Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsPatch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 18
by Anne Stickney 
Feb 19th 2011 at 3:16AM
Blizzard's serving up some weekend hotfixes, included the promised dungeon finder changes from earlier this week. Community Manager Zarhym posted the updated list earlier, and along with the dungeon finder tweaks, we've also got a fairly good list of class changes. Keep in mind, while the dungeon finder changes have been implemented, they will take a realm restart in order to take effect. Some highlights:
- For hunters, Aspect of the Hawk now provides around an additional 2,000 attack power at level 85.
- For paladins, Light of Dawn no longer heals targets outside the paladin's party or raid. It correctly heals up to five targets in the paladin's raid.
- For warlocks, instant-cast Shadowbolts from Shadow Trance (both the talent and Glyph of Corruption versions) should no longer consume charges of Backdraft if both procs are available.
Zarhym- Battlegrounds
- Demolishers were respawning too quickly in Strand of the Ancients. They are now on a 20-second spawn timer.
- Classes
- Death Knights
- Death knight Ghouls under the effects of Dark Transformation can no longer cast Gnaw while it's on cooldown.
- Hunters
- Aimed Shot damage has been decreased to approximately 160% weapon damage (at level 80+), down from 200%.
- Aspect of the Hawk now provides around an additional 2000 attack power at level 85.
- Paladins
- Light of Dawn no longer heals targets outside the paladin's party or raid. It correctly heals up to 5 targets in the paladin's raid.
- Priests
- Body and Soul no longer reduces the mana cost of Power Word: Shield (the hotfix made on February 16 to provide this additional benefit has been reverted).
- Rapture now returns 2/5/7% of maximum mana when Power Word: Shield is consumed, up from 2/4/6%.
- Warlocks
- Instant-cast Shadowbolts from Shadow Trance (both the talent and Glyph of Corruption versions) should no longer consume charges of Backdraft if both procs are available. Shadow Trance will always take priority and be consumed first when Backdraft is active. Subsequent Shadowbolts will consume Backdraft stacks.
- Warriors
- Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (Arms passive) now gives 20% bonus damage with two-handed weapons, up from 10%.
- Death Knights
- Dungeon Finder
- If a party member remains outside of a dungeon for more than 3 minutes, they become eligible for removal, regardless of other Vote Kick restrictions.
- When players queue as a group with a tank or a healer, and the tank or healer drops group (or is kicked) within the first 5 minutes, all of the other players who queued with them are removed from the group as well.
- If there is a group of 3 or more friends and someone in that group initiates a Vote Kick of a random party member, it now requires 4 votes to kick the player, instead of the standard 3 votes.
- The penalty for using the Vote Kick feature too often is not issued to a player who kicks someone with whom they queued for a dungeon (i.e. the party member being selected for removal is not a player randomly selected via the Dungeon Finder).
- The penalty for using the Vote Kick feature too often will be issued much more quickly to players who join as a party of 4 and kick the randomly selected 5th player.
- The penalty for using the Vote Kick feature too often will now not allow the player to initiate a Vote Kick for 2 hours, up from 45 minutes.
- These changes will require realm restarts to take effect. More information can be found here.
- Dungeons & Raids
- When switching a normal raid dungeon over to Heroic difficulty, players were instantly becoming saved without warning. There is now a warning dialog box which will appear before the difficulty is changed.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
sherekhan88 Feb 19th 2011 11:02AM
Did the healer and the other 2 DPS deserve it though?
Autumn Feb 19th 2011 11:29AM
Here's my concern. They say if a tank or healer drops at the start of the dungeon, everyone else gets dropped as well. That means that after a 30min wait in the lfg tool, you're back to another 30min wait. Does the person who dropped still get the debuff, and do we get the debuff as well?
I'm not concerned about the vote to kick penalties, but it seems pretty crappy to penalize everyone just because some tank or healer decided they didn't want to tank or heal after all.
I've had that happen on several occasions and if I get to look forward to hour long queues because of this, I won't be using the dungeon finder anymore.
Hob Feb 19th 2011 12:01PM
If you are grouped with a tank or healer when you start looking for a dungeon, get a group with the random dungeon finder, and then the tank or healer leaves, you get dropped too.
It's to prevent tanks and healers from selling instant-queue's and then dropping group ~ which penalizes everyone in the instance.
Shrike Feb 19th 2011 1:44PM
Autumn, the tank/healer drop change doesn't affect people who solo-queued or queued with other dps. Only those who *initially queued with the tank or healer* are dropped when the tank or healer drop within the first 5 minutes. Not randoms who got into that group.
fallenphoenix Feb 19th 2011 11:58AM
What a mess...
Tank drops because life calls within first 5 minutes of dungeon and the dps who have been waiting 20-40 minutes (or longer) now have to start from scratch? But the tank will probably insta-queue later...
Man, I can see the trolls signing up as tanks for no other reason than to mess with people and double their queue time (and woe to the dps who has that happen to them two or three times in a row...)
Ultimately, I think the problem is there aren't enough people playing as tanks or healers. So why not get at the root cause instead of the symptom and incentivize playing as a tank or healer. Before anyone asks, no I don't have a suggestion for HOW to do that. But these days, as many of us tanks (and healers) have found, it's HARD to be a non-dps class. Blizz keeps making it harder and harder to heal because they don't want healing to be like it was in Wrath (which I understand), but the consequence is fewer people play healers leading to longer queues. Tanks who don't show up in full T-11 gear with 200k health are chastised and scorned by the "gogogo" crowd. I play as a tank but will ONLY run with my guild because as so many others have shared in here--it's just not worth it otherwise. Until Blizzard comes up with some sort of system to MAKE it worth it, the queue times will only get longer and this "hotfix" is nothing but a hot mess.
