Patch 2.4 Notes

[Quark]

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

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 2.4.0

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at WoW -> Test Realm Patch Notes

The latest patch notes can always be found at WoW -> Patch Notes -> Current Patch Notes

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at WoW -> Test Realm Patch Notes

The latest patch notes can always be found at WoW -> Patch Notes -> Current Patch Notes

The Sunwell Isle

* The Sunwell Isle is now available for play. This area includes a new quest hub and 5-player and 25-player instances. Join the Shattered Sun Offensive in shutting down Kael’thas’ nefarious operations. This new force is comprised by both the Aldor and Scryers and is led by the Naaru. Players will take part in claiming Sun’s Reach and setting up a larger base of operation to stop Kael’thas and the Legion.

Combat Log Improvements

* The combat log has undergone improvements that allow more robust combat filtering including the ability to define custom colors for enemies and friends as well as combat filtering for self and others.

General

* The combined forces of Shattrath have launched an attack on the Isle of Quel’Danas, to confront Kael’thas and the Legion at the Sunwell and surrounding areas. Players will now be able to gain reputation with the Shattered Sun Offensive and participate in a new set of daily quests.
* A representative of the Keepers of Time has been spotted at the World’s End Tavern in Shattrath. Players in good standing with the faction will be granted ease of passage to the Caverns of Time.
* Characters will now retain talented spell ranks so when they retalent they do not have to relearn the spells from trainers.
* Spell Haste: Spell haste now reduces the global cooldown on spells, down to a minimum of 1 second. This change does not apply to melee and ranged abilities.
* Item Cast Spells: Many spells cast by items were being cast as if the caster were the same level as the item. Most of those will now cast at the player’s level, giving them a reasonable chance to miss, be dispelled, or be resisted.
* Spirit-Based Mana Regeneration: This system has been adjusted so that as your intellect rises, you will regenerate more mana per point of spirit.
* Weapon Skill: Points will be gained faster in weapon skills for levels 1 through 59.

Racials

* Find Treasure: This ability no longer deactivates upon death.

Druids

* Empowered Rejuvenation: This talent now properly affects the final heal from Lifebloom.
* Gift of Nature: This talent now properly affects the healing from Tranquility.
* Insect Swarm: Casting lower ranks of this spell is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.
* Lacerate: This ability now deals additional damage based on the attack power of the Druid.
* Mangle (Bear) now properly triggers a 1.5 second global cooldown, increased from 1.0.
* Natural Perfection: This ability will no longer be triggered by taking critical strikes while sitting. In addition, it is now affected by the Subtlety talent.
* When a Druid in cat form casts Pounce it will now properly animate.

Hunter

* Equipping a thrown weapon while in the middle of an Auto-Shot will no longer cause animation issues.
* Casting Flare while in any way not visible, will no longer cause your flare to be invisible to other players.
* Hunter’s Mark: Hunters with Improved Hunter’s Mark will now properly overwrite Hunter’s Mark cast by Hunters without the talent.
* The stamina tooltip for hunter pets will now display the proper health increase.

Mages

* Using low ranks of Fire Ward and Frost Ward spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.
* Fire Ward: Using low ranks of this spell is now properly penalized like other healing spells are penalized.
* Frost Ward: Using low ranks of this spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.
* Frostbite: When a frost spell is reflected back at a Mage, it is now possible for the Mage to suffer from the Frostibte effect.
* Ice Barrier: Using low ranks of this spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.
* Permafrost: This talent will now correctly increase the movement slowing effect of frost Armor instead of the attack speed slow.
* Spellsteal will no longer overwrite a longer duration buff.

Paladins

* Avenger’s Shield, Holy Shield and Holy Shock: Casting lower ranks of these spells is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.
* Divine Illumination: The mana energize from this talent no longer has a chance to set off other triggered effects.
* Holy Shield and Holy Shock: Casting lower ranks of these spells is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.
* Judgment of the Crusader: It is no longer possible to have icons for two different ranks of Judgment of the Crusader appear at the same time when judged by multiple Paladins.
* Judgment of Wisdom: Some abilities (such as Frostbolt) were not triggering the mana energize effect from this spell. This has now been fixed.

Priests

* Fear Ward is now usable while in Shadow form.
* Inner Focus: Chastise now benefits from Inner Focus. In addition, Starshards no longer consumes Inner Focus.
* Power Word: Shield: Using low ranks of this spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.
* Prayer of Mending: This spell will now fade from players who leave or enter an instance, change continents, or exit the game.
* Reflective Shield: The reactive damage from this talent no longer breaks crowd control affects which break on taking damage.
* Shadowguard: No longer consumes the charge of Inner Focus when triggered.
* Silent Resolve:This talent is now affects Surge of Light, Power Infusion, Inspiration, Spirit Tap, Blackout, Levitate, Shackle Undead, Touch of Weakness, Hex of Weakness, and Symbol of Hope.
* Touch of Weakness: No longer consumes the charge of Inner Focus when triggered. It will also function properly even when the Priest with Touch of Weakness on is silenced or stunned.
* Vampiric Touch: Casting lower ranks of this spell is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.

