RipTen Videogame Blog » patch notes

Skyrim Update 1.4 is Live on Xbox, PS3 Later Today – Full List of Changes

Garrett Hartman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:00:39 +0000

FUS RO DAH! The Skyrim1.4 update is live on Xbox Live and expected to hit the PS3 later on today. This is an anticipated update which should fix a few annoying bugs, most importantly the PS3 bug that makes it unplayable after a certain level.

Below is the full list of changes courtesy of the Bethblog.

Bethesda also claims to be putting the final touches on the Creation Kit and Skyrim Workshop and will let everyone know as soon as they’re up.

NEW FEATURES

Skyrim launcher support for Skyrim Workshop (PC)

BUG FIXES

General optimizations for memory and performance
Fixed occasional issue with armor and clothing not displaying properly when placed on mannequins in player’s house (PS3)
Long term play optimizations for memory and performance (PS3)
Improved compiler optimization settings (PC)
Memory optimizations related to scripting
Fixed issue with dangling scripts not properly clearing from memory
Fixed crashes related to pathing and AI
Fixed crash in “Haemar’s Shame” if player had already completed “A Daedra’s Best Friend”
Fixed rare crash with loading saved games
Fixed issue with accented characters not displaying properly at the end of a line
Fixed issue where dragon priest masks would not render correctly
Fixed issue where quests would incorrectly progress after reloading a save
Fixed issues with placing and removing books from bookshelves in the player’s home
Optimized bookshelf script in player-owned houses that would occasionally block other scripts from properly firing off
Fixed issue where weapon racks and plaques would not work correctly in player’s house if player immediately visits their house before purchasing any upgrades
Fixed issue where the player house in Windhelm would not clean up properly
Fixed crash related to giant attacks and absorb spells
Fixed issue with ash piles not cleaning up properly
Fixed occasional issue where overwriting an existing save would fail
Fixed memory crash with container menu
Fixed infinite loop with bookshelves
Fixed issue where transforming back to human from werewolf would occasionally fail
Bows and daggers will display properly when placed on weapon racks
Fixed occasional audio issue that would play sound effects louder than intended
Fixed bug related to hitching between cell boundaries
Master Criminal achievement/trophy unlocks properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian
Fixed issue where traps in Shalidor’s Maze would not work properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian versions

QUEST FIXES

The Unusual Gem that was inside the Thalmor Embassy is now accessible after finishing “Diplomatic Immunity”
In “Breaching Security”, the quest token is no longer required to receive a fortune reading from Olava the Feeble
Fixed issue where Galmar would not complete Joining the Stormcloaks properly if “Season Unending” was an active quest
Fixed issue where starting “Season Unending” after finishing “Joining the Stormcloaks” would prevent “The Jagged Crown” from starting properly
Fixed issue where progressing through “Message to Whiterun” while “Season Unending” was still open would block progression for both quests
In “Arniel’s Endeavor”, fixed issue where a quest journal would trigger multiple times
In “Forbidden Legend”, the amulet fragment can no longer disappear after player leaves a dungeon without taking it
Fixed rare issue in “Forbidden Legend” where killing Mikrul Gauldurson while sneaking would make his corpse unaccessible
In “The White Phial”, the phial can no longer disappear if player leaves dungeon without taking it
“The White Phial” will now start properly if player already has a briar heart in their inventory
Player can no longer get stuck in Misty Grove after completing “A Night to Remember”
Fixed issue where leaving Riften during “A Chance Arrangement” would prevent quest from progressing
In “Darkness Returns”, a door in Twilight Sepulcher will properly open if the player leaves the dungeon for an extended period of time before completing the quest
In “Revealing the Unseen”, if the player leaves the Oculory for an extended period of time after placing the focusing crystal and returns, the quest will proceed correctly
“Onmund’s Request” will now start properly if player has already found Enthir’s staff before receiving this quest
Fixed instance where Tonilia would stop buying stolen items and also would not give Guild Leader Armor
“Repairing the Phial” will start properly if player already has unmelting snow or mammoth tusk in their inventory
Finding Pantea’s Flute before speaking with Pantea no longer prevents her quest from updating
In “The Break of Dawn”, fixed rare instance where a quest object would spawn incorrectly on the Katariah during Hail Sithis
Fixed rare issue in “The Mind of Madness” where player is unable to equip the Wabbajack
Fixed issue in “Pieces of the Past” where Mehrunes Dagon’s Razor will not trigger properly if player leaves the cell for extended period of time before activating it
“Blood’s Honor” will start properly if you visited and completed Driftshade and an extended period of time passes before starting the quest.
Fixed rare issue where “Dampened Spirits” would not start properly
Fixed issue where player would be unable to become Thane of Riften if they purchased a home first
Fixed issue where killing guards in Cidhna Mine would block progression for “No One Escapes Cidhna Mine”
Fixed numerous issues with “Blood on the Ice” not triggering properly
In “Blood on the Ice”, Calixto can now be killed if player owns a house in Windhelm
In “The Cure for Madness”, killing Cicero then resurrecting him no longer impedes quest progress
Fixed rare issue in “To Kill an Empire” where an NPC would fail to die properly
Clearing Knifepoint Ridge before starting “Boethiah’s Champion” no longer prevents quest from starting.

World of Tanks Launches Content Salvo in Update 7.2

Jensen Walker — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:00:46 +0000

Wargaming.net today revealed the details on the upcoming patch for World of Tanks, offering players a glimpse into the future for the popular warfare MMO.

Update 7.2 will add a number of features to the game, including 2 new maps, updates to two top tier American tanks and tank destroyers with rotating turrets. Crew skills will also be undergoing an overhaul, with more than 2o new skills available and each crew member having a personal set of skills to enhance vehicle performance.

The update will also introduce an integrated tutorial to aid new players in familiarizing themselves with the game’s mechanics.

“We are always happy to introduce new features and game content to our community,” said World of Tanks Lead game designer Mike Zhivets. “Many more new exciting features are on their way and will be introduced in the nearest updates.”

You can view the trailer for the next update below. For more information, visit the official site.

Skyrim Update 1.4 is Coming – This is What Will Change (PC, Xbox 360 and PS3)

Garrett Hartman — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:00:57 +0000

You should have acted, they’re already here. Well, almost. This is the list of changes Bethesda is bringing to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in version 1.4.

NEW FEATURES

Skyrim launcher support for Steam Workshop (PC)

BUG FIXES

General optimizations for memory and performance
Fixed occasional issue with armor and clothing not displaying properly when placed on mannequin’s in player’s house. (PS3)
Improved compiler optimization settings (PC)
Long term play optimizations for memory and performance (PS3)
Memory optimizations related to scripting
Fixed crashes related to pathing and AI
Fixed crash in Haemar’s Shame if player had already completed “A Daedra’s Best Friend”
Fixed rare crash with loading saved games
Fixed issue with accented characters not displaying properly at the end of a line
Master Criminal achievement/trophy unlocks properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian
Fixed issue where dragon priest masks would not render correctly
Fixed issue where quests would incorrectly progress after reloading a save
Fixed issues with placing and removing books from bookshelves in the player’s home
Fixed issue where weapon racks and plaques would not work correctly in player’s house if player immediately visits their house before purchasing any furnishing.
Fixed issue where the player house in Windhelm would not clean up properly
Fixed crash related to giant attacks and absorb spells
Fixed issue with ash piles not cleaning up properly
Fixed occasional issue where overwriting an existing save would fail
Fixed memory crash with container menu
Fixed infinite loop with bookshelves
Fixed issue where traps in Shalidor’s Maze would not work properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian versions
Fixed issue where transforming back to human from werewolf would occasionally not fail
Bows and daggers will display properly when placed on weapon racks

QUEST FIXES

The Unusual Gem inside the Thalmor Embassy is now accessible after finishing “Diplomatic Immunity”
In “Breaching Security”, the quest token is no longer required to receive a fortune reading from Olava the Feeble
Fixed issue where Galmar would not complete Joining the Stormcloaks properly if “Season Unending” was an active quest
Fixed issue where starting “Season Unending” after finishing “Joining the Stormcloaks” would prevent “The Jagged Crown” from starting properly.
Fixed issue progressing through “Message to Whiterun” while “Season Unending” was still open would block progression for both quests.
In “Arniel’s Endeavor”, fixed issue where a quest journal would trigger multiple times
In “Forbidden Legend”, the amulet fragment can no longer disappear after player leaves a dungeon without taking it
Fixed rare issue in “Forbidden Legend” where killing Mikrul Gauldurson while sneaking would make his corpose unaccessible
In “The White Phial”, the phial can no longer disappear if player leaves dungeon without taking it
“The White Phial” will now start properly if player already has a briar heart in their inventory
Player can no longer get stuck in Misty Grove after completing “A Night to Remember”
Fixed issue where leaving Riften during “A Chance Arrangement” would prevent quest from progressing
In “Darkness Returns”, a door in Twilight Sepulcher will properly open if the player leaves the dungeon for an extended period of time before completing the quest
In “Under New Management”, if the player leaves the Oculory for an extended period of time after placing the focusing crystal and returns, the quest will proceed correctly
“Onmund’s Request” will now start properly if player has already found Enthir’s staff before receiving this quest
Fixed instance where Tonilia would stop buying stolen items and also would not give Guild Leader Armor
“Repairing the Phial” will start properly if player already has unmelting snow or mammoth tusk in their inventory
Finding Pantea’s Flute before speaking with Pantea no longer prevents her quest from updating
In “The Coming of the Dawn”, fixed rare instance where a quest object would spawn incorrectly on the Katariah during Hail Sithis
Fixed rare issue in “The Mind of Madness” where player is unable to equip the Wabbajack
Fixed issue in “Pieces of the Past” where Mehrunes Dagon’s Razor will not trigger properly if player leaves the cell for extended period of time before activating it
“Blood’s Honor” will start properly if you visited and completed Driftshade and an extended period of time passes before starting the quest.
Fixed rare issue where “Dampened Spirits” would not start properly
Fixed issue where player would be unable to become Thane of Riften if they purchased a home first
Fixed issue where killing guards in Cidhna Mine woud block progression for “No One Escapes Cidhna Mine”
Fixed numerous issues with “Blood on the Ice” not triggering properly
In “Blood on the Ice”, Calixto can now be killed if player owns a house in Windhelm
In “The Cure for Madness”, killing Cicero then resurrecting him no longer impedes quest progress
Fixed rare issue in “To Kill an Empire” where an NPC would fail to die properly
Clearing Knifepoint Ridge before starting “Boethiah’s Champion” no longer prevents quest from starting.

Via: BethBlog

SWTOR’s Patch 1.0.2 Now Live – Changes and Fixes

Jensen Walker — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:41:01 +0000

I’ve spent the past three weeks in a galaxy far, far away and enjoyed every second of it. While the end of the holiday period brings me back down to earth, I come bearing news of BioWare’s latest update for the recently launched Star Wars: The Old Republic.

While 1.0.2 isn’t a huge patch by any means of the imagination, it does include a number of welcome bug fixes such as the cover mechanic now working correctly when behind hard cover, the ‘Sith Corruption’ toggle no longer turning itself back on every time you enter a new area, and a fix that was preventing Bounty Hunter’s from completing their class story under certain circumstances.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of issues which need to be resolved, such as the current lack of high-res textures, various bugs in hard mode flashpoints and operations, and the mysterious case of party/guild chat randomly disappearing for certain players. Hopefully these issues will be resolved in short order.

The full list of changes can be found below.

General

Guilds that are currently leaderless will have an Officer chosen and promoted to Guild Leader.

Classes and Combat

Sith Inquisitor

The Darth title is now properly granted to Sith Inquisitors. Bug Fixes

Corrected an issue that could prevent players from taking cover when targeting large NPCs

Fixed a bug that caused some abilities with activation times to be interrupted when used from cover.

Crew Skills

Gathering

Removed some high-level harvesting nodes from Tatooine, Corellia, and Ilum.

Flashpoints and Operations

Flashpoints

Cademimu

General Ortol can no longer be pulled out of his room.

Maelstrom Prison

Corrected an issue that could cause Kilran to behave incorrectly when defeated in cover.

Taral V

General Edikar now has the correct loot in Hard Mode and no longer enrages in Normal Mode.

Operations

Eternity Vault

Gharj can no longer be pulled out of his encounter room. Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue that could cause choosing Nightmare Mode to not set enemies to Nightmare difficulty.

Items

General

PvP lockboxes now cost 70 commendations, contain more consumables, and always contain an item. Bug Fixes

Corrected several PvP items that were Bind on Equip. They are now Bind on Pickup.

PvP vendors on Capital Planets now offer the correct PvP items.

Commendations received via in-game mail are now correctly added to the Currency tab.

Missions and NPCs

Missions

Imperial

Number One with a Bullet: Players who choose dark side options now correctly receive the mission First Strike after completing this mission.

First Strike: Players who did not receive this mission will now receive it upon entering their personal starships. Republic

Death Cloud: Players can now complete the “Toxic Waste” bonus objective regardless of how quickly they complete this mission.

Bug Fixes

Corrected mission steps on several planets that could cause client instability.

Fixed issues with some missions that could prevent pending rewards from being accepted.

Space Combat

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue that caused a client crash if a space station was destroyed in Space Combat.

UI

Maps

Group members no longer appear on all planets on the Galaxy Map. Corrected an issue that could cause map notes to disappear after logging out and back into the game.

Corrected some map notes that referenced the incorrect map. Updated map notes for “travel to planet” steps in class missions on Nar Shaddaa, Hoth, and Belsavis to indicate the planet’s space station.

Bug Fixes

Group members outside of a player’s phase are no longer prompted to roll on items.

The In-Game Customer Service Portal no longer appears to hang while the “updating” message is displayed.

The Guild interface now properly displays the guild member list when it is sorted.

The “Show Sith Corruption” option no longer toggles off when transitioning between areas.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

Taxi rides are no longer occasionally interrupted, causing the player to be dropped from the taxi.

Using the /dismiss command now correctly dismisses a vanity pet.

Corrected some issues that could cause players to become stuck on the loading screen when logging into a character.

Players can now use emotes while riding a vehicle.

Fixed a bug that prevented some text-only mail messages from being received.

Graphics preferences in settings files are now consistent with actual settings in use.

Being in Do Not Disturb mode no longer prevents characters from being logged out for being away.

Corrected an issue that caused poor performance on some machines in indoor areas with shadows enabled.

Fixed an issue that could prevent players from being logged out for inactivity.

Rift’s 1.6 Patch Deployed Today – Full Patch Notes and More

Jensen Walker — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:54:15 +0000

Continuing their wonderful breakneck pace of content updates, Trion has today released patch 1.6 for Rift, and it’s a big one.

‘From the Embers’ introduces an entirely new zone known as Ember Isle, which is twice the size of Stillmoor and caters to max level players. If that’s not enough, the 1.6 patch features Rift’s largest ever dungeon. Caduceus Rise hosts a whopping 11 bosses, non linear progression, a normal mode and two expert wings.

Still want more? How about a new 10man raid (Rise of the Phoenix), an altered version of an existing warfront, further choices in the alternate advancement system and the Fae Yule world event. Phew!

