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 5 of 6)
Manadar May 11th 2011 4:16AM
It's just weapon damage buffs, except FB. It won't fix our scaling problems since we'll scale just as bad as now not counting the weapon slot, so if we're fine for 4.2 normal modes, we'll still fall behind in heroic Fireland gear. They need to change the AP part of all attack's damage formula.
Also, this does nothing for our bleeds, which is 40-60% of our damage. And it's all because of PvP.
I love getting buffed, and boy we've needed it for a long time, but this is not gonna fix the broken spec. The only good change is that we'll use FB above 25% again.
Manadar May 11th 2011 4:20AM
Was supposed to be a reply to a feral comment.
Lemons May 11th 2011 7:28AM
Well now that they've gone and gave heals 200% crit, where my 200% crit for my poisons? Or are rogues, yet again, going to be bringing up the rear as far as getting updated? (last class to get an AoE, last class to get a self-heal, and now, coming up, last class to get 200% crits).
Talash May 11th 2011 10:52AM
You'll get them the same time Enhancement Shaman spells hit for 200% damage on crits. And (I think I'm right in saying) Retadin spells don't crit for 200% either? Not so sure on that one, but Enhancement is in the same boat as you.
I just wish Blizzard goes the whole hog and says, unilaterally, all critical hits/heals are 200% regardless of source. Would make things -so- much simpler.
Hal May 11th 2011 7:44AM
Hm, the loss of the aggressive pet-stance seems unfortunate. There were plenty of times when it felt helpful to just turn the pet on aggressive and let him go to town on adds without needing to micromanage him.
And I'm curious what that spell-effect will be for Ardent Defender.
Deborah May 11th 2011 5:33PM
Not to mention the PVP element it is taking away. Not really a PVP'er but fishing in Wintergrasp was a little more convenient with the pet on Aggressive knowing that if a rogue was trying to creep up, the pet at least got him before I would notice him.
Mycroft May 11th 2011 7:45AM
"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."
Not sure I fully understand this resto druid mastery change. Here's the old Symbiosis for reference: "Increases the potency of your healing spells by 11.6% on targets already affected by one of your heal over time spells. Each point of Mastery increases heal potency by an additional 1.45%."
Currently, if there's a hot rolling on a target, any other heal (hot or direct) heals more due to mastery. The new change is twofold:
1) A bonus to all direct heals, and direct heals only.
2) After casting a direct heal, hots now get bonus healing too.
(3) More mastery makes the bonus healing of both go up.)
Am I reading that right?
I wonder what happens when I:
1. Stack Lifebloom on tank 3 times. Since I haven't started a direct heal yet, it's not gaining any benefit from mastery.
2. Cast Nourish to refresh Lifebloom, and the Nourish heal benefits from Mastery. This procs Harmony, enabling my hots to benefit from Mastery too.
Do my already-rolling hots start benefitting from Mastery, or do I have to *start* the cast when I have Harmony?
If the latter, would Nourish refreshing Lifebloom count as a re-cast to get Lifebloom benefitting from Mastery?
Similarly, if I don't cast any direct heals and let Harmony expire, do my existing hots keep benefitting from Mastery for the remainder of their ticks?
Anyway, this makes mastery look even more useful than before, and combined with the healing crit change, will definitely lead to some different stat weights. Of course, coming with 4.2 is additional gear with even higher stats to mix and match. I look forward to theory-crafters happily number-crunching away.
paraka321 May 11th 2011 8:25AM
I would assume the refreshed HoTs would gain the mastery bonus. That's how refreshed DoTs (Shadow Word: Pain, Corruption, etc) work. They gain spell power, haste, and crit (or lose it) when they're refreshed.
A quick fix would be to throw a direct heal at the tank pre-pull. Possibly even rolling them in Lifebloom before the pull.