Rogues

* Cheat Death: A combat log message will now show when this ability activates.
* Vanish: This ability will no longer sometimes cause the UI to display Shadowmeld as active when it has been cancelled.
* Abilities that can be used while stealthed, without breaking stealth, can now be cast without breaking Vanish when used at the same time.
* Sap mechanic changed from “Incapacitate” to “Sap”. This will allow more humanoids that were previously immune to Sap to be vulnerable to Sap, but still immune to Gouge. Note that anything that removed Sap previously will still remove Sap after the change.

Shaman

* Call of Thunder: (Rank 5) now gives 5% critical strike chance.
* Earth Shield: Mana cost reduced roughly in half, and charges reduced from 10 to 6.
* Elemental Focus: This buff will no longer be removed when Shamanistic Focus is triggered.
* Healing Grace: This talent now reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by 10/20/30%.The resistance to being dispelled modifier from this talent now applies correctly to Water Breathing.
* Rockbiter Weapon: Tooltip and error messages have been adjusted slightly.
* Stormstrike has a new icon.
* Totem timer icons will now show up under your player portrait when you cast totem spells. Right-clicking a totem timer icon will destroy that totem.
* The Shaman spell Fire Nova Totem will no longer sometime detonate without doing any damage.

Warlocks

* Demonic Knowledge: This buff will no longer remain on enslaved demons when Enslave Demon is removed.
* Pyroclasm: This talent now works correctly again with Rain of Fire.
* Ritual of Summoning can be used to summon players into instances if they meet the instance requirements.
* Shadow Ward: Using low ranks of this spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.

Warriors

* Endless Rage will now give the correct amount of rage as intended from damage dealt by a Warrior.
* Stances: It is no longer possible to accidentally change into a stance you are already in via macros (resulting in a global cooldown and loss of rage).
* Whirlwind: Critical strikes with the off-hand weapon from this ability can now trigger Flurry and Rampage.
* Flurry will properly refresh if a crit occurs with 1 charge left.
* Improved Hamstring (Arms) effect is now subject to diminishing returns when used in PvP.

PvP

* Diminishing returns on honor for kills is being eliminated.
* Honor will now be instantly calculated, and available for player use.
* Players that have the resurrection sickness debuff will be worth no honor.
* Added new PvP daily quests that send players to Halaa and the Spirit Towers of the Bone Wastes. These quests are available for Alliance and Horde at their respective local quest hubs.
* Arenas
o Shadow Sight now increases damage taken by 5% rather than dealing damage over time. Duration has been reduced from 21 seconds to 15 seconds.
* Battlegrounds
o If a player dies 50 times or more in a battleground, they will no longer be worth honor for the remainder of that battle.
o When you first enter a battleground, messages about other players joining the battleground will be linked together for the first minute. You will see a message in AV like "28 players joined" rather than a line for each player that joined. After the first minute, it will work as it always has. In addition all of the messages about other players leaving the battleground and getting marks of honor once the battleground is complete have been removed.
o Alterac Valley
+ Captain Balinda Stonehearth's spells have been simplified, and she can no longer be slowed or locked out of a school with interrupts (although she can still be interrupted).
+ Vanndar Stormpike and Captain Balinda Stonehearth have had their health totals reduced.
+ Warmasters/marshals in Alterac Valley now increase each other’s maximum health and damage by 25%. This is a stacking effect.
+ Horde players will now start the battle closer to Drek’Thar and Frostwolf Keep.
o Warsong Gulch
+ When both flags are held, the flag carriers will receive 50% increased damage done to them after approximately 10 minutes and 100% increased damage after approximately 15 minutes.
+ Flag carriers can now be tracked 45 seconds after picking up the flag.

Professions

* Added several new tradeskill items to the new Sunwell Daily faction vendor:
o Enchanting recipe to shatter a Void Crystal into two Large Prismatic Shards.
o Enchanting recipe to increase Defense Rating by 15 for chest armor.
o Three jewelcrafting recipes to cut gems with spell haste from Dawnstones, Talasite, and noble Topaz.
o Two new meta gem recipes.
* Alchemy
o Gift of Arthas now stacks to 20.
* Cooking
o Broiled Bloodfin now increases resistances to all schools of magic instead of increasing Stamina and Spirit.
o New recipes, Charred Bear Kabobs and Juicy Bear Burgers, can be purchased from either Bale (Horde) or Malygen (Alliance) in Felwood. These recipes requires 250 skill to learn, and are created from meat found on level 48-56 bears. This will aid players in leveling up their cooking skill to 300 without fishing.
* Enchanting
o Reduced the materials required for Enchant Shield – Resistance
* Engineering
o Gagsprocket in Ratchet now sells the plans for the Minor Recombobulator.
o Goblin Jumper Cables and Goblin Jumper Cables XL now display cooldown information in their tooltips.
o Removed the level requirement for the Craftsman's Monocle.
o The stun caused by engineering Bombs and Grenades is now considered an Incapacitate effect and uses the appropriate Incapacitate diminishing returns. Bomb and Grenades can now inflict damage to targets immune to Stun and Incapacitate effects.
o A new recipe has been added for Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite, a cloth version of the Rocket Boots Xtreme. This pattern drops from Mechano-Lord Capacitus.
o Rocket Boots Xtreme now have all their stat points allocated toward Attack Power, and will no longer have Stamina.
o Rocket Boots Xtreme and Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite will cause players to drop a PvP flag if used while carrying one. (Warsong Gulch, Eye of the Storm, and Zangarmarsh)
* Fishing
o New Fishing Daily Quests! Visit the mysterious old man fishing at Silmyr Lake outside of Shattrath City to discover what treasures he has to offer.
o Find Fish now correctly tracks Schools of Tastyfish and Muddy Churning Waters.
* Herbalism
o Ancient Lichen now has a chance to drop a Fel Lotus where it used to drop a piece of random green jewelry.
o Black Lotus replaced by Fel Lotus in herbalism skinning tables for Outland creatures.
o Increased the chance that Felweed, Dreaming Glory, Ragveil, and Flame Caps will contain a Fel Lotus.
o Warp Splinter can now be skinned with Herbalism in heroic difficulty.
* Leatherworking
o Shadow Oil will now fit into Leatherworking Bags.
* Mining
o Increased the skill up potential for most smelting recipes.

