World of Warcraft 6.2 Full Patch Notes

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World of Warcraft Patch 6.2.0

New Content

Zone Unlocked: The Invasion of Tanaan Jungle

  • Heroes of the Horde and the Alliance, return to Tanaan Jungle and stop Gul’dan’s plan to drag the whole of Draenor into chaos while plotting to reopen the portal for a massive invasion of Azeroth. Embark on a new series of chapter-based quests putting everything you’ve learned on Draenor to the test.
  • One does not merely stroll into Tanaan Jungle. You’ll progress through a series of quests in which you’ll be asked to build a Shipyard and begin an assault on Tanaan by sea, culminating in the creation of a new forward base of operations. From this new outpost, you’ll go on the offense and launch assaults to undermine Gul’dan’s plan to drag all of Draenor into chaos.
  • Tanaan Jungle has open-world questing with rare creatures and hidden treasures scattered throughout the zone.
  • Learn more about the new zone in the Patch 6.2 Zone Preview: Tanaan Jungle.

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New Garrison Feature: Shipyard and Naval Missions

  • Take command of your forces in a whole new theater of war, fighting to control the red seas of Draenor and push back the twisted remnants of the Iron Horde.
  • Check out ‘Preview – To the Shipyard!’ for a closer look at the new Shipyard, ships, and Naval Missions.
  • Shipyard

    • Characters with a level 3 garrison can now construct a Shipyard to take the fight to the seas. Report to your Garrison and accept the “War Council” quest.
    • Command an armada and dispatch your ships on new Naval Missions.
    • Build destroyers, submarines, carriers, battleships, and transports at your Shipyard.
    • Upgrade the Shipyard to increase your maximum fleet size.
  • Naval Missions

    • Naval Missions require Oil, a new resource. Oil can be found from various sources but scouts report that the Iron Horde has stockpiles of it around Tanaan.
    • The seas around Draenor are treacherous. Ships that fail a Naval Mission have a chance to be sunk, lost forever at sea.

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New Raid: Hellfire Citadel

  • Assault the Hellfire Citadel, mighty fortress of the Iron Horde, torn asunder by fel energies unleashed by Gul’dan, and put a stop on his plans to launch a new invasion on Azeroth!
  • Hellfire Citadel stands at the heart of Tanaan Jungle, where 13 deadly bosses await you, including Kilrogg Deadeye, the monstrous Gorefiend, a reanimated Mannoroth, and Archimonde himself.
  • Players can earn items ranging in power from item level 675-685 in Raid Finder up to item level 735 in Mythic difficulty.
  • For an in-depth preview of the bosses, check out our blog titled: Raid Preview: Hellfire Citadel.

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New Dungeon Difficulty: Mythic

  • Draenor Dungeons now have a new difficulty level designed to challenge seasoned adventurers with a befitting increase in reward. Mythic difficulty is geared towards players that enjoy working together in smaller groups to overcome challenges, and is designed to provide an alternate progression path to Normal raiding.
  • Each Mythic Dungeons has a weekly lockout, and drops gear that’s item level 685 with a chance for Warforged loot that is item level 705.
  • All Mythic dungeon bosses offer a chance to use a bonus roll using a Seal of Inevitable Fate (the new bonus roll currency).

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Bonus Events

  • The Bonus Events system consists of a rotating schedule of seven different activities granting a passive bonus to a particular game activity.
  • Each Bonus Event offers a once-per-event quest with a noteworthy reward for accomplishing a goal related to the bonus activity.
  • The in-game calendar (located in the upper right-hand corner of the mini-map) will inform you of the type of Bonus Event and when it takes place

Timewalking – The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King

  • There are two Timewalking Bonus Events, each centered around an expansion: The Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King.
  • Characters can queue up for a randomly selected old-school dungeon with a twist: your character’s power and gear scales down to the dungeon’s level on Heroic difficulty. However, your character retains all of your skills and talents. Emerge victorious, and you will walk away with old loot that is scaled back up to your character’s true level!
  • Completing several Timewalking dungeons as a part of a quest during the event awards a Seal of Inevitable Fate for an extra bonus roll, which does not count toward the weekly cap of three Seals.
  • During The Burning Crusade Timewalking Bonus Event, the following dungeons are available for characters level 71 and up.
  • During Wrath of the Lich King Timewalking Bonus Event, the following dungeons are available for characters level 81 and up.
  • Learn more about this new feature in our blog: Patch 6.2 Preview – Timewalking.

Draenor Dungeons

  • While this Bonus Event is active, defeating enemies in any Draenor dungeon will award reputation with an appropriate faction. Completing several Mythic-difficulty Warlords dungeons as a part of a quest during the event awards a Heroic Hellfire Citadel Raid cache.

Battlegrounds

  • During the Battlegrounds Bonus Event, characters will earn triple Honor points from random Battlegrounds. Completing the event quest by winning a few random Battlegrounds awards 500 Conquest Points, which do not count toward the weekly Conquest cap.

Arena Skirmishes

  • Characters will earn triple Honor points from random Arena Skirmish matches during this event. A quest to win several random Arena Skirmish matches will award 500 Conquest Points, which do not count toward the weekly Conquest cap.

Apexis

  • Apexis-dropping creatures in the world will drop up to triple the usual quantity of Crystals during this Bonus Event. Completing several area assault objectives during the event awards a sizable amount of Oil to fuel new Naval Missions as a part of the Shipyard.

Pet Battles

  • During Pet Battle Bonus Events, you’ll be able to take your pets out for a little exercise and earn triple pet experience from battles. Winning several PvP Pet Battles as a part of a quest during the event awards the player with an Ultimate Battle-Training Stone that instantly levels a pet to 25.

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Adventure Guide

  • An evolution of the Dungeon Journal, the Adventure Guide acts as a landing page for other in-game Journals to make it easier than ever to find content and activities that are relevant to your character.
  • The Adventure Guide suggests content based on a number of factors, such as character level, item level, quest progress, achievements, and more. The Guide is fully interactive, allowing players to accept relevant quests or search for a group via Group Finder with a single click.

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Legendary Ring Quest Line

  • Players that have completed Chapter III: The Foundry Falls will begin the final chapter to the Legendary Ring Quest Line. Khadgar sends you on a series of quests into Tanaan Jungle to discern the nature of the threat and put an end to Gul’dan’s nefarious machinations.
  • A summary of the final chapter (spoiler alert) as well as an overview of the previous three chapters are available in our blog, The Road Ahead: Legendary Ring Quest Line.
  • Check out The Road Ahead: Legendary Ring Questline for a preview of the final chapter and a summary of the quest line so far.

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General Changes

Garrisons, Followers, and Outposts

  • Chroniclers in the Garrison now allow players that have completed An Inside Job to watch the cinematic again.

Garrison Buildings

New Garrison Building: Shipyard

Mine

  • Mineral nodes should now only be displayed on the mini-map when a character is inside the mine. Characters with Track Minerals active will continue to see mineral nodes from outside the Mine.

Salvage Yard

  • Gray items obtained from salvage recovered from Follower missions may now sometimes drop a stackable gray item instead of a range of various gray items taking up lots of inventory space. The average gold value should remain roughly the same.
  • Big Crates of Salvage are no longer guaranteed from successfully completing level 100 Follower Missions.

Follower Missions

  • Increased the frequency for missions that award Abrogator Stones or Elemental Runes for the Legendary Ring Quest Line to appear.
  • Blingtron’s Secret Vault has moved to a new, even more secret location. But, his stash of riches has grown considerably because of the decreased number of raids on his vault.
  • Reduced the frequency of high-value gold missions appearing across multiple characters.
  • As Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry are no longer the latest tier of raid content, Mythic garrison missions for each zone no longer award bonus gold.

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Creatures and NPCs

  • Spirit of Harmony Vendors no longer offer Restored Artifacts for sale.

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World Environment and Events

New Zone Available: Tanaan Jungle

Darkmoon Faire

  • New Darkmoon Potions: A new set of Darkmoon potions can be purchased for one Darkmoon Prize Ticket from the Draughts and Tinctures vendor, Faldar Willowshade at the refreshments table.
  • Darkmoon Fishing: The elusive Darkmoon Daggermaw can now be caught off of the shores of Darkmoon Island. Return them to Galissa Sundew at the docks for a variety of prizes.
  • New Achievement: Whack-a-Gnoll has a new achievement that awards a battle pet, Hogs.

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Raids and Dungeons

Dungeon Finder

  • Players may now queue up in the Dungeon Finder while engaged in PvP combat.

Personal Loot

Personal Loot Mode Improvements

  • Overall drop rates when using Personal Loot mode have been increased.
  • Defeating a boss when using Personal Loot now awards a more consistent number of items based on eligible group size.
    • Example: For a party of five players, Dungeon bosses are now guaranteed to drop at least 1 item with a chance for 2 items to drop. The final boss of the Dungeon will now drop at least 2 items, with a chance for 3 items to drop.
  • The raid or party now sees when someone in the group wins an item on Personal Loot.
  • The last Dungeon boss on non-Personal Loot modes received an adjustment and now drops 2 items (down from 3 items).
  • Learn more about Personal Loot mode improvements and other changes to itemization in the blog: Dev Watercooler – Itemization in 6.2.

Raids

New Raid: Hellfire Citadel

  • A brand new raid, the Hellfire Citadel, awaits you with 13 new bosses. More information about the new raid can be found under New Raid: Hellfire Citadel.

Bonus Roll Changes

  • Seal of Inevitable Fate is a new Bonus Roll currency used for Hellfire Citadel and Mythic dungeon bosses. The seal can be purchased from Fate-Twister Seress (Alliance) and Fate-Twister Tiklal (Horde).
    • Garrison Resource cost for purchasing the Seal has increased from 300/600/1200 to 1000/2000/4000.
    • Apexis Crystal cost for purchasing the Seal has decreased from 1000/2000/4000 to 500/1000/2000.
  • Seal of Tempered Fate can now be purchased from the Fate-Twisters for gold and no longer has a cap on how many can be obtained per week. Additionally, characters can now hold up to a maximum of 20 Seals of Tempered Fate (up from 10).

Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry Changes

  • In the wake of the string of defeats suffered by the Iron Horde, all enemies in Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry on Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties are Demoralized, reducing their health and damage by 20%.
  • The achievements, Ahead of the Curve: Imperator’s Fall, Cutting Edge: Imperator’s Fall, Ahead of the Curve: Blackhand’s Crucible, and Cutting Edge: Blackhand’s Crucible are no longer obtainable.

Dungeons

New Dungeon Difficulty: Mythic

New Dungeon Feature: Timewalking

Challenge Mode

  • Challenger’s Strongbox obtained before Patch 6.2 will all become rusted. Rusted strongboxes can no longer be opened and may be sold to a vendor for 50 gold.

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PvP

Warlords Season 1 Ending

  • Arena and Rated Battlegrounds Warlords Season 1 will be ending soon. Once the patch is live, we’ll begin a roughly two-week process to determine end-of-season reward eligibility.
  • For additional details on the transition into Warlords Season 2, please check out the blog Warlords Season 1 Ending Soon.

Level 100 Gear Scaling in PvP Combat

  • Level 100 characters engaging in PvP combat now have the following gear changes.
    • All gear between item levels 560 and 690 will now scale up to 690 in PvP combat.
    • Non-PvP gear above item level 715 will scale down to 715 in PvP combat.
    • PvP gear above item level 715 will not be capped in PvP combat.

Highmaul Coliseum

  • Winner of the Highmaul Coliseum will now receive 1500 Conquest Points instead of a piece of PvP Conquest gear.

Ashran

New Area: Ashran Excavation and New Event: Apexis Marks

  • At certain times, spirits of fallen arakkoa haunt the Ashran Excavation. Defeat them and bring proof of their demise to Rukmaz, the ghostly caretaker of the Apexis vault. First team to show Rukmaz 50 marks wins.

Reward Changes

  • Winning an event now awards Honor instead of Conquest.
  • Defeating Grand Marshal Tremblade or High Warlord Volrath no longer awards a Gleaming Ashmaul Strongbox.

New Weekly Quest: Slay them All!

  • Defeat 200 enemy players. Awards Conquest.

New Weekly Quest: Ashran Dominance

  • Win 5 events in Ashran and defeat the enemy faction leader. Awards Conquest and a Gleaming Ashmaul Strongbox with a chance to contain Conquest gear.

New Repeatable Quest: Continue the Dominance

  • Win 5 events in Ashran and defeat the enemy faction leader. Awards Conquest.

General Ashran Changes

  • Players can no longer queue for Ashran while in a raid and are now automatically placed into a raid after entering.
  • Events now occur more frequently.
  • Event: Collect Empowered Ore now requires 20 ore to win (up from 10).
  • Event: Risen Spirits now requires 20 captured spirits to win (up from 10).
  • Event: Stadium Racing now requires 5 laps to win the race (up from 3) and the maximum speed a racer can reach is 300% (down from 500%).

Battlegrounds and Arenas

Battlegrounds

  • Capturing a point in the following Battlegrounds now takes 6 seconds (down from 7 seconds).
    • Arathi Basin
    • The Battle for Gilneas
    • Deepwind Gorge
    • Rated Eye of the Storm
  • Picking up the flag in Rated Eye of the Storm now takes 6 seconds (down from 7 seconds).

Arenas

  • Arena matches now end after 25 minutes (up from 20 minutes). The amount of time before Dampening is applied remains unchanged.

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Collections

Heirlooms

  • New Lightforge Heirloom plate armor pieces have been added for helm, chest, and legs to complete the Intellect plate set.
  • Two new PvP-centered heirlooms have been added to the arena chests in Gurubashi Arena in Stranglethorn Vale and the Deathmatch Pavilion on Darkmoon Island. Master Pit Fighters or Arena Grand Masters, hop into the arena and defend your title for a chance to loot these new prizes!

Mounts

  • Argent Warhorse should now display correctly in the Mount Journal.

Toy Box

  • Silversage Incense now only applies its effect to the character that placed the item.

Pet Battles

  • Break out your traps and Safari Hat, new wild pets have been spotted in Tanaan Jungle and a few other places!
  • Fel-corrupted legendary pets have been spotted in Tanaan Jungle! Each pet can be defeated once per day for a bag of Fel-Touched Pet Supplies, which can contain pet charms, Battle-Training stones to increase a battle pet’s level, and even rare pets.
  • Expert Pet Trappers Giada Goldleash and Tiffy Trapspring have shown up at the Pet Menagerie with a variety of pets and toys for sale for Pet Charms.
  • Check out our Preview 6.2 – Pets Galore for a more detailed look at the new Battle Pets.

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Professions

General

New Ranks for Warlords Crafted Items

  • Two new ranks of upgrades have been added to Warlords Crafted items, “Mighty” for rank 5 at item level 700, and “Savage” for rank 6 at item level 715.
  • Crafting the new upgrade items requires Felblight, a new reagent that can be obtained from Fishing, Herbalism, Mining, or Skinning in Tanaan Jungle.
  • The new recipes can be purchased from visiting Garrison traders.

Upgrade Item Consolidation

  • “Greater” rank 3 and “Powerful” rank 4 upgrade items have been consolidated together. A rank 2 upgrade item can now be used to upgrade a Warlords Crafted item to rank 4.
    • For example, Burnished Essence can now upgrade a rank 1 leatherworking item to rank 2, a rank 2 item to rank 3, or a rank 3 item to rank 4.
  • Rank 3 and 4 upgrade items can no longer be crafted and existing items have become unstable. These unstable items can be used to create the appropriate rank 2 upgrade item and refund the materials used to craft it.
    • For example, Greater Burnished Essence can now be clicked to create a Burnished Essence, 50 Burnished Leather, and 10 Sorcerous Water.

Warlords Crafting Material Changes

  • Greatly increased the output of the following crafting materials created through a daily cooldown.
    • Alchemical Catalyst
    • Burnished Leather
    • Gearspring Parts
    • Hexweave Cloth
    • Taladite Crystal
    • Temporal Crystal
    • Truesteel Ingot
    • War Paints
    • Sorcerous Air
    • Sorcerous Earth
    • Sorcerous Fire
    • Sorcerous Water
    • Savage Blood
  • A number of recipes that use crafting materials created through a daily cooldown now require fewer materials.

Faster Profession Leveling

  • Many level-up crafting recipes that do not require materials created through a daily cooldown have been adjusted to give more skill points.

Alchemy

  • Reduced the material costs for Stone of the Earth, Stone of the Waters, and Stone of Fire.

Fishing

  • Felmouth Frenzy, a new type of fish, has been spotted in the waters around Tanaan Jungle.
  • Players fishing from Felmouth Frenzy Schools also have a chance to fish up Felblight.
  • Masterful anglers with a Level 3 Fishing Shack have a chance to catch Felmouth Frenzy Lunkers. Nat Pagle in your Garrison will have an interest in these.

Herbalism

  • Withered Herbs harvested in Tanaan Jungle have a chance to drop any Draenor herb, including Felblight.

Inscription

  • New recipes for mass milling of Draenor herbs have been added, allowing 20 herbs to be milled at once.

Jewelcrafting

  • Added a new Immaculate tier of gems of epic quality that provides +75 bonus to a given stat.
  • Players can unlock the ability to craft the new gems by completing a short questline that starts at an Arakkoa encampment as soon as they enter Tanaan Jungle.
  • After completing the questline, Jewelcrafters can craft Versatility gems. To unlock additional gem recipes, players must find or purchase Gemcutter Modules from various sources.
  • Jewelcrafters also have a chance to learn one of the new recipes each time the Gemcutting Construct crafts a gem.

Mining

  • Players have a chance to find Felblight while mining from nodes in Tanaan Jungle.

Skinning

  • Players have a chance to find Felblight while skinning creatures in Tanaan Jungle.

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Items

Apexis Crystals

  • Apexis Crystals no longer have a cap.
  • The first four tiers of Apexis gear (Crystal, Exceptional, Flawless, and Ethereal) no longer cost Apexis Crystals and can now be purchased with gold.

General Item Changes

  • New zoning laws prevent the placement of temporary tents created via Leatherworking in capital cities.
  • Admiral Taylor’s Greatsword is now eligible for transmogrification. If the item has been misplaced, the sword can be repurchased in-game. There is also a Horde equivalent in a different color that could be found somewhere Tanaan Jungle as a treasure.
  • Pinchwhistle “Nitro Fuel” no longer triggers its effect in combat.
  • Sinister Spores now reduces healing taken by 50% (down from 90%).
  • Super Sticky Glitter Bomb‘s effect can now be dispelled and lasts for 15 seconds (down from 30 seconds).

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UI

  • Improved banner notifications when the player receives an item with a Warforged, tertiary stat, or bonus socket.

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Achievements

  • A Fungus Among Us completion credit is now awarded to the entire raid.
  • Exploration Mission Master achievement no longer requires completing treasure map Garrison Missions.

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Class

Death Knight

General

  • Anti-Magic Shell now absorbs 100% of all magical damage (up from 75%). However, damage absorbed no longer contributes to Resolve.

Blood

  • Mastery: Blood Shield‘s Physical damage absorption shield from Death Strike now also counts as having an Active Mitigation effect active.

Frost

  • Frost Strike now deals 20% more damage.
  • Howling Blast now deals 25% more damage and deals full damage to other enemies within range.
  • Might of the Frozen Wastes now increases Frost Strike’s damage by 100% (up from 50%) while dual-wielding.
  • Obliterate damage has increased by 20%, but deals only 80% of normal damage against player-controlled targets.

Unholy

  • Necrosis now deals 8% less damage.

Talents

  • Breath of Sindragosa now costs 20 Runic Power per second for Blood Death Knights.

Glyphs

  • Glyph of Icy Runes has been removed.

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Druid

General

  • Thrash now deals 10% more damage.

Balance

  • Mastery: Total Eclipse now provides a 2.5% increase to the maximum damage bonus from Eclipse per mastery (up from 1.9%). This buff is counter-balanced by reducing the damage of Moonfire, Starfall, Starfire, Starsurge, Sunfire, and Wrath.
    • Moonfire (all-specializations) now deals 4% less damage.
    • Starfall now deals 4% less damage.
    • Starfire now deals 4% less damage.
    • Starsurge now deals 4% less damage.
    • Sunfire now deals 4% less damage.
    • Wrath (all-specializations) now deals 4% less damage.

Feral

  • Rake now deals 10% more damage.
  • Rip now deals 10% more damage.

Guardian

  • Bear Form now increases armor by 285% (up from 250%) for Guardian Druids.
  • Healing Touch no longer cancels Bear Form for Guardian Druids.
  • Savage Defense now also reduces physical damage taken by 25%.

Talents

  • Dream of Cenarius effect can now be held for up to 40 seconds (up from 20 seconds) by Guardian Druids.
  • Force of Nature‘s summoned Treant now deals 100% more damage.
  • Guardian of Elune (Guardian) now also passively increases the Druid’s chance to dodge by 10%.

Glyphs

  • Glyph of Untamed Stars is now automatically learned at level 75.

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Hunter

General

  • Aspect of the Fox has been removed.
  • Tranquilizing Shot has switched functionality with Glyph of Tranquilizing Shot. Tranquilizing Shot no longer costs Focus but has a 10-second cooldown.

Marksmanship

  • Aimed Shot now deals 15% more damage.

Survival

  • Mastery: Essence of the Viper has increased in effectiveness by 19%. This buff is counter-balanced by reducing Serpent Sting’s damage.
    • Serpent Sting no longer deals an initial “tick” of damage when the periodic effect is first applied.
  • Explosive Shot now deals 15% less damage.

Talents

  • A Murder of Crows now deals 75% of normal damage against player-controlled targets for Beast Mastery Hunters.
  • Barrage now deals only 80% of normal damage against player-controlled targets. Additionally, the ability no longer hits targets that are invisible or in stealth.

Glyphs

  • Glyph of Tranquilizing Shot has switched functionality with Tranquilizing Shot. Glyph of Tranquilizing Shot causes Tranquilizing Shot to cost 40 Focus instead of a 10-second cooldown.

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Mage

General

  • Amplify Magic has been removed.
  • Frostfire Bolt now deals 20% more damage.

Arcane

  • Mastery: Mana Adept has reduced in effectiveness by 6%.
  • Arcane Missiles now deals 10% more damage.

Frost

  • Mastery: Icicles is now 13% more effective.
  • Brain Freeze now has a 15% increased chance to trigger on each multistrike (down from 25%).
  • Fingers of Frost now increases Ice Lance damage by 120% (up from 100%).
  • Frostbolt now deals 20% more damage.

Talents

  • Flameglow now absorbs up to a maximum of 20% damage from each attack (down from 30%).
  • Prismatic Crystal is now also attackable by the Mage’s pets or guardians.

Armor Sets

  • Tier-17 2-piece set bonus for Fire Mages has been redesigned. It now reduces the cooldown of Inferno Blast by 2 seconds.

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Monk

General

  • Provoke now has a 30 yard range (down from 40 yards).
  • Tiger Strikes no longer triggers from multistrikes, but now provides a 35% increase to Multistrike chance while active (up from 25%).

Brewmaster

  • Blackout Kick no longer increases the Stagger amount for Brewmaster Monks.
  • Stance of the Sturdy Ox now increases armor by 125% (up from 75%) and provides a 20% base Stagger percentage. Additionally, the Stagger effect no longer works against attacks which ignore armor.

Windwalker

  • Battle Trance now increases Multistrike stat gains from all sources by 15% (up from 5%). This buff is counter-balanced by reducing the damage of Blackout Kick, Chi Explosion, Fists of Fury, Hurricane Strike, Rising Sun Kick, and Tiger Palm.
    • Blackout Kick (all-specializations) now deals 5% less damage.
    • Fists of Fury now deals 5% less damage.
    • Hurricane Strike now deals 5% less damage.
    • Rising Sun Kick (Windwalker, Mistweaver) now deals 5% less damage.
    • Tiger Palm (all-specializations) now deals 5% less damage.
    • Chi Explosion (Talent) now deals 5% less damage for Windwalker Monks.

Talents

  • Serenity now lasts 5 seconds for Brewmaster Monks (down from 10 seconds).

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Paladin

Holy

  • Devotion Aura now reduces all damage taken, not just magical damage.

Retribution

  • Mastery: Hand of Light has reduced in effectiveness by 6%.

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Priest

Shadow

  • Devouring Plague now deals 12% less damage.
  • Shadowform no longer applies its visual effect to the Priest’s mount.

Talents

  • Surge of Light (Discipline, Holy) can now also trigger from Power Word: Shield and Clarity of Will.

Glyphs

  • Glyph of Shadowy Friends now extends Shadowform’s visual effect to the Priest’s mount in addition to non-combat pets.

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Rogue

General

  • Cloak of Shadows now has a 90-second cooldown (up from 60 seconds).
  • Eviscerate now deals 10% more damage.
  • Sinister Strike now deals 10% more damage.

Pickpocketing

  • New items have been added to pickpocket from humanoids in Tanaan Jungle.
  • Added a new weekly quest for pickpocketing, Da Even Bigga Score.
  • Dingy Iron Coins now have a cap of 20,000 (up from 10,000).
  • Secretive Whistle now has a 15 minute cooldown (down from 1 hour).
  • Updated tooltip descriptions for pickpocketed items of value to help distinguish them from other items.

Assassination

  • Envenom now deals 30% more damage.
  • Mutilate now deals 30% more damage.

Combat

  • Mastery: Main Gauche has increased in effectiveness by 10%.
  • Killing Spree now only grants immunity to root and snare effects and the effect is now cancelled if the Rogue is affected by other crowd-control effects.

Subtlety

  • Mastery: Executioner has decreased in effectiveness by 8%.
  • Backstab now deals 20% more damage.
  • Sanguinary Vein now causes the Rogue to deal 30% more damage to targets affected by Rupture (up from 25%).

Talents

  • Deadly Throw now reduces the target’s movement speed by 70% (up from 50%) but no longer interrupts spellcasting when used with 5 combo points.
  • Shuriken Toss now deals 53% more autoattack damage. Additionally, fixed a bug that caused hits made with offhand weapons to deal 15% more damage than intended.

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Shaman

Elemental

  • Elemental Overload now increases multistrike damage by 20% (down from 35%), but now increases Multistrike stat gains from all sources by 10% (up from 5%).
  • Lava Surge now lasts for 10 seconds (up from 6 seconds).

Restoration

  • Chain Heal now heals for 25% more.
  • Riptide no longer increases Chain Heal’s effectiveness by 25% on the primary target.

Armor Sets

  • Tier 17 4-piece set bonus for Restoration Shaman now reduces the mana cost of Chain Heal by 50% for 8 seconds (down from 75% reduction for 10 seconds).
  • PvP 2-piece set bonus for Elemental Shaman is now the PvP 4-piece set bonus and has been replaced. New PvP 2-piece set bonus: Reduces the cooldown of Hex by 15 seconds.
  • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Elemental Shaman has been replaced by the old PvP 2-piece set bonus. While Ascendance is active, the Shaman is immune to silence and interrupt effects.

