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106

5.4 PTR Patch Notes

posted 2013/06/12 at 12:18 AM by perculia

huge 5.4 PTR buildVirtual RealmsProving GroundsClick the cut to read the complete notes!

Rygarius

New Raid: Siege of Orgrimmar (OLD DO NOT USE)

More information coming soon.

New Feature: Flexible Raid Difficulty

This is a new raid difficulty designed for pre-made groups of 10 to 25 players or any number in between. This means it's possible to have raids of 15 or 22 players! Difficulty will adjust automatically based on the number of players present with encounters intended to provide a challenge roughly between Raid Finder and Normal difficulty.
Flexible Raid difficulty requires a pre-made group to join but has no minimum item level requirements or role restrictions. Both BattleTag™ and Real ID friends are eligible to participate.
Loot quality will be between Raid Finder and Normal difficulty and awarded through a personal loot system (similar to Raid Finder). Bonus rolls and loot specialization will also be supported.
Players will be able to earn raid achievements just like in Normal or Heroic difficulty.
Flexible Raid difficulty has a lockout that is separate from Raid Finder and Normal difficulty.
To learn more about Flexible Raids, please visit our blog titled: A Raid for All Seasons: Flexible Raid Preview.

New Area: Timeless Isle

More information coming soon.

New Feature: Proving Grounds

Proving Grounds is a new feature for individual players to test and improve their combat skills.
At the Proving Grounds, players may undertake trials, designed for Damage, Tank, or Healer roles.
It provides a great opportunity to learn how to Tank or Heal, without the need of a group.
Each trial is available in four separate difficulties: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Endless. Harder difficulties include more difficult and varied enemies.
Endless mode allows you to test your mettle against increasingly difficult enemies. Compare your best scores to friends and guildmates!
: Access to the Proving Grounds and more information is coming soon.

New Feature: Virtual Realms

Virtual Realms are sets of realms that are fused together, and will behave exactly as if they were one cohesive realm. Players on the same Virtual Realm will be able to join guilds, access a single Auction House, join arena teams and raids, as well run dungeons or group up to complete quests.
Players belonging to the same Virtual Realm will have a (#) symbol next to their name.

Classes

Fears cast by players no longer increases the target's movement speed.
Vengeance gains from being critically hit have been halved.

Death Knight

Blood

Dancing Rune Weapon no longer costs Runic Power.

Unholy

now reduces the cooldown of Raise Dead by 60 seconds.

Druid

General

Innervate now causes the target to gain mana equal to 50% of the casting Druid’s Spirit every second for 10 seconds.
Wild Mushroom's Restoration version of the ability now summons a single mushroom at the friendly target’s location. If the mushroom is recast, the mushroom moves to the new location and retains its accumulated bonus healing. A single mushroom now heals for as much as what 3 mushrooms combined healed for previously.
Solar Wrath has its mana cost increased by 50%.

Talents

has been completely redesigned to reduce complexity and increase usability, but maintain the spirit of the effects. Benefits now varies by specialization.

Balance: Increases the amount healed by Healing Touch by 20%. Casting Healing Touch increases the damage bonus of the Druid's next by 10%.
Feral: Increases the amount healed by Healing Touch by 20%. Casting Healing Touch causes the Druid's next Rip to deal 15% increased damage.
Guardian: Increases the amount healed by Healing Touch by 20%. Mangle (Bear) critical strikes have a 20% chance to make the next Healing Touch or Rebirth instant, free, and castable in all forms.
Restoration: Causes Solar Wrath to deal 20% more damage and heals a nearby friendly target for 100% of the damage done.

when activated, now also provides a 25% bonus to healing for Restoration Druids.
Mass Entanglement no longer has a limit on the number of targets that could be affected, up from 5.
is no longer a talent, and is now an ability learned by Restoration Druids at level 30.
Nature's Vigil when activated, causes healing spells now trigger an additional heal on a nearby ally for 25% of the amount healed. This is in addition to the existing effect where it damages a nearby enemy target for 25% of the healing done.
Soul of the Forest has been partially redesigned to make it more attractive to Balance, Guardian, and Restoration Druids.

Balance: Solar Wrath, Starfire, and Starsurge casts have a 8% chance to cause the next to instantly advance the Druid to the next Eclipse.
Guardian: Increases Rage generation from Mangle (Bear) by 20% instead of 30%, but the bonus now also applies to Rage generated by Primal Fury.
Restoration: Now causes the Druid to gain 100% haste (up from 75%) on their next spell after casting Swiftmend.

Ysera's Gift, a new talent healing the Druid for 5% of their maximum health every 5 seconds. If the Druid is at full health, it will heal the most injured friendly target nearby instead. This talent fills the spot vacated by .

