Hotfixes Patch 4.0.6 February 14

February 14

General

Players who are exalted with 40 factions are again awarded The Exalted title. Note that the associated achievement does not state that this title will be awarded when it’s earned. This will be corrected in a future patch. More information can be found here.

Druid

Starfall will now hit any target in range which is in combat or not at full health (including the Exposed Head of Magmaw, which was causing issues with Starfall).

Paladin

The hotfix to Beacon of Light and Light of Dawn on February 11 did not produce the intended results and has been reverted. Light of Dawn should still trigger Beacon of Light.

Raids & Dungeons

Blackwing Descent

The Atramedes achievement Silence is Golden was incorrectly failing when any raid member’s sound bar went over 30%. The achievement now requires no one’s sound bar to go over 50% as advertised.

Professions

Alchemy

The Mysterious Potion was restoring the wrong amount of mana. It now restores 1 to 15,000 mana, instead of 1 to 30,000.

Fishing

The Bone and Jeweled Fishing Pole quest rewards are now item level 15, down from 200.

Herbalism

Whiptail was spawning too quickly in Uldum after patch 4.0.6. The spawn time has been reduced.

Player vs. Player changes and bug fixes patch 4.0.6

Player vs. Player

Arenas

Bloodlust, Heroism, Time Warp and Ancient Hysteria can no longer be cast while in Arenas.

Battlegrounds

The Battle for Gilneas

The time it takes to capture a flag has been reduced to 5 seconds, down from 8.

Strand of the Ancients

The damage done by Antipersonnel Cannons has been doubled.
The missile speed of Rocket Blast (Antipersonnel Cannons) has been increased by roughly 50%.
Some Antipersonnel Cannons could shoot the platform they were spawned on. These spawn locations have been fixed.
The Battleground Demolisher no longer has two additional seats and now only has room for the driver.
A PvP duration flag has been added to Battleground Demolishers. This should make it so crowd control effects cast on unmanned demolishers does not last an extended amount of time.
There should no longer be a discrepancy in time when the Battleground Demolishers spawn at the start of each round.
The Battleground Demolishers spawned on the docks no longer despawn when the north graveyard is taken by the offense.
Massive Seaforium Charges should now be useable in rated Battleground matches.
The duration of the Teleport debuff has been lowered to 10 seconds, down from 20.
The radius of the Seaforium Blast has been lowered to 10 yards, down from 20.
The Teleporters on defense will now teleport players based on which line of gates have been destroyed, rather than directly behind that gate. For example, if a player clicks the Teleporter at the Blue gate when one of the beach gates has been destroyed, it will put the player behind the Red gate.

Tol Barad

Attacking forces will receive a 200% capture speed bonus when they control 2 keeps.
Defending forces will receive a 200% capture speed bonus when they control all 3 keeps.
Daily quest creatures, herbs, minerals, etc. will only spawn when Tol Barad is in the quest phase between battles. There will be 5-minute and 1-minute warnings before the quest phase ends. The quest phase ends 15 minutes before the battle for Tol Barad begins and queuing is made available. At that time any players in the daily micro dungeons will be ported just outside. This does not apply to Tol Barad Peninsula or the daily quests there.
The weekly PvP quest “Victory in Tol Barad” now awards 200 Honor Points and 3 Tol Barad Commendations.
Players can now see the status of Tol Barad on the World Map no matter where they are. The time to the next battle is displayed by zooming into the Tol Barad section of the map. The current controlling faction can be seen on the Eastern Kingdoms map.

PvP Bug Fixes

Players are again able to report other players as AFK from the maps and chat interfaces in Tol Barad and Wintergrasp.

Arena Fixes

Entering an Arena should no longer sometimes cause a client crash.
It is now possible to disband an Arena team from the Arena Team management page of the PvP tab.
The Join Battle button on the PvP pane should now function when a team captain attempts to queue.
It should no longer be possible for players to get their pets stuck on the large pillars in the Orgrimmar Arena.
Players joining late to an Arena match will now count for the win condition and will have enemy unit frames.

Battleground Fixes

Players should no longer receive a client crash by going AFK in a Battleground.
There should no longer be a slight delay when returning a flag in Battlegrounds.
The Battleground Rating and Rating Change categories on the Score Screen are now sorting properly.

