January 31, 2009

WoW Patch 3.1 notes leaked

Somebody says there are the official patch notes for WoW 3.1 from an early internal build. And WoW Insider are talking whether Those WoW Patch 3.1 legit or not.

WoW 3.1 Patch Notes

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.1.0

The Mysteries of Ulduar

For many years, the ancient titan city of Ulduar has been a home to the Storm Giants of Northrend, where they have remained hidden from the Lich King and his Scourge Army. Recently, Ulduar has been taken over by the Iron Dwarves, who are being lead by a mysterious entity that is becoming a growing threat to Northrend and the rest of Azeroth.

Brann Bronzebeard and the Explorer's League have setup a new camp in The Storm Peaks in order to serve as a base of operations for the Ulduar investigations. Chester Copperpot and his goons, longtime enemies of the Explorer's League, also have a vested interest in Ulduar.

The Ruby Sanctum


For thousands of years, the Chamber of Aspects was used as a secret meeting place for the five great Dragon Aspects. Since the formation of the Wyrmrest Accord and the war on Malygos, the portals leading to the dragonflight sanctuaries remained dormant...until now. Trouble has arisen within the Red Dragonflight's Ruby Sanctum! Queen Alexstrasza and the Red Dragonflight are seeking able bodied adventurers to find out what lies within.

General

• Ulduar is now available in both Heroic and Normal Difficulty, players can find this raid dungeon in The Storm Peaks.

• The Ruby Sanctum is now available in both Heroic and Normal Difficulty, players can find this raid dungeon in the Dragonblight, beneath Wyrmrest Temple in the Chamber of Aspects.

• The Nexus War Continues! The Blue Dragonflight is attempting to harness the energy surrounding Crystalsong Forest. The Silver Covenant and The Sunreavers are preparing for a full offensive, but they need your help! Many new daily quests are available at Windrunner's Overlook (Alliance) and Sunreaver's Command (Horde).

• Dual Talent Specialization: Players can now visit their class trainers to learn a second Specialization. Specializations may be switched at any time as long as the player is not in combat, this will also change your character's Glyphs, Action Bars and Talents. Specialization options can be found in the talent menu.

• Potency Rating: Haste Rating, Armor Penetration Rating and Spell Penetration have been merged into a single stat. Each percent of Potency will decrease the enemy's spell resistances and armor; it will also increase the player's cast speed and melee attack speed.

• Replenishment: Now grants 0.5% of base mana every second and can effect up to 25 raid members.

• A new bank slot is now available for purchase!

Achievements

• Removed "Brew of the Year" as criteria for the "Brewmaster" meta achievement.

• The number of cooking recipes needed for the "Chef De Cuisine" achievement has been lowered to 150.

• Several Dungeon & Raid Achievements related to The Ruby Sanctum and Ulduar have been added!

• Several World Event Achievements related to Noble Garden have been added!

PvP

• Battlegrounds

o Players may now accumulate up to 100,000 Honor Points and 7500 Arena Points.

o Players can now queue up for Battlegrounds anywhere in the world! New queuing options are available in the PvP menu.

o Players can now queue up for all 5 battlegrounds at once.

o Reputation gains from winning battles in Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin have been significantly increased.

o Alterac Valley Marks of Honor, Warsong Gulch Marks of Honor and Arathi Basin Marks of Honor may now be exchanged for reputation gains with their associated factions.

o Lake Wintergrasp

 The Battle for Lake Wintergrasp will now occur every 2 hours.

 After winning a Wintergrasp Match all players of the opposite faction will be teleported to their respective faction's camp.

 Many optimizations have been made to the Lake Wintergrasp zone, players should experience significantly less visual latency when fighting in densely populated areas.

o Strand of the Ancients

 Players carrying Seaforium charges cannot exceed 100% run speed.

 Seaforium charges now take more time to disarm.

 Turrets now deal slightly more damage to vehicles.

 The honor gained while fighting in the Strand of the Ancients has been slightly increased.

Death Knights

• Icebound Fortitude now scales much better with defense (50% at 540 defense).

• Shadow of Death: Cooldown reduced to 10 minutes.

• Death Grip: Cooldown reduced by 10 seconds.

• New Spell: Unholy Grip, 20 Runic Power, 3 min cooldown – Harnesses the unholy energy that surrounds and binds all matter, drawling all targets within a 30 yard radius towards the death knight and forcing all enemies to attack the death knight for 6 sec.

• Unholy Command: Reduces the cooldown of your Unholy Grip ability by 15/30 seconds.

• Magic Suppression: Also causes your Anti-Magic Shell to restore runic power equal to 3%/6%/9%/12%/15% of the damage absorbed.

• Obliterate: No longer consumes diseases.

• Merciless Combat: All abilities now deal 10%/20% additional damage to targets below 35% health.

• Annihilation: Increases critical strike chance of all weapons, spells and abilities by 1%/2%/3% and reduces the amount of spell damage taken when in frost presence by an additional 1%/2%/3%.

• Heart Strike: Can now hit up to 4 targets.