Shrike Feb 19th 2011 1:47PM
Read more closely. Only those dps who queued *with* the tank/healer will be dropped. The dps who've been waiting in queue themselves are now at the front of the queue, just like the dps who queued with the tank *wanted* to be.
fallenphoenix Feb 19th 2011 5:18PM
Point to you, Shrike. Thank you.
I still stand by my statement that there needs to be further incentive to play as a tank or healer. The remedy Blizzard has come up with isn't as cataclysmic (get it? get it?) as I initially feared, but I still think they're going after symptoms instead of the cause.
trvcht Feb 19th 2011 12:25PM
Reading is hard, no?
"When players queue as a group with a tank or a healer, and the tank or healer drops group (or is kicked) within the first 5 minutes, all of the other players who queued with them are removed from the group as well."
This means that anyone who buys a tank for the queue and has the tank drop group upon zoning in will also be dropped. Not that the tank that drops upon zoning into Stonecore will cause everyone else to drop. It's a fix aimed at the jerks trading in tank queues who don't actually stick around to play the instance.
Lipstick Feb 19th 2011 1:23PM
There were pages and pages of well thought out responses on the forums about massive issues with the Disc class in general. There was zero response to any of it. A simple 1% buff to rapture and the removal of the mana saving ability for holy priests.
It's beyond ridiculous.
The 1% buff wasn't enough. For starters. Secondly -- they refuse to address issues in the class as a whole, which is very frustrating.
They tell us -- don't spam the spell more than half our tree is based around the use of, our mastery is based off of. Do they give us anything else to replace it with? No. They simply say (with their silence) "We're not going to buff your direct heals -- to make you a stronger raid healer and allow you to be effective when you use other spells -- we're just going to continue to buff the mana cost of all your spells -- so that you're a pale comparison to holy -- with major mana issues and only brought to 25 man hardmode content for your power word shield buff. "
Disc is in a bad place right now. Very bad.
This 1% buff does nothing to fix the issue they've caused.
Players weren't spamming PWS because they thought that play style was dynamic or interesting. They were spamming the spell because we don't have any other direct mitigation spells which gets benefit from our mastery, or our talents -- and our direct healing spells are significantly worse than holy.
Disc has never fit into the cataclysm triage model and continues not to.
Shrike Feb 19th 2011 1:42PM
Read again. This doesn't affect people who are solo-queueing, or queueing with only other dps. Only those who *initially queued with the tank or healer* are dropped when the tank or healer drop within the first 5 minutes. Not randoms who got into that group.
Shrike Feb 19th 2011 1:42PM
Comment fail.
Devonellah Feb 19th 2011 2:25PM
The feeling I get is that Blizzard is fine tuning our abilities until they find the perfect balance. Nothing is ever perfect, but it can come close through trial and error.
I think the 1% increase in Disc's regen was totally in order, and if more adjustments need to be made, I have faith that the developers at Blizzard will make those adjustments to benefit the balance of the game while making it as fun as possible.
I do wish that I could throw my bubble more, but I can deal with the way things are right now, if the Bubble cost just a little less and absorbed for a little less, I'd be fine with it.
And of coarse, I always want more mana regen ;-)
Kroof Feb 19th 2011 2:30PM
For the "If a party member remains outside of a dungeon for more than 3 minutes, they become eligible for removal, regardless of other Vote Kick restrictions."
Does disconnecting/logging of count as not being in the dungeon?
I have been in countless groups where an otherwise perfectly good group member has had to leave suddenly, and they do not leave group. Just logoff/exit game. Leaving us waiting forever for this person to disappear from our group. Most times we are forced to vote kick them out, some times we cannot vote kick as we already used ours to remove a bad member from the same run.
If this doesn't affect it, PLEASE be kind, leave group then log.
Cinarg Feb 19th 2011 3:36PM
Arms warriors getting a buff? Pinch me, I must be dreaming!
Ice Feb 19th 2011 5:54PM
Im kinda saddened they actually mentioned "after 5 minutes" making people just time it and leave after its run out.
I'm sorry but last time I checked 5 mins is less than 45 minutes AND 5 minutes is about as much it takes to zone in, get buffed, pull one trash pack.
You can still go buy tank for group, clear one trash and leave. 4 people queueing for tank is sure faster than one dps alone =/
Drakkenfyre Feb 19th 2011 9:43PM
I just told someone yesterday they wouldn't announce the exact time, for that very reason. People would figure it out eventually, but that they wouldn't tell it specifically.
Now they have.
Radiophonic Feb 19th 2011 11:09PM
Yeah, it's always a given when the tank stands around after zoning in and says "AFK a sec". You know he's going to drop group as soon as he clears the boss he wants.
Radiophonic Feb 19th 2011 11:07PM
Now maybe a "Players can no longer leave group while running through a large pack of mobs leaving the rest of the group to wipe" aka "You cannot do this while moving" and maybe "If a tank leaves after the first or second boss in an instance because he didn't get what he wanted off of the boss, said tank gets resurrection sickness for 24 hours"
bubbleshielding Feb 21st 2011 5:29PM
Yey on the rapture change for Disco Priest.....(^.^)