World of Warcraft 2.0.3

[Bolty]

Notes--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- World of Warcraft Client Patch 2.0.3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The latest patch notes can always be found at
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/und … plemented/

The Burning Crusade
- Several years have passed since the Burning Legion's defeat at the
Battle of Mount Hyjal - and the races of Azeroth have continued to
rebuild their once shattered kingdoms. With renewed strength, the
heroes of the Horde and Alliance have begun to explore the broken
lands beyond the Dark Portal. What dangers or rewards await mortal
champions in Draenor? And what will the Alliance and Horde do when
they discover that the demons they thought vanquished have returned
to renew their terrible Burning Crusade?

General
- A stirring of events has begun throughout Azeroth and rumor points
to the Dark Portal as its source.
- Mazk Snipeshot in Booty Bay now sells bullets.
- The Auction House now sorts by buyout price first, then by current
price. This should filter all of the items with outlandish buyout
prices to the bottom of the list.
- Players will now need to be level 58 to pass through the Dark Portal.
(The Burning Crusade Expansion must be installed.)
- Collector Edition pets are now blue items and a confirmation
dialogue will appear to prevent accidental deletion.
- Pets will no longer attack targets that are under the influence of
crowd control (sheep, banish, etc.).
- The title "Scarab Lord" can now be chosen in game for select players.

PvP
- Players can use the /teamquit or /teamdisband command in order to
leave an Arena team.
- A new bracket has been added to Alterac Valley for level 61-70.
- Added a sorting function so that the battleground and scoreboard can
be sorted by any of the categories.
- Healthstones and summoned warlock pets will no longer cost a
soulshard to summon in the Arena preparation area. All summoned
items and pets will be dismissed on leaving the arena.
- The last pet a player had summoned will be resummoned outside the
Arena upon leaving.

Druids
- Due to various talent changes, all Druids will have all their talent
points refunded.
- "Feline Swiftness" has been renamed "Feral Swiftness". The dodge %
increase now also applies to Bear and Dire Bear Forms.
- "Improved Moonfire" has been reduced to 2 ranks, for a 5/10% bonus.
- "Insect Swarm" has had its damage on all ranks increased. The mana
cost of ranks 1 and 3 has been increased. The mana cost of ranks 4,5
and 6 has been decreased.
- "Nurturing Instinct" now grants its benefit at all times, but the
bonus has been reduced to 25/50% of Strength.
- "Improved Starfire" has been renamed to "Celestial Focus" and now
also increases the chance to resist casting pushback when casting
"Wrath" by 25/50/70%.
- "Blood Frenzy" benefits have merged with "Primal Fury".
- "Improved Leader of the Pack" has been reduced to 2 ranks for 2/4%
total health healed.
- "Pounce" no longer requires the druid to be behind the target.
- "Barkskin" is now usable while stunned.
- Druids now need substantially less agility per dodge.
- "Dire Bear Form" armor bonus increased to 450% and health bonus
changed to a 25% percent health increase instead of a flat increase.
- The Health bonus of "Bear Form" has changed to a 25% percent health
increase instead of a flat increase.
- "Swipe" has had its threat bonus multiplier removed.
- "Maul" has had its threat bonus multiplier changed to a flat value
similar in threat per time to "Heroic Strike".
- "Regrowth" has had its mana cost reduced by approximately 18%.
- "Tree of Life" healing bonus now increases the healing received
by your party members instead of the healing dealt by your party members.
- The "Tranquility" base amount healed per second has increased by
approximately 273%. The radius of effect has increased from 20 yards
to 30 yards. Mana cost has increased by 40%. The Cooldown has
increased from 5 minutes to 10 minutes. The Duration has decreased
from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
- "Mangle" will not stack multiple copies from multiple forms or
druids anymore. This was never intended behavior. The percentage
modification on bleeds has increased from 25% to 30% and "Mangle"
now increases the damage from "Shred" as well. In addition, "Mangle"
will now benefit from the damage boost from "Tiger's Fury".
- "Enrage" will now show up in the combat log and in floating combat text.
- "Lifebloom" will now correctly consume clearcasting.
- "Predatory Instincts" has had its tooltip adjusted to indicate it
only works in feral forms, and that it increases damage by a percent,
not damage bonus by a percent.
- If a spell is resisted, it will no longer break stealth.
- "Tree of Life's" bonus healing aura will now reactivate correctly
when "Banish" wears off.
- Shapeshifted druids will now be able to speak to npcs while
shapeshifted.

Hunters
- "Multi-Shot" has had its mana cost adjusted back to a value closer to its pre-2.0.1 version.
- If your pet has been recently revived by using "Call Pet", it will
no longer reset back to full health.
- If a Hunter "Wyvern Stings" an enemy already asleep from
"Wyvern Sting", the "Wyvern Sting" sleep will now be reapplied
correctly.

Mages
- "Frost Nova" (Water Elemental Spell) has been renamed to "Freeze".
- "Ice Lance" is now correctly affected by "Elemental Precision".
- "Ice Armor"is now correctly affected by "Elemental Precision".
- "Frost Armor" is now correctly affected by "Elemental Precision".
- Mages will no longer see line of sight errors if the target moves
behind an obstacle after the spell "Arcane Missiles" has begun
casting.
- "Blazing Speed" no longer PROCs while the caster is mounted.

Paladins
- "Blessing of Might" now also increases ranged attack power.
- "Improved Righteous Fury" now also reduces all damage taken while
active by 2/4/6%.
- "Improved Divine Shield" (Protection Talent) has been renamed
"Sacred Duty" and now also increases total Stamina by 3/6%.
- "Improved Resistance Auras" has been renamed "Spell Warding",
reduces all spell damage taken by the Paladin and is no longer
tied to Resistance Auras.
- We have fixed a bug where the damage bonus from "Holy Guidance" was
being added to physical attacks.
- "Divine Illumination's" duration has been increased to 15 sec, from
10 sec.
- There will no longer be a slight delay on receiving the buff from
"Light's Grace" when it occurs.

Priests
- "Mass Dispel" will no longer cause stealthed Rogues and prowling
Druids to lose stealth.
- "Surge of Light" (Holy Talent) can no longer be triggered by using items.

