4.0.3 General Discussion

[Dr Drae]

Didn't see one up. Thought it would be cool to see what people thought of the world, torn asunder by a big f-cking dragon.

I haven't really played too much to be honest, but I like the look of Orgrimmar, I like how mages have now become EVERYONE'S utility belt. ;D Very fond of the new login screen..

Basically anything good or bad you want to share.

Personally, I'm hopeful I'm gonna really get to see these newly changed lands soon, as I'll probably be levelling another alt with Daerthe. ^_^

So yus. FEEDBACK.

 

[Xylak]

Managed to squeeze about half an hour in earlier.
Initial impressions were... oooh! Agree with Drae about loading screens, very nice.

Orgrimmar looks pretty good and I really like the inside of buildings, they look much more alive. More npc's going about their business too.
A quick trip to the scar in the Barrens... lawks! That's a big hole right there.

It's going to take some used to a different layout of familiar places but, hey, it'll be fun and frustrating at the same time

I am. however, spectacularly unimpressed with the way they have changed the quest achievements as I have virtually no completed quests in most vanilla content now. I was (slowly) working towards Loremaster and now it looks like I'm going to have to do pretty much all of it again. Nice that they've split it into regions (a-la Northrend) but WTF! I did loads more! Grrr.

Although... I did find one low level quest right outside Orgrimmar that was interesting. You get told a story while kind of being "part" of it.

Lots to see and do before the full expansion, that's for sure.

 

[AcidK]

Did a few hours as a Troll Druid, mainly to see how Troll starting point, storylines, etc have panned out. It looks awesome, very fun and immersive and even the once-boring Orc starter quests in Razorhill have been pepped up a bit to be more interesting. Also, troll cat form look SWEE-EET! Also liked how the regions have changed and split a bit to be more visual friendly and to make it at least feel the same layout as outland/northrend, map-wise.

 

[Corenith]

Orgrimmar - I love the new look and layout, and as Xylak said it just seems busy now with random npcs walking in and out of buildings.

New (Old) World - I was also working my way towards Loremaster and Seeker, and now only Ghostlands still has a decent number of quests completed. Also Seeker now has approx 1000 quests to go *sigh* I'll be waiting until I can fly in Cata to go back and work on these.

Troll druids - I created a troll druid on another server and got up to level 10. Im seriously considering re-rolling my tauren druid. Troll Cat and Bear forms look incredible, with their many colours of 'punk-like' hair

Also, something I learned recently is that in cata no matter where in the world you log out your character it will gain rested xp. No more trekking back to an inn. Woot!

 

[Angelic]

Orgrimmar looks friggin BEAUTIFUL. Not seen much of the Old World yet (cba to just run around pointlessly), but what I´ve seen (Tirisfal Glades, Brill, Silverpine, Sepulcher and Gilneas city/zone) looks really cute too. The graphics changes a LOT, way towards a more cartoony feeling. I think that´s a good thing, actually...

As for new class/race combos... Seen my first tauren paladin. Man, did it feel wrong! I dont know, it´ll just take some getting used to Plus, the AW wings look ridiculously small on male tauren

My biggest problem now is that I want to get a feel of the new zones and quests, revamped Azeroth and everything. Obviously the best way to do that would be to level a new char (preferrably of a new race/class combo), but the only class I dont have above 67 yet is a rogue and let´s face it, until they implement tauren rogues that class holds little appeal to me So, yeah, I will probably either have 2 chars of the same class or delete an odd 70s char and start over, I dont know anyone else have this problem?

 

[Silk]

I'm starting a goblin shaman!

New(old) world looks good so far, only seen a bit of durotar and Org, which is much improved. I'm a bit miffed with how our new "leader" is acting a total a$$ though (do the troll starting zone to see what I mean).

I mean it makes no sense Lore-wise, not that I'm a massive Lore devotee but even I know Thrall, being super-wise, wouldn't let some arrogant, power hungry idiot come in and wreck the relations he worked so hard to build.

 

[thatbloke]

I played for an hour and a half last night till my PC died (note to self: stop playing flash videos on the other monitor when playing a graphically intensive game) and got on my trusty Orgrimmar wolf and started exploring.

One thing I should mention: the map now shows where all the flight points are, and there are A LOT of new ones.