Check out the full patch notes below straight from the Rift Forums:

== FEATURES ==
* Welcome to EMBER ISLE, a new zone where the cults of Laethys and Maelforge work to restore their masters to power, and the history of both the Farclan Dwarves and Kelari is being re-discovered.
* Caduceus Rise, the largest dungeon to date, is now available on Ember Isle in both Normal and Expert modes. See CADUCEUS RISE for more info.
* In the newest Sliver, the Wanton have corrupted the Titan Gate into a portal for Maelforge’s entry to Telara. Prevent this fate in RISE OF THE PHOENIX! Details below.
* World Event: As winter descends on Telara, Grandfather Frost and the Yulemother arrive to celebrate the season. Keep an eye on the World Event UI for the start of THE FAE YULE event in the days following the arrival of 1.6!
* The second tier of Planar Attunement is now unlocked!
* We’ve made some additions and updates to the Ascend-a-Friend system, and friends can now be Ascended from the new in-game UI! See ASCEND-A-FRIEND UPDATES, below.
* A new alternate version of the Black Garden Warfront enters the weekend rotation; see details under STOCKPILE: BLACK GARDEN!
* The ‘start menu’ buttons on the UI have been reorganized and put into a new layout; look below under UPDATED ‘START MENU’ BUTTONS for more info.

= EMBER ISLE =
* An entirely new overworld zone, the volcanic island of Ember Isle plays a strong part in the history of both the Dwarves and the Kelari, as well as being the current seat of the Wanton and the Golden Maw’s plots to restore Laethys and Maelforge to power.
* The Sourcewells, direct connections to the core of Telara, are powerful energy sources and invaders from the Planes attempt to control and corrupt them for their own ends.
* The Guardians venture to Ember Isle to seek out the Dwarves who left to form the Farclan.
* The Defiants look to discover what happened to their Kelari brethren who remained after a civil war fractured their people.
* Ember Isle is a fully-featured level 50+ zone including all new characters and storyline, new defense-style gameplay, a large emphasis on Planar invasions, and all the good things you might expect – new gear and items, artifacts, vanity sets, pets, titles, factions, achievements… the list goes on!
* Two new Tier 2 raid Rifts have been introduced! Travel to Ember Isle to find the openers for Dragon’s Gold and Enkindled Flames!
* The Telaran effort to rebuild the Travel Stones has opened travel to Ember Isle once more; visit the NPCs at the Travel Stone locations outside of Meridian and Sanctum to journey to the island.

= CADUCEUS RISE [Dungeon] =
* The Golden Maw and some of their Wanton allies occupy the temple at Caduceus Rise, built by the Kelari to honor the powerful Telaran spirit, Caduceus.
* In their ongoing efforts to give Laethys a corporeal form, her cult followers have made an agreement with Caduceus to lend his powerful Earth magic to their cause.
* By negating Caduceus’ assistance, the Ascended buy more time against Laethys’ attempts to return to full strength on Telara.
* Normal mode Caduceus Rise is targeted for a group of level 48-50 Ascended. Two – yes, two – tier 2 Expert modes are also available!

= RISE OF THE PHOENIX [Sliver] =
* In an alternate Telara, the Eth priests attempting to open the Titan Gate in Stonefield are ambushed by General Silgen and the forces of Maelforge before they can complete their ritual – allowing Silgen to warp the gate into a portal for the forces of Maelforge. In an effort to stop the Wanton, High Priest Arakhurn pushes himself too far and is immolated, reborn as a phoenix.
* Enter the Rise of the Phoenix sliver to prevent the Eth’s tragedy from turning into Maelforge’s takeover of Telara!
* Rise of the Phoenix is intended for a group of 10 well equipped players who might otherwise be tackling the challenges of Hammerknell.
* New gear, new pets, and new achievements await!

= STOCKPILE: BLACK GARDEN =
* A new weekend warfront joins the rotation! Stockpile: Black Garden is a 15 vs. 15 player Warfront available in all level brackets.
* Obtain, defend, and store the most orbs to gain victory for your team!

= ASCEND-A-FRIEND UPDATES =
* You can now invite a friend for Ascend-a-Friend from inside the game! See the status of your invitees from the new AAF In-Game UI, located under the ‘Social’ button on the new start menu.
* All NEW Ascend-a-Friend Rewards! You are now additionally granted an awesome chest of Ascended Treasure when someone that you referred subscribes to RIFT. Ascended Treasure includes things like Inscribed Sourcestone, Lucky Coins, Plaques, and Marks!
* FREE TIME! You get 30 days of free time for every friend that you refer to RIFT who continues to play for more than 30 days!
* Ascend-a-Friend awards are now granted at the time your invited friend subscribes to RIFT.

= UPDATED ‘START MENU’ BUTTONS =
* We updated and consolidated the on-screen menu butttons that appear by default in the lower left corner of the screen.
* PLAYER: The ‘Player’ subsection handles menus related to your character’s current status, abilities, and quests.
* ACTIVITIES: Manage your queues for Warfronts and Dungeons here!
* SOCIAL: Handles keeping track of your friends, guild, and raid members under this section.
* HELP: For when you need somebody! Contact CS or receive other in-game assistance or reports.
* SYSTEM: This is where all of the setting, layout, and keybinding type menus are hanging out.

GENERAL
* Added a checkbox to merchants who have items filtered from your view that will allow you to See All Items.
* ‘Nimble’ mounts – +90% speed – now require level 30 rather than level 40 to use.
* You may now remain mounted while inside Lantern Hook and the Chancel of Labors.
* The Inventory search feature can now search by the terms ‘Soulbound’ and ‘Bind-On-Equip’ to help find these items in your inventory.
* Characters who are /afk will be notified if they auto-fail any party or raid leader-issued ready checks.
* Added an ‘Already Purchased’ indicator (if applicable) to the tooltip of Ascended Power abilities on merchants.
* All Artifacts now stack to 99. Which is a lot.
* The minimap now shows tracked NPCs that are dead for as long as they remain lootable.

EXPERIENCE UPDATES
* Groups of 10 or more players will gain more experience when killing NPCs than they currently get.
* Instance boss NPCs in Expert and Master modes now award more experience when killed.
* Instance boss NPCs in Slivers and Raids now award significantly more experience when killed.

RIFTS AND INVASIONS
* Rift consumable items now stack to 50, increased from 20.
* The [Zone] Defender Achievements now have more general description text as the Rifts required now regularly show up in all zones.
* All Invasions now drop Artifacts based on the Invasion’s planar type, rather than based on zone, as the presence of zone-specific Invasions has changed due to world events and new Rift opening abilities.
* PvP Rifts: When you are carrying the Sourcestone, we now show a target arrow on the ground pointing you toward where you should go with it.
* Increased the frequency at which Invasions spawn during high level zone events.
* Added more daily quests to all zones for closing Rifts and defeating Rift creatures.

LOOKING FOR GROUP
* Players manually added to in-progress LFG groups can now use the ‘Enter Dungeon’ button on their LFG map icon.
* Some forms of NPC mind control effects that would remove you from the LFG queue no longer do so.
* You can now use the raid frame UI to initiate a LFG member votekick.

PLANAR ATTUNEMENT
* The second tier of Planar Attunement is now unlocked! The window now allows you to preview abilities in tiers you cannot access yet.
* Players will receive more Planar Attunement experience when killing NPCs in Sliver and Raid zones.
* Significantly increased the amount of experience granted for Raid and Sliver bosses.
* Significantly increased the amount of Planar Attunement experience awarded from random Tier 1 and Tier 2 Expert Dungeon completions via LFG.

SOULS
* Teleport abilities like Shadow Assault and Shadow Stalk that move the character behind the target will fail less often and will now teleport directly on top of the target if no good location is available behind it.

CLERIC

CABALIST
* Undertow: Now properly triggers on the correct target of Maelstrom (assuming it’s an enemy, of course).

DRUID
* Satyr: Now properly inherits the Cleric’s Focus, allowing Thorns of Asphodel to do proper damage in raids.
* Spirit of the Wood: Now properly works as described, and no longer affects the pet’s auto-attacks.

INQUISITOR
* Clinging Spirit: Can also be applied by Bolt of Depravity. Now properly lists its duration as 15 seconds.
* Nysyr’s Rebuke: No longer suffers from pushback.

JUSTICAR
* Increased threat generated by all damaging abilities.
* Bolt of Radiance: Now properly categorized as a Damage ability and not Threat in the ability binder.
* Precept of Refuge: This ability may now critically hit.
* Reparation: Now properly matches the ability description, no longer healing other Clerics with Reparation.
* Righteous Mandate, Doctrine of Righteousness: Properly flagged as a single-target spell, rather than an Area of Effect spell.
* Rebuke: No longer interrupts un-interruptible boss abilities.
* Mien of Leadership: Increased threat bonus to 500%. Now also causes overhealing to generate threat.
* Thorvin’s Law: Now causes Mien of Leadership to reduce damage from spells by 3-6%, and all non-Physical damage by 1% + 1% per point spent in Justicar above 26. No longer requires the purchase of Precept of Refuge to unlock.
* Shield of Faith: Now reduces all damage by 2-10%.
* Just Defense: Now absorbs 50% of the Cleric’s maximum health. Removed ranks 2 and 3.
* Resplendent Embrace: Now also increases the Cleric’s maximum health by 20%.
* Hammerknell Synergy Crystal 4-piece Bonus: Reduced the absorption triggered by Doctrine of Authority to 50% of the Justicar’s Spell Power.

SENTINEL
* Serendipity: Now properly applies to the next spell cast immediately after proccing.

SHAMAN
* Lightning Hammer: Lightning may now critically hit.
* Bitter Wind: Reduced cooldown to 10 seconds.

MAGE
* Fixed a bug where Charge consuming abilities which block Charge generation while active could also block Mana returned from drinks.

ARCHON
* Purification: Ability will no longer be available to cast, and will be greyed out, if the Mage’s target does not have a Curse debuff on them.
* Illuminate – New Ability: Illuminates the weak points on a target, causing each attacker to deal additional Physical damage on 1 attack every 3 seconds for 20 seconds. Obtained after spending 14 points in Archon.

CHLOROMANCER
* Raised in Nature: Now uses only the mage’s base Intelligence and the Intelligence added by equipment to determine the amount of Endurance bonus granted.
* Updated ability descriptions on Lifegiving Veil, Lifebound Veil, and Synthesis.
* Nature’s Cleansing: Ability will no longer be available to cast, and will be greyed out, if the Mage’s target does not have a Curse, Poison, or Disease debuff on them.
* Living Shell: Fixed an issue where this would not return Mana if used while Entropic Veil was active.
* Wid Growth: Fixed an issue where the Snare and debuff portions of wild Growth did not have the same radius as the heal effect.

DOMINATOR
* Quick Thinking: Fixed a bug where Quick Thinking would not be consumed by casting Icicle if both Quick Thinking and Storm Shard occurred at the same time.
* Haunting Pain: Increased damage. Now deals damage every 1 second, down from 2. Fixed an issue where the damage was not dealt as expected when used with less than 10 stacks. Updated mana cost. Fixed an issue where the damage or duration in the debuff tooltip would display as 0.
* Thunder Blast: Now interrupts the target when the ability is cast instead of at the time damage is dealt. Fixed an issue where switching targets just after the ability was cast would cause the new target to get knocked back rather than the spell’s target. Will now trigger Quick Thinking when cast.
* Deny: Ability will no longer be available to cast, and will be greyed out, if the Mage’s target does not have a Curse, Poison, or Disease debuff on them.
* Improved Charged Shield: Fixed an issue where this was not correctly affecting the damage of Charged Shield and Mass Charged Shield. Updated description to indicate that it affects Mass Charged Shield.
* Fixed an issue where Traitorous Influence and Mass Betrayal would not drain Mana or Energy if cast while a Charge-draining ability, such as Internalize Charge, was active.
* Fixed an issue where Ineptitude and Call of Spring were incorrectly affecting the ability and tooltip descriptions for Incompetence.

ELEMENTALIST
* Velocity: Now has a 100% chance to debuff enemies hit by Crystalline Missiles. The debuff increases the mage’s Elemental pet damage against that target by 15-75%. Updated the description to more clearly indicate it only affects ability damage.
* Crystalline Missiles: Increased damage.
* Air Elemental: Reduced damage of the Air Elemental’s Lightning Bolt and Ball Lightning abilities.
* Elemental Fury – New Passive Ability: Successful critical hits by the Mage’s Elemental pet will increase the Mage’s Spell Power by 20 for each point spent in Elementalist at 40 and above. This buff has a 15 second duration. Obtained after spending 40 points in Elementalist.
* Planar Expansion: The damage bonus now affects Earth Elemental pets in addition to the currently affected Air and Water Elementals. Now increases Elemental pet damage by an additional 3% for each point spent in the Elementalist soul above 31.
* Swarming Flames: Reduced cooldown to 2 minutes.

NECROMANCER
* Plague Bolt: Increased damage.
* The Shadow Revenant ability, Oblivion, now requires only the initial target to have Necrosis in order to trigger the Area of Effect damage and additional effects of Oblivion.
* Mass Grave: Reduced cooldown to 2 minutes.
* The Skeletal Knight’s Bone Shatter ability will now force enemies it successfully taunts to attack the pet for 3 seconds, in addition to its previous effects.
* Deadly Collusion – New Passive Ability: Successful Critical Hits by single target spells will increase your Undead pet’s Attack Power and Spell Power by 30 for each stack of Deathly Calling on the affected target. Attack and Spell Power boost lasts for 15 seconds. Ability is gained after spending 40 points in Necromancer.
* Epidemic – New Passive Ability: Successful Critical Hits by the Mage’s Undead pet will reduce the casting time of the Mage’s next Plague Bolt within 10 seconds to instant-cast. Obtained after spending 44 points in Necromancer.

