As Matt Rossi is analyzing in more detail, the attunement requirement for Karazhan has been removed, although at least one person in the raid does need to have the key to get in the door. How do we know? New patch notes.Here, in full, is everything that's changed in the latest iteration of Blizzard's official test realm patch notes, brought to you, as always, by the power of diff. Much of this has been covered on WoW Insider already, because Blizzard is slow to update the patch notes; the stuff that looks new to me is in bold (which in this particular case is only that the new Mortal Strike-esque effect on Flametongue Weapon applies to Flametongue Totem as well).
- Removed: "The benefits of drinking out of combat have been delayed. It will now take five seconds before the full benefit of the mana regeneration will come into effect." (now restricted to arenas only)
- [Druid] Lifebloom will no longer cause error messages when interacting with Spellsteal or while the Druid is under the effects of a Mind Control.
- Mage
- Improved Blink: This talent no longer reduces the mana cost of Blink. Instead, it increases the chance for all attacks to miss the Mage by 25% for 2/4 sec after Blink is cast.
- Icy Veins no longer stacks with Power Infusion (as well as Bloodlust/Heroism from the last patch notes)
- Mana Shield: This spell will now get a percentage of the Mage's bonus to spell damage as an additional effect.
- [Priest] Added "reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20%" to the new effect of "increasing their spell haste by 20%". Does not stack with Icy Veins or Bloodlust/Heroism.
- Shaman:
- Flametongue Weapon damage effects for rank 3 and above now also reduce healing done to the target by 50% and lasts 5 seconds.
- Flametongue Totem damage effects now also reduce healing done to the target by 50% and lasts 5 seconds.
- The Global Cooldown of all Totems has been reduced to 1 seconds, down from 1.5 seconds.
- Shamanistic Rage is now a Physical ability instead of a Magic spell, and thus is no longer dispellable. It now reduces all damage taken by 30% and gives your successful melee attacks a chance to regenerate mana equal to 30% of your attack power. This lasts for 15 seconds with a 2 minute cooldown.
- Toughness will now also reduce the duration of movement impairing effects on you by 10/20/30/40/50%.
- Warlock:
- Emberstorm now also reduces the cast time of your incinerate spell by 2/4/6/8/10%.
- Life Tap: This spell now has only 3 ranks. Each now costs a fixed percentage of maximum health to cast, and grants the same fixed percentage of maximum mana: Rank 1 is 5%, Rank 2 is 12%, and Rank 3 is 20%.
- PvP:
- when making a calculation for rating gains and losses at the end of a match, the calculation will use the higher of the personal or team ratings on the opposing team
- The benefits of drinking out of combat have been delayed while in the Arena. It will now take four seconds before the full benefit of the mana regeneration will come into effect.
- Battleground Rune Buffs:Speed, Restoration, and Berserking buffs received from battleground runes will no longer cause Stealth or Prowl to break.
- Dungeons & Raids:
- [CoT: Old Hillsbrad] Durnholde Lookouts no longer spawn in the Heroic version of the instance. The placement of creatures around Durnholde Keep in Heroic mode is now identical to that of Normal mode.
- [KZ] Players will no longer need the Master's Key to enter Karazhan. The gates to Karazhan will still require the Master's Key to be unlocked.
- Items:
- Deathwing Brood Cloak: These cloaks are now bound on equip instead of bound on pickup.
- PvP Relics: The bonus resilience from Idols, Librams, and Totems is no longer stackable by swapping between multiple relics.
- Shaman PvP Boots: The pre-Burning Crusade bonus to increase Ghost Wolf speed no longer works for players over level 60.
- Skull of Gul'dan: This item now shares its cooldown with other similar trinkets.
- Elites in Blade's Edge Plateau Regions: These creatures now have an increased chance to drop rare depleted items.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-28-2008 @ 3:35PM
Rich said...
Sweet!!! Those cloaks are BoE now, that's a really nice change. Nothing worse than getting a pally cloak on your lock and the pally getting the lock cloak.
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2-28-2008 @ 3:41PM
Gweedo said...
well, at least new warlocks can neglect to learn ranks in lifetap beyond rank 1 and it won't be so bad. What about us old school locks? Blizzard is seriously screwing the pooch here.
2-28-2008 @ 3:41PM
Prauche said...
Agreed! /cheer
2-28-2008 @ 3:46PM
Mastermenchi said...
Wow... so now Shaman can give MS TO EVERYONE! so pvp healers please start crying.
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2-28-2008 @ 3:50PM
faradhim said...
No more attunement requirement for Kara? Is this another snub for the die hard raiders?
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2-28-2008 @ 4:06PM
Manatank said...
