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 30
by Mathew McCurley 
Mar 30th 2011 at 11:12PM
The PTR 4.1 patch notes have been updated for March 30. Of particular note is a new Battle.net account-bound classification for heirloom items, allowing players to transfer their heirlooms around from account to account when they're part of the same Battle.net ID. Hit the jump for the new notes.
Patch 4.1 patch note updates for March 30
Achievements PvP
Shaman
Warlock
- The following Battleground achievements have been permanently removed from the game, as they do not function correctly with the achievement tracking system:
- Guild Gankin' in Gilneas
- Guild Gulch
- The Peak of Perfection
- The Perfect Guild Storm
- Storming the Beach
- The guild achievements for earning exalted reputation with factions (Ambassador, Diplomacy, and United Nations) have been fixed to now correctly count cumulative guild members with exalted factions. Previously, these achievements would only count exalted factions on one guild member.
- The guild rated Battleground title achievements should now properly be awarded.
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Account Bound Items
- Many "Account Bound" heirlooms are now labeled as "Battle.net Account Bound", meaning that they can also be traded or mailed to characters that are on different World of Warcraft accounts under the same Battle.net account.
- Mail sent to characters on the same Battle.net account now arrives instantaneously, as it does for the same World of Warcraft account.
- Mailing account-bound items to characters of the opposite faction on the same Battle.net account will now correctly translate faction-specific items to their appropriate equivalent.
- Aura of Arcane Haste now has a clearer visual on the bearer of the aura.
- Bound Flames in the Karsh Steelbender encounter no longer create Lava Pools when they are killed.
- The Short Throw ability used by Twilight Sadists has had its range reduced to 10 yards.
- Ragezone cast by Defias Blood Wizards now only increases damage dealt, no longer increasing damage taken.
- Bleeding Wound damge from General Umbriss has been lowered by 20%.
- Malignant Trogg now moves more slowly.
- Encumbered damage bonus from Forgemaster Throngus has been reduced by 50%.
- Invoked Flaming Spirits should prefer non-tank targets to fixate on.
- The Twilight Flame Patch from the Twilight Drake has been removed.
- The cooldown portion of the Twisted Arcane buff cast by Azureborne Seers has been removed.
- Ground Slam now has a pre-cast visual on the ground in front of Ozruk. In addition, Ground Slam's damage and radius have been reduced.
- High Priestess Azil's Seismic Shard now has a more obvious warning visual.
- Gilgoblin Hunters' Poisoned Spear direct and periodic damage has been reduced.
- Gilgoblin Aquamages' Tsunami damage has been reduced.
- Visual effects during the Lady Naz'jar encounter have been improved for clarity.
- Blight Beasts summoned during the Ozumat encounter now deal less damage with Aura of Dread.
- The Air Nova ability triggered when a Gust Soldier is killed has had its knockback effect reduced.
- Altairus now spawns closer to the center of his platform, away from the edge.
- Temple Adepts and Ministers of Air now wait 2 seconds before starting a spell cast when they are first engaged.
- The maze section has been removed, and nearby creatures and bosses have been adjusted to compensate.
- Guild Challenges are now available for testing.
- These challenges can be found in the Info pane of the guild UI.
- Guild Challenges fall into three categories: Guild Dungeon Run, Guild Raid, and Guild Rated Battleground.
- Each challenge can be completed a set number of times per week. Guild groups participating in level-appropriate Heroic or normal difficulty dungeons and raids, or Rated Battlegrounds, will automatically qualify for challenge credit.
- Each time a Guild Challenge is completed, the guild will be awarded experience and gold deposited directly into the Guild Vault, as well as the opportunity to earn all-new achievements. A popup or "toast" will be displayed to confirm a Guild Challenge has been completed (similar to achievement alerts).
- Guild experience earned via Guild Challenges will be awarded above the daily cap. The experience cap will move forward relative to the amount of experience obtained through completing Guild Challenges (similar to rested experience for characters).
- Guilds already at the level cap will be awarded substantially more gold in place of guild experience.
- Gold rewards require the qualified guild members of the group to be honored with their guild, and the guild must be level 5.
-
Alchemy
- Flask of Steelskin now grants 450 Stamina, up from 300. The Mixology bonus for alchemists remains at 120 stamina.
- The rate at which Honor Points are earned has been doubled.
- Arena matchmaking can now extend beyond a team's Battlegroup.
- Battleground raid leaders can now move players from other realms among raid subgroups.
