wow-ptr
Latest
WoW Patch 3.1 PTR: Shaman glyph and undocumented changes
So in the cold light of day we have yet more changes than the PTR notes indicated for our beloved shamans. Both glyphs and general changes need to be discussed, and so I drag my exhausted hinder forth to dig through the vast and sprawling PTR hoopla to determine what is up for the totem dropping set. What's good, what's bad, what's head scratchingly confusing? We talked about shaman class changes in the PTR notes early this morning, so we'll start there, because it's short. Fire Nova Totem's mana cost has been reduced. Everything else was covered in the original patch notes, so... yeah. Fire Noval Totem costs less. It's still a fire totem, so elemental shamans will have to decide between it and Totem of Wrath. But at least the decision to drop one and lose the benefits of Totem of Wrath will cost you less mana.Luckily, we have quite a few glyphs to discuss as well. Let's talk about those.
New profession recipes on the patch 3.1 PTR
Here is still more patch 3.1 information unearthed by the sleuths at MMO-Champion. These are some new profession recipes, including epic belts and boots for all. The epic recipes call for Runed Orbs, which presumably will drop in Ulduar, much like Nether Vortices of BC. I wouldn't be surprised if they were purchaseable with badges of some sort -- maybe Emblems of Valor. Edit: This is obviously not the full extent of new recipes, so please don't say "that's it?" (I'm looking at you, engineers.) Alchemy - Elixir of Minor Accuracy Blacksmithing - Battlelord's Plate Boots, Belt of the Titans, Indestructible Plate Girdle, Plate Girdle of Righteousness, Spiked Deathdealers, Titansteel Spellblade, Treads of Destiny Enchanting - Enchant Boots - Lesser Accuracy, Enchant Staff - Greater Spellpower, Enchant Staff - Spellpower Engineering - High-Powered Flashlight Jewelcrafting - Amulet of True Sight, Prismatic Black Diamond Leatherworking - Belt of Arctic Life, Belt of Dragons, Blue Belt of Chaos, Boots of Living Scale, Boots of Wintry Endurance, Death-warmed Belt, Footpads of Silence, Lightning Grounded Boots Tailoring - Cord of White Dawn, Sash of Ancient Power, Savior's Slippers, Spellslinger's Slippers, Spidersilk Drape 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.
New pets and mounts found in the patch 3.1 files
MMO-Champion strikes again! So far they've already brought us undocumented changes and glyph information from the patch 3.1 PTR; now we have a whole long list of new non-combat pets and mounts. I'm pretty excited about the Enchanted Broom, myself, as far as the pets go, and...what's that? "Rideable mechanical gnome head?" Holy cats, I gotta get me one of those. Disclaimer: this is data files stuff. Some of it may change, and some may never surface at all. New Pets Spring Rabbit - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Spring Rabbit. Plump Turkey - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Plump Turkey. Teldrassil Sproutling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Teldrassil Sproutling. Tirisfal Batling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Tirisfal batling. Dun Morogh Cub - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Dun Morogh Cub. Durotar Scorpion - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Durotar scorpion. Alarming Clockbot - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Alarming Clockbot. Elwynn Lamb - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Elwynn lamb. Mulgore Hatchling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Mulgore hatchling.
Undocumented glyph changes in 3.1
With patch 3.1 up on the PTR, expect information about it to keep flooding in. As specifically stated by the blues, the 3.1 patch notes are rather incomplete. Fortunately, the good people at MMO-Champion have compiled a list of all the glyph changes they found in the data files. And here they are, for your perusing pleasure. Remember, of course, this is all subject to change as 3.1 progresses on the PTR. And if you missed it, here are the official 3.1 PTR patch notes so far, and some undocumented changes. Death Knight Glyph of Strangulate - Reduces the cooldown of your Strangulate by 60 sec. (Old: Inceases the range of your Strangulate by 20 yards.) Glyph of Icebound Fortitude - Your Icebound Fortitude now always grants at least 30% damage reduction, regardless of your defense skill. (Old: Your Icebound Fortitude costs no runic power) Glyph of Unbreakable Armor - Increases the amount of damage absorbed by Unbreakable Armor by 1%. (Old: Unbreakable Armor grants an additional 15% armor) Glyph of Plague Strike - Your Plague Strike does 60% additional damage. (Old: 20% additional damage if a disease was on the target) Glyph of Death Strike - Increases your Death Strike's damage by 2% for every 5 runic power you currently have. The runic power is not consumed by this effect. (Old: 2% regardless of runic power) Glyph of Hungering Cold (new) - Reduces the cost of Hungering Cold by 10 runic power. Glyph of Unholy Blight (new) - Increases the duration of Unholy Blight by 10 sec. Glyph of Death Coil (new) - Reduces the cost of Death Coil by 8 runic power. Glyph of Pestilence (new) - Your Pestilence ability now refreshes disease durations on your primary target back to their maximum duration. Glyph of Howling Blast (new) - Your Howling Blast ability now infects your targets with Frost Fever.
