The KWSN Times

What was your most memorable noobie moment?

2011-05-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

It was 2007 and me and Feaver had just started playing WoW. We started humans & were completing quests at the Abbey. We finished our Kobold slaying and headed to Goldshire. Opening the map & only seeing Elwynn and Stormwind I remember thinking "this place is huge!" We did our various quests and finally got a chain that began a very confusing adventure I laugh at now... Elmore's Task

A blacksmith in Elwynn gives you info on a job. This dwarf in SW needs a delivery made. We go find the dwarf (after I got lost repeatedly) and pick up Stormpike's Delivery. Now let's read:

"The Stormpikes are a respected dwarven clan, and are well known for their fine and discerning tastes. So it's no wonder that Gringer Stormpike, a Mountaineer of Ironforge, commissioned me to craft him a weapon.

The weapon is finished, but... Mountaineer Stormpike is far away, in distant Loch Modan. If you plan on traveling to the north, can you deliver this package to him?

My last message from Mountaineer Stormpike said he's stationed at the northern guard tower in Loch Modan."

Ok so we go north! Open map, waitttt a minute... how to you go north of SW!!!!!! There's nothing north! Took us fooorever to discover the tram. We finally take it to IF. I was completely amazed at how huge Azeroth was. We figured out how to leave Ironforge & started asking how to get to Loch from various passersbys. "Go West" "Go North" Directions we were given we're usually hit or miss. We did finally make it to Valley of the Kings. But the quest said Loch Modan... we went on road we were told, but no Loch!?! Finally someone rode by on a horse, I messaged them & pleaded for help. I explained we're new and have this quest that gives NO directions & we had followed the road but ended up in a Valley. The person took pity on us & personally escorted us into Thelsamar.

I learned 2 very important things: 1. Blizzard sucks with directions and 2. Heroes of Azeroth aren't always NPCs.

We've discussed this alot in vent on & off but I thought it'd be a great forum discussion. So think of "What was your most memorable noobie moment?" and tell us here!

Maintenance Day Machinima

2011-04-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

I for one <3 Achievements but then a few out there just don't Get it! Here's to those I agree to disagree with!

Patch 4.1 this coming Tuesday?

2011-04-23T04:48:00.001-07:00

Patch 4.1: Rise of the Zandalari features and official patch notes

by Mathew McCurley Apr 22nd 2011 at 9:30PM

In what is tantamount to Blizzard saying, "Hey guys, get ready for a patch on Tuesday," official patch notes for patch 4.1: Rise of the Zandalari are now available, as well as a feature list that will be included in the next update. Get ready for:

Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms
Two new level-85 heroics
Guild Finder
Guild Challenges
And more!

Patch 4.1 will soon be upon us, and it's high time we dig into the meat of this patch to digest the new content, features, and official patch notes. The rise of the Zandalari is happening soon on a realm near you, so make sure you've read up on the new level-85 Stranglethorn quest line, as well as the updated dungeons of Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman -- now suitable for five level-85 players with an average item level of 346 or higher. All-new epic gear, rare mounts, pets, and other interesting treasures await you, should you be able to rise to the challenge of the Zandalari!

If you've found yourself waiting in dungeon queues longer than you'd like, we have a new system, Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms, you should know about. The Dungeon Finder will be offering an additional incentive to players of underrepresented class roles. With this feature we hope to get you into the action faster.

We've also built a new Guild Finder feature into the game interface and plan to expand upon its functionality in upcoming patches. Whether you're a player looking for a guild, or a guild leader looking to recruit, this system facilitates those activities. We're continuing to update, improve, and adjust the Guild Advancement system and want to make sure you're given the tools to find and maintain a fun guild.

If you're already tackling content with your guildmates, you'll probably be interested in the upcoming Guild Challenges. By completing dungeons, raids, and Rated Battlegrounds in guild groups, you'll attain new achievements, accrue gold for the Guild Vault, and earn guild experience above the current daily cap. We plan to introduce more Guild Challenges in future updates.

Now, without further ado, here are the official 4.1 patch notes.

source

Patch 4.1: Rise of the Zandalari official patch notes

World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.1

Notes for all World of Warcraft patches can be found here.

Rise of the Zandalari

The days when great troll empires stretched across ancient Kalimdor are long past. Millennia of war and internal strife have stripped these nations of their power, lands, and glory. As Azeroth recovers from the destruction of the Cataclysm, the world's divided troll populations face a bleak future. These dark times have spurred the trolls of the Zandalar, the historically wise and scholarly tribe from which all trolls originated, to take drastic action. They have embarked on a bold crusade to save their race by uniting trolls into a single mighty empire. With the Zandalari's aid, the fallen capitals of the Gurubashi and Amani nations-Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman-are already rebuilding, replenishing their forces for a bloody campaign to expand their territories.

Yet Vol'jin and his Darkspear trolls are not aligned with the Zandalari. They have sworn to stand with their Horde comrades-and even work with the Alliance-should the trolls ignite a new war on Azeroth. Soon, Vol'jin might be forced to act on his promise, for if the Gurubashi and Amani are left to their own devices, the world will know the legendary strength and savagery of the ancient troll empires once again.

Guild Challenges

Built into the Info panel of the guild user interface, Guild Challenges are weekly tasks guild groups can tackle for additional guild experience, achievements, and gold. At the top of the guild user interface Info pane, a new Guild Challenges section is displayed and broken into three categories: Dungeons, Raids, and Rated Battlegrounds. Any guild group will qualify for Guild Challenges credit and there is a set number of times each challenge can be completed per week.

Guild Finder

Guild Finder is a new system designed to enable easier and faster guild recruitment. Guild leaders and players who are looking for a guild to call home will use the Guild Finder to meet one another and begin communications that can lead to a prosperous membership. Whether you're a guild leader looking to fill your ranks or a player looking for a guild that meets your strictest requirements, the Guild Finder provides an easy way to make new friends!

Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms

A new system intended to lower queue times, Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms offers additional rewards for queuing as the currently least represented role. To be eligible for the additional rewards you must solo queue for a random level-85 Heroic in the role that is currently being Called to Arms, and complete the dungeon by killing the final boss. Every time you hit these requirements (there is no daily limit) you'll receive a goodie bag that will contain some gold, a chance at a rare gem, a chance at a flask/potion, a good chance of receiving a non-combat pet (including cross faction pets), and a very rare chance at receiving a mount.

General

Conquest Points are now purchasable from the Valor Quartermasters at 250 Conquest Points per 250 Valor Points.
Honor Points are now purchasable from the Justice Trade Goods vendors at 250 Honor Points per 375 Justice Points.
Justice Points are now purchasable from the Honor Trade Goods vendors at 250 Justice Points per 375 Honor Points.
Resilience scaling has been modified for linear returns, as opposed to increasing returns. Under the new formula, going from 30 resilience to 40 resilience gives players the same increase to survivability as going from 0 to 10. Resilience now scales in the same way armor and magic resistances do. A player with 32.5% damage reduction from resilience in 4.0.6 should see their damage reduction unchanged in 4.1. Those with less than 32.5% will gain slightly. Those with more will lose some damage reduction, increasingly so as their resilience climbs.
A dead player can now be resurrected by targeting them using the Party or Raid Frame even if they have released. No more hunting for corpses.

Achievements

A new feat of strength with an associated title, "the Camel-Hoarder", has been added for players that have bested Dormus and obtained the Reins of the Grey Riding Camel -- because there must always be a Camel-Hoarder.
PvP
- The following Battleground achievements have been permanently removed from the game, as they do not function correctly with the achievement tracking system: Guild Gankin' in Gilneas, Guild Gulch, The Peak of Perfection, The Perfect Guild Storm, Storming the Beach.
Rated Battlegrounds
- The achievements to win 100 rated Battlegrounds have been renamed to "Veteran of the Alliance" and "Veteran of the Horde", and now award those titles.
- Achievements to win 300 rated Battlegrounds have been added, awarding the "Warbound" and "Warbringer" titles to the Alliance and Horde respectively.
Arathi Basin
- The achievement "We Had It All Along *cough*" now requires the player to win Arathi Basin by 50 points or less, up from 10 points or less.
The Battle for Gilneas
- The achievement "Jugger Not" now requires the player to win The Battle for Gilneas by 100 points or less, up from 10 points or less.
- The achievement "Out of the Fog" requires the player to defend 2 bases in a single battle, down from 3.
- The achievement "One Two Three You Don't Know About Me" requires the player to assault 2 bases in a single battle, down from 3.
- The achievement "Not Your Average PUG'er" now requires 10 total flag defenses, down from 50.
- The achievement "Battle for Gilneas All-Star" now requires a single flag assault and flag defense in a battle, down from 2.
Achievements Bug Fixes
- The guild rated Battleground title achievements should now properly be awarded.
- Valor and Conquest Points are displaying the correct values when tracked for achievements.

Classes: General

All non-damaging interrupts off the global cooldown will now always hit the target. This includes Pummel, Kick, Mind Freeze, Rebuke, Skull Bash, Counterspell, Wind Shear, Solar Beam, Silencing Shot, and related player pet abilities.
Several persistent ground effects now display different visuals for hostile and friendly players. The following spells have the same visual effects for friendly players, but new alternate visuals for hostile players: Ring of Frost, Consecration, Desecration, Wild Mushroom, Flare, Ice Trap, Power Word: Barrier, Smoke Bomb, and Hand of Gul'dan. As a general rule, the alternate effects have a red tint or hue indicating they are created by an enemy player.

Death Knights

Dark Simulacrum now works on numerous additional spells in dungeon encounters.
Raise Ally has been redesigned to be a battle resurrection, analogous to Rebirth. It is instant cast, but costs 50 Runic Power to use, and has a 10-minute cooldown. It shares the same global battle resurrection cap with Rebirth and Soulstone.
Talent Specializations
- Blood
  - Blood Shield now only works while in Blood Presence.
  - Death Strike self-healing no longer generates threat.
- Frost
  - Blood of the North (passive) now permanently converts both Blood Runes into Death Runes. There is no longer any proc interaction with Blood Strike required to activate Death Runes.
  - Frost Strike now deals 130% of weapon damage, up from 110%.
  - Howling Blast damage has been increased by 20%. To compensate, the area-of-effect splash now does 50% of the single-target damage, down from 60%. The net result of this change leaves the area-of-effect damage roughly the same as 4.0.6 numbers. In addition, Howling Blast now has a facing requirement.
- Unholy
  - Desecration no longer triggers when an applicable strike hits a snare-immune target. This is primarily to avoid unnecessary spell effect clutter during boss encounters.
  - Rage of Rivendare again applies 15/30/45% additional damage to Plague, Scourge, and Festering Strike, up from 12/24/36%.
Glyphs
- Glyph of Raise Ally is now Glyph of Death Gate, and makes Death Gate cast 60% faster.
Death Knight Bug Fixes
- Runeforging no longer displays a skill-up UI element.

