PTR Notes: Patch note watch 3/5
Posted Mar 6th 2008 12:00AM by Eliah Hecht
Filed under: Patches, Odds and ends, News items
Welcome back to another installment of Patch Note Watch, the show where we go through the
PTR patch notes in meticulous detail and show you everything that's changed since the last version! Much of this has been covered already here on WoW Insider, including
rollbacks on Life Tap and Flametongue, some
multi-target effects no longer breaking CC, and
a nice new recipe for jewelcrafters. But I am a completist. I must post every detail, so let's begin. As usual, any change that we haven't covered on the site that looks interesting will be bolded.
- Blizzard Entertainment would like to dedicate the patch in memory of Gary Gygax. His work on D&D was an inspiration to us in many ways and helped spark our passion for creating games of our own. As avid D&D players and fellow game developers, we were all saddened by the news of his passing; we feel we've lost a true adventuring companion. Thanks for everything and farewell, Gary. You will be missed.
- Players will now be able to create level-70 characters with epic equipment and compete on special tournament realms in a new global arena tournament. For more information, details and entry requirements, please visit the official tournament pages .
- [Druid] Swipe: This ability will no longer strike any secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
- Hunter:
- Multi-Shot: This ability will no longer strike any secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
- Track spells will now persist after death.
- [Mage] Icy Veins no longer increases the chance your chilling effects will Freeze the target, but now increases the chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting any spell by 100%.
- Paladin
- Avenger's Shield: This ability will no longer jump to secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. I.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
- Crusader Strike: This ability will no longer refresh the Healing Way buff from the Shaman talent.
- Sense Undead- Now persists after death.
- [Rogue] The combat log will now almost always be accurate in displaying the amount of damage done to a rogue when under the effects of Cheat Death.
- Shaman
- Chain Lightning: This ability will no longer jump to secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
- Removed: Flametongue Weapon damage effects for rank 3 and above now also reduce healing done to the target by 50%
- Flametongue Weapon: Having different ranks of this enchantment cast on two different weapons will no longer cause the enchantments to trigger multiple times per swing.
- Toughness's new effect phrasing changed: used to say that it reduced the duration of movement-impairing effects; now says it reduces the duration of movement-slowing effects to clarify that it does not apply to roots.
- Warlock
- Removed: The whole Life Tap nerf business. Current LT on the PTR is identical to how it is on the live realms.
- Felguard Cleave: This ability will no longer strike any secondary target which is under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
- Sense Demons now persists after death
- Warrior
- Cleave: This ability will no longer strike any secondary target which is under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
- Improved Hamstring (Arms) effect is now subject to diminishing returns when used in PvP.
- PvP
- Removed: Matchmaking: If a queued player has a personal rating higher than their team rating, the matchmaking system will now use the highest personal rating of a queued member of that team for matchmaking purposes, instead of the team rating. In addition, 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.
- Personal Rating: The amount a player's personal rating can climb above his or her team's rating is now limited.
- Professions
- Removed the level requirement from the expert fishing book, The Bass and You.
- A new jewelcrafting recipe has been added to transform many green quality gems into a single random blue quality gem. This recipe is available from grandmaster jewelcrafting trainers.
- The daily quest Escape from Skettis has had its reward tuned down.
- Items
- Justicar Raiment: The 2 piece bonus will now always give the correct amount of bonus healing to the Judgement Light effect.
- Masterwork Stormhammer: The Chain Lightning cast by this item will no longer jump to secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
- Thunderstrike: The Chain Lightning cast by this item will no longer jump to secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
- World Environment
- Critters: Ambient level 1 creatures will no longer be picked as subsequent targets by chaining spells and abilities.
- Doomwalker: This creature will no longer sometimes cause a player's Darkmoon Card: Vengeance to trigger and put the player in combat with the Doomwalker.
- Removed: Mobs no longer regenerate health during the stun effect from the Goblin Rocket Launcher.
Tags: patch-2.4, patch-note-watch, patchnotes, ptr, sunwell
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
3-06-2008 @ 12:23AM
kr3wman said...
The thing just popped into my head.
This is the first change (Cleavage...oh Miss Hecht you're getting it) that is effective in both PvE and PvP.
Reply
3-06-2008 @ 1:39AM
Chris Anthony said...
Apropos of very little, judging by Eliah's bio, that's /Mr./ Hecht to you. ;)
3-06-2008 @ 2:21AM
kr3wman said...
Oh, but it makes it even worse!
; )
3-06-2008 @ 9:13AM
Grendalsh said...
Snrk.. hehehhe... Great Cleavage..
