Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPatch 3.3 PTR: Patch notes updated
by Gregg Reece 
Nov 3rd 2009 at 7:15PM
Some of the major points coming out of this iteration of the patch notes include:
- Meeting Stones: To use any Meeting Stone, it is only required that the character's minimum level be 15. There is no maximum character level requirement for any Meeting Stone.
- All level 71-80 Battleground daily quests will now award 25 Arena points in addition to their current rewards.
- Divine Intervention: Cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
- Army of the Dead: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Army Ghoul damage dropped by 50%. Cannot be used in Arenas.
- Lay on Hands: This ability now places Forbearance on the target and cannot be used on a target with Forbearance.
- General:
- Meeting Stones: To use any Meeting Stone, it is only required that the character's minimum level be 15. There is no maximum character level requirement for any Meeting Stone.
- Battlegrounds:
- All level 71-80 Battleground daily quests will now award 25 Arena points in addition to their current rewards.
- Wintergrasp
- You must now have the following ranks to build or pilot siege vehicles:
- Rank 2: Build/pilot Catapults.
- Rank 3: Build/pilot Demolishers.
- Rank 3: Build/pilot Siege Engines.
- You must now have the following ranks to build or pilot siege vehicles:
- Death Knights:
- Army of the Dead: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Army Ghoul damage dropped by 50%. Cannot be used in Arenas.
- Raise Ally: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
- Rune Strike: Threat generated by this ability increased by approximately 17%.
- Mages:
- Fingers of Frost: This talent now triggers immediately on casting a spell rather than being delayed until the spell strikes the target.
- Paladins:
- Divine Intervention: Cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
- Flash of Light: This spell no longer causes a heal-over-time effect unless the player has the Infusion of Light talent.
- Lay on Hands: This ability now places Forbearance on the target and cannot be used on a target with Forbearance.
- Sacred Shield: Reverted back to the live realm version.
- Infusion of Light: This talent now causes the paladin's Flash of Light spells to heal the target for 50/100% of the Flash of Light healing amount over 12 seconds.
- Aura Mastery: This effect of this talent has been reduced in duration to 6 seconds.
- Shamans:
- Earth Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
- Fire Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
- Warlocks:
- Inferno: The cooldown on this summoning spell has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
- UI:
- Group Disenchanting Option: In addition to rolling Need or Greed on items, players now have the option to elect for an item to be disenchanted if an enchanter of the appropriate skill level is in the group. Disenchant works exactly like Greed except if a player wins the Greed roll, they will receive the disenchanted materials instead. Players who choose Need will always win the item and will always beat those that choose Greed or Disenchant.
Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.Filed under: Patches, News items
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 7)
eri Nov 4th 2009 1:32PM
Really?
"...wings, then bubble then LoH while you go around raping the competition. Its one of the reasons cleave teams are so successful and Paladin's have one of the highest representations of any class in arena."
LoH isn't even usable in arena, and wings/bubble aren't usable within 30 seconds of each other, which is plenty of time to down a holy or ret paladin in arena, not to mention that the bubble can be broken/dispelled and wings can be dispelled/spellstealed (spellstolen?).
And since when have paladins ever been able to consistently "rape in raids on the dps charts"?
"So suck it up and move on and start to learn to rely less upon the Shield [divine protection?]>LoH combo (shame on you if you've gotten into the habit of doing in PvE!)."
Again, assuming you were referring to tanks in this instance, what you should have said was "learn to rely less on your only two tanking cooldowns."
Maxpowr Nov 4th 2009 3:02PM
At least in the raiding environment, hopefully your guild is smart enough (on 25-man) to run with a holy and disc priest. I guess I can save my Pain Suppression and Guardian Spirit for myself instead of a pally tank who doesn't think that other classes help them.
Zepho Nov 3rd 2009 7:26PM
So can paladins cast Lay on Hands on themselves again? Or is this change in addition to what's already in place?
Alanid Nov 3rd 2009 7:30PM
Looks like palas can cast it on themselves again, but it causes forbearance now... so it would be better to use bubble most of the time. It was fun lay on hands, Good Game.
Felix_NZ Nov 3rd 2009 7:49PM
At least it's better than what they were proposing.
I'm a little concerned with Infusion changes though, I couldn't count the amount of time that a HS Crit heal + FoL instant followup has saved a tank's hide.
t0xic Nov 3rd 2009 7:51PM
My concern with LoH causing forbearance would be the fact that, as a tank, that another paladin could effectively take away some of my tanking cooldowns when I need them most. Correct me if I'm wrong?
