Patch 1.10 Testing Next Week

[nobbie]

From the German WoW site:

WoW Community Manager "Vaneck"

In den letzten Monaten haben wir die Performance der Realms zu einer unserer höchsten Prioritäten erklärt und haben etwaige Änderungen und Updates dahingehend gemacht. Wir konnten in all unseren World of Warcraft Standorten Verbesserungen feststellen, obwohl es einen enormen Anstieg von Spielern gab, die auch während der Hauptzeiten aktiv sind.

Wir haben die letzten paar Wochen damit verbracht, neues State-of-the-Art Equipment zu bekommen und bereiten es vor, so dass wir es in einem neuen World of Warcraft Standort einsetzen können. Dieser neue Standort, von welchem wir erwarten, dass er Mitte April online geht, wird es uns ermöglichen neue Realms zu eröffnen, um der wachsenden Spieleranzahl gerecht zu werden.

Um sicher zu stellen, dass die Eröffnung reibungslos vor sich geht, planen wir die neue Hardware zusammen mit dem 1.10 Inhalts-Patch auf den öffentlichen Testrealms zu testen. Es ist vorgesehen, dass diese Testphase nächste Woche live geht. Zusätzlich zu der Beobachtung, wie der neue Spielinhalt ankommt, werden wir in der Lage sein zu untersuchen, wie die Performance der neuen Hardware unter Bedingungen ist, die nah an einer wirklichen Spielumgebung sind.

Um die Sache interessanter zu gestalten werden wir während des Tests drei Wettbewerbe veranstalten, die auf Können basieren und nächste Woche anfangen werden. Spieler mit aktiven Accounts in Europa, Korea und Nord Amerika werden in der Lage sein an den Wettbewerben teilzunehmen und jeder Gewinner wird einen Platz in der Beta von World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade erhalten. Weitere Details werden bald folgen. Besucht die World of Warcraft Webseite, um auf dem neuesten Stand zu bleiben.

[vor_lord]

From the German WoW site:
[right][snapback]103469[/snapback][/right]

Fur die anderen:

In January we outlined our plans for improving the performance and overall play experience in World of Warcraft. [http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread...&t=6635412] We're farther along with implementing some of the changes mentioned in that update, and we wanted to share the details with you.

We've spent the past few weeks obtaining new, top-of-the-line equipment and preparing it for deployment at a new World of Warcraft site. This new site, which we expect to go live by the beginning of April, will allow us to open new realms to accommodate our growing player base. In addition, we will be able to transfer existing realms to this new hardware to alleviate pressure on our current systems.

To make sure the launch of the new site goes well, we plan on testing the new hardware, along with the 1.10 content patch, on the public test realms. This testing phase is scheduled to go live next week. In addition to monitoring the impact of the new game content, we will be able to observe the performance of the new hardware under conditions that closely resemble a live environment.

To make things interesting, we will be holding three skill-based contests during this test. Players with active accounts in Europe, Korea, and North America will be able to participate in these contests, and each winner will receive a spot in the beta test for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. We'll be announcing the contest details on the official World of Warcraft community Web sites in each region soon, so be sure to check back from time to time in the days ahead.

[lemekim]

And the apparent notes to follow:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- World of Warcraft Client Patch 1.10.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New High-Level Armor Sets!
Adventurers of Azeroth can now quest to upgrade their previous Rare-
quality Dungeon set to a new, higher-quality set, including epic gear!
These tasks include all-new boss encounters, so prepare your finest
group of dungeon-delvers and prepare for a challenge!

Weather!
Weather has been introduced in the following areas around Azeroth:
- Elwynn Forest
- Tirisfal Glades
- Dun Morogh
- Darkshore
- Alterac Mountains
- Stranglethorn Vale
- Feralas
- Un'Goro Crater
- Tanaris
- Winterspring
- Ahn'Qiraj
We will be adding more weather to the world as time progresses; this
is simply the beginning!

High-Level Instance Changes
Along with the new Armor Sets, the high-level 5-10 man dungeons have
received some changes regarding loot. Many items have been improved
in quality and use. In addition, several epic items, such as
Headmaster's Charge and the Runeblade of Baron Rivendare, have had
their drop rates significantly increased. In order to preserve the
challenge of these dungeons, they have had their instance caps
lowered. Stratholme, Scholomance, and Blackrock Depths now allow a
maximum of five players inside, and Blackrock Spire allows a maximum
of ten.

Quest Experience to Gold Conversion at Level 60
Previously, quest experience was wasted if one completed a quest at
level 60. In this patch, any quests done at maximum level will have
their experience reward converted to a healthy amount of gold, thus
adding additional incentive to completing those quests in your log
once you hit 60.

New Final Destination Flight Paths!
If you're making several jumps to get to your destination, you will
now be able to choose that flight path from your initial Flight
Master. The costs will remain the same, but you no longer need to
manually click on each path. The UI has also been improved
significantly.

General
- All spells/abilities that remove existing effects (e.g. Dispel Magic,
Cleanse, Remove Curse etc...) will now verify that there is an effect
that can be removed before casting.
- You will no longer lose your current target when affected by a crowd
control spell (e.g. Fear, Polymorph etc...).
- Various tooltips updated.

PvP & Battlegrounds
- Alterac Valley
Flavor items from player loot in Alterac Valley will now stack and
can be sold for a small value. These are items like Documents from
Boomstick Imports, Worn Running Shoes, etc.
Global reputation gains have been removed from several quests.
Frostwolf and Stormpike faction will now be gained by killing
players of the opposite faction. Reputation will no longer be split
up among the entire raid group.
- The reputation gain in Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin has been
significantly increased.

