Table of Contents

• Classes
• Dungeons & Raids
• Guilds
• Items
• Professions
• PvP
• Races
• User Interface

Important: These patch notes are not final. Additional updates will be made, and all existing changes are subject to revision during the course of the testing process. More information regarding patch 4.1 can be found here. Visit our Public Test Realm forum for more information about the testing process.

Classes: General

• All non-damaging interrupts off the global cooldown will now always hit the target. This includes Pummel, Shield Bash, Kick, Mind Freeze, Rebuke, Skull Bash, Counterspell, Wind Shear, Solar Beam, Silencing Shot, and related player pet abilities.

Death Knights

• Dark Simulacrum now works on numerous additional spells in dungeon encounters.
• Talent Specializations
  • Blood
    • Death Strike self-healing no longer generates threat.
  • Frost
    • Blood of the North (passive) now permanently converts both Blood Runes into Death Runes. There is no longer any proc interaction with Blood Strike required to activate Death Runes.

Druids

• Efflorescence has a new spell effect.
• Talent Specializations
  • Balance
    • Solar Beam is now more responsive when enemies move into or out of it.

Hunters

• Explosive Trap now has a new spell effect.
• Master's Call now has a new spell effect.
• Tame Beast now tames pets to match the hunter's level, rather than 5 levels below.

Mages

• Talent Specializations
  • Fire
    • Ignite is no longer triggered from periodic critical effects.

Paladins

• Word of Glory now has a 20-second cooldown.
• Talent Specializations
  • Holy
    • Walk in the Light (passive) removes the cooldown of Word of Glory.
  • Protection
    • Divine Guardian cooldown is now 3 minutes, up from 2.
  • Retribution
    • Divine Storm now generates 1 point of Holy Power if it hits (i.e. successfully lands on) 4 or more targets.
    • Sacred Shield's internal cooldown has been increased to 60 seconds, up from 30.

Priests

• Divine Aegis duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 12.
• Dispel Magic can only be used on the casting priest as a baseline effect.
• Holy Word: Sanctuary has a new spell effect.
• Power Word: Shield duration has been reduced to 15 seconds, down from 30.
• Talent Specializations
  • Discipline
    • Absolution (new passive) enables priests to use Dispel Magic on up to 2 harmful effects on friendly targets.
  • Holy
    • Absolution (new passive) enables priests to use Dispel Magic on up to 2 harmful effects on friendly targets.

Rogues

• Recuperate base effect now heals 3% per tick, up from 2%.
• Stealth base cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10, and the movement penalty from being in Stealth has been removed.
• Tricks of the Trade now has a 100-yard range, up from 20.
• Talent Specializations
  • Combat
    • Improved Recuperate now adds 0.5%/1% to the health restoration effect of Recuperate, down from 1%/2%.
  • Subtlety
    • Nightstalker now reduces the cooldown of Stealth by 2/4 seconds, and instead of negating the movement penalty from Stealth, it adds a 5/10% movement speed bonus (stacking with other effects) while Stealthed.

Shaman

• Fire Nova has been redesigned and decoupled from shaman Fire totems. Instead, it now pulses that same area-of-effect from each target that is afflicted by the shaman's own Flame Shock debuff. It now damages all enemies except the target hit by Flame Shock. The ability's cooldown has been reduced from 4 seconds, down from 10.
• Magma Totem now lasts for 60 seconds, up from 21.
• Stoneclaw Totem's area-of-effect threat pulse no longer affects critters.
• Talent Specializations
  • Elemental Combat
    • Earthquake is no longer a channeled spell. It now has a 2-second cast time, lasts for 10 seconds, and has a 10-second cooldown. Its damage has been reduced by 40% from its channeled version.
  • Enhancement
    • Improved Fire Nova has been redesigned and replaced by a talent called Seasoned Winds. When an enemy spell cast is successfully prevented with Wind Shear or Grounding Totem, the shaman gains magical resistance (in an amount equal to what a protection totem/aura would grant, stacking with such buffs) to the spell school(s) of the interrupted spell (except for Holy spells), lasting 10 seconds.