PYROMANCER
* Due to the below changes, characters with Soul Points spent in Pyromancer will receive a free Soul respec.
* Burning Bonds: Now instant-cast.
* Improved Burning Bonds: Removed.
* Unbreakable Bonds: Now requires points spent in Burning Bonds.
* Backdraft: No longer has Fire Storm as a prerequisite to obtain.
* Fire Shield: Now a single-point branch ability.
* Improved Flame Jet: Now a two-point branch ability.
* Spark – New 5-point branch ability: Reduces the Mage’s global cooldown by 0.1-0.5 seconds. Unlocked after spending 20 points in Pyromancer.
* Ignition: Now reduces the casting time of non-Fire spells by 1-5%, in addition to its original effect.
* Philosophy of Flame – New branch ability: Increases the Mage’s maximum Charge by 5-10. Unlocked after spending 10 points in Pyromancer.
* Burning Fury – New branch ability: Each time the Mage fails to critically hit a target with a single-target spell, they gain a 15 second stacking buff. This buff increases their Spell Critical Hit chance by 3% per stack. A successful critical hit on a target will consume all stacks. Unlocked after spending 5 points in Pyromancer.
* Combust: Renamed to Improved Combustion.
* Glyphs of Power: Now increases all spell damage by 5%, at the expense of the Pyromancer taking 5% more damage.
* Improved Glyphs of Power: Decreases the additional damage you take while affected by Glyphs of Power by 1-5%. Increases the additional damage you deal under Glyphs of Power by 1-5%.
* Fireball: Now has a base 20% chance to proc a Combust damage-over-time effect on the target.
* The Combust damage-over-time effect now deals damage as soon as it is applied, and every second after. This is decreased from the previous 2-second interval.
* Improved Combustion: Now appears in the combat log as its own ability, no longer attributing the damage to Fireball and no longer deals damage based on how much damage Fireball does. Now increases the chance for Fireball to proc Combust again on the target by 10-30%.
* Countdown: Damage now increased by 5% for each stack of Combust on the target.
* Improved Flame Bolt: The buff effect now increases all spell damage by 10% instead of just Fire.
* Wildfire: Now gives Flame Bolt a 33-100% chance to proc Combust on the target, in addition to its previous effects.
* Pyromancer’s Armor: The chance for this ability to proc is now increased by 1% per point spent in Pyromancer above 40. Updated description to indicate that this cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds – the ability worked this way previously, but now the spell description matches.
* Withering Flames: Now deals Fire damage and applies a stack of Combust each second while channeling. Withering Flames damage is increased by 20% for each stack of Combust on the target.
* Heat Wave: No longer reduces the global cooldown. Also no longer resets the cooldown of Intensify Elements or Sacrifice Life: Damage.
* Fulminate: Now requires 110 Charge to cast.
* Improved Smoldering Power: Combined into the base Smoldering Power ability, removed the Improved Smoldering Power ability.
* Smoldering Power: Fixed an issue where this would not consume Charge if used while Internalize Charge was active.
* Fire Storm: Now deals damage every 1 seconds, down from 2 seconds previously. Damage per tick has been reduced so that the total damage of the full channel has not changed. It will no longer deal damage immediately upon casting. Duration of the total channel has not been changed.
* Fiery Concentration: Now reduces the amount of pushback suffered while casting single-target spells by 33-100%.

STORMCALLER
* Due to the below changes, characters with Soul Points spent in Stormcaller will receive a free soul respec.
* Hypothermia: Increased the duration of the Hypothermia debuff to 15 seconds. Duration of the Snare effect is unchanged. Multiple mages can now have the Hypothermia debuff on the same target at once. This applies only to the debuff and doesn’t impact the snare portion of the effect.
* Building Storm, Favorable Conditions: Abilities removed.
* Storm Shard – New Ability: Tier 3 branch ability with 3 ranks. Gives your damaging Air spells a 33-100% chance to make your next Icicle cast within 10 seconds an instant cast, and gives that Icicle a 100% chance to critically hit with increased critical hit damage bonus of 75%. Cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.
* Lightning Conductor: Now causes Electrocute, Thunderbolt, Raging Storm, and Forked Lightning to deal 10-30% more damage if the target is suffering from Hypothermia.
* Watertouched Soulstone: Fixed an issue where this was not correctly working with AoE abilities.
* Lightning Rod: Now reduces the pushback caused by damage attack by 50-100% while casting area effect spells.
* Eye of the Storm: Damage increased.
* Icicle: Damage increased.
* Permafrost: Ability removed.
* Severe Weather – New Ability: Increases damage done by area effect spells by 10-20%. Tier 5 branch ability unlocked after spending 20 points in Stormcaller.
* Forked Lightning: Reduced damage.
* The portrait icon for Electrified now shows the correct stack size and remaining time when switching targets.

WARLOCK
* Devouring Shadows: Now deals damage every second, down from 2 seconds previously. It will no longer deal damage immediately upon casting. The duration of the channel has not been changed, but the damage and charge generation per tick has been adjusted to maintain the same overall damage and charge from a full channel of the ability.
* Neddra’s Influence: Now increases both Death and Fire damage dealt by damage-over-time spells.
* Improved Warlock Armor: Renamed to Improved Mage Armor. Now increases the Mage’s damage by 2-10% when they have any Mage Armor buff active. Updated icon.
* Void Decimation – New Passive Ability: Increases the Mage’s Void Bolt damage by 0.75% for each of their Death damage-over-time spells affecting the target. This bonus increases by an additional 0.75% for each point spent in Warlock above 40. Obtained after spending 40 points in Warlock.
* Dark Armor: Fixed a bug where rank 1 was not dealing damage.

ROGUE

ASSASSIN
* Hammerknell Synergy Crystal 2-piece Bonus: Assassin Finishers apply Expose Weakness on the target.

BARD
* The requirement where players can only have 1 Fanfare per Bard has been removed – the Bard can now buff the entire group with all 3 Fanfares.
* Coda of Jeopardy – New Ability: Unlocked at 14 points in Bard. Plays a Coda that uses Combo Points to put the enemy in jeopardy, causing each attacker to deal additional Physical damage on 1 attack every 3 seconds for 30 seconds. Additional damage taken increases with Combo Points. This ability is similar to the Warlord’s Spotter’s Order.
* Extended Grief: Ability now also increases the duration of Coda of Jeopardy.

BLADEDANCER
* Weapon Barrage: No longer turns on auto attack which causes Incapacitate and Lost Hope to break.

INFILTRATOR [PvP]
* Ambush: Fixed a bug so that the remaining pets do not despawn when only one of the pets is killed.

MARKSMAN
* Electrified Munitions, Silver Tip Munitions, Vampiric Munitions: No longer have a 1 second internal cooldown when using AE attacks. The proc chance is reduced for AE attacks based on the number of targets affected. For example, Electrified Munitions has a proc chance of 100% on a single target. Using Fan Out that affects 2 targets will reduce the proc chance to 50%. On 5 targets, the proc chance is reduced to 20%.
* Hammerknell Synergy Crystal 4-piece Bonus: Increases the damage of Electrified Munitions by 30%, down from 50%.

NIGHTBLADE
* Blackout: Functionality changed. Now a passive ability that increases the number of times Scourge of Darkness triggers by 3, and the damage of Death-based attacks by 6%. For every point spent in Nightblade above 44, the number of Scourge of Darkness triggers increases by 1 and the Death-based attack damage increases by 2%.
* Twilight Transcendence: The amount of healing done is now computed from the Rogue’s base maximum health instead of their current maximum health.
* Twilight Shelter: Duration of the buff reduced from 8 seconds to 5 seconds. When combined with Twilight Transcendence, the outgoing damage reduction is recalculated before the second reduction is applied, from 100% to 60% with Twilight Shelter, and from 60% to 36% with both Twilight Shelter and Twilight Transcendence active.
* Fire and Death Attunement: Now increases damage dealt by 2-6%, up from 1-3%, and decreases damage taken from Fire and Death based attacks by 2-6%, down from 5-15%.
* Scourge of Darkness: Fixed a bug where additional triggers from Blackout and Synergy Crystal effects were not benefiting from the 30% damage bonus of Heat Retention.

RANGER
* Quick Shot: Fixed a bug with the first tick of Quick Shot’s damage-over-time effect so that it no longer triggers poisons, weapon enchantments, or Munitions effects.
* Hammerknell Synergy Crystal 2-piece bonus: Splinter Shot and Shadow Fire can now be cast instantly.

RIFTSTALKER
* Due to the below changes, characters with Soul Points spent in Riftstalker will receive a free Soul respec.
* Guardian Phase: Now unlocked at 16 points, down from 18. Increases all Resistances by 30, reduced from 50.
* Improved Guardian Phase: Now also reduces damage taken from non-Physical attacks by 5% when Guardian Phase is active.
* Stalker Phase: Now unlocked at 18 points, up from 16.
* Guarded Steel: Duration set at 30 seconds and does not increase with more Combo Points spent.
* Improved Guarded Steel: Functionality changed. Now increases your Deflect chance by 10-20% and increases threat generation by 20-40% while Guarded Steel is active.
* Rift Guard: Changed to a passive ability. All Plane Shift abilities and Guarded Steel trigger Rift Guard, absorbing 15% of all incoming damage for up to 50% of the Rogue’s current maximum health. Lasts for 30 seconds.
* Improved Rift Guard: The bonus applied to Rift Guard now only occurs when you are in Guardian Phase. If not in Guardian Phase, you will only get the benefit from the regular Rift Guard. Switching out of Guardian Phase after getting the Improved Rift Guard effect will cause the effect to be removed.
* Rift Barrier: Functionality changed. 20-60% of the damage Rift Guard absorbs is reflected back on the attacker.
* Shadow Guard: Functionality changed. Reduces Physical damage taken by 1-5% after using a Riftstalker damage attack that grants a Combo Point. For every 400 points of base Armor, you take 1% less Physical damage, up to a maximum of 20% reduction. Fixed a bug where the physical damage reduction was not working for several boss abilities in Hammerknell.
* Hammerknell Synergy Crystal 2-piece Bonus: Now reduces damage taken from a deflected non-Physical attack by 15%.

WARRIOR
* ‘Gift’ abilities now reduce incoming Physical damage by 0.3% and non-Physical damage by 0.38% per Soul Point spent in the associated Soul Tree. Ultimately this grants a 20% Physical mitigation and 25% non-Physical mitigation bonus to characters who have all of their points spent in tank souls.
* Several tank abilities have had their threat generation amounts increased.
* Rebalanced Power costs of non-Finisher abilities to resolve the issues caused by the Surging Energy fix. This change affects all Warrior Souls.
* Spell interrupt shared cooldown has been increased to 8 seconds to match interrupt ability cooldowns.
* Removed the damage reduction in PvP for the following abilities: Paired Strike, Punishing Blow, Frenzied Strike, Reaping Harvest, and Path of the Raptor.

CHAMPION
* Lingering Wounds: This and related abilities should now proc correctly in duels.
* Having both Overrun and Blitz for Bull Rush no longer double-dips on diminishing returns.

PALADIN
* Aggressive Block: Tooltip no longer references this ability being modified by Strength, which it isn’t.
* Aggressive Guardian: In addition to increasing the threat generated, now also increases the threat generated from Retaliation abilities, modified further by Endurance.
* Touch of Life: Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes.
* Preservation: Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes.
* Improved Reverent Protection: Now increases Reverent Protection by 10-20% plus an additional 0.02/0.04% per point of Endurance.
* Impassable Guard: Now also reduces non-Physical damage by 15%. Increased Magic damage mitigation to 25%. No longer blocks spells. No longer requires Attack Points.
* Scales of Justice: Threat generated has been increased significantly.
* Sweeping Strike: Shifted to more of a threat-generation role. Threat generated has been increased significantly, the number of targets it hits increased to 10 in a range of 10 meters, cooldown reduced to 5 seconds, and no longer requires a target to be used. Because of these changes, the damage has been reduced slightly.
* Rebalanced some abilities to work with the new ‘Gift’ ability enhancements:
* Stalwart Shield: Now enhances Block by 1% per point, instead of 2%.
* Defender: Now enhances Armor by 1% per point instead of 2 points.
* Hardened Will: Now gives 2% non-Physical resistance instead of 3%.
* Shield of the Chosen: Now increases Block by 10%.
* Small Arms Specialization: No longer enhances the damage of Spotter’s Orders.
* Life’s Rapture: Now heals the Paladin instantly, and generates additional threat.

REAVER
* Increased the threat generated from all Reaver damage over time abilities.
* Power from the Masses: Fixed a bug causing all points spent in this ability to cause the same percent chance to trigger. Reduced damage mitigation to 0.7% per application.
* Sinister Intent: Threat enhancement is now modified by Endurance.
* Crest Mastery: Now gives 2% non-Physical resistance instead of 3%.
* Wasting Away: Ability changed – now increases damage of Area of Effect and Damage Over Time abilities by 3-10%.
* Binding of Death: Ability changed – Soul Sickness, Necrotic Wounds, or Blood Fever on the target reduces all damage types dealt to the Reaver by 9%. Continues to reduce Power cost of Area of Effect abilities.
* Binding of Affliction: Fixed a bug causing Binding of Affliction to enhance the damage done by Spotter’s Order.
* Flesh Rot: No longer reduces chance to hit on the target. Now reduces the Physical damage the target deals to the Reaver by 2% when under the effect of Flesh Rot. Value is increased based on the number of Reaver damage over time abilities the target has on it, to a maximum of 5.
* Cyclone Strike: Shifted to more of a threat-generation role. The threat generated has been increased, the number of targets it can hit is now 10 in a range of 10 meters, cooldown increased to 5 seconds, Power cost has been increased, now generates an Attack Point, and no longer counts as a Finisher ability.
* Imbued Armor: Now affects all damage types. Damage mitigation percentage scales from 0.5-3%.
* Shroud of Entropy: No longer requires Attack Points.
* Blood Fever: Can now trigger Void Knight’s Blood from a Stone ability.

RIFTBLADE
* Surging Energy: Fixed a bug causing 1 point in this ability to reduce the Power cost of the next ability by 75% instead of 25%.

VOID KNIGHT
* Fixed a bug causing Efficient Conversion to not properly alter the Power cost of certain abilities.
* Fixed a bug where damage shields such as Warlock Armor would trigger the counter on Fusion of Flesh, but not trigger the heal.
* Fusion of Flesh: Fixed a bug causing this to stick around after death.
* Surge: Now generates threat to nearby enemies when using Pact generating abilities. Due to this change, the damage of Discharge, Tempest, and Unstable Reaction have been increased slightly to make up for the loss of the increase Surge previously gave them.
* Rift Summon: Now acts like a taunt. Due to its high point requirements and long cooldown, it does not share an internal cooldown with other single-target taunts. Once again teleports the target.
* Discharge: Significantly increased threat caused by this ability.
* Singularity: Damage reduction is reduced from 50% to 35% but now reduces all incoming damage, not just Magical. No longer requires Attack Points.
* Accord of Emptiness: Now grants a Pact every 3 seconds. Now also has a 50% chance to refresh the cooldown on Rift Summon when the Void Knight is struck by a damaging spell. No longer grants damage mitigation to support the new ‘Gift’ ability enhancements.
* Ravenous Defense: No longer increases Armor. Reduces incoming damage, rebalanced to support the new ‘Gift’ ability enhancements. Fixed a bug causing this to not stack with Ravenous Strength.
* Tempest: Shifted to more of a threat-generation role. Threat generated has been increased, range increased to 10 meters, cooldown reduced to 5 seconds, and no longer requires you to have a target to use it. Changed the way that the secondary damage effect on Tempest is generated; it now generates an amount of damage per Pact that the Void Knight has active. No longer drains Pacts.
* Void: Rebalanced to support the new ‘Gift’ ability enhancements. Still reduces Physical and Magical damage.
* Devourer: Rebalanced to support the new ‘Gift’ ability enhancements. Still reduces Physical and Magical damage.
* Ravenous Strength: Now increases Strength based on how many points you’ve spent in Void Knight. Now properly stacks with Ravenous Defense.
* Rift Shield: Now absorbs all non-Physical damage instead of just Magical damage.
* Catalyze, Power Sink: No longer proc ‘Instability’ on the target; the 5% damage reduction this gave the Void Knight is now part of the new ‘Gift’ ability enhancements.
* Power Sink: Should now properly give Pacts.