• Will of the Necropolis: Now reduces damage that would take you below 35% health by 10%/20%/30%.

• Bloody Vengeance: This effect now stacks up to 5 times.

• Desecration: Damage bonus now applies to other death knights.

• Virulence: Now grants both melee and spell hit.

• Unholy Blight is once again considered a disease.

Druids

• Shapeshifting no longer costs mana, but there is now a 3 second cooldown.

• Wild Growth: Cooldown reduced to 5 seconds.

• Entangling Roots: No longer deals damage.

• Swipe: This ability has been reworked; it will now hit all targets within a 5 yard radius of the druid. Damage dealt by Swipe has also been slightly increased.

• Infected Wounds: Swipe can now trigger this ability.

• Berserk: Also reduces the rage cost of all your Bear Form abilities by 50%.

• Master Shapeshifter: Bear Form – Reduces all damage taken by 2%.

• Improved Regrowth: Critical strike chance reduced to 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%.

• Living Spirit: Also reduces the chance that all of your heal over time abilities will be dispelled by 5%/10%/15%.

• Empowered Touch: Healing bonus increased to 25%/50%.

• Gift of the Earthmother: Also reduces the cooldown of your Nature's Swiftness by 6/12/18/24/30 seconds.

• Improved Faerie Fire: Now grants melee and spell hit.

• Lunar Guidance: Spell power bonus increased to 5%/10%/15%.

• Force of Nature: Treants summoned by this spell are now immune to area of effect spells. They may now also cast Moonfire and Rejuvenation.

• Owlkin Frenzy: Your attacks now have a chance to trigger frenzy.





Hunters

• Mortal Shots: Critical strike damage bonus increased to 10%/20%/30%/40%/50%.

• Kindred Spirits: Now increases pet's damage by 4%/8%/12%/16%/20%.

• T.N.T: Stun chance reduced to 3%/6%/9%.

• Arcane Shot: Base damage increased slightly.

• Steady Shot: Base damage increased slightly.

• Ferocious Inspiration: Increases the damage dealt by Arcane shot by 5%/10%/15%.

• Aspect of the Dragonhawk: Dodge chance reduced to 10%, attack power bonus increased to 330.

• Aspect of the Monkey: Dodge chance reduced to 10%

• Beastial Wrath: Duration increased to 20 seconds.

• The Beast Within: Duration increased to 20 seconds.

• Cobra Strikes: Also increases the damage dealt by you and your pet by 2%/4%/6%.

• Readiness: Now works with Beastial Wrath.

• Chimera Shot: Mana cost reduced.

• Silencing Shot: Now interrupts the enemy's spellcast, preventing any spell from that school of magic from being cast for 8 sec.

• Disengage: Mana cost removed.

• Explosive Shot: Deals a small amount of damage to targets within 5 yards.

• Pets

o Exotic pets have had their health increased slightly.

o Exotic pets can no longer be dodged or parried.

o Most boss abilities will no effect pets.



Mages


• Conjure Mana Gem (Rank 6) now restores 4200 to 4400 mana.

• Torment of the Weak: Damage bonus reduced to 3%/7%/10%.

• Student of the Mind: The amount of Spirit granted has been increased to 5%/10%/15%.

• Netherwind Presence: Spell haste bonus reduced to 1%/2%/3%. Also reduces the mana cost of all Arcane spells by 4%/7%/10%.

• Spellsteal: The maximum duration of stolen buffs increased to 3 minutes.

• Molten Fury: Damage bonus increased to 10%/20%.

• Combustion now increases the critical strike chance of all fire spells by 25%. Lasts 20 sec.

• Burnout: Removed penalty on spell critical strikes.

• Ignite: Now deals its damage over 6 seconds.

• Living Bomb: Will now explode upon the target's death.

• Fiery Payback: Damage reduction increased to 12%/25%.

• Shatter: Critical strike chance increased to 20%/40%/60%.

• Improved Frostbolt: Also reduces the global cooldown of your Ice Lance spell by 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5 seconds.

• Cone of Cold: Damage for all ranks increased significantly.

• Improved Cone of Cold: Increases the radius of your Cone of Cold ability by 5/10 yards.

• Frozen Core: Spell damage reduction now requires Frost Armor to be active. Also increases all frost damage dealt by 1%/2%/3%.

• Brain Freeze: Can now trigger a free Fireball of Pyroblast.

• Empowered Frostbolt: Critical strike chance increased to 3%/6%.

• Deep Freeze: Can now be used on targets with a movement slowing effect.



Paladins

• All paladin auras are now off the global cooldown.

• Divine Plea: Now scales with spell haste, cooldown increased to 2 minutes, healing penalty removed.

• Enlightened Judgements: Chance to hit increased by 3%/6%.

• Holy Shock: Cooldown reduced to 5 seconds.

• Judgement of Light, Judgement of Wisdom, Judgement of Justice: Duration increased to 30 seconds.

• Infusion of Light: Also has a 10%/20% chance to finish the cooldown of your Holy Shock spell.

