Posts with tag PatchNotes

Patch 4.3 is now up on the PTR, as well as the official patch 4.3 patch notes. With the latest build comes a rather large amount of changes for shaman of all three talent specializations. Some come as no shock; others were things I don't think many of us planned on seeing. Everything, though, seems aimed at bringing balance back to the class on every front.

As always, we look at the upcoming changes for any patch with both excitement and trepidation. Will our changes make a difference for the better or the worse? Are they buffs or are they nerfs? Will we finally get that spectral moose we were promised so long ago? As always, remember that these changes are tentative, and since they are on the test realm, they are subject to change at any time that the developers at Blizzard Entertainment feel they should change.

So what's in store, and what does it mean for shaman? Jump after the cut for the full list.

Blizzard has updated the patch notes for the patch 4.2 PTR today, with some notable additions!

• 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.

For the full update, follow along the cut below.

The patch notes for the Patch 4.1 PTR have been updated once again, bringing us the official word on the change to daily valor rewards, a helpful change for those left abandoned in dungeon finder groups, buffs to cat druid AoE, and more!

Blizzard has once again updated the PTR patch notes for patch 3.1. As usual, none of the changes here will be a surprise to you if you've been following all the action, but for the sake of completeness, I'm going to list them here anyway. Many commenters requested last time if they could just see what's changed between this and the previous patch notes, so that's what I have for you tonight. These are just the new things in tonight's patch notes revision. If you want to see the latest PTR patch notes in full, head over to the Blizzard PTR forums.

• General:

  • Due to significant talent tree revisions, all players will have their talent points reimbursed. Several new spells and abilities have been added for select classes. Players will need to visit their class trainer to learn new spells.
  • The Argent Tournament, a permanent in-game event, has come to Icecrown. Players interested in taking part in this event should visit the Argent Pavilion located on the west side of the tournament grounds. Features include:
  • New ways of gaining reputation with capital cities.
  • All new daily quests, achievements and titles.
  • New rare and epic items, tabards, pets, banners, faction shirts and mounts.
  • Mounted combat, and much more to come!

As they sometimes do, Blizzard has updated the official 3.1 PTR patch notes. Most of it won't be new to you if you've been following along with all the latest developments, but if not, there's some good stuff in there. The entire patch notes are replicated after the cut, in case you are (for instance) at work and unable to access the Blizzard forums.

General

• All Ground Mounts may now swim without dismounting the rider. Flying Mounts still may NOT, and will dismount the rider upon entering water.
• Ulduar is now available for limited testing. Please visit the Public Test Realms for more details. http://forums.wow-europe.com/board.html?forumId=11095&sid=1
• Players level 40 and higher will now be able to visit their trainer to pay a one-time fee and access the dual talent specialization feature.
• The achievement Brew of the Year has been removed from the Brewmaster meta-achievement. The achievement Brew of the Month has been added in its place.
• Noblegarden has been redesigned into a week-long holiday with new items, quests, and more. Various achievements have been added, including the meta-achievement Noble Gardener, which is now required for the meta-achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been.
• Applying a glyph no longer requires a Lexicon of Power. The same rules for switching between dual talent specializations now apply to switching glyphs and cannot be performed while in combat, Battlegrounds (except when Preparation is up), or Arenas (no exceptions).
• Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

Welcome back to another installment of Patch Note Watch, the show where we go through the PTR patch notes in meticulous detail and show you everything that's changed since the last version! Much of this has been covered already here on WoW Insider, including rollbacks on Life Tap and Flametongue, some multi-target effects no longer breaking CC, and a nice new recipe for jewelcrafters. But I am a completist. I must post every detail, so let's begin. As usual, any change that we haven't covered on the site that looks interesting will be bolded.

• Blizzard Entertainment would like to dedicate the patch in memory of Gary Gygax. His work on D&D was an inspiration to us in many ways and helped spark our passion for creating games of our own. As avid D&D players and fellow game developers, we were all saddened by the news of his passing; we feel we've lost a true adventuring companion. Thanks for everything and farewell, Gary. You will be missed.

Although the realms aren't up for a bit yet, the latest tiny patch, 2.3.3., is apparently going live today, and so you can go ahead and download it right now. Here's the entire list of changes:

• General
• Some players may notice improved data load times when newly entering the world and after zoning into new areas.
• Character/NPC load times have been decreased, and now should appear faster. You're not hearing voices, there really are people in Shattrath!
• Bug Fixes
• Felspine the Greater in Shadowmoon Valley will no longer evade when engaged.
• Guttripper in Nagrand will no longer evade when engaged.
• Players will now be correctly credited with their arena points if they purchase an arena item during weekly arena calculations.
• Using a castsequence macro on a target moving out of range will no longer cause it to stop working.

Here's hoping this means they'll be getting 2.4 up on the PTR quickly.