Druids

Lacerate bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased initial damage done.
Efflorescence has a new spell effect.
Enrage no longer increases physical damage taken.
Lifebloom's bloom effect has been reduced by 20%.
Prowl has a new icon.
Savage Defense has been redesigned slightly. Instead of a single charge absorption, it now places an absorption effect on the druid absorbing up to 35% of the druid's attack power (modified by mastery, if applicable) in damage and lasting 10 seconds. There are no longer any charges on the effect.
Stampeding Roar's duration has been increased to 8 seconds, up from 6. The movement speed effect has been increased to 60%, up from 40% and is no longer cancelled by cancelling shapeshift form.
Swipe (Bear) cooldown has been reduced to 3 seconds, down from 6, and is now on trainable at level 18 (training cost has been reduced). In addition, the bonus threat from this ability has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.
Swipe (Cat) damage has been doubled.
Thrash bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.
Druids now innately have 100% pushback protection from damage while channeling Tranquility.
Talent Specializations
- Balance
  - Starsurge damage has been reduced by 20%.
  - Solar Beam is now more responsive when enemies move into or out of it.
- Feral
  - Berserk is no longer on the global cooldown.
  - Feral Swiftness now also causes Dash and Stampeding Roar to have a 50/100% chance to instantly remove all movement impairing effects from the affected targets when used.
- Restoration
  - Gift of Nature (passive) also reduces Tranquility's cooldown by 2.5/5 minutes.
  - Efflorescence has been redesigned. It creates a healing zone at the feet of a Swiftmend target, but this healing zone now restores health equal to 4/8/12% of the amount healed by Swiftmend to the three most injured targets within 8 yards, every 1 second for 7 seconds. This periodic effect now also benefits from spell haste, but the individual ticks cannot be critical effects. In addition, Living Seed is no longer a prerequisite talent for Efflorescence.
  - Malfurion's Gift now reduces the cooldown of Tranquility by 2.5/5 minutes.
  - Nature's Swiftness now also increases the healing done by the affected nature spell by 50%.
Glyphs
- Glyph of Rake is now Glyph of Pounce, which increases the range of Pounce by 3 yards.
Druid Bug Fixes
- The troll druid models for Flight Form and Swift Flight Form has slimmed down to be more in scale with other druid flight forms.
- Druids should no longer have UI issues after leaving a vehicle.

Hunters

Deterrence no longer requires a melee weapon to be equipped.
Explosive Trap now has a new spell effect.
Master's Call now has a new spell effect.
Multi-Shot damage has been increased by 250%.
Tame Beast now tames pets to match the hunter's level, rather than 3 levels below.
Pets
- The Feed Pet ability now instantly heals 50% of the pet's health. Cannot be used in combat. Requires diet-appropriate food.
- The Happiness/Pet Loyalty System has been removed. Hunters will no longer have to manage Happiness for their pets, and the previous damage bonus for pets being happy will now be baseline for all tamed pets.
- Bloodthirsty no longer generates Happiness.
- Carrion Feeder no longer restores Happiness.
- Guard Dog no longer causes Growl to generate additional Happiness.
- Summoned pets now start with 100 focus, up from 0.
Glyphs
- Glyph of Mend Pet is now Glyph of Lesser Proportion, which decreases the size of the pet slightly.
Hunter Bug Fixes
- Hunters will no longer automatically acquire a new target if the current target dies in the middle of a cast.
- Aimed Shot and Steady Shot should no longer start casting Auto Shot on a new target when the "Stop Auto Attack" option enabled.
- Auto Shot now automatically turns off until reactivated once Freezing Trap is cast on an enemy player.
- Deterrence: The area damage of the paladin ability Hammer of the Righteous will no longer hit hunters with Deterrence active.
- Distracting Shot and Multi-Shot are now properly 40-yard range.
- Intervene (Tenacity pet ability) range has been increased so that the pet will properly intercept attacks.
- Multi-Shot now properly has a 1-second global cooldown.
- Scatter Shot's disorient effect should no longer sometimes be broken by the hunter's Auto Shot.

Mages

Arcane Blast cast time has been reduced to 2.0 seconds, down from 2.35 seconds. In addition, the stacking effect of Arcane Blast now increases the damage done by Arcane Explosion, and Arcane Explosion does not consume that effect.
Arcane Explosion damage has been increased by 30%.
Arcane Missiles damage has been increased by 13%.
Blizzard damage has been increased by 70%.
Frost Armor has been reworked:
It now reduces physical damage taken by 15%, instead of providing 20% additional armor.
The Chilled proc from Frost Armor can no longer proc Fingers of Frost.
The attack speed slow from the Chilled proc is now 20%, down from 25%, but it also affects ranged attack speed.
Frost Armor also no longer increases Frost resistance.
Frostbolt damage has been increased by 10%.
Talent Specializations
- Arcane
  - Arcane Barrage damage has been increased by 13%.
  - Improved Arcane Explosion now also reduces the mana cost of Arcane Explosion by 25/50%.
- Fire
  - Combustion no longer has a global cooldown.
  - Ignite is no longer triggered from periodic critical effects.
- Frost
  - Fingers of Frost bonus damage applied to Ice Lance has been increased to 25%, up from 15%.
  - Ice Barrier base damage value has been increased by approximately 120%. In addition, the benefit from spell power has been increased by approximately 8%.
  - The root effect from Shattered Barrier now shares diminishing returns with the root from Improved Cone of Cold.
Glyphs
- Glyph of Frost Armor (new glyph): Frost Armor also causes the mage to regenerate 2% of maximum mana every 5 seconds.

Paladins

Righteous Fury now persists through death.
Word of Glory now has a 20-second cooldown.
- Talent Specializations
  - Holy
    - Aura Mastery: This ability no longer increases the benefit granted by Crusader Aura.
    - Illuminated Healing shield duration is now 15 seconds, up from 8 seconds. In addition, Illuminated Healing has been increased to provide 1.5% effect per mastery, up from 1.25%.
    - Walk in the Light (passive) removes the cooldown of Word of Glory.
  - Protection
    - Divine Guardian cooldown is now 3 minutes, up from 2.
    - Grand Crusader will now generate a charge of Holy Power if the Avenger Shield it procs is used within 6 seconds.
    - Sacred Duty can now be activated by Avenger's Shield in addition to Judgements. The effect now lasts 10 seconds, down from 15.
  - Retribution
    - Divine Storm now generates 1 point of Holy Power if it hits (i.e. successfully lands on) 4 or more targets.
    - Sacred Shield's internal cooldown has been increased to 60 seconds, up from 30.
- Paladin Bug Fixes
  - Avenger's Shield can no longer be blocked.
  - Judgements of the Just debuff can no longer trigger talents and other effects.
  - Seal of Truth: Fixed a tooltip error that stated swings at targets with Censure fully stacked dealt 9% weapon damage. They actually dealt 15% damage and the tooltip has been updated accordingly.

Priests

Divine Aegis duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 12.
Dispel Magic can only be used on the casting priest as a baseline effect.
Priests now innately have 100% pushback protection from damage while channeling Divine Hymn and Hymn of Hope.
Holy Fire damage has been increased to be approximately 30% higher than Smite.
Inner Will and Inner Fire now last until canceled.
Mind Sear damage has been doubled.
Power Word: Shield duration has been reduced to 15 seconds, down from 30.
Talent Specializations
- Discipline
  - Absolution (new passive) enables priests to use Dispel Magic on up to 2 harmful effects on friendly targets.
  - Atonement now works with Holy Fire in addition to Smite.
  - The direct damage portion of Holy Fire can now trigger Evangelism.
  - Power Word: Barrier's cooldown has been increased to 3 minutes, up from 2, and its effect has been reduced to 25%, down from 30%.
  - It is now possible to remove Weakened Soul effects that were a result of another priest's Power Word: Shield through Strength of Soul.
- Holy
  - Absolution (new passive) enables priests to use Dispel Magic on up to 2 harmful effects on friendly targets.
  - Chakra now lasts until canceled, up from 1 minute.
  - Holy Word: Sanctuary healing done has been increased by 35%. In addition, it has a new spell effect.
  - Surge of Light can now also trigger from Binding Heal.
Glyphs
- Glyph of Divine Accuracy now also affects Holy Fire in addition to Smite.
Priest Bug Fixes
- Surge of Light is now being applied to Smite at rank 1.

Rogues

Recuperate base effect now heals 3% per tick, up from 2%.
Stealth base cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10, and the movement penalty from being in Stealth has been removed.
Tricks of the Trade now has a 100-yard range, up from 20.
Talent Specializations
- Combat
  - Improved Recuperate now adds 0.5%/1% to the health restoration effect of Recuperate, down from 1%/2%.
- Subtlety
  - Cheat Death now reduces damage taken by 80% while in effect, down from 90%. Its internal cooldown has been raised to 90 seconds, up from 60.
  - Nightstalker now reduces the cooldown of Stealth by 2/4 seconds, and instead of negating the movement penalty from Stealth, it adds a 5/10% movement speed bonus (stacking with other effects) while Stealthed.

Shaman

Fire Nova has been redesigned and decoupled from shaman Fire totems. Instead, it now pulses the Fire Nova effect from each target that is afflicted by the shaman's own Flame Shock debuff. It now damages all enemies except the target hit by Flame Shock. The ability's cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10.
Grounding Totem cooldown has been increased to 25 seconds, up from 15.
Magma Totem now lasts for 60 seconds, up from 21.
Stoneclaw Totem's area-of-effect threat pulse no longer affects critters.
Talent Specializations
- Elemental Combat
  - Earthquake is no longer a channeled spell. It now has a 2-second cast time, lasts for 10 seconds, and has a 10-second cooldown. Its damage has been reduced by 40% from its channeled version.
- Enhancement
  - Improved Fire Nova has been redesigned and replaced by a talent called Seasoned Winds. When an enemy spell cast is successfully prevented with Wind Shear, the shaman gains magical resistance (in an amount equal to what a protection totem/aura would grant, stacking with such buffs) to the spell school(s) of the interrupted spell (except for Holy spells), lasting 10 seconds.
- Restoration
  - Cleansing Waters now has a 6-second internal cooldown.
  - Deep Healing now benefits all heals, not just direct heals.
  - Earth Shield healing done by Restoration shaman has been reduced by 20%.
  - Nature's Blessing has been improved to 6/12/18% bonus direct healing on Earth Shielded targets, up from 5/10/15%.
  - Spirit Link Totem (new talent) reduces damage taken by all party and raid members within 10 yards by 10%. This lasts 6 seconds, and every second it is active the health of all affected players is redistributed among them, such that each player ends up with the same percentage of their maximum health. This counts as an Air totem and has a 3-minute cooldown.
Glyphs
- Glyph of Grounding Totem: The increased cooldown of Grounding Totem applied by this glyph has been reduced to 35 seconds, down from 45 seconds.
Shaman Bug Fixes
- The tooltips for shaman healing spells are now displaying correct values when points are distributed into any rank of the Spark of Life talent.

