Video Games

Floating above the Plaguelands, the necropolis known as Naxxramas serves as the seat of one of the Lich King’s most powerful officers, the dreaded lich Kel’Thuzad. Horrors of the past and new terrors yet to be unleashed are gathering inside the necropolis as the Lich King’s servants prepare their assault. The Scourge marches again…
Naxxramas is the new 40-man raid dungeon that will present even the most experienced and powerful players with an epic challenge.

General

• The cost to unlearn talents will now decay over time. This cost will be reduced by a rate of 5 gold per month to a minimum of 10 gold.
• After a disconnect from the server, it is now possible to log back in immediately, instead of receiving the message, “A character with that name already exists.”
• Chain targeted spells and abilities (e.g. Multi-shot, Cleave, Chain Lightning) will no longer hit stealthed or invisible units unless visible to the caster.
• Fear: The calculations to determine if Fear effects should break due to receiving damage have been changed. The old calculation used the base damage of the ability. The new calculation uses the final amount of damage dealt, after all modifiers. In addition, the chance for a damage over time spell to break Fear is now significantly lower. Note that Fear continues to be roughly three times as likely to break on player targets as on non-player targets. In addition, Intimidating Shout now follows that player versus non-player distinction, while previously it did not.
• Periodic Healing: Spells which do periodic healing will now have their strength determined at the moment they are cast. Changing the amount of bonus healing you have during the duration of the periodic spell will have no impact on how much it heals for.
• Reflection: Effects which cause reflection will no longer reflect triggered effects separately from their base effects (eg. Impact, Improved Shadow Bolt, Aftermath, etc.)
• Optimization code known as “M2Faster” is now enabled by default. M2Faster can improve performance in crowded scenes when “Vertex Animation Shaders” is turned on.

Battlegrounds

• Alterac Valley
  • Most of the NPC guard units have been removed.
  • Players now drop more quest items.
  • Creatures that remain in Alterac Valley have had their hit points reduced.
  • The buff that is periodically cast by each faction’s Captain has been changed to a flat 20% hit point buff.
  • Upgrading troops through armor scrap turn-ins will also now result in your team’s General enabling a periodic buff to your melee and spell damage.
  • This buff scales from 10% at the Seasoned unit level, 20% at the Veteran unit level, and 30% at the Champion unit level.

Druids

• Innervate: This spell is now a base ability for all Druids, trainable at level 40. Any Druid who formerly had the Innervate talent now has the Swiftmend talent instead.
• Nature’s Grace: You will no longer consume this effect when casting a spell which was made instant by Nature’s Swiftness.
• Swiftmend: This new talent has been added to the Druid Restoration tree, replacing Innervate as the 31 point ultimate talent. It consumes a Rejuvenation or Regrowth aura to produce an instant heal.
• Enrage: Tooltip edited to clarify functionality.

Hunters

• Counterattack (Survival Talent) - All ranks of this talent will now share the same cooldown.
• Scorpid Poison: Duration slightly lengthened.
• Changed the way hunter pet family armor bonuses and penalties are applied to allow the exact value from the Natural Armor talent to be applied correctly. This may result in a very slight loss of armor to some pets (less than a third of a percent).
• Improved Scorpid Sting: The aura from this Sting will now be removed (as intended) when a different Sting aura is placed on the victim.