[Thanks, V3T]

We've seen the live patch notes, pleasant patch surprises and the changes between PTR and live in 2.3. Now, the good citizens of Azeroth present the undocumented Patch 2.3 changes on WoWWiki and World of Raids. All the little changes are listed on the pages, so we've chosen to highlight the biggest undocumented changes. These may not apply to everyone, but have been noticed by people in the community.

General

• Boats and zeppelins which carry players now have NPC crews, including vendors.
• There is a new neutral flight path outside of Zul'Aman, which means you can now fly out from Silvermoon City.
• Whoever in a group has loot rights to a corpse will appear on the minimap (LOOT THE DOG!)
• There is now a log in the guild information tab that allows you to see promotions, kicks, joins and leaves.
• Mousing over the mail icon will show you the name of the mail sender.
• Track Humanoids distinguishes between friendly and hostile targets.

Professions

• Interactive items such as herbs now have a glow around them, making them easier to find.
• Primal Fire and Earth, and motes thereof, can be put in mining bags. Primal Water, Life, and Mana can be put in enchanting bags. Primal Life can be put in herbalism bags. All primals and motes can go in Engineering bags.
• The cooldown on Nexus Transformation has been eliminated.

Now that you've gotten a bit of a chance to look at the live patch notes for 2.3, let's go over what's changed between this version and the latest PTR build. Some of these seem to have been in the PTR already, but just not listed in the patch notes; others are genuinely new. I tried to screen out all the bits we knew already from the PTR, but some probably made it through. I'll put the ones that look relatively significant up front, and the full list after the cut. This post will mostly be of use to those of you who have been playing on the PTR and/or keeping up with the PTR news; if you haven't been and you want to know what's up with this patch, you'd do better to go look at the full patch notes.

• Rogue
• Dirty Deeds now also increases special ability damage against enemies below 35% health. [Used to just say "...increases damage against..."; this changes seems to imply that it now does not affect white damage.]
• Shadowstep: minimum range removed. Now works on any target within 25 yards.
• [Warlock] Unstable Affliction: The silence from this ability is now subject to diminishing returns.
• [Engineering] The Crashin' Thrashin' Robot is now Bind on Use rather than Bind on Acquire so non-engineers can use them as well.
• Health and mana values for your target can now be displayed numerically, as values or as percentages (was previously the case only for you/your party members).
• Added a Use Hardware [sound] option. This should only be used by advanced users with specific hardware configurations, as it may significantly alter your sound performance.

The realms may not be back up for another few hours, but at least we have the official, live notes for patch 2.3 to pore over! These are the ones shipping with the patch itself. Check back later for analysis and dissection; for now, I just want to get these notes out there as quickly as possible. I really wish I wasn't going to be in class all day today, so I could sink my teeth into some of this new stuff. On first glance, these don't appear to be too different from the latest PTR notes, but expect a full report of any changes in the very near future.

World of Warcraft Client Patch 2.3.0

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

The Gods of Zul'Aman

The stronghold of Zul'Aman has stood for millennia as the Amani trolls' seat of power and bastion of the fearless, cunning warlord Zul'jin.

Zul'jin has spent several years plotting behind Zul'Aman's walls. Furious at the Horde for allowing his hated enemies, the blood elves, to join its ranks, he eagerly embraced a scheme that the witch doctor Malacrass recently proposed: to seal the power of the animal gods within the bodies of the Amani's strongest warriors.

Now Zul'Aman's army grows more powerful by the day, hungry to exact vengeance in the name of its fearless leader, Zul'jin.

A few posts hit the forums today discussing the upcoming changeover between season two and season three. Although it has not been announced exactly when season three will start, it will, apparently, be sometime around the release of patch 2.3 (which makes sense, given the PvP item changes we've been seeing on the PTR):

Season 3 should start around the same time as patch 2.3 is released, but please keep in mind that season 3 may not start on the same date the patch is launched.

We have said that were planning to give a two weeks notice on the start of season 3, which still holds true. If there are any changes on this plan, we will let you know. (Vaneras)

The interesting thing here is that they say season three will be roughly simultaneous with patch 2.3, and they will give two weeks notice before the start of season three. Does this mean we'll have two weeks notice before 2.3 is released? One can only hope, although it is historically improbable for Blizzard to give a patch ETA that's more than a few days away.

It looks like a few more changes snuck onto the patch 2.3 PTRs that didn't quite make it to the last round of patch notes, and here they are.

• Rogue
• Shadowstep (Subtlety) can now be used at any time, not only while stealthed. Now increases the damage and reduces the threat caused by the next damaging ability. Cooldown increased to 30 seconds. Range changed to 8-25 yards. Note was updated to reflect the most recent version on the PTR.
• Engineering
• Engineering potion injectors no longer require engineering skill to use.
• Jumper Cables XL is no longer a trinket.
• The materials required for the Field Repair Bot 110G have been simplified [and it now has 5 charges].
• World Environment
• Gas clouds in Nagrand now produce motes of air.
• Gas clouds in Zangarmarsh now produce motes of water instead of motes of life.

