Unofficial 2.3 Patch Notes

[TeaLeaf]

There are some rocking changes in here for most classes.  My personal favourites:

Priests will all be able to get Fearward from L20.

Mages will have their 'damage tax' on fireballs/frostbolts removed!  


TL.

2.3 Unofficial Patch Notes

Blizzard Posters have been very active on 2.3 changes, therefore a list has been compiled into patch notes which contains all blue posts related to 2.3, we added several additions to this list made by the wow community (we will keep adding new). Let us know in comments if something is missing (all new additions will be mentioned in the latest news updates).


General
•New daily quests targeting a random battleground each day. (UPDATED)
•Healing Reduction effects now affect all Drain spells and abilities (i.e. Mortal Strike vs Drain Life)
•Level 20-60 Quest EXP has been increased, while EXP to Level has been decreased
•New Title - Champion of the Naaru: Awarded to those who complete the Tempest Keep attunement quest at level 70
•New Flying Mount added. Requires 2,000g and Exalted with Cenarion Expedition
•New 10-Man Raid - Zul'Aman, Zul'Aman is complete and now only needs time on the PTR.
•Heroic Badges drop from Zul'aman and Karazhan bosses
•Guild Banks added to the game with patch 2.3
•New Arena Relics have been added for more talent specs, and existing Relics have been renamed to create a more consistent naming convention
•1/3rd of +Healing will count as +Dmg

PvP
•Battlegrounds now have a buff period upon entering, and upon being resurrected at the Spirit Healer (similar to Arenas)
•New Battleground rewards: Boots, Belt, and Bracers


Mages
•10% coefficient tax removed from Improved Fireball and Improved Frostbolt
•New Spell - Ritual of Refreshment: Allows players to pick up food/water (Soulwell like)
•Evocation now restores 15% of your total mana each 2 seconds
•Arcane Meditation increased to 10/20/30% mana regeneration
•Ice Barrier will receive additional benefit from +Dmg
•Ice Barrier gains additional benefit from spell damage bonuses. However, the base absorb values of ranks 5 and 6 have been reduced.

Shamans
•Lightning Overload now has a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to proc
•Lightning Overload damage has been decreased by 50%
•Lightning Overload now causes 0 threat
•Mana Spring Totem now restores mana at a rate of 20 mana every 2 seconds
•Water Shield now costs 0 mana to cast, and the mana per globe has been substantially increased
•Water Shield's duration has been reduced to 1 minute, and grants mana for each globe left upon ending
•Elemental Focus will now reduce the mana cost of your next two damage spells by 40%
•Lightning Bolt casting time reduced to 2.5 seconds, and mana cost decreased
•Chain Lightning casting time reduced to 2 seconds, and mana cost decreased
•Lightning Mastery reduced to .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 seconds
•May equip 2-Handed Axes and 2-Handed Maces without spending talent points
•Frost Shock no longer has Diminishing Returns
•Shamanistic Rage will reduce damage taken by 30% in addition to it's current effects
•Spirit Weapons will reduce melee threat by 30%
•Mental Quickness adds 10/20/30% to +Dmg and +Healing based on your total Attack Power, in addition to it's current effects

Druids
•Cure Poison and Abolish Poison may now be cast in Tree of Life form
•Remove Curse may now be cast in Moonkin form
•Rebirth cooldown reduced to 20 minutes
•Intensity increased to 10/20/30% mana regeneration

Warlocks
•Ritual of Souls has had it's casting time significantly reduced

Warriors
•Weapon Mastery has been changed to reduce the duration of Disarm effects by 25/50% (UPDATED)
•Mace Specialization proc has been reduced
•Mace Specialization Rage increased to 7
•Tactical Mastery now greatly increases threat from Mortal Strike and Bloodthirst while in Defensive Stance
•Devastate now combines the effects of Sunder Armor into it's effect, and is affected by all talents and items that affect Sunder Armor

Priests
•New Dwarf/Draenei ability - Chastise: Causes Holy damage and incapacitates target for 2 seconds (UPDATED)
•Fear Ward will now be available to all Priests at level 20 (UPDATED)
•Fear Ward duration reduced to 3 minutes, and cooldown increased to 3 minutes (UPDATED)
•Power Word: Shield will gain additional benefit from spell damage and healing bonuses. Base absorb values for ranks 10, 11 and 12 have been reduced to compensate for this change.
•Pain Suppresion may target Friendly targets
•Pain Suppresion reduces Friendly target's threat by 5%
•Pain Suppresion reduces Friendly target's damage taken by 40%
•Pain Suppresion cooldown reduced to 2 minutes
•Meditaion increased to 10/20/30% mana regeneration
•Prayer of Healing gains additional benefit from +Dmg and +Healing
•Circle of Healing gains additional benefit from +Dmg and +Healing
•Circle of Healing's base healing has been reduced
•Holy Nova (Healing only) gains additional benefit from +Dmg and +Healing

Paladins
•Exorcism's mana cost has been lowered
•Holy Wrath's mana cost has been lowered
•Hammer of Wrath's mana cost has been lowered
•Vengeance has been increased to 30 seconds
•Improved Seal of the Crusader effect added to base abilitiy
•Improved Seal of the Crusader now gives the effects of Sanctified Crusader
•New Talent - Sanctified Seals: Increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and melee by 1/2/3%, and reduces the chance your Seals can be dispelled by 33/66/100%
•Crusader Strike cooldown is being reduced to 6 seconds