Glyphs

Balance

now energizes the Druid for 50% of their maximum mana when triggered, up from 35%.
Moonkin Form no longer reduces all damage taken by 15%.
Starfire has its mana cost increased by 50%.
Starsurge has its mana cost increased by 50%.

Restoration

is a new Restoration spell learned at level 88. Genesis targets all party or raid members within 60 yards and accelerates the casting Druid's Rejuvenation effects, causing them to heal and expire at 400% of the normal rate. Costs the same amount of mana to cast as Rejuvenation.
Swiftmend's area-of-effect healing effect is now called Efflorescence.
is no longer capable of critical strikes, and accumulates overhealing done by Rejuvenation by 100%, down from 150%. Overhealing bonus no longer benefits from Naturalist or Mastery: Harmony.

Hunter

General

had its damage and focus cost increased by 50%.

Talents

Marksman

Binding Shot is no longer a Marksman Hunter ability and is once again a talent.

Monk

Talents

Ring of Peace has a new visual effect.

Paladin

General

now has a 15-second cooldown. (Note: Charred Glyph will be redesigned and noted in a future PTR update.)

Talents

Burden of Guilt has been replaced with a new talent called Evil is a Point of View, which allows the Paladin to use Turn Evil on players and beasts.
now reduces damage taken from harmful periodic effects by 80% (up from 70%) and reduces damage taken from harmful periodic effects that cannot be prevented by immunities by 40% (up from 0%).
Unbreakable Spirit has been simplified. It now reduces the cooldown on Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Lay on Hands by 50%.

Glyphs

Charred Glyph has been redesigned. The glyph now increases the duration of Inquisition by 30 seconds (up to a maximum of 2 minutes) each time the Paladin lands a killing blow on targets that yield experience or honor.

Retribution

(Retribution version) now has a reduced cooldown of 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes, and the maximum number of stacks has been reduced to 12.
now lasts 20 seconds per charge of Holy Power consumed, up from 10 seconds.

Priest

General

Leap of Faith no longer has a facing requirement.

Talents

Angelic Feather now increases allies' movement speed by 80%, up from 60% and the feathers have a duration of 10 minutes, up from 5 minutes.
for Discipline Priests now has a 100% chance to activate its effect after using Penance, up from 40%.
Twist of Fate's damage and healing threshold to activate has been increased to 35%, up from 20%.

Shadow

no longer reduces all damage taken by 15%.

Class Armor

Restoration PvP 4-piece set bonus is no longer an area-of-effect and only affects the character that dispels Vampiric Touch.

Rogue

General

now restores 4% of maximum health every 3 seconds, up from 3%.

Talents

Nightstalker now increases damage dealt by abilities while stealthed by 50%, up from 25%.

Combat

Killing Spree targeting has been changed. If Blade Flurry is not active, Killing Spree will now hit the Rogue's target 7 times or pick the closest eligible target if none had been selected. Killing Spree will continue to work as it has while Blade Flurry is active.

Shaman

General

Healing Rain's radius has been increased to 12 yards, up from 10 yards.

Talents

Astral Shift now has a cooldown of 90 seconds, down from 120 seconds.
's Flametongue Weapon effect now increases Lightning Bolt damage by 30%, up from 20%.

Glyphs

Charred Glyph now increases the cooldown on Chain Heal by 2 seconds, down from a 4 second increase.
Charred Glyph now reduces the cooldown and duration for Fire Elemental Totem by 50%, up from 40%.
Charred Glyph reduces the initial direct healing of Riptide by 75%, down from a 90% reduction to healing.

Enhancement

Stormstrike's debuff now also affects Elemental Blast.

Restoration

Riptide's mana cost has been reduced by 25%.

Warlock

General

Fel Armor no longer reduces all damage taken by 10%.

Talents

Howl of Terror is no longer a talent and is now a baseline skill for all Warlocks.
Demonic Breath, a new talent replacing Howl of Terror. The Warlock sends out a cone of Shadow damage, snaring targets, has a 20-second cooldown.
is no longer a passive ability. Kil'jaden's Cunning now now has a duration of 15 seconds with a 1.5 minute cooldown.
is no longer a passive ability. Mannoroth's Fury's now has a duration of 15 seconds with a 1.5 minute cooldown.

Warrior

General

Enrage now also triggers on critical hits from Devastate and Shield Slam.
no longer costs rage.

Talents

now instantly heals the warrior for 10% of their total health (up from 5%), and an additional 10% over 5 seconds (up from 5%).
Vigilance no longer transfers damage to the Warrior. The talent now reduces amount of damage the target takes by 30% for 12 seconds.

Arms

Slam now does an additional 10% damage to targets affected by the warrior’s .

Fury

Titan's Grip now works with polearms.