Quests

* New Daily Dungeon quests for both the heroic and non-heroic five-person Magister's Terrace dungeon at the Sunwell.
* Dungeon and Group Quest Experience: The amount of experience awarded for dungeon and 5-person group quests in Outland has been increased in almost all cases.
* The number of elite Shadowsworn Drakonid patrollers on the Ata'mal Terrace has been cut in half. Most of the remainder have had their patrol paths lengthened.
* Increased the slots on Old Blanchy's Feed Pouch to 8.
* The Thunderspike no longer sparkles for Alliance characters, nor does it show up on the mini-map when Find Treasure is in use.
* "Zapper Fuel" is now flagged as a Sunken Temple dungeon quest.

Dungeons and Raids

* All 25-player raid bosses have had their cash drops increased!
* All 25- player raid bosses that drop set tokens will now drop an additional token!
* Players will no longer require an attunement quest to enter Hyjal.
* Players will no longer require an attunement quest to enter the Black Temple.
* Players who have completed the attunement quests for Black Temple and Hyjal will be granted the title of “Hand of A’dal”.
* You may now fight Prince Kael’thas and Lady Vashj without first killing all the other bosses in their respective dungeons.
* The Unstable Cloud and Frost Breath spells are now treated properly as a movement impairing spells.
* Non-corporeal Undead and Mechanical creatures are now susceptible to bleed effects.
* Elemental creatures are no longer explicitly immune to poison and disease effects. Elementals with nature school immunities will still be immune to nature-based poisons, however.
* Gems obtained through Heroic difficulty instances are no longer Unique-equipped.
* Loot dropped by Doomlord Kazzak and Doomwalker has been changed to Bind on Equip. In addition, the cash dropped by these bosses has been significantly increased.
* Scale of the Sands reputation will now be awarded in Hyjal at a much higher rate.
* Caverns of Time: Heroic Black Morass
o Rift Keepers and Rift Lords now have reduced hit points.
* Caverns of Time: Mount Hyjal
o The Vials of Eternity quest is no longer necessary for entry to Hyjal. This quest is still required for faction rings.
o Azgalor's Rain of Fire now affects a smaller area.
* Caverns of Time: Old Hillsbrad
o The Human Illusion effect will now always be removed properly when a player leaves the instance.
* Hellfire Citadel: Magtheridon’s Lair
o Many gameplay elements of the encounters in Magtheridon’s Lair have been changed to decrease their overall complexity and difficulty.
* Tempest Keep: Kael’thas
o The Vapor Clouds in the Kael'thas encounter are significantly easier to see.
* Tempest Keep: The Mechanar
o The Mechanar: It is no longer possible to gain an additional Badge of Justice by bringing Cache of the Legion keys obtained in other copies of the instance.
* Tempest Keep: The Eye
o Void Reaver is now immune to Vindication again.

