Update (
Hunter) - It looks like Scare Beast still takes 1.5 sec and isn't instant as mentionned in the patch files notes. The notes on the official site have been updated to reflect it changes and we can assume that the 1.5 sec casting time is intended.
Update 05/13 - The patch is now confirmed on European Realms - This Wednesday there will be an extended maintenance to apply patch 2.4.2. Please note that all European realms will be offline from 03:00 until 11:00, Paris time (CEST).
Update - The next Blizzcon has been announced, it will be held in Anaheim, California on October 10 and 11, see the
Press Release-------------------------------As I write this post,
nothing is confirmed by Blizzard yet. However, final patch files have been made available and there isn't any reason for Blizzard to postpone it one more week. We can assume that patch 2.4.2 will be deployed this week on live servers and we'll probably get a confirmation very soon.
Wrath of the Lich King Preview
If you're looking for the Wrath of the Lich King previews posted during the weekend check the following links
Patch mirrors
The patch isn't big and I suggest that you wait for the official download instead of using alternative download links, but if you really can't use the Blizzard Downloader the patches are mirrored below.
Do not install this patch until the server downtime, otherwise you won't be able to connect until Tuesday/Wednesday on live servers
WoW-2.4.1.8125-to-2.4.2.8278-enUS-patch.exe [Download]
WoW-2.4.1.8125-to-2.4.2.8278-enGB-patch.exe [Download]
WoW-2.4.1.8125-to-2.4.2.8278-deDE-patch.exe [Download]
WoW-2.4.1.8125-to-2.4.2.8278-frFR-patch.exe [Download]
WoW-2.4.1.8125-to-2.4.2.8278-esES-patch.exe [Download]Undocumented changes
Most of the undocumented changes reported on PTRs are now part of the official patch notes
Item additions- A new PvP Trinket as been added to Honor Rewards Medallion of the Alliance. There is obviously a horde version of the item and both of them cost 40 000 Honor Points. We don't know yet if it will be added at the beginning of 2.4.2, or if we'll have to wait for the beginning of Season 4 to be able to buy them.
Item Changes- Naturalist's Preserving Cinch and Borderland Fortress Grips have been upgraded.
- [item=19169] now has a chance to fail for targets above level 60
- [item=19955] now grants 70 (instead of 400) spell haste rating, and reduces the mana cost of Rejuvenation, Healing Touch, Regrowth, and Tranquility by -5% for 15 seconds. (Screenshot)
- [item=19958] now grants 70 (instead of 400) spell haste rating and reduces the mana cost of your healing spells by -5% for 15 seconds. (Screenshot)
- [item=19954] energy bonus is now reduced by 4 points by level after level 60, lowering the energy bonus to 20 at level 70 instead of 40. (Screenshot)
Quests changes- The Quest "The Multiphase Survey", where you retrieve surveys from Nagrand, no longer gives a [item=35232].
Professions changesJewelcraftingA new recipe has been added -
Purified Shadowsong Amethyst (Reward from the Shattered Sun Offensive, Exalted reputation required)
Leatherworking[item=34207] now requires 4x[item=23793] and 3x[item=22452] (instead of 18 Leathers and 14 Primal)
BlacksmithingBlacksmiths are probably going to be happy, all their BOP Weapons have been changed and aren't unique anymore ! That's a nice change alone, but if you took the time to read the 2.4.2 Patch Notes you probably remember seeing something mentioning Main Hand weapons changed to One-Hand .... Well that's the case here,
you can now dual-wield them !
New MountsAccording to spells and models available in the game files, at least two new mounts have been added but none of them have been discovered on PTRs. We might see them much later on live servers ... or never.
Swift Zebra49322 : Swift Zebra - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Zebra. This is a very fast mount.
Headless Horseman's Mount48023 : Headless Horseman's Mount - Summons and dismisses a rideable Headless Horseman's Mount.
48024 : Headless Horseman's Mount, Ground - Summons and dismisses a rideable Headless Horseman's Mount.
48025 : Use Headless Horseman's Reins
The headless horseman mount ",Ground" effect could be the sign of a flying mount, but obviously nothing is confirmed yet.