I started in Org, then went through Azshara (where the Horde have made massive assaults against the Alliance - go take a look!). There are 2 new (Horde) FPs in Azshara. I then went through Felwood, and Felwood has massively changed... Bloodvenom post is... different. As well as the one at the bottom there are now 3 other FPs (2 neutral) in felwood, and the Goblins have moved into the northern area.

Moonglade seems to have changed a bit, Nighthaven seems... bigger, though that may be just me and it may be because the map shows more. btw the FP in nighthaven is for dr00ds only

Winterspring then seems to have not changed at all... which was slightly strange, with it being so close to other areas that changed. But from there I went to Azshara, and OMG. Rocket. Propelled. Transport. System. Need I say more?

 

[Elincia]

There are alot of things I like.
But what I like most is that npcs talk with each other and the lands are filled with creatures. Found wild horses and fawns in hillsbrad and seagulls around the sea. The areas seem a lot more alive now Also more critters

 

[Windzarko]

I might be a little bit in love with this patch.

New Orgrimmar is winsome, new Echo Isles is rawrsome, and most everywhere else that's changed that I've seen so far is insert-positive-word-here-some.

 

[SwampFae]

I might be a little bit in love with this patch.

New Orgrimmar is winsome, new Echo Isles is rawrsome, and most everywhere else that's changed that I've seen so far is insert-positive-word-here-some.

Do not be alarmed! But I agree with this. They have finally brought back so many of the things they promised and never got around to. Plus they added a world of new stuff. Sat through all of my online time on WoW yesterday, almost bouncing. IT IS SO AWESOME!
And the new music. Oh gawd, the music is awesome. Makes me feel like I'm sitting with WC II/III again (An example: Listen to the music down by the cove in Tanaris )
They HEXed the textures at long last, fixed specular effects on ligting and shading has been improved. So now we who are unable to run Sunshafts function can enjoy the shinynes as well
And they added some new critters as well. Like the rattle snake, stripe-tailed scorpion and cute little moths
For the first time, I can actually say that I am genually excited about -everything- they added to the world(I suppose the loss of the chain quest NPC in Tanaris was really worth it. Blizz are forgiven on that part )
This.Patch.RAWKS

Oh yes. And they fixed Goblins! Reskinned and fixed the models and re-recorded the VO for them, wewt!

 

[Dr Drae]

Heh. This has to be one of the first Blizzard updates that I've seen so much positivity for.

I do agree with the loremaster stuffs thought. I think that taking those quests away is kind of stupid. It would've been better to insert a feat of strength for reaching so many quests, that could only be achieved if you'd completed a certain number of quests before patch. I dunno. Probably a lot wrong with that.

The brilliant thing is that people haven't even mentioned any possibly nerfs etc. Okay, the warlock one has been brought up, but that everybody is so happy with the new content is pretty awesome.

I'm really excited about levelling an alt, which is wierd for me. I love the new profession/class/AH's in relevant cities. And Orgrimmar is a lot more exciting tbh. It feels more like the 'refuge' that it's become from the destruction.

 

[Skcornnelg]

I agree with everyone so far about this patch. I love how everything seems so new and shiny, makes me feel like I started playing all over again.

Org is phenomenal. They really put in the work and it shows. Spent most of my time yesterday having a look around and getting familiar with the layout. Love it.

There are a few things I found strange.
I have the Loremaster pre-4.03a and I have been able to keep it but because there are so many new quests I have the opportunity to go to nearly all the original zones and complete the achievement for that zone.
I did a few quests in Northern Barrens with some Goblins that have 'The Bilgewater Cartel' tag but completing these quests rewards me with Steamwheedle Cartel rep. Odd.
There are a couple of new Paladin quests which reward you with a weapon and a T-1 lookalike helm. One of them also rewards you with the Blood Knight Tabard, which I have. I completed the quest and got the tabard, so I have 2!

One Holy Paladin change I really like so far is that 'Light of Dawn' consumes Holy Power now instead of being on a cooldown.

TL;DR - Me likey the patchy

 

[thatbloke]

I would like to echo what Fae said about the music - I turned it on to see if anything had changed and YES IT HAS.

If you usually play with music disabled, enable it for a while and enjoy.

On question I do have, however - my guess is that some of the quests you complete are going to cause certain areas to become phased. To get to the "latest" phased areas, am I going to have to do ALL the quests EVERYWHERE?