Items

* Players will now be able to purchase level 70 Superior quality PvP items from reputation vendors.
* Avatar Regalia: The two-piece bonus from this set will now be consumed by Vampiric Embrace as intended.
* Bloody Brass Knuckles, Eerie Stable Lantern, Baelog's Shortbow, and Snakeskin Bag have been upgraded to Superior items.
* Blue Suede Shoes can now be disenchanted.
* Crystalforged Raiment: The two-piece set bonus will now work properly. Additionally, the four piece bonus will now only work on the next Holy Light cast, as intended.
* Cyclone Regalia: Trade skills will no longer consume the Energized effect.
* Deadman's Hand: This item's effect now works while the victim is sitting. In addition, its effect is now properly considered a root for purposes of being dispelled or removed.
* Discombobulator Ray: This item will again not work on mounted players.
* Frostfire Regalia: The resistance bonus from this set now works with the Burning Crusade ranks of Mage Armor.
* Gladiator's Leather Gloves: This arena bonus will now properly school lock enemies when the damage from Deadly Throw causes them to stop channeling.
* Gnomish Mind Control Cap: Victims of the Gnomish Mind Control Cap will no longer get Forbearance when the mind control is terminated due to Blessing of Protection.
* Gnomish Poultryizer: This item will again not work on mounted players.
* Goblin Rocket Launcher: Creatures will no longer gain health while affected by the Stun from this item.
* Heavy Netherweave Bandage: It is no longer possible to have two players bandage the same target simultaneously using this item.
* Netherweave Bandage: It is no longer possible to have two players bandage the same target simultaneously using this item.
* Idol of the Crescent Goddess: The mana discount on Regrowth has been increased.
* Idol of Feral Shadows: The bonus damage to Rip has been increased.
* Idol of the Raven Goddess: The bonus healing, critical strike rating, and spell critical strike rating from this item have been increased. In addition, it no longer sometimes fails to apply the healing bonus.
* Idol of the Unseen Moon: The cooldown added in a previous patch has been removed.
* Idol of Ursoc: The bonus damage to Lacerate has been increased and the tooltip clarified to indicate it applies to both initial and periodic damage.
* Idol of the White Stag: Duration increased.
* Items intended for Retribution Paladins have had their stats adjusted. Retribution Paladins should see an increase in dps as a result.
* Jade Pendant of Blasting: This item no longer increases physical damage dealt.
* Libram of Absolute Truth: The Holy Light mana discount has been increased.
* Libram of Divine Purpose: The bonus damage on Seal and Judgment of Righteousness has been increased.
* Libram of Mending: The mana regeneration buff has had its duration increased. The name of the buff granted by this item changed to Grace of the Naaru to avoid having the same name as the Light’s Grace talent.
* Libram of Righteous Power: The bonus damage for Crusader Strike has been increased.
* Libram of Souls Redeemed: The bonus for Flash of Light has been decreased and the bonus for Holy Light has been increased.
* Libram of Wracking: This item now increases the damage on Holy Wrath and Exorcism instead of decreasing their mana cost.
* Masquerade Gown: The spirit bonus from this item will now properly trigger all benefits from the Tree of Life talent.
* Mojo: A pvp-flagged player can no longer kiss Mojo and cause non-flagged players to become flagged.
* Moongraze Stag Tenderloin can now be consumed by hunter pets that eat meat.
* Noggenfogger Elixir: It is no longer possible using this item to keep the Old Hillsbrad human illusion outside of the instance.
* Pendant of the Violet Eye: Paladin Judgment spells will again properly trigger this item.
* Players can now only carry 80 Conjured Manna Biscuits at a time.
* Steam Tonk Controller: This item can no longer trigger the Warrior talent Second Wind when it is driven out of range by the Warrior.
* The On Use effect has been properly changed to passive for the following items: Blue Overalls, Brantwood Sash, Firewalker Boots, Gloves of Kapelan, Hellion Boots, Hibernal Gloves, Hibernal Pants, Kimbra Boots, Mistscape Gloves, Nightsky Trousers, Sacred Burial Trousers, Turquoise Sash, and Woolen Boots, Spinesever.
* Tome of the Lightbringer: The block value and buff duration have been increased.
* Totem of the Pulsing Earth: The mana discount for Lightning Bolt has been increased slightly.
* Weightstones and Sharpening Stones: The bonus damage from these temporary enchantments now works while shapeshifted.
* Winterfall Firewater: The tooltip no longer specifies only melee attack power.

User Interface

* The Interface Options screen has been completely redesigned. AddOns that interact with the Interface Options screen will need to be updated.
* Combat Log Improvements
o New tabs are available for sorting combat messages.
o ctrl-right clicking functionality has been added for individual information sorting
o Colors may now be assigned for friends and enemies
o The WoWCombatLog.txt file format has been changed to make it easier for programs to read.
o The ability to chat-link player spells and talents.
* Cast sequences work with slot numbers again.
* GM messages now appear with a Blizzard icon near their name.
* You can now declare war on a faction in the reputation UI while you are in combat.
* Spell haste and Armor Penetration will now display on the character sheet. (Armor Penetration displays in the hit rating section). Spell Penetration now displays under the spell hit section.
* Weapon enchants are now shown at the character selection screen.
* The friends list now has a notes field per friend. Click on the note icon to add a note for a particular friend.
* There is now a UI option to display free bag space. When turned on, your backpack will display the total number of free spaces available in all your bags.
* You can now link quests into the chat log by Shift-Clicking on the quest name in the chat log.
* Merchants now display how many pages of merchandise they sell (Page 1 of 2).
* Guild Bank Changes
o Ranks can now be set to allow withdraw of funds or allow repair with funds or both.
o When purchasing a bank tab, it takes money out of the guild bank before it takes your personal money. This is logged as well.
o Each Tab now has an info pane. This pane can be used for requests or for rules about the tab or anything at all really.
* When looting Bind on Pickup items, the confirmation dialogue now lists the name of the item in the dialogue. You can now verify that you are picking up the correct bind on pickup item.
* Bind on Pickup items that only you can pick up (Heroic Badges for instance) will no longer bring up a confirmation dialogue.
* Players can now opt out of looting for group loot, round robin and need before greed looting styles. If a player turns this on, they will not get a looting turn in the loot cycle. This can be turned on from the right-click menu on your own portrait.
* In Master Loot mode, all players in the group will see sparkles on corpses that have loot above the master loot threshold. This lets everyone see what the master loot items are, though they cannot interact with them. Only the master looter can loot those items still.
* The names over the heads of nearby players who are on your friends list will appear in a different color now so you can tell when they are nearby.
* Stacked items for sale at the auction house now display the per unit price and per unit buyout price in the item mouseover.
* The profession UI search field has been improved and now allows for searching of more types of things. For instance you can search for items by socket color, by effect ("Critical Strike" for instance) or search gems by their effect ("Strength" for instance). In addition, the searching of items by level has been made more intuitive. You can now search for items by level with "15-20" to search for items that you can make that have a minimum level required of 15 to 20.
* The Tooltip for player Dodge/Block/Parry in the character sheet has been changed slightly.
* Optimized particle system rendering for improved frame rates.
* The casting bar will now display properly when casting Blizzard (mage) or Rain of Fire (warlock) with spell haste.
* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum.