Rogues

- Due to various talent changes, Rogues will have all talent
points refunded.
- "Evasion" (Rank 2) now reduces the chance that ranged attacks will
hit the Rogue by 25%, reduced from 50%. It is now available at level
50.
- The "Cloak of Shadows" cooldown has been reduced to 1 min, from
2 min. Now a trainable ability at level 66.
- "Shadowstep" (New Subtlety Talent) attempts to step through the
shadows and reappear behind your enemy. Your next "Ambush",
"Backstab" or "Garrote" ability is increased by 20% and lasts 10
sec. This is only usable while stealthed.
- "Premeditation" (Subtlety Talent) has had its range increased to 30 yards.
- "Preparation" now only resets the cooldown of the "Evasion",
"Sprint", "Vanish", "Cold Blood", "Adrenaline Rush" and
"Premeditation" abilities.
- "Wound Poison" now causes damage and reduces all healing by 10%,
stacks up to 5 times.
- The Cooldown for "Blind" has been reduced to 3 min, from 5 min.
- There is no longer a random chance the effect of "Sap" will end
(i.e. removed the heartbeat resist check). The effect will still
end early when the target is damaged.
- Each rank of "Weapon Expertise"now provides 5 weapon skill.
- "Surprise Attacks" now increases the damage from "Sinister Strike",
"Backstab", "Shiv" and "Gouge" by 10% instead of 8%.
- Resisted spells will no longer break "Stealth"/"Vanish".
- Combo points added to a target should not be reset until you add a
combo point to a different target.

Shaman
- "Earth Shock" no longer causes increased threat.
- "Frost Shock" now causes increased threat.
- The training cost for "Strength of Earth Totem (Rank 5)" is now correct.
- "Nature's Guardian" will now work properly even when you don't have
an enemy targeted.

Warlocks
- Melee damage of "Felguard" has been reduced.
- The damage increase component of "Soul Link" has been improved. The
damage mitigation component has been reduced.
- The cooldown of "Shadowfury" has been reduced to 20 sec, from 1 min.
- The mana cost of "Soul Fire" has been reduced by approximately 45%.
- The feedback from dispelling "Unstable Affliction" is now affected
by "Shadow Mastery".
- Pets will again have their mana reset to full in addition to their
health when first summoned.
- "Demonic Resilience" will now properly reduce pet damage taken.
- Fire objects in the game world (bonfires, braziers) will no longer
trigger "Nether Protection".
- When a Warlock is under the effects of "Backlash" and "Nightfall",
only one of the effects will be consumed by a "Shadow Bolt" cast.

Warriors
- "Weapon Mastery" Rank 2 of this talent now grants full immunity to
"Disarm" mechanics, and will properly display "Immune" when a
"Disarm" is attempted.
- "Slam's" swing time is no longer slowed by damage taken.
- "Rampage's" rage cost has been reduced to 20.
- The daze portion of "Piercing Howl" will now still land even if the
target is already snared.
- The bonus threat of "Devastate" on all ranks has been increased.
Bonus threat will no longer decrease as ranks increase.

Items
- The energy gained from "Thistle Tea" now decreases with levels past
40.
- "Idol of Ferocity" now increases "Claw" and "Rake" damage instead
of reducing energy cost.
- "Idol of Brutality" now increases "Maul" and "Swipe" damage instead
of reducing rage cost.
- "Idol of Health" now provides bonus healing on "Healing Touch"
instead of reducing its cast time.
- The rage gained from "Gri'lek's Charm of Might" now decreases with
levels past 60.
- The energy gained from "Renataki's Charm of Trickery" now decreases
with levels past 60.
- "Renataki's Charm of Beasts" no longer resets the cooldown on Arcane
Shot.
- "Wushoolay's Charm of Nature" now provides haste rating instead of
reducing "Healing Touch" cast time.
- "Wushoolay's Charm of Spirits" now increases "Lightning Shield"
damage by a flat amount instead of a percentage.
- "Hazza'rah's Charm of Destruction" now increases spell crit rating
instead of spell crit percent.
- "Hazza'rah's Charm of Magic" now increases Arcane spell damage
instead of providing a spell crit bonus.
- "Tidal Charm" Now has a chance of failure against targets over level
60.
- "The Black Book" now provides a flat amount of spell power, attack
power, and armor to your pet, instead of by a percentage.
- "Rune of Metamorphosis" now reduces mana cost of shape#$%&ing by a
flat amount, instead of by a percentage.
- "Lifegiving Gem" now provides 1500 healing and bonus max health
instead of a percentage of your max health.
- "Venomous Totem" now increases damage dealt by "Instant Poison" and
"Deadly Poison" instead of increasing poison land chance.
- "Natural Alignment Crystal" now increases Nature spell damage by a
flat amount instead of by a percentage.
- "Pristine South Seas Kelp" now provides spell crit rating instead
of spell crit chance.
- "Devilsaur Tooth" now grants your pet crit rating instead of a
guaranteed crit.
- "Wail of the Banshee" now has a chance of failure against targets
over level 60.
- The threat reduction from Fetish of the Sand Reaver now decreases
with levels past 60.
- The threat reduction from "Eye of Diminution" now decreases with
levels past 60.
- "Stygian Buckler" now has a chance of failure against targets over
level 60.
- "Horned Viking Helmet" now has a chance of failure against targets
over level 60.
- "Gnomish Mind Control Cap" now has a greater chance of failure
against targets over level 60.
- "Goblin Rocket Helmet" now has a chance of failure against targets
over level 60.
- "Clutch of Foresight" now has a chance of failure against targets
over level 60.
- "Flash Bomb" now has a chance of failure against targets over level
60.
- The "Green Dragon Mail" Set +15% mana regenerationhas been replaced
with 20 mana per 5 sec.
- The "Vestments of Transcendence" Set +15% mana regeneration has been
replaced with 20 mana per 5 sec.
- The "Stormrage Raiment Set" +15% mana regeneration has been replaced
with 20 mana per 5 sec.
- The Thunderclap set bonus for "Conqueror's Battlegear" is no longer
cumulative with the "Thunderclap" talent.
- The reduction in cooldown on Rapid Fire from the "Striker's Garb"
Set bonus is no longer cumulative with the "Rapid Killing" talent.
- The Paladin abilities Flash of Light and Holy Light will again
correctly use charges from the "Zandalarian Hero Charim".
- The Paladin abilities Flash of Light and Holy Light will again
correctly activate charges from the "Talisman of Ascendence".
- Collector's Edition pets are now be blue items.

