undocumented-changes
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Patch 5.1: Ore and herb spawn rates reduced by 50%
Since patch 5.1's release, players have noticed a peculiar absence of ore nodes and plants in Pandaria. This leads one to wonder -- was this an intentional change, or is this simply a result of far too many people picking posies and mining the continent's wealth away? The question was answered by Daxxarri yesterday, and it was a direct answer: Yes, those plants and ore nodes are spawning less rapidly, and yes, it was intended. Daxxarri Mining and Herb spawn rates in Pandaria have been reduced by approximately 50% in patch 5.1, and this is indeed an intended change. These are in addition to the hotfix that was applied in 5.0.5 to lower the spawn rate of Ghost Iron. In all of these cases, the reduction was prompted because the resources were too abundant, resulting in ore and herbs being undervalued, and also therefore the effort that our herbalists and miners put in to collect each node. We'll be monitoring the situation, though, and should the current rates prove to be too low then we'll make further adjustments as necessary. source Unfortunately, while having plentiful supplies is certainly useful, when you have too many supplies on hand there's little to no demand for them. This makes sense, but a 50% reduction sounds a little drastic. However, Blizzard will be monitoring the situation, so lest you be worried that prices are going to skyrocket overnight, rest assured that the spawn rate may be further adjusted in the future. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Blingtron takes an interest in fashion in 5.1
Everyone's favorite wealthy benefactor has taken a sudden and keen interest in fashion in patch 5.1. The engineer created robot Blingtron now offers more than just a free gift pack a day -- he also has a new dialogue box. Apparently Bling doesn't care for Azeroth's finest fighting gear, and offers to dress you up in a manner that is "visually attractive to your species." If you're up for an episode of Extreme Makeover: Blingtron Edition, simply click the option that says "Let's party!" Regardless of race, you'll be transformed into a human wearing a particularly snazzy suit combo with a fashionable hat. You'll also gain the buff Dressed to Kill, which doesn't really do anything but proclaim that you're now decked out and ready to rumble with whatever comes your way. The buff lasts for one hour, and it does not last through death; if you're on the receiving end of the killing, you'll lose your snazzy duds. However, Blingtron will continue to offer the transformation buff even if you've already done his daily quest and gotten your gift for the day, so you can always get the buff back again if you lose it. If you're an engineer, this should give you a reason to use Blingtron more than once a day -- and if you don't happen to be an engineer, just keep your eyes peeled for Blingtron's glittering visage while you're out and about in Pandaria. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Patch 4.3 changes make leveling fishing a breeze
Do you loathe leveling the fishing profession? Can't stand spending hours casting in pools? According to El over at El's Professions, there was a change put through in patch 4.3 that nobody noticed, one that will make your plight a little easier. In patch 4.3, the number of catches required to level fishing from 1 to 525 has been roughly halved. In addition, the number of catches per skill point above 300 fishing and especially above 450 also seems to have had an adjustment -- one point of skill can take between one and 13 casts to gain. El has put together a new skill-up table over on El's Extreme Anglin', but be warned, the pattern may not be fully understood just yet. El is welcoming any observations over on the El's Extreme Anglin' forums for fishing enthusiasts. At any rate, if you've been putting off picking up your fishing pole and finishing off those skill points, now would be an excellent time to start fishing! Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Arcane Barrage nerfed stealthily
For about five shining minutes, Mages were over-powered. Arcane Mages, to be precise. Or so everyone tells me. All I know is that for the first time in a long time, I felt the kind of power I always assumed Mages were meant to wield.Patch 3.0.9 has brought Arcane Mages back down to earth, though, and only some of the bad stuff was actually in the patch notes. You see, along with the incredibly clunky and obtuse changes to Arcane Power and Presence of Mind (effectively ending PoM-Pyro specs as we knew them), and the nerf to Slow, this briefly mighty spec has also received a bonus undocumented nerf to our signature spell: Arcane Barrage.After a whole lot of us noticed we simply weren't doing the same damage post-patch that we were pre-patch, the official forums lit up with Mages contending that Arcane Barrage simply wasn't packing the punch it used to. Though the tooltip hadn't changed, the damage had fallen off considerably. Last night, Eyonix responded with a post explaining the change and letting us know that its effects would be monitored. I always thought the PTR was a good place to monitor changes, but what do I know?Before we discuss this any further, let me just put it up front that I'm setting the over-under on "QQ MOAR" comments following this post at 45. I'm taking the over.
Not-in-the-notes for AoC's 17th July patch: invisible hotfix edition
Yesterday's Age of Conan patch was one of the better ones we've seen in recent times, but it did bring back an old tradition: a longish list of changes that were not mentioned in the official patch notes. However, rather than this list being full of stealth nerfs, it just looks like a lot of things broke in the latest update. Some of the bigger concerns have been: the abusing of combos now that you can cancel them out and still do damage (leading to no cooldowns on stuns, knockbacks, etc.); and players sometimes becoming invisible to others. Thankfully, Funcom has been on the ball with these two larger issues and have issued a hotfix to the live servers. This is all that the hotfix purports to do though, so read through the undocumented patch changes list on the forums to see what else was introduced. There's at least one good thing on the list, too -- specific crafting merchants can now be found in guild cities.