World Environment

* Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin, Warsong Gulch, Blade’s Edge Arena, Lordaeron Arena, and Nagrand Arena: Players who fall below the world in these environments will now die instead of being stuck.
* Creature versions of Intimidating Shout have been changed to Frightening Shout, and the primary target of the ability is now feared instead of stunned.
* Goreclaw the Ravenous can now be skinned.
* Interacting with objects (chests, mining nodes, herbs) should no longer aggro neutral creatures.
* Monstrous Kaliri have learned how to chase players going straight up.
* Shardtooth Mauler: This creature now drops meat like other bears.
* Outland Rare Spawn
o The following creatures have had their hit points and damage significantly reduced: Collidus the Warp-Watcher, Fulgorge, Hemathion, Kraator, Marticar, Morcrush, and Nuramoc

Bug Fixes

* Fixed an error that was causing many auctions to never complete due to the item no longer being on the auction house.
* Splintertree Raiders will now respawn with Torek if Duriel Moonfire and her guards are killed while the Raiders are still alive.
* Female Draenei can no longer become stuck under a root in the tunnels leading to Blackfathom Deeps, Ashenvale.
* The quest description text for "The Corpulent One" no longer refers to it being a group quest.
* Saber/Tiger Mounts will now make footprints when walking backwards in snow.
* Ogri'la Peacekeeper's weapons have been scaled properly.
* Unplugging speakers/headphones during the opening cinematic will no longer freeze the cinematic until canceled.
* Pets are now able to properly attack mobs near the walls on the ramps in Zul'Aman, Bear Wing.
* The flag on the battle map in Eye of the Storm will no longer show up as Horde controlled even if an alliance player has picked it up.
* Channeling spells will no longer continue to show the channeling bar after zoning into arena battlegrounds.
* Blood Elf corpses now properly have loot in Alterac Valley battlegrounds.
* Nazan in Hellfire Citadel: Ramparts will no longer sometimes not land on the ground until after Vazruden the Herald is killed or Nazan is heavily damaged.
* It is no longer possible to be saved to a Heroic instance while not meeting the requirements to get into it.

I feel sorry for everyone who paid while waiting for this. You basically got Sunwell + No Attunements + Combat Log changes. Grats.

[Taelas]

No Attunements is pretty huge. I'm not exactly overwhelmed by the changes, but I'm not that disappointed either.

[Mavfin]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/...patchnotes.html
I feel sorry for everyone who paid while waiting for this. You basically got Sunwell + No Attunements + Combat Log changes. Grats.

I don't really see what's to be so negative about. Granted, you've disliked the game for quite a while, and quit playing some time ago, Quark, so I'm taking the above with a big grain of salt. I'm still having fun with it, and some of these changes, along with a couple that didn't make the notes will increase my enjoyment, actually. No, not large changes, but, stuff to continue on to WotLK with.

[LochnarITB]

* Alchemy
o Gift of Arthas now stacks to 20.

Woot! Finally! :rolleyes:

[Mirajj]

Some of these 25man changes are huge. It's very nice to see that they did learn the lessons that AQ40 and Naxx taught them. I have no problem with them 'easing up' instances after the hardcore have had their trouncing of them so that more folks can get into them and experience it.

[LochnarITB]

The changes to the 25 mans are not Blizzard being nice to their users. They, especially the designers, do not want their encounters nerfed. Like a recipe, the ingredients may need to be adjusted slightly to create the intended flavor, but they don't want their silky dark chocolate cake turned into an everyday fudge. The only reason the attunements are dropped, and the encounters nerfed, is to retain their subscriber base. It is a delayed release of content. If they did not do it, new high end content would be meaningful only to the very small percentage of the users that fit the mold of the bleeding edge raider, and they would have to add other content to retain their bread and butter customers.

Those changes are purely business, required and expected, not generosity or lessons learned on Blizzard's part.

[Skandranon]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/...patchnotes.html
I feel sorry for everyone who paid while waiting for this. You basically got Sunwell + No Attunements + Combat Log changes. Grats.

In addition to no attunements, they're putting T6 quality gear on a badge vendor on Sunwell Isle. And this is a mistake.

As I've said before, I'm not an exclusionary end-game raider. I don't take pride in doing what other people can't; I'm just happy to be doing it. In that vein, I supported SSC/TK attunement removal and I also generally like the way Blizzard nerfs down instances over time to let people in. And the idea of removing Hyjal/BT attunements? My thoughts on this are on the record. I do not think letting people in to knock down a pinata or two (and, unlike Razuvious/Anub'rekhan, some aren't even pinatas if you don't have the gear) harms the game any. Removing attunements is just the right thing to do.

Slapping T6 gear on a badge vendor, however, adds an element that wasn't present in the pre-TBC attunement-free environment. It was all right for guilds to clear easy stuff in Naxx because Patchwerk was there to keep them honest with previous-content clears before they could go on. Similarly, you could knock over some early AQ40 stuff; you wouldn't be going past the Twin Emperors without a clear BWL. You'd eventually need the gear to get past the checks, and that system ensured that you consumed the content available to you.