Professions
- Enchantments
- The Crusader Enchantment now decreases in potency for wielders above
level 60.
- The Icy Chill Enchantment now decreases in potency for wielders above
level 60.
- The Lifestealing Enchantment now decreases in potency for wielders
above level 60.
- Blacksmithing/Leatherworking specialization has changed with
specialization providing recipes to make powerful items that only
you can wear. You can now unlearn a blacksmithing or leatherworking
specialization and learn a different one by finding the appropriate
NPC, paying the fee to unlearn your old specialization, and then
find the new specialist to learn a new one. Also, all of the old
blacksmithing/leatherworking recipes that required specialization no
longer require it and can be learned by any blacksmith/leatherworker.
- Silver/Golden/Mystic/Runic Spellthread have been increased in power.

User Interface
- The Auction House will now sort items first by buyout price then by
current price.
- Added a new option to the Looking for Group and Looking for More
panel to choose Heroic Mode Dungeons.
- Players will now be able to pull out a pet window to see all the
pets in the raid.
- Added Ranged and Spell stats as a display option for the G15
keyboard.
- Updated the Sound Options menu to include a checkbox for Hardware
Acceleration and a slider for Sound Channels.
PC default is "Hardware Acceleration = ON" and "Sound Channels = LOW".
Players that experience poor system performance can set "Hardware
Acceleration=OFF" which may improve performance but will disable any
EAX (reverberation) effects supported by their sound card.
Players with more powerful systems can raise the "Sound Channels"
slider to increase the number of simultaneous sounds in the game,
providing a more immersive soundscape.
Mac users will not have a checkbox or slider available due to the
Mac's default setting of "Hardware Acceleration = OFF" and the
"Sound Channels = HIGH".
- Updated the Sound Options menu to include a checkbox for Hardware
Sound.
- API Changes
NEW: Dismount()
NEW: equippable = IsEquippableItem(item)
NEW: link = GetInboxItemLink(index)
NEW: button = GetMouseButtonClicked() -- Returns the name of the
button that triggered a mouse down/up/click/doubleclick event.
NEW: hasMacro = CursorHasMacro()
NEW: "item", itemID, link = GetCursorInfo() OR "spell", slot,
"spell" or "pet" = GetCursorInfo() OR "macro", index =
GetCursorInfo() OR "money", amount = GetCursorInfo()
- Macro Features
NEW: /dismount
/castsequence will equip items if they need to be equipped, and use
them otherwise.
The following commands now support the [target=unit] macro option
syntax: /startattack, /petattack, /target, /assist, /focus
If you add a #showtooltip line to your macro, it will show the
tooltip of the item or spell in addition to the normal visual
feedback.
A unit's name can be used anywhere a unit token can be used. e.g.
if you had the player Desmondia in your party, /cast
[target=Desmondia]Flash Heal, would cast Flash Heal on her.
This will only work for the player, pet, party members and pets,
and raid members and pets. You can use "-target" or "-pet" to
indicate the target or pet of the named unit, e.g. /cast
[target=Desmondia-target,harm] Shadow Word: Pain
- Key Bindings
Holding down ctrl, alt, shift, x will check keybindings in the
following order: ALT-CTRL-SHIFT-X, CTRL-SHIFT-X, ALT-SHIFT-X,
ALT-CTRL-X, SHIFT-X, CTRL-X, ALT-X, X
Key bindings that directly cast spells or use items now respect the
self-cast modifier.
- Frame Methods
UPDATED: protected, explicit = Frame:IsProtected() -- New 'explicit'
return value
- Tooltip Methods
NEW: isUnit = Tooltip:IsUnit("unit")
NEW: name = Tooltip:GetUnit()
NEW: name, link = Tooltip:GetItem()
NEW: name, rank = Tooltip:GetSpell()
Added several script handlers which are called when the tooltip is
set to a unit, item, or spell: OnTooltipSetUnit, OnTooltipSetItem,
OnTooltipSetSpell
- Cooldown Indicators
There's a new cooldown indicator frame that replaces the previous
model file. The old syntax: <Model
inherits="CooldownFrameTemplate"/> should be replaced by
<Cooldown inherits="CooldownFrameTemplate"/>
- Secure Templates
Added an action type "attribute" to secure action buttons which
sets an arbitrary attribute on an arbitrary frame.
Added support for state header resizing and re-parenting on state
changes.
- Saved Variables
[quote]s that are stored as saved variables are now saved using lua's
array initializer syntax for optimal memory usage and performance on
load.
- Bug Fixes
Unit frames will respond to modified clicks by default.
Action buttons no longer use shift-click to pick up actions, but
instead use shift-drag. This frees up the shift modifier for use
in macros or as a self-cast modifier.
MovePad will work again.
Fixed taint issues with the unit menus (dueling, dismissing pets,
etc.)
Fixed taint issues with CloseLoot()
Fixed taint issues with PickupContainerItem()
Fixed taint issue with raid UI not showing in combat (buttons in main
raid UI are no longer secure unit buttons)
Fixed /reply in macros
Fixed a bug where /petattack would target the nearest unit, not the
nearest live enemy unit.
The macro "button:N" conditional will work with either the real
button clicked or the state-header-remapped button that launched the
macro.
/click now works with secure action buttons
Fixed issue whereby creating Textures/FontStrings from a template
used the template name instead of the specified region name.

Mac
- The "Enable sound in background" option is now implemented, default
on Mac is "on" as before.
- Fixed an issue with SetBindingItem, SetBindingSpell, SetBindingMacro
LUA functions.
- Addressed a graphics issue where changing the WorldFrame's
coordinates would show a field of the fog color in the area outside
of the world view instead of black, on NVIDIA GPU's, when indoors,
with Full Screen Glow enabled.
- Addressed a graphics issue affecting NVIDIA GeForce3 and GeForce 4Ti
GPU's when certain particle effects were visible on screen such as
Naxxramas loot.
- Music looping is now fixed.

