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Archive for the 'MMORPGs' Category

Apr 21 2009

World of Warcraft Patch 3.1.1 Notes

Blizzard updated World of Warcraft to patch 3.1.1 to fix some bugs. Here are the full patch notes:

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

General

In order to address issues with the dual talent specialization system, all players will have their talents points refunded. Players who have purchased dual talent specializations will have both specializations reset. Glyphs will not be affected by this reset.

Bugs

Characters who are not of the same race or class are once again able to view each others’ professions linked in chat.

Fixed an issue in which player and pet nameplates were appearing larger than normal.

Thrall’s throne has been adjusted back to its proper size and the base replaced. He will no longer need to defy gravity.

Fixed an issue with a display error on druid leather helms.

Corrected an issue for GeForce2/ATI 7 series card users that would result in critical errors for select actions in game. As a result certain projected textures, like spell effects and targeting circles, will no longer render on some terrain objects.

Achievements

Corrected an issue preventing players from earning the achievement, “Storming Stormwind.” Players who were not properly awarded this achievement for completing the objective should retroactively be granted completion.

Warlock

Demonology

Fel Synergy (Rank 1): Corrected the tooltip to now display the proper healing amount.

Dungeons and Raids

Caverns of Time: Culling of Stratholme

Fixed an issue with the outside map not appearing correctly.

Fixed an issue where an incorrect skin was being applied to certain classes/races when the Human Illusion buff is cast upon them.

Ulduar

The mob packs in the XT-002 Deconstructor encounter can now be engaged separately and are no longer linked.

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Apr 16 2009

Warhammer releases patch 1.2.1



Warhammer Online was upgraded today to 1.2.1. For a great summary and review of the patch, click here. Here are the full patch notes:

Keep Upgrade System

Own a Keep? Want to keep it? Want to get more out of it? Then the new Keep Upgrade system is perfect for you! Guilds that own a Keep can now purchase upgrades to bolster their hold’s utility and defenses in a variety of ways.
Once a Keep has been claimed, a guild member with sufficient permission can speak to the Guild Keep Agent on the upper level of the Keep to choose what upgrades to purchase. These upgrades require a periodic maintenance fee and some are available in multiple levels. Once purchased, upgrades will take time to be completed. This process can be monitored via the new Keep Upgrade Interface. Upgrades will decay if funds are unavailable to pay their maintenance or if a guild member chooses to stop paying for the upgrade.

Combat Responsiveness Improvements

We are always working to improve the overall responsiveness of our game client and server. With version 1.2.1 players will see some significant improvements including the following:

* Casting times have become more accurate under normal play conditions, and players should no longer see a significant “stretch” or “pause” when casting spells in low or moderate latency situations.
* Accuracy of the spell cast UI has been improved. The display will now show 1/2 second increments and will no longer “stretch” time to compensate for latency. Instead, players will see a pause after the bar has filled completely if they are in a high-latency environment.
* Continued improvements to animation and visual effects performance have been made. Players will see smoother transitions between animations and significantly less stuck visual effects, especially when chain-casting abilities.

UI Improvements

We are pleased to announce several improvements and enhancements to the game’s User Interface!

The Guild Window has received a major facelift and several functional improvements.We have added more information to the Guild Window, such as new news alerts and additional statistics on the profile tab. We have also resolved several interface bugs with the window, such as promoting and demoting through the UI and loss ofguild permissions.

The User Settings window has been divided into tabs for convenience and clarity. The Customize Interface window has been folded into the User Interface window under the “Interface” tab. Tooltips have also been added to various elements in the User Settings window in order to explain their function.

RvR Zone Control Rewards

Various improvements have been made to Zone Control Rewards in Tier 4 zones to reward players for zone captures more so than individual Objective and Keep captures. When active zones are captured in Tier 4, all players in the zone are awarded Renown based on their Rank, similar to Tiers 1, 2, and 3..

Battlefield Objectives that are owned by the conquering realm will also buff all of the players in the zone with the same buffs that Sergeants grant players. Lastly, players who have captured a Keep or Battlefield Objective in the zone, which is then captured, will be awarded additional Renown from capturing from capturing these zones.

RvR Quartermaster System

The RvR Quartermaster system is the next step in our ongoing improvements to RvR and City Siege itemization and rewards! This system introduces a more reliable way of earning RvR rewards by allowing players to earn special medallions and crests for participating in all types of RvR and City Siege activities. These medallions and crests can then be exchanged for items by speaking with a RvR Quartermaster in a Capitol City. These Quartermasters may be found either in the Markets or in the Guild Halls and bear the titles Recruit Quartermaster, Scout Quartermaster, Soldier Quartermaster and Officer Quartermaster. This will give players an exciting new alternative to winning PQ rolls in RvR for earning their sets and progressing through the game.

Upgrade Your Assault with Ordnance!

We are pleased to introduce a new resource to RvR that players can trade in for deadly assault upgrades! Scattered throughout the RvR lakes and acquired from killing players, Ordnance is collected and traded in for various items and weapons to use in open-field RvR! Battering rams with more hit points, ballistae that do more damage, and oil immunity potions can all be purchased and used on unsuspecting enemy players!

New Guild Recruitment Options

Guilds can now set up a “profile” for their guild using the “Recruitment” tab in the Guild Window. Settings for type of guild, careers, and ranks being recruited, additionally guild “recruiters” can be set in the “Management” tab. Once your guild recruitment info is filled out, players can search using the same criteria in the “Search” tab to find guilds that fit their individual play-style and needs. Guilds can also be hyper-linked into chat either by shift-left clicking on the “Link Your Guild” link in the “Recruitment” tab, or by shift-left-clicking the guild title in the search results panel. When players click the guild hyper-link, they will receive an individual window identical to the panel in search results. No more chat spamming required. Let the hyper-links fly!

Character Profiles

Introducing the new character profile system, which gives you complete control over the way you play your characters! Each character will now have its own Interface Profile. This will allow customization of addons and UI layout on an individual -character basis. You can also customize multiple profiles per character. For instance, if you want to have a different set of addons for soloing versus open RvR, just open the Profile Management window, create a new profile, and make any changes you wish. You can then swap between those profiles at any time in the Profile Management window. Profiles can also be copied from character to character, even across servers. Just choose “Import from Profile” when making a new profile, and you will be shown a list of your profiles for all characters you have on all servers. When you first log in, your first character will automatically map your existing user settings to the new profile. On first login of an alternate character, you will be asked if you would like to start with a default profile or use the profile of an existing character.

Please note that this is only the first iteration of the character profile system. We are working to add new features, including the ability to save keybindings, as part of the profile.

The Battle for the Gates of Ekrund Expands!

The massive Gates of Ekrund are all that stand between the Dwarf-held mines at Ekrund and the greenskin-infested domain of Mount Bloodhorn. The battles fought for control of this ancient structure have been among the most bitter in the Age of Reckoning, and now both sides are calling for additional reinforcements!

Beginning with this update, players Rank 19-24 will be able to join a special 6-on-6 version of the Gates of Ekrund. Also, a new quest has been added to the game to reward players who answer the call to defend (or smash down!) the Gates.

General Changes and Bug Fixes

* Fixed an issue that could cause the reported /played time to become inaccurate over time.
* Fleeing monsters will now have reduced run speed while fleeing, and will no longer immediately leave combat after fleeing.
* If the ‘Show Guild Heraldry’ option in the Inventory Panel is checked, and the player is wearing a non-standard back item (for example, the Brewmaster Backpack or Heavy Metal event cloak), the back item will be replaced with a default cloak displaying the guild heraldry.
* Player mounts and other creatures that are set to hug the ground will now do so everywhere and not just on terrain.
* The game client will now prioritize corpses with loot on them over empty corpses. As a result, players will now be able to more easily loot items from piles of corpses.
* When changing appearance (such as a Marauder mutating) the cloak Show Guild Heraldry setting will now persist through the appearance change.

Capital Cities
* Sigmar’s Crypts: Arch Lectors Zakarai and Verrimus will now correctly apply a damage debuff to players when they switch powers.
* Fixed an issue that allowed some players to repeatedly do the King encounters during the same city raid. All players will now be limited to only one successful attempt at the King encounter per raid.
* City Lord and King bosses are now immune to the snap target component of taunt abilities.They are not immune to the threat generation caused by taunt.
* The Renown merchants that offer Tier-based Renown gear similar to the Renown merchants in the warcamps have had their titles adjusted to make it easier for players to identify each Tier of Renown gear.
* Players will no longer be required to select an instance when entering a contested city. Instead, players will always be placed in the same instance as their group or warband. New instances will be created by the server as older instances become full.
* In order to allow more players the opportunity to participate in city-related RvR, the contested city Scenarios (The Undercroft and the War Quarters) are now only accessible to players in the Rank range of 8-29. All players below Rank 28 will be bolstered to Rank 28 while in the Scenario.
* Players who attempt to log into a city that is contested will now spawn at their refugee camp instead of inside the peaceful version of the city.
* Upon successful destruction of the door into the city, friendly guards will arrive to support the invading army’s foray into the enemy capital!

Combat and Careers

General
* Victory Cry: This bonus will now last 60 minutes and persist through death.
* Blessed Curse: Fixed a bug that allowed this Scenario ability to linger after leaving a Scenario, causing death to the player.
* Updated the visual effects for the following abilities:
- Chosen Auras (Chosen)
- Magical Infusion (Archmage)
- Rending Blade (Chosen)
- Shrug it off (Shaman)
- Thunderous Blow (Marauder)
* Fixed a bug that was causing diminishing returns on stats to not calculate correctly. Players will now see less effectiveness when stacking a single stat excessively high. Additionally stats that have hit the “soft cap” for diminishing returns will now be displayed in gold on the character sheet, making it easier for players to see when they have hit the “soft cap”.
* Rapidly activating abilities will no longer occasionally cause the build-time bar to become out of sync.
* To reduce excessive error messages and improve the feel of combat, error messages about abilities “not being ready yet” will no longer be displayed while within the global cooldown.
* Fixed numerous cases of bonuses which would not be correctly reflected on your character sheet.
* Items with range-increasing bonuses will now correctly display the amount of the bonus in feet.
* Combat log messages will now inform the player what ability has disabled them.
* Fixed a bug that was preventing buff icons below the first row from displaying their tooltips.
* The cast bar bar will now display in half seconds.
* Fixed a bug that was causing certain ground-targeted spells to not display their graphics.
* Fixed an issue where some effects weren’t displaying on the helms and cloaks of players correctly.
* A tradable broken item that repairs into a bound item will no longer incorrectly warn the player that the broken item itself will bind on pickup.
* Interacting with an object while your weapons are sheathed will no longer cause your weapons to disappear.
* Effects that increase your Hit Point regen rate will now function while in-combat.
* Fixed an issue that caused any buff that lasts longer than 18 hours to display an incorrect duration.
* You may now occasionally discover items that can be traded to other players, but cannot be put up on the Auction House.

Archetypes
Melee DPS Archetype:
* Force of Will: The range of this ability now matches the tooltip.

Careers

Archmage
* Balance Essence: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Cleansing Flare: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Drain Magic: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Fury of Asuryan: Increased this ability’s damage, greatly reduced the cooldown time, and added a brief buildup time.
* Law of Conductivity: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Law of Gold: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Magical Infusion: This ability has been redesigned, and how has an entirely new effect. It will now place a buff on the target that will restore their health if they fall below 15% Hit Points.
* Radiant Lance: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Scatter the Winds: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Searing Touch: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Storm of Cronos: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Transfer Force: Increased this ability’s damage.

Black Orc
* Rock ‘Ard: This ability’s tooltip will now correctly display that it advances your plan.

Bright Wizard
* Fiery Blast: This ability’s tooltip has been fixed to correctly display the damage and area range.
* Playing With Fire: Fixed a bug that allowed the healing debuff applied by this ability to stack with other healing debuffs. Now, only the largest healing debuff will apply.
* Rain of Fire: Fixed a bug that allowed this ability to continue channeling after the caster’s death. Additionally, this ability will no longer stack multiple times on an enemy. Instead, multiple Rains of Fire in the same area will begin to affect more people.

Choppa
* Lotsa Choppin’: This ability has been changed to a Cone area of effect that will only hit targets in front and on the sides of the Choppa. Due to this change this ability will no longer require a target to activate.
* Wot’s Da Rush?: Fixed an issue with this ability’s tooltip to correctly display how long the debuff lasts on enemy targets.
* Yer Goin Down!: Fixed typo in this ability’s tooltip.
* The Choppa Sovereign Armor set will correctly grant the “No Stopping Me” ability after achieving the 8-piece bonus.

Chosen
* Auras will no longer immediately dispel themselves and go into the temporary version.
* Bane Shield: Fixed a bug that allowed this ability to turn off some auras.
* Rending Blade: This ability’s tooltip now correctly states that the ability is undefendable. Additionally, this ability’s reuse time has increased, and the cost has been lowered.

Disciple
* Covenant of Vitality: The damage from this ability will no longer proc if the heal does not.
* Devour Essence: This ability will now properly heal the target buffed with the spell.
* Khaine’s Bounty: This Tactic will now no longer trigger off of heal-over-time effects.
* Khaine’s Imbuement: This Tactic will no longer trigger off of damage-over-time abilities. Also, the tooltip for this Tactic will now show the damage type it does.

Engineer
* Land Mine: This ability is now based on player Rank, and damage is based on Tinkerer level.
* Increased base hit points on all Turrets.

Ironbreaker
* Runic Shield: This ability will now apply the absorb bubble visual effect to the Ironbreaker.

Knight of the Blazing Sun
* Heaven’s Fury: This ability will now respect knockdown immunity.
* Runefang: Revised the tooltip to more clearly explain how this ability works.
* Shackle: This ability will now grant and respect root immunity.

Magus
* Daemonic Infestation: This ability is now based on player Rank, and damage is based on Daemonology level.
* Horrifying Visions: This ability is now correctly categorized as a debuff instead of a damaging ability.
* Increased base hit points on all Daemons.
* Tzeentch’s Firestorm: This ability will no longer stack multiple times on an enemy. Instead, multiple Firestorms in the same area will begin to affect more people.

Marauder
* Mutating Release: Activating this ability will no longer prevent Flee and Charge from functioning properly
* Terrible Embrace: Fixed a problem that could cause the cast time of this ability to be incorrect.
* Thunderous Blow: This ability has been redesigned, and now has an entirely new effect . It will now lower the target’s Wounds for 20 seconds.

Rune Priest
* Master Rune of Adamant: This ability will no longer trigger effects which are caused by direct heals (such as Restorative Burst).
* Rune of Ending: The damage shown in this ability’s tooltip will now match the actual damage done.

Shadow Warrior
* Enchanted Arrow: The damage for Flame Arrow and Festering Arrow will now be correct when this Tactic is slotted.

Shaman
* Big Waaagh!: Reduced this ability’s cost, cooldown time, and range.
* Bleed Fer Me: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Brain Bursta: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Bunch o Waaagh: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Geddoff!: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Get’n Smarter: This ability will now also deal damage over time.
* Gork’s Barbs: This ability has been redesigned, and now has an entirely new effect. It will now reduce incoming healing on the victim, and damage the person who healed them.
* I’ll Take That!: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Life Leaka: Increased this ability’s damage.
* Scuse Me!: Increased this ability’s damage, and increased the amount that the victim’s resistances that are reduced by.
* Shrug it Off: This ability has been redesigned, and now has an entirely new effect. It will now place a buff on the target that will restore their health if they fall below 15% Hit Points.
* Yer a Weaklin: Increased this ability’s damage.
* You Got Nuthin!: Increased this ability’s damage.

Slayer
* Doom Seeker: This Morale ability will now respect line-of-sight.
* Flurry: This ability has been changed to a Cone area of effect that will only hit targets in front and on the sides of the Slayer. Due to this change this ability will no longer require a target to activate.
* Looks Like a Challenge: Fixed a typo in this ability’s tooltip.
* The Slayer Sovereign Armor set will correctly grant an ability after achieving the 8-piece bonus.

Sorceror
* Pit of Shades: Fixed a bug that allowed this ability to continue channeling after the caster’s death. Additionally, this ability will no longer stack multiple times on an enemy. Instead, multiple Pits of Shades in the same area will begin to affect more people.

Squig Herder
* Basic Squig: Increases pet’s Toughness and Wounds by the amount of Toughness and Wounds the Squig Herder has in item stats.
* Drop That: Fixed a typo in this ability’s tooltip.
* Gas Squig: Increases pet’s Ballistic Skill and Weapon Skill by the amount of Ballistic Skill and Weapon Skill the Squig Herder has in item stats.
* Horned Squig: Increases the pet’s Strength, Toughness, and Weapon Skill for 100% of the Strength, 50% of the Toughness, and 50% of the Weapon Skill that the Squig Herder has in item stats.
* Increased base hit points on all Squigs.
* Run Away: This ability no longer stacks with other movement-increasing abilities. Additionally, this ability’s duration is now listed on the tooltip.
* Spiked Squig: Increases the pet’s Ballistic Skill and Weapon Skill for 150% of the Ballistic Skill and 50% of the Weapon Skill that the Squig Herder has in item stats.