(though with the changes to everything, I don't necessarily consider it a bad thing )

 

[Elincia]

I would like to echo what Fae said about the music - I turned it on to see if anything had changed and YES IT HAS.

Yeah, the music seems great everywhere I have been so far.

 

[AcidK]

Friend's first response to Org when we flew in via taxi mounts:

They made Org much smaller

Friend's response after seeing over the eldge to the rest of org:

HOLY CRAP thats awesome!

 

[Gombol]

Does look much shinier. Can someone post acual patchnotes? All I seem to find is PTR ones..

 

[SwampFae]

Does look much shinier. Can someone post acual patchnotes? All I seem to find is PTR ones..

Contents:
I. Dev Patch Notes
II. Latest notes

I. Dev patch Notes:​

Patch 4.0.3a
The Shattering of Azeroth In the frigid wastes of Northrend, the final battle against the merciless Lich King ended in victory for Azeroth's defenders. Upon returning home, veterans of the unforgiving conflict against the Scourge were showered with praise for their valiant sacrifices, while the honorable dead were mourned. Yet as hope flared anew in the wake of the Lich King's fall, Azeroth's native elemental spirits grew confused and erratic, setting off a series of deadly natural disasters. Horde and Alliance leaders scrambled for clues about the troubling state of the world, but nothing could have prepared them for what was to come.

Without warning, the corrupted Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, erupted from the stone heart of Deepholm, the domain of earth within the Elemental Plane. Jagged fissures were torn across the earth, and monstrous waves pummeled coastal regions. From Thousand Needles to the Blasted Lands, the surface of Azeroth was reforged through violent upheavals. Now, the Horde and the Alliance must defend their homes against Deathwing and his minions, burdened by the unsettling fact that the world as they know it has changed... forever.

General
Azeroth Shattered
Deathwing's return has had an immeasurable impact throughout the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Players will notice drastically altered terrain, thousands of new quests from levels 1-60, and updated level ranges for some zones to improve the questing flow.

New Race/Class Combinations

• In the wake of a world on the brink of destruction, members of the Horde and Alliance have taken to new cultures and studies, mastering crafts previously foreign to them. Many existing playable races now have new class combinations. Check the official World of Warcraft: Cataclysm website for a breakdown of the new combinations.
• The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm cinematic trailer and login screen have been added to the game.
• Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 has been reduced by 20%, which increases leveling rate by 25%.
• Many quests in zones on Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor have been removed from the game to make way for new adventures. These quests have been automatically removed from players' Quest Logs.

Classes: General

• Due to several talent revisions for select classes, druids, paladins, priests, and shaman have had their talent trees reset.
• The damage and healing done by players from levels 1-79 has been retuned, with the base points of almost all spells and abilities reduced. This was done to bring combat times at low levels to a more reasonable length. For most abilities that deal weapon damage, the weapon damage percent now rises per level until level 80, and starts at a lower percent.
• Healing Rain, Efflorescence, Holy Radiance, Holy Word: Sanctuary now have a diminished effect when healing more than 6 players at once.
• Mortal Strike, Furious Attacks, Wound Poison, Widow Venom, Permafrost, Improved Mind Blast, Monstrous Bite, and Legion Strike now reduce healing by 10%, down from 25%.
• Effects which are broken from taking too much damage (Fear, Frost Nova, Entangling Roots, etc.) now break automatically from about half as much damage taken as before.

Death Knights

• Death Pact now heals for 25% of maximum health, down from 40%.
• Death Strike now heals for 25% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds, down from 30%, and will heal for a minimum of 7% of maximum health, down from 10%. The tooltip may not yet be updated to reflect this change.
• Icebound Fortitude now provides 20% damage reduction, down from 30% (now 50%, down from 60% when talented), and has a 3-minute cooldown, up from 2 minutes.

Talent Specializations
Blood:

Rune Tap now heals for 10% of maximum health, down from 15%. The tooltip may not yet be updated to reflect this change.​

Glyphs

• Glyph of Rune Tap now heals for 5% of maximum health, down from 10%.
• Bug Fixes
• Frost Fever critical strikes now apply the correct amount of bonus damage.
• Horn of Winter will once again provide runic power when used while another Attack Power buff is already present on the death knight.

Druids

• Bear Form now provides 10% bonus health, down from 20%.
• Nourish no longer consumes Omen of Clarity.
• Rejuvenation has had its mana cost increased by 30%.
• Soothe now has a 1.5-second cast time.
• Swipe (Cat Form) can now be used even if the druid does not have a primary target selected.
• Thorns: beginner tooltip revised to no longer imply the spell could be kept up at all times. In addition, Thorns damage has been reduced by 60%.