WARLORD
* Spotter’s Orders is no longer a Call and no longer generates threat from Battlefield Awareness.
* Locked Down: Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds.
* Dramatic Presence: Now increases the self-effects of all Calls and Commands.
* All Aspects have been increased to meet their previous numbers due to the change to Dramatic Presence.
* Killing Field: Threat generation has been significantly increased.
* Battlefield Awareness: Threat generation rebalanced to fit into an intended role as an ambient threat generator. New burst-threat generators have been added to other abilities. Increased Dodge amount.
* Promise of Steel: Shifted to more of a threat-generation role. Threat generated has been increased, number of affected targets increased to 10 in a 10 meter range, cooldown set to 5 seconds, damage slightly reduced, and no longer requires a target to be used.
* Fixed a bug allowing Promise of Steel to trigger Light’s Decree.
* Call to Entrench: Self-buff bonuses have been rebalanced to work with the new ‘Gift’ ability enhancement.
* Rallying Command: Rebalanced the resistances on the self-buff component to work with the new ‘Gift’ ability enhancement.
* Powerful Countenance: Increased Armor buff.
* Imposing: Threat generation is now enhanced by Endurance. Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds.

DUNGEONS, SLIVERS, AND RAIDS
* Knockback abilities used by NPCs in Dungeons and Raids no longer re-orient your camera.
* The following dungeons now allow the use of mounts in outdoor areas:
- Abyssal Precipice, Charmer’s Caldera, Foul Cascade, Realm of the Fae, Runic Descent.

DROWNED HALLS [Sliver]
* Fixed an issue making it impossible to complete the Wave Goodbye achievement.
* Slightly increased the radius of the Hydrostatic Shock protection bubble so players gain its buff a bit faster on entering the bubble.

HAMMERKNELL [Raid]
* Player pets are now potential targets for the Bloodplague Crawler stacking damage buff.
* Soulrender Zilas’ minions no longer award experience when killed.
* The ‘Death’s Hand’ debuff cast by Runeburst Umbrals is now removed from characters leaving the instance.
* Achievement: Wait, What: Fixed a bug with this achievement!

RIVER OF SOULS [Raid]
* Herald Gaurath: It should no longer be possible to force Gaurath’s Icon of the Herald to spawn outside of the raid zone.

PvP & WARFRONTS
* Players in Warfronts should be more frequently matched against similarly ranked opponents. As always, feedback on your queue experience is welcome!
* Library of the Runemasters now has associated Achievements!
* The Codex: Fixed a case where Defiant characters could sneak into the Guardian spawn area.
* Guardian’s Flare and Defiant’s Flare Planar Abilities can no longer be used on the core area-hub Wardstones. [Only affects PvP shards, as this has never been usable on hub Wardstones on PvE shards.]

CHRONICLES
* You can now enter a Chronicle in a group that has been converted to a Raid, as long as the total size of the raid meets the player cap for the Chronicle.

ZONES

DROUGHTLANDS
* Ant Farm: Entering a Warfront while you’ve been polymorphed into an ant will now remove the effect.
* Thwarting the Emberlord: Quest should be soloable once again!

GLOAMWOOD
* A new Butchering trainer has taken up residence in Gloamwood Pines. Dan Lewis can be found near Dursk Nightclaw.
* Declawed: The Razor Sharp Claw item is now a 100% drop from Goremouth.

IRON PINE PEAKS
* Frozen Gauntlet: Fixed a case where players in a group could fail the quest after completing the objectives.
* The quests ‘In Over His Head’ and ‘Dark Heart’ should no longer be blocked by nearby Rifts.
* Logging out in the Forge area of the Chancel of Labors should no longer cause you to be magically teleported to the Guardian or Defiant camps when you log back in.

SCARLET GORGE
* Moved the Deranged Cadaver out of some rocks that would occasionally hide it.

SCARWOOD REACH
* Rift: Neverending Labyrinth: Fixed an issue where the player who gains first aggro on the boss was unable to ever lose aggro from it.
* The achievement, Mushroom Soup, should now be granted MUCH more reliably.

SHIMMERSAND
* Cleansing of Firesand: Updated the quest objectives so this daily quest should make more sense now!
* Quests involving Rifts in the Dunes of Akala now provide the Rift Lure for the required Rift.

STILLMOOR
* Sir Isaac Kasimir will no longer single-handedly tank the hordes of Endless Invasions during some zone events in Stillmoor.
* The zone event, An Eye for an Eye, should conclude more reliably.

CULT SAGA
* The Heart of the Destroyer: The Shade of Regulos in Expert King’s Breach should be a bit less Regulos-enhanced and actually killable now!
* Enchanted Wood: This quest has been merged into the preceding quest, ‘A Token of the Fae’.

ITEMS
* Added a wider range of weapons to the Epic Planar Goods vendors.
* Manastones have been fixed so they correctly apply their bonus to your maximum mana.
* Improved the way we count how many items are currently equipped in an item set.
* Ancient Murdantix Spawn [Item]: The mount item is no longer Unique, meaning you can properly acquire and trade or sell additional ‘Murdantii’ after you’ve collected one yourself.
* Blighted Champion Crystal: The set bonuses on this crystal were accidentally set to the wrong order – the 2 piece bonus is now the 4 piece bonus, and vice versa.
* Dusty Treasure Hunter’s Satchel can no longer be sold on the Auction House.
* Hunter Shard: This lesser Essence now has Attack Power rather than Spell Power.
* Nyx’s Archon Crystal: Fixed a bug where the buff would not be removed when the Crystal was unequipped.
* Nyx’s Necromancer Crystal: Also fixed Elemental pets triggering the 2-piece bonus effect. Description has been updated to help clarify that only Undead pets trigger the effect.
* Nyx’s Pyromancer Crystal: The 2-piece set bonus now increases the chance for Fireball to leave a Combust DoT effect on the target by 10%, and increases the damage done by the Combust DoT by 40%. The 4-piece bonus causes Heat Wave to increase Fire damage by 20% while active, increases the duration of Heat Wave by 5 seconds, and reduces the cooldown by 15 seconds.
* Pulverizing Stonesource and Igneous Stonesource were giving an incorrect amount of Spell Critical Hit bonus and have been corrected.
* Sanctum’s Word: Now with Spell Power.
* Shadepiercer: Updated icon and equipped renderable.
* Voucher: Crystal Sourcestone will now give Inscribed Sourcestones rather than Crystal Sourcestones (which are no longer used).

CRAFTING
* Clarified the description of the Apprentice/Journeyman/Dedicated/Artisan/Supreme Harvester Achievements to specify that only Mining and Foraging count for ‘harvesting’.
* The recipe for Polished Shadethorn Lumber now properly uses Sagebrush Timber instead of Sagebrush Lumber.
* You can now mine Earth Elemental, Oreling, and Golem corpses.
* You can now forage Treant and Bogling corpses.
* Thwarting Runes will no longer display as ‘Thwarting Cipher’ when applied to an item.
* Recipe: Sacred Fetish now requires 280 skill to learn, which matches the skill required to craft it.
* Heroic Healing Tonics and Bright Surge Vials no longer share the same icon.
* Light Magenta Dye is now crafted at a level that gives skillups at the point you are able to learn the recipe.

ART AND AUDIO
* Improved and optimized some surfaces for players using the low-quality renderer mode for better visuals!
* Improved reflections added to many kinds of water in the game (for high-graphics settings), and improved the coloring when looking down into the water, especially in shallow areas.
* Sanctum outdoor music now plays more often.
* General area music should kick back in more reliably after exiting combat.
* Fixed the Spindrel mount’s footstep audio not playing correctly.
* More swimming camera work – can now swim up easier when the camera is at the sea floor level, smarter character-hiding logic when the camera gets very close to your character, and now treats the top of the water like ground and will pitch appropriately.

MACROS AND COMMANDS
* Changed setting window text for “Show Only my Buffs” to refer to party members instead of “on the target”, as it was described incorrectly.

UI/SETTINGS
* Porticulum locations now appear on the world map once discovered.
* Fixed the scrolling reset to the top of the list in the Guild UI whenever the data is refreshed.
* Trying to link items in a Raid Warning no longer displays box characters.
* Fixed a case where the Healer role icon on a group member’s portrait would disappear after rearranging the group order.
* Quest tracker should be less likely to overlap other quests on your screen.
* The ‘Daily Limit’ number shown on the quest log should now properly update each time a repeatable quest is turned in.
* RiftConnect: Sending and receiving Twitter messages including the ‘=’ character works properly again!
* Fixed a rare case where an incorrect tooltip would show up on Role icons.
* Added a bunch of new loading screen tips to highlight new features!
* Fixed Party and Pet raid frame locations being labeled backwards in the Edit Layout mode.
* Characters level 6 and below who have not spent their Soul Points will have a reminder pop-up of the Soul Tree UI once per play session while out of combat. Those points are important, use ‘em!

Gears of War 3 Title Update 2 Drops – What it Fixed

Garrett Hartman — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 05:00:04 +0000

Epic Games has delivered the second major title update for Gears of War 3 in as many months. While some gamers have complained about the online exprience as too ‘noob friendly’ there is no denying that online matches have run much more smoothly when compared to the disappointing Gears of War 2 debacle.

Accompanying this update are exciting new fixes and improvements. A new spectator mode has been added, a few exploits fixed, and quite a few general issues are addressed.

Here are the full patch notes below courtesy of the Epic Forums:

Improvements

A spectator mode option has been added to private versus matches for broadcasting by gaming leagues.
- One player on each team will be able to choose spectator mode during match set up.
- The matches will be 4v4 with two spectators
The Leader and Vengeful medals are now easier to acquire.
The mutators Roadie Comet and Regen Enemies are now easier to acquire.
Added an option to disable the HUD during multiplayer games for machinima and video creators
Added a visual indicator of the next ring’s location during the last 10 ring points in KOTH.

Exploit Fixes

The Onyx Field Engineer medal can no longer be prestiged.
In Capture the Leader, the overhead Beams on DryDock are no longer accessible.
While affected by the Smoke Grenade stun, players will no longer be able to take hostages, pick up weapons or revive teammates.

General Fixes

If there is a host migration during Horde, the match will resume at the same wave.
Also during Horde, the Combat Engineer ribbon can now be achieved once per wave instead of once per game.
The Ranked Disconnect stat will no longer increase when quitting a standard Horde or Beast game.
The cringe from the Mortar will no longer cause players to drop their primary weapon.
The Hail Mary ribbon is now correctly awarded for long distance Boomshot headshots.
Maps will no longer be immediately repeated when choosing random map selection.
If the host pauses during a private versus match the game will continue for other players.

The game will still pause in the Campaign, Beast and Horde.

Potential fix for the rare lost progress issue.
Potential fix for the rare profile freezing issue.
Beast leaderboard screen no longer refreshes while sending challenges

Dead Island PS3, Xbox 360 Patch – Full Patch Notes and Fixes

Garrett Hartman — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:56:45 +0000

Deep Silver will release a new Dead Island patch this week for the PS3 and Xbox 360. These patches will contain many new fixes and improvements including raising the level cap to 60 and fixing many weapon/item equipment glitches.

The PS3 should recieve the patch on November 9 with the Xbox 360 following on the 10th.

Check out the patch notes below:

Gameplay improvements

Level cap raised to 60
New blueprints for weapon mods added
Infected damage reduced
Infected no longer interrupt player attacks
A series of improvements to subsequent playthroughs implemented:
quest XP rewards adjusted
XP rewards for challenges adjusted – in subsequent playthroughs XP is awarded for all quests completed in co-op
Purna’s ammo carrying capacity increased by 50%
Character state from a save game can now be loaded when using the Start from Chapter option
New balancing option added: enemy levels can now be adjusted independently for each co-op player
Players respawn with more health
Picklock skill level required to open a lock is now clearly indicated
Improved rewards in weapon crates
All weapon crates now contain rewards
Kick ability balanced, now requires stamina
Items can now be picked up instantly; this is reflected in adjusted animations

Fixes and interface improvements

Fix: players are no longer left without a weapon after dropping the equipped item and healing with a medkit.
Fix: equipped items no longer swap mysteriously after drinking an energy drink
Tweak: healing with medkits from inventory works better, makes smarter choices of medkits
Fix: loot from dead enemies is now always identical for all co-op players
Fix: Purna no longer finishes her Fury with fists equipped
Fix: map tracking after death
Fix: zone info in the quarantine zone (City of Moresby)
Tweak: respawn point selection is now smarter

General

Improved stability and network performance in co-op
Quest and reward fixes implemented

RAGE Gets Massive PC Patch (Notes)

Dave Oshry — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:16:17 +0000

As you may or may not know, the PC launch of id software‘s RAGE didn’t exactly go smoothly.

Lack of visual options, massively slow texture loading/pop in and the game being all but unplayable for AMD/ATi users led people to believe that id had truly given up on their PC roots. Well, that may or may not be true, but the game has gotten a massive patch anyway, here are the notes:

RAGE Patch Release Notes – October 8th 2011
——————————————-

RAGE defaults to lower video settings to allow the game to work on a
wide variety of hardware and software configurations.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to anticipate all possible graphics
driver issues in combination with unique end user hardware and software
configurations. For this reason RAGE does not automatically increase
video/graphics settings as this could result in negative side effects
on specific hardware and software configurations. The original release
of RAGE does not expose many video/graphics options for people to tweak
because some of these settings, although desirable from a quality
perspective, simply will not work on specific configurations either due
to hardware limitations and/or driver bugs. Due to popular demand for
more video and graphics options, this patch updates the video settings
menu and exposes several quality and performance settings. However, not
everyone may be able to increase the settings due to hardware limitations
and/or driver bugs.

VSync
—–

The new “VSync” option in the video settings menu allows you to remove
screen tearing. There are three options: ON, OFF and SMART.

When VSync is turned OFF you may experience screen tearing.

When VSync is turned ON you should not see screen tearing. However,
any time your frame rate drops below 60 frames per second you will
get a sudden more severe drop to 30 frames per second. This is how VSync
inherently works. If your computer cannot maintain 60 frames per
second and you miss the synchronization to the vertical retrace of
your monitor then you will miss a whole frame and synchronize to
the next frame instead.

Some graphics drivers now support a so called “swap-tear” extension.
You can try using this extension by setting VSync to SMART.
If your graphics driver supports this extension and you set VSync
to SMART then RAGE will synchronize to the vertical retrace of
your monitor when your computer is able to maintain 60 frames per
second and the screen may tear if your frame rate drops below 60 frames
per second. In other words the SMART VSync option trades a sudden drop
to 30 frames per second with occasional screen tearing. Occasional
screen tearing is usually considered less distracting than a more
severe drop in frame rate.

If your graphics driver does not support SMART VSync and you set VSync
to SMART in the video settings then RAGE will automatically fall back to
turning VSync OFF and you may experience screen tearing. The “swap-tear”
extension is brand new and may still present some issues on certain
graphics hardware. If you experience any problems using SMART Vsync
then set VSync to either ON or OFF. We are actively working with the
graphics hardware vendors to improve the “swap-tear” extension.

If changing VSync in the RAGE video settings menu does not appear to
make any difference then make sure you are not overriding the VSync
setting in the graphics vendor control panel. You can find the
graphics vendor control panel by right-clicking on the Windows desktop
and selecting the ” control panel” option from the pop-up menu.

