patch 2.0.10 notes on the PTR

[Ruvanal]

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

Code:

General

    * Some logic was fixed in the "Natural Remedies" quest so that Pathaleon the Calculator's Image will always spawn during the ritual.
    * Goliathon and his shardlings can no longer be pulled to nearby areas that have guards.
    * More fixes implemented in the "It's a Fel Reaver, But With Heart" quest to keep the Scrapped Fel Reaver from breaking.
    * The Orb of the Blackwhelp and Hallowed Wands can no longer be used in combat, and the transformation will be canceled if the player receives damage.
    * The Scrap Reaver in Netherstorm repairs reduced from 10,000 health to 8,500 health over 10 seconds.
    * Battle of the Crimson Watch
          o Illidari Mind Breaker has been weakened.
          o Illidari Highlords can now be CC'ed but not Charmed.

PvP

    * Arenas
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's Slicer" has been increased to 2625 arena points.
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's Quickblade" has been decreased to 1125 arena points and changed to offhand only.
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's Cleaver" has been increased to 2625 arena points.
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's Hacker" has been decreased to 1125 arena points and changed to offhand only.
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's Pummeler" has been increased to 2625 arena points.
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's Bonecracker" has been decreased to 1125 arena points and changed to offhand only.
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's Right Ripper" has been increased to 2625 arena points.
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's Left Ripper" has been decreased to 1125 arena points.
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's Shanker" has been increased to 2625 arena points.
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's Shiv" has been decreased to 1125 arena points and changed to offhand only.
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's War Edge" has been decreased to 1000 arena points and the speed changed to 1.9.
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's Spellblade" has been increased to 3150 arena points.
          o The cost of the "Touch of Defeat" has been decreased to 1000 arena points.
          o The cost of the "Gladiator's Endgame" has been decreased to 1125 arena points.
          o The cost of the "Idol of Tenacity" has been decreased to 1000 arena points.
          o The cost of the "Libram of Justice" has been decreased to 1000 arena points.
          o The cost of the "totem of the Third Wind" has been decreased to 1000 arena points.

Druids

    * When the duration of "Cyclone" ends, area buffs such as "Leader of the Pack", "Tree of Life", and "Moonkin" will now be correctly resumed.
    * "Bear Form" now grants 25% increased stamina instead of 25% increased health.
    * "Dire Bear Form" now grants 25% increased stamina instead of 25% increased health. In addition, the armor bonus has been reduced from 450% to 400%.
    * The multiplier on base weapon damage for "Mangle (Bear)" ability has been changed from 130% to 100%. In addition, the bonus damage has been reduced by the same ratio.
    * "Savage Fury" no longer affects "Mangle (Bear)".
    * "Savage Fury" no longer applies to "Maul" or "Swipe".
    * The critical damage bonus on "Predatory Instincts" reduced from 3/6/9/12/15% to 2/4/6/8/10%.
    * "Improved Leader of the Pack" can no longer get critical heals.
    * The armor bonus from "Moonkin Form" has been increased from 360% to 400% (to match Dire Bear Form).
    * The rage normalization equation has been adjusted to grant more rage.

Paladins

    * The slowing affect from "Avenger's Shield" is now considered a snare, so snare removal and immunity affects will now work on it.

Priests

    * The base healing percent from "Vampiric Embrace" has been reduced to 15% from 20%. In addition, this ability can no longer get critical heals.
    * "Silent Resolve" no longer reduces threat generated by Shadow spells.
    * Prayer of Mending now has a 20 second cooldown.
    * If a targeted enemy has a magic effect granting immunity to spell or physical damage, “Mass Dispel” will now always pick that effect as its target.

Shaman

    * The clearcasting effect from "Elemental Focus" now triggers on all spell critical strikes, rather than a chance on any spell hit.
    * The shaman will no longer generate additional threat when "Unleashed Rage" triggers.
    * The free Lightning spell cast from "Lightning Overload" will now cause reduced threat.
    * "Stoneclaw Totem" now has a 50% chance to stun attackers for 3 sec. when struck.

Warlock

    * "Demonic Tactics" now grants increased critical strike chance to you and your demon pet, instead of increased damage.

