Patch 4.0.6 PTR - Official Notes Update (January 19th)
The Official Patch 4.0.6 PTR Notes have been slightly updated.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Dungeons & Raids
Deadmines
  • Foe Reaper 5000
    • Foe Reaper 5000's health has been reduced slightly. In addition, he now enrages at 40%, up from 30%.
    • When enraged, Molten Slag spawn 33% faster.
  • Vanessa VanCleef
    • Some boat fires will now go out when Vanessa VanCleef is defeated, making it easier to get back onto the ship from the cavern entrance.
    • Vengeance of VanCleef has been redesigned. It is now a stacking buff that increases damage dealt, size, and attack speed, and stacks up to 40 times. Vanessa will begin casting this as soon as she jumps back onto the boat after detonating charges.


Warrior (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Arms
  • Drums of War no longer lowers the rage cost of Piercing Howl.
  • Mortal Strike cost has been reduced by 5 rage.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Death Knight (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Scourge Strike / Dreadblade
The Shadow portion of Scourge Strike is intended to be affected by Dreadblade (this was part of the intent behind changing Unholy mastery); however, there's a bug on the PTR right now that's preventing this from happening correctly. It should be resolved soon, or may already be resolved in the next PTR build. (Source)

Druid (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Racial Flight Forms
Worgen and trolls should both be getting new Swift Flight Form models this patch, even if that's not the case on the current PTR build. We have no current plans to update the models of the tauren and night elf Swift Flight Form model. The reason trolls and worgen are getting new models is because they're new to the druid class and have not yet received their own. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Hammer of Wrath damage "nerfed" by 50% on PTRs
This is actually a bug. A very non-excessive, non-stealthy bug. There was small coding change in the latest PTR build that caused Hammer of Wrath, a ranged ability, to use ranged attack power instead of melee attack power. The change itself was completely unintended and has since been corrected.

That said, we're still watching paladin damage (both sustained and burst), and if we feel that further adjustments need to be made, Hammer of Wrath may actually be a good candidate.

[...] There's no changes planned right now, but Hammer of Wrath does hit for a lot and would be an ability we'd likely look at changing if we felt that paladin damage was too strong. (Source)

Class Balancing
That's not really how it works. Balance is an ongoing, iterative process, and we continually examine how class abilities interact and scale with one another. Even when we're not actively developing a patch, we don't just sit around with our hands over our eyes and wait for something to happen. We consider alternatives and monitor areas of balance we feel may need further finessing if things don't stay at the status quo.

So, simply because we have an idea for how we might be able to tone down paladin damage in the future -- if it becomes necessary -- that doesn't mean change is imminent. It also doesn't mean that we've made some fancy list with little empty checkboxes on one side and paladin abilities on the other and are now sitting perched with a big red pen in our hand, just waiting to draw an X through the one labeled "Hammer of Wrath." No, all it means is that we feel Hammer of Wrath may be a reasonable candidate for adjustment should we need to reexamine paladin DPS sometime down the line. Your fellow posters have offered counters as to why that may not be best approach, of course, and we absolutely appreciate the feedback. (Source)

Priest (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Circle of Healing Radius (PS: This one's totally my fault)
This information is actually incorrect. In addition to Circle of Healing receiving a 30% healing buff, its radius (around the target) is also being increased from 15 yards to 30 yards in patch 4.0.6. If this change isn't already live on the PTR, it should be soon, so you and fellow priests will be able to test out new positioning and see how it feels. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Build 13529 Warrior Changes (Please read Bad Datamining about that)
Heroic Strike was never 93% damage. That was just bad data-mining. You can't always trust the automated tools of third-party websites to correctly extract and organize all of the client data being sorted through. This type of misleading information has come out several times now over the course of testing patches 4.0.3 and 4.0.6, so it's a really good idea for players to be suspicious of data-mined material.

We brought down Heroic Strike to 60% (20% decrease in overall damage from live realms), and it has stayed at 60% throughout 4.0.6 development.

We did buff Raging Blow (and some other stuff) to compensate for the Heroic Strike nerf, since the intent was to make Heroic Strike a clear rage dump and not to lower warrior damage. We were concerned our initial buff of Raging Blow was too high, leading to possible (but realistically pretty unlikely) burst scenarios, so we took it down a little (but still higher than on live realms), and buffed Slam instead to make the Bloodsurge proc something you actually want to take advantage of. (Source)

New Fan Art
The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with four new pieces of fan artwork set within the Warcraft universe.



