Patch 5.4 Arena Update, Patch 5.4 Official Notes Update

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Patch 5.4 - Sky Golem Mount, Blue Tweets, Sha of Fear Solo Kill, Weekly News Recap

Patch 5.4 Arena Update
You can see the UI changes here.

Big changes are coming to World of Warcraft’s Arenas that will make participating more convenient and competitive than ever before, and some of those changes may begin appearing on the PTR very soon.

Today, competition is limited to the realms within your Battlegroup, and your ability to participate in the Arena system requires having a static team with friends on the same realm. In the upcoming Patch 5.4, we’re building on technological improvements we’ve made over time (such as region-wide matchmaking) to expand the pool of competitors and improve the Arena experience for all World of Warcraft players.

One of the first things you’ll notice in Patch 5.4 is that you’ll no longer need to join or create an Arena team to compete. Instead, queuing will work much as it does for Rated Battlegrounds: you can queue for an Arena battle in a party of the appropriate size (still 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5), and your opponents will be selected based on the average Match Making Rating of your party.

For the most part, the mechanics of Arena will remain the same. You’ll still gain and lose personal rating based on your wins and losses, though your Conquest Point cap will now be based on your Personal Rating. The rating requirements to purchase items will also be based on your Personal Rating.

The change will confer a few advantages over the old static-team-based system:

• You’ll no longer need to worry about invitations, joining, or leaving an Arena team. Now you can play with who you want, when you want.
  
• You’ll be able to join a cross-realm group and queue for Arena matches with friends from other realms.
  
• The Arena ladder will no longer be sorted according to Battlegroup. Just like Rated Battlegrounds and normal Battlegrounds, now all Arenas will be region-wide. You’ll be competing with a field of opponents that includes every Arena player in your region.

As before, at the end of an Arena season, the top players will still earn titles and mounts.

We’re excited for these changes, and we’re eagerly looking forward to hearing your feedback. Please join us on the PTR when these updates go live to check them out for yourself.

Patch 5.4 Official Notes Update

General
Redesigned Arena System

• Players no longer need to create or join an Arena team to compete.
  
• Similar to the Rated Battleground system, players in a party of the appropriate size (cross-realm groups are supported) may queue for an Arena bracket of the same size (2v2, 3v3, or 5v5).
  
• Each player will have a personal rating that increase or decrease based on victories and defeats against other rated opponents. Opponents will be selected based on the average Match Making Rating of the party.
  
• Conquest cap, requirements on gear and enchantments will be based on the player's personal rating.
  
• The Arena ladder will no longer be sorted according to Battlegroup. Just like Rated Battlegrounds and normal Battlegrounds, all Arenas will now be region-wide!
  
• At the end of an Arena season, the top players in a region will still earn titles and mounts.
  
• For more details about the change to Arenas, please see the blog titled: Patch 5.4 Arena Update.

Classes

• Area knockback effects now all share a diminishing return category. After a player has been moved by one of these spells, the player will be immune for 10 seconds. This new category applies to: Fellash, Gorefiend’s Grasp, Glyph of Explosive Trap, Thunderstorm, Typhoon, Ursol’s Vortex, and Whiplash.

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• Restoration
  
  • Living Seed effects can now stack, up to 50% of the casting Druid's maximum health, and will no longer be consumed if the target is already at full health.

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• General
  
  • Explosive Trap had its overall damage decreased by 30%. Proportionately, more damage has been removed from the initial damage than the periodic effect.

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• Talents
  
  • Chi Brew will now also generate stacks of Brew/Teas based on the Monk's specialization.
    
    • Brewmaster: 10 stacks of Elusive Brew
      

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• Talents
  
  • Eternal Flame initial healing has been reduced by 30%.
    
  • Execution Sentence will now immediately damage the target for 5 times the amount of damage that had been dealt by Execution Sentence most recent periodic effect when dispelled.
    
    • Stay of Execution will now immediately heal the target for 5 times the amount of healing that had been dealt by Stay of Execution most recent periodic effect when dispelled.
      
  • Sacred Shield changes have been reverted and is a talent once more. (Old) has been renamed to Holy Shield and is no longer a talent. Holy Shield is a Protection Paladin ability learned at level 85.
    
  • Sacred Shield (New)
    
    • Holy: When the Paladin or their Beacon of Light target falls below 30% health, that target gains a Sacred Shield absorbing damage equal to 30% of their maximum health. Sacred Shield can only occur once every 2 minutes.
      