Druids
- Healing Touch - Mana cost on all ranks reduced approximately 9%.
- Ravage - Can no longer be dodged, parried, or blocked.
- Cure Poison - Can no longer be cast while in Moonkin form.
- Gift of the Wild - Range and area of effect increased.
- Rip - Is now properly considered a Bleed effect.
- All shapeshift forms can now use equipped items.
- Nature's Swiftness - Now makes Rebirth and Soothe Animal spells
instant cast.
- Bear Form and Dire Bear Form - It is no longer possible at very low
health to die when shifting out of these forms.
- Pounce - This ability will no longer apply its bleed effect when the
attack misses or is dodged.
- Some creature Mana Drain spells were previously able to mana drain
druids in forms that do not display mana. That has been fixed.
- Previously, shifting into an animal form granted a one-second
immunity to roots and snares. That has been changed to dispelling
roots and snares.

Hunters
- Multi-Shot - This ability now has its attack power normalized the
same as melee instant attacks. This means that the attack power
contribution from all ranged weapons will be the same, no matter what
their speed. All weapons will contribute attack power as if they were
2.8 speed. Weapons slower than 2.8 speed will do slightly less damage
than previously; weapons faster than 2.8 speed will do slightly more
damage.
- Aimed Shot - This ability now has its attack power normalized the
same as melee instant attacks. This means that the attack power
contribution from all ranged weapons will be the same, no matter what
their speed. All weapons will contribute attack power as if they were
2.8 speed. Weapons slower than 2.8 speed will do slightly less damage
than previously; weapons faster than 2.8 speed will do slightly more
damage.
- Improved Aspect of the Hawk - The buff from this talent has had its
duration increased from 8 seconds to 12 seconds. Note that the haste
it provides does not begin until the second shot after the triggering
shot. This change is to compensate for that delay.
- Hunter's Mark - This spell no longer triggers procs on the spell
caster. This was being abused to land debuffs without getting on the
creature's hate list.
- Claw and Bite - Pets using these abilities will now generate the
correct amount of threat. Only ranks 7 and 8 of claw were generating
the correct amount previously.
- Bestial Wrath - No longer generates threat for the Hunter.
- New high-level boars now exist in the Eastern Plaguelands and have a
new rank 6 version of the pet ability: Charge.

Mages
- Improved Frost Ward - This ability now functions properly again.
- Improved Fire Ward - This ability now functions properly again.
- Detect Magic - This spell no longer triggers procs on the spell
caster. This was being abused to land debuffs without getting on the
creature's hate list.
- Ignite - This talent will now only trigger off fire damage generated
by mage spells.
- Arcane Brilliance - Range and area of effect increased.

Paladins
- Blessing of Light - Different ranks of this spell were stacking
without causing additional effect. It was never intended for them to
be able to stack, so they can no longer stack.
- Judgement of Justice - This judgement will now always hit.
- Righteous Fury - Righteous Fury will now always generate the correct
amount of additional threat on all holy damage. There were some
abilities, such as Retribution Aura, where this did not work
correctly.
- Holy Shock - This ability now works with Divine Favor and
Illumination.
- Holy Shield - Mana cost reduced approximately 15%. The effect now has
a small bonus coefficient from spell damage items and effects.
- Eye for an Eye - This talent can now trigger while you are mounted.
- Blessing of Sacrifice - This Blessing can no longer be used to
prevent the death of a target that is supposed to die for a spell
effect (e.g.: Sacrifice, Demonic Sacrifice, Divine Intervention,
Ritual of Doom).
- Seal of Command - Will now be able to proc when the Paladin is
silenced.
- Improved Seal of Righteousness - Tooltip updated to reflect actual
functionality. This talent increases Seal of Righteousness and
Judgement of Righteousness by 3-15%.
- Lay on Hands - Range increased.
- Divine Intervention - Range increased.
- Holy Shield - Tooltip updated to reflect that damage caused by Holy
Shield causes 20% additional threat. This has been active since 1.9,
but was undocumented.
- All Greater Blessings now have increased range.
- Holy Shock - Mana cost reduced.
- Creatures that were previously immune to Scorpid Sting are now also
immune to the Paladin Talent Vindication.

