Official Patch 3.3.2 patch notes
by Alex Ziebart 
Feb 2nd 2010 at 5:20AM
- Halls of Stone: Brann Bronzebeard has been getting into shape and now feels comfortable walking faster when escorted.
- Concussion Blow: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 50%, but its threat generation will remain approximately the same.
- Violet Hold: The time between a boss being defeated and a new portal opening has been decreased.
- Season 8 has officially begun featuring all-new rewards!
Dungeons & Raids
- Icecrown Citadel
- Frostwing Halls, the final stronghold of the Scourge and their Lich King, has been added.
- Halls of Stone
- Brann Bronzebeard has been getting into shape and now feels comfortable walking faster when escorted.
- The Forge of Souls
- The Devourer of Souls will now cast Mirrored Souls less often.
- The Spell Reflect ability has been altered on several creatures. It now has a cast time, only has 2 charges, and has a 75% chance of reflecting spells.
- The Nexus
- Anomalus will now use the Create Rift ability only once, down from 3 times.
- The Old Kingdom
- Elder Nadox now only gets one Ahn'Kahar Guardian during the encounter.
- Jadoga Shadowseeker now only ascends once during the encounter.
- Several enemies between the Befouled Terrace and The Desecrated Altar have been removed or had their pathing altered.
- Pit of Saron
- Players can now zone back into the instance if they are dead while encounters with Krick and Ick or Forgemaster Garfrost are in progress.
- Utgarde Pinnacle
- Skadi the Ruthless can now be removed from his drake with 3 harpoon strikes, down from 5.
- Svala Sorrowgrave now casts Ritual of the Sword 1 time during the encounter, down from 3.
- Vault of Archavon
- Toravon, the latest boss to join the Vault's giants and masters of the elements, is now accepting challengers in 10- and 25-player formats.
- The Violet Hold
- The time between a boss being defeated and a new portal opening has been decreased.
- All healing abilities (including items such as potions) will be decreased in effectiveness by 10% when in Battlegrounds, Arenas, or Wintergrasp.
- Arenas
- Season 8 has officially begun featuring all-new rewards!
- Talents
- Balance
- Earth and Moon: This talent now increases the druid's spell damage by 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3%.
- Balance
- Talents
- Elemental Combat
- Shamanism: This talent now provides 4/8/12/16/20% extra spell damage to Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning, up from 3/6/9/12/15%, and 5/10/15/20/25% to Lava Burst, up from 4/8/12/16/20%.
- Elemental Combat
- Talents
- Affliction
- Shadow Embrace: This effect can now stack up to 3 times, up from 2. However, the periodic healing reduction effect has been reduced from 3/6/9/12/15% to 2/4/6/8/10% per application.
- Demonology
- Demonic Pact: The damage bonus granted the warlock by this talent has been increased from 1/2/3/4/5% to 2/4/6/8/10%. The buff granted to a raid or party by this talent remains unchanged.
- Destruction
- Conflagrate: The damage-over-time effect of Conflagrate has been increased to 40% of the spell's total damage, up from 20%.
- Empowered Imp: The pet bonus damage provided by this talent has been increased to 10/20/30%, up from 5/10/15%.
- Improved Shadow Bolt: Damage done by Shadow Bolt increased by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.
- Affliction
Warriors
- Talents
- Protection
- Concussion Blow: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 50%, but its threat generation will remain approximately the same.
- Devastate: This ability now deals 120% of weapon damage, up from 100% of weapon damage.
- Shield Slam: The damage scaling from block value for this ability now diminishes faster and diminishes starting at a lower block value. The difference should be negligible for players in high-end tanking armor. In addition, the threat caused by Shield Slam has been increased by 30%.
- Warbringer: This talent no longer allows Charge and Intercept to break roots or snares. Intervene remains unaffected.
- Protection
- The party leader is now referred to as Guide in chat when a group is formed via the Dungeon Finder.
- Fixed a bug where players with Raid Assist capabilities were unable to perform a Ready Check.
- Fixed a bug where the first couple of tutorials were not displaying upon logging into the game.
- New strength-based melee DPS rings are now available from representatives of the Ashen Verdict.
- Tier-9 Sets: The Aspirant vendors at the Argent Tournament grounds have worked out a deal with merchants in Dalaran so that all item level 232 set pieces will now be available on armor vendors in the city. Set pieces which require trophies will still be available for purchase only from vendors at the Argent Tournament grounds.
- Tier-10 Balance Druid 4-Piece Bonus: Fixed a bug to allow for this bonus to properly trigger.
- Tier-10 Elemental Shaman 4-Piece Set Bonus: Redesigned. Successful Lava Burst casts now increase the duration of Flame Shock on the target by 6 seconds.
- Tier-10 Tank Sets: The gloves and chest pieces for warrior, death knight, and paladin tanks have had their stats adjusted slightly to provide additional armor value.
- Tier-10 Warlock 4-Piece Bonus: This bonus should now correctly be applied to the warlock's pet.
