Obligatory Patch Notes Thread

[Steadders]

A few interesting things going on this time, but mostly more little changes.

I've heard the new Mage talent "Icey Veins" will make them more balanced Vs Rogues, maybe Elbonio/RocketKnight and Andyf can tell us more?

Druids have supposedly got a big nurf in healing, due to changes in lifebloom (I count that as a good thing)

And rogues are getting buffed. Well, they're having shadow step buffed and Hemorrhage nurfed. But also buffed.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=3188.0

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

[Killy]

Hunters

Arcane Shot: Ranks 1-5 will once again deal bonus damage based on attack power. \o/
Aspect of the Viper effect increased. \o/
Freezing Trap is no longer limited to one target at a time. WTF :D
Pet leveling speed has been increased. \o/ (now we need more pet slots)

:awesome:

[andyf]

Seeing as nearly every rogue went Combat/Subtlety for PVP, they are plain nerfed for it. Hemo damage down (though now it uses its own debuff) and Prep doesn't reset the cooldown on AR, so no more pretty 30 seconds of super energy.

PVE rogues will collectively shrug and ask what the big deal is, as Assassination/Combat trees are unchanged. Anyone that went tri-spec to test out in Raids will more than likely switch back to ass/combat for PVE, unless there's some goofy raid leader out there that demands hemo debuffs on bosses.

Shadowstep buff is nice and pretty and cute, but so far it doesn't look like people are going to bother giving up talents for it. Deep combat rogues are having fun tanking warriors in arena, deep assassination rogues are having fun keeping wound poison stacks on their targets.

Trainable Ice Block is sure to please all the Arcane/Fire mages that Raid and couldn't get it before. Icy Veins is like some kind of cute mini-bloodlust for mages, which Frostbite / shatter mages are sure to love.


-edit- Wowhead's comments for Icy Veins is a bit .. broken :D Looks like they've simply changed the spell description of Cold Snap to Icy Veins, so all the comments apart from the latest one, refer to Cold Snap.

[SystemId]

Bye bye AR/Prep Spec. They've still not buff subtlety enough to make me want to spec any more then 7 points into it. What a waste of a talent tree!

[Quietus]

No changes for priests? I was hoping to see "We returned the surge of light bug because we thought it was funny."

[Joey]

2.3.2 mage changes now mean that frost has the highest DPS potential of the 3 trees.

Cold Snap is now 8 minutes base cooldown, which means 6:24 with 2/2 Ice Floes.

Let me show you my cast cycle...

0:00 - Pop trinket(s) and Summon Water Elemental
0:01.5 - Pop Berserking, Icy Veins
PewPewPewPew!
- Pop Cold Snap straight after the first Frostbolt since it's off the GCD
~0:21.5 - Pop Icy Veins as soon as it fades
PewPewPewPew!
0:45 - Summon Water Elemental again
3:30 - Pop trinket(s), Berserking and Icy Veins
PewPewPewPew!
3:45 - Summon Water Elemental
6:45 - repeat from 0s

Compare this to fire or arcane where you get 1 icy veins boost every 3 minutes. The only option with more burst damage would be 40/0/21 where you can pop arcane power with icy veins, but IMO that'll only compare to deep fire/frost if you have someone with Winter's Chill in the raid.

[sh0ckwave]

Nothing spectular for warlocks again QQQQQQQQQQ

I think i'm losing my broom mount though!
o The various Hallow’s End broom mounts now have their proper real-time (rather than game-time) duration of 14 days.

[Freelance]

+50mp5 from watershield for 10m instead of recasting it every minute makes me happy

[Steadders]

Nothing spectular for warlocks again QQQQQQQQQQ

I think i'm losing my broom mount though!
o The various Hallow’s End broom mounts now have their proper real-time (rather than game-time) duration of 14 days.


Like you need a buff.

[SystemId]

I don't remember mages ever needing more dps and survivability. I'm eager to see how this druid nerf effects druid+warrior teams in the arena.

[Elbonio]

Tried icy veins over lunch, not as impressive as I was hoping. The only thing it was really good at was applying 5 x scorches very quickly, meaning I could use it on trash mobs in instances too (normally i dont get a chance before they're dead) - increasing my damage by 15%.

I may keep it for that but if not then I will be respeccing back I think. Will need to try it out in an instance or two.

[Joey]

IV doesn't reduce the global cooldown though so the scorch cast time will be the same... it comes in to its own when debuffs are already stacked and you start pounding off the max dps spells (fireball/frostbolt/arcane missiles) as well as combining it with an activatible trinket. masses of burst damage.

[andyf]

Got 140 rating in 9 games as 19/0/42, but our opponents were pretty disasterous.

Have now gone the way of Ming's theorycrafting, 30/0/31, as I have the BT trinket which, it appears, gives me a near-as-damnit constant 40% crit in a fight.

[Bonkers]

even with resiliance? :P

[andyf]

even with resiliance? :P

5 point expose on a priest to start the match = 38-40% crit. So with an opponent on 400 resilience or so, that could be seen as putting effective crit to a 26-30% normal, which is as much as some rogues will be running from their gear anyway. Even better if they haven't got their resi up yet.

Went 17 for 2 last night, which puts us into the 1700's somewhere.

Not having improved sprint is currently a minor nightmare, but next weeks points will get me the helm (= 5% snare/root resist metagem), I'll get the honor for the Vindicator boots as well (= 5% snare/root resist surefooted), which with fleet footed will give a stacked 20% resist rate.

And tonight's task will be sorting out some macro's. Need an OH weapon swap macro for urgent wounding, and a couple macro's for double CB evis for those "XYZ has low health!" moments.

[SystemId]

Against my best judgement I've specc'd Shadow Step. I ran the battlegrounds last night and while its entertaining I still feel like I'm lacking any sustainable damage. I'll take it into the arena tonight. Saving for main hand daggers to go back mutilate. Missing the first 2 weeks of arena due to Blizzard/Zen problems has easily put me an item behind everyone else.

Although <3 armoured nether drake

[oxy]

bah .. all for shammys bar the watershield buff which isnt that good neway 50mp/5 isnt even a heal, more all for locks.. still going to get my arse handed to me by a MS warrior, n only a fix for warriors stances :(

thou i am loving the XP/leveling changes made in the previous patch :D

[andyf]

Not having improved sprint is fking awful. But not having prep is pretty horrible too, especially if I start getting focused.

It really does feel like there's no solid, optimum spec right now. Back to combat maces might be what I fall back to.

[SystemId]

Prep has always given me the false sense that I can burn my cooldowns at the first opportunity. I prefer not having it because it encourages me to time everything better to achieve better burst. Having Shadowstep feels like you trade off the majority of your damage for mobility.

You'd think after 3 years the GMs could refund a mere 2625 arena points to buy my dagger!

[bright_]

always found mutilate to be good in arena, even though I run with a PvE specced partner in 2v2s. Have since gone combat swords though as I couldn't pass up the first Talon of Azshara drop in our guild haha.

Have yet to see the ice block bit in a proper raid (gruul doesn't count >.>) but should help in SSC to stop teh sheepers from dying so quick sometimes.

Never specced HARP so not affected by the nerf, and i am at best a part time PvPer so :)