Month: February 2010

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.3.3

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

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

General

• Copied Test Realm characters are not copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

PvP

• The amount of Honor awarded for an Honorable Kill has been increased by 100% for characters of all levels. Given that all avenues in the game which award players with Honor do so with a calculated conversion from a specific amount of Honorable Kills, this change means that all Honor players can obtain through various means will be increased by 100%. To offset against this in two key areas, experience gains in Battlegrounds have been reduced by 50% and Honor awarded for completing each Wintergrasp weekly quest has been reduced by 50%. When pairing the Honor rewarded from Honorable Kills being increased by 100% with the 50% Honor reduction from Wintergrasp weekly quests, and 50% experience-gain reduction from completing objectives in Battlegrounds, players will notice no change in the net amount of Honor or experience awarded in either case.

Battlegrounds

• The Random Battleground system has been added! Similar to the Random Dungeon system in the Dungeon Finder, players can now queue for a random Battleground.
• The Random Battleground option can be found in the Battleground tab of the PvP frame and is only available for level 80 characters at this time.
• If this option is selected, players may not queue for specific Battlegrounds and a random Battleground simultaneously.
• Similar to the Random Dungeon system, players will not know for which Battleground they are chosen when selected from the queue until they zone into the Battleground.
• The Random Battleground option will only allow a group size of 5 players to queue together.
• Bonus rewards will be offered for choosing the Random Battleground option.[ul]
• Winning a Battleground using the Random Battleground option for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency and 25 Arena points.
• Winning additional Battlegrounds using the Random Battleground option after the first random win will award players with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• Losing a Battleground using the Random Battleground option will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• Daily Battleground quests have been removed in place of the Random Battleground option.
• Battlegrounds will no longer award Marks of Honor.
• Players with existing Marks of Honor can still turn them in to their respective faction’s quest givers, including individual marks for those who may have more marks for one Battleground than another.
• Items which previously required Marks of Honor will have their costs adjusted to remove these requirements.
• Whenever a Battleground has the holiday bonus active, it will now be referred to as “Call to Arms” in the Battleground tab and Calendar. In addition, Call to Arms Battleground Honor rewards have been changed.
• Choosing a specific Battleground with the Call to Arms bonus active will yield the exact same rewards as when choosing the Random Battleground option.
• Winning a Call to Arms Battleground for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency and 25 Arena points.
• Additional Call to Arms Battleground victories after the first win for a player that day will award them with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• Losing a Call to Arms Battleground will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
• When using the Random Battleground option, players will not receive additional rewards if the Battleground chosen is under the Call to Arms bonuses. In addition, the rewards for the first victory of the day cannot be earned more than once, regardless of whether or not it is obtained from the Random Battleground system or the Call to Arms Battleground.

Wintergrasp

• The internal balance system now only changes when a faction achieves 2 consecutive defenses after an initial capture of Wintergrasp, up from 1. You can find additional details here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23329393344

Dungeons & Raids
Culling of Stratholme

• Players may now skip the initial introduction dialog to this dungeon once they have completed it at least once.

Classes: General

• Several raid buffs have had their ranges increased to 100 yards, up from 45 yards, to prevent select buffs from repeatedly getting applied and removed during highly mobile encounters. Some buffs, such as paladin auras, totems, shouts and Blood Pact are intentionally meant to have shorter ranges and remain unchanged.

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Icy Touch: This ability now causes a very high amount of threat while the death knight is in Frost Presence.
• Rune of Razorice: Now stacks 5 stacks of 2% Frost Vulnerability instead of 10 stacks of 1% Frost Vulnerability. Proc chance changed to 100%.

Blood

• Abomination's Might: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc on certain strikes. Rank 1 is 5% attack power and Rank 2 is 10% attack power. The self strength buff remains unchanged.
• Will of the Necropolis: There is no longer a cooldown on the frequency at which this talent can be activated. In addition, this ability can now also be triggered by damage which deals less than 5% of your health.

Frost

• Endless Winter: No longer causes Frost Fever to be applied by Chains of Ice, but instead grants 2/4% strength. The previous functionality of this talent can now be attained via the Glyph of Chains of Ice.
• Improved Icy Talons: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc. The self haste buff remains unchanged.
• Nerves of Cold Steel: Now increases off-hand damage by 8/16/25%, up from 5/10/15%.
• Unbreakable Armor: The amount of strength granted is now 20%, up from 10%.