If you force VSync to the ‘on’ setting in the graphics vendor control
panel then you should not see any screen tearing in RAGE but you may
get a more severe drop in frame rate if your computer cannot maintain
60 frames per second.

If you force VSync to the ‘off’ setting in the graphics vendor control
panel then you may experience screen tearing no matter what setting you
use for the VSync option in the RAGE video settings menu.

Texture Cache
————-

The new “Texture Cache” option in the video settings menu allows you
to increase the texture cache size to keep more texture data in
video memory.

If the Texture Cache is set to LARGE then RAGE will keep more texture
data in video memory. This may not only significantly reduce blurry
textures and texture popping, it will also allow complex scenes to be
rendered with more texture detail.

However, this may not work on computers that do not have enough system
or video memory, or you may experience a significant drop in performance.
If you experience issues due to hardware limitations you will have to set
the Texture Cache back to SMALL.

If after changing the Texture Cache to LARGE you experience a crash or
texture corruption (like a partially or completely blue world) then
the graphics driver may have run out of memory.

We are actively working with the graphics card vendors to resolve
any crashes.

If you do not experience a crash but you see texture corruption then you
may be able to get the large Texture Cache to work by accepting the change
and restarting the game. If you still experience texture corruption after
restarting the game you will have to set the Texture Cache back to SMALL.

You may also be able to improve the memory situation on your computer by
changing the Windows paging file management. Note that making changes to
the Windows paging file management may change the performance characteristics
of your computer. Any changes you make to your system configuration are
at your own risk. Always make backups of your system and revert these
changes if you notice undesirable side effects.

To change the paging file management on Windows Vista and Windows 7, first
press the “Start” button, then right-click on “Computer” and then select
“Properties” from the popup menu. Then select “Advanced system settings”
on the window that appears. Select the “Advanced” tab on the
“System Properties” window that is displayed and press the “Settings”
button under “Performance”. Select the “Advanced” tab on the
“Performance Options” window that shows up next and press the
“Change…” button under “Virtual memory”. Now uncheck the option
“Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” and make
sure that the option “System managed size” is selected on the
“Virtual Memory” window. Confirm the change by pressing the “OK” button
on each window. After making this change you will have to restart your
computer for the change to take effect.

To change the paging file management on Windows XP, first press the
“Start” button, then right-click on “My Computer” and then select
“Properties” from the popup menu. Select the “Advanced” tab on the
“System Properties” window that is displayed and press the “Settings”
button under “Performance”. Select the “Advanced” tab on the
“Performance Options” window that shows up next and press the “Change”
button under “Virtual memory”. Make sure that the option
“System managed size” is selected on the “Virtual Memory” window.
Confirm the change by pressing the “OK” button on each window.
After making this change you will have to restart your computer for
the change to take effect.

Anisotropic Filter
——————

The new “Anisotropic Filter” option in the video settings menu allows
you to increase the anisotropic texture filtering.

Anisotropic filtering is a method to enhance the image quality of
textures on surfaces that are at oblique viewing angles.

The anisotropic texture filtering in RAGE defaults to a low value to
accommodate for low-end graphics hardware. However, the anisotropic
filtering can be increased for high-end graphics hardware by setting
the Anistropic Filter option to HIGH in the video settings menu.

Do not force anisotropic filtering to the ‘on’ setting in the graphics
vendor control panel because this may cause rendering artifacts in
the game.

Note that increasing the anisotropic filtering may improve the
texture quality while it may also decrease the frame rate.

Patch Changes / Fixes
———————

- Implemented workaround for AMD driver crash right after intro cinematic
on Win 7 32-bit systems.
- Disabled UBOs because they are causing animation issues with AMD drivers.
- Don’t allow swap-tear to be enabled on AMD while the extension is not
exposed because it may crash.
- Support for new video settings: “texture cache”, “vsync” and
“anisotropic filter”
- Automatically adjust vt_maxPPF based on the number of available cores.
- Improved performance for SLI cards when GPU transcode is enabled.
- Fix for GPU Transcoding option being disabled after exiting gameplay.
- Added safe mode to restore video settings to default values.
- Allow g_fov to be changed from the RAGE launch options in Steam.
- Server now forwards text chat from clients to all other clients while
in-game.

Known Graphical Issues
———————-

The following issues were found using NVIDIA graphics hardware with
the GeForce R285 Driver or AMD graphics hardware with the AMD Catalyst
11.10 Version 2 Preview Driver.

- If you turn up both the screen resolution and anti-aliasing settings
to high values in the video settings menu and/or you enable
“GPU Transcode” then the screen may no longer update on some hardware
configurations. This means your system does not have the necessary
video memory to run with these high settings. You can re-enter the video
settings menu and lower your settings to restart screen updates.

- If you turn up both the screen resolution and anti-aliasing settings
to high values in the video settings menu you may experience a crash
if your system does not have the necessary memory to run with these
high settings. To avoid this problem you will have to re-enter the
video settings menu to lower the settings. If you can no longer launch
the game after changing the video settings to high values you can add
the following to your RAGE launch options in Steam:

+com_safemode 1

The launch options can be found by right-clicking on RAGE in Steam
and selecting “Properties”. Then click on “Set Launch Options” in
the dialog that pops up. Adding this option will reset your video
settings to the default values the next time the game is launched.
When the game is launched in safe mode the game will show “safe mode”
in the corners of the screen. Do not forget to remove the safe mode
launch option after launching the game once to make sure you do not
lose your video settings each time you launch the game.

- Using a NVIDIA graphics card on Windows XP 32-bit or XP 64-bit, you
may experience a crash or hang when changing the screen resolution in
full screen mode or switching from windowed mode to full screen mode.
This has been identified as a graphics driver problem. We have spent
significant effort trying to work around this problem and were
successful in reducing the frequency of occurrence but a driver update
is necessary to completely fix the problem. We are actively working with
NVIDIA to make a solution to this problem available as soon as possible.

- Using an AMD graphics card, you may experience black flickering
artifacts on flags, banners and zip-lines if you run in full screen
mode. This has been identified as a graphics driver problem. We are
actively working with AMD on a solution to this problem.

- Using an AMD graphics card, you may experience black grid lines on
some graphical user interface (GUI) elements like the in-game mini-map.
This has been identified as a graphics driver problem. We are actively
working with AMD on a solution to this problem. If you find the grid
lines particularly distracting, you can add the following to the RAGE
launch options in Steam as a temporary workaround.

+vt_maxAniso 1

The launch options can be found by right-clicking on RAGE in Steam
and selecting “Properties”. Then click on “Set Launch Options” in
the dialog that pops up. However, note that adding this setting will
lower the general texture quality in the game.

- If you have an AMD graphics card with a dual core CPU system you may
experience severe hitching and low frame rates. This has been
identified as a driver problem. We are actively working with AMD on
a solution to this problem. As a temporary workaround you may add the
following to the RAGE launch options in Steam:

+jobs_numThreads 0

The launch options can be found by right-clicking on RAGE in Steam
and selecting “Properties”. Then click on “Set Launch Options” in
the dialog that pops up.

- If you are running RAGE in full-screen mode and you ALT-TAB to a
different application you may lose your VSync setting. When you
switch to a different application VSync stops functioning.
RAGE detects that VSync is no longer working and automatically switches
back to synchronizing to real-time to make sure the game time advances
in a consistent manner. We are actively working with the graphics
vendors on a solution to this problem.

Has this patch fixed your problems? Are you happy now? Still going to send that angry letter to John Carmack?

For more on RAGE, be sure to check out the RipTen Review!!

via [Steam]

Behold The Full Patch Notes For The Witcher 2, Version 2.0

Dave Oshry — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:00:27 +0000

CDProjekt was not satisfied to simply release their critically acclaimed RPG, The Witcher 2: Assassin’s of Kings and let it be. No, they wanted to make it even better.

In steps The Witcher 2… Version 2.0. The list of additions, changes and tweaks being made to the game is so massive, they might as well have called it, The Witcher 2, Version 6.7.

BEHOLD!!

Arena – is a new gameplay mode that is separate from the main adventure and narrative of The Witcher 2. In this mode, Geralt of Rivia duels a variety of foes to the death in a gladiatorial arena located in an unnamed town somewhere in the Northern Kingdoms. In addition to winning gold and valuable items, players also receive points for their wins. They can then post their point totals on-line to compare their achievements against those of other blood sport enthusiasts around the world. Geralt can encounter both foes and allies in the arena. He can recruit the latter for a fee to assist him during his most challenging clashes.
To post your point totals to the forum, you must be registered and have a forum account! Register and establish your account directly through the game launcher or go to www.thewitcher.com. You can then log in to your account via the launcher.
IMPORTANT: Players using mods to alter their character attributes and statistics will not be able to post their point totals from the arena to the server. This is a necessary precaution to prevent any attempts at distorting competition or misrepresenting player achievements.

Tutorial – The game tutorial takes the form of a brief adventure during which players learn how to use a range of game mechanics and functionalities. Assuming the role of game protagonist Geralt of Rivia, players save a wounded knight named Bolton of Ironford while learning game controls as well as the basics of combat and alchemy. This transpires step by step as the tutorial guides players through a series of minor missions. Upon completion, based on demonstrated abilities, the tutorial recommends the difficulty level which the player should choose in embarking on the main adventure of The Witcher 2.

Dark Difficulty – The “Dark” difficulty setting is the most demanding difficulty level in gameplay terms. Under this setting, each and every foe represents a significant challenge. In addition to raising the difficulty bar, the module includes several new sets of equipment/items that are linked through a dark legend detailed in the Journal. Once all their components have been collected and donned, the Blasphemer‟s, Oathbreaker‟s and Kinslayer‟s outfits provide great advantages in combat. The swords included in the outfits strip opponents of Vitality while supplementing the witcher’s. However, given that they are cursed, the swords provide no benefit and harm Geralt by sapping him of Vitality as long as the outfits to which they belong remain incomplete.

As if those three additions weren’t enough – here is the list of fixes and changes to the game itself:

Version 2.0 Corrections/Amendments

Corrections and improvements to combat:
1. Numerous improvements have been made in the targeting system.
2. Parrying is now unlimited (even when Vigor is completely depleted), though parries no longer cancel all damage (maximum 50% reduction once the relevant ability has been acquired).
3. Responsiveness of game controls has been improved. This includes but is not limited to casting Signs, parrying, and attacking immediately after evading an opponent‟s assault.
4. Geralt‟s attacks are no longer interrupted by attacking opponents. Attacks are now contiguous and foes cannot interrupt Geralt‟s attacks by landing a blow.
5. Assorted fixes now prevent opponents from incessantly attacking Geralt after he has been knocked down. Geralt can no longer be knocked down repeatedly in quick succession. Also, he rises quickly while evading subsequent attacks.
6. Geralt no longer attacks opponents located behind other opponents positioned nearer to him.
7. The target locking system has been improved. Preference is now given to previously highlighted targets.
8. Target selection has been improved. Priority is now given to foes affected by a critical effect facilitating the completion of a finishing move.
9. The additional two steps Geralt took after mounting an attack with the W, S, A or D key depressed have been eliminated.
10. Attacks can now be continued even when a key controlling Geralt‟s movement (e.g. W, S, A, D) is depressed.
11. Attacks can now be continued if the attack key is depressed immediately after the final strike of an attack animation sequence.
12. Geralt can now pivot 180 degrees immediately after completing an attack.
13. Assorted problems with key responsiveness have been resolved. Keys no longer need to be depressed twice or more to trigger a given action.
14. A distance attack problem has been resolved. Geralt now mounts distance attacks (lunge with sword in hand in the Fast style) when opponents were located at a suitable distance from him.
Other corrections and amendments:
15. Casting several bombs no longer blocks further inputs.
16. An option has been added to the configuration tool enabling aspect ratio to be set independently of resolution.
17. The amount of disk space required for game patching has been reduced.
18. The loading of selected Witcher 1 game saves no longer causes the game to crash.
19. A greater number of monsters now appear in the cave leading to Loc Muinne.
20. Improvements have been made in the manner in which monsters are spawned in the mist in Chapter 2.
21. The visual effect accompanying Adrenaline use no longer disappears prematurely.
22. Archers now draw their swords more quickly when Geralt approaches.
23. Mages no longer automatically cast shield spells when Geralt casts daggers at them.
24. The game is now paused when Geralt executes a finishing move in combat.
25. The troll in Chapter 2 has been corrected. Previously, in some circumstances he could not be attacked.
26. Physics on cast daggers have been improved.
27. The site for aiming daggers is now more visible.
28. Geralt‟s animation when he dies while casting the Axii Sign has been corrected.
29. An exploit in the fight against Letho has been eliminated. Previously, this foe could be killed by casting bombs in quick succession.
30. An exploit related to the “Insane” difficulty setting has been eliminated. Previously, game saves could be loaded with difficulty set to this level, which was contrary to design intentions.
31. Camera positioning/operation has been corrected during the boss fight against the kayran.
32. Camera control via gamepads has been improved.
33. Assorted adjustments have been made in mutagen statistics.
34. The “Junk” filter in the Inventory has been adjusted to provide for correct item filtering.
35. In the Inventory, the dialogue window warning of prohibited actions has been corrected.
36. Assorted corrections have been introduced to the mini-map in Chapter 1.
37. Audio balance throughout the game has been adjusted.
38. Erratic character teleportation in mini–games has been eliminated.
39. Assorted adjustments have been made in animations applying to nekkers.
40. A minor bug in the “Scent of Incense” quest has been resolved.
41. Numerous minor fixes have been introduced in character lip-sync throughout the game

So, there you have it. From what I’ve read above, CDProjekt has addressed damn near every complaint PC gamers had about The Witcher 2. I’m impressed. If more developers were like CDP… well, more developers would be like CDP.

For more on The Witcher 2: Assassin’s of Kings, be sure to check out the RipTen Review.

Version 2.0 goes live on September 29th. Hey, that’s tomorrow!

LotRO: Rise of Isengard Patch Notes Now Available

Jensen Walker — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:01:00 +0000

In preparation for tomorrow’s Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard expansion, Turbine has released patch notes detailing the changes. Players can look forward to the level cap being raised to 75, hundreds of new quests and deeds, three new zones to explore (Dunland, the Gap of Rohan, and Isengard) and a new raid involving a fight against the dragon Draigoch. Skirmish traits will now be able to rank up to the new max of 35 and stat and itemization changes have been made.

Lore followers are also rewarded with one of the largest Book quest lines to date and crafters will feel the love too, with improvements being made to profession advancement and an abundance of new recipes available. Additionally, the Reaver monster class will be playable to those with premium and free accounts alike, and all nine classes have undergone changes and received new and improved skills.

All in all, it looks like some fairly substantial changes will be taking place once the patch goes live. Those I’ve mentioned above only scratch the surface. To peruse the full patch notes and prepare for tomorrow’s launch, just click here.

Deep Silver Drops an Update on the Dead Island Steam Issues (Patch Notes and Promises)

Dave Oshry — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 22:31:32 +0000

Earlier today, we reported that Deep Silver somehow accidentally released a 360 dev build as the PC version of Dead Island on Steam. This build was not only extremely buggy, but caused serious issues such as the deletion of all of your saved games. Well, the official and proper version has now been released and Deep Silver has issued a statement.

