Patch 4.2 PTR Notes - May 10th Update
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes: General
  • All healing critical strikes now heal for 2 times a normal heal (+100%), up from 1.5 times a normal heal (+50%).

Buffs
  • All class abilities which place a buff on friendly targets no longer generate any threat. This goes for raid-wide buffs like Mark of the Wild and Power Word: Fortitude, as well as triggered effects such as Blessed Resilience or Fingers of Frost, and single-target buffs like Dark Intent and Hysteria. The exception is buffs which directly cause healing or damage, such as Thorns or Renew. Abilities such as these still generate normal threat.

Pets
  • The Aggressive pet stance has been removed and replaced with the Assist stance. This stance will cause the player's pet to attack the player's target. The pet will not change targets unless the master attacks a new target for a few seconds.

Spell Interrupts
  • When interrupted while casting a single-school spell such as Mind Flay or Frostbolt, players will now be able to cast dual-school spells such as Mind Spike (Frost and Shadow schools) or Frostfire Bolt (Frost and Fire schools). However, being interrupted while casting a dual-school spell will still interrupt all respective schools as intended.

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
  • Obliterate base damage has been reduced to 150% weapon damage, down from 160%.

Frost
  • Annihilation now increases Obliterate damage by 12/24/36%, down from 15/30/45%.

Unholy
  • Unholy Might now increases Strength by 10%, up from 5%.

Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
  • Ferocious Bite damage has been increased by 15%. In addition, its base cost has been reduced to 25 energy and it can use up to 25 energy, for up to a 100% damage increase.
  • Mangle (Cat) damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 530% weapon damage, up from 460%.
  • Omen of Clarity clearcasting buff from now lasts 15 seconds, up from 8 seconds.
  • Ravage damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 975% weapon damage, up from 850%.
  • Shred damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 520% weapon damage, up from 450%.
  • Swipe (Cat) now deals 600% weapon damage at level 80 or higher, down from 670%.


Balance
  • Insect Swarm now generates 8 Lunar Energy for Balance druids.
  • Moonfire now generates 8 Solar Power for Balance druids.
  • Sunfire now generates 8 Lunar Energy for Balance druids.
  • Earth and Moon's duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 12.
  • Fungal Growth spell visual effect has been updated to be less visually intrusive and more aesthetic.
  • Lunar Shower has been redesigned. When casting Moonfire, the druid gains Lunar Shower. Lunar Shower increases the direct damage done by Moonfire by 15/30/45%, and reduces the mana cost by 10/20/30%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 3 seconds. While under the effects of Lunar Shower, Moonfire generates 8 Solar Energy, and Sunfire generates 8 Lunar Energy. The amount of Lunar/Solar Energy gained does not change based on the number of points spent in the talent, or stacks of Lunar Shower. Those druids who wish to delay transition in or out of an Eclipse state should now cast the one of their two basic attacks which will not move the Eclipse bar (either Starfire or Wrath).
  • Solar Beam has a new spell effect.
  • Wild Mushroom: Detonate can now also trigger Earth and Moon, in addition to Starfire and Wrath.

Restoration
  • Symbiosis (Mastery) has been removed and replaced with Harmony. Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 10%, and casting direct healing spells grants an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 seconds. Each point of mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%. Healing Touch, Nourish, Swiftmend, and the initial heal from Regrowth are considered direct healing spells for the purposes of this Mastery. All other healing from druid spells is considered periodic.

Glyphs
  • Glyph of Berserk duration increase is now 10 seconds, up from 5.

Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
  • Multi-shot damage has been reduced. It now deals 120% weapon damage at level 80 or higher, down from 137%.
  • Traps now scale with hunter stats such as hit, expertise, spell penetration and attack power as intended.

Mage (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
  • Spellsteal now has a 6-second cooldown.

Paladin (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
  • Divine Light mana cost has been increased to 35% of base mana, up from 30%.
  • Flash of Light mana cost has been increased to 31% of base mana, up from 27%.
  • Holy Light mana cost has been increased to 12% of base mana, up from 10%.
  • Rebuke, Divine Shield and Divine Protection have new icons.