Bug Fixes
- Characters on your friends list that are deleted will now properly
be removed from the friends list.
- Players will now be put back into the cross-realm battleground raid
group after relogging from a force quit.
- You will now be able to remove players from other realms from your
ignore list after leaving the battleground.
- Players who return from a disconnect in an Arena battle will now be
correctly credited as being alive by the scoreboard.
- When you craft an item with a random property, it will now display it
has random properties in the crafting UI.
- Characters will no longer be rooted in place until logout when being
force-quit during the opening cinematic.
- Pet statistics will now appear in green when being buffed by an
outside source.
- You should now get the mail indicator when your inventory is too
full after leaving a battleground.
- Spell penetration should now properly update on the character sheet.
- Certain throwing weapons will no longer be consumed when used as a
throwing weapon.
- Certain throwing weapons have had a damage range added to their
tooltip.
- Reduced the cost of some battleground rewards.
- The druid Restoration Talent "Tree of Life" healing buff is no
longer being removed from the Druid if afflicted by a "Banish" spell.
- "Moonkin Form" and "Tree of Life" form now have a casting animation
for "Warstomp".
- The druid talent skill "Tree of Life" now has a swimming animation.
- Adjusted the tooltip for Barkskin to reflect the proper functionality.
- "Insect Swarm" Rank 6 will now benefit from the clearcasting effect
from "Omen of Clarity".
- The hunter spell "Volley" has had its tooltip updated to reflect
that it is channeled.
- The hunter spell "Flare" will now properly reveal Mages that used
"Invisibility".
- The tooltip for the crit bonus granted to feral druid from the
talent "Predatory Instincts" will now reflect the proper amount.
- The hunter Marksmanship ability "Silencing Shot" is now triggering
the "Auto-Shot" ability after using the ability.
- "Misdirection" will now redirect the threat from "Distracting Shot".
- "Serpent Sting's" initial, non-threatening application no longer
consumes a charge of Misdirection.
- "Disengage" now reduces threat on the misdirected target and also
consumes one charge of "Misdirection".
- Hunter Survival talent "Wyvern Sting" at Rank 4 will now cause the
correct amount of damage as indicated in the tooltip.
- The hunter Survival Talent "Readiness" will now finish the cooldown
of the ability "Wyvern Sting".
- Mages using "Molten Armor" on themselves and being hit while casting
"Arcane Missiles" or "Blizzard" will no longer cancel the spells.
- The mage spell "Ice Armor" will now be affected by the talent "Frost
Warding".
- "Spellsteal" and "Detect Magic" now benefit from the mage talent
Arcane Focus.
- The mage spell "Arcane Blast" will now receive the mana reduction
benefits from "Clearcasting".
- The mage spell "Fire Ward" rank 6 will now properly overwrite
previous ranks of "Fire Ward".
- "Ice block" will now make a mage immune to "Avenger's shield".
- "Blazing Speed" will now remove movement impairing effects when it
procs.
- Casting "Ice Lance" will no longer consume the mage's talent
"Presence of Mind" buff.
- "Arcane Missiles" will no longer continue to channel after the
target is dead.
- "Ice Lance", "Frost Armor", and "Ice Armor" will now receive the
benefits from the mage talent Elemental Precision.
- The mage Fire talent "Critical Mass" will now properly update on
the character sheet UI.
- The paladin holy talent "Holy Guidance" will now effect damage from
"Seal of Righteousness".
- "Benediction" will now decrease the mana cost of "Seal of Blood".
- "Shadow Word Death" will no longer do damage to the casting priest
when resisted.
- "Holy Fire" (rank 9) cast time has been adjusted for consistency with
all other ranks of "Holy Fire" to 3.5 seconds.
- The priest Discipline talent "Reflective Shield" will no longer
cause the recipient of the shield to perform a cast animation every
time the shield reflects damage.
- "Prayer of Mending" no longer procs the heal when all damage is
absorbed.
- Priests backlash effect of "Shadow Word: Death" will now properly
be applied and can no longer be resisted.
- The visual effect of "Shadowform" will no longer persist if disabled
while mounted.
- Updated the tooltip on "Cloak of Shadows" with the additional line,
"Does not remove effects that prevent you from using Cloak of Shadows."
- The rogue Assassination Talent "Quick Recovery" will no longer
refunding energy back to the Rogue if a finishing move is partially blocked.
- A "Vanished" rogue will no longer be taken out of their
"vanished state" when they resist a spell.
- The rogue Assasination talent "Find Weakness" will now work properly
with the finishing move "Deadly Throw".
- Using the rogue ability "Mutilate" when not behind your target will
no longer initiate combat.
- The rogue ability "Slice and Dice" will no longer be reported twice
in floating combat text when used.
- "Mind-Numbing Poison" will no longer stack with both
"Curse of Tongues" and "Slow".
- The shaman talent "Totemic Mastery" will now increase
"Wrath of Air Totem's" radius.
- The shaman talents "Elemental Mastery","Shamanistic Rage" and the
troll racial "Berserking" can no longer be used in "Ghost Wolf"
form.
- The shaman "Greater Fire Elemental" and "Greater Earth Elemental"
will now spawn in with full health.
- The shaman abilities "Water Shield" and "Earth Shield" can no longer
be over written by lower ranks.
- The shaman talent "Mental Quickness" will now properly reduce the
casting cost of "Bloodlust" and "Heroism".
- The damage dealt from "Greater Fire Elemental" and "Greater Earth
Elemental" is now displayed in the combat log.
- The shaman Restoration talent "Totemic Focus" will now be applied to
"Earth Elemental Totem" and "Fire Elemental Totem".
- The warlock talent "Demonic Resilience" does will now properly
reduce the amount of damage pets are taking.
- "Unstable Affliction" is now improved by the talent "Shadow Mastery".
- Pyroclasm will now properly function with all ranks of "Soul Fire"
and "Hellfire" rank 4.
- The warlock Demonology talent "Fel Intellect" (all ranks) will now
properly affect Felhunter intellect.
- Crit chance of the spell "Incinerate" is now being affected by the
2nd rank of the Warlock Destruction talent "Devastation".
- Warlock pet "Felguard" will now use the appropriate sounds.
- Using a grimoire to teach your demon pet a spell while it is under
the effects of "Banish" will no longer consume the grimoire, but the
pet is immune and will not learn the spell.
- Warriors with full "Weapon Mastery" talent will now be shown to have
immunity towards disarm.
- The "Shield Bash" rank 4 daze effect will now properly slow the
target and has had its tooltip updated.
- Warriors will no longer being re-entered into a combat state if the
character switches stances after killing a mob.
- "Second Wind" will no longer improperly proc off of a mob's daze.