Priests
- Due to significant talent changes, Priests will have all talent
points refunded and can be respent. Training costs for all talent
spell replacements have been significantly reduced.
- All racial priest spell replacements have had their training costs
reduced.
- Prayer of Fortitude - Range and area of effect increased.
- Holy Fire - Is now available to all priests, starting at level 20.
- Mind Soothe - Is now instant cast.
- Shadowform - Now reduces all physical damage taken (melee and ranged),
as the tooltip suggests.
- Feedback (Human) - Redesigned. The priest surrounds himself with
anti-magic energy. Any successful spell cast against the priest will
burn mana from the attacker and cause Shadow damage.
- Elune's Grace (Night Elf) - Now also increases chance to dodge.
Ranged damage reduction increased, duration decreased, mana cost
decreased, now has a cooldown.
- Shadowguard (Troll) - Is now instant cast. Updated tooltip to reflect
that damage caused by Shadowguard causes no threat. This was
previously the case, but was undocumented.
- Inner Fire - Redesigned. Now increases armor by a significant amount
but has 20 charges. Each melee or ranged damage hit will remove a
charge. Lasts 10 minutes, mana cost increased.
- Desperate Prayer (Dwarf/Human) - Cooldown reduced.
- Touch of Weakness (Undead) - Now a 10 min. buff on the caster that is
triggered when they are struck in melee. The effect is otherwise the
same. Mana cost decreased substantially.
- Hex of Weakness (Troll) - Now also applies a -20% healing modifier in
addition to its normal effect. The healing debuff does not stack with
the warrior's Mortal Strike ability, although the damage penalty now
stacks with either Touch of Weakness or Curse of Weakness. Mana cost
decreased substantially.
- Starshards (Night Elf) - This spell now works like Curse of Agony,
with lower initial damage which increases as the duration continues.
Mana cost dropped approximately 30% on all ranks. Ranks 1 and 2
increased to 6 second duration. Damage increased approximately 17%.
- Lesser Heal - Mana cost dropped approximately 9%.
- Heal - Ranks 2, 3, and 4, cast time reduced to 3 seconds. Rank 1 mana
cost dropped approximately 9%. Rank 2, 3, and 4 the healing amount
has been reduced to generate the same amount of healing per cast time
as before the cast time was reduced. Rank 2, 3, and 4, the mana cost
was reduced to cost approximately 9% less mana per point of healing
generated. The net effect on all ranks is that the healing per mana
is 10% higher, the cast time is limited to 3 seconds, and the healing
per second is unchanged. Note that spells with less than 3.5 second
cast time will not receive the full bonus from plus healing items.
- Greater Heal - Cast time reduced to 3 seconds. Healing and Mana cost
reduced so that the healing per second is unchanged, but the healing
per mana is increased approximately 10%. Note that spells with less
than 3.5 second cast time will not receive the full bonus from plus
healing items.
- Vampiric Embrace - Damage resisted by the target will no longer be
counted as damage caused for the purposes of the healing from this
ability.
- Power Word: Shield - This spell will now get a small bonus from items
and effects which increase your healing.
- Holy Nova - Self cooldown on this spell removed. Mana cost increased.

Rogues
- Slice and Dice - This ability can no longer be blocked, dodged, or
parried, and cannot miss. If you attempt to use this ability when
your target is dead, you will now receive an error message instead of
displaying the spell animations.
- Sap - Lightning Shield will no longer break Stealth when the Sap is
resisted.
- Remorseless Attacks - This ability will no longer trigger off killing
creatures that do not award experience, or players that do not award
honor.
- Distract - This ability will no longer trigger a Shaman's Lightning
Shield (which caused the Rogue to lose stealth).
- Blade Flurry - The additonal attacks generated by this ability will
now properly take into account the armor of the second target.
- Blind - Now considered a ranged attack. It can no longer be dodged
or parried.
Shaman
- Lightning Shield - Bonfires and other environmental damage sources
will no longer consume charges of the Lightning Shield. Warsong Gulch
power-ups will also no longer consume the charges.
- Grounding Totem - This totem will no longer absorb the procs from:
Frostguard, Annihilator, Bludgeon of the Grinning Dog, The Chief's
Enforcer, The Judge's Gavel, Hammer of the Titans, Blackblade of
Shahram, and Bonereaver's Edge. Tooltip updated to be more clear.
- Flurry - Your haste will now last only the intended next 3 swings.
- Healing Wave - Mana cost on all ranks reduced approximately 9%.
- Shaman can now use equipped items while in Ghost Wolf form.

Warlocks
- Curse of Agony - The damage over time component of this curse will
now only trigger periodic triggerable procs.
- Soulburn - The debuff which produces the soul shard upon death is
now visible to the player and has a 5 sec duration. The Warlock will
no longer sometimes receive two soul shards upon the victim's death.
Targets which do not grant experience or honor will no longer produce
shards.
- Rain of Fire - This ability will correctly trigger Pyroclasm again.
- Master Demonologist - Pets that were crowd controlled at the moment
of summon prevented you from receiving the buff from this talent.
That has been fixed.
- Curse of Doom - This curse can no longer be cast on players who are
under the control of a creature.
- Shadowburn - This spell will no longer apply its debuff to the
creature when the spell is resisted. Targets which do not grant
experience or honor will no longer produce shards.
- Curse of Weakness - Mana cost decreased substantially.
- Curse of Recklessness - Mana cost decreased.
- Creatures immune to fear are now also properly immune to the fear
effect of Death Coil.
- Suffering (Voidwalker) - Radius increased, tooltip updated.

Warriors
- Execute - This ability will now work with Sweeping Strikes again. If
the second victim is below 20% health, they will be hit with the full
Execute amount. If the second victim is not below 20% health, they
will be hit with normal melee swing damage.
- Whirlwind - When this ability is used with Sweeping Strikes, it will
burn only one charge of Sweeping Strikes and will generate only one
additional attack.
- Flurry - Ranks 1 through 4 of this talent will now activate correctly
again.
- Retaliation - This ability will now function correctly at full melee
range.
- Intimidating Shout - The cowering in fear effect will no longer be
applied when the target resists this shout. In addition, this shout
will now affect a maximum of 5 targets.
- Flurry - Your haste will now last only the intended next 3 swings.
- Sweeping Strikes - The additonal attacks generated by this ability
will now properly take into account the armor of the second target.