- All non-damaging interrupts off the global cooldown will now always hit the target. This includes Pummel, Shield Bash, Kick, Mind Freeze, Rebuke, Skull Bash, Counterspell, Wind Shear, Solar Beam, Silencing Shot, and related player pet abilities.
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Unholy
- Desecration no longer triggers when an applicable strike hits a snare-immune target. This is primarily to avoid unnecessary spell effect clutter during boss encounters.
- Cyclone duration has been reduced to 5 seconds, down from 6.
- Lacerate bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased initial damage done.
- Savage Defense has been redesigned slightly. Instead of a single charge absorption, it now places an absorption effect on the druid absorbing up to 35% of the druid's attack power (modified by mastery, if applicable) in damage and lasting 10 seconds. There are no longer any charges on the effect.
- Swipe (Bear) cooldown has been reduced to 3 seconds, down from 6, and is now trainable at level 18 (training cost has been reduced). In addition, the bonus threat from this ability has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.
- Thrash bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.
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Restoration
- Nature's Swiftness now also increases the healing done by th eaffected nature spell by 50%.
-
Pets
- Summoned pets now start with 100 focus, up from 0.
-
Hunter Bug Fixes
- Hunters will automatically acquire a new target if the current target dies in the middle of a cast.
- Aimed Shot and Steady Shot should no longer start casting Auto Shot on a new target when the "Stop Auto Attack" option is enabled.
- Auto Shot now automatically turns off until reactivated once Freezing Trap is cast on an enemy player.
- Scatter Shot's disorient effect should no longer sometimes be broken by the hunter's Auto Shot.Mage
-
Arcane
- Arcane Blast damage has been increased by 13%. cast time has been reduced to 2.0 seconds, down from 2.35 seconds.
- Arcane Explosion damage has been increased by 30% 13%.
- Frost Fingers of Frost bonus damage applied to Ice Lance has been increased to 25%, up from 15%.
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Protection
- Sacred Duty can now be activated by Avenger's Shield in addition to Judgements. The effect now lasts 10 seconds, down from 15.
-
Holy
- Holy Word: Sanctuary healing done has been increased by 35%. In addition, it has a new spell effect.
Shaman
-
Restoration
- Cleansing Waters now has a 6-second internal cooldown.
Warlock
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Affliction
- Unstable Affliction damage done when it is dispelled has been doubled, but this damage can no longer be critical. Glyphs Glyph of Soul Swap now increases the cooldown of Soul Swap by 15 seconds, up from 10 seconds.
- Heroic Leap is no longer on the global cooldown, similar to other warrior movement abilities.
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Protection
- Gag Order now applies to Pummel and only affects Heroic Throw, giving these abilities a 100% chance to silence the target for 3 seconds. In addition, Gag Order lowers the cooldown of Heroic Throw by 30 seconds.
WoW Patch 4.1 is on the PTR, and WoW Insider has all the latest news for you -- from previews of the revamped Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub to new valor point mechanics and new archaeology items.
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 6)
Nick Mar 31st 2011 3:52AM
Adore = Aoe, silly auto correct on swype.
Thunder Mar 31st 2011 3:53AM
Taking the "H" out of "HC"!!
Sinthar Mar 31st 2011 8:00AM
eroic?
:)
Mike Mar 31st 2011 4:51AM
So, eroic, or what? You're just a T away from a real PuG disaster there, my man.
John Mar 31st 2011 10:28AM
Please stop with the HC. There's no C in Dungeon. It's a Dungeon Finder tool, not a cavern or cave or whatever the heck the C stands for.
It's like using mfgr as an abbreviation for manufacturer. Where'd that g come from?
tylerbottom Mar 31st 2011 3:14PM
Heroi"c"
o__o
Dragoniel Mar 31st 2011 4:23AM
"Player vs. Player
The rate at which Honor Points are earned has been doubled."
Seriously, nobody commented on this yet? Thats the most important change of all this here list!
Tol Barad Honor Frenzy v2.0 ftw.
Gallows Mar 31st 2011 3:55PM
But honour is already so easy to grind. I don't even.
Arrohon Mar 31st 2011 7:30AM
I don't see why they did this. Honor is a pretty quick resource to come by so it doesn't seem needed.
Dragoniel Mar 31st 2011 8:52AM
Well, if you're a hardcore grinder, then perhaps it actually is a quick resource to come by. Take me for example - I don't do any kind of endgame PvE at all. No dungeons, no heroics and no raids (except BH).
