Patch 4.2 PTR notes for May 10

Patch 4.2 is looking pretty promising on the content front, what with new raids, new dailies -- and oh yes, a legendary staff on the horizon. Today we've got some updates to the Patch 4.2 PTR notes, courtesy of Zarhym over on the official Warcraft blog. Included are a ton of notes for druids, paladins and shaman, among other classes, some changes to the way buffs are applied and some changes to the guild leveling system.
- All class abilities that place a buff on friendly targets no longer generate threat, with the exception of buffs that directly cause healing or damage, such as Thorns or Renew.
- When interrupted while casting a single-spell school, players will now be able to cast dual-school spells. In other words, if you're interrupted casting Frostbolt, you'll still be able to cast Frostfire Bolt despite being locked out of the Frost school.
- The daily guild experience cap and weekly guild reputation cap have been increased by 25% -- and the guild experience cap is now removed at level 20 instead of level 23.
Follow after the break for the full list of patch notes.
Zarhym
Classes: General
- All healing critical strikes now heal for 2 times a normal heal (+100%), up from 1.5 times a normal heal (+50%).
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Buffs
- All class abilities which place a buff on friendly targets no longer generate any threat. This goes for raid-wide buffs like Mark of the Wild and Power Word: Fortitude, as well as triggered effects such as Blessed Resilience or Fingers of Frost, and single-target buffs like Dark Intent and Hysteria. The exception is buffs which directly cause healing or damage, such as Thorns or Renew. Abilities such as these still generate normal threat.
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Pets
- The Aggressive pet stance has been removed and replaced with the Assist stance. This stance will cause the player's pet to attack the player's target. The pet will not change targets unless the master attacks a new target for a few seconds.
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Spell Interrupts
- When interrupted while casting a single-school spell such as Mind Flay or Frostbolt, players will now be able to cast dual-school spells such as Mind Spike (Frost and Shadow schools) or Frostfire Bolt (Frost and Fire schools). However, being interrupted while casting a dual-school spell will still interrupt all respective schools as intended.
- Obliterate base damage has been reduced to 150% weapon damage, down from 160%.
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Talent Specializations
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Frost
- Annihilation now increases Obliterate damage by 12/24/36%, down from 15/30/45%.
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Unholy
- Unholy Might now increases Strength by 10%, up from 5%.
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Frost
- Ferocious Bite damage has been increased by 15%. In addition, its base cost has been reduced to 25 energy and it can use up to 25 energy, for up to a 100% damage increase.
- Mangle (Cat) damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 530% weapon damage, up from 460%.
- Omen of Clarity clearcasting buff from now lasts 15 seconds, up from 8 seconds.
- Ravage damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 975% weapon damage, up from 850%.
- Shred damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 520% weapon damage, up from 450%.
- Swipe (Cat) now deals 600% weapon damage at level 80 or higher, down from 670%.
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Talent Specializations
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Balance
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Insect Swarm now generates 8 Lunar Energy for Balance druids. -
Moonfire now generates 8 Solar Power for Balance druids. -
Sunfire now generates 8 Lunar Energy for Balance druids. - Earth and Moon's duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 12.
- Fungal Growth spell visual effect has been updated to be less visually intrusive and more aesthetic.
- Lunar Shower has been redesigned. When casting Moonfire, the druid gains Lunar Shower. Lunar Shower increases the direct damage done by Moonfire by 15/30/45%, and reduces the mana cost by 10/20/30%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 3 seconds. While under the effects of Lunar Shower, Moonfire generates 8 Solar Energy, and Sunfire generates 8 Lunar Energy. The amount of Lunar/Solar Energy gained does not change based on the number of points spent in the talent, or stacks of Lunar Shower. Those druids who wish to delay transition in or out of an Eclipse state should now cast the one of their two basic attacks which will not move the Eclipse bar (either Starfire or Wrath).
- Solar Beam has a new spell effect.
- Wild Mushroom: Detonate can now also trigger Earth and Moon, in addition to Starfire and Wrath.
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Restoration
- Symbiosis (Mastery) has been removed and replaced with Harmony. Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 10%, and casting direct healing spells grants an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 seconds. Each point of mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%. Healing Touch, Nourish, Swiftmend, and the initial heal from Regrowth are considered direct healing spells for the purposes of this Mastery. All other healing from druid spells is considered periodic.
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Balance
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Glyphs
- Glyph of Berserk duration increase is now 10 seconds, up from 5.
- Multi-shot damage has been reduced. It now deals 120% weapon damage at level 80 or higher, down from 137%.
- Traps now scale with hunter stats such as hit, expertise, spell penetration and attack power as intended.
- Spellsteal now has a 6-second cooldown.