Items
- Relics have been introduced to the game. These are class specific
items for Druids, Paladins, and Shaman which can be equipped in the
ranged slot. Currently there are a handful for each class which can
be found scattered throughout Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Spire, Dire
Maul, Scholomance, Stratholme, and The Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. We hope
that you enjoy the first round of available relics and we will
continue to add more in future patches.
- Many items in Blackrock Depths, Stratholme, Scholomance, and
Blackrock Spire have been re-evaluated and adjusted to make them more
appealing. In addition several new items have been added to all of
these instances.
- The following item sets have had their set bonuses adjusted: Valor,
Magister's, Lightforge, Shadowcraft, Dreadmist, Devout, Wildheart,
Beaststalker, and Elements.
- The locations of some of the waist, wrist, and hand slot pieces of
the dungeon armor sets have been moved from their old creatures,
including the Lightforge Gauntlets and the Magister's Boots.
Additional creature types can also drop many of the previously
difficult to obtain armor pieces.
- All of the hand slot items in the dungeon armor sets are now bind on
equip. The Belt of Valor is also now bind on equip.
- Death's Head Judgement and Wolfrunner Shoes now have stats more
appropriate for cloth wearers.
- The value of Health per 5 seconds items was re-evaluated and has been
changed to be the same as Mana per 5 items. As a result most items
that restore Health per 5 seconds will see an increase in
effectiveness.
- Biznicks 247x127 Accurascope now only affects ranged attacks, and
Elemental Sharpening Stones no longer will affect ranged weaponry. The
schematic for the Accurascope will now drop once again in the Molten
Core.
- Item use can no longer trigger the effect on the Five Thunders set or
the Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon trinket.
- The On Use ability on the Blade of Eternal Darkness has been changed
to an On Equip triggered effect with a chance to occur on any damage
spell.
- The Netherwind set's instant cast spell bonus will no longer be
consumed if the mage is not facing his or her target.
- The Lightning Shield bonus on the Ten Storms set will now work the
same way as all other Lightning Shield auras, including increased
damage from bonus spell damage effects.
- The tooltip on Thunderfury has been clarified to indicate that only
the primary target will receive the slowing effect. In addition, the
two effects have been broken down into two different debuffs to
prevent incorrect information from appearing in the debuff tooltip
for secondary targets (previously secondary targets were told they
were slowed when they were not actually slowed).
- Wrath of Cenarius will now trigger off all damaging spells.
- The charges from the Zandalarian Hero Charm will now be consumed by
melee and ranged abilities and spells which do non-physical damage.
This includes: Hammer of Wrath, Judgement of Righteousness, Seal of
Command, Judgement of Command, Volley, and Arcane Shot. The trinket
will also now burn charges from each casting of a damage over time
spell, heal over time spell, and area aura spells such as Blizzard
and Consecration. Only one charge will be burned per area spell cast,
rather than multiple charges per target hit as was previously the
case.
- The Panther Hide Bag from High Priestess Arlokk will no longer take
the place of other items. Instead, this item will now sometimes drop
in addition to the normal loot.
- The following items were found to be more powerful than intended and
have been tuned to be more in line with their level: Satyr's Bow,
Inventor's Focal Sword, and Scepter of the Unholy.
- Green Whelp Armor no longer affects targets above level 50 and the
sleep duration was reduced to 10 seconds.
- Many Recipes now have different icons. Recipe icons should correspond
with the item color; a green-glowing scroll is a green recipe, and a
blue-glowing scroll is a blue recipe, for example. As a reminder,
white recipes can be purchased from a vendor somewhere in the world,
so players should not pay too much for them at the Auction House.
- The Phantom Blade's effect will now prevent players from trying to
become stealthed or invisible.
- The Luffa and Talisman of Ephemeral Power now have sell prices.
- The Heavy Leather Ball now has an inventory sound.
- The Crystal Force, Crystal Ward, and Oil of Immolation effects now
have effect tooltips.
- The Royal Sceptre of Vek'lor has the proper spell hit chance instead
of melee hit chance.
- The damage dealt by Demonic Rune and Dark Rune will no longer be
affected by the user's increased spell damage items.
- The target of the Demon Forged Breastplate's effect no longer has to
be in front of the wearer.
- The spell hit effect on the Felheart Robes is now properly listed as
an On Equip effect.
- The Augural Shroud and Spidertank Oilrag now have stats more
appropriate for cloth wearers.
- The Skeletal Guardian and Skeletal Berserker now drop loot
appropriate to their non-elite status.
- Flavor items from the Stratholme postbox are now listed as poor
quality.
- The Black Diamond and Pristine Black Diamond now stack to 20, the
same as other gems.
- The tooltip of the Seeping Willow's effect has been reworded for
clarity.
- The Chromatic Boots and Boots of the Fallen Hero have had their stats
adjusted.
- The duration of the Fetish of the Sand Reaver's effect has been
increased, but the effect lowered.
- Many trinkets will now trigger a cooldown equal to the duration of
their effects that will prevent simultaneous use of more than one of
these trinkets. The Trinkets affected include the Zandalarian Hero
Charm, Zandalarian Hero Badge, Zandalarian Hero Medallion, and most
all the other Trinkets available from Zul'Gurub, Earthstrike, the
Talisman of Ephemeral Power, and the level 50 class quest trinkets
such as the Devilsaur Eye.
- Rumsey Rum gained from fishing is no longer soulbound.
- The Innkeeper in Everlook now sells Winter Kimchi.
- The drop rate for Essence of Air has been increased.
- The Diablo Stone now has a unique icon.
- Fixed typos in the names of Last Month's Mutton and Last Year's
Mutton.
- The Expose Weakness effect of the Hunter's Dragonstalker set can no
longer be resisted as a magical spell.
- The Dawn Treaders, Timbermaw Brawlers and Might of the Timbermaw now
make sounds when moved in your inventory.
- The Zulian Stone Axe has the proper inventory icon again.
- Clarified the Hand of Justice and Force of Will tooltips to better
describe their functionalities.

