Patch 4.3 on live realms this week
Patch 4.3 will be deployed on live realms this week, as usual there is a 1% chance that it will not happen if something goes really wrong but you should expect to be able to enter the Dragon Soul raid and kick deathwing's ... butt? on November 29th in the US and November 30th in EU. Time for the giant recap of what to expect from this patch!
Raid Finder
The new Raid Finder tool is a new way to build raids similar to the Looking for Dungeon tool. You can now queue for a 25-man raid and pretty much instantly jump in the fight to get your shiny epics! It also comes with a new "Looking for Raid" difficulty that makes bosses easier and puggable.
Raid Instance - Dragon Soul
A new raid instance is added to the game with this patch, the Dragon Soul instance will allow you to face Deathwing himself and potentially defeat him.
Tier 13 Armor Sets
New raid instance means new Tier armor sets and the Tier 13 might be one of the best design we've seen in a while!
Valor Points Rewards and Raid Loot
A lot of gear has been added in this patch, you can get a lot of gear for your character from the Patch 4.3 Valor Points Rewards and for those of you who don't want to check individual bosses loot lists, we have a nice Dragon Soul Raid Loot List.
Also, Valor Points are now earned at the same rate in 10 and 25-man instances now.
Originally Posted by Bashiok
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We've made slight adjustments to the Valor Point (VP) drops on the 4.3 PTR which testers can now see. In both 10- and 25-player raids, bosses will now drop 100 VP each (down from 115 and 135 respectively). We’ll also be changing Firelands raid bosses to drop 50 VP per kill upon release of the patch.
This change is being made to further emphasize the desire to kill bosses for the items they drop. In the 4.3 raid, tier sets can only be earned from boss drops, and as Raid Finder will allow for just about anyone to get a chance to kill bosses, we think there will be less need for Valor overall. We want to try to match the lower desire for VP with a slightly slower acquisition rate.
We appreciate your thoughts and constructive discussion on how these changes may affect you and your guild once 4.3 is released.
5-Man Instances - Well of Eternity, Hour of Twilight, and End Time
Three new 5-man instances are added to the game! The Well of Eternity, Hour of Twilight, and End Time instances are all located in the Caverns of Time.
Transmogrification
Transmogrification allows you to change the appearance of any piece of equipement you're wearing by replacing it with the look of another piece of gear you own! Read the Transmogrification article for more information
Void Storage
The Void Storage is a new Bank-like feature introduced with Patch 4.3, it can be unlocked for 100 Gold and will offer your character 80 extra slots of storage!
Patch 4.3 Mounts
This patch adds almost 20 mounts to the game, and we already have the drop locations for more than 10 of them! Check out the Patch 4.3 Mounts!
Patch 4.3 Companion Pets
15 new companion pets have been added to the game in Patch 4.3, a lot of them are from the new Darkmoon Faire but there's also a couple of collector mounts, and even a Sea Pony! Check out the Patch 4.3 Companion Pets.
Darkmoon Faire Reworked - Darkmoon Faire Island!
The Darkmoon Faire has been completely reworked and got its own zone, it's now MUCH bigger and is located on the Darkmoon Faire Island! Feel free to read Patch 4.3 Darkmoon Faire.
Don't forget that you can also earn Conquest points from regular battlegrounds victories now, and the amount of Conquest points earned in Rated BG has been considerably increased.
Originally Posted by Bashiok
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
In patch 4.3 we’re changing the daily battleground (BG) to reward 100 conquest for a win (up from 25). In addition, every non-rated BG that you win will also give you 50 conquest. There is no limit to how many BGs you can run this way, up to the normal conquest cap.
Our intent is to start acting even more on our Mists of Pandaria philosophies of encouraging players to approach the content they want to, how they want to, and be able to work toward meaningful player progression. Arenas and rated battlegrounds will still earn Conquest faster, but with this change you can now work your way up by running normal BGs, if you so choose.
Patch Notes
This is not the final version of the patch notes, only the latest update of the test realm notes. There might be a few changes in the final version but most of the changes are here.
This new grouping feature allows players to quickly and easily form a pick-up raid for a specially tuned version of the current tier of endgame content: the Dragon Soul raid. Raid Finder is now available.