Holy
  • Holy Shock mana cost has been increased to 9% of base mana, up from 8%.
  • Speed of Light now increases movement speed when Holy Radiance or Divine Protection are cast. In addition, this talent now reduces the cooldown of Holy Radiance by 13/26/40 seconds, up from 10/20/30.

Protection
  • Ardent Defender has a new spell effect.
  • Hammer of the Righteous mana cost has been lowered to 10%, down from 12% to match Crusader Strike.
  • Judgements of the Wise now procs on attempt rather than on strike, which means judgements that miss can still grant mana. This is to help ensure Protection paladins are not starved for mana if they aren't capped on hit rating.

Shaman (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
  • Lightning Shield and Water Shield can no longer be dispelled.
  • Unleash Elements is now in the Nature school, and thus can no longer be used if a shaman's Nature school has been locked out.
  • Water Shield has had its internal cooldown reduced to 3.5 seconds, once again matching other shields. The amount of mana restored when Water Shield procs has been reduced by 50%.

Elemental
  • Lava Flows now grants a 30/60/90% haste buff when a Flame Shock effect is dispelled, up from 10/20/30%.
  • Thunderstorm now reduces the movement speed of players it knocks back by 40% for 5 seconds.

Restoration
  • Improved Water Shield has been redesigned and renamed Resurgence. When Water Shield is active, Resurgence causes critical direct heals to restore mana (Resurgence rank 2 is roughly equal to 150% of the old Improved Water Shield value when a Healing Wave or Greater Healing Wave critically hits, and scaled down accordingly for faster or multi-target spells).
  • Mana Tide now grants 200% of the caster's Spirit, down from 400%.

Glyphs
  • Glyph of Unleashed Lightning (new Prime glyph) allows Lightning Bolt to be cast while moving.

Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
  • Soul Harvest has a new spell effect.

Dungeon & Raids
  • The Firelands, a new 10- and 25-player raid, is now available for limited testing. Please visit the PTR Discussion forum for the latest raid testing schedule.

Guilds
  • The daily guild experience cap has been increased by 25%.
  • The weekly guild reputation cap has been increased by 25%.
  • The guild experience cap is now removed at level 20, down from level 23.

Items
  • Darkmoon Card: Hurricane damage done when triggered has been increased by 40%, however, it can no longer deal critical strikes and no longer receives any modifiers to its damage from the equipping player.

Set Bonuses
  • The 4-piece Elemental shaman PvP set bonus (Gladiator's Thunderfist set) has been redesigned. It now causes Lightning Shield to generate an extra charge, rather than consuming one, when it is triggered by receiving damage, up to a maximum of 3 (9 with the Rolling Thunder talent).

Professions
Skinning
  • Players can no longer skin corpses already being actively skinned or looted by other players.

PvP
Conquest Points
  • The minimum cap on Conquest Points earned per week is now 1500 at 1500 or less Battleground rating. The maximum cap remains 3000 at 3000 or more Battleground rating. The cap continues to scale non-linearly between those two points.
  • The game now separately tracks different Conquest Point caps for Battlegrounds and Arenas. The cap for Arena rating will always be 2/3 of the cap for Battleground rating at any given Arena rating. Players may earn a total number of Conquest Points per week equal to the higher of these two caps, but once players have reached the cap for either Arenas or Battlegrounds, they can no longer earn Conquest Points from that source. Conquest Points from Battleground holidays only count toward the total Conquest Point cap.

Quests & Creatures
  • There are no longer oddities in the critical strike and dodge chance of lower-level creatures.

