Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPatch 4.2 PTR patch notes updated for May 31
by Alex Ziebart 
May 31st 2011 at 10:00PM
- The defensive pet stance will now only cause the player's pet to attack enemies that attack the pet or the master.
- Hunters can tame eight new rare beasts, each with a specific "taming challenge."
- Party/raid interface profiles can now be saved, letting you easily switch for different encounters and roles.
- Mages: Arcane Blast damage done has been reduced by 5%.
- Warlocks: Soul Fire is now available at level 20, down from level 54.
General
- All character races now have a /roar sound.
- The Defensive pet stance will now only cause the player's pet to attack enemies which attack the pet or the master.
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Talent Specializations
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Marksmanship
- Careful Aim now grants additional critical strike chance against targets over 90% health, up from 80% health.
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Marksmanship
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Pets
- 8 new rare tamable beasts have been added, each of which provides a unique taming challenge. Will you be the first hunter to tame Deth'tilac, the rarest and most powerful of them all? Players will need to progress through the Hyjal Regrowth and Molten Front daily questing areas in order to unlock access to the full gamut of taming challenges.
- Arcane Blast damage done has been reduced by 5%.
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Talent Specializations
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Shadow
- Psychic Horror no longer has a forward facing requirement, making it consistent with other non-projectile-based crowd control spells.
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Shadow
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Talent Specializations
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Subtlety
- Hemorrhage base damage has been increased by 40%.
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Subtlety
- Soul Fire is now available at level 20, down from level 54.
- Recklessness and Deadly Calm can no longer be used at the same time. One cannot be used while the other is active, but using one does not put the other on its full cooldown.
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Talent Specializations
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Arms
- Two-Handed Weapon Specialization weapon damage increase has been lowered to 12%, down from 20%.
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Fury
- Dual Wield Specialization weapon damage increase has been lowered to 5%, down from 10%.
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Arms
- If a player wins a Need roll under the Need Before Greed system on a Bind on Equip item, the item will become Soulbound to that player. The item will remain unbound if won via a Greed roll.
- The order in which characters are listed at the Character Selection screen can now be rearranged and saved.
- Raid Profiles have been added which 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.) for future use.
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 5)
Deathmask Divine Jun 1st 2011 12:25AM
My heart skipped a beat reading this update! The alt-aholic in me has been waiting for this far too long :)
Andalvar Jun 1st 2011 2:58AM
Possibly one of the best changes ever. Altoholics across the world are cheering.
SR Jun 1st 2011 4:38AM
Not to burst your bubble(s), but this has been on the PTR for a while...
And it's also been mentioned several times outside this patch note...
>.>
Natsumi Jun 1st 2011 10:10AM
@SR
Yes, but the new part is "and save it", moving the toons up and down on the PTR is all fine and good, but it just reverts as soon as you log out.
Lokkni May 31st 2011 10:20PM
I hope they expand the stable slots....
Chase May 31st 2011 10:24PM
Noo! Not Arcane Blast. Anything but that... There goes my wanting to play my mage. Warrior damage down for SMF... I already do average damage... Love it when the awesomeness of my two mains just got lowered slightly. Time to go back to my Tree.
SteveB May 31st 2011 10:26PM
"If a player wins a Need roll under the Need Before Greed system on a Bind on Equip item, the item will become Soulbound to that player. The item will remain unbound if won via a Greed roll."
THANK YOU
RetPallyJil May 31st 2011 10:30PM
All character races now have a /roar sound. --
That's the first thing I've been excited about in a while lol
Blazing Rain Jun 1st 2011 12:47AM
Don't be. They sound ridiculous, check MMO-champion.
Gordal Jun 1st 2011 7:35AM
Still waiting for my /map animation, dammit.
cyanea85 Jun 1st 2011 10:55AM
Well of course they're going to sound ridiculous. Only one race in the game is based off of a species that roars. The rest of them (save for Taurens maybe, but I have never heard of a cow roaring) are based off of humans, and I'm willing to bet your best roar sounds pretty ridiculous.
Sal Jun 1st 2011 12:57PM
What gets me are the female BC races (belf and space goats.)
If all the roars were battle cries I would like that very much, but as is they seem out of place.
Touphemia May 31st 2011 10:34PM
Finally... I can level a destruction Warlock.
mazca13 Jun 1st 2011 6:20AM
Yeah, it will be nice for low-level Destruction warlocks to actually have a fire-damage filler spell while levelling. I kinda expected them to lower the level of Incinerate instead, but in truth lowering Soul Fire makes sense - the two significant talents that improve it (Emberstorm and Improved Soul Fire) both come at fairly low levels. It's still a mighty slow spell to cast, but it does hit hard, and will at least give low level warlocks something obvious to use Soulburn on.
Jack Mynock Jun 1st 2011 10:33AM
Destruction was already probably the best leveling spec. Demo is who really benefits from this change. A quick look at their tree shows what a mess it is (for leveling). Half their talents are aimed at Soulfire and Incinerate; some as early as 30 lvls before you get either ability. Actually getting Soulfire at the same time as you start getting talents for it is really nice.
Khirsah May 31st 2011 10:52PM
Didn't Blizz just give a 40% buff to hemo in the last patch? The problem with sub spec is, and always has been, the rotation. Other specs have a little leaway. If you mess up your rotation on mutilate or combat, due to being MC'd or something, you can recover. But with sub, and its positioning requirements, and 3 finisher rotation, and keeping hemo up while mainly using backstab, and using ShD at just the right time...it is impossible to recover if there is breakdown, and that is why the dps is lower than the other specs.
Blizz needs to simplify things in the sub tree. Not just keep buffing damage until it gets to the point that rotation doesn't matter.
mazca13 Jun 1st 2011 6:26AM
Yeah, I agree - but I'm getting the impression Blizzard are struggling with how to fix Subtlety in PvE. It suffers to a degree from the "frost mage problem", in that it's such a mobile and survivable spec in PvP that making its damage rotation substantially more resilient would potentially overpower it there. It's a pity, because Subtlety is an extremely fun spec to play in PvE as long as you don't look at Recount too often.
Wilk May 31st 2011 11:04PM
Eight new tameable rarespawns? New pets are nice and all, but eight? Doesn't that seem an excessive amount of work for one class?
VioletArrows May 31st 2011 11:24PM
If you mean changing the 'Tameable' Boolean for 8 already created mobs in the Firelands from False to True, then yes. ;p
Allithus Jun 2nd 2011 2:09AM
he meant going camping for the 8 new pets.
I had to camp for 2 weeks to get Arcturis