This new feature allows players to customize their gear like never before. You'll find Transmogrification, Void Storage, and Reforging vendors in Cathedral Square, Stormwind and The Drag, Orgrimmar. The costs associated with this service are not yet final.
In addition to the bank, players will now have access to a new "deep storage" system, allowing characters to free bag space by setting aside coveted gear. You'll find Transmogrification, Void Storage, and Reforging vendors in Cathedral Square, Stormwind and The Drag, Orgrimmar. The costs associated with this service are not yet final.
Reforging
The former Reforging vendors have been... retired. The ethereals have chosen to take over the business and joined their Transmogrification and Void Storage service providers. You'll find them in Cathedral Square, Stormwind and The Drag, Orgrimmar.
Outland & Northrend Quest Flow
The amount of experience needed to gain levels 71 through 80 has been reduced by approximately 33%.
Many Group quests in Outland and Northrend have been re-tuned to allow players to complete them solo. They are no longer labeled as Group quests.
Relevant questgivers have been moved into Outland and Northrend dungeons. The majority of dungeon quests for these zones are now available from within their respective dungeons.
North American realms (excluding Brazilian, Latin American, and Oceanic realms) no longer permit letters with accents in character or guild names. Existing character and guild names with special characters will be unaffected by this change.
The achievement Tol Barad Veteran now requires 25 victories in Tol Barad, down from 100.
Classes: General
All raid and party buffs which grant group members 10% increased attack power have been changed slightly. They continue to provide 10% increased ranged attack power, but now provide 20% increased melee attack power.
Abomination's Might: The melee attack power bonus from this raid buff has been increased to 10/20%, up from 5/10%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 5/10%.
Blessing of Might: The melee attack power bonus from this raid buff has been increased to 20%, up from 10%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 10%.
Runescroll of Might: The melee attack power bonus from this consumable has been increased to 16%, up from 8%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 8%.
Trueshot Aura: The melee attack power bonus from this raid buff has been increased to 20%, up from 10%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 10%.
Unleashed Rage: The melee attack power bonus from this raid buff has been increased to 10/20%, up from 5/10%. The ranged attack power bonus remains 5/10%.
Vengeance for Protection warriors, Protection paladins, Blood death knights, and Feral druids has been redesigned slightly. It no longer ramps up slowly at the beginning of a fight. Instead, the first melee attack taken by the tank generates Vengeance equal to 33% of the damage taken by that attack. In addition, as it updates periodically during the fight, it's always set to at least 33% of the damage taken by the tank in the last 2 seconds. It still climbs from that point at the rate it did previously, still decays when damage is not taken, and still cannot exceed a maximum based on the health and Stamina of the tank.
Threat generated by classes in active tanking modes has been increased to 500% damage done, up from 300%. This applies to druids in Bear Form, death knights in Blood Presence, warriors in Defensive Stance, and paladins with Righteous Fury active.
Spells which have an effect broken by taking damage past a threshold (Entangling Roots, Fear, Frost Nova, etc.) now count damage that was prevented by damage absorbs or other damage reducing effects.
Death Strike now heals the death knight whether or not the attack misses, or is dodged/parried. As a result of this change, Death Strike no longer refunds its rune cost if it fails to hit the target, as the death knight will still receive the healing effect.
Blood Presence now provides an armor bonus of 55%, up from 30%.
Death Knight pets now properly inherit their master’s crit and spell penetration stats.
Blood
Blade Barrier has been redesigned. It now passively reduces damage taken.
Swipe (Cat) has been reduced to 340% weapon damage, down from 415%.
Bear Form now provides an armor bonus of 120% at all levels, up from 65% for characters below level 40, making it easier for lower level druids to tank dungeons.
Bear Form now provides a Stamina bonus of 20%, up from 10%.
Glyph of Shred has been renamed Glyph of Bloodletting, and now also causes Mangle (Cat) to extend the duration of Rip, in addition to its existing Shred functionality.
Holy Radiance now has a 3.0-second cast time, no cooldown, and requires a player target. That target is imbued with Holy Radiance, which heals them and all group members within 10 yards instantly, and continues to heal them by a smaller amount every 1 second for 3 seconds.
Seal of Insight, when Judged, no longer returns 15% base mana to the paladin. Judging Seal of Insight still causes damage, and melee attacks will still restore 4% of base mana.