-Bolty

[Quark]

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-  "Swipe" has had its threat bonus multiplier removed.
-  "Maul" has had its threat bonus multiplier changed to a flat value
   similar in threat per time to "Heroic Strike".

Swipe: ooh, ouch. That really, really, really hit druid multi-mob tanking hard. 42% less threat (1 per damage instead of 1.75 per damage untalented). I mean, I knew it was too much, but ... wow.

Interestingly I don't see Mangle listed here ... is that still getting 1.75? If so, will have to do some math to see when Maul is better (lower gear levels) and when Mangle is better (higher gear levels).

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-  Shapeshifted druids will now be able to speak to npcs while
   shapeshifted.

Oh hey, pet peeve gone.

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Priests
-  "Mass Dispel" will no longer cause stealthed Rogues and prowling
    Druids to lose stealth.

Now making the list Mass Dispel, Chain Lightning, and Multi-Shot. If they in fact fixed Multi-Shot. But a Rank 1 demo shout that you resist will knock you out of stealth.

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-  There is no longer a random chance the effect of "Sap" will end
   (i.e. removed the heartbeat resist check). The effect will still
   end early when the target is damaged.

Oh. Wow. Sap is no longer the red-head stepchild of CC. It actually has a plus (no pulse check) to go with its minus (can't use in combat, lose stealth untalented).

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-  Each rank of "Weapon Expertise"now provides 5 weapon skill.

Translation: It's gone from Talent Review defining (and a great way to boost PvE damage while not boosting PvP) to Super Suck to Suck.

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-  Resisted spells will no longer break "Stealth"/"Vanish".

Oh, err ... I take back what I said earlier:)

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Warlocks
-  Melee damage of "Felguard" has been reduced.

We all saw this coming. Doesn't list the DoT nerf, though.

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-  The bonus threat of "Devastate" on all ranks has been increased.
   Bonus threat will no longer decrease as ranks increase.

Take 1 part nerf druids, add in 1 part buff warriors. Mix and try to make a balanced game:P

Code:

-  Updated the Sound Options menu to include a checkbox for Hardware
   Acceleration and a slider for Sound Channels.
   PC default is "Hardware Acceleration = ON" and "Sound Channels = LOW".
   Players that experience poor system performance can set "Hardware
   Acceleration=OFF" which may improve performance but will disable any
   EAX (reverberation) effects supported by their sound card.
   Players with more powerful systems can raise the "Sound Channels"
   slider to increase the number of simultaneous sounds in the game,
   providing a more immersive soundscape.
   Mac users will not have a checkbox or slider available due to the
   Mac's default setting of "Hardware Acceleration = OFF" and the
   "Sound Channels = HIGH".

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Always been a pet peeve that moving mounted basically killed the sound. My system can handle it.

Code:

   If you add a #showtooltip line to your macro, it will show the
   tooltip of the item or spell in addition to the normal visual
   feedback.

Really liking the '#' commands.

Code:

-  Saved Variables
   [quote]s that are stored as saved variables are now saved using lua's
   array initializer syntax for optimal memory usage and performance on
   load.

I wonder if this is related to the array formation of Psybie's Greg Addon going psycho. (Luckily, it didn't affect the import script to eqDKP like I feared it might)

Edit: ARGH, why does this board constantly break on quote tags? Once again, I Search/Replace quote and code, and it works fine.

[Baajikiil]

Edit: ARGH, why does this board constantly break on quote tags? Once again, I Search/Replace quote and code, and it works fine.

I believe that it has to do with a large number of quotes. Someone can test, but IIRC, I read that over 10 quotes will not work properly.

[Ashock]

Code:

-  The bonus threat of "Devastate" on all ranks has been increased.
   Bonus threat will no longer decrease as ranks increase.

Take 1 part nerf druids, add in 1 part buff warriors. Mix and try to make a balanced game:P

Bah, this does nothing for Warrior's PVP abilities or our damage output. Balanced game? Only from a standpoint of Warriors being able to do what they're supposed to do by default, which is tank. It's like saying that Priests are now your primary healers again. *Yawn*. Protection warriors should be happier. It does nothing for the rest of us.

-A

[Monkey]

Code:

-  "Swipe" has had its threat bonus multiplier removed.
-  "Maul" has had its threat bonus multiplier changed to a flat value
   similar in threat per time to "Heroic Strike".

Swipe: ooh, ouch. That really, really, really hit druid multi-mob tanking hard. 42% less threat (1 per damage instead of 1.75 per damage untalented). I mean, I knew it was too much, but ... wow.

Interestingly I don't see Mangle listed here ... is that still getting 1.75? If so, will have to do some math to see when Maul is better (lower gear levels) and when Mangle is better (higher gear levels).

I followed some of the warriors-need-multi-mob-tanking-buffs threads (read: whines) on the beta forums and the supremacy of swipe for developing multi-mob threat was a common point of complaint. So chalk up a win for the Whine-iors of the beta forums, perhaps;).

Although I'm not in the beta, I imagine the developers' intent with heavy duty multi-mob pulls was to increase the opportunities for non-warrior tanks--not to mandate the use of Druid tanks, so this is probably a reasonable change for PvE balance.

[NiteFox]

NEW: /dismount

Yay, now I can make that /dismount-activate aspect of the pack macro I've been waiting for.

[TheDragoon]

Most of the bullets on this list are things that people have already known were coming with TBC and many of them are things that should have been in the last patch. But there are a few things that I noticed that were different than I expected and could have some major changes to the way things work in the future:

Druids
In addition to the expected buffs to armor, dodge and life total in bear form, Blizzard apparently decided that instead of buffing warriors for tanking, they would nerf druids.

- "Swipe" has had its threat bonus multiplier removed.
- "Maul" has had its threat bonus multiplier changed to a flat value
similar in threat per time to "Heroic Strike".

I think the change to Maul isn't really that huge a deal since Druids should still have good enough single target threat, but the change to Swipe is going to make multi-target aggro a bit harder than it currently is (The skills used to add +75% aggro in addition to its normal 130-145% depending upon feral instinct so this will cut its threat to ~2/3rds of its old amount). The one wildcard is how Mangle will work. I had heard that it also had the old +75% aggro modifier and the patch notes do not seem to say whether it will retain bonus aggro or not. Regardless, it should still beat out Maul for aggro generation, I imagine.