Rogues
•Fleet Footed increased to 15% speed increase
•Deadly Throw travel speed is being significantly increased
•Deadly Throw snare duration is being slightly increased by 1 second
•Deadly Throw no longer triggers Ruthlessness
•Ruthlessness now only affects melee Finishing Moves
•Blind will no longer require a reagent. It will also be changed to a ranged physical attack, will share the same diminish category as Cyclone, and diminish in PvE as well as PvP. It will no longer be considered a poison.
•Shadowstep may now be used while not in stealth
•Shadowstep reduces threat caused by your next Ambush, Garrote, or Backstab by 50%
•Shadowstep cooldown increased to 40 seconds
•Dirty Deeds increases damage of special attacks by 10/20% against targets below 35% health

Hunters
•Wyvern Sting is now instant cast
•Arcane Shot (Rank 6+) will now dispel 1 Magic effect in addition to damage
•Serpent Sting, Immolation Trap, and Explosive Trap gain additional damage based on Ranged Attack Power

Engineering
New Recipe - New Field Repair Bot: Dropped(?) by Gan'arg Analyzers in Blade's Edge Mountains
New Field Repair Bot is able to buy/sell
Flying Mount added for Engineers. Regular and Epic version.

Fishing
Fish Tracking may be learned from a journal, fished from crates
New fish added near Karazhan and Zul'Aman

Cooking
New Daily Quests
New recipes added for fish found near Karazhan and Zul'Aman

Season 3 Arena Information
Weapon Rating - 1850
Shoulder Rating - 2000

Personal Arena Ratings are also being implemented. Full details here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft....=1&sid=1#10

[Sandrion]

That's a lot of good stuff for everyone :yahoo: .

[saori]

That's a lot of good stuff for everyone :yahoo: .

yeah... yeah...
 
Warlocks
•Ritual of Souls has had it's casting time significantly reduced :crying:
 
Blizzard hates us...

[Sandrion]

yeah... yeah...
 
Warlocks
•Ritual of Souls has had it's casting time significantly reduced :crying:
 
Blizzard hates us...

No, they don't hate you; you're already overpowered, there is just nothing left they can buff :narnar: .
 
(Btw, the link at the bottom of the patch notes is broken).

[TeaLeaf]

This is the only bit that worries:

Priests
•Fear Ward duration reduced to 3 minutes, and cooldown increased to 3 minutes (UPDATED)

Now think about how this applies to current encounters.  Is fear every 3 mins?  Do you now need a FW rotation?  How would you get enough FW into a raid in say Karazhan at Nightbane?  Worrying - we need to see further detail.

TL.

[spiritus]

aye TL. that was worrying.. :crying:it scares me.

[Sandrion]

For end game raids it doesn't make much of a difference. You'll always have a Warrior tank; they can stance-dance to become fear immune before the fear goes off using Berserker Rage.
 
Besides the horde has never had the luxury of fear ward, it just made stuff easier. So I'm not too worried about this change.
 
Druid and Pally tanks get locked out of certain fights though. A Tremor totem might help, but that removes fear (after a few seconds) instead of prevent it.
 
Meh ..., they should remove fear altogether, it's a major pain in the butt anyway :narnar: .

[saori]

No, they don't hate you; you're already overpowered, there is just nothing left they can buff :narnar: .

Maybe thet can allow us to wear a little leather armor... i'm tired of wearing robes! lol!!! :roflmao:

[Gorion]

getting a crushing blow while in beserk stance will most definately kill you, also stance dancing when your hp is low is risky
 
it will make everything harder imo

[Sandrion]

You won't get crushed, because shieldblock will remain up while you're going to zerker and back. You will get hit harder, but not all that much, since your armor also absorbs some damage.
 
Here is an example:
Lets say you have 16000 armor with raidbuffs and devotion aura. This gives you a 60.247% damage reduction. The difference in damage reduction between Defensive (+10%) and Beserker (-10%) is (1.10 / 0.9) * 100% - 100% = 22%. 22% seems a lot, but when you take armor into the equation it's only: ((1 - 0.60247) * 0.22) * 100% - 100% = 8.74566%.
 
This 8.8% more incoming damage during only one second (GCD on stance changes), in which shield block is up (while the mob is probably even casting the fearing spell and not hitting you), most likely won't get you killed unless you're already dangerously low on HP. You can even marco it and hit the button right after the mob hits you; you'll probably be back in Defensive stance before you get struck again.
 
I'd be more worried about the tank being to late with popping beserker rage, getting feared and whipeing the raid. This change will require the MT to focus on yet another thing. Fortunately mods like BigWigs announce incoming fears / bellowing roars and the like .
 
I'm not worried about this at all. MT's are generally the most skilled and experienced Warriors a guild has; they should have no problem with this. For us it won't be a problem either, we have you Gorion :flirty: .

[Gorion]

warrs dont have that much armor mate, ime around 45-50 with a wild guess,
 
 
 
you dont remember me tanking nefarion right?  thats good

[Bastet]

16k is a good number for a warrior buffed, you should be able to get that, marduk has that in his PVP gear.

[Sandrion]

warrs dont have that much armor mate, ime around 45-50 with a wild guess,
 
 
 
you dont remember me tanking nefarion right? thats good

16k armor didn't just drop from the sky :flirty: :
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Aszune&n=Gorion.
14943 armor (58.6%DR) + pally aura + MoTW = about 16k (60%DR).
 
I wasn't there when you tanked Neffie, but I have all fate in you m8 :huggy:.

[sheepy]

tanking nef was fun

i still remember my macro

"is it a bird? is it a plane? no its a flying sheep!"

[Nefertem]

I hate stance dancing on Nightbane, but whenever we don't have a dorf with us, thats usually the way we do it.. Also if we only got 1 FW, we sometimes put it on a healer instead..

Haven't killed me going to zerker stance and back, its mainly just the timing that gotta be right.. Once you get the routine and are aware of the DBM/BigWigs warnings, stance dancing should be easy.. Just have to jump back into defensive as soon as bezerker rage is active..