Warlocks

Dark Intent: The friendly target of this ability now receives 1% (stacking 3 times to 3%) periodic spell damage and healing bonus instead of 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%). The casting Warlock still receives 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%).
Rain of Fire damage has been increased by 25%.
Seed of Corruption damage has been increased by 20%.
Soulstone can now be used in combat to resurrect a targeted dead player.
Talent Specializations
- Affliction
  - Haunt damage has been increased by 30%.
  - Shadow Mastery (passive) has been increased to 30%, up from 25%.
  - Unstable Affliction damage done when it is dispelled has been doubled, but this damage can no longer be critical.
- Demonology
  - Mana Feed now restores more mana (four times as much) when the warlock is using a Felguard or Felhunter.
Pets
- Doomguard's damage has been increased by 50%. The Doomguard is intended to be the best guardian for single-target damage, and the Infernal the best when there are multiple targets.
- Lash of Pain (Succubus) damage now scales with level, reducing the damage done at lower levels such that it will deal 50% damage at level 20, and 100% damage at level 80 and above.
- Shadow Bite (Felhunter) damage and effect has doubled.
Glyphs
- Glyph of Soul Swap now increases the cooldown of Soul Swap by 15 seconds, up from 10 seconds.

Warriors

Charge and Intercept no longer have diminishing returns on their stun effects.
Colossus Smash now ignores 50% of a hostile player's armor (PvP), but continues to ignore 100% of a non-player character's armor (PvE).
Heroic Throw is now available from trainers at level 20.
Heroic Leap is no longer on the global cooldown, similar to other warrior movement abilities.
Inner Rage is now available at level 56.
Intercept now has a 1.5-second stun, down from 3 seconds.
Pummel is now usable in all stances.
Rallying Cry (new ability) is available from trainers at level 83. It temporarily grants the warrior and all party or raid members within 30 yards 20% of maximum health for 10 seconds. After the effect expires, the health is lost. It has no cost, no stance requirements, and is not on the global cooldown. It has a 3-minute cooldown, but also shares a cooldown with Last Stand.
Shield Bash has been removed from the game.
Spell Reflection cooldown has been increased to 25 seconds, up from 10.
Whirlwind now has its cooldown reduced by 6 seconds when it deals damage to 4 or more targets. The Whirlwind effect caused by Bladestorm remains unchanged.
Talent Specializations
- Arms
  - Improved Hamstring now reduces the global cooldown on Hamstring by 0.25/0.5 seconds in addition to its current effects.
  - Juggernaut no longer adds 2 seconds to the Charge stun, but instead lowers the cooldown of Charge by 2 seconds (to 13 seconds total without the glyph).
  - Lambs to the Slaughter now causes Mortal Strike to refresh Rend in addition to its current effects.
  - Strikes of Opportunity value per point of mastery has been increased by 10%.
- Fury
  - Precision (passive) now increase auto-attack damage by 40%, in addition to the 3% hit it offers currently.
  - Unshackled Fury now only grants 2 base points of mastery, down from 8.
- Protection
  - Shield Mastery no longer affects the cooldown of Spell Reflection, however, it now allows Shield Block to proc a second aura that reduces magic damage by 7/14/20% for 6 seconds.
  - Gag Order now applies to Pummel and Heroic Throw, giving these abilities a 100% chance to silence the target for 3 seconds. In addition, Gag Order lowers the cooldown of Heroic Throw by 30 seconds.
Glyphs
- Glyph of Spell Reflection reduces the cooldown of Spell Reflection by 5 seconds, up from 1 second.

Dungeons & Raids

Rise of the Zandalari
- Zul'Aman is now a level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon. Players with a minimum average item level of 346 or higher can access this dungeon via the Dungeon Finder.
- Zul'Gurub is now a level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon. Players with a minimum average item level of 346 or higher can access this dungeon via the Dungeon Finder.
- Both Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman exist in a separate tier in the Dungeon Finder above the current level-85 Heroic dungeons. Players can randomly queue for either dungeon by selecting the Rise of the Zandalari setting.
Dungeon Finder
- The Dungeon Finder now attempts to avoid putting damage-dealing classes with the same armor type in a group.
- Players will now get bonus rewards 7 times per week (while earning less than 980 Valor Points) instead of once a day when using Dungeon Finder.
- When there is only 1 player left in a Dungeon Finder group, they will now be able to queue for replacements as long as they queue within 2 minutes or stay in the dungeon.
- The Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms will now identify which class role is currently the least represented in the queue, and offer them additional rewards for entering the Dungeon Finder queue and completing a random level-85 Heroic dungeon.
  - The least represented class icon will show within the Dungeon Finder to indicate the role that is eligible to earn the bonus reward.
  - Players must queue solo with the currently indicated least represented class (by the system) and complete the dungeon up to and including the final boss in order to be eligible for the bonus reward.
  - The bonus reward will be displayed to eligible (system identified as least represented) classes within the UI.
  - Once the dungeon is completed the eligible player will receive a Satchel of Exotic Mysteries (account bound) with various potential rewards including: gold, rare gems, non-combat pets, and (very rare) mounts.
Blackrock Caverns
- Aura of Arcane Haste now has a clearer visual on the bearer of the aura.
- Bound Flames in the Karsh Steelbender encounter no longer create Lava Pools when they are killed.
- The Short Throw ability used by Twilight Sadists has had its range reduced to 10 yards.
Blackwing Descent
- Atramedes
  - Searing Flames now causes a 6-second cooldown on Modulation.
  - Searing Flames no longer increases Sound on players.
  - Players should no longer be able to avoid the first period damage tick of Searing Flame, and Searing Flame now ticks every 2 seconds. The damage of Searing Flame has been increased to compensate for it ticking less frequently.
- The Bile-O-Tron 800 in the Chimaeron encounter is now more resistant to being knocked offline many times in rapid succession.
- Flash Bomb (Golem Sentry ability) now has a more clear warning visual.
- Magmaw now triggers a raid emote when summoning Lava Parasites.
- Maloriak
  - Maloriak now has a brief windup before beginning to channel Arcane Storm, slightly increasing the amount of time players have before the spell begins to deal damage.
  - Further improvements have been made in the Maloriak encounter to avoid Flash Freeze targeting the tanks.
- Nefarian's End
  - The damage of Shadowflame Barrage has been reduced by 15% (10-player normal and Heroic difficulty only).
  - The damage of Tail Lash has been reduced by 20% (10-player normal and Heroic difficulty only).
The Bastion of Twilight
- Dragon Siblings
  - Blackout can now be dispelled on Heroic difficulty.
- Cho'gall
  - The health of Blood of the Old God on 10-player Heroic difficulty has been lowered by roughly 20%.
  - The health of Darkened Creations on 10-player Heroic difficulty has been lowered by roughly 20%.
  - The corruption gained from Corruption: Accelerated on 10-player Heroic difficulty has been lowered slightly.
  - Knockbacks and Deathgrip can now be used to interrupt players that are converted by Cho'gall.
- Sinestra
  - Twilight Slicer is now less likely to target two healers at once.
  - Wrack will avoid jumping to tanks.
Deadmines
- Ragezone cast by Defias Blood Wizards now only increases damage dealt, no longer increasing damage taken.
Dire Maul North
- The Gordok Courtyard Key in Fengus's Chest is now replenished after several seconds.
Grim Batol
- Bleeding Wound damage from General Umbriss has been lowered by 20%.
- Malignant Trogg now moves more slowly.
- The Encumbered damage bonus from Forgemaster Throngus has been reduced by 50%.
- Invoked Flaming Spirits should prefer non-tank targets to fixate on.
- The Twilight Flame Patch from the Twilight Drake has been removed.
- The cooldown portion of the Twisted Arcane buff cast by Azureborne Seers has been removed.
Halls of Origination
- Temple Gardian Anhuur should now properly go into his shield phase at 33% even if he was channeling his 66% shield phase.
Lost City of Tol'vir
- Soul Fragments that spawn during the High Prophet Barim encounter should now perform an emote when they merge with the Harbinger of Darkness.
The Mechanar
- The Cache of the Legion now unlocks when Gatewatcher Gyro-kill is gyro-killed.
The Stonecore
- The patrol path of the Stonecore Bruiser before Ozruk has been reduced.
- Ground Slam now has a pre-cast visual on the ground in front of Ozruk. In addition, Ground Slam's damage and radius have been reduced.
- High Priestess Azil's Seismic Shard now has a more obvious warning visual.
Stratholme
- Postboxes no longer require keys to open, because really, who locks their postboxes anymore when they're all undead? It's just people sending coupons for brains anyway.
- The Postmaster now spawns when 3 of any postbox are opened.
Throne of the Tides
- Gilgoblin Hunters' Poisoned Spear direct and periodic damage has been reduced.
- Gilgoblin Aquamages' Tsunami damage has been reduced.
- Visual effects during the Lady Naz'jar have been improved for clarity.
- Blight Beasts summoned during the Ozumat encounter now deal less damage with Aura of Dread.
Uldaman
- The Staff of Prehistoria is no longer required to open the door in the Map Room.
- Baelog's chest has been given new loot. If it's grey it's good, right?
Vortex Pinnacle
- The Air Nova ability triggered when a Gust Soldier is killed has had its knockback effect reduced.
- Altairus now spawns closer to the center of his platform, away from the edge.
- Temple Adepts and Ministers of Air now wait 2 seconds before starting a spell cast when they are first engaged.
Wailing Caverns
- The maze section has been removed to make the overall dungeon more accessible and quicker to complete. Nearby creatures and bosses have been adjusted to compensate.
Zul'Farrak
- Troll Cages no longer require the Executioner's Key to open.
The gold amounts awarded for the following encounters have been substantially reduced: Flame Leviathan, Magtheridon, Gruul the Dragonkiller, Doom Lord Kazzak, and all encounters in Karazhan.
Dungeon & Raid Bug Fixes
- The tooltip for the Luck of the Draw buff now dynamically updates based on how many stacks are present.
- The tooltip for Stolen Power during the Nefarian's End encounter now displays the correct bonus percentage.
- Drake vehicles now properly animate when attacking in the air.