Swordmaster
* Blurring Shock: This ability will now trigger its proc if you land a critical hit while refreshing the effect.
* Dampening Talon: This ability will now show up as its own icon when it is affecting a target.
* Dragon’s Talon: This ability’s first hit is now capable of triggering critical-hit-based effects (previously neither would), and this ability now receives the correct amount of stat contribution. In addition, this ability will now land both hits faster than before.

Warrior Priest
* Cleansing Power: This Tactic has been changed. It will now cause Purify to remove a Curse or Hex from everyone in the target’s group.
* Guilty Soul: The damage done by this Tactic will no longer be capable of crits.
* Judgment: This ability will now correctly do Spirit damage.

White Lion
* Bite: Fixed a bug that prevented this ability from firing at melee range.
* Increased base hit points on the War Lion.
* Trained to Hunt: Increases the pet’s Strength, Toughness, Wounds, and Weapon Skill by 50% of the Strength, Toughness, Wounds, and Weapon Skill that the White Lion has in item stats.
* Trained to Kill: Increases the pet’s Strength and Weapon Skill by 100% of the Strength and Weapon Skill that the White Lion has in item stats .
* Trained to Threaten: Increases the pet’s Toughness and Wounds by 100% of the Toughness and Wounds that the White lion has in item stats..

Witch Elf
* Enchanting Beauty: This ability can no longer be defended against.
* Enveloping Shadows: Fixed a problem that prevented this ability’s damage absorption from being granted. Additionally, this ability’s damage absorption will now correctly scale with Mastery level.
* Frenzy will once again begin to fade correctly when changing or losing targets.

Witch Hunter
* Accusations will once again begin to fade correctly when changing or losing targets.
* Confess!: This ability will no longer build Accusations.
* Exoneration: The heal portion of this ability will no longer be capable of critically healing.
* Protection from Heresy: This ability’s damage absorption will now correctly scale with Mastery level.

Zealot
* Changer’s Touch: This ability will once again heal your defensive target.
* Dark Medicine: This ability’s tooltip has been corrected to be more clear.
* Endless Gifts: The tooltips for Granted abilities will now correctly update their cool-downs with this Tactic slotted.

Content
* Lair of Krela Darkshroud: Krela Darkshroud will no longer despawn shortly after being spawned. She will remain spawned until killed.
* Fixed an animation-related issue with the legs of lions and manticores.
* Lost Vale: Mounts can now be used in the exterior areas of the Lost Vale.
* Lost Vale: Butcher Gutbeater and Tooth Gnoblar will now reset if either are unable to reach their targets. Additionally, the Tooth Gnoblar will now enrage at a slower rate.
* Lost Vale: Gorak the Ancient’s Lightning ability will now correctly target players standing on ledges.
* Lost Vale: N’kari, Keeper of Secrets’ Circle of Pain ability will now correctly apply damage to players standing within it. Additionally, N’kari, Keeper of Secrets will no longer cast Circle of Pain on players currently afflicted with Ecstatic Spasm.
* Lost Vale: Corrected an issue which caused Sarthain the Worldbearer to mitigate less incoming damage than intended.

Crafting
* The following items can now be salvaged:
- Devastator helms, gloves, circlet and shoulders
- Greater Relic of the Moon Shine
- Major Amulet of the Grave Digger
* The Apothecary recipe that was erroneously creating soil has been corrected, and will now create restorative potions.
* Corrected an erroneous fail chance modifier that was associated with the Cultivating item Blackened Viscera.
* The Apothecary ingredient Weak Ichor now has a skill-level requirement.
* Dog Marauders can now be scavenged.
* Irongaze Cockatrices and Steelgaze Cockatrices can now be butchered.
* The following items have had their sell prices adjusted:
- Apprentice’s Relic Box
- Craftsman’s Relic Box
- Journeyman’s Relic Box
- Master Artificer’s Reliquary
* Luminous Flaxen Nuggets can now be sold.
* The following crafting quests have had their rewards adjusted to bring them in-line with the recent crafting system changes:
- A Question of Digestion
- Back-biter
- Big Feathers
- Dust in the Winds of Magic
- Green River
- Hidden Talons
- Starfire
- Tail of Venom
- The Inside Scoop
- Tree Fings
- Unicorn Giblet Soup
- Unlikely Origins

Items
* A number of items have had their artwork adjusted to fix bugs.
* Ballistics Skill has been removed from all Witch Hunter items.
* The following items have had their statistics adjusted:
- Beastman Nemesis Punchas
- Beastman Nemesis Stompas
- Butcher’s Leathers
- Enervating Midstrap
- Heater of the Wanderer
- Highstaff of the Wanderer
- Intruder’s Warpmantle
- Midstrap of Aggression
- Militia Choppa
- Stunysmashin’ Stompas
- Valeo
- Vilein Provoker Ring
- Worked Bigloppa
* Weapons of the Fallen can now be sold to merchants.
* Militia Leathers can now be sold to merchants.
* The following items have had their inventory slot adjusted:
- Choppa of the Patient One
- Rippa of the Patient One
- Vanguard Big Choppa
* The Infiltrator’s Cutta and Infiltrator’s Choppa items have had their types adjusted.
* Hauberk of the Stained Field has had its career restrictions adjusted.
* Noble Ensorcelled Gauze has had its name corrected.
* Additional elite-level Engineer Influence rewards for Dwarf Chapters 12, 13, and 14 have been added in order to give players more than one item to choose from.
* Dungeon Recall Scrolls will now stack in counts of five.
* The Obliterator three-piece set bonus for Swordmasters, Black Orcs, and Chosen has been corrected.
* Stonefur Maulers will now drop appropriate loot.
* Fixed an issue with several Chalices that was causing them to produce far more Soul Essence than the tooltip stated.
* Fixed an issue with several Books that was causing them to produce far more Righteous Fury than the tooltip stated.

Quests and Public Quests

* Bitter Blood: A waypoint was added to this quest.
* Falling Stars: All griffons will now step the counter for this quest.
* Feast of Flesh: Players will now receive their reward for completing this quest.
* Fixed numerous quests with typos and minor monster placement issues.
* Harnessing the Power: Forgepriest Kyrven will now attack enemy monsters during his escort.
* Heart of Strength: The Summoning Rod will now appear in the player’s quest inventory.
* Into da Fire: The rewards for this quest have been adjusted.
* Riding to War: An issue with this quest’s waypoint has been resolved.
* Show ‘em How to Waaagh!: This quest’s waypoint will now display the correct information.

Public Quests
* Faewulf’s Rest: Adjusted this PQ’s rewards for Bright Wizards.
* Howling Vale: Collecting the supply crates will now properly grant Influence.
* Ritual of Life: Fixed an issue that was causing Gold Bags dropped in this PQ to contain only crafting components. These bags will now contain appropriate rewards.

Realm vs. Realm

Keep Upgrade System

Once a Keep has been claimed, a guild member with sufficient permission can speak to the Guild Broker NPC on the upper level of the Keep to choose what upgrades to purchase.These upgrades require a periodic maintenance fee and some are available in multiple Ranks.Once purchased, upgrades will take time to be completed. This process can be monitored on the new Keep Upgrade Interface. Upgrades will decay if funds are unavailable to pay for their maintenance, or if a guild member chooses to stop paying for the upgrade.

Zone Capture Rewards

Various improvements have been made to Zone Control Rewards in Tier 4 zones to reward players for zone captures more so than individual Objective and Keep captures. When active zones are captured in Tier 4, all players in the zone are rewarded Renown based on their Rank, similar to Tiers 1, 2, and 3. Battlefield Objectives that are owned by the conquering realm will also buff all the players in the zone with the same buffs that Sergeants grant players. Lastly, players who have captured a Keep or Battlefield Objective in the zone which is captured will be rewarded double the amount of Renown they gain from capturing a Keep or Battlefield Objective!

RvR Quartermaster System

The RvR Quartermaster system is an alternative loot system designed to take some of the randomness out of earning equipment to progress through RvR. Players will earn a variety of medallions and crests throughout RvR that can be used to purchase RvR item sets as well as a limited number of disposable items.

Recruit Quartermaster - T1 RvR:
* Recruit Quartermasters can be found in the Marketplace of the Capital City or the Guild Tavern.
* Recruit Quartermasters will now sell the Decimator RvR armor set .
* Recruit Quartermasters will now sell Tier 1 RvR healing and AP potions.

Recruit Medallions:
* Recruit Medallions have been added to the game. These can be exchanged for goods by visiting a Recruit Quartermaster.
* Players can combine 5 Recruit Medallions into 1 Scout Medallion by CTRL + Right Clicking a stack of 5 Recruit Medallions.
* Rank 1 - 10 players will now have a chance to drop a Recruit Medallion on death.
* Participating in Tier 1 zone capture will automatically award players with 5 Recruit Medallions.
* Players participating in assaults on the Battlefield Objective guards and Sergeants in Tier 1 will earn an additional Recruit Medallion per Battlefield Objective captured when the Zone is captured.

Scout Quartermaster - T2 RvR:
* Scout Quartermasters can be found in the Marketplace of the Capital City or the Guild Tavern.
* Scout Quartermasters will now sell the Obliterator RvR armor set.
* Scout Quartermasters will now sell Tier 2 RvR healing and AP potions.

Scout Medallions:
* Scout Medallions have been added to the game. These can be exchanged for goods by visiting a Scout Quartermaster.
* Players can combine 5 Scout Medallions into 1 Solider Medallion by CTRL + Right Clicking a stack of 5 Scout Medallions.
* Rank 11 - 20 players will now have a chance to drop a Scout Medallion on death.
* Players who participate in a Tier 2 Keep capture, but do not win a PQ bag will automatically be awarded with 2 Scout Medallions.
* Tier 2 Keep PQ bags will now include Entangled Scout Medallions as a loot choice. These can be converted into 2 Scout Medallions by CTRL + Right Clicking on them.
* Participating in Tier 2 zone capture will automatically award players with 5 Scout Medallions.
* Players participating in Keep captures and assaults on the Battlefield Objective guards and Sergeants in Tier 2 will earn an additional Scout Medallion per BO / Keep captured when the Zone is captured.

Solider Quartermaster - T3 RvR:
* Solider Quartermasters can be found in the Marketplace of the Capital City or the Guild Tavern.
* Solider Quartermasters will now sell the Devastator RvR armor set.
* Solider Quartermasters will now sell Tier 3 RvR healing and AP potions.

Soldier Medallions:
* Solider Medallions have been added to the game. These can be exchanged for goods by visiting a Solider Quartermaster.
* Players can combine 5 Solider Medallions into 1 Officer Medallion by CTRL + Right Clicking a stack of 5 Soldier Medallions.
* Rank 21 - 34 players will now have a chance to drop a Solider Medallion on death.
* Players who participate in a Tier 3 Keep capture, but do not win a PQ bag will automatically be awarded with 2 Solider Medallions.
* Tier 3 Keep PQ bags will now include Entangled Solider Medallions as a loot choice. These can be converted into 2 Soldier Medallions by CTRL + Right Clicking on them.
* Participating in Tier 3 zone capture will automatically award players with 5 Solider Medallions.
* Players participating in Keep captures and assaults on the Battlefield Objective guards and Sergeants in Tier 3 will earn an additional Soldier Medallion per BO / Keep captured when the Zone is captured.

Officer Quartermaster - T4 RvR:
* Officer Quartermasters can be found in the Marketplace of the Capital City or the Guild Tavern.
* Officer Quartermasters will now sell the Annihilator RvR armor set.
* Officer Quartermasters will now sell the Conqueror RvR armor set.
* Officer Quartermasters will now sell T4 RvR healing and AP potions.

Officer Medallions:
* Officer Medallions have been added to the game. These can be exchanged for goods by visiting an Officer Quartermaster.
* Rank 35 + players will now have a chance to drop an Officer Medallion on death.
* Realm rank 45+ players will now have a chance to drop 2 Officer Medallions on death.
* Players who participate in a Tier 4 Keep capture, but do not win a PQ bag will automatically be awarded with 2 Officer Medallions.
* Players participating in assaults on the Battlefield Objective guards and Sergeant or Keep captures in T4 will earn an additional Officer Medallion per BO / Keep captured when the Zone is captured.
* Participating in Tier 4 zone capture will automatically award players of Realm Rank 34 and below with 5 Officer Medallions.
* Players participating in Battlefield Objective or Keep captures in T4 will earn an additional Officer Medallion per BO / Keep captured when the zone is captured.

Conqueror Crests:
* Conqueror Crests have been added to the game. These can be exchanged for goods by visiting an Officer Quartermaster.
* Players can break down 1 Conqueror Crest into 5 Officer Medallions by CTRL + Right Clicking a Conqueror’s Crest.
* Realm Rank 40+ players will now have a chance to drop a Conqueror’s Crest on death.
* Players who participate in a Tier 4 Fortress capture, but do not win a PQ bag will automatically be awarded with 2 Conqueror’s Crests.
* Players who participate in a Tier 4 Fortress defense, but do not win a PQ bag will automatically be awarded with 2 Conqueror’s Crests.
* Tier 4 Fortress PQ bags will now include Fused Conqueror’s Crests as a loot choice which can be converted into 2 Conqueror’s Crests by CTL + Right Clicking on them.
* Participating in Tier 4 zone capture will automatically award players of Realm Rank 35+ with 1 Conqueror Crest instead of Officer Medallions.

Royal Quartermaster - T4+ RvR:
* Royal Quartermasters can be found in the Palace of the Capital City or the Guild Tavern.
* Royal Quartermasters will now sell the Invader RvR armor set.
* Royal Quartermasters will now sell select pieces of the Warlord RvR armor set.
* Royal Quartermasters will now sell select pieces of the Sovereign RvR armor set.
* Royal Quartermasters will now sell Tier 4+ RvR healing and AP potions.

Invader Crests:
* Invader Crests have been added to the game. These can be exchanged for goods by visiting an Officer Quartermaster.
* Players can break down 1 Invader Crest into 5 Conqueror Crests by CTRL + Right Clicking a Invader’s Crest.
* Realm Rank 51+ players will now have a chance to drop an Invader’s Crest on death.
* Players who participate in an Invader PQ, but do not win a PQ bag will automatically be awarded with 1 Invader Crest.
* Invader PQ bags will now include 2 Invader Crests as a loot choice.

Warlord Crests:
* Warlord Crests have been added to the game. These can be exchanged for goods by visiting an Officer Quartermaster.
* Players can break down 1 Warlord Crest into 5 Invader Crests by CTRL + Right Clicking a Warlord’s Crest.
* Realm Rank 61+ players will now have a chance to drop a Warlord’s Crest on death.
* Players who participate in an Warlord PQ, but do not win a PQ bag will automatically be awarded with 2 Warlord Crest.
* Warlord PQ bags will now include 2 Warlord Crests as a loot choice.

Royal Crests:
* Royal Crests have been added to the game. These can be exchanged for goods by visiting an Officer Quartermaster.
* Players can break down 1 Royal Crest into 5 Warlord Crests by CTRL + Right Clicking a Royal Crest.
* Realm Rank 71+ players will now have a chance to drop a Royal Crest on death.

Ordnance

We are pleased to introduce a new resource to RvR that players can trade in for deadly assault upgrades! Scattered throughout the RvR lakes and acquired from killing players, Ordnance is collected and traded in for various items and weapons to use in open-field RvR! Battering rams with more hit points, ballistae that do more damage, and oil immunity potions can all be purchased and used on unsuspecting enemy players! These items include the following:
* Rams that have double the Hit-points of standard Rams
* Ballistae that do twice the amount of standard Ballista damage
* Self-only Oil Immunity potions that last 30, 60, or 90 seconds

Scenario Updates

We have made the following scoring changes to RvR Scenarios:
* Battle for Praag : Increased the points per kill to 3, and increased the points per kill by 1 for the realm that owns Central Praag.
* Caledor Woods: Increased the points per kill to 5. Siege weapons have been installed to prevent spawn camping.
* Doomfist Crater: Increased the points per kill by 1, and increased the Center capture points over time by 1.
* Gromril Crossing: Increased the points per kill to 3, and increased the points per kill by 1 for realm that owns the Bridge.
* High Pass Cemetery: Increased the player kills to 2 points, and each control point will grant 1 extra point per kill for the controlling realm.
* Khaine’s Embrace: Increased player kills to 5 points, and each control point will grant 1 extra point per kill for the controlling realm. Interacting with the Scions also now gives 2 points.
* Logrin’s Forge: Each control point will grant 1 extra point per kill for the controlling realm.
* Thunder Valley: Decreased points over time on the satellite capture points to 4 points every 10 seconds.