Arathi Basin

The buff located at the Blacksmith should now always apply when players run through it.
The Goldmine flag no longer counts as two base assaults when captured by the Horde.

Eye of the Storm

Players with only the classic World of Warcraft license attached to their accounts should now be able to access this Battleground.

Isle of Conquest

The Horde gates no longer become large pink cubes when they are destroyed.
The Alliance Keep entrance should not start open at the beginning of the battle.
Vehicle damage now better matches the tooltip.
Using a catapult’s Launch should no longer cause players to sometimes get stuck inside the geometry of the Horde Keep.

Strand of the Ancients

It should no longer be possible for the Alliance boats to not phase out upon the start of round 2.
Move enforcement failures shouldn’t occur while on the ships for either faction.

Twin Peaks

Boots of Speed power-ups were unevenly placed relative to the flags in each base and have been adjusted.
The interface should now properly track the final flag capture for the Horde.

Tol Barad Fixes

The status and timer on the map should now be working correctly.
The Abandoned Siege Engines now make sounds when moving.

Quests & Creatures

Many rare creatures that went into hiding upon Deathwing’s emergence into Azeroth have made a return! In addition to finding new homes in a post-Cataclysm world, they drop new, improved loot, provide a healthy experience bonus, and respawn much more quickly when killed. Happy hunting!

Stranglethorn Vale

Chief Engineer Scooty, formally of Booty Bay, has packed up his Gnomeregan teleporter and lugged it up to Grom’gol in Northern Stranglethorn to better accommodate his Horde customers.

Tol Barad Peninsula

A new achievement, Just Another Day in Tol Barad, has been added for completing all of the Tol Barad daily quests.
Crazed Guards now drop Rusty Rifles.
The spawn rate of Alliance and Horde Infantry for the quest “The Leftovers” has been increased.
The Magnetized Scrap Collector for the quest “Magnets, How Do They Work?” will now be correctly removed from players’ bags upon completing the quest.
Both the Baradin’s Wardens and Hellscream’s Reach Commendations are now Bound to Account items.
Quest turn-in NPCs have been added to Baradin Base Camp and Hellscream’s Reach in Tol Barad Peninsula for the Tol Barad bonus quests. This will allow players to turn in these quests if the original quest givers in Tol Barad are not available.
Kill credit for the Tol Barad bonus quest bosses will now be granted to players who have helped attack them, even if they are not in the same group. These bosses include Problim, Archmage Galus, Warden Silva, and Svarnos.
The Farson Keep Prisoner summoned for the quest “Walk A Mile In Their Shoes” will now only be visible to the player who summoned him.
Spawn rates at Rustberg Village have been increased.
Rusty Rifles will now spawn more frequently at Farson Keep.

Quest & Creature Bug Fixes

Goblin Zeppelin Masters who are marked as Horde faction will no longer cause Alliance players to lose neutral goblin reputation if killed.
Corehounds in Mount Hyjal cannot be tamed by hunters without the required Beast Mastery talent.
Darkwood Lurkers and Broodmothers in Tol Barad Peninsula can now be skinned.
Players should now always receive 6 daily quests in Tol Barad Peninsula as intended, rather than sometimes only getting 5.

Dungeon & Raid Bug Fixes

Dungeon & Raid Bug Fixes

Many dungeon maps with display issues or missing sections have been updated.
Several bosses and creatures were awarding no, or too little, reputation when killed. Conversely, some creatures were awarding too much reputation, or should not have been awarding reputation at all. These inconsistencies have been corrected.
Error messages for characters unable to enter a Heroic raid dungeon should be more clear.
Players level 83 and higher should be able to correctly queue for holiday dungeon bosses.
Players above level 80 can no longer queue for Wrath of the Lich King Heroic dungeons.
Level 68-79 Wrath of the Lich King dungeons again award reputation.
If a spell is cast which provides items for players (i.e. Soulwell), members of the party or raid should still be able to access the items after the caster leaves the dungeon.
The minimum level requirements for many level 1-60 dungeons were too high and have been appropriately adjusted.

Ahn’Qiraj

If one of the bug trio bosses is tamed, the encounter can again be completed normally.

Baradin Hold

Players in the raid dungeon will correctly be given a 15-minute warning before Tol Barad will be in contention again.

