Faction-Change Service in the Works, PTR Build 10048

[Boubouille]

Update #4 - 28 New items have been added to the Item Database
Update #3 - Added the official notes update at the end of the post.
Update #2 - Updated with more changes from this PTR Build. (Ulduar, Professions, T9 Trinkets, etc ...)
Update - A new Build has been deployed on PTRs, see below and stay tuned for more changes!

Faction-Change Service in the Works

We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we’re developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There’s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we’re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.

As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won’t disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We’ll go into much more detail on all of this here at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as development progresses. In the meantime, we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward.

Patch 3.2 - PTR Build 10048
A new build has been deployed on test realms, stay tuned for more changes!

Talent Calculator
The Talent Calculator has been updated to the latest build.

Achievements Changes
A few achievements have been added ... Most likely PTR only for some of them.

• Not One, But Two Jormungars - Kite Yogg-Saron to the Crusaders' Coliseum in 10/25-player mode.
• Upper Back Pain - Defeat Icehowl while at least 2 Snobolds remain alive in 10/25-player mode.
• Salt and Pepper - Defeat the Twin Val'kyr in 4 minutes or less in 10/25-player mode. (Name changed from Double Time)

Tier 9 Bonus Changes (All T9 Bonuses)

Druid (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)

• Item - Druid T9 Feral 4P Bonus - Reduces the cooldown on Barkskin by 12 sec and increases the critical strike chance of Rip and Ferocious Bite by 5%.
• Item - Druid T9 Balance 4P Bonus (Starfire) - Increases the critical strike chance of your Starfire and Wrath spells by 3%.

Hunter (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)

• Item - Hunter T9 2P Bonus - The damage done by your Serpent Sting ability can now be critical strikes.
• Item - Hunter T9 4P Bonus (Steady Shot) - Each time you hit with a ranged attack, you have a chance to grant your pet 600 attack power for 15 sec.

Mage (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)

• Item - Mage T9 2P Bonus - Increases the armor you gain from Ice Armor by 20%, the mana regeneration you gain from Mage Armor by 10%, and converts an additional 15% of your spirit into critical strike rating when Molten Armor is active.
• Item - Mage T9 4P Bonus (Fireball, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, and Arcane Blast) - Increases the critical strike chance of your Fireball, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Blast spells by 5%.

Paladin (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)

• Item - Paladin T9 Tank 2P Bonus - Decreases the cooldown on your Hand of Reckoning ability by 2 sec.
• Item - Paladin T9 Tank 4P Bonus - Decreases the cooldown on your Divine Protection ability and reduces the duration of Forbearance by 30 sec.
• Item - Paladin T9 Holy 2P Bonus (Judgement) - Increases the duration of your Judgements by 10 sec.
• Item - Paladin T9 Holy 4P Bonus (Flash of Light) - Increases the heal over time effect from Flash of Light in conjunction with Sacred Shield by 100%.

Priest (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)

• Item - Priest T9 Shadow 2P Bonus (Vampiric Touch) - Increases the duration of your Vampiric Touch spell by 6 sec.
• Item - Priest T9 Healing 2P Bonus (Prayer of Mending) - Increases the healing done by your Prayer of Mending spell by 20%.
• Item - Priest T9 Healing 4P Bonus (Divine Aegis and Empowered Renew) - Increases the shield from your Divine Aegis and the instant healing from your Empowered Renew by 10%.

Shaman (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)

• Item - Shaman T9 Enhancement 2P Bonus (Static Shock) - Adds an additional 3% chance to trigger your Static Shock talent.
• Item - Shaman T9 Enhancment 4P Bonus (Stormstrike) - Increases the damage done by your Earth Shock, Flame Shock, and Frost Shock spells by 25%.
• Item - Shaman T9 Elemental 2P Bonus (Flame Shock) - Increases the duration of your Flame Shock spell by 9 sec.
• Item - Shaman T9 Elemental 4P Bonus (Lava Burst) - Increases the damage done by your Lava Burst spell by 20%.

Warlock (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)

• Item - Warlock T9 4P Bonus (Immolate, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction) - Increases the damage done by your Immolate, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction spells by 10%.

