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Patch 4.1 PTR notes updated for March 1

Anne Stickney
Updated ·3 min read

The patch notes for PTR patch 4.1 have been updated, and we've got all the latest changes for you below. Included in this update is some startling information regarding death knight talents.

The original round of 4.1 patch notes can be found here.

General

  • Resilience scaling has been modified for linear returns, as opposed to increasing returns. Under the new formula, going from 30 resilience to 40 resilience gives players the same increase to survivability as going from 0 to 10. Resilience now scales in the same way armor and magic resistances do. A player with 32.5% damage reduction from resilience in 4.0.6 should see their damage reduction unchanged in 4.1. Those with less than 32.5% will gain slightly. Those with more will lose some damage reduction, increasingly so as their resilience climbs.


Death Knights

  • Raise Ally has been redesigned to be a battle resurrection, analogous to Rebirth. It is instant cast, but costs 50 Runic Power to use, and has a 10-minute cooldown. It shares the same global battle resurrection cap with Rebirth and Soulstone.

Continue after the break for the full list of changes.



  • Talent Specializations

    • Blood

      • Blood Shield now only works while in Blood Presence.

    • Frost

      • Frost Strike now deals 130% of weapon damage, up from 110%.

      • Howling Blast damage has been increased by 20%. To compensate, the area-of-effect splash now does 50% of the single-target damage, down from 60%. The net result of this change leaves the area-of-effect damage roughly the same as 4.0.6 numbers.

  • Glyphs

    • Glyph of Raise Ally is now Glyph of Death Gate, and makes Death Gate cast 60% faster.


Druids

  • Swipe (Bear) cooldown has been reduced to 3 seconds, down from 6.

  • Talent Specializations

    • Restoration

      • Gift of Nature (passive) also reduces Tranquility's cooldown by 2.5/5 minutes.


Priests

  • Talent Specializations

    • Discipline

      • Power Word: Barrier's cooldown has been increased to 3 minutes, up from 2, and its effect has been reduced to 25%, down from 30%.


Warlocks

  • Talent Specializations

    • Affliction

      • Shadow Mastery (passive) has been increased to 30%, up from 25%.

  • Pets

    • Doomguard's damage has been increased by 50%. The Doomguard is intended to be the best guardian for single-target damage, and the Infernal the best when there are multiple targets.

    • Shadow Bite (Felhunter) damage and effect has doubled.


Warriors

  • Talent Specializations

    • Arms

      • Strikes of Opportunity damage has been increased by 10% to keep stat parity with other strike changes.

    • Fury

      • Unshackled Fury now only grants 2 base points of mastery, down from 8. This change offsets the Flurry boost to better control Fury burst damage.


Items

  • Item Sets

    • The current damage-dealing death knight 4-piece raid set bonus now also grants increased attack power when Killing Machine triggers, as well as when the death knight gains Death Runes).

    • The current Holy paladin 4-piece raid set bonus now grants 540 Spirit for 6 seconds after casting Holy Shock.