Sure, some people never got to see Kel'Thuzad, but lots of people killed Ragnaros, lots of people killed Nefarian, a fair number even killed C'thun and had a lot of fun doing it. The important point was that everything incentivized them to go get those kills, so rational players went ahead and did what they were incentivized to do, notching up kills and having truly memorable play experiences that were worth having.

Now, for the first time, you can bypass the need to gear up in earlier-tier content. Tier 6 is right on the vendor, for badges. Suppress your first thought - that this is sour grapes from a raider angry that people can now gear up quickly to kill Illidan. I don't care about that. Work through the logical implications instead.

What Blizzard is doing (and has been doing for much of TBC) is rapidly obsoleting its own content. This is a boneheaded move, especially because content-efficiency and content-reusability is key to why raiding is the end game in the first place. Putting T6 on the vendor obsoletes at least TK and SSC and arguably has a similar, just less intense effect on BT and Hyjal. T6 is what you need for Sunwell, after all, so you can just snap up a full set off the vendor and go right in.

Wait, you say. It's not that easy. After all, badges aren't free. And of course, you are correct. You do have to do things to get badges, and by far the most efficient ways to get badges are Heroic Mechanar and Karazhan. T5 content does not offer badges. T6 content does not offer badges. Any rational actor - and despite the stupidities of the internet, people really are rational - knows what they're doing. Kara for T6 gear.

Because of the way this sets up, Karazhan becomes not just a good thing to do, but the best and most rational use of your time until you enter Sunwell. Whatever the gear costs, Kara is some percentage toward a guaranteed Tier 6 epic, whereas TK/SSC and even early BT/Hyjal are repair costs, organizational overhead, consumable costs, strategy research, and of course, wipe after wipe after wipe, for zero percent progress toward a T6 epic. It has become an inefficient use of time to 25-man raid; almost a complete waste of time. Karazhan is 22 badges in a few hours, and you can't beat that math in TK or SSC because it is always zero badges over a non-zero amount of time.

This hits guilds which raid a limited number of hours in the week hardest. The incentive will be tremendous to use those limited hours on Heroics and Karazhan. Enthusiasm for non-profitable 25-man raid runs will wane. And in turn, people already exhausted by eight months to a year of Karazhan already will simply burn out on the prospect of months more. Given the choice of months more of an old and boring instance, or new content which is difficult and offers zero reward, many rational players are going to pick door number three: time to play a different game.

Even for those who tough it out, what will you have earned? Instead of Kara-Gruul-Mag-SSC-TK-Hyjal-BT (but perhaps not reaching the end), you'll have gotten in exchange Kara-Kara-Kara-Kara-Kara-Kara-Kara-Sunwell (and also perhaps not reaching the end). You'll have killed no major end bosses except maybe Kil'Jaeden; never seen some of the best and most inventive encounters in raid content, and had no more than a handful of those triumphs of group effort that make raiding fun.

And for those who say that they, of course, will still do T5 and T6 "to experience the content" despite the lack of (T5) or significantly reduced rate of (T6) reward? I think we all know that's not true. How many retro-Naxx groups have you run in the year+ since TBC came out? Yeah, I thought so. And Naxx has the advantage that TBC players are 10 levels over the content and can crush most of what they encounter; most, if not all, of the retro-Naxxes that do happen wouldn't have if people had to come prepared with consumables and strat and be prepared to wipe many times to get it done.

Knowing ahead of time that you'll gain no reward has a remarkable effect on killing enthusiasm, and this is going to absolutely cut the legs out from entry TK/SSC guilds. Rather than expanding access to content, it's going to turn huge chunks of current content into wastelands. And while more instances are going to be accessible, people aren't going to want to run them. It won't make sense to. While Blizzard may feel they're helping casuals by giving them a way into Sunwell, what they're really doing is, at the least, taking from them SSC and TK.

Instead, they can have Kara.

[LochnarITB]

In addition to no attunements, they're putting T6 quality gear on a badge vendor on Sunwell Isle. And this is a mistake.

Wow! Skan, as usual, a very good analysis of the situation. While I still believe that opening the content was a smart business move, they shot themselves in the foot with one simple little addition. Is it certain that the vendor will be there, at release of the patch, and that it isn't just a way of getting gear to PTR users for testing Sunwell? I guess they would have made it even easier to get if that was the case. Oh well, maybe they will still rethink it before release.

[Taelas]

There is one thing you haven't touched upon in your post.

The stuff is going to be obsolete anyway. While I fully agree that this will kill any enthusiasm for doing anything but Heroics and Karazhan, if it lets people raid Sunwell, what does it matter?

They are trying to avoid what happened at TBC launch: Naxxramas became obsolete and had only been raided by a handful of guilds. By removing the attunement requirements for BT/Hyjal and providing easily-achievable BT-equivalent gear, they're opening the door wide. People can look inside Black Temple/Mount Hyjal if that's their thing. They can actually experience Sunwell, the last raid instance in TBC content, before it becomes obsolete.

And it gives people who cannot raid more incentive to keep running Heroics.

Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye get the short end of the shtick, but with the changes to Vashj and Kael'thas, people can experience the toughest battles these two instances will offer -- with minimal effort.

