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 3 of 5)
Firestyle Mar 1st 2011 7:21PM
I would just appreciate some more originality out of the set bonus. It feels cheap. I don't like cheap things.
Ice Mar 1st 2011 8:05PM
Welcome to all other classes in the game.
Tanks: "Increases the duration of your (damage reduce cooldown) ability by 50%."
Melee dps: "Each time you (...), you also gain 1% increased attack power for 30 sec. Stacks up to 3 times."
Ranged dps: "Reduces cast time of (..) by 10%"(or 0.2 secs if hunter)
Healers:
2pt "Increases crit change of low mana cost low healing spell by 5%"
4pt: "Increases spirit by 540 after you use stuff with cd"
Forreststump Mar 2nd 2011 10:30AM
"It feels cheap. I don't like cheap things."
You sound like my wife... =)
MattKrotzer Mar 1st 2011 5:35PM
If the notes stay as they currently are, this could be the biggest buff to Prot Warriors in ages.
razion Mar 1st 2011 6:30PM
... ... ...D-Did you mean Bearal Druids? I think you meant Bearal Druids.
wow Mar 1st 2011 5:35PM
Yes. Completely new changes, that went up about... 30 minutes after the last set.
Couldn't you of just edited these into the last set at the time instead of waiting some amount of time and posting them on their own?
MrJackSauce Mar 1st 2011 6:27PM
You know, if you already knew these notes then why are you here complaining that they are bit late? Or are on a different update? What difference does it make to your life? Will you go about your day with a chip on your shoulder?
Scooter Mar 2nd 2011 10:20AM
@wow
It's a common practice for any news medium to report it as they get it. Editing previous reports is out of the question because few people are interested in re-reading the same article to see the different content.
Do you even have a reason to whine like this? Seriously dude don't post pissy crap like this unless you have a legitimate reason.
You're a Troll.
Revynn Mar 1st 2011 5:42PM
Glad to see the changes to locks. The specs are fairly balanced as it is (at least compared to other classes who have specs that are just not worth playing) and this should be another step towards making them truly equal as well as enforcing the pet-for-every-spec design they're aiming for. The change to the Doomguard is a welcome one as well, using the AOE pet on single targets just felt wrong.
loop_not_defined Mar 1st 2011 5:59PM
Honestly, it's weird reading comments like this. Having played for over 6 years, it seems like the bar for becoming a "worthless spec" just keeps rising and rising...or lowering and lowering, depending how you look at it.
actoncole94 Mar 1st 2011 5:57PM
This change also gives 10-man guilds a bit more flexiblilty in their raid composition. A nice addition that won't affect many, but is a good change.
radda Mar 1st 2011 5:58PM
"Gift of Nature (passive) also reduces Tranquility's cooldown by 2.5/5 minutes."
Whoa whoa whoa. This is actually a good resto change. Who are these people and what did they do with Blizzard?
What makes the 2.5/5 difference though? Gift of Nature is a spec bonus passive, so it's not like we can put extra talent points in it.
loop_not_defined Mar 1st 2011 5:58PM
Honestly, it's weird reading comments like this. Having played for over 6 years, it seems like the bar for becoming a "worthless spec" just keeps rising and rising...or lowering and lowering, depending how you look at it.
loop_not_defined Mar 1st 2011 6:00PM
Ugh...disregard. Replying system failed again. Reposted under the appropriate comment.
BEGIN THE DOWNVOTING!
somenamelol Mar 1st 2011 5:59PM
Could someone please share a link to the original of that awesome header-picture artwork? thx, mons!
Biskit333 Mar 1st 2011 6:00PM
I see no problem in giving b-res to more classes, Blizzard has already spread around so many other unique abilities that I think the time of powerful spells belonging to a single class is long gone. Whether this philosophy is good or bad is up for debate, but the b-res change is merely one part of a much broader policy change.
On another note, I anxiously await news of the proposed druid and shaman cooldown additions.
Sterrin Mar 1st 2011 6:00PM
I wish I had been a fly on the wall at the developer meeting wherein the following took place:
Developer 1: "I hate druids! I don't ever want to bring a druid to my raid ever again, but I'd miss my b-rez!"
Developer 2: "I know, right? Druids suck! Let's nerf the hell out of their healing (more than we already have, and let's give the b-rez to another class so we don't ever have to deal with druids again."
Developer 3: "YEAH! But...who do we give the b-rez to?"
Developer 1: "Duhhhhhh. Teh best. class. ever. DEATH KNIGHTS!"
Developer 2: "Death knights don't heal."
Developer 1: "Shut up."
razion Mar 1st 2011 6:16PM
Death-knights are supposed to be masters of Necromancy--masters of death magic. I was actually very surprised and very disappointed with their introduction in Wrath that they didn't have a normal resurrection ability. But now, giving them a combat-resurrection spell does seem the most appropriate. After all, they are a melee-caster hybrid, so it does fit even better with the design of the class (by that notion, Paladins should have one, and frankly I'm surprised they don't).
razion Mar 1st 2011 6:25PM
In addition, I would like to point out that this gives Death Knights a bit more group utility than they had before, which couldn't have come at a better time, seeing as no-consequence-stacking of ranged dps has certainly been a problem for this expansion. Coupled with warriors now having their Last-Stand shout, it looks like things are finally looking up for melee dps!
Now if only we could get Warriors and DKs some CC for dungeons...
Drack Mar 1st 2011 6:38PM
" 'Death Knights don't heal' "
This is hardly an argument against (Nay, its an argument FOR) a DK B-Res. Why does a class need to heal in order to resurrect? DKs are known for resurrecting people (though usually as soulless slaves) so there's no reason class-lore wise that they wouldn't be able to B-Res. The reasoning for giving a battle resurrection to a Tank/Dps class? Look at my comment on the last page.
And thankfully this isn't an ability that can be misused easily like Time Warp is (And even the fiasco that came from that subsided fairly quickly). So any "ZOMG DKS R BADS THEY ONLY USE IT RONG!!!!1!!ONE!" comments that may come should just be waved off.
TL;DR- Stop whining about DK B-Res.