The Bastion of Twilight

There should no longer be a significant performance drop when entering the Bastion Antechamber.
Several items dropping in the Heroic version of Bastion of Twilight which did not have the Heroic tag in their tooltip have been updated.
Cho’gall should no longer look awkward when he is Distracted while sitting on the Throne of the Apocalypse.
The voice-over text now matches the voice-over for Cho’Gall’s speeches.
Cho’gall shouldn’t Evade and despawn if pulled too close to the door at the entrance to the Throne of the Apocalypse.
Cho’gall shouldn’t despawn if tanked close to his door when he gains Twisted Devotion.
If a Fire Elemental is spawned while Cho’gall is standing on the hidden elevator, they will no longer spawn in the wrong location for the remainder of the encounter.
The overhead arrow spell animation caused by Valiona’s Twilight Meteorite ability shouldn’t clip into the affected character while animating.
The corpses of Valiona and Theralion will adhere to the laws of gravity and fall to the ground if killed during phase transitions.
The Cache of the Broodmother (from Sinestra) will no longer despawn if dungeon difficulty is changed in the interface.
Static Overload used in the Twilight Ascendant Council encounter no longer deals full damage to pets.

Black Morass

Sa’at again has a dialog option for players to obtain a Chrono-Beacon, even if they have not completed the quest chain that begins with the quest “The Caverns of Time.”

Blackrock Caverns

Karsh Steelbender’s targeting reticule no longer changes size when he catches fire.
Raz the Crazed no longer returns to his Shadow Prison if Blackrock Caverns is reset, which was preventing players from finishing the dungeon.
Players shouldn’t experience a move enforcement error or be pushed under the world if they are standing near lava when affected by Chains of Woe during the Rom’ogg Bonecrusher encounter.
Twilight Obsidian Borers in Blackrock Caverns resume channeling of Bore after being under the effects of a rogue’s Sap.

Blackwing Descent

Ancient Dwarven Shields used while Atramedes is entering or exiting his air phase should correctly be destroyed.
There is no longer a dead zone void of Sonic Pulses on the Heroic version of the Atramedes encounter.
Arcanotron can no longer be pulled further than intended via a death knight’s Death Grip.
Lightning Shield shouldn’t trigger the shields of all Omnotron Council bosses.
Clicking the character name displayed in the raid warning for Lightning Conductor during the Omnotron Defense System encounter no longer brings up the tooltip for the spell Lightning Conductor.
Maloriak’s Magma Jets correctly have a cast time.
The effect of Maloriak’s spell Consuming Flames should no longer be inconsistent with its combat log tooltip.
Maloriak will no longer interrupt himself when speaking during transition phases.
The voice-over text now matches the voice-over for Lord Victor Nefarius’ post-Maloriak kill speech.
Corpses of Animated Bone Warriors no longer float above the lava during phase 2 of the Nefarian’s End encounter.
Nefarions voice-overs should always be audible when standing in the Vault of the Shadowflame.
Chimaeron shouldn’t enter phase 2 prematurely.
Chimaeron thought he had 3 heads, resulting in 3 separate sleeping animations. He now knows he only has 2 heads.

Blackwing Lair

The gate at the entrance of Blackwing Lair correctly opens after Chromaggus is tamed as a pet.

Caverns of Time

Human Illusion: This effect is no longer applied to worgen.

The Deadmines

Admiral Ripsnarl can no longer be pulled off the top of his ship without resetting the encounter on Heroic difficulty.
Defeating Captain Cookie should no longer despawn his cooking pot or leave his corpse floating in mid-air.
Foe Reaper 5000 should no longer arbitrarily reset the encounter.
The achievement criteria for Prototype Prodigy correctly resets after a wipe.
It is no longer possible to avoid detonated charges without leaving the boat during the Vanessa VanCleef encounter.
The buff aura applied with random internal information in the tooltip when players access the ropes during the Vanessa VanCleef encounter has been amended.

Grim Batol

The Twilight Beguiler’s ability Deceitful Blast no longer ignores line of sight.
It is no longer possible for Forgemaster Throngus to not choose a static direction to channel Flaming Shield.