[Quark]

I don't really see what's to be so negative about. Granted, you've disliked the game for quite a while, and quit playing some time ago, Quark, so I'm taking the above with a big grain of salt. I'm still having fun with it, and some of these changes, along with a couple that didn't make the notes will increase my enjoyment, actually. No, not large changes, but, stuff to continue on to WotLK with.

I haven't disliked the game, I've simply moved on because it wasn't fun enough to justify the time investment. What I'm negative about is that this could have been a relatively good patch (sans the bad badge gear idea) - months ago.

It seems pretty obvious to me that WotLK is the main focus, and it's not coming fast enough for them (expansion every year - hah!), so TBC's patches are the collateral damage.

[Mirajj]

And yet, putting gear on a vendor is what PvE folks have been screaming about for years...it removes the randomness of the rng. I do think that Blizz should put badges onto anything considered a 'boss mob', but I don't see this as bad.

Folks love pvp because they know what they are getting, and pretty much when they'll get it, regardless of actual skill level.

I see the badge vendor as being the same. Just make the bigger boss mobs drop more, and the elite will get the gear they want faster (in addition to getting to still play the RNG game, effectively doubling their lootsets) while those aren't quite as good for whatever reason, can plod along (in Heroics/Kara) and eventually end up with some nice shinies, too.

To me, this is the most intelligent business decision they could have made. The only folks who seem put out are those who were farming the places in the first place, and have been for a while...but why are they put out? It's not like they still can't wave their epeen about. They still did it first. They still did it when it was really hard. But now others actually get a chance at it, while they are off playing with their new toys, Sunwell and beyond.

I've long thought that folks are much too worried about what others are doing in this game. Does it really matter?

[Lissa]

You and I talked about this eventuality a couple times, I noted that I wasn't sure Blizzard would want to make Sunwell end up being like Naxx, and it looks like that is exactly what is going to happen. Blizzard took a lot of heat from a lot of people becaues of how Naxx was obsoleted so quickly and it was only a small subset of people that wanted to go back and experience the fights. The same is going to happen here with SSC/TE/Hyjal/BT. There will be those that want to still see those fights to their conclusion (I know I want to, I still want to see the fights in Naxx that I never got a chance to try, but I am a minority it seems when it comes to raiders who want to experience all content atleast once).

Anytime Blizzard releases new content, it obsoletes some other content unless they do something to not obsolete it. It happened when people got into SSC and TE and made Gruul and Magtheridon pretty much obsolete once they got in. Once people got into Hyjal and BT, they pretty much stopped going to SSC/TE (how many times has CM gone into SSC and TE since you guys got full access to Hyjal and BT except to get someone attuned?). So ask yourself this, has it hurt Blizzard to obsolete content and move people into new areas? The answer to that is no.

The problem that is really happening here isn't the skipping the content for loot sake to have the loot to be able to take on higher content, it's the skills that will not be learned by skipping the content because of the sake of gear. It's been proven that being overgeared for somewhere will help, but it won't allow you to conqueor the content unless you have the skill to do so. How many guilds had the gear to get into Hyjal and BT and be able to kill several of the initial bosses in each, had the gear to take down Vashj and Kael, but couldn't get to this because they didn't have the skill. The same thing could very easily happen in Sunwell. Giving someone the best gear in the world that doesn't have the skill does not mean that they will be able to conqueor the content if they're overgeared they will still fail because of lack of skill. The earlier content will get you the skill you need.

What I see as more of the problem here is people are going to rush into Sunwell after getting this badge gear and then claim that the fights are too hard even though they have the gear and the people that have been conqueorring he content up to this will get through the content in Sunwell and wonder why people are whining. Then it will be, will Blizzard dumb down the encounters because of the people without skill, but with the equipment are whining that they can't deal with the encounters because they don't have the necessary skill.

[TheDragoon]

I have a bit different of a take on this. Your argument was basically the same argument I heard from a lot of people when the T5-level badge gear was added. People were saying "No one is going to bother to raid SSC and TK because Karazhan will be clearly better for reward per time." But that is definitely not what I have seen, since then. The groups that want to do the 25-man raids are still raiding, they're just doing it with better gear (via badges) which allows everyone a bit more margin for error.

Maybe I'm in the minority and everything is different outside of my sphere of perception, but from what I saw all of the doom-and-gloom statements leading into the original badge gear addition simply did not come to pass. And that makes me wonder if this change is really going to do anything other than continue to propagate Blizzard's idea of allowing people to gear up through multiple channels so they can do whatever they enjoy. :)

[RTM]

I don't see anything in the notes about a t6-quality badge vendor. Was this confirmed elsewhere? If so, are we sure it's not PTR-only? Because it would be a shame to jump the gun and start kvetching before we had all the proper info...

[Kevin]

In addition to no attunements, they're putting T6 quality gear on a badge vendor on Sunwell Isle. And this is a mistake.

I agree with you that T6 gear purchasable via T4 content badges could be an issue since attunements are gone. I think that if there hadn't been attunements on BT/Hyjal with the T5 quality badge gear around that SSC/TK might have been skipped more than they had. So the easy fix in my mind is add a new badge type or add badges to the 25 man bosses. I like badges for smoothing out the RNG. My warrior had 2 pieces of badge gear that replaced blues because despite being in Kara, ZA, and SSC a fair bit where replacements could have dropped they never did drop. Having an option to fix that issue was very nice.