Undocumented changes in Patch 3.1 on the PTR
There is the announced changes in every patch and the unannounced changes. And boy, did some interesting things get slipped into this first round of notes on the PTR for Patch 3.1 that weren't on the official patch list. The full list is below (so far) is below, courtesy of MMO-Champion. You'll see some talent and spell changes we already know about mixed in when those that are new since 8 hours ago when we first posted. Analysis for each class to come throughout the day.Death KnightBloodSkills Pestilence is now 1 rank. It now spreads existing Blood Plague and Frost Fever infections from your target to all other enemies within 10 yards. (Previously dealt damage) Strangulate no longer deals damage. Blood Boil damage increased, but its range has been reduced. Death Pact's heal can no longer crit. Blood Strike now instantly strikes the enemy, causing 40% weapon damage plus 305.6, increased by 12.5% per disease on the target at rank 6. (Previously caused 50% weapon damage plus 191, and an additional 95.5 bonus damage per disease) Heart Strike now instantly strikes the target and his nearest ally, causing 50% weapon damage plus 368, increased by 10% per disease on the target at rank 6. (Previously caused 60% weapon damage plus 220.8, and an additional 110.4 bonus damage per disease)
WoW Patch 3.1 PTR Paladin changes
After a wait that I was beginning to suspect wouldn't end, the 3.1 PTR is finally online and we have some new 3.1 patch notes. Though there are some noticable changes announced earlier this month missing from the latest patch notes, all of them seem to be in the current PTR build, only undocumented (most undocumented notes here are via MMO-Champion). As with all undocumented changes -- they may change at any time. For a complete rundown of the changes listed in the patch notes (and the changes not listed in the patch notes!), read on.
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 Warrior changes
I want you to try and remain calm, okay? I know as warriors you're crazy excited for all the twists and turns for the class on the PTR. While I can't hit all of the highlights, I can give you a taste.Warrior ARMS Blood Frenzy improved to 2/4% increased damage. Heroic Throw missile speed increased. And we're done.Now's a good time to remind everyone that these patch notes are not in any way, shape or form complete, and that there will almost certainly be more changes. We've already seen posts from Ghostcrawler indicating that a lot more than this was in the works, so we can consider these changes just preliminary.So why just roll these two out for warriors? Both are good changes, it's true, but when some classes are seeing major overhauls these look rather paltry. What's going on?
WoW Patch 3.1 PTR Shaman changes
Well, there's some interesting new stuff happening in the latest patch notes for the 3.1 PTR. Like what, you ask? Well, here's a sample from what's coming for enhancement: New Talent: Frozen Power: Increases the damage done by your Frostbrand Weapon if it is enchanted on your main-hand weapon by 10/20%, and your Frost Shock has a 50/100% chance to root the target in Ice for 5 sec. when used on targets at or further than 15 yards from you. Spirit Weapons: Now reduces all threat generated by 30%, not just physical attacks. Stormstrike charges have been increased by 2, and cooldown reduced by 2 sec. And that's hardly all, folks. Let's take a look at the complete list of changes and discuss them behind the jump.
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.
World of Warcraft 3.1 PTR Patch Notes
Here we go boys and girls, the main event, what we've all been waiting for: the PTR Patch 3.1 Patch Notes. As a reminder, these patch notes are preliminary and incomplete – but that's just the way we like 'em. There will be lots more added in to them over the coming weeks, eventually resulting in the release patch notes we'll see when 3.1 makes it to the live servers.These notes were retrieved from the downloaded patch files. Blizzard has not (as usual) updated their websites to reflect the latest PTR notes.Of course, we'll be bringing you detailed updates on the notes as they're changed every day. Stay tuned and check back often for the latest!Some of the major changes included in the patch notes include: Mounts will not dismount in water Dual specs Ulduar raid instance BG queuing anywhere in the world Full notes after the break! Be sure to check out the WoW Insider's Guide to Patch 3.1 for all our posts concerning this latest patch.
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.
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.
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
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.