Professions
- Blacksmithing
The Statues in Ahn'Qiraj now drop chunks of obsidian that can be
crafted by blacksmiths in to various types of armor. The Recipes
come from both Cenarion Circle vendors as well as drops and other
sources.
The materials required to make the Gloves of the Dawn have been
reduced.
New high level World Drop epic recipes have been added for
Hammersmiths, Swordsmiths and Armorsmiths.
- Engineering
The Alarm-o-Bot now pulses its detection every 7 seconds rather than
every 30 seconds.
Fused Wiring now stacks to 5.
Rocket Clusters now require Solid Blasting Powder and Large Rocket
Clusters require Dense Blasting Powder.
Target Dummies now have a much shorter duration, but have
significantly more health. They also have a general 3 minute
cooldown on their use.
The Goblin Mortar's maximum range has been increased from 20 yards
to 40 yards.
- Tailoring
Mooncloth Bag recipe only requires a single mooncloth to make.
Tailors can now make bags with up to 24 slots that can only hold
enchanting materials or herbs. The recipes can mostly be found on
vendors that sell enchanting materials or on vendors in Silithus.
- Enchanting
A new enchanting recipe that adds +25 Agility to two-handed weapons
has been added to the Timbermaw Furbolgs that requires Friendly
reputation.
Enchant Gloves - Healing only requires a single Righteous Orb.
- Leatherworking
Many of the beast bosses in the game will now be skinnable for
significantly more leather.
There is now a fourth item in the Stormshroud Armor set: Stormshroud
Gloves.
The recipe for the Heavy Scorpid Vest is no longer soulbound.
The Dreamscale Breastplate is now Bind on Equip.
Red Dragonscales drop significantly more often off the dragonkin in
the Wetlands.
Golden Mantle of the Dawn no longer requires Righteous Orbs.
- Alchemy
There is now an Elixir of Greater Firepower recipe in the world. The
Dark Iron Dwarves of the Searing Gorge hold the secret.

Quests & Reputation
- The Hexxer's Head is no longer a requirement for the Collection of
Heads quest in Zul'Gurub.

Raids & Dungeons
- The Four Green Dragons will now spawn as originally intended. They
should all now spawn at the same time everytime.
- Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj
Ayamiss the Hunter now flies down from the air much earlier.
Lieutenant General Andorov will now offer supplies if kept alive
through the battle.
The Plague effect from Anubisath Defenders and Anubisath Sentinel's
is no longer amplified by +damage gear.
Certain monsters have had their hitpoints reduced.
- Temple of Ahn'Qiraj
Spawn of Fankriss will now enrage if not dealt with in a timely
manner.
- Blackwing Lair
Nefarian's reset should now consistently be 15 minutes regardless of
what phase your raid may have wiped out on.
- Dire Maul
Tendris Warpwood will now call upon any protectors still alive to
aid him.
Magister Kalendris has been moved in to the middle of the hall.
Guard Slip'kik's patrol path has been altered.
- Blackrock Spire
Some monsters were removed to reduce the time it takes to run the
dungeon.
Mother's Milk off Mother Smolderweb will now only affect players.
Spire Spiderlings now have fewer hitpoints.
- Blackrock Depths
Lord Roccor is no longer a rare spawn. His patrol path was altered
accordingly.
Pick lock and Seaforium now work on the Shadowforge Gates Mechanism.
The difficulty of the Lord Incendius and Ambassador Flamelash
encounters has been increased.
- Stratholme
Some of the undead that invade the Scarlet Bastion after Balnazzar's
death have been removed to make exiting faster.
- Zul'Farrak
The summoned zombies will now attack any player in the instance
after their grave has been disturbed.

User Interface
- The Reputation UI has gotten a significant overhaul:
You can now click on a faction in the reputation pane to get
additional details/options.
You can display one of your reputations on your main display where
your experience bar currently displays. If you are not level 60 it
displays two thin bars - experience and reputation.
You can mark any of your factions as "Inactive". These factions will
be moved to the bottom of your reputation pane in a callout that is
closed by default.
- Your experience bar will no longer display when you are level 60. The
primary benefit of this relates to the improvements to the Reputation
systems.
- Shift-R will now reply to the last person that you sent a tell to
rather than the last person who sent a tell to you.
- Purchasing Bank Slots now has a confirmation dialogue to prevent
accidental purchase.
- All Set bonuses for a set now display even if you do not have all the
required items for that set. The set bonuses that you do not have yet
display in gray and also show in parenthesis the number of pieces of
the set required for that bonus.
- You can now mouseover items in your mailbox and get item mouseover
information without opening the mail.
- The raid option to "Show Castable Buffs" should now work correctly.
- If a /who search brings up few enough names that those names are
displayed to the chat interface, those names will be right clickable
for invite/whisper purposes.

World Environment
- New flight paths have been added between:
Ironforge and Light's Hope Chapel
Stonetalon Peak and Astranaar
Talendris Point and Everlook
Theramore and Talendris Point
Sepulcher and Tarren Mill
- The Ice Totem effects from Wildpaw Shamans will no longer stack.
- Stable master added to Grom'gol.