Right, because hard core raiders care about Kara?
This is great news. I'll be able to start getting my alts in there pre-70. I was already looking forward to it, because with the changes to warlock summoning in Netherstorm, I knew I'd be able to get my Arc key frag before my flying mount, but now I don't even have to worry about it. No more boring regular instances before free epic loot.
Kara attunement for the third time just gets boring.
2-28-2008 @ 4:09PM
JPN said...
Running 3 instances once each is too boring for you???
2-28-2008 @ 4:35PM
Manatank said...
It isn't so much that I mind doing it. The part I don't enjoy is forcing 4 other people to run it with me. Either I waste my guildies time yet again, or I PuG it. If the Kara attunement was something I could solo, then I wouldn't mind it. I hate wasting other people's time.
2-28-2008 @ 4:39PM
imparush said...
to (manatank) warlock will not be able to summon when they are inside any tk instance so no hope for that anyway, so unfair when druid can fly at 68. To (JPN) no it's 4 instance SL, SV, arca, BM.
2-28-2008 @ 4:51PM
Manatank said...
They are changing it so warlocks can summon there to the best of my knowledge. Also, it is 5 instances because BM can't be entered until the quest in Durnholde is completed.
2-28-2008 @ 6:14PM
imparush said...
where did u get that information that warlock will be able to summon peolpe inside arca,bota, mech, and the eye?
2-28-2008 @ 7:14PM
Heilig said...
It was on a blue post that was linked on WoWinsider a while back.
Also, don't get your hopes up about getting into karazhan pre-70. If I remember correctly from trying to hop in while doing the prequests when some raid opened the door, a message popped up saying "In order to enter you must be level 70 and a member of a raid group" or something to that effect. I specifically remember seeing level 70 as part of the requirement, although this was the better part of a year ago.
2-28-2008 @ 3:54PM
Sean said...
Ok. Now, after seriously looking at the FT buff AND hearing that it affects the Totem; The buff is pretty sweet. I revoke my previous n00b statement about this not being a real buff. I still can't find a way to justify putting 5 points in Toughness over something else, but that's just my opinion.
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2-28-2008 @ 3:55PM
Slap said...
About time they nerfed Heroic OHB. Only way to do it was with a specific group makeup, or severely outgearing heroics. Whenever it came up as the daily people just skipped it on my server, and I'm sure Blizzard could see hardly any players were actually in Heroic OHB.
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2-28-2008 @ 4:04PM
Jack said...
Good lord, MORE healing reduction? And for the entire party? o_O Enhancement Shamans... the new hunter?
And they're going back on their whole "you need to learn to group to go to Karazhan" thing too. Huh.
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2-28-2008 @ 4:06PM
Vinna said...
ugh.. not needing to be keyed for kara?? it's bad enough when undergeared players get keyed and expect to go. Lv 70 dungeon blues are not hard to get yet people get keyed and whine when you tell them they need to work on their gear before going.. it's not a 40 man MC where people can be on circle duty.
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2-28-2008 @ 4:08PM
Manatank said...
It is when you are gearing up your alts and your guild has Kara on EZ-mode farm status. We can easily run 2-3 people through even if they are just dead weight at this point.
2-28-2008 @ 4:09PM
AlmtyBob said...
Yay Heroic OHB nerf!
Boo no Kara attunement! I understand some late-BC nerfs so people can experience content, that's great. But now it's possible to never, ever see the inside of a single instance and waltz into Kara. Seriously, was a small series of runs in instances that are fairly popular that difficult?
Bleh at Shammy buffs. I'm happy I can bring bring my enhance shammy into arenas and all, but these buffs are an overreaction. We're going to see a couple months of QQ'ing from healers (rightfully so) then Blizz will nerf shammies back to nearly where they are now.
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2-28-2008 @ 4:19PM
Slayblaze said...
It does make sense to do it now, you know they were going to remove it at *some* point Pre-WotLK. Now more people will get a chance to enter and, as has been mentioned, Alts will no longer have to go through the keying process.
2-28-2008 @ 9:40PM
Raaj said...
"Seriously, was a small series of runs in instances that are fairly popular that difficult?"
On Firetree? Yes. Just now got done with Durnholde on my warlock who's been 70 for roughly 8 months. Given, I wasn't trying particularly hard to find a group, but when I can go 6 hours in the LFG queue and not find a single other player, I'm clearly not going to get keyed in a timely manner.
In addition, I have a 70 hunter and a druid that's nearly 70 that I really don't want to get keyed on either. Frankly, I don't give 2 shits about the loot in Karazhan, I'm only after badges in a decent amount, since PuG heroics are some of the worst in-game experiences you'll ever have.