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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPatch 4.2: Normal mode tier 11 encounters nerfed
by Anne Stickney 
May 24th 2011 at 1:40PM
Patch 4.2 PTR testing is in full swing, and we've got another round of patch notes, courtesy of Zarhym and the official Warcraft blog. Today's notes are primarily a metric ton of nerfs to normal mode encounters in Blackwing Descent, Bastion of Twilight, and Throne of the Four Winds. The nerfs were explained by Nethaera as follows:
Nethaera
Follow us after the break for the full list of patch notes.
Nethaera
With the upcoming content patch, 10- and 25-person Normal mode raid encounters will be receiving a comprehensive set of tuning adjustments to decrease their difficulty.
These changes will allow players, groups, and guilds who have yet to experience the content in Blackwing Descent, Bastion of Twilight, and Throne of the the Four Winds an opportunity to do so.
With the addition of a new tier of armor and weapons, we want to make the previous tier more accessible in ways other than just a shift of currency type, so we are making item level 359 gear purchasable for Justice points in the upcoming content patch.
These changes will allow players, groups, and guilds who have yet to experience the content in Blackwing Descent, Bastion of Twilight, and Throne of the the Four Winds an opportunity to do so.
With the addition of a new tier of armor and weapons, we want to make the previous tier more accessible in ways other than just a shift of currency type, so we are making item level 359 gear purchasable for Justice points in the upcoming content patch.
Follow us after the break for the full list of patch notes.
ZarhymClasses
- Dodge: Death Knights, paladins, and warriors no longer receive any bonus to their chance to dodge from Agility. Their base chance to dodge is now a fixed 5%.
- Parry: Death Knights, paladins, and warriors now receive 27% of their Strength bonuses as parry rating, up from 25%. This conversion still only applies to Strength above and beyond their base Strength.
Mage
- Pyroblast: The version of this spell cast when Hot Streak is not active did slightly less damage than the Hot Streak version. Its damage has been increased so that both versions of Pyroblast now do the same amount of damage.
- Spellsteal mana cost has been increased 100%.
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Fire
- Impact: When Living Bomb is spread via this talent, it will only be spread to two additional targets. The net effect is that if the Mage's most recent Living Bomb target is the same as their Impact target, that target will no longer lose the Living Bomb effect. If Living Bomb is active on multiple targets when the Impact effect is cast, Living Bomb will remain active on the most recent Living Bomb target, and will be added to two other nearby targets.
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Frost
- Deep Freeze and Ring of Frost will now cause diminishing returns for each other.
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Ring of Frost now has a 1.5-second cast time. -
Spellsteal now has a 6-second cooldown.
- Seal of Righteousness – now can be proc'd by any melee ability, not just single target melee abilities. This adds Hammer of the Righteous (the physical component) and Divine Storm to the list of abilities that can proc it. In addition, Seal of Righteousness procs can now crit.
Talent Specializations
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Holy
- Walk in the Light now improves Word of Glory healing by 30% in addition to its current effects.
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Protection
- Guardian of Ancient Kings now uses the 'Assist' pet stance functionality.
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Retribution
- Seals of Command: This talent now makes Seal of Righteousness hit an unlimited number of melee targets, instead of only 2 additional targets.
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Glyphs
- Glyph of Seal of Truth: The expertise bonus granted by this glyph now also works when Seal of Righteousness is active.
- Shadowfiend now uses the 'Assist' pet stance functionality.
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Shadow
- Sin and Punishment's Vampiric Touch backlash Fear effect no longer has diminishing returns.
Dungeons and Raids
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Bastion of Twilight
- The damage modifier on Normal has been reduced for Arion, Elementium Monstrosity, Feludius, Ignacius, and Terrastra.
- Removed one of each type of Bound elemental from the Ascendant Council chamber.
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Arion
- Chain Lightning damage has been reduced.
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Cho'gall
- Health, melee damage, Health of Corrupting Adherent, Depravity damage, Corrupting Crash damage, Flaming Destruction damage, and Unleashed Shadows damage has all been reduced by 20%.
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Corrupting Crash and Depravity
- Halved the amount of Corruption they give to 5 from 10.
- Corrupted Bite effect caused by Blood of the Old God reduced.
- Damage Taken from Corruption of the Old God per Corrupted Blood has been reduced from 3% per stack to 2% per stack.
- Debilitating Beam damage has been reduced by 20% to 6,400.
- The duration of Twisted Devotion has been reduced by 25%.
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Dragon Siblings
- Health, melee damage, Twilight Meteorite damage, Devouring Flames, Blackout damage, Unstable Twilight damage, Twilight Zone damage, Twilight Blast damage, Fabulous Flames damage, has all been reduced by 20%.
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Elementium Monstrosity
- Electrical Instability damage has been reduced.
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Feludius
- Damage due to being Frozen while Waterlogged has been reduced.
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Halfus
- Health, melee damage, Fireball/Fireball Barrage damage, Furious Roar damage, Scorching Breath damage, Shadow Nova damage, has all been reduced by 20%.
- Nether Scion, Slate Dragon, Storm Rider, Time Warden, and Orphaned Emerald Whelp health has been reduced by 20%.