Guilds

The criteria on many of the profession-related guild achievements has been significantly reduced.
Guild Challenges
- These challenges can be found in the Info pane of the guild UI.
- Guild Challenges fall into three categories: Dungeons, Raids, and Rated Battlegrounds.
- Each challenge can be completed a set number of times per week. Guild groups participating in level-appropriate Heroic or normal difficulty dungeons and raids, or rated Battlegrounds, will automatically qualify for challenge credit.
- Each time a Guild Challenge is completed, the guild will be awarded experience and gold deposited directly into the Guild Vault, as well as the opportunity to earn all-new achievements. A popup or "toast" will be displayed to confirm a Guild Challenge has been completed (similar to achievement alerts).
- Guild experience earned via Guild Challenges will be awarded above the daily cap. The experience cap will move forward relative to the amount of experience obtained through completing Guild Challenges (similar to rested experience for characters).
- Guilds already at the level cap will be awarded substantially more gold in place of guild experience.
- Gold rewards are deposited into the guild bank once the guild reaches level 5. The text for the Cash Flow guild perk has been updated appropriately.
Guild Finder
- A new Guild Finder button will now appear on the Micro Menu for guild leaders, as well as players without a guild.
- A Guild Interests field allows players to form a guild around common interests: Questing, Dungeons, Raids, PvP, and Role Playing.
- An Availability field allows players to note whether or not weekdays or weekends are better for playing.
- The Class Roles field allows players to indicate the role or roles they are capable of, and willing to fill.
- A Comment box is also available for supplying additional information.
- Once a player has filled out the Guild Interests field, the Browse Guilds tab allows them to find guilds actively recruiting via the Guild Finder. Guilds listed here are displayed according to common interests.
- The Requests tab tracks all recruitment requests submitted by an unguilded player, or submitted to the leader of a selected guild.
The Guild Perk, Cash Flow, no longer prints out text to the Chat Log. Instead, the daily amount deposited is shown in the Guild Vault Money Log. In addition, players can view the weekly contribution in a new window at the bottom of the Money Log.
Two new custom guild tabards have been added as Guild Rewards. The tabards are account bound and offer a bonus to gaining guild reputation.
The Reins of the Dark Phoenix, purchased from the Guild Vendor, has had its art improved. It's now less transparent and indisputably more awesome.
The amount of guild experience rewarded for rated Battleground guild group wins has been dramatically increased.
Players are now rewarded guild experience for Honorable Kills in the field.
Players are now rewarded guild experience for Battleground wins in Battleground brackets up to level 80.
Arena teams are now awarded guild experience for wins. The entire team must be members of the same guild to earn this experience.

Items

Account Bound Items
- Many "Account Bound" heirlooms are now labeled as "Battle.net Account Bound", meaning that they can also be traded or mailed to characters that are on different World of Warcraft accounts under the same Battle.net account.
- Mail sent to characters on the same Battle.net account now arrives instantaneously, as it does for the same World of Warcraft account.
- Mailing account-bound items to characters of the opposite faction on the same Battle.net account will now correctly translate faction-specific items to their appropriate equivalent.
- All trade goods available for purchase with Honor or Justice Points from the associated commodities vendors have had their prices reduced by 50%.
- Maelstrom Crystals are now available for purchase with Honor or Justice Points from the associated commodities vendors.
The PvP Horde and Alliance trinkets have a new spell effect.
Item Sets
- The current damage-dealing death knight 4-piece raid set bonus now also grants increased attack power when Killing Machine triggers, as well as when the death knight gains Death Runes).
- The current Holy paladin 4-piece raid set bonus now grants 540 Spirit for 6 seconds after casting Holy Shock.
- The current healing priest 4-piece raid set bonus no longer requires a target to be under the effects of Weakened Soul for the priest to receive the Spirit bonus. Instead the benefit will be granted each time the priest's Penance spell heals a target.
- The caster shaman 4-piece PvP set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Grounding Totem by 3 seconds, up from 1.5.
Item Bug Fixes
- Players are now properly seated on stone drake and wind drake models.
- Stone drakes no longer clip into the ground when attacked.
- Many pieces of crafted epic armor have had sockets added.
- Furious Gladiator's Greatsword (and other swords with the same model) no longer disappear when wielded.
- Random enchantment items (of the bear, of the whale, etc.) no longer use obsolete item modifiers such as attack power or spell power.

Professions

All major cities will now have every type of profession trainer and their associated trade supply vendors.
New Cooking and Fishing Dailies have been added to Darnassus, Ironforge, Thunder Bluff, and Undercity.
Alchemy
- Flask of Steelskin now grants 450 Stamina, up from 300. The Mixology bonus for alchemists remains at 120 Stamina.
Archaeology
- Seven new rare items have been added.
- Players now have a much smaller chance of getting a dig site for a race for which they have completed all rare finds.

PvP

The rate at which Honor Points are earned has been doubled.
Arenas
- Arena matchmaking can now extend beyond a team's Battlegroup.
Battlegrounds
- Battleground raid leaders can now move players from other realms among raid subgroups.
- The Focused Assault and Brutal Assault buffs have changed.
  - After 3 minutes of both teams having the flag, both flag carriers will get Focused Assault, which increases damage taken by 10%.
  - Every minute afterward, an additional stack will be applied to increase damage taken by an additional 10%.
  - After 7 minutes, Brutal Assault will be applied in place of Focused Assault. In additional to the damage debuff, this debuff also caps the player's movement speed at 100%. The damage taken debuff works the same and will add 10% to the debuff up to a maximum of 100% damage taken.
- Arathi Basin
  - Arathi Basin is now available as a 10v10-player rated Battleground.
  - Flags should now cap in 7 seconds, down from 8.
- The Battle for Gilneas
  - Flags should now cap in 7 seconds, down from 8.
  - Graveyard Changes
    - Players who die at a control point that they own will now be teleported to the next closest graveyard, instead of the one at which they died.
    - If a player's team owns the Mine and Waterworks, and dies at Waterworks, they will be teleported to the Mine.
    - If an Alliance player's team only owns Lighthouse, and dies at Lighthouse, they will respawn at their base.
    - If a Horde player's team owns Waterworks and Mine, and dies at Lighthouse, they will respawn at Waterworks.
- Twin Peaks
  - Graveyard Changes
    - Players will now only spawn at their base graveyard when they die in the enemy base.
    - Defending players will respawn at the middle graveyard.
    - Midfield players will respawn at the middle graveyard.
    - Attacking players will respawn at their base graveyard.
- Warsong Gulch
  - The graveyards outside both bases have been lowered in elevation and are no longer on the same plane as the main flag room entrances to either respective base.

Quests & Creatures

A handful of quests have been added to Northern Barrens to provide more level 18-20 content. Look for new quests at Nozzlepot's Outpost and Darsok's Outpost.
Loot from the creatures Garr, Julak-Doom, Mobus, Akma'Hat, Xariona, and Poseidus has been adjusted to be commensurate to their rarity and invested effort.
Quest Bug Fixes
- Agatha is now always present to provide quests for newly created undead characters.
- Players properly sit on Bastia's back during the quest "To the Cliffs" on the Lost Isles.
- There should no longer be phasing issues during the quest "Detonation" in Redridge Mountains.
- "Blackriver Skirmish" in Grizzly Hills now awards Honor Points.
- The vehicle for the quest "Tailgunner!" in Uldum now aims in the correct direction.

Races

The gnomish racial ability, Escape Artist, is no longer affected by the global cooldowns triggered by other abilities.
The human racial ability, Every Man for Himself, has a new spell effect.
Race Bug Fixes
- Worgen females have learned how to laugh out loud.

User Interface

Like the Focus Frame, the character Unit and Target Frames can now be unlocked and moved to one's content.
Spells bound to a key now start to be cast when the button is pressed down by default, instead of waiting for the key to go up. This is an option that can be turned off in the Interface menu under Combat. Mouse clicking has not changed and operates on mouse click up.
Targets and focus targets now display on the mini-map.
Moved Video and Sound to a new "Options" screen.
Added a network category to the new Options screen and included the two network checkboxes.
- The Network category contains the options "Optimize network for speed" and "Enable IPv6 when available". "Optimize network for speed" will be enabled by default, and will send packets more frequently at the cost of higher bandwidth. The higher bandwidth may lead to disconnects for some players who have limited bandwidth. Players getting disconnected frequently should try unchecking this box.
Visual Settings Updates
- Removed the red bar preventing the overall graphics slider from going to ultra based on computer specs.
- When a player moves the overall slider to a setting that would have previously been prevented, any option that can't go as high as that setting will get the warning icon with a tooltip explaining why it can't go higher. For example: a player sets the overall slider to Ultra and the water setting can only go to Fair. The water setting would automatically switch to Fair.
- Support for DirectX 11 can now be found in the Advanced tab of the Options screen.
At the login screen:
- Moved the "Reset User Options" button from the popup window that appears when clicking Options to the actual Options window.
- Clicking Options now goes directly to the Video tab of the Options screen.
- Removed the now-unneeded popup.
The New Features (!) Option screen has been updated:
- Cast action keybinds on key down (Combat)
- Pick Up Action Key (ActionBars)
- Nameplate Motion Type (Names)
- Graphics API (Advanced)
- Network category

Maintenance Day Machinima

2011-04-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

Ironforge Bank Commercial

Maintenance Day Machinima

2011-04-12T08:38:00.000-07:00

The upcoming changes to the Dungeon Finder may leave us asking this daily.

Justice Points to Honor Points , et al, conversions

2011-04-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

Patch 4.1 PTR: New PvE-to-PvP currency conversion

by Matthew Rossi

Apr 7th 2011 at 8:00PM

If you've seen the patch 4.1 PTR

patch notes

recently, one thing will probably jump out at you immediately. Namely, you can now buy honor points for justice points and vice versa, and you can also buy conquest points for valor points.

Updated 4.1 patch notes for April 7, 2011

General

Honor is now purchasable from the Justice Commodities Vendor at 250 Honor per 375 Justice.
Justice is now purchasable from the Honor Commodities Vendor at 250 Justice per 375 Honor.
Conquest is now purchasable from the Valor vendor at 250 Conquest per 250 Valor.

source

This is huge for people who have found themselves capped on one or another of these currencies for a while now. I know for myself, I've ended up stockpiling heirlooms for characters I may or may not ever level just to keep below the JP cap. Now I can get serious about those last few PvP items I've been holding off picking up. I am surprised to see a valor-to-conquest conversion but not a conquest-to-valor one -- seems somewhat unfair, as it gives PvE players with access to a lot of valor points a way to jump into PvP but gives no such return for PvP players who want to get a leg up in PvE.

Keeping in mind it's the PTR and is always subject to change, of course, this should be a more interesting solution to point capping than we've seen before with trade goods and suchlike

The Grind Theme

2011-04-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

New Guild Recruiting Tool!

2011-04-01T11:33:00.001-07:00

Random Guild Finder

As the popularity of the Guild Advancement system continues to rise, we realize an increasing number of players feel that the experience of finding an adequate guild continues to be daunting. To address this, we’re introducing an all-new Random Guild Finder! Players may use this new feature to queue for automatic guild placement. You’ll be placed with a random guild at the click of a button, allowing you to partake in whatever content they may or may not be doing. After being placed, you’ll receive a cooldown which will not allow you to leave the guild, or for them to remove you from the guild, for fourteen days. Get to know your new friends! We’re sure they’ll enjoy getting to know you. If the guild you’re automatically placed in does not exist on your current realm you’ll be automatically charged for a paid realm transfer and moved there.

Appearance Tab

Acknowledging the continued requests of our players, an Appearance tab has been added to the game! The Appearance tab will finally, at long last, allow players to customize the look of their non-combat pets. Simply summon a non-combat pet and use the Appearance tab to change its look to that of any of the other non-combat pets you own. Summon, customize, and play!

General

* Character armory profiles will now display current guild status: Solo, In a Guild, Looking for Guild, G-kicked, and It’s Complicated. In addition, character portraits now have the option to be displayed as a self-taken cellphone picture from in front of a bathroom mirror.