Quests

The Strength of One's Foes: Players should no longer be receiving excess Sigils of Power or Sigils of Wisdom.

Creatures

Bonus Roll change: Players that don’t have a coin or elect to not use a Bonus Roll when defeating one of the world bosses (Sha of Anger, Galleon, Nalak, and Oondasta) can come back later that same week to use the Bonus Roll. The limit has not changed and remains one attempt and one bonus roll per boss, per week.

Pet Battles

Pet Battle
General

A new pet battle tournament is available on the Timeless Isle, more details coming soon!
Players are now able to trade in any 3 of the same family specific Flawless Battle-Stones for a single Marked Flawless Battle-Stone.
Viewable pet battles will now display working health bars.
Battle Pet levels are now only shown on the map if you are tracking Battle Pets.
Aquatic type's passive effect now reduces damage from damage-over-time effects by 50%, up from 25%.
Critter type's passive effect now makes critters immune to roots, stuns, and sleep effects.
Dragonkin type's passive effect now activates after an attack brings a target's to below 50% health, up from 25%.
Elemental type's passive effect now only affects negative direct effects of weather. (E.g. Sandstorm's accuracy reduction won't be applied, but the damage reduction will.)
Magic type's passive effect now caps damage taken at 35% of maximum health, up from 40%.

Battle Pets

Darkmoon Zeppelin: Several abilities have swapped positions.
Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling: Several abilities have swapped positions.

Battle Pet Abilities

Accuracy now affects the entire team.
Dark Simulacrum has been replaced with a new ability, Rot. Rot deals Undead damage and temporarily turns the enemy pet's type into Undead.
Trihorn Charge now has a 1-round cooldown.
Trihorn Shield now displays the correct amount of damage reduction.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

Raids

Dungeons

Players who obtain a realm-best time in a Challenge Mode dungeon (group must contain at least 3 people from the same realm to qualify) will receive a temporary title specific to each dungeon (e.g. Siegebreaker for Siege of Niuzao temple, Darkmaster for Scholomance, etc.). This title will persist for as long as a player retains the top time on the realm. Holding a realm-best time at any point will also confer a permanent Feat of Strength to record the accomplishment.

PvP

Season 14 Grievous gear is now available. Elite versions of Grievous gear will require a rating of 2000 to purchase.
Season 13 Tyrannical gear can now be purchased with Honor Points.
Season 12 Malevolent gear can now be crafted.
: For testing purposes, Grievous Flaskataur will be available near the Niuzao Temple selling standard Grievous gear for gold.

Items

All permanent item enhancements provided by Enchanting, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring, and various vendors and quests are now able to be applied to items of any level. This means all enchantments can now be applied to heirloom items.

High level enhancements applied to items equipped by low level players have their power scaled down to be similar to enhancements intended for that level range.
Low level enhancements applied to items equipped by high level players do not grow further in power beyond their intended level range.

UI

The vestigial Use Hardware sound option has been removed.

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Comment by DTAMF And Justice Points will still only buy 458 gear? When is that gonna increase? Comment by Adamsm And Justice Points will still only buy 458 gear? When is that gonna increase?Comment by George14 I have a feeling that mages will be nerfed and when they do, lots of them will cry, just like Patch 5.2 when Arcane got destroyed. Comment by Drixana Kil'jaeden's Cunning is no longer a passive ability. Kil'jaden's Cunning now now has a duration of 15 seconds with a 1.5 minute cooldown, please blizzard dont do this, no one will play warlock. Hmm where's mages buff/nerf? Comment by CcFreAk Howl of Terror is no longer a talent and is now a baseline skill for all Warlocks.
Demonic Breath, a new talent replacing Howl of Terror. The Warlock sends out a cone of Shadow damage, snaring targets, has a 20-second cooldown.Comment by dumac I am kinda looking forward to see how virtual realms plays out. A list of server and hopefully not too grand would be sweet. My main question is how the AH market will be affected and that my PvE realm status does not get affected somehow, I am no big fan of pvp so bit concerned there.

For low realms this gotta be an joyful announcement, glad you getting this guys. Comment by Azrile The amount of crying about class balancing in this thread is staggering.

In the future, when you make an official thread regarding new patch notes, please separate it into two threads so the kids writing poems and carving ´blizzard hates my class´ into their forearms can all cry together and we can have a real discussion here about the actual new stuff.