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Warlock

General

  • Corruption now deals 12% more damage.
  • Dark Soul should now have its cooldown reset at the end of a raid encounter for all Warlock specializations.
  • Shadow Bolt now deals 25% less damage.
  • Doomguards now appear smaller to other characters that aren’t the summoning Warlock.
  • The following Warlock pets received a visual upgrade and are now using higher-fidelity models.
    • Imp
    • Felguard (Demonology)
    • Voidlord (Grimoire of Supremacy)
    • Wrathguard (Demonology Warlocks with Grimoire of Supremacy)

Affliction

  • Agony now deals 12% more damage.
  • Unstable Affliction now deals 12% more damage.

Demonology

  • Mastery: Master Demonologist now increases damage dealt by the Warlock and their demon servants by 1.25% per mastery (up from 0.96%), and further increases damage dealt by Touch of Chaos, Chaos Wave, Doom, Immolation Aura, and Soul Fire while in Metamorphosis by 2.5% per mastery (up from 1.92%).
  • Chaos Wave now deals 25% less damage.
  • Doom now deals 25% less damage.
  • Hand of Gul’dan now deals 25% less damage.
  • Soul Fire now deals 25% less damage.
  • Touch of Chaos now deals 25% less damage.

Armor Sets

  • PvP 2-piece set bonus for Destruction Warlocks has been redesigned. Getting stunned, silenced, interrupted, or feared now generates 1 Burning Ember. Can only occur once every 15 seconds.
  • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Destruction Warlocks has been redesigned. It now causes Incinerate to deal 50% more damage on targets affected by the Warlock’s Immolate.

[Back to the top]

Warrior

Arms

  • Mastery: Weapons Master now increases the damage of Mortal Strike, Colossus Smash, and Execute abilities by 5.2% per mastery (up from 4.5%). This buff is counter-balanced by reducing Mortal Strike’s damage.
    • Mortal Strike now deals 6% less damage.

Protection

  • Improved Defensive Stance now also decreases damage taken by 5%.

Talents

  • Gladiator’s Resolve (Protection): Gladiator Stance now also increases the Warrior’s Mastery by 50% while active.

Armor Sets

  • Tier-17 4-piece set bonus for Arms Warriors has been redesigned. It now reduces the cost of Mortal Strike by 5 Rage.

World of Warcraft 5.4: Full Patch Notes

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Full WoW game updates are biggies and 5.4 is no different. Aside from the new raid and flexi-raiding, there’s massive class balancing and bug fixes. So if you’re like me and love a trawl through what’s new, then grab a coffee and start the marathon that is the World of Warcraft 5.4 Full Patch Notes. Enjoy!

 

World of Warcraft Patch 5.4: Siege of Orgrimmar

General

New Raid: Siege of Orgrimmar

  • The tensions stoked by Garrosh Hellscream’s arrogance have reached a boiling point with thedevastation unleashed upon the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. Now it’s time for leaders of the Alliance and Horde to lay siege to Hellscream’s capital and topple the ruthless Warchief once and for all!
  • Siege of Orgrimmar contains 14 new encounters across four expansive wings as members of the Horde and Alliance take the war directly to Garrosh’s doorstep.
  • Siege of Orgrimmar supports the following difficulty modes: Normal, Heroic, Raid Finder, and (new) Flexible Raid.

New Feature: Flexible Raid Difficulty

  • This is a new raid difficulty designed for pre-made groups of 10 to 25 players or any number in between. This means it’s possible to have raids of 15 or 22 players! Difficulty will adjust automatically based on the number of players present with encounters intended to provide a challenge roughly between Raid Finder and Normal difficulty.
  • Flexible Raid difficulty requires a pre-made group to join but has no minimum item level requirements or role restrictions. Both BattleTag™ and Real ID friends are eligible to participate.
  • Loot quality will be between Raid Finder and Normal difficulty and awarded through a personal loot system (similar to Raid Finder). Bonus rolls and loot specialization will also be supported.
  • Player spells with different target limits depending on raid size will gradually increase their limits based on the number of players in Flexible Raid difficulty.
  • Players will be able to earn raid achievements just like in Normal or Heroic difficulty.
  • Flexible Raid difficulty has a lockout that is separate from Raid Finder and Normal difficulty.
  • To learn more about Flexible Raids, please visit our blog titled: A Raid for All Seasons: Flexible Raid Preview.

New Area: Timeless Isle

  • A mysterious island, lost for millennia to the currents of time, has emerged from the mists off the eastern coast of Jade Forest.
  • Players seeking to explore the Timeless Isle should visit their faction’s shrine in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
  • The Timeless Isle is inhabited by all manner of strange and powerful creatures that will test the mettle of solo explorers, but great rewards await the brave and skillful: epic loot, bind-to-account gear, Mogu Runes of Fate, pets, mounts, fun toys, and much more.
  • The Isle is filled with secrets and mysteries, many of which dynamically become available to explorers. Keep an eye on your minimap while on the Isle for information on nearby events!
  • The Timeless Isle is home to five new world raid bosses! Players may face each of the four Celestials in a trial of combat.
  • Heroes who have earned the legendary cloak from Wrathion may access the sanctum of the fiery Yaungol demigod Ordos, atop the Timeless Isle.

New Feature: Proving Grounds

  • Proving Grounds is a new feature where level 90 players can test their mettle and undertake trials designed for Damage, Tank, or Healer roles to test and improve their combat skills in a safe, controlled environment.
  • To access the Proving Grounds, speak with an NPC in the Temple of the White Tiger in Kun-Lai Summit or a class trainer.
  • Each trial is available in four separate difficulties: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Endless. Harder difficulties include more difficult and varied enemies.
  • Endless mode allows you to test your mettle against increasingly difficult enemies. Compare your best scores to friends and guildmates!
  • Learn more about this feature in our blog titled Proving Grounds Preview.

New Feature: Connected Realms

  • Connected Realm is a set of two or more standard realms that have been permanently and seamlessly “linked.” Players on the same Connected Realm will be able to trade, send and receive mail, join the same guilds, access a single Auction House, run the same Raids and Dungeons, and join other adventurers to complete quests.
  • To make Connected Realm feel seamless, player’s home realms won’t be indicated in the game world. In certain places, such as chat, the players’ home realms will be displayed next to their name.
  • Learn more about this feature in our Patch 5.4 Feature Preview: Connected Realms.

Redesigned Arena System

  • Players no longer need to create or join an Arena team to compete.
  • Similar to the Rated Battleground system, players in a party of the appropriate size (cross-realm groups are supported) may queue for an Arena bracket of the same size (2v2, 3v3, or 5v5).
  • Each player will have a personal rating that increase or decrease based on victories and defeats against other rated opponents. Opponents will be selected based on the average Match Making Rating of the party.
  • Conquest cap, requirements on gear and enchantments will be based on the player’s personal rating.
  • The Arena ladder will no longer be sorted according to Battlegroup. Just like Rated Battlegrounds and normal Battlegrounds, all Arenas will now be region-wide!
  • At the end of an Arena season, the top players in a region will still earn titles and mounts.
  • For more details about the change to Arenas, please see the blog titled: Patch 5.4 Arena Update.

The Legendary Quest Continues

  • Wrathion’s final quests are now available for dedicated heroes who have fought on his behalf throughout the pandaren campaign. He’s waiting at the Tavern in the Mists in the Veiled Stair.
  • Complete Wrathion’s final tasks on the Timeless Isle and upgrade your celestial cloak to Legendary quality!
  • Only players equipped with a Legendary cloak can reach the Sanctum of Ordos atop the Timeless Isle. (This privilege extends account-wide.)

Battlefield: Barrens

  • Vol’jin and his forces move beyond gathering supplies and into a full assault on the Horde capital. As such, the Battlefield: Barrens weekly quest will no longer be available once the invasion on Orgrimmar begins in 5.4.
  • Ravika, the Darkspear Rebellion Quartermaster, will no longer be available.
  • Latent Kor’kron armor tokens will no longer drop or be available for purchase. Players who still have a Radical Mojo will continue to be able to combine it with existing Latent Kor’kron armor tokens.
  • Gahz’rooki’s Summoning Stone and Raptorhide Boxing Gloves are now available as a rare drop from Kor’kron, and other associated creatures in Northern Barrens.

Classes

  • All fear and horrify effects can no longer cause targets under the effects of a movement speed buff to move faster than normal run speed.
  • All taunt type abilities now increase all threat generated against the target while the taunt is active by 200%.
  • Vengeance has received several changes.
    • Characters in a tanking specialization now generates 40% more threat.
    • Vengeance now grants Attack Power equal to 1.5% of the damage taken, down from 1.8% (The tooltip said 2% but it was actually 1.8%).
    • Tanks no longer receive Vengeance from many persistent area damage effects (standing in the fire) or from missed attacks (dodging and parrying an attack will continue to work as it has before).
    • Vengeance gains from being critically hit have been reduced by 50%.
    • There are now diminishing returns on Vengeance gains while tanking multiple targets. Each additional target grants progressively less Vengeance.
    • So as not to affect Challenge Mode leader boards, the above Vengeance changes will not apply there. For Challenge Modes, Vengeance will continue to work as it did in patch 5.3.
  • Area knockback effects now all share a diminishing return category. After a player has been moved by one of these spells, the player will be immune for 10 seconds. This new category applies to: Fellash, Gorefiend’s Grasp, Glyph of Explosive Trap, Thunderstorm, Typhoon, Ursol’s Vortex, and Whiplash.
Death Knight

General

  • Death Gate now returns the Death Knight to a location near their original departure point when the spell is cast while in Ebon Hold.
  • Icebound Fortitude no longer costs Runic Power.
  • Necrotic Strike now deals 100% weapon damage (down from 150% weapon damage).
  • Rune of Razorice now causes 3% extra weapon damage as Frost damage (up from 2%), and each stack of Frost Vulnerability now causes the target to take an additional 3% damage from the Death Knight’s Frost attacks (up from 2%).
  • Soul Reaper’s initial damage component has been increased by 30%. If the target is below 35% health after 5 seconds the amount of Shadow Damage dealt has been increased by 20%.
  • Unholy Presence now grants a flat 10% Haste to all things, up from Haste for melee (attack speed and Rune regeneration) only. The movement speed buff remains unchanged.

Blood

  • Riposte is a new passive ability learned by Blood Death Knights at level 76. When the Death Knight dodges or parries any attack, they gain 75% of their Parry and Dodge as additional bonus to Critical Strike for 20 seconds.
  • Dancing Rune Weapon no longer costs Runic Power.
  • Sanguine Fortitude no longer reduces the cost of Icebound Fortitude.
  • Scent of Blood now also has a chance to activate when the Death Knight dodges or parries a melee attack.

Frost

  • Frost Strike now deals 115% weapons damage (up from 105% weapon damage).
  • Howling Blast now deals 15% more damage.
  • Might of the Frozen Wastes now increases all melee attack damage by 30% (up from 20%).
  • Obliterate now deals 250% weapon damage (up from 230% weapon damage).

Unholy

  • Master of Ghouls now reduces the cooldown of Raise Dead by 60 seconds.
  • Ghoul’s Leap and Gnaw abilities are no longer on a global cooldown, and no longer cost Energy.
  • Unholy Might now increases the Death Knight’s Strength by 25% (up from 10%).

Talents

  • Anti-Magic Zone has been redesigned. The talent now reduces magic damage taken in the area-of-effect by 40% for 3 seconds, there is no longer a cap on total damage absorbed, and the ability no longer scales with strength.
  • Death Siphon had its damage increased by 10%.
  • Plague Leech now tries to convert 2 fully-depleted runes (up from 1) into a Death Rune based on specialization.
    • Blood: Restores 1 Frost Rune, 1 Unholy Rune
    • Frost: 1 Frost Rune, 1 Unholy Rune
    • Unholy: 1 Blood Rune, 1 Frost Rune

Glyphs

  • New Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Festering Blood: Makes Blood Boil treat all targets as if they have been infected with Blood Plague or Frost Fever.
    • Glyph of Regenerative Magic: If Anti-Magic Shell expires after its full duration, cooldown for the ability is reduced based on the amount of damage absorbed.
    • Glyph of Swift Death: Haste effect granted by Soul Reaper now also increases the Death Knight’s movement speed for the duration.
    • Glyph of the Loud Horn: Horn of Winter now generates additional Runic Power, but the cooldown is increased.
  • Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Enduring Infection now reduces damage dealt by diseases by 15% (down from a 30% reduction).
    • Glyph of Mind Freeze now reduces the cooldown of Mind Freeze by 1 second, and raises its cost by 10 Runic Power (down from 2 seconds and 20 Runic Power).
    • Glyph of Outbreak now causes Outbreak to cost 30 Runic Power (down from 40).
    • Glyph of Pillar of Frost now reduces movement speed by 70% instead of freezing the Death Knight in place.
  • New Minor Glyphs
    • Glyph of the Long Winter: The Horn of Winter ability now lasts for 1 hour.
    • Glyph of the Skeleton: The Death Knight’s Raise Dead spell now summons a Skeleton instead of a Ghoul.

Bug Fix

  • Fixed a bug that caused Improved Blood Presence and Runic Corruption to incorrectly increase activation rates of some trinkets and effects.
Druid

General

  • Bear Form now increases Stamina contribution from cloth and leather items by 40% (up from 20%).
  • Cyclone no longer has a 20-second cooldown for Feral Druids.
  • Faerie Fire now has a duration of 20 seconds while in PvP combat (down from 40 seconds).
  • Innervate now restores mana based on the Druid’s Spirit.
  • Teleport: Moonglade now returns the Druid to a location near their original departure point when the spell is cast while in the Moonglade area.
  • Wild Mushroom for Restoration Druids now summons a single mushroom at the friendly target’s location. If the mushroom is recast, the mushroom moves to the new location and retains its accumulated bonus healing.
    • A single mushroom now heals for as much as what 3 mushrooms combined healed for previously.
    • The amount of healing stored on a Wild Mushroom is now reduced by Battle Fatigue.
    • Wild Mushroom and Wild Mushroom: Bloom now have a shared 3-second cooldown.
  • Wrath now deals 10% more damage, but has its mana cost increased by 50%.

Balance

  • Eclipse now energizes the Druid for 50% of their maximum mana when triggered, up from 35%.
  • Moonkin Form now increases the Druid’s armor by 60%, but no longer reduces all damage taken by 15%.
  • Shooting Stars now has a reduced chance to activate for each additional target affected by the same spell (Moonfire and Sunfire are tracked separately).
  • Starfall now deals 10% more damage.
  • Starfire now deals 10% more damage, but has its mana cost increased by 50%.
  • Starsurge has its mana cost increased by 50%.

Feral

  • Predatory Swiftness no longer has a chance to make Cyclone instant, free, and castable in all forms.

Restoration

  • Genesis is a new Restoration spell learned at level 88. Genesis targets all party or raid members within 60 yards and accelerates the casting Druid’s Rejuvenation effects, causing them to heal and expire at 400% of the normal rate. Costs the same amount of mana to cast as Rejuvenation.
  • Living Seed effects can now stack, up to 50% of the casting Druid’s maximum health, and will no longer be consumed if the target is already at full health.
  • Swiftmend’s area-of-effect healing effect is now called Efflorescence.
  • Wild Mushroom: Bloom is no longer capable of critical strikes, and accumulates overhealing done by Rejuvenation by 100%, down from 150%. Overhealing bonus no longer benefits from Naturalist or Mastery: Harmony.

Talents

  • Astral Communion now defaults to generating Lunar energy towards a Lunar Eclipse when used after being resurrected or zoning into a new area (used to default to generating Solar energy).
  • Dream of Cenarius has been completely redesigned to reduce complexity and increase usability, but maintain the spirit of the effects. Benefits now vary by specialization.
    • Balance: Increases the amount healed by Healing Touch by 20%. Casting Healing Touch increases the damage bonus of the Druid’s next Eclipse by 25%.
    • Feral: Increases the amount healed by Healing Touch by 20%. Casting Healing Touch increases the damage for the Druid’s next two melee abilities by 30%.
    • Guardian: Increases the amount healed by Healing Touch by 20%. Increases the critical strike chance of Mangle (Bear) by 10% and critical strikes of Mangle (Bear) have a 40% chance to make the next Healing Touch or Rebirth instant, free, and castable in all forms. Instant cast version of Healing Touch now benefits from Attack Power instead of Spell Power.
    • Restoration: Causes Wrath to deal 20% more damage and heals a nearby friendly target for 100% of the damage done.
  • Force of Nature
    • Feral: Treant summoned by the Feral version of this talent now deals less melee damage, but will cast Rake and Entangling Roots on their target instead of Bash.
    • Guardian: Guardian Druids now gain Vengeance when their Treant takes damage.
  • Heart of the Wild when activated, now also provides a 25% bonus to healing for Restoration Druids.
  • Mass Entanglement no longer has a limit on the number of targets that could be affected, up from 5.
  • Nature’s Swiftness is no longer a talent, and is now an ability learned by Balance and Restoration Druids at level 30.
    • New talent: Ysera’s Gift. Ysera’s Gift replaces Nature’s Swiftness, and heals the Druid for 5% of their maximum health every 5 seconds. If the Druid is at full health, it will heal the most injured friendly target nearby instead.
  • Nature’s Vigil when activated now increases all damage and healing done by 12% (up from 10%), and causes single-target healing spells to trigger an additional heal on a nearby ally for 25% of the amount healed. This is in addition to the existing effect where it damages a nearby enemy target for 25% of the healing done.
  • Soul of the Forest has been partially redesigned to make it more attractive to Balance, Guardian, and Restoration Druids.
    • Balance: Wrath, Starfire, and Starsurge casts have a 8% chance to cause Astral Communion to grant 100 Lunar Power or Solar Power instead of activating the next Eclipse.
    • Guardian: Increases Rage generation from Mangle (Bear) by 30% instead of an additional 3 Rage, and this talent now also applies to the Rage generated by Mangle (Bear) when it triggers Primal Fury.
    • Restoration: Now causes the Druid to gain 100% haste (up from 75%) on their next spell after casting Swiftmend.

Glyphs

  • Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Fae Silence will now cause Faerie Fire to interrupt when used on targets that are immune to silence effects.
    • Glyph of Ferocious Bite now causes Ferocious Bite to heal the Druid for 2% of their maximum health for each 10 Energy used (up from 1%).
    • Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration now increases Frenzied Regeneration’s cost to 50 Rage (down from increasing Rage cost to 60).
    • Glyph of Innervate now causes Innervate to give both the Druid and the target 60% of the normal effect of the spell if it’s cast on a target other than the Druid.
    • Glyph of Lifebloom’s effect is now baseline and has been replaced with Glyph of Efflorescence.
      • Glyph of Efflorescence increases the healing done by Swiftmend by 20%, causes the Efflorescence healing effect to be triggered by Wild Mushroom instead of Swiftmend, and lasts as long as the Wild Mushroom is active.
    • Glyph of Master Shapeshifter now reduces the mana cost of all shapeshifts by 100% (up from 90%).
    • Glyph of Nature’s Grasp now reduces the cooldown of Nature’s Grasp by 45 seconds (up from 30 seconds).
    • Glyph of Pounce now increases the range of Pounce by 8 yards (up from 3 yards).
    • Glyph of Skull Bash now increases the duration of Skull Bash’s interrupt by 2 seconds, and increasing the cooldown by 5 seconds (down from a 4 second interrupt and 10 second increase to cooldown).
    • Glyph of the Moonbeast’s effect is now baseline and has been replaced with Glyph of Guided Stars.
      • Glyph of Guided Stars causes Starfall to only hit targets affected by the Druid’s Moonfire or Sunfire.
  • New Minor Glyphs
    • Glyph of One With Nature: Grants the Druid the ability to teleport to a random natural location.
    • Glyph of the Sprouting Mushroom: Allows the Wild Mushroom spell to be placed on the ground instead of underneath a target.
Hunter

General

  • The following Hunter pet abilities no longer cost Focus to use: Dash, Dive, and Charge.
  • Arcane Shot now deals 125% ranged weapon damage (up from 100%) and had its focus cost increased by 50%.
  • Counter Shot is now a baseline interrupt ability learned by all Hunters at level 22.
  • Deterrence now has a 3-minute cooldown (up from 2 minutes) but has 2 charges.
  • Disengage now has a cooldown of 20 seconds (down from 25 seconds).
  • Explosive Trap had its overall damage decreased by 30%. Proportionately, more damage has been removed from the initial damage than the periodic effect.
  • Hunter’s Mark now has a duration of 20 seconds while in PvP combat (down from 30 seconds).
  • Readiness has been removed.
  • Revive Pet no longer requires the Hunter to have line-of-sight to their pet.
  • Stampede damage dealt by pets when the ability is used outside of an Arena or Battleground is no longer reduced by 75%

Beast Mastery

  • Beast Cleave’s range has been increased to 10 yards (up from 8 yards).
  • Kill Command damage has been increased by 34%.

Marksman

  • Aimed Shot now deals 450% ranged weapon damage (up from 350%).
  • Binding Shot is no longer a Marksman Hunter ability and is once again a talent.

Survival

  • Explosive Shot damage has been increased by 27%.
  • Explosive Trap no longer shares a cooldown with Black Arrow but can no longer activate Lock and Load.

Talents

  • A Murder of Crows now deals 40% more damage.
  • Aspect of the Iron Hawk now reduces all damage taken by 10%, down from 15%.
  • Glaive Toss no longer initiates auto-attack.
  • Lynx Rush’s damage has been increased by 30%.
  • Narrow Escape’s root effect is now a nature spell (was a physical spell).
  • Silencing Shot is no longer a talent and is now an ability that replaces Counter Shot for Marksman Hunters.
  • Spirit Bond now regenerates 3% of total health every 2 seconds while the Hunter’s pet is active (up from 2%).
  • Wyvern Sting now has a range of 40 yards (up from 35 yards).

Glyphs

  • New Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of the Lean Pack: Reduces the range of Aspect of the Pack to 7 yards.
    • Glyph of Enduring Deceit: Camouflage also reduces spell damage taken by 10%
  • Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Mend Pet now has a 100% chance of cleansing 1 Curse, Disease, Magic or Poison effect from the Hunter’s pet on each tick (up from 50% chance).
    • Glyph of Mending now speeds up the periodic effect of Mend Pet to restore health to the pet every 1 second doubling the total amount healed over 10 seconds.
    • Glyph of No Escape now increases the ranged critical strike chance against targets affected by the Hunter’s Freezing Trap by 100% (up from 20% chance).
Mage

General

  • Ice Lance damage has been increased by 43%.

Fire

  • Combustion on targets affected by the Mage’s Ignite now deals additional damage equal to 20% of Ignite’s damage per tick (down from 50%).

Frost

  • Mastery: Frostburn has been replaced by Mastery: Icicles. When the Mage damages an enemy with their Frostbolt, and Frostfire Bolt (16% + 2% per Mastery) of the damage done is stored as an Icicle for 15 seconds. Mastery: Icicles also increases the Water Elemental’s Water Bolt damage by (16% + 2% per Mastery). Up to 5 Icicles can be stored at once. Casting Ice Lance launches all stored Icicles at the target.
  • Frostbolt now deals 10% less damage and no longer increases the damage of any spells. The damage for those spells have been increased instead.
  • Water Elemental
    • Waterbolt damage has been increased by 25%.

Talents

  • Frost Bomb now deals 70% damage to players (up from 60%).
  • Ice Floes now has 3 charges (up from 2 charges), and has a 20-second cooldown (down from 45 seconds).
  • Living Bomb now deals 85% damage to players (up from 70%).
  • Nether Tempest now deals 85% damage to players (up from 70%).
  • Rune of Power now has an increased effective range. The Mage can remain up to 8 yards away from their Rune of Power and still receive benefits to mana regeneration and spell damage (up from 3 yards).
  • Temporal Shield now also reduces damage taken by 15% while active in addition to existing effects.

Glyphs

  • Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Blink now increases distance travelled with the Blink spell by 8 yards (up from 5 yards).
    • Glyph of Ice Lance has been renamed to Glyph of Splitting Ice.
      • Glyph of Splitting Ice causes Ice Lance and Icicles to hit 1 additional target for 50% damage.
    • Glyph of Invisibility has been replaced with Glyph of Rapid Displacement.
      • Glyph of Rapid Displacement gives Blink two charges, gaining a charge every 15 seconds, but no longer frees the Mage from stuns and bonds.
    • Glyph of Remove Curse now increases the damage dealt by 15% after successfully removing a curse (up from 10%).
    • Glyph of Spellsteal now heals the Mage for 5% of their maximum health after successfully stealing a spell (up from 3%).
  • New Minor Glyphs
    • Glyph of Condensation: Increases the size of the Mage’s Water Elemental.
    • Glyph of Evaporation: Reduces the size of the Mage’s Water Elemental.
    • Glyph of the Unbound Elemental: The Mage’s Water Elemental is replaced by an Unbound Water Elemental.
Monk

General

  • Spinning Crane Kick now functions like a smart heal, healing the 6 most injured friendly targets within range, and minor guardians are no longer targeted (Wild Imps, Bloodworms, Snakes from Snake Traps, etc.). There has been no change to the total amount of healing granted by the ability.

Brewmaster

  • Keg Smash now deals 18% less damage.

Mistweaver

  • Mana Tea is now consumed at an increased rate of 1 stack per 0.5 seconds (up from 1 stack per 1 second).
  • Revival’s healing has been reduced by 30%.

Windwalker

  • Mastery: Bottled Fury has been redesigned. Bottled Fury now gives a chance to generate an additional charge of Tigereye Brew when the Monk gains one normally.
  • Storm, Earth and Fire now deals 70% damage (up from 60%) with one Spirit summoned and 55% (up from 45%) with two Spirits summoned.
  • Tigereye Brew received an adjustment.
    • It now increases damage by 6% per stack, (up from 1%  per stack) but is no longer increased by Mastery.
    • A charge of Tigereye Brew is gained for each 4 Chi consumed through use of abilities and attacks (up from a charge for each 3 Chi consumed).

