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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPatch 4.0.6 patch notes update for Jan. 14
by Alex Ziebart 
Jan 15th 2011 at 1:00AM
Here are some highlights from today's updates:
- Warlocks: Fel Armor has been redesigned. It now surrounds the caster with fel energy, increasing spell power and causing the warlock to be healed for 3% of any single-target spell damage he or she deals.
- Items: The Honor Commodities and Justice Commodities Vendors now sell raw tradeskill materials. These are not intended to be a cost-effective source of these materials, but an option for players with lots of Justice or Honor Points who have already purchased all of the gear that interests them.
- Rogues: Blade Flurry is now a toggle that can be turned off by pressing the button again. In addition, this ability no longer has a fixed duration, but will go on cooldown for 10 seconds after being canceled (similar to Stealth).
Guilds
- Once a guild hits level 23, the daily cap on experience gained is removed.
- The gnomish racial trait Escape Artist now has a 1.5-minute cooldown, down from 1.75. In addition, it is now possible to use and waste this ability when not snared or rooted. This is consistent with other dispels.
- Fungal growth duration has been increased to 20 seconds, up from 10. In addition, it should now be much more responsive when detonating Wild Mushrooms.
- Moonkin Form now grants 15% damage reduction instead of increased armor.
- Starfall will no longer strike targets that are not in combat and will now drop stars at a slightly faster rate.
- Wild Mushroom is now instant cast, down from 0.5 seconds. In addition, the radius of detonation has been increased to 6 yards, up from 3, and damage done increased by 30%.
- Restoration: Disentanglement (new specialization): Causes shapeshifting to remove roots in addition to snares.
- Casting Trap Launcher, Distracting Shot, and Scare Beast now cancel Auto Shot when cast. This is to make it easier to crowd control creatures with Auto Shot while moving enabled.
- Divine Storm weapon damage percent increased from 80% to 100%.
- Hand of Light (Mastery): A percentage of the damage done by Templar's Verdict, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm is done as additional Holy damage. This Mastery now grants a 2.1% increase to Holy damage per mastery, down from 2.5%.
- Mind Blast damage has been significantly increased. It should be roughly 50% greater than Mind Spike.
- Grace is no longer limited to one target at a time.
- Penance mana cost has been increased by 7%, but healing has been increased by 20%.
- Vampiric Embrace now lasts until canceled.
- Blade Flurry is now a toggle that can be turned off by pressing the button again. In addition, this ability no longer has a fixed duration, but will go on cooldown for 10 seconds after being canceled (similar to Stealth).
- Spiritwalker's Grace duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 10.
- Fel Armor has been redesigned. It now surrounds the caster with fel energy, increasing spell power and causing the warlock to be healed for 3% of any single-target spell damage he or she deals.
- Demonic Aegis now increases the healing effect of Fel Armor by 50/100%.
- Slam weapon damage percent (at level 80+) has been increased from 125% to 145%.
- In addition to its current effects, Bloodsurge now also causes the next Slam to deal 20% more damage.
- Raging Blow weapon damage percent (at level 80+) has been increased from 110% to 120%.
- Archaeology: The sell value of all common artifacts has been doubled, while a small subset of common artifacts have had their sell value increased far beyond that.
- Engineering: Mystic Cogwheel is a new Engineering Cogwheel gem which provides resilience rating and can be purchased from the Engineering vendor for 55 Honor Points.
- Engineering: Synapse Springs now increase Agility, Strength, or Intellect (whichever is highest for the character). In addition, the effect now lasts 10 seconds, down from 12.
- The Honor Commodities and Justice Commodities Vendors now sell raw tradeskill materials. These are not intended to be a cost-effective source of these materials, but an option for players with lots of Justice or Honor Points who have already purchased all of the gear that interests them.
- Lich King trinkets with bonus armor values have been adjusted using the new Cataclysm formula, reducing their armor values substantially.
- The PvE hunter 4-piece set bonus has been redesigned. It now reduces the cast time of Steady Shot and Cobra Shot by .2 seconds.
- All PvP 4-piece bonuses have had their flat stat values cut in half. Primary stats are very powerful in Cataclysm, so much so that players were considering using PvP gear in PvE just because of these primary stat bonuses.
- PvP enchants are properly valued and attached to Honor Quartermasters and Tol Barad/Baradin Hold Quartermasters.