    • Protection, Retribution: When the Paladin falls below 30% health, they gain a Sacred Shield absorbing damage equal to 30% of their maximum health. Sacred Shield can only occur once every 2 minutes.
      
  • Sanctified Wrath
    
    • Protection: Now causes Judgment to generate 2 Holy Power instead of 1 while Avenging Wrath is active. reduces the cooldown of Judgment by 100% (up from 50%).
      

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• General
  
  • Hymn of Hope now prefers to target healers when it grants mana. Healers will always be picked before non-healers, regardless of how much mana they have.
• Glyphs
  
  • New Minor Glyph: Glyph of Feathers causes the Priest's healing spells to momentarily grant angelic wings.

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• Arms
  
  • Slam now deals 35% of damage dealt against the primary target to all other enemies within 2 yards, and causes an additional 10% damage to targets affected by the warrior’s Colossus Smash.

Items

• Adjustments have been made to Mists of Pandaria faction quartermasters.
  
  • Epic quality (purple) Valor items sold by the Shado-Pan Assault now have their reputation requirements reduced to Friendly or below, and have their Valor Point cost reduced by 34%.
    
  • Epic quality (purple) Valor items sold by all other Mists of Pandaria faction quartermasters no longer have reputation requirements, and will now cost Justice Points instead of Valor.
    
  • Rare quality (blue) items have their Justice Point cost reduced by 75%.
    
  • No changes for items that require an Exalted reputation.
    
• The conversion rate for Justice Points to Honor Points have changed. The conversion rate is now 500 Justice per 250 Honor (up from 375 Justice per 250 Honor).
  
• Equipping any pair of PvP trinkets from Season 12 or later will now grant a 10% reduction in damage taken from other players.
  
• [PTR]: For testing purposes, Flaskataur, Esq. will be available near the Niuzao Temple selling normal Tier-16 armor and Tier-16 trinkets for gold.

[Dakario]

Good change imo

[TrollShaman]

Yessss! this means my warlock bro doesn't have to pay just to server transfer and do arenas with me! Great change imo.

[George Costanza]

wish it was for this season as well .

[Cyzen]

inb4 haters

Great change imo, long overdue, but better late than never.

[mcbubble]

My prediction for Blizzcon 2013: Servers don't matter.
Everything is merged....

[Aerr]

Can alliance que up with horde aswell ?

[Deleted]

Woah... I really like that change :O...

Good Job!

[Nerevar]

I like this change. Will make selling rating even easier.

[OGXanos]

I'm a bit unclear as to how it pans out. Do you HAVE to be in a group to que or does it place you in one? If the latter then it's bad move yet again removing more community. If you still have to find someone to que with, fine seems much more player friendly.

With the removal of teams I just ask one thing. Take the team symbols and move them to choices for guild tabbards.

[Deleted]

Arena ? What is this ?

That thing they use as an excuse every time when they nerf to the ground our classes ?

[Xerfall]

Can you queue as a group?

[Deleted]

I wonder if they will remove teams or just remove the requirement? I personally love being in a team.

[Arbs]

So its a good guess to say, Servers could be removed & replaced with Virtual Realms ?

[Knolan]

YES!!! Now I don't have to keep several chars to play with friends on three different realms.

[Wilhelm137]

I'm a bit unclear as to how it pans out. Do you HAVE to be in a group to que or does it place you in one? If the latter then it's bad move yet again removing more community. If you still have to find someone to que with, fine seems much more player friendly.

With the removal of teams I just ask one thing. Take the team symbols and move them to choices for guild tabbards.

You are still required to be in a group to que, this change only makes it so you can group with whoever you want on whatever server you're on aslong as they are in a group with you.

[Maleficents]

It's a nice change but I wish they'd get to work on revamping the battlegrounds instead of more changes for Arena. The fact Isle of Conquest still has the Alliance exiting the base before the game starts bug, Alterac Valley being awful, Silvershard Mines still grossly favouring the Horde (even in rated battlegrounds) and Warsong Gulch's graveyard camping issues, not to mention premades in random battlegrounds are still issues after so much time surely means it's time to show some attention to them?

[Deleted]

Can alliance que up with horde aswell ?

Don't think so, you can't create a party with mixed factions, not even through RealID or BTag so I don't see why they would allow that in the system.

[Bakis]

So instead to suffer from poor balance we can soon suffer from poor balance with whoever we like.
Cosmetic change of no importance cos balance is all that matters.

[WarTV]

nice changes there.
tho i wonder how rank 1 will work