So if I'm reading everything correctly, Shadowstep has been changed to reduce the threat on the next subsequent move no matter what it is (previously it was just Ambush, Garrote, or Backstab), and the cooldown has been lowered from 40 to 30 seconds (still up from 15 on the live realms). How does that sound?

And being the intrepid WoW investigator that I am, I jumped on the PTR to find the new mats on the Repair Bot. They are: Adamantite Frame, Khorium Power Core, Primal Earth (3), Handful of Fel Iron Bolts (8), Adamantite Bar (6). Additionally, the bot now seems to have 5 charges, which I don't remember from before. The previous mats were Adamantite Frame (2), Khorium Power Core, Primal Earth (4), Handful of Fel Iron Bolts (6), Fel Iron Bar (18). Here's how it compares in raw materials: the new bot requires 32 less Fel Iron Ore, four more Adamantite Ore, and two less Primal Earth. That's a nice reduction in mats, especially considering it now has five charges, which effectively makes it five times cheaper on top of whatever the mats change did.

[via World of Raids]

Yesterday a new build went live on the patch 2.3 PTRs, including some pretty big stuff. Some of these things we knew were coming in some form, but since they hadn't been seen on the PTR yet we didn't know the specific details. The ever-reliable Boubouille of MMO-Champion has the details. The most significant changes (in my opinion) are:

• [Druid] If you are in a shapeshift form and try to use an ability that may only be used in caster form, you will leave the form and use that ability. This means that you can shift from one form to another in one action. If you don't have mana to shift form, you will get an error message and remain in your current form. This can be disabled with /console autoUnshift 0.
• [Hunter] Aimed Shot (Marksmanship) now reduces healing done to that target by 50% for 10 seconds.
• [Paladin] Precision (Protection) now increases spell hit chance as well.
• [Priest] If you are in Shadowform and try to use an ability that my not be used in Shadowform, you will leave Shadowform and use that ability. This can be disabled with /console autoUnshift 0
• [Rogue] Cheat Death (Subtlety) chance to trigger increased to 33/66/100% [up from 10/20/30%] and now also causes the rogue to take 90% less damage for 3 seconds when the effect triggers. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute.
• Creature AI has been changed to no longer prioritize attacking unfeared targets over feared targets.

Bolding and underlining are not tools I use lightly, but holy jumping monkeys did you see that Cheat Death change?! If I'm reading this correctly (and I've never had the talent, so it's possible I'm not), this says that with 3/3 talent points, Cheat Death will confer on the rogue a 100% chance to "completely avoid any damaging attack that would otherwise kill you" (as the talent is worded), as well as reducing all damage taken by 90% for 3 seconds, on a one-minute cooldown. Take that, suddenly-raid-viable Ret pallies! Sub rogues now can't die unless they receive a deathblow more than once in a minute!

The fear change is also quite a big deal. It seems to mean, among other things, tanks shouldn't lose aggro when feared anymore, so you won't need to stance dance to avoid getting feared while tanking. Onyxia just got considerably easier; too bad she's irrelevant these days. Also, the Priest talent "Unbreakable Will" will no longer be a liability. Anyway, read on for the full list of changes.

It looks like Blizzard really did mean it about putting a rush on patch 2.3: I'm told it's up on the PTRs (thanks, Addie), and here are the patch notes! Edit: PTR not live until after 6 PM PST, apparently (thanks, Basic). There's a lot of sizable changes in there, many of which we haven't seen yet, so it's definitely worth taking a look. Keep an eye out for specific subject analyses; for now I just want to get this information out to you all as fast as possible.

World of Warcraft Test Patch 2.3.0

The latest patch notes can always be found at
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com...patchnotes.html

Zul'Aman

Zul'Aman is a 10-player, level 70 outdoor instance located in the
Ghostlands. Players will be able to confront six new bosses including
the Forest Troll Warlord Zul'jin.

Guild Banks Introduced

The Guild Bank is a shared repository for an entire guild and will be
accessible through new NPC's called guild bankers. The Guild Bank will
allow players with the appropriate permissions to store items and money
for use by the rest of the guild. Permissions to withdraw and deposit
money and items are controlled by the guild leader through the guild
controls menu. The Guild Bank is divided up into separate tabs so that
the guild leader may restrict access or group items into distinct
categories.
- Up to 6 purchasable tabs each containing 98 item slots
- Permissions to view/deposit/withdraw per tab
- You may use your Guild Bank withdraw limits to pay for item repairs
(now enabled on all merchants)
- Transaction logs of the last 50 actions in the bank viewable on a per
tab basis