Muse Nov 3rd 2009 7:52PM
Hope it at least gives an error message when you're trying to cast it on someone else who already has forbearance instead of eating up the spell without healing them.
More importantly: How am I going to convince my raid leader that DI for fun and profit should be allowed every wipe? It's currently in the guild's ten commandments for Thou Shalt Not.
Mr. Tastix Nov 3rd 2009 8:22PM
I don't understand the "nerf" for Lay on Hands personally. It just seems they're balancing it far too much around battlegrounds and duels and quite honestly, battlegrounds are bitches to balance simply because of the variables.
I could go up against an extremely well-geared Mage one time and use my bubble and LoH and still end up dying (though generally I wouldn't do this against a spell-caster) or I could fight multiple guys who are extremely undergeared (in comparison to me) and come out as victor - and I have actually done the latter in Wintergrasp.
But, for me it's a pretty "meh" situation. I'm trying to do Arenas more now, which should hopefully get me used to the idea of not being able to use Lay on Hands.
Heilig Nov 3rd 2009 9:16PM
This is a great change to paladins, and that's speaking as a paladin. Lay on Hands and Divine Shield are the two things that are perennially trotted out as reasons we can't be given more offensive utility. Maybe this will pave the way to an interrupt, or snare, or gap closer, or dispel, or CC, or MS, or any of a dozen other offensive utilities that other classes have that we don't.
devilsei Nov 3rd 2009 10:15PM
Great.... sooo...
LoH is nerfed worse than it was with the old idea. It causes Forbearance now, so if a pally tank has had to pop LoH on himself, healers die, I cant throw him my LoH cause of his, even if it means the difference from wiping at 1% and downing the boss, not to mention other little things here and there (I throw it at a healer about to die so they dont die, only to watch them die because they cant bubble themselves, blah blah blah etc.).
and
"# Flash of Light: This spell no longer causes a heal-over-time effect unless the player has the Infusion of Light talent. "
Wait... so they removing the HoT effect from Sheathe of Light? God, first its just FoL, then they add exorcism to that after making it a cast spell, now they removing FoL from that? Sooo... to make our spec more technical, they add a damage spell to it and remove the heal half?
I will say this though, we never should of gotten a HoT effect to our base heals and force holy to glyph for it when they needed it most, so giving them a talent for it is actually a first in good ideas for Paladin I've seen for a while. Which means there is a slight chance somewhere in the darkest depths of Blizzard's slave dungeons, is someone who got a hold of a computer and did something right...
Though now he or she will probably be executed...
ash Nov 4th 2009 1:23AM
Well, a gap closer is what I think we need the most, but fat chance we will get even that.
As for the HOT being only given to Infusion of Light, I think that only applies to the Hot from Sacred Shield and Flash of Light. The HOT from Sheath of Light is still sticking around I think.
Eskarel Nov 4th 2009 3:31AM
@devilsei
No they're removing the HoT effect from casting FoL on a target under the effect of sacred shield unless you're a holydin. Much better than the previous nerf to sacred shield they were suggesting.
I'm not thrilled with the LoH nerf either, but it's not too bad since generally speaking the only reason to use bubble in raids for a tank is to cleanse debuffs no one else can cleanse which is a bit OP and unfair to the other tanks as nice as it might be, and as a holydin losing the ability to give myself an emergency top of of mana or the tanks ability to LoH themselves in an emergency was far more frightening than losing my self only bubble which I shouldn't have to use anyway.
Cyanea Nov 3rd 2009 7:26PM
Liking the meeting stone changes.
Is the Infusion Change gonna be in addition to the current text, or replacing it?
Waluigi Nov 3rd 2009 7:30PM
And all the frost mages suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
Artificial Nov 3rd 2009 8:47PM
Terror? You mean joy, surely? This is an awesome change for frost mages!
devilsei Nov 3rd 2009 11:26PM
Artificial, I think its the fact that they just got buffed that is making them panic, cause the end might be nigh!
Chris Anthony Nov 3rd 2009 7:32PM
"Players who choose Need will always win the item..."
...wait, what?
Reuben Nov 3rd 2009 7:38PM
Yeah, that's interesting, but I think it's just a reiteration of current rules instead of changing them. People who roll need will win over greed and disenchant rolls. I think.
Chris Anthony Nov 3rd 2009 7:44PM
I feel like that must be correct, but then they go on and say "and will always beat those that choose Greed or Disenchant." So I'm wary.
ChasW Nov 3rd 2009 7:55PM
I don't understand your comment. Of course Need beats Greed/Disenchant. That's the entire *point* of Need. What's weird about this?