It is good that Druids will have a hard time running away from warriors in terms of threat, though it is sad that the method for changing this was to nerf Druids rather than buffing Warriors.

In a final random comment on Druids:

- Shapeshifted druids will now be able to speak to npcs while
shapeshifted.

Nice. :)


Rogues

- Each rank of "Weapon Expertise"now provides 5 weapon skill.

If this had been in on the beta server, I had not heard about it until now. I guess this was done to address the fact that weapon skill isn't as good anymore. How does the math on this look, Quark?

- Combo points added to a target should not be reset until you add a combo point to a different target.

Finally. I hated that it didn't used to work this way.


Shamans

- "Earth Shock" no longer causes increased threat.
- "Frost Shock" now causes increased threat.

Interesting. So now shamans have a relatively low threat spell interrupt and a higher threat damage/slow spell. I wonder why this change was made. Perhaps to discourage or even encourage kiting?


Warriors

- "Rampage's" rage cost has been reduced to 20.

It's still not that great of a talent, IMO. :) Rage is too difficult to come by when you are not tanking so a recurring cost of 20 rage every 30 seconds is still going to be obnoxious.

- The bonus threat of "Devastate" on all ranks has been increased.
Bonus threat will no longer decrease as ranks increase.

I really hope they didn't go overboard here. Many people thought Devastate was somewhat lackluster before, though I thought it seemed very useable and effective. My main concern is that this could drastically improve aggro generation for protection warriors, leaving non-protection warriors out in the cold as far as tanking goes. There is already a large gap between prot and dps warriors for tanking, I hope this doesn't widen the gap even more or the hybrid nature of a dps warrior might just go out the window.


Items

- "Wushoolay's Charm of Nature" now provides haste rating instead of reducing "Healing Touch" cast time.

Did they just take a caster item and make it into a melee item or was this merely a poorly-phrased change that meant to say that they changed the trinket so that it has diminishing returns for changing the Healing Touch cast time rather than a flat cast speed reduction?

This would certainly fit with what was done to other items, trying to make sure they don't scale to the point that we'll be farming up random items off of stratholme bosses at level 70 to help with raiding or heroic mode dungeons.

- Blacksmithing/Leatherworking specialization has changed with
specialization providing recipes to make powerful items that only
you can wear. You can now unlearn a blacksmithing or leatherworking
specialization and learn a different one by finding the appropriate
NPC, paying the fee to unlearn your old specialization, and then
find the new specialist to learn a new one. Also, all of the old
blacksmithing/leatherworking recipes that required specialization no
longer require it and can be learned by any blacksmith/leatherworker.

Does this mean that everyone can now go pick up all of the existing item patterns for their class? Everyone will be able to learn all of the weapon patterns, Dark Iron Plate, Lionheart Helm, etc? If so, it sounds like people will be going around farming for this sort of thing in the next week for completeness. :)

[Delc]

Shamans

Interesting. So now shamans have a relatively low threat spell interrupt and a higher threat damage/slow spell. I wonder why this change was made. Perhaps to discourage or even encourage kiting?

Since stormstrike adds a 20% nature damage debuff to targets the best way for enhancement shaman to bump their DPS was to spam earth shock, but with the extra threat component you couldn't do that unless you planned on tanking the mob. This change is good for DPS shaman, but bad for tanking shaman, but at this point shaman tanking is just a memory anyway.

Also woot for no soul shard requirements for pets in arenas!

[NiteFox]

Also woot for no soul shard requirements for pets in arenas!

Great, now can we also make it so that hunter pets don't lose happiness if killed in arenas? Steak doesn't grow on trees, y'know.

[TheDragoon]

Since stormstrike adds a 20% nature damage debuff to targets the best way for enhancement shaman to bump their DPS was to spam earth shock, but with the extra threat component you couldn't do that unless you planned on tanking the mob. This change is good for DPS shaman, but bad for tanking shaman, but at this point shaman tanking is just a memory anyway.

That makes sense, but it's strange that they decided to add the threat to Frostshock...

[lemekim]

Code:

-  "Swipe" has had its threat bonus multiplier removed.
-  "Maul" has had its threat bonus multiplier changed to a flat value
   similar in threat per time to "Heroic Strike".

Swipe: ooh, ouch. That really, really, really hit druid multi-mob tanking hard. 42% less threat (1 per damage instead of 1.75 per damage untalented). I mean, I knew it was too much, but ... wow.

Interestingly I don't see Mangle listed here ... is that still getting 1.75? If so, will have to do some math to see when Maul is better (lower gear levels) and when Mangle is better (higher gear levels).

Swipe is STILL better then anything that Warriors have for multi-mob tanking. With decent gear, even on single target, it's close to producing the amount of threat Sunder Armor does on a single target. The only difference now is that you can no longer just mindlessly spam Swipe button and tank everything well enough. Druids have to mix in Mangle and Lacerate as well.

Interestingly enough, I don't believe that Mangle has a threat multiplier - but it does enough damage to generate threat comparable to Revenge or Shield Slam.

[Concillian]

Bah, this does nothing for Warrior's PVP abilities or our damage output. Balanced game? Only from a standpoint of Warriors being able to do what they're supposed to do by default, which is tank. It's like saying that Priests are now your primary healers again. *Yawn*. Protection warriors should be happier. It does nothing for the rest of us.

Quark generally approaches things from a PvE perspective.
Are you really having many PvP issues since the implementation of cheap and good PvP gear?

Even before I got my HWL mace, I was doing pretty well with just a TUF. But once I got my warrior a HWL mace and some high stam gear I started flat out owning. Good mages kill me (but mages who are good seem very rare) and for most warlocks, their DOTs kill me after they're dead.

Other than that, it takes someone who is both skilled and very well geared to kill me in a 1 on 1. If I have some of the healing Lurkers at my back, I'm pretty much completely unstoppable until they get the healer down.

I've PvPed enough to get and spend around 150k honor since the last patch and from the onset of 2.0.1 I had a positive impression of warrior PvP. I see a lot of whining on the Blizzard forums, but my own experiences are very different. Warriors PvP fine.