* To ensure The Burning Crusade starting zones remain consistent with the rest of Azeroth, it is once again no longer possible to fly in Azeroth.

* Dance Studio has been removed from the game due to lack of use.

* Vashj’ir is now 20% more disorienting.

* Players in capital cities will receive a 2-hour debuff “Homebody” that increases damage taken and reduces damage and healing given by 10% for every 10 minutes they’re within city limits. We hope this encourages something.

* The mouse can now no longer be used to turn player characters. In many cases, this gave certain players a slight advantage over those that used their keys to turn.

Classes: General

* Talents are now automatically chosen for a player based on the main specialization chosen.

* Due to player feedback regarding night elf, blood elf, and worgen “flippy” jumps, player characters can no longer jump.

Death Knights

* Hero Class improvements

o Death knights now earn slightly more experience and gold than other character classes.

o When using the Need Before Greed looting system, other players may not roll on loot until the Hero Class has chosen to pass.

o Whenever a player takes a screenshot of a boss kill or similar accomplishment, all death knight characters will appear slightly more prominent in the image.

o Death knight customer support tickets will always be handled before those of other players.

* Death knights are now required to murder an innocent seven times per week or suffer the “Going Soft” debuff, which reduces damage dealt by 15%.

* Death knights can now increase their damage by yelling KIAI into their microphone. Damage is increased by 10% for every 10dB.

Druids

* Druid forms are now considered vehicles, allowing one player to ride on the druid’s back while in any form, even their humanoid form.

* Scratching Post (legendary Feral staff), introduced in a recent patch, was created accidentally and has been removed.

* Different models have been added for male and female versions of Bear Form. The difference is subtle unless you know where to look.

* Druids no longer talk to Innkeepers to set their Hearthstone. They are instead now required to talk to Stable Masters.

* Aquatic and Travel Form were causing too much of a performance hit and have been replaced with lower poly models.

* Druids now perform an area-of-effect knockback when harvesting herbs, looting, or skinning (does not remove Flight Form).

Hunters

* Hunters now earn Valor Points when they are effectively Vote Kicked from a Dungeon Finder group.

* Chimera Shot, Kill Command, and Explosive Shot have been redesigned as Chimera Trap, Kill Command Trap, and Explosiver Shot, respectively.

* Pets: regardless of what pet is actually tamed, these creatures will appear as either a wolf (Horde) or cat (Alliance) when in combat. In addition, we have implemented an exciting new cross-breeding system where players can mix pets of various families with unpredictable results. Be the first on your server to show off a Mothmonkey, Crocoliskchimera or Warp Crab (these will still appear as either a wolf/cat when in combat).

* Ettin’s Grip (new talent) allows the hunter to equip two ranged weapons simultaneously.

Mages

* In addition to their current spells, mage Mirror Images now can randomly cast Frost Nova, Ring of Frost, Portal: Dalaran, and Mirror Image. Mirror Images summoned by Mirror Images can also cast Mirror Image. Mirror Images summoned by Mirror Images that are summoned by Mirror Images can also cast Mirror Images. Mirror Images that are summoned by Mirror Images that are summoned by Mirror Images that are summoned by Mirror Images…

* The coefficients of all mage cast time spells have been tweaked to be 15% more jaw-dropping.

* All Frost mages now receive a complementary personal Arena rating of 2200 upon reaching level 85.

* Frost mages have been given one additional snare effect, so that they will be brought up to the level of other classes (combined).

* All mage spells that deal Fire damage now appear green.

Paladins

* Judgement has been removed from the game.

* Judgment (new ability) unleashes the energy of a Seal for Holy damage.

* All talents and glyphs which referred to Judgement now correctly affect Judgment.

* The sound of most Retribution abilities has been redesigned to produce a more audible clunk when used. The rotation should now feel clunkier overall.

* Paladins are now required to tithe 10% of their gold income to their church.

* Paladin chat and whispers now appear with sparkles.

* Some paladin abilities did not contain the words Sanctity, Divine, or Justice. This has been corrected.

* The duration and cooldown of Divine Shield have been changed to 15 seconds.

* Divine Shield no longer causes Forbearance.

Priests

* Members of this class must now make a vow of chastity.

* The Shadow priest talent tree has been redesigned to give them access to most of the cooler abilities of Affliction warlocks.

* Lightwell.

* Four new reactive shields have been added to the Discipline tree. These new spells are called Heal, Greater Heal, Flash Heal, and Prayer of Healing.

* Evangelism now has a 2% chance to convert all surrounding party members to the priest class.

* Leap of Faith’s cooldown is now reset if cast on a tank that has targeted an enemy but is not yet in combat.

* Discipline priests we heard you like shields that heal, so we put shield in your shield so you can heal while you heal.

* All Shadow priest spells that deal Fire damage now appear green.

Rogues

* Due to continual misspellings of the “rogue” class, we have officially changed the name to the easier to type “rouge.”

* Pick Pocket now works on friendly players, bankers and auctioneer NPCs.

* Vanish now has an additional 5% chance to fail for no discernable reason.

* Rouges equipping helms that resemble eye patches now suffer a 2% hit penalty from lack of depth perception.

* All archways, portals, portholes, and doorways now contain locked doors which require a rouge’s Pick Lock skill to open.

* Sleight of Hand now allows rouges to roll a perfect 100 on boss drops.

* Cheap Shot has a new more anatomically appropriate animation.

* Rouges are now required to pick up all of their blades after casting Fan of Knives before it can be used again.

* Rouges may now cast Stealth while Stealthed, entering the state of Double Stealth, which is not only stealthier than Stealth, but also causes the word stealth to cease to make sense to your brain. Stealth.

Shaman

* A healing tree has been added for shaman.

* Flame Shock, Earth Shock, Dot Shock and Frost Shock have all been combined into a new spell called Bus Shock. This ability is less exciting, less powerful and harder to use than equivalents of comparable classes, but it has a new icon.

* Maelstrom Weapon, Unleash Elements, and Spiritwalker’s Grace have been redesigned as Maelstrom Totem, Unleashed Totem, and Spiritwalker’s Totem, respectively.

* The Elemental tree is now the Elementary tree, and allows use of new abilities Eat Paste, Nap Time, and the Macaroni and Glitter Totem.

* The shaman now have a Totem Belt, allowing them to carry their totems with them at all times.

* All totem ranges reduced to 1 yard.

Warlocks

* Female warlocks are now correctly called witches.

* Warlocks and witches now take additional damage when fighting in direct sunlight.

* Demons now have a new resource system called Happiness. Torturing, mistreating or speaking harshly to a demon pet will reduce its happiness. The Succubus is an exception to this rule.

* Whenever 2 or more warlocks or witches appear in a raid together, the damage dealt by any mages in the raid decreases by 5%. This effect stacks up to 5 times.

* In addition to their current talent trees, warlocks and witches can now spend points in any mage talent tree as well.

* To make the Demonology tree feel more 'demony' warlocks and witches not specced into this tree will be unable to summon demon companions.

Warriors

* The Arms and Fury warrior hybrid tax is now slightly taxier than other hybrid taxes.

* A bug was discovered that prevented warriors from popping Enrage as intended. This has been fixed.

* Charge has been removed from the game.

* Warrior’s base movement speed has been increased by 300%.

* In addition to Throwdown’s knock down and stun effects, it will also inflict a horror effect.

* To improve the success rate of Heroic Leap, its range has been reduced to 3 yards.

* Quantum Leap (new ability) propels the warrior through time and space, allowing the warrior to take over the identity of an unknown character in an attempt to improve their life or prevent disaster. Cooldown 5 minutes.

Dungeons & Raids

* Firelands

o An attunement quest for Firelands is now available! In order to be eligible for the upcoming raid, players must first encounter Deathwing while he is randomly attacking a zone and collect his leavings. Epic quest lines will also need to be completed to collect the leavings from the other Aspects to combine them into the Patty of the Five Flights – the key to unlock the Elemental Plane of fire in the upcoming 4.2 patch.

* Invisible walls have been added around all harmful ground effects.

* All dungeon & raid bosses now have legs. If they already had legs, they got more legs.

* In order to make the Cataclysm expansion appeal to all players’ sense of nostalgia, shaman, druids and paladins may now only queue as healers when using the Dungeon Finder.

* Tank Stimulus: Successfully completing 25 Dungeon Finder runs as a tank will grant you a $400 Federal tax credit. (Requires Form 8863)

* To help ensure players are only using the Vote Kick feature for the greater good of the group, anyone who initiates a Vote Kick will be kicked themselves regardless if the vote passes or not.

* Ever a player favorite, the level-80 10- and 25-player raid of Icecrown Citadel is being reintroduced as a level-85 Heroic 5-player dungeon.

* Ever a player favorite, the level-85 10- and 25-player raid of The Bastion of Twilight is being reintroduced as a level-85 Heroic 5-player dungeon.

* Ever a player favorite, the level-85 10- and 25-player raid of Firelands is being reintroduced as a level-85 Heroic 5-player dungeon.

* Ever a player favorite, the level-85 Heroic 5-player dungeon of Deadmines is being reintroduced as a level-85 Heroic 5-player dungeon.

Items

* All items have had a 65-100% reduction in Fun.

Professions

* Cooking

o A new recipe has been added to Cooking which can be very rarely found inside Deathwing’s leavings. [Recipe: Epic Meal Time] – Use: Set out an epic meal to feed your entire raid or party! Restores 192,000 health and 192,000 mana over 11 seconds. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become sick and “refund” all gained health and mana.

PvP

* All Arena teams must now contain the word “cleave” somewhere in their name.

* Resilience has been made more literal. Players with high resilience no longer take less damage in PvP, but now bounce when dropped.

* Azshara Crater is now no longer mentioned so players will stop asking about it.

* New Battleground brackets! To further promote fair play Battlegrounds are now bracketed for every single level. 10-10, 11-11, 12-12, … 77-77, 78-78, etc.

Quests & Creatures

* To ensure Orgrimmar and Stormwind are the premiere cities for Cataclysm, NPC’s have been removed from all other cities.

* All NPC’s now have a 25% chance to Dodge right-clicks.

* Due to the popularity of the “Save the Wee Animals” quest in Hyjal, all quests now include an element that requires you to pick up fleeing animals.

Races

* The Worgen “sniff” sound has been replaced by Rebecca Black’s hit single, Friday. The song will play in its entirety. Every time.

* The name of the draenei race has been adjusted to have 20% more vowels.

* Draeneie - The male draeneie laugh has been tweaked to be 7% more irritating.

* The tauren race may no longer choose the paladin class, because… come on. Really?

* The dwarf race’s passive wenching bonus now works correctly.

* Female worgen have been cured of their curse and now have only a human form.

User Interface

* All spells and spell macros now have added RP-immersive elements built in that will transmit to all players automatically every time a spell is cast. These cannot be changed or disabled. Examples:

o Flash Heal: “%n raises her hands skyward and calls forth a beam of bright white light that penetrates deeply into the souls of her comrades, healing their wounds and urging them forth in battle!”

o Kick: “%n casually approaches you and dons a monocle before engaging you in a casual discussion concerning local politics and refined beverages. Eventually, the discussion grows heated, and he abruptly tosses his pipe at your feet.”