Talents

  • Chi Brew now restores 2 Chi, has a 45-second cooldown (down from 1.5 minutes), and generate stacks of Brew/Teas based on the Monk’s specialization.
    • Brewmaster: 5 stacks of Elusive Brew
    • Mistweaver: 2 stacks of Mana Tea
    • Windwalker: 2 stacks of Tigereye Brew
  • Chi Burst no longer requires a target. It now travels as a 40-yard line in front of the Monk.
  • Healing Elixirs will no longer activate if the Monk is already at full health, and activate automatically when the Monk has less than 35% of their maximum health.
  • Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger now has a pet control bar for Xuen, and the talent is no longer on global cooldown for all Monk specializations.
    • Brewmaster Monks now gain Vengeance when Xuen takes damage.
  • Power Strikes will now activate from the following Chi generating abilities; Jab, Expel Harm, Spinning Crane Kick (when it hits at least 3 targets), Crackling Jade Lightning, and Soothing Mist.
  • Ring of Peace has a new visual effect that properly depicts its area-of-effect, and now disarms both enemies and those attacking allies within the Ring of Peace’s area-of-effect for 4 seconds (up from 3 seconds); the silence effect for casting spells remains unchanged at 3 seconds.
  • Rushing Jade Wind has been redesigned and replaces Spinning Crane Kick.
    • Rushing Jade Wind: The Monk summons a whirling tornado around them, dealing damage to nearby enemies (heals nearby allies for Mistweavers). Rushing Jade Wind has the same costs, Chi generation, and periodic rate as Spinning Crane kick, but, deals 80% of the periodic damage or healing, lasts 6 seconds, is instant, and not channeled.
  • Zen Sphere now deals 15% more healing and damage.

Glyphs

  • Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Afterlife now increases the chance to summon a Healing Sphere by 100% (up from 25% chance).
    • Glyph of Crackling Jade Lightning has been replaced with Glyph of Nimble Brew.
      • Glyph of Nimble Brew causes Nimble Brew to heal the Monk when it clears a root, stun, fear, or horror effect.
    • Glyph of Expel Harm has been replaced with Glyph of Rapid Rolling.
      • Glyph of Rapid Rolling makes the next Roll or Chi Torpedo go farther after using a Roll or Chi Torpedo.
    • Glyph of Retreat has been replaced with Glyph of Fortuitous Spheres.
      • Glyph of Fortuitous Spheres causes a healing sphere to be summoned near the Monk at no cost when their health falls below 25%. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.
    • Glyph of Stoneskin has been replaced with Glyph of Detox.
      • Glyph of Detox causes Detox to heal the target when it successfully removes a harmful effect.
    • Glyph of Targeted Expulsion now causes Expel Harm to heal for 50% as much when used on other targets.
    • Glyph of Transcendence now reduces the cooldown of Transcendence: Transfer by 5 seconds (used to increase the range by 10 yards).
    • Glyph of Uplift has been replaced by Glyph of Targeted Expulsion.
      • Glyph of Targeted Expulsion allows Expel Harm to be used on other players.

Bug Fix

  • Fixed a bug that caused the damage of some abilities for Brewmasters with Vengeance to scale incorrectly.
Paladin

General

  • Sanctity of Battle now also affects the cooldown of Holy Shock.
  • Seal of Insight no longer has a chance to restore mana on attacks.
  • Turn Evil now has a 15-second cooldown.

Holy

  • Mastery: Illuminated Healing no longer activates from periodic healing effects.
  • Divine Plea no longer reduces the amount of healing done, and now restores mana based on the Paladin’s Spirit.
  • Guardian of the Ancient Kings (Holy) now has a cooldown of 3 minutes (down from 5 minutes), and summons a guardian that heals the ally that the Paladin healed for 100% (up from 10%) of the amount healed, but no longer heals nearby friendly targets.
  • Holy Insight now increases the effectiveness of Eternal Flame, Light of Dawn, and Word of Glory by 50%. Effectiveness of other heals are still increased by 25%.
  • Holy Radiance now functions like a smart heal, healing the 6 most injured friendly targets within range, and minor guardians are no longer targeted (Wild Imps, Bloodworms, Snakes from Snake Traps, etc.). There has been no change to the total amount of healing granted by the ability.
  • Holy Shock’s mana cost has been reduced by 50%.
  • Judgment for Holy Paladins now costs 12% of base mana to cast (up from 5% of base mana).

Protection

  • Crusader Strike now applies a Weakened Blows effect to the target for Protection Paladins.
  • Grand Crusader no longer has a chance to activate from Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous, but now has a 30% chance to activate when dodging or parrying a melee attack (up from 12%).
  • Guarded by the Light now restores 15% of the Paladin’s maximum mana every 2 seconds (up from 6%).

Retribution

  • Guardian of the Ancient Kings (Retribution version) now has a reduced cooldown of 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes, and the maximum number of stacks has been reduced to 12.
  • Inquisition now lasts 20 seconds per charge of Holy Power consumed, up from 10 seconds.

Talents

  • Burden of Guilt has been replaced with a new talent called Evil is a Point of View.
    • New Talent: Evil is a Point of View. Evil is a Point of View allows the Paladin to use Turn Evil on players and beasts.
  • Eternal Flame’s periodic heal-over-time effect now heals for 40% more.
  • Execution Sentence will now immediately damage the target for 5 times the amount of damage that had been dealt by Execution Sentence’s most recent periodic effect when dispelled.
    • Stay of Execution will now immediately heal the target for 5 times the amount of healing that had been dealt by Stay of Execution’s most recent periodic effect when dispelled.
  • Hand of Purity now reduces damage taken from harmful periodic effects by 80% (up from 70%) and reduces damage taken from harmful periodic effects that cannot be prevented by immunities by 40% (up from 0%).
  • Light’s Hammer now functions like a smart heal, healing the 6 most injured friendly targets within range, and minor guardians are no longer targeted (Wild Imps, Bloodworms, Snakes from Snake Traps, etc.). There has been no change to the total amount of healing granted by the ability.
  • Sacred Shield
    • Holy: Sacred Shield now applies its damage absorption shield immediately, can be active on more than one target at a time, but the talent now costs mana and has 3 charges with a 10-second recharge.
    • Protection: Sacred Shield is 30% less effective.
  • Sanctified Wrath
    • Holy: Sanctified Wrath now also increases the critical strike chance of Holy Shock by 20%.
    • Protection: Sanctified Wrath now causes Judgment to generate 2 Holy Power instead of 1 while Avenging Wrath is active.
  • Selfless Healer in addition to its current effects, now also causes Judgment to generate a charge of Holy Power for Holy Paladins. Stacks of Selfless Healer now reduce the cast time, mana cost, and improve the effectiveness of Divine Light, Flash of Light, and Holy Radiance.
    • Bastion of Glory will now apply Selfless Healer’s bonus to healing to the casting Paladin as well as other targets and consume all stacks of Bastion of Glory in the process.
  • Unbreakable Spirit has been simplified. It now reduces the cooldown on Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Lay on Hands by 50%.

Glyphs

  • New Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Divine Shield: Removing harmful effects with Divine Shield heals the Paladin for each effect removed. This heal cannot exceed a percentage of the Paladin’s maximum health.
    • Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice: Hand of Sacrifice no longer transfers damage taken by the target to the Paladin.
  • Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Denounce now causes Holy Shock to reduce the cast time of the next Denounce by 0.5 seconds, and the effect can stack up to 3 times.
    • Glyph of Divine Plea now reduces the amount of mana restored and cooldown of Divine Plea by 50%.
    • Glyph of Holy Wrath now also allows Holy Wrath to stun Aberrations.
    • Glyph of Immediate Truth now increases the instant damage done by Seal of Truth 40% (up from 30%).
    • Glyph of Inquisition has been redesigned. The glyph now increases the duration of Inquisition by 30 seconds (up to a maximum of 2 minutes) each time the Paladin lands a killing blow on targets that yield experience or honor.
    • Glyph of Rebuke has been replaced with Glyph of Devotion Aura.
      • Glyph of Devotion Aura causes Devotion Aura to no longer affect party or raid members, but the cooldown is reduced.
    • Glyph of the Alabaster Shield now increases damage for the next Shield of the Righteous by 10% per stack (down from 20% per stack).
    • Glyph of the Battle Healer has been redesigned. The glyph now causes Seal of Insight to no longer heal the Paladin. Instead, a nearby raid or party member will receive healing for 30% of the amount the Paladin would have received from Seal of Insight.
    • Glyph of Turn Evil has been replaced with Glyph of Burden of Guilt.
      • Glyph of Burden of Guilt causes Judgment to reduce the target’s movement speed by 50% for 2 seconds.
  • New Minor Glyphs
    • Glyph of the Exorcist: Exorcism will now appear to remove the evil from its target.
    • Glyph of Pillar of Light: Critical heals on other players display a small pillar of light at their location briefly.
Priest

General

  • Hymn of Hope now prefers to target healers when it grants mana. Healers will always be picked before non-healers, regardless of how much mana they have.
  • Leap of Faith no longer has a facing requirement.
  • Shadow Word: Death now deals 15% more damage.
  • Shadow Word: Pain now deals 25% more damage.

Discipline

  • Grace can no longer be dispelled.
  • Rapture now energizes the Priest for 100% of the mana cost of Power Word: Shield When the shield is fully consumed or is dispelled (used to energize the Priest with mana equal to 150% of their spirit). This is the modified mana cost for Power Word: Shield, after being reduced by Rapture’s passive effect.
  • Spirit Shell duration has been reduced to 10 seconds (down from 15 seconds), and the damage absorption shield’s effectiveness can now be reduced through Battle Fatigue.

Holy

  • Holy Word: Sanctuary mana cost reduced to 3.8% (down from 6.3%), and now functions like a smart heal, healing the 6 most injured friendly targets within range, and minor guardians are no longer targeted (Wild Imps, Bloodworms, Snakes from Snake Traps, etc.). There has been no change to the total amount of healing granted by the ability.
  • Lightspring is now baseline for all Holy Priests and the ability has been renamed to Lightwell.
  • Serendipity’s mana cost reduction has been increased to 20% per stack (up from 10% per stack), and no longer displays a spell effect when in the UI when it’s active.

Shadow

  • Shadowform now increases the Priest’s armor by 60%, but no longer reduces all damage taken by 15%.
  • Shadowy Apparitions now creates a shadowy version of the Priest that floats towards the target and deals damage. The apparitions are now treated as a missile, and is no longer an attackable creature.
  • Vampiric Touch now deals 20% more damage.

Talents

  • Angelic Feather now increases allies’ movement speed by 80%, up from 60%, and feathers placed in the world have a duration of 10 minutes (up from 5 minutes).
  • Cascade’s effect can now bounce up to 4 times (up from 3), and its effect should no longer bounce between minor guardians (Wild Imps, Bloodworms, Snakes from Snake Traps, etc.).
  • Divine Insight for Discipline Priests now has a 100% chance to activate its effect after using Penance (up from 40%), and now displays an effect in the UI when it’s active.
  • Divine Star’s healing is no longer affecting by diminishing returns when used on multiple targets.
  • From Darkness, Comes Light
    • Discipline, Holy: Now also has a chance to activate its effect on cast for these following spells; Penance, Circle of Healing, Prayer of Mending, and Prayer of Healing.
    • Shadow: Now has a 20% chance to activate its effect for Shadow Priests (up from a 15% chance).
  • Halo’s healing is no longer affecting by diminishing returns when used on multiple targets.
  • Mindbender now deals 10% more damage, and mana return has been increased by 20%.
  • Psyfiend no longer benefits from Haste, and its health has been reduced by 75%, but fixed a bug where Psyfiend wasn’t being affected by base Resilience.
  • Twist of Fate’s damage and healing threshold to activate has been increased to 35% (up from 20%).

Glyphs

  • Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Dark Binding’s effect is now baseline and has been replaced with Glyph of Focused Mending.
      • Glyph of Focused Mending causes Prayer of Mending to only bounce between the target and the caster.
    • Glyph of Fear Ward now reduces the cooldown on Fear Ward without reducing its duration.
    • Glyph of Lightspring has been renamed to Glyph of Lightwell.
      • Glyph of Lightwell causes Lightwell to heal for 50% more, but no longer automatically heals allies. Allies can click on the Lightwell to heal.
    • Glyph of Lightwell has been renamed to Glyph of Deep Wells.
      • Glyph of Deep Wells increases the number of charges on Lightwell by 2.
    • Glyph of Purify now causes Purify to heal the target for 5% of their maximum health after successfully dispelling a magical effect or disease (up from 3%).
    • Glyph of Reflective Shield now causes Power Word: Shield to reflect 70% of the damage absorbed (up from 45%).
  • New Minor Glyphs
    • Glyph of Feathers: Causes the Priest’s healing spells to momentarily grant angelic wings.
    • Glyph of Inspired Hymns: A spirit appears above the Priest while channeling Hymns.
    • Glyph of Shifted Appearances: Void Shift causes the Priest and their target to exchange appearances for several seconds.
    • Glyph of the Sha: Transforms the Priest’s Shadowfiend and Mindbender into a Sha Beast.

Class Armor

  • Discipline/Holy PvP 2-piece set bonus’ (4-piece set bonus pre-Season 12) Holy Spark effect can no longer be dispelled.
  • Shadow PvP 4-piece set bonus is no longer an area-of-effect and only affects the character that dispels Vampiric Touch.

Bug Fix

  • Fixed an issue where Chakra: Serenity was not increasing the critical effect chance of Cascade, Divine Star, and Halo.
Rogue

General

  • Ambush damage has been increased by 12%.
  • Evasion now increases dodge chance by 100% (was 50%), cooldown has been reduced to 2 minutes (down from 3 minutes), and duration has been reduced to 10 seconds (down from 15 seconds).
  • Eviscerate now deals 10% less damage.
  • Fan of Knives damage has been increased by 25%.
  • Recuperate now restores 4% of maximum health every 3 seconds, up from 3%.
  • Sinister Strike deals an increased 240% of weapon damage (up from 145%), but now costs 50 Energy (up from 40 Energy).

Assassination

  • Assassination Rogues should no longer be eligible for any other weapon types except daggers in situations where loot is automatically awarded(Raid Finder, Bonus Rolls, Heroic/Normal Scenarios, and the upcoming Flexible Raid difficulty.)
  • Dispatch now deals 645% weapon damage (up from 460%).
  • Mutilate now deals 280% weapon damage (up from 200%).

Combat

  • New passive ability, Ruthlessness: This passive ability is learned by Combat Rogues at Level 32. The Rogue gains a 20% chance per combo point (100% chance at 5 combo points) to immediately regain 1 combo point while performing a finishing move.
  • Killing Spree targeting has been changed. If Blade Flurry is not active, Killing Spree will now hit the Rogue’s target 7 times or pick the closest eligible target if none had been selected. Killing Spree will continue to work as it has while Blade Flurry is active.
  • Revealing Strike now deals 160% weapons damage (up from 125%).
  • Vitality now increases Attack Power by 40% (up from 30%).

Subtlety

  • Backstab now deals 380% weapon damage (up from 275%).
  • Hemorrhage now deals 160% weapons damage (up from 140%); 232% weapons damage if a dagger is equipped (up from 203% for daggers).
  • Sanguinary Vein now increases damage against targets with bleed effects by 25% (up from 20%).

Talents

  • Burst of Speed’s cost has been reduced to 15 Energy (down from 30 Energy).
  • Cheat Death now reduces damage taken by 85% after activating (up from 80%).
  • Cloak and Dagger now allows the Rogue to use Ambush, Garrote, and Cheap Shot from 40 yards away (up from 30 yards).
  • Nightstalker now increases damage dealt by abilities while stealthed by 50%, up from 25%.
  • Paralytic Poison now stuns the target at 4 applications of the poison (down from 5 applications).
  • Shadowstep now has a reduced cooldown of 20 seconds (down from 24 seconds).

Glyphs

  • Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Adrenaline Rush’s effect is now baseline and has been replaced with Glyph of Redirect.
      • Glyph of Redirect now reduces the cooldown of Redirect by 50 seconds (down from Redirect no longer has a cooldown).
    • Glyph of Blind now only removes damage-over-time effects that would cause Blind to break. For Rogues that also have the Dirty Tricks talent, this means Blind will no longer remove the Rogue’s poison or bleed effects.
    • Glyph of Crippling Poison has been replaced with Glyph of Sharpened Knives.
      • Glyph of Sharpened Knives now causes Fan of Knives to also damage the armor of its victims, applying 1 application of the Weakened Armor effect to each target.
    • Glyph of Debilitation has been replaced with Glyph of Recovery.
      • Glyph of Recovery increases the healing  received by the Rogue while Recuperate is active.
    • Glyph of Recuperate now increases the healing of Recuperate by an additional 1% (up from 0.5%).
    • Glyph of Sap has been replaced with Glyph of Hemorrhaging Veins.
      • Glyph of Hemorrhaging Veins causes Sanguinary Veins ability to also increase damage done to targets affected by Hemorrhage.
    • Glyph of Shiv now reduces the cooldown of Shiv by 3 seconds (was 2 seconds).
  • New Minor Glyphs
    • Glyph of Improved Distraction: Distract now summons a decoy at the target location.
    • Glyph of the Headhunter: Throw and Deadly Throw abilities will now throw axes regardless of the Rogue’s currently equipped weapon.

Class Armor

  • Rogue Tier-15 4-piece set bonus now causes Shadow Blades to reduce the cost of all abilities by 15% (down from 40%).

Bug Fix

  • Fixed an issue where certain conditions can cause Blade Flurry to not deal damage to additional nearby opponents.
Shaman

General

  • Chain Heal’s effectiveness will no longer decrease with each jump (up from a 30% reduction to healing with each jump).
  • Earth Elemental Totem’s summoned Greater Earth Elemental will no longer taunt off players that are in a tanking specialization.
  • Fire Elemental Totem’s summoned Greater Fire Elemental now deals 10% less damage.
  • Healing Rain’s healing has been reduced by 30%, and the area-of-effect has been increased to 12 yards (up from 10 yards). In addition, Healing Rain now functions like a smart heal, healing the 6 most injured friendly targets within range, and minor guardians are no longer targeted (Wild Imps, Bloodworms, Snakes from Snake Traps, etc.). There has been no change to the total amount of healing granted by the ability.

Enhancement

  • Fire Nova’s damage has been increased by 83%.
  • Stormstrike’s debuff now also affects Elemental Blast, but now deals 380% weapon damage (down from 450% weapon damage).

Restoration

  • Purification now increases the healing done by Healing Rain by 100% in addition to the ability’s current effects.
    • Ancestral Vigor now has a duration of 30 seconds (up from 15 seconds).
  • Riptide’s mana cost has been reduced by 25%.

Talents

  • Astral Shift now has a cooldown of 90 seconds, down from 120 seconds.
  • Conductivity has been redesigned.
    • Healing an ally with Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, Healing Surge, or Chain Heal, increases the duration of Healing Rain by 4 seconds.
    • Damaging an enemy with Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Earth Shock, or Stormstrike increases the duration of Healing Rain by 4 seconds.
    • Conductivity can increase the duration of Healing Rain up to a maximum of 40 seconds.
  • Echo of the Elements’ spell duplication effect can no longer occur more than once every 4 seconds when used against hostile players, and their pets or guardians.
  • Healing Tide Totem is no longer a talent and is a baseline ability for all Shamans. Additionally, this totem will now heal 12 raid members (up from 5) when used in a 25-player instance.
    • New Talent: Rushing Streams. Rushing Streams replaces Healing Tide Totem talent, increases healing done by Healing Stream Totem by 15%, and causes the totem to heal 2 targets at once.
  • Stone Bulwark Totem’s initial damage absorption shield now absorbs an additional 33% in damage.
  • Totemic Restoration has been replaced with a new talent, Totemic Persistence.
    • New talent: Totemic Persistence. Summoning a second totem of the same element no longer causes the first totem to be destroyed. Only one non-Fire totem can benefit from this effect at a time.
  • Unleashed Fury
    • Earthliving Weapon effect now applies to the Shaman, not the target.
    • Flametongue Weapon effect now increases Lightning Bolt damage by 30%, up from 20%.

Glyphs

  • New Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Eternal Earth: Lightning Bolt now has a chance to add a charge to the Shaman’s active Earth Shield. This cannot cause Earth Shield to exceed 9 charges.
    • Glyph of Purging: Successfully Purging a target now grants a stack of Maelstrom Weapon.
  • Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Chaining now increases the cooldown on Chain Heal by 2 seconds, down from a 4 second increase.
    • Glyph of Cleansing Waters now heals the target for 5% of the Shaman’s maximum health (up from 4%).
    • Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem now reduces the cooldown and duration for Fire Elemental Totem by 50%, up from 40%.
    • Glyph of Frost Shock now reduces the cooldown of Frost Shock by 2 seconds.
    • Glyph of Grounding Totem now increases the cooldown of Grounding Totem after reflecting a harmful spell by 20 seconds (down from a 35-second cooldown increase).
    • Glyph of Healing Storm no longer increases the healing of Healing Rain.
    • Glyph of Riptide reduces the initial direct healing of Riptide by 75%, down from a 90% reduction to healing.
  • New Minor Glyphs
    • Glyph of Astral Fixation: Astral Recall now takes the Shaman to their capital’s Earthshrine.
    • Glyph of the Compy: Hex now transforms enemies into a Compy.
    • Glyph of Elemental Familiars: Summons a random Fire, Water, or Nature familiar. Familiars of different types have a tendency to fight each other.
    • Glyph of Flaming Serpents: The Shaman’s Searing Totem now resembles Vol’jin’s Serpent Ward.
    • Glyph of Lingering Ancestors: Resurrecting someone with Ancestral Spirit causes a ghostly ancestor to follow them around for a short time.
    • Glyph of Rain of Frogs: Allows the Shaman to summon a rain storm of frogs at a targeted location.
    • Glyph of Spirit Raptors: Spirit Wolves are replaced with Spirit Raptors.
    • Glyph of Spirit Wolf: Ghost Wolf can be now be used while the Shaman is a ghost.

Class Armor

  • Elemental Shaman 2-piece PvP set bonus has been changed. It now allows Lightning Shield to be triggered once every 1.5 seconds instead of once every 3 seconds.
  • Enhancement Shaman 4-piece PvP set bonus now causes the Shaman’s Flametongue Weapon to also reduce the target’s movement speed for 3 seconds.
Warlock

General

  • Corruption’s damage has been increased by 10%.
  • Demonic Gateways are no longer attackable once more and no longer temporarily removes threat from the user. The debuff from using a Demonic Gateway has been increased to 60 seconds (up from 15 seconds).
  • Fel Armor no longer reduces all damage taken by 10%.
  • Fel Flame now deals 13% more damage, costs 2% less mana, and no longer increases the duration of damage-over-time spells.
  • Immolate damage has been increased by 10%.
  • Rain of Fire now has a reduced chance to generate Burning Embers.
  • The Codex of Xerrath now infuses additional spells with fel magic (green fire effect).
    • Summon Felsteed, Summon Dreadsteed, Summon Abyssal, Demonic Fury, Dark Apotheosis, and Demonic Leap.

Affliction

  • Agony damage has been increased by 16%.
  • Drain Soul no longer energizes Soul Shards from the pets and guardians of players, and now deals 34% less damage. If other periodic Affliction damage effects are triggered by Drain Soul, they now deal 60% of their normal damage (down from 100%).
  • Haunt now deals 50% more damage, and increases damage done by all of the Warlock’s damage-over-time spells against the target by 40%.
  • Malefic Grasp now deals 34% less damage, and causes all of the Warlock’s other periodic Affliction damage effects to instantly deal 30% of their normal periodic damage (down from 50%).
  • Nightfall now gives Corruption a 10% increased chance to generate a Soul Shard on the most recently applied Corruption.
  • Soul Swap no longer does any damage, and now copies damage-over-time effects instead of just moving them without needing a glyph. Copied effects now once again preserve their power and duration. Duration has been reduced to 3 seconds (down from 20 seconds).
  • Unstable Affliction damage has been increased by 21%.

Demonology

  • Dark Soul: Knowledge now increases the effects of Mastery: Master Demonologist by an additional 30%.
  • Hellfire’s damage has been reduced by 20%.
  • Immolation Aura’s damage has been reduced by 20%.

Destruction

  • Chaos Bolt’s damage has been increased by 15%.
  • Incinerate’s damage has been increased by 10%.

Talents

  • Archimonde’s Vengeance has been redesigned and renamed into Archimonde’s Darkness.
    • Archimonde’s Darkness gives the Warlock’s Dark Soul spell two charges.
  • Grimoire of Sacrifice no longer affects Drain Life.
    • For Affliction Warlocks, Grimoire of Sacrifice now increases the power of various single target spells by 20% (down from 30%).
  • Harvest Life no longer replaces Drain Life. Harvest Life is now a passive talent that increases Drain Life’s damage by 50%, and healing by 150%. The talent no longer turns the ability into an area-of-effect spell.
  • Howl of Terror is no longer a talent and is now a baseline skill for all Warlocks.
    • Demonic Breath is a new talent replacing Howl of Terror. The Warlock sends out a cone of Shadow damage, snaring targets, has a 20-second cooldown.
  • Kil’jaden’s Cunning no longer reduces movement speed, and will now allow the Warlock to cast Incinerate, Malefic Grasp, and Shadow Bolt while moving.
  • Mannoroth’s Fury is no longer a passive ability. Mannoroth’s Fury now has a duration of 10 seconds with a 60 second cooldown, and increases the area of area-of-effect by 500% and increases damage by 100% for Hellfire, Immolation Aura, Rain of Fire, and Seed of Corruption.
  • Soul Leech can now also activate from Shadowburn, and caps out at 15% of the Warlock and their pet’s maximum health (down from 100%).
  • Soul Link now transfers 20% of damage taken by the Warlock to their pet, and 3% of all damage dealt by the Warlock will be returned as healing for the Warlock and their pet. This ability is always active while the Warlock’s pet is active.

Glyphs

  • Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of Dark Soul has been replaced by Glyph of Curse of the Elements.
      • Glyph of Curse of the Elements causes Curse of the Elements to hit 2 additional nearby targets.
    • Glyph of Everlasting Affliction has been replaced by Glyph of Eternal Resolve.
      • Glyph of Eternal Resolve: Changes Unending Resolve into a passive ability that provides a constant 10% reduction to damage taken.
    • Glyph of Fear no longer causes Fear to have a cooldown.
    • Glyph of Imp Swarm now summons 4 Wild Imps (down from 5 Wild Imps).
    • Glyph of Shadowflame has been replaced with Glyph of Unending Resolve.
      • Glyph of Unending Resolve reduces the damage reduction of Unending Resolve by 20%, and the cooldown is reduced by 60 seconds.
    • Glyph of Soul Swap has been replaced with Glyph of Havoc.
      • Glyph of Havoc: Havoc gains 3 additional charges, but the cooldown is increased by 35 seconds.

Class Armor

  • Warlock Tier-14 4-piece set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Unending Resolve by 20 seconds.
  • Warlock PvP 4-piece set bonus now reduces duration of the debuff from using a Demonic Gateway by 15 seconds.

Bug Fix

  • Fixed an issue where Blood Horror was not working properly while Metamorphosis was active.
Warrior

General

  • Battle, Berserker and Defensive Stance [alternative: Warrior Stances] now have a 1.5-second cooldown (down from 3 seconds).
  • Blood and Thunder now also increases the damage of Thunder Clap by 50%.
  • Deep Wounds damage has been increased by 65%.
  • Enrage now also triggers on critical hits from Devastate and Shield Slam.
  • Hamstring is no longer on a global cooldown.
  • Intervene now also breaks roots and snares when used.
  • Shattering Throw no longer costs rage.
  • Shield Wall no longer requires a shield. If the Warrior does not have a shield equipped, it will show a visual of an equipped shield.
  • Spell Reflection no longer requires a shield. If the Warrior does not have a shield equipped, it will show a visual of an equipped shield.