• Healing Light: Also increases the amount healed by your Judgement of Light.

• Beacon of Light: Will now transfer 100% of all healing done to the beacon, instead of just effective healing.

• Judgements of the Wise: Now grants 30% of base mana if the Judgement crits.

• Crusader Strike: Now Instantly causes 125% weapon damage as holy damage and increases all holy damage done to the target by 2% for 6 seconds, stacks up to 5 times.

• Exorcism can now be cast on any target.

• Righteous Vengeance: Now triggered by Seal of Command, Seal of the Martyr and Seal of Blood critical strikes.

• Sheath of Light: Heal over time effect reduced to 8 seconds.

• Hammer of the Righteous: Gains a small benefit from your attack power.

• Holy Shield: Whenever Holy Shield is active, all spell damage taken is reduced by 2%.

• Divine Guardian has been moved down to Tier 3.

• New Talent: Improved Divine Guardian – Increases the damage absorbed by Divine Guardian by 10%/20%.



Priests


• Surge of Light: Also reduces the cast time of your next Greater Heal by 0.5 seconds.

• Circle of Healing: Cooldown reduced to 5 seconds.

• Divine Providence: No longer reduces the cooldown of your Prayer of Mending Spell, but now increases the amount healed by your critical heals by 10%/20%/30%/40%/50%.

• Mass Dispel: No longer has a target limit.

• Misery: Now grants melee and spell hit.

• Renew: Mana cost reduced slightly.

• Greater Heal: Mana cost reduced slightly, cast time reduced by to 2.5 seconds.

• Divine Fury: No longer reduces the cast time of Greater Heal, but increases the critical strike chance of Greater Heal, Penance and Flash Heal by 1$/2%/3%/4%/5%.

• Test of Faith: Also increases the duration of your Guardian Spirit spell by 1/2/3 seconds.

• Desperate Prayer: Instantly restores 30% of the caster's health and reduces all damage taken by 30% for the next 5 seconds.

• Divine Aegis: The absorption effect can now stack up to 3 times.

• Penance: Channeling this spell will give the priest 3% additional chance to crit for the next 5 seconds.

• Reflective Shield: Also decreases the chance that your Power Word: Shield can be dispelled by 15%/30%/45%.

• Mental Strength: Also increases armor contribution from items by 5%/10%/15%.

• Mind Melt: Critical strike chance increased by 3%/6%.

• Blackout: Mind Sear can no longer proc this stun effect.

• Twisted Faith: Damage bonus for Mind Flay and Mind Blast now requires the target to be afflicted by Vampiric Touch.

• Improved Shadow Word: Pain: Now increases damage by 5%/10%.



Rogues

• Adrenaline Rush is now available to all Rogues at Level 30.

• New Talent: Focused Combat, 25 Energy, 3 min cooldown – When activated, the rogue goes into a focused state of combat, increasing all damage done by 30%, changing targets will cancel this effect. Lasts 15 sec.

• Envenom: Damage for all ranks increased slightly.

• Expose Armor: Now reduces the enemy's armor by a percent value instead of a flat value.

• Improved Expose Armor: No longer reduces the energy cost of Expose Armor. Now increases the armor reduced by 2%/4%.

• Tricks of the Trade: Duration reduced to 5 seconds.

• Prey on the Weak: Critical strike damage now increased by 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%.

• Close Quarters Combat: Increases your chance to get a critical strike with all weapons.

• Kick: Damage dealt significantly increased.

• Throwing Specialization: Also increases damage dealt by Fan of Knives by 15%/30%.

• Surprise Attacks: Damage bonus increased to 15%.

• Savage Combat: Now increases attack power by 4%/8%.

• Fan of Knives: Now causes 75% weapon damage with all weapons.

• Killing Spree: All damage dealt while this ability is active is increased by 20%.



Shaman

• The health of all totems has been increased significantly.

• A new quest is available from all Shaman trainers at level 70!

• Mana Spring Totem now affects all raid and party members, but no longer stacks.

• Ancestral Knowledge: Increases total Intellect by 3%/6%/9%/12%/15%.

• Shamanistic Focus: Mana cost reduction increased to 50%.

• Maelstrom Weapon: Cast time reduction now applies to any spell with a cast time.

• Searing Totem: Now receives a small bonus from the shaman's total attack power.

• Mental Dexterity: Also increases critical strike chance of all shock spells by 2%/4%/6%.

• Weapon Mastery: Damage increase reduced to 2%/4%/6%.

• Healing Wave: Base cast time reduced to 2.5 seconds.

• Unleashed Rage: Also reduces the mana cost of your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Lava Burst abilities by 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%.

• Feral Sprit: The health of the Spirit Wolves summoned by this ability has been increased slightly.

• Improved Healing Wave: Now increases Healing Wave's chance to critically strike by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%.

• Lava Lash: Now deals 125% off-hand weapon damage, damage is no longer affected by Flametounge.

• Healing Way: Bonus healing effect reduced to 15%, now effects all shaman healing spells.

