PvP

• Attacking forces will receive a 200% capture speed bonus when they control 2 keeps.
• Defending forces will receive a 200% capture speed bonus when they control all 3 keeps.
• Daily quest creatures, herbs, minerals, etc. will only spawn when Tol Barad is in the quest phase between battles. There will be 5-minute and 1-minute warnings before the quest phase ends. The quest phase ends 15 minutes before the battle for Tol Barad begins and queuing is made available. At that time any players in the daily micro dungeons will be ported just outside. This does not apply to Tol Barad Peninsula or the daily quests there.
• The weekly PvP quest “Victory in Tol Barad” now awards 200 Honor Points and 3 Tol Barad Commendations.

Mage

• Fireball mana cost has been reduced to 9% of base mana.
• Frostfire Bolt mana cost has been reduced to 9% of base mana.

Priest

• Strength of Soul now occurs when the priest casts Inner Focus on oneself, rather than Power Word: Shield. In addition, Strength of Soul now also causes the priest to become immune to silence, interrupt, and dispel effects for 2/4 seconds after using Inner Focus.

Professions

• Fishing
  • Rare fishing poles now have a chance to be found in the Bag of Fishing Treasures earned via the Stormwind and Orgrimmar Fishing daily quests.
• Jewelcrafting
  • Wrath of the Lich King purple, green, and orange gems have been increased in cost to match red, blue, and yellow epic gems (220 Justice Points). Burning Crusade epic gems have been increased in cost to match the most expensive Wrath of the Lich King gems.

Item Sets

• Normal PvE helms (item level 359) no longer have a chance to drop from Nefarian or Cho’gall on Heroic difficulty. Instead, the Heroic PvE helm and shoulder pieces (item level 372) only require their associated Crown/Shoulders of the Forlorn tokens to purchase, and do not require players to obtain the normal helms or shoulders first.

 

January 19-26

• General
  • Thunder Bluff reputation no longer increases further from Horde faction gains than other races, now correctly capping at Friendly.
• Classes
  • Druids
    • Enrage will now properly increase the amount of damage taken by the druid.
    • Force of Nature and Wild Mushroom can now be cast correctly even if the target is on a different height of terrain from the druid.
  • Paladins
    • The bonus healing provided by Conviction now functions correctly when healing other players.
    • The passive healing bonus from Walk in the Light has been reduced to 5%, down from 15%. This change is to balance against the fix to Conviction, but still results in a small overall buff to paladin healing.
  • Priests
    • Prayer of Mending is now properly reduced by healing reduction effects, such as Mortal Strike, Absolute Corruption, and Engulfing Darkness.
  • Rogues
    • The benefit of Executioner for Slice and Dice is now correctly removed from the rogue after switching talent specializations.
• Dungeons & Raids
  • The Bastion of Twilight
    • Creatures leading up to Halfus are now immune to Mind Control.
    • The Waterlogged debuff now expires appropriately after a player is hit by Flame Torrent during the Ignacious encounter.
    • Terrastra will cast Quake regardless of whether Harden Skin is interrupted or not.
    • Twilight Sentries now have less health on 10-player Heroic difficulty than on 25-player Heroic difficulty.
    • Sinestra
      • Twilight Whelps are now immune to snares.
      • The spawn rate of Twilight Spitecallers has been slightly reduced on 25-player Heroic difficulty.
      • A death knight’s diseases will no longer trigger the Twilight Spitecallers’ Indomitable enrage.
      • It is no longer possible to target or attack a Twilight Spitecaller before it has entered the combat area.
      • Flame patches should properly spawn in front of the Twilight Eggs.
  • Blackwing Descent
    • The achievement criteria for Silence is Golden is now properly reset when entering combat with Atramedes.
    • Atramedes’s health on Heroic difficulty has been reduced slightly.
    • Maloriak will no longer be interrupted while casting Release All Minions.
    • Maloriak’s enrage timer was inconsistent between difficulties and has been updated. It is now 7 minutes for normal difficulty and 12 minutes for Heroic difficulty.
  • Deadmines
    • Glubtok’s Fire and Frost Blossoms summoned during the encounter no longer grant experience or reputation.
  • Throne of the Four Winds
    • Al’Akir’s Lightning Strike damage has been reduced on 25-player Heroic difficulty. In addition, its effect duration has been reduced to 16 seconds, down from 24 in both modes and difficulties.
    • Slipstreams can no longer be used during the Al’Akir encounter.
    • It is no longer possible to swap raid difficulty before the Conclave of Wind has fully respawned.
    • Gather Strength cast by Rohash is no longer affected by spell slowing effects, such as Curse of Tongues and Slow.
  • The Vortex Pinnacle
    • Bosses will no longer respawn after a soft reset if players already have a Heroic save.
• Items
  • Heroic set tokens have been moved to earlier bosses on 25-player Heroic difficulty. Here is the new breakdown of token drops on 10- and 25-player Heroic difficulty: chest from Halfus, legs from Maloriak, gloves from Magmaw, helm from Nefarian, shoulder from Cho’gall.
  • Tokens for normal versions of the helm and shoulder set pieces (item level 359) now drop from Nefarian and Cho’gall on Heroic difficulty, as they are required to purchase the Heroic helm and shoulder pieces (item level 372). An additional change to this functionality is slated for patch 4.0.6.
  • Normal and Heroic versions of Earthen Handguards now have more Strength.
  • Normal and Heroic versions of Fall of Mortality can now proc the Grounded Soul effect correctly via heal-over-time spells.
• Lunar Festival
  • Elder Rumblerock is now available during the quest “Assault on Dreadmaul Rock” for both the Horde and the Alliance.
  • Horde players now correctly gain 75 Bilgewater reputation as well when completing the Lunar Festival elder quests as part of the Horde reputation gain.
• Professions
  • The Stamina bonus from the Flask of Battle is the same as the Flask of Steelskin. Both are correctly giving 120 Stamina for alchemists who know the recipe.
  • Archaeology projects Twisted Ammonite Shells, Druid and Priest Statue Sets, Fierce Wolf Figurines, and Spidery Sundials now guarantee skill-ups all the way to 525.
  • Toughened Flesh now drops more frequently from associated creatures.
  • Making Kungaloosh no longer counts toward the guild achievement Set the Oven to Cataclysmic.
• PvP
  • Rated Battlegrounds will no longer initiate a shutdown timer due to too few players being present.