- Shadow Nova base cast time has been increased.
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Ignacious
- Rising Flames now increases damage by 3% per stack, down from 5%.
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Terrastra
- Harden Skin now increases Physical damage dealt by 20% (down from 100%.)
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Blackwing Descent
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Atramedes
- Health, melee damage, modulation damage, Roaring Flame Breath damage, and Searing Flame damage has all been reduced by 20%.
- Modulation no longer causes Sound in normal difficulty.
- Sound given by Sonar Pulse has been reduced to 3 (from 5.)
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Chimaeron
- Health reduced by 20% and melee damage reduced by 10%.
- Chimaeron will now only cast two caustic slimes per 30 second cycle, at second 17 and second 23.
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Drakeadon Mongrel
- Time Lapse no longer stuns.
- Frost Burn silence is now 3 seconds
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Dwarven Kings
- Whirlwind no longer drops threat.
- Execution sentence now deals damage only.
- Shield of Light absorption now reduced.
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Magmaw
- Damage and hit points reduced by 20%.
- Lava Parasites have been diminished
- Lava Spew damage, Magma Spit damage, Massive Crash damage, and Infectious Vomit damage have all been been reduced.
- Mangled Lifeless no longer instantly kills, and damage has been reduced.
- Parasitic Infection has been decreased.
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Maloriak
- Health, damage, Aberation health/damage, Arcane Storm damage, Prime Subject damage, Flash Freeze/Shatter damage, and Scorching Blast damage has all been decreased by 20%.
- Aberration stacking damage buff decreased.
- Prime Subjects no longer fixate, and are no longer immune to taunt.
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Nefarian
- Animated Bone Warriors take 33 seconds to fall over, (down from 50.)
- Blast Nova cast time increased.
- Chromatic Prototype Health reduced 20%.
- Electrocute damage reduced 30%.
- Fewer Animated Bone warriors spawn.
- Magma Stacking debuff effect reduced 75%.
- Nefarian health and melee damage reduced by 20%.
- Nefarian's Shadowblaze cast frequency cannot increase beyond 1 per 15 sec.
- Onyxia health and melee damage reduced by 20%.
- Shadowflame Barrage damage reduced 20%.
- Tail Lash damage reduced 50%.
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Omnotron Council
- Barrier absorb amount increased by 100%.
- Increased the cooldown on Power Conversion (Converted Power chance).
- Health, Melee damage, Electrical Discharge damage, Lightning Conductor damage, Health of Poison Bomb, Incineration Security Measure damage, Arcane Annihilator damage, has all been reduced by 20%.
- Flamethrower damage has been reduced by 40%.
- Static Shock caused by Unstable Shield damage and Poison Bomb damage has been decreased by 50%.
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Atramedes
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Throne of the Four Winds
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Al'Akir
- Acid Rain now stacks every 20s (up from 15s.)
- Electrocute now pulses every 1s (up from 0.5s.)
- Feedback duration increased to 30s (from 20s.)
- Health, damage, and Wind Burst damage have all been reduced 20%.
- Lightning and Lightning Rod recast time has been increased.
- Lightning Strike friendly chain damage has been halved.
- Will no longer use Static Shock on normal difficulty in phase 1 or phase 2.
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Conclave of the Four Winds
- Gathering Strength cast time has been increased
- Ice Patch slow is now 5% per stack, up to 10 stacks (down from 10% per stack, up to 30 stacks), damage reduced by 20%.
- Rohash, Anshal, Nezir melee, Ravenous Creeper health/damage, Ravenous Creeper toxic spores damage, Hurricane damage, Sleet Storm damage , Permafrost damage , Slicing Gale, and Wind Blast damage have all been reduced by 20%.
- Wind Chill damage decreased by 20%and now increases damage taken by 5% per stack.
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Al'Akir
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Tier 11 Set Bonuses
- Restoration druid Tier 11 2-Piece: This set bonus has been redesigned to work with the new Restoration druid mastery. Druids with this bonus now receive the bonus to Spirit while the Harmony mastery bonus to periodic healing is active.
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Tier 12 Set Bonuses
- Hunter 4P: The effect which makes Shots cost no focus now also makes Kill Command cost no focus.
- Mage 2P: This set bonus can now also be triggered by Frostfire Bolt.
- Mage 4P: The portions of this bonus referring to Arcane Missiles have been removed. Instead, the set bonus now makes Arcane Power reduce the cost of Mage spells by 10% instead of increasing their cost.
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Arenas
- The Ring of Valor has been added to the Arena rotation once again.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
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Reader Comments (Page 6 of 10)
Grokknar May 25th 2011 7:52AM
9/12 Normal. 2 Nights a week, 3 hours a night. I also consider my group to be casual - it seems that 6hrs a week is a common theme for casual groups. Hopefully we can get the last 3 before the patch drops purely because I'd like to see what the fights were like for the other raid teams in my guild.
Xenn May 25th 2011 8:21AM
5/12 currently. Just started to raid in last month, due to RL commitments, same goes for the rest of our 10 man group. Not sure we'll make it before the patch, but as Grokknar, I want to see the raids at the current level as fellow guildies. I think buying T11 with JP may be enough for 4.2, but I do understand why old content can be nerfed.