• Improved Earth Shield: Your Earth Shield can no longer be dispelled.

• Ancestral Awakening: Range increased to 100 yards.

• Riptide: Heal over time component gains a larger benefit from your spell power.

• Earthliving Weapon: Heal over time component gains a larger benefit from your spell power.

• Lesser Healing Wave: Mana cost reduced slightly.



Warlocks

• Everlasting Affliction: Drain Life, Haunt and Shadow Bolt spells now have a 25% chance to refresh the duration of Corruption and Siphon Life spells on the target.

• Chaos Bolt: Cooldown reduced to 8 seconds, base damage increased slightly. Also pierces through immunity effects such as Divine Shield and Ice Block.

• Pandemic: Now takes into account critical strike debuffs on the target.

• Fire and Brimstone: Immolate spell power bonus now increased by 4%/8%/12%/16%/20%.

• Molten Core: Shadow spells and damage over time effects now have a 10%/20%/30% chance to increase damage done by all Shadow and Fire spells by 10% for 10 sec.

• Pyroclasm: Also gives your Rain of Fire a 5%/10% additional chance to crit.

• Shadowflame: Initial effect now deals fire damage, the damage over time component now deals shadow damage.

• Haunt will now do additional damage for each of the warlock's damage over time effects on the target.

• Improved Demonic Tactics: Increases your summoned demon's critical strike chance by 2%/4%/6%.

• Fel Vitality: Increases maximum stamina and intellect instead of health and mana.

• Demonic Embrace: Stamina bonus reduced to 1%/2%/3%/4%.

• Demonic Resilience: Reduces all damage taken by you and your pet by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%.

• Metamorphosis now has a 1 second cast time.

• Demonic Pact: The spell power of all party and raid members is now increased by 4%/8%/12%/16%/20% of your spell damage.

• Pandemic: Now works with Siphon Life.

• Conflagrate: Can now be cast on targets afflicted by Shadowfury.

• Searing Pain: No longer causes a high amount of threat. Damage increased for all ranks.

• Improved Searing Pain: Your damaging Searing Pain spells have a 33%/66%/100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to spell damage, increasing spell critical strike chance against that target by 2% and lasts 30 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.



Warriors

• Bladestorm: Rage cost reduced slightly.

• Whirlwind can now be used in any stance.

• Bloodrage: While active, all damage taken is increased by 10%.

• Sweeping Strikes: Rage cost reduced slightly.

• Death Wish: Duration reduced to 20 seconds, damage bonus increased to 25%.

• Improved Berserker Stance: Increases total Strength by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%.

• Bloodsurge: Chance to proc decreased to 5%/10%/15%.

• Rampage: Range increased to 100 yards.

• Shield Wall: Damage reduction reduced to 50%.

• Vigilance: Now transfers 20% of target threat to the warrior, but no longer reduces damage taken.

• Sunder Armor: Now reduces the enemy's armor by a percent value instead of a flat value.

• Intervene: No longer reduces total threat.

• Safeguard: Damage reduction reduced to 10%/20%.

• Improved Defensive Stance: Now reduces all spell damage taken by 5%/10%. Duration of enrage effect reduced to 10 seconds.

• Warbringer: Reduces the rage cost of your Charge, Intercept and Intervene abilities by 100%.

• Critical Block: Chance to block double the amount is now equal to your critical strike chance.

• Devastate: Rank 5 damage increased slightly.





Professions



• Alchemy

o Slightly reduced the materials required to make Flask of the Frost Wyrm, Flask of Stoneblood, Flask of Endless Rage and Flask of Pure Mojo.

o Runic Mana Potions now only require one Lichbloom to make.

o Runic Healing Potions now only require one Icethorn to make.

o The Alchemists of The Sunreavers and The Silver Covenant have created a new, more powerful Alchemist Stone.

o New Alchemy Daily Quests! Visit Alchemist Fendril at Windrunner's Overlook and Alchemist Duros at Sunreaver's Command.

• Inscription

o Several new epic Inscription recipes are available from the Explorer's League Quartermaster and from within Ulduar.

o Glyph of Improved Scorch: Gives your Fireball and Frostfire Bolt spells a 20% chance to refresh the duration of your Improved Scorch effect.

o Glyph of Holy Light: Range increased to 10 yards.

o Glyph of Crusdader Strike: Your Crusader Strike ability now generates 3 applications of the Crusader Strike effect.

o Glyph of Searing Pain: The Improved Searing Pain talent now generates 3 applications of the Improved Searing Pain effect each time Searing Pain is cast.

o New Glyphs may be discovered by performing Minor Inscription Research and Northrend Inscription Research.

o Added Glyph of Holy Shock, Glyph of Greater Heal, Glyph of Chaos Bolt and Glyph of Incinerate have been added to all Grand Master Inscription Trainers.

o Milling now only requires 4 herbs.

