The
test realms for patch 2.2 grind on, and it looks like a new build is being pushed, since the patch notes on the European forums got updated. Here are the changes I found in
the new notes; some we knew were around, like voice chat, and some we had been promised, like anti-AFK measures for battlegrounds.
- Voice Chat - The new Voice Chat feature is now available in game. Players will need to go into the options menu under Sound & Voice to activate it. Volume sliders are available for the microphone, speakers, and game-audio fade (which automatically lowers the game audio when a voice communication is received), as is a "push-to-talk" setting. Right-clicking on a player's name now includes the option to mute or unmute that player. Muting another player blocks all voice chat from him or her; the ignore feature now blocks both voice chat and text chat from that player.
- Chat Channels- New Chat Channel controls and functionality are now available under the chat tab in the Social Window of the interface. The interface will now show the channels players are in or are available, depending on the area of the world they are in, along with new private channel controls.
- A new feature for reporting players as being AFK in battlegrounds by right clicking has been added. When enough reports are registered, a 30 second debuff will begin to count down. Once the timer is up a new debuff will appear that will prevent the player from gaining any honor while it is on. This debuff can be negated as soon as the player engages in combat.
- Daze: Defense skill will no longer reduce the chance players have to receive the Daze effect when attacked from behind by enemies.
- Non-combat pets now have the tag "Companion" instead of "Minion".
- Damage and health leech effects always affect flying players even if they are immune to the rest of the spell's affects while in flight.
- Dueling players may not use a Lightwell that they didn't create themselves. [Damn! There goes one of Lightwell's few uses.]
- [Hunter] Raptors can now learn Dash.
- [Rogue] The following changes had been present in previous builds of 2.2, but appear to have been reverted:
- Blind duration reduced to 8 seconds, cooldown reduced to 1 minute, Blinding Powder is no longer required to use.
- Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Blind by 8/15 seconds.
- [Shaman] Earth Shield is now canceled at logout.
- Ankhs now stack to ten.
And that's all the changes I found. Why did they revert the Blind changes? I liked the idea of a reagentless Blind, although I'm not sure about the duration reduction.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
8-08-2007 @ 7:29PM
Den said...
The rogue changes were listed in the original notes but never made it to the PTR. There was never any change to blind.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=174505927&sid=1
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8-08-2007 @ 7:40PM
ItsMe said...
so who is going to stand around in the cave and click on afk'ers?
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8-08-2007 @ 7:49PM
Coherent said...
You don't have to stand in the cave to click on the afker, you just have to look on the map to see who they are, then click on them in the raid interface to report them.
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8-08-2007 @ 8:00PM
arkon_rubik said...
Not that I wanna be mean...
But I just have to face a wall and hit "num lock"...to keep on walking and that debuff will go away...
Is there something I am missing?
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8-08-2007 @ 8:04PM
vlad said...
so, everyone go afk by rams or frostwolves. if you get reported, just kill one and you fine.
a votekick would be better, and more sinister
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8-08-2007 @ 8:08PM
Daghol said...
@#4
There is already an AFK system in place. When you go AFK in the battle ground, you are kicked.
We are referring to people who are AFK, but preventing them from "going AFK" by either auto-run or an occasional jump.
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8-08-2007 @ 8:10PM
Balasan said...
#4
First of all, not doing anything other than autowalk will eventually get you to auto afk after 5 minutes anyway.
And just walking will probably *not* get you in combat, which is required to remove the debuff. (i.e. the debuff is only removed when you enter combat).
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8-08-2007 @ 8:11PM
rcdan said...
@4 l2read, the debuff wont go away until you engage in combat. next time don't be in such a hurry to be a smart ass.
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8-08-2007 @ 8:37PM
Merus said...
You know, it'll probably just keep applying debuffs even if you sit around the entrance and kill the level 50 mobs just outside.
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8-08-2007 @ 8:37PM
Swiss said...
So, hypothetically speaking, one could get reported as being AFK by standing near a flag and defending? What if you never encounter any resistance while guarding that flag?
I can think of a number of instances where I stood guarding a flag in AB or AV for nearly the entire round and never even needed to fight.
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8-08-2007 @ 8:43PM
Slayblaze said...
So move around a little @10
I swear, you guys are just intentionally trying to be dumb or something.
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8-08-2007 @ 8:48PM
Armath said...
Re: Ankhs going up to 10
Yay, we get some shammy love! But they should have made 'em go to 11.
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8-08-2007 @ 9:09PM
Khallah said...
I'll be interested to try the ingame voice chat. If it's anything like LOTRO's, I'll be sticking to ventrillo - the quality was dreadful.
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8-08-2007 @ 9:30PM
amasen said...
@10
Why would your own allies report you for guarding a flag?
Hopefully this will be a start to the afk problem. I for one can't wait...
Course a better solution would be to fix the problems that cause people to choose to afk rather than play... For instance, why is killing worth practically no honor, but just being in the battleground is worth 5 times as much? Why is AV still so unbalanced and easier for the alliance to defend and attack?
There should be points for defending ... Points for killing... points for completing objectives... There should also be points for how well you do... dps class that does the most dmg, healing class that does the most effective healing...
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8-08-2007 @ 9:54PM
Dave said...
everyone knows the AFK people in a BG.
They're the ones with zeroes across the board for everything. If you've never killed anything at all, a player or a mob, you're AFK and we all know it. Standing around guarding a flag is gonna get you kills or killed or at least damage. Standing around in the cave, flat zeroes.
if the initial 30 seconds doesn't rid the game of enough of you guys, hopefully they'll knock it down to 10 seconds or so or instantaneous if you have zeroes across the board.
Nobody likes you, everyone would prefer you just go away if you don't even want to make an effort. It's a ton of fun in AV when everyone plays and tries to win. I'd much rather have an hourlong AV where the Horde wins (pissing off the Alliance who assume quick victory every time) than 4 losses in the same timespan.
After all, honor based gear is kinda crap now, why do you really care about it?
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8-08-2007 @ 10:00PM
Kryptonls said...
^ Hehe, the Alliance still win 90% of AV's anyway!
Hopefully when the patch is applied to the PTR, we'll be able to see exactly how it works, thus clearing up any confusion that people may have.
And as some have said - it will also be good to try out the voice chat in instances and other places.
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8-08-2007 @ 10:19PM
PyroAmos said...
afk fix looks extreamly flawed, sinceit just requires you to get in combat to lose the debuff, and even if you don't lose the debuff, your still in the BG, so on the off chance 'enough' (what is that, 2, 5, 10?) people take time to report someone, they're still there, and they just have to get in combat, and then however many people had to report him to give him the debuff to start with, have to do it again. looks like a poorly thought out fix to me.
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8-08-2007 @ 10:21PM
Doomie said...
I also noticed that shamans don't need reagents for water walking and underwater breathing.
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8-08-2007 @ 10:41PM
El Vega said...
"Hey, what are you doing so far down south? We need everyone on O for Vann."
"I'm collecting wolves for the wolf riders."
"Forget them, just get up here and fight."
"No, I want to collect the wolves and get the riders."
"Ok everybody, reported him AFK so he has to come up here and fight."
...
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8-08-2007 @ 10:49PM
BenMS said...
Yeah... regular type speak- uhh... reagents, that is, can go to ten all they want. Ankhs should go to 11 - as opposed to just making ten loud- uhh, more.
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