[Concillian]

That makes sense, but it's strange that they decided to add the threat to Frostshock...

Why is frostshock strange?

They wanted to remove it from earth shock but not remove utility that existed in having a shock that could generate aggro quickly... so add it to flame shock? very small initial damage makes that impractical.

Frost shock is largely a PvP shock or one used on runners. Runners don't have a focus target, so it doesn't matter where you are on the aggro list. If you WANT aggro, pulling with a lightning + frost shock + lightning seems to make sense.

Makes sense to me, definitely moreso than the alternative... flame shock.

[Artega]

There's only one rank of Demoralizing Shout. It automatically updates to the new rank when we buy a new rank of it, but we can't select previous ranks (not that we'd have reason to.) It's the same for a very large number of Warrior abilties, and probably the same with a large number of Rogue abilities (why would you ever want to use a previous rank of Sinister Strike?)

The nerf to Swipe was necessary to prevent Druids from being the only viable multi-target tanks. Warriors only have Cleave and Sunder-tabbing to compete with it, and neither are as efficient as Swipe, since Cleave is Next Melee (which means it costs a significant amount of Rage) and only affects two targets, and Sunder-tabbing is a lot of work; a great deal more than simply mashing your Swipe button every time the GCD is up.

[Derek]

The nerf to Swipe was necessary to prevent Druids from being the only viable multi-target tanks.

You don't consider paladins viable? Even just using Consecration, a level 70 paladin with 500 spell damage and Improved Righteous Fury will do 212 threat per second to all enemies within 8 yards. Holy Shield is another 184 tps divided among targets. Then there's Retribution Aura, Blessing of Sanctuary, and Reckoning.

The change to Swipe seems to be targetted as much at making paladins better than druids in the 3 target case as it is about making druids more in line with warriors at general multi-mob tanking.

[fractaled]

Quark generally approaches things from a PvE perspective.
Are you really having many PvP issues since the implementation of cheap and good PvP gear?

Even before I got my HWL mace, I was doing pretty well with just a TUF. But once I got my warrior a HWL mace and some high stam gear I started flat out owning. Good mages kill me (but mages who are good seem very rare) and for most warlocks, their DOTs kill me after they're dead.

Other than that, it takes someone who is both skilled and very well geared to kill me in a 1 on 1. If I have some of the healing Lurkers at my back, I'm pretty much completely unstoppable until they get the healer down.

I've PvPed enough to get and spend around 150k honor since the last patch and from the onset of 2.0.1 I had a positive impression of warrior PvP. I see a lot of whining on the Blizzard forums, but my own experiences are very different. Warriors PvP fine.

I have mostly T2/T2.5, my weapon is an Untamed Blade, which isn't great, less so now. I run around with 5k hp in my PvP gear. MS spec.

In 1on1, given equal gear and skill, I find that it's a tie with warlocks (they may die, but I die later). A lot depends on what pet they have out. Decent mages own me. If my trinket is not on or on cooldown, I lose. I generally win against rogues. Good hunters beat me (lots of bad hunters though). Shaman kill me (can't outdamage earth shield often). Shadow Priests kill me. Druids that go bear kill me. Paladins kill me. If charge doesn't go off (i.e. I lose the initiative roll), then I'm at a significant disadvantage. Intercept has well-known issues.

In group combat, sure if I get heals, it's nice. I rarely do though, and some healers argue it's better to heal a hunter than a warrior. (The hunter can do a lot more to keep melee off the priest). Group combat is ok if you're not the #1 target, otherwise you just die. Even then if you're in a scrum, you're often affected by AE effects that weren't intended primarily for you (3x AoE fear, novas, shadowfury). Warriors need something to get out of some CCs.

Lots of classes got or will get new snares/stuns/immobilizers, I don't think warriors will get enough to offset that at 70. Spell reflect looks weak, so it'll come down to intercept, having more health, and epic level 70 weapons. Until those weapons trickle in, I think it will be a very bad time for warriors (the GM weapon will probably last till at least 65 for most, perhaps to 70).

[Warlock]

You don't consider paladins viable? Even just using Consecration, a level 70 paladin with 500 spell damage and Improved Righteous Fury will do 212 threat per second to all enemies within 8 yards. Holy Shield is another 184 tps divided among targets. Then there's Retribution Aura, Blessing of Sanctuary, and Reckoning.

The change to Swipe seems to be targetted as much at making paladins better than druids in the 3 target case as it is about making druids more in line with warriors at general multi-mob tanking.

The Swipe nerf isn't that bad. While it's threat multiplier has dropped from 1.75 to 1 that's a multiplier to base damage that was recently significantly buffed by AP scaling. It's still going to do enough to keep side mobs off the healer.

I do find holding mobs off Shaman toting dual HWL weapons somewhat tricky, though. WTB +Feral HWL weapon...

[Kevin]

I've yet to see any talk about"

- "Slam's" swing time is no longer slowed by damage taken.

If that means that slam is no longer stuttered, all warriors just got a nice damage boost. Not huge but it means that slam is no longer a tool mainly used by prot warriors in a DPS roll on raid bosses (build rage with dual wield then slap on that 2H and slam spam it down). It means that even solo you might want to use slam on a mob. It means that slam is now a viable PvP option as well.


Druids vs Warriors vs Paladins
Since mangle isn't mentioned some of those changes also look like they don't want any druid with a few feral talents to be an excellent tank. If mangle is now the primary threat tool (in addition to the great DPS tool it is for cats) then they just gave feral druids a leg up on tanking over non feral druids.

The changes to devestate may have done some more of this for warriors as well. I'm not sure what I feel about this. It means that the gap between DPS warriors and tank warriors could be bigger, it means the gap between feral and non feral druids is bigger, but it means the gap between feral druids and prot warriors should be smaller. Changes to the paladin talents also make it look like prot paladins should have a noticable leg up on non prot pallies. I'm not sure that the aggro changes make the gap between prot and non prot pallies as much as they might be with the druid and warrior.

