Cataclysm hotfixes for Jan. 5

Community Manager Zarhym has documented and posted another list of hotfixes this evening. While there are still a number of changes to the open world, attention has been turned to the high-end raids and raid bosses of the current tier, such as Cho'gall and the Bastion of Twilight. Some examples of the overall changes:

• Heroic Deadmines now has significantly fewer trash mobs.

• Ramkahen now has a functional mailbox. What can King Phaoris do for you?

• The number of guard spawns in Tol Barad has been increased for both Horde and Alliance base camps, with guards now surrounding the edges of each camp. Both Alliance and Horde guards use all abilities that the Furious Hyjal Warden uses and will attack with ranged abilities when unable to find a path or at a distance. Guards are also immune to taunt effects. In addition, Hellscream and Baradin Guards now respawn more quickly.

You can find the full list of hotfixes behind the cut below.

• Mix Master (guild achievement) is now awarded at 1,000 flasks, down from 10,000, and Better Leveling Through Chemistry (guild achievement) is awarded at 3,000 flasks, down from 25,000. It turns out we overestimated these numbers just a smidgen. More information can be found here.

• The 7th and 8th guild bank tabs will now let players withdraw and deposit items after the guild master is changed.

• All six of the guild battle standards have had their experience and honor gain buffs increased to 5/10/15%, up from 2/4/6%, and they last for a duration of 10 minutes.

• Haste buffs no longer reduce the effectiveness of haste on resource regeneration rates (energy, focus, etc.).

• "Smart" food ended up not being so smart. Players who have small amounts of dodge rating as a vestige of some item bugs in the past will no longer get a dodge buff when they eat "smart" food like Cataclysm feasts if they are not plate tanks. Other classes and specializations will get their dominant primary stat.

• Fungal Growth is now applied even if Wild Mushroom: Detonate is used at a distance of 40 yards.

• Skull Bash no longer interrupts the target if it fails to land successfully.

• The heal from Atonement is now capped at 30% of the priest's health before any modifiers such as healing percentage bonus effects/talents.

• Friendly Grounding Totems are no longer affected by a warlock's Soul Swap or Soul Swap Exhale. The Grounding Totem is not despawning on either cast, and Soul Swap is working correctly when moving damage-over-time effects to other targets that are near the totem.

• Several Cataclysm raid bosses are now properly immune to pet provoke abilities.

• Players are no longer put in their own instance after relogging in a dungeon to which they've already been saved.

• Shadow/Fire elementals are now always absorbed during the Cho'gall encounter. Elementals are absorbed no matter what amount of health they have. Cho'gall always receives the appropriate amount of the appropriate buff when consuming an elemental. The elementals are unable to fall below 1 health or otherwise be killed, so Cho'gall always gets 1 stack of the corresponding buff at minimum.

• Shadow Lords will no longer regenerate health under any circumstance.

• Liquid Ice in phase 3 of the Ascendant Council encounter now deals more damage.

• The damaging component of Eruption no longer interrupts Terrastra when casting Harden Skin or Quake.

• Bellows Slaves no longer drop elite-level loot.

• Anti-Magic Shell no longer stops Onyxia or Nefarian's Shadowflame Breath from being cast.

• Chimaeron now resets his melee attack cycle after each Massacre and removes the Double Attack buff.

• Caustic Slime no longer effects non-player targets.

• As creature pulls in Blackwing Descent can be very condensed, they now have a slightly higher chance of dropping epic loot.

• Heroic Deadmines now has significantly less trash mobs.

• The mechanical nightmare section of the Vanessa VanCleef encounter has less sparks of doom, and is notably easier and faster to navigate.

• Vapors in the Ripsnarl encounter now increase in power every 8 seconds, up from 6.

• No aura or strange movement is applied when using the Slipstream after Grand Vizier Ertran is killed.

• A summoned pet will correctly re-summon when using the Slipstream after Altarius is killed.

• Crafting the four Northrend flasks (Endless Rage, Pure Mojo, Frost Wyrm and Stoneblood) no longer counts toward the guild achievements Mix Master or Better Leveling Through Chemistry.

• Flasks made by the Cauldron of Battle and the Big Cauldron of Battle are no longer soulbound.

• Both cauldrons now last 10 minutes. Please note the tooltips will not be updated until a client-side patch is applied.

• The Big Cauldron of Battle now has 20/30 charges instead of 17/25. Please note the tooltip will not be updated until a client-side patch is applied.

• All eight of the Engineering discoveries are now able to be learned through crafting the Overpowered Chicken Splitter at max-level Engineering.

• The Invisibility Field no longer causes the Dazzler backfire effect. Additionally, the Invisibility Field effect does not carry over into Arenas and cannot be used in Arenas.

• Giant Catfish now drop more frequently and Hardened Walleye now drop a little less frequently while on the appropriate daily quests.

• Dragonkin in Grim Batol can now be skinned.

• Creatures can no longer be skinned more than once.

• Cooldowns should now properly reset upon entering a rated Battleground.

• Players should no longer lose their Horde/Alliance buffs if caught by a druid's Cyclone while participating in War Games.

• The number of guard spawns has been increased for both Horde and Alliance base camps, with guards now surrounding the edges of each camp. Both Alliance and Horde guards use all abilities that the Furious Hyjal Warden uses and will attack with ranged abilities when unable to find a path, or at a distance. Guards are also immune to taunt effects. In addition, Hellscream and Baradin Guards now respawn more quickly.

• The northern graveyards on Tol Barad Peninsula for each faction have been moved further apart from one another to lessen the fantastic camping.

• Red Rider Air Rifle and Red Rider Air Rifle Ammo are now part of Jepetto Joybuzz's vendor list and can be purchased for their displayed prices.

• Kruban Darkblade now spawns above ground and paths normally in Orgrimmar while the Darkmoon Faire is active.

• Spiny Tidecrawlers and Darkwood Hatchlings now appear as non-aggressive (yellow).

• Imprisoned Workers now have a smaller aggro radius. They also drop Cellblock Rations for players that are on the quest "Food From Below".

• The Baradin Crocolisk can be skinned without issue and the Crocolisk Hide, used in the quest "Swamp Bait", is no longer multi-drop.

• "The Leftovers", "Swamp Bait", and "A Huge Problem" quests are now sharable on the Alliance, and both the Alliance and Horde versions give high reputation and gold.

• Tank and Problim now have full immunities to all crowd control effects.

• The Desert Fox is now flagged "Cannot be tamed" when Beast Lore is cast on the creature.

• Ramkahen now has a functional mailbox. What can King Phaoris do for you?

• Overseer Idra'kess now leashes and returns to his original position.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.