• Enchanting

o Powerful new ring enchants can be obtained from within Ulduar.

o Enchanters may now use materials placed in the trade window to enchant other player's equipment.

o Added a new recipe to create spheres that grant spell resistance and fit in any color gem socket.

o Enchant Weapon – Executioner: Now grants Potency rating.

o Enchant Cloak – Speed: Renamed Enchant Cloak – Potency, now grants potency rating.

o Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed: Renamed Enchant Cloak – Greater Potency, now grants potency rating.

o Disenchanting high level epic items may now have a chance to yield an additional Abyss Crystal.

• Engineering

o Mekgineer's Chopper and Mechano Hog no longer require an Elementium-plated Exhaust Pipe to create.

o Plans for a new and improved Scrapbot are rumored to be kept hidden by the Iron Dwarves in The Storm Peaks.

o Several new epic belt patterns have been added to all Grand Master Engineering Trainers.

o Hyperspeed Accelerators now stack with other enchants, duration increased to 15 seconds.

• Blacksmithing

o Several new epic blacksmithing plans have been added to the game, these may be found on various reputation vendors throughout Northrend.

• Mining

o Saronite Deposits will now yield more ore.

o Saronite Deposits can now contain blue quality gems.

• Herbalism

o The drop rate on Frost Lotus has been slightly increased.

o Reduced cast time on the Herbalism skill.

• Cooking

o All cooking daily quests will now give the player a choice of 5 Northern Spices or 5 Baby Spices in addition to a Dalaran Cooking Award.

o A new recipe for Pygmy Delight has been added to all Grand Master Cooking Trainers.

o Many cooking recipes requiring northern spices have had their materials reduced slightly.

• Jewelcrafting

o A new set of more powerful gems can be found by raiding Ulduar. Their stats exceed those of previous gems that could be found.

o Icy Prisms now also have a small chance to contain an epic quality Northrend gem.

o Icy Prisms no longer require a frozen orb, but now require more uncommon quality Northrend gems.

o The Explorer's League has unlocked the secret behind many ancient titan gems. Visit Archaeologist Mezton at the Explorer's League Base Camp to see what you can learn!

o Prospecting now only requires 4 ore.



Dungeons and Raids



• Many creatures in heroic 5 man dungeons have had their hit points increased slightly.

• Players will no longer be teleported out of a raid instance after logging back in.

• The Eye of Eternity

o The damage on Malygos' Vortex has been slightly reduced in both heroic and normal difficulty.

o Players will no longer suffer fall damage when falling from Vortex.

o Pets are no longer affected by Malygos' Arcane Breath.

• The Obsidian Sanctum

o Reduced the effect of Twilight Torment in normal difficulty.

o The duration of Twilight Residue has been increased.



User Interface

• Raid Unit frames have been redesigned and are now completely customizable via interface options.

• Player Unit frames have also been redesigned and are customizable via the interface options.

• Many parts of the default UI can now be moved to any location on your screen.

• The Auction House UI has been changed, players will now see up to 200 auctions per page, more detailed information such as purchase history and average price has been added.

• When zoning into a partially completed raid instance, a confirmation dialogue will appear asking if you want to get saved to the instance.

• The built in threat meter has been expanded upon, it will now show the threat of up to 10 other players in relation to yours.

• There is now an option to display your bank and character inventory as one large bag.

• Players can now track multiple types of resources provided they have the skills required.

• New tips of the day have been added!

• Several new types of currencies have been added to the currency tab.

• Players can now turn in Netherweave Cloth and Frostweave Cloth to increase their standing with all major cities.

• New interface options have been added that will allow you to customize combat log recording.

• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum.



Items

• All items that granted haste, armor penetration, or spell penetration have been updated to grant potency rating instead.

• New vendors have been added to The Silver Enclave and Sunreaver's Sanctuary, bring them your Emblems of Honor to trade for items of magnificent quality!

• You may now trade 10 Emblems of Heroism for 1 Emblem of Valor, see your faction's Emblem of Heroism vendor!

• Several epic quality items obtained from Heroic instances have had their stats updated to reflect their intended power.

• Damnation: Stats updated to reflect its intended power.

• Greatstaff of the Nexus: Stats updated to reflect its intended power.

• Dying Curse: Now shares an internal cooldown with other similar effects.

• Soul of the Dead: Now shares an internal cooldown with other similar effects.

• Forge Ember: Now shares an internal cooldown with other similar effects.

• Sundial of the Exiled: Now shares an internal cooldown with other similar effects.

• Forethought Talisman: Passive spell power reduced, healing over time effect now gains a small benefit from the caster's spell power.

• Frostweave Bag is now a 22 slot bag.

• Glacial Bag is now a 24 slot bag.

• Dragon Hide Bag is now a 24 slot bag, no longer considered unique.



World Environment

• Named NPC's will now respawn at a much quicker rate.

• All beasts in Northrend now have an increased chance to drop Chilled Meat.

• The items involved in Troll Patrol: The Alchemist's Apprentice can now be instantly looted.

• Corrected several herb spawns in Icecrown.

• Herb spawns in Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord will now respawn faster.

• NPC's in The Storm Peaks now have a higher chance to drop a Relic of Ulduar.

