Introduction
The Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands has turned blood red. Hundreds of strange-looking orcs are violently pouring into Azeroth, killing everything that stands in their path. Nethergarde and Okril’lon have already fallen, and while the Horde and the Alliance moved as quickly as they could to get reinforcements to their people, they are too late. The Iron Horde invasion has begun.
In this desperate hour, King Wrynn and Warchief Vol’jin have called upon their greatest champions to join the front lines in the Blasted Lands and do whatever they can to stop the Iron Horde . . . before the rest of Azeroth falls before them.
Prepare yourself. Draenor is waiting.
New Features
New Character Models
- Character models for races from the original game Dwarf, Gnome, Human, Night Elf, Orc, Tauren, Troll, Undead, and Draenei have been overhauled with an increase to fidelity and texture resolution; while retaining the core look and feel of the originals.
- Character animations have been updated to have more personality and now support expressive facial expressions. Emotes are now more emotive!
- Some of the new and improved character models can be viewed on our website.
- Barber Shop now provides additional character facial-customization options.
World Event: Iron Horde Incursion
- The Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands has turned blood red. Hundreds of strange-looking orcs are violently pouring into Azeroth, killing everything that stands in their path. Nethergarde and Okril’lon have already fallen, and while the Horde and the Alliance moved as quickly as they could to get reinforcements to their people, they are too late. The Iron Horde invasion has begun.
- Adventurers looking to dislodge the Iron Horde’s attempts to establish a foothold on Azeroth should visit the Blasted Lands.
- A specially revamped five-player version of Upper Blackrock Spire is available to level-90 characters for a limited time, and sets the stage for the coming counterstrike against the Iron Horde.
Revamped Group Finder/Premade Groups
- Premade Groups is a directory of parties and raids that are looking for more people. You can browse the list of groups or list your own group for others to see. The Premade Groups tab is found in both the Dungeons & Raids and Player vs. Player sections of the now consolidated Group Finder pane.
- For an in-depth explanation of Premade Groups, check out Premade Groups: Looking for Adventure.
Quest Log
- The quest log has been integrated into the world map to make it easier to know where to go and what to do.
- Some quest items no longer take up space in the inventory and can be accessed through the Quest Tracker.
- Quest tracker automatically sorts quests based on proximity when crossing into a new zone.
New Raid Structure
- Each difficulty has its own lockout.
- Dungeon Finder no longer has a tab for queuing into Flexible (now Normal) Raid difficulty.
Boosted Characters
- Newly Boosted Characters now start on the front lines in the Blasted Lands, doing whatever they can to stop the Iron Horde pouring out of The Dark Portal.
Character and Class Changes
Self-Sustainability
Another area of gameplay that we polished is how characters are able to sustain their own health, primarily when frequently killing enemies, such as in solo questing.
- Druid
- Predatory Swiftness now also increases the healing done by Healing Touch by 20%.
- Shaman
- Maelstrom Weapon now also increases the direct healing of affected spells by 10% per application.
Transformation Effects
The Transformation system has been improved. Characters can now be affected by multiple transformation effects at once. While multiple transformation or shapeshift effects are active, only the highest priority one will be visible. This allows transformation effects to persist while shapeshifts are active. Additionally, many restrictions on being transformed have been removed.
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Class Changes
Druid
Ability Consolidation and Refinement
- Thick Hide has been removed and its effects have been incorporated into Bear Form.
- Bear Form now increases armor by 250% for all Druid specializations (down from 330% for Guardian Druids, but up from 120% for non-Guardian Druids), no longer increases Haste and Critical Strike from items by 50%, but instead causes Haste to reduce the global cooldown, increases Stamina by 20% (down from 40%), and reduces magic damage taken by 10% (down from 25%).
Guardian Changes
- Primal Fury now generates 8 Rage (down from 15 Rage) from non-periodic critical strikes (up from only Auto Attacks and Mangle).
Restoration Changes
- Force of Nature Treant's healing now benefits from Mastery.
Hunter
Rotation Depth and Talents
- Dire Beast now restores 2 Focus per hit (down from 5 Focus per hit).
Mage
Talent Revisions
Presence of Mind was extremely strong for instant crowd control (CC), which we wanted to curtail. Rather than completely remove Presence of Mind, we made it a base Arcane spell and added a new talent in its place, Evanesce. At first, it may seem out of place for Evanesce to be on a movement- focused talent row. In practice, it offers Mages the option to remain stationary instead of moving away from avoidable damage.
Frost Changes
- Fingers of Frost now increases Ice Lance damage by 100% (up from 25%).