User Interface
  • Raid Profiles are in the process of being implemented and are not fully functional. Raid Profiles will allow players to save the raid window user interface layout based on type of content (i.e. 10-player raids, 25-player raids, Battlegrounds, etc.).
This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 4.2 PTR Notes - May 10th Update started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 261 Comments
  1. mmocbdc65a6b85's Avatar
    mana cost has been increased... mana cost has been increased...mana cost has been increased... to the ground...
  1. Sodia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dalanos View Post
    Spell steal nerfed yet Purge is left untouched, no Ret changes so it's still shit for dps, glad to see i'll no longer gain aggro from using Battleshout and last but not least heals crits were increased and yet no buff to MS effects so healers will still /no and /laugh at me while keeping their team alive in pvp. What a crock of shit.

    If they nerf purge as well then Omnotron HC is Close to Imposible, thats why they dont do it or this nerf for mages will never come live
  1. Nielah's Avatar
    Here we go again! Feral incoming
  1. phyrix's Avatar
    Thanks for nerfing my mana regen Blizz, it sure was needed.

    /sarcasm

    If raids where stacking shamans for mana tide, they should have figured out a different way to prevent this. Something like a heroism-like debuff maybe?

    This is total BS.

    They nerfed Water Shield regen as well, which is even more BS. They lowered the internal CD, yeah, but they also lowered the amount of mana gained. The net result WOULD be the same, if it wasn't for the fact that improved water shield procs off of crits. With this new water shield you have to have a crit heal every 3.5 seconds to get the same amount of regen as before. You'd need somewhere in the area of 60% crit for this.

    I guess I'll be rerolling in 4.2 if these changes end up going live, because it will be completely impossible to heal properly on my shaman.
  1. Kashydan's Avatar
    all those wannabe-pallies that spam the comments with "to the ground, ahwmagawhdz,ima guna quit now or reroll kkthxbye" USE YOUR DAMN BRAIN
    Our Holy-Mastery uses the Amount Healed to create a SHIELD! that *absorbs* damage... and absorbing damage is always nicer than just plain healing, because any damage absorbed is damage that has *not* to be healed/mitigated/kill-the-tank-ed...
    and with the 150to200%-critheal-change, that shield just got a damn huge buff.. comparably bigger than for all the shaman and priests out there...
    and they charge you what? 10% increase in manacost? it has been a while since i saw a healpally at the end of an encounter standing there with less than 30% of his mana.. so..it's still in the "i-dont-have-to-worry"-buffer-zone

    and..you haven't even tested it yet..
  1. mmocfe1b1a5d57's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ziona View Post
    paladin the moste nerfed class in wow, time to reroll soon
    paladins the biggest whining class in wow.
    they are fine stop moaning about it.

    my pally rarely struggles for mana so it would be nice to see what all the other healing classes are having to struggle with.
  1. Kuja's Avatar
    Still waiting for

    Mage

    - Mana Shield now has a shiny new spell effect instead of the one from 2004
  1. mmocfe1b1a5d57's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by wiIdi View Post
    whe whiners have won the war, OB is getting nerfed
    think this may be a pve and a pvp nerf , i assume you are talking about frost DK's and obliterate?

    i play a dk and obliterate is rediculous in pvp atm with the recent changes to runes. as much as i love killing the enemy i think it is a wee bit over powered. but it is funny how they jumped on this nerf so quick and have yet to sort out mages.( i also play a mage before the mages are not OP brigade start up, they are end of)
    its also blown unholy out of the water for both pvp and pve.
    while im glad its more viable now and it adds an option i think the specs should be more balanced so its more a choice of playstlye and not what doe best.
  1. mmoc1ed7397d63's Avatar
    hahaha at pala changes i guess the new healing thing with crit will make up for it. I got a pala alt I remember when it was the only safe class and didn't get hit with the nerf bat. i think palas must have pissed cata off or something. oh well QQ
  1. mmoc98b28eb1ac's Avatar
    FFS mage nerf :/
  1. Tjonke's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sodia View Post
    If they nerf purge as well then Omnotron HC is Close to Imposible, thats why they dont do it or this nerf for mages will never come live
    Purge was already nerfed this expansion. Was droped down from dispeling 2 effects to 1 and also to not be subject to manareduction on instantcast that enhancment was relying on in arenas to purgespam the oposing team. So I say: Let Shadowpriests take care of the dispelling in the future =)
  1. mmocfe1b1a5d57's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by UncleV View Post
    hahaha at pala changes i guess the new healing thing with crit will make up for it. I got a pala alt I remember when it was the only safe class and didn't get hit with the nerf bat. i think palas must have pissed cata off or something. oh well QQ
    pally's just like to QQ, their class color is pink for a reason
    tbh every pally spec is viable atm
    pally healers are great in raids
    pally tanks are great
    and ret can do really good damage