Talent Specializations
Balance:

• PvP set bonus redesigned. While not in an Eclipse state, critical attacks against the druid restore 5 Solar or 7 Lunar energy, whichever is more beneficial. This effect can only occur once every 6 seconds.

Feral:

• Brutal Impact now increases the mana cost of spells on the victim by 5/10% for 10 seconds, down from 15/30%.
• Leader of the Pack now heals for 4%, down from 8%.
• Survival Instincts now provides 50% damage reduction, down from 60%, and its cooldown has been lowered from 5 minutes to 3 minutes.
• Swipe (Bear Form) damage has been reduced by 20%.
• Vengeance is no longer cleared on exiting Bear Form, and instead is cleared upon entering Cat Form.

Restoration:

• Empowered Touch now procs from Healing Touch as well as Nourish.
• Heart of the Wild: the Bear Form Stamina bonus from this talent is now 2/4/6%, down from 3/7/10%.
• Malfurion's Gift no longer has Fury of Stormrage as a prerequisite talent.
• Natural Shapeshifter now also increases Tree of Life duration by 5/10 seconds.
• Revitalize is now a 2-point talent, down from 3. It provides a 20% chance to return 1/2% of the druid's total mana on periodic heals from Lifebloom or Rejuvenation. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12 seconds.
• Swift Rejuvenation is now a 1-point talent, down from 2. The global cooldown reduction this talent provides to Rejuvenation remains 0.5 seconds.
• Symbiosis: heal-over-time spells (Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom) can no longer benefit from this Mastery merely by refreshing themselves. A different heal-over-time spell must be present.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Healing Touch now reduces the cooldown on Nature's Swiftness by 10 seconds after using Healing Touch, up from 5 seconds.
• Glyph of the Treant (new) allows druids to keep the original treant Tree of Life look... if they must. Must they?

Bug Fixes

• Blood in the Water now refreshes Rip to the correct value.
• Flight Form now properly appears in the trainer window before Expert Riding is learned.

Hunters:

• All special attacks based on weapon damage (except Scattershot) are now normalized.
• Scare Beast is now available at level 36, up from level 14, and has had its training cost updated.
• Deterrence is now available at level 78, up from level 36, and has had its training cost updated.
• Disengage is now available at level 14, down from level 78, and has had its training cost updated.

Glyphs

• The level requirements for glyphs that affect Scare Beast, Deterrence, and Disengage have been altered to correspond with the level changes of these abilities.

Bug Fixes

• The Core Hound pet ability Ancient Hysteria now places its own unique debuff on affected players that has the same effect as Sated and Exhaustion.
• Certain pets should no longer forget how to Dash.

Mages

• Arcane Blast now increases damage of the next Arcane Blast by 10% per stack, down from 20%, reduces cast time by 0.1 seconds per stack, and increases the mana cost by 150%, down from 175%. In addition, the base cast time of Arcane Blast has been lowered to 2.35 seconds.
• Arcane Explosion now costs 15% of base mana, down from 18%.
• Arcane Missiles damage has been increased by 5%.
• PvP set 4-piece bonus changed to increase damage by 5% instead of providing 5% Haste.

Talent Specializations
Arcane:

• Arcane Barrage damage has been increased by 5% and its cooldown is now 4 seconds, down from 5 seconds.
• Arcane Concentration: Now has a much higher chance (13/27/40%) of entering a Clearcasting state. This effect cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds. The tooltip still states that there is a 3/6/10% chance, as it averages out to approximately the same chance with the internal cooldown applied.
• Arcane Specialization again increases arcane damage by 25%.

Fire:

• Blazing Speed no longer dispels movement slowing effects (it still dispels effects that totally stop movement).
• Fire Specialization again increases periodic fire damage effects by 25%.
• Molten Shields now also causes Blazing Speed to dispel movement slowing effects in addition to its current functionality.
• Pyroblast base mana cost is now 17%, down from 22%.