Warriors

    * The rage normalization equation has been adjusted to grant more rage. The typical warrior should see an increase of 15% to 20% in their rage generation.
    * All warriors had their critical strike chance adjusted upward slightly (about 1%).
    * "Thunder Clap" is now useable in Defensive Stance. In addition, the tooltip has been adjusted to indicate it causes additional threat.
    * The cooldown on "Victory Rush" has been removed, and it can now be used up to 20 seconds after killing an enemy.
    * "Unbridled Wrath" has been modified so that rather than a fixed chance to grant rage, it has an increased chance when using slower weapons.

Items

    * The threat generated from the spell effect on "Thunderfury" has been substantially reduced.
    * The bonus to "Swipe" from the "Idol of Brutality" has been reduced from 50 to 10.
    * "Alchemist's Stone" will no longer increase healing and mana gained from items which are not potions.
    * The cost of sockets in high end items has been adjusted slightly, the result is that most high end epic items should see an increase in stats.
    * Corrected many items that had incorrect stat values assigned to them.
    * The rewards from the "Fel Embers" quest are now superior items as intended.
    * Reduced the damage dealt by "The Lightning Capacitor".
    * Corrected the level requirement of the "Fist of Reckoning".
    * "Necklace of Trophies" has been corrected to increase Hit Rating instead of Hit Avoidance.
    * "Burnoose of Shifting Ages" can now be disenchanted.
    * "Nethershrike" now has the proper sell value and can be disenchanted.
    * Corrected the level of "Marksman's Bow" to be in line with other epic reputation rewards.
    * The "Marksman's Bow" now has the proper damage range.
    * "Hourglass of the Unraveller" will now properly increase ranged attack power.
    * Corrected the socket bonus for "Soul-Collar of the Incarnate".
    * Corrected a typo in the set bonus of "Warbringer Armor".
    * "Ruby Slippers" now properly have a cast time.
    * Corrected the min use level of "Terokk's Shadowstaff".
    * "Warpscale Leggings" have had their Crit Rating updated to the intended Dodge Rating.
    * "Warmaul Slayer's Band" no longer has critical strike rating. However, its agility and attack power have been increased.
    * "Ancient Draenei War Talisman" now shares a cooldown with all trinkets that temporarily increase damage done.
    * "Ancient Draenei Arcane Relic" shares a cooldown with all trinkets that temporarily increase damage done.
    * "Aldor Guardian Rifle" now has a range correctly set on it.
    * The effect on "Void Star Talisman" was incorrectly set to On Use. It is now set to On Equip.
    * The critical strike rating on "Cilice of Suffering" has been changed to spell critical strike rating.
    * The cooldown for "Glimmering Mithril Insignia" has been increased from 10 minutes to 20 minutes.
    * The slowing affect from the "Mug 'O Hurt" is now considered a snare, so snare removal and immunity affects will now work on it.

Raids and Dungeons

    * Creatures in Tempest Keep:Botanica, Tempest Keep: Mechanar, and Tempest Keep:Arcatraz no longer respawn as rapidly.
    * Shadow Labyrinth
          o Reduced the chance of a Cabal Assassin ambush.
    * Shattered Halls
          o Removed a problematic chest.
          o The "Resist Shadow" spell cast by Shadowmoon Acolyte's in Shattered Halls will now be removed if a player leaves the zone.
    * Serpentshrine Cavern
          o Boss creatures have received additional tuning and polish.
    * Arcatraz
          o Warder and Defender Corpses are now immune to spell effects that could cause the Protean Spawn to not spawn.
          o Protean Spawn now deal less damage.
    * Tempest Keep Mechanar
          o Mechanar Drillers, Wreckers, and Crushers in Tempest Keep: The Mechanar may no longer be enslaved when in Heroic mode.
    * Caverns of Time
          o Captain Skarloc in Caverns of Time: Escape from Durnholde is no longer susceptible to disarm, and does not slow down when wounded.
          o A defeat in the Caverns of Time: Opening of the Dark Portal instance will no longer despawn unlooted bosses with loot.
          o Occasionally after players are defeated in the Caverns of Time: Opening of the Dark Portal encounter on Heroic difficulty, the placeholder versions of the bosses that appear in future attempts that day would not spawn. The proper placeholders will now spawn instead of Rift Lords and Rift Keepers.
          o Boss creatures in Caverns of Time: Opening of the Dark Portal will now dispel all nearby Time Keepers instead of one at a time.
    * Karazhan
          o Maiden of Virtue's "Holy Wrath" has been slightly retuned to try and allow additional melee attackers to be used against her.
          o Maiden of Virtue's "Holy Fire" has been adjusted to prevent a possible range exploit.
          o Maiden of Virtue will no longer "Holy Fire" players under the effect of "Repentance".
          o Midnight is no longer susceptible to Bleed effects, since he's a skeletal horse.
          o Nightbane's Restless Skeletons are now immune to non-holy magical damage.
          o Restless Skeletons no longer have immolation.
          o Nightbane's Bone Shard Spray can no longer be interrupted by using an immunity effect.
          o Some minor issues with the Library Tomes have been corrected.