[Mavfin]

And the apparent notes to follow:
[right][snapback]103471[/snapback][/right]

Interesting, if those are accurate. No more Scholo/Strat raids, 5-mans only. Interesting. And only 10-mans in UBRS. LBRS will be the only 60 instance you can overpower now (I know, same instance, but diff size of groups)

[Pesmerga]

Interesting, if those are accurate.  No more Scholo/Strat raids, 5-mans only.  Interesting.  And only 10-mans in UBRS.  LBRS will be the only 60 instance you can overpower now (I know, same instance, but diff size of groups)
[right][snapback]103476[/snapback][/right]

If this is true, I'm glad I got my Devout set already. Still think it kind of sucks.

[Rinnhart]

Quest Experience to Gold Conversion at Level 60
Previously, quest experience was wasted if one completed a quest at
level 60. In this patch, any quests done at maximum level will have
their experience reward converted to a healthy amount of gold, thus
adding additional incentive to completing those quests in your log
once you hit 60.

Aaaaargh.

[Darian]

"In order to preserve the
challenge of these dungeons, they have had their instance caps
lowered. Stratholme, Scholomance, and Blackrock Depths now allow a
maximum of five players inside, and Blackrock Spire allows a maximum
of ten."

Interesting. . .

"In this patch, any quests done at maximum level will have
their experience reward converted to a healthy amount of gold, thus
adding additional incentive to completing those quests in your log
once you hit 60."
Well, this is only about a year late.

"If you're making several jumps to get to your destination, you will
now be able to choose that flight path from your initial Flight
Master. The costs will remain the same, but you no longer need to
manually click on each path. The UI has also been improved
significantly."

NICE.

"You will no longer lose your current target when affected by a crowd
control spell (e.g. Fear, Polymorph etc...)."

NICE.

"Frostwolf and Stormpike faction will now be gained by killing
players of the opposite faction. Reputation will no longer be split
up among the entire raid group."

NICE! No more freakin' idlers!

"The reputation gain in Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin has been
significantly increased."

Better and better...

"Druids
All shapeshift forms can now use equipped items."

That looks interesting.

"Paladins
Blessing of Sacrifice - This Blessing can no longer be used to
prevent the death of a target that is supposed to die for a spell
effect (e.g.: Sacrifice, Demonic Sacrifice, Divine Intervention,
Ritual of Doom)."

Appropriate change.

"Warlocks
Creatures immune to fear are now also properly immune to the fear
effect of Death Coil."

Darian: YES!
Caerdwyn: NOOOOO!

"Warriors
- Execute - This ability will now work with Sweeping Strikes again. If
the second victim is below 20% health, they will be hit with the full
Execute amount. If the second victim is not below 20% health, they
will be hit with normal melee swing damage.
- Whirlwind - When this ability is used with Sweeping Strikes, it will
burn only one charge of Sweeping Strikes and will generate only one
additional attack.
- Flurry - Ranks 1 through 4 of this talent will now activate correctly
again.
- Retaliation - This ability will now function correctly at full melee
range."

...good...

"Intimidating Shout - The cowering in fear effect will no longer be
applied when the target resists this shout. In addition, this shout
will now affect a maximum of 5 targets.
- Flurry - Your haste will now last only the intended next 3 swings.
- Sweeping Strikes - The additonal attacks generated by this ability
will now properly take into account the armor of the second target."

...bad. =P

"Items
- Relics have been introduced to the game. These are class specific
items for Druids, Paladins, and Shaman which can be equipped in the
ranged slot. Currently there are a handful for each class which can
be found scattered throughout Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Spire, Dire
Maul, Scholomance, Stratholme, and The Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. We hope
that you enjoy the first round of available relics and we will
continue to add more in future patches."

Good add, long overdue.

"The value of Health per 5 seconds items was re-evaluated and has been
changed to be the same as Mana per 5 items. As a result most items
that restore Health per 5 seconds will see an increase in
effectiveness."

Oh, sweet! I have so many +health items it's not even funny...

"Green Whelp Armor no longer affects targets above level 50 and the
sleep duration was reduced to 10 seconds."

ohthankgod.

"Professions
Engineering
Fused Wiring now stacks to 5."

thankyouthankyouthankyou.

"Quests & Reputation
The Hexxer's Head is no longer a requirement for the Collection of
Heads quest in Zul'Gurub."

Hmmmmm.

"Raids & Dungeons
Dire Maul
Tendris Warpwood will now call upon any protectors still alive to
aid him."

Oh, now that's interesting. So's this:

"Magister Kalendris has been moved in to the middle of the hall."

"Blackrock Spire
Some monsters were removed to reduce the time it takes to run the
dungeon.
Mother's Milk off Mother Smolderweb will now only affect players.
Spire Spiderlings now have fewer hitpoints."

Maybe 5-manning LBRS won't SUCK now.

"Blackrock Depths
Pick lock and Seaforium now work on the Shadowforge Gates Mechanism."

Eh. Kinda lame. This means rogues or druid engineers can now just walk through bar-side BRD.

"The difficulty of the Lord Incendius and Ambassador Flamelash
encounters has been increased."

So now, it'll take us 25 seconds to kill Incendius instead of 10? =P

"User Interface
All Set bonuses for a set now display even if you do not have all the
required items for that set. The set bonuses that you do not have yet
display in gray and also show in parenthesis the number of pieces of
the set required for that bonus."

Nice convenient change. I approve.

"World Environment
- New flight paths have been added between:
Ironforge and Light's Hope Chapel
Stonetalon Peak and Astranaar
Talendris Point and Everlook
Theramore and Talendris Point
Sepulcher and Tarren Mill"

WOOT!