Frost:

• Deep Freeze: the cooldown on this ability is no longer reduced by Haste.
• Early Frost now reduces Frostbolt cast time by 0.3/0.6 seconds, down from 0.35/0.70 seconds.
• Fingers of Frost proc chance is now 7/14/20%, down from 10/20/30%.
• Frost Specialization again increases all damage against frozen target by 25%.
• Reactive Barrier is now triggered by any damage which causes the mage's health to be below 50%, even if the mage was already below 50%.
• Shatter now also increases Frostbolt damage by 10/20% against frozen targets.
• Shattered Barrier duration is now 2/4 seconds, down from 3/6 seconds.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Evocation now heals for 40%, down from 60%.
• Glyph of Deep Freeze now increases damage done by Deep Freeze by 20% (no longer increases Frostbolt damage against Deep Frozen targets).

Bug Fixes:

• Improved Polymorph now correctly shares diminishing returns with controlled stuns.

Paladins

• Exorcism damage has been increased by approximately 50%.
• Holy Radiance now has reduced effectiveness on targets over 8 yards away from the paladin.
• Seal of Truth: periodic damage from Censure reduced by 25%.

Talent Specializations
Holy:

• Beacon of Light now lasts 5 minutes, up from 60 seconds.
• Blessed Life: the effects of this talent cannot occur more than once every 8 seconds, up from every 2 seconds.
• Illuminated Healing absorb shield now absorbs 10% of the total amount healed, up from 8%. Each point of Mastery increases the effect by an additional 1.25%, up from 1%.
• Light of dawn has been redesigned. It no longer has an enforced cooldown, now costs Holy Power instead of mana, and scale in direct proportion to the amount of Holy Power used. In addition, it now heals the 5 most injured group targets (including self) in a 30-yard frontal cone.
• Protector of the Innocent no longer triggers from self-heals.

Protection:

• Divine Bulwark now grants 2.25% less block chance per point of Mastery, up from 2%.
• Holy shield no longer increases chance to block. Instead, it increases the amount blocked by an additional 10%, for a total of 40% damage blocked.
• Shield of the Righteous: Contribution of attack power halved (now 60% with full Holy Power) and base damage brought up so that a level 85 paladin in Heroic dungeon gear deals the same damage with no Vengeance, but Vengeance has less impact.
• Shield of the Templar now reduces the cooldown of Guardian of Ancient Kings by 40/80/120 seconds, down from 1/2/3 minutes.
• Wrath of the Lightbringer now increases Crusader Strike and Judgement damage by 50/100%, up from 30/60%.

Retribution:

• Crusade now also has a proc on kill to increase the healing done by the paladin's next Holy Light by 100/200/300% for 15 seconds, in addition to its current effects.
• Divine Storm: This ability has been redesigned. It no longer consumes Holy Power and instead costs 5% of base mana. It shares a cooldown with Crusader Strike and hits all nearby enemies for 60% weapon damage.
• Pursuit of Justice now has an 8-second internal cooldown, shared with Blessed Life.
• Rebuke no longer initiates Auto Attack.
• Sanctity of Battle now also causes Divine Storm's cooldown to be reduced by Haste effects.
• Zealotry no longer consumes 3 Holy Power, but still requires 3 Holy Power to use.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Beacon of Light now makes Beacon of Light free, instead of increasing the duration by 30 seconds.
• Glyph of Divinity has been redesigned. It now grants the paladin 10% of maximum mana upon use.
• Glyph of Light of Dawn now increases the total number of most injured targets healed by 1.

Priests

• Binding Heal now provides roughly double the amount of healing.
• Prayer of Healing has had its mana cost reduced by nearly 30%, and its base points and Spell Power coefficient increased by 20%.

Talent Specializations
Discipline:

• Divine Aegis is now always triggered by Prayer of Healing, in addition to critical heals from all other spells.
• Grace has been increased to 4/8% stacking 3 times, up from 2/4% stacking.
• Inner Focus now works with Binding Heal, but no longer works with Heal.
• Power Word: Barrier has been redesigned. It no longer acts as a shared absorb shield. Instead, all affected friendly targets take 30% reduced damage for the duration of the shield, which is now 10 seconds, down from 25 seconds.

Shadow:

• Shadow Orbs: redesigned slightly. The Shadow Orbs continue to increase damage done by Mind Blast and Mind Spike and stack up to 3 times, but now when the priest casts Mind Blast or Mind Spike (consuming the orbs), the priest gains a 15-second duration buff (Empowered Shadow), which increases the damage done by all Shadow periodic spells. Empowered Shadow does not stack. Mastery increases the damage bonus of Shadow Orbs and Empowered Shadow by the same amount, 10% with the base 8 Mastery, and an additional 1.25% per Mastery.
• Vampiric Embrace healing to the caster has been reduced to 6%, down from 12% (there was a tooltip error which stated that the self-healing amount was 15%). Party members still receive 3% healing.

