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Patch 5.4.2 PTR: The mystery of the Karazhan phase
Do you ever get the feeling that Blizzard might put things on the PTR just to have some fun with fansites? To toy with the dataminers? It wouldn't be the first time they'd done something like that, and it will likely not be the last. The phase titled "Karazhan Restoration" first cropped up a few builds back, to great acclaim and wild speculation about what is most of the community's favorite raid, until it was renamed in the next build to Medivh's Big Birthday Bash. Still some speculation, after all, Medivh's part of Kara, but then, as Wowhead reports, the most recent build throws yet another rename into the works: Karazhan 2: Eclectic Boogaloo. They're playing with us now, for sure. And Blizzard Senior Game Designer Jonathan LeCraft has even unmasked the prankster: @Ady_Mx Done. @Dave_Maldo has been patted. - Jonathan LeCraft (@TheCrafticus) December 3, 2013 What will it be in the next build? Is this a message to dataminers? Or an epic bluff? Are they really doing anything at all with Karazhan?
Patch 4.2 PTR notes updated for May 26
Patch 4.2 up on the PTR has gotten more updates and changes. Some highlights include: Rogues will be happy (sad) to know that Cloak is getting a bit of a cooldown nerf: Cloak of Shadows cooldown is now 2 minutes, up from 90 seconds. In addition, Cloak of Shadows is no longer on the global cooldown. Shadow priests will be getting into the new pet stance fun: Shadowfiend uses the new Assist pet stance functionality. Feral druid tanks are getting some significant damage scaling tweaks done to their output, as Blizzard thinks their abilities were scaling too fast with new tiers of gear. Hit the jump for the full change list.
Arcane Brilliance: Patch 4.1 PTR for mages, (very) early edition
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we discuss the upcoming patch 4.1, which hit the PTR in the wee hours of Thursday here in the North Americas, sending WoW bloggers everywhere into an early morning, sleep-deprived fit of feverish typing, followed by a deep and possibly fatal sugar and caffeine coma. For those who were lost, we mourn you -- but not for long because we gots deadlines, yo. So yeah. In case you've been stranded in some Mesopotamian nation or another without internet access for the past few days, we've got a new patch on the PTR. It's not the most earth-shattering patch we've seen, but for some reason I'm just inordinately excited about it. I woke up this morning with dreams of raptors, tiger/panthers, and armored bears fresh in my mind. I was quite sad when Zul'Gurub vanished from the game, but every time I flew over that part of Stranglethorn Vale and saw that the ancient troll city was still there, empty and tigerless, I felt a surge of hope that until the structures themselves vanished, the instance wasn't truly gone. Just the idea that Blizzard is willing to take old raids and turn them into heroic 5-mans for me to churn through in my daily valor point farming efforts is a cause for celebration. Though old 5-mans get new life whenever you level a new alt through the old content, no single part of the game falls into misuse more completely than obsolete endgame content. To see some of it repurposed in such a relevant way, well ... I'm just giddy. Like a schoolgirl, only male and 30ish. Similar outfits, though. Cough. So there's a lot there to look forward to, you may be saying, but what about mages? I come here to read about magecraft and also to hear about how warlocks drink their own urine. Where's the info on the parts of the patch that are specific to me? I hear you, reader who I just made up. Read on, and we'll talk all about the few but significant mage changes we can expect in patch 4.1.
Patch 4.0.6 PTR: Justice point trade goods prices
Patch 4.0.6 will bring a new vendor who sells raw materials and resources in exchange for justice points. Many players now capped on justice points have been struggling with ways to spend them. Blizzard has added in these vendors as a kind of points dump for some extra resources, so you're not letting those points waste away into nothingness in your currency tab. Here is a current list of the resources sold and their justice point cost: 1 Hypnotic Dust 200 1 Greater Celestial Essence 800 1 Heavenly Shard 1,200 5 Savage Leather 750 20 Embersilk Cloth 2,500 20 Elementium Ore 2,000 Satchel of Freshly-Picked Herbs (20 random Cataclysm herbs) 3,000 Now, if you think these prices are high, remember that these items are not meant to be bought efficiently with justice points; rather, leftover justice points are supposed to be converting into a little extra in the materials department for you. So far, I think it's a pretty good price list, but I'd love to see Maelstrom Crystals on there for 4,000 points each, which would make some of the upper-end enchants easier. 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.
