Test Realm Patch Notes: 2.4.3

[Pesmerga]

Full Notes Here

Mounts at 30?! Yes, it’s true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.

I think my Draenei leveling group will be extremely happy about this.

Green quality gems can be found in mining nodes again. The drop rate of blue gems from mining nodes remains unchanged.

That explains why I haven't found any in forever and a day.

[Mordekhuul]

Curse of Elements: This spell now applies to Arcane and Shadow damage, as well as Frost and Fire.

Very cool. Lifted directly from Gurgthock's EJ thread on consolidating raid utility, or just a nice coincidence.

Either way, on 2-warlock nights I won't have to ask them to either not use CoS or not use CoE to make sure the uber melee group has CoR =)

Bit of a raid DPS buff as well for our normal line-up, which often includes 4 warlocks, as now two warlocks will be using damage curses.

[NiteFox]

Mounts at 30?! Yes, it’s true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.

I can imagine all the crying that the community (read, mouth-breathers on the official forums) will be sobbing about, but I for one appreciate this. Having decided to level up a few lower level characters (I'm terrible, I had never levelled anything bar my main over 25 until this week. In two years.) I'm once again reminded of how goddamned terrible all that running around is. The sub-50 zones have some of the longest runs still in the damn game, and just being able to cross Ashenvale or (shudder) Desolace in less time is a tremendous benefit.

Then again, the nearest character I have to 30 is a druid, who would have gotten her 40% speed increase at 30 regardless:PWell, this might give me an excuse to level my mage some...

[Kevin]

Then again, the nearest character I have to 30 is a druid, who would have gotten her 40% speed increase at 30 regardless:PWell, this might give me an excuse to level my mage some...

The mounts are still nice since they are 60% so it's still faster than travel form (unless you have the PvP set bonus and then I think it's the same).

Of course I've gotten most of my toons to 40 already, but it's still a nice change, it will affect the L39 twink PvP bracket but it's my understanding that wasn't as popular as the L29 bracket anyway.

[Icebird]

Very cool. Lifted directly from Gurgthock's EJ thread on consolidating raid utility, or just a nice coincidence.

Either way, on 2-warlock nights I won't have to ask them to either not use CoS or not use CoE to make sure the uber melee group has CoR =)

Bit of a raid DPS buff as well for our normal line-up, which often includes 4 warlocks, as now two warlocks will be using damage curses.

I thought of the exact same thread Mordekhuul. It makes a lot of sense when you consider 25 man raids reduce the number of warlocks you'll usually have in your group from 5 to 2 or 3. Plus its a nice bonus for 5 and 10 man runs where its sometimes hard to pick which curse to use to best help the group.

[Kevin]

Plus its a nice bonus for 5 and 10 man runs where its sometimes hard to pick which curse to use to best help the group.

I think this has more to do with it than anything else. With all content having 10 man versions in WotLK and I figure the balance being likely for 1 of everything you'll be doing the magic damage or the physical damage curse and you'll likely choose based on boss abilities. If melee has to run out a lot then you'll do elements, if ranged has to move around a lot but melee can just stay in there then you do recklessness (assuming of course the boss doesn't have some attack that has multiplicative affect with the extra AP).

But I figure it has more to do with Blizzard testing something out for WotLK before it hits (like mobs that don't crush in Sunwell, etc) than it has to do with any current game balance. I figure that from now on that at least half the changes will have more to do with WotLK than with TBC content.

[Concillian]

I can imagine all the crying that the community (read, mouth-breathers on the official forums) will be sobbing about, but I for one appreciate this. Having decided to level up a few lower level characters (I'm terrible, I had never levelled anything bar my main over 25 until this week. In two years.) I'm once again reminded of how goddamned terrible all that running around is. The sub-50 zones have some of the longest runs still in the damn game, and just being able to cross Ashenvale or (shudder) Desolace in less time is a tremendous benefit.

If you think about it though, it makes sense.

They made leveling easier in these levels, so you'll generate less money just from spending less time. So the cost reduction makes sense. It's probably in-line with what they expect people to have at that level.

The reduction in level just goes along with the whole making the leveling process easier thing.

[Delc]

Very cool. Lifted directly from Gurgthock's EJ thread on consolidating raid utility, or just a nice coincidence.

Either way, on 2-warlock nights I won't have to ask them to either not use CoS or not use CoE to make sure the uber melee group has CoR =)

Bit of a raid DPS buff as well for our normal line-up, which often includes 4 warlocks, as now two warlocks will be using damage curses.

Its also a nice buff to affliction since it makes malediction much better.

[Mirajj]

Invisible players with Hunter’s Mark can see the hunter that put the mark on them.