- Chief Engineer Scooty, formally of Booty Bay, has packed up his Gnomeregan teleporter and lugged it up to Grom'gol in Northern Stranglethorn to better accommodate his Horde customers.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
Jagoex Jan 15th 2011 3:43PM
@drtongue
I don't have an average ilvl above 350 (rocking only 3 epics atm), and am pulling just shy of 20k when raid-buffed. Top-geared warlocks are pulling somewhere in the neighborhood of 22-24k DPS. If a warlock is in full Heroic gear, itemized properly, and not getting remotely close to that number or breaking 14-15k DPS, something is wrong.
If the warlock is geared and played well, this change will result in a fairly decent buff. Also, since our damage will likely be increasing faster than our stamina, the new health regen model for Fel Armor will scale better over time, resulting in an even greater buff. Of course, that is based on an assumption (a pretty safe one, though), so we'll just have to wait and see.
And why are you worrying about health AFTER combat? We have Soul Harvest, which is one of the best ways to regen health in the game right now and is on a very short cooldown. If it's unavailable, there's always food or a healer to help you out, too. There has never been a good reason to wait for your health to regen via Fel Armor, ever, and it's a little ridiculous to cite that as a reason to be upset over this change.
Aaron Jan 15th 2011 2:30AM
wow..thats a major change to PVP stat bonuses! It has me curious as to what effect it will have when it goes live, but as long as its a nerf everyone will get, it shouldnt change much, right?
Elicor Jan 15th 2011 6:14AM
Chaos Orbs for JPs? About bloody time.
mazca13 Jan 15th 2011 7:17AM
The Warlock change to Fel Armor makes me very happy - the big concern people had with the way it was previously going to be changed (from its current periodic heal to a simple 10% mana increase) was that it just wasn't useful - a warlock really wants a steady flow of health so he or she can lifetap when necessary, and 10% mana in and of itself is not particularly helpful. The new version in these notes solves that problem very nicely.
Fataliaa Jan 15th 2011 7:30AM
I read a few comments where people are saying that the change to Fel Armor is a buff. Can you please help me understand your math?
my current basic spellpower is 5556.
Today = Fel Armor = +638 SP, leading to 6194 SP
After change = Fel Armor = +3% of 5556, or 167, leading to total of 5722 SP.
Sounds like a pretty big nerf to me...
Fataliaa Jan 15th 2011 7:32AM
woups, nevermind, i misread - the 3% applies to healing only - the amount by which the SP is increased in the redesign is not divulgated.
steve Jan 15th 2011 8:08AM
"Items: The Honor Commodities and Justice Commodities Vendors now sell raw tradeskill materials. These are not intended to be a cost-effective source of these materials, but an option for players with lots of Justice or Honor Points who have already purchased all of the gear that interests them."
#%$@ YEAH!
deweymaverick Jan 15th 2011 10:16AM
I know, right?!
I can't believe that this wasn't the first reply to the blog post.
Finally we can freaking do *SOMETHING* with scads of left of JP. Of course they mention its not supposed to be an "efficient" way to get things - so I wonder just how bad the trade off will be....
Darkdust Jan 15th 2011 10:27AM
"All PvP 4-piece bonuses have had their flat stat values cut in half. Primary stats are very powerful in Cataclysm, so much so that players were considering using PvP gear in PvE just because of these primary stat bonuses."
Wut. :(
MW Jan 15th 2011 11:08AM
I will be sad not seeing Scooty in Booty Bay. Even though I could not use the teleporter, (I'm Alliance,) I am a rabid TOS fan and loved the reference.
Scooty, I'll miss you buddy...
MissAshley Jan 15th 2011 2:33PM
Now that's a Fel Armor I'd be happy to have. :)
I guess major Archeology fixes are still on the backburner, though.
Marcosius Jan 15th 2011 3:16PM
Hi, I play a rogue and I just creamed myself.
Alf Jan 15th 2011 4:14PM
Just wonder if these buffs to slam means that 1h dual wield is better than titan grip now for fury warrs...
Katsuya Kaiba Jan 15th 2011 7:48PM
What about Troll druid flight forms?
Grod Jan 22nd 2011 7:08PM
Possibly "Restoration: Disentanglement " is low enough in the talent tree to still be usable by Balance after they max their tree out? Not sure but that sure would be a major nerf for already underpowered boomkins, the 15% damage reduction is a very nice buff though. We'll see.