Patch 3.1.2 Hotfixes, Item Updates, Hunter Changes

[Boubouille]

Update - Added Recent In-Game Fixes 05/19 and Wintergrasp Temporarily Disabled

Wintergrasp Temporarily Disabled
[blizzquote="Bornakk;http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/17223065238-wintergrasp-temporarily-disabled.html]We have shut off Wintergrasp on all realms while we investigate an issue which caused the games to reset prematurely. Thank you for your patience, and we will re-activate Wintergrasp once the issue has been resolved. [/blizzquote"]

Recent In Game Fixes - 05/19

• Innervate now properly restores the correct amount of mana to Shapeshifted targets that do not have a mana bar active.
• Thrust and Shield-Break attacks in the Argent Tournament are correctly being mitigated by the number of Defends that are active on the target.
• The Supercharged ability on Storm Tempered Keepers near Auriaya will no longer increase the damage of Storm Wave.
• Some of the trash mob packs have been removed in the areas leading to Ignis the Furnace Master and Freya.
• In the tunnel leading to Mimiron, the Clockwork Sapper’s Ice Turret's ability, Ice Nova, now does considerably less damage in both difficulty modes.
• In the Antechamber leading to the Assembly of Iron, the Rune Etched Sentry's ability, Flaming Rune, does considerably less damage over time in both difficulty modes.
• The Molten Colossus near Ignis the Furnace Master will no longer cast Unquenchable Flames.
• Chamber Overseer's Staggering Roar does consider.
• Some issues were fixed and Algalon the Observer should now properly reset every time a raid wipes.
• The hit point increasing hard mode ability for XT-002 Deconstructor has been reduced to 50% in the 10 player Normal setting, and 60% in the 25 player Heroic setting. The corresponding damage increase for XT-002 has also been reduced to 15%. Life Sparks also have half of their previous hit point values.
• The engineering boot enchant, Nitro Boosts, will no longer be usable in rated or skirmish arena matches.
• The duration of Kologarn's Crunch Armor effect has been greatly reduced in normal difficulty. This change negates the explicit need to tank swap Kologarn.
• Thorim's Chain Lightning will no longer affect more than 8 targets in normal and heroic difficulty.
• General Vezax now does 10% less melee damage in normal difficulty.

Ulduar Tuning (May 19 2009)

The following are a list of changes that have been hotfixed to 3.1.2 or are in the process of being hotfixed. All changes are to both 10 and 25 player versions of the instance, unless specifically noted.

Trash

• Storm Tempered Keeper’s Supercharged ability will no longer increase the damage of Storm Wave.
• Some Ignis and Freya trash has been removed. If your instance was already open when the hotfix was applied, the trash will still be there.
• Ice Turret’s Ice Nova spell now does considerably less base damage.
• Rune Etched Sentry’s Flaming Rune does does considerably less damage over time.
• The Molten Colossus will no longer cast Unquenchable Flames.
• Chamber Overseer’s Staggering Roar does considerably less damage.

Bosses

• Kologarn’s Crunch Armor effect of his Overhead Smash now has a greatly decreased duration in the 10 player Normal difficulty setting. This change negates the explicit need to tank swap Kologarn.
• Thorim’s Chain Lightning no longer affects more than 8 targets.
• General Vezax now does 10% less melee damage in the 10 player Normal difficulty setting.

Hard Modes

• The hit point increasing hard mode ability for XT-002 Deconstructor has been reduced to 50% in the 10 player Normal setting, and 60% in the 25 player Heroic setting. The corresponding damage increase for XT-002 has also been reduced to 15%. Life Sparks also have half of their previous hit point values.

In an unrelated tuning note, we also found a case where Algalon would not reset properly in the 25 player Heroic setting only. This has been hotfixed.

Ulduar Item Updates

The following items have had their stats improved in patch 3.1.2 to match their appropriate item level:

• Icecore staff
• Boreal Guard
• Malice

The following weapons have had their speed changed to make them more optimized when used in PvE content compared to equivalent weapons obtained in the Arena:

• Golden Saronite Dragon
• Remorse
• Stonerender
• Voldrethar, Dark Blade of Oblivion
• Dark Edge of Depravity
• Aesir's Edge
• Hammer of Crushing Whispers
• Caress of Insanity

The dps of the ranged weapons listed below has been increased due to not having an equivalent ammunition upgrade. Please visit this thread for more details: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=17223144541&sid=1

• Envoy of Mortality
• Furious Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow
• Furious Gladiator's Longbow
• Furious Gladiator's Recurve
• Furious Gladiator's Repeater
• Furious Gladiator's Rifle
• Furious Gladiator's Shotgun
• Giant's Bane
• Magnetized Projectile Emitter
• Siren's Cry
• Skyforge Crossbow
• Veranus' Bane

Improving hunter dps through ranged weapons

The developers believe hunter dps is too low, so today we are implementing a change to ranged weapon damage to improve dps across the board.

Bows, crossbows and guns of item level 226 or higher (which means weapons from Kel'Thuzad, Ulduar and the Furious Gladiator pieces) will do around 30 more dps. This should translate to a hunter damage increase of a few percent.

We don't think this will be quite sufficient in boosting hunter dps to where we think it needs to be and we have another buff that we plan to get in sometime over the next couple of weeks. We'll announce that change when it gets closer. (We have some plans for other classes as well, but we ask that you please keep this thread on the topic of hunters and the ranged weapon changes.)