- Divine Light mana cost has been increased to 35% of base mana, up from 30%.
- Flash of Light mana cost has been increased to 31% of base mana, up from 27%.
- Holy Light mana cost has been increased to 12% of base mana, up from 10%.
- Rebuke, Divine Shield and Divine Protection have new icons.
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Talent Specializations
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Holy
- Holy Shock mana cost has been increased to 9% of base mana, up from 8%.
- Speed of Light now increases movement speed when Holy Radiance or Divine Protection are cast. In addition, this talent now reduces the cooldown of Holy Radiance by 13/26/40 seconds, up from 10/20/30.
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Protection
- Ardent Defender has a new spell effect.
- Hammer of the Righteous mana cost has been lowered to 10%, down from 12% to match Crusader Strike.
- Judgements of the Wise now procs on attempt rather than on strike, which means judgements that miss can still grant mana. This is to help ensure Protection paladins are not starved for mana if they aren't capped on hit rating.
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Holy
- Lightning Shield and Water Shield can no longer be dispelled.
- Unleash Elements is now in the Nature school, and thus can no longer be used if a shaman's Nature school has been locked out.
- Water Shield has had its internal cooldown reduced to 3.5 seconds, once again matching other shields. The amount of mana restored when Water Shield procs has been reduced by 50%.
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Talent Specializations
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Elemental
- Lava Flows now grants a 30/60/90% haste buff when a Flame Shock effect is dispelled, up from 10/20/30%.
- Thunderstorm now reduces the movement speed of players it knocks back by 40% for 5 seconds.
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Restoration
- Improved Water Shield has been redesigned and renamed Resurgence. When Water Shield is active, Resurgence causes critical direct heals to restore mana (Resurgence rank 2 is roughly equal to 150% of the old Improved Water Shield value when a Healing Wave or Greater Healing Wave critically hits, and scaled down accordingly for faster or multi-target spells).
- Mana Tide now grants 200% of the caster's Spirit, down from 400%.
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Elemental
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Glyphs
- Glyph of Unleashed Lightning (new Prime glyph) allows Lightning Bolt to be cast while moving.
- Soul Harvest has a new spell effect.
- The daily guild experience cap has been increased by 25%.
- The weekly guild reputation cap has been increased by 25%.
- The guild experience cap is now removed at level 20, down from level 23.
- Darkmoon Card: Hurricane damage done when triggered has been increased by 40%, however, it can no longer deal critical strikes and no longer receives any modifiers to its damage from the equipping player.
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Set Bonuses
- The 4-piece Elemental shaman PvP set bonus (Gladiator's Thunderfist set) has been redesigned. It now causes Lightning Shield to generate an extra charge, rather than consuming one, when it is triggered by receiving damage, up to a maximum of 3 (9 with the Rolling Thunder talent).
Professions
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Skinning
- Players can no longer skin corpses already being actively skinned or looted by other players.
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Conquest Points
- The minimum cap on Conquest Points earned per week is now 1500 at 1500 or less Battleground rating. The maximum cap remains 3000 at 3000 or more Battleground rating. The cap continues to scale non-linearly between those two points.
- The game now separately tracks different Conquest Point caps for Battlegrounds and Arenas. The cap for Arena rating will always be 2/3 of the cap for Battleground rating at any given Arena rating. Players may earn a total number of Conquest Points per week equal to the higher of these two caps, but once players have reached the cap for either Arenas or Battlegrounds, they can no longer earn Conquest Points from that source. Conquest Points from Battleground holidays only count toward the total Conquest Point cap.
- There are no longer oddities in the critical strike and dodge chance of lower-level creatures.
User Interface
- Raid Profiles are in the process of being implemented and are not fully functional. Raid Profiles will allow players to save the raid window user interface layout based on type of content (i.e. 10-player raids, 25-player raids, Battlegrounds, etc.).
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 6)
Jason May 11th 2011 3:04AM
@lesicor.caerlon: Sounds like somebody has been getting pwnd by Frost Mages in pvp... This makes Ring of Frost useless to me now. I have to stand around for 1.5s when getting hammered on... useless....
Nina Katarina May 11th 2011 7:12AM
Spellsteal will still be useful - most of the effects we care about have over 6 seconds between casting, like Remedy or Surge in Throne of Tides...
Oh, PvP? For once, something is being nerfed for PvP and doesn't break PvE entirely?
timmillr May 11th 2011 8:46AM
Next they'll put a cooldown on Remove Curse and make Arcane Barrage a 1.5s cast...
Nimdriel May 11th 2011 10:00AM
Miserable...mage viability against buffed casters just plummeted...I would normally gleefully jump on any priest battles (or druid) but now I'm gonna be squashed by them...suck.