The net result could be that it encourages people to put that feral druid as a tank in front of the Fury or Arms warrior. Or that it makes you want to use that prot pally instead of another warrior. That to me is a good thing. The downside is that the players that really liked and were really good at the multi-role warrior (personal examples of Lurkers like Conc, Dragoon, Jester, Tal, and others come to mind) might not be able to do that nearly as effectively (changes to encounters would have to be considered, I see nothing that seems to change the effectiveness in current pre-expansion instances). It could also limit the group composition some. Sure if there are 3 very viable tank classes the need for a DPS warrior to tank could be less but it could also still limit groups some. Hard to comment on without knowing the new content.

Shaman
I'm alright with moving the threat from ES to FS. Having recently tanked LBRS on my L57 shaman (I did hit 58 just before Wrym), even with stromstrike, it was very rare that I got an ES on a mob that had the SS debuff on it or that I even needed that for extra threat. Having to spread the threat around and keeping lightning shield up meant that I rarely had the opportunity to uses the SS debuff to maximum effect as if a shock was in cooldown SS might have been needed to pull that mob that just came out of sap onto me, or I had to shock a mob that got split DPS, or what not.

It makes the utility of ES for non tanking higher, while I generally used rank one for the interrupt for mana purposes sometimes I wanted the extra damage when I did the spell interrupt as well, now that doesn't come with tons of threat (it will only be like 1K threat instead of 2K threat).

I do wonder though about rockbiter. I had heard they were removing the extra threat from it as well but I see nothing about that in the patch notes. I hope that means it stays. Shaman already had mitigation concerns as tanks, but they were very viable off tanks grabbing and holding focus fire mobs, or even being able to put out a lot of aggro quickly to get a mob off a priest or caster druid since they can take the beating better. They are also very viable tanks for all the existing content, since the lack of mitigation can be compensated for some with self healing. Not completely but some.

The changes look to me like they don't take anything away while adding a bit more utility.


Some final thoughts
While this is intended to just be a precursor to TBC, there will still be a population of players that won't get TBC or won't get it for several weeks to a month from now. These changes look to not hurt those players at all and fix some of the issues that this patch introduced that Blizzard intended to fix with TBC itemiztion that this subset won't have access too. I'm happy to see that. Sure that segment of the population shouldn't get a lot of focus but it is nice to see that they are getting some issues fixed.

For many people this is simply just changes that will last for 1 week and then the new levels, skills, items, and challenges will change perceptions. I don't really see much that is bad in here. I don't see much to really be upset about. I do things that still leave room for improvement, but the only real nerfs look like they hit classes that quite frankly needed them. I'm expecting something to change for paladin tanks in terms of consecrate as well. I think we haven't heard the complaints about the power of that because people haven't seen a lot of pally tanks. I know that back in 1.06 or 1.07 I was using that + retribution aura and some self healing to easily hold aggro vs Rain of Fire and even Blizzard. Sure not the top DPS AoE but still it let you do some stupid stuff. It was balanced then with the mana costs and downtime of doing that, but with pallies getting mana back from being healed now. I think it's just a matter of time before people realize what skilled paladins can do for tanking. The fact that it can break CC is pretty much irrelevant because you can move mobs around to deal with that (swipe suffers the same problem and druids deal).

Oh well, we'll see. :)

[Mavfin]

I followed some of the warriors-need-multi-mob-tanking-buffs threads (read: whines) on the beta forums and the supremacy of swipe for developing multi-mob threat was a common point of complaint. So chalk up a win for the Whine-iors of the beta forums, perhaps;).

Although I'm not in the beta, I imagine the developers' intent with heavy duty multi-mob pulls was to increase the opportunities for non-warrior tanks--not to mandate the use of Druid tanks, so this is probably a reasonable change for PvE balance.

I can do multi-mob tanking when I need to in 5-mans, but I'm not worried about the fact that pallies can do that better than I can. I just let them do it and I help kill stuff. In my alliance guild on Uldum that is our 5-man method. Nasty single or double mobs? My problem. NOt so nasty 5 or 6 mobs? Pally, have fun. If I have a bear around, they can help, too. I don't get all up in arms about druid or pally tanking. Good tanking still requires some skill, not just talent points. Skilled tanking = good for the raid or instance, whether it's bear/druid/pally. Of course, I'm not going to be joining any ultra min/max raiding guilds that force x talent specs anytime soon, either.

And on prot warriors getting possibly a bigger threat differential versus the fury/arms warrior. Fine. We gave up a ton of damage for our 41 points in protection. Let us use our threat. We're *no* threat to you on the damage meters. Maybe it's only fair that the threat gap between prot and fury/arms should be the same as the DPS gap. Doesn't mean you can't offtank stuff.

However, in that vein, I think the times of the arms/fury/super DPS warrior being asked to tank may not be as prevalent as they used to be anyway. Pallies and druids are great offtanks, and maintanks if geared and skilled, in some/many situations. Why lose the DPS of a Skybreak when a pally or druid who can't do near that much DPS can tank it, as long as you can spare the healing. It's really going to be situational, I think. Who's in the group on any given night may decide who offtanks, who heals and who DPSes, so I don't think any one change will be the death of something, but, I think having more viable tank options may make the super DPS warrior tank less, simply because they're better for the raid doing the DPS they've specced for, rather than the tanking they haven't.

Of course, this is all guessing. We shall see how it shakes out.

[Quark]

If this had been in on the beta server, I had not heard about it until now. I guess this was done to address the fact that weapon skill isn't as good anymore. How does the math on this look, Quark?

If not in the beta, it was confirmed by Kalgan beforehand.

Pre-2.0, 10 Weapon skill basically negated glancing blows. So for level 63s, the 40% of white damage doing 70% damage effectively become 40% doing 100% damage. Since white damage borders on 60% for well geared Rogues, that's over 10% increase in damage. So equate 2 points in WeapEx to be a 5% increase in damage (versus 63s, less versus anything else). Add in some minor amounts since each Weapon Skill added .04% hit, crit and subtracted .04% dodge, parry, block.

Early 2.0, no matter what Blizzard claims, has shown Weapon Skill for melee to basically equate to special skills now. That is, .24% hit instead of .04% hit as a bonus. So for 2 talent points, you basically get 2.4% hit and .4% crit. Which would be nice if hit didn't cap out. But since, even lacking Precision, my specials have not missed in over a year, the usefulness of extra hit that deep in the Combat tree is suspect at best.

If this fabled "better against higher level mobs" characteristic for weapon skill finally appears, yeah, the numbers could be different. But I haven't seen it yet.