Bug Fixes

    * Fixed the credits to display properly.

[Quark]

Overheard at the Blizzard headquarters ...

Hmm, Arena weapon costs 2H compared to 1H are kinda screwy. How can we resolve the issue in a way that only harms one subset of the game? I know, we'll do some silly MH/OH thing, thus making Mutilate Rogues pay more than everybody else for the same level of gear!

Also, Arena weapons in general are too cheap.

[Artega]

Overheard at the Blizzard headquarters ...
Also, Arena weapons in general are too cheap.

They did it just to piss you off, Quark.

I was hoping for some new engineering prints so I can finally start my rep grind with Aldor or Scryer, but I guess I'll have to be happy with my shiny new chickengun.

As for the Warrior changes, I effing LOVE them. And they said that tclap in Defensive wasn't gonna happen:)

[TheDragoon]

My first impression:

Druid tanking - Mega, uber, crazy, super nerfed.
Shadow Priests - Mega nerf.
Warrior tanking - buffed nicely

I really think that they went overboard on the Druid bearform nerfs. They just lost 20% of damage off of special attacks, 25% damage off of mangle, 5% damage off of crits (all of these translate to direct threat nerfs, as well), ~10% less armor in bear form as well as a fair amount of health (not sure, exactly, how much at the moment) all in one fell swoop. This seems to be another example of several Blizzard teams deciding, independantly, to nerf a specific attribute about a class, at the same time, without talking to one another. I'll grant that the Druid bearform was very powerful, currently (probably a bit too powerful) but these are really over the top.

Shadow Priests just lost a bit of utility (in the VE nerf) and a lot of threat reduction (Silent Resolve) in addition to the general priest nerf to prayer of mending (which was probably warranted). The threat reduction is the killer, here, because shadow priests have always been tough on aggro.

Warriors can now use thunderclap in defensive stance and it appears to be a good option for generating multi-target threat. Oh, and Warriors get back all of the rage that they lost with the original normalization. Big buffs here.

[Quark]

My first impression:

Druid tanking - Mega, uber, crazy, super nerfed.
Shadow Priests - Mega nerf.
Warrior tanking - buffed nicely

I really think that they went overboard on the Druid bearform nerfs. They just lost 20% of damage off of special attacks, 25% damage off of mangle, 5% damage off of crits (all of these translate to direct threat nerfs, as well), ~10% less armor in bear form as well as a fair amount of health (not sure, exactly, how much at the moment) all in one fell swoop. This seems to be another example of several Blizzard teams deciding, independantly, to nerf a specific attribute about a class, at the same time, without talking to one another. I'll grant that the Druid bearform was very powerful, currently (probably a bit too powerful) but these are really over the top.

I'm betting by the time they're done nerfing Druid damage, their threat will need a significant boost, along the lines of the threat bonuses they already removed from Swipe and Maul. I still believe they nerfed the wrong thing when those threat bonuses were removed.

[MongoJerry]

Shadow Priests just lost a bit of utility (in the VE nerf) and a lot of threat reduction (Silent Resolve) in addition to the general priest nerf to prayer of mending (which was probably warranted). The threat reduction is the killer, here, because shadow priests have always been tough on aggro.