Warriors

• Charge and Intercept no longer have diminishing returns on their stun effects.
• Colossus Smash now ignores 70% of an opponent's armor, down from 100%.
• Inner Rage is now available at level 56.
• Intercept now has a 1.5-second stun, down from 3 seconds.
• Overpower damage has been increased to 140% weapon damage, up from 125%.
• Rallying Cry (new ability) is available from trainers at level 83. It temporarily grants the warrior and all party or raid members within 30 yards 20% of maximum health for 10 seconds. After the effect expires, the health is lost. It has no cost, no stance requirements, and is not on the global cooldown. It has a 3-minute cooldown, but also shares a cooldown with Last Stand.
• Whirlwind now has its cooldown reduced by 6 seconds when it deals damage to 4 or more targets. The Whirlwind effect caused by Bladestorm remains unchanged.
• Talent Specializations
  • Arms
    • Improved Hamstring now reduces the global cooldown on Hamstring by 0.5/1 seconds in addition to its current effects.
    • Improved Slam increases Slam damage by 20/40%, up from 10/20%.
    • Juggernaut no longer adds 2 seconds to the Charge stun, but instead lowers the cooldown of Charge by 3 seconds (to 12 seconds total).
    • Mortal Strike damage has been increased to 175% weapon damage, up from 150%.
  • Fury
    • Raging Blow damage has been increased back up to 120% weapon damage (up from 100%).

Dungeons & Raids

• New dungeons available for partial testing.
  • Zul'Aman has returned as a level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon featuring a revamp of the original dungeon and improved loot!
  • Zul'Gurub has returned as a level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon featuring all-new encounters, achievements, and improved loot!
  • Both dungeons will be in a new Dungeon Finder difficulty tier above the current level-85 Heroic dungeons and offer epic-quality item level 353 loot.
  • These dungeons may only partially be available for testing at this time. Stay tuned for additional updates.
• Blackwing Descent
  • Flash Bomb (Golem Sentry ability) now has a more clear warning visual.
  • Magmaw now triggers a raid emote when summoning Lava Parasites.
  • Further improvements have been made in the Maloriak encounter to avoid Flash Freeze targeting the tanks.

Guilds

• The Guild Perk, Cash Flow, no longer prints out text to the Chat Log. Instead, the daily amount deposited is shown in the Guild Vault Money Log. In addition, players can view the weekly contribution in a new window at the bottom of the Money Log.
• We have added two new custom guild tabards as Guild Rewards. The tabards are account bound and offer a bonus to gaining guild reputation.

Items

• The PvP Horde and Alliance trinkets have a new spell effect.

Professions

• All major cities will now have every type of profession trainer and their associated trade supply vendors.

PvP

• Battlegrounds
  • Twin Peaks
    • Graveyard Changes
      • Players will now only spawn at their base graveyard when they die in the enemy base.
      • Defending players will respawn at the middle graveyard.
      • Midfield players will respawn at the middle graveyard.
      • Attacking players will respawn at their base graveyard.

Races

• The gnomish racial ability, Escape Artist, is no longer affected by the global cooldowns triggered by other abilities.
• The human racial ability, Every Man for Himself, has a new spell effect.

User Interface

• Work has begun on a new Looking for Guild system. Further details will be provided when we are ready for feedback.
• Spells bound to a key now start to be cast when the button is pressed down by default, instead of waiting for the key to go up. This is an option that can be turned off in the Interface menu under Combat. Mouse clicking has not changed and operates on mouse click up.

posted:

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?Retribution
¦Divine Storm now generates 1 point of Holy Power if it hits (i.e. successfully lands on) 4 or more targets.

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-Mythril- posted:

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"# Tame Beast now tames pets to match the hunter's level, rather than 5 levels below."

That only took 6 effing years.

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-Mythril- posted:

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"# Tame Beast now tames pets to match the hunter's level, rather than 5 levels below."

That only took 6 effing years.

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Tame Beast now tames pets to match the hunter's level, rather than 5 levels below.

-Mithan- posted:

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Did they make Heroic's a tad easier?

No?

Don't care then.

/e back to Rift.

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-Mithan- posted:

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Did they make Heroic's a tad easier?

No?

Don't care then.

/e back to Rift.

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Voqar posted:

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-Mithan- posted:

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Did they make Heroic's a tad easier?

No?

Don't care then.

/e back to Rift.

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Heroics are already easy. Too easy. You can faceroll them idiot/northrend style with a heroic geared group with a clue. IMO they should make them HARDER, like give mobs 25% dmg increase for each mob on a target to get rid of the facerollers.