Here it is in its entirety:

· First, the correct version of the title is now available on Steam and fans are able to download it now.

· Second, the day 1 patch notes in their entirety are below. Please note that the lists circulating around the internet in the past day were not final. Also note that this update may cause incompatibilities between the incorrect version of Dead Island that was released and the fixed version and cause a wipe on saved games. We tried every avenue possible in order to avoid fans having to wipe their saved games and it’s important that fans are made aware of this ASAP. However, we have a solution to help regain some quest progress: When the game opens, select New Game -> Select the same character as you were using before, and then there will be an option for “Chapter Select” which will allow the player to jump to the last chapter they were playing in.

· Third, Deep Silver plans to announce a “make up” to fans who were affected by the day 1 PC issues, stay tuned in coming days for those details as internal discussions are ongoing on our end.

· Fourth, the Bloodbath DLC is still on schedule as planned – fans who preordered the title will still receive the Bloodbath DLC when it launches (date TBA shortly!) as stated previously.

· Fifth, we are aware of The Ripper activation bug which will not load as a result of the version update and this will be fixed in the next game update, coming soon.

Again, we are deeply sorry for the inconvenience caused to fans who wanted to spend their day crushing some zombie skulls. We are right there with you.

Fair enough. At least the issues are being addressed asap.

Here are the official and final day one patch notes:

Dead Island Patch Notes

Multiplayer and Matchmaking improvements
· Maps are now correctly synchronized when player joins during map loading
· Games now filter correctly in lobby
· After joining a coop game enemies now spawn correctly

User guidance improved. (Quest guidance, UI, shop)
Additional Interface polishing
· Map tracking now works correctly after loading checkpoints
· Health and stamina bars of enemies now display correctly in coop.
· Locations of invisible NPCs are no longer shown
· More than one player can now use the same ladder simultaneously
· Focus on items in shops is not changing after operation (sell, buy)
· Additional Interface polishing
· Fixed displaying gather rings near some door

Player death behavior improved
· Respawn position now saved when playing in cooperative mode
· If player dies whilst inside vehicle, menu will now be hidden

Save game mechanics extended
· Added distinction between quest checkpoints and other saves

Minor animation fixes
· AI animation now displays correctly after fast travel or travel through portals

AI improvements
· Improved enemy awareness (zombies)
· Enemies reaction to fire adapted
· Enemies are now able to successfully reach player on some arenas
· Shooting enemies no longer spawn infinitely

Balancing changes in difficulty
· Item level will be calculated correctly when playing in second playthrough
· Kick interrupting reload now adapted; after clip is inserted reload is treated as successful
· Health regeneration is now disabled during grab.
· More HP for all escorted NPCs
· Removed all instances of Butcher during escorts
· Purna can gain bonus rage from both “Grim Inspiration” and “Inspiring Kick”
· Only “Walker” type enemies increase the extra XP of the “Combo” skill from Xian’s Survival skill tree

Pause Option added
· Added information about players requesting pause (Co-op)

Looting rules improved
· Thrown items now cannot be picked up by another player for 5 minutes.
· Items from just-opened containers cannot be picked up by another player for 5 seconds.

Minor graphical glitches fixed.
· Rectified occasional graphical glitch with NPC’s hands bending awkwardly
· Animations now display correctly when trading
· Stomper animation now displays correctly when same target is hit by another player

Sound bugs fixed
· Volume of pickup’s engine has been increased

Quest bugs removed
· All side quests in Laboratory can now be successfully completed
· Potential walkthrough blocker removed when quest “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” is completed before talking to Dominik during “On the air” quest

So, there you have it. However, how will Deep Silver make it up to the people who were affected by these issues? I believe a free copy of Risen 1 or some free Risen 2 DLC is in order!!

In the meantime, be sure to check out the RipTen Review of Dead Island on Xbox 360 (that version totally works)

Stay tuned.

Uncharted 3: Multiplayer Beta Update 1.04 – What It Fixed

Garrett Hartman — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:55:40 +0000

Yep, Naughty Dog is on top of it again as they release update 1.04 for the Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta. Although this time the changes are slight and fix an issue some players would rather keep.

Been enjoying the Beta? Yeah, I know… Uncharted 3 Drake’s Deception can’t come out soon enough!

Here are Patch Notes direct from Naughty Dog Below:

1.04 Update - Available June 8, 2011:

Technical

Fixed an issue with the Facebook friends list where it would display duplicate and/or incorrect PSN IDs for some players
Fixed an issue where some players would gain cash/XP during the playback of some Cinema files

Wakfu Beta Patch Adds Two New Character Classes

Danielle Cantrell — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:09:43 +0000

Square-Enix has announced that a new Wakfu closed beta patch has been released, and with it, two new character classes: the Enutrof and the Ecaflip.

The Enutrof is a treasure hunter, equipped with a shovel and plenty of kamas, while the Ecaflip is a gambler. Both classes are essentially luck-based.

Another result of this patch is that a new hair style has been added to each class and gender, as well as a plethora of changes to animations, bug fixes, and a new political system. Unfortunately for players of the beta, a full character database wipe was required to ensure that none of the bugs leaked through the patch.

Lame.

For full details on all the changes (there are many) click here.

Check our own beta preview of Wakfu to learn more!

Call of Duty: Black Ops PC Patch Released – What It Fixed

Bryce Wilson — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 05:20:12 +0000

Treyarch has recently released yet another PC patch for their latest entry into the long running Call of Duty series. Curious to see what it fixed? Well check out the patch notes below;

Backward compatibility for films created before Patch 1.05
Issues with weapon purchases after prestiging in some cases
Leaving a server and joining a different server, could briefly show the Map of the previous server
Duplicate player name on a server now becomes playername+slotnumber instead of ‘Unknown Soldier’
During a ‘Demolition’ match, the ‘Auto-balancing teams’ options may cause a ‘Defender’ player to respawn with a ‘Bomb’ icon in his inventory
Minor Shader Warming speed increase
One In The Chamber no longer counts democlient as a live player
16x AA menu option for compatible graphics cards
Additional Stability improvements

Are you a PC Black Ops Player? If so have any of these fixes helped the performance of your game? Let us know or tell me directly via Twitter – @DrjftGaming.

Fallout: New Vegas Patch Brings Big Fixes (Full List)

Dave Oshry — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:11:50 +0000

New Vegas version 1.1.1 is here!! Your companions will now disappear less!! Also, that whole corrupted save thing has been fixed … woot!!

Behold the patch notes from Steam:

Fallout: New Vegas – Version 1.1.1

Companions now show up as waypoints on the map

Companions will always fast travel with you, unless told to wait or sent away

Fix: DLC error/save corruption

Fix: Stuttering with water effects

Fix: Severe performance issues with DirectX.

Fix: Controls temporarily disabled after reloading Cowboy Repeater while crouched

Fixed crash using the Euclid C-Finder while having the Heave Ho perk

Fix: Entering the strip after Debt Collector causes crash and autosave corruption

Fix: Using Mojave Express dropbox can cause DLC warnings

Fixed crash when buying duplicate caravan cards from a vendor in a single transaction

Crafting menu should filter valid (bright) recipes to the top of the list

Fix: Sitting down while looking down a weapon’s ironsights leaves player control locked

Fix: If a companion is knocked unconscious with broken limbs they stay broken on respawn

Fix for varmint night scope effect persisting in kill cam

Fix for giving companions armor that adds STR does not increase their carry weight

Fix NPC Repair menu displays DAM as DPS

Having NPC repair service rifle with forged receiver decreases CND

So there you have it. Fallout: New Vegas: Getting even better, one patch at a time.

World of Warcraft 3.2 PTR Patch Notes

Chad Lakkis — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:36:16 +0000

The latest batch of World of Warcraft PTR Patch notes are in, and the 3.2.0 patch features a few changes that will likely be viewed as welcome improvements.

In addition to the class changes, 3.2 will also enhance the in-game professions of WoW players. Miners will get more health from toughness, Skinners will see an increase in crit rating, and that 100 Dalaran cooking award chef hat will increase your cooking speed. Chef Flash to the rescue!

See the rest of the changes after the jump.

General

Construction of the Crusaders’ Coliseum is complete. Testing not yet available. New raid normal and heroic modes for the Crusaders’ Coliseum can be toggled using the Dungeon Difficulty setting. This applies to 10 and 25 player versions. 10 player (normal), 25 player (normal), 10 player (heroic) and 25 player (heroic) all share separate raid lockout timers.
- Trial of the Champion
  - 5 player (normal and heroic mode) dungeon.
  - Daily quest added to the heroic daily dungeon quest giver.
- Trial of the Crusader
  - 10 and 25 player (normal mode) raid dungeon.
- Trial of the Grand Crusader
  - 10 and 25 player (heroic mode) raid dungeon.
  - Crusaders’ Tribute: Active on heroic difficulty only, the tribute system will limit players on the number of attempts the raid is allotted each week. Additional rewards can be earned depending on the number of attempts left in the tribute run each week when the final boss is defeated.
Isle of Conquest, the new 40 vs. 40 player siege-style battleground is now available for testing.
- Two level brackets are available: 71-79 and 80.
- Defend the walls of your keep and protect your general by killing enemy players and destroying their siege vehicles.
- Capture the Docks, Airship Hangar, or Siege Workshop for access to destructive siege vehicles or strategic attacks on your enemy’s base.
- Capture the Oil Derrick or Cobalt Mine for their resources to garner reinforcements and a steady flow of bonus honor.
- To claim victory, bust through the enemy’s keep walls (or find other ways to get inside) and kill their general, or obliterate your opponents until their reinforcements are depleted.
The Argent Tournament Expands
- All new Argent Crusader daily quests and rewards have been added for players with the Crusader title. Rewards include a new Argent Crusader banner and tabard (which can port players to the tournament grounds), a mounted squire (can periodically run bank, mail or vendor errands for the player), a paladin-exclusive Argent Crusader Charger mount, and new heirloom items.
- All new Silver Covenant and Sunreaver daily quests and rewards have been added for players exalted with these factions. Rewards include tabards, new ground and flying mounts, and a new pet.
- The Black Knight returns. Follow the continued story line as the saga unfolds before you.
New druid art for cat and bear forms has been added. There are now five unique color schemes for each form and faction. Changing hair color (night elves) or skin tone (tauren) via the barbershop will change the look of one’s cat and bear forms.
Portals from Orgrimmar and Stormwind have been added leading players to the Stair of Destiny at the Dark Portal. Once there, players can access a flight path directly from the Stair of Destiny to Shattrath.
A new zeppelin docking ramp has been added to Thunder Bluff allowing Horde players easier transport to and from Orgrimmar.
The local Postal Service has grown tired of walking so far each day to collect mail and have decided to install a large number of new mailboxes to Stormwind, Undercity, Darnassus and Orgrimmar.
Northrend Children’s Week has arrived in Dalaran! Players can find out more by visiting the Eventide District.
Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

PvP

Arenas
- The newest season of Arena gear can only be purchased if you meet the requirements with your 3 or 5 player team rating. Rating requirements from 2 player teams can still be used to purchase the previous season of gear.
- Dalaran Sewers
  - The entire Arena has increased in size by 25%.
  - Mounts can now be used in this Arena.
  - The position and collision of the crates on the central platform has been modified.
- Ruins of Lordaeron
  - Alcoves have been removed from the starting chambers.
  - Two line-of-sight tombstones have been added to the slime pool on the southern side of the map.
  - The collision around the central tomb has been smoothed out to prevent players from becoming stuck on the terrain as often.
Battlegrounds
- Battleground experience has arrived!
  - Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).
  - Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar – both located near the Battlemasters in either city – and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.
  - Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.
  - Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.
  - Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would’ve been accumulated if experience gains were not turned off cannot be recovered.
- Battlemasters in major cities affiliated with specific Battlegrounds have been replaced with a Battlemaster for each faction that will allow players to queue for any Battleground. Battlemasters for specific Battlegrounds will still be seen around the cities during corresponding Battleground holiday weekends.
- When standing at a capture point that you control, you will gain a buff called Honorable Defender. This buff grants +50% honor gained from kills. This currently affects Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest.
- Arathi Basin
  - The time it requires to capture a base has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
  - The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
- Eye of the Storm
  - The time it requires to capture the center flag has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds
  - The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
- Strand of the Ancients
  - The faction starting on attack/defense will now be randomized at the start of each match.
- Warsong Gulch
  - There is a now a 20 minute timer on this battleground. After that time, the team with the most flag captures wins. If this would result in a tie, the team that captured the first flag wins. If neither side has captured a flag, then the game ends in a tie.

Races: General

Axe Specialization (Orc): The weapon bonus from this effect now applies to fist weapons in addition to axes.
Tauren now have the option of changing skin tone by visiting the barber shop.

Items: General

Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.
On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren’s Lucky Coin, Lavanthor’s Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier 8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier 5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier 5 warrior Shield Block bonus.
Emblem System Changes
- Both the 10 and 25 player instances of the Crusaders’ Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
- Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
- The heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Triumph.
- The existing achievements to collect 1, 25, 50, etc. Emblems of Heroism, Valor, and Conquest have been converted to Feats of Strength since Heroism and Valor Emblems are no longer attainable.
- New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.
Mounts
- The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
- Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.
- Journeyman Riding (Skill 150): Can now be learned at level 40 for 50 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 40 directing them back to the riding trainer.
- Expert Riding (Skill 225): Can now be learned at level 60 for 600 gold from trainers in Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold for Alliance; Thrallmar for Horde). Flight speed at this skill level has been increased to 150% of run speed, up from 60%.
- Artisan Riding (Skill 300): Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold or Valiance Expedition for Alliance; Thrallmar or Warsong Offensive for Horde).
- In order to further equalize the number of purchasable mounts available to each race, a new 60% speed ground mount has been added for night elves, and a new 100% speed ground mount has been added for the undead.
- Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.
Mana Regeneration: All items that provide “X mana per five seconds” have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%.
Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage over time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. The other effects of resilience (reducing critical chance, critical damage and mana drain effects) have not changed.

Classes: General

All pets now receive 40% of their master’s resilience and 100% of their master’s spell penetration. In addition, if a player is at their appropriate spell hit chance or hit chance maximum, their pet will be at the maximum for spell hit chance, hit chance, and expertise. If they are below the maximum, their pet will be proportionately below those maximums.
Replenishment: This buff now grants 1% of the target’s maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of 0.25% per second. This applies to all 5 sources of Replenishment (Vampiric Touch, Judgements of the Wise, Hunting Party, Enduring Winter Frostbolts and Soul Leech).
Silence, Strangulate, Silencing Shot, and Arcane Torrent: These abilities will also apply a 3 second interrupt effect against non-player controlled targets, making them more versatile against creatures immune to silencing effects.