Rudder May 24th 2011 2:13PM
I can live with the change to the raids, but making Tier 11 purchasable with JP is lame. It's too soon to make all that effort on valor points all for not. It would be better off if they had introduced an additional currency for new gear in my opinion.
Amanda A. May 24th 2011 4:01PM
They did that in Wrath, and it got really confusing (until they changed it near the end of the expansion). At one point, before they just made everything give either triumph or frost, each raid tier had its own type of token that could only be spent on items from that tier or lower. This meant that you could have four or five types of currency from hdroics and raids, and heroics dropped better tokens than early raids at one point. If you wanted certain types of token gear, you had to trade down, often in multiple steps. For example, the best holy paladin libram was item level 200, was bought with an early token, and reduced the mana cost of holy light by a good chunk, which was a key step in making it spammable; at the end of the expansion, you had to go through four vendors to buy one, converting your tokens down at each step. (Or go to the money changer in the sewers, then back up to the vendors.)
It was a good idea in theory, but so confusing and unneededly complex in practice that they ended up simplifying it to the two-tier system we have now.
rTwelve May 24th 2011 2:13PM
"Deep Freeze and Ring of Frost will now cause diminishing returns for each other."
I assume this refers to the duration on stunnable targets, correct? Nothing to do with the damage from DF on stun-immune mobs?
omedon666 May 24th 2011 2:14PM
My faith is restored with this observation of "eventually is for everyone."
I think blizzard's lesson learned from tier 11 is that heroes talk a good game, but calling them on it is bad for business.
(cutaia) May 24th 2011 6:06PM
I've seen you using that phrase a lot. Would you mind if I quoted you on it at some point?
omedon666 May 24th 2011 6:27PM
Not at all, sir. It's been catching on in my circle of friends as well. :)
Aspirisis May 24th 2011 2:14PM
Hurray on not super uber nerfing spellsteal!
Jebediah54 May 24th 2011 5:23PM
I'm assuming that's sarcasm, so under that assumption I'm going to have to agree. I think the increase in mana consumption would be enough to reduce how much mages would want to use it, but the 6 second cooldown is just over the top. Just one would've been fine. Also along the same lines, the Ring of Frost/Deep Freeze nerfs that they have up for 4.2 currently I think are a bit over the top. Personally I would've preferred seeing just the diminishing returns shared between them without the cast time, but one or the other would've been fine here as well.
Ves May 24th 2011 2:15PM
Coming soon
"To allow players who have yet to experience the content in Karazhan an opportunity to do so, we are making the following changes.
Moroes has one less for dinner this evening
Astral Flare now consumes 100% of The Curator's max mana
Shade of Aran has been replaced by the friendly mob "Simple Jester""
busuan May 24th 2011 2:16PM
End-of-patch Sale! Too bad, saving Justice points not only generate no interest, but is also discouraged.
paulmewis May 24th 2011 2:17PM
Noone else concerned about the agility tank nerf?
nikdaheratik May 24th 2011 2:33PM
Considering how little agility DKs, Warriors, and Pallys stack, I'd be surprised if it was a nerf and is more likely to add 2-3% base dodge to most players.
Kuro May 24th 2011 3:06PM
It's to give Blizz more control over gearing and to prevent Plate tanks from using Agi gear.
Some items that allowed plate tanks to hit 102.5% CTC were agil necks, rings, and cloaks with higher mastery stats on them than tanking items.
Izzy May 24th 2011 3:34PM
I'm a bit concerned about it considering for DKs and Pallys there were a few pieces of AGI gear that were BiS in certain i-level ranges. DK's really need a bit of love especially going into the 370+ ilvl range. That and the huge lack of mastery on gear have me pretty concerned about DK tanking coming 4.2. Guess it's time to go the far less fun and absolutely mastery crippling avoidance route.
Schadow May 24th 2011 11:23PM
We may stack very little agility, but is there a tanking leg enchant without agility? It's not that we choose the agi; it's that sometimes there is no alternative.
Mr. Crow May 24th 2011 2:16PM
Thanks to everyone who understood what I meant. ^_^
1. Yes, this is a nerf to T11 content. Thus the "in before" was meant to mock all the people who were going to QQ about content getting nerfed.
2. Yes, in order to start the Dragonwrath questchain you must be 12/12 in T11 content. This is a good gating mechanism, but by nerfing the T11 content, that will make it easier for people to access the legendary.
3. My guild is neither 12/12, nor a hardcore raiding guild. We will benefit greatly from these balancing changes. We don't have any legendaries currently, so this will allow us to get one. I, for one, am not upset that Dragonwrath is going to be common if it means *I get one.*
My apologies if I sounded like I was QQing, as that was not my intent.
Bart May 24th 2011 2:17PM
to be fair the hardcore guilds get through content easily, now over time Raids are nerfed to gradually allow guilds access. I believe they've been doing this since TBC.
Jindrax May 24th 2011 2:19PM
This pleases me. I might even go back to playing before my classes are over. :)