* The UI addon system has been converted from LUA to Scaleform. All addons will need to be recoded.

* Show/Hide pants has been added to the Interface Options menu.

* A slider has been added to allow scaling of shoulder armor size.

* To toughen players up for their encounters with dragons and demons, the in-game emote “/hug” has been removed from the game.

Good addon for healers, or raiders in general

2011-03-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

Super Cool Addon: DeathNote

Posted on March 22, 2011 by jadiera

As a healer, I am interested in what exactly happened when someone in my raid dies. As a healing lead, I’m really interested in what exactly happened when someone in my raid dies. Were they standing in the bad? Did the healer assigned to a tank not heal them? Did they pull aggro? Do I need to adjust assignments to get them more heals?

DeathNote is a fantastic addon I’ve just recently installed, and I love it to bits already.

What it Does

DeathNote is straightforward–it provides a clean, parsed browser of death events. Straight out of the box, it just works. You access the main death browser UI by right-clicking on any unit from, and choosing “Show Death Note” from the menu.

This will open the UI seen above at the post header. On the surface, that’s a lot of information at first, but let’s go through it. On the far left, you have a list of all the recorded death events. By default, they are sorted by the player, and timestamped. You can also choose to sort overall by time, to your preference. Hovering over any of the names in this column will display a tooltip showing the last line in the log, aka the killing blow. Selecting any of these death events will display the relevant information on the right side of the DeathNote UI, which is separated into 5 columns.

The leftmost column displays the time–by default this is displayed as the amount of time in seconds before the player died. Clicking on the title at the top of any column will cycle through the display options, in this case seconds from death or real time. Personally, I find seconds from death to be a lot more useful for looking back to see what happened and how quickly. Real time may be more useful if you are trying to correlate events with another player or in another log. Hovering over each line in this column will display a tooltip with the other time format; i.e if you are showing real time, the tooltip will display seconds to death.

The next column, “HP” will show you are bar representing what percentage of health the player had at the time of each event line. Again, clicking on the column title will cycle through your options, or you can click on the gear icon in the upper right of the ui for a menu. HP format options include bar display, absolute health, percentage health, or absolute/maximum. I prefer looking at the bar format because it’s visually very easy to tell how alive they were, as well as spot the point where they were full or nearly so, and how quickly it went downhill. Hovering over each line will display the players health information in “absolute/maxhp (%)” format as well.

Column three, “Amount”, displays the actual value of damage or healing the player took, or if you’re displaying aura changes (as is on by default) whether it was a buff or debuff. This is very handy for seeing the scale of incoming damage and heals. There’s no display options to cycle here, but hovering over each line will display the combat log line in the tooltip.

The spell column is super nifty. On the surface, it will show you what it was that did any damage or healing to the target, by spell name. Useful for knowing what exactly hit your tank for 89,000 damage, but that’s not all folks. Let’s show them what’s behind door number three! If you click on any particular spell name, it will also highlight all other lines of that spell in the browser.

Here, we can see the highlighting of each hit of Electric Instability from phase 3 of Twilight council. If you click on a particular heal, you can use this highlight to see, for instance, how often a healer was landing a particular direct heal on a target. Hovering over a spell name will show you the spell’s tooltip.

Lastly, the source column tells you who did the spell from column four. Again, the hover here will show you the tooltip for the actor, and a click will highlight all those lines in the UI.

Why You Care

You care because finding out why people died can help make changes to prevent it in the future. It can help you identify either gaps in healing coverage, or people who are not on the ball with maintaining their assignments. It can tell you whether or not you had the time to land heals to save someone’s life, or if they stood in the stupid and caused their own deaths. You can also use this information to identify that the incoming damage was unavoidable or not, and if it wasn’t, if the damage is high enough that the target needs more healers focused on them. For instance, I used DeathNote to see that when the tank I was assigned to healing on Heroic Halfus attempts didn’t die because I was being a bads, but because they took 273,000 damage in 6.5 seconds. As a result, we tightened up cooldown use, and had one of our raid healers help watch this tank closer.

Not only does a robust death browser like DeathNote let you see healing and damage, it allows you to see buffs. You can see that a rejuvenation dropped and was not refreshed in a timely manner. You can see whether or not the tank popped one of their cooldowns. It’s information in all its glory displayed to you in an incredibly usable format.

Sharing the Data

Reporting the data to others is ridiculously easy. You can right-click on any line in the UI, and meet with the report menu:

“Report Style” allows you to choose from a compact or combat log line format, and “Send report from this line” does exactly what it says–and the menu allows you to choose exactly where the report will be sent, to include specifying a whisper target, as well as letting you chose from any of the custom chat channels you’ve joined. The report it sends can be somewhat spammy, so use with discretion. But if you’re reviewing a tank death in your healer or officer channels, being able to quickly send this information to others can be extremely helpful in analyzing events. If you are going to do a lot of reporting to chat channels, I’d suggest using the compact format, as well as using the configuration options to remove a lot of the spammy buff loss lines that appear at the end as a player has died, or using consolidation features to combine multiple damage or healing events.

Configuration Options

Hey, speaking of those configuration options… DeathNote is set up in a way that you can install the addon and immediately use it as-is, but there are a fair amount of configuration options for the display, collection, and dissemination of information that can prove rather useful.

At the top of the Death Note browser, there is a little orange triangle you can expand to view various filter options for the display. In order to obtain a more concise view, especially for reporting to chat, removing some of the buff gains and losses will cut down on a lot of clutter. The Damage and Healing tabs give you options to consolidate consecutive hits or heals. For example, instead of seeing 8 different lines showing you how your add tank on Nefarian got clobbered by all the adds they’re kiting, it’d show you a single line for a melee hit (x8). Similarly, it’ll combine multiple consecutive HoT ticks, which is great for turning a page of lifebloom ticks into a single line with a cumulative heal total. Alternately, you can use the threshold sliders to hide events under a certain amount, allowing you to remove something like Healing Stream Totem spam. When consolidate information, it will display a range of times, or a list of combined heals, which may go outside the default column width, but the entire browser window, as well as individual columns can be resized.

Lastly, one of my favorite options the ability to turn on automatic announcements of deaths.

If done appropriately, it’s super awesome. The first night I ran with DeathNote installed and announcements set to whisper, the raid leader warned people that it was on, and what was going to happen. At the end, we asked for feedback about the mod, and our crew was overwhelmingly positive about it, at least the ones that spoke up. If you turn this option on, when someone dies, you will send them a single line whisper with the event that killed them.

I conscripted a friend to demonstrate the tell, since I didn’t get a screenshot during the raid. One of the comments a guildie made about the announcement tells was “And it’s not spammy at all!” And it’s not, to the individual getting the tell. If you are the arbiter of deaths, it can get a little spammy on the outgoing end, but that’s a price I am completely willing to pay in exchange for making our raiders aware of what caused their deaths. By only sending someone the last line, it’s not always going to paint the whole picture; someone who’s been standing in lava the whole time can still get finished off by an unavoidable boss mechanic, but it is usually relevant. The “Announces/10 seconds” throttle setting can also help cut down on your outgoing tellspam. If that many people are dying close together, it’s likely a common event and things are headed towards a wipe very quickly.

Information is a Tool

DeathNote provides a lot of lovely information, and information is a beautiful thing. But it’s also just a tool, and any tool can be used to bludgeon people over the head as opposed to performing a useful function. Just keep in mind that if you’re looking over logs to analyze what your healers are doing to not just use it as a means to harp on them for not landing a heal in the 2.6 seconds that a tank died, but rather to troubleshoot and instruct. There’s feasible limits for reaction time, and what people can do to save someone. A tank that goes from full to dead in 2-5 seconds without getting a direct heal likely doesn’t mean that your tank healer was inattentive. With their tank at full, your healer may have used that moment to refresh a buff, drop a totem, or recast a Healing Rain on the shared tank position.

Problems are going to look like a tank that slowly spent 10-15 seconds dying without getting heals, especially if it happens chronically. You’ll also have to consider the class when you’re analyzing heals. A Shaman or Paladin on a tank should demonstrate regular use of their direct heals, but if you have a Druid assigned to a tank, and they’re mightily spamming Healing Touch, but are letting their HoTs drop, that’s still an issue. A Disc Priest may show gaps in direct heals, but if you look at buff gains, you’ll see that these gaps coincide with shield use. Analyzing the deaths of random raid members as opposed to a tank with dedicated healing may take a little more finesse. A death log will show the people who didn’t get enough heals and died, but it won’t show you the other people your raid healer was saving at that time.

You will always get a better reaction by approaching someone as a partner to solve an issue instead of just letting them know they’re a problem. If you start a conversation with one of your healers with a question, for example “Hey, can you tell me what was going on when [tank] died?” you’ll get more constructive work done than demanding to know why they had 2.6 seconds between refreshing rejuvenation, or why they didn’t heal someone for 5 seconds. Odds are, a decent healer knows that they let something drop, and will tell you what the problem was, and how they’ll fix it. If they don’t, you can use the log to instruct them on what sort of things might have been possible to change events.

This entry was posted in Addons, Healing and tagged addons, analysis, healing, leadership, raids, tips. Bookmark thepermalink.

Guild Challenges, in detail

2011-03-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

Patch 4.1 Guild Challenges Detailed by Blizzard
By Miyari
on 03/30/2011 at 11:52 AM Pacific

Blizzard has just recently released extensive details about the new Guild Challenges that are coming with Patch 4.1. Unfortunately, they aren't as robust as many players had hoped, but there's always opportunity for an update down the line! These challenges (as we mentioned before

) task players with completing dungeons, raids and rated battlegrounds in guild groups for a large guild experience and monetary reward (at the appropriate guild level / reputation level).

Patch 4.1 will go live with three guild challenges:
- Guild Raid Challenge: Kill any Cataclysm raid boss while in a guild group. Requires at least 8 or 10 (10 or 25) guild members in party. Can be completed 1 time per week, rewards 3000000 guild experience.
- Guild Dungeon Challenge: Complete any Cataclysm regular or heroic dungeon while in a guild group. Requires at least 3 guild members in party. Can be completed 7 times per week, rewards 300000 guild experience.
- Guild Rated Battleground Challenge: Win a Rated Battleground while in a guild group. Requires at least 8 guild members in raid. Can be completed 3 times per week, rewards 1500000 guild experience.
Guild Challenges award guild experience above the cap
To earn gold for Guild Challenge rewards, a guild must be level 5 or higher and all participating members must have earned Honored reputation with the guild.

Check out the full Blizzard post after the break!

Zarhym
said:

In addition to updating Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman

for level-85 players, we're also excited about another patch 4.1 feature: Guild Challenges. Built into the Info panel of the guild user interface, Guild Challenges will be weekly tasks guild groups can tackle for additional guild experience, achievements, and gold.

