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WoW Patch 3.1 PTR Druid changes
All right, Druids. I've been rolled out of bed to come look at the new PTR test notes, because apparently this is a big deal or something. As far as I'm concerned, all important business can wait until a reasonable hour in the morning, like 3 PM, but because this site is run by crazy people here I am.So let's go skim the patch notes quickly -- /flick flick flick -- and try to answer the most important question first:Is Tauren cat form still in the game?/flick flickYes.Man, %*#$ this patch.Leaving aside this EGREGIOUS OMISSION, we're going to take a look at the preliminary Druid changes in patch 3.1 past the cut here, and courtesy of Michael Sacco and some data-mining gnomes, we also have the Druid Tier 8 shoulder graphic, which is pretty cool and reminds me a lot of Tier 5. I'm also seeing some undocumented changes in the game files off MMO Champion, but I'll have to examine those later today. I haven't been able to get on the PTR yet, so I can't confirm whether these changes have actually gone live on the test realm.
WoW Patch 3.1 PTR Warlock changes
Blizzard said that they'd be introducing a lot of changes for the Warlock class in Patch 3.1, and if the incomplete patch notes are any indication, it looks like they're following through on that promise. You can read through the patch notes, but the Warlock changes are incredibly interesting. There are a lot of them, so let's go through them one by one and I'll weigh in with my thoughts on whether the changes are good, bad, or badass. Let's start with the baseline changes.Curse of the Elements (Rank 5) - Increased to 13% spell damage, up from 10%.It appears that the effects of Malediction has been rolled into the highest rank of this spell -- which means raiding Warlocks regardless of spec no longer have an excuse not to throw it up during a boss fight. Of course, this also means the Warlocks in the raid will have to talk amongst themselves as to who gets that assignment. It's like the Scorpid Sting of Hunters. It's a fantastic debuff, but it doesn't show up on the damage meters.Curse of Recklessness - RemovedOne of the least utilized curses, if only because there are better armor reduction effects which don't actually help your enemies. The good news is that the armor reduction has been rolled into the next spell...Curse of Weakness - Now also reduces the armor of the target by 5%.Warlock curses aside from Curse of Agony are generally utility spells, and this one has just been improved. I'm still wondering where the flee prevention fits in now that Curse of Recklessness is gone, though. We'll see if Blizzard addresses that through another ability.More changes after the jump...
Dual specs currently cost 1000g
Hot off the PTR, the current price for Dual Specs is 1000g.Many thanks to Dustin for sending us the screenshot of the process (see a larger version). You can see that the NPC gives you a little background about the feature, and then the confirmation box comes up asking if you're sure that you want to spend all that gold.Obviously, this is the point where you click "Accept" and dance around for joy that you now have two specializations.We'll have more about the exact mechanics and workings of dual specializations as the day goes on. In the mean time, check out the WoW Insider Guide to Patch 3.1 and the PTR Patch 3.1 Patch Notes for more information. Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
WoW Patch 3.1 PTR Death Knight changes
Good Morning Death Knights! As expected, we got a pretty long list of changes for Death Knights. The frost tree has received some extensive and actually somewhat shocking reshuffling, and there's a few other unexpected but interesting changes. It's good to be mindful that these changes are still in flux. We'll probably see more changes and perhaps some reversion of these changes depending on what happens. It's worth noting that MMO Champion currently has undocumented changes and a completely different 3.1 DK Talent tree up that doesn't even match the one suggested in the patch notes, so we can't say for sure if the patch notes are already outdated. But for now, we're going to focus on the patch changes for the most part. So, let's dive right in.
WoW Patch 3.1 PTR Holy and Disc Priest changes
A lot of changes are being introduced for both types of healing Priests in the upcoming 3.1 patch. Some of them are expected and others are unexpected! As always, check out the full PTR notes (which are most likely incomplete). The promised changes to increase Holy's PvP ability don't seem to be here yet. I rubbed my eyes when I saw it because this wasn't the Holy tree I remembered. As an overall grade, I'd say there are some serious buffs being doled out for healing Priests. Our Area of Effect heals have been ramped up! Some notable highlights? Rapture has some new additions to it (It grants energy, rage, mana, or runic power to the target when it is removed). Prayer of Healing is no longer restricted to the Priests current party. Renew get's some extra nice bonuses in the form of an instant-application aspect and an overall spellpower bonus. Keep reading! Disc and Holy changes are after the break!