Arms

  • Mortal Strike now deals 215% of weapon damage (up from 175%).
  • Seasoned Soldier now also reduces the cost of Thunder Clap by 10 Rage.
  • Slam now deals 25% more damage, but the Rage cost has been increased by 25% as well. While Sweeping Strikes is active, Slam will deal 35% of damage dealt against the primary target to all other enemies within 2 yards, and targets affected by Colossus Smash receives 10% more damage.

Fury

  • Titan’s Grip now works with polearms.

Protection

  • Revenge now generates 20 Rage (up from 15 Rage).
  • Riposte is a new passive ability learned by Protection Warriors at level 76. When the Warrior dodges or parries any attack, they gain 75% of their Parry and Dodge as an additional bonus to Critical Strike for 20 seconds.
  • Ultimatum now activates from critical hits with Shield Slam instead of a flat 20% chance, and the ability will make the next Heroic Strike or Cleave be a critical hit in addition to costing no Rage.

Talents

  • Bladestorm’s cooldown has decreased to 60 seconds (down from 1.5 minutes).
    • Arms: Bladestorm now deals 180% of weapon damage (up from 120%).
    • Protection: Bladestorm now deals 160% of weapon damage (down from 240%).
  • Bloodbath’s snare and bleed effects are now two separate debuffs. Clearing one of the effects will no longer remove the other.
  • Enraged Regeneration now instantly heals the warrior for 10% of their total health (up from 5%), and an additional 10% over 5 seconds (up from 5%).
  • Impending Victory now heals the Warrior for 20% of their maximum health at all times (up from 15% on attack and 20% on kills that yield experience or honor).
  • Storm Bolt now has a duration of 4 seconds (up from 3 seconds), and has an off-hand attack for Fury Warriors.
  • Vigilance no longer transfers damage to the Warrior. The talent now reduces amount of damage the target takes by 30% for 12 seconds.
  • Warbringer now roots the target for 4 seconds instead of stunning them for 3 seconds. The 50% reduction to movement speed snare effect for 8 seconds remains unchanged. Glyph of Blitz will now cause Warbringer to root an additional 2 nearby targets.

Glyphs

  • New Major Glyphs
    • Glyph of the Executor: Killing an enemy with Execute grants Rage.
    • Glyph of Impaling Throws: Heroic Throw now leaves an axe in the target, which can be retrieved by moving within 5 yards of the target to finish the cooldown of Heroic Throw. This effect will only occur when Heroic Throw is cast from more than 10 yards away from the target.
  • New Minor Glyphs
    • Glyph of the Raging Whirlwind: Whirlwind gives additional Rage over time, but for that time the Warrior no longer generates Rage from auto-attacks.
    • Glyph of the Subtle Defender: Removes the threat generation bonus from Defensive Stance.
    • Glyph of the Weaponmaster: Shout abilities cause the appearance of the Warrior’s weapon to change to that of a random weapon from their primary bag for a short time.

Bug Fix

  • Intervene should no longer incorrectly trigger a cooldown when there isn’t an allied target for the Warrior to intervene to.
Quests
  • Wrathion’s Legendary Questline
    • All bosses in Throne of Thunder now have a chance to drop Sigil of Power or Sigil of Wisdom in addition to their normal loot for players on the appropriate step in the legendary questline. Players should also no longer be receiving excess Sigils of Power or Sigils of Wisdom.
    • The first eight bosses in Siege of Orgrimmar have a chance to drop a Sigil of Power, Sigil of Wisdom, Secrets of the Empire, or Titan Runestone in addition to their normal loot for players on the appropriate step in the legendary questline.
  • Surprise Attack!: Fixed an issue where players may sometimes not receive credit for defeating Hei Feng.
Creatures
  • Bonus Roll change: Players that don’t have a coin or elect to not use a Bonus Roll when defeating one of the world bosses (Sha of Anger, Galleon, Nalak, and Oondasta) can come back later that same week to use the Bonus Roll. The limit has not changed and remains one attempt and one bonus roll per boss, per week.
  • H.A.R.V.E.Y. and D.E.N.T. have returned to their posts. The mechanical auctioneers will once again allow Engineers to access the auction house from the Shrine of Seven Stars and Shrine of Two Moons respectively.
  • Stone Trogg Berserker now drops trivial items and can no longer be pickpocketed.
  • Stone Trogg Geomancer now drops trivial items and can no longer be pickpocketed.

Brawler’s Guild

  • Fixed an issue where Mingus Diggs was not resetting properly between fights.
Pet Battles

Pet Battle General

  • A new pet battle tournament is available on the Timeless Isle, more details coming soon!
  • Round timers in PvP Pet Battles will now get progressively shorter for a player who takes more than 15 seconds to issue a command during their turn.
  • Players are now able to trade in any 3 of the same family specific Flawless Battle-Stones for a single Marked Flawless Battle-Stone.
  • Viewable pet battles will now display working health bars.
  • Battle Pet levels are now only shown on the map if you are tracking Battle Pets.
  • Aquatic type’s passive effect now reduces damage from damage-over-time effects by 50%, up from 25%.
  • Critter type’s passive effect now makes critters immune to roots, stuns, and sleep effects.
  • Dragonkin type’s passive effect now activates after an attack brings a target’s to below 50% health, up from 25%.
  • Elemental type’s passive effect now only affects negative direct effects of weather. (E.g. Sandstorm’s accuracy reduction won’t be applied, but the damage reduction will.)
  • Magic type’s passive effect now caps damage taken at 35% of maximum health, up from 40%.
  • Battle Pet Training cost and the price of pets sold by Battle Pet Trainers have been greatly reduced.

Battle Pets

  • Any Battle Pet that could be awarded from a Throne of Thunder boss on Raid Finder difficulty can now be won from a bonus roll, in addition to the standard bonus roll reward.
  • Darkmoon Zeppelin: Several abilities have swapped positions.
  • Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling: Several abilities have swapped positions.
  • Tiny Twister: The Sandstorm ability has been replaced with Call Lightning.

Battle Pet Abilities

  • Battle Pet abilities with a component that increases in damage every time it hits will no longer reset when an opponent’s pet gets swapped. (Arcane Blast, Frog Kiss, etc.)
  • Accuracy now affects the entire team.
  • Call Lightning’s duration has been reduced to 5 rounds (down from 9 rounds), and cooldown has been increased to 5 rounds (up from 3 rounds).
  • Dark Simulacrum has been replaced with a new ability, Rot. Rot deals Undead damage and temporarily turns the enemy pet’s type into Undead.
  • Death Grip cooldown increased to 4 rounds (up from 3 rounds), damage has been reduced by 50%, and hit chance has been reduced to match similar abilities.
  • Nether Gate damage has been reduced by 33%.
  • Sandstorm’s duration has been reduced to 5 rounds (down from 9 rounds), and cooldown has been increased to 5 rounds (up from 3 rounds).
  • Sweep damage has been reduced by 33%.
  • Trihorn Charge damage has been reduced by 11.5% and now has a 1-round cooldown.
  • Trihorn Shield now displays the correct amount of damage reduction.
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

Raids

  • The chance for awarding loot from kills or bonus rolls has been increased for Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, Terrace of Endless Spring, and Throne of Thunder on Raid Finder difficulty.
  • The chance for awarding loot from using a bonus roll has been increased for Throne of Thunder on Normal difficulty.
  • All enemies in Throne of Thunder now have a debuff called Shado-Pan Onslaught, which reduces their health and damage by 20%.
  • Fixed an issue where credit for the achievement You Said Crossing the Streams Was Bad was not being awarded to players who are dead or in Spirit of Redemption form.

Dungeons

  • Players who obtain a realm-best time in a Challenge Mode dungeon (group must contain at least 3 people from the same realm to qualify) will receive a temporary title specific to each dungeon (e.g. Siegebreaker for Siege of Niuzao temple, Darkmaster for Scholomance, etc.). This title will persist for as long as a player retains the top time on the realm. Holding a realm-best time at any point will also confer a permanent Feat of Strength to record the accomplishment.

Scenarios

  • Heroic Scenarios no longer have a minimum item level requirement to enter.
PvP
  • Base Resilience now reduces damage players deal to others players by 72% (up from 65%).
  • Battle Fatigue now reduces healing for players that are engaged in PvP combat by 55% (up from 45%).
  • Season 14 Grievous gear is now available.
  • Elite versions of Season 14 Grievous are now available as a mark of prestige for players that are able to attain a personal rating of 2000 and earn 27,000 Conquest Points in the current season. Pricing per piece remains the same but the previous piece requirement has been removed.
  • Season 13 Tyrannical gear can now be purchased with Honor Points.
  • Season 12 Malevolent gear can now be crafted.
  • Equipping any pair of PvP trinkets from Season 12 or later will now grant a 10% reduction in damage taken from other players.
Battlegrounds and Arenas
  • All non-gladiator gear in Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas will be scaled down to an item level ceiling of 496.
    • Grievous Gladiator gear is exempt from this item level ceiling.
    • The item level ceiling will increase at a rate of 1 item level point per week until it reaches a maximum of 512.

Battlegrounds

  • Conquest Point rewards for winning a random or call-to-arms Battleground match has been increased.
    • First win of the day now awards 150 Conquest Points (up from 100).
    • Subsequent wins now awards 75 Conquest Points (up from 50).
  • Strand of the Ancients
    • Bombs are no longer an item held in the player’s inventory and will now do considerably more damage, 4500 (up from 1250).
    • Players carrying a bomb now have a button that allows them to place it with a spell effect over their heads.
      • Placing a bomb takes 2 seconds, and can be interrupted like a Battleground capture point.
      • Disarming a bomb takes 2 seconds, and can be interrupted like a Battleground capture point.
    • Demolishers will no longer have the Ram ability and only one will spawn at each stage.

Arenas

  • For Arena matches lasting longer than 15 minutes, one of the teams will receive a buff called “The Crowd Chose You” that increases damage, critical strike chance, stealth detection, and reduces damage taken. The buff is awarded based on the following criteria.
    • Team with the largest number of players alive.
    • Team that brought an enemy player closest to death (lowest health).
  • Arena Rating scaling in the 2v2 bracket has been tuned to be consistent with the 3v3 bracket.
Professions

Archaeology

  • Mantid Artifact Sonic Locator no longer randomizes digsites when acquired, and is more difficult to obtain.  They can now only be purchased as part of a Mantid Artifact Hunter’s Kit, which includes a Lorewalker’s Map.

Blacksmithing

  • New Raid and PvP blacksmithing plans have been added. These new plans can be researched by crafting Balanced Trillium Ingots, allowing the blacksmith to learn a random new plan.
  • Plans for Balanced Trillium Ingot could be found as a drop from creatures in Pandaria.

Cooking

  • A number of new cooking recipes have been added, including new foods that give +300 to a primary stat and noodle carts. Some of these new recipes can be learned from drops in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, others from quests.
  • Players who have learned the first recipe in each of “the ways” can discover a questline that starts on the Timeless Isle: “Noodle Secrets Long Forgotten.” Heroes will search for a long-lost pandaren recipe allowing them to build and run their own noodle cart. The all-new questline will revisit some old zones and dungeons, culminating in a solo scenario with a unique time-management mini-game.
  • The noodle cart allows a player to set themselves up as a vendor and distribute powerful noodle soups to their faction.

Enchanting

  • Items formerly obtained with Valor Points that now cost Justice Points will now disenchant into Sha Crystal Fragments, a new Enchanting reagent.
  • Multiple Sha Crystal Fragments can be combined into a a Sha Crystal.

Engineering

  • Engineers that are able to acquire Chief Engineer Jard’s Journal can learn to craft Jard’s Peculiar Energy Source; a new material used in a number of new engineering schematics. The journal can be obtained as a drop from creatures in Pandaria.
  • Blingtron 4000 Gift Packages now has a chance to contain Lil’ Bling, a companion pet.

Fishing

  • With the lakes and rivers in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms drained of water, the Cloud Serpents carried little buckets of Jewel Danio and relocated them to the Timeless Isle so they can thrive once more.

Inscription

  • Many new glyph techniques have been added, and some existing glyphs have been changed. Some of the new techniques can be obtained from creatures anywhere in Pandaria, while others can only be found on powerful creatures that reside on the Timeless Isle.
  • A new technique to create Crafted Malevolent Gladiator’s Medallion of Tenacity can be found as a world drop

Leatherworking

  • New Raid and PvP leatherworking patterns have been added. These new patterns can be researched by crafting Hardened Magnificent Hide, allowing the leatherworker to learn a random new pattern.
  • Patterns for Hardened Magnificent Hide could be found as a drop from creatures in Pandaria.
  • Leatherworkers can find a pattern to craft Drums of Rage as a drop from creatures in Pandaria. The drums can be used by anyone to give their raid a minor bloodlust-like effect.

Tailoring

  • New Raid and PvP tailoring patterns have been added. These new patterns can be researched by crafting Celestial Cloth, allowing the tailor to learn a random new pattern.
  • Patterns for Celestial Cloth could be found as a drop from creatures in Pandaria.
Items
  • All permanent item enhancements provided by Enchanting, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring, and various vendors and quests are now able to be applied to items of any level. This means all enchantments can now be applied to heirloom items.
    • High level enhancements applied to items equipped by low level players have their power scaled down to be similar to enhancements intended for that level range.
    • Low level enhancements applied to items equipped by high level players do not grow further in power beyond their intended level range.
  • Adjustments have been made to Mists of Pandaria faction quartermasters.
    • Epic quality (purple) Valor items sold by the Shado-Pan Assault now have their reputation requirements reduced to Friendly or below, and have their Valor Point cost reduced by 34%.
    • Epic quality (purple) Valor items sold by all other Mists of Pandaria faction quartermasters no longer have reputation requirements, and will now cost Justice Points instead of Valor.
    • Rare quality (blue) items have their Justice Point cost reduced by 75%.
    • No changes for items that require an Exalted reputation.
  • Drinking a duplicate flask with less than 15 minutes remaining will now extend the duration of the new flask by that amount.
  • The conversion rate for Justice Points to Honor Points have changed. The conversion rate is now 500 Justice per 250 Honor (up from 375 Justice per 250 Honor).
  • Trinket, enchant, set bonus, and legendary meta-gem effects whose triggered effect benefits from haste no longer also have their chance to trigger the benefit from haste. Activation chances and internal cooldowns for those effects and other trinket effects have been adjusted to compensate and will now be displayed on their tooltip.
  • Capacitive Primal Diamond, and Legendary melee cloaks (Fen-Yu, Fury of Xuen, and Gong-Lu, Strength of Xuen) now have a 40% reduced chance to activate its effects for characters that are in a tanking specialization.
  • Indomitable Primal Diamond’s effect now grants a 20% damage reduction to all damage taken (up from only physical damage), and its activation rate has been doubled.
UI
  • The vestigial Use Hardware sound option has been removed.

 

WoW 5.3 Escalation: Full Patch Notes

wow-5-3

It’s patchin’ time and 5.3 has it’s fair share of content to be trawled through. So what are you waiting for? Have a read through below for the full WoW 5.3. patch notes:
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World of Warcraft Patch 5.3

General
  • New Battleground: Deepwind Gorge
    • In the new Battleground situated in the Valley of the Four Winds, the Alliance and Horde continue their war for Pandaria’s precious resources. While the two factions battle for control over mines, they must also protect their own resources from being stolen and turned against them!
  • New Arena: The Tiger’s Peak
    • Gladiator hopefuls have a new location to test their mettle amidst the Kun-Lai mountain tops, in the training grounds of the powerful Shado-Pan. Players must make use of the looming tiger statues and fenced platforms to gain an advantage that will bring victory and glory!
  • New Scenario: Battle on the High Seas
    • Help your faction fend off enemy forces in the midst of a battle for naval supremacy on the High Seas.
  • New Scenario: Blood in the Snow
    • An agent of Zandalar has infiltrated Dun Morogh and rallied the Frostmane trolls. At Varian’s request, Moira will lead her personal guard against them once the king’s champions have stopped the magical storm protecting Shimmer Ridge.
  • New Scenario: Dark Heart of Pandaria
    • Goblin engineers have been excavating in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to find a mysterious artifact, but all they’ve found is trouble; you have been personally called upon by the Warchief to aid them in their hour of need.
  • New Scenario: The Secrets of Ragefire
    • Infiltrate the Emberdeep Caverns and assist the Gob Squad in investigating a recent disappearance in Durotar.
  • Heroic Scenarios
    • A Heroic difficulty for Scenarios have been added and are designed to provide challenging content for small groups of well-seasoned adventurers. Completing a Heroic Scenario awards Valor points, and a chance to obtain high level Epic quality items.
    • Heroic Scenarios require a pre-made group to join.
    • Heroic Scenarios offer bonus objectives that will reward additional valor if completed.
      • An option to run a random Heroic Scenario has been added as a drop-down in the Scenario tab in Dungeon Finder.
    • Players can complete a normal or Heroic Scenario for bonus valor each day, but not both.
    • Six Heroic Scenarios will be available in patch 5.3. Four are new and two are upgrades of existing normal Scenarios.
      • Battle of the High Seas
      • Blood in the Snow
      • Dark Heart of Pandaria
      • The Secrets of Ragefire
      • Crypt of Forgotten Kings
      • A Brewing Storm
  • Quest Campaign: Escalation
    • The Darkspear Trolls are in open rebellion against the Warchief! Aid your faction in preparing to rout Garrosh Hellscream from Orgrimmar
      • Alliance heroes will scout Orgrimmar’s outskirts and engage in SI:7 espionage to weaken Garrosh’s power structure.
      • Horde heroes will help Vol’jin’s insurgency survive a Kor’kron assault and advance towards the Horde capital.
    • Visit Lorewalker Cho at the Seat of Knowledge in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to begin questing.
  • Battlefield: Barrens
    • Put the stranglehold on Orgrimmar by undermining the Kor’kron supply chain in Northern Barrens.
      • Collect resources by killing Kor’kron loyalists and their supporters.
      • Get a group together to kill Kor’kron leaders for bonus resources.
      • Escort your faction’s caravans across the zone for even more additional resources.
    • The Darkspear Rebellion will reward your efforts to undermine the Warchief by helping you upgrade Latent Kor’kron Armor into useable gear.
    • Participate in the Escalation Quest Campaign to learn how to engage in the Barrens conflict.
  • The Legendary Quest Continues
    • Journey with Wrathion to the four corners of Pandaria to speak with the August Celestials.
    • Champions will have had to complete Wrathion’s earlier tasks (including “Heart of the Thunder King”) to continue.
  • Brawler’s Guild Updates
    • Test your might against two new tiers of bosses in the Brawl’gar Arena in Orgrimmar or Bizmo’s Brawl Pub in Stormwind.
    • New VIP areas are now accessible for brawlers at or above rank 8.
    • Bizmo has raised the floor in his arena to hide the bodies. Or… maybe to improve the sight lines. We’ll never know for sure.
    • Special “Challenge Cards” can now be acquired from mobs or reward satchels, allowing you to unlock unique bonus bosses.
    • Brawlers that manage to prove their mettle and reach Rank 9 will receive an additional invitation to the Brawler’s Guild that can be traded or given to a friend.
  • Experience needed to increase from level 85 to level 90 has been reduced by 33%.

Classes

  • Healing abilities and spells which automatically pick targets now follow consistent rules for targeting logic. Targets with lower % health will be preferred, and players are weighted more heavily than pets.
  • Avoidance passive on all pets and guardians has been changed. It now reduces area-of-effect damage from creatures and NPCs by 95% (up from 90%), and from players by 50% (up from 0%). Warlock pets already had the new version of Avoidance since Patch 5.0 and will not notice any differences.
  • The following summoned pets/totems will now chain cast their spells with no delay between casts, allowing them to cast their spells more frequently in the same amount of time.
    • Death Knight: Gargoyle
    • Druid: Force of Nature (Balance, Restoration), Mirror Image (Symbiosis)
    • Mage: Mirror Image, Water Elemental
    • Shaman: Searing Totem
    • Warlock: Doomguard, Terrorguard, Wild Imp
Death Knight

General

  • Blood Plague no longer benefits from the damage increase granted by Tricks of the Trade.
  • Frost Fever no longer benefits from the damage increase granted by Tricks of the Trade.
  • Necrotic Strike’s healing absorption effect has been increased to 225% from attack power, up from 200%.

Talents

  • Gorefiend’s Grasp can now affect a maximum of 4 player targets. The number of non-player targets that can be affected remains unlimited.

Unholy

  • Sudden Doom now requires the Death Knight to be in Unholy Presence to activate the effect that causes Death Coil to cost no Runic Power.
  • Unholy Might now increases the Death Knight’s Strength by 10%, down from 15%.
Druid

General

  • Mark of the Wild had its mana cost reduced to 5%, down from 10%.
  • Symbiosis: Intimidating Roar had its cooldown increased to 90 seconds, up from 60 seconds.
  • Tranquility now targets 12 raid members (up from 5) each time it heals when used in a 25-player instance. This change also applies to players using the Symbiosis version of Tranquility.

Talents

  • Force of Nature is no longer on global cooldown and summons a single Treant. The Treant no longer has a control bar, immediately uses its special abilities on the Druid’s current target, and accumulates 1 charge every 20 seconds up to a maximum of 3 charges.
    • Restoration version of the Treant now casts Swiftmend on the Druid’s target when summoned. This version of Swiftmend does not require or consume a heal-over-time effect on the target.

Glyphs

  • Glyph of Solar Beam have been removed and replaced with Glyph of Omens.
  • New Glyph: Glyph of Omens: While the Druid is not in a Solar or Lunar Eclipse, the following abilities will generate 10 Solar or Lunar Energy: Entangling Roots, Cyclone, Faerie Fire, Faerie Swarm, Mass Entanglement, Typhoon, Disorienting Roar, Ursol’s Vortex, and Mighty Bash.

Balance

  • Solar Beam is now more responsive when players enter and leave the beam’s area-of-effect.

Feral

  • Savage Roar now increases physical damage done by 40%, up from 30%.

Guardian

  • Mastery: Nature’s Guardian is now 33% stronger (2% per point instead of 1.5%).

Restoration

  • Ironbark now has a cooldown of 60 seconds, down from 2 minutes.
  • Swiftmend’s area-of-effect component now heals injured allies within 10 yards, up from 8 yards.
  • Wild Mushroom: Bloom: Healing from this spell has been increased by 100%, which includes all bonus healing from Rejuvenation overhealing. In addition, the radius has been increased to 10 yards (up from 8).

Item Sets

  • Restoration PvP 4-piece set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Ironbark by 30 seconds (down from 90 seconds).
Hunter

General

  • Hunters now have 50 pet stable slots, up from 20.
  • Cooldown on crowd control abilities for several Hunter pet families have changed.
    • Basilisk pet family’s Petrifying Gaze now has a cooldown of now 2 minutes, up from 1 minute.
    • Bat pet family’s Sonic Blast now has a cooldown of 2 minutes, up from 1 minute.
    • Crane pet family’s Lullaby now has a cooldown of 2 minutes, up from 1 minute.
    • Monkey pet family’s Bad Manner now has a cooldown of 2 minutes, up from 1 minute.
    • Porcupine pet family’s Paralyzing Quill now has a cooldown of 2 minutes, up from 1 minute.
    • Shale Spider pet family’s Web Wrap now has a cooldown of 90 seconds, up from 45 seconds.
    • Wasp pet family’s Sting now has a cooldown of 90 seconds, up from 45 seconds.
    • Worm pet family’s Burrow Attack now has cooldown of 14 seconds, down from 20 seconds.
  • Aspect of the Hawk now increases ranged attack power by 25%, up from 15%.
  • Revive Pet now has a cast time of 4 seconds, down from 6 seconds.

Talents

  • Aspect of the Iron Hawk now increases ranged attack power by 25%, up from 15%.
  • Binding Shot is no longer a talent and learned by Marksmanship Hunters at level 30.
  • Blink Strike has been renamed Blink Strikes and turned into a passive ability. The pet’s Basic Attacks deal 50% increased damage, can now be used from 30 yards away, and will instantly cause the pet to teleport behind their target.
  • Intimidation is now a level-30 talent available to all Hunter specializations and no longer learned by Beast Mastery Hunters at level 20.

Beast Mastery

  • Beast Cleave now deals 75% of the original damage, up from 50%.
  • Exotic Beasts no longer reduces the cooldown of pet special abilities by 30%.

Marksmanship

  • Bombardment now increases the damage of Multi-Shot by 60%, up from 30%.

Item Sets

  • PvP 2-piece set bonus has been redesigned. Using Arcane Shot now causes the Hunter’s PvP Power to increase by 800 for 6 seconds.
Mage

General

  • Arcane Brilliance had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 4%.
  • Arcane Explosion now deals 40% more damage.
  • Blizzard now deals 40% more damage.
  • Dalaran Brilliance had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 4%.
  • Flamestrike now deals 100% more initial damage. Periodic damage remains unchanged.
  • Mirror Image creates copies that no longer cast Fire Blast, but their Frostbolts do 10% more damage.
  • Teleport: Vale of Eternal Blossoms and Portal: Vale of Eternal Blossoms now have new icons.

Talents

  • Flameglow now absorbs damage from each attack made against the Mage equal to 15% of their spellpower (down from 20%).
  • Incanter’s Ward now allows the Mage to gain up to a maximum of 15% increase to spell damage, down from 30%, but the effect now lasts 25 seconds, up from 15 seconds.
  • Living Bomb’s periodic damage has been increased by 121%. Its explosion damage has been reduced by 78%, but now scales with additional periodic ticks added by haste, and hits all nearby targets (up from 3).
Monk

General

  • Legacy of the Emperor had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 6%.
  • Nimble Brew now also removes horrify effects, and reduces the duration of horrify effects and fear, and is available to all Monk specializations (formerly only available for Brewmaster and Windwalker Monks).
  • Spear Hand Strike now locks a spell school out for 4 seconds, down from 5 seconds.

Talents

  • Ring of Peace had been redesigned. The ability forms an 8-yard sanctuary around a friendly target for 8 seconds, instantly disarming and silencing enemies within the area-of-effect for 3 seconds. Enemies that use abilities other than auto-attacks or cast spells on allies within the Ring of Peace will be disarmed and silenced for 3 seconds. Disarm and silence effects are subject to diminishing returns.

Brewmaster

  • Gift of the Ox should now activate its effect more frequently for dual-wielding Monks.

Mistweaver

  • Revival now has a healing cap of 15 raid members (up from 6) when used in a 25-player instance.