Halls of Origination

Spatial Anomaly now drops loot.
Multiple Heroic items dropping in the Halls of Origination had level requirements that were too low and have been updated.
Players should correctly receive the achievement Faster Than the Speed of Light if they die prior to the party meeting the criteria.
Setesh’s Chaos Burn void zones should now be viewable by players with projected textures disabled.
The Setesh encounter will now fully reset properly, even if his minions are more than 300 yards from him when he resets.
Curse of the Runecaster debuff now deals damage as its tooltip states it will.
The Sun-Touched Spritelings and Sprites will no longer retain the Pyrogenics buffs after death.
Sun-Touched Servants and Sprites will no longer die without spawning creatures if they are stunned right after they cast Disperse.
The Celestial Familiars summoned during the Isiset encounter are no longer classified as humanoids.

Icecrown Citadel

Kinetic Bombs used during the Blood Prince Council fight will no longer behave oddly if they spawn near the door at the entrance to the room.

Lost City of the Tol’vir

Characters hit with General Husam’s Hard Impact ability should now always slide down the pillar they are flung into.
Lockmaw shouldn’t Evade and despawn if pulled onto the steps directly behind his starting location.
Several line-of-sight issues have been corrected around the Sanctum of the South Wind.

Scarlet Monastery

The courtyards in the Library, Armory and Cathedral wings should no longer have portal errors.

Sethekk Halls

The door leading out of Talon King Ikiss’s room should always properly open.

The Stonecore

Fixed a bug that made Ozruk’s Shatter knockback component 10-yard range while the damage had a 15-yard range. Both are 15 yards now.
Earthwarden Yrsa has been reminded she’s a dwarf and now speaks like one (instead of using a draenei voice).
Crystal Shards spawned by the Crystalspawn Giant should now immediately despawn after a wipe.
The particle effects used when Corborus submerges below the ground should no longer cause performance issues.
Players shouldn’t receive a random error during the High Priestess Azil encounter.
High Priestess Azil shouldn’t be able to Force Grip players through the altar.
Killing a Stonecore Earthshaper that transforms into a Force of Earth now correctly awards loot.

Stratholme

Archmage Angela Dosantos’s portal at the end of the dungeon should no longer suffer from functionality issues.
Willey Hopebreaker no longer plays extraneous “I’m dying” sound variations simultaneously when a Scarlet Cannon is fired.

Throne of the Four Winds

A client assertion issue which could occur during the Al’Akir encounter has been corrected.
Ravenous Creepers should now all despawn if the raid wipes while they’re spawning.

Throne of the Tides

Players can no longer bypass the tentacle knockback area by being super sneaky with their abilities.
Ozumat’s Blight of Ozumat can be partially resisted, but can no longer miss players.
Al’Akir’s Electrocute can no longer be interrupted by Spell Reflection.
Lady Naz’jar’s Geyser should no longer potentially knock players outside the boss room above the geometry of the dungeon.
Commander Ulthok’s Dark Fissure effect should now display correctly when projected textures are disabled.

The Vortex Pinnacle

Players who enter the dungeon through the instance portal are now given a means to exit after defeating Asaad.
Cyclone used by Wild Vortex should no longer be removing some aura abilities.
Minister of Air’s Lightning Lash is now properly cast even if a player is not in line of sight.
Skyfall Star now leashes and no longer keep players in combat throughout the dungeon if engaged and not killed.

Dungeons and Raids changes patch 4.0.6

Dungeons & Raids

Level-85 players can now choose any normal dungeon via the Dungeon Finder. Choosing Random Dungeon will still not add Blackrock Caverns or Throne of the Tides into the rotation.
Level-85 dungeon bosses in Lost City of the Tol’vir, Grim Batol, and Halls of Origination now drop 30 Justice Points each when killed.
The daily Random Dungeon reward on normal difficulty has been increased to 140 Justice Points, up from 70.
Players no longer need to discover Cataclysm dungeon entrances in order to access them via the Dungeon Finder.

Blackrock Caverns

Beauty now spawns with only two pups in Heroic difficulty. Not to worry though, the missing pup has been adopted by a wonderful, if not insane family.

Blackwing Descent

The Dwarven Golem Council will now go berserk after 10 minutes in Heroic difficulty.
Atramedes will now go berserk after 10 minutes in Heroic difficulty.