WoW Patch 3.1 PTR is up!
Booya folks. Booya.The 3.1 PTR is up and running. You can check out the patch notes and the WoW Insider Guide to Patch 3.1 for everything that is on there. Some of the big things you'll want to look at right away include dual specs, the argent tournament, and a host of new achievements.Most of the WoW Insider staff is up late burning the midnight oil tonight, so we'll be pumping things out here as fast as we can. Should be an exciting day!
WoW Patch 3.1 PTR Shadow Priest changes
The PTR patch notes have hit, and while we don't have the entire spread of changes yet (they'll be coming in waves), we do have a lot of pretty good material to look at. Personally, I think the Shadow Priest changes are pretty great this time around. PvP Shadow Priests might feel a little disappointed, but PvE Priests should be fairly happy with how things are going so far.Even PvP received a few good buffs, but while it's a step in the right direction, it simply isn't enough. It feels as if they're trying to approach some of the big issues carefully, when they really do need to go in there and start making pretty sweeping changes to the PvP-centric talents of the Shadow Priest. A lot needs to change to make the Shadow Priest relevant in PvP again without strapping a Warlock to their hip at all times.Enough of that, though. Let's look into the changes, shall we? Shadowfiend: Health scaling increased. Now receives 30% of the master's spell power. Mana return increased to 5%, up from 4%. The Shadowfiend now receives mana when its melee attacks land, rather than when it deals damage. Movement speed normalized to player movement speed. Tooltip revised.
The Argent Tournament in Patch 3.1
In one of the most unexpected announcements about the eagerly anticipated Patch 3.1 PTR, Zarhym announced a new world event called The Argent Tournament. The event will be included in the PTR, even though he makes it clear that many aspects of the event will still be under development. It looks like a pretty big event, based on the Argent Crusade faction in Icecrown. Some highlights include: Mounted combat - Blizzard wasn't clear if players would be using their own mounts or special vehicle-type mounts, but the say that the tournament was to prove one's worth to their own capital city A tournament coliseum - Daily quests to build a coliseum will likely be similar to the multi-phase daily quests in the Isle of Quel'danas New Achievements All new rewards -Zarhym promises new items, titles, tabards, pets, mounts, and banners (possibly like the Honor and reputation-bought Battle Standards?) This looks like a pretty big event and Blizzard managed to keep it under the radar. With all the excitement about Ulduar and the massive work that's certain the content entails, it's a pleasant surprise that Blizzard had this planned all along -- promising more festivities as time goes by. We over here at WoW Insider are giddy with the thought of the event, and as Daniel put it, it makes us feel like we're "back in High School being teased by the cutest girl in senior year". Uh, yeah. That means we're kind of excited. You should be, too.
PTR character copy queue shortening
Many people are reporting now that the PTR character copy queue is quickly shortening. Earlier today it was up around a 24 day wait for characters to be copied over, now I've seen it reported that it's down around 7 days (and shrinking). The reports are mainly for the US PTR, and not the EU.The queue was very high because Blizzard was letting everyone line up to get their characters copied, and not actually doing any of the copying yet. However now that they're copying the actual characters over to the PTR, the queue is diminishing fast.You can get in line to copy your character over via the "PTR Character Copy" link on your account management page. Please note however, that at this time Blizzard is not allowing any more characters to be queued for copying, but that can change at any minute.This is a good indication that the PTR will be up very soon. We're fully staffed here at WoW Insider HQ and will be bringing you the latest as soon as the PTR goes up. Hopefully including some juicy patch notes, screenshots and detailed information on Ulduar, and our first glimpse at how exactly dual specs will work.This post brought to you by the word soon™!