This feature has been designed and implemented to be quite simple. At the top of the guild user interface Info pane, a new Guild Challenges section will be displayed and broken into three categories: Dungeons, Raids, and Rated Battlegrounds. Any guild group will qualify for Guild Challenges credit and there is a set number of times each challenge can be completed per week. There’s no need to add a quest to your Quest Log or anything of that nature. Just grab a guild group eligible for any of the challenges and go.

Completing a Guild Challenge will result in a popup to confirm credit has been awarded, similar to achievement popups (or "toasts"). The participating guild members will then earn experience for their guild. In addition, a gold reward will be deposited directly to the Guild Vault. The gold and experience rewarded varies for each challenge type, but you won’t have to worry about receiving reduced rewards if, say, you happen to be in a guild group that completes a raid or dungeon on normal difficulty. Since there is a limited number of times each challenge type can be completed per week, we want to make sure guilds don’t feel set back if a guild group of level-18 players receives credit for completing Deadmines, versus a level-85 guild group completing Heroic Deadmines. The same applies to normal and Heroic difficulty raid progression. Provided the content is level-appropriate for your guild group, you’ll earn experience and gold for your guild.

To earn Guild Dungeon Challenge credit, the 5-player party must be composed of at least 3 guild members. Raid and Rated Battleground Challenges require that 8 out of 10 players be guild members, while 20 guild members are required to earn credit for 25-player raids. To earn gold for Guild Challenge rewards, a guild must be level 5 or higher and the participating members must have earned honored reputation with the guild. For example, 3 out of 5 guild members in a 5-player party must be honored to earn gold for the guild. If those three guild members have only reached friendly reputation, they would still receive credit and earn guild experience, but the guild would not receive gold.

So, let's say your guild has been regularly hitting the daily experience cap. You might be wondering how beneficial it'd be to do Guild Challenges. Well wonder no more, amigos: Guild Challenges award guild experience above the cap. Think of it like rested experience. The guild experience cap will extend itself relative to the guild experience earned by completing these challenges. It’s a great way to get an extra edge on your guild leveling! Not only that, if your guild reaches the level cap, continuing to partake in Guild Challenges will yield a much more substantial sum of gold deposited directly into the Guild Vault.

We're very happy with Guild Challenges and feel that they're a fun way to continue expanding upon all of the new guild features added in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Your feedback regarding this system is always appreciated, as you can be sure we’ll be looking for ways to beef it up in future patches.

Maintenance Day Machinima

2011-03-29T14:03:00.001-07:00

Beeastt's Way Back Machine

2011-03-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

Remember when hunters could use shields? When mages could lock pick? When boats and zeps just got introduced?

Welcome to patch .09, still in beta, they just raised the level cap from 50 to 55, and added hunters to the game. Read below for the full arrchived patch notes:

The WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? What secrets does the game still hold? If you enjoyed Patches of Yesteryear
, you're going to love this.

Do any of you vanilla WoW players remember how terrifying Teremus the Devourer

used to be? He was among the very first world bosses, and boy was he annoying. He was immune to fire damage, frost damage, and magic-based DoTs. Seriously? Immune to fire, frost andDoTs? Yeah, he was brutal. It was perfectly normal to find him rampaging through Stormwind thanks to a friendly hunter kiting him to town.

You have patch 0.9 (Aug. 17, 2004) to thank for Teremus' rather ... aggressive nature. He was in the game world before that, but he would leave you alone as long as you left him alone. As of patch 0.9, he turned into a lowbie ganking machine.

Other patch 0.9 highlights:

Hunters opened up for play testing -- yes, after mages and warriors were given talent trees. And they could use shields.
Priests and rogues received the first iteration of their talent trees.
Micro-dungeon redesigns were put in.

"What the heck is a micro-dungeon?" I hear you ask. Well, let me tell you!

Patch 0.9 patch notes

Hunters
The Hunter Class is now available to test! Hunters track, tame, and slay all manner of animals and beasts found in the wild. Whether they rely on bows or firearms, Hunters consider their weapons and pets to be their only true friends. Races allowed to become Hunters are the Night Elf, Dwarf, Orc, Tauren, and Troll.

Hunters are great for pulling monsters as they are able to set traps that hinder monsters that the Hunters pull to attack. Hunters are also able to use various beast-related special abilities, take on bestial traits that give them supernatural powers, control and tame beasts, and use a wide variety of ranged attacks complimented by a few melee abilities.

Hunters are closely related to their pets and must remember to always keep their pet's happiness in mind. When using a pet, Hunters will notice an icon in the top left corner of their screen that depicts their pet's happiness. The more Hunters use their pets, the lower their pet's level of happiness will become. Hunters should always remember to feed their pets to raise their pet's level of happiness or worry about their pet abandoning them or even attacking the Hunter! Hunters are also the only class able to name their pets.

The Hunter can use the following weapons: Axes, Daggers, Guns or Bows, Crossbows (with training), Fist Weapons (with training), Spears (with training), Staves (with training), Swords, (with training), Thrown (with training), Two-Handed Axes (with training), Two-Handed Swords (with training). The Hunter can use the following armor: Cloth, Leather, Shields, and Mail (at level 40, with training).

Boats and Zeppelins
Our first pass at Boats and Zeppelins has been added to the world in two locations. A boat has been added between Booty Bay and Ratchet, and a Zeppelin has been added between Orgrimmar and Tirisfal. A second zeppelin has also been added between Grom'gol and Orgrimmar. The round trip on all three of these new transports is around five minutes, with a pause at each destination of one minute each. If you miss a transport, you will have a very short wait before it returns. If you log out or crash during your journey, you will log back in on the same transport you were on when you logged out, although you will likely be at a different location along its path. Because this was the original intention for our world travel, the instant teleport NPCs have been removed. Please do not jump off of Boats and/or Zeppelins when riding them. Keep in mind that the Goblin Transit Authority is not responsible for accidents of this nature and you may land in a place where you cannot reach your corpse.

Talent System
Talents are now available for the Priest and Rogue classes! Priest and Rogue players can now utilize the talent interface by using the "Talents" button, which resides next to the "Spellbook and Abilities" button, or by pressing the "N" default hotkey.

Talents for other classes will continue to be added as the beta progresses. Please note that all Mages and Warriors have had their talent points refunded. You will now start earning talent points at level 10.

Finally, for the duration of the beta, you will be able to find an NPC in each city that will allow you to reset your talent points and experiment with different talent paths. (Note: this option is ONLY available in the beta).

Level Cap Raised
The level cap has been increased to 55. New zones, quests, items, and content have been added to accommodate the level increase.

Item Stats Changed
Items have had a major overhaul. Armor values, damage, stats, and resists have been modified to reflect current play balance. Some items have also had their level requirements changed. Items that were subjected to this change and that were equipped on a character prior to the patch have been placed in the character's bag. If a character did not have space in its bags, please make room in that character's bags and re-login. Below are additional changes to items in general.

Several axes, swords, and maces were changed from main hand only to either hand for dual-wielding purposes.
Horned Viking Helmet has been updated with a new effect.
Cursed Eye of Paleth has had its Shadow requirement removed.
Eye of Paleth has had its Holy requirement removed.
Witch Doctor Zum'rah should always drop something good now.
First Mate's Hat can now drop off any pirate in Stranglethorn instead of just from Pretty Boy Duncan.
Quivers and ammo pouches have been modified. They now have more slots and will increase attack speed when using a gun or bow.
Stoneslayer is no longer Warrior only.
Deathblow is no longer Warrior only.
Six Demon Bag has been revamped.
Look for new attributes on items with random properties.
Wolfshead Helm changed to give AE silence instead of taunt.

Sharing Quests
You can now share your quests with your entire party. In order to utilize this option, you need to open your quest log, select a quest, and press the "Share Quest" button. All members of your party will now be presented with the quest like you were the quest giver NPC. Some restrictions:

You can only share with party members
Party members must be nearby when you share
Party members must meet the pre-requisites of the quest itself. For example, if you are on step 2 of a quest and your friend is still on step 1, you could not give him a "short-cut" to step 2.
Quests generated from items cannot be shared.

New Micro-Dungeon Designs
The Level Designers have gone in to the game and redesigned some of the Goldmine and Mushroom Cave Micro-Dungeons. Players can now find these redesigned Micro-Dungeons in both Alliance and Horde lands.

Goldmines in Hillsbrad, Mulgore, and Blasted Lands have been redesigned.

Mushroom Caves in Searing Gorge, Wetlands, Western Plaguelands, Felwood, Hinterlands, Swamp of Sorrows, Arathi Highlands, Ungoro Crater, Deadwind Pass, Stranglethorn, and Redridge have been redesigned.

Be sure to visit all of these areas to see exactly which Micro-Dungeons have been redesigned!

General Changes:

Hunters and Rogues gain attack power based on AGI and STR. All other classes gain attack power based on STR.
With the addition of the Hunter class, Tracking has been removed from general trainers in the world. It is now available to Hunters only; they may train in it at Hunter class trainers.
Tracking of all types now works until canceled, but you can only have one type of tracking working at a time (Herb Finding, Mineral Finding, Sense Undead, etc.)
Wand use is no longer prevented when silenced. It is now prevented in all the same situations melee is prevented.
All instant-cast, non-channeled spells can now be cast while moving.
Pet commands should now feel more responsive in many situations. For example, if you command your imp pet to go into passive mode it will stop casting Firebolt and enter passive mode.
Wand damage should now be reduced by resistance in the appropriate school.
Spell casting now has diminishing interrupt time. Each successful hit after the first will set the spell being cast back less each time to a minimum of .2 seconds. First hit 1 second, second hit .8 seconds, third hit .6 seconds, fourth hit .4 seconds, fifth and all successive hits .2 seconds.
Interrupt spells/abilities (e.g. Kick, Shield Bash, Counterspell) will now interrupt channeled spells.
All pets should now use player combat formulas rather than monster combat formulas.
A new "Ammo Slot" has been added to the character screen. Ammo must be placed in this slot in order to use a ranged weapon (bow, gun, and crossbow). Only ammo placed in this slot, and any like it in your bags, will be used. Other types of ammo will not be used.
Ammo will be fired from a quiver, ammo pouch, or any other bag. Quivers and ammo pouches are no longer required.
When you right-click ammo in your bag/quiver, it will place the ammo in the "Ammo Slot."
You can no longer eat or drink while in combat.
You are now considered "in-combat" if any nearby monster is engaged with you.
Found and fixed a bug where some channeled spells were fully interrupted by the first hit (e.g. Arcane Missiles, Drain Soul, and Health Funnel).
You are automatically flagged for PvP when you enter enemy cities.
All totems should now be immune to area effect spells once again.
Slow spells affect creatures immediately instead of stopping them.
Summons and pets no longer attack their last target after they die.
Holy Resistance has been replaced with Arcane Resistance.
Smoothed out Health and Mana levels for all classes.
Level 40 Armor Proficiencies are now available on class trainers for a monetary training cost. They no longer cost skill points.
Lock picking secondary skill removed.
Spell Interruption spells/abilities will now interrupt the entire school of magic for the duration. For example, using Kick against a mage casting Fireball will prevent Fireball, Fireblast, Scorch, and all other fire spells from being cast for the Kick's duration.