As hunters may recall, we had an ambitious plan to change the way ammo worked for 3.1 that ended up being overly ambitious, causing us to scale back. However as part of that change, we stopped itemizing bullets and arrows. Since hunters could not upgrade from the ammo available at the launch of Lich King, their damage had started and would continue to fall behind as other classes upgraded their gear. This change basically incorporates the ammo damage into the weapons -- as you get better ranged weapons, it's as if you got better ammo to go along with them. This is likely to be a design we continue for the next few tiers of content until we have the opportunity to overhaul ammo completely.

[Sturmbringe]

Hey GC, thanks mate.

*wave*

Crab>all. Period.

[Darrok]

The hit point increasing hard mode ability for XT-002 Deconstructor has been reduced to 50% in the 10 player Normal setting, and 60% in the 25 player Heroic setting. The corresponding damage increase for XT-002 has also been reduced to 15%. Life Sparks also have half of their previous hit point values.

Looks like we're gonna get a World First soon.

[jarell88]

Hurray. Con-speeda-tory and heartbroken might actually be possible now.

Not to mention we won't need to clear 30 mins worth of trash to get to freya...

[riflemancho]

Nitro boosts..failed ;p

[Necronomicon]

Hurray. Con-speeda-tory and heartbroken might actually be possible now.

Not to mention we won't need to clear 30 mins worth of trash to get to freya...

Con-speeda-tory was already pretty easy if all you did is killing freya without any elders.

[Hardcoregun]

Why take away Nitro boost from Arenas? Its the best thing ever =\ Engineering is essentially for PvP and that it can't be used for Arenas, its completely useless

[VanishO2]

Alliance Loremaster of Easternkingdoms fixed in 3.1.2! Woot No more 740 of 700 to reach it.

[Tenik]

Why take away Nitro boost from Arenas? Its the best thing ever =\ Engineering is essentially for PvP and that it can't be used for Arenas, its completely useless

... You've just answered yourself to why they took it away... really engeneering is not just a profession that is essentially for PvP it is so good that PvP CALLS for Engeneering.

That means that in order to all be equivalent in PvP one of their professions SHOULD be engeering since no other profession gives such tools as engeneering. Other professions BUFF YOUR STATS. They don't make you shoot 2k beam or run to save your life or see stealth better. Buffing stats is one thing, buffing your utility, Burst, survivability is another.

Another thing is certain too, Blizzard SHOULD buff Engeneering for PvE definately.

[Hardcoregun]

... You've just answered yourself to why they took it away... really engeneering is not just a profession that is essentially for PvP it is so good that PvP CALLS for Engeneering.

That means that in order to all be equivalent in PvP one of their professions SHOULD be engeering since no other profession gives such tools as engeneering. Other professions BUFF YOUR STATS. They don't make you shoot 2k beam or run to save your life or see stealth better. Buffing stats is one thing, buffing your utility, Burst, survivability is another.

Another thing is certain too, Blizzard SHOULD buff Engeneering for PvE definately.

What sucks even more is that I'm a hunter, and the only reason I leveled engineering in the first place was for those PvP boot boost, and the Ammo I could make, also the Mote Extractor. Other than that, its all It can do. I mean damn I could make more money farming ore and prospecting it as a JC

[XSCounter]

awesome.. just 2 weeks ago i powerleveled engi for boots and goggles... though i could choose JC and LOL at unluckers like me... why does blizz have to fuck up so badly?

[Calaba]

Ok, now i'm no fan of long, boring trash, but at this rate Ulduar with be just LOL NAXX trash pretty soon, only less of it. The only boss left with any trash worth worrying about will be Vezax. (Hodir is practically LOL Naxx trash already)

Expect some REALLY fast speed runs soon. Next stop: hard mode nerfs, as every guild is clearing Ulduar easymode and looking for a new challenge.

[bunnyhat]

awesome.. just 2 weeks ago i powerleveled engi for boots and goggles... though i could choose JC and LOL at unluckers like me... why does blizz have to fuck up so badly?

Because to many people suddenly started powerleveling engineering to try to take advantage of it in arena.

[Vy]

DIE ENG DIE
Special Snowflakes must be eliminated.

fuck blizzard, this is why my accounts been dead for a week and a half now =]

[Pendalph]

awesome.. just 2 weeks ago i powerleveled engi for boots and goggles... though i could choose JC and LOL at unluckers like me... why does blizz have to fuck up so badly?

same here, powerlvl'd it 2 weeks ago just for boots and rockets... wtf...

[Musabi]

Blizzard, please take engineering out of the game.

[fluked]

If blizzard want to make arenas completely balanced what they need to do is simple. Disable all class Racials in Arena. If you want to be the best in PVP you roll the best Class/Professions. Nerfing Engineering isn't going to stop that. You will just see people converting now to JC/ENCH. Which will lead to the same cry babies that have PVE Class/Professions because they arent Pure PVP'ers. "Waaahh I have to use a Blue Gem in my gear and i don't want to!"

Maybe i am bias to my views because i too am one of the people that leveled engineering 2 weeks ago spending roughly 3k. But that wasn't because i felt the NEED to do it. I just have JC on all of my Toons so i felt like a change.

[Technik]

Yawn.

Engineering has been the superior profession for PvP since TBC, so I don't see "everyone levelling engineering for pvp/arena" as the reason Blizzard is taking out some of it's utility.

[Rukh]

Yeah but see the thing is that engineering is useful for so many other things *lol*

[Darklink]

lol I was just about to level Engi on my Rog too...