Warrior (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)

• Item - Warrior T9 Melee 2P Bonus (Berserker Stance and Battle Stance) - Berserker Stance grants an additional 2% critical strike chance, and Battle Stance grants an additional 6% armor penetration.
• Item - Warrior T9 Melee 4P Bonus (Heroic Strike and Slam) - Increases the critical strike chance of your Slam and Heroic Strike abilities by 5%.
• Item - Warrior T9 Tank 2P Bonus (Taunt) - Decreases the cooldown on your Taunt ability by 2 sec.
• Item - Warrior T9 Tank 4P Bonus (Shield Block) - Decreases the cooldown on your Shield Block ability by 10 sec.

Spell Comparison

Mounts

• Headless Horseman's Mount is now instant cast. The Headless Horseman's Mount has a variable cast time depending upon how it is used: 1.5 seconds as a ground mount and 3.0 seconds as a flying mount. However, due to technological limitations the tooltip reads as if the spell were instant. (Source)
• Swift Alliance Steed has been added to the game.
• Swift Horde Wolf has been added to the game.

Racials

• Berserking now increases your attack speed by 20% for 10 sec and isn't affected by your % of health anymore.

Ulduar

• Brightleaf's Essence now increaes Magic damage dealt by Freya and her Allies of Nature by 50%. (Down from 60%)
• Stonebark's Essence now increases physical damage dealt by Freya by 50%. (Down from 75%)
• Iron Roots now inflicts 5850 to 6150 Nature damage. (Down from 7800 to 8200)
• Tidal Waves now deals 9250 to 10750 damage. (Down from 10175 to 11825 damage)
• Plasma Blast now deals 17000 Spellfire damage per second. (Down from 20000)
• Plasma Blast now deals 25000 Spellfire damage per second. (Down from 30000)
• Heat Wave now deals 1885 to 2115 Fire damage (down from 2828 to 3172) and an additional 10000 fire damage over 5 sec. (Down from 15000)
• Emergency Mode now increases damage and health by 25%. (Down from 30%)

Alchemy

• Epic Gems transmutations now have a 20 hours cooldown.
• Transmute: Ametrine now requires 1 x Monarch Topaz and 1 x Eternal Shadow
• Transmute: Cardinal Ruby now requires 1 x Scarlet Ruby and 1 x Eternal Fire
• Transmute: Dreadstone now requires 1 x Twilight Opal and 1 x Eternal Shadow
• Transmute: Eye of Zul now requires 3 x Eternal Life
• Transmute: King's Amber now requires 1 x Autumn's Glow and 1 x Eternal Life
• Transmute: Majestic Zircon now requires 1 x Sky Sapphire and 1 x Eternal Air

Blacksmithing

• Titanium Plating now increases block value by 81. (Up from 40)

Engineering

• Dimensional Folder: K3 - Step through an ultra-safe dimensional fold to teleport to K3 in Northrend.
• Jeeves - Requests the presence of Jeeves, the perfect gentleman robot butler, whom will attend to your needs for 10 min. Jeeves can grant bank access to very skilled engineers and perform mundane tasks such as buying, selling, and repairing for anyone.
• Mind Amplification Dish - Dismantle and reassembles a helm with a mind amplification dish, allowing you to attempt to engage in mental battle with your enemies and, hopefully, control them. Can be used every 10 min. Changes the appearance of your helm and binds it to you. Only grand master engineers can activate the mind amplification dish.

Tier 9 Trinkets / Relics (All Coliseum Trinkets)

• Item - Coliseum 25 Heroic Healer Trinket - Each time you cast a helpful spell, you gain 18 mana per 5 sec. for 10 sec. Stacks up to 8 times.
• Item - Coliseum 25 Heroic Caster Trinket - You gain a Shard of Flame each time you cause a damaging spell critical strike. When you reach 3 Shards, they will release, firing a Pillar of Flame for 1959 to 2275 damage. Shard of Flame cannot be gained more often than once every 2.5 sec.
• Item - Coliseum 25 Heroic Melee Trinket - When you deal damage you have a chance to gain Paragon, increasing your Strength or Agility by 510 for 15 sec. Your highest stat is always chosen.
• Item - Paladin T9 Holy Relic (Judgement) - Each time you cast Holy Light, you have a chance to gain 234 spell power for 15 sec.