Miscellaneous RvR Changes
* Players that are occupying a Keep of the opposite realm when a Tier 4 campaign resets will now be teleported back to their warcamp.
* Characters of Ranks 19-24 will now be able to queue for a new 6-vs.-6 version of the Scenario ‘Gates of Ekrund’ from any Tier 3 zone.
* Players in a locked Tier 4 pairing will now be able to queue for any available Scenarios from the other pairings. Previously, players would need to journey to an unlocked pairing to join available Scenarios.
* We have made several changes to the Zone Control Detail Bar. The first is a textual mode which will display the current zone control pool totals as a percentage instead of a progress bar. To change modes, right-click the Zone Detail window and make your selection. The second change is that we have added additional information to the tooltips for each pool which displays how much that pool contributes to overall Zone Control. Lastly, the position of the Zone Control Detail Bar in the UI can now be changed.
* Players who accept a Rally Call when dead will now be resurrected upon arriving at the warcamp.
* Renown, Influence, and Experience rewards for capturing Keeps and Battlefield Objectives have been reduced by 35%; however, once a zone is captured, players who participated in taking a Keep and/or Battlefield Objective, and who are still in the pairing, will be rewarded double the Renown, Influence, and Experience received from the initial objective capture. So, confront your enemies and capture those zones! Furthermore, we’ve also added additional Renown rewards for all players in the Tier 4 zone when it becomes captured.
* Warcamp tooltips now display a list of service NPCs who are spawned at the camp.
* Pairing maps and zone maps now include a tooltip which displays the recommended Rank range of the zone.
* Keep doors will now always be attackable by the opposite realm after the Keep has changed hands. Additionally, defenders will now be able to see the health of the Keep door at all times.
* A bug has been fixed which was preventing the wind indicator from displaying on certain siege weapons.
* Players operating a Ram will now be immune to Knockback and receive reduced damage from Oil Siege Weapons.
* Siege Rams will now do twice the damage as they previously did.
* Keep doors will now have double the hit points they previously had.
* We have significantly increased the hit points of Ram Siege Pads.

User Interface

General Changes and Bug Fixes
* Fixed an issue that caused players to lose guild permissionsafter zoning.
* Fixed an issue that caused certain players to be unable to be promoted or demoted via the guild window UI.
* Guild members with proper permissions will now be able to talk in Alliance chat.
* Pre-game splash screens and opening cinematic can now be skipped by hitting the ESC key.
* The Respawn Counter window will no longer continue to count down after resurrection. And dead players everywhere shouted out in silent merriment!
* New group members will no longer appear dead in the party or warband UI.
* Fixed an issue where characters were not being shown as in their guild after being booted to the character select screen.
* Pets can now be targeted via the standard party UI.
* “TargetNearest Enemy” will no longer target deadplayers or objects, and instead opt for a live opponent.
* Keep doors and other attackableobjectswill nowdisplay theirhealth.
* After guild creation, a group will still be able to use their right-click context-sensitive menu.
* Buff icons will now behave correctly, have the correct tooltip information, and never remain after hiding the party UI.
* The grouploot window, after having expired, will no longer appear as expired on all future loot windows.
* Warcamps and Chapters now display all services they contain in a single tooltip on the zone map regardless of player location.
* The minimap has had some simple tweaking–the Scenario and Rally Call buttons are larger, and the filter and map icons have moved to the bottom of the minimap. This will fix some of the overlap that was appearing in that area.
* Guild leaders or members with appropriate permissions can now designate members to serve as guild recruiters.To do so, right-click on a member’s name in the Roster window and select “Assign Recruiter.” The recruiter icon will show in the “special” column of the guild window.
* Removed the “Edit” and “Delete” buttons from shared Alliance events.
* Players willonly open the PQ Loot window when clicking on the PQ Tracker itself, not in the invisible space around it.
* Morale bars will now update in the party UI. Players will now see their party member’s morale in increments at which it may be fired at. As such players will see when their party members morale levels reach 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%.
* Fixed various text inconsistencies in the guild reward tooltips.
* Party UI will no longer disappear when reloading the UI at 1152 x 864 resolution.
* Color pickers in the Heraldry editor were swapped incorrectly. They will now reference the correct section of Heraldry.
* Event tooltips and guild news no longer allow line breaks or paragraph breaks in the body of their text.
* Guild Profile information can now be deleted and cleared.
* Standard posts in the guild window will now display the correct realm’s posts.
* Fixed a minor issue where some letters of very long words were not displaying in edit boxes.

Guild Window Improvements

The Guild Window has received a major facelift and several functional improvements.We have added more information to the Guild Window, such as new news alerts and additional statistics on the profile tab. We have also resolved several interface bugs with the window, including issues promoting and demoting through the UI and loss ofguild permissions.
Details of the changes are as follows:

Profile Tab:
* Added more guild statistics to the profile page including Keep name and upkeep cost, and personal Renown and tithes contributed.
* Fixed layout issues with the daily message and “about us” text entry windows.
* Removed the website and e-mail text entry, since most people were adding them to the “about us” window.
* Added more guild news types like better messaging for current guild news, and fixed filters and layout.
* Added guild heraldry to the profile tab.

Calendar Tab:
* The Calendar functionality remains mostly the same, but support for displaying specific times for events, as well as a cleaner flow to the process of creating events, has been added.

Rewards Tab:
* The Rewards list has been folded into the heraldry and Tactic editor section. The rewards table has been reformatted to not only be correct, but to make the layout and delivery of the rewards more clear.
* Fixed the layout, interaction, and display of various items in the heraldry and Tactic sections.

Roster Tab:
* The Roster tab is now finally the informative section we always wanted it to be. All guild members are listed in single rows, all information, including rank, career, etc. can now be used to sort the list. The special category now lists standard bearers, recruiters, and group or warband status for each guild member. Member and Officer notes are now in the tooltip for each member and no longer require a toggle to be viewed.

Alliance Tab:
* The Alliance tab now shows more information about alliance officers and ranks, as well as alliance guild heraldry.

Manage Tab:
* Fixed various issues with titles sometimes not being editable. The layout of the window remains mostly the same, but various display and formatting issues have been fixed. The guild tax and personal tithe rates can also be set from this window.

Recruit Tab:
* This is the entirely new guild recruiting system. It is subdivided into two tabs.
* The Advertise tab is for setting up information about your guild. The Search tab is for searching for matching information about other guilds. Just about everything you could want to set about your guild can be done in the advertise tab: interests, ranks needed, careers needed, looking to form an alliance, etc.
* The Search tab allows players or guilds to be very broad or very specific when searching for guilds. The most useful aspect of the search tab, especially for off-peak-time players, is the ability to set search requirements and to sort by current players online in the guild, to ensure that a guild is active when you are.

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Apr 14 2009

WoW 3.1.0 Patch Notes

It’s server update Tuesday in World of Warcraft, and Blizzard has brought us the long awaited 3.1.0 patch. Servers are still down as of this posting, but here are the patch notes.

World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.1.0 - (2009-04-14)

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

The latest patch notes can always be found at

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/


Secrets of Ulduar

  • Since discovering Ulduar in the Storm Peaks, adventurers have journeyed to the titan city to learn more about its mysterious past. Further exploration has revealed that the magnificent complex is above all a prison, intended to permanently confine the Old God of death, Yogg-Saron. This ancient horror has corrupted its guards, and now it is breaking through the last of its restraints. Faced with the peril of Yogg-Saron’s imminent freedom, a band of mortals has made preparations for a sweeping assault on the city. Overcoming the legions of iron minions and towering defenses at the city’s entrance will take tremendous strength, but even that great victory may not be enough to overcome the madness that dwells below.

The Argent Tournament Begins!

  • As the might of the Scourge wanes under the pressure of Azeroth’s heroes, the Argent Crusade have taken a foothold in Arthas’s back yard. Off the northeastern coast of Icecrown, the Argent Crusade have sounded the call for the most bold and brave adventurers of the Horde and Alliance to take part in the Argent Tournament. Representatives of all ten faction capitals, from Undercity to Exodar, have traveled to the tournament grounds to find champions among their heroes who will prepare for the inevitable battle against the enemy of all living beings, the Lich King.

In Memoriam: Dave Arneson

  • Blizzard Entertainment would like to dedicate Secrets of Ulduar in memory of Dave Arneson. We were greatly saddened by the news of Dave’s passing. His work, passion, and creativity helped give life to an entirely new genre of gaming, and our fondest memories of playing Dungeons & Dragons continue to inspire us. Farewell, Dave, and thank you. You will be missed.

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.
  • All Ground Mounts may now swim without dismounting the rider. Flying Mounts still may NOT, and will dismount the rider upon entering water.
  • 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!
  • 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).
  • New music can be heard at the Argent Tournament grounds and in Ulduar.
  • PvP

    • Arenas
    • Enemy Unit Frames: This feature is only available while in Arenas, with several options in the Interface Options.
  • Battlegrounds
    • Battleground quests “Concerted Efforts” (Alliance) and “For Great Honor” (Horde) now require an Alterac Valley Mark of Honor in addition to the current requirements. These quests now award more honor upon completion.
    • Players will now be able to queue for battlegrounds from any location. Leaving a battleground will return you to the location from which you entered.
    • Alterac Valley
    • Drek’Thar, Vanndar Stormpike, the tower Heralds and Warmasters have received a hit point and damage upgrade in the level 80 version of Alterac Valley.
  • Strand of the Ancients
    • Capturing the Southern Graveyard will now automatically capture both the East and West Graveyards.
    • Seaforium Barrels can now be looted while mounted, seen from anywhere in the zone, and found at the Central Graveyard.
    • Teleporters can now be used while mounted and can now be seen from anywhere in the zone.
  • Lake Wintergrasp
    • Daily quests “Slay Them All!” (Horde) and “No Mercy for the Merciless” (Alliance) have had their PvP kill requirements reduced to 10 from 20. NPCs defending the fortress and south towers now count toward these dailies as well.
    • The number of NPCs defending fortress has been increased.
    • Siege Engines now have Steam Pressure as a resource type (replaces energy).
    • The southern Siege Factories can be captured.
    • The time between battles will be saved should a realm shut down. If Wintergrasp is active when a realm shuts down, the battle will restart from the beginning when the realm is once again live.
    • Towers in Southern Wintergrasp now have more defensive cannons.

    Races: General

    • Command (Orc Racial): Applies to shaman pets, and now correctly applies to death knight pets.
    • Gift of the Naaru (Draenei Racial): The heal has been changed to an instant-cast heal-over-time.
    • Stoneform (Dwarf Racial): No longer makes you immune to poison, disease and bleed effects for 8 seconds. Instead, using Stoneform will clear those effects when cast. Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes from 3 minutes.

    Classes: General

    • Armor Penetration Rating: All classes now receive 25% more benefit from Armor Penetration Rating.
    • The damage threshold for Fear, Psychic Scream, Hex, Intimidating Shout, and Turn Evil to break early has been significantly reduced.
    • Haste Rating: shamans, paladins, druids, and death knights now receive 30% more melee haste from Haste Rating.
    • Hysteria, Tricks of the Trade, Enrage, Wrecking Crew, Death Wish, Arcane Power, Owlkin Frenzy, Beast Within, and Avenging Wrath damage bonuses no longer stack together.
    • Mana Regeneration: The amount of mana regeneration derived from intellect and spirit has been reduced by 40%; however, talents that allow for mana regeneration while in combat have been increased. As a result, in-combat regeneration for classes with those talents will stay the same, while out-of-combat regeneration will be lower.
    • The shaman’s Fire Elemental and Spirit Wolves, mage’s Water Elemental and Mirror Images, and druid’s Treants have all gained avoidance from area-of-effect damage similar to what warlock and hunter pets already have.
    • Taunts: All player or pet-generated taunts now have a shared diminish category. In addition, Taunt-type effects from pets and from classes other than death knight, druid, paladin, and warrior have been set such that bosses can be made immune to them while still affected by death knight, druid, paladin, and warrior taunts.

    Death Knights

    • Anti-magic Shell: The amount of damage this ability can absorb is now limited to 50% of the death knight’s health.
    • Blood Boil’s damage increased to make up for Pestilence no longer doing damage.
    • Blood Boil now does some damage to undiseased targets and extra damage to diseased targets. Its damage radius has been decreased to 10 yards.
    • Blood Plague: Now lasts 15 seconds untalented.
    • Blood Strike: Bonus damage for diseases is now a multiplier rather than a flat bonus.
    • Death Pact: This heal cannot be critical.
    • Death Strike: The amount of healing per damage done has been reduced by 20%. Now deals 75% weapon damage, up from 60%.
    • Frost Fever: Now lasts 15 seconds untalented.
    • Frost Presence: Now grants 5% damage reduction instead of 15% magic damage reduction.
    • Obliterate: Bonus damage for diseases now increases damage done by a percentage rather than a flat amount.
    • Pestilence does no damage and has only 1 rank.
    • Plague Strike and Blood Plague no longer remove heal-over-time effects. Plague Strike’s damage increased quite a bit to compensate.
    • Raise Ally now has a cooldown greater than 15 minutes and can no longer be used in Arenas.
    • Raise Dead: Duration lowered to 60 seconds and cooldown lowered to 3 minutes. The cooldown on this ability now begins when the pet dies rather than when it is summoned.
    • Rune of Cinderglacier now procs per minute instead of a 5% chance.
    • Rune of the Fallen Crusader: This weapon enchant now provides only 15% strength, but its chance to proc is doubled.
    • Rune of Razorice now affects Frost damage done by the death knight only, but stacks up to 10%.
    • Strangulate no longer does damage and has been reduced to 1 rank.
    • Talents
    • Blood
    • Abomination’s Might: This effect can now also be caused by Death Strike.
    • Blade Barrier: Now grants 1/2/3/4/5% damage reduction instead of 2/4/6/8/10% parry.
    • Blood Aura: Replaced with Improved Blood Presence. This allows the death knight to keep the healing-from-damage-done bonus of Blood Presence in any presence, and increases healing received while in Blood Presence.
    • Blood-Gorged now grants armor penetration instead of expertise.
    • Bloody Strikes: The bonus damage this talent grants to Blood Boil has been reduced to 10/20/30%.
    • Bloodworms now heal more.
    • Dancing Rune Weapon: Damage done by, and duration of this pet is reduced by 50%, but the cooldown is reduced to 90 seconds. Attack speed of pet increased from 2.0 to 3.5.
    • New talent: Improved Death Strike: Increases Death Strike damage by 10/20%, and critical strike chance by 3/6%.
    • Heart Strike: Bonus damage for diseases is now a multiplier rather than a flat bonus. No longer affected by Glyph of Blood Strike.
    • Hysteria: This ability now causes the target to lose health rather than take damage.
    • Might of Mograine: No longer affects Obliterate.
    • Scent of Blood: Will now proc on a dodge, parry or when taking damage, and now grants 10 runic power per charge. Internal cooldown removed.
    • Spell Deflection: This talent has been increased to 15/30/45% damage reduction from a direct damage spell.
    • Sudden Doom now procs a free Death Coil instead of requiring you to push the button. Ranks reduced from 5 to 3.
    • Vampiric Blood: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes from 1 minute.
    • Will of the Necropolis: This ability now has a 15 second cooldown on how often it can occur. No longer triggers from damage amounts less than 5% of the player’s health.
  • Frost
    • The following talents have moved in the Frost tree: Runic Power Mastery, Glacier Rot, Killing Machine, Chilblains, and Endless Winter.
    • Black Ice: This talent now provides a 2/4/6/8/10% bonus to Frost and Shadow damage instead of 4/8/12/16/20% to Frost.
    • Blood of the North: Now also increases damage dealt by Frost Strike by 3/6/9/12/15%.
    • Chillblains: Now a 15/30/50% movement speed debuff up from 30%. Can no longer be dispelled.
    • Frost Aura: Replaced with Improved Frost Presence. Allows the deathknight to keep the health bonus of Frost Presence in any presence, and decreases magic damage taken while in Frost Presence.
    • Glacier Rot: 3rd rank added, and damage bonus increased to 7/13/20%.
    • Howling Blast: Base damage and scaling doubled. This ability no longer deals bonus damage to targets with Frost Fever. 8-second cooldown. Swapped positions with Hungering Cold in the talent tree.
    • Icy Talons and Improved Icy Talons: These talents now have new icons.
    • Improved Icy Touch: Now increases Icy Touch damage by 5/10/15% instead of by 10/20/30%.
    • Lichborne: No longer improves your chance to be missed. Now correctly grants immunity, and will break all effects to which Lichborne makes you immune.
    • Rime: This talent is now triggered by Obliterate instead of Icy Touch. When this talent triggers, it also resets the cooldown on Howling Blast.
    • Runic Power Mastery: Moved up to tier-1 and reduced to 2 ranks (15/30%).
    • Tundra Stalker: Now increases the damage on abilities by 3/6/9/12/15% instead of 2/4/6/8/10%.
    • Unbreakable Armor: Now grants damage reduction instead of physical damage reduction. Cooldown increased to 2 minutes from 1 minute.
  • Unholy
    • Bone Shield: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes from 1 minute.
    • Desecration: This talent now has a 100% chance to be triggered, works with Scourge Strike, and instantly snares targets within the Desecration area. Additional points in the talent increase the damage bonus and snare magnitude instead of increasing the chance it will be triggered.
    • New Talent: Ghoul Frenzy: Grants 25% melee haste to your pet and heals it for 30% of its maximum health. Costs 1 Unholy Rune and lasts 30 seconds. Requires at least 30 points in the Unholy tree.
    • Impurity: This talent is reduced to 4/8/12/16/20% bonus to attack power scaling.
    • Magic Suppression: Now has 3 ranks (down from 5) for 2/4/6% magic damage reduction.
    • Master of Ghouls: Now also reduces the cooldown on Raise Dead by 60 seconds. This talent now requires at least 25 points in the Unholy tree, and has Night of the Dead as a prerequisite.
    • Night of the Dead: Redesigned to grant a flat reduction on cooldown to Raise Dead and Army of the Dead instead of a reduction from using abilities. Requires at least 15 points in the Unholy tree; prerequisite for Master of Ghouls.
    • Outbreak: No longer increases Blood Boil damage. Now gives a 7/13/20% damage bonus to Scourge Strike. Plague Strike Bonus lowered to 10/20/30%.
    • Reaping: Now procs on Blood Strike and Pestilence instead of Blood Strike and Blood Boil.
    • Scourge Strike: Damage increased. Bonus damage for diseases now increases damage done by a percentage rather than a flat amount.
    • Shadow of Death: This talent has been removed.
    • Unholy Aura: Replaced with Improved Unholy Presence. Allows the death knight to keep the movement speed bonus of Unholy Presence in any presence, and increases rune regeneration rate while in Unholy Presence.
    • Unholy Blight and Gargoyle have swapped places in the Unholy tree. Gargoyle is the new 51-point Unholy talent.
    • Vicious Strikes: This talent no longer affects Death Strike.