Nah, the nerfs to shadow priests are minor. There're already talents in the shadow tree to reduce aggro on shadow spells by 8% per rank up to three. The real nerf here is Prayer of Mending. I can understand why it needed some nerfing, but a 20 second cooldown seems excessive. 10 seconds would knock off severe abuse while still keeping the spell a good level 68 spell to get. With this nerf, healing priests have gone from being powerful surviveable tools in PvP to being punching bags for every warrior or rogue with halfway decent gear. Dang it. I was looking forward to playing a healing priest in PvP. Now I'll have to do some kind of hybrid thing again.

[Kevin]

I'm betting by the time they're done nerfing Druid damage, their threat will need a significant boost, along the lines of the threat bonuses they already removed from Swipe and Maul. I still believe they nerfed the wrong thing when those threat bonuses were removed.

Yeah the damage reduction to bear these changes make seem in line to me, bear damage was too high.

I don't know if the threat reduction this will do is too much though. But yeah I think they may have to put extra aggro back on swipe. I've yet to see a druid have aggro issues on a single target so this might not be too bad for that. This is going to hurt multi target aggro right when they give warriors a huge boost to multi target aggro. Imp T-clap in battle stance was already about 1/2 - 3/4 of a sunder. Now you get to do it in def stance. I can't see druids keeping up remotely with paladins and warriors on mutli mob aggro now. So they will have to do something to help swipe aggro again I think.

But yeah they didn't include those changes but I agree they might have to.



I still don't get the nerfs to shadow priests. PoM changes seem fine to me, it doesn't completely invalidate shaman's chain heals anymore. It was too good. And while the shadow priest changes may be small, shadow priests weren't uber strong to begin with. I just don't understand why, but I could be missing something.


Warriors may have been over buffed as well. I still didn't see huge rage issues with my warrior or the warriors I played with.


We'll see how it works out. I'll admit druids may have been nerfed too much but well they were buffed too much in 2.0 anyway, at least I felt that way.

[Trien]

Re: Druid changes.

Not having actually played on the test realm I can't give any numbers of my own, but judging from some numbers others have reported and the numbers given in the patch notes...

The armour and HP nerfs while not insignificant, aren't that terribly distressing to me.

The bear damage nerf on the other hand, is of concern, namely in threat generation. While bear damage is tending on the high side currently, in terms of bear agro generation and how much damage is actually required to hold agro against the players who I play with, getting my agro cut by about 1/3 is going to be a pretty big problem.

Increased rage generation is all and good when you're not tanking in a raid, but when you've pretty much got unlimited rage from the damage taken, it doesn't do much good against the nerf to agro.

And Swipe... what is the point of Swipe again?

[Warlock]

I logged KV onto the PTR to check changes. Same talent build as live (though Savage Fury is now pointless).

The green items with masses of free armour are all unchanged for now.

Unbuffed HP went from 11805 to 10872; armour from 20095 to 18317. No big deal. I wonder why they nerfed the class instead of the relevant overbudget items.

Swipe against critters went from 318 to 219. Ouch. Threat wise that's just 14% better than Swipe was in patch 1.8 at level 60 and I know I need a lot more than 14% more healing than I did then.

I need to do some math on physical mitigation compared to warriors and multiple-target threat generation compared to the new thunderclap but it's almost midnight here. If there is still a niche where Druid tanks are preferred it's a lot smaller.

[TheDragoon]

\Unbuffed HP went from 11805 to 10872; armour from 20095 to 18317. No big deal. I wonder why they nerfed the class instead of the relevant overbudget items.

That's still an 8% reduction in life and an 8.5% reduction in armor. That sort of thing really starts to add up, particularly when Druids were already being beaten out by warriors in terms of overall damage mitigation, particularly against magical attacks. :(

Swipe against critters went from 318 to 219. Ouch. Threat wise that's just 14% better than Swipe was in patch 1.8 at level 60 and I know I need a lot more than 14% more healing than I did then.

And remember that Swipe and Maul no longer have their scaling threat modifier. Swipe has no modifier and Maul has a flat bonus. As was mentioned above, I expect this to be a pretty major drop-off in threat generation. Granted, Druid threat was probably a little above where it should have been, but this is definitely taking it too far, in my opinion.