Patch 4.0.6 PTR: Shaman patch notes
I'm sure many of you thought that shaman were not getting much attention in patch 4.0.6 -- I know I was among those who thought we dodged a bullet. The absence of any shaman notes on the first official patch notes list would have seemed to reinforce this. Late last night, however, community manager Zarhym posted a list of shaman changes that are making their way into the latest PTR build by this evening. Since this is still the PTR, these changes may or may not actually make it to the live game. Still, it is interesting to note exactly the type of things that Blizzard is looking at and the steps it is taking to try and balance the game. Cataclysm really did reshape the world -- not just the aesthetics but the mechanics for pretty much everyone and almost everything. With that big of an upheaval, it is expected that there is going to be a period of balancing relatively early in the expansion's cycle, and at just barely a month in, we're already starting to see some significant changes.
PTR build 13033: Restoration shaman update
Another PTR build is on the way with patch 13033. With it, there are several tweaks and changes all over the place. Earlier today, we heard about the changes warriors are receiving in the patch -- but what about restoration shaman? We only get one change this time around, but it is a big one. Back in build 12984, Mana Tide Totem was changed from adding back a percentage of your base mana to increasing your spirit by 200 percent for the totem's duration. This was a fairly significant change that mirrors the shift from MP5 to spirit. It placed the ability firmly in the camp of healers only, and instead of giving us a flat amount back, it increased our mana regeneration based on whatever it was at the time of casting. The cooldown remained at 5 minutes, which was a bit long, considering the effect. In the latest PTR build, though, the cooldown is being reduced to 3 minutes. This change should also be applied to the Cataclysm beta pretty soon, as well. This is a fantastic change and one that will make us that much stronger in the months to come. An average boss fight right now in Wrath lasts roughly around the 5-minute mark, meaning that you can only use this cooldown once per fight in most cases. After 4.0.1 drops, though, you will be able to use it more than once per boss fight. Pretty sweet deal, if you ask me. Also consider that in the Cataclysm beta, healer mana is at a premium. Every heal has a right and wrong place, and we consume mana so much more quickly than we have previously. This change allows us to use a very important regeneration cooldown much more often, and so we can keep healing for longer. This will give us a distinct advantage early in the upcoming expansion. Anything that gives us mana back is a good thing. Things that give it back to us faster are even better. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
Changes in the 3.1 live patch notes
Now that we have official patch notes for patch 3.1, I thought I'd take a look and see what changed between the last PTR notes and today. And the answer is: not much. Only eight new/changed lines, and nothing that I'd call major. But you may disagree, dear reader, and so I'll list everything I found right here. [Hunter] Roar of Sacrifice can be used on the hunter only [Shaman] Unleashed Rage: Reduced to 3 points, down from 5. No longer increases agility, but instead increases your total expertise by 3/6/9. [was 3/6/9%, though that was probably a typo] [Warlock] Drain Soul: Each time Drain Soul deals damage to a target which can grant experience, it now has a chance to generate a Soul Shard
Arcane Brilliance: I still don't like spirit
Each week Arcane Brilliance delivers a column about Mages to you, and you, in turn, deliver Mages to the column. Thank you, Mages. Some of you deliver Warlocks to the column. Screw you, Warlocks.Wow. Just a warning: I got done watching the series finale of Battlestar Galactica like 5 minutes ago, and I cried like a little girl like 12 times throughout. I'll try to keep it together long enough to successfully complete this column, but holy crap. That was some pretty stirring stuff right there. Let it be known that I'm not too big a nerd to completely lose it during the final episode of BSG. Wait...maybe that actually makes me a bigger nerd? I don't know. I'd like to think there are bigger dorks than me out there, and they're probably twittering about plot holes and scientific inaccuracies and how Ron Moore is the antichrist or whatever as we speak. At least I'm not doing that. I'm bawling like a baby, but I'm not nerd-raging about a sci-fi show on the interwebs, right? Now if you'll excuse me, I have to write a column about the latest nerfs to the Mage class in World of Warcraft.Seriously, patch 3.1 can't come soon enough, as far as I'm concerned. You know why? Because when it arrives, it'll mean Blizzard is finally done nerfing us.Now, granted, Mages on the live servers are definitely on the good side of the class-balance pendulum right now, so it makes a certain amount of sense, given Blizzard's never-ending quest to make everything in the game identical, that we were going to see a few nerfs. Knowing that doesn't make watching it happen any more fun. It's sort of like having a gangrenous limb amputated, only having to be fully awake throughout the operation, and having it take place bit by bit over the course of several months. For frak's sake, just knock us out and don't wake us 'til it's over. You can find the details on this week's chopping--along with my feelings on it--after the break. Bring some novocain, won't you?