    Druids

    • Abolish Poison: Now ticks every 3 seconds, up from every 2. Now lasts 12 seconds, up from 8.
    • Faerie Fire and Faerie Fire (Feral): Now decreases armor of your target by 5%. Has a 5-minute duration, and a 40-second PvP duration.
    • Feral Faerie Fire: The damage generated by this ability in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form has been increased substantially.
    • Innervate: This spell no longer costs mana.
    • Lifebloom: Mana cost of all ranks doubled. When Lifebloom blooms or is dispelled, it now refunds half the base mana cost of the spell per application of Lifebloom, and the heal effect is multiplied by the number of applications.
    • Maim: This ability is now considered a stun, and shares a diminish category with all other stuns. It no longer has a chance to break from the target taking damage. Duration lowered to 1 second per combo point.
    • Pounce: No longer affected by diminishing returns with other stuns, however, it now shares a diminishing return with Cheap Shot (Rogue).
    • Savage Defense: Trainable at level 40 with Dire Bear Form as a prerequisite. When the druid deals a melee critical strike, it gains a physical damage shield equal to 25% of its attack power. The next hit completely consumes the shield, regardless of how much damage was done. Only active in Bear Form.
    • Starfall: Cooldown reduced to 90 seconds.
    • Swipe: The Bear Form and Dire Bear Form version of this ability no longer has a targeting requirement and hits targets behind the druid and to the sides.
    • Talents
    • Balance
    • Celestial Focus redesigned: Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Starfire, Hibernate and Hurricane by 23/46/70% and increases your total spell haste by 1/2/3%.
    • Eclipse: The benefit to Wrath triggered by casting Starfire has been increased to 30% bonus damage.
    • Insect Swarm: The bonus damage from spellpower on this damage-over-time ability has been increased significantly to match similar spells on other classes.
    • Mark of the Wild and Gift of the Wild can now be cast while in Moonkin form.
    • Moonkin Form: Mana cost reduced.
    • Nature’s Grace redesigned: All spell critical strikes have a 33/66/100% chance to grace you with a Blessing of Nature, increasing your spell casting speed by 20% for 3 seconds.
    • Owlkin Frenzy is now properly considered an Enrage effect. Now also does not trigger from spell hits, only physical ranged and melee attacks.
    • Typhoon: Now causes a 3-second daze.
  • Feral
    • Heart of the Wild: Stamina bonus changed to 2/4/6/8/10%.
    • Predatory Strikes: This talent no longer works when in Moonkin form.
    • New Talent: Primal Gore: Grants the periodic damage from your Lacerate and Rip abilities the chance to critically hit.
    • Primal Tenacity: The damage reduction while stunned effect now only works in Cat Form.
    • Rend and Tear: The critical strike bonus for Ferocious Bite reduced to 5/10/15/20/25%, down from 10/20/30/40/50%.
    • Savage Roar is now considered an Enrage effect and now increases physical damage done by 30% instead of increasing attack power.
    • Survival Instincts: Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5.
    • Survival of the Fittest: Bonus armor reduced to 11/22/33% instead of 22/44/66%.
  • Restoration
    • Living Seed: This talent now accounts for total healing including overhealing.
    • Improved Mark of the Wild: Now also increases all of your total attributes by 1/2%.
    • Intensity: Now grants 17/33/50% of mana regeneration while casting.
    • New Talent: Improved Barkskin: Increases the damage reduction granted by your Barkskin spell by 5/10%, and increases your resistance to Dispel mechanics by an additional 30/60% while under the effect of Barkskin.
    • Improved Regrowth: This talent is renamed Nature’s Bounty. Increases the critical effect chance of your Regrowth and Nourish spells by 5/10/15/20/25%.
    • Replenish: This talent is now re-named Revitalize and also works with Wild Growth.
    • Tree of Life: Now receives 240% increased armor. You can now use Nature’s Grasp and Thorns while within this form. In addition, the discount on heal-over-time spells from this talent is now active at all times, whether or not the druid is in Tree of Life form. Mana cost reduced to match the cost of Travel Form.

    Hunters

    • Ammunition: All types of gun and bow ammunition now stack to 1000. All quivers and ammo pouches no longer provide haste. 15% ranged haste is now built into the hunter’s Auto Shot.
    • Aspect of the Pack is now raid wide, and radius increased from 30 yards to 40 yards.
    • Call Stabled Pet: This new ability lets the hunter remotely access the stable. 30-minute cooldown.
    • Cunning, Ferocity and Tenacity pets now all have +5% damage, +5% armor and +5% health bonuses. This should make more pet families feel viable, while additional talents have been added to distinguish a pet’s abilities based on its specializations.
    • Disengage: Cooldown increased by 5 seconds.
    • Frost Trap: If the target who triggers Frost Trap is immune to its effect, the Frost Trap area effect will no longer be triggered. Now reduces speed by 50% (previously 60%).
    • Pets now inherit more spell hit from the hunter. Pets with magic attacks should not require a player to stack additional hit compared to pets with physical attacks.
    • Viper Sting redesigned: Stings the target, draining 4% of mana over 8 seconds (up to a maximum of 8% of the caster’s maximum mana), and energizing the hunter equal to 300% of the amount drained. Only one Sting per hunter can be active on any one target.
    • Talents
    • Beast Mastery
    • Animal Handler: No longer reduces the cooldown of Master’s Call, but instead increases the duration of the Master’s Call effect by 3/6 seconds.
    • Improved Aspect of the Hawk now has a new spell effect.
  • Marksmanship
    • Chimera Shot: Mana cost reduced from 16% to 12%.
    • Concussive Barrage redesigned: 2-point talent. Now causes your Multi-Shot and Chimera Shot to have a 50/100% chance to daze the target for 4 seconds.
    • Efficiency: Increased to 3/6/9/12/15% up from 2/4/6/8/10%.
    • Piercing Shots redesigned: Your critical Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 10/20/30% of the damage dealt over 8 seconds. The damage done by this talent no longer receives modifications from effects that increase or decrease damage done by a percentage.
    • Ranged Weapon Specialization: Points reduced from 5 to 3, 1/3/5%.
    • Rapid Recuperation redesigned: You gain 2/4% of your mana every 3 seconds while under the effect of Rapid Fire, and you gain 1/2% of your mana every 2 seconds for 6 seconds when you gain Rapid Killing.
    • Silencing Shot: No longer on the global cooldown.
    • Wild Quiver: Chance increased to 4/8/12%, up from 4/7/10%. Damage increased from 50% of an Auto Shot to 80%.
  • Survival
    • Entrapment redesigned: When your Frost Trap, Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Snake Trap are triggered, you entrap all afflicted targets, preventing them from moving for 2/3/4 seconds.
    • Explosive Shot: Base damage lowered by 10%. Attack power scaling reduced by 12.5%. The periodic damage from this ability no longer triggers Judgement of Wisdom and Judgement of Light.
    • Hunting Party: This talent has been reduced to 3 points, and now increases your total agility by an additional 1/2/3%.
    • Lock and Load redesigned: You now have a 33/66/100% chance when you trap a target with Freezing Trap, Freezing Arrow or Frost Trap and a 2/4/6% chance when you deal periodic damage with your Immolation Trap or Black Arrow to cause your next 2 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot spells to trigger no cooldown, cost no mana and consume no ammo. This now has a new spell effect and sound.
    • New Talent: Black Arrow: Fires a Black Arrow at the target, increasing all damage done by you to the target by 6% and doing periodic shadow damage for 15 seconds. 30-second cooldown. Shares a cooldown with all other traps.
    • T.N.T.: Increases damage done by Explosive Shot, Immolation Trap, and Explosive Trap by 2/4/6%.
    • Trap Mastery: This talent has been moved up to tier-2, up from tier-9, and is now a 3-point talent.
    • Trap Mastery, Resourcefulness and T.N.T. now all affect Black Arrow.
    • Improved Wing Clip: This talent has been removed.
    • Wyvern Sting: Duration increased from 12 seconds to 30 seconds. PvP duration reduced from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.
  • Pets
    • Bullheaded now adds 20% damage reduction for 12 seconds along with its current CC-removal effect.
    • Cornered: The critical strike reduction when this ability is active has been increased.
    • Feeding Frenzy increased to 8/16% damage up from 6/12%.
    • Furious Howl (wolf special ability) now stacks with Battle Shout and Blessing of Might, however, it only affects the wolf and hunter. Its effect and cooldown have been doubled so that it provides the same benefit but isn’t up 100% of the time.
    • Gorillas now have a new family ability, Pummel, which works like the warrior ability and has a single rank.
    • Grace of the Mantis and Roar of Sacrifice are now also available to Cunning pets.
    • Great Resistance increased to 5/10/15% magic damage reduction, up from 3/6/9%.
    • Roar of Recovery cooldown decreased to 3 minutes, down from 6 minutes.
    • New Talent: Shark Attack: This new 2-rank talent is available to Ferocity pets. It increases pet damage.
    • New Talent: Silverback: This new 2-rank talent is available to Tenacity pets. It heals the pet when Growl is used.
    • Roar of Sacrifice can be used on the hunter only.
    • Stampede (rhino) only affects 1 target, but adds a 25% bleed damage debuff (that does not stack with Mangle etc.) in addition to its knockback.
    • Thunderstomp is no longer a gorilla-specific family ability and is now available to all Tenacity pets. It has been reduced to one rank.
    • Turtles and Crabs now dwell in waters of and off Eversong and the Ghostlands, giving Blood Elf hunters access to local Tenacity pets.
    • New Talent: Wild Hunt: This new 2-rank talent is available to all 3 pet trees. Increases the contribution your pets get from your stamina by 20/40% and attack power by 10/20%.

    Mages

    • Arcane Blast stacking effect is no longer considered a Magic effect and will not be dispelled.
    • Mage Armor: Now grants 50% of mana regeneration while casting.
    • Mirror Image: The images no longer cast Polymorph.
    • Molten Armor: Chance to critically strike is now increased by a percentage of the mage’s total spirit.
    • Talents
    • Arcane
    • Arcane Meditation: Now grants 17/33/50% of mana regeneration while casting.
  • Fire
    • Ignite: The damage done by this talent no longer receives modifications from effects that increase or decrease damage done by a percentage.
    • Improved Scorch: Increased critical strike chance is now 1%, down from 2% per application of the Improved Scorch effect. In addition, the critical strike chance of Scorch, Fireball, and Frostfire Bolt is increased by 1/2/3%.
    • Pyromaniac: Now grants 17/33/50% of mana regeneration while casting.
  • Frost
    • Improved Water Elemental: Renamed Enduring Winter. Instead of the Water Elemental increasing mana regeneration for the mage’s party, casting Frostbolt now has a 33/66/100% chance to provide the Replenishment buff to up to 10 people in the mage’s party or raid.
    • Winter’s Chill: Increased critical strike chance is now 1%, down from 2% per application of Winter’s Chill. In addition, the critical strike chance of Frostbolt is increased by 1/2/3%.

    Paladins

    • Auras will now persist through death and affect a 40 yard radius.
    • Blessing of Kings is now trainable at level 20. Removed from talent trees.
    • Divine Plea can once again be dispelled.
    • Exorcism: Now can be used on any target and has a 100% chance to be a critical strike when used on Undead and Demons.
    • Hand of Sacrifice: The damage transferred by this ability is now capped by the paladin’s health.
    • Forbearance reduced to a 2-minute duration.
    • Sacred Shield: This effect cannot be cast on more than one friendly target at a time.
    • Seal of Blood/Seal of the Martyr: The damage done by these two seals has been increased but the damage done by their judgements decreased. The balance is now roughly 60% from either seal and 40% from a judgement on total damage done. The total damage done should be roughly the same. Please note that the 3.0.9 tooltips had incorrect values for the damage done, but the tooltips should be much more accurate in 3.1.0.
    • Shield of Righteousness: Base damage and scaling factor increased by 30%.
    • Spiritual Attunement: Removed from trainers. It is now available deep in the Protection tree for 2 ranks at 5/10%.
    • Talents
    • Holy
    • Aura Mastery: Now grants anyone affected by Concentration Aura immunity from Interrupt and Silence mechanics, and increases the effectiveness of all other auras by 100%. Lasts 10 seconds. 2-minute cooldown.
    • Blessed Hands: Now reduces mana cost of Hand of Freedom, Sacrifice and Salvation by 15/30%, and improves the effectiveness of Hand of Salvation by 50/100% and Hand of Sacrifice by an additional 5/10%. Moved to tier-4.
    • Enlightened Judgements: No longer increases the range of Judgement of Justice. Moved to tier-10.
    • Improved Concentration Aura: The resistance to Silence and Interrupt mechanics granted by this talent now becomes active when any Aura is used, not just Concentration Aura.
    • Infusion of Light: Now increases the critical chance of your next Holy Light by 10/20% instead of reducing cast time. Moved to tier-10.
    • Judgements of the Pure moved to tier-9.
    • Pure of Heart: Now reduces duration of all curse, disease, and poison effects by 15/30%.
    • Purifying Power: Now reduces the cooldowns of Exorcism and Holy Wrath by 17/33% instead of increasing critical strike chance.
    • Sacred Cleansing moved to tier-8.
  • Protection
    • Ardent Defender: Reduced to 3 ranks for 10/20/30%.
    • Avenger’s Shield: Base damage and scaling factor increased by 30%.
    • Blessing of Sanctuary: Now only grants mana on dodge/parry/block. In addition, will only grant mana if that is the active power type of the friendly target (Bears and Cats won’t gain mana).
    • Improved Devotion Aura: The additional healing granted by this talent now becomes active when any Aura is used, not just Devotion Aura.
    • Divine Guardian: Now increases the effectiveness of Divine Sacrifice by an additional 5/10%, and increases the duration of Sacred Shield by 50/100% and the amount absorbed by 10/20%.
    • Divine Protection: Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes.
    • New Talent: Divine Sacrifice: Causes all party/raid members affected by one of the paladin’s auras to transfer 30% of all damage taken to the paladin (maximum of 150% of the paladin’s max health). Lasts 10 seconds. 2-minute cooldown.
    • New Talent: Divinity: Increases healing done by and to you by 1/2/3/4/5% (tier-1).
    • Guarded by the Light: Now makes Divine Plea 50/100% less likely to be dispelled.
    • Improved Hammer of Justice: Reduced to 2 ranks for 10/20-second cooldown reduction.
    • Holy Shield: Base damage and scaling factor increased by 30%.
    • Judgements of the Just: Now also reduces the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 10/20 seconds, and increases the duration of the Seal of Justice stun effect by .5/1 second.
    • One-Handed Weapon Specialization: Reduced to 3 ranks for 4/7/10%.
    • Sacred Duty rank 1 now increases stamina by 4%.
    • Shield of the Templar: No longer increases the damage done by Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield, and Shield of Righteousness. Now grants 33/66/100% chance to silence your Avenger’s Shield targets for 3 seconds.
  • Retribution
    • Benediction now affects Hand of Reckoning.
    • Divine Purpose: Moved to Improved Retribution Aura’s position.
    • Divine Storm: Damage increased.
    • Fanaticism reduced to 3 ranks for 6/12/18% bonus and 10/20/30% threat reduction.
    • Judgement of the Wise: The immediate return of base mana from this spell has been increased to 25%, up from 15%.
    • Repentance no longer resets the paladin’s melee swing timer.
    • Improved Retribution Aura: This talent has been removed.
    • Righteous Vengeance reduced to 3 ranks for 10/20/30%. The damage done by this talent no longer receives modifications from effects that increase or decrease damage done by a percentage. Now triggered by Crusader Strike as well.
    • Sanctified Retribution: The bonus to damage done granted by this talent now becomes active when any Aura is used, not just Retribution Aura.
    • Sanctified Seals: Renamed Sanctity of Battle. Now also increases damage done by Exorcism and Crusader Strike by 5/10/15%.
    • Swift Retribution: Now grants its haste bonus while any aura is active.