As previously announced (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1567814533?page=1), Conquest weapons requiring 2200 rating were to be made available today, January 25, but have been delayed. We currently plan to make the 2200 weapons available approximately two weeks after the release of patch 4.0.6.

The decision to further delay availability of weapons requiring 2200 rating was not made lightly. Currently very few guilds are clearing PvE content that drops weapons of this caliber, which would make rated Battlegrounds and Arenas the primary source for top-tier weapons. We of course don’t want players who are pursuing PvE content to feel as though they must engage in heavy PvP to obtain these weapons in order to be competitive or successful.

We do have some plans to help avoid similar situations in the future, and we’ll share more details when they become available.

We’re definitely looking into ways to add more information about raid and dungeon bosses directly into the game client. For example, as discussed at BlizzCon 2010 in the Raids and Dungeons panel, we’re already discussing the possibility of incorporating loot tables and boss abilities into zone maps. While “enhanced maps” are still in their formative stages, we love the idea of a player being able to access a variety of information about a specific boss — including what it drops, what abilities it has, and maybe even some lore about who it is and why everyone in Azeroth wants to kill it — just by opening the instance map and mousing over an icon.

This is all still on the horizon, of course, and would likely be something that’s implemented in stages. Nevertheless, we agree that the game could provide better tools for players who are adapting to new content and are currently working to bridge that gap for the future (in a meaningful way that doesn’t undermine or spoil the experience).

Dungeons & Raids

• Deadmines
  • Foe Reaper 5000′s health has been reduced slightly. In addition, he now enrages at 40%, up from 30%.
  • When enraged, Foe Reaper’s Molten Slag spawn 33% faster.
  • Some boat fires will now go out when Vanessa VanCleef is defeated, making it easier to get back onto the ship from the cavern entrance.
  • Vengeance of VanCleef has been redesigned. It is now a stacking buff that increases damage dealt, size, and attack speed, and stacks up to 40 times. Vanessa will begin casting this as soon as she jumps back onto the boat after detonating charges.

Classes

• Warriors
  • Drums of War no longer lowers the rage cost of Piercing Howl.
  • Mortal Strike cost has been reduced by 5 rage.