Mount enchantmentsSome changes have been made to replace trinkets boosting your mount's speed by "mount enchantments", however we didn't see anything like that on PTRs and it will probably be added later in the game. You can still find some information about them in the
PTR 2.4.2 Undocumented changes post.
Arena Season 4
The Season 4 starting date isn't known yet, however all the season 4 items were activated on PTRs during the 2.4.2 testing phase, we can assume it won't be too long before we see it on live servers after the deployment of the patch.
Also available in german and french
Item pricesScreenshot of all item pricesArmorsOthersWeaponsNew weaponsBrutal Gladiator's Blade of AlacrityBrutal Gladiator's Swift JudgementBrutal Gladiator's HatchetBrutal Gladiator's WaraxeArmor models screenshotsMale (Human)
Female (Blood Elf)
Rating requirementsWhile Season 3 is still going strong, we wanted to announce ahead of time the rating requirements that will be present for arena items once Season 4 begins. We also wanted to give everyone a heads up to some changes that will be in an upcoming patch, altering how points are gained and players are matched in the arena system. The patch with these changes is scheduled to release before the start of Season 4.
First though, the rating requirement changes:
When Season 4 begins, Season 3 items will be reduced in personal and team arena rating requirement to:
Shoulders: 1950
Weapon: 1800
The new Season 4 items will have the below personal and team arena rating requirements:
Shoulders: 2200
Weapon: 2050
Head: 1700
Chest: 1600
Legs: 1550
Gloves: none
Off-hand: none
In addition, some of the Season 4 quality items that will be purchasable with honor will also carry a personal and team arena rating requirement:
Boots: 1700
Ring: 1650
Bracers: 1575
Belt: none
Necklace: none
Trinket: none
The Season 2 items, which will move to the honor system when Season 4 begins, will continue to have no rating requirement.
The changes to the rating requirements for these items reflect the nature of the items, their power, and the relative difficulty that should be had when attempting to obtain them. These items are comparable to those found in the newest 25 person raid zone, Sunwell Plateau, and should therefore also feel very challenging to obtain.
To help ensure that the challenge in obtaining these items stays true to those achieving these ratings, we'll also be implementing new rules with an upcoming patch to curb practices that undermine the core concepts of the arena system. These rules are as follows:
- If a character’s personal rating is more than 150 points below the team rating, they will earn points based on their personal rating instead of the team rating.
This means that a player cannot join a highly rated team and begin earning points based purely on the pre-established rating of the team before they joined it. They'll need to compete, improve, and gain a personal rating worthy of the points they would receive.
- If the average personal rating of the players queuing for a game is more than 150 points below the team’s rating, the team will be queued against an opponent matching or similar to the average personal rating.
This means that players cannot join a highly rated team and immediately face highly rated opponents, easily and quickly bringing their personal rating up. Instead they'll need to again compete, improve, and earn their rating.
We're excited to see these changes implemented, which will continue to emphasize the strong competitive nature of the arenas, and the challenge in obtaining the highest end rewards available for PvP.
2.4.2 Patch notes
Two lines have been added to the latest PTR Patch Notes
- Prince Kael’thas will now drop Primal Nethers in Heroic Magisters Terrace.
- Darkmoon Card: Madness: The durations of the buffs received from this item have been extended to 60 seconds.
World of Warcraft Client Patch 2.4.2The latest patch notes can always be found at
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html
Druid- Talent: Primal Fury (Rank 2) will now be properly unlearned when it is untalented.
Hunter- Aspect of the Viper: This ability now grants an additional amount of mana each 5 seconds equal to 35% of the hunter’s level.
- Boar Charge: This ability will no longer make Growl cast immediately after it generates excessive threat.
- The pet ability Growl will no longer scale with pet Attack Power and now scales with the hunter’s Attack Power.
- Dire Ravens in Blade’s Edge Mountains are now tameable.
- Scare Beast: The range on this spell has been increased to 30 yards and it is now instant cast.
- Tamed Drywallow Snappers now will know Bite 5 (instead of Claw 5).
Mage- Talent: Improved Blink (Arcane) now reduces chance to be hit by 13/25% and the duration of Rank 1 has been increased to 4 seconds.