I need to do some math on physical mitigation compared to warriors and multiple-target threat generation compared to the new thunderclap but it's almost midnight here. If there is still a niche where Druid tanks are preferred it's a lot smaller.

My main worry is that Druid tanking will no longer be competitive with protection warrior tanking at all. I guess time will tell, but I get the feeling that Blizzard has definitely not thought things through with these changes. The only way a Druid is going to be competitive is if they get some better itemization for tanking but I just don't really see that happening.

[Mavfin]

I logged KV onto the PTR to check changes. Same talent build as live (though Savage Fury is now pointless).

The green items with masses of free armour are all unchanged for now.

Unbuffed HP went from 11805 to 10872; armour from 20095 to 18317. No big deal. I wonder why they nerfed the class instead of the relevant overbudget items.

Swipe against critters went from 318 to 219. Ouch. Threat wise that's just 14% better than Swipe was in patch 1.8 at level 60 and I know I need a lot more than 14% more healing than I did then.

I need to do some math on physical mitigation compared to warriors and multiple-target threat generation compared to the new thunderclap but it's almost midnight here. If there is still a niche where Druid tanks are preferred it's a lot smaller.

I wouldn't get worried about the (druid) threat nerf. Lots of warriors were crying that they wouldn't be able to hold aggro with their changes, and it turned out to be much ado about nothing. Druids will end up the same. Skilled players will do well, unskilled will have to learn to do better. What this may have changed is that joe pug druid may not have it any easier than joe pug warrior tank. Both will have to work at it now.

Nice buffs to the warrior. With even more rage, my *prot* warrior will do real damage now. Interesting. And, even more rage for tanking, even though I personally had all I needed. Now if joe pug tank could actually tank...oh, wait, what was I smoking?

And, TD, you may have lost your niche again. #1 damage AND tanking at the same time. That was a little much, anyway.

Edit: Did anyone catch the TF proc nerf? Wondered if they were going to let it stay the #1 threat weap.

[Monkey]

The big question my priest friends are asking (and Mongo hinted at it): "How did PoM make it through Blizzard's internal testing without someone seeing that it would get spammed?"

I'm really trying not to be hyperbolic about the nerfs, but most of my friends and guildmates play Priests or Druids. It's not uncommon for me to look at the guild tab on any given night and see that 60% of the people are "healer" classes while the others have "healer" alts. The net effect of these changes is a nerf to my guild, so my friends and I will feel them quite acutely. We really enjoyed our Shadow Priests + Bear(s) instance runs and we thought it was "Working as Intended". In our minds, it made sense to have good synergies between off-spec "healers". A viable alternative to tank-and-spank, if you will.

/sigh

Responding to the comment that Druid changes were the result of "QQers", Drysc said:

We commonly take feedback or our own play experience and then put that to work testing and evaluating a specific class, ability, item, etc. There are some straight up nerfs in this patch, and that's from our testing showing that Druid damage was just much higher than we would like to see bear form doing. The threat generation was far and beyond what we would have thought or intended, and this type of information on what a class is able to perform is based on internal testing and statistical information.

We take ideas, suggestions, and feedback and take that into an investigation of any possible issue. We're balancing classes based on evidence and our own design of how we would like classes to function.

QQers need not apply. They're weeded out as soon as the numbers hit the table.

(emphasis mine)

I'd like to see these numbers and the assumptions on which they're based. What were the gear levels and situations? PvE and/or PvP? Was the mob used for threat testing able to bleed (i.e., was Lacerate included)? What DPS were the weapons being used against PoM? There are many questions about their assumptions but they assure us that internal testing validated the need for these changes before the PTRs came out.

Wait, is that the same "internal testing" that let Live get into this situation in the first place? :huh:

[Bolty]

The big question my priest friends are asking (and Mongo hinted at it): "How did PoM make it through Blizzard's internal testing without someone seeing that it would get spammed?"

The thing non-Priests are forgetting is:

1) PoM scales poorly with greater +heal gear, so as time goes on it will be less and less effective vs the incoming DPS which always outpaces healing

2) Power Word: Shield continues to barely scale at all to gear, so we needed something else instant-cast to protect ourselves. Oh well, back to being a free assist-train waste in PvP.