Here is a clue. If you are so emotionally attached to one class that you spend an hour writing a book about how it is now ruined.. you are NOT in a mental state to talk about class balance overall. The devs, who play and know all 34 specs ARE in such a position. Comment by miksuha Kil'jaeden's Cunning is no longer a passive ability. Kil'jaden's Cunning now now has a duration of 15 seconds with a 1.5 minute cooldown.
I already hate this so much... Comment by windowlicker When does it look like this will go live? I'm only asking because I will be returning to wow probably next month. Comment by crawen Death Knight: damage of #randomspell is now increased by x% (up from x-25%)
Druid: damage and healing of #randomspell is now increased by x% (up from x-25%)
Hunter: damage of #randomspell is now increased by x% (up from n-25%)
Mage: damage of #randomspell is now increased by x% (up from n-25%)
Monk: new visual effect of the moving deadzone, yeah, cool.
Paladin: damage and healing of #randomspell is now increased by x% (up from x-25%)
Priest: damage and healing of #randomspell is now increased by x% (up from x-25%). (No moar dmg reduction in shadowform, oh the drama)
Rogue: damage of #randomspell is now increased by x% (up from x-25%)
Shaman: damage and healing of #randomspell is now increased by x% (up from x-25%)
Warrior: damage of #randomspell is now increased by x% (up from x-25%)

Warlock: damage of #randomspell... Oh wait, let's give them another nerf instead.

Thanks Blizzard. Comment by lonewarrior As a Shadow Priest...bleh.
They reduce our healing abilities, they reduce our damage mitigating, real nice, turn what was probably the last support role class to play into another generic dps caster.
We live on DoTs..trying to survive a pvp battle against burst damage opponents is really going to take a nice turn with shadowform nerf ....Thanks Blizz. Back to my mothballed warrior.

Also pretty sneaky of Blizz to milk 50% off transfer and then announce virtual realms. My server saw an immense influx of players to the point that it is suffering long ques at time and now all those players who transferred might possibly have been allowed to stay on their original server.
I was going to transfer a character myself until I read a little snippet that Blizz had used this method in the past. I'm glad I waited it out and saved some money.

As for the virtual realm mechanic...well I expected as much when those "hate CRZ" threads were all the rage. I posted quite often that CRZ was probably a stepping stone to this next step and that players should just patiently wait CRZ out. This is the most logical solution to dead realms.

All in all... this and subsequent patches is definitely convincing me that there is a new brain trust behind WoW directions and I like it. They just need to ride out the sub drop trend until it begins it curve back up.
Just from my small corner of the world, there are positive signs with Blizz attempt to restore the community side of the game.
Guildmates who have not played for sometime are asking for scrolls to see what's it all about.
Kudo's Blizz for piquing their interest I would love to see these kinds of players back in the game.
The whole community would be better served if this is happening all over. Comment by Znakoma Well, with the new changes to lvl 90 warlock talents... Looks like they're trying to nerf pvp locks. Really sucks for both pvp and pve players :( Kil'jaedens cunning isn't worth using if it's going to be like that, and mannoroths fury is useless. I guess most locks will use Archimonde's vengeance then :/ Comment by Dorktard I think I'll be just fine with the nerf to Kil'jaden's Cunning.. I don't take the talent anyway. In fact, I might use it now that it's been nerfed Comment by Anyonka What ever happened to the faerie dragon mount? Comment by Greenpiss The problem with removing the kil'jaeden's cunning is that warlocks spells alrdy nerfed a bit 2 much ...i mean all classes have something in rotation to move and dmg allowing them to just lose a small 10% or 20% of the spell they use when they dont have to move...but lets imagine a destro lock...what can you cast within your rotation with moving without the talent...instant cast confl.? i mean ya change the talent but at least make incinerate able to cast while moving...jesus christ Comment by srecko OMG isn't boomy squishy enough? And now 15% damage reduction gets removed. How am i going to survive mage, hunter, warraior and all other brusts ? Come on, please don't remove the only thing that makes balance though Comment by AingealWroth Super excited! Comment by lankybrit And Justice Points will still only buy 458 gear? When is that gonna increase?Comment by spiny64 Proving Grounds.... AWESOME IDEA!
Single target Killing Spree.... FINALLY! Combat Rogues viable for PvP... AT LAST!
Scale down enchants.... GREAT! no more begging to find some1 to craft 15 agility/crusader, etc
PLEASE! PLEASE! Make Malevolent Craftables to be learnt faster than Dreadful... I mean, it takes a month+ and a big ammount of luck to learn all parts of a set... 3 or more daily wouldn't over do it... specially for people leveling or changing professions.

Another idea would be to make all current craftable pattern's malevolent and simply make Dreadful purchasable with Honor at Area 52, as with all other PvP armors. That would save so much effort, time and mats, and help alts get ready for PvPing...

So far, 5.4 looks VERY promising... now... let's see the mounts... and if we could get a more fun way to lvl 85-90, would be great (more XP from BGs pls!) Comment by green23 Please please please let Virtual Realms replace CRZ... please.

Fel Armor no longer reduces all damage taken by 10%.

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