Death Knight

Due to significant talent changes, all death knight talents will be reset for players.
Blood Strike: The bonus damage this ability receives from diseases on the target has been increased to 50% per disease.
Chains of Ice: Now reduces movement by 95% instead of 100%. The main effect of this change will be that targets of Chains of Ice will not have to re-issue a movement command to continue moving.
Frost Presence: 10% bonus health reduced to 6% bonus stamina.
Frost Strike: This ability can now be dodged, parried, or blocked. Weapon damage bonus reduced to 55%, down from 60%.
Icebound Fortitude: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.
Talents
- Blood
  - Dancing Rune Weapon: This ability now has a fixed duration of 12 seconds (which can still be modified by its glyph) and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
  - Veteran of the Third War: Stamina bonus reduced to 1/2/3%.
- Frost
  - Blood of the North: Reduced to a 3-point talent. Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 5/10/15%. There is now a 33/66/100% chance whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates.
  - Lichborne: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.
  - Threat of Thassarian: New 3-point talent. When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strikes have a 30/60/100% chance to also deal damage with your off-hand weapon. Off-hand strikes are roughly one half the effect of the original strike.
  - Toughness: This talent now grants 2/4/6/8/10% armor instead of 3/6/9/12/15%, placing it in line with similar abilities of other classes.
- Unholy
  - Desecration: This talent has been reduced to 2 points for 25/50% snare and no longer increases damage done by the death knight. It has also been moved one tier earlier in the tree and its spell effect has been made more transparent.
  - Desolation: New talent. This talent is in the position formerly occupied by Desecration. It causes Blood Strikes to increase all damage the death knight deals by 1/2/3/4/5% for 12 seconds.
  - Scourge Strike: Weapon damage bonus reduced to 40%, down from 45%. Damage increased by 10% per disease on the target, down from 11%.
  - Summon Gargoyle: The gargoyle now flies lower to the ground, making it susceptible to melee attacks. This ability now has a fixed duration of 30 seconds and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
  - Unholy Blight: This talent has been redesigned. It no longer deals damage to nearby targets. Instead, when you deal damage with Death Coil, the target will take periodic damage for 10 seconds equal to 30% of the damage done by Death Coil. This damage accumulates in the same way as Ignite and Deep Wounds.

Druid

Flight Form: Can now be learned at level 60. Flight speed increased to 150%.
Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 3 minutes. This means each use of Innervate will give half as much mana as before, but it will be available twice as often.
Lifebloom: The final heal that occurs when this spell blooms has been reduced by 20% on the base and on the spell power coefficient.
Mangle: Ranks 4 and 5 base points reduced by about 11%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
Rake: Ranks 6 and 7 base points on initial and periodic damage reduced by about 7%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
Rip: Ranks 8 and 9 base points and points per combo point reduced by about 6%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
Savage Defense: The animation for gaining this buff will no longer make the bear stand upright
Shred: Ranks 8 and 9 base points reduced by about 10%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
Swipe (Cat): Percent of weapon damage done reduced from 260% to 250%.
Travel Form: Can now be learned at level 16.
Talents
- Balance
  - Balance of Power: Now reduces all spell damage taken by 3/6%, rather than reducing the chance to be hit by spells by 2/4%.
  - Eclipse: The Starfire and Wrath buffs from this talent are now on separate 30 second. cooldowns. In addition, it is not possible to have both buffs active simultaneously.
  - Owlkin Frenzy: Now also restores 2% base mana every 2 seconds for the duration (10 seconds) in addition to its current effects.
- Restoration
  - Empowered Touch: Now also increases the amount of bonus healing effects for Nourish by 10/20%.
  - Improved Barkskin: No longer provides dispel resistance to all effects on the druid, but now reduces the chance your Barkskin is dispelled by an additional 35/70%.

Hunter

Aspect of the Cheetah: Can now be learned at level 16.
Deterrence now has a new visual spell effect.
The time that traps will exist in the world after being put down has been reduced to 30 seconds, down from 1 minute.
Traps now have separate 30 second cooldown categories: Fire (Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow), Frost (Freezing Trap, Frost Trap) and Nature (Snake Trap). A hunter can have one trap of each category placed at one time.
Talents
- Beast Mastery
  - Catlike Reflexes now also reduces the cooldown of your Kill Command ability by 10/20/30 seconds.
- Survival
  - Entrapment: This talent no longer works with Immolation Trap or Explosive Trap.
  - Lock and Load: Now has a 22 second cooldown. The Lock and Load effect cannot be obtained on targets immune to snare effects when Frost Trap is used.
- Pets
  - Roar of Sacrifice: Redesigned. This ability can now be used on any friendly target to make that target immune to critical strikes, but the Hunter pet takes 20% of all damage taken by that friendly target. Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.

Mage

Arcane Blast: Mana cost reduced by 12%.
Invisibility: Can no longer be interrupted by a hostile action or damage done during the 3 second fade time, however an invisible mage can still be stunned or silenced.
Talents
- Fire
  - Empowered Fire: In addition to its existing effects, this talent now also grants a 33/67/100% chance to regain 1% of base mana each time the Ignite talent deals damage.

Paladin

Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.
Charger: Can now be learned at level 40.
Exorcism: Now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can once again be used on players.
Hand of Reckoning: Redesigned. Now does damage only when target does not currently have the caster targeted, but damage done increased to 50% of attack power, occurring after the taunt effect is applied.
Judgement of Light: Now heals for 2% of the attacker’s maximum health instead of a variable amount based on the spell power and attack power of the judging paladin.
Lay on Hands: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 10/20% instead of increasing the target’s armor.
Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration or mana cost, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.
Sacred Shield: When a paladin casts Flash of Light on a target with this buff, they also now place a heal over time effect on the target, healing that target for 100% of the Flash of Light amount over 12 seconds.
Seal of Blood: This ability has been removed.
Seal of the Martyr: This ability has been removed.
Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage.
Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%.
Warhorse: Can now be learned at level 20.
Talents
- Holy
  - Beacon of Light: The healing amount on the Beacon of Light target is now based on the total healing done (including over-healing) instead of the effective healing done. Radius increased to 60 yards. Multiple Paladins can now have this active on the same target. Buff indicating a player is within range of the Beacon target is no longer displayed.
  - Divine Intellect: This talent now gives 2/4/6/8/10% increased intellect instead of 3/6/9/12/15%.
  - Illumination: This talent now returns 30% of the mana cost of the spell instead of 60%.
- Protection
  - Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Currently, any damage taken by the paladin while at 35% health or below is reduced. Instead, any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35% health or below has its damage reduced. In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin’s health to 10/20/30% of maximum.
- Retribution
  - Art of War: Now only applies to melee critical hits, but will make your next Flash of Light or Exorcism instant.
  - Crusader Strike: Damage reduced to 75% weapon damage to match the new 4 second cooldown.
  - Seal of Command: Redesigned. This seal now deals 36% weapon damage on every swing, and deals substantially less judgement damage.
  - Vindication: Redesigned. Now lowers target attack power, is consistent and does not stack with Demoralizing Shout.

Priests

Prayer of Healing: The percentage of spell power this spell gains in healing (per target) has been reduced from 80.7% to 52.6%.
Talents
- Discipline
  - Penance: Cooldown increased to 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds.
- Holy
  - Inspiration: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target’s armor.

Rogue

After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.
Talents
- Combat
  - Sword Specialization: This talent is now called Hack and Slash and applies to axes as well as swords.
- Subtlety
  - Shadow Dance: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute. Now lasts 6 seconds, down from 10 seconds.

Shaman

A customizable totem bar will now be available for shaman allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems.
All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards.
Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes.
Chain Heal: Jump distance increased to 10 yards. In addition, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%.
Ghost Wolf: Can now be learned at level 16. While in this form, snaring effects may not bring the shaman below base normal run speed.
Talents
- Enhancement
  - Shamanistic Rage: Cooldown is now 1 minute, down from 2 minutes. Successful melee attacks now have a chance to generate mana equal to 15% of the shaman’s attack power, down from 30%.
- Restoration
  - Ancestral Healing: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target’s armor.
  - Cure Poison and Cure Disease: Combined into a single spell, Cure Toxins.
  - Earth Shield: Dispel effects will now remove charges of Earth Shield rather than the entire aura.
  - Healing Way: Redesigned. Rather than providing a chance of increasing Healing Wave spells on a friendly target, this talent now innately increases the effectiveness of the shaman’s Healing Wave by 8/16/25%.
  - Mana Tide Totem: Totem health now equal to 10% of the shaman’s health.
  - Nature’s Guardian: Redesigned. Now has a fixed 100% proc rate, has a 30 second internal cooldown, and increases the shaman’s maximum health by 3/6/9/12/15% for 10 seconds.
  - Nature’s Swiftness: Cooldown is now 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.
  - Tidal Waves: No longer reduces the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave by 30%. It instead now provides +25% critical strike chance to Lesser Healing Wave, along with the previous 30% cast time benefit to Healing Wave.
  - Improved Water Shield: This talent now has a 10/20/30% chance to be triggered by Chain Heal, and the charges of Water Shield are no longer consumed by this talent.

Warlock

Banish: Effect will now be canceled if Banish is recast on a banished target.
Dreadsteed: Can now be learned at level 40.
Felsteed: Can now be learned at level 20.
Soulshatter cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes
Talents
- Affliction
  - Pandemic: Now also increases the critical damage bonus of Haunt by 100%.
- Demonology
  - Fel Domination cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 15 minutes.
- Destruction
  - Empowered Imp: The warlock’s critical hit chance is increased to 100%, up from 20% for the next spell cast after the Imp critically hits a target.
  - Fire and Brimstone: Reduced to 2/4/6/8/10% increased damage from Incinerate and Chaos Bolt on targets afflicted with Immolate, down from 3/6/9/12/15%.

Warrior

Talents
- Fury
  - Armored to the Teeth: This talent now provides 1/2/3 attack power per 108 armor, up from per 180 armor.

User Interface

Character name auto-completion for the chat frame, pop-ups, and mail interface can be enabled through an interface option in the Development settings.
Character names can now be colorized according to class in the chat frame through an interface option in the Development settings.
Casting bars under a target’s portrait will now indicate whether or not the cast can be interrupted.
Druids will now be able to see their mana bars when shape-shifted.
Item Comparisons: Holding the shift key while hovering over an item will now display the stat differences with the item currently equipped in the relevant slot.
Macros and scripts will no longer be able to target totems by name.
Quest creatures and objects will now show on the player’s world map.
The quest log is now double-paned for more easily viewing quest information.
Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.
For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Quests

The ravasaur trainer Mor’vek has returned to Un’Goro and will offer to help Horde players raise and train a Venomhide Ravasaur as a mount… if they can survive the creature’s deadly poison.

Achievements

A Brew-FAST Mount: A new Feat of Strength achievement for acquiring any epic Brewfest mount.
Have Keg, Will Travel: Now requires either a Brewfest mount or using Brewfest Hops to transform yours into one.

Professions

Alchemy
- All stackable potions now stack to 20.
- Added a new pattern for Flask of the North, usable by players with a high alchemy skill. The recipe is purchased from Northrend trainers. Flask of the North increases your spell power, attack power or Strength for 1 hour and is usable in arenas. It is not consumed when used.
- Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion no longer usable in arenas. Amount of health and mana has been increased, and the cooldown reduced.
- Five new epic gem transmute recipes are available from the Northrend trainer. The recipe for transmuting a Cardinal Ruby can be learned from a quest, given by Linzy Blackbolt in Dalaran.
- The Mixology benefits from Northrend elixirs and flasks have been increased.
- Rage potions can now be used by druids.
Cooking
- Blackened Dragonfin Recipe: Now only requires 1 Dragonfin Angelfish.
- Chef’s Hat is now superior quality and allows the chef to cook faster.
- Increased the drop rate for recipes from the Outland Daily Cooking quests.
- Increased the chance to get a bonus Dalaran Cooking Token from the Spice Bag.
- The recipe for Captain Rumsey’s Lager can now be randomly found in the quest reward crate, barrel, or spice bag from the cooking dailies.
Enchanting
- Values on Northrend ring enchants increased.
Engineering
- Added a schematic for a Goblin Welding Beam that can heal friendly mechanical units.
- Alarm-o-Bot functionality changed. Materials required reduced.
- Box of Bombs no longer requires an anvil.
- Doubled the duration on Nitro Boosts.
- Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications.
- Increased the passive bonus provided by Springy Arachnoweave, Flexweave Underlay and Nitro Boosts.
- Increased siege damage caused by Saronite Bombs and the Global Thermal Sapper Charge.
- The Ultrasafe Bullet Machine and Saronite Arrow Maker schematics have been simplified to create a full stack of the appropriate ammunition. No longer requires an anvil. Reduced the materials required to make this ammunition.
- Mote Extractor now has innate tracking for gas clouds while it is in your inventory. Tracking of gas clouds has been removed from goggles.
- Potion Injectors now increase the amount gained by 25% when used by engineers. Quantity produced by recipes for Runic Healing and Mana Injectors has been increased.
- Significantly reduced the cooldown on MOLL-E.
- Spynocular belt enchantment changed to a Brassbolt Rebreather, allowing engineers to breathe underwater.
- Transporter devices are no longer classified as trinkets and can be used directly from your inventory.
- Reduced the materials to create all engineering Dragonlings, and reduced their cooldowns, although they still cannot be used in Arenas.
Fishing
- Players with 300 or higher cooking have a chance to find a Waterlogged Recipe in the Bag of Fishing Treasures awarded by the Northrend fishing dailies. This item can be traded to other players and rewards several Dalaran Cooking Rewards when turned in.
Herbalism
- Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6).
- Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health. No longer affected by global cooldown.
Inscription
- Added a new Glyph of Claw for young feral druids who haven’t yet obtained Mangle. Inscribers can learn this glyph from the trainer.
- Master’s Inscriptions increased.
Jewelcrafting
- Dragon’s Eye gems stat bonuses increased.
- New recipes have been added for cutting epic gems and can be purchased using Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s tokens.
- Icy Prism now has a chance of yielding an epic gem.
- Raw epic gems can be obtained via the following means:
  - Prospecting Titanium Ore
  - Alchemy transmutations
  - Purchased with Honor
  - Purchased with Emblems of Heroism
Leatherworking
- Added recipe for Heavy Knothide Leather to Leatherworking trainers (rather than a vendor recipe). Changed several recipes to use Heavy Knothide Leather instead of regular Leather.
- Fur Lining values increased.
Mining
- Toughness (Rank 6) provides more stamina.
Skinning
- Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating.
Tailoring
- Embroideries improved.

Items

Feral Druid PvP Gloves (seasons 3 and 4): Maim bonus changed from the interrupt bonus used in The Burning Crusade arena seasons to the cost reduction used in Wrath of the Lich King arena seasons.
Glyphs
- Death Knights
  - Glyph of Unholy Blight: Changed to increase damage done by the updated Unholy Blight talent by 40%.
- Druids
  - Glyph of Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds.
- Paladins
  - Glyph of Seal of Command: Redesigned to cause the Paladin to gain 8% of base mana each time the paladin judges Command.
  - Glyph of Seal of Blood: Changed to Glyph of Holy Wrath, which reduces its cooldown by 15 seconds.
- Rogues
  - Glyph of Shadow Dance: Now increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 2 seconds, down from 4 seconds.
  - Glyph of Tricks of the Trade: Now increases the duration of the damage bonus effect instead of increasing the damage bonus.
- Warlocks
  - Glyph of Lifetap: Duration of the buff from this glyph increased to 40 seconds.
Idol of the Corruptor: The agility buff from this idol is now exclusive with the agility buff from Idol of Terror.
Non-Combat Pets: 8 new pets have been added (not including Argent Tournament rewards). Raptor Hatchlings can be found on rare and elite raptors throughout the game world. In addition, an Obsidian Raptor Hatchling can be purchased from Breanni in Dalaran.