Arcane Brilliance: Patch 3.0.8, or Blizzard's love letter to Arcane Mages
Each week, Arcane Brilliance gains 5,000 reputation with the Kirin Tor by writing a column about Mages. That's right, I said 5,000. Are you reading this, Kirin Tor? I'm declaring myself exalted. Give me my dagger already, you selfish jerks.I may have mentioned this before, but I'm an Arcane Mage.I wasn't always. I spent my initial leveling days as a pure Fire Mage, and loved it. I spent a good chunk of time PvPing as a Frost Mage, and had a glorious time. But now I'm all Arcane, all the time, and I'm as pleased with it as it is possible for an unapologetic cynic like myself to be pleased with a thing.And so, as you can imagine, I look at the PTR 3.0.8 patch notes as Blizzard's Christmas gift to me personally. It's as if they decided, "yes, we would like to keep taking money from your credit card, Christian, and so make our product better specifically for you." Actually, that's probably exactly what they decided, only substituting the names of every person ever for my own. The difference is that for me specifically, they've actually been successful. Anytime you give me a patch that buffs my spec of choice specifically and also fails to nerf it in any way, your "give him what he wants and he will give us money for it" business model has been successful.Follow me after the break and we'll discuss what will hereafter be referred to as patch 3.KeepChristianHappy.8 (ok, maybe not...that's incredibly cumbersome), and all that it will change for Mages, especially those of the Arcane persuasion.
Patch 3.0.8: Analysis of Death Knight changes
Well, I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I'm certainly having fun playing my death knight. I can solo a lot of the more difficult quests in the game; my Blood self-healing along with my glyphed Death Strike keeps me topped off and out of danger almost all the time; and I bring desirable buffs to parties and raids. I keep thinking to myself, "Something has to change! I can't have this much fun all the time!"Well, guess what, WoW community? You've gone and done it. You've gotten us buffed. Great. Just great.
New focus frame, threatmeter, quest sharing in the PTR UI
The PTR for 3.0.2 went up over the weekend, and there were a few fun UI tweaks in the patch notes worth mentioning again here -- stuff that far down in those long, long notes usually gets overlooked in favor of all the class changes above it, so let's throw the spotlight on what the new UI will offer.First of all, as previously mentioned, both the new calendar and pets systems are in the game, along with that spiffy new achievements system. But there's more new stuff -- while focus is already usable on the live realms, Blizzard is implementing "a focus frame key" -- like a shift key that will let you target your focus target just for a spell's cast instead of switching back and forth all the time. And there is now an "aggro warning" in the game -- the first traces of Blizzard's official threatmeter we've known was coming for a while.Sharing quests is easier on the PTR -- you can now share quests with party members at any distance, and even in raids, just by linking the quest into party chat. And one of the biggest small changes in the game will help out raid leaders and healers wanting to avoid the "PvPlague": players will get a timer showing when their PvP flag is set to drop. Small UI changes like this often go unnoticed in the patch notes in favor of the much more discussed class nerfs and buffs, but they go a long way towards making the game a lot more fun to play.
PTR up "soon," WSG changes coming
Maybe you thought because it was Friday night that you could avoid new WoW news? Think again-- Tigole has posted on the forums that the PTR is coming up "soon," and the PTR forums have been reset in anticipation (unfortunately the forums have gone down due to all the chaos). We're not expecting the patch until Tuesday, so throwing it up tonight would be a very Blizzard thing for Blizzard to do. As Eliah said before, too, character transfers are up and running, so all signs point to Blizzard springing this on us very soon.Tigole also says to watch WSG when the PTR comes back up, as there will be lots of changes. Their goal is to keep the gameplay similar, he says, while ending the turtling and flag kiting. Should be interesting. We're around this evening and will keep you updated if we see any notes.