Arcane Changes
- Arcane Charges now last 15 seconds (up from 10 seconds), and increases mana cost by 100% (down from 150%).
Monk
Mistweaver Changes
- Gift of the Serpent chance to trigger has increased significantly for various Mistweaver spells, conferring a larger percentage of the maximum value.
- Renewing Mist now jumps to the most injured target in range.
Shared Ability Changes
- Chi Brew now has a 60 second recharge time (up from 45 seconds).
- Tiger Strikes is now available to all Monk specializations, and has a chance to trigger on successful auto attacks and their Multistrikes. It has a 10% chance to trigger while using a two-handed weapon, and a 5% chance to trigger while dual wielding.
Priest
Ability Consolidation and Refinement
- Power Word: Solace now restores 2% mana (up from 1%).
Rogue
Ability Consolidation and Refinement
- Assassin’s Resolve now increases damage by 10% (down from 20%).
Area-of-Effect Attacks (Assassination, Combat)
- Blade Flurry can now trigger poisons, and now deals 30% damage (down from 40%).
Warlock
Ability Consolidation and Refinement
- Nightfall’s effects have been merged into baseline Corruption for Affliction Warlocks and now has a 6% chance to trigger (down from 10%).
Warrior
Ability Pruning
- Colossus Smash is now available only to Arms Warriors.
Ability Consolidation and Refinement
- Charge no longer generates Rage when charging against a non-player target multiple times in a row. Charge will still always generate Rage when used against other players.
Arms Changes
- Mastery: Weapons Master increases the damage of Colossus Smash, Mortal Strike, and Execute abilities by 28% (increasing with Mastery).
- Whirlwind now costs 20 Rage for Arms Warriors.
Talent Changes
- Staggering Shout has been removed and replaced with 3 new talents that vary by specialization.
- Arms: Taste for Blood: Each time Rend deals damage, gain 3 Rage.
- Fury: Furious Strikes: Wild Strike costs 25 less Rage.
- Protection: Heavy Repercussions: Shield Slam deals 30% additional damage while Shield Block or Shield Charge is active.
- Disrupting Shout has been removed and replaced with 3 new talents that vary by specialization.
- Arms: Slam: Slam an opponent, causing 100% weapon damage. Each consecutive use of Slam increases the damage dealt by 50% and Rage cost by 100%. Requires Battle Stance.
- Fury: Unquenchable Thirst: Bloodthirst no longer has a cooldown.
- Protection: Unyielding Strikes: Devastate reduces the cost of Heroic Strike by 5 Rage for 5 seconds, stacking up to 6 times. Once this effect reaches 6 applications, its duration will no longer refresh.
Fury Changes
To better separate the playstyles between Fury and Arms Warriors, we’ve made several significant changes to Fury Warriors and make them a better fit for the specialization's theme: a relentless, bloodthirsty berserker. In particular, Colossus Smash and Heroic Strike was removed, since those abilities resulted in gameplay that was the complete opposite of that intended style. Wild Strike was modified to fill the role of a quick excess Rage dump. We also felt that auto attack damage had become too high and moved some of that damage into Execute. Execute has been changed to now deal damage based on Weapon Damage instead of just Attack Power. Finally, we've updated some to spell alerts to improve usability.
Additional Changes
World Environment
- Nighttime environments for some areas received lighting adjustments to make them more night like.
- Cross-realm zones have been enabled for the continent of Pandaria.
- Classic starting areas (Levels 1-10) received a number of improvements to the tutorial, quests, and creature/NPC tuning to provide a smoother starting experience.
Isle of Thunder
- Troves of the Thunder King has been retired and associated achievements have been converted into Feats of Strength.
- Key to the Palace of Lei Shen has been removed. Elder Charm of Good Fortune will now drop in place of the key.
Quests
- Warforged Seals is no longer a weekly quest. Players can now redeem as many Warforged Seals as they have Lesser Charms of Good Fortune for!
- Warlocks that have successfully completed Infiltrating the Black Temple by defeating Kanrethad Ebonlocke before patch 6.0.2 will receive a special title.
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Valor and Justice Point Removal
- Valor Points and Justice Points have been removed.
- Most items that formerly had a Valor and Justice Point cost now cost gold instead.
- Valor and Justice Points remaining on a character will be converted into gold at a rate of 47 silver per point.
Personal Loot for Raids
- Support for personal loot mode has expanded to other Raid difficulties (Normal, Heroic, and Mythic) on Siege of Orgrimmar and in future Raids.