    Priests

    • Abolish Disease: Now cleanses a disease every 3 seconds, down from 5. Duration reduced from 20 seconds down to 12 seconds.
    • Devouring Plague: This spell now has a new icon.
    • Divine Hymn redesigned: You recite a Holy hymn, summoning the power of the Divine to assist you in your time of need. Heals 3 nearby lowest-health friendly party or raid targets for 4960-5208 every 2 seconds for 8 seconds, and increases healing done to them by 15% for 8 seconds. Maximum of 12 heals. The Priest must channel to maintain the spell. Cooldown increased to 6 minutes, up from 5.
    • Divine Spirit is now trainable at level 31.
    • Holy Nova: Mana cost reduced approximately 20%.
    • Improved Holy Concentration removed.
    • Hymn of Hope redesigned: You recite a Holy hymn, restoring hope to those in despair. Restores 3% mana to 3 nearby low mana friendly party or raid targets every 2 seconds for 8 seconds, and temporarily increases their total maximum mana by 20% for 8 seconds. After the effect expires, the mana is lost. Maximum of 12 mana restorations. The Priest must channel to maintain the spell. Cooldown increased to 6 minutes, up from 5.
    • Mental Agility, Inner Focus, Shadow Reach, Shadow Focus and Shadow Affinity now all affect Psychic Horror.
    • Prayer of Healing: This spell now heals the target’s party, rather than being limited to just your direct party.
    • Shadowfiend: Health scaling increased. Now receives 30% of the master’s spell power. Mana return increased to 5%, up from 4%. The Shadowfiend now returns mana when its melee attacks land, rather than when it deals damage. No longer has a 75% reduced chance to be hit by melee, ranged and spells. Movement speed normalized to player movement speed. Tooltip revised. New Shadowfiend ability, Shadowcrawl, teleports the Shadowfiend to an enemy target and increases its damage done by 15% for 5 seconds.
    • Talents
    • Discipline
    • Divine Aegis: Divine Aegis effects will now stack, however the amount absorbed cannot exceed 125*level (of the target). It will also now take into account total healing including overhealing.
    • Improved Divine Spirit: This talent has been removed.
    • New Talent: Improved Flash Heal: Reduces the mana cost of your Flash Heal by 5/10/15%, and increases the critical effect chance of your Flash Heal by 4/7/10% on friendly targets at or below 50% health.
    • Grace: This talent no longer decreases damage done to the target, but the duration has increased to 15 seconds and the healing bonus has increased from 2% to 3%. This affect now cannot be applied to more than one target at a time.
    • Improved Power Word: Fortitude: Now also increases your total stamina by 2/4%.
    • Meditation and Improved Power: Word shield have changed locations with each other.
    • Meditation: Now grants 17/33/50% of mana regeneration while casting.
    • Mental Agility: Reduced to 3 points (4/7/10%), down from 5.
    • New Talent: Soul Warding: Reduces the cooldown of your Power Word: Shield ability by 4 seconds, and reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Shield by 30%.
    • Penance: Damage increased approximately 30%.This spell can now be cast on yourself.
    • Power Infusion: This effect now has a new spell effect.
    • Renewed Hope: This talent also now allows you to proc the Renewed Hope buff on all party/raid members every time you cast Power Word: Shield, reducing damage taken by 3%. Lasts 20 seconds.
    • Unbreakable Will:Increased from 3/6/9/12/15% to 6/12/18/24/30%.
  • Holy
    • New Talent: Body and Soul: 2-point talent. When you cast Power Word: Shield, you increase the target’s movement speed by 30/60% for 4 seconds, and you have a 50/100% chance when you cast Abolish Disease on yourself to also cleanse 1 poison effect in addition to diseases.
    • Circle of Healing: Healing increased by approximately 40%.
    • Holy Concentration redesigned: Mana regeneration is increased by 16/32/50% for 8 seconds after you critically heal with Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Binding Heal or Renew.
    • New Talent: Empowered Renew: Your Renew spell gains an additional 5/10/15% of your bonus healing effects, and your Renew will instantly heal the target for 5/10/15% of the total periodic effect.
    • Serendipity redesigned: When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 4/8/12%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 20 seconds.
    • Test of Faith: No longer increases critical effect chance of your heals, but healing done on targets lower than 50% health is increased from 2/4/6% to 4/8/12%.
  • Shadow
    • Blackout: This talent has been removed.
    • Darkness: This talent is now in tier-1, moved up from tier-6.
    • Dispersion: Now clears all snare and movement-impairing effects and makes you immune to them while dispersed.
    • New Talent: Improved Devouring Plague: Increases the periodic damage done by your Devouring Plague by 5/10/15%, and when you cast Devouring Plague you instantly deal damage equal to 5/10/15% of its total periodic effect.
    • Mind Melt: Now also increases the periodic critical strike chance of your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch spells by 3/6%.
    • Psychic Horror: Has been redesigned and is now a 1-point talent. You terrify the target, causing them to tremble in horror for 3 seconds and drop all weapons (disarm effect: including bows) for 10 seconds. 2 minute cooldown. Instant cast. The horror effect can be dispelled, but the disarm cannot.
    • Improved Spirit Tap: Now grants 17/33% of mana regeneration while casting.
    • Shadow Affinity: Now also causes you to receive 5/10/15% of your base mana when your Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch spells are dispelled.
    • Shadowform: Now reduces all damage taken by 15%, not just physical damage. Bonus damage from critical strike chance removed and replaced by the ability of those periodic damage spells to generate critical strikes.
    • Silence: Range increased to 30 yards.
    • Spirit Tap: Now grants 83% of mana regeneration while casting.
    • Vampiric Embrace duration increased to 5 minutes, up from 1 minute. PvP duration is now 60 seconds. Cooldown removed.
    • Vampiric Touch: When dispelled, Vampiric Touch will deal damage to the afflicted target.

    Rogues

    • Deadly Poison: The amount of damage this poison generates from the rogue’s attack power has been increased from 8% per application to 12%.
    • Deadly Throw: Missile speed increased.
    • Instant Poison: Redesigned to have its chance to be applied based on the speed of the weapon (frequency-based).
    • Shiv: This ability can no longer generate a critical strike, and the poisons it applies cannot be critical strikes either.
    • Tricks of the Trade: Will now begin following the first damaging attack.
    • Wound Poison: Redesigned to have its chance to be applied based on the speed of the weapon (frequency-based).
    • Talents
    • Assassination
    • Hunger For Blood: No longer stacks. Damage bonus changed to 15% for a single application. Requires a bleed effect active on the rogue’s target. No longer removes bleeds from the rogue. Now costs 15 energy and lasts for 60 seconds.
    • Master Poisoner: Now also increases the bonus to apply Deadly Poison when Envenom is used by an additional 15/30/45%.
  • Combat
    • Adrenaline Rush cooldown reduced to 3 minutes.
    • Killing Spree: Now also increases all damage done by the rogue while active by 20%.
    • Savage Combat improved to 2/4% increased damage against poisoned targets.
    • Lightning Reflexes reduced to 3 ranks for 2/4/6% dodge and 4/7/10% melee haste.
  • Subtlety
    • Shadow Dance now opens a new action bar when used.
    • Sinister Calling: The damage bonus to Backstab and Hemorrhage is now 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.

    Shaman

    • Bloodlust/Heroism: Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes, but Sated and Exhausted now last 10 minutes.
    • Earth Elemental Totem: The summoned Earth Elemental should now have significantly more health and slightly more armor. Now scales up in power based on the shaman’s spell power instead of attack power.
    • Fire Elemental Totem: The summoned Fire Elemental should now have moderately more health and mana, and its damage scaling has been increased. In addition, the Fire Elemental’s spells now cost less mana.
    • Flametongue Weapon: Bonus damage from spell power now based on weapon speed. Slower weapons will benefit more from spell power.
    • Frostbrand Weapon: Damage increased by approximately 20%.
    • Mana Spring Totem: This totem has been redesigned. It now provides the same mana benefit as Blessing of Wisdom to the entire party or raid, but is exclusive with that effect.
    • Poison Cleansing Totem and Disease Cleansing Totem have been merged into Cleansing Totem. Cleansing Totem pulses every 3 seconds, down from 5.
    • Talents
    • Enhancement
    • Earthen Power redesigned: Your Earthbind Totem has a 50/100% chance to also remove all snare effects and make you and nearby friendly targets immune to them for 5 seconds when it pulses.
    • Flurry: Now provides 5/10/15/20/25% haste instead of 10/15/20/25/30%.
    • New Talent: Frozen Power: Increases the damage done by your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Lash and Shock spells by 5/10% on targets afflicted by your Frostbrand Attack effect, and your Frost Shock has a 50/100% chance to root the target in Ice for 5 seconds when used on targets at or further than 15 yards from you.
    • Lava Lash now has a new icon.
    • Spirit Weapons: Now reduces all threat generated by 30%, not just physical attacks.
    • Stormstrike charges have been increased by 2, and cooldown reduced by 2 seconds.
    • Improved Stormstrike redesigned: When you Stormstrike, you have a 50/100% chance to immediately grant you 20% of your base mana.
    • Toughness: No longer increases your armor. Instead, this talent now increases your total stamina by 2/4/6/8/10%.
    • Unleashed Rage: Reduced to 3 points, down from 5. No longer increases agility, but instead increases your total expertise by 3/6/9%.
  • Elemental
    • New Talent: Booming Echoes: Reduces the cooldown of your Flame Shock and Frost Shock spells by an additional 1/2 seconds, and increases the direct damage done by your Flame Shock and Frost Shock spells by an additional 10/20%.
    • Elemental Mastery redesigned: When activated, your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning or Lava Burst spell becomes an instant cast spell. In addition, your Fire, Frost and Nature damage spells have a 15% increased critical strike chance for 15 seconds. Elemental Mastery now shares a cooldown with Nature’s Swiftness.
    • Elemental Reach: Now also increases the range of your Flame Shock spell by 5/10/15 yards.
    • Lava Flows: No longer increases the range of your Flame Shock spell, but now increases your casting speed by 10/20/30% when your Flame Shock spell is dispelled for 6 seconds.
    • Lightning Overload: Reduced to 3 points (7/14/20%), down from 5.
    • Storm, Earth and Fire: No longer increases the range of your Earth Shock or Wind Shock spells, but now also causes your Earthbind Totem to have a 33/66/100% chance to root all nearby enemies for 5 seconds when initially cast.
    • Thunderstorm can now be cast while stunned.
  • Restoration
    • Ancestral Awakening: This talent now accounts for your ineffective healing, rather than effective.
    • Ancestral Healing and Healing Grace have swapped places in the Restoration talent tree.
    • Cleanse Spirit now has a new icon.
    • Mana Tide Totem: This spell no longer costs mana.
    • Restorative Totems: Reduced to 3 points, down from 5. Increases the effect of your Mana Spring Totem by 7/12/20%, and increases the amount healed by your Healing Stream Totem by 15/30/45%.
    • Riptide: This spell has a new icon.
    • Tidal Force: Now has a new spell effect.

    Warlocks

    • Banish: Now has a 6-second PvP duration.
    • Curse of the Elements (Rank 5): Increased to 13% spell damage, up from 10%.
    • Curse of Recklessness has been removed.
    • Curse of Weakness: Now also reduces the armor of the target by 5%.
    • Drain Soul: Each time Drain Soul deals damage to a target which can grant experience, it now has a chance to generate a Soul Shard.
    • Enslave Demon: Spell haste penalty reduced by 10%. Melee haste penalty reduced by 10%.
    • Doomguard: Cooldown reduced to 30 minutes, down from 60 minutes. Damage reduced approximately 30%, and health reduced approximately 30%.
    • Warlocks now innately have an increased 10% spell hit chance on the Enslave Demon spell.
    • Fire Shield (Imp): You can now cast this ability on raid members, rather than party members.
    • Ritual of Summoning: The summoning of the initial portal is now instant cast, down from 5 seconds.
    • Soul Shard: This item now has a maximum count of 32 in inventory.
    • Voidwalker: The health bonus on this pet has been reduced from 60% to 10%.
    • Talents
    • Affliction
    • Eradication: Whenever you deal damage with Corruption, you have a 6% chance to gain the Eradication effect. The Eradication effect increases your spell casting speed by 6/12/20% for 10 seconds. Internal cooldown removed.
    • Haunt: Now only increases your shadow damage-over-time spells on the target.
    • Malediction: No longer increases the effect of Curse of the Elements, but now also increases the periodic critical strike chance of your Corruption and Unstable Affliction spells by 3/6/9%.
    • Pandemic: This talent has been reduced to a 1-point talent. Now grants your Corruption and Unstable Affliction the capability to critically hit.
    • Shadow Embrace: Now only increases the damage done by your shadow damage periodic spells.
    • Siphon Life: The Siphon Life spell has been removed. Siphon Life now causes your Corruption spell to instantly heal you for 40% of the damage done. In addition, the damage done by your Corruption, Seed of Corruption and Unstable Affliction damage-over-time effects is increased by 5%.
    • Soul Siphon redesigned: Increases the amount drained by your Drain Life and Drain Soul spells by an additional 3/6% for each of your Affliction effects on the target, up to a maximum of 9/18% additional effect.
    • Suppression: Now increases spell hit for all of your spells.
    • Unstable Affliction and Immolation are now in the same exclusive category (both damage- over- time effects cannot be present at the same time by the same caster on a target).
  • Demonology
    • Demonic Empathy has been removed.
    • Demonic Empowerment: This talent now has a unique spell effect.
    • Demonic Sacrifice: This talent has been removed.
    • Fel Synergy has been moved to tier-1. No longer increases intellect, stamina and damage of your summoned demon.
    • Improved Enslave Demon talent removed.
    • Mana Feed: This talent is now a 1-point talent, down from 3 points. Now is the 21-point talent in Demonology, granting 100% mana return to your pet, up from 33/66/100%.
    • Master Conjuror: Increased from 15/30% up to 150/300%.
    • New Talent: Decimation: When you Shadowbolt or Incinerate a target that is at or below 35% health, your next Soulfire cast time is reduced by 30/60% and costs no shard. Lasts 10 seconds.
    • New Talent: Nemesis: Reduces the cooldown of your Demonic Empowerment, Metamorphosis, Soulstone and Fel Domination spells by 10/20/30%.
  • Destruction
    • Aftermath redesigned: Increases the periodic damage done by your Immolate by 3/6%, and your Conflagrate has a 50/100% chance to daze the target for 5 seconds.
    • Backlash has been moved up to tier-5, up from tier-7. Now requires Intensity (pre-requisite).
    • Cataclysm: Now reduces the mana cost of Destruction spells by 4/7/10%. No longer increases the chance to hit.
    • Chaos Bolt: Damage increased approximately 15%.
    • Conflagrate: Spell now works similar to Swiftmend, consuming an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the target and dealing damage based on the strength of that effect. Reduced to a single rank.
    • Improved Immolate: Now increases the damage done by your Immolate by 10/20/30%, rather than just the direct damage.
    • Improved Shadow Bolt: Now increases the damage done by your Shadow Bolt spell by 1/2/3/4/5%, and causes your target to be vulnerable to spell damage, increasing spell critical strike chance against that target by 1/2/3/4/5%. Effect lasts 30 seconds.
    • Improved Soul Leech: Now has a 50/100% chance to proc Replenishment.
    • Molten Core: This talent has been moved to Demonology (tier-8).
    • New Talent: Molten Skin: Reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%.
    • Pyroclasm redesigned: Now increases your Shadow and Fire spell power by 2/4/6% when you critically hit with Searing Pain or Conflagrate. Lasts 10 seconds. Also moved down to tier-7 from tier-5.