PTR Notes: Griftah's back in town
Blizzard is apparently captivated by Griftah, the snake-oil sales Troll in Shattrath, because they've changed him yet again in 2.3. He's back inside the city, so apparently that investigation the Peacekeeper was doing dug up nothing. And he's gotten a bigger role in the game than ever-- not only does he now have a quest for you to do (that leads into Zul'Aman), but apparently one of the ingredients for the Engineering mount, a hula doll (don't ask), is sold by him for a whopping 100g.I like Griftah, and I'm glad that he's back-- that jerk Scryer going through his things was none too kind to the shifty Troll while he was gone. And my guess is that Griftah isn't done being vindicated-- I think it would be really funny if, in an upcoming patch, Blizzard changed that old 30g necklace Griftah sold to have a really cool proc or effect put on it, sort of a reward for those who've stood by Griftah the whole time.On the other hand, I hope this "guinea pig" of progressive content is really helping Blizzard learn how to do it-- seems a little strange to waste updates like this on just one Troll when we could be seeing real progressive content elsewhere in the game. Still, every little step counts-- it's just another update in the whole saga of Griftah the Troll.
PTR notes: You got your felhunter in my windserpent!
A humorous little bug on the PTR has hunter and warlocks spinning. It seems that while implementing the new feature where pets will despawn when on a flying mount and respawn on landing, the pets have somehow gotten horribly confused and have ended up with the wrong person. Not too bad when it's two people of the same class, but hunters have been coming up with warlock pets and warlocks have suddenly discovered they have a frostsaber. Even more awesome, the pets are apparently usable. A mage reported being killed by a felguard with Bestial Wrath. Warlocks are able to keep cats on their victims while dotting them up. This is madness! I presume this bug will be fixed by the time the patch comes out, though I'm kind of hoping it isn't. The confusion it would cause would almost be worth the forum complaining ... What do you think about this bug?
PTR Notes: The first four bosses of Mount Hyjal
The lucky ducks of the guild Impervious on Stormreaver had a fun night on the public test realm Tuesday. With the help of a GM, they faced the first four bosses of Mount Hyjal. The GM deathtouched two of the bosses at a certain percent so that Impervious could test the next fight. The first boss, Rage Winterchill, is a lich with a Death & Decay spell. Impervious got him to 30 percent before the GM deathtouched him. He dropped some resto shaman bracers and rogue boots. Anetheron is a dreadlord whose abilities include Carrion Swarm, which hits for 6k and reduces healing done by 75 percent for 15 seconds; Vampiric Aura, which causes him and his adds to get 300 percent healing from melee damage done; and Inferno, which summons infernals pretty much constantly throughout the fight. Impervious got him to 50 percent before the GM asked them to move on (sorry, no deathtouch and therefore no loots.) Next up was Kaz'Rogal, a nasty-looking Kazzak thing with an interesting ability: he mana drains you for 600 periodically, and if you don't have enough mana, you take 10k damage. This ability gets sped up as the fight goes on, so it looks like you have to burn him down fast. According to Impervious, they actually did kill this boss on their own on the second attempt, receiving a nice healing mace and a tanking shield. However, they did get a bit of help from the lovely giant Tauren Flaskataur, who sold them a ton of consumables including the Flask of Flaskocity (I am not making this up.) The final boss Impervious faced was the pit lord Azgalor. Azgalor was sort of a hyped-up warlock -- he had a Rain of Fire, a Howl of Terror, and some sort of Curse of Doom-like thing that spawns a Doomguard upon your death. His aggro was highly tetchy, so Impervious called it a night and went to bed.
PTR Notes: Angry tailors vs. Blizzard
Sorry, clothie tailors -- today's not your lucky day. As Mike noted early, word from the PTR is that two of the BOP tailoring sets -- Frozen Shadoweave and Spellfire -- have been significantly nerfed, at least according to their users. As a set, Spellfire gains 29 int but loses 34 damage and 5 spell crit rating, while Frozen Shadoweave loses 34 damage and gets 24 int. The stats on the Primal Mooncloth set seem to be unchanged. As expected, tailors are not happy about this. While it was widely acknowledged that some of the crafted sets were superior to Tiers 4 and 5, and were a big reason why mages, warlocks and shadow priests were out-DPSing melee, many tailors thought buffing the raid sets instead was the solution. Selected comments from the threads include "gg blizzard i hate you all", "this is a pathetic attempt by blizz to fix their raid game", and "This patch makes me want to kill a cat. Lots of cats. Kittens, even." However, a few casters are okay with the changes, mostly because they calculate it as a minor loss of DPS in exchange for int. I'm not a clothie or a tailor, so I really don't have an informed reaction to this. What do you think? Is this a needed change, or is it a bait and switch for tailors who put a lot of money into their profession? Update: Looks like angry tailors win.