I don't see how any seasoned MMO player could find the cata heroics to be difficult - unless you are an antisocial soloist with no friends or guild stuck pugging all the time, but that's a choice and poor way to approach a social game.

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Worth to be bashed Blizzard posted:

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Paladins

* Word of Glory now has a 20-second cooldown.

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Spookysheep posted:

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After all blizzard's complete bull(#*$ about "leveling hunter pets are a staple of the class", they finally change it to equal the hunter's level, after 6 years.

WoW.


Talk about major backpedaling and getting desperate.

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Voqar posted:

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I don't see how any seasoned MMO player could find the cata heroics to be difficult - unless you are an antisocial soloist with no friends or guild stuck pugging all the time, but that's a choice and poor way to approach a social game.

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Voqar posted:

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You can faceroll them idiot/northrend style with a heroic geared group with a clue.

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slythetove posted:

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Voqar posted:

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You can faceroll them idiot/northrend style with a heroic geared group with a clue.

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So once you have all the gear from them they are too easy... Do you people even listen to yourselves?

--Sly

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Elaok posted:

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time consuming is NOT difficult...

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-Mithan- posted:

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Did they make Heroic's a tad easier?

No?

Don't care then.

/e back to Rift.

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Cawlin posted:

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Back in the pre-BC days, hunter pets' abilities were based on a sort of talent point type system. The point system was based on the pet's level and the loyalty level (also now absent from the game). When a hunter tamed a pet that was low level, the pet would have no points to be spent on things like growl. The whole dumb loyalty level thing was particularly stupid - the pet had 6 loyalty levels with the first taking the longest to obtain - you tamed the pet at loyalty level 1. Due to the pet point system, you had no points to spend until the pet reached loyalty level 2. This meant that your pet could not growl until it reached loyalty level 2 since you needed points to purchase growl like you might purchase a talent point ability. The formula for loyalty involved time spent at happiness level and was modified by experience gained in that if the pet was gaining experience (by fighting mobs that were not gray to the hunter and so it was based on the hunter level) it would get to loyalty level 2 faster.

However, the big kicker with that was that it would sometimes take hours of fighting at least green con mobs while keeping the pet well fed and happy before you'd be able to even teach the pet to growl. You could just hang around the AH and feed your pet for several hours without fighting and see it eventually sort of spontaneously reach loyalty level 2, but that took much much longer. Back then hunters didn't have good tools for escape and melee was pathetic - traps had to be placed while out of combat, it all sucked for close range combat. Combine that with the prospect of leveling a pet that may have been many levels beneath the hunter that can't even growl to hope to hold aggro, let alone hit the target to do any additive damage. Meleeing a green-con mob back then for a hunter would pretty much cost you 1/3rd to 1/2 of your health. I remember illustrating this to Rosaria once in game (if she reads this she may remember) while I meleed one of those yetis in winterspring as a level 60 hunter - so the yetis were yellow con to me - by the end of the 100% melee fight, I was at less than 1/8th of my health.

There were all manner of BS experiments and crap by players trying to find the formula for loyalty gain time and in the end, it all seemed pretty random. There were pets that seemed bugged and took hours and hours to gain loyalty level 2 or never gained it at all and had to be abandoned. Usually you could count on loyalty level 2 by the time you'd gained your pet about a level worth of experience. Oh and pet XP back then was much higher per level than it is now, like 1/4th of the hunter's required or something - i.e. significant.

So there you were, maybe a level 60 hunter with a level 34 or so Broken Tooth pet, trying to level it and you had to kill mobs of no less than green con – so like 52 or something. One shot, the mob would be charging you (and your shots didn’t do anywhere near the kind of damage they do now relative to mobs’ health) and even though your pet would also charge the mob, it could not growl, and could not even hit the mob because of the miss code so it didn’t hold aggro at all and you wound up in melee with the mob for 20 or 30 seconds to kill it. You could do annoying crap like wingclip and kite to distance but back then arcane shot did like 200 damage and was your only instant non-DoT attack, or you could snare trap the mob, but again, you’d be kiting and in the end, it wound up taking as much time or more, or you had to risk running into more mobs while you did it… eventually, say after killing 30 to 60 mobs of green con level your pet might ding loyalty level 2 at which point it could growl – and growl would miss of course. If it landed, your pet would get killed every 3rd or 4th mob because of the level disparity, if you tried to heal the mob in combat (back then it was a channeled heal) you invariably pulled aggro too because most of the pet’s attacks would miss, including followup growls. All in all, it was a system that went right beyond immersion and into the realm of sadistic “pound of flesh” design.