Saeadame May 11th 2011 10:12AM
I may be totally off here, but I've noticed that my LB ticks differently when I have another HoT up vs when I don't, and it just switches all by itself (when the HoT drops off, LB jumps down to being the non-mastery buffed version). At least, that's what I see in my combat text (shows overhealing). I'm hoping this will work the same way ie you have LB and Rej rolling on the tank, you cast a direct heal and for the next 10 sec your LB and Rej are also better.
Daedalus May 11th 2011 7:50AM
No more aggressive stance for pets?
On the one hand, I've been in enough raids and dungeons where an idiot left his pet on aggressive, pulled something he shouldn't have, and caused a wipe, that I'm glad to know that won't be happening any more.
On the other hand, as a warlock, I worry about an option being taken away.
On the third hand, (what? doesn't everybody have a vestigial hand growing out of their back?) I can't think of a single time that I've ever wanted to use aggressive stance, and assi-stance sounds downright useful.
I'm gonna go with "yay" for this one.
Luotian May 11th 2011 9:49AM
For the most part, I agree with you. The only time I use aggressive is as my hunter in PvP. I'll be sad to have that gone, but at the same time glad that idiot hunters (and myself once or twice, I admit) won't forget to take their pet off aggressive and pull the first trash in a dungeon without intending to.
krko May 11th 2011 10:02AM
Aggressive stance is useful in Ripsnarl's Mist Phase.
Meh May 11th 2011 10:44AM
For Ripsnarl, the new "assist stance" should work fairly well. But the pvp hunter in me cries a bit, since many have been the times when I've been sitting on a flare with my aggressive pet, to see it take after a stealthed rogue before I had a chance of spotting it...
Elvgren May 11th 2011 12:27PM
Aggressive had many PvE uses in the hands a of even a fair player. PvP is breaking into PvE. Again. Praying Assist doesn't trump Attack, so we have no choice but pet attacking our target. Pet is one step closer to only being a dot and not a functioning tool.
nikdaheratik May 11th 2011 2:52PM
I don't think it would trump attack, but it's not that important since you can just pet it on defensive or passive and it will keep attacking as those haven't changed. I always use defensive anyways, but other than mobs of AoE I can't think of cases where aggressive would be more useful than assi-stance.
Self Righteous Pally May 11th 2011 8:15AM
"This is to help ensure Protection paladins are not starved for mana if they aren't capped on hit rating."
So they are worried that prot is getting mana starved because we don't hit cap, but they don't give a damn if we are holy power starved because we aren't hit capped? Why can't holy power and crusader strike/ HotR generate on attempt as well like it used to since HoPo is far more vital then mana?
timmillr May 11th 2011 8:45AM
Next they'll put a cooldown on Remove Curse and make Arcane Barrage a 1.5s cast...
Scooter May 11th 2011 8:54AM
@Nina Katarina
The problem Nina is when a spell stacks, "Spellsteal" only takes 1 stack at a time. This means if the boss has several stacks on their buff we are effectively useless. This isn't a nerf it's a beating.
In PVP a player could have 10 buffs at once. Assuming they never restore them it would take a full minute to remove them all. Spellsteal will become a cast and forget spell like Flame Orb.
A 6 second cast time is fine but the spell should absorb more then 1 stack to compensate.
Luotian May 11th 2011 9:47AM
Well...this should prove interesting. I don't know my Shaman well enough to realize all the implications, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to get the glyph as soon as it is available. And my mage mourns for Spellsteal, because I've found all kinds of awesome places to use it and the cool-down is going to make it 100 times more difficult.
As for my main and lovely hunters-- not happy with the nerf to multishot as it was just barely finally viable again for MM (my favorite spec). And I'm mourning the loss of aggressive for PvP BUT at the same time rejoicing that idiot huntards can't make the rest of us look bad in dungeons anymore. That's good.
Mixed bag, it seems.
kdiddy May 11th 2011 10:01AM
I had a feeling the frost dk nerfs would be coming soon, but at least they buffed my hurricane card.