PTR Notes: Fixing illumination
Over at Blessing of Kings, Coriel has a great explanation of how the paladin's to-be-changed Illumination talent -- which has been happily residing in the holy tree since the game's release -- became such a thorny problem. The talent (as it exists now) returns the base mana cost of a healing spell to the paladin when the healing spell crits. (It costs 5 talent points to bring it to this level of effectiveness and requires 15 points in the talent tree. So a fully maxxed illumination will cost you 20 talent points in the holy tree.) The end result is that, overall, the paladin receives a mana discount on their healing spells equal to their spell crit rate. Prior to patch 1.9, a paladin could boost his or her holy spell crit rate by 5% through talents (priests have a similar talent that boosts holy spell crit), but it was difficult for paladins to get any other spell crit gear. The plate itemization simply didn't exist and there was heavy competition for generic items that a paladin could use like the Azuresong Mageblade.
PTR Notes: Climb every mountain
It looks like the Battle of Mount Hyjal has been opened for testing on the PTR to everyone with Honored reputation or greater with the Violet Eye. Boubouille of MMO Champion, Bistustal at World of Raids, and the stalwart testers of the Elitist Jerks forums have gone and taken some lovely screenshots for those of us not on the PTR. You start out at an Alliance base commanded by Lady Jaina Proudmoore, who is apparently both 20 feet tall and totally okay with the non-scourge undead. The Scourge come over the hill in Black Morass-like waves. Without the help of your team, the Alliance and Jaina get owned, and everything despawns. According to the lore, after the waves at the Alliance base, you should go to the Horde base (commanded by Thrall) and the final Night Elf base (commanded by Tyrande.) You'll fight your way up the mountain until the final battle against Archimonde the Defiler. Wowwiki also suggests that you fight two other major lore figures from Hyjal -- the dreadlord Anetheron and the pit lord Azgalor. All in all, Mount Hyjal looks like a fun instance. Too bad I'll probably never see it until level 80. What kind of instances would you like to see in the Caverns of Time? Do you wish you could run Hyjal?
Twink changes in 2.1.0
I never really understood the popularity of the twinking phenomenon. A lowbie character, horribly expensive, never growing or changing but only there to own unsuspecting level 22s venturing to WSG for the first time ... meh. But a lot of people seem to like them, and those people might be upset about some of the undocumented changes in 2.1.0. According to Xarim on Battleground Forums, several items have been changed to make very low-level twinking more difficult. The Lucky Fishing Hat was a cheap way for level 19 twinks to get 15 stamina, but it now requires level 30 to equip. The herbalism-gathered Nightmare Seeds, which give you a temporary boost of 2000 health, have been changed to be 60+ only. The biggest change for twinks, though, is the fact that the blue leg armor and spellthread leg enhancements can only be placed on items of level 35 or greater, as can shoulder and helm enchants. For some reason, the epic spellthread and leg armor can still be placed on anything. Go figure. Do you have a 19 or 29 twink? How will these changes affect you? (Thanks to firefly for the tip!)
Daily quests for casual players irk the hardcore
As you may have heard by now, the faction rep grind for the Netherwing epic mount will require players to complete "Daily" quests-- that is, short collecting quests that can be done only once per day. When players first heard about that, a lot of them felt the same way that Oddig of Skullcrusher did-- they saw the time limits on the quests as just another way Blizzard was trying to turn WoW into a timesink, in order to make spend more time playing less game.Which is not exactly wrong, if you're a hardcore player who usually grinds rep for hours every day. But as Drysc says, the Daily quests are meant for players who don't have a lot of time to invest all at once. They're meant "to provide greater reward for smaller investments of time." Basically, this is their answer to giving the casual players their own content. Just like rested XP (which is a great idea that rewards you for not rushing through content), the rewards at the end of these "Daily" grinds can't be rushed to by hardcore players who play in huge chunks of time.When you put it that way, I'm all for it. Hardcore players still won't be happy, but it's there's plenty for them to grind away already-- if you guys have already grinded every single reputation in the game so far that these daily quests are the only ones you have to do, then try playing another game for a bit (I've been liking Titan Quest a lot lately). Some players argue that the casual players expected to do these quests probably won't have the 5,000g needed for the epic riding skill to even start them, to which I say-- err, good point.Of course the other note here is that, as players have noticed on the PTR, the quests seem to reset every time the server restarts. So if you're really hankering to get to that mount quickly, you don't really have to wait for every day-- hotfixes and restarts can give you a few more quests to do every week.