Holiday Dessert Contest Winners
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Another holiday season has come and gone, and while parting may be bittersweet, the entries you baked up and photographed for the 2010 Blizzard Holiday Dessert Contest were all sweet, all the time. This contest was a community favorite last year, so we once again asked you to bake a dessert with a distinctly Blizzard flavor and snap a photo to share the joy (if not the taste). We were amazed by the deliriously delicious delights and tantalizing treats you tempted us with!

After reviewing all of the entries, we came away more than a little hungry (send cupcakes, pls), but we were finally able to get over our grumbling tummies to select these truly mouthwatering winners. Feast your eyes on these five fantastic finalists, and please join us in congratulating them on their leet baking skills!

This article was originally published in forum thread: PTR 4.0.6 Notes Update (Jan 19th), Blue Posts, Fan Art, Holiday Dessert started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 39 Comments
  1. mmoc6af618f320's Avatar
    Gief druid forms and CoH 30y!
  1. mmoc6025b804ec's Avatar
    lovin the cakes XD
  1. Koredette's Avatar
    Looks great!
  1. Trifande's Avatar
    Arms Warrior:
    amg @ Piercing Howl Nerf . Was quite useful for certain pve encounters (heroics, etc.) when the ranged were nabish. And really helped with peeling/Bladestorming in PvP.
    Mortal Strike buff is quite cool though , will add a net PvE dps increase for arms (allowing for quicker MS usage if/when rage starved and allowing for more Slam/HS usage otherwise).
  1. The Last DJ's Avatar
    That replica of the Lion's Pride Inn (Goldshire) isn't true to form. It's missing twenty or thirty naked human females, along with a dozen or so draenei and elves ... and everything should be coated in a layer of se -

    Yeah, I'm gonna stop there. Awww, Zul'jin cupcake!
  1. Syphke's Avatar
    love the GS inn cake
  1. Snowbell's Avatar
    The Deathwing one is just too awesome lol
  1. mmoc6ae9b18026's Avatar
    All of the cakes looks awesome! Props to their makers .
  1. mmocc5c312fa0d's Avatar
    That Blood Elf hunter fanart is wonderful. One of my favourite fanarts I've seen in a LONG time. ♥
  1. mmocfa9c8e4871's Avatar
    Damn gotta love those guys with talent to create food in such degree. The problem is noone would dare to eat it because it's just way to beautiful.
  1. wilcox1232's Avatar
    Hooray for how fix. And lol at "if we felt that paladin damage was too strong." Moving good pallys out of dead last on the meters can be a brutally OP thing.
  1. Daedius's Avatar
    That Belf Hunter fan art is absolutely beautiful
  1. LordSothe's Avatar
    Dreadblade is bugged. /sigh of relief

    Taking nerfs to "balance" a Mastery that was only marginally better than our current one was... Irritating, to say the least.
  1. Awe's Avatar
    A hunter with high heels. Very practical ;>
  1. mmoc3eb006e951's Avatar
    Every time I see a blue post spouting nonsense about balancing classes my head hurts. Those idiots couldn´t balance a checkbook
  1. Awe's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Bantokar View Post
    Every time I see a blue post spouting nonsense about balancing classes my head hurts. Those idiots couldn´t balance a checkbook
    As much as you may believe how it easy it is to balance. It is not that easy. Not for both PvP and PvE with 3 specs in mind and some class "lore" mechanics in place. The only complain I have is that Blizzard is not adjusting things fast enough. But I am not expecting them to actually balance stuff for good, becouse that is close to impossible.
  1. sylpheed's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Awe View Post
    A hunter with high heels. Very practical ;>
    Hello, welcome to high fantasy, we have plate thongs here you know...
  1. mmoc3eb006e951's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Awe View Post
    As much as you may believe how it easy it is to balance. It is not that easy. Not for both PvP and PvE with 3 specs in mind and some class "lore" mechanics in place. The only complain I have is that Blizzard is not adjusting things fast enough. But I am not expecting them to actually balance stuff for good, becouse that is close to impossible.
    It might not be easy to achieve 100% balance, but they aren´t even close. Some classes are useless in PvP and others bordering on OP.. How hard is it to give classes the same amount of silences, interupts and stuns? Devs will have you believe it is hard as shit, but with a marine biologist as lead systems designer it´s no wonder really. Bottom of the barrel devs work for Blizz and on wow it seems.
  1. Fréyr's Avatar
    Love the first fanart! Thumbs up
  1. FattyXP's Avatar
    May already be fixed in the next ptr patch... why do the people making these things NOT know that?
    Blizzard doesn't even know whats happening with its own game anymore... sigh.

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