[Talissa]

Interesting, if those are accurate.  No more Scholo/Strat raids, 5-mans only.  Interesting.  And only 10-mans in UBRS.  LBRS will be the only 60 instance you can overpower now (I know, same instance, but diff size of groups)
[right][snapback]103476[/snapback][/right]

Actually it just says BRS not Ubrs or Lbrs so the entire thing can't be raided now...

[vor_lord]

"Frostwolf and Stormpike faction will now be gained by killing
players of the opposite faction. Reputation will no longer be split
up among the entire raid group."

NICE!  No more freakin' idlers!
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No more healing priests either :angry:

There's no way I'm going back into that hellhole with no chance of rep gain.

Didn't they already try to fix this kind of problem with honor so at least if you were grouped you could get something as a healer? Why break it for faction in the one place faction gain was reasonable in BG?

[TheLuminaire]

No more healing priests either  :angry:

There's no way I'm going back into that hellhole with no chance of rep gain.

Didn't they already try to fix this kind of problem with honor so at least if you were grouped you could get something as a healer?  Why break it for faction in the one place faction gain was reasonable in BG?
[right][snapback]103484[/snapback][/right]

SERIOUSLY. This change really bugs me. No honor or rep for healing? Give me a break.

Looks like I'm going to fase-melt my last 3k rep with Stormpike. Bleh. The one BG I liked to heal in too. :(

[Mavfin]

Actually it just says BRS not Ubrs or Lbrs so the entire thing can't be raided now...
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no, the entire thing can only be 10-manned for BRS, not 15

[Mirajj]

High-Level Instance Changes
Along with the new Armor Sets, the high-level 5-10 man dungeons have
received some changes regarding loot. Many items have been improved
in quality and use. In addition, several epic items, such as
Headmaster's Charge and the Runeblade of Baron Rivendare, have had
their drop rates significantly increased. In order to preserve the
challenge of these dungeons, they have had their instance caps
lowered. Stratholme, Scholomance, and Blackrock Depths now allow a
maximum of five players inside, and Blackrock Spire allows a maximum
of ten.

It was hard enough getting folks to gear up when you could zerg the places. This change isn't going to make this any easier. >.<

[Professor Frink]

General
- All spells/abilities that remove existing effects (e.g. Dispel Magic,
Cleanse, Remove Curse etc...) will now verify that there is an effect
that can be removed before casting.

This narrows the gap between decursive and non-decursive a good bit. I wonder if Abolish Disease will be affected, since the cure-over-time effect is potentially useful for prebuffing.

Global reputation gains have been removed from several quests.
Frostwolf and Stormpike faction will now be gained by killing
players of the opposite faction. Reputation will no longer be split
up among the entire raid group.
- The reputation gain in Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin has been
significantly increased.

As someone exalted in AV and honored with WSG/AB, I support this change.

nitpick: AV rep wasn't split among the entire raid group, it was applied to everyone in the battleground.

- Starshards (Night Elf) - This spell now works like Curse of Agony,
with lower initial damage which increases as the duration continues.
Mana cost dropped approximately 30% on all ranks. Ranks 1 and 2
increased to 6 second duration. Damage increased approximately 17%.

This makes starshards a rather nice spell (situationally), particularly if you don't have a lot of +spell/+shadow or many damage talents.

Since they're changing the behavior of the spell, i wonder how much benefit +arcane will give to the new starshards -- before it got the same overall damage of mindflay (~40% iirc) only spread over the 6 second duration.

Is there a clear yes-or-no answer about starshards no longer chasing runners well outside its normal range/ignoring LOS during the channel? That's a rather useful effect in PvP...

- Creatures immune to fear are now also properly immune to the fear
effect of Death Coil.

I wonder if this includes the corporal/grunt trinkets - they currently work as a 0.1 second immune to fear.

- Tailoring
Mooncloth Bag recipe only requires a single mooncloth to make.

Still way more expensive than traveler's on my server, but I suppose nobody expects crafting recipies to create rather than destroy value anymore.

You can display one of your reputations on your main display where
your experience bar currently displays. If you are not level 60 it
displays two thin bars - experience and reputation.

A nice psychological boost to rep grinding--1,000 rep now looks like a lot (a whole notch at revered->exalted), comparable to 10,000 xp at 59->60

- New flight paths have been added between:
Stonetalon Peak and Astranaar

New approach path for crossroads raids?

--frink

[Rinnhart]

SERIOUSLY.&nbsp; This change really bugs me.&nbsp; No honor or rep for healing?&nbsp; Give me a break.

Looks like I'm going to fase-melt my last 3k rep with Stormpike.&nbsp; Bleh.&nbsp; The one BG I liked to heal in too. :(
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At least face melting is an option for you. I wouldn't want to go back as a paladin needing faction.

[Concillian]

No more healing priests either&nbsp; :angry:

There's no way I'm going back into that hellhole with no chance of rep gain.

Didn't they already try to fix this kind of problem with honor so at least if you were grouped you could get something as a healer?&nbsp; Why break it for faction in the one place faction gain was reasonable in BG?
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Some discussion in the blizz PvP forum is suggesting that everyone on the players "threat list" will divide rep equally. I don't know the validity of such a statement, but it would mean rep for healers, perhaps more rep for healers than single target DPS classes.