All of these issues were brought up with devs time and time again over the years. Comparisons to Warlock pets were made which dinged with the warlock, later, mage pets were compared and still the devs insisted that they wanted it this way for hunter pets. So yeah… this change, while welcome, is a slap in the face and if anything, makes me believe more that whichever dev or devs that really had it in for hunters (class bias has been obvious through the years on the part of the dev staff) is now on to other projects. I guess this change is nice, but really it’s actually kind of insulting to see it come around finally.

Anyway, pardon the walk down the memory lane from WoW Hell, I don't know how many of you will remember that ugly volume (not merely a chapter) of Hunter history in this game, but there you go.

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Broken_Kayfabe posted:

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Apparently it never occurred to Cawlin to level the pet in groups in dungeons, where it leveled stupidly fast with virtually no loss to group dps.

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NukeMage posted:

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There really is no reason to bother with heroics if you find them too hard or whatever. Just stick with normals, gain JP and buy 359 loot come 4.1

Then, once you are overgeared, faceroll the heroic versions for even faster JP. . .



Really, WoW isn't hard or that time consuming . . it just is'nt quite the epic dispensing candy machine that it was towards the end of WotLK.

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Ugh_Lancelot posted:

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Just LFD for a group and git r dun, right? Wait, this was back before LFD was even on the drawing boards. I'm sorry, what was your point again?

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Broken_Kayfabe posted:

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Ugh_Lancelot posted:

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Just LFD for a group and git r dun, right? Wait, this was back before LFD was even on the drawing boards. I'm sorry, what was your point again?

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To level it in a group in a dungeon. I wasn't aware that it was a difficult concept to parse. Not all of us were so socially inept and functionally retarded as to not be able to get a dungeon group before the LFD tool was put in to help you mouthbreathers learn to tie your own shoes.

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croaks35 posted:

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Dude do you really wanna hurl insults at people calling them social inepts when your play WoW like it is your life? This is like the highlight of your life WoW and how great in your mind you are in a game that has no bearing whatsoever in life other than to you and the tards like you.Throw some more Eq quotes in your profile and continue to strive to live our your accomplishments in a game that you dream about while your working the drive thru at mcdonalds and getting your ass kicked after leaving the annual Trek convention.

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Broken_Kayfabe posted:

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Ugh_Lancelot posted:

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Just LFD for a group and git r dun, right? Wait, this was back before LFD was even on the drawing boards. I'm sorry, what was your point again?

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To level it in a group in a dungeon. I wasn't aware that it was a difficult concept to parse. Not all of us were so socially inept and functionally retarded as to not be able to get a dungeon group before the LFD tool was put in to help you mouthbreathers learn to tie your own shoes.

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TruthyID posted:

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Broken_Kayfabe posted:

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Ugh_Lancelot posted:

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Just LFD for a group and git r dun, right? Wait, this was back before LFD was even on the drawing boards. I'm sorry, what was your point again?

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To level it in a group in a dungeon. I wasn't aware that it was a difficult concept to parse. Not all of us were so socially inept and functionally retarded as to not be able to get a dungeon group before the LFD tool was put in to help you mouthbreathers learn to tie your own shoes.

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The irony of a third rate troll calling other people socially inept made me chuckle, thanks for this post.

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Broken_Kayfabe posted:

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Apparently it never occurred to Cawlin to level the pet in groups in dungeons, where it leveled stupidly fast with virtually no loss to group dps.

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GutterSludge posted:

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Cawlin,

I would like to add, for those who don't "remember" coughcough...that to even GET abilities on your pets we had to go to insane places, train some useless pet, and level it until you as the Hunter "learned" that skill.

Which you could then finally teach to your "real" pet...

Then add that many of these "skills" were only available on rare spawns, and with half of those being in enemy territory..

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GutterSludge posted:

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The worst for me was getting charge(i think), from that pig in alliance territory.."goretusk?""

It wasn't that he was hard to tame, but with my playing on a PVP realm, getting to that area with a non-epic land mount, and surviving the guards, players, and everything else,, was an all day affair!!


No other class has ever had to jump through so many hoops, lol.

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