How to be useful on the PTR
Yep, another PTR post. For all we know, the recent frenzy surrounding the PTR has been manufactured by Blizzard as a practical joke while their programmers are out playing skee-ball. We don't have the foggiest idea of when it's going to hit, but back-channel discussion here at WoW Insider HQ currently has the smart money on "whenever Elizabeth Wachowski is away from her computer." My real reason for writing this is that a lot of people in the beta seemed to treat the server as an extended vacation from the live realms, and this upset a lot of old PTR hands who assumed people knew they were supposed to submit feedback, and not just play with all the cool new toys. Yes, you should have fun, and you can contemplate the trippy philosophical notion of your character's existence in an alternate universe (duuuuuuuuuuuuuuude!), but you can do a lot of things to help patch 3.1 launch without issues. The point of the test realms' existence is for Blizzard to test everything new with as large a population of players as possible. If you're uninterested in submitting polite, honest, and frequent feedback, you're making it harder for them to get an accurate sense of the patch's impact on live realms.
New PTR announcements [Updated]
A couple of new things about the Patch 3.1 PTR this morning for you all. Dual specs, character copying, premades, downloading, vendors, and PTR release; it's like our own version of lions and tigers and bears, oh my!Premade Characters No plans to have them be available. This doesn't completely rule them out, but Blizzard is usually pretty upfront with us if they're going to allow us to make some premade characters. Dual Spec is not finalized There is a lot of QQ already about dual specs and how they will work. We've seen everyone under the sun now tell us that the system isn't finalized. That means that the level 80 requirement for dual specs is still the way it'll be, but that could change in a heartbeat.
Small patch deployed
There has been a small patch unexpectedly deployed tonight. According to some, the patch updates the launcher. It appears the game version remains stable at 3.0.9.9551, which is the same numbering we saw earlier in the week when 3.0.9 was released.The patch is about 5 megs in size. We do not have a download mirror, as it appears to only update the launcher.While there is some speculation that the launcher is being prepared to get ready for the 3.1 PTR, all that is speculation. We do however, expect the 3.1 PTR to drop sometime soon. In the mean time you can check out our list of known patch 3.1 changes.If there is any information from Blizzard on the patch, we'll update this post.
EU PTR Forums up, character copying reported successful [Updated]
You can head over the EU PTR forums, and you'll notice that they've been wiped clean and are up and running. They contain links to all the class changes already released, but no actual PTR patch notes.Interestingly, several people are reporting that they're able to copy characters over successfully.This is rather surprising, because despite the recent class changes many of us weren't expecting the PTR until next week at the earliest. Perhaps this is a sign that it'll come earlier, or at least is in the "getting ready" stage for public release.This PTR is going to be huge, on the scale of patch 2.4 when they released the Sunwell.We'll have more up on WoW Insider the second we hear it, and don't forget to check out our coverage of Patch 3.1.Update 12:45 p.m. EST: We're getting several reports that US/NA people can copy over characters to the US PTR now.
PTR closes, after patch is released
Today the PTRs have closed their doors, officially ending the testing phase of patch 3.0.8. And while there will be some crying folks who say things like "This patch is broke, and they're testing it on live," well, there are some good tissues to be had.It's also good to note that the PTR closed after, not before, the patch was released. Many people, both our readers and several people on staff, use the PTR's status as a barometer for when the patch will come out. And while often its closure heralds in a new patch, it is now evident that its activeness does not mean a patch is not coming. An important point to be had
Titanguard appears to still be part of 3.0.8
In the latest PTR patch Titanguard, the new weapon enchant that will be introduced with patch 3.0.8, was removed from the vendor. Titanguard provided a weapon with +75 Stamina. Many people felt this was the tanking enchant for Wrath.Because of its removal from the vendor, many people thought that it wasn't going to appear when 3.0.8 goes live. Many folks have sent us tips via our tip line saying as much, and the official forums have multiple speculation posts on the subject.However it appears that the removal was accidental and that by all indications Titanguard will be showing up in the live version. Maaven, the Blizzard blue poster over in the PTR forums, tells us all: "We'll investigate." Since they have been rather forthcoming lately as to the removal of PTR items (see the information about Death Knight tanking weapons), we're taking this to mean it's just a temporary issue."Don't Panic" tanks! That sexy 75 stamina will be yours soon enough.
