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PTR Patch 4.1 Blizzard Post + Official PTR Patch Notes!

posted 2011/02/24 at 2:47 PM by Miyari

patch 4.1Patch 4.1 Mini-Guideofficial PTR patch notesZul'GurubZul'Amanright here

That's right, folks. Development on the first major content patch for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is well underway! We're currently making preparations to bring some of the initial content and updates we've been working on for this patch to the Public Test Realms. So you ask, "what will we find in the first 4.1 test client?" (You did ask that, right?) Well, let me tell you!

The Gurubashi Tribe Persists

Originally a 20-player dungeon released in patch 1.7, Zul'Gurub will once again open its gates, featuring updated lore, all-new encounters, achievements, and improved loot! Zul'Gurub is now a level-85 five-player Heroic difficulty dungeon. To provide a new tier above the current Cataclysm dungeons, players can expect to find epic-quality item level 353 loot. The minimum average item level to enter this Heroic dungeon is 346.

The Return of Zul'Aman

Ever a player favorite, the level-70 ten-player dungeon of Zul'Aman is being reintroduced as a level-85 Heroic five-player dungeon. Zul'Aman will join Zul'Gurub in a new Dungeon Finder tier of Heroic dungeons, providing epic-quality item level 353 loot. The minimum average item level to enter this Heroic dungeon is also 346. While Zul'Aman will be more of a throwback to the original dungeon featuring many of the same encounters, players can expect to find some updated gameplay mechanics, as well as new environment textures and lighting.

With the Zuls returning, you may be wondering about the unique mounts that were once contained therein. We're pleased to announce that new versions of the rare raptor, tiger, and bear mounts will be available, while the old versions of these mounts will remain unique to those who already have them. We'll reveal more about how these updated mounts can be obtained in the future.

Class Design

While we do intend to make fewer balance changes in patch 4.1, you can still expect to find a fair number of updates. Below are just a few we'd like to share with you right now. Keep in mind these changes don't encompass the entirety of the 4.1 changes, nor do the initial Public Test Realm patch notes.

To start, we want to do a better job of balancing the AoE power of the different damage-dealing specs. You can expect to see some changes to this end made throughout the testing process.

is now available at level 56. It was intended to solve an excess rage problem that largely isn’t affecting warriors anymore. We’ve added a replacement ability for warriors at level 83: Rallying Cry.

now ignores 70% of an opponent's armor, down from 100%. We are compensating Fury and Arms warriors by increasing the damage of other attacks.

: We want Retribution and Protection paladins to have reasonable healing on themselves or others, but we know paladins sometimes feel like they can’t use their Holy Power on anything but their heals in some situations. We’d rather these two specs spend most of their Holy Power on damage-dealing abilities, with occasional healing.

More To Come

We're still hard at work on additional features, balance updates, and bug fixes for patch 4.1. We look forward to sharing more information with you in the days and weeks ahead as we release new content on the Public Test Realms. Until then, have a look at the patch notes we've prepared thus far. As always, these notes are not final and will continue to change as we go through the iterative development and testing processes.

Official 4.1 PTR Patch NotesOfficial 4.1 PTR Patch Notes

The latest retail patch notes can be found here.

Important: These patch notes are not final. Additional updates will be made, and all existing changes are subject to revision during the course of the testing process. More information regarding patch 4.1 can be found here. Visit our Public Test Realm forum for more information about the testing process.

Classes: General

All non-damaging interrupts off the global cooldown will now always hit the target. This includes Pummel, Shield Bash, Kick, Mind Freeze, Rebuke, Skull Bash, Counterspell, Wind Shear, Solar Beam, Silencing Shot, and related player pet abilities.

Death Knight

now works on numerous additional spells in dungeon encounters.
Talent Specializations

Blood

self-healing no longer generates threat.

Frost

(passive) now permanently converts both Blood Runes into Death Runes. There is no longer any proc interaction with Blood Strike required to activate Death Runes.

Druid

has a new spell effect.
Talent Specializations

Balance

is now more responsive when enemies move into or out of it.

Hunter

Explosive Trap now has a new spell effect.
Master's Call now has a new spell effect.
Tame Beast now tames pets to match the hunter's level, rather than 5 levels below.

Mage

Talent Specializations

Fire

is no longer triggered from periodic critical effects.

Paladin

now has a 20-second cooldown.
Talent Specializations

Holy

(passive) removes the cooldown of .

Protection

cooldown is now 3 minutes, up from 2.

Retribution

now generates 1 point of Holy Power if it hits (i.e. successfully lands on) 4 or more targets.
's internal cooldown has been increased to 60 seconds, up from 30.

Priest

duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 12.
can only be used on the casting priest as a baseline effect.
has a new spell effect.
duration has been reduced to 15 seconds, down from 30.
Talent Specializations

Discipline

(new passive) enables priests to use on up to 2 harmful effects on friendly targets.