Bug Fixes

• Dark Archangel now correctly increases the damage done of certain abilities by 4%.

Rogues

• Deadly Poison base damage and attack power coefficient have been increased by 30%.
• Recuperate now restores 2% of maximum health, down from 3%.
• Venomous Wounds base damage and attack power coefficient have been increased by 30%.

Talent Specializations
Combat:

• Aggression now increases damage of Sinister Strike, Backstab, and Eviscerate by 7/14/20%, up from 5/10/15%.
• Bandit's Guile now gives 10/20/30% increased damage as the rogue gains greater insight, up from 5/10/15%.

Subtlety:

• Executioner no longer affects Recuperate.

Bug Fixes

• Bandit's Guile now applies more consistently to all of the abilities it's supposed to modify.
• Player guardians and temporary pets now stop attacking when a rogue uses Vanish, but city guards will not.

Shaman

• Chain Heal mana cost increased from 17% to 20% of base mana.
• Earthliving Weapon now only has 25% of its full chance to proc from a single hop of Chain Heal.
• Talent Specializations
• Elemental
• Elemental Reach now also increases Searing Totem range by 7/15 yards.
• Fulmination now has a Spell Alert visual associated with it, which appears when the shaman gets to 9 Lightning Shield charges.

Warlock

• Bane of Agony damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Bane of Doom damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Corruption damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Death Coil damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Drain Life damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Drain Soul damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Immolate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Incinerate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Rain of Fire damage has been increased to be more comparable to other area-of-effect abilities.
• Searing Pain damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Seed of Corruption damage has been reduced to be more comparable to other area-of-effect abilities.
• Shadowbolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Soul Fire damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Talent Specializations
Demonology:

• Hand of Gul'dan damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Destruction
• Chaos Bolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Conflagrate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Shadowburn damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Bug Fixes
Drain Life:

• The Soulburn version of this was charging 17% of base mana instead of 12% like the normal version. This has been corrected.

Warriors

• Cleave damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
• Execute damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
• Heroic Strike damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
• Overpower now does 125% weapon damage, down from 150%.
• Rend base damage has been reduced by approximately 17% and percent of weapon damage per tick lowered to 25%, from 30%.
• Shield Block now only increases block chance by 25%, but excess block that pushes avoidance plus block to over 100% is now converted to critical block chance.
• Slam now costs 15 rage, down from 20, and now does 125% weapon damage, down from 150%.
• Victory Rush damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
• Whirlwind now does 65% weapon damage, down from 75%.

Talent Specializations
Arms:

• Mortal Strike now does 150% weapon damage, down from 185%.
• Second Wind now heals for 2/5% of total health, down from 5/10%.
• Strikes of Opportunity now does 100% weapon damage, down from 115%.

Fury

• Blood Craze now heals for 1/2/3% of total health, down from 2.5/5/7.5%.
• Bloodthirst damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
• Raging Blow now does 110% weapon damage, down from 150%.
• Unshackled Fury now gains approximately 50% more benefit per point of Mastery.

Protection:

• Critical Block now grants an equal amount of block chance and critical block chance (1.5% each per point of Mastery).
• Devastate no longer provides bonus threat.

Shield Slam:

• Contribution of attack power reduced to 60%, down from 75%, and base damage brought up so that a level 85 warrior in Heroic dungeon gear deals the same damage with no Vengeance, but Vengeance has less impact. In addition, Shield Slam no longer generates 30% bonus threat from its damage.
• Vigilance no longer provides 3% damage reduction, but still refreshes Taunt and provides Vengeance.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Bloody Healing increases the healing received from Bloodthirst by 40%, down from 100%.
• Glyph of Intimidating Shout no longer causes targets to flee slowly, but roots them instead.
• Glyph of Shield Wall increases damage reduction to 60%, but increases the cooldown from 2 minutes to 4 minutes (talented).

Bug Fixes

• Taste for Blood should once again proc on every other tick of Rend.

Achievements:

• The Gladiator reward mounts now award Master Riding.
• What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been now awards Master Riding.