So you make the T6 stuff cost A LOT or take something else that only comes from the T5/T6 instances. That makes it work so that it works to help smooth that curve out. Smoothing that curve out really helps the guilds that can only raid 6-10 hours a week. The Terenas crew does 25 mans for 5-7 hours a week and then gets about 3-6 hours for some of the 10 man stuff that happens in off hours. The players are decently skilled and can handle the content given the time to get to it and the gear to pass some of the smaller gear checks that are there. The badge gear really helped them out.

So why not if you are adding a new badge have the SSC/TK bosses drop one of the new badges and one of the old badges. Incentive to keep learning what you don't have done in there at the same time it's helping flatten the gear curve if you are learning it. BT/Hyjal can drop just badges you need for the T6 gear. The doesn't have you jumping to Sunwell right away. But it does make life easier. You can make Vashj and Kael drop a lot of badges to make them really worth hitting so that the tough content still has incentives. If the other bosses only drop 1 and 1 you can make Vashj and Kael drop 4 each. If the average badge cost for an item is 50 badges that is still more than 2 full clears of both instances to get 1 item. That doesn't seem to out of whack to me. Though if you make the Hjyal/BT stuff drop 2 of the T6 badges each that still might pull you out of SSC/TK too fast. But it shouldn't have you jumping to Sunwell right away Dunno.

I agree with you and I agree with Mirajj. I LOVE the curve flattening aspect of badges. I love how it really helps the guilds that can't farm stuff as much and don't have as much practice time (Mags and Gruul were dumped early from our schedules to learn in SSC and there were good upgrades on both of them for many people in the raid) since better gear while not needed to win does make learning easier. But I don't want stuff set up as a way to just skip the gearing needed for content completely (and I know that gear is less important in TBC than it was before but it still has a big impact).

[Bolty]

Reflective Shield: The reactive damage from this talent no longer breaks crowd control affects which break on taking damage.

This is enormous, and instantly results in a talent spec change for every serious healing arena Priest, especially in smaller brackets like 2v2 where that extra damage makes attacking the Priest less desirable.

In short, yay!

-Bolty

[Bolty]

People were saying "No one is going to bother to raid SSC and TK because Karazhan will be clearly better for reward per time." But that is definitely not what I have seen, since then.

Attunements. They're still there.

If attunements to Hyjal and BT were lifted last patch, *nobody* would be in SSC and TK. Nobody. Getting a raid for those places would be like getting a raid for Naxxramas. Good luck.

-Bolty

[TheDragoon]

I don't see anything in the notes about a t6-quality badge vendor. Was this confirmed elsewhere? If so, are we sure it's not PTR-only? Because it would be a shame to jump the gun and start kvetching before we had all the proper info...

A blizzard poster posted it on their forums. Link here.

[Skandranon]

The stuff is going to be obsolete anyway. While I fully agree that this will kill any enthusiasm for doing anything but Heroics and Karazhan, if it lets people raid Sunwell, what does it matter?

Well, I think we're using obsolete in different contexts. For example, pre-TBC, BWL loot never became obsolete. Sure, T3 was better piece-for-piece, but it wasn't obsolete because for the appropriate level of progression, BWL loot was the best available to boost you to the next level. Gear isn't automatically obsolete just because something better exists.

In this case, what I mean is that SSC/TK loot is becoming obsolete because better rewards are coming from a comparable (or, in this case, earlier) level of progression. That heavily incentivizes that one at the cost of the other.

They are trying to avoid what happened at TBC launch: Naxxramas became obsolete and had only been raided by a handful of guilds. By removing the attunement requirements for BT/Hyjal and providing easily-achievable BT-equivalent gear, they're opening the door wide. People can look inside Black Temple/Mount Hyjal if that's their thing. They can actually experience Sunwell, the last raid instance in TBC content, before it becomes obsolete.

Except that the gear is slanting earlier stuff to be not anyone's thing. I don't resent people experiencing Sunwell; I'm glad for it. But when it's coming at the cost of experiencing everything else except Kara? Are you sure you'd be having more fun that way? And of course it's true for some people that they would, and good for them, but for quite a lot of people it won't be, but they'll have to do it anyway.

Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye get the short end of the shtick, but with the changes to Vashj and Kael'thas, people can experience the toughest battles these two instances will offer -- with minimal effort.

Right, but those are still hard fights. If people can get 25 together for it - far from a sure thing - they'll go in, wipe a couple times, and then give up. Too much effort for no reward. For me, personally, I don't really see that as "experiencing" it.

[Mavfin]

But when it's coming at the cost of experiencing everything else except Kara? Are you sure you'd be having more fun that way? And of course it's true for some people that they would, and good for them, but for quite a lot of people it won't be, but they'll have to do it anyway.

There's another set of people who you've left out. There's a bunch of us who simply don't have raiding time anymore. Without new badge gear, Kara/ZA is about as far as I can go. I simply don't have the uninterrupted time to progress my toon any more. And, when toon progression stops, I have two choices: build another, or quit. Blizz doesn't want us to quit, as it takes money out of their pockets.


So, I can experience Kara and ZA and heroics, or I can quit. If I can't upgrade my toon anymore, what can I do? The fact is, I'm not going to see SSC/TK/BT/Hyjal/25-man Sunwell anyway. What harm is it for me to have another path to upgrade my toon(s)? Is it really that bad a thing?