-Bolty

[nobbie]

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

Code:

Druids

    * "Bear Form" now grants 25% increased stamina instead of 25% increased health.
    * "Dire Bear Form" now grants 25% increased stamina instead of 25% increased health. In addition, the armor bonus has been reduced from 450% to 400%.
    * The multiplier on base weapon damage for "Mangle (Bear)" ability has been changed from 130% to 100%. In addition, the bonus damage has been reduced by the same ratio.
    * "Savage Fury" no longer affects "Mangle (Bear)".
    * "Savage Fury" no longer applies to "Maul" or "Swipe".
    * The critical damage bonus on "Predatory Instincts" reduced from 3/6/9/12/15% to 2/4/6/8/10%.
    * "Improved Leader of the Pack" can no longer get critical heals.

;)

[Quark]

I've heard the main reason for the PoM nerf was PvP based. So now we're balancing skills based off people playing wrong? If you focus fire correctly, PoM is not going to counter you severely.

[Warlock]

I wouldn't get worried about the (druid) threat nerf. Lots of warriors were crying that they wouldn't be able to hold aggro with their changes, and it turned out to be much ado about nothing. Druids will end up the same. Skilled players will do well, unskilled will have to learn to do better. What this may have changed is that joe pug druid may not have it any easier than joe pug warrior tank. Both will have to work at it now.

Nice buffs to the warrior. With even more rage, my *prot* warrior will do real damage now. Interesting. And, even more rage for tanking, even though I personally had all I needed. Now if joe pug tank could actually tank...oh, wait, what was I smoking?

And, TD, you may have lost your niche again. #1 damage AND tanking at the same time. That was a little much, anyway.

Edit: Did anyone catch the TF proc nerf? Wondered if they were going to let it stay the #1 threat weap.

A 30% drop in threat is no small adjustment. That's like removing the bonus from defensive stance. I felt the Druid HP and armour edge was a little high so the 10% of each there doesn't phase me, I just wish they'd done it by fixing the overbudget items.

By niche I mean "when is a Druid tank preferable to a Warrior or Paladin tank". If the answer is "never" then the spec is pointless. I believe a 5-man should do just as well with any of the tanking classes in that role and that a raid should want one of each so they can use each in the fights best suited to the class.

[Artega]

We commonly take feedback or our own play experience and then put that to work testing and evaluating a specific class, ability, item, etc. There are some straight up nerfs in this patch, and that's from our testing showing that Druid damage was just much higher than we would like to see bear form doing. The threat generation was far and beyond what we would have thought or intended, and this type of information on what a class is able to perform is based on internal testing and statistical information.

We take ideas, suggestions, and feedback and take that into an investigation of any possible issue. We're balancing classes based on evidence and our own design of how we would like classes to function.

QQers need not apply. They're weeded out as soon as the numbers hit the table

-Drysc.

Not sure where this came from. General, probably. Someone quoted him on our realm forum while gloating about the Druid nerfs.

[Monkey]

Not sure where this came from. General, probably. Someone quoted him on our realm forum while gloating about the Druid nerfs.

My Internal Testing team assured me you wouldn't need source links to Drysc's quote.;)

Link
Also from BlueTracker.

[Mavfin]

A 30% drop in threat is no small adjustment. That's like removing the bonus from defensive stance. I felt the Druid HP and armour edge was a little high so the 10% of each there doesn't phase me, I just wish they'd done it by fixing the overbudget items.

By niche I mean "when is a Druid tank preferable to a Warrior or Paladin tank". If the answer is "never" then the spec is pointless. I believe a 5-man should do just as well with any of the tanking classes in that role and that a raid should want one of each so they can use each in the fights best suited to the class.

We used ferals in raids when needed in 1.x. We should see them in 2.x, too. And, I saw a ton of posts by warriors that looked just like the above. Really, it'll all settle out. The sky hasn't fallen:D

[Mirajj]

I've heard the main reason for the PoM nerf was PvP based. So now we're balancing skills based off people playing wrong? If you focus fire correctly, PoM is not going to counter you severely.

They've been screwing over PvE due to PvP whining for a long, long time. I don't see them stopping now.