20 seconds to charge? We are already getting kited to death still, especially if they are able to stay out of melee range but inside charge's range.
GG, arms just got killed for PVP again. NVM the fact that EVERYTHING and its mom can kite us.
/sigh Oh well, time to keep fingers crossed for some pvp gear that is designed with PROT WARRIOR PLAY STYLE IN MIND.
slimj091 May 26th 2009 11:44PM
"Almost want to ask why bother taking the talent in the first place now."
how about being able to charge while in combat, and get 25% extra crit chance on your next MS.
that is still a very powerful tool in pvp, or even pve.
Jay May 27th 2009 2:39AM
This was a completely un-called for nerf.
Way to ruin the nice little things in-game for people who don't care about PvP.
Friday_Knight May 27th 2009 3:36AM
Well that's pretty melodramatic VSU. While I'm not excited to see yet another nerf to Juggernaut it's not really as bad as you think it is. I certainly have my problems with the design philosophy behind my favorite class but Juggernaut is still a very good talent.
Neirin May 27th 2009 4:24AM
if I remember correctly, the extra crit was added in because the point wasn't attractive enough to spend early in the 3.1 ptr. Of course, blizz also had to drag people away from fury. Now that fury is the relatively unplayed spec they don't need to keep pulling people in. One of those come for the crit, stay for the combat charge kind of things.
For soloers and semi-casuals, the effect will be ever so slightly longer trips between mobs during dailies and raiding warriors probably won't have to charge in somewhere more than once every 20 seconds anyway. That really just means this is a pvp nerf, which is a little weird. I mean, it seems like removing the crit component would be a better means of balancing pvp (warriors are already very kitable), it still wouldn't effect raiders much, and casuals might actually probably prefer the fast charge (though I suppose in that case they might simply forgo the talent).
dj_stevie_c May 27th 2009 7:27AM
Seems like there's never a 'nice' thing that isn't balanced by something nasty.
I used my Juggernaut all the time, wasn't worreid that much by the crit (though dps dropped by 100) and now I find it's going to be a lot less useful.
Hopefully the bloodsurge will help a little but come on, I'm sick of being 500 to 1k behind everyone else.
dasime May 27th 2009 11:06AM
WTS Prot/ Arms warrior...
I only use my warrior for dailies and grinding now as I raid on my pally, I actually made love to charge with the glyphs and all; and now they have done this!
It may not be a nerf to how some people play PvE grinding warriors (they aren't imaginary!) but to me thats the thing that makes my warrior a warrior and not an OOM pally (that was imaginary) or a munter that jogs into to battle.
Ken May 26th 2009 10:05PM
Well, well, well, this is a bit of a surprise. I see that blizzard has decided to make me feel happier then ever. I love the fact that Frost Death Knight's are being tremendously nerfed. A 20% reduction is huge, if I may say.
Can't wait for the DK lovers to start the QQ.
P.S. FIRST
slimj091 May 26th 2009 10:21PM
fail first is fail
Adam Holisky May 26th 2009 10:25PM
"First" posts of any kind will result in a ban. This is your only warning, from me, to you, because I'm in a good mood having just drank a strawberry soda.
Thanks.
z3rb May 26th 2009 10:37PM
Mmmm strawbery