Dungeons and Raids

25 player raids will no longer be referred to as heroic versions of a raid, as there is a new distinction between normal and heroic modes for both 10 and 25 player versions of the Crusaders’ Coliseum.
The Nexus: The Oculus & The Eye of Eternity
- Vehicles (drakes) used in these instances now scale with item level.
Ulduar
- Players can now use Blink, Shadowstep, and Demonic Teleport while participating in the illusion events in the Yogg-Saron encounter.
- Ominous Clouds in the Yogg-Saron encounter are now more vocal about touching players.
- Winter Jormungars will no longer put everyone in the zone in combat when they emerge from a Snow Mound. Additionally, Snow Mounds will now disappear when all their jormungars have emerged.

Bug Fixes

Corrected a tooltip issue with Pandora’s Plea.
Randomly generated uncommon (green) and rare (blue) quality items in Wrath of the Lich King had stat values that were lower than intended. All Wrath of the Lich King uncommon and rare items with random suffixes (“of the Bear”) have had their stat values increased significantly.
The leatherworking item Guardian Gloves is now correctly marked as “Good” quality.
Hunter
- All ranks of Sonic Blast now properly have an 80 Focus cost.
- Black Arrow Ranks 5 and 6 training costs have been lowered significantly.
- Lock and Load: The tooltip for this talent has been updated to indicate that it also works with Explosive Trap.
- The tooltip for Improved Tracking has been slightly re-written to indicate that it only works on the hunter, and works on melee damage as well.
- T.N.T. (Rank 3): Now indicates that the talent works with Black Arrow.
Priest
- The heal from Glyph of Power Word: Shield can now cause Divine Aegis.
- Mana Burn: Fixed a bug where Mana Burn did not cause fear effects to break when the fear victim had an absorb shield on.
Shaman
- Fixed a bug where Frostbrand Weapon (Rank 9) was not scaling properly with a shaman’s spell power.

Source: mmo-champion.com

WoW to Implement Level 30 Mounts, Nerf Twinks

Dan Landis — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:03:34 +0000

Among the many changes the upcoming World of WarCraft patch 2.4.3 will bring, the most significant is probably the ability to get a mount at level 30. Paladins and Warlocks will get their first summon at this level, while other classes can purchase Apprentice level riding for a mere 35 gold. This will make leveling up an alt slightly more bearable, and hopefully you all read this prior to dinging 40 and plunking down too much cash for your soon-to-be-overpriced level 40 mount.

Read on for the full Test Realm patch notes, including ridable dragonhawks and a huge nerf to twinks.

Be aware that none of the following changes are set it stone just yet. This is just what’s being considered for the next patch while Blizzard experiments in the Public Test Realm, though these notes are most likely not going to change.

General

* Dispel effects will no longer attempt to remove effects that have 100% dispel resistance.
* Parry Rating, Defense Rating, and Block Rating: Low-level players will now convert these ratings into their corresponding defensive stats at the same rate as level 34 players.
* Haris Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry. Check her out in the World’s End Tavern!
* Mounts at 30?! Yes, it’s true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.
* Blood Elf flightmasters outside of Silvermoon City and Tranquillien have traded in their bats for glorious fire-breathing dragonhawks.
* Alcohol cooldowns have been rolled into Drinks: All 10-second cooldowns have been removed and replaced with the 1-second Drink cooldown.
* Numerous flying non-combat pets have had their flight height modified to no longer skim along the ground: captured firefly, dragonhawk hatchlings, moths, owls, parrots, phoenix hatchling, spirit of summer, sprite darter, and tiny sporebat.
* Nether Ray Fry (a non-combat pet) is now available from the Skyguard Quartermaster. This requires an Exalted reputation with Sha’tari Skyguard.
* Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.
* Placing an item in your bank will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress if the spell was cast by that item.
* You can no longer move backwards to stop racing rams.
* When a stun wears off, the creature that was stunned will prefer the last target with the highest threat, versus the current target.

Druids

* Barkskin: The cost of this spell is now reduced by Tree of Life Form.

Hunters

* Growl: Pets will no longer generate additional threat from this ability based on attack power buffs cast on them. Attack power buffs on their master will still indirectly increase the threat generated by the pet’s Growl.
* Pet Aggro: Pets will no longer generate threat immediately from being summoned.
* Scare Beast: This spell will now be limited correctly to one target.

Paladins

* Greater Blessing of Light Rank 1: This spell will no longer overwrite Greater Blessing of Light Rank 2.
* Summon Warhorse is now available at level 30.

Priests

* Mind Vision: This effect will now be cancelled immediately on targets who use an Invisibility Potion or Gnomish Cloaking Device.
* Spiritual Healing: Ranks 2-5 of this talent will no longer prevent refreshing Prayer of Mending.

Rogues

* Cheat Death: This talent has been rebalanced significantly. Killing blows are no longer 100% absorbed. If the Rogue is below 10% health, the killing blow is still completely absorbed; if the Rogue is over 10% health, enough damage will be absorbed to reduce the Rogue’s health down to 10%. For the following 3 seconds, damage is not always reduced by 90%; it is now reduced by a maximum of 90%, depending on how much resilience the Rogue has. The damage reduction will be four times the damage reduction resilience causes against critical strikes.

Shaman

* Earth Elemental: This pet will now leash back to its totem when pulled beyond 50 yards away.
* Lightning Overload: This talent will no longer do excessive damage when used with Lightning Bolt Ranks 2-10.

Warlocks

* Curse of Shadows: This spell has been removed.
* Curse of Elements: This spell now applies to Arcane and Shadow damage, as well as Frost and Fire.
* Demonic Sacrifice: This ability will now interact correctly with the Spirit Guide resurrection system in battlegrounds. A sacrificed pet will not be resummoned on death, and will not prevent keeping a record of the most recently created pet.
* Health Funnel: This ability will now cancel channeling when the target pet is Banished.
* Ritual of Summoning: The mana cost of this spell will now be properly deducted when cast.
* Summon Felsteed is now available at level 30.

Warrior

* Revenge: Ranks 1-5 of this ability now have damage ranges instead of fixed damage values (like ranks 6-8.)

PvP

* The Warsong Gulch flag can no longer be picked up at the same time as a flag is capped.

Professions

* Alchemy
o Philosopher’s Stone now requires 200 Alchemy.
* Cooking
o Juicy Bear Burgers now correctly increase healing as well as spell damage.
* Jewelcrafting
o Activated beneficial effects from jewelcrafting trinkets can no longer be dispelled.
* Mining
o Green quality gems can be found in mining nodes again. The drop rate of blue gems from mining nodes remains unchanged.
* Tailoring
o Removed the cooldown from regular Mooncloth.
o Herb bags can now hold Un’goro Soil and Evergreen Pouches.
o Mycah of Sporeggar has discovered how to create 28 slot herb bags.
o New Tailoring patterns are available from Haughty Modiste in Steamwheedle Port, Tanaris: Haliscan Jacket and Haliscan Pantaloons.

Quests

* Bhag’thera now spawns at a normal quest spawn rate.
* For the quests, Intercepting the Mana Cells and Maintaining the Sunwell Portal, phased characters will not be able to see non-phased character AoE effects and vice-versa.
* For the quests, Intercepting the Mana Cells and Maintaining the Sunwell Portal, pets gaining/losing phase status will now properly break off combat from unphased/phased opponents.

Dungeons and Raids

* Players can now be summoned to raid instances from heroic dungeons.
* Magister’s Terrace
o The Stun component to the Sunblade Mage Guard Glaive Throw has been removed and the Bounce range reduced.
o Vexallus and Kael’thas are now tauntable in Heroic mode.
o Vexallus’ damage caused by Pure Energy has been decreased.
o Kael’thas’ Arcane Sphere has had its visual size increased. His Arcane Sphere attack has had its range decreased and the damage/second of Phase two on Normal mode has been decreased. (Heroic mode remains unchanged.)
o Sunblade Warlocks have had their damage reduced slightly.
o Fel Crystals in the Selin Fireheart encounter have had their health reduced slightly.
o Warlord Salaris and Kagani Nightstrike have had their damage output reduced slightly.
* Sunwell Plateau
o Creatures in the area around Grand Warlock Alythess and Lady Sacrolash will no longer spawn while the twins are in combat.
o Nether Protection will now correctly trigger from Kil’jaeden’s Shield Orb Shadow Bolts.
o Vanish now correctly wipes threat on Kil’jaeden.

Items

* Bow of the Verdant Keeper’s Aim: This item’s triggered effect no longer breaks the effect of Scatter Shot.
* Brutal Gladiator’s Pummeler has had its Stamina value increased to the appropriate value.
* Clockwork Robot Bots fight amongst themselves again…without attacking people in the arena. Well… they’ll blow up other Bots in the arena, but you know what we mean.
* The Eredar Twins will now award the same items regardless of which order they are killed in.
* Invisibility Potions: These potions now are on the same cooldown as other combat consumable potions (such as mana potions.)
* Pendant of the Violet Eye: This item will again work correctly with Holy Light and Flash of Light.
* Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen: The triggered effect from this Item can now occur on periodic damage ticks.
* Thori’dal, the Star’s Fury is now Unique as intended.
* Vengeful Gladiator’s Baton of Light: This item now appears in the correct position on the vendor list.

User Interface

* The help interface has been simplified dramatically. Players will no longer be required to select a category when opening a GM ticket. In addition, players can use the “Talk to a GM” button to fill out a ticket that requires a GM response or the “Report Issue” button to fill out a ticket that does not require a GM response.
* Target buff/debuff timers that appear when you cast a spell are now more visible.
* Time Management features have been implemented! These features include an alarm clock, stopwatch, and viewing your computer’s local time.
* The new stopwatch feature can be accessed via the /stopwatch, /sw, or /timer slash commands. Inputting a time into the slash command will make the stopwatch count down. For example, /stopwatch 1:0:0 will make the stopwatch count down from an hour, /stopwatch 1:30 will make it count down from 1 minute, 30 seconds, and /stopwatch 30 will make it count down from 30 seconds.
* Added the following macro commands: /targetenemyplayer, /targetfriendplayer.
* Added key bindings for tab targeting players.
* Ctrl-Tab and other target nearest friend functions will no longer target you.
* Targeting using /target will prefer live targets over dead ones.
* You can no longer click the minimap to cast ground targeted spells.
* Invisible players with Hunter’s Mark can see the hunter that put the mark on them.
* Vendor items now show their Duration in Inventory.
* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum.

World Environment

* Winterspring Ice Thistle Matriarchs and Patriarchs may now drop Thick Yeti Fur.
* Skinning any Winterspring Ice Thistle yetis may now result in Thick Yeti Fur.
* Increased the drop rate of Pristine Yeti Horns from Winterspring Ice Thistle Matriarchs and Patriarchs.
* Goblin Weather Machine- Prototype 01-B weather changes will no longer force the affected character to stand.
* Collector’s Edition Pet Redemption NPCs/items/quests have been relocated/modified to/for towns with mailboxes (Goldshire, Razor Hill, etc.).
* Young Sporebats and Greater Sporebats in Zangarmarsh now drop Sporebat Eyes for the quest Gathering the Reagents.
* Blacksmithing Supplies vendor and repairer, Blazzle, in Area 52 is now next to the forge and anvil outside the inn.
* Banker Meeda, in Area 52 is now in the…well…the bank, along with a guild vault and guards. The other three Area 52 bankers are still located in the auction-house-turned-bank.
* Wastewander Bandits and Rogues should be more plentiful in the northern parts of Tanaris.

Bug Fixes

* The mage spell, Counterspell now shows in the combat log.
* Gan’arg Analyzers will no longer occasionally become friendly to players.
* Talented abilities that cost a percentage of base mana will no longer display an incorrect mana cost when inspected by a player of a different class or level.
* Guild leaders should now be able to properly promote a new guild leader regardless of their range.
* Druids: Mangle will no longer incorrectly indicate a 100-yard range on the tooltip.
* Hunters: Using an instant ability after Steady Shot will no longer lock out auto shot.
* Hunter Snake Trap will no longer break players out of stealth if the snakes pass near the stealthed character.
* Hunters: Concussive shot will now properly have a chance to proc Bow of Searing Arrows.
* Rogues: The talent Heightened Senses, Rank 1 and Rank 2 will now affect attacks from wands.
* Using Jewelcrafting figurines will no longer cause scrolling combat text to appear twice.
* Fixed an issue in which shadows were not appearing properly for users with GF4 video chipsets in Open GL mode.
* Corrected an issue in which users with Creative X-FI sound cards would sometimes hear a slight popping noise when running.
* Players will now correctly receive a Battleground Mark message for the marks that are received at the end of a battle.
* Corrected an issue where the initial trigger or activation sounds for Immolation Trap and Explosive Trap could not be heard by some players.
* Smelt Hardened Khorium will now properly require a forge instead of an anvil and hammer.
* Corrected a typo in the tooltip for the Druid spell Rip (Rank 4).
* Looting a Nightmare Vine will now properly no longer apply poison when the node is looted.
* The Figurine- Seaspray Albatross ability will now properly restore the correct amount of mana.
* First Aid bandages can no longer be applied to a player with the Recently Bandaged debuff. An error message of, “Could not activate more than one bandage” will be displayed.
* Corrected the tooltips to read properly for the flight paths from The Stormspire, Toshley’s Station, Blade’s Edge, and Area 52.
* Greater Elementals summoned by a shaman will now properly have a combat log entry.
* Players will no longer become stuck on the Nimboya’s Laden Pike when driving it into the ground.
* The quest, “Going Going, Guano!” will now have a more consistent level requirement for the dungeon.
* The quest, “Into The Scarlet Monastery” is now available to players of the appropriate level for the instance.
* Blueleaf Tubers can now be properly looted.
* The quest turn-ins for the Ahn’Qiraj war effort now give the appropriate amount of credit for each successful quest turn-in.
* Cloak of Shadows will now properly remove Shrink.
* Nightbane will no longer become unresponsive and unkillable during his air phase.
* Several items sold by the Consortium reputation vendor Paulsta’ats are now bind on pick-up: Formula: Enchant Weapon- Major Striking, Design: Delicate Blood Garnet, Design: Shifting Shadow Draenite, Design: Lustrous Azure Moonstone, Design:Thick Golden Draenite.
* It is no longer possible to delete a character that is an arena team captain without first promoting another player to captain.
* Taunts will now properly stick when a target is stunned while being taunted.

Level 29 and below twinks will likely find the changes to defense to make them slightly less twinky. The ability to twink out at level 10 with 100% dodge rating will most likely no longer be possible, and I laugh in the face of all those low-level jerks that have been ruining battlegrounds for the past 3 years.

The PTR patch notes, as always, can be found on the official WoW site.