I play at least 6 hours a day with a priority on open world PvP. And guess what? Between doing dailies (25 a day), grinding reputations, running old raids and heroics for achievements and mounts, trolling friends and actually doing said open world PvP, I simply have no time to grind my arse off in random battlegrounds, of which alliance wins 1 battle out of 4 on my battlegroup (which is backed up by statistics on every character of our battlegroup).
So yeah, that's a pretty important change to me. Actually, most important of 4.1 patch notes so far.
adam200 Mar 31st 2011 7:27AM
So, I'm confused. I don't PvP much myself, but I've seen consistent griping about Frost Mages being overpowered, though I don't know myself. And then this change:
"Frost Fingers of Frost bonus damage applied to Ice Lance has been increased to 25%, up from 15%."
I guess my question is, because I don't know, are Frost Mages actually OP, or is it just more of the same griping by players that think their class, and their class alone, is being treated unfairly?
Arrohon Mar 31st 2011 7:31AM
Frost Mages are very good right now at pvp. These buffs are likely for pve where frost is more lacking.
Robert Mar 31st 2011 10:52AM
My main is a frost mage for PvP, and I'm ranked 900 in a 2s arena team. (qeldragos@malorne) I feel like a skilled mage (which I am definitely not) can own in PvP, but can be countered pretty well by a few classes. DKs and Warriors, when played well shut me down very easily (DKs have CC like Chains of Frost, and I don't know why Warriors eat me, I don't play one). I counter especially well against Hunters (stay within melee range and CC the pet) and Rogues (freeze and kite, freeze and kite).
The moral of the story is that I feel every class wants to be completely equal with every other class, with no Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock mechanic.
Maybe I'm just defending my class though, there is no doubt that I'm completely biased.
Revynn Mar 31st 2011 10:09PM
Frost was addressed in one of the recent Dev Blogs, to paraphrase:
Frost is a strange animal in that in random BG's and open PvP, where skill levels are all over the place but generally low, Frost is extremely good. Even a "decent" frost mage can be incredibly hard to counter by most players, let alone a very skilled one. However, as you get to the top end of competitive rated play, Frost is fairly balanced.
I don't pvp and I don't play a mage, but I've heard/seen a couple quotes from very high-end Frost Mages saying that the spec could actually use some PvP love.
I've also heard that, once you have a decent healer with you, Frost loses a lot of it's advantage.
Boom Mar 31st 2011 7:54AM
How about we stop speculating about heirloom transfers and test it out. Transfer two toons to the PTR on different servers there. Send one with heirloom gear and try to send it to the other one. Question answered.
Helston Mar 31st 2011 8:00AM
Pummel is now get's the soon-to-be-gone Shield Bash's silence? Prot Warriors rejoice! We're probably 50-50, maybe even a little buffed now!
Iamfrosty Mar 31st 2011 8:11AM
I realise that nerfing content over time is needed, to provide ease for the larger mass to improve gear and get feeling of accomplishment, but it still makes me sad to see they nerf soo many things that made the encounters fun and uniqe, and at the asme time trivalizing the thrashpacks. But, i guess we'll only be running ZA & ZG, come 4.1, so it doesn't really matter if you can faceroll normal HC's anymore.
John Mar 31st 2011 10:32AM
The goblin spears don't make anything fun or unique. They are overtuned and not fun.
The Ozruk mechanics are visually difficult to see and deal with unless you've done it as a tank or melee a bunch of times. Again, rng-instagibs are not fun.
And again:
Please stop with the HC. There's no C in Dungeon. It's a Dungeon Finder tool, not a cavern or cave or whatever the heck the C stands for.
It's like using mfgr as an abbreviation for manufacturer. Where'd that g come from?
Robert Mar 31st 2011 10:56AM
HC is shorthand for HeroiC, and I've never heard of MFGR as Manufacturer, I've only ever heard/seen MFR.
Sleutel Mar 31st 2011 8:13AM
1.) Holy Heroic nerfs, Batman. Oh well, I'm not going to complain about something that makes it even faster to get my extra JP.
2.) Farewell, confusing Wailing Caverns design. I will miss being the person who ran you a hojillion times for gear for my twink, thus being the only person who knew where the hell to go in PUGs. Wait, no, no, I hated your layout. Good riddance.
3.) Finally boosting the Stamina flask to be in line with stat budgets? About time. Well, way past time, actually.
4.) THEY'RE APPLYING GAG ORDER TO PUMMEL. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. This was exactly the compromise I was looking for (although I will miss Shield Bash just from an "I'm a Prot Warrior, I hit things with my shield" perspective).