    Warriors

    • Battle Stance: Now increases armor penetration by 10%.
    • Berserker Stance: Now increases damage taken by 5%.
    • Charge: Duration of stun effect now lasts 1.5 seconds. This effect no longer has diminishing returns.
    • Defensive Stance: Now reduces damage caused by the warrior by 5% (previously 10%).
    • Disarm: This ability now disarms ranged weapons as well.
    • Heroic Throw missile speed increased.
    • Intimidating Shout: Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.
    • Shattering Throw: This new warrior ability, trainable at level 71, deals damage the same as Heroic Throw, but also causes the victim’s armor to be reduced by 20% for 10 seconds (stacking with Sunder Armor). If the victim is immune, it will remove that immunity instead of dealing damage and reducing armor. Costs 25 rage. Only useable in Battle Stance. 5-minute cooldown.
    • Talents
    • Arms
    • Blood Frenzy improved to 2/4% increased damage.
    • Deep Wounds: The damage done by this talent no longer receives modifications from effects that increase or decrease damage done by a percentage. The base weapon damage used in the calculation will still be modified by those effects.
    • Improved Intercept and Weapon Mastery have once again swapped places in the talent tree.
    • New Talent: Juggernaut: Grants the warrior the ability to Charge while in combat. Critical strike chance of next Slam or Mortal Strike increased by 100% following Charge.
    • Taste for Blood: Will now proc 33/66/100% of the time with a 6-second cooldown.
    • Unrelenting Assault: Now also increases the damage of Overpower and Revenge by 10/20%, and causes Overpower (when used to attack a casting target) to decrease the effectiveness of all the target’s non-physical damage and healing by 25/50% for 6 seconds. Tooltip and visual updated.
  • Fury
    • Improved Berserker Stance: Now increases strength by 4/8/12/16/20% while in Berserker Stance.
    • Titan’s Grip: While you have a two-handed weapon equipped in one hand, your physical damage done is reduced by 10%.
  • Protection
    • Last Stand: Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes.
    • Warbringer: Now also allows Intervene and Intercept to be used in any stance.

    Professions

    • Alchemy
    • All flasks now last 1 hour. To compensate, all flask recipes will provide 2 flasks for the same material cost.
    • Blackmouth Oil and Fire Oil no longer require a vial.
    • Elixir of Greater Firepower now grants spell power to all schools of magic.
    • Flask of Endless Rage: Now requires Goldclover instead of Fire Leaf.
    • Flask of Stoneblood: Health granted has been doubled.
    • Flasks now stack to 20, and their vendor sell prices have been reduced to lower the Auction House deposits.
    • Northrend flasks will be converted to mixtures. This includes the Flask of Stoneblood, Flask of Pure Mojo, Flask of Endless Rage, and Flask of the Frost Wyrm. Mixtures can create 2 flasks of the corresponding type. This allows players who stockpiled Northrend flasks to convert them to the new system without any loss.
    • The Crazy Alchemist Potion is now correctly increased by Alchemist Stones.
    • The Mercurial Stone is no longer required as a tool for alchemists. It is instead an uncommon quality bind-on-equip trinket.
    • You can now sometimes find Alchemist’s Caches from bosses in Ulduar. Only players with an Alchemy skill of 425 or higher can loot these secret caches.
  • Blacksmithing
    • Added a new recipe for the Titansteel Spellblade, an epic one-handed caster dagger, available from trainers.
    • Added new recipes for epic gear, found rarely on Ulduar bosses. These recipes are unbound and can be traded.
    • Most of the recipes in the 1-300 skill range of blacksmithing have received major stat updates to make them more useful.
    • The Titanium Plating shield enchantment now reduces the duration of disarm effects by 50% as well as increasing your block value.
  • Cooking
    • A new recipe has been added to cooking trainers for making Black Jelly, using several Borean Man ‘O War as ingredients. While it looks disgusting, it restores more health and mana than the highest level food.
    • Flint and Tinder is no longer necessary for creating a campfire. You’re just that resourceful!
    • Grub now sells the Dig Rat Stew recipe to players who completed the quest.
    • Ingredients such as Spices, Apples, and the like have been removed from most cooking recipes.
    • Players no longer need to complete the Clamlette Surprise quest to gain Artisan cooking. The quest now offers the unique recipe, Clamlette Magnifique. If you already completed the quest, you can visit Dirge Quickcleave in Gadgetzan to learn this recipe (for free).
    • Prospector Khazgorm, found in Bael Modan in southern Barrens, now sells the recipe for Dig Rat Stew to the Alliance.
    • Several Northrend recipes were given greater skill up ranges to make it easier to reach 450 cooking skill.
    • You no longer need to learn cooking from books. The trainers have finally done their reading and are able to teach you the same thing.
  • Enchanting
    • Added two new recipes for enchanting staves with spell power, available from Vanessa Sellers in Dalaran City.
    • Greatly increased the drop rate of recipes found in pre-Lich King dungeons and raids.
    • Several recipes in the 250-300 skill range have been rebalanced, and the reagent requirements have been reduced.
    • Some enchants now have level restrictions. Note: the enchant is never removed from the item to which it’s applied, however, players no longer receives its benefit until they reach the required level. Any enchants modified in this way have had their tooltips updated.
    • The enchanting interface now correctly sorts grey recipes by skill difficulty.
  • Engineering
    • Added a new Reticulated Armor Webbing engineering enchant that increases the armor on cloth, leather, mail, or plate gloves.
    • Added a new Springy Arachnoweave engineering enchant that grants passive spell power in addition to turning your cloak into a parachute.
    • Engineers can now obtain the schematics for Lil’ Smoky and the Pet Bombling from certain creatures found in Gnomeregan. Specialized Gnomish or Goblin engineers can obtain both schematics equally. The repeatable quest that used to randomly grant these schematics has been disabled.
    • Flexweave Underlay now grants passive agility in addition to its normal effect.
    • Gnomish Lightning Generator: Now has passive critical strike rating. The damage from the activated effect has been reduced. No longer has a cast time. Now invokes a 10-second DPS burst item category cooldown.
    • Gnomish X-Ray Specs have a new model.
    • Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket: No longer on the global cooldown. Damage increased, cooldown reduced. Now invokes a 10-second DPS burst item category cooldown.
    • Hyperspeed Accelerators: Now invokes a 10-second DPS burst item category cooldown.
    • Nitro Boosts now grant passive critical strike rating in addition to their speed boost.
    • Nitro Boosts now make you drop PVP flags when used, as well as preventing you from picking them up while the effect is active.
  • First Aid
    • You no longer need to complete the “Triage” quest to attain Artisan First Aid. Instead you can learn the Artisan skill from the trainers in the capital cities.
    • You no longer need to learn First Aid from books. The trainers have finally done their reading and are able to teach you the same thing.
  • Fishing
    • A new (and very rare) special mount can now be caught from Northrend fishing pools.
    • New fishing dailies are now offered from Marcia Chase in Dalaran City!
    • Players are no longer required to do the Nat Pagle, Angler Extreme quest to gain Artisan fishing. The quest now offers a special superior-quality fishing pole instead. If you already completed the quest, you can visit Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh to receive this new fishing pole.
    • The time needed to catch fish has been reduced.
    • You can now fish anywhere, regardless of skill. Every catch has the potential for fishing skill gains, but you are likely to catch worthless junk in areas that are too difficult for your skill.
    • You can now fish in Wintergrasp, and the fishin’ is good!
    • You no longer need to learn fishing from books. The trainers have finally done their reading and are able to teach you the same thing.
  • Gathering Skills
    • Toughness, Master of Anatomy, and Lifeblood now have level requirements equal to the level required for the corresponding skill rank: Apprentice (1), Journeyman (1), Expert (10), Artisan (25), Master (40), Grand Master (55).
    • You can no longer fail when Mining, Herbing, and Skinning.
  • Herbalism
    • Find Herbs no longer tracks Glowcaps.
    • Northrend herbs now yield more herbs on average.
    • The herbalism requirement for gathering Tiger Lily has been reduced to 375.
    • The time it takes to gather herbs has been reduced.
  • Inscription
    • Added a recipe to trainers for creating a level 70 superior-quality off-hand item.
    • Added a recipe for creating a different level 70 superior-quality off-hand item. Scribes will find the recipe is dropped from residents of Silverbrook.
    • Added around 50 new glyph recipes. These new recipes can be obtained from Books of Glyph Mastery found as world drops on Northrend monsters. Reading a Book of Glyph Mastery randomly discovers one of the newly-added recipes.
    • Glyph icons have been updated so it is easy to distinguish between classes.
    • Players will now learn 3 recipes the very first time they perform Northrend Inscription Research. This does not apply to players who have already discovered recipes from Northrend Inscription Research (sorry).
  • Jewelcrafting
    • Added a new recipe to cut black diamonds.
    • Added a recipe for Shifting Twilight Opal to the daily jewelcrafting vendor.
    • Added recipes for superior-quality PVP rings and necklaces to Northrend jewelcrafting trainers.
  • Leatherworking
    • Added a recipe for combining Borean Leather Scraps into Borean Leather. You can still use Borean Scraps from your inventory to combine them.
    • Added new recipes for epic gear, found rarely on Ulduar bosses. These recipes are unbound and can be traded.
    • Several lower-level items crafted by leatherworkers have received major changes to make them more appealing.
    • Shadowskin Gloves and Dusky Boots no longer require Shadowcat Hide to create, but instead require an equal quantity of Shadow Silk. Shadowcat Hides can no longer be obtained from skinning.
  • Mining
    • Northrend deposits now despawn 1 minute after mining them. This change was made to speed up respawning when nodes were partially looted.
  • Tailoring
    • Added new recipes for epic gear, found rarely on Ulduar bosses. These recipes are unbound and can be traded.
    • Added recipes for superior-quality PVP cloaks to Northrend tailoring trainers.
    • The Lightweave tailoring enchant now sometimes grants a temporary spell power bonus instead of dealing direct damage to your target.
    • Several lower-level items crafted by tailors have received major changes to make them more appealing.

    Quests

    • The fight event for the "Grim(oire) Business" quest at Vim’gol’s Circle in the Blade’s Edge Mountains now only requires one character to stand within a fire circle in order to summon Vim’gol the Vile. However, it still takes five characters, one in each of the fire circles, in order to interrupt Vim’gol the Vile’s Unholy Growth cast.
    • Horde characters may now obtain the quest "CLUCK!" from Chickens. While Farmer Saldean won’t be selling Special Chicken Feed to the Horde, perhaps "Westfall" William Saldean in Brill might…

    Dungeons and Raids

    • New dungeon maps have been added for all Wrath of the Lich King dungeons.
    • Eye of Eternity
    • Malygos will now properly delay before breathing after a Vortex on Heroic difficulty.
  • Naxxramas
    • The Chains of Kel’Thuzad will no longer reset the raid’s threat.
    • The Portal of Shadows created by Shade of Naxxramas will only persist for a maximum of one minute.
    • Players with pets who attempt to use the Obedience Crystals in Naxxramas will have their pets dismissed automatically so they may possess an Understudy.
  • Vault of Archavon
    • Archavon, Emalon, and their allies will now banish themselves 10 minutes prior to the beginning of a Lake Wintergrasp battle. A warning will be given 15 minutes prior to the start of Wintergrasp. They will not banish themselves if in combat.


    User Interface

    • New Advanced features for quest tracking are now available. Players will need to activate this option within the Interface panel.
    • A new Color Blind option is available under the Interface panel.
    • Spell Effect Level setting has been split into Particle Density and Projected Textures. Previously, Spell Effect Level controlled both of these features.
    • Added new Video Mode Ultra (should only be used on the highest-end systems).
    • Shadow Quality has a new higher level of detail. The slider for adjusting Shadow Quality remains the same, though there is an additional step at the high end of the spectrum.
    • A new feature has been added allowing players to allocate talent points before confirming they’d like to spend them. This feature must be turned on in the Interface Options.
    • New high-resolution player textures for Northrend armor sets have been added. Players can enable this feature by setting Player Textures to High in the Effects Panel of the Video Options.
    • Players can now return items purchased with an alternate currency back to the original vendor within 2 hours of the purchase time for the original cost of the item. Stackable items (such as Frozen Orbs and gems) and charged items that can be purchased with an alternate currency are not eligible.
    • Confirmation boxes have been added to purchases over 150 gold.
    • The calendar now supports a guild-wide sign-up sheet, allowing the event organizer to invite his or her entire guild.
    • Class roles (i.e. damage, tanking, healing) have been added to the Looking For Group feature. Class roles will be displayed when sorting through the Looking For More section.
    • Quest and Achievement tracking are now combined in a new Objectives Tracking window. Advanced features can be activated from the Objectives Options panel.
    • On-Use items will display in the Objectives Tracking when tracking a quest that uses them. No more searching through your bags for that on-use quest item!
    • Health and Fuel/Ammo bars have been added to the vehicle interface whenever operating a vehicle.
    • The mini-map has been optimized for better performance. Displays for vehicles, class colors, and off-map pings have been added as well.
    • Players first entering any dungeon that will result in a Raid ID lock-out timer will be warned if they are going to be saved to the instance. This warning will include an option to port to the nearest graveyard before being saved.
    • New elite mob frames have been added for V-Key frames.
    • For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the

      UI & Macros forum.