Items:

• Mysterious Egg now takes only 3 days to turn into a Cracked Egg and has a slightly greater chance of awarding the Reins of the Green Proto-Drake.
• PvP set bonuses now provide 70 of stats such as Agility, Intellect, and Strength (down from 100) at 2 pieces, and 180 of these stats (down from 300) at 4 pieces.

Professions:
Perfect Gem Cutting and Mixology have been removed as trainable skills and are instead passives profession abilities. When players reach the appropriate skill levels, they will start getting bonuses from Mixology (they must know the recipe to gain the benefit) and/or cutting perfect gems (depending on their profession, of course).

Alchemy:

• Alchemy recipes now require Crystal Vials. Deathwing broke all the others because he's mean (or because he didn't want alchemists to carry 5 different vials around with them).

Engineering:

• The Engineering Tinkering enchants will no longer provide their bonus stats, but the activated effects will stack with other enchants. In 4.0.1 the stats were there (but hidden) and are now removed.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Several epic gem transmutes that were missing from the trainer have been added back.

Bug Fixes

• Certain area-of-effect abilities are no longer ignoring the area-of-effect damage cap.
• Mobs and NPCs should no longer appear to randomly gain or lose health during combat.
• Re-summoning pets in Battlegrounds should no longer count towards a player's total healing done.

Known Issues:

• Some tooltips may not reflect the most recent changes to certain abilities.
• Worgen hunters are currently unable to learn Dual Wield.
• The achievement Explore Tol Barad will not be possible to complete upon release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

II. Latest notes:​

Here you will find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the release of patch 4.0.3a. While many have already been deployed on all realms, some may not be implemented until the next time your realm is restarted. We will continue to update this thread in the days ahead as additional hotfixes are applied.

November 23

• Alterac Valley, Isle of Conquest, and Strand of the Ancients should no longer attempt to place players in a level 80-84 bracket.
• Players should no longer be disconnected from a realm when attempting to take an item out of the mail which has been marked for deletion.
• The title "Champion of [guildname]" can no longer be improperly awarded to players.
• The amount of gold received when converting Battleground Marks of Honor above the honor cap has been reduced to the intended amount.

Classes
Druid

• The damage done by the following abilities has been reduced by approximately 17%: Mangle (Bear), Maul, Lacerate, Pulverize, Swipe (Bear), Thrash.

Hunter

• A second pet can no longer be summoned when the active pet is dead.

Mage

• Arcane Concentration will not go on internal cooldown when it fails to proc.
• The damage from Deep Freeze on stun-immune targets is now properly benefitting from Frostburn, including when increased by Mastery Rating on gear.
• Frostfire Orb now correctly triggers Ignite on critical hits.
• Pyroblast! made available by Hot Streak will no longer consume Clearcasting.
• When Scorch is cast by a mage who has Improved Scorch Rank 2, it will no longer consume Clearcasting.
• Shatter now only increases the chance for Molten Armor's damage to be a critical strike when the target is actually frozen, as intended.

Paladin

• Glyph of Light of Dawn no longer incorrectly reduces the healing of Light of Dawn.

Priest

• Prayer of Healing is now properly healing all of the target's party members, unless they are further than 30 yards away.
• Twisted Faith no longer gives a 4% damage increase to Mind Flay when Shadow Word: Pain is active on a target.

Rogue

• Envenom now properly scales with Potent Poisons.

Warlock

• Soul Fire will no longer consume both Empowered Imp and Soulburn when they are active. It will consume Empowered Imp and leave Soulburn still active.

Warrior

• Shield Slam's damage has been reduced by about 28% at level 15, with less, but still noticeable reductions at higher levels.

Quests

• The Wayward Fire Elemental is now properly tracked on the mini-map for the quest "Ice and Fire".
• Fishing daily quests in Stormwind and Orgrimmar have returned.
• Players will now reach their flight destination properly for the quest "Fuselight, Ho!"
• It is no longer possible to use all the charges on the Purified Moonwell Water at a single brazier for the quest "Dousing the Flames of Protection".
• The tauren quest "Heeding the Call" has been removed from the game and is no longer improperly still being offered to players.