• Players wishing to increase their standing with the Steamwheadle Cartel should visit Gazlowe in Ratchet.

• Southsea Pirates, Wastewander Bandits and Bloodsail Buccaneers will all now give increased reputation gains.

• Creatures in The Barrens now have an increased chance to drop the recipe for Savory Deviate Delights.



Bug Fixes

• Death Knight: The Lichborne ability will no longer return you to your normal form during the Prophet Tharon'ja encounter in Drak'tharon Keep.

• Death Knight: Blade Barrier will no longer count Death Runes.

• Death Knight: Shadow of Death will no longer cause the player to run back as a ghoul after releasing.

• Death Knight: Lichborne and Fear Ward no longer share a cooldown.

• Paladin: Sacred Shield will now properly gain benefit from the spell power granted by Sheath of Light.

• Paladin: Fixed a bug where Judgements sometimes dealt no damage.

• Paladin: Hammer of Wrath will no longer reset the paladin's swing timer.

• Paladin: Righteous Vengance will no longer break Repentance.

• Mage: Focus Magic will now properly trigger from melee critical strikes.

• Mage: Mage Armor will now properly decrease the duration of magical damage over time effects.

• Warrior: Armored to the Teeth no longer considers Berserking in its armor calculation.

• Warlock: Pandemic will no longer trigger Focus Magic.

• Warlock: Corrected several typos with the Ritual of Summoning Spell.

• Priest: Devouring Plague will no longer be spread by Pestilence.

• Priest: The Surge of Light buff will no longer be consumed upon cast.

• Priest: Fixed a bug where Guardian Spirit will sometimes fail to prevent a killing blow.

• Hunter: Frost Trap now correctly triggers the 30 second cooldown on Lock and Load.

• Hunter: Wyvern Sting's sleep effect will no longer break from area of effect spells.

• Achievements: Corrected the tooltip for "Gotta Go!"

• Players will now appear properly mounted on the Amani War Bear.

• The Alliance Vanguard reputation will now properly count towards total exalted factions.

• Corrected many graphical bugs along the coast of Sholazar Basin.

• When a guild is disbanded, gold will now also be mailed to the Guild Master.

• The Thaddius encounter will no longer generate an extreme amount of latency.

• Elixir of Water Walking will now properly gain a benefit from Mixology.

• Bandit's Insignia: Damage dealt will be properly increased by the target's debuffs.

• Ring of the Fated: Now properly grants potency rating.

• Players will no longer fall through the well in Dalaran without getting teleported to the sewer.

• The forge in K3 will now function properly.

• Players who die during the Prophet Tharon'ja encounter will still receive credit for his death.

• Fixed a typo for the Convention at the Legerdemain daily quest.

• Fixed various bugs in Naxxramas that would cause player to fall through the world.

• Multiple characters can now loot the Heart of Magic from Alexstrasza's Gift (Malygos Encounter)

• Players will no longer randomly get stuck in combat.

Druid Faction Gear

There is good news for Druid fans. Here we will touch upon the faction gear for Druids. What if you are running lots of dungeons and getting acquainted with the array of drops on both normal and heroic modes are available at that moment.

For both the Alliance and Horde factions in Wrath, the reputation rewards are identical, so you're not missing out on anything whether you level a Night Elf or Tauren through Northrend. With that said, don't prioritize this faction beyond what you need to do for the head enchant if you PvP a lot or want the extra stamina for tanking; here there really isn't much beyond that and an off-hand that's easily replaced.

We'll discuss the rep grinds that become accessible a little earlier in the trek to 80 --the Tuskarr, the Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition, Wyrmrest Accord, Kirin Tor, and Oracles/Frenzyheart. Next we'll cover the Knights of the Ebon Blade, the Argent Crusade, and Sons of Hodir, as you're not likely to see these guys as early as you'll see the others. Indeed, before a quest line that phases the lady into existence, you won't see the Knights of the Ebon Blade quartermaster at all.

You should have a bit of Argent rep under your belt by the time you reach the Argent Vanguard in Icecrown, especially if you're good about doing the Argent dailies in Zul'drak. Yes, even the super-annoying alchemy one. Hey, Finklestein! Try finding your own damn ingredients in that pigsty of a stockroom! The lack of organizational know-how in this faction leaves me with very little optimism over their chances versus Arthas, but that's no reason not to make off with some decent gear before Arthas wins the inevitable triumph of the good guys.

Cloak of Holy Extermination is a cat DPS cloak, although we would have preferred +crit or +hit in the place of the armor penetration which doesn't do anything for our Rake or Rip damage. Even so, armor penetration as a stat isn't bad if you already have a lot of it, but you can get a better cloak a level earlier in Halls of Stone. However, there is still a decent option if you need something to get you to 80.

Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector is the best helm enchant for tanks in the game. Revered with the Argent Crusade isn't hard to get if you're religious about wearing their (pretty awesome) tabard in level 80 dungeons and heroics, or if you've done all of the AC quests in Dragon-blight, Zul'drak, and Icecrown. If you plan on tanking any heroics or raids, get this enchant as quickly as possible. Argent Skeleton Crusher- Revered, level 80: The reason we include this 2H mace for consideration is that it'll be an okay weapon for ferals once we scale with weapon DPS rather than feral attack power. There're better feral weapons out there. Without doubt, it will be usable once the weapon changes go live. It ensures that you should be running your furry ass off in heroic Violet Hold to get Staff of Trickery instead of having to use this. And as long as you're in heroic VH, pick up Cloak of the Gushing Wound too, which will easily replace Cloak of Holy Extermination if you didn't get the Halls of Stone cloak.

Boots of the Neverending Path is the best pre-raid piece for cats, especially if you're hurting for +hit, which you probably are with all that +haste and +penetration crap on leather. The notion of "sharing" gear with rogues might have left you with the impression that getting +hit on leather was going to be a piece of cake, but apparently that's not the case; there is a ghastly lack of +hit on the leather you're likely to be hitting 80 with.

Signet of Hopeful Light are bandying about as an excellent choice for Paladin and Shaman healers. Although it's the latest in a line of reputation caster gear entirely devoid of +hit. With no spirit, it's a decidedly mediocre ring for Restoration.

Hunter Beast Mastery Talent Tree

For Hunters, Hunter Beast Mastery is regarded as being the best for general leveling and grinding. Your pet becomes a great tank and damage dealer with the various talents in this tree. You can rarely pull aggro off your pet if you are BM specced because of the strong damage-dealing potential your pet receives, this is why this talent tree is considered the best for wow power leveling. You aren't as strong as you could be in Marksmanship and you won't have the combat bonuses to ensure your continued survival in Survivalist. Still this tree is regarded as being useful in PvP, but not as useful in end-game raiding.

Improved Aspect of the Hawk - rank 5/5 (While Aspect of Hawk is active, all normal ranged attacks have a 10% chance of increasing ranged attack speed by 3/6/9/12/15% for 12 seconds.)
The new IAotH is set up to proc a lot more (twice as much), but also to shoot half the previous speed of 30%. Good for extra damage in the long run and it is possible to have your IAotH procs chain together.

Endurance Training - rank 5/5 (Increases the health of your pets by 2/4/6/8/10% and your total health by 1/2/3/4/5%.)

At 2,000 hit points, your pet would get a bonus of 200 hp while if you had 2,000 hit points, you'd get 100 extra hit points. Some say it is a big help (if you want to grind with your pet doing a lot of the work), not so much if you want to deal the damage. Many consider this a staple anyway.

Focused Fire - rank 2/2 (All damage caused by you is increased by 1/2% while your pet is active and the critical strike chance of your Kill Command Ability is increased by 10/20%.)
From what I can gather, this is a small bump in damage output (but helpful to the Kill Command). This looks small but is a big overall DPS addition. This influences all your damaging attacks.

Improved Aspect of the Monkey - rank 3/3 (Increases the Dodge bonus of your Aspect of the Monkey by 2/4/6%.)

It is very good for a survivalist build, but not as helpful for someone who wants to rely on either their pets or their guns/bows. Not a bad ability any way you look at it, but you might find something better to spend your points on though. It is helpful with your Mongoose Bite proccing.
Thick Hide - rank 3/3 (Increases the Armor Rating of your pets by 7/14/20% and your armor contributions from items by 4/7/10%.)

It helps with damage reduction for your pet and yourself. If your pet has about 2,000 Armor and you also had 2,000 armors, they would get an extra 400 points of Armor while you get an extra 200 points from your own armor thrown into the mix. It is a very good, solid talent.
Improved Revive Pet - rank 2/2 (Revive Pet's casting time is reduced by 3/6 seconds, mana cost is reduced by 20/40%, and increases the health your pet returns with by an additional 15/30%.)

Situational. Can help when overrun & your pet has died (if you don't flee) and in instances. Previous talent returned your pet with twice as many hit points as this one does. Some use, many don't. This is useful in high-level raids, but also some don't use their pets in high-level raids. Your mileage may vary.

Pathfinding - rank 2/2 (Increases the speed bonus of your Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack by 4/8%.)

If you like running, this can help a little. It was an increase in speed by 2% compared to the previous version.

Bestial Swiftness - rank 1/1 (Increases the outdoor moving speed of your pets by 30%.)

WotLK PVP And PVE

It was a long time ago that people stood in line outside the game, waiting for the imminent release of Wrath of the Lich King with the other young virgins, desperate for the next installment of their virtual addiction.

Over again and again, you forget how much you hate solo PVE until you actually have to do it. It's not that it was a long, arduous grind- it wasn't. It's the fact that you haven't had to do this grind for over two years and you no longer remember how irritating it was. We noticed that by level 74 no one was bothering to Gank anymore- people were so mind-numbed by the monotony of killing 8 kobolds and collecting 12 bear that they had no time to inclination to engage in world PVP unless you really provoked them. And more often than not that wasn't enough.