ROY HAS BOOBIES!
Order of the Stick
Dangit, can't find the actual comic panel for the quote.. :(
3-06-2008 @ 12:24AM
Kaphik said...
That's so weak, the changes to Cleave, Multi-Shot, etc. Then again, it should makes pugs a bit more bearable for some, and more idiot-proof.
Reply
3-06-2008 @ 12:27AM
kr3wman said...
I think it's beleivable...
If you're a warrior and fighting say, 3 fel orcs in front of you. The mage sheeps one. Thus that means 2 orcs and 1 sheep.
You would clearly aim for the sheep as your secondary target.
3-06-2008 @ 12:36PM
Krick said...
I'm a pally tank and frankly, I think that the avenger's shield change sucks. Figuring out tricky pulls and properly timing your CC is a challenge, but challenges are what makes the game fun. Knowing how to properly use your class abilities is what separates players from bad players.
...
Krick
http://www.tankadin.com
3-06-2008 @ 12:33AM
bulgur said...
Still wondering:
Why no love for enchanters!?
JC and Alchemy and tailors all get BoP benefits with every patch. Hell even engineers do get love these days. Enchanters get NOTHING like that. Same thing every patch. Enchanting = the forgotten professions.
Reply
3-06-2008 @ 12:39AM
Kaphik said...
Enchanters get to turn void crystals into large glimmering shards in the patch. One of the best money making professions (have you seen the price of arcane dust?) just got another nice little boost.
3-06-2008 @ 12:57AM
Schadow said...
Are you aware that you can have an enchanter disenchant your greens for you so that you, too, can sell arcane dust? Enchanters have no exclusive rights to it.
3-06-2008 @ 1:21AM
Charlie said...
enchanting is one of the most lucrative professions, and though one of the toughest to level, its the eaziest to make money off of at a high level. Just do a little spam w/e your in Shat and you can get a few gold (I avg around 10). Get the rare enchants (like soulfrost) and you can make a 20-30g tip for one enchant, just for having the recipee.
And thats not including disenchants. I mean, enchanting doesn't need a buff. All it needs is to be able to sell its enchants on the AH, which is coming in WotLK
3-06-2008 @ 5:08AM
nav said...
Schadow: if an enchanter is providing such services for free then they can't really complain about the money-making side. You can't just have professions make you money. You do need the tiniest grain of business sense to do so - like... umm.. having the great idea of charging for your services.
3-06-2008 @ 12:18PM
Khanmora said...
How quickly previous patches are forgotten. Last major content patch, all the old world enchants were offered on new rep vendors. You already have enchanter-only enchants for rings also.
3-06-2008 @ 12:55PM
bulgur said...
But I don't want to make gold, I want to enchant stuff! >:|
If I wanted a gathering profession to get stuff to sell on AH I would have taken up a gathering profession. I chose enahnting because I want to enchant stuff.
This is precisely what I mean.
Enchanting is so neglected that all there is for enchanters to do is to disenchant, while there STILL are no BoP recipes aside from one-per-class ring enchant, which is really really lame compared to what JC, Alchemists and Tailors get.
3-06-2008 @ 12:48AM
Tumnus said...
When do pallys use sense undead? I've rarely ever used it, even in Darkshire or West/East plaguelands.
Reply
3-06-2008 @ 8:06AM
Regis said...
Damnit, some day I actually have to finish that quest line...
3-06-2008 @ 12:49AM
Juliah said...
I'm very, very glad to see that they're acknowledging Gary Gygax. Thank you, Blizzard, for showing that courtesy and respect.
Reply
3-06-2008 @ 12:49AM
mattarin said...
Warrior
Cleave: This ability will no longer strike any secondary target which is under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
Improved Hamstring (Arms) effect is now subject to diminishing returns when used in PvP.
:( that makes me a sad warrior lol
Reply
3-06-2008 @ 1:30AM
davidus said...
"Improved Hamstring (Arms) effect is now subject to diminishing returns when used in PvP."
How was this a problem. If you get imp hamstrung, there's only a 15% chance you'll get immobilized again when they reapply it. Plus, hamstring lasts for 15 secs so the odds that you'd get chain immobilized from hamstring during it's DR are very low. I cannot think of a single time where I was chain imp hamstrung, or wished it was on DR.
Reply
3-06-2008 @ 10:47AM
amasen said...
Hamstring lasts 10 seconds in pvp, not 15.
As for being chain immobilized, this is a good change. As a warrior/priest/mage in pvp I can say this is a fair change. There are several times I've lost a match on my mage/priest because a warrior got a lucky 3 or 4 imp hamstring procs in a row.