Originally posted by Bashiok

Portals are removed as we don't want you to have your hearth in an old city from an expansion you've outgrown just so you can have quick and instant travel anywhere you like. Those expansions had content that was far removed from things like auction houses and class trainers, and thus, contained portals. They were removed from those things because we didn't want the expansion content (which would hold the bulk of the playerbase) to in turn also remove them from the classic Azeroth world. That's no longer the case. Cataclysm has content near your faction capitals, which have auction houses and class trainers.

And for new characters leveling, who will eventually hit Shattrath and Dalaran, they now have auction houses and class trainers in place of portals.

As soon as you can fly in Azeroth this really does cease to be an issue. It will not be much different than flying from Borean Tundra to Ulduar.

I can see that since the OP is buried that enough people disagree with this being an issue, and for that I'm at least thankful that I'm not fighting a complete uphill battle in explaining it.

[...] It's the first day, the first few HOURS, of course something new is going to be jarring.

But worse yet is that the entire plan isn't unveiled, there's no flying in the old world, there's none of the new content. The one thing I do agree with is that ideally portals shouldn't have been removed until the 7th, but that would have meant a ton of additional development time just to give an extra two weeks of insta-porting goodness.

One benefit is you don't encourage all of the current re-rollers to hearth in the Shattrath or Dalaran, and then pull it away on Cataclysm launch. That seems like a worse scenario, actually.

I don't doubt that this, like so many other topics that spring up day 1 of a patch, will die a quiet death once people actually play and see how it affects them instead of simply estimating. That's not going to happen until Cataclysm in this case, though. Such are the growing pains of expansion life.

 

[Gombol]

Thankes Fae Fae ^.^

 

[SwampFae]

4.0.3 General Discussion - More notes

November 24

• Players should now be able to champion a capital city and earn reputation in Heroic and normal Wrath of the Lich King dungeons while wearing that city's tabard.
• Players are no longer required to discover Wrath of the Lich King dungeons before accessing them via Looking For Dungeon.
• Players should no longer be interrupted when eating or drinking in a Battleground before the battle starts.
• Many former Steamwheedle goblins have switched over to the Gadgetzan faction. If a players happens to be "At War" with these NPCs, they will no longer attack in many areas.
• Collision has been removed from Argent Tournament banners so they can no longer block players.
• The door to the Alliance Keep in Isle of Conquest should again be closed at the beginning of the battle.
• Creatures spawned during the Hadronox encounter no longer award reputation.
• After changing races to tauren and learning the Sunwalker Kodo mounts, they now remain available after porting, zoning, and relogging.
• Trapjaw Rix no longer has a duplicate standing on top of himself.
• Players can no longer catch new high-level fish when fishing near level 80-85 zones unless the account is upgraded to Cataclysm.

Classes
Death Knights:

• Death Strike now properly heals for 20% of the damage taken within the last 5 seconds, and Blood Presence now increases armor contribution from items by 30%, down from 60%.

Druids:

• The heal from Gift of the Earth Mother when the druid casts Rejuvenate is now gaining the correct benefit from Improved Rejuvenate.

Mages:

• Flame Orb will no longer attack PvP-flagged enemies unless the mage is already flagged for PvP combat.

Priests:

• The Empowered Shadow buff is no longer granted when a player cancels the Shadow Orb buff. Mind Blast correctly removes the Shadow Orb buff and grants Empowered Shadow.
• The Glyph of Shadow Word: Death no longer provides the outdated 10% bonus damage to targets under 25% health when Shadow Word: Death is cast.

Warlocks:

• Bane of Havoc no longer persists when overwritten by another Bane.

Quests

• The quest "Reinforcements from Theramore" can now be obtained by Alliance players.
• Players no longer keep the invisibility aura and the Hunting buff after logging out while in the wolf vehicle on the quest "The Wolf and the Kodo".
• The quest "Diplomacy By Another Means" no longer auto-completes in the field.
• The spawn rate for Frostmane Scavengers in Dun Morogh has been substantially increased.
• Obtaining the achievement for completing quests in Silverpine now requires 55 quests, down from 60. The interface will still list it as 60 required quests until a client-side patch is applied.
• Players should no longer get stuck in a phased state when attempting to complete the quest "To the Rescue!"
• Players are now able to complete the quest “Uther’s Blessing” by using the item Chillwind Tribute at Uther’s Tomb.
• Horde players are no longer able to obtain the Stormpike Insignia Rank 2 from Lieutenant Haggerdin while on the quest "Infiltration".
• Experience granted by quests in Arathi Highlands has been increased.