Mages

• Due to significant talent changes, mages will have all talent points refunded and can be respent. Training costs for all talent spell replacements have been significantly reduced.
• Arcane Explosion is now instant cast and will no longer remove the Presence of Mind effect when used.
• Evocation - Is now available to all mages (via trainer), starting at level 20.
• Conjure Food now has a new rank (Rank 7) available in Stratholme.
• Frost Ward now has a new rank (Rank 5) available as item loot in dungeons.
• Mana Shield - Damage taken will now be absorbed by other absorb spells (e.g. Ice Barrier, Power Word: Shield) before being absorbed by Mana Shield.
• Dampen Magic - Damage and healing reduction increased on ranks 3 through 5.
• Amplify Magic - Damage and healing bonus increased on ranks 2 through 4.
• Counterspell - Fixed a bug that made Counterspell unresistable.
• Winter’s Chill - Changed to increase crit chance by 1% per stack, but stacks up to 10 times.
• Improved Scorch - Duration of Fire Vulnerability increased to 30 seconds.
• Blast Wave: The bonus this spell receives from effects that increase spell damage has been increased.
• Cold Snap: This talent will now always clear the cooldown for Frost Ward, even if the cooldown was triggered by casting Fire Ward.
• Cone of Cold: The bonus this spell receives from effects that increase spell damage has been increased.
• Fire Ward: The amount of damage absorbed by this ward was increased substantially on all ranks.
• Frost Ward: The amount of damage absorbed by this ward was increased substantially on all ranks.
• Arcane Power: This ability will no longer stack with Power Infusion. If you gain both at the same time, Arcane Power will take precedence.
• Added a new level 60 quest available from Archmage Xylem in Azshara for mages.
• Fire Ruby now has a sell value and can be disenchanted.

Paladins

• Benediction: This talent will no longer incorrectly provide a double discount to Seal of Justice.
• Blessing of Light: It is no longer possible for a target to appear to have multiple ranks of Blessing of Light. These multiple auras had no beneficial effect, merely causing confusion. Problems with targeting the spell when the caster has Blessing of Light effect on them have also been fixed.
• Divine Favor: It is no longer possible to cast this immediately after a healing spell and “retroactively” make it a critical hit.
• Illumination: When several critical effect healing spells are cast very quickly, you will now receive the correct mana refund for each one.
• Judgement of Command: Now consumes a charge of the Zandalarian Hero Charm. In addition, when this spell is resisted it will no longer erroneously still do damage.
• Judgement of Righteousness: Now consumes a charge of the Zandalarian Hero Charm.
• Seal of Command: Clarified tooltip.
• Vengeance: Seal of Command critical hits can now trigger this ability.
• Vindication: This effect will no longer be absorbed by Grounding Totem.

Priests

• Lightwell - Casting time reduced. Lightwell object increased in size to make it easier to click; relative click radius decreased slightly.
• Mind Control: If you cast Power Word: Shield while Mind Controlling a target, the Recently Shielded aura will now appear on the correct target instead of yourself.
• Shadowguard: This Troll Priest racial spell now works with Vampiric Embrace, Blackout, and Shadow Weaving. In addition, the damage from Shadowguard will now consume charges of the Zandalarian Hero Charm’s Unstable Power aura.
• Spirit of Redemption: This spell has a number of fixes: Priests prematurely leaving battlegrounds with this aura on will now receive the Deserter debuff (as intended); Priests in Spirit of Redemption form at the completion of a battleground will have the aura removed without dying; It will now work correctly with the Darkmoon Card Twisting Nether item, resurrecting you after Spirit of Redemption has run its course; If you should die underwater the Spirit of Redemption will no longer have a breath bar appear; the Warlock Drain Soul spell will terminate producing 1 shard when the Priest switches to Spirit of Redemption form; You will no longer have to wait 30 seconds for graveyard resurrection upon your first death while using Spirit of Redemption.
• Vampiric Embrace: This ability will no longer heal for damage caused when the target had no life remaining.

Rogues

• Detect Traps is now a passive skill.
• Pick Pocket: This ability will no longer trigger effects on your target.
• Slice and Dice: This ability will no longer play its sound effect twice.
• Vanish: Cancelling your Stealth aura while Vanish is running will now cause Vanish to be canceled as well.