- Completing the quest “Arcane Refreshment” will now properly teach the spell Conjure Water (Rank 7).
- Polymorph: Mounted creatures will no longer remain mounted while polymorphed.
- Molten Armor will now do damage while a damage absorption shield is active.
- New Teleport/Portal: Theramore and Teleport/Portal:Stonard spells are available at portal trainers in their respective locations. You must be level 35 to learn these new spells.
Paladin- Flash of Light and Holy Light will now work properly with castsequence macros.
- Seal of the Crusader: This ability now increases the damage dealt by Crusader Strike by 40%.
- Talent: Precision (Ranks 1-3) will no longer improperly display daggers and staves as a weapon class in the tooltip.
- Paladins that already have Apprentice Riding skill can now properly learn Summon Warhorse from the trainer.
Priest- Fear Ward will no longer be consumed while under the effects of cyclone.
- Mana Burn: This spell can no longer trigger effects that require the target to be struck with a critical hit.
- Power Word: Shield now has the correct sound associated with it and can no longer be heard from large distances.
- Talent: Power Infusion will now consume the correct amount of mana when cast on yourself.
Rogue- Ability: Blade Flurry : This ability can no longer hit critters as its secondary targets and will now use a proper range calculation for all secondary targets.
- Talent: Mutilate (Assassination) will no longer incorrectly appear multiple times in the combat log when used.
Shaman- Ability: Frostbrand Weapon: Rank 6 damage has been increased very slightly.
Warlock- Drain Soul: Channeling of this spell will now always stop when a player target dies.
- Pets: Using a sacrifice effect to kill your own pet will no longer trigger effects that should only occur when killing an enemy.
Warrior- Sweeping Strikes: This ability can no longer hit critters as its secondary targets and will now use a proper range calculation for all secondary targets.
PvPArenas- If a character’s personal rating is more than 150 points below the team rating, they will earn points based on their personal rating instead of the team rating.
- If the average personal rating of the players queuing for a game is more than 150 points below the team’s rating, the team will be queued against an opponent matching or similar to the average personal rating.
Professions- All 23-hour profession cooldowns are now 20-hour cooldowns.
- All 4-day cooldowns are now 3 days, 20 hours.
Enchanting- Removed the cooldown from Void Shatter.
- Void Shatter recipe now correctly requires 375 enchanting.
Engineering- The Engineering supply item Delicate Copper Wire will now properly fit into engineering bags.
Jewelcrafting- Brilliant Glass no longer requires a forge.
- Brilliant Glass now has a small chance to make an epic gem.
- Quick Dawnstone, Reckless Noble Topaz, Forceful Talasite are now all available at the Quel’danas gem vendor.
Leatherworking- Completing the quest “The Journey Has Just Begun” will now properly teach how to make an Onyxia Scale Cloak.
- Greatly reduced the reagent cost for Glove Reinforcements. Also reduced the skill gain range slightly.
Quests- The categories for the quests “Wanted: Sisters of Torment” and “Wanted: The Signet Ring of Prince Kael’thas” have been fixed to now properly read as Magister’s Terrace.
- The Shadowy Disguise will no longer be applied to druids while they are in Moonkin or Tree of Life form for the quests “Who Are They?”
- Jailor Eston and Jailor Marlgen for the quest “The Rescue” should now respawn more frequently.
Dungeons and RaidsBlack Temple- Illidan will no longer despawn if a raid group wipes during his death speech.
Karazhan- Nightbane’s Charred Earth ability will now properly deal Fire damage.
Magister’s Terrace- Vexallus is no longer immune to taunt on Normal difficulty.
- Kael’thas is no longer immune to taunt on Normal difficulty.
- Wretched Skulkers, Wretched Husks, and Wretched Bruisers will now reset properly.
- Sunblade Imps will now reset properly.
- The doors in Heroic Magister’s Terrace will no longer respawn after a soft reset if a boss has already been killed.
Sunwell Plateau- Hellfire will no longer remove Dark Touched in the Eredar Twins encounter.
Tempest Keep: The Eye- Void Reaver’s Arcane orbs now generate combat log entries.