    Items

    • Arena Grand Master Trinket: Dodge rating has been replaced with stamina.
    • Badges and Emblems looted off of any dungeon bosses by a member of the party or raid will automatically be given to all eligible party or raid members. Party or raid members must still be inside the instance to receive Badges or Emblems.
    • Clams
    • A new clam, the Giant Darkwater Clam, can be obtained by fishing in Wintergrasp. This mighty clam has a greatly increased chance to drop pearls, and yields up to five times the regular amount of clam meat.
    • Loot from clams now stacks correctly!
    • Changed the icon for Succulent Clam Meat so it doesn’t look quite as disgusting. Now 100% more succulent!
  • Darkmoon Cards of the North will now take three seconds per card to create.
  • Death Knight Tier 7 DPS Sets: Death Strike has been added to both the 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses.
  • Divine Hymn will now trigger Illustration of the Dragon Soul.
  • Enhancement Shaman PvP Set Bonus: The cooldown reduction of Stormstrike has been increased to 2 seconds, up from 1 second.
  • Existing crafted resilience armor sets now offer additional stamina and resilience ratings through set bonuses.
  • Frozen Scepter of Necromancy now sounds like other maces.
  • Gift of Arthas: Now considered a curse instead of a disease.
  • Glyphs
    • Death Knight
    • Glyph of Blood Boil: This has been replaced with Glyph of Heart Strike, which adds a snare effect to Heart Strike.
    • Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon: Increases the duration of Dancing Rune Weapon by 10 seconds.
    • Glyph of Dark Death: Increases the damage done by Death Coil by 15%.
    • Glyph of Death Strike: This glyph now increases Death Strike damage by 1% per 2 runic power, but has a limit of 25% increase.
    • Glyph of Disease: Your Pestilence ability now refreshes disease durations on your primary target back to their maximum duration.
    • Glyph of Heart Strike: Duration of snare increased to 10 seconds.
    • Glyph of Howling Blast: Your Howling Blast ability now infects your targets with Frost Fever.
    • Glyph of Hungering Cold: Reduces the cost of Hungering Cold by 10 runic power.
    • Glyph of Icebound Fortitude: Icebound Fortitude now grants at least 30% damage reduction, regardless of defense skill.
    • Glyph of Plague Strike: Bonus lowered to 20%.
    • Glyph of Strangulate: This glyph has been changed to reduce the cooldown by 20 seconds.
    • Glyph of Unbreakable Armor: Increases the amount of damage absorbed by Unbreakable Armor by 20%.
    • Glyph of Unholy Blight: Increases the duration of Unholy Blight by 10 seconds.
  • Druid
    • Glyph of Barkskin: Reduces the chance you’ll be critically hit by melee attacks by 25% while Barkskin is active.
    • Glyph of Berserk: Increases the duration of Berserk by 5 seconds.
    • Glyph of Monsoon: Reduces the cooldown of your Typhoon spell by 3 seconds.
    • Glyph of Nourish: Your Nourish heals an additional 6% for each of your heal-over-time effects present on the target.
    • Glyph of Rebirth: Target now returns to life with full health.
    • Glyph of Savage Roar: Your Savage Roar ability grants an additional 3% bonus damage done.
    • Glyph of Shred: Now increases remaining duration on Rip by 2 seconds each time it is used, up to a maximum of 6 seconds.
    • Glyph of Starfall: Changed to reduce the cooldown by 30 seconds.
    • Glyph of Survival Instincts: Increases the percentage of your maximum health received from Survival Instincts to 40%.
    • Glyph of Wild Growth: Wild Growth now affects up to 6 targets.
  • Hunter
    • Glyph of Aimed Shot: Now reduces cooldown by 2 seconds.
    • Glyph of Chimera Shot: Reduces the cooldown of Chimera Shot by 1 second.
    • Glyph of Explosive Shot: Increases the critical strike chance of Explosive Shot by 4%.
    • Glyph of Explosive Trap: The periodic damage from your Explosive Trap can now be critical strikes.
    • Glyph of Kill Shot: Reduces the cooldown of Kill Shot by 6 seconds.
    • Glyph of the Monkey: This glyph has been converted to Glyph of Mending, which increases the healing done by Mend Pet by 40%.
    • Glyph of Raptor Strike: For 3 seconds after using Raptor Strike, you take 20% less damage.
    • Glyph of Scatter Shot: Increases the range of Scatter Shot by 3 yards.
    • Glyph of Snake Trap: Now reduces damage taken by snakes from area damage by 90%.
    • Glyph of Wyvern Sting: Now reduces the cooldown by 6 seconds, down from 15 seconds. No longer reduces the damage done by Wyvern Sting’s effect.
  • Mage
    • Glyph of Arcane Barrage: Reduces the mana cost of Arcane Barrage by 20%.
    • Glyph of Deep Freeze: Increases the range of Deep Freeze by 10 yards.
    • Glyph of Ice Armor: Now increases resistance and armor by 50%.
    • Glyph of Ice Barrier: Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your Ice Barrier by 30%.
    • Glyph of Living Bomb: The periodic damage from your Living Bomb can now be critical strikes.
    • Glyph of Mirror Image: This glyph has been redesigned and now increases the number of copies of the mage to 4.
  • Paladin
    • Glyph of Beacon of Light: Increases the duration of Beacon of Light by 30 seconds.
    • Glyph of Divine Plea: While Divine Plea is active, you take 3% reduced damage from all sources.
    • Glyph of Divine Storm: Your Divine Storm now heals for an additional 15% of the damage it causes.
    • Glyph of Divinity: Now Lay on Hands grants 100% bonus mana, and that amount of mana is granted to the paladin and their target.
    • Glyph of Exorcism: Changed to 20% bonus damage.
    • Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous: Your Hammer of the Righteous hits 1 additional target.
    • Glyph of Holy Light: Can no longer critically strike and has had its range updated.
    • Glyph of Holy Shock: Reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 second.
    • Glyph of Lay on Hands: Now reduces the cooldown of Lay on Hands by 5 minutes.
    • Glyph of Salvation: When you cast Hand of Salvation on yourself, it also reduces damage taken by 20%.
    • Glyph of Seal of Blood: When your Seal of Blood, Seal of the Martyr, Judgement of Blood, or Judgement of the Martyr deals damage to you, you gain 11% of the damage done as mana.
    • Glyph of Seal of Righteousness: Increases damage done by this seal by 10%.
    • Glyph of Shield of Righteousness: Reduces the mana cost of Shield of Righteousness by 80%.
  • Priest
    • Glyph of Dispersion: Reduces the cooldown on Dispersion by 45 seconds.
    • Glyph of Fade: Now reduces cooldown by 9 seconds.
    • Glyph of Fear Ward: Now reduces duration and cooldown by 1 minute.
    • Glyph of Guardian Spirit: If your Guardian Spirit lasts its entire duration without being triggered, your Guardian Spirit cooldown is reset to 60 seconds.
    • Glyph of Hymn of Hope: Now increases the duration of Hymn of Hope.
    • Glyph of Inner Fire: Increases bonus armor by 50%.
    • Glyph of Mind Control: Increases duration by 30 seconds.
    • Glyph of Mind Sear: Increases the radius of effect on Mind Sear by 5 yards.
    • Glyph of Pain Suppression: Allows Pain Suppression to be cast while stunned.
    • Glyph of Penance: Reduces the cooldown of Penance by 2 seconds.
    • Glyph of Psychic Scream: Increases duration by 2 seconds, but increases cooldown by 8 seconds.
  • Rogue
    • Glyph of Adrenaline Rush: Now increases duration by 5 seconds.
    • Glyph of Backstab: Now increases remaining duration on Rupture by 2 seconds each time it is used, up to a maximum of 6 seconds.
    • Glyph of Cloak of Shadows: While Cloak of Shadows is active, you take 40% less physical damage.
    • Glyph of Crippling Poison: Poison chance bonus increased to 20%.
    • Glyph of Deadly Throw: Increases the movement reduction by 10%.
    • Glyph of Fan of Knives: Increases the damage done by Fan of Knives by 20%.
    • Glyph of Hunger for Blood: Increases the bonus damage from Hunger for Blood by 3%.
    • Glyph of Killing Spree: Reduces the cooldown on Killing Spree by 45 seconds.
    • Glyph of Mutilate: Reduces the cost of Mutilate by 5 energy.
    • Glyph of Pick Lock: Now reduces cast time by 100%.
    • Glyph of Sap: Increases duration by 20 seconds.
    • Glyph of Shadow Dance: Increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 4 seconds.
    • Glyph of Sprint: No longer reduces the duration.
    • Glyph of Tricks of the Trade: Your Tricks of the Trade grants an additional 10% bonus damage to your target.
  • Shaman
    • Glyph of Earth Shield: Increases the amount healed by your Earth Shield by 20%.
    • Glyph of Feral Spirit: Your spirit wolves gain an additional 30% of your attack power.
    • Glyph of Hex: Increases the damage your Hex target can take before the Hex effect is removed by 20%.
    • Glyph of Riptide: Increases the duration of Riptide by 6 seconds.
    • Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem: Your Stoneclaw Totem also places a damage absorb shield on you, equal to 4 times the strength of the shield it places on your totems.
    • Glyph of Thunder: Reduces the cooldown on Thunderstorm by 7 seconds.
    • Glyph of Totem of Wrath: When you cast Totem of Wrath, you gain 30% of the totem’s bonus spell power for 5 minutes.
  • Warlock
    • Glyph of Banish: This glyph has been replaced with Glyph of Incinerate, which increases the damage of Incinerate by 5%.
    • Glyph of Chaos Bolt: Reduces the cooldown on Chaos Bolt by 2 seconds.
    • Glyph of Demonic Circle: Reduces the cooldown on Demonic Circle by 4 seconds.
    • Glyph of Haunt: The bonus damage granted by your Haunt spell is increased by an additional 3%.
    • Glyph of Immolate: The bonus damage provided by this glyph to Immolate’s periodic damage has been reduced to 10%, down from 20%. The 10% reduction to Immolate’s initial damage has been removed.
    • Glyph of Imp: Increases your Imp’s Firebolt damage by 20%.
    • Glyph of Life Tap: When you use Life Tap, you gain 20% of your spirit as spell power for 20 seconds.
    • Glyph of Metamorphosis: Increases the duration of your Metamorphosis by 6 seconds.
    • Glyph of Shadowflame: Your Shadowflame also applies a 70% movement speed slow on its victims.
    • Glyph of Siphon Life: Redesigned to increase the healing received from the Siphon Life talent.
    • Glyph of Soul Link: Increases the percentage of damage shared via your Soul Link by an additional 5%.
    • Glyph of Succubus: Redesigned to remove all damage-over-time effects from the target of Seduction.
  • Warrior
    • Glyph of Barbaric Insults: Increases threat on Mocking Blow by 100%.
    • Glyph of Bladestorm: Reduces the cooldown on Bladestorm by 15 seconds.
    • Glyph of Enraged Regeneration: Your Enraged Regeneration ability heals for an additional 10% of your health over its duration.
    • Glyph of Last Stand: Now reduces the cooldown of Last Stand by 60 seconds. The penalty on maximum health gained has been removed.
    • Glyph of Overpower: Now provides 100% chance on all parries.
    • Glyph of Shield Wall: Reduces the cooldown on Shield Wall by 3 min, but Shield Wall now only reduces damage taken by 40%.
    • Glyph of Shockwave: Reduces the cooldown on Shockwave by 3 seconds.
    • Glyph of Spell Reflection: Reduces the cooldown on Spell Reflection by 1 second.
    • Glyph of Sweeping Strikes: Now makes Sweeping Strikes cost 0 rage.
    • Glyph of Vigilance: Your Vigilance ability transfers an additional 5% of your target’s threat to you.
  • Hearthstone: Cooldown has been reduced to 30 minutes down from 60 minutes.
  • Heavy Junkboxes will no longer have deprecated poison materials.
  • Libram of the Sacred Shield: Increases block value.
  • Magic Dust now has a 10-second PvP duration.
  • Old Naxxramas Shoulder Enchants will now soulbind items.
  • Outrider’s Lammellar Legguards and Sentinel’s Mail Leggings have had their costs reduced to the correct value.
  • Pack of Endless Pockets can now be mailed.
  • Paladin Healer PvP Set Bonus: The bonus for Holy Shock healing has been reduced to 10%.
  • Patroller’s Pack now sounds like a bag.
  • PvP Trinkets will now break Shackle Undead.
  • Several beverages missing from the "Beverages Consumed" statistic have been added.
  • Several foods missing from the Food Eaten statistic have been added.
  • Sigil of Awareness: Now provides bonus damage to Death Strike as well.
  • Sigil of the Frozen Conscience: The bonus to Icy Touch from this relic has been reduced to a value appropriate to the item’s level.
  • Sprite Darter Eggs: May now (very rarely) drop from Sprite Darters in Feralas. Note that only Horde characters can attack and kill Sprite Darters.
  • Three new mounts are available from Horde mount vendors, equalizing the number of purchasable normal and epic mounts: the Black Wolf, the White Kodo, and the Black Skeletal Horse (in Orgrimmar, Bloodhoof Village, and Brill respectively).
  • Thunder Capacitor again requires four charges.
  • Tiny Emerald Whelplings: May now (very rarely) drop from Adolescent Whelps in the Swamp of Sorrows.
  • White Tickbird Hatchling is now classified as a Pet.

  • Mac

    • Support for Logitech G-13, G-15 and G-19 keyboards with LCD displays has been added.
    • A number of performance and smoothness enhancements have been implemented.
    • The new high-res player textures are supported on dual processor systems running OS X 10.5.
    • A crashing bug involving chat channel commands has been fixed.
    • A problem involving window focus and foreground/background status has been fixed.
    • Movie recording feature has had some user interface improvements.


    Bug Fixes

    • Leaving a group while in an instance will now port you to the nearest graveyard rather than your Hearthstone location.
    • Yaaarrrr! now has a detailed tooltip.
    • Classes
    • Death Knight
    • Acclimation: This talent will no longer sometimes grant nature resistance while fighting Sapphiron.
    • Anti-magic Zone: This ability will no longer cause strange absorb messages in the combat log and floating combat text.
    • Dancing Rune Weapon: Fixed a bug making it trigger an unusual number of effects from the weapon equipped by the death knight. In addition, it will now only echo death knight spells whose primary purpose is dealing damage. This pet will no longer break stealth on nearby targets and attack them. Also corrected a bug making the effect last 8 seconds longer than intended.
    • Death Coil: This spell will no longer sometimes cause the death knight to animate a swing twice.
    • Death Grip: This spell will no longer automatically cast on the nearest enemy when no valid target is selected.
    • Death Runes: Fixed a bug where it was possible when using two abilities with the same rune cost to not get correctly granted a second Death Rune when appropriate.
    • Ebon Plaguebringer: Multiple death knights can now use this debuff against a target without overwriting each other.
    • Howling Blast: Each rank now properly shares a cooldown with the other ranks.
    • Necrosis: The damage from this ability will no longer benefit multiple times from damage increasing effects.
    • Pestilence: This ability will now spread disease centered on a position between the death knight and its target, rather than the target’s center position (for very large creatures, this used to cause no disease spread at all).
    • Raise Ally: The buff from this ability can no longer be right clicked to cancel. In order to end the effect, the player controlling the Risen Ghoul must right click on the unit portrait and dismiss the pet. In addition, using this ability on a player whose level is too low will now give a “Target is too low level” error message instead of “You have no target.”
    • Raise Dead: This pet now despawns instantly when it dies. In addition, this ability can no longer be used while riding any type of vehicle. The Risen Ghoul is also now properly immune to Charm, Fear, Sleep, and Horror.
    • Rune of Cinderglacier: Charges of this will now only be used if the target actually took damage from the attack.
    • Scent of Blood: This talent can no longer be triggered by environmental damage.
    • Scourge Strike: The tooltip incorrectly stated it did 60% weapon damage increased by 9% from diseases, when it was actually 45% increased 11% from diseases. The tooltip has been corrected, but the damage done is unchanged.
    • Sigil of Awareness: The tooltip on this incorrectly indicated it added much more damage than it actually did. The tooltip has been corrected to show the actual bonus.
    • Summon Gargoyle: The Gargoyle will no longer re-attack rogues after they Vanish, or night elves who use Shadowmeld. Monsters will stop trying to chase a Gargoyle after it flies away. The debuff on the target indicating he or she is being pursued by a Gargoyle will no longer display the duration, and will be removed when the buff is removed from the death knight. Max duration in the tooltip changed to 40 seconds.
  • Druid
    • Bash: This ability will now still interrupt casting even if the victim is immune to the stun due to diminishing returns.
    • Feral Attack Power: Heirloom weapons now correctly grant the amount of attack power in Cat, Bear, and Dire Bear Forms that is stated on the weapon tooltip. In addition, the attack power bonus will now work properly for druids below level 60.
    • Lifebloom: Corrected some bugs with the new blooming functionality and dispels.
    • Predatory Strikes: This talent now properly affects the attack power gained from weapon enchants.
    • Swipe: Now properly affected by area-of-effect damage caps.
    • Thorns: This spell will now properly use the druid’s spell power to determine its scaling instead of the target’s spell power.
    • Wild Growth: Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented Wild Growth ranks from overwriting each other.
  • Hunter
    • Cower: This pet ability will now display its cooldown correctly.
    • Disengage: This ability can no longer be used while riding any type of vehicle.
    • Froststorm Breath: This pet ability will now display its cooldown correctly.
    • Heart of the Phoenix: Can no longer be set to autocast (which did not work).
    • Hunter traps will no longer be able to be set off by totems.
    • Rake: This pet ability will now always refresh when used by the pet.
    • Savage Rend (raptor special ability): Fixed a tooltip error to correctly note this ability boosts damage rather than attack power.
    • Spirit Strike: This pet ability now has its damage increased by Prowl as intended.
    • Spore Cloud: This pet ability will now autocast properly at all ranks.
    • Steady Shot: Now does correct damage with heirloom weapons.
  • Mage
    • Arcane Potency: Fixed a bug where sometimes the benefit was consumed before altering the critical strike chance of the mage. In addition, will no longer benefit the critical strike chance of Molten Armor’s damage.
    • Deep Freeze: Floating combat text will now display when this ability is able to be used.
    • Focus Magic: When spell-stolen, this buff will no longer grant the originally casting mage a buff when critical strikes occur.
    • Frostbite: Fixed a bug preventing this from overwriting the effect from the Frostbite talent.
    • Ignite: The debuff from this talent now benefits properly from Arcane Subtlety. In addition, effects which modify damage done will no longer be applied a second time to the damage from this talent.
    • Master of Elements: Now refunds the correct amount of mana when used with Arcane Missiles.
    • Mirror Image: Mirror Images will now appear with maximum health and mana. In addition, this ability can no longer be used while riding any type of vehicle.
    • Slow Fall: Can no longer be cast on NPCs.
    • Torment the Weak: Now properly increases damage when used against victims of the snare from Hunter Frost Traps.
  • Paladin
    • Beacon of Light: This spell no longer duplicates the heal on yourself if your target is currently immune to being healed due to being on a vehicle. It will simply not duplicate the heal. In addition, Divine Plea will only penalize the original heal instead of applying the penalty a second time on the duplicated heal.
    • Blessing of Sanctuary: This spell can now overwrite a Greater Blessing of Sanctuary that has less than 10 minutes duration remaining.
    • Blessing of Wisdom: It is no longer possible to have the icon for this spell and Greater Blessing of Wisdom active at the same time (which didn’t give any benefit, but was confusing).
    • Combat Expertise: This talent will now properly increase spell critical strike chance.
    • Hammer of Justice: This ability will now still interrupt casting even if the victim is immune to the stun due to diminishing returns.
    • Hammer of the Righteous: Now does correct damage with heirloom weapons.
    • Holy Shield: Damage from this ability now increases properly from attack power.
    • Judgement of Command: Fixed incorrect combat log tooltips.
    • Righteous Vengeance: Effects which modify damage done will no longer be applied a second time to the damage from this talent.
    • Sacred Shield: Now scales properly from spell power granted by Sheath of Light.
    • Seal of Vengeance/Corruption: The bonus damage applied a target which already has the maximum stack of debuffs is now properly affected by Judgements of the Pure. In addition, fixed some missing tooltips in the combat log.
    • Sheath of Light: Critical heals from Lay on Hands will now trigger this talent.
  • Priest
    • Inner Fire: Charges of this buff will now be consumed properly if the priest is attacked while using emotes.
    • Mind Control: This spell can no longer be cast while it is already active.
    • Misery: The tooltip on this talent was badly worded and implied a bonus much larger than it actually gave. The tooltip has been rewritten to be more clear.
    • Prayer of Mending: This spell will no longer fail from “A more powerful spell is already active” errors. It will now always cast, including overwriting a weaker Prayer of Mending. In addition, trinkets which are triggered from casting a healing spell will now be triggered properly by Prayer of Mending.
  • Rogue
    • Master of Subtlety: The amount of time remaining on the damage bonus for this talent is now displayed.
  • Shaman
    • Cleanse Spirit is now properly in the Nature spell school.
    • Tremor Totem: Now correctly pulses every 3 seconds, up from 1 seconds.
  • Warlock
    • Dark Pact: Can no longer be cast when the warlock has an enslaved demon pet that does not have mana.
    • Demonic Circle: Summon: This spell can no longer be cast while on a transport or other moving object.
    • Fel Synergy: This talent will no longer heal vehicles the warlock is riding.
    • Ritual of Summoning: This spell can no longer be cast while on a transport or other moving object.
    • Unstable Affliction: Feedback damage from dispelling this debuff will no longer be modified by effects on the victim which modify the damage the victim does.
  • Warrior
    • Concussion Blow: Now properly triggers a 1.5 second global cooldown.
    • Damage Shield: Fixed a bug which caused this ability to benefit from Recklessness.
    • Enrage: This ability can no longer be triggered by environmental damage.
    • Enraged Regeneration: While this is active, the warrior is blocked from using abilities that trigger being enraged (which would do nothing and waste the cooldowns).
    • Improved Revenge: This talent will now increase the damage done by Revenge by the proper amount.
    • Rend: Now does correct damage with heirloom weapons. In addition, low ranks of this ability will no longer incorrectly gain a damage bonus against targets above 75% health.
    • Slam: Slam will no longer sometimes show 2 miss messages.
  • Items
    • Dartol’s Rod of Transformation has had its tooltip corrected.
    • Glyph of Mocking Blow: Correctly increases damage of the ability by 25%.
    • Glyph of Rejuvenation: Effects which modify healing done will no longer be applied a second time to the healing granted by this glyph.
    • Glyph of Shocking: Tooltip has been corrected.
    • Heirloom Items: The bonus spell power granted by these items has been redesigned to provide substantially more benefit for players lower than level 58.
    • Hook of the Master Angler: Using this item to shape-change into a fish now cancels Shadowform.
    • Justicar (T4) Retribution Set: The bonus to seals now works properly on Seal of Blood and Seal of the Martyr.
    • Mace of Unending Life is correctly a two-handed weapon.
    • Many Northrend maces now make correct noises when sheathed and unsheathed.
    • Many items with 110 attack power now correctly grant 110 ranged attack power.
    • Oracle Talisman of Ablution’s spell data has been clarified.
    • Personal rating requirements for off-hand Deadly Gladiator items should now display correctly.
    • Several Hateful and Deadly plate helms have had their stats correctly reduced.
    • Several Naxxramas items with block values were not providing the correct stat amounts and have been fixed.
    • Sigil of Arthritic Binding: The tooltip was incorrect for this item and overstated the bonus to Scourge Strike. This has been fixed.
    • Thunder Capacitor’s cooldown functions.
    • Wall of Terror, Fleshless Girdle, and Inexorable Sabatons have had their stamina values adjusted to the proper levels.
  • Racials
    • Blood Fury: The tooltip on the attack power version of this ability will now tell how much attack power it grants to the orc.
    • Shadowmeld: Using this ability will no longer cause friendly players to deselect the night elf.

