General

• The amount of guild reputation and guild experience gained from killing a raid boss has been dramatically increased, as the previous rate felt too low compared to the difficulty of progressing through raid content. This change will require a realm restart to take effect, which will be next Tuesday’s weekly scheduled maintenance at the latest.

• Shield of Velen guards in The Exodar are now consistent with other “royal” city guards in terms of health, level, and damage.

Classes

Mages

• Arcane Blast now costs 5% of base mana before stacking modifiers, down from 7%.

Dungeons & Raids

• Baradin Hold

• Argaloth despawns and resets properly if the raid wipes during Fel Firestorm.

Blackwing Descent

• While flying around the Vault of the Shadowflame, Nefarian no longer forces everyone to stand up if engaged.

Throne of the Tides

• It should no longer be possible to summon a mount in certain areas of this dungeon.

Items

• Shard of Woe (Heroic trinket) now reduces the base mana cost of spells by 205, with the exception of Holy and Nature spells — the base mana cost of Holy and Nature spells remains reduced by 405 with this trinket.

Professions

• Engineering Target Dummies are no longer able to taunt boss-level creatures.

Related posts:

1. WoW Patch 4.0.6 Hotfixes (Feb 14)
2. Blackwing Descent Tactics and Strategy Guide
3. WoW Patch 4.0.6: Raid Instance changes

General

• Players who are exalted with 40 factions are again awarded The Exalted title. Note that the associated achievement does not state that this title will be awarded when it’s earned. This will be corrected in a future patch.

Classes

Druids

• Starfall will now hit any target in range which is in combat or not at full health (including the Exposed Head of Magmaw, which was causing issues with Starfall).

Paladins

• The hotfix to Beacon of Light and Light of Dawn on February 11 did not produce the intended results and has been reverted. Light of Dawn should still trigger Beacon of Light.

Dungeons & Raids

Blackwing Descent

• The Atramedes achievement Silence is Golden was incorrectly failing when any raid member’s sound bar went over 30%. The achievement now requires no one’s sound bar to go over 50% as advertised.

Professions

Alchemy

• The Mysterious Potion was restoring the wrong amount of mana. It now restores 1 to 15,000 mana, instead of 1 to 30,000.

Fishing

• The Bone and Jeweled Fishing Pole quest rewards are now item level 15, down from 200.

Herbalism

• Whiptail was spawning too quickly in Uldum after patch 4.0.6. The spawn time has been reduced.

Related posts:

1. WoW Patch 4.0.6 Hotfixes (Feb 15)

Ascendant Council

• The Elementium Monstrosity can be attacked from farther away than was previously the case.
• The damage dealt by Liquid Ice has been increased significantly.
• The damage dealt by Electric Instability on normal difficulty has been reduced slightly.
• Immunity effects will no longer cancel Gravity Crush.
• Gravity Crush no longer hits additional targets on Heroic difficulty.
• Frozen Orbs now despawn at the start of phase 3 on Heroic difficulty.

Cho’gall

• The recast time on Depravity has been increased in 10-player mode.

Halfus Wyrmbreaker

• Shadow Nova is now cast less frequently in 10-player modes to account for fewer available interrupts there.
• The captured drakes in this encounter now apply Dragon’s Vengeance when they are killed instead of when they are freed. To account for this change, the health and damage of the drakes has been reduced, and the damage bonus gained from Dragon’s Vengeance has been increased.

Valiona and Theralion

• Immunities no longer port players out of the Twilight Realm.
• The damage dealt by Twilight Sentries on Heroic difficulty has been reduced.

WoW Patch 4.0.6: Blackwing Descent changes

Atramedes

• Atramedes will now go berserk after 10 minutes on Heroic difficulty.

Magmaw

• Blazing Bone Constructs on Heroic difficulty no longer drop fire periodically.
• Blazing Bone Constructs on Heroic difficulty have had their health reduced.
• Magmaw’s health on Heroic difficulty has been reduced.

Maloriak

• Increased the cast time of Release Aberrations.
• Heroic: Decreased the health of the Vile Swill by 15%.
• Heroic: Dark Sludge can now only target players.

Nefarian

• The Chromatic Prototypes featured in the second phase of this encounter now wait longer before casting their first Blast Nova.
• The Stolen Power enhancement gained in Heroic difficulties now increases all damage and healing for a set time, but each attack is increased by a smaller amount. This change will not be reflected in the tooltip until a later patch.
• Freeing one’s mind from Dominion now grants a movement speed bonus for a short time.

Omnotron Defense System

• There is now a 10-minute berserk timer on Heroic difficulty.
• Golem health has been reduced on Heroic difficulty.
• The damage dealt by Incineration Security Measure has been reduced.

WoW Patch 4.0.6: Throne of the Four Winds changes

Al’Akir

• Al’Akir’s Electrocute can no longer be interrupted by Spell Reflection.

Related posts:

1. WoW Patch 4.0.6 Hotfixes (Feb 15)
2. WoW Patch 4.0.6: Warrior changes
3. The Bastion of Twilight: Halfus Wyrmbreaker Strategy and Tactics Guide

Charge now has diminishing return and it shares it with stuns. Cleave and Heroic Strike damage got nerfed by 20% and Harmstring duration reduces to 8 seconds for pvp targets.

Inner rage now reduces the cooldown on Heroic Strike and Cleave 1.5 seconds for the next 15 seconds. Recklessness now increases critical strike chance by 50% but his charges removed (so it will last for 12 seconds). Finally, Slam damage has been increased.

WoW Patch 4.0.6: Arms Warrior changes

Drums of War will not lower the rage cost of Piercing Howl any more. Juggernaut has been changed, it will now increase the duration of Charge stun by 2 seconds, and makes charge usable to all stances but it shares cooldown with intercept.

Lambs of the Slaughter will now grants a 10% buff to Mortal Strike, Overpower, Slam or Execute. Mortal Strike cost has been reduced by 5 rage. War Academy will now buff Mortal Strike, Raging Blow, Devastate, Victory Rush and Slam.

WoW Patch 4.0.6: Fury Warrior changes

Bloodsurge will now also cause next Slam to deal 20% more damage. Bloodthirst damage has been buffed by 30%. Raging Blow and Single-Minded Fury damage has been increased. Finally, Unshackled Fury now grands 5.6% benefit per mastery point.

WoW Patch 4.0.6: Protection Warrior and Glyphs changes

Warbringer talent will remove Charge‘s stun diminishing. Glyph of Rapid Charge now reduces Charge’s cooldown by 1 second.

Check patch notes for more about WoW patch 4.0.6

Related posts:

1. Fury Warrior Reforging guide
2. Cataclysