Posts with tag patch-notes

Grab yourself a drink and get comfortable because these are some hefty patch notes. There are a lot of changes coming to almost every aspect of the game -- classes, garrisons, professions, items, you name it. Here are a few highlights.

• Collecting all heirloom items awards a special mount usable by level 1 characters.
• Tertiary Stats for Avoidance, Speed, and Leech now provide about four times as much benefit per stat point.
• Lumber Mill and the Trading Post no longer require Garrison Resources to build or upgrade.
• The Mage Tower now accepts Ogre Waystones as work orders awarding Apexis Crystals and a chance to receive an item that allows instant completion of a mission that's in-progress.
• Players may find an item while completing a Bounty, Relic, Dungeon, or Raid daily quest from the Garrison visitor that that allows them to summon one of six new raid or world boss in the Garrison (10-40 players).
• Characters can now accrue up to a maximum of 60,000 Apexis Crystals (up from 20,000).

View the complete notes after the break for much more, including a ton of class changes.

Hotfixes, piping hot. And what's in those hotfixes, you may ask? Well, I'm glad you did. Because if you hadn't, rhetorical reader, I wouldn't be able to inform you that, in addition to the trap stealing hotfix we mentioned earlier:

• Spawn rates for Direfang Alpha, Ironhide Bull, and Wetland Trampler has increased slightly. This change requires a realm restart.
• Alliance and Horde PvP vendors in Ashran now have collision boxes, so it should be easier for players to buy stuff.
• Hand of Protection should now interrupt players that are in the process of capturing a point in the Battlegrounds.
• A whole host of class fixes and changes.

Come with us under the shadow of this small jump to see what's going on.

It's here. At long last, we can finally take the fight through the Dark Portal and against the Iron Horde on their own home ground. What changes and surprises await us? Well, there are a few.

• The level cap is raised to 100.
• New dungeons unlocked, including Auchindoun, Skyreach, and Grimrail depot.
• Garrisons! Start building your otherworldly dream military base now.
• Level 91 and above can queue for MoP raid finder solo, as well as MoP scenarios, by talking to Lorewalker Fu, Lorewalker Shin, or Lorewalker Han at the Seat of Knowledge in Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
• Character item levels are no longer scaled down in Proving Grounds. Creatures now scale up with the character's item level.
• Heroic dungeons now require at least one character per account to have achieved Silver or higher in Proving Grounds, for the role being selected.

For all these changes and more, head over to the official site for the patch notes.

So tomorrow we're getting patch 6.0.3, which hotfixes a lot of issues thus far in patch 6.0.2 and brings the game more in line with what's running on the beta servers. So what issues needed fixing, you ask? Well, there's a host of fixes, so why not let them speak for themselves?

• In the hilarious words of the patch notes, "Thrall received a reminder that he is currently still on Azeroth."
• The glitch that was making Undead players' jaws vanish in certain helmets has been fixed.
• Shamans can rejoice that Flame Shock, Chain Lightning, Lightning Bolt, Frost Shock and Lava Burst have received a discount and now cost 50% less mana to cast.
• You now can't complete the quest for Warforged Seals if you already have the maximum amount (20) of Warforged Seals.

For the complete list of hotfixes, click the link below! And remember, you are currently still on Azeroth.

They're here, and they're mostly a tuning pass.

The latest patch notes for the Warlords of Draenor beta are much less about sudden, massive changes and much more about getting damage and healing output where it needs to be for the live release of the game. So what are we looking at?

• The pandaren racial Epicurean now increases the effect of buff food by 75%, down from 100%.
• Typhoon's range was decreased to 15 yards, down from 30 yards.
• Pretty much every single class saw some damage adjusted up or down.

We definitely seem to be heading towards release at the pace you'd expect for a November release of the expansion. Head on over to the official site for more details.

Once again we're looking at patch notes for the Warlords of Draenor Beta. And there are changes to be had, for classes such as Death Knights and Warriors, as well as in general. Some highlights:

• Death knights lose the Rune of Cinderglacier
• Frost death knights have been revamped, so that dual wield frost DK's specialize in more frost damage while two handed frost DK's lean more on physical damage. Various abilities have been buffed or changed to make this the case, including Obliterate.
• Tremor Totem still can't be used while feared, charmed or slept, but its duration is now increased to 10 seconds.
• Arms warriors now generate rage from auto attack damage taken, and many warrior abilities have had their stance restrictions removed.

There's more, of course - for a complete run-through of these patch notes, head over to the official site.

For starters, arms warriors and balance druids have been singled out as having seen big redesigns. Abilities have been moved, removed and redesigned. (Mortal Strike replaces Heroic Strike and Overpower is gone, for example.) The sections on balance druids and arms warriors are extensive. Survival Hunters also saw a new ability, Bear Trap, introduced. In addition, some changes were rolled back - paladins in particular see some roll back on previous changes.

For a full breakdown of the changes, you can go to the patch notes on the official site.

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• Mistweaver Ai on the Timeless Isle now sells the Deeds of Valor token for 3000 Timeless Coins. Using the token will grant the player 100 valor points, up to the 1000 valor weekly limit.
• Heirloom weapons awarded by Garrosh Hellscream have been increased by 8 item levels.
• All upgradeable epic quality items from patch 5.4 are now eligible to be upgraded an additional two times with valor.

• Haste % and Crit % bonuses have been streamlined -- no more spell/melee/ranged, it's a universal Haste and Crit % bonus for all.
• Druids, rejoice -- Ravage no longer requires you to be behind the target.
• Many glyphs have been removed, and a lot of new glyphs have been added, with some glyphs now being exclusive to a specialization.
• Movement speed enchants now increase Movement Speed by 10% -- up from 8%.
• Hunters, there has been a comprehensive sweep over pet abilities -- it's a major list!
• Paladins, there have been some major tweaks to both Holy and Protection specs.

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• A new row of talents has been added for level 100, and Draenor Perks from levels 91-99.
• Racial traits have been rebalanced.
• All characters now learn a few important Major Glyphs as they level up.
• Garrisons, garrisons, garrisons!

Week of Tuesday, Mar. 25 – April 1, 2014:

• Tyrande
• Stitches
• Diablo
• Tychus
• Kerrigan
• Nova

Along with the latest free-to-play hero rotation, we're getting some balance changes to certain heroes. There aren't a huge number of changes but many are significant, including a lot of nerfs to Uther! Hit the break for all the changes.

Update: Hearthstone has been released. Like, for real. Official, no-longer-beta release. That wasn't very exciting, was it?

Yesterday, Hearthstone community manager Aratil revealed a few changes to the game in advance of its official launch. To start, Tinkmaster Overspark and Nat Pagle are being rebalanced. That's one small part of today's Hearthstone patch, which includes the Hearthsteed mount for Hearthstone-playing World of Warcraft players.

• Tinkmaster Overspark is now a 3/3 (up from 2/2) and now reads: Battlecry: Transform another random minion into a 5/5 Devilsaur or a 1/1 Squirrel. (Old Effect: Battlecry: Transform a minion into a 5/5 Devilsaur or a 1/1 Squirrel at random.)
• Nat Pagle now reads: At the start of your turn, you have a 50% chance to draw an extra card. (Old Effect: At the end of your turn, you have a 50% chance to draw an extra card.)

If you never used Tinkmaster Overspark, the change can be a little confusing -- it almost looks like nothing changed at all. Originally, you were able to choose which target is transformed, but not whether it transforms into a Devilsaur or a Squirrel. Now you can neither choose its target nor what the target becomes. It's entirely random after this change. Nat Pagle's change means he is required to stay on the field for at least one round before he begins drawing cards for you, giving your opponent an opportunity to kill him off before you get anything at all.

This is all part of the latest patch to Hearthstone, which also includes matchmaking changes, golden heroes, alternate card backs, and more. You can find the patch notes on the Hearthstone blog and the official explanation for some of these changes below.

• PvP season 14 ends, PvP season 15 begins
• Honor gear item level is increased to 522, Conquest gear item level is increased to 550.
• The new gear drops from the Celestials, too.
• The Krasarang rares now only drop honor once per day.
• Timeless Isle weapons are all automatically upgraded to ilvl 489 including ones you already own
• There are terrain changes and NPC changes in Alterac Valley
• Dampening will start at 5 minutes in 2v2 arenas only
• There are a few class changes, notably to warrior interrupts and druids' Heart of the Wild.

We're also tentatively expecting to see the pre-orders for Warlords of Draenor sometime after the patch's release, and the much-discussed buy-a-90 feature, although this has not been officially confirmed by Blizzard. Boosted level 90s will get 483 gear, and if you're boosting a level 60+ character they'll also get maxed professions.

What does this all mean if you're not really into your PvP? Why should you care about the patch? Well, if you're a PvE-er leveling a brand new level 90 character, or maybe boosting one, the best way to gear it straight to 522 is now to grind out honor gear. But don't worry, the best way to do that is still via PvE. Same applies if you've still got slots below that ilvl.

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• PvP gear has been updated to the relevant season, so the season 14 Grievous gear is now purchaseable for honor, while the season 15 Prideful gear is live
• The Flaskataurs return! Both shrines now feature a Flaskataur for all your needs.
  • Flaskataurs sell PvP gear in the shrine
  • Tier 15 Normal gear at Niuzao
  • Glyphs in the Shrine
• Charge's stun is now a stun again rather than a root
• Warbringer's root is, again, a root
• Disrupting Shout and Pummel now both share a 15-second cooldown when either ability is used. Disrupting Shout's 40-second cooldown remains unchanged but the ability will be unavailable for 15 seconds after using Pummel.

Hit the break for the full patch notes!