More undocumented changes found in yesterday's AoC patch
Over the last couple of patches to Age of Conan, there has been a disturbingly lengthy list of changes implemented that were not even hinted at on the official update notes. This trend has continued with Monday's patch, and the game's community has once again pulled together to confirm some of the things that they have found to be different without explanation.It's not as if these are all terrible, unmentionable nerfs or anything. There are certainly some bugs, but the undocumented changes list also includes good things, such as a quest finally being available for Villa Camillus, and boosted exp for all of the repeatable Villa quests; a number of updates to the graphics of items; and chain kills occurring more frequently (these have seemed fairly random in the past, with the exact same action sometimes giving a bonus and other times not.)
What this morning's AoC patch notes didn't mention
It's very busy over at FunCom, what with two patches a week coming out for Age of Conan. We understand. We know that sometimes stuff gets missed off the patch notes. Of course, sometimes stuff gets purposefully left off patch notes, and it can be hard to tell whether this was by accident or design.What's certain is that when something changes, players will eventually find out. The more players, the sooner they find out; and AoC has rather a lot of players right now. Between them, with cross-referencing going on between European and American forums (always nice to see), the players have put together an unofficial list of what else changed with this morning's patch.
Undocumented changes in 2.4.2
Before 2.4.2 is even up on PTRs, MMO-Champion and World of Raids have undocumented changes listed on their sites. That's dedication! Of course, given that none of this can be verified, you should take it with a grain of salt, but most of the time changes found in the game files end up going live. Here's what's been noticed so far: Most mount-speed-increasing trinkets (Carrot on a Stick, Skybreaker Whip, Riding Crop) have been changed to enchantments, which can be permanently applied to a single mount in your inventory and cause it to become soulbound. Furthermore, Charm of Swift Flight (which will stay a trinket) now also reduces the mana cost of Flight Form and Swift Flight Form by 115 mana, and Carrot on a Stick is now craftable (1x Simple Wood, 1x Fine Thread, 1x Golden Sansam). I imagine it would be an engineering recipe. This seems like a good change for the most part, since we won't have to use add-ons to swap in our riding speed trinket all the time (and we'll save an inventory space). However, it does have the major drawback that you'll need to get a new one for each of your mounts, which could get expensive if you're a mount collector. More business for the leatherworkers, I suppose. Continuing on the mount theme, a sort of horned Swift Zebra mount appears to have been added to the game, as well as a Headless Horseman's Mount (both pictured). Aspect of the Viper has been buffed. Previously, it generated mana equal to up to 55% of the hunter's Intellect every five seconds; now, it generates up to 55% of the hunter's Int plus 35% of his or her level. This means a boost of up to 24.5 mp5 at level 70. There are also some changes to various items and recipes; check MMO-Champion for those. What do you think of this mount trinket change? Oh, and if you haven't seen the official patch notes yet, check Adam's post from early this morning.Update: I just signed on to the PTR, and was unable to verify the change to Riding Crop. So this might well not end up happening after all.
The return of stamina to tier 6
A few days ago, Eliah mentioned a tragic thing in his list of Undocumented Changes in a recent PTR push: The Stamina disappeared from the new Tier 6 pieces!There was a pretty big outcry about this, and understandably so. The Burning Crusade has made Stamina a very important stat in all areas of gameplay from PvE to PvP. You need to be able to take blows in the arenas, and almost every raid encounter has multiple sources of random damage to the raid. Stamina is a big deal, which brings us to the good news.The Stamina has returned to the T6! Not in the amounts it had previously(unfortunately) but still a decent amount. While not ideal, it has enough Stamina that classes can actually wear these set pieces now. Previously, with no Stamina on this armor, most classes were completely unable to wear them in a raid. I know that I, personally, already have to wear PvP gear for a number of encounters because my raiding gear simply doesn't have enough Stamina on it for Black Temple and Mount Hyjal. New tier pieces with no Stamina at all would be something I could not even consider using, no matter how good the rest of the stats may be. Being one-shotted by environmental damage makes that awesome damage and mana regen a little useless.
Patch 1.12: Undocumented Changes
Another patch, and another set of changes that didn't quite make it into the patch notes. Of course, everything on the test realms is subject to change, but as it stands, this is what you will find on the test realms. This list seems to be updated regularly, so if you aren't planning on playing on the test realms, check back often to see what's happening. Most controversial of these changes seems to be a battlegrounds change that automatically adds everyone to a group upon entering a battleground - a group they cannot leave. As a healer, I am always glad to have a group in battlegrounds in order to be better able to monitor my group's health and step in as needed - but to those who preferred to gain maximum honor per kill by attacking battlegrounds ungrouped, this is the end of the battlegrounds system.
