Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsPatch 4.1 PTR notes updated for March 1
by Anne Stickney 
Mar 1st 2011 at 5:20PM
The patch notes for PTR patch 4.1 have been updated, and we've got all the latest changes for you below. Included in this update is some startling information regarding death knight talents.
The original round of 4.1 patch notes can be found here.
General
Death Knights
The original round of 4.1 patch notes can be found here.
General
- Resilience scaling has been modified for linear returns, as opposed to increasing returns. Under the new formula, going from 30 resilience to 40 resilience gives players the same increase to survivability as going from 0 to 10. Resilience now scales in the same way armor and magic resistances do. A player with 32.5% damage reduction from resilience in 4.0.6 should see their damage reduction unchanged in 4.1. Those with less than 32.5% will gain slightly. Those with more will lose some damage reduction, increasingly so as their resilience climbs.
Death Knights
- Raise Ally has been redesigned to be a battle resurrection, analogous to Rebirth. It is instant cast, but costs 50 Runic Power to use, and has a 10-minute cooldown. It shares the same global battle resurrection cap with Rebirth and Soulstone.
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Talent Specializations
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Blood
- Blood Shield now only works while in Blood Presence.
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Frost
- Frost Strike now deals 130% of weapon damage, up from 110%.
- Howling Blast damage has been increased by 20%. To compensate, the area-of-effect splash now does 50% of the single-target damage, down from 60%. The net result of this change leaves the area-of-effect damage roughly the same as 4.0.6 numbers.
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Blood
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Glyphs
- Glyph of Raise Ally is now Glyph of Death Gate, and makes Death Gate cast 60% faster.
Druids
- Swipe (Bear) cooldown has been reduced to 3 seconds, down from 6.
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Talent Specializations
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Restoration
- Gift of Nature (passive) also reduces Tranquility's cooldown by 2.5/5 minutes.
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Restoration
Priests
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Talent Specializations
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Discipline
- Power Word: Barrier's cooldown has been increased to 3 minutes, up from 2, and its effect has been reduced to 25%, down from 30%.
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Discipline
Warlocks
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Talent Specializations
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Affliction
- Shadow Mastery (passive) has been increased to 30%, up from 25%.
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Affliction
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Pets
- Doomguard's damage has been increased by 50%. The Doomguard is intended to be the best guardian for single-target damage, and the Infernal the best when there are multiple targets.
- Shadow Bite (Felhunter) damage and effect has doubled.
Warriors
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Talent Specializations
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Arms
- Strikes of Opportunity damage has been increased by 10% to keep stat parity with other strike changes.
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Fury
- Unshackled Fury now only grants 2 base points of mastery, down from 8. This change offsets the Flurry boost to better control Fury burst damage.
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Arms
Items
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Item Sets
- The current damage-dealing death knight 4-piece raid set bonus now also grants increased attack power when Killing Machine triggers, as well as when the death knight gains Death Runes).
- The current Holy paladin 4-piece raid set bonus now grants 540 Spirit for 6 seconds after casting Holy Shock.
Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
SamLowry Mar 2nd 2011 2:29PM
The druid battle rez is useful only if the druid actually uses it. As a dpser, I don't think I've ever been battle rezzed by a druid, and when I complain afterward the response has always been "I'm saving it for the tank."
Chris Mar 1st 2011 5:28PM
Just once, I'd like to see something in the warrior changes column that makes me smile.
loop_not_defined Mar 1st 2011 5:54PM
I don't know what to tell you - I regularly find such changes. Rallying Cry addition was the easiest. Flurry increase was another.
NekoDaimyo Mar 1st 2011 5:57PM
Have you not been playing a warrior long? Positive (to warriors) changes are damned few. Sure, we get stuff with an expansion, but then the nerfs begin.
loop_not_defined Mar 1st 2011 6:03PM
Yeah, Warrior's been my main - and continues to be my main - since January 2005. That was before Fury Warriors were a dual-wielding spec.
Nerfs following an expansion isn't exactly new or surprising. How long have you been playing? o_O
Finnicks Mar 1st 2011 6:27PM
You can get smiles and stickers under "Warrior Changes" when I can walk into a Battleground on my Druid Healer at 2.5k resil and NOT get reduced to a whimpering pulp in 5 seconds by the first warrior I see, even as 5 of my buddies are trying to kill HIM.