• General
  • Broiled Dragon Feast is correctly being tracked by the guild achievement, Set the Oven to “Cataclysmic”.
  • The guild achievement Lower Blackrock Spire Guild Run can now only be earned in a group of at least 4 players from the same guild in a 5-player party.
  • The achievement Sunwell Plateau Guild Run now requires a guild group to complete. This achievement can no longer be completed without the requirement of having 75% of the raid be guild members.
  • Guild experience daily resets should no longer sometimes fail to occur.
• Classes
  • Death Knights
    • Necrotic Strike is now affected by resilience.
  • Druids
    • Druids previously unable to learn Nature’s Grasp will be able to learn that spell now.
    • Rejuvenation now consumes 16% of base mana, down from 26%, but still requires 26% of base mana in order to be cast.
  • Mages
    • Rank 1 of Pyromaniac no longer improperly gives 5% passive haste.
    • The mana costs of the following mage spells have been reduced, but they still require the previous percentage of base mana in order to be cast: Arcane Barrage (11% of base mana), Arcane Blast (7% of base mana), and Fireball (12% of base mana). As an example, Fireball requires 16% base mana to cast, but only consumes 12% of base mana.
  • Priests
    • Sin and Punishment is now properly causing its terror affect when dispelled. In addition, it no longer shares diminishing returns with fear effects. It now shares diminishing returns with horrify effects.
    • Priests who were unable to learn Holy Nova will now be able to train the spell.
  • Warlocks
    • While Nightfall is active, Doomguards will not instantly cast Doom Bolt.
  • Warriors
    • A bug has been fixed where the Shield Block ability granted 25% more critical block chance than was intended for Protection warriors with very high total chance to avoid attacks.
• Dungeons & Raids
  • It should no longer be possible for players to inadvertently be locked out of killing a raid boss depending on whether or not they were online when the boss was killed.
  • The battle resurrection counter will now correctly reset if players are not inside the dungeon when an encounter resets.
  • The Bastion of Twilight
    • The hotfix on January 5 to increase the damage of Liquid Ice during phase 3 of the Ascendant Council fight has been reverted. Due to a separate bug with the size of the Elementium Monstrosity’s hitbox, it is often impossible for melee classes to avoid damage from this ability. This issue is slated to be addressed in patch 4.0.6 so that Liquid Ice damage can again be increased.
    • Many adjustments to the behavior of various mechanics in the Sinestra encounter have been made.
    • Fester Blood now hits everyone in the room instead of having a 20-yard radius on Heroic difficulty during the Cho’gall encounter. No more kiting he who has too many eyeballs.
    • Valiona’s Blackout can no longer be absorbed by Grounding Totem or reflected. Its healing absorption effect has also been increased for 10-player normal difficulty.
  • Blackwing Descent
    • Atramedes will now reset if the players targeted by Sonic Breath or Obnoxious Fiends attempt to leave the room.
    • Zoning into the dungeon after a soft reset now causes all Atramedes-related objects and creatures to reset completely. The introduction event will replay once the dwarves have been cleared. Entering combat with Atramedes forces the gongs to become usable and the fight will function normally from this point.
    • Atramedes will no longer despawn when his tail passes through the area trigger in the entrance to his room. He will no longer despawn randomly during the fight. Pulling him out of his room will now cause him to reset.
    • The damage of Chimaeron’s Caustic Slime has been reduced for both raid sizes and dungeon difficulties.
    • Chimaeron will not cast Caustic Slime on Feral tanks in Bear Form unless there aren’t enough non-tank specialized targets available. This fix applies to Magmaw’s targeting functionality as well.
    • Rip and Bane of Doom damage is no longer affected by the damage increase of Stolen Power when engaging Nefarian.
    • Abberrations spawned during the Maloriak encounter were displaying inappropriately high health values on Heroic difficulty. This has been corrected.
• Items
  • Bloodthirsty Gladiator’s Badge of Dominance and Vicious Gladiator’s Insignia of Dominance on-use effects now properly modify healing done.
  • Darkmoon Card: Volcano now triggers from periodic damage.
  • Divine Shield and Blessing of Protection no longer remove the Blind Spot debuff from the normal and Heroic versions of the Jar of Ancient Remedies. When targeting an ally at very close range (2-3 yards) when using this item, it will still energize them instead of the user. This will be fixed in an upcoming patch.
  • Free Action Potions now cannot be used above level 80.

Professions

• Archaeology keystone fragments can no longer be prospected.
• Lifebound Alchemist Stones can no longer be disenchanted.

PvP

• Arenas
  • Ring of Valor has been temporarily disabled until select bugs can be fixed in an upcoming patch.
• Battlegrounds
  • Teams who are in the rated Battleground queue and have a member disconnect are now removed from the queue after 10 minutes if the player does not come back. The team is still at the top of the queue if the player comes back and the Battleground will pop almost instantly.
  • Battleground ratings, wins, and losses should now always update after every game when playing in rated Battlegrounds. Certain conditions were not causing this to happen previously.
  • Players who do not show up to a Rated Battleground, either by leaving the queue or letting the Battleground queue time out, are not being credited for a win.
  • Players who are removed from a Battleground when it closes due to a lack of players will not receive the Deserter debuff.
  • Players are again able to queue for more than one Battleground at a time without issue.

Quests & Creatures

• Darnassus
  • Worgen character hearthstone location is now set to the Craftsmen’s Terrace in Darnassus upon completing the quest “Ruh’theran Village”.
• Deepholm
  • Fungalmancer Glop no longer grants experience and now rewards quest kill credit to all players who have damaged him.
• Tol Barad Peninsula
  • Players will receive quest credit for killing any quest boss, regardless of party status, so long as they participate in killing these bosses.
  • Problim can now be seen from a much larger distance.
  • Cell Watchers in D-Block are no longer incorrectly tagged as elite.
  • “The Leftovers”, “Swamp Bait” and “A Huge Problim” can now be shared between members of the Alliance. In addition, these quests now award the correct amount of gold and faction for the Horde and Alliance as well.
  • Darkwood Broodmothers no longer flee at 25% and periodically inflict targets with Reckless Toxin instead.
  • Hungry Ghouls and Skeletal Beastmasters now drop the Cursed Femur quest item when on the quest “Salvaging the Remains”, and the tooltip also indicates these creatures drop the quest item.
  • Restless Infantry and Restless Soldiers now spawn more quickly.
• Twilight Highlands
  • If reinforcements are not called after 60 seconds, Skullcrusher will now despawn. When reinforcements are called, Skullcrusher no longer improperly despawns.
• Uldum
  • Titanic Guardian’s Burning Gaze ability should no longer put everyone in the zone in combat.