6 seconds is way too long and with the now - mostly useless ring of frost...just ugh...
Darasen May 11th 2011 4:00PM
Another PvP inspired nerf harshly affecting PvE it seems.
hj May 12th 2011 5:40AM
6 seconds spellsteal cooldown must be a joke. This is a PTR tryout that will never go live. As a PVP mage it will be virtually impossible to fight a druid, priest or pala when they can stack buffs many times faster than we can remove them. At least Blizz should let us choose which one to steal.
Defoe May 13th 2011 4:46AM
Amen. Good luck SS'ing Blessing of Freedom (or any meaningful buff for that matter) when you actually need it, when your target has a dozen trash buffs as they always do.
Why waste a GCD spellstealing thorns or grace while someone is wailing on you. Spellsteal will no longer be used in PvP, at all.
And whats with constantly nerfing all Mage specs, instead of just Frost PvP?
Ez May 10th 2011 11:04PM
Yay! they fixed the Bear Quest!
But you know, my Unholy DK seems really slow!
Tirrimas May 10th 2011 11:05PM
"Solar Beam has a new spell effect."
Nice. No more blinding the tank.
Scunosi May 11th 2011 12:36AM
Agreed. I've gotten stuck in/hit by/died to more stuff than I care to share thanks to Solar Beam while I'm tanking, as much as I love it when I'm Balance.
Draol May 10th 2011 11:05PM
Immolation trap might finally be worth something? HUZZAH!
mdumoulin.home May 10th 2011 11:08PM
"Glyph of Unleashed Lightning (new Prime glyph) allows Lightning Bolt to be cast while moving."
w-w-WHAT !?
Odin May 11th 2011 1:35AM
This is absolutely amazing. I was rendered speechless literally upon reading that. Elemental has now become my main spec forever!!!
TheBlob May 11th 2011 2:32AM
@Odin: I read that and made a strange squealing noise that I don't think I could ever reproduce again.
Hawk May 11th 2011 6:09AM
I had to read it like 4 or 5 times... this is fantastic.. I am hoping it is not so fantastic that it gets removed before 4.2 goes live lol
matt May 11th 2011 9:32AM
seems like Blizz wants all caster dps specs to have a means of doing damage during mobile phases, ele doesn't really have that right now. I only casually dps ele (heroics and argoloth) so I may be wrong on this. My experiences on argoloth is that I can pop SWgrace on the first fel fire storm and keep dps ing but the second one I have to stop, cast, get hit by fire, run... On my boonkin I have lunar shower, on my aff lock I have fel fire/Dots.
Seems like a super cool way to solve the discrepancy, I hope it stays in, it will make elemental pvp halfway viable, only halfway though. Lets not get crazy and get the spec an instant cast spell.
Luotian May 11th 2011 9:56AM
I'm ridiculously excited. I'm new to Shaman but my other main classes-- mage and hunter-- both have a way to keep casting and moving. I didn't like having to stand still as an Ele. Shammy and my highest is 67! I keep playing heroics over and over in my head, and mourned the loss of DPS when I would HAVE to move. Now, I keep casting what I was likely going to cast already, an improvement from my mage who only has her one small spell.
So many levels of excited here.
Jeremy May 11th 2011 3:09PM
And the shammy love keeps coming and coming.
I nearly fell out of my chair when I read that! Here's hoping they don't nerf it before it goes live.
Shade May 10th 2011 11:20PM
Let me make sure I understand the conquest point change...
Based on BG rating, the conquest cap ranges from 1500 at 0 to 3000 at full
Based on arena rating, the conquest cap ranges from 1000 at 0 to 2000 at full
Your total cap is whichever is higher.
SCENARIO 1:
Arena rating 3000, BG rating 0. Ran 7 daily BGs and will do Arena matches Monday night.
-BG cap is 0 for 0 rating, Arena cap is 2000 for 3000 rating (2/3 of 3000)
-175 Conquest accrued through daily BGs
-Arena matches will generate (2000-175=1825) points
SCENARIO 2:
Arena rating 3000, BG rating 3000. Did arena matches on Tuesday morning and 7 daily BGs through the week; will do rated BGs Monday night
-BG cap is 3000 for 3000 rating. Arena cap is 2000 for 3000 rating
-2000 Conquest accrued through Arena
-175 Conquest accrued through daily BGs
-Rated BGs will generate (3000-2000-175=825) points
dengarsw May 11th 2011 3:17AM
Yeah, that's right. PvP progression is starting to look more like raid progression.
Maybe I'm alone here, but I prefer my ladder matches in non-persistent worlds such as Counter Strike and Star Craft where there's, you know, some consistent balance that doesn't involve having several max level characters around should the devs mess a class up for weeks at a time.