Holy

(new passive) enables priests to use on up to 2 harmful effects on friendly targets.

Rogue

base effect now heals 3% per tick, up from 2%.
base cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10, and the movement penalty from being in has been removed.
now has a 100-yard range, up from 20.
Talent Specializations

Combat

now adds 0.5%/1% to the health restoration effect of , down from 1%/2%.

Subtlety

now reduces the cooldown of by 2/4 seconds, and instead of negating the movement penalty from Stealth, it adds a 5/10% movement speed bonus (stacking with other effects) while Stealthed.

Shaman

has been redesigned and decoupled from shaman Fire totems. Instead, it now pulses that same area-of-effect from each target that is afflicted by the shaman's own debuff. It now damages all enemies except the target hit by Flame Shock. The ability's cooldown has been reduced from 4 seconds, down from 10.
now lasts for 60 seconds, up from 21.
's area-of-effect threat pulse no longer affects critters.
Talent Specializations

Elemental Combat

is no longer a channeled spell. It now has a 2-second cast time, lasts for 10 seconds, and has a 10-second cooldown. Its damage has been reduced by 40% from its channeled version.

Enhancement

Improved Fire Nova has been redesigned and replaced by a talent called . When an enemy spell cast is successfully prevented with Wind Shear or Grounding Totem, the shaman gains magical resistance (in an amount equal to what a protection totem/aura would grant, stacking with such buffs) to the spell school(s) of the interrupted spell (except for Holy spells), lasting 10 seconds.

Warrior

and no longer have diminishing returns on their stun effects.
now ignores 70% of an opponent's armor, down from 100%.
is now available at level 56.
now has a 1.5-second stun, down from 3 seconds.
damage has been increased to 140% weapon damage, up from 125%.
(new ability) is available from trainers at level 83. It temporarily grants the warrior and all party or raid members within 30 yards 20% of maximum health for 10 seconds. After the effect expires, the health is lost. It has no cost, no stance requirements, and is not on the global cooldown. It has a 3-minute cooldown, but also shares a cooldown with .
now has its cooldown reduced by 6 seconds when it deals damage to 4 or more targets. The Whirlwind effect caused by remains unchanged.
Talent Specializations

Arms

now reduces the global cooldown on by 0.5/1 seconds in addition to its current effects.
increases damage by 20/40%, up from 10/20%.
no longer adds 2 seconds to the stun, but instead lowers the cooldown of by 3 seconds (to 12 seconds total).
damage has been increased to 175% weapon damage, up from 150%.

Fury

damage has been increased back up to 120% weapon damage (up from 100%).

Dungeons & Raids

New dungeons available for partial testing.

Zul'Aman has returned as a level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon featuring a revamp of the original dungeon and improved loot!
Zul'Gurub has returned as a level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon featuring all-new encounters, achievements, and improved loot!
Both dungeons will be in a new Dungeon Finder difficulty tier above the current level-85 Heroic dungeons and offer epic-quality item level 353 loot.
These dungeons may only partially be available for testing at this time. Stay tuned for additional updates.

Blackwing Descent

Flash Bomb (Golem Sentry ability) now has a more clear warning visual.
Magmaw now triggers a raid emote when summoning Lava Parasites.
Further improvements have been made in the Maloriak encounter to avoid Flash Freeze targeting the tanks.

Guilds

The Guild Perk, , no longer prints out text to the Chat Log. Instead, the daily amount deposited is shown in the Guild Vault Money Log. In addition, players can view the weekly contribution in a new window at the bottom of the Money Log.
We have added two new custom guild tabards as Guild Rewards. The tabards are account bound and offer a bonus to gaining guild reputation.

Items

The PvP Horde and Alliance trinkets have a new spell effect.

Professions

All major cities will now have every type of profession trainer and their associated trade supply vendors.

PvP

Twin Peaks

Graveyard Changes

Players will now only spawn at their base graveyard when they die in the enemy base.
Defending players will respawn at the middle graveyard.
Midfield players will respawn at the middle graveyard.
Attacking players will respawn at their base graveyard.

Races

The gnomish racial ability, , is no longer affected by the global cooldowns triggered by other abilities.
The human racial ability, , has a new spell effect.

User Interface

Work has begun on a new Looking for Guild system. Further details will be provided when we are ready for feedback.
Spells bound to a key now start to be cast when the button is pressed down by default, instead of waiting for the key to go up. This is an option that can be turned off in the Interface menu under Combat. Mouse clicking has not changed and operates on mouse click up.

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Comment by Maharathi "We want Retribution and Protection paladins to have reasonable healing on themselves or others, but we know paladins sometimes feel like they can’t use their Holy Power on anything but their heals in some situations."