Death Knight (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Blood

• Blood Strike now has its total damage increased by 25% for each of your diseases on the target. (Down from 50% in the previous PTR build)
• Blood Tap now converts a Blood Rune into a Death Rune for the next 20 seconds.
• Bloody Strikes now increases the damage of Blood Strike by 5/10/15% (Down from 15/30/45%), bonus damage to Heart Strike and Blood Boil unchanged.

Frost

• Improved Frost Presence now let you retain 6% stamina from Frost Presence. (Old - 10% Health)

Unholy

• Unholy Blight now deals 20% of the damage done by the Death Coil over 10 sec. (Down from 30%)

Mage (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Fire

• Ignite now procs from all critical strikes from Fire damage spells. (Old - Your non-periodic critical strikes from Fire damage spells)

Paladin (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Protection

• Shield of Righteousness no longer has "High threat." in its tooltip, but this might be just some text cleanup.

Retribution

• Judgement of Vengeance now Deals [ 14% of AP + 22% of Spell Power + 1 ] Holy damage to an enemy, increased by 10% for each application of Blood Corruption on the target.
• Crusader Strike now costs 5% of base mana, down from 8%.

Rogue (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Assassination

• Envenom additional damage has been increased, it now adds 216/432/648/864/1080 additional damage based on combo points. Damage from Attack Power remains unchanged. (Probably just a tooltip fix)

Glyphs

• Glyph of Tricks of the Trade - The bonus damage and threat redirection granted by your Tricks of the Trade ability lasts an additional 4 sec.

Shaman (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Restoration

• Chain Heal has been changed, each jump now reduces the effectiveness of the heal by 40%. (Down from 50%)
• Mana Spring Totem has been changed to reflect the mana regeneration on all raid members.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Shocking - Reduces the global cooldown triggered by your shock spells to 1 sec. (Up from 0.5sec)

Warrior (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Protection

• Devastate now causes 60% weapon damage (up from 50%) plus 121 (up from 101) at max rank. Lower ranks increased accordingly.
• Shield Specialization now has a 20/40/60/80/100% to generate 5 rage (up from 2) when a block, dodge, or parry occurs. (Old - Only proc from blocks)

Glyph

• Glyph of Command - Increases the duration of your Commanding Shout ability by 2 min.
• Glyph of Battle - Increases the duration of your Battle Shout ability by 2 min.

Official Patch Notes Update
The official patch notes have been updated as well.
[blizzquote author=Blizzard]

Items: General
Item Buy Back Feature Revised

• The Item Buy Back time will now expire if the player enchants or sockets an item. Players will see a confirmation dialog box now when they attempt to enchant or add gems to an item giving them a last chance to reconsider.

New Dungeon Loot Feature

• Players will now be able to trade soulbound items with other raid or group members that were eligible for the loot. This system will work like the Item Buy Back system and allow 2 hours for players to trade an item after it has been looted. Players who choose to enchant or add gems to the item will get one last confirmation before losing the ability to trade the item.

Death Knight (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Blood

• Bloody Strikes: This talent now provides 5/10/15% increased damage to Blood Strike instead of 15/30/45%.
• Unholy Blight: This talent has been redesigned. It no longer deals damage to nearby targets. Instead, when you deal damage with Death Coil, the target will take periodic damage for 10 seconds equal to 20% of the damage done by Death Coil. This damage accumulates in the same way as Ignite and Deep Wounds.

Hunter (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)

• Deterrence: This ability now allows the hunter to parry spells and attacks from behind as well as in front. Now has a new visual spell effect.

Mage (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Fire

• Empowered Fire: In addition to its existing effects, this talent now also grants a 33/67/100% chance to regain 2% of base mana each time the Ignite talent deals damage.

Paladin (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)

• Judgements: Some of these attacks were considered ranged and some melee. They are all now considered melee attacks that can't be dodged, parried or blocked.
• Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.
• Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage. In addition, the damage-over-time effect is now considered a melee attack instead of a spell attack.

Protection

• Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Any damage that takes the paladin below 35% health or below is reduced. This reduction applies only to the portion that pushes the paladin below 35% health (example: a paladin at 50% health takes a 40% hit; the first 15% hits as normal while the next 25% is reduced). In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin's health to 10/20/30% of maximum.

Retribution

• Crusader Strike: Damage reduced to 75% weapon damage to match the new 4-second cooldown. Mana cost reduced to 5% of base mana.