Windwalker

  • Legacy of the White Tiger had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 6%.
  • Rising Sun Kick now causes all targets within 8 yards to take an increased 20% damage from the Monk’s abilities, up from 10%.
  • Fixed an issue that caused ticks from Fists of Fury to sometimes be skipped.
Paladin

General

  • Blessing of Kings had its mana cost reduced to 5%, down from 22.3%.
  • Blessing of Might had its mana cost reduced to 5%, down from 22.3%.
  • Devotion Aura now clears all silence effects when used.
  • Divine Protection is now usable while stunned.

Glyphs

  • Glyph of the Battle Healer now heals a nearby injured friendly target, excluding the Paladin, for 20% of damage dealt while Seal of Insight is active, down from 30%.

Holy

  • Mastery: Illuminated Healing now places an absorb shield for 10% of the amount healed, down from 12%.
  • Daybreak is now a stackable effect with a duration of 10 seconds, stacks up to 2 times, and causes the next Holy Shock to also heal other allies within 10 yards of the target for an amount equal to 75%/150% of the original healing done. Daybreak no longer incorrectly hits the primary target of the Holy Shock.

Protection

  • Shield of the Righteous now reduces physical damage taken by 25%, down from 30%.

Retribution

  • Sword of Light now increases damage with two-handed melee weapons by 30%, up from 15%.

Item Sets

  • Tier-14 Holy Paladin 4-piece set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 second, down from 2 seconds.
Priest

General

  • Power Word: Fortitude had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 4.4%.
  • Mass Dispel no longer dispels magic effects that are normally undispellable. Cast time has been decreased to 0.5 seconds, down from 1.5 seconds for Discipline and Holy Priests.
  • Void Shift had its cooldown decreased to 5 minutes, down from 6 minutes for Discipline and Holy Priests. For Shadow Priests, cooldown has been increased to 10 minutes, up from 6 minutes, and the spell is no longer usable while in Arenas or Rated Battlegrounds.

Glyphs

  • Glyph of Mass Dispel has been redesigned and no longer reduces cast time. The glyph now enables Mass Dispel to dispel magic effects that are normally undispellable.
  • Glyph of Smite no longer causes the additional 20% damage dealt by Smite to transfer into Atonement.
  • Fixed an issue where Glyph of Mind Flay’s movement speed increase was not stacking correctly.

Discipline

  • Atonement now heals nearby friendly targets for 90% of the damage dealt, down from 100%.
  • Borrowed Time now reduces the cast or channel time of the next Priest spell by 15% after casting Power Word: Shield (was 15% spell haste).
  • Penance now deals 10% less damage, but healing done is increased by 10%.

Holy

  • Divine Hymn now targets 12 raid members (up from 5) each time it heals when used in a 25-player instance.

Shadow

  • Vampiric Embrace now has a healing cap of 15 raid members (up from 6) when used in a 25-player instance.
Rogue

Talents

  • Cloak and Dagger now requires the Rogue to be in Stealth. Shadow Dance will not remove the Stealth requirement for Cloak and Dagger.
  • Shuriken Toss now deals 100% more damage in the initial ranged attack, damage is no longer doubled when used on targets farther than 10 yards away, and energy cost has been increased to 40 energy, up from 20.

Glyphs

  • Glyph of Cheap Shot now increases the duration of Cheap Shot by 0.5 second, down from 1 second.
  • Glyph of Garrote now increases the duration of Garrote’s silence effect by 1 second, down from 1.5 seconds.

Combat

  • Blade Flurry’s damage to secondary targets should no longer be affected by Resilience or PvP power if the primary target was a player as both had already been factored in for the initial damage calculation.
  • Revealing Strike now lasts 24 seconds, up from 18 seconds.

Subtlety

  • Find Weakness now bypasses 100% of armor against non-player targets, and bypasses 50% of armor when used against other players (was 70% armor bypass for all targets).
Shaman

General

  • Lava Burst now has a 2 second cast time, up from 1.5 seconds, and deals 25% more damage.
  • Lightning Bolt can now be cast while moving.

Glyphs

  • New Glyph: Glyph of Lightning Shield causes Lightning Shield to reduce the amount of damage taken by 10% for 6 seconds after Lightning Shield is triggered.
  • Glyph of Unleashed Lightning has been removed and replaced with Glyph of Lightning Shield.

Enhancement

  • Feral Spirit’s summoned Spirit Wolves are now immune to root and snare effects.
  • Lava Lash now deals 300% weapons damage, up from 250%.
  • Mental Quickness now converts 65% of the Shaman’s attack power to spell power, up from 55%.
  • Stormstrike now deals 450% weapon damage, up from 375%.
Warlock

General

  • Dark Intent had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 4%.
  • Demonic Gateway cast time has been reduced to 3 seconds, down from 5 seconds, gains its first charge after 5 seconds (down from 13 seconds), and gains a new charge every 10 seconds (down from 15 seconds). The summoned gateway has 100% of the summoning Warlock’s health, 100% of the Warlock’s resilience, and can now be attacked and killed by enemy players.
  • Health Funnel now causes the Soulburn portion of the spell to increase healing generated from Health Funnel by 140% instead of instantly restoring 36% health.

Talents

  • Blood Horror no longer activates from attacks made by pets.

Glyphs

  • Glyph of Siphon Life has been redesigned. Glyph of Siphon Life now heals the Warlock for 0.5% of their maximum health when Corruption or Immolate deal periodic damage.

Affliction

  • Haunt now refunds a Soul Shard when it is dispelled.

Destruction

  • Fire and Brimstone no longer requires a Burning Ember to cast. Instead, the spell causes Immolate, Incinerate, Conflagrate, and Curse spells to consume a Burning Ember when cast, and the effect remains active as long as the Warlock has at least 1 Burning Ember remaining.

Item Sets

  • Warlock PvP 2-piece set bonus no longer reduces cooldown on Unending Resolve and have been replaced by the former 4-piece set bonus where the Warlock’s Twilight Ward absorbs damage from all magical schools.
  • Warlock PvP 4-piece set bonus now increases damage dealt by Agony, Corruption, Doom, Immolate, and Unstable Affliction by 10%.
Warrior

General

  • Defensive Stance now decreases damage taken by 25%, up from 15%.
  • Shield Wall’s cooldown has been reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes.

Talents

  • Enraged Regeneration no longer costs rage to use, instantly heals the Warrior for 5% of their total health, and healing an additional 5% over 5 seconds. Using the ability while Enraged doubles the healing effects to 10% of the Warrior’s total health and an additional 10% over 5 seconds.
  • Second Wind no longer generates rage when the Warrior is struck by a Stun or Immobilize effect.
    • Arms and Fury Warriors receive a passive ability that enables them to generate rage when struck by a Stun or Immobilize effect at level 56.
  • Spell Reflection is no longer consumed by spells from player pets and guardians.
  • Vigilance now resets the cooldown on Taunt in addition to its current effects.

Arms

  • Sweeping Strikes’ damage to secondary targets should no longer be affected by Resilience or PvP power if the primary target was a player as both had already been factored in for the initial damage calculation.

Protection

  • Bastion of Defense now reduces the cooldown of Shield Wall by 1 minute, down from a 3-minute reduction. For Protection Warriors, this results in no net change to Shield Wall’s cooldown.
  • Shield Slam now receives a 50% bonus to attack damage from attack power (down from 100%) for Warriors below level 85.
  • Unwavering Sentinel no longer increases the damage reduction of Defensive Stance by 10%.
Quests
  • Shado-Pan and The August Celestials daily quests no longer have a faction prerequisite to be Revered with the Golden Lotus.
  • A Test of Valor: Reduced the amount of Valor needed for this achievement to 3000 Valor Points, down from 6000.
  • Flames of the Void: Fixed an issue where players were unable to mount the War Serpents.
  • The Strength of One’s Foes: All bosses in Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of the Endless Spring now have a chance to drop either a Sigil of Power or Sigil of Wisdom
Creatures
  • Creatures that are outdoors in the world and are Level-90 and above now have a chance to drop Lesser Charms of Good Fortune.
  • Rare spawns in Pandaria (except Zandalari Warscouts, and Zandalari Warbringers) and bosses in Battlefield: Barrens will now always drop Lesser Charms of Good Fortune.
  • Rare spawns in Pandaria (except those on Isle of Thunder) now have a chance to drop a bind-on-pickup invitation to the Brawler’s Guild.
  • Oondasta
    • Shiny Pile of Refuse now has a chance to contain a Primal Egg, and a number of Dinosaur Bones.
    • Spitfire Beam no longer increases in damage with each jump, deals a flat 200,000 damage(up from 150,000 damage), and jumps to 99 targets (up from 20 targets).
  • Zandalari NPCs on the Isle of Thunder should now drop Zandalari Journals needed for the Zandalari Library Card achievement more frequently. The sell value of Zandalari Journals to vendors have been decreased to adjust for the increased drop rates.
Pet Battles

General

  • Bonus damage has been added to many basic abilities, at the cost of slightly reduced accuracy.
  • Pet Battle Duels are now available in all dungeons and raids. Enjoy!
  • Pet Battles in the wild and duels are now viewable by other players in the world.
  • Hit Chance is now displayed for all abilities.
  • Battle Pet Abilities no longer have a base chance to miss or be dodged by opposing pets of the same level.
  • Reduced the chance to miss when fighting higher-level opponents from 5% per level to 2% per level.
  • A series of new achievements and rewards have been added for max-level matchmaking PvP pet battles
  • Wins for max-level, matchmaking PvP pet battles can now be tracked in statistics.
  • Battle pets’ recent ability loadouts will now be saved when pets are swapped in and out of battle slots.
  • Pandaren Spirit Pet Supplies now has a chance to drop a family specific rare Battle-Stone.
  • Species specific Flawless Battle-Stones are now Bind to Battle.net account.
  • Black Claw now deals 20% less damage.
  • Blistering Cold had now deals 100% more damage.
  • Corrosion now deals 5 damage-per-round, up from 2, and increases damage taken by 2, down from 5.
  • Counterspell now deals 10 damage in addition to the ability’s previous effects.
  • Deep Freeze now has a 10% reduced chance to hit.
  • Fury of 1,000 Fists now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
  • Haymaker now has a 3-round cooldown.
  • Headbutt now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
  • Hunting Party now has an increased cooldown of 4 rounds, up from 3 rounds.
  • Impale now has a cooldown of 3 rounds, down from 5 rounds, deals 17% less damage, and no longer deals damage as a percentage of the target’s health. The ability now deals a flat amount of bonus damage instead.
  • Interrupting Gaze now deals 50% more damage.
  • Interrupting Jolt now has a 4-round cooldown, down from 5 rounds.
  • Kick now deals 50% more damage.
  • Minefield now has a 5-round cooldown, and lasts for 9 rounds, down from 10 rounds.
  • Mudslide now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
  • Predatory Strike no longer deal damage as a percentage of the target’s health. The ability now deals a flat amount of bonus damage instead.
  • Quicksand now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
  • Reckless Strike now has a 1-round cooldown.
  • Rupture now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
  • Shock and Awe now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
  • Soulrush now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
  • Fixed an issue where pet abilities that had a chance to stun were not working correctly.

Battle Pets

  • A number of new battle pets have been added to the Throne of Thunder and Isle of Thunder. Happy hunting!
  • Whispers from pet tamers in the north have spread word of an elusive new battle pet that can be found in the frozen tundras of Northrend. The Unborn Val’kyr awaits.
  • Battle Pet drops have been added to Burning Crusade raids. These new pets can be obtained from raid bosses in Karazhan, Tempest Keep and Serpentshrine Cavern. Obtaining all of these new pets will reward players with a new battle pet, Tito!
  • Tiny Blue Carp, Tiny Green Carp, Tiny Red Carp, and Tiny White Carp are now tradable, and can be caught more than once.
  • Electrified Razortooth: swapped positions of Blood In The Water and Paralyzing Shock abilities.
  • Ethereal Soul-Trader has been returned to his original, larger size.
  • Teldrassil Sproutling, Withers, and Ruby Sapling’s Shell Shield has been replaced with a new ability: Ironbark.

Battle Pet Quests

  • A new achievement and reward has been added for characters that complete every Pet Battle daily quest in a single day.
  • Protection for bad luck streaks have been added to Battle-Stones from pet supplies bags and wild battles.  Each bag or battle that does not provide a stone has a progressively better chance to award a stone to the player.
  • Beasts of Fable daily quest has been broken into three separate chapters. Players can now choose to do any or all of the chapters each day.  Rewards have been modified to include a new consumable that will boost battle pet XP for a limited time.
  • All Pet Battle daily quests on Pandaria, Beasts of Fable and Spirit Tamer quests will now award experience, valor, and Lesser Charms of Good Fortune.
  • All Pet Battle quests will now award experience.
  • Increased the difficulty of elite pets on the Beasts of Fable quest.
  • A new weekly quest for max-level, matchmaking PvP pet battles has been added.
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

Loot Specialization

  • Players can now choose to receive loot for specializations other than the one that’s currently active. This feature can be accessed by right-clicking on the character portrait and selecting the option from the drop-down list. Loot specialization is available for bonus rolls, Raid Finder, Heroic Scenarios, and Mists of Pandaria quest rewards.

Raids

  • Bonus rolls, Treasures of the Thunder King, Amber Encased Treasure Pouch, Cache of Mogu Riches, and Dividends of the Everlasting Spring now have a small chance to award a larger than usual amount of gold.
  • Bonus Roll
    • Protection for bad luck streaks have been added to bonus rolls. Each bonus roll that does not provide loot has a progressively better chance to award loot to the player.
    • Reduced the number of Lesser Charms of Good Fortune needed for the Mogu Runes of Fate weekly quest to 50, down from 90.
  • Serpentshrine Cavern
    • For the Fathom-Lord Karathress encounter, Cataclysmic Bolt now deals 10% of the target’s maximum health plus 5000 damage, down from 50% of target’s maximum health, the stun effect can be removed by abilities that free the player from stuns, and the spell now targets any character class instead of only targeting character classes with mana.
    • Lady Vashj
      • Coilfang Strider’s Panic ability now activates every 4 seconds, up from every 2 seconds.
      • Shock Blast’s stun effect can now be removed by abilities that free the player from stuns.
      • Tainted Elementals now despawn after 20 seconds, up from 15 seconds.
  • Tempest Keep
    • For the High Astromancer Solarian encounter, Nether Scryer’s Domination spell now has a 2 second cast time, up from instant cast, and can be silenced.
    • For the Void Reaver encounter, the radius for Arcane Orb has been reduced to 15 yards, down from 20 yards.
  • Terrace of Endless Spring
    • Players no longer need to have defeated Grand Empress Shek’zeer to enter the Terrace of Endless Spring in Normal difficulty.
  • Throne of Thunder
    • Valor Points are awarded for defeating the following lieutenants in Throne of Thunder.
      • Stormbringer Draz’kil: 20 Valor Points
      • Manchu: 10 Valor Points each
      • Weisheng: 10 Valor Points each
      • Eternal Guardian: 5 Valor Points each
    • Horridon
      • Amani’shi Beast Shaman no longer casts Chain Lightning while mounted on Amani Warbears.
    • Primordius
      • The Genetically Unmodified Organism achievement has been redesigned. It now requires players to defeat Primordius while none of the players in the raid received a harmful mutation.

Dungeons

  • Completing the Challenge mode daily quest now awards a Heroic Cache of Treasures with a chance to contain an epic item!
  • Minimum level requirement to enter and equip items found in the following dungeons via Dungeon Finder have been adjusted.
    • Gate of the Setting Sun is now available in Normal difficulty, and accessible to level 89 characters.
    • Grim Batol is now accessible at level 84, down from level 85.
    • Lost City of the Tol’vir is now accessible at level 84, down from level 85.
    • Magisters’ Terrace is now accessible at level 68, down from level 70.
    • The Mechanar is now accessible at level 68, down from level 70.
  • Zul’Gurub
    • Bloodlord Mandokir will no longer use Decapitate against his current target.

Scenarios

  • Lorewalker Cho now allows heroes to take part in either faction’s Scenarios, so players can see what the other side has been up to.
  • Crypt of the Forgotten Kings
    • Fixed an issue where Uncontrolled Anger was improperly causing characters to drop out of stealth.
PvP
  • A blog titled: PvP Gear in Patch 5.3 has additional information and reasoning behind the PvP changes in 5.3.
  • All characters now have a base Resilience of 65%.
  • Battle Fatigue now reduces the amount of healing and absorbs by 45%, up from 30%.
  • PvP Power conversion ratio to obtain 1% damage at level 90 has been changed from 265 to 400.
  • PvP Power bonus to healing is now based on class and specialization.
    • Healing specializations receive a 100% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
    • Damage specializations for Druids, Monks, Paladins, Priests, and Shamans receive a 70% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
    • All other specializations and classes (including tanking) receive a 40% bonus to healing from PvP Power.

PvP Items

  • Season 13 Tyrannical gear had their item levels increased to ilevel 496, up from ilevel 493. Weapons and shields/off-hand items remain unchanged at ilevel 498.
  • Season 13 Tyrannical Elite gear had their item levels decreased to ilevel 496, down from ilevel 512.
  • Resilience has been removed from most PvP gear.
    • Resilience gems and enchants will continue to be available.
    • 4-piece PvP set bonus for all Season 12 and 13 armor sets that granted 1000 Resilience now grants 1000 PvP Power instead.
  • PvP Power will remain exclusively on PvP gear.
  • The amount of PvP Power and Resilience on gems and Mystic Cogwheel have been reduced by 50%.
  • Tyrannical weapons no longer have a conquest-earned prerequisite to purchase them.
  • Glorious Tyranny weapon enchantment now grants 600 PvP Power instead of 400 PvP Power and 200 Resilience.
  • New weapon enchantment: Bloody Dancing Steel is functionally equivalent to Dancing Steel, shares the same visual effect as Glorious Tyranny, costs a scroll of the base enchant, and requires a 2200 rating.
  • New weapon enchantment: Spirit of Conquest is functionally equivalent to Jade Spirit, shares the same visual effect as Glorious Tyranny, costs a scroll of the base enchant, and requires a 2200 rating.
  • Tyrannical Gladiator’s Tabard and Tyrannical Gladiator’s Greatcloak are available as new prestige items at 2500 rating for 1000 Conquest Points.
  • Big Zokk Torquewrench has returned from their leave of absence.
  • Glorious Conquest Quartermasters (Acon Deathwielder, Ethan Natice) have returned after refitting their wares.
Battlegrounds and Arenas
  • Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas now have an ilevel cap. All gear will be scaled down to ilevel 496.
  • To facilitate a more balanced team composition, players now need to select a role when queuing up for a Battleground or Rated Battleground. Role selection should have no effect on queue times. The matchmaking system attempts to balance the number of healers on each team based on the ratio of healers and non-healers queued.
  • Mid-season catch-up for Conquest Points has been added. Players will now see their cap on Conquest Points increased by 1000 per week since the start of Season 13 minus the amount of Conquest Points earned so far in this season.
  • Picking up the Alliance or Horde flag while in a Rated Battleground now increases damage taken by 50% for characters in a tanking specialization, and increases damage taken by 20% for characters in a non-tanking specialization.
  • Dalaran Arena: Masons of Dalaran have been hard at work installing steps in the two remaining corners of the arena.
  • Eye of the Storm: The starting platforms have been lowered.
Professions
  • Herbalists of low skill can now pick herbs in Pandaria for a small amount of usable material. The yield an herbalist will be able to harvest from each node is determined by skill level.
  • Miners of low skill can now mine mineral deposits in Pandaria for a small amount of usable material. The yield a miner will be able to harvest from each node is determined by skill level.
Items
  • The Voidbinders are back in capital cities and shrines.
    • PvE Item Upgrades
      • Items upgradable by Valor now require 250 Valor to upgrade per 4 item levels, for a total of 500 Valor for 8 item levels per item. This is retroactive to all items that use Valor.
      • Items upgradable by Justice now require 750 Justice to upgrade per 8 item levels, for a total of 750 Justice for 8 item levels per item. This is retroactive to all items that use Justice.
    • PvP Item Upgrades
      • Malevolent Gladiator’s Conquest (Season 12) items that have upgrades available are still upgradable at their original costs.
      • Dreadful Gladiator’s Honor (Season 12) items that have upgrades available are still upgradable at their original costs.
      • No other PvP items are upgradable.
  • Players can now use items that are in the bank or Void Storage for transmogrification.
  • Reduced the amount of Justice, Honor, and Darkmoon Faire tickets needed to upgrade heirloom items by 60%.
  • Players starting on Cataclysm content can purchase level-80 gear from Iris Moonweaver in Hyjal and Erunak in Vashj’ir to more easily qualify for Blackrock Caverns and Abyssal Maw: Throne of Tides.
  • Two new purchasable items using Elder Charms of Good Fortune have been added to the quartermasters on the Isle of Thunder.
    • An Empty Supply Crate that can be placed and jumped on in the Troves of the Thunder King Scenario.
    • Excess Elder Charms of Good Fortune can be used to purchase an Arcane Trove/Sunreaver Bounty.
  • A new achievement and reward has been added for obtaining 200 mounts.
  • Unclaimed Black Market Containers are now available on the Black Market Auction House. What’s inside? It’s a mystery! When opened, the container has a chance to contain any item that can be available on the BMAH.
  • Eye of the Black Prince can now be used to apply a prismatic socket on Reborn weapons.
  • Justice Heirloom vendors now have Heirloom shields in stock.
  • Kirin Tor and Sunreaver Beacons are now usable from inside the Throne of Thunder.
  • Shado-Pan Assault belts now require Friendly reputation to purchase, down from Revered.
  • Shado-Pan Assault chest pieces now require Honored reputation to purchase, down from Revered.
  • The following PvP trinkets now have a cooldown of 2 minutes, down from 5 minutes.
    • Bequeathed Insignia of the Alliance
    • Bequeathed Insignia of the Horde
    • Inherited Insignia of the Alliance
    • Inherited Insignia of the Horde
    • Inherited Mark of Tyranny
    • Insignia of the Alliance
    • Insignia of the Horde
  • The following trinkets have on-use effects reduced by 33%, but have a 100% increase to duration when used in a Battleground or Arena.
    • Fabled Feather of Ji-Kun
    • Renataki’s Soul Charm
    • Steadfast Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault
    • Wushoolay’s Final Choice
  • The following trinkets have on-use effects reduced by 75%, but have a 400% increase to duration when used in a Battleground or Arena.
    • Delicate Vial of the Sanguinaire
    • Gaze of the Twins
    • Primordius’ Talisman of Rage
    • Talisman of Bloodlust
  • All other trinkets above ilevel 502 have on-use effects reduced by 50%, but have a 100% increase to duration when used in a Battleground or Arena.
  • Courageous Primal Diamond had its clearcasting effect renamed to “Lucidity” to differentiate it from other spells with that name.
UI
  • In-game support system is now a direct portal to the Battle.net Support site, allowing players to access the knowledge base and support contact system.
  • Dungeon Journal has been reorganized. The model view has moved into a sub-tab and replaced with a listing of bosses for the dungeon or raid.
  • A new option to display pet tamers on the world map has been added. This should help players looking to find unlocked Pet Battle daily quests.
  • When using name plates, castbars will now display for all creatures and players in the area.
Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue in Brawl’gar Arena where players boarding The Skybag may be unable to spectate brawls that were taking place.

World of Warcraft 5.3 Patch Notes (PTR)

pandaria-balloonAnother batch of patch notes goodness for WoW players. 5.3 is now on the PTR and although nothing’s finalised, there’s plenty of interesting changes afoot in a range of areas.

So if you’re stuck somewhere without WoW to play, do the next big thing and trawl through the patch notes for the next update. Enjoy!

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World of Warcraft PTR Patch 5.3

General
  • Please note: During the 5.3 PTR, not all the content listed may be available for testing, or may only be available during a limited testing window. Keep an eye on our PTR Discussion forum for details.
  • New Battleground: Deepwind Gorge
    • In the new Battleground situated in the Valley of the Four Winds, the Alliance and Horde continue their war for Pandaria’s precious resources. While the two factions battle for control over mines, they must also protect their own resources from being stolen and turned against them!
  • New Arena: The Tiger’s Peak
    • Gladiator hopefuls have a new location to test their mettle amidst the Kun-Lai mountain tops, in the training grounds of the powerful Shado-Pan. Players must make use of the looming tiger statues and fenced platforms to gain an advantage that will bring victory and glory!
  • New Scenario: Battle on the High Seas
    • Help your faction fend off enemy forces in the midst of a battle for naval supremacy on the High Seas.
  • New Scenario: Blood in the Snow
    • An agent of Zandalar has infiltrated Dun Morogh and rallied the Frostmane trolls. At Varian’s request, Moira will lead her personal guard against them once the king’s champions have stopped the magical storm protecting Shimmer Ridge.
  • New Scenario: Dark Heart of Pandaria
    • Goblin engineers have been excavating in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to find a mysterious artifact, but all they’ve found is trouble; you have been personally called upon by the Warchief to aid them in their hour of need.
  • New Scenario: The Secrets of Ragefire
    • Infiltrate the Emberdeep Caverns and assist the Gob Squad in investigating a recent disappearance in Durotar.
  • Heroic Scenarios
    • A Heroic difficulty for Scenarios have been added and are designed to provide challenging content for small groups of well-seasoned adventurers. Completing a Heroic Scenario awards Valor points, and a chance to obtain Raid Finder quality items.
    • Heroic Scenarios require a pre-made group to join.
    • Heroic Scenarios offer bonus objectives that will reward additional valor if completed.
      • An option to run a random Heroic Scenario has been added as a drop-down in the Scenario tab in Dungeon Finder.
    • Players can complete a normal or Heroic Scenario for bonus valor each day, but not both.
    • Six Heroic Scenarios will be available in patch 5.3. Four are new and two are upgrades of existing normal Scenarios.
      • Battle of the High Seas
      • Blood in the Snow
      • Dark Heart of Pandaria
      • The Secrets of Ragefire
      • Crypt of Forgotten Kings
      • A Brewing Storm
  • Quest Campaign: Escalation
    • The Darkspear Trolls are in open rebellion against the Warchief! Aid your faction in preparing to rout Garrosh Hellscream from Orgrimmar
      • Alliance heroes will scout Orgrimmar’s outskirts and engage in SI:7 espionage to weaken Garrosh’s power structure.
      • Horde heroes will help Vol’jin’s insurgency survive a Kor’kron assault and advance towards the Horde capital.
    • Visit Lorewalker Cho at the Seat of Knowledge in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to begin questing.
  • Battlefield: Barrens
    • Put the stranglehold on Orgrimmar by undermining the Kor’kron supply chain in Northern Barrens.
      • Collect resources by killing Kor’kron loyalists and their supporters.
      • Get a group together to kill Kor’kron leaders for bonus resources.
      • Escort your faction’s caravans across the zone for even more additional resources.
    • The Darkspear Rebellion will reward your efforts to undermine the Warchief by helping you upgrade Latent Kor’kron Armor into useable gear.
    • Participate in the Escalation Quest Campaign to learn how to engage in the Barrens conflict.
  • The Legendary Quest Continues
    • Journey with Wrathion to the four corners of Pandaria to speak with the August Celestials.
    • Champions will have had to complete Wrathion’s earlier tasks (including “Heart of the Thunder King”) to continue.
  • New Brawler’s Guild Bosses
    • Test your might against two new tiers of bosses in the Brawl’gar Arena in Orgrimmar or Bizmo’s Brawl Pub in Stormwind.
    • New VIP areas are now accessible for brawlers at or above rank 8.
    • Bizmo has raised the floor in his arena to hide the bodies. Or… maybe to improve the sight lines. We’ll never know for sure.
    • Special “Challenge Cards” can now drop from mobs or reward satchels, allowing you to summon and battle unique bosses.