New PTR build incoming
Maaven posted a short time ago that the 3.0.8 Public Test Realm (PTR) servers are being taken offline for an update tonight. There is no ETA when the PTRs will be back up.There was a recent update to the PTR patch notes, and there has been a lot of activity on the PTR forums from the blues. It should be noted that Ghostcrawler once again today reiterated that dual spec will not be unveiled in 3.0.8.There's a few of us here that will be up tonight, so check back and see what the new build brings. I'm placing my gold on more clam updates.
Extended maintenance, some hints of patch 3.0.8
Maintenance will run "extended" tomorrow for all U.S. realms until 11:00 a.m. PST / 2:00 p.m. EST. The last few weeks we've seen the down time grow as Blizzard's worked out issues, so I wouldn't count on the servers being up at 11:00 a.m. PST. However I'll happily eat my words. However unlike Alex, I will not eat my hat.We also have heard a couple sources whispering in our ear that patch 3.0.8 will be dropping either tomorrow or next week. We'll have to wait and see on that one. Don't take what we're saying here as any more than a creditable rumor.However these rumors do have some added credence in that they coincide with comments from Ghostcrawler today such as "These [changes] will be in the next patch (3.0.8) even thought they were not on the PTR," and "We'll be able to share patch notes soon."No matter if 3.0.8 drops tomorrow or not, there will be downtime. Fable II anyone?
Breakfast Topic: Patch 3.0.8 excitement
Last week brought us a lot of news on patch 3.0.8, and with no sign of it hitting live realms particularly soon, we're bound to see a lot more. It's not a full blown content patch, so no new dungeons or raids, nothing of that sort. That doesn't mean it's not packed full of cool stuff, though.What are all of you looking forward to the most? There aren't a whole load of major class changes for my personal favorite class, Priests, but the one change there is for Shadow excites me a whole lot more than it really should. Glyph of Mind Flay will just cause the spell to slow the target a little less, rather than removing it entirely. Small change, but it will make life as a Shadow Priest so much easier. When dual specs roll around, I can just have a Healing set and a Shadow set of glyphs rather than a raid set, a soloing set, and a healing set.
Holy Paladin goggles added in patch 3.0.8
Holy Paladin Engineers can finally rejoice, because patch 3.0.8 is bringing them the goggles that have been oddly missing from Wrath thus far. The highly anticipated Unbreakable Healing Amplifiers are pretty good, and just like the other Northrend goggles, they only require level 72 to wear. While many peoples' mains will outgrow these goggles in 10-man raids, they're perfect for breaking into raids or twinking out an Engineering alt. Along with all the usual Engineering sorts of things, the stats are: Unbreakable Healing Goggles1821 Armor55 Stamina, 60 Intellect1 meta socket, 1 yellow socket87 spell power, 73 crit rating So they're pretty good! But they don't really hold up to raid gear. As for our Feral Druid buddies who also happen to be missing some goggles, I'm not 100% sure if they've opened up the Leather goggles to you yet, but if it hasn't happened yet it probably will. The addition of these goggles shows that they're aware of the problem, at least. If I had a Druid I would hop onto the PTR and take a look, but alas, I do not.[via MMO-Champion]
New tanking enchants added in patch 3.0.8
It seems the devs took notice of the fact that many important Tanking enchants were just plain missing from Wrath, because we're getting a couple of new ones in patch 3.0.8. At the price of 5 Abyss Crystals each, you can buy the following formulae from the Shard Trader in Dalaran: Enchant Weapon - Titanguard: Teaches you how to permanently enchant a melee weapon to increase Stamina by 75. Requires a level 60 or higher item. Editor's Update: Please be aware this enchantment has been removed. Enchant Bracer - Major Stamina: Teaches you how to permanently enchant bracers to increase Stamina by 40. Requires a level 60 or higher item. Before Titanguard, Mongoose remained the best tanking enchant (unless stacking threat stats), which was just downright silly. It's still a good avoidance enchantment, but for your pure tanking set you can't really pass up +750 HP on your weapon, before any talents or buffs are thrown into the equation. That's pretty incredible!The Bracer enchant is a 28 stamina over Burning Crusade's equivalent: Enchant Bracer - Fortitude. That's quite the jump. While neither of these enchantments are especially interesting due to the lack of procs and things like that, they're definitely very good and I fully expect tanks to be scrambling for them as soon as patch 3.0.8 goes live.