So...this ability works in reverse now, then?

[Pesmerga]

So...this ability works in reverse now, then?

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure how this makes sense.

[NiteFox]

Rogues

* Cheat Death: This talent has been rebalanced significantly. Killing blows are no longer 100% absorbed. If the Rogue is below 10% health, the killing blow is still completely absorbed; if the Rogue is over 10% health, enough damage will be absorbed to reduce the Rogue's health down to 10%. For the following 3 seconds, damage is not always reduced by 90%; it is now reduced by a maximum of 90%, depending on how much resilience the Rogue has. The damage reduction will be four times the damage reduction resilience causes against critical strikes.

...

What?

*Fires up Visio so he can make a flowchart in order to understand what, if anything, Cheat Death does*

Also:

You can no longer click the minimap to cast ground targeted spells.

I never knew you could do that. Hmm.

[Mirajj]

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure how this makes sense.

Well, I mean, it's not like they couldn't see the hunter in the first place, unless it was a Shadowmelded NE, but does this mean that the hunter who marks them shows up on THEIR minimap? Eh, they've broken HM so badly in regards to stealth (Check the tooltip, it's not been changed...) they might as well give up the illusion it does anything in/to someone in stealth, and just use it as/for a scaling AP boost only.

[Klaus]

Well, I mean, it's not like they couldn't see the hunter in the first place, unless it was a Shadowmelded NE, but does this mean that the hunter who marks them shows up on THEIR minimap? Eh, they've broken HM so badly in regards to stealth (Check the tooltip, it's not been changed...) they might as well give up the illusion it does anything in/to someone in stealth, and just use it as/for a scaling AP boost only.

Note that they say "invisible", not "stealthed". The mechanics of invisibility are that you can only see other people that are invisible, or other people that (for some reason) can see you. So, I believe you can see the warlock with "detect invisibility", for example. If the hunter's mark let's the hunter see you, then you should be able to see them (not on the minimap, just in your regular view).

[Concillian]

...

What?

*Fires up Visio so he can make a flowchart in order to understand what, if anything, Cheat Death does*

The cheat death nerf fixes a very specific issue that really only pertains to high ranked 2v2 and 3v3 arenas.

Extremely well geared PvE rogues were competing well in PvP arenas essentially because of cheat death. There is a certain amount of initial control anyway with a rogue, and cheat death added 3 more seconds onto the end where they were able to survive without issue, especially when used in conjunction with their other important cooldowns or using rocket boots to zip away out of danger so they can better be healed.

This is an attempt to force rogues into wearing PvP gear if they want cheat death to work. Old way, it worked every time, regardless of gear. So someone can run around in T6 and warglaives wrecking people, get a cheat proc and cloak + sprint or rocket boots out of danger, then vanish and get healed or bandage (or eat if paired with a mage) and start in again.

[Mavfin]

Note that they say "invisible", not "stealthed". The mechanics of invisibility are that you can only see other people that are invisible, or other people that (for some reason) can see you. So, I believe you can see the warlock with "detect invisibility", for example. If the hunter's mark let's the hunter see you, then you should be able to see them (not on the minimap, just in your regular view).

Exactly. Evidently, invisible people weren't counting the hunter that marked them as a 'visible' toon.

[Concillian]

People are reporting that mage and warlock "armor" spells are not currently being counted as 'magic' and are thus not dispellable in PvP.

It's unknown if this is a bug or intentional. I have copied my characters over to test it out myself. The impact on PvP is potentially quite large. And if intentional, the inclusion of those and NOT inner fire, is a bit of a mystery to me.

For those interested, the PTR copy queues seem quite short right now. Previous PTRs I've seen MUCH longer queues and even complete inability to copy chars.

[Trien]

Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.

Hrm. So I guess means farewell to casting a spell, and then swapping weapon mid-cast...

[Sir_Die_alot]

Hrm. So I guess means farewell to casting a spell, and then swapping weapon mid-cast...

I think this is for people who macro idol swapped and hid the GCD of doing that in their cast time/GCD.

[RTM]

There is a S4 weapon (dagger?) with a crapload of spell haste on it, I believe. I think the weapon swap change was made to prevent winding up a spell with the spell haste weapon equipped to lower the cast time, then swapping to a spell damage weapon to get the full +dmg effect of the spell.

[Icebird]

I think this is for people who macro idol swapped and hid the GCD of doing that in their cast time/GCD.

This might kill CasterWeaponSwapper.:(As a priest, I use CWS to automatically swap in a spellsurge weapon every minute, and also a spirit weapon for Blue Dragon procs and other regen moments.