Classes

  • Healing abilities and spells which automatically pick targets now follow consistent rules for targetting logic. Targets with lower % health will be preferred, and players are weighted more heavily than pets.
  • Players with full health no longer count towards the cap for area-of-effect healing abilities and spells.
  • The following summoned pets/totems will now chain cast their spells with no delay between casts, allowing them to cast their spells more frequently in the same amount of time.
    • Death Knight: Gargoyle
    • Druid: Force of Nature (Balance, Restoration), Mirror Image (Symbiosis)
    • Mage: Mirror Image, Water Elemental
    • Shaman: Searing Totem
    • Warlock: Doomguard, Terrorguard, Wild Imp
Death Knight

Unholy

  • Sudden Doom now requires the Death Knight to be in Unholy Presence to activate the effect that causes Death Coil to cost no Runic Power.
Druid

General

  • Mark of the Wild had its mana cost reduced to 5%, down from 10%.
  • Symbiosis: Intimidating Roar had its cooldown increased to 90 seconds, up from 60 seconds.

Talents

  • Force of Nature is no longer on global cooldown and summons a single Treant. The Treant no longer has a control bar, immediately uses its special abilities on the Druid’s current target, and accumulates 1 charge every 20 seconds up to a maximum of 3 charges.
    • Restoration version of the Treant now casts Swiftmend on the Druid’s target when summoned. This version of Swiftmend does not require or consume a heal-over-time effect on the target.

Glyphs

  • Glyph of Solar Beam have been removed and replaced with Glyph of Omens.
  • New Glyph: Glyph of Omens: While the Druid is not in a Solar or Lunar Eclipse, the following abilities will generate 10 Solar or Lunar Energy: Entangling Roots, Cyclone, Faerie Fire, Solar Beam, Faerie Swarm, Mass Entanglement, Typhoon, Disorienting Roar, Ursol’s Vortex, and Mighty Bash.

Balance

  • Solar Beam is now more responsive when players enter and leave the beam’s area-of-effect.
Hunter

General

  • Hunters now have 50 pet stable slots, up from 20.

Item Sets

  • PvP 2-piece set bonus has been redesigned. Using Arcane Shot now causes the Hunter’s PvP Power to increase by 800 for 6 seconds.
Mage

General

  • Arcane Brilliance had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 4%.
  • Dalaran Brilliance had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 4%.
  • Teleport: Vale of Eternal Blossoms and Portal: Vale of Eternal Blossoms now have new icons.
Monk

General

  • Spear Hand Strike now locks a spell school out for 4 seconds, down from 5 seconds.
  • Nimble Brew now also removes horrify effects, and reduces the duration of horrify effects and fear, and is available to all Monk specializations (formerly only available for Brewmaster and Windwalker Monks).

Talents

  • Ring of Peace had been redesigned. The ability forms an 8-yard sanctuary around a friendly target for 8 seconds, instantly disarming and silencing enemies within the area-of-effect for 3 seconds. Enemies that use abilities other than auto-attacks or cast spells on allies within the Ring of Peace will be disarmed and silenced for 3 seconds. Disarm and silence effects are subject to diminishing returns.

Windwalker

  • Legacy of the Emperor had its energy cost reduced to 1%, down from 6%.
  • Legacy of the White Tiger had its energy cost reduced to 1%, down from 6%.
Paladin

General

  • Blessing of Kings had its mana cost reduced to 5%, down from 22.3%.
  • Blessing of Might had its mana cost reduced to 5%, down from 22.3%.
Priest

General

  • Power Word: Fortitude had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 4.4%.
  • Mass Dispel no longer dispels magic effects that are normally undispellable. Cast time has been decreased to 0.5 seconds, down from 1.5 seconds for Discipline and Holy Priests.
  • Void Shift had its cooldown decreased to 5 minutes, down from 6 minutes for Discipline and Holy Priests. For Shadow Priests, cooldown has been increased to 10 minutes, up from 6 minutes, and the spell is no longer usable while in Arenas or Rated Battlegrounds.

Glyphs

  • Glyph of Mass Dispel has been redesigned and no longer reduces cast time. The glyph now enables Mass Dispel to dispel magic effects that are normally undispellable.

Discipline

  • Atonement now heals nearby friendly targets for 80% of the damage dealt, down from 100%.
Rogue

Talents

  • Shuriken Toss now deals 100% more damage in the initial ranged attack, and energy cost has been increased to 40 energy, up from 20.
Shaman

General

  • Lightning Bolt can now be cast while moving.

Glyphs

  • New Glyph: Glyph of Lightning Shield causes Lightning Shield to reduce the amount of damage taken by 10% for 6 seconds after Lightning Shield is triggered.
  • Glyph of Unleashed Lightning has been removed and replaced with Glyph of Lightning Shield.
Warlock

General

  • Dark Intent had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 4%.
  • Demonic Gateway cast time has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 5 seconds, and can now be attacked and killed by enemy players. Each gateway has 50% of the summoning Warlock’s health, and 100% of their resilience.
Warrior

General

  • Defensive Stance now decreases damage taken by 25%, up from 15%.

Talents

  • Vigilance now resets the cooldown on Taunt in addition to its current effects.

Protection

  • Unwavering Sentinel no longer increases the damage reduction of Defensive Stance by 10%.
Quests
  • More information coming soon.
Creatures
  • Creatures that are Level-90 and above now have a chance to drop Lesser Charms of Good Fortune.
  • Rare spawns in Pandaria (except Zandalari Warscouts, and Zandalari Warbringers) and bosses in Battlefield: Barrens will now always drop Lesser Charms of Good Fortune.
  • Oondasta
    • Shiny Pile of Refuse now has a chance to contain a Primal Egg, and a number of Dinosaur Bones.
    • Spitfire Beam no longer increases in damage with each jump, deals a flat 200,000 damage(up from 150,000 damage), and jumps to 99 targets (up from 20 targets).
Pet Battles

General

  • Bonus damage has been added to many basic abilities, at the cost of slightly reduced accuracy.
  • Pet Battle Duels are now available in all dungeons and raids. Enjoy!
  • Pet Battles in the wild and duels are now viewable by other players in the world.
  • Hit Chance is now displayed for all abilities.
  • Abilities no longer have a base chance to miss or be dodged by opposing pets of the same level.
  • Reduced the chance to miss when fighting higher-level opponents from 5% per level to 2% per level.
  • A series of new achievements and rewards have been added for max-level matchmaking PvP pet battles
  • Wins for max-level, matchmaking PvP pet battles can now be tracked in statistics.
  • Battle pets’ recent ability loadouts will now be saved when pets are swapped in and out of battle slots.
  • Species specific Flawless Battle-Stones are now Bind to Battle.net account.
  • Black Claw now deals 20% less damage.
  • Blistering Cold had now deals 100% more damage.
  • Hunting Party now has an increased cooldown of 4 rounds, up from 3 rounds.
  • Fixed an issue where pet abilities that had a chance to stun were not working correctly.

Battle Pets

  • A number of new battle pets have been added to the Throne of Thunder and Isle of Thunder. Happy hunting!
  • Whispers from pet tamers in the north have spread word of an elusive new battle pet that can be found in the frozen tundras of Northrend. The Unborn Val’kyr awaits.
  • Battle Pet drops have been added to Burning Crusade raids. These new pets can be obtained from raid bosses in Karazhan, Tempest Keep and Serpenshrine Cavern. Obtaining all of these new pets will reward players with a new battle pet, Tito!
  • Ethereal Soul-Trader has been returned to his original, larger size.
  • Teldrassil Sproutling, Withers, and Ruby Sapling’s Shell Shield has been replaced with a new ability: Ironbark.

Battle Pet Quests

  • Beasts of Fable daily quest has been broken into three separate chapters. Players can now choose to do any or all of the chapters each day.  Rewards have been modified to include a new consumable that will boost battle pet XP for a limited time.
  • All Pet Battle daily quests on Pandaria, Beasts of Fable and Spirit Tamer quests will now award experience, valor, and Lesser Charms of Good Fortune.
  • All Pet Battle quests will now award experience.
  • Increased the difficulty of elite pets on the Beasts of Fable quest.
  • A new weekly quest for max-level, matchmaking PvP pet battles has been added.
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

Loot Specialization

  • Players can now choose to receive loot for specializations other than the one that’s currently active. This feature can be accessed by right-clicking on the character portrait and selecting the option from the drop-down list. Loot specialization is available for bonus rolls, Raid Finder, and Pandarian quest rewards.

Raids

  • Bonus Roll
    • Protection for bad luck streaks have been added to bonus rolls. Each bonus roll that does not provide loot has a progressively better chance to award loot to the player.
  • Serpentshrine Cavern
    • For the Fathom-Lord Karathress encounter, Cataclysmic Bolt now deals 10% of the target’s maximum health plus 5000 damage, down from 50% of target’s maximum health, the stun effect can be removed by abilities that free the player from stuns, and the spell now targets any character class instead of only targeting character classes with mana.
    • Lady Vashj
      • Coilfang Strider’s Panic ability now activates every 4 seconds, up from every 2 seconds.
      • Shock Blast’s stun effect can now be removed by abilities that free the player from stuns.
      • Tainted Elementals now despawn after 20 seconds, up from 15 seconds.
  • Tempest Keep
    • For the High Astromancer Solarian encounter, Nether Scryer’s Domination spell now has a 2 second cast time, up from instant cast, and can be silenced.
    • For the Void Reaver encounter, the radius for Arcane Orb has been reduced to 15 yards, down from 20 yards.
  • Throne of Thunder
    • Amani’shi Beast Shaman no longer casts Chain Lightning while mounted on Amani Warbears.

Scenarios

  • Lorewalker Cho will allow heroes to take part in either faction’s Scenarios, so players can see what the other side has been up to.
PvP
  • A blog titled: PvP Gear in Patch 5.3 has additional information and reasoning behind the PvP changes in 5.3.
  • All characters now have a base Resilience of 65%.
  • Battle Fatigue now reduces the amount of healing and absorbs by 45%, up from 30%.
  • PvP Power bonus to healing are now based on class and specialization.
    • Healing specializations receives a 100% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
    • Damage specializations for Druids, Monks, Paladins, and Shamans receives a 70% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
    • All other specializations and classes (including tanking) receives a 40% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
  • PvP Power bonus to healing for healing specializations has been increased to 100%, up from 50% for Druids, Monks, Paladins, Priests, and Shamans.
  • PvP Power bonus to healing for damage specializations has been increased to 75%, up from 25% for Druids, Monks, Paladins, Priests, and Shamans.

PvP Items

  • Season 13 Tyrannical gear had their item levels increased to ilevel 496, up from ilevel 493. Weapons and shields/off-hand items remain unchanged at ilevel 498.
  • Season 13 Tyrannical Elite gear had their item levels decreased to ilevel 496, down from ilevel 512.
  • Resilience has been removed from most PvP gear.
    • Resilience gems and enchants will continue to be available and remain unchanged.
    • 4-piece PvP set bonus for all Season 12 and 13 armor sets that granted 1000 Resilience now grants 1000 PvP Power instead.
  • PvP Power will remain exclusively on PvP gear.
  • Glorious Tyranny weapon enchantment now grants 600 PvP Power instead of 400 PvP Power and 200 Resilience.
  • New weapon enchantment: Bloody Dancing Steel is functionally equivalent to Dancing Steel, shares the same visual effect as Glorious Tyranny, costs a scroll of the base enchant, and requires a 2200 rating.
  • New weapon enchantment: Spirit of Conquest is functionally equivalent to Jade Spirit, shares the same visual effect as Glorious Tyranny, costs a scroll of the base enchant, and requires a 2200 rating.
  • Tyrannical Gladiator’s Tabard and Tyrannical Gladiator’s Greatcloak are available as new prestige items at 2500 rating for 1000 Conquest Points.
Battlegrounds and Arenas
  • Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas now have an ilevel cap. All gear will be scaled down to ilevel 496.
  • Dalaran Arena: Masons of Dalaran have been hard at work installing steps in the two remaining corners of the arena.
  • Eye of the Storm: The starting platforms have been lowered.
Professions
  • Herbalists of low skill can now pick herbs in Pandaria for a small amount of usable material. The yield an herbalist will be able to harvest from each node is determined by skill level.
  • Miners of low skill can now mine mineral deposits in Pandaria for a small amount of usable material. The yield a miner will be able to harvest from each node is determined by skill level.
Items
  • The Voidbinders are back in capital cities and shrines.
    • PvE Item Upgrades
      • Items upgradable by Valor now require 250 Valor to upgrade per 4 item levels, for a total of 500 Valor for 8 item levels per item. This is retroactive to all items that use Valor.
      • Items upgradable by Justice now require 750 Justice to upgrade per 8 item levels, for a total of 750 Justice for 8 item levels per item. This is retroactive to all items that use Justice.
    • PvP Item Upgrades
      • Malevolent Gladiator’s Conquest (Season 12) items that have upgrades available are still upgradable at their original costs.
      • Dreadful Gladiator’s Honor (Season 12) items that have upgrades available are still upgradable at their original costs.
      • No other PvP items are upgradable.
  • Reduced the amount of Justice, Honor, and Darkmoon Faire tickets needed to upgrade heirloom items by 60%.
  • Players starting on Cataclysm content can purchase level-80 gear from Iris Moonweaver in Hyjal and Erunak in Vashj’ir to more easily qualify for Blackrock Caverns and Abyssal Maw: Throne of Tides.
  • Two new purchasable items using Elder Charms of Good Fortune have been added for Troves of the Thunder King Scenario.
    • A box that could be placed and jumped on, opening up new paths through the Scenario.
    • Excess Elder Charms of Good Fortune can be used to purchase an Arcane Trove/Sunreaver Bounty.
  • A new achievement and reward has been added for obtaining 200 mounts.
  • Unclaimed Black Market Containers are now available on the Black Market Auction House. What’s inside? It’s a mystery! When opened, the container has a chance to contain any item that can be available on the BMAH.
  • Courageous Primal Diamond had its clearcasting effect renamed to “Lucidity” to differentiate it from other spells with that name.
UI
  • A new option to display pet tamers on the world map has been added. This should help players looking to find unlocked Pet Battle daily quests.
  • When using name plates, castbars will now display for all creatures and players in the area.

WoW 5.2 Full Patch Notes: The Thunder King

WoW 5.2 Full Patch NotesIt’s arrived! There’s been a fair bit of anticipation around this patch and given its size there’s lots to digest, so read on for the details in all their glory:

World of Warcraft Patch 5.2

  • General
    • New Daily Quest Hub: Isle of Thunder.
      • Here players can join the assault to conquer the Thunder King’s island stronghold, unlock new questlines and daily quest hubs, participate in special events, earn the right to visit the fabled Treasure Room, lay claim to an arsenal of powerful Mogu artifacts for their faction, and more.
      • Each faction’s finest are spearheading the assault: the Kirin-Tor Offensive led by Jaina Proudmoore and the Sunreaver Onslaught led by Lor’themar Theron. Earning reputation with these new factions offers heroes the opportunity to receive new quests and reputation rewards, including powerful items and an intimidating new mount.
      • After both the Alliance and the Horde have eked out a foothold on the isle, players can choose to perform quests that are PvE or PvP focused. PvP quests will direct players against opposing faction NPCs, but slaying opposing players will grant credit as well.
      • As the heroes conquer the Isle, they will unlock the powerful Thunder Forge, which will allow Blacksmiths to forge mighty raid-worthy items, as well as classic weapons from the past.
      • Heroes can join the war effort and find transportation to Isle of Thunder by visiting the Shado-Pan Garrison in Townlong Steppes on the western shores of Pandaria. The Isle of Thunder will be unlocked progressively based on each based on each realms’ participation in the war effort; initially only some of the Isle’s features will be unlocked. Future unlocked content will include the Stormsea Landing and the outdoor raid boss, Nalak, the Storm Lord.
      • Heroes fortunate enough to acquire a “Key to the Palace of Lei Shen” can bring it to the Shado-Pan on the Isle of Thunder and use it to infiltrate the fabled treasure vaults of the first emperor. Heroes are tasked with grabbing as much loot as they can within five minutes. Larger chests will have the most loot, including special keys that can be used at the end of the run for a chance at epic gear and other major rewards. Keys are awarded from rare bosses, hidden chests around the island, and from award satchels obtained by completing daily quests.
    • New Raid: Throne of Thunder
      • Lei Shen, the Thunder King, has returned to wreak his vengeance on Pandaria. It falls to the heroes of the Alliance and the Horde to stop the newly resurrected tyrant and his Zandalari allies in the massive new raid: Throne of Thunder.
      • Throne of Thunder is a sprawling citadel housing 12 new raid encounters, and players that defeat Lei Shen in Heroic mode can earn the opportunity to face an additional 13th foe.
      • The Raid Finder version of the Throne of Thunder is divided into 4 different sections, Last Stand of the Zandalari, Forgotten Depths, Halls of Flesh-Shaping, and Pinnacle of Storms.
      • Join the Shado-Pan Assault in their singular drive to see Lei Shen defeated once and for all, and gain access to impressive Valor reward items. Reputation with this faction can be earned only within the Throne of Thunder raid dungeon.
      • Ao Pye at Niuzao Temple in Towlong Steppes is offering to sell Shado-Pan Assault faction gear to adventurers for Valor points. Another NPC will also be selling those items in or near the entrance to the Throne of Thunder on Isle of Thunder.
    • The Legendary Quest Continues:
      • Wrathion is determined to know the origin and source of Mogu power, and Azeroth’s mightiest heroes will aid the Black Prince in finding out what it is. The search for information will take players into the depths of the Thunder King’s Palace, and pit them against trials of perseverance and skill. Along the way, they’ll unlock the secrets to a new legendary metagem, the Crown of the Heavens.
      • Players seeking to re-acquire previous Legendary quest rewards (such as gems for Sha-touched weapons) can now speak with the Blacktalon Quartermaster, the surly-looking Pandaren standing in the first floor of the Tavern in the Mists.
    • New World Bosses: Nalak, the Storm Lord and Oondasta
      • Nalak, the Storm Lord
        • After the Isle of Thunder has been conquered, the gate guardian of the Thunder King’s citadel will appear: Nalak, the Storm Lord. Players will frequently have the opportunity to test their mettle against him.
      • Oondasta
        • Found in a place that has been lost in time, the great devilsaur lord Oondasta has been outfitted for battle with weaponry and armor by the Zandalari, and awaits players brave enough (or foolhardy enough) to seek him out on the mysterious Isle of Giants found in the seas north of Kun-Lai Summit.
    • Taking Over The Farm
      • Players that have grown attached to working the land at Sunsong Ranch can now acquire the farm from Farmer Yoon via a quest. The farmhouse becomes a rest point like an Inn, where the player can bind and instantly log out. Work orders will pour into the farm from factions across Pandaria, and completing a work order will earn a reputation boost with the issuing faction.
      • The option to take over the farm is available to characters that are exalted with the Tillers and have unlocked all 16 farm plots.
    • New World Boss System
      • All world bosses (Sha of Anger, Galleon, Nalak the Storm Lord, and Oondasta) are now Tap to Faction. This new system offers every eligible player of the same faction that engages a boss the chance to earn loot. Under the new system, players will only be able to earn loot from each world boss once per week.
  • Classes
    • General
      • Area Damage Cap: The area damage cap is now 20 targets (was 10). This means area of effect damage spells now reach their maximum damage when striking 20 targets. If more than 20 targets are struck, then the total damage done is spread evenly over the actual number of targets present.
    • Death Knight
      • Death Siphon now heals for 150% of the damage dealt (was 100%).
      • Conversion now costs 5 Runic Power plus 5 per second thereafter, down from 10 Runic Power plus 10 per second.
      • Death Knights now maintain the same health percentage when switching into and out of Blood Presence.
      • Blood Plague now deals 15% more damage.
      • Frost Fever now deals 15% more damage.
      • Strangulate’s cooldown has been reduced to 60 seconds (was 2 minutes).
      • Asphyxiate’s cooldown has been reduced to 30 seconds (was 1 minute).
      • Blood Parasite now summons Bloodworms with 15% of the Death Knight’s health (was 6%) and Blood Burst now heals for 25% per stack of Blood Gorged (was 10% per stack).
      • Frost
        • Howling Blast now deals 8% more damage to the primary target. Damage to other enemies in the area-of-effect remains unchanged.
        • Icy Talons now increases attack speed by 25% (was 20%).
        • Might of the Frozen Wastes now increases melee damage by 15% (was 10%).
      • Unholy
        • Reaping now also applies to Icy Touch.
        • Summon Gargoyle no longer costs Runic Power.
        • Gargoyle Strike now also deals Shadow damage, in addition to Nature damage.
        • Ebon Plaguebringer now causes Plague Strike to inflict Frost Fever, in addition to its other effects.
        • Scourge Strike now deals 3.8% more damage.
      • Frost and Unholy Tier-14 2-piece set bonus has been reduced to 4% (was 10%) increased damage on Frost Strike, Obliterate, and Scourge Strike.
    • Druid
      • Cyclone now has a 20-second cooldown for Feral Druids.
      • Symbiosis
        • Dispersion now has a 3-minute cooldown for Druids (was 2 minutes).
        • Shattering Blow now has a 1.5-second cast time to align correctly with the Warrior version of this ability.
      • Displacer Beast has been redesigned. It now triggers Cat Form and grants 50% increased movement speed for 4 seconds after teleporting, and no longer activates Prowl.
      • The healing granted by Cenarion Ward when a target takes damage has been increased by 100%.
      • Frenzied Regeneration now scales 10% more efficiently with attack power.
      • Maim had its damage increased by 100%.
      • Tooth and Claw now scales 10% more efficiently.
      • Mastery: Nature’s Guardian now provides 20% more armor per Mastery rating.
      • Rejuvenation now costs approximately 9% less mana.
      • Revive and Mark of the Wild now cost 55% less mana.
      • Faerie Swarm can now snare more than one target at a time.
      • Mass Entanglement now has a 30-second cooldown (was 2 minutes).
      • Typhoon now has a 30-second cooldown (was 20 seconds).
      • The Treants summoned by Force of Nature now deal more damage and healing, and the Force of Nature tooltip will report the capabilities of these summoned pets.
      • Soul of the Forest
        • Balance: Now generates 40 Lunar or Solar energy upon leaving Eclipse.
        • Feral: Unchanged.
        • Guardian: Generates 3 additional Rage per Mangle.
        • Restoration: Now grants 75% Haste on the next spell cast after the Druid casts Swiftmend.
      • Nature’s Vigil now has a 90-second cooldown (was 3 minutes), and now increases damage and healing done by 10% (was 20%).
      • Glyph of Cyclone now increases the range of Cyclone by 5 yards (was 4 yards).
      • Wrath damage has been increased by 9%.
      • Balance
        • Starfire damage has been increased by 9%.
        • Starsurge damage has been increased by 9%.
        • Starfall will no longer strike targets that are affected by crowd control effects.
      • Guardian
        • Thick Hide now reduces critical strike chance from all types of attacks made against the Guardian Druid, instead of just melee.
      • Restoration
        • Naturalist: This new passive learned at level 10 by Restoration Druids increases all healing done by the Druid by 10%.
        • Wild Mushrooms will now each gain 25% of the overhealing performed by the Druid’s Rejuvenation effects, up to a maximum of 33% of the Druid’s health in bonus healing, and growing larger as they do so. When Wild Mushroom: Bloom is cast, this bonus healing will be divided evenly amongst targets in the area-of-effect.
      • Feral Druid PvP Gloves now also increases the duration of Bear Hug by 1 second.
      • Feral Druid PvP 2-piece increase to movement speed by 15% while outdoors for Druids in Bear Form, Cat Form, or Travel Form no longer stacks with the Druid talent Feline Swiftness.
      • Feral Druid PvP 4-piece bonus also causes successful interrupts with Skull Bash to reset the cooldown of Enrage.
    • Hunter
      • Targeting for Glaive Toss and Powershot has been improved. These abilities will now always hit the primary target and are much more responsive about which secondary targets they hit.
      • Bestial Wrath may now be activated when there is no line of sight to the Hunter’s pet.
      • Dismiss pet now has a cast time of 3 seconds (was 2 seconds).
      • Powershot now cancels Camouflage when the cast begins.
      • Silencing Shot now has a 24-second cooldown (was 20 seconds).
      • Stampede now has a range of 40 yards (was 30 yards).
      • Steady Shot now deals 20% more damage.
      • Binding Shot no longer has a Focus cost.
      • Wyvern Sting no longer has a Focus cost, and its cooldown is now 45 seconds (was 60 seconds).
      • Glyph of Marked for Death has been removed and its effects are now baseline.
      • The Fetch ability from Glyph of Fetch no longer requires a target. When activated, the pet will automatically choose a nearby corpse to loot.
      • New Glyph: Glyph of Liberation. This glyph now causes Disengage to heal the Hunter for 5% of maximum health when used.
      • Beast Mastery
        • Beast Cleave now causes the pet to strike all other nearby targets for 50% damage (was 30%).
      • Marksmanship
        • Aimed Shot now deals 10% more damage and cast time has been reduced to 2.5 seconds (was 2.9 seconds).
        • Chimera Shot now deals 25% more damage and heals the Hunter for 5% (was 3%) of their total health.
      • Survival
        • Black Arrow now deals 10% more damage.
        • Explosive Shot now deals 10% more damage.
    • Mage
      • Invocation now removes Evocation’s cooldown, and reduces its channeling time and duration by 50%. A completed Evocation now grants 15% increased damage for 1 minute after an Evocation is completed, instead of 25% increased damage for 40 seconds. Passive mana regeneration is reduced by 50% only while Invoker’s Energy is active.
      • Glyph of Evocation now causes the Invocation talent to restore 10% (was 20%) health after completing an Evocation.
      • Greater invisibility now has a 90-second cooldown (was 2.5 minutes).
      • Frostbolt cast by Mirror Images now deals 50% more damage.
      • Glyph of Fire Blast has been replaced with Glyph of Inferno Blast. Glyph of Inferno Blast causes damage-over-time effects spread by Inferno Blast to spread to 1 additional target.
      • Blazing Speed is now a level-15 talent, replacing Scorch.
      • Flameglow, a new talent is available at level 30 and replaces Blazing Speed. The passive ability encases the Mage in fiery energy, absorbing damage from each attack made against the Mage equal to 20% of their spellpower, up to a maximum of 30% of the attack.
      • Ice Floes now has a 45-second cooldown (was 1 minute) and its duration has been increased to 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
      • Incanter’s Ward can now be removed by magic dispels.
      • Ring of Frost cast instantly through Presence of Mind now has a 2-second arming period before the Freeze effect is activated against targets in the area of effect. The 2-second arming period can be reduced by Haste.
      • Temporal Ripples from Temporal Shield can no longer be dispelled.
      • Deep Freeze now stuns the target for 5 seconds (was 4 seconds).
      • Rune of Power increases the Mage’s mana regeneration by 75% (was 100%) while standing inside the rune.
      • Glyph of Deep Freeze now removes it from global cooldown but also reduces its duration by 1 second.
      • Mage PvP 2-piece bonus now requires Counterspell to successfully interrupt a spell before applying the 4 second cooldown reduction to Counterspell.
      • Arcane
        • For Arcane Mages, Evocation now restores 40% (was 60%) of total mana over 6 seconds, and consumes all Arcane Charges. For each Arcane Charge consumed, the total amount of mana regenerated is increased by 10%, up to a maximum of 80% over 6 seconds. Evocation remains the same for Fire and Frost.
        • Arcane Blast’s damage has been reduced by 22.9% and mana cost has been increased to 1.66667% of base mana (was 1.5%).
        • Arcane Missile’s damage has been reduced by 22.1%.
        • Arcane Barrage’s damage has been reduced by 16.1%.
        • Arcane Charges now stacks up to 4 times (was 6), increases damage by 50% (was 25%), and increases mana cost by 150% (was 75%).
      • Fire
        • Pyroblast has its direct damage reduced by 10%.
        • Scorch is no longer a talent and is now available to all Fire Mages.
      • Frost
        • Fingers of Frost now has a 15% (was 12%) chance to activate from Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt and Frozen Orb, and a 5% (was 4%) chance to activate from Blizzard.
        • Glyph of Ice Lance now causes Ice Lance to deal 50% damage to 1 additional target, up from 40%.
        • Frostbolt now deals 32% more damage.
        • Water Elemental
          • Freeze no longer does damage and only provides Fingers of Frost on a successful freeze.
    • Monk
      • New Level-60 Talent: Ring of Peace
        • Ring of Peace forms an 8 yard sanctuary around a friendly target for 8 seconds, disabling enemy player auto-attacks in PvP, and causing all enemies (both players and NPCs) in the area of effect to be disarmed for the duration. In addition, enemies that cast a damaging spell while within the area of effect will be silenced for 3 seconds. The ability has a 45-second cooldown.
      • New Windwalker and Brewmaster ability added at level 30: Nimble Brew
        • Nimble Brew removes all stun, fear, and root effects, and reduces the duration of those effects if they are reapplied by 60% for 6 seconds. It has a 2-minute cooldown.
      • Chi Wave now does 100% more damage and 14% less healing, and no longer costs Chi, and has a 15-second cooldown.
      • Zen Sphere now has a limit of 2 (was 1), detonates when either the recipient reaches 35% health or the Zen Sphere is dispelled, no longer costs Chi, and has a 10-second cooldown. Its periodic damage has been increased by 22%, periodic healing has been reduced by 61%, and its detonation healing has been reduced by 62%.
      • Chi Burst now does 380% more damage, 69% more healing, no longer costs Chi, and has a 30-second cooldown.
      • Deadly Reach has been removed.
      • Path of Blossoms has been removed.
      • Glyph of Path of Blossoms is now Glyph of Paralysis. This glyph causes the Monk’s Paralysis ability to remove all damage-over-time effects on the target.
      • Paralysis is now a physical, non-magical effect, can no longer be dispelled, grounded or reflected, and its base range has been increased to 20 yards. The paralysis effect lasts 40 seconds (was 30 seconds) for non-player targets, 4 seconds when used against other players, and lasts 50% (was 200%) longer when used from behind a target.
      • Spear Hand Strike, used on a target that’s facing the Monk silences them for 2 seconds (was 4 seconds).
      • Tiger’s Lust and Touch of Karma no longer have a Chi cost.
      • Tiger’s Lust can no longer be used on targets that have other temporary speed increases active.
      • Charging Ox Wave now has a 30-second cooldown (was 60 seconds).
      • Dampen Harm can now be used while stunned, and its cooldown will now begin when used, not when the effect ends.
      • Healing Elixirs now heals the Monk for 15% of maximum health (was 10%).
      • Chi Torpedo now deals 15% more damage.
      • Healing Spheres now have a duration of 1 minute. Healing Spheres generated by Mastery: Gift of the Serpent have a duration of 30 seconds.
      • Xuen will now fixate on the Monk’s original target for Brewmasters.
      • Mistweaver
        • Jab now costs 8% (was 4%) of base mana to use.
        • The Glyphed version of Uplift now costs 16% of base mana (was 6.6%) to cast.
        • Life Cocoon can no longer be dispelled.
        • Zen Focus, the 4-piece Mistweaver set bonus, is now more responsive.
        • It is no longer possible to use Thunder Focus Tea while silenced.
        • Renewing Mist had its mana cost reduced by 10%.
        • Soothing Mists now generates chi more consistently and average generation rate is slightly higher.
        • Summon Jade Serpent Statue no longer costs mana.
        • Healing Spheres will now heal for 50% of their original value if they expire without being picked up. This healing will factor in relevant Mastery.
        • Eminence now heals for 25% of the damage done (was 50%).
        • Serpent’s Zeal no longer stacks and heals for 25% of the damage that had been dealt.
        • Teachings of the Monastery now provides additional benefits.
          • Tiger Palm damage increased by 100%.
          • Crackling Jade Lightning damage increased by 100%.
          • Blackout Kick now hits 4 additional nearby targets for 50% damage.
        • Muscle Memory is a new passive ability for Mistweaver Monks. Successful Jabs and Spinning Crane Kicks which damages at least 3 enemies cause Muscle Memory. Muscle Memory causes the Monk’s next Tiger Palm or Blackout Kick to deal 150% more damage and restore 4% mana.
      • Windwalker
        • New Level-75 Ability: Storm, Earth and Fire
          • The Windwalker can summon up to 2 elemental duplicates that mirror damaging abilities that the Monk uses while they are active. For each spirit summoned, the Monk’s damage is reduced: 1 spirit causes the Monk and the spirit to deal 60% of the Monk’s normal damage, while 2 spirits will cause the Monk and both active spirits to deal 45% of the Monk’s normal damage. Each spirit lasts until the ability is canceled, that spirit’s target dies or otherwise becomes unavailable, or they’re killed (they can be targeted and have 10% of the Monk’s health).
            • When using Fist of Fury, the stun effect will only apply from the Monk (not the spirits).
        • Spinning Fire Blossoms’ damage has been adjusted to scale from weapon damage rather than attack power.
        • Combo Breaker is now a passive ability granted at level 15 that grants a 12% chance to make the Monk’s next Blackout Kick or Tiger Palm cost no Chi.
        • New Mastery: Bottled Fury
          • Bottled Fury increases the damage bonus provided by Tigereye Brew by .2% per Mastery per stack.
        • Brewing: Tigereye Brew now gains 1 charge after spending 3 Chi (was 4 Chi), increases damage by 1% per stack (was 2%), can stack to 20 but only 10 charges can be consumed per activation, and a user interface alert displays upon reaching 10 charges. Stacks of Tigereye Brew are cleared at the start of a raid encounter. This ability is improved by Bottled Fury.
        • Rising Sun Kick now causes the Monk’s abilities to inflict an additional 10% damage (was 15%) on the target.
      • Brewmaster
        • Black Ox Statue
          • The damage requirement to activate Sanctuary of the Ox has been increased by 100%.  The spell tooltip has been updated to reflect the change.
        • Elusive Brew now has a 6-second cooldown (was 9 seconds).
        • Mastery: Elusive Brawler now provides 25% more Stagger per Mastery rating.
      • Windwalker Monk PvP 2-piece bonus now also increases the range of Keg Smash.
    • Paladin
      • Avenging Wrath now has a cooldown of 2 minutes for Retribution Paladins (was 3 minutes). The cooldown remains unchanged for Holy and Protection Paladins.
      • Light’s Hammer now also applies a 50% snare for 2 seconds to targets that take damage from the area of effect.
      • Hand of Purity now reduces all incoming damage by 10% in addition to its other effects.
      • Eternal Flame’s periodic heal now provides 100% more healing when self-cast.
      • Judgment now costs 5% of base mana.
      • Repentance now has a cast time of 1.7 seconds (was 1.5 seconds).
      • Sacred Shield’s periodic effect can no longer be dispelled. Each individual absorb effect can be dispelled instead.
      • Seal of Righteousness now causes melee attacks to deal 9% damage (was 6%) to targets in the area-of-effect.
      • Selfless Healer now boosts Flash of Light by 20/40/60% (was 33/66/100%).
      • Glyph of Blessed Life no longer requires Seal of Insight to be active.
      • Glyph of Templar’s Verdict can also activate from Exorcism.
      • Holy
        • Blinding Light now has a 1.8-second cast time for Holy Paladins. It remains instant cast for Retribution and Protection.
        • Holy 4-piece PvP set bonus now grants Holy Power when casting Flash of Light, instead of Word of Glory.
      • Protection
        • The base damage of Consecration has been increased by 789%, and it now scales less efficiently with attack power by approximately 11%.
        • Grand Crusader now has a chance to activate when the Paladin doges or parries a melee attack in addition to having a 12% chance (was 20%) to activate from Crusader Strike or Hammer of the Righteous.
      • Retribution
        • Seal of Justice now causes melee attacks to deal an additional 20% (was 16%) as Holy damage.
        • Sword of Light now increases Flash of Light by 100% (was 30%) and increases the Paladin’s damage with two-handed melee weapons by 15% (was 10%).
        • Absolve is a new passive ability for Retribution Paladins. Absolve removes all harmful magic effects when Hand of Sacrifice is cast on a party member.
        • Retribution 2-piece PvP set bonus now grants 1000 PvP power (was 800).
        • Tier-14 Retribution 4-piece set bonus has been changed to increase damage on all Seals and Judgment by 10%.
    • Priest
      • The amount of healing done by Flash Heal, Binding Heal, Renew, and Prayer of Mending have been reduced by 20%.
      • Spiritual Healing is a new passive ability obtained by Discipline and Holy Priests at level 10. This ability increases the amount of healing done by Flash Heal, Binding Heal, Renew, and Prayer of Mending by 25%. For Holy and Discipline Priests, there is no decrease to the amount of healing done by those four spells.
      • Evangelism’s stacking effect now also increases the healing of Penance.
      • Halo will no longer hit enemies that are in stealth.
      • Angelic Bulwark can no longer be dispelled.
      • Dominate Mind now has a 1.8-second cast time (was 2.5 seconds).
      • Angelic Feather now has a 6 second duration (was 4 seconds).
      • Focused Will is now a passive for Holy Priests, as well as Discipline Priests.
      • Power Word: Solace has been replaced with a new talent: Solace & Insanity
        • For Holy and Discipline, Power Word: Solace replaces Holy Fire. It deals the same damage, and interacts with other spells and abilities in the same manner but does not trigger Atonement, is instant, costs no mana, and restores 1% of maximum mana on each cast. Damage dealt by Power Word: Solace will heal a nearby friendly player within 40 yards of the target for 100% of the damage dealt (50% when healing the Priest).
        • For Shadow, this ability causes Mind Flay to gain the Insanity effect on a target affected by Devouring Plague. Insanity increases the damage of Mind Flay by 33% per Shadow Orb consumed.
      • Glyph of Mind Spike only works from Mind Spikes that aren’t instant casts from Surge of Darkness.
      • Glyph of Desperation has been replaced with Glyph of Binding Heal. Pain Suppression and Guardian Spirit can now always be cast while stunned.
      • New Glyph: Glyph of Binding Heal applies Binding Heal a third nearby friendly target, but costs 35% more mana.
      • Glyph of Inner Focus has been replaced with Glyph of Weakened Soul. Casting Inner Focus now always grants 5 seconds of immunity to silences, interrupts, and dispels.
      • New Glyph: Glyph of Weakened Soul reduces the duration of Weakened Soul by 2 seconds.
      • Holy Fire is now an instant cast ability.
      • Glyph of Holy Fire has been redesigned. It now increases the range of Holy Fire, Smite, and Power Word: Solace by 10 yards.
      • Power Infusion now increases the Priest’s damage by 5% in addition to current effects.
      • Phantasm no longer makes the Priest untargetable by ranged attacks, and the movement impairing immunity effect is now 5 seconds (was 3 seconds).
      • Psyfiend belonging to an individual Priest will no longer cast Psychic Horror on the same target twice.
      • Discipline
        • Mastery: Shield Discipline now also increases all healing done by a lesser amount, but the bonus provided by Mastery has been reduced by 36%.
        • Penance damage and healing has been increased by 20%, now a cooldown of 9 seconds (was 10 seconds), and has a range of 40 yards for both friendly and hostile targets (was 40 yards for friendly and 30 yards for hostile targets).
        • Focused Will now reduce damage taken by 15% per stack, with a limit of 2 stacks.
        • Spirit Shell can no longer be dispelled and now provides an absorb shield equal to the average healing and absorb of the triggering spell, including criticals and Divine Aegis.
        • Rapture now reduces the cost of Power Word: Shield by 25% and provides mana equal to 150% (was 200%) of the Priest’s Spirit, but no longer benefits from Spirit provided by short-duration bonuses.
        • Divine Aegis now causes critical heals to apply an absorb shield on the target for 100% of the amount healed instead of healing for twice as much. In addition, it grants Power Word: Shield a chance equal to the Priest’s critical chance for the shield to absorb twice as much damage.
      • Shadow
        • Dispersion now belongs to the Shadow spell school.
        • Shadowform now increases the Priest’s Shadow damage by 25% (was 20%).
      • The 2-piece Holy/Discipline PvP set bonus has been replaced by the now the previous 4-piece set bonus.
      • The 4-piece Holy/Discipline PvP set bonus has been redesigned. It now reduces the cooldown of Chakra by 25 seconds. When Spirit Shell is active, the mana cost of Flash Heal is reduced by 50%.
      • Tier-14 Holy/Discipline 4-piece set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Penance by 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
    • Rogue
      • Preparation is now a baseline ability learned at level 68 and no longer resets the cooldown on Cloak of Shadows.
      • Versatility has been removed.
      • New Level 90 Talent: Marked for Death
        • Marks a target and instantly generates 5 combo points. When that target dies, Marked for Death’s cooldown is reset. This talent has a 1-minute cooldown.
      • New Level 60 Talent: Cloak and Dagger
        • Ambush, Garrote, and Cheap Shot now have a 30-yard range, and will cause the Rogue to teleport behind the target.
      • Burst of Speed now costs 30 Energy (was 50 Energy), can be used in Stealth, and always grants increased movement speed in addition to breaking snare effects, but no longer breaks root effects.
      • Shuriken Toss now causes the Rogue to throw ranged shurikens coated in Lethal Poison and auto-attack at 75% damage (was 80%) for up to 10 seconds if the enemy is farther than 10 yards away.
      • Deadly Throw can now interrupt spellcasting when used at 3, 4 and 5 combo points, and upon interrupt prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 4, 5 and 6 seconds respectively, instead of 5 combo points and 6 seconds.
      • Blind now has a cooldown of 2 minutes (was 1.5 minutes).
      • Cloak of Shadows now has a cooldown of 1 minute (was 2 minutes).
      • Smoke Bomb now reduces damage taken by allies in the area of effect by 20%, in addition to current effects.
      • Nerve Strike now reduces the effectiveness of healing provided by the target by 10% in addition to existing effects.
      • Shadow Focus now reduces ability energy costs by 75% while stealthed (was 100%).
      • PvP set bonuses have been changed:
        • Vigor is now the 4-piece set bonus and increases maximum energy by 30 (was 10).
        • Deadly Brew is now the 2-piece set bonus and its effects remain unchanged.
      • Assassination
        • Dispatch now deals 15% more damage.
        • Envenom now deals 20% more damage.
      • Combat
        • Vitality now increases attack power by 30% (was 25%).
        • Blade Flurry has been changed. It now strikes up to 4 additional nearby targets for 40% of normal damage.
      • Subtlety
        • Sanguinary Vein now increases the damage the target takes by 20% (was 16%).
    • Shaman
      • Chain Lightning will now deal the same damage to subsequent targets as it does to the first.
      • Lava Beam’s damage now increases with jumps. Each jump increases the damage by 10%.
      • Elemental Mastery now has a 90-second cooldown (was 2 minutes).
      • Shamanistic Rage is now available to Elemental Shaman as well as Enhancement Shaman.
      • Conductivity no longer requires that the target be within the area of effect of Healing Rain.
      • Healing Rain had its mana cost reduced by 15%.
      • Ancestral Swiftness now increases spell haste by 5% and melee haste by 10%, instead of 5% each.
      • Glyph of Purge now adds a 6-second cooldown to Purge.
      • Stone Bulwark Totem now absorbs 25% more damage.
      • Primal Earth Elemental and Primal Fire Elemental now deal 20% more damage.
      • Elemental Blast now has a chance to increase the caster’s Agility for Enhancement Shaman.
      • Glyph of Flame has been redesigned. This glyph now causes the Shaman to heal for 30% of the damage dealt by Flame Shock.
      • Unleashed Fury Flametongue now increases Lightning Bolt damage by 20% (was 30%), and Lava Burst damage by 10%.
      • Flame Shock’s duration has been increased by 25%.
      • Lava Burst base damage has been reduced by 33% but now always deals a critical strike. When cast on targets affected by Flame Shock, it now deals 50% more damage.
      • Totemic Restoration no longer allows the Shaman to instantly destroy a totem to obtain a full 50% refund on cooldown. Any totems that have been destroyed or replaced behave as if the totem had been active for at least 1 second.
      • When summoned, the Stone Bulwark Totem has health equal to 10% of the casting Shaman’s health.
      • The talent Nature’s Guardian now preserves the player’s health percentage when its maximum health boosting effect expires.
      • Ancestral Guidance now copies 60% (was 40%) of the amount healed.
      • Conductivity now shares 30% (was 20%) of the healing received from Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, or Healing Surge.
      • Elemental
        • Elemental Focus now increases the Shaman’s spell damage by 15% (was 10%).
        • Shamanism now increases the damage of Lightning Bolt by 70% (was 50%).
      • Enhancement
        • Mental Quickness now lowers the cost of shocks by 90% (still lowers the cost of other “beneficial, instant, damaging and totem spells” by 75%).
        • Spirit walk now has a 1-minute cooldown (was 2 minutes).
    • Warlock
      • Fel Armor now reduces damage taken by 10%, instead of increasing the Warlock’s armor.
      • Blood Fear has been replaced by Blood Horror. Blood Horror costs 5% health, has 1 charge, and lasts 60 seconds with a 30-second cooldown. While Blood Horror is active, melee attacks that strike the Warlock will cause the attacker to be horrified for 4 seconds.
      • Burning Rush now also prevents movement-impairing effects from reducing the Warlock’s movement speed below 100% of normal, in addition to its other effects.
      • The Imp ability Blood Pact has been removed.
      • Dark Intent now increases Stamina in addition to Spell Power.
      • Immolate now deals 15% more damage.
      • Shadow Bolt now deals 15% more damage.
      • Soul Leech now provides an absorption shield instead of healing.
      • Sacrificial Pact now requires the pet to sacrifice 25% of its health to activate (was 50%).
      • Kil’jaeden’s Cunning is now a passive talent, and its activated ability has been removed.
      • The passive damage from Archimonde’s Vengeance no longer has a visual effect.
      • Grimoire of Sacrifice now increases the damage of abilities by 15% (was 25%) for Destruction Warlocks and 25% (was 50%) for Affliction Warlocks. In addition, it now provides the spell Whiplash instead of Seduction when a Succubus is sacrificed.
      • Glyph of Burning Embers has been removed and its effects are now baseline for Destruction Warlocks.
      • Glyph of Soul Shards has been removed and its effects are now baseline for Affliction Warlocks.
      • New Glyph: Glyph of Ember Tap. This glyph increases the healing gained from Ember Tap by 33%, but the health is restored over 10 seconds.
      • New Glyph: Glyph of Drain Life. This glyph increases the healing gained from Drain Life by 30%.
      • Glyph of Unstable Affliction has been redesigned. This glyph now reduces the cast time of Unstable Affliction by 25%.
      • Affliction
        • Haunt now causes the target to receive an additional 30% damage (was 25%) from Warlock’s spells.
        • Unstable Affliction’s backlash effect is now always a critical hit and deals approximately 15% more damage.
      • Demonology
        • Chaos Wave now has a new visual.
        • Hand of Gul’dan now deals 15% more damage.
        • Shadowflame now deals 15% more damage.
        • Soul Fire now deals 22% more damage.
        • Touch of Chaos now deals 15% more damage.
        • Wild Imp’s Firebolt now deals 15% more damage.
      • Destruction
        • Conflagrate now deals 15% more damage.
        • Fire and Brimstone now has a radius of 10 yards (was 15 yards).
        • Incinerate now deals 10% more damage.
    • Warrior
      • The benefit of Haste from items and consumables has been increased by 50% for all Warriors.
      • Bladestorm now provides immunity to disarm while active.
      • Defensive Stance now reduces damage by 15% (was 25%).
      • Execute now deals 15% less damage.
      • Shockwave now has a 40-second cooldown (was 20 seconds), and striking 3 or more targets will reduce its cooldown by 20 seconds.
      • Second Wind now generates 15 rage (was 20 rage) over 10 seconds.
      • Warbringer now reduces the target’s movement by 50% for 15 seconds (8 seconds in PvP), in addition to its other effects. The 3-second stun/knockdown is now in the diminishing returns category for stuns (same as Shockwave and Storm Bolt), and not the proc stun diminishing returns category.
      • Shield Barrier now scales approximately 10% less efficiently with attack power.
      • Storm Bolt now deals 125% weapon damage (was 100%).
      • Enraged Regeneration now costs 30 Rage (was 60 Rage).
      • Deadly Calm has been removed from the game.
      • Glyph of Incite no longer activates from Deadly Calm, and now activates from Demoralizing Shout instead.
      • Glyph of Overpower is now Glyph of Die by the Sword. It increases the duration of Die by the Sword whenever Overpower or Wild Strike are used.
      • Glyph of Death from Above no longer increases the damage dealt by Heroic Leap.
      • Impending Victory will now heal the Warrior for 15% of maximum health when they have not slain an enemy (was 10%).
      • Arms
        • Taste for Blood has been redesigned. It now causes the Warrior to gain 2 stacks of Overpower (maximum of 5 stacks) when Mortal Strike deals damage, 1 stack when the target dodges, and no longer interacts with Heroic Strike. It now requires level 20 (used to require level 50).
        • Slam now deals 220% weapon damage (was 190%) and now costs 20 rage (was 30 rage).
        • Deep Wounds damage has been increased by 100% for Arms Warriors.
        • Whirlwind now costs 20 rage (was 30) for Arms Warriors. The cost is unchanged for Fury Warriors.
        • Overpower now costs 10 rage and reduces Mortal Strike’s remaining cooldown by 0.5 seconds.
        • Sudden Death now has a 10% (was 20%) chance to activate from auto attacks or Opportunity Strike. In addition, using Execute makes Overpower free for 10 seconds.
      • Fury
        • Bloodsurge now reduces the Rage cost of Wild Strike by 30 (was 20), and its duration has been increased to 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
      • Protection
        • The base damage of Shield Slam and Revenge has been increased by 150%, but these abilities now scale approximately 10% less efficiently with attack power.
        • Unwavering Sentinel now improves the damage reduction of Defensive Stance by 10% for Protection Warriors.
  • Quests
    • Warlocks can now undertake a solo adventure that culminates with the ability to change the color of their Fire spells to appear Fel green. The quest begins for those Warlocks determined or fortunate enough to have laid their hands on the fabled Codex of Xerrath.
    • Upon reaching level 20 and level 60, characters will automatically receive a new quest directing them to visit the racial riding trainer and mount vendors.
  • Creatures
    • Zandalari forces have begun scouting the shores of Pandaria, searching for the perfect invasion point.  The Zandalari can be found in Krasarang Wilds, Dread Wastes, Townlong Steppes, Jade Forest, and Kun-Lai Summit.  Zandalari Scouts can be handled by 1 or 2 players, while elite Zandalari Warbringers will likely require a full party of 5 heroes. Defeat Warbringers to gain special drops, including crafting materials, reputation gains, an achievement, and even the chance to get one of three new rare mounts!
    • Galleon now respawns much more frequently, but players can only receive loot from him once per week.
    • Fite spectral porcupine fite! Three new spectral porcupine spirit beasts have appeared across Pandaria as tamable beasts, though taming them may provide quite a challenge.
    • Direhorns have been added as a tamable species for Hunters that have learned the required skill. Aspiring Direhorn owners should seek out clues regarding these auspicious beasts.
  • Pet Battles
    • Many new Battle Pets and Battle Pet abilities have been added.
    • Players may now participate in pet battle duels while in the Throne of Thunder instance.
    • Master Trainers in Northrend, Cataclysm, and Courageous Yon will no longer field pets with higher than intended stats.
    • Brilliant Kaliri, Jade Tentacle, Tirisfal Batling, Firefly, Jade Crane Chick, Gilnean Raven, and Shore Crawler are no longer available in multiple breeds.
    • Reflection has been replaced with Deflection, an ability that always attempts to go first and causes the pet to avoid all attacks for that round.
    • Anubisath Idol: Sandstorm and Deflection have swapped ability positions.
    • Thunderbolt has been redesigned. It is now a powerful team-damage spell.
    • Mr. Bigglesworth’s Prowl has been replaced with a new ability, Ice Barrier, which blocks two attacks.
    • Fluxfire Feline’s Wind-Up has been replaced with a new ability, Flux, which deals damage to the enemy team.
    • The Tuskarr Kite has a new set of abilities that’s more appropriate for a Tuskarr Kite.
    • Pets that had been affected by a crowd-control ability will now be granted Resilience, making them immune to crowd control for a short while.
    • Volcano’s damage has been reduced by 15%.
    • Ice Tomb, Elementium Bolt, and Stun Seed’s damage has been reduced by 25%.
    • Geyser’s damage has been reduced by 12.5%.
    • Conflagrate’s base damage has been increased by 20% and its bonus damage has been reduced by 60%.
    • Siphon Life now heals for a flat amount instead of a percentage of the damage that had been dealt.
    • Arcane Explosion’s damage to back-line pets has been increased by 20%.
    • Supercharge now provides a 125% damage bonus, down from 150%, and lasts for 1 round.
    • Frost Shock now properly chills targets for 2 rounds (was 4 rounds).
    • Deep Freeze now has a cooldown of 4 rounds (was 3 rounds).
    • Ghostly Bite’s damage has been reduced by 20%.
    • Ghostly Skull: Ghostly Bite and Siphon Life have swapped ability positions.
    • Call Darkness now lasts for 5 rounds (was 9 rounds).
    • Blocking abilities that last for 2 turns like Decoy, now have a cooldown of 8 rounds.
    • Feign Death now has a cooldown of 8 rounds (was 5 rounds).
    • Prowl now lasts for 2 rounds (was 1 round).
    • Crystal Overload now lasts for 2 rounds (was 1 round).
    • Focus Chi now lasts for 1 round.
    • Sprite Darter Hatchling and Nether Faerie Dragon: Evanescence and Arcane Blast have swapped ability positions.
    • Nether Roach is now a real roach and can now survive the apocalypse.
    • Battle Pet Bandages now stack to 25 and are Bind to Account.
    • Battle-Stones now have a chance to be awarded from PvP Pet Battles.
    • Pets whose color schemes change each time they are summoned have returned. Older pets with this behavior now have it back, as well as some newcomers.
    • Level capped players will now have a chance to earn Lesser Charms of Good Fortune after winning a pet battle versus a pet within 5 levels of the highest level pet on their team. Higher-level pets will offer a better chance to earn a charm.
    • Winning a pet battle versus a team within 5 levels of the player’s highest-level pet will now award player experience.
    • Fleeing a pet battle will no longer despawn the pet that was being battled, but doing so will now inflict some damage on the fleeing pet battle team.
    • Disconnecting from a pet battle will once again respawn the pets you were fighting.
    • Elite Battle Pets have been added to the game world. These rare pets will spawn alone against an entire team. The Beasts of Fable taming quest will now become available from Gentle San or Sara Finkleswitch once Aki the Chosen has been defeated.
  • Raids, Dungeons and Scenarios
    • Throne of Thunder raid bosses in Normal and Heroic difficulties have a chance of dropping items with the Thunderforged designation. Thunderforged items are 6 item levels higher than their Normal or Heroic counterparts and will drop more frequently in 25-player raids. For a more in-depth look at this change, check out this discussion thread.
    • To encourage Raid Finder groups to persevere, each time an Raid Finder group wipes on a boss fight all players in the group receives a stacking buff that increases health, damage dealt, and healing done by 5% (up to a maximum of 10 stacks). This buff is cleared once the boss has been killed.
    • Satchels obtained via the Raid Finder now have a chance to contain additional rewards, including: consumables, Spirits of Harmony, rare pets or mounts, and Raid Finder versions of Normal and Heroic difficulty zone drops that were previously unavailable from Raid Finder encounters!
    • You can now earn bonus reputation for your first dungeon and scenario of the day. You can select which reputation you choose to champion by selecting it from the reputation panel on the character screen. When you queue for a dungeon or scenario, the UI will remind you which reputation you are championing and allow you to change the reputation from there. (You cannot change that reputation once you are in the dungeon or scenario.)
    • On Normal and Heroic mode, zone-wide auras have been activated in Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of Endless Spring, reducing the health and damage of all enemies therein by 10%. A NPC near the entrance within each zone explains this, and offers to deactivate the buff for the benefit of brave/foolhardy adventurers.
    • All players who have defeated Will of the Emperor, Grand Empress Shek’zeer, and/or Sha of Fear prior to the release of Patch 5.2 will receive a Feat of Strength, “Ahead of the Curve,” to mark their accomplishments.
    • Elders Lin and Liao in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms now offer Mogu Runes of Fate in exchange for Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. Mogu Runes of Fate allow for a bonus loot roll for Throne of Thunder raid bosses, Nalak the Storm Lord, and Oondasta.
    • The maximum number of Elder Charms of Good Fortune a character can hold has been increased to 20 (was 10).
    • The chance of getting personal loot in Raid Finder and the chance of a successful bonus roll in Raid Finder have been greatly increased for the following raids, Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of Endless Spring.
    • Lorewalker Cho has two new tales to tell: Dagger in the Dark and A Little Patience. Though his mystical story-weaving magic (and well, the Dungeon Finder), both Alliance and Horde characters are now able run these previously faction-specific Scenarios.
    • Level 90 players that use Dungeon Finder to look for a random Dungeon or Scenario will receive additional bonus Valor Points upon completing specific Dungeons or Scenarios.
      • Dungeons
        • Siege of Niuzao Temple: 5 bonus Valor Points
        • Scholomance: 10 bonus Valor Points
        • Shadow-Pan Monastery: 15 bonus Valor Points
      • Scenarios
        • Brewmoon Festival, Greenstone Village, A Little Patience, and Theramore’s Fall: 5 bonus Valor Points.
    • Heroic Pandaria dungeons now award 100 Justice Points per boss. Gold drops for those bosses have also been changed from a static 50 gold to a 40-60 gold range. Less gold will drop in groups consisting of fewer than 5 players.
    • Scenarios now award 50 Justice Points (was 25).
    • Sunwell Plateau
      • The Kalecgos encounter in The Sunwell can now be completed by a single player.
  • PvP
    • Season 13 has begun! With the start of the new season, Tyrannical and Tyrannical Elite gear are now available for purchase.
    • Tyrannical Primal Diamond is now available for purchase with Conquest Points. This new PvP-oriented metagem offers PvP Power and Resilience.
    • Characters who have earned over 27,000 Conquest points during Season 13 will gain access to new vendors that sell Conquest PvP gear for Honor. These vendors can be found near existing Pandaria PvP vendors.
    • Mists of Pandaria Season 12 Malevolent Gladiator’s PvP gear can now be purchased with Honor Points instead of Conquest Points, including weapons.
    • All newly purchased Season 12 Malevolent Gladiator’s armor, off-hands and shields will have an item level of 476 (was 483). Existing Malevolent items are unaffected.
    • Balance, Feral, Windwalker, Retribution, Shadow, Enhancement and Elemental now gain 25% of the bonus healing provided by PvP Power (was 0). Dedicated healers will continue to gain 50% of the bonus healing, and no bonus damage, from PvP Power.
    • PvP trinkets that clear loss-of-control effects will now also clear these effects from the player’s pet as well.
    • For casters and healers, PvP Power is now split evenly between main-hand and off-hand in a manner similar to a dual-wield melee class. This change is retroactive, affecting Season 12 Malevolent and Malevolent Elite items. There should be no net change for any character already using a main-hand/off-hand combination.
    • Season 13 caster weapons now cost 2250 Conquest Points (was 2500 in Season 12) and shields/off-hands cost 1250 (was 1000), to reflect the increased value of the off-hand slot for classes that use it in this manner. This change is not retroactive and applies only to Season 13 items.
    • Characters that have attained requisite title levels (Centurion, Knight-Captain, Grand Marshal, High Warlord, etc.) through the Rated Battleground system will be able to purchase old PvP items requiring those titles.
  • Battlegrounds
    • Players in low-level Battlegrounds will have their effective level raised to the maximum level allowed in that Battleground bracket. Players’ base stats and spells are scaled accordingly, and are treated as the same level when determining hits, misses, and critical effect chance.
    • Rated Battlegrounds now award Conquest to the losing team based on their final score. The losing team can earn up to 200 Conquest Points from a very close match.
    • Players can obtain a new title “Khan”, by completing the following Battleground achievements: Master of the Battle for Gilneas, Master of Twin Peaks, Master of Temple of Kotmogu, Master of Isle of Conquest, and Master of Silvershard Mines.
  • Professions
    • Archeology
      • Mantid Archaeology has been added. Players will be able to uncover common and rare Mantid artifacts.
      • Players can purchase a Mantid Artifact Sonic Locator to focus exclusively on Mantid digsites.
      • The Lorewalker’s Map now randomizes all digsites in Pandaria, rather than just 1.
      • Updates have been made to the “museum” at the Seat of Knowledge.
    • Blacksmithing
      • New raid and PvP blacksmithing plans have been added, and can be acquired through daily research of Lightning Steel Ingots.
      • Seasoned Blacksmiths will be able to find a way to create Lightning Steel Ingots once their realm has unlocked the Thunderforges on the Isle of Thunder. These ingots will allow blacksmiths to recreate powerful weapons from the past, updated for Mists of Pandaria.  These power weapons will be bind-on-equip and making them will take a significant amount of dedication.
      • For blacksmiths who have lapsed in their trade (i.e., haven’t practiced blacksmithing since the Burning Crusade), there is a (not necessarily cost efficient) way to catch-up. Blacksmiths at your faction’s shrines in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms will be able to teach you training plans for crafting common household items using Ghost Iron.
    • Fishing
      • The chance to fish up Flying Tiger Gourami, Spinefish Alpha and Mimic Octopus has been increased.
      • Reputation gains from bringing rare Pandarian fish for Nat Pagle to examine has been increased.
      • Players with a high fishing skill have a chance to fish up new pets. The Pet Journal has clues on where these elusive pets could be found.
      • Fish of the Day: On any given day, there is a location in Pandaria teeming with a type of Pandaren fishing pool.
      • Ben of the Booming Voice, located near the Halfhill Market area will inform players what the “Fish of the Day” is and mark the location on their map.
    • Jewelcrafting
      • Jewelcrafters may find the designs for Serpent’s Heart and uncut Primal Diamonds during the course of their adventures (world drops).
      • Serpent’s Heart is a daily cooldown that consumes several Serpent’s Eyes to create a random rare quality Pandaren gem.  In addition, there is a small chance that a player will discover the design for the Sapphire Cub or Jade Owl.
      • The design for uncut Primal Diamonds requires Spirits of Harmony and large quantities of uncommon gems.
    • Leatherworking
      • New raid and PvP patterns have been added. Leatherworkers can acquire these new patterns via the daily Magnificence of Leather or Magnificence of Scales cooldown.
      • Patterns for Magnificence of Leather and Magnificence of Scales could be found via world drops. These patterns allow the leatherworker to create Magnificent Hides more economically and share a daily cooldown.
      • A new 36 slot leather bag (Magnificent Hide Pack) can now be created through Leatherworking.
    • Tailoring
      • New raid and PvP patterns have been added, and tailors can acquire these new patterns via the daily Imperial Silk cooldown.
  • Items
    • General
      • Transmogrification rules have been broadened for several weapon types.
        • Two-handed axes, maces, and swords can be Transmogrified to each other.
        • One-handed axes, maces, and swords can be Transmogrified to each other.
        • Staves and polearms can be transmogrified to each other.
      • The ethereals that offered to upgrade items using Valor or Justice Points have departed Azeroth for the moment. They may yet return in a future patch.
      • The cost of Valor Point gear introduced in patch 5.0 has been reduced by 50%.
      • The cost of Valor Point gear introduced in patch 5.1 has been reduced by 25%.
      • Skyshards are now Bind on Account.
      • Adventurers can now upgrade old heirlooms by turning in the item and paying Justice Points or Darkmoon Prize Tickets, converting them into versions that provide benefits up to level 85. Note, the upgrade process will remove all enhancements on the heirloom.
    • Item Enhancements
      • Dancing Steel now has a 15% increased chance to activate.
  • Sunsong Ranch
    • Seed bags have been added that allow planting of crops 4 plots at a time.
    • Yoon’s Mailbox has been renamed to Sunsong Ranch Mailbox.
    • The yield from special crops has been improved to make farming them competitive with gathering these items out in the world.
    • Running the Master Plow across underground Virmen will cause them to pop out of the ground at 30% health and stunned.
    • Wild Crops will now occur less often.
  • UI
    • The Reputation panel on the character screen will now let players know which reputations they have purchased and used Grand Commendations for.
    • There is now an option to show absorb effects (such as Power Word: Shield) on player, target, party and raid frames. This feature is currently enabled if you turn on the predictive healing option. Unlike predictive healing, absorb effects will display for enemy targets.
  • Bug Fixes
    • Classes
      • Druid
        • It is no longer possible for a weaker application of Living Seed to overwrite a stronger one.
      • Paladin
        • It is no longer possible to refresh Inquisition to a lower duration.
      • Mage
        • The cooldown of Cauterize will now properly reset upon entering an Arena.
      • Warlock
        • Grimoire of Service now describes its special abilities on the tooltip.
        • Demonic Circle: Teleport now correctly shares the same cooldown when in Metamorphosis.
    • Pet Battles
      • Taming the World now lists its reward correctly in the Achievements pane.
    • Items
      • Teebu’s Blazing Longsword once again appropriately illuminates its surroundings.
      • Effects for the following trinkets should no longer activate while outside of combat: Spirits of the Sun, Qin-xi’s Polarizing Seal, and Relic of Chi-Ji.
    • Mac
      • Fixed an issue that would cause command-left-click to occur as right-click while using trackpad functionality.
      • The Logitech LCD applet for G19/G15 keyboards will now launch with the 64-bit client.