Seal of Truth, when Judged, now benefits from a multiplier of 20% per stack of Censure, up from 10%.
Atonement will now account for the target enemy's combat reach when calculating proper range, enabling it to be used on large creatures such as Ragnaros and Ala'kir.
Improved Lava Lash now causes Lava Lash to spread a Flame Shock debuff from the target to up to 4 nearby targets. This excludes crowd-controlled targets and those who already have a Flame Shock debuff from the shaman.
Mental Quickness has been redesigned. Instead of granting the shaman spell power, Mental Quickness now causes Enhancement shaman spells to behave as though the shaman has spell power equal to 55% of attack power. Enhancement shaman spells no longer benefit from spell power from other sources.
Maelstrom Weapon can now also proc from fully absorbed melee attacks.
Restoration
Ancestral Healing now also causes the shaman's heals to increase the target's maximum health by 5/10% of the amount healed, up to a maximum of 10% of the target's maximum health, for 15 seconds. This effect does not stack if multiple Restoration shaman are present, and does not apply to heals from procs.
Riptide's periodic healing coefficient has been increased by 50%. The initial direct heal is unchanged.
Charge (and related abilities) should now correctly path to a target even if the target moves during the Charge. This change should decrease the likelihood of the warrior Charging to a different location than the target.
Players who use Dungeon Finder for a random Heroic dungeon will no longer be locked to that instance. Previously, players who entered an instance via the Random Dungeon option were then prohibited from queuing for that dungeon or entering the instance manually via the portal. Players should now always be able to complete a specific Heroic dungeon once per day regardless of any random dungeons completed.
Ruins of Ahn'qiraj
Bosses in Ruins of Ahn'qiraj now drop a rare-quality Scarab Coffer Key which can be used to open the Scarab Coffers found within. These keys are zone-bound to Ruins of Ahn'qiraj and have a 17-hour expiration. This change also applies to Greater Scarab Coffer Keys used to open Large Scarab Coffers.
Zul’Gurub
Players now only have to kill two of the four initial dungeon bosses (High Priest Venoxis, Broodlord Mandokir, High Priestess Kilnara, and Zanzil) to face Jin’do the Godbreaker.
Zul’Aman
Players now only have to kill two of the four Troll avatars before they may face Hex Lord Malacrass.
Guilds
Guild Standards are again useable in Firelands. Duration has been increased to 15 minutes, the effect has a 100 yard radius, and now affects dead players.
The orc racial Blood Fury now increases spell power rather than only spell damage.
User Interface
Archaeology areas of interest will now show on the mini-map, in addition to the World Map.
Bag Search
A search field has been added to allow players to search bag, bank, guild bank, and Void Storage inventories for specific items.
Guilds with inactive guild leaders can now usurp the leader under specific conditions. More information on this coming soon.
The Reforging interface has been updated and improved.
Quest Tracking areas or points of interest will now show on the mini-map, in addition to the World Map.
The World Map now displays the expected character levels for each zone.
Added a “promote everyone” checkbox that will automatically make all raid members, Raid assistants. This checkbox can be found in the Raid Frame and the Unit Frame “pull-out” tab.
There are now commands for world markers & unit markers.
Added new rotation, zoom, and pan controls are now available in all windows with player models in UI frames.
Players can now unlearn profession specialization without unlearning the profession (Engineering & Alchemy).
[Mac] Added functionality to allow using the Command key instead of the Control key on Apple keyboards. This can be enabled in Mac Options.
[Mac] Added functionality to disable Mac OS system keyboard shortcuts so that they do not interfere with keyboard shortcuts in WoW. This can be enabled in Mac Options.
Added a feature to interact with NPCs, game objects (mailbox, mining nodes, etc.), and corpses on left-click as well as right-click. There is now an option under Interface:Controls to turn this feature off.
Mage (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)Pyroblast’s initial damage has been increased by approximately 26%, and its damage over time has been increased by approximately 100%.Fireball damage has been increased by approximately 17%.FireLiving Bomb damage over time has been increased by approximately 10%, and explosion damage has been increased by approximately 120%.
I thought Pyroblast was a Fire only skill(it is).Post-quality-police Trixzy reporting in.
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