Druid:

Tiger's Fury damage should now scale properly when used with Shred and Ravage.
Faerie Fire will now stack with other armor-reducing debuffs.
Entangling Roots should no longer end early based on damage caused by itself.
When in Bear Form, Dire Bear Form, Cat Form, Travel Form or Aquatic Form, the druid is now considered a Beast.
Travel Form is no longer usable underwater.
Shapeshifting will no longer cancel all buffs on the Druid.
Shapeshifting cooldown reduced from 10 to 1.5 seconds.
Play Dead
has been removed.
Druids now regenerate mana while in shape shift form.
When shapeshifting into and out of Bear/Dire Bear forms, you should now end with the same % of health as you had in the previous form.
Bear Form's armor increased.
Dire Bear Form's melee damage increased.
Bear Form and Dire Bear Form mana cost slightly reduced.
Cat Form mana cost slightly reduced, energy now starts generating immediately.
Growl taunt effectiveness reduced.
Aquatic Form mana cost now scales with level, speed no longer changes with level.
Travel Form mana cost now scales with level.
Healing Touch mana cost reduced.
Starfire mana cost reduced.
Thorns mana cost reduced for early ranks, raised for later ranks.

Mage:

New spell: Slow Fall (Level 12)
Ice Armor and Frost Armor should no longer stack.
Frost Armor and Ice Armor chill effects reduced in effectiveness.
The Chilled effects from Ice Armor and Frost Armor should no longer stack.
Polymorphed targets will now wander a short radius around where they were polymorphed. They will no longer return to where they were first attacked and wander from there. Note that they may still wander off if the duration lasts long enough, so keep an eye on your sheep.
Cone of Cold area of effect has been widened at its base, so it should be much easier to use on targets that are close to the Mage.
Arcane Missiles can no longer be cast if silenced.
Arcane Explosion should now be causing the damage listed in the tool-tip.
Lesser Invisibility, Invisibility and Greater Invisibility removed.
Blink no longer will allow you to teleport past doors.
Khadgar's Unlocking
removed.
Portal mana costs increased.
Fire and Frost Ward duration reduced, cooldown increased.
Frost Nova duration reduced, cooldown increased.
Frostbolt cast time reduced, damage and mana cost reduced accordingly, slowing effect reduced.
Pyroblast levels adjusted, damage reduced, mana cost increased, cooldown increased, range reduced.
Blink (Rank 2) and Blink (Rank 3) removed.

Mage Talents:

Training costs have been added to replacements for the following spells:
- Pyroblast
- Blast Wave
- Ice Barrier
Frostbite freeze effects can be dispelled.
The strike bonus given by Critical Mass has been reduced.
The damage that Fire Power does has been reduced.
75% of the damage that Pyroblast does is now up-front, 25% of it is DOT.
Permafrost duration reduced.
Added an additional 3 ranks to Ice Shards.
Removed one rank of Improved Frost Bolt.
Chance that Frostbite affects a target has been reduced.
Frostbite duration slightly increased.
Removed 2 ranks of Winter's Chill.
Ice Block duration slightly increased.
Ice Block is now a buff instead of a debuff (you can cancel it).
Mana penalty from using Arcane Power has been slightly reduced.
Reduced cooldown on Presence of Mind.
Presence of Mind now only works on Mage spells with a cast time of less than 10 seconds.
Reduced cooldown on Evocation.
Reduced effect chance on Arcane Concentration.
Increased effect of Improved Blink.
Reduced effect of Improved Dampen Magic.
Added Arcane Instability talent.
Mana reduction from Frost Channeling has been reduced.

Paladin:

New Spell: Summon Warhorse (Level 40). Attainable via quest.
Turn Undead now has a short cast time.
Judgment now has a short cast time.
New Proficiency: Two-Handed Axes.

Priest:

Lesser Heal, Heal, Greater Heal mana cost reduced.
Holy Word: Shield duration reduced.
Mind Blast now has a short cast time.
Holy Smite cast time slightly increased, damage reduced, mana cost reduced.
Holy Protection removed.
Holy Word: Shield can now only be used once per 30 seconds per target.
Psychic Scream now has a chance to break when the feared target is damaged.

Rogue:

Expose Armor no longer stacks with Sundering Strike (Sunder Armor), but will now stack with Faerie Fire.
Spellcasting against a Rogue that successfully uses Vanish will now be interrupted.
Blind now cancels combat when used.
Dual Wield no longer requires skill points to purchase. It is available on Rogue trainers at level 10 for a monetary training cost.
Distract moved to level 22.
New Ability: Detect Traps (Level 24).
New Ability: Disarm Trap (Level 30).
Now only rogues may train in Lock Picking, which they will do from their Rogue class trainers.

Shaman:

Mana Font Totem renamed Mana Spring Totem.
New Spell: Chain Heal (Levels 40, 46, 54).
When in Ghost Wolf form, the Shaman is now considered a Beast.
Frost Shock slowing effect will now obey the standard stacking rules.
Lightning Shock spell removed.
Stoneskin Totem now reduces melee damage only, not ranged attacks.
Chain Lightning cast time slightly reduced, damage increased, now deals less damage to each target after the first.
Earthbind Totem initial effect should no longer be heavily resisted.
Fire Nova Totem now generates less threat.
Flametongue Weapon replacements adjusted.
Flametongue Totem replacements adjusted.
Frostbrand Weapon slow effect reduced, damage increased, replacements adjusted.
Lightning Bolt cast time reduced, damage and mana cost reduced accordingly, replacements adjusted.
Molten Blast
removed.
Purge moved to level 14.
Rockbiter Weapon replacements adjusted.
Water Breathing moved to level 22.
Windfury Weapon moved to level 30, replacements adjusted, effect simplified.
Windfury Totem replacements adjusted, effect simplified.
New Spell: Windwall Totem (Level 36, 46, 56)
Stoneskin Totem's damage reduction slightly reduced at higher levels.

Warlock:

Demon Breath renamed Unending Breath.
Sacrificial Shield (Voidwalker) renamed Sacrifice.
Summon Nightmare cast time decreased to be in line with other mount summoning spells.
Nightmare renamed Felsteed.
Felsteed no longer purchased at the trainer, but rewarded via quest.
Found and fixed a bug that caused the cost per second of Health Funnel to be higher than it should be.
A failed Ritual of Summoning should no longer cost a soul shard.
Shadow Ward duration reduced, cooldown increased.
Curse of Weakness effect reduced at higher levels.

Warrior:

Strike renamed Heroic Strike.
Punishing Blow renamed Mocking Blow.
Sundering Strike renamed Sunder Armor.
Sunder Armor no longer stacks with Expose Armor, but will now stack with Faerie Fire.
Recklessness now has a percent-based armor reduction, but using it makes you immune to all fear effects for the duration.
Dual Wield no longer requires skill points to purchase. It is available on Warrior trainers at level 20 for a monetary training cost.
Intimidating Shout now has a chance to break when the feared target is damaged.
Charge range changed to 8-25 yards.
Charge minimum range reduced to 8 yards.
Charge can now be done during combat, but the target must still be within the 8-25 yard range.
Taunt effectiveness reduced.

Warrior Talents:

Enrage now has a max duration
Enrage triggers when being hit with a critical hit now, damage increases with the rank of the talent.
Removed attack speed bonus from Enrage.
Reduced Enrage damage bonus slightly.
Flurry speed slightly reduced.
Moved Enrage/Flurry/Cruelty, changed pre-requisites for each.
Reduced rage bonus for Improved Heroic Strike.
Mortal Strike now has a cooldown, damage has also been reduced.
Rage bonus for Improved Charge reduced.
Tactical mastery points distributed evenly. Players will no longer experience "diminishing returns" from putting more points into the talent.
Slightly reduced the damage bonus given by 2-handed weapon specialization.
Improved the Anticipation talent.
Increased the amount of ranks you can have in Improved Disarm by 3.
Reduced strength of Combat Endurance.
Increased duration of Improved Battle Shout.
Reduced Deep Wounds damage.
Improved Hamstring slightly improved. (Note: base Hamstring ability has been slightly reduced)
Improved Pummel is no longer a pre-req for Improved Overpower.
Reduced chance to gain rage from Unbridled Wrath
Changed Taunt to improve the effectiveness of Taunt rather than reduce the rage cost.

Guild Challenges, Are you ready ?

2011-03-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Get Ready to be Challenged!

Maintenance Day Machinima

2011-03-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

This weeks Maintenance Day Machinima is brought to you by Nyhm of Alleria. Gold Farmers are bad mm'kay...

The Art of Improvement

2011-03-17T06:16:00.000-07:00

One thing I am really guilty of is kinda coasting through alot of Warcraft. I don't really play the Auction house to max gold income. I don't really make changes to PVP play. And as my healers can tell you, I'm the slowest to move in raids (although that one can't really be helped). I've played this way for 4 years now & have honestly really never realized this until this month.

I'm pretty much the mediocre player. I care about my team enough to work to get gear, study fights, have supplies but it never has hit me "Hey genius what about what you're DOING". Let me explain. The whole realization started a week ago. We are in a raid fighting Conclave of 4 Winds. Time to jump to north comes and I'm responsible for tranquility. Pop it while taking a ton of AOE damage reducing it's effectiveness. Next time we went in this noob druid Gilg said "Pop Barkskin before you start tranquility & you can cast better" Wow... Why did I not think about that?!? It honestly never dawned on me to use barkskin to mitigate all the damage instead of saving it for a Ohhhhh Craaaaap moment.

Same episode in PVP. I casually PVP & by casually I mean very casually. I do get good gear, gem/enchant it, follow directions when given and then I queue up and do the same thing every battle. I stand at designated spot & heal anyone near me. Oh & die alot. Then I started thinking more about what more I could be doing. Keeping Barksin up when in combat, ACK Warrior attacking! Cast Entangling Roots...side step side step, Horde healers casting! Cyclone! (Alliance never kills healers anyway, right?).

As it turns out there has been alot of little things I could've been doing this whole time. Most of which were really apparent & made me /facepalm when I realized what I was (or wasn't) doing. I was just in robot mode too much to realize it. After I started thinking instead of just doing the norm, I went a step farther by starting to ask myself "Why did I die?" I started checking Ni's World of Logs reports & surprisingly the answer wasn't always "it's the healers / tanks fault". Shocking right?

It's not even limited to fighting. If you start thinking more about what you're doing instead of just doing things out of habit, you can even get rich. Yes Rich! Pay attention when you sell things. Did you know old Crystals can be turned into shards for more gold? You can exchange 50 Savage Leather for a Pristine Hide? Some gears worth more if an enchanter disenchants it for you & you sell mats? There's tons of examples!

Have you ever had a "why didn't I do that?!" epiphany? What do you do to improve your play in Warcraft? Post your experience/comments in the Forum!