Deadmines

Foe Reaper 5000
Foe Reaper 5000’s health has been reduced slightly. In addition, he now enrages at 40%, up from 30%.
When enraged, Molten Slag spawn 33% faster.
Ripsnarl
The ship teleporter now activates when Ripsnarl is first engaged, rather than when he is defeated.
Vanessa VanCleef
While in Helix’s Nightmare during the Vanessa VanCleef encounter, Helix is now larger and a little easier to see.
The final rope swing while fighting Vanessa VanCleef has been removed. Players no longer need to swing off of the boat at the end of phase 3.
Some boat fires will now go out when Vanessa VanCleef is defeated, making it easier to get back onto the ship from the cavern entrance.
Vengeance of VanCleef has been redesigned. It is now a stacking buff that increases damage dealt, size, and attack speed, and stacks up to 40 times. Vanessa will begin casting this as soon as she jumps back onto the boat after detonating charges.

Grim Batol

Faceless Corruptors now move 10% more slowly.
Players may still use spell and abilities while afflicted by Forgemaster Throngus’s Impaling Slam.
Valiona’s Devouring Flame damage has been reduced by 20%.

Halls of Origination

The duration of the Flame Wardens’ Raging Inferno has been reduced by 80%.
Anraphet’s Nemesis Strike now does 75% of weapon damage, up from 50%. In addition, the damage-over-time effect applied by this ability does 15,000 damage every 2 seconds, up from 9,000.
Earthrager Ptah’s Flame Bolt now deals more damage per second on Heroic difficulty.
Setesh seeks a portal every 25 seconds, up from 20.

Lost City of the Tol’vir

Lockmaw no longer tolerates fighting in his treasure room.

Shadowfang Keep

Baron Ashbury
Sadly, in his hubris he has forgotten how to Mend Rotten Flesh.
Lord Godfrey
He should now face a random target when casting Pistol Barrage.
Lord Walden
Conjure Poisonous Mixture now deals more initial damage.
Frost Mixture is now area-of-effect damage.
Toxic Catalyst now deals less damage over time.

The Stonecore

Stonecore Earthshapers’ Dust Storm does slightly less damage.
Corborus
The warning time for Thrashing Charge has been increased by 1 second. In addition, Thrashing Charge now happens 4 times, down from 5.
The visual for Rock Borers spawning during the submersion phase is now different from the Thrashing Charge visual.
High Priestess Azil
She grew! She’s now 175% the size of a human, up from 125%.
Gravity Wells should kill Devout Followers more quickly.
The cast time of Force Grip is now 1.5 seconds, up from 1.
The size of the warning visual for Seismic Shard has been increased to more accurately reflect the area it affects.
Slabhide
The ground phase lasts longer and has fewer stalactites.
Ozruk
He now does more melee damage.
There is now a precast visual on the ground to make it clear how far away a player must get to be clear of Shatter.
The cast time of Shatter has been increased to 3 seconds, up from 2.5.
Shatter damage is now reduced by armor, but has been increased by 33.3% (repeating, of course) as a result.
Throne of the Tides

Commander Ulthok now does more melee damage.
The damage done by Lady Naz’jatar’s Shock Blast and Naz’jar Tempest Witch Chain Lightning has been reduced.
Gilgoblin Poisoned Spear impact damage has been reduced slightly.
Tainted Sentries Swell damage has been reduced.
The damage of Blight of Ozumat has been reduced by 25% per stack.

The Vortex Pinnacle

Creatures
Desperate Speed cast by Temple Adepts has had its duration reduced significantly.
Altairus
The visual effects in this encounter have been adjusted to make the wind direction easier to read.
Cyclones now knock players straight up, and players hit by a cyclone cannot be hit again for a few seconds.
Asaad
Skyfall Stars are now summoned to help him defeat players.
Static Cling has had its cast time increased to 1.25 seconds, up from 1.
Grand Vizier Ertan
His health has been reduced slightly.
He now knocks away players standing too close to him when he retracts his Cyclone Shield, which now inflicts Nature damage if it touches players.

New Battleground Brackets

The uneasy armistice between the Horde and Alliance is steadily cracking beneath the strain of Deathwing’s devastating return and the Shattering of Azeroth, heralding a new era of bloody conflict.