Here is the note on AV on the official patch notes:

# Alterac Valley
&nbsp; &nbsp; * Flavor items from player loot in Alterac Valley will now stack and can be sold for a small value. These are items like Documents from Boomstick Imports, Worn Running Shoes, etc.
&nbsp; &nbsp; * Players in Alterac Valley will no longer drop Darkspear Troll Mojo, Dwarf Spines, Forsaken Hearts, Human Bone Chips, Orc Teeth, etc. and the quests have been removed for these items. Instead when a player is slain in Alterac Valley, any enemies that were in that player's threat list will gain 1 point of reputation with either the Frostwolf or Stormpike factions.
&nbsp; &nbsp; * Frostwolf and Stormpike faction will now be gained by killing players of the opposite faction. Reputation will no longer be split up among the entire raid group.
&nbsp; &nbsp; * Tower Banners in Alterac Valley can no longer be used through walls.
&nbsp; &nbsp; * Korrak the Bloodrager and his band of trolls have packed up their bags and left Alterac Valley for greener pastures.

So looks like healers will get rep just as fast, if not faster than before. Previously looted corpses wouldn't always get turned in, and some wouldn't even get looted. This should make for overall faster rep gain, I would think... especially for healers and AoE classes, that will easily get on multiple 'threat lists' with a single cast.

[nobbie]

The "Burning Crusade" Beta-Key Contest Details:

We have two different realm types for this competition: the Leveling Contest Realm and the Honor Contest Realm. The Leveling Contest Realm will host two different leveling contests, and the Honor Contest Realm will host a Warsong Gulch battleground contest. Details on these contests are listed below.

Race to Level 50 Contest - Quality Over Quantity: Know all the sweet spots to level a character as far and fast as possible? Show us just how quick you are and level to 50 or higher on the Leveling Contest Realm! Up to 1000 players from each of the major regions (US, EU, and Korea) will become winners in this contest -- if there are more than 1000 who reach level 50, then those who reach 50 in the least amount of time will be chosen first, so be efficient!
Click here for the official rules and additional eligibility requirements.

Battle for Warsong Gulch: With the Honor Contest Realm level-capped at level 19, the battlegrounds are the place to be. Jump into the fray on this realm and face off against your fellow competitors -- the 500 players from each region (split evenly between Horde and Alliance, of course) with the highest honor totals by the end of the contest will be the winners!
Click here for the official rules and additional eligibility requirements.

Most Level-25 Characters Contest - Quantity Over Quality: We know you're out there -- you don't have a level 60, but you've got a dozen level-30ish characters on your account and simply can't decide on a "main" character. This contest, which also takes place on the Leveling Contest Realm, is for you! We're looking to see how many characters you can get to level 25 in the time provided. The top 1000 players from each region with the most level-25 characters on their accounts will win! Don’t worry if you fill up all 10 characters slots; simply delete one of the existing characters that you just leveled to 25 and keep on going!
Click here for the official rules and additional eligibility requirements.

What are these char leveling contests for? To identify and fix the sweet leveling spots in the game?

[Concillian]

And the apparent notes to follow:
[right][snapback]103471[/snapback][/right]

These notes differ slightly from the official notes that are now up on the WoW site:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/...patchnotes.html

But are mostly the same.

[nobbie]

Quest Experience to Gold Conversion at Level 60
Previously, quest experience was wasted if one completed a quest at
level 60. In this patch, any quests done at maximum level will have
their experience reward converted to a healthy amount of gold, thus
adding additional incentive to completing those quests in your log
once you hit 60.

Fine with me if each experience point is converted into 1 piece of gold, i.e. 4800 exp = 4800 gold :P

[Rinnhart]

Fine with me if each experience point is converted into 1 piece of gold, i.e. 4800 exp = 4800 gold :P
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My two 60's are pretty much DONE with quests.

Even if it ends up being 1 gold for every 10,000 experience, that's alot of free cash to have missed out on.

[Shriek]

Ah, well--I got one right: "Something is broken. They may put a fixed speed on Aimed, a la the melee fix ... Blizzard will fix it, and the forums will cry nerf."

I was hoping for more from a crafting pov, but I guess they had enough on their plate for this release.

Adventurers of Azeroth can now quest to upgrade their previous Rare-quality Dungeon set to a new, higher-quality set

and

now allow a maximum of five players inside, and Blackrock Spire allows a maximum of ten.

This tells me that if you need your BP, legs, or hat, go get them now. I'm gonna feel sorry for any resto druids trying to find a pug for the undead instances.

If you're making several jumps to get to your destination, you will now be able to choose that flight path from your initial Flight Master.

Love it. Now I'd REALLY love it if I could tell the Kargath flight master that I want to go to Dustwallow. Yeah, I'm never content. :P

The special turtle ability Shell Shield has been improved to no longer root or pacify the turtle, but instead apply a 30% melee slow for the duration of the effect. Cooldown has been improved from 5 minutes to 3 minutes.

Still not great, but the effort is appreciated. Just need a little more threat generation...

The drop rate for Essence of Air has been increased.

So Air goes down, and with the raids gone, I'd expect Essence of Undeath to go up. Less margin for the AH transmuters out there.

The Goblin Mortar's maximum range has been increased from 20 yards to 40 yards.

Nice--the min/max range on this thing made it pretty much useless, imo.

A new enchanting recipe that adds +25 Agility to two-handed weapons has been added to the Timbermaw Furbolgs that requires Friendly reputation.

Wow! Now the uber epic spear from AQ40 will actually be better than 2 BSHs! :P

SpellStopCasting() requires input to work, like spell casting does.

Overheal addon nerf?