Items- Arcane Charges now deal arcane damage.
- Abilities and trinkets that trigger after killing an opponent that gives experience or honor will no longer activate after killing mobs during bombing quests.
- Battlecast’s Garb should now properly grant pushback resistance in addition to interrupt resistance.
- Borderland Fortress Grips have had their stats updated.
- Botanist’s Gloves of Growth have had their texture corrected.
- Bow of Searing Arrows and Red Whelp Gloves will no longer break crowd control effects.
- Brann Bronzebeard’s Lost Letter: This item will no lonber display a damage range in its tooltip.
- The Cloak of Swift Mending now has a level requirement (70).
- Crusader’s Scaled Battlegear: The tooltip spelling has been corrected.
- Darkmoon Card: Madness: The durations of the buffs received from this item have been extended to 60 seconds.
- Elixir of Demonslaying: This elixir now grants ranged attack power against demons as intended.
- Goblin Jumper Cables are no longer a trinket item.
- Hazza’rah’s Charm of Healing Haste rating reduced.
- Items that enchant other items no longer have tradeskill requirements (Mithril Spurs, Shield Spikes, Weapon Chains, etc.).
- The Helm of Fire has had its casting range reduced.
- The Magic Candle has had its casting range reduced.
- Many items sold by Consortium vendors are now bind on pick up: Formula: Enchant Weapon- Major Striking, Design: Delicate Blood Garnet, Design: Shifting Shadow Draenite, Design: Lustrous Azure Moonstone, Design: Thick Golden Draenite.
- Many items sold by Aldor reputation vendors are now bind on pick up: Design: Gleaming Golden Draenite, Design: Royal Shadow Draenite.
- Many items sold by the Shattered Sun quartermaster are now bind on pick up: Naaru Ration, Design: Ember Skyfire Diamond.
- The Lower City reputation item, Recipe: Flask of Chromatic Resistance, is now bind on pick up.
- Most Main-Hand weapons are now One-Hand weapons.
- Naturalist’s Preserving Cinch have had their stats updated.
- Nightfall now has a chance to fail on targets over level 60.
- Prince Kael’thas will now drop Primal Nethers in Heroic Magisters Terrace.
- Ravager: Judgements will no longer auto-refresh and break the effect from this item while its effect is active.
- Reins of the Black War Elekk spell and buff now correspond to the item name.
- Renataki’s Charm of Trickery has had its energy reduced.
- Rocket Boots Xtreme and Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite now properly share the same cooldown.
- The Romantic Picnic Basket will now display the blanket properly.
- Shard of Azzinoth no longer shares any cooldown with Shaman elemental totems.
- The socket bonus modifiers of some items will now properly display the bonus healing.
- The reduced cooldown of Shaman Nature’s Swiftness provided by the 4 piece set bonus from the Seer’s Ringmail Battlegear PvP armor will now apply properly.
- Shattered Sun Pendant of Might: The triggered effect from this item will no longer break Scatter Shot or other crowd-controlling affects. The visual on the Scryer version has been updated.
- Shifting Naaru Sliver: Using this item no longer puts players into combat.
- Silithyst Dust: The bonus from turning this item in no longer works for players above level 63.
- The Skyshatter Helmet’s gem socket bonus will now properly reflect the plus damage in the tooltip.
- Shadowsong Panther will no longer prematurely despawn.
- Talasite Owl: This trinket will now properly restore full mana as described.
- Ten Storms Set: The Chain Heal bonus from this set has been reduced by 5%.
- Troll Male off-hand items are now the same size as the main hand item.
- Tauren weapons while sheathed have had their graphic readjusted to their pre-patch (2.4.0) state.
- The Winterfall Firewater buff is no longer dispellable.
- Wushoolay’s Charm of Nature Haste rating has been reduced.
User Interface- The guild log scroll bar will now properly display.
- Black Lotus will now show up under the Herb subcategory in the auction house.
- Primal Nethers will now show up under the Materials subcategory in the auction house.
- Mailboxes can now be tracked on the minimap.
- For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum.
World Environment- Creature versions of the Polymorph spell no longer heal the affected target.