Warrior (3.1 Skills List / 3.1 Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Fury

• Bloodsurge: Notification that Slam has become instant now appears in floating combat text.

Protection

• Devastate: Weapon damage increased to 60% and bonus per Sunder Armor on the target increased by 20%.
• Shield Specialization: Now provides 5 rage on a block, dodge or parry instead of 2 rage on a block.

Graphics

• The frame rate for those with Shadow Effects enabled under the Ultra Video settings has been improved.

Professions
Engineering

• Added a new Mind Amplification Dish attachment for helmets, allowing engineers to control other humanoid targets. Some restrictions apply: does not work in Arenas, dish sometimes reverses targets, unable to stack with other stat-improving head enchantments and makes your helmet look... stylish?
• The Cobalt Frag Bomb now incapacitates enemies within a 3-yard radius. A short cast time was added, but they are usable while moving. This change applies to any Cobalt Frag Bombs already created. The existing recipe now makes 3 at a time.
• Engineers can now learn to create a portable Wormhole Generator for Northrend. The Wormhole allows them to travel to different locations in Northrend, although the locations are sometimes in dangerous places.
• A new repair bot has been added, and his name is Jeeves. He is the ultimate gentleman robot butler, able to perform all the mundane tasks of repairing, selling and buying junk for your entire raid. Additionally, he can open bank boxes for skilled engineers (350+). Jeeves is not destroyed when used, but due to pressing engagements, can only be summoned once an hour. The schematic for this handsome robot was said to be hidden within the parts of another robot - hoping to be found by an engineer one day.
• Reduced the materials needed to create all engineering Dragonlings, and reduced their cooldowns, although they still cannot be used in Arenas.
• A Steam-Powered Auctioneer has been added to the Dalaran Like Clockwork engineering shop, allowing access to one's faction Auction House. The Steam-Powered Auctioneer was programmed with a superiority chip, and will only interact with Grand Master engineers.

[/blizzquote]

[overneathe]

Whoa. That is a BIG change.

[Efedorus]

Holy Shi***.. I like it 8)

[wowman]

lol.

Incoming people who will switch factions one day for the hell of it just to flame the other side.

[Skullchukka]

In before massive amount of QQ.

[overneathe]

I can already imagine guilds like Ensidia doing a world first and switching alliance the same night to do an alliance first.
>.>

[machinist]

Whoa, was wondering when they were going to do this.
Looks like I'll finally be able to play horde again when its out (yes im lazy)

[Mnementh]

Bleh terrible idea I think. But meh I suppose its nice for the casuals again who want to play with their buddy.

[Deleted]

I can already imagine guilds like Ensidia doing a world first and switching alliance the same night to do an alliance first.
>.>

LOL

[swedishfish]

So now when my herbs are getting stolen from a hordie, I can switch to my ally alt and gank em..

[Deezlar]

Been asking for this for nearly 2 years now.. shame it comes too late for me, but I hope it helps those that still play!

[Blackburn]

I'm not really sure what to think of that. If they gonna go that far, then might as well allow same faction race change that ppl have been qqing for for ages.

[CreativeInstitute]

Bleh terrible idea I think. But meh I suppose its nice for the casuals again who want to play with their buddy.

BAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW

[Painal]

this is weird
why would you make faction changes if you only just made it EVEN MORE COMPLICATED
i love the change, but i can see the problems involved,
Mounts: will you loose all your mounts? some? get equivilents?
Titles: if youve done the agent tourney achievements will there be orcs with "of Stormwind " titles
Acheivements : Such as loremaster, or titles above, or the killing of enemy faction leaders
Gear: With faction specific gear coming soon, how would they sort that out?

dont get me wrong, i LOVE this change, but they are making things harder for themselves

[Aiodren]

to implement this will they not have to implement race change?

[Deleted]

On one hand I think this is amazing, cant wait to play orc instead my gnome and nelf woop.

On the other though....this is just ridiculous, first a sex change and now race change :S They might aswell let us switch between any class we want.

[viovio]

um, no.

[Nerph-]

Now it sucks I'm on a pvp server... ;D

[pancakez]

There are no dwarfs in horde.. no way i will change!

[pVVn3c|]

Lol, I just had some friends re-roll horde because they didn't want to be alliance anymore. I tried to warn em....dummies.