Matthew Mar 1st 2011 8:47PM
I see things in the warrior column that make me smile all the time.
I play a Shaman, of course.
Evelinda Mar 2nd 2011 2:20AM
really? coz the changes to lambs to the slaughter and strikes of opportunity seem pretty awesome to me... and so does the change to shield mastery adding magic damage reduction to shield block. but maybe i'm just doing it wrong...
anbilow Mar 1st 2011 5:27PM
That Raise Ally thing is pretty crazy! Wow... Now DK's are even cooler...
Taitle Mar 1st 2011 5:28PM
I'm not sure I understand all these nerfs to Discipline. It might just be the gear level my Priest is at, but I've found Disc to be far inferior to Holy in both effective throughput and mana efficiency. I'll struggle with a fight in Disc only to change to my Holy spec and have no issues whatsoever. It was one of the reasons I've ended up playing my Paladin for Cata.
Jack Spicer Mar 1st 2011 5:46PM
I'm pretty sure the PW:Barrier nerf comes irrespective of Disc's current ability to heal in raids. Like the recent Shield buffs, its coming from top end guilds using and relying on these abilities way more than they were intended.
Hopefully in 4.2 there will be some attention paid to Disc's AoE healing abilities in comparison to Holy's.
restodr00d Mar 1st 2011 5:49PM
Yeah Disc IS holy now... but weaker.
GerardthePriest Mar 1st 2011 6:09PM
Discipline healing: you are two 3-minute cooldown abilities. Nobody else gets them, so they will be steadily nerfed. Oh, and I guess you can do some healing, but nothing particularly impressive.
Lipstick Mar 2nd 2011 5:04AM
Blizzard pretty much ruined the Disc class for me. I begged. I cried. I wrote rational, and sound suggestions for improvement along with many other priests on their forum. I asked over and over again for Blizzard to explain these changes -- we either got zero response from a blue, or the response we got made it more than clear they have no idea what they're doing with Disc.
When the players, who play the class can speak about their class better than the dev's who are posting, their is an issue.
Tonight was the first night that I healed a heroic as holy. It felt funny, and wrong. Yet nobody died, and I didn't have half the mana issues I had as Disc. I would hazard to say there was plenty of times where I found myself missing the smite to heal mechanic of Disc because there was actually -down- time between heals as holy.
The iron is not lost on me.
Holy still feels clunky to me, I find myself wishing I had better macros for it. I know in time however it will begin to feel more inherent. For now it's just my off spec. It might become my main spec if Blizzard doesn't get their act together.
Matthijs Winnink Mar 2nd 2011 5:45AM
I've been playing discipline ever since Naxxramas came back in Wrath. I was surprised discipline got buffed as we did in Cataclysm even when i was topping healing meters. Some of the changes made sense, but with the current nerfs i notice i can heal a lot more easily as holy. I can actually look at Healthframes, withouth switching focus to my mana bar every 10 seconds...it still feels dirty though.
TinyLittleRobot Mar 1st 2011 5:32PM
Wonder if Holy pallies will start taking tier pieces now. I don't play one but I read the lack of ANY haste on the tier pieces makes them worthless.
Also, woot for my afflic lock and frost dk :)
P.S. Woot for those thinking about getting into pvp?
Pyroneil Mar 1st 2011 6:13PM
Hmm, not sure. The 2P is still pretty terrible (5% crit for
Pyroneil Mar 1st 2011 6:21PM
Comment eaten by the internet...
Basically: 2P is terrible, itemization is terrible, but a near constant 540 spirit is pretty darn tempting.
I may just stick to all my nice hasty gear, because if this comes in 4.1 the gear is dated anyway.
Firestyle Mar 1st 2011 5:33PM
That's an original paladin set bonus. I wonder where they got that from (shaman). These guys are sooooooo creative.
What was wrong with the holy radiance proc again?
Nick Mar 1st 2011 5:55PM
How often do you use holy radiance vs. how often do you use holy shock as a holy pally? Because I'm pretty sure this change just puts the 4 piece set bonus on par with the other healer bonuses where it's a small spirit proc off of a frequently used ability, as opposed to a big proc off of an ability with a 1 minute cooldown.