- The dragons in Blade’s Edge Mountains will no longer instantly knock you off your mount.
Mac- Fixed a bug causing ATI kernel panics; all spell effects should now be visible.
- Weather effects are again visible on systems with ATI 2x00 graphics such as aluminum iMac.
- Fixed a bug that precluded use of the FireWire iSight microphone with voice chat.
- Symlinks can be used again for Interface and WTF folders and subfolders.
- Cinematics playback is working again.
Bug Fixes- Fixed an issue where secondary sound effects would not work with the Use Hardware option enabled in the Sound options of the User Interface.
- Fixed an issue where attempting to use some instant cast spells with Auto-Dismount in Flight checked in the interface would fail.
- Items that have multiple charges will now properly display the amount of charges.
- Fixed an issue where chain damage spells were chaining to critters.
- Female Draenei horns will now correctly protrude through certain plate helms.
- The Vengeful Gladiator’s Rifle will now play the proper sound when used.
- The Cursed Vision of Sargeras now gives the buff, “Sense Demons” which can be canceled normally. Additionally hunters and druids are able to track two things at once while using the item.
- It is no longer possible for pets to get stuck in place after exiting the Spectral Realm in the Kalecgos encounter.
- Blood Elf Priest: Consume Magic will now require the buff to be active in order to work properly.
- Undead and Blood Elf Priest: Touch of Weakness will now properly reduce the melee damage of the attacker.
- Fixed an issue where some spells had extraneous Floating Combat Text messages when using the Auras option.
- Fixed an issue where sometimes debuff icons on a target did not scale properly to indicate the spells had been cast by you.
- Ritual of Souls (Warlock) and Ritual of Refreshment (Mage) will no longer be placed on cooldown without having completed the summon.
- Looting a boss while a player is outside of the instance will no longer cause the corpse to despawn in 2 minutes if the player still has loot on the corpse.
- Whirlwind now has the correct sound associated with it.
– Major League Gaming (MLG), the professional videogame league, today announced the launch of the MLG PC Circuit played on HP Blackbird 002. The kick-off event will be held alongside MLG’s Pro Circuit event in San Diego June 13-15 and will feature Blizzard Entertainment®’s World of Warcraft®: The Burning Crusade® and over $20,000 in prizes.
“We’ve just come off our Meadowlands season opener, which attracted a record-setting 12,000 players and fans. Working with industry leaders HP and Blizzard Entertainment will allow us to reach more of America’s 40 million competitive gamers,” said Matthew Bromberg, CEO of Major League Gaming.
The 2008 MLG PC Pro Circuit competitions will be played entirely on HP Blackbird 002 gaming PC’s. Created with gamers in mind, the award-winning HP Blackbird 002 Gaming PC is highly configurable and features liquid cooling and innovative thermal chambers to keep critical components cool while running next-generation games or other demanding computing tasks.
“HP is bullish on PC gaming across the globe and we’re honored to help MLG as it launches their new North American circuit,” said Rahul Sood, chief technology officer, Voodoo Business Unit, HP. “The HP Blackbird 002 was designed specifically for this level of intense competition. We can’t wait to see to see MLG contestants pwning their opponents with it.”
The first MLG PC Circuit event features Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, the world’s most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game, with more than 10 million players worldwide. The MLG PC Circuit will continue throughout the 2008 MLG season with additional stops in Orlando and Dallas, and other PC titles may be added in the future. The expansion of MLG into PC gaming competition leverages two of its competitive gaming sites,
GotFrag.com, the leading PC-gaming coverage site, and
MMO-Champion.com, a leading World of Warcraft competitive strategy site. San Diego tournament coverage will be broadcast live on
GotFrag.com all weekend long, with more than 20 hours of live programming and expert commentary.
The live broadcast of the first 2008 MLG Pro Circuit competition in March generated more than 750,000 video streams, 130,000 hours of video and over 600,000 on-demand views on
MLGPro.com.
Registration for the MLG PC Circuit San Diego event begins on May 15. For more information on the MLG PC Circuit, visit
MLGPro.com,
GotFrag.com or
MMO-Champion.com.
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