- The cvar 'processAffini
tyMask' controls which CPU cores are available for the World of Warcraft client to use. Previously the game client was limited to 2 cores as a default which players could override in the configuration file. In the past this provided a performance boost on some CPUs and operating systems. We have identified several systems that are experiencing severe performance issues with this restriction and have removed it. Players who would like to restore the old behavior can do so by updating the Config.WTF file by adding: SET processAffinityMask "3".
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Vagrant Shard Feb 2nd 2010 5:23AM
Heroics are hard... -_-
DragonFireKai Feb 2nd 2010 5:36AM
No...
Heroics are boring.
zachb1987 Feb 2nd 2010 5:37AM
So good to see the first comment about a plethora of positive changes is another QQ about easing the game for new players. Go to bed maybe and wake up on the right side of the bed before posting.
Falgorn Feb 2nd 2010 6:28AM
As the story of Wrath of the Lich King draws to a close I suspect that Blizzard are trying to get as many people as possible into raid content so that everyone gets a chance of seeing Arthas on his back.
Helping people gear faster and get runs faster, and also reducing the number of ppl dropping instances due to frustration can only improve the situation and get more numbers raiding.
Don't forget, all the people gearing alts atm are also creating more available raid avatars and generally helping to get more people enjoying end tier content.
I have no issue at all with content being tapered towards the end of an expansion. We've all been there and done that - no harm now that new players are being helped to engage in new content by gaining faster access to tier 9 and ilevel 245 gear.
Sword Feb 2nd 2010 6:36AM
I think Blizzard really has gone to far with this accessability thing. Do they yet realize that the vast majority of the players who want things nerfed and easy gear do not want to see content or have fun...they want purples, and that is all, they could care less about the game, having fun and its greater plot and story, only gearscore matters to those people.
When all those players quit after Cat comes out, maybe then Blizzard will understand that a balance between difficulty and accessability is needed, and that most raiders who want to enjoy the game aren't interested in the bleeding edge that is hardmodes, but don't want blizzard to beat the game for us with nerfs and easy normal modes either.
Instead of nerfing the game, Blizzard's response to people who want something nerfed should be: "Learn to play better and it won't be as difficult."
Clydtsdk-Rivendare Feb 2nd 2010 6:41AM
It amazes me that people _still_ fail to understand why heroics are getting nerfed. And hint-hint, it's not because they're hard.
Tsume Shiro Feb 2nd 2010 7:13AM
the changes are not because its hard they or because its to easy. in most grps I can kill lady shadow song before she comes down the second time and it makes the healers job boring on that fight. THAT'S why we are getting the changes so that the players in t9 and up still feel like they have to TRY to beet a heroic.
Sword Feb 2nd 2010 7:37AM
Oh I know why they are nerfed. Wrath heroics were hard/fun in the first days of the expansion, but then people who didn't have the skills to defeat them whined on the blizzard forums about things like Loken and they were nerfed so they were no longer fun, just boring like the vast majority of Wrath of the Lich King(Like the worst raid ever created..Trial of the Crusader), with the exception of Ulduar, which was some of Blizzard's best work.
Burning Crusade was a far superior expansion in terms of difficulty, the one thing Wrath has over it are the 10 man modes in this regard.
Res Feb 2nd 2010 7:51AM
Yeah and in BC hardly anyone got to experience the raid content that Blizz developers spent the most time and resources on because it was not accessible to people who didn't play the game for a living. They want to avoid that situation going forward because it makes no sense. It is a little disappointing that heroics aren't as challenging as they used to be but it's easy to see why they're doing what they're doing.
Bananacup Feb 2nd 2010 8:03AM
Oh bloody hell. This isn't about the heroics being difficult, this is about people in freaking ICC gear downing the bosses only slightly faster than they used to be downed because they have gimmicky mechanics that slow down the fight.
Yes, some people ARE lazy with heroics, remembering blizzard pretty much put up the ultimatum "get your daily 2 frosts or get left behind in gear progression!", alot of people just want to get their daily over and done with. Please don't forget the people who have done this content one billion and one times and just want to power charge through it. Expecting them to have "fun" in heroics is like expecting someone have fun throwing a ball up into the air and catching it for 86 hours straight.
Bananacup Feb 2nd 2010 8:07AM
Also, Minidrake's reply to a later comment is exactly what I mean.
BlackTiger™ Feb 2nd 2010 8:07AM
Heroics are boring?!? Live is definitely boring!
Give "EZ-mode" for casuals!
Just put vendor in Lagoran who will give emblems for free to everyone in any quantities.
Also create "1-80" button.
It will allow damn casuals to reach "end-game content" much-much faster!
Hopefully they will leave game as much faster...
WORLD OF MINESWEEPER! Hurray! Rejoice!
Bvannas Feb 2nd 2010 8:15AM
Sword - Trial of the Crusader can be Quite Dull, but are you really discounting Molten Core in your 'Worst Raid' Calculations? About the vast majority of wrath being boring, Many people disagree, maybe its time for you to find a different game.