Warlocks

• Shadow Ward now has a new rank (Rank 5) available as item loot in dungeons. The amount of damage absorbed by this ward was increased substantially on all ranks.
• Curse of Agony: The damage from this spell will now continue even if the caster dies or leaves the area.
• Emberstorm: This talent will now correctly increase the damage the Warlock takes from Hellfire.
• Hellfire: Aftermath can now be triggered by this spell.
• Improved Shadowbolt: Periodic damage spells and non-damaging spells will no longer consume charges of Shadow Vulnerability.
• Shadowburn: If you cast Drain Soul while this aura is on the victim, you will no longer receive two soul shards upon the victim’s death.
• Soul Link: If your pet is banished, it will now break the Soul Link. In addition, Soul Link’s tooltip has been clarified to indicate it only works with your imp, voidwalker, succubus, or felhunter.

Shaman

• Due to significant talent changes, Shaman will have all talent points refunded and can be respent. Training costs for all talent spell replacements have been significantly reduced.
• Searing Totem - Mana cost reduced.
• Disease Cleansing Totem - Duration increased.
• Fire Resistance Totem - Duration increased.
• Flametongue Totem - Duration increased.
• Frost Resistance Totem - Duration increased.
• Grace of Air Totem - Duration of ranks 1 and 2 increased.
• Nature Resistance Totem - Duration increased.
• Poison Cleansing Totem - Duration increased.
• Stoneskin Totem - Duration increased.
• Strength of Earth Totem - Duration of ranks 1 through 4 increased.
• Tremor Totem - Duration increased.
• Windfury Totem - Duration increased.
• Windwall Totem - Duration increased.
• Mana Spring Totem - Mana cost reduced.
• Healing Stream Totem - Mana cost reduced.
• Two-Handed Axes/Maces (Enhancement Talent) - Skill levels gained with these two weapons will now be retained if you decide to unspend this talent point and return to it later.
• Flame Shock - Damage over time portion of all ranks slightly increased. Mana cost of ranks 3 through 5 decreased. In addition, a new rank is available (Rank 6) from Upper Blackrock Spire.
• Improved Reincarnation (Restoration Talent) - Fixed a bug where rank 1 of this talent was not decreasing the cooldown properly.
• Rockbiter, Frostbrand, Flametongue and Windfury Weapon mana costs reduced.
• Elemental Fury: Tooltip now indicates it increases the critical damage for Searing Totem, Magma Totem, and Fire Nova Totem.
• Fire Nova Totem: This totem now receives increased damage from effects that increase the Shaman’s spell damage.
• Grounding Totem: This totem will no longer reflect the Mage talent Combustion back onto the Mage.
• Healing Wave Totem: This totem now receives increased damage from effects that increase the Shaman’s healing.
• Lightning Bolt: Mana cost reduced approximately 17%.
• Magma Totem: This totem now receives increased damage from effects that increase the Shaman’s spell damage.
• Searing Totem: This totem now receives increased damage from effects that increase the Shaman’s spell damage.

Warriors

• Improved Revenge - Chance to stun at each rank changed to 15/30/45%.
• Bloodrage - Fixed a bug that caused Bloodrage to cost twice the intended health
• Sweeping Strikes: This spell has a number of fixes: When used in conjunction with Execute and the second victim is below 20% health, they will be hit with the full Execute amount. If the second victim is not below 20% health, they will be hit with normal melee swing damage; If the ability you are using does not deal damage, it will not use a charge of Sweeping Strikes; The extra attack it generates when used with Whirlwind now has the correct damage range; The additional attacks generated by this ability will now properly take into account the armor of the second target.
• Whirlwind - When this ability is used with Sweeping Strikes, it will burn only one charge of Sweeping Strikes and will generate only one additional attack.
• Retaliation - This ability will now function correctly at full melee range.
• Intimidating Shout - The cowering in fear effect will no longer be applied when the target resists this shout.
• Shield Slam: This ability now costs 20 rage to use and the damage it does is modified by attack power (normalized to 2.2 speed). However, the base damage has been reduced. It generates more threat per rage and more damage per rage than it did previously.
• Flurry - The tooltip for this talent has been adjusted to indicate it only works on normal melee swings. And ranks 1 through 4 of this talent will now activate correctly again. Your haste will now last only the intended next 3 swings.