The clash between the factions has also never been so hotly contested: Battleground brackets now match up teams more evenly. The new brackets span five levels each, except the final bracket composed of level 85 players:

10-14 30-34 50-54 70-74
15-19 35-39 55-59 75-79
20-24 40-44 60-64 80-84
25-29 45-49 65-69 85

Fighters can also join the battle in Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, and Alterac Valley at an earlier level than ever before:

Level 10 – Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch

Level 35 – Eye of the Storm

Level 45 – Alterac Valley

Level 65 – Strand of the Ancients

Level 75 – Isle of Conquest

Level 85 – Battle for Gilneas and Twin Peaks

These changes should offer players a more consistently competitive experience in the Battlegrounds as their characters level, as well as provide for more exciting PvP conflict than ever before. Are you eager to try 35-39 Eye of the Storm? How about 45-49 Alterac Valley? Perhaps you’d like to cut your teeth on a 10-14 Arathi Basin.

Cataclysm Class Preview: Mage

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we’ll be making lots of changes and additions to class talents and abilities across the board. In this preview, you’ll get an early look at what’s in store for the mage class, including a rundown of some of the new spells, abilities, and talents, and an overview of how the new Mastery system will work with the different talent specs.

New Mage Spells

Flame Orb (available at level 81): Inspired by Prince Taldaram’s abilities in Ahn’kahet and Icecrown Citadel, this spell allows the mage to cast a flaming orb that travels in front in a straight line, sending beams that cause fire damage to passing targets. Once it’s cast, the mage is free to begin casting other spells as the Flame Orb travels. While the spell will be useful to any spec, Fire mages will have talents that improve it, possibly causing the Flame Orb to explode when it reaches its destination.

Time Warp (level 83): Grants a passive Haste effect much like Bloodlust or Heroism to party or raid members. It also temporarily increases the mage’s own movement speed. Time Warp will be exclusive with Bloodlust and Heroism, meaning you can’t benefit from both if you’ve got the Exhaustion debuff, though the movement-speed increase will still work even when under the effects of Exhaustion.

Wall of Fog (level 85): Creates a line of frost in front of the mage, 30 yards from end to end. Enemies who cross the line are snared and take damage. The mana cost will be designed to make Wall of Fog efficient against groups, not individuals. This spell is intended to give mages a way to help control the battlefield, whether the mage is damaging incoming enemies (Blizzard can be channeled on top of Wall of Fog) or protecting a flag in a Battleground. 10-second duration. 30-second cooldown.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

In addition to introducing new spells, we’re planning to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics you’re familiar with. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.
Arcane Missiles is being redesigned to become a proc-based spell. Whenever the mage does damage with any spell, there is a chance for Arcane Missiles to become available, similar to how the warrior’s Overpower works. The damage and mana cost of this spell will be reworked to make it very desirable to use when available. This change should make gameplay more dynamic for the mage, particularly at low levels.
We are planning to remove spells that don’t have a clear purpose. Amplify Magic, Dampen Magic, Fire Ward, and Frost Ward are being removed from the game, and we may remove more.
The ability to conjure food and water will not become available until higher levels (likely around level 40), as we’re making changes to ensure mages generally won’t run out of mana at lower levels. Once mages learn how to conjure food and water, the conjured item will restore both health and mana.
Scorch will provide a damage bonus to the mage’s fire spells. Our goal is for Scorch to be part of the mage’s rotation and a useful damage-dealing ability, even if someone else is supplying the group with the spell Critical Strike debuff. Scorch will provide the mage with more specific benefits, which can also be improved through talents.

New Talents and Talent Changes
Arcane Focus will now return mana for each spell that fails to hit your target, including Arcane Missiles that fail to launch. We want Arcane mages to have several talents that play off of how much mana the character has and give the player enough tools to manage mana.
The talent Playing with Fire will reduce the cooldown of Blast Wave when hit by a melee attack, instead of its current effect.
Pyromaniac will grant Haste when three or more targets are getting damaged by the effects of your damage-over-time (DoT) fire spells.
The Burnout talent will allow mages to cast spells using health when they run out of mana.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Arcane
Spell damage
Spell Haste
Mana Adept

Fire
Spell damage
Spell Crit
Ignite

Frost
Spell damage
Spell Crit damage
Deathfrost

Mana Adept: Arcane will deal damage based how much mana the mage has. For example, Arcane mages will do much more damage at 100% mana than at 50% mana. If they begin to get low on mana, they will likely want to use an ability or mechanic to bring their mana up to increase their damage.