    back in tbc the only reason you would ever take a ret pally was if you neeeded some buffs otherwise they were useless. i think pallys just got very used to being buffed in wrath and are not used to it now the nerfs are incoming.
  1. Lily Crowley's Avatar
    "Spellsteal now has a 6-second cooldown."

    Sigh... So Blizz, when are you gonna completely separate PvE and PvP? This is getting more and more ridiculous.
  1. webdonkey's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kashydan View Post
    all those wannabe-pallies that spam the comments with "to the ground, ahwmagawhdz,ima guna quit now or reroll kkthxbye" USE YOUR DAMN BRAIN
    Our Holy-Mastery uses the Amount Healed to create a SHIELD! that *absorbs* damage... and absorbing damage is always nicer than just plain healing, because any damage absorbed is damage that has *not* to be healed/mitigated/kill-the-tank-ed...
    and with the 150to200%-critheal-change, that shield just got a damn huge buff.. comparably bigger than for all the shaman and priests out there...
    and they charge you what? 10% increase in manacost? it has been a while since i saw a healpally at the end of an encounter standing there with less than 30% of his mana.. so..it's still in the "i-dont-have-to-worry"-buffer-zone

    and..you haven't even tested it yet..
    Tell me where is says that the "shield" scales with the "crit"
  1. mmoc4ba37b54ff's Avatar
    yay to no more hunter pets ninja pulls!

    balance changes waay better than before, although i do think blizzard is lost on that spec....fellow chickens, hold on! Im guessing the earth and moon effect applied by shrooms, is blizzards way of saying: hey, you can use hurricane now! (ofc not, silly blizzard!)
  1. mmoc8f46f67acf's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ziona View Post
    paladin the moste nerfed class in wow, time to reroll soon
    lol GG, that's not even a nerf. if i recall correctly the mana costs were buffed before.
    they're not getting nerfed more then other classes lol

    Quote Originally Posted by webdonkey View Post
    Tell me where is says that the "shield" scales with the "crit"
    Your direct healing spells also place an absorb shield on your target for 12% of the amount healed lasting 15 sec. Each point of Mastery increases the absorb amount by an additional 1.50%.

    so crits don't count as healing done?
    crits STILL make the shield, so bigger heals = bigger shields
  1. Floran12's Avatar
    I hate it how everyone is under the impression every mage in PvP likes to play as frost. Spellsteal is really important to arcane and fire in a few encounters and this will hurt them again. Sometimes I'd really wish the frost tree just didn't exist, the spec fucks over the other 2 specs in PvP all the time.
  1. mmoc064457dc87's Avatar
    Yes they should nerf now rip and rake by 10% once again.
    And finally change those retarded attacks to do damage based on AP, who the hell wants to browse class abilities when they are 5x higher than normal ones. Geez nearly 1000% weapon damage...
    * Glyph of Unleashed Lightning (new Prime glyph) allows Lightning Bolt to be cast while moving.
    As if not that stupidity called "Fire mage" was not enough. Spam-a-spell to proc and win, how exciting.
  1. Weenietot's Avatar
    Spellsteal nerf? FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

    I mean really. Anyone spamming spellsteal is nerfing themselves by not casting any offensive spells in its place. Do we really need a handicap on that too?
  1. mmoc03681bd6ed's Avatar
    buff multi shot then nerf it so much for not using live servers as a place for testing

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