Items

• Key rings have been added to the game.
  • Level 1-39 = 4 slots
  • Level 40-49 = 8 slots
  • Level 50-60 = 12 slots
• Stack sizes have been updated:
  Stacks of 20
  • Leather (Light, Medium, etc.)
  • Cured Hides (Light, Medium, etc.)
  • Shards (Small Brilliant, etc.)
  • Enchanting Dusts (Strange, Illusion, etc.)
  • Flash Powder
  • Rogue Poisons (Instant, Crippling, etc.)
  • Rogue Poison Reagents (Essence of Pain, Deathweed, etc.)

  Stacks of 10

  • Hides (Light, Medium, etc.)
• We have re-evaluated the mechanics of consumable items in the game and concluded that these should work in a more intuitive manner. As such, most items that can not be equipped with right click abilities have been streamlined into one of three categories. Using an item of a particular category will trigger a shared cooldown among all other items in the same category. The categories break down as follows with category cooldowns as listed.
  • Potions 2 minutes: This includes items such as Health Potion, Mana Potion, Invisibility Potion and Mighty Rage Potion.
  • Aggressive 1 minute: This includes items such as explosives, Really Sticky Glue and Discombobulator Ray.
  • Non-Aggresive 2 minutes: This includes items such as Healthstone, Night Dragon’s Breath, Whipper Root Tuber and Target Dummy.
• Many items that can be equipped have had their cooldown category removed and will be controlled exclusively by the item’s self cooldown. For example, the Gnomish Mind Control Cap should no longer trigger the cooldown of the Talisman of Arathor.
• We have re-evauluated the class specific quest rewards for both Zul’Gurub and Ahn’Qiraj Ruins. To bring them more in line with the effort required to attain them we have upgraded the superior items to epic quality.
• All food/drink can be eaten while silenced. Previously some food/drink could not be consumed when under the effect of a silence.
• The Gnomish Mind Control Cap may now only be used on targets that are not in combat.
• An updated set of armor rewards have been added to vendors for Honor ranks 7, 8, and 10.
• The armor rewards for Honor ranks 12 and 13 have been increased in level and stat point allocation.

Professions

• Four new nature resist cloth armor recipes have been added to the merchants at Cenarion Hold for those with high Cenarion Circle reputation.
• Three new nature resist leather armor recipes have been added to the ghost leatherworker of Silithus for those with high Cenarion Circle reputation.
• Three new nature resist plate recipes have been added to the merchants at Cenarion Hold for those with high Cenarion Circle reputation.
• The two-handed agility Enchanting recipe now provides a green glow on those weapons.
• When a paladin is replaced by their Evil Twin due to transporter malfunction, they can no longer revert to their normal self using divine shield.
• Tranquil Mechanical Yetis are no longer unique.

Quests

• Light’s Hope Chapel has been revamped and is now a fully functional quest hub.
  • A new mailbox has been added.
  • The chapel is now flagged as an inn.
  • A guard system is in place.
  • New vendors have been added.
• Dozens of new quests have been added to Light’s Hope.
• New quests available in Zul’Gurub and Light’s Hope Chapel for head and leg resistance enchantments.
• Several new tradeskill quests have been added to assist players in obtaining frost resistance armor and items.
• A new LEGENDARY item quest has been added! Casters rejoice (and druids too)!