Ignite: All direct-damage fire spells will add a damage-over-time (DoT) component when cast. The flavor will be similar to how Fireball works; however, the DoT component will be much stronger.

Deathfrost: Casting Frostbolt places a buff on the mage that increases the damage for all frost, fire, and arcane spells. The only damage spell that won’t be affected by this buff is Frostbolt.

New Mounts and Non Combat Pets (Patch 3.2)

Blue Posts:

Mounts

•All ground mounts had their cast time changed from 3 sec to 1.5 sec.
•Argent Charger has been added to the game.
•Argent Warhorse has been added to the game.
•Silver Convenant Hippogryph has been added to the game.
•Sunreaver Dragonhawk has been added to the game.
•Sunreaver Hawkstrider has been added to the game.
•Quel’dorei Steed has been added to the game.
•Ochre Skeletal Warhorse has been added to the game.
•Striped Danwsaber has been added to the game.
•Argent Warhorse has been added to the game.

Non-Combat Pets

•Summon Baby Pink Elekk has been renamed to Pint-Sized Pink Elekk
•Jade Panda Cub has been renamed to Jade Tiger.
•Calico Cat has been added to the game.
•Curious Oracle Hatchling has been added to the game.
•Curious Wolvar Pup has been added to the game.
•Shimmering Wyrmling has been added to the game.
•Macabre Marionette has been added to the game.
•Gundrak Hatchling has been added to the game.
•Ravasaur Hatchling has been added to the game.
•Leaping Hatchling has been added to the game.
•Obsidian Hatchling has been added to the game.
•Darting Hatchling has been added to the game.
•Razzashi Hatchling has been added to the game.
•Deviate Hatchling has been added to the game.
•Razormaw Hatchling has been added to the game.
•Onyx Panther has been added to the game.

Upcoming Paladin changes

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.2.0

We have several big changes coming up for the paladin class in patch 3.2. The paladin class Q&A is still in progress, so rather than making you wait, we wanted to give you a preview of what we’re trying to do with all three paladin talent trees. We thought some of the patch notes might not make sense until you understand the design goals.

Caveats: Some of these changes are still in progress and may ultimately end up in a different form or with different numbers. We definitely want to see these changes in action on the PTR and we will iterate on them accordingly based on player testing and feedback. None of this is set in stone. Furthermore, assume that talents, glyphs or set bonuses that affect any impacted abilities will also be changed accordingly. Finally, don’t expect that every class will see this many changes. We are making far fewer changes to class mechanics overall in 3.2, but paladins in particular have some issues we feel are in need of being addressed.

Protection
Currently, we think paladin tanks are almost there and that they just need slightly better cooldowns to handle some of the tougher boss fights. Rather than add a new ability that felt like a clone of another class’s ability, we decided to buff an existing talent that was no longer cutting it. Ardent Defender has two important changes. The first is that the damage can no longer “skip over” the 35% health level – it will always be reduced. Secondly, it has a new effect that if a blow would kill you, it instead sets you to 30% health. This portion of the ability cannot occur more than once every 2 minutes. Think of it as a Last Stand that you don’t have to push.

A second change to Protection is we want to make sure Blessing of Sanctuary is always the tanking blessing of choice. A likely change here is to have it boost stamina as well.

We also recognize that block does not provide the mitigation it once did. While we have long-term plans to change the way block works entirely, in the short term we are doubling the effect of bonus block value on items (so jewelry, but not shields).

Holy
We like that Holy paladins have a niche as single-target healers. The problem is we think this niche is a little too narrow at the moment. Furthermore, paladins don’t have a wide arsenal of healing spells so it’s important that all of them are being used.

First, we are changing Flash of Light so that it places a heal-over-time effect on any target with Sacred Shield on them (the effect will be similar to Sheathe of Light). This should make Flash see a little more use.