 

 

WoW Patch 5.05 Hotfixes

In case you hadn’t realised, Blizzard have been fixing some game issues on the fly over the past week.

Here are the latest ones in full:

September 28

 

  • Classes
    • Vengeance now ignores overkill damage.
    • Arcane Torrent now returns 2% of base mana (was previously an unintended 6%).
    • Priest
      • Void Shift can no longer be cast on Dominate Mind targets.
      • The priest Season 12 four-piece healer set bonus can now only be consumed by the priest that applied it.
      • The priest Season 12 two-piece healer set bonus should now grant Diamond Soul buff to other players when Power Word: Shield is cast on them.
    • Rogue
      • Blind should always land as intended. Other players should not be able to dodge, block, or parry Blind.
      • A priest’s psyfiend’s Psychic Terror should no longer affect targets under a Rogue’s Smoke Bomb.
    • Warrior
      • Second Wind no longer interrupts a Warrior who is eating or sitting down.
  • Creatures
    • Thieving Plainshawks in Valley of the Four Winds now cast Peck while in combat with players and no longer cast Steal Weapon.
    • The humanoids of Pandaria are no longer devoid of coin, and level 86-90 creatures are now occasionally carrying a Vine-Cracked Junkbox in one of their pockets.
    • The Hozen Diver in Jade Forest now has 271k health as opposed to the 135k he had before.
    • Cheung the Stablemaster should now do the duties of a stablemaster, as expected.
  • Items
    • An appropriate amount of spell power has been added to Masterwork Forgewire Axe, Amber Spine of Klaxxi’vess, Amber Saber of Klaxxi’vess, and Forgewire Axe.
    • Zen Alchemist Stone should now work as intended.
    • Mysterious Camel Figurines should again provide the player with the ability to see Dormus.
    • The Quilen Statuette now has an item level of 463 (was 384).
    • Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm should work as intended to give the player a chance to catch additional fish.
  • Pet Battles
    • Turn inputs should no longer sometimes be inadvertently skipped, causing only one pet to take action that turn.
    • Conceding in a random PVP Pet Battle should now count as a loss.
    • State-dependent abilities should now properly require that the state be present to gain their bonus effects.
    • Strong and Pristine Traps should now properly be awarded when the corresponding achievement is obtained.
    • The Achievement “Win Streak” should now function as expected, and be awarded to players who win 25 consecutive Pet Battles.
  • Quests
    • Players should be able to complete “Burning Down the House” as expected.
    • “SI:7 Report: Fire From the Sky” should always eject the player from Sully “The Pickle” McLeary’s vehicle, and can be completed even if the player dies and returns to camp before completing Sully’s event.
    • “Last Toll of the Yaungol” should only provide you with Xiao Tu’s companionship while you are in Hatred’s Vice.
    • Players who slip and fall from Serpent’s Overlook while on the quest “The Seal is Broken” should be able to find their way back to Serpent’s Spine by first returning to Grookin Hill or Pearlfin Village. Do watch your step!
    • All of the trainers for both the Horde and Alliance versions of “Battle Pet Tamers: Cataclysm” and “Battle Pet Tamers: Pandaria” now properly apply pet recovery once defeated.
    • “Sha Can Awe” quest NPCs should only apply their Languor effect on players who are currently on that quest.
    • “Gardener Fran and the Watering Can” now includes a bit more guidance for new horticulturists.
  • Bug Fixes
    • Loving a Shore Crab in Azshara … as you do … now properly counts towards the Achievement “To All The Squirrels I’ve Loved Before”.
    • The Luck of the Lotus buff should provide a chance to find Plundered Treasure as intended.
    • Crossing a zone boundary while traveling by boat or zeppelin on a multi-passenger mount should no longer result in players being removed from the transport, but may still dismount the passengers from the multi-passenger mount.
    • Players can no longer access different Pandaria daily quests by visiting other realms.
    • Players visiting other realms via RealID or Battletag groups will no longer receive loot from the Salyis’s Warband encounter.

Over to you: how’s your MoP playing experience been so far?

WoW 5.05 Patch Notes

Patch 5.05 has landed and it’s got a nice little swag of bug fixes, including as promised the CPU usage / overheating bug and some class balance changes as well for Druids, Hunters, Paladins and Warlocks.

Here’s the patch notes in all their glory for you:

 

WORLD OF WARCRAFT PATCH 5.0.5

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

CLASSES

  • Many tooltips have been corrected to account for recent class balance adjustments.
  • Druid
    • The 25% speed increase granted by Cat Form should no longer stack with the speed increase of Dash.
  • Hunter
    • All hunter aspects have been removed from the global cooldown, and they again share a 1 second category cooldown
  • Paladin
    • Holy Shock’s base damage has been reduced, and its spellpower coefficient has been increased.
  • Warlock
    • Havoc’s cooldown has been reduced from 45 to 25 seconds.
    • The missile effect of Chaos Wave should no longer display erratically when cast on a moving target.

BUG FIXES

  • Well of Eternity
    • The spell graphic for Arcane Bomb during the Queen Azshara encounter has been reduced to a reasonable size.
  • Ulduar
    • The Silence and Pacify effects from Conservator’s Grip are now removed from players once they step within the appropriate area radius of a Healthy Spore mushroom.
  • Dragon Soul
    • Player pets should no longer experience pathing issues when attacking Deathwing’s Arm Tentacles.
    • Congealing Bloods now move at slower base speed.
  • Master Looters can again assign loot to players in other groups within a raid.
  • The Refer-A-Friend Summon should again function as expected.
  • Worgen players on pre-Cataclysm accounts should be able to accept and complete all Gilneas quests.
  • Players should again be able to teleport out of the Firelands Hatchery in Hyjal if they have completed Aessina’s Miracle.
  • Players should be able to use the new Fishing spell where appropriate.
  • Crossing coalesced zone boundaries should not duplicate profession recipes.
  • Players should no longer inappropriately receive the “Requires master riding skill” or “Requires artisan riding skill” errors when attempting to mount certain mounts.
  • Items in the Auction House UI should no longer display in reverse order when sorted.
  • The PvP node capture bar should be back in expected locations such as Wintergrasp, Tol Barad and Venture Bay.
  • Players should no longer be placed into battlegrounds that they have downvoted while queueing for a Random battleground.
  • Flying over Wintergrasp when no battle is active should no longer cause a forced dismount.
  • Accepting a quest that flags you for PvP combat should no longer prevent you from accepting further quests.
  • As he deserves, Crithto should now be attackable by both Alliance and Horde players.
  • Resolved a Mac issue related to CPU usage.
  • [Taiwan and China only] Fixed an issue that was preventing the white Murloc pet Terky from appearing in the Pet Journal.

 

Through The Mist: Patch 5.04 In-Depth

Through the Mist is a regular column from Luke Le Page covering everything World of Warcraft. If you’d like something covered in a future column, drop us a line!

With patch 5.04 just around the corner, I thought it would be good time to take a look at some of the changes that are taking place before the launch of Mists of Pandaria. The patch notes can be seen below and as you can see there are some major changes coming.

Perhaps the most exciting part is the pre expansion world event involving Theramore. This looks to be an exceptional event. Personally I have elected not to go on the PTR to test it so that I can fully enjoy it when it goes live.

The change that will have the greatest impact on gameplay is obviously the changes to talents and I encourage everyone who intends to play to check it out beforehand so you can get an idea on what talents you want to take.

I have also included the update, which can be found below the patch notes, that details how currency is going to be dealt with.

Apart from the major gameplay changes such as talents, there are a number of excellent Interface changes. The queuing system has undergone a much needed overhaul and all queue types can now be accessed from a single menu.

The removal of ranged and relic slots has been a fairly contentious issue throughout the beta and for hunters it means that their ranged weapon will now fill the “weapon” slot and no other weapons are usable. As a Rogue I am obviously a fan of any change that stops Hunters rolling on Agility-based weapons!

Theramore of old – we will miss you!

It is also important to note that with this patch, all of the races in World of Warcraft will be available to players no matter what level of access they have. The Pandaren however will remain locked until the official launch of Mists of Pandaria and then become available to all players. The Monk class will only be available to people with access to the expansion. I have yet to find any details on whether this will be the same for Death Knights (with Wrath of the Lich King access) or not.

My personal favourite in regards to the changes is account-wide achievements. I played extensively in classic and the Burning Crusade on my Paladin, it was not until very late in the Burning Crusade that I elected to change mains for guild purposes and so I do not have any classic raiding reputations at exalted. With this change all of the work I did on my Paladin can be transported across to my Rogue and I will be rewarded with a huge increase in Achievement points to display on my main. While this by no means affects gameplay in any way it is a nice gesture from Blizzard and enables people who have changed mains for whatever reasons, or simply altoholics to have all of their work displayed in one place. (An interruption from the Editor here: WOOT!!)

We also see an increase in the number of character slots. You can find the details in this interview with Tom Chilton. The character slot response is at about 1:20 mark of the video.

The patch notes:

Patch 5.04

Welcome to the World of Warcraft Patch 5.0.4 Public Test Realm. We thank you for testing Patch 5.0.4 with us, and ask that you participate in our PTR Feedback forum and our PTR Bug Report forum.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Please note that PTR testing is restricted to World of Warcraft game accounts that do not have access to the Mists of Pandaria beta test. You can find more information on this here.

General

  • Account-wide Achievements, pets, and mounts
    • In Patch 5.0.4 and beyond, the majority of your character’s Achievements, pets, and mounts will be shared with your other characters. Please read: Bringing Achievements to the Account Level, by Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street

 

  • World Event: Attack on Theramore Isle
    • Warchief Garrosh, obsessed with assuring the Horde’s supremacy over Kalimdor, launches an all-out attack against Jaina’s island home of Theramore. Though valiant Alliance defenders rush to repel the sudden onslaught, they’ll soon find themselves unprepared for the terrible scope of Garrosh’s true plans…
    • In the Public Test Realm, we will be testing this event at specified intervals. Keep an eye on our PTR Feedback forum for more details as they become available.

 

  • AOE Looting
    • Area of effect looting comes to World of Warcraft with this patch. After killing a group of enemies in close proximity, when you loot one of their corpses, the loot window will include items from all of the nearby corpses for which you have loot rights.

 

  • BattleTagsupport in World of Warcraft
    • Players who have enabled their BattleTagwill now be able to:
      • See BattleTag friends in your friends list.
      • Add and remove BattleTag friends.
      • Send BattleTag invites to other players via right-click.

Classes

  • All classes have been updated with a new talent system, improved abilities, and spells (accessible throughout levels 1-85). Your character’s talents have been reset.
    • Many old talents have been converted to specialization abilities.
    • Druids now have access to a fourth class specialization: Guardian.
    • New spells are now learned automatically. Class trainers are only needed to change talents, glyphs, class specialization, or to utilize the dual specialization feature.
    • All characters now take 30% less damage from other players.

Currency Conversion

  • Coming soon.

Items

  • Spell Penetration has been replaced by PvP Power on existing items.
  • Head enchants removed
    • Enchants that modify the gear in your head slot have been removed from the game. This includes older head enchants of every type.

 

  • Relics, ranged, and thrown items
    • The slot in which ranged, relics, and thrown items were previously equipped has been removed. All weapons should now be equipped in the weapon slot.
    • Ranged weapons, including wands, have been adjusted to be more powerful.
    • Ranged weapons no longer have a minimum range.

Professions

  • The glyph system has been updated. Many class glyphs have been added, altered, or moved to different glyph types.
  • Prime glyphs have been removed.

User Interface

  • There is a new user interface for your mounts and pets.
  • Character creation screens have been updated.
  • Buffs have been consolidated in the UI.
  • New roll results frame added. This new feature can be accessed by clicking the word “[Loot]” in chat, or by typing “/loot”.
  • The PvE queue frames have been unified. You can now queue for dungeons, raids, and other queue-able content in one handy place.
  • Vendors now offer item filtering.
  • Spellbooks have been updated to reflect changes to core abilities, and now include a brief overview of specializations.
  • The Dungeon Journal has been expanded with information on all pre-Cataclysm encounters.
  • A new help system has been added to many frames. You can toggle this on and off by clicking the “i” button in the upper left corner of the frame.

 

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The currency conversion coming with Mists of Pandaria is going to happen in three stages, and this is how we plan for it to progress:

With Patch 5.0.4 on August 28

  • Valor points will be converted to Justice points, and Conquest points will be converted to Honor points.
    • Neither of the resultant currencies (Justice and Honor) will have an enforced hard-cap at this time.

 

  • The current Arena season will end.
  • Players will no longer be able to earn Valor or Conquest points (bosses will drop Justice, Arenas will be closed).
  • Items formerly purchasable for Valor/Conquest will be available for Justice/Honor.

With Mists of Pandaria on September 25

  • Valor can be earned again.
    • Characters can earn up to 1000 Valor per week, and carry a maximum of 3000 Valor.
    • Daily quests, random Scenarios, random Heroic dungeons, and all levels of raiding will reward Valor.
    • Valor will be used to purchase ilvl 489 gear in Mists of Pandaria.
      • The Klaxxi, Golden Lotus, Shado-Pan, and August Celestials factions will sell this gear.
      • Revered reputation with each faction will be required.
  • Conquest will become earnable.
    • There is a cap of 4000 Conquest points.
    • Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds reward Conquest.
    • It will be used to purchase ilvl 483 gear from Pandaren battlemasters on the Great Wall.

With Mists of Pandaria, Patch 5.1

  • We currently plan to upgrade the Valor system as Ghostcrawler described in Mists of Pandaria Looting Explained in the 5.1 patch, allowing you to upgrade your gear using Valor points. We’ll have additional information once Mists of Pandaria launches and we get closer to the 5.1 patch release.

Do you have questions or comments about currencies in World of Warcraft? Please let us know in this discussion thread.