Also, I dont see these as proper nerfs - if your not in the high end gear for them, not knowing the tatics/tricks of the mobs is going to make your life harder. If you want to moan about Heroics being to easy, the quickest solution would be to lose a few peices of gear, or simply nag Blizzard to stop adding anything new and instead of making the challenging content now casual, keep everything as it is because the idea that BC could and was improved upon can make your head hurt. (Ill stop before I rant)
Though I do agree, 10 mans are Great!
Rob Feb 2nd 2010 8:29AM
I think sword is right. Instead of a design philosophy with a challenging endgame for casuals in kara and ZA and challenging heroics (where you had to do CC), instead its just a giant zerg fest to do 4 heroics an hour (if you are a tank and get instant queues). Granted, I still like running them, but they pale in comparison to BC heroics. I suspect anyone who disagrees never actually did BC heroics or doesn't actually want challenge at the 5 man level.
OVerall BC is total win versus this expansion, we had great lore, challenging raids, etc. Instead we have ulduar which only a handful of players even got through since they released TOC hard on its heels, then ICC. Hopefully ICC will last for a good long while, i think its a very fun and challenging instance. Without ICC (5,10,25 man) I think the expac would be a total flop in comparison to BC. Its still fun, but not nearly as fun as BC.
Sword Feb 2nd 2010 8:42AM
Yes alot of the first raids were not that great either, but TOC was just awful...how is that place fun at all.
And I am not alone in my views. I know less people saw content, but I really don't think that is a bad thing. Think about it. World of Warcraft didn't make itself successful based on the Wrath design, but the pre-wrath one. I really got into the game in burning crusade. I got geared up in the end to run and clear ZA, games are about rising to the challenge, and I knew I would never see all of BC. You know why? I wasn't a good enough player yet.
Why should players like myself who enjoy this game for the fun of it, rather than being handed welfare epics quit? I disagree..I think the people who want things handed to them should all quit. They don't want to have fun, they forced this badge farming nonsense on everyone because that is all the vast majority of them care about. They don't really like this game aside from the virtual rewards it offers.
Those are the people who should quit, not me and those like me, and trust me, we make up way more than 5% of this games population. Its not black and white casual and hardcore.
Hoggersbud Feb 2nd 2010 8:50AM
>I suspect anyone who disagrees never actually did BC heroics or doesn't actually want challenge at the 5 man level. <
No, I did heroics in BC, and I recall the difference between tanks who took their time and picked through stuff and those who slammed into the mobs and we went through it fast.
It was easy to tell, they were all Paladins.
Sword Feb 2nd 2010 8:55AM
Yeah I agree with you, maybe they should have a "Valorious" difficulty beyond Level Cap mode which is tuned to be like BC heroics, maybe even have an Algalon style hidden boss for people who do these five man valorious acceivements with the proper level of gear.
I really don't think this ridiculious speed running in dungeons was a good idea. Besides the fact that it sort of ruins the world aspect of the game, theres so many other negative things I have seen because of it.
I can sympathize with the people who say they don't want the game to be a job. Its supposed to be fun after all. But why should my fun be ruined by others who think the only fun in this game is one-shotting everything in the game. I don't want to have to do hardmodes for a challenge, I'm not that good at this game.
Thankgod for Icecrown Citadel though, thats more my level.
Negatron Feb 2nd 2010 9:05AM
Post Reply Fail, good job. Just adding one more blah blah blah to your inbox Mr. Boredom.
:P
Rob Feb 2nd 2010 9:50AM
There's something to be said about Heroics actually being "Heroic". The difference in difficulty between a BC Normal and a BC Heroic is HUGE.
The difference between a Wrath Normal and a Wrath Heroic is negligible and it's not the gear. If you can solo a BC Normal, try to solo that same dungeon in Heroic, you'll probably get your ass handed to you.
Some people can barely get a 5-man group together to play. Having challenging content for them, without having to PUG 5 more random people, has merit.
Bob Dewane Feb 2nd 2010 10:00AM
@Rob
I've tanked BC heroics and I've tanked LK heroics and you are right, there is no comparison....LK heroics blow the doors off of BC heroics!!
In BC there was so much mandatory CC for the trash (combined with the fact that if someone broke a trap or sheep it very often could lead to a wipe) that runs took FOREVER!!! How many people remember Botannica/SLabs runs that took close to 2 hours when PuGed? Badge gear cost so much that it took FOREVER to gear up properly! Now while I'm not particularly in love with the "overgeared and AOE zerg" attitude that turns heroics into 12-15 minute jaunts, I'll take it ANY DAY over the hell that was BC heroics. You want a challenging heroic? Run HHOR everyday. Not all of us have 1.5 - 2 hours to dedicate to running a single frigging dungeon.
And to suggest that BC even stands in the shadow of LK lore-wise is just a silly thing to say. There were no epic questlines like Battle for the Undercity. No epic cutscenes like Wrathgate. Arthas is a much bigger figure, too, in terms of importance to lore. BC was just a grind through depressing geography (with the exception of Nagrand) that had very little to connect the zones lore-wise. Totally the opposite of what the lore in LK is.