Second, and more importantly, we are changing the way Beacon of Light works. Currently, it does not count over-healing on the target. We are changing that. In other words, if you place Holy Light on a rogue who is already at full health, it will still have the full effect on a tank with Beacon of Light on them. This is a huge buff, particularly when you consider the Holy Light glyph which allows for a small amount of “splash” healing. This effect isn’t common when you use Holy Light on a tank because the tank is often standing alone. But if you heal the melee, you are likely to get a lot more total healing from this effect (while still healing the tank through Beacon of Light). We are also going to try to allow a target to have more than one beacon (i.e. from different paladins) on them.

Many players may surmise that this change would make paladins far and away the best healers in the game. This is partially because paladin mana regeneration is so potent. That isn’t an issue when the paladin can generally only heal the tank. With the Beacon of Light change, the paladin can provide a lot more raid or party healing. To adjust for this, we are going to reduce the amount of mana returned by Illumination. If you use Holy Light too recklessly (such as on targets who don’t require that much healing) you do risk burning out of mana too quickly. Of course, they will still have Divine Plea and other mana regeneration mechanics.

As a footnote, we are also likely to slightly adjust Replenishment and buff the amount of MP5 on gear.

These changes should lead to healing as Holy being more dynamic – you are going to be targeting a lot more group members than just the tank, while still providing massive healing on the tank. However, you won’t be able to just constantly spam your biggest heals, at least not on the more challenging encounters. There is an opportunity here for skilled players to really do some outstanding healing as paladins, but it’s going to take a little more effort. This is something a lot of players have been asking for so we hope that it delivers without completely changing what some paladins enjoy about their healing style.

Retribution
Depending on who you ask, Retribution paladins are either perceived as being in need of improvements to make them stronger or are in need of changes to make them less powerful. We are really happy with the overall changes to the Seal and Judgement system from Lich King. However, Ret still has some problems. There aren’t enough buttons to push and they are all limited by cooldowns, allowing Ret paladins to have a lot of up-front burst without requiring a lot of skill or timing to actually hit those buttons (now after the opening moves of a fight, we think things get a lot more interesting because now the paladin’s defenses, healing and dispelling can come into play). We have other problems to fix as well. Exorcism currently can’t be used on players, which we think is a weak design. We have also become less enamored with the drawback to Seal of Blood / Seal of the Martyr causing damage to the paladin.

Here are the design changes we hope will fix all of these problems:

First, Exorcism has a cast time of 1.5 seconds but can be used on players again. This will let paladins use it in PvP, but not while moving towards a target.

Second, we are changing The Art of War to make not only Flash of Light instant, but also Exorcism. Choose healing or damage. Paladins will have to watch for this proc and use Exorcism when it happens. The spell itself is still ranged, but the proc will only occur when the paladin is already in melee.

Third, we are lowering the cooldown and damage of Crusader Strike to four seconds from six seconds. This accomplishes a few things. It lowers burst, it gives the paladins more buttons to push since they aren’t always waiting on cooldowns, it requires a little more skill since the player will have to choose between Crusader Strike and other attacks more often (such as the new Exorcism procs), and it gives Retribution a chance to get more damage out of their Seals (providing a sustained DPS boost for PvE).

Fourth, we are removing Seal of Blood and Seal of the Martyr. The damage recoil increasingly felt like a liability in PvE, and wasn’t serving to offset the massive burst damage capable in PvP. We are buffing Seal of Vengeance / Corruption and redesigning Seal of Command with the expectation that these are now the seals of choice for PvP and PvE. Righteousness can remain a tanking seal.

Finally, we are replacing the current effect of Vindication with an attack power debuff that works like Demoralizing Shout. In PvP, Ret paladins can still debuff melee targets, while in PvE they can provide another necessary debuff in the case that the tank is not a warrior or druid. In addition, the talent may be more attractive to Protection paladins.

These changes do not close the door on adding additional attacks, PvP utility or even the oft-requested Crusader Strike debuff. If the changes outlined above finally accomplish the goal of balancing Retribution in PvE and PvP, then we can start exploring those other design issues.

Again, these are our current plans and they may change based on testing and feedback. The changes to all three trees are things we are working on right now. Some of them might not work out quite the way we intended and will have to undergo iteration before finally showing up in 3.2. Even once the patch goes live, we are still likely to have to tweak numbers. This is simply a preview of what may yet come and we hope that it will be viewed as such.