Up to now, the 5 man dungeons have been mercifully short, which is a welcome change to the 2+ hour trash-fests of Shadow Lab and the like. They've also been lots of fun in terms of layout, encounters and general feel. Now we have to say that although PVE isn't the favorite aspect of the game, we enjoyed grinding these dungeons much more than grinding the TBC dungeons. The addition of the ability to choose the rep you want to gain was a very good idea and should be expanded upon. One of the complaints is that the gear on normal was pretty lackluster even at 80. We best hope that heroics will provide a better answer.

We did the first actual raiding since the MC days by pugging 25-man Naxx. We'd never been to Naxx, so clearing a few wings before we crashed was way fun. It's inconceivable to think of doing this pre- Wrath of the Lich King. We can't imagine this is what the developers intended though. We the casual hokage, got to experience raid content without having to sacrifice our life in the process. Actually we got to enjoy content we paid for but never got to see- this can't be right. We got believe that Furor and Tigole right now are plotting the assassination of Lord Kalgan (May He Live Forever). Speaking of which, this PVE gear is ridiculous, which brings us to next point.
We are missing the point of PR/TR on arena gear when you can pug cheesy raids and get the same items. We don't want to have to do raid PVE to get PVP gear. Sadly that seems to be the way it's going. To make matters worse, the entry level PVP gear is so bad you're crazy to even go for it as opposed to the heroic/raid gear you can get with emblems. The stats/resilience on the Savage blue PVP set are so bad as to be laughable, which is why we will most likely be tank specced running raids/heroics as time permits to gear up for PVP.

In PVP, it's like playing lolret but without the suck. You don't never worrying about mana. It is able to use Skill of the Forsaken while tunnel visioning Priests/Warlocks. It feels like playing a combination of Rogue and lolret at the same time, but getting so much more fun. We can't wait to play this class in arena even though the gear is terribad and we will be eating dirt left and right to the PVE superstars.

PVP'ing while leveling is loads of fun. The only problem is that it cripples your leveling speed badly while you gain virtually nothing. We don't count honor since it's a joke compared to BGs. The solution is simple. Most of the player kills reward 10K XP a pop, with a 25% DR per target per day. This way world PVP is still fun but now it's not a waste of time.

WoW Mage Talent Spec And Gear

As most Mages will agree with the fact that fire and forst are two trees worth climbing up to for leveling. While fire gives you better burst damage and good single-target killing capabilities, frost Mages can control their opponents better and generally multi-target better. Fire is quite heavy on mana and will require more downtime, but you will also kill mobs faster so that makes up for it a little. On the other hand, frost takes a bit more time to kill the several mobs you're about to control, but frost spells are more mana efficient. Frost is also more reliant on spell cool-downs than fire.

So which one should you choose? That's not something anyone can be told, you're better off trying both types of specs first, at least for a couple of early levels (20+).

But if you really want someone to tell you what to do, you can try going fire for the first 40 levels and see how the burst-Mage type fits you, then do a respec to frost. Don't dismiss it after a few days, like most players that respecced to something new do, after they had their old build for some time. Give it at least 3-4 levels, get used to the talents, the new spells, the attack patterns and the playing style of a frost build. Once you're level 45, you already have a good knowledge of both specs, so you can pick one up now to use for leveling all the way to 70. Note that in a few levels, you will be eligible to take the 41-point main talent in each spec, so you'll have to decide now if you'll need the short-distance cone-damage Dragon's Breath from the fire tree, or the water elemental from the frost tree.

Arcane may be useful as a support build, but you shouldn't really put more than 10-12 talent points in it. Talents in Arcane worth taking include Improved Arcane Missles, Arcane Concentration for the 10% free-damage spell chance and Wand Specialization. You should bear in mind that your wand is your main non-spell DPS and a 25% increase in its damage for 2 points' worth is a fair trade, especially for Fire Mages that will find themselves out of mana and will require using their wand to finish the mobs they were grinding.

In the first instance, you won't find a lot of +spell damage or +fire/frost/arcane damage gear around Azeroth, so you'll have to choose between physical stats. Intellect and Stamina should always get priority over Spirit. For those Mages that say Spirit is equally important because it reduces downtimes.

At level 35, +spell damage items start to drop and you should prioritize this spell effect over physical stats. So the prioritization formula is +spell damage > Intellect > Stamina > Spirit. Specific tree damage such as +frost, +arcane and +fire can be used over spell damage, especially if your playing style doesn't involve using too many spells outside your main spec tree. For fire mages, +spell crit chance and Intellect gain more importance since they improve your burst damage and your build is all about focus fire burst damage.

Another gear-related mage question is that whether I should use a staff or a 1-handed sword + offhand combination. The answer is simple. You are able to use the one that gives you better stats overall, since it's not like you'll be using melee that often. Just add-up the stats and spell effects from your Sword/Offhand and compare them to the ones on the staff and you'll know what to use. One last note regarding this comparison: usually, staves have a lot of few different stats, whereas 1-handed/offhanded combinations have less of more stats/effects. Take that into account when comparing Mage weapons.