Unholy

• Scourge Strike: Now deals 70% weapon damage, plus 12% of physical damage done as shadow damage for each of the death knight's diseases on the target. The net result should be larger strikes with no diseases present, while maximum damage with all diseases applied to the target should stay the same.

Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Beast Mastery

• Ferocious Inspiration: This ability is now an aura and provides 1/2/3% damage to all party or raid members within 100 yards.

Mage (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Frostbolt: Spell power scaling on this spell has been increased by approximately 5%.

Arcane

• Arcane Empowerment: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc off of critical strikes. The self damage buff remains unchanged.
• Incanter's Absorption: This talent now only grants additional spell power when damage is absorbed by Mana Shield, Frost Ward, Fire Ward, or Ice Barrier. The limit of 5% of the mage's health on the spell power buff has been removed.

Fire

• Burning Soul: Threat reduction is now 10/20%, up from 5/10%.

Frost

• Brain Freeze: This talent now allows your next Fireball or Frostfire Bolt to be instant and cost no mana. There is a small internal cooldown to keep the Frostfire Bolt from immediately triggering Brain Freeze again.

Priest (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Discipline

• Renewed Hope: now has a 60-second duration, up from 20 seconds, but a 20-second cooldown.

Rogue (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Rupture: The damage-over-time component of this ability can now produce critical strikes.

Subtlety

• Filthy Tricks: Now Reduces the cooldown by 5/10 seconds and energy cost by 5/10 of Tricks of the Trade, Distract and Shadowstep abilities, and reduces the cooldown of Preparation by 1.5/3 minutes.
• Ghostly Strike: If the rogue has a dagger equipped, this a…

In the next minor content patch, we will be making some minor alterations to the way in which the internal balance system for Wintergrasp works in an attempt to better support realms with greater variations in the level of participation between the Alliance and Horde. Since we have never gone into much detail about how this hidden system currently works, we’d like to explain exactly how it will work in the next patch. Keep in mind that, although this information may feel very new to you, the actual changes being made in the patch to the current system are relatively minor.

Here are the key systems in place behind the hidden Wintergrasp advantages and how they will function in the upcoming patch:

• There is an internal tug-of-war scale not visible by players which will shift under specific conditions.
• The scale starts at 0 (neutral) and can move up to 700 points in either direction favoring the Alliance at one end, and Horde at the other.
• This scale is persistent and does not reset to 0 whenever control of Wintergrasp shifts.
• If an attacking force captures Wintergrasp Fortress while under the effects of any of the advantages listed below (400-700 points in their favor), the scale tips 100 points in favor of the opposing faction.
• If a defending force successfully defends Wintergrasp Fortress two battles in a row, the scale tips 100 points in favor of the opposing faction.
• Each consecutive successful defense after a faction’s first two consecutive defenses will further tip the scale 100 points in favor of the opposing faction.
• As a quick example, if the scale is at 0 and the Alliance capture Wintergrasp fortress while attacking, the scale will not move. If the Alliance defend Wintergrasp twice in a row after this, the scale will move 100 points in favor of the Horde. Each consecutive defense by the Alliance after this will move the scale 100 points further in favor of the Horde each time, bringing the Horde to 400 points in their favor after one unsuccessful defense and five unsuccessful attacks, a total of six Horde losses in a row.
• As another example, if the scale is at 400 in favor of the Horde and they capture Wintergrasp fortress while attacking, the scale will move 100 points in favor of the Alliance. If the Horde defend Wintergrasp twice in a row after this, the scale will move 100 points in favor of the Alliance. Each consecutive defense by the Horde after this will move the scale 100 points further in favor of the Alliance each time, bringing the Alliance to 100 points in their favor after one unsuccessful defense and five unsuccessful attacks, a total of six Alliance losses in a row.
• The following advantages are provided at the beginning of the battle for Wintergrasp whenever these corresponding ranges on the scale have been reached:
• 0-300: No advantages granted.
• 400: Faction starts with the Sunken Ring Factory under their control.
• 500: Faction starts with the Sunken Ring and Broken Temple Factories under their control.
• 600: Faction starts with the Sunken Ring and Broken Temple Factories under their control and gains access to Catapults after earning 1 kill in battle.
• 700: Faction starts with the Sunken Ring and Broken Temple Factories under their control and gains access to Catapults, Siege Engines, and Demolishers after earning 1 kill in battle.