Um.. what Ret pally in their right mind would feel like they couldn't use their holy power for anything but healing? Prot I could buy, but grouping Ret into that is bs, imo.. they should just say they wanted to nerf Prot self-healing a little instead of trying to make it sound general. Comment by droodspeaking considering i'm a balance drood and my healing doesn't work so good with 354 ilevel then why should classes that don't get items with spell power heal better? Comment by droodspeaking well then they should just learn to use it when they have to use it or have a balance drood at their team. Comment by xaratherus I'm really annoyed about the Paladin changes.

"We want Retribution and Protection paladins to have reasonable healing on themselves or others, but we know paladins sometimes feel like they can’t use their Holy Power on anything but their heals in some situations. We’d rather these two specs spend most of their Holy Power on damage-dealing abilities, with occasional healing."

As a Protection Paladin, I have two real abilities that use Holy Power - WoG and SotR. I don't have aggro problems, so I don't SotR every time I have 3 charges; I tossed it out as a heal to help the healers some. I really liked it, because for the first time I actually felt like a hybrid tank.

Why nerf the healing spell? If healing seems to be more of a viable choice over using Holy Power for damage, then perhaps it's that the damage spells are underpowered. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Didn't read the whole thread; I agree with Gandrazar. ;) Let's also not forget that this is a rather huge nerf to Holy Paladins, unless they're giving them some ability to remove the WoG cooldown. Comment by Eijnir Unpleased with balance and resto druid nerf. Im getting tired of the whole pvp nerfing pve #$%^. Comment by Rafante Not happy with the Word of Glory cooldown. What do I do when I have a fail healer? Pop all my cooldowns and wait 10 minutes between mobs? And even when they aren't fail healers, it's nice to help them conserve a bit of mana with all the healer nerfs inherent in Cata. (Glad they didn't kill my Holy Spec when they removed the CD with Walk in the Light)

Also a bit unhappy with the bonus rep of the new guild tabards. I like the fact that I could see who was actually working on achievements and contributing to the guild exp. (I know, I can sort the roster, w/e)

Enough QQing though.

I like the fact that they're bringing back ZG. I was really sad whenever I flew over the area and saw how desolate the place was.

I'm kind of unsure about the "Looking for Guild" idea though. I can see this spawning a whole era of guild ninjas. Safe guard your guild banks people. Comment by Maidenhelos Another nerf to the Prot Paladin...

Moves like this make people like me seriously think of giving up tanking, then I remember there is such a shortage that it takes my hunter up to an hour to get into a que an instance... That's when it dawned on me, Blizzard doesn't hate us Prot Paladins, just the players in general...

They'll only be happy when we wait 4 hours to get into an instance, that way content will last forever... Comment by Amry What do I do when I have a fail healer?personal opinionComment by LucianCross After the changes and bright ideas blizz is known to have after every thread with suggestions rages or psuedo slaps on the back with promises of new things and lo and behold heres the damn place I spent hours tanking on my warrior because I wasn't viewed as anything but a tank because I had little patience for "OMG dps stop ripping threat". Dps was simple you screwed up you died and got replaceed with range cause melee facerollers weren't needed as much as uber range sleeping healers or screaming tanks chasing mobs from the panicked healer or idiot dps. Anyways end rant.

So the pops get old instances of course "revamped" ..the usual "balance" (in complete sarcasm)on healers dps and tanks. Added ideas that should of been done however long ago new icons and pvp spell effects on a trinket. Overalli really dunno why I bothered to play the "game" for so long as I'm just seeing more and more things that made me glad I quit and have no intention of coming back with the way things are. No I'm not playing another mmo or rage quit like a wrathbaby and started back in vanilla right after hunters got mana if that matters any. Doesn't matter anyways. Die harders give ya credit I'm glad I stopped worrying about raids gs and all that crap after realizing I should of stopped back in bc unfortunately the addiction had me and I spent more time and money on something that was good and fun turn into the tired boring grind of redone unfortunate junk it is now.

Anyways dunno why I raged for some reason saw all this and it set me off Comment by zakmatt2002 So let me get this straight, a rogue with night stalker will be faster stealthed than non-stealthed and running?

And the Assasination rogue will have the fleetfooted will have the 15% bonus to all speeds? Comment by MjPain A little? 20 sec man! prot is a complete crap now. Now playing DK. Comment by ben198321 WHAT ABOUT WARLOCKS! That is so messed up how locks are being nerfed and ignored! Right before cata was released we got a huge damage boost....then when cata came out, lock damage was reduced....what's up with that? Can someone please let me know if they are adding anything to warlock abilities? Comment by ben198321 The Warlock class is perfect!Comment by Getlow Really blizz really? another prot/retri pala nerf and boost for warriors? time to buy Black Ops! Comment by Treskol The Warlock class is perfect!Comment by Ty52 OMG rogues will be SO op now....clothies better get a plate bodyguard now Comment by Bruunpala Rogues are stealthier when they go tap-tap-tap-tap-i'ma-running. Comment by tisen100 You think they listen?

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