- Loot is no longer automatically deposited to the player’s inventory after defeating a boss in personal loot mode. Players eligible to receive loot should now be able to loot the boss to see what they received.
- Note: Siege of Origrimmar on Raid Finder difficulty uses the new personal loot system. Players should now loot the boss or a chest that spawns after defeating them.
- Raid Leaders can now elect to use Personal loot mode for their Raid under Loot Options.
- In the event a character that’s eligible but was unable to loot the boss, contents of what they would have received is automatically mailed to the them.
Dungeons
- Completing random normal difficulty dungeons via Dungeon Finder in Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, and Mists of Pandaria now awards a Satchel of Helpful Goods.
Challenge Mode
- This Challenge Mode season for Mists of Pandaria has come to an end. A new set of Challenge Mode dungeons will be available with the release of Warlords of Draenor!
- Achievements associated with Mists of Pandaria Challenge Mode have been converted into Feats of Strength.
- Bronze Medal Holders: The “Undaunted” title awarded for completing every Challenge Mode dungeon with a rating of Bronze or better is now account-wide.
- Silver Medal Holders: Characters that have completed every Challenge Mode dungeon with a rating of Silver or better now has access to all four Pandaren Phoenix variants (Crimson, Ashen, Emerald, and Violet), and the mounts are also account-wide.
- Gold Medal Holders
- Cosmetic armor sets for each class remains character-specific. Characters that have earned all nine Gold medals will continue to be able to repurchase the appropriate set from Challenger Soong or Challenger Wuli in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
- Characters that have earned one or more “Challenger’s Path” teleport spells by earning Gold medals in Mists of Pandaria Challenge Modes will retain those spells.
- Realm Best Titles held by the players who had the best clear time for a given dungeon on a given server have been removed and will receive a new title of Mistwalker to commemorate the acomplishment. There will be new titles to contend for in Warlords of Draenor.
Battlegrounds and Arenas
Battlegrounds
- Battleground brackets have been restructured to be every 10 levels instead of every 5 levels (10-19, 20-29, 30-39, etc.). Players will still have their effective character level increased to the maximum level for that bracket.
- Flag carriers in Eye of the Storm and Deepwind Gorge are now subject to the Focused Assault and Brutal Assault debuff.
- Focused Assault is a stacking debuff that increases damage taken by 10% per stack with a new stack being applied every 30 seconds after all flags have been picked up from their bases. Upon reaching 5 stacks, Focused Assault turns into Brutal Assault.
- Brutal Assault is a stacking debuff that increases damage taken by 10% per stack and limits the character to normal running speed. A new stack is applied every 30 seconds with a limit of 15 stacks.
Arenas
- Arena Skirmishes have been reintroduced and are now available for players that want to test their mettle against other Arena teams in an unranked environment. Honor Points are awarded to the winning team of an Arena Skirmish match.
- Dampening is now applied to an Arena match starting at the 5 minute mark for all Arena matches.
Items
- Removed class restrictions from weapons, off-hand items, and shields found in Dragon Soul in Raid Finder difficulty.
- Class Tier armor set bonuses have been modified to adjust for ability pruning and consolidation.
- Restored Artifacts sold by Spirit of Harmony Vendors now costs 3 Spirit of Harmony (up from 1).
- Argent Crusade, Ebon Blade, Kirin Tor, Sons of Hodir, and Wyrmrest Commendation Badges are no longer sold.
Black Market Auction House
- Duration for auctions on the Black Market Auction House has been slightly reduced. Bids made on items with less than 5 minutes remaining will continue to extend the duration of the auction.
UI
- Added a What’s New screen (also accessible through the Game Menu -> What’s New) with a brief summary of new features, highlights, and content that has been added.
- Dungeon Journal has been updated with new information on Warlords content.
- Added a tab for graphic settings that are applied while in a Raid or Battleground.
- Outline Mode is a new setting that places an outline around important NPCs and objects without having to look at nameplates or tooltips.
- Key Bindings are now grouped by category for ease of navigation.
- Added an option to toggle floating combat text for pet battles.
- Added an option to display a number for time remaining on ability cooldowns.
- Improved weapon comparison tooltips to make it easier to compare between 2-handed and 1-handed weapon setups.
- Add-ons can now be managed without logging to the character selection screen.
Guilds
- Guilds no longer have levels. All guilds have access to a standard set of bonuses and abilities on creation.
Recent Blue Posts
Limited PvP -> PvE Free Character Transfers
Feedback: Hunter Updates
Every Allied Race should be removed... except two
Legacy Raids
MMO-Champion
Recent Forum Posts
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