Raids and Dungeons

• Zul’Gurub
  • Class specific armor quests given by the Zandalarian trolls of Yojamba Isle no longer require Bijous or Coins for completion. Armor quests now only require a Primal Hakkari piece and appropriate faction with Zandalar.
  • Class specific enchantments given by Zanza the Restless no longer require Arcanum (Librams) from Dire Maul. The requirements have been changed to items found within Zul’Gurub. Speak with Zanza the Restless for more information.
  • The various clan speakers (Bloodscalp Speaker, Sandfury Speaker, etc) have had their hit points reduced considerably.
  • Zandalarian Armor Replacement - Because of the changes made to the armor rewards from the Paragons of Power quests, the trolls of Yojamba Isle will now offer to replace pieces of armor that have been lost or deleted.
  • After careful consideration we have decided to add an additional loot table to the High Priests of Zul’Gurub. Players should now see two items in addition to the tokens when slaying these bosses.
• Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj
  • Ossirian the Unscarred - There is a new crystal that will be visible before the encounter begins. Players can use this crystal just like any other crystal in the encounter, but it cannot come back up during the encounter.
  • Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj Class Set Reward Replacement - Because of the changes made to the rewards from the Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj class set quests, players can obtain replacements for lost or deleted quest rewards from Warden Haro, Keyl Swiftclaw, and Windcaller Yessendra in Cenarion Hold.

User Interface

• Text that a raid leader sends to chat will now be displayed in a different color and will have the [Raid Leader] label.
• There is now a new raid warning chat channel available to raid leaders and assistants. Text that is sent to this channel will appear in the center of the screen for all players in the raid. The channel is called raid warning and text can be sent to it with “/rw”
• Raid leaders now have a Ready Check button on their raid interface. This can also be sent with /readycheck from the chat line. A ready check sends an “Are you ready?” Yes/No dialogue to all players in the raid. The raid leader will get feedback in 30 seconds on all the players who were not ready or who did not respond.
• Players now have a Raid Info button on their raid interface that functions the same way /raidinfo worked before. This function will display a pane showing all of the raid instances that a player is saved to, rather than displaying it to the chat window.
• Players in a party may now select an option that allows them to reset an instance.
  • You only get the reset instance option if you are a party leader.
  • The UI option appears if you are a party leader, you have one or more instances open, and you are not currently in an instance.
  • The UI option is a right-click option off of your own portrait (like party loot options).
  • You get a warning dialogue when you select this option asking if you really want to reset all instances.
  • If you select reset all instances, all non-raid instances will be reset to their starting condition.

World Environment

• New flight paths can be found at Ratchet and Marshall’s Refuge, Un’Goro Crater.
• Flight paths added between:
  • Morgan’s Vigil - Lakeshire
  • Revantusk Village - Light’s Hope Chapel
  • Aerie Peak - Chillwind Point
  • Stonetalon Peak - Nijel’s Point
  • Cenarion Hold - Feathermoon Stronghold
  • Cenarion Hold - Camp Mojache
  • Cenarion Hold - Un’Goro Crater
  • Gadgetzan - Un’Goro Crater
  • Crossroads - Ratchet
  • Theramore - Ratchet
  • Ratchet - Talendris Point
  • Moonglade - Talonbranch
  • Splintertree - Valormok
  • Hammerfall - Revantusk Village
  • Camp Mojache - Freewind Post

Macs

• “Maximized Windowed Mode” on a multiple display setup now leaves extra displays available for desktop use.
• In windowed mode, the window position and size is now saved on exit.
• Command-clicking the zoom button in windowed mode will now toggle amongst a few standard sizes.
• The desktop is no longer displayed when switching between full-screen resolutions.
• Cinematic support on 10.4.x systems has been revised to use CoreVideo for playback.
• Fixed a bug that could disrupt window sizes of other apps and desktop icons when switching in and out of fullscreen mode.
• Keyboard event processing has been improved and is less likely to drop keystrokes.
• The config.wtf variable “screenshotFormat” allows the user to choose “png”, “jpeg”, or “tga” (Targa) format for screen shots.
• Fixed an issue in WoW where pasting in multi-line text from the clipboard would result in one long line of text in the text view.
• Fixed an issue where international characters were not being copied and pasted correctly in some situations.
• Conditional support for future OpenGL performance enhancements in OS X.