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    Apr 11 2009

    Shin Megami Tensei Imagine: Easter Edition



    Early this morning, Aeria Games sent out a Shin Megami Tensei Imagine (Online) newsletter - easter edition. The focus seems to be drawing in new players, as evidenced by their opening blip:

    Did you know there are some very special mounts in the game?

    Maybe you also did not know about crafting items by using the compounding skill or the bonuses you will get from being in a strong Clan?

    You can even modify existing items and upgrade your weapons to make them stronger!

    Not only can you modify equipment but also your demons. One way to make them better is triangle fusion!

    Be sure to visit our new tutorial to level up faster and find out about cool features! You can find it HERE!

    Even more demons, mounts and special items will be available in the UPCOMING ADDON!

    The addon will also introduce battlegrounds and competitive team battle arenas!

    As an Easter special, a Nimble Fenrir will be given away as a prize to players above level 20.

    To make it fair for everyone we are going to give you some time to level up. So be sure to reach level 20 soon and check back often for the special event!

    Maybe you will be lucky owner of a very special mount soon!

    They also spotlight Suginami Tunnels, one of the first dungeons in the game, as well as the benefits of joining a Clan.

    SMTI also has a special going this weekend:

    Spend 6500 AP, Get Bunny Headband or Decarabia Mask Free!!
    Starts: 04/11/09 @ 9AM PST (4PM GMT)
    Ends: 04/13/09 @ 9PM PST (4AM GMT)
    What:
    For Every 6,500AP spent between the promo time line, you will be able to get a Bunny Headband (F) or a Decarabia Mask (M) FOR FREE!
    So just spend AP either through the In-Game Cash Shop or through the Web Item Mall

    I haven’t actually got around to playing SMT:I yet, but as a fan of the SMT series, I suppose I should soon. Can’t be any worse than any other imports, right?

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    Apr 08 2009

    Dragonica Online: The first THQ*ICE (ad)venture



    Today, IGN brought my attention to an up and coming online MMORPG: Dragonica Online. The first game produced by a joint venture of THQ and ICE, Dragonica Online has just cracked into beta stage, and has launched their website to the public today. If you’re eager to beta test, register now - beta is currently “invite only.”

    According to the official website, Dragonica offers these game features:

    • 3D scrolling movement
    • Fast paced combat with unique class skills, advanced skills, and combo chains
    • Public and private questing areas
    • Free For All, Team-Based, and Objective-based PvP modes
    • Advanced and “hidden” job classes
    • Customizable player housing
    • Updated content and in-game events

    Unfortunately, the story is very cliche fantasy:

    Since the end of the Dragon War, the worlds of Humans and Dragons have been separated for centuries by an uneasy truce. Now a sinister force spreads throughout the land, sowing corruption and chaos. Only the combined power of the two races can stop the evil from destroying both worlds.

    Although I definitely like the art style (soft, cartoonish, semi-anime), the fact remains it’s yet another Asian free-to-play MMO import, and is thus likely to fade into obscurity like so many other import MMOs of its kind. The fault of these games is often a combination of overpopulation, underdevelopment, and the infamous “cloning” that makes most games seem like they came out of the same developer’s basement.

    Although I’ll give it a try - like I always do for these free MMOs - I don’t have many hopes for this “unique” joint-venture program. And yet, oddly enough, IGN sings its praises - but then again, this is IGN we’re talking about. I will provide updates as possible.

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    Apr 07 2009

    Ulduar: Another week without 3.1

    Ulduar
    image via worldofwarcraft.com

    Yes, WoW fans, another week has passed by without patch 3.1. This patch has been highly anticipated since its baby days, and we’re all peeking in every day to see when it might come about. Looks like we’ll have to wait at least one more week before we see Ulduar, the Argent Tournament, dual specs, and even Noblegarden (which was moved to April 26th.)

    In another twist of thoughts, GhostCrawler brings up an interesting point in this thread about the game becoming “easier”:

    While we obviously disagree on WoW being dead, you make one point I wanted to echo which is that the average raider (or at least players interested in end-game content) are more sophisticated now. The game’s community has matured as the game has matured. There are so many information sites out there with a great deal of depth. In the MC days, nobody had Deadly Boss Mobs or Omen (though we did have Decursive). You didn’t link videos before your boss attempt. Half your group probably didn’t know about the EJ website and there was no AJ. Players figured out what worked for them and focused less on optimization because there was no gigantic community out there advising them on how to optimize. I’m not saying that kind of community progression was a bad thing at all. But it definitely changes the experience.

    So then, GC is suggesting that the game hasn’t gotten easier - the players have gotten smarter. (Yes yes, insert a guffaw here.) But I think GhostCrawler does have a point; over the years, fan sites have grown and evolved to cater to make the average player aware of all the tricks of the trade, and so not only do more players know how to min/max their class, they also expect the same out of other players. I think many also forget that Naxxramas is only an entry level raid instance, and the grand scheme of Blizzard is far greater in this expansion than what we were first given.

    Side-note: VenusG apologizes for the long hiatus, as personal situations have interfered with having a regular ability to post. I should be back on a fairly regular schedule now.

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    Jan 30 2009

    WoW: 29 Hero Class Ideas? Why not 42?

     

    In BlizzCast Episode 7: The Lich King Frontier (transcript here), Jeffrey Kaplan and J. Allen Brack revealed that they narrowed down their hero class list from a massive 29 ideas, down to three (Necromancer, Death Knight, and Rune master), before settling on Death Knight for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. 29? Now, I’ve been in a lot of discussions of hero class speculation, and I don’t think 29 is anywhere near what I’ve heard come up with. So let’s take a look (with the first three gimmes from Blizzard):

    1.  Death Knight
    2. Rune Master
    3. Necromancer
    4. Arch-Druid
    5. Spirit Walker
    6. Blade Master
    7. Bombardier
    8. Brewmaster
    9. Demon Hunter
    10. Steam Warrior
    11. Techno Mage
    12. Far Seer
    13. Spirit Champion
    14. . . . 

    Yeah, I can’t get halfway through that list - not unless I pull every class Blizzard has invented for Warcraft in its many forms. That, of course, would create a huge list of overlaps and racial conflicts (as many classes are very race specific.) And, naturally, Blizzard won’t reveal that list to us - else our further expansions be spoiled by a lack of surprise. 

    Speaking of surprises, I’m sure I’m not the only one surprised that we weren’t given Runemasters for Wrath of the Lich King. I can, of course, certainly see where Death Knights fit best into the lore of WOTLK and Northrend. But there’s also a great case for Runemasters in Northrend: look at the heavy lore involving the ley lines in Borean Tundra, Coldarra, and Dragonblight. Besides, many of us have been dying for a “monk type” class, and we knew Runemaster was waiting for us. We can only hope Blizzard delivers on that hope sooner, rather than later.  

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    Jan 27 2009

    WoW: 3.0.8a goes Live, and more

    Photobucket

    The maintenance period for World of Warcraft today brought a small patch in the form of 3.0.8a. The updates include only a few bug fixes:

    General
    Human females Helms will no longer lift off the character’s head during a Special2H animation or during a HoldRifle animation.

    Death Knights
    Howling Blast : The 5 second cooldown will now display correctly.

    Hunters
    All Hunter aspects are no longer on the global cooldown that is shared with other Hunter abilities. All hunter aspects are now on a separate 1 second cooldown.

    Warlocks
    Ritual of Summoning will now function as intended.via Nethaera

    Terribly unexciting, I know. A few blue posts to make note of though.

    Ghostcrawler has made a comment about the Howling Blast cooldown/nerf:

    I believe the cooldown is 5 seconds now, so at least it should mesh a little better with 10 second rune cooldown.

    We knew there was a risk in taking the Howling Blast cooldown off. Unfortunately, we saw dual-wield DK numbers as high as ever even with the Killing Machine and Gargoyle nerfs. It typically only happened when the DK was fighting multiple targets, which suggests Howling Blast is the right thing to change.

    We still agree that a cooldown makes rotations more awkward, and we will continue to look for an implementation that lets Howling Blast be off a cooldown without all death knights feel like they need to DW Frost or go home.

    (And no, we can’t buff other DK specs and other classes to 7000 dps or whatever to compensate.)

    On Shadow of Death and Arenas:

    Q u o t e:
    Why wasn’t this removed from arena? It’s still broken as hell, gg killing 2 dk’s after my healer dies but still having to somehow live through the 2 reze’d dk’s, both their pets, and a garg or 2.

    We will be applying a hotfix that will make it so that it will no longer be possible to use this while in Arenas.

    And some Arcane changes:

    Q u o t e:
    1. Arcane Barrage can no longer clip arcane missles for the arcane blast buff (figured this would be fixed soon).
    2. Arcane Blast Glyph is apparently only 3% per stack instead of 5%.
    3. Arcane Blast Glyph bonus damage is no longer applied to arcane missiles.

    1. This change was by design. While it might have been a fun test of skill, the fact is that Arcane is probably too powerful in PvE and PvP and we didn’t want to make matters worse with this little trick.
    2. This change was also by design. As many players have pointed out, it was just too good.
    3. This is a bug likely caused by the previous two changes. Such is the risk of making changes quickly. We can hotfix this bug out though.

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    Jan 24 2009

    WoW: Lunar Festival is Here

    That’s right - the World of Warcraft Lunar Festival has begun today. This is by far my favorite festival, probably because of its real life correlation, the Lunar New Year.

    Thanks to the new achievement system, there’s a lot more reason to go through the festival this year, most prized being the coveted title of Elder! Also, every elder you visit gives you 75 reputation with the Alliance/Horde. That’s a total of about 5600 reputation across all city factions, if you’re not exalted yet.

    Clothing

    There are six clothing pieces that are purchasable with 5 Coins of Ancestry each (gotten by visiting the elders.) For the feminine look, there are green, pink, and purple dresses; there are also blue, black, and teal pant suits. Tailors can also pick up a suit and dress pattern: both are red in color when made. The patterns also cost 5 coins each.

    Fireworks

    There are tons of fireworks to be had. Engineers will want to spend their Coins of Ancestry on the Schematics for a Firework Launcher and a Cluster Launcher, as well as the firework recipe collections Small Rocket Recipes, Large Rocket Recipes, Cluster Rocket Recipes, and Large Cluster Rocket Recipes. Each costs 5 Coins of Ancestry, and the collections have multiple schematics in them. You can also purchase Elune’s Candle for 10 silver, which shoots fireworks directly at a target. Any Lunar Festival Vendor will also have directly for sale Small Blue, Red, and Green Rockets; Blue, Red, and Green Rocket Clusters; and Festival Firecrackers.

    Achievements

    In order to get the Elder Title, you will need to complete all the Lunar Festival Achievements. This means you will need to visit all the elders in Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, the major Horde and Alliance cities, Northrend, and several dungeons (most of which are also in Northrend.) You will also need to get Elune’s Blessing, which is achieved in Moonglade by taking the quest, standing in the moonlight glow of Omen’s Corpse, and then turning it in. You will also need to purchase one dress or pant suit, and fire off 10 Red Rocket Clusters and 10 Festival Firecrackers, all in 30 seconds each.

    I highly recommend reviewing Wowhead’s guide if you need help finding locations, etc.

    Good luck, and blessed Lunar Festival to you all!

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    Jan 22 2009

    WoW: Resto Shaman Pre-Heroic Gear Guide

    For those of you resto shaman out there who have been dropping by, and for those new, I’ve completed a pre-heroic (level 80) gear guide.

    You can read it here (on eHow.)

    Some pointers for you with gear:

    Your top five priorities should be spell power, intellect, mana regen, crit, and haste, in that order. No, you don’t need to focus on mail armor, but there’s damned good mail armor out there, since Blizzard has finally figured out gearing for most classes. Spirit is not terribly useful, since our mana regen and healing comes from intellect, and mp/5 is a far superior stat to straight spirit.

    Save a little hit. Even if it’s not part of your main equipment, get a little hit gear and put it in your bag. Blizzard’s cleanse mechanic is still based on hit, so in a cleanse heavy fight, it might be of use.

    Prepare to prioritize Emblem purchases. As you begin running heroics and start collecting emblems, have a spending plan. My recommendation? Start with Protective Barricade of the Light, and then get The Egg of Mortal Essence. The rest can be bought at your choice.

    Run instances you don’t need. It may seem counterintuitive for getting gear, but it builds your reputation as a healer, and that will be priceless for heroics and raids.

    Also, if you’re planning on being a top end-game healer, start preparing for what you need in terms of consumables. Buy or have made potions (Flask of Frost Wyrm, Spellpower Elixir, Runic Mana Potions). Find a local cook and farm for them, or better yet, build up your own cooking skill and make your own buff food. And farm money, even if it’s just a few dailies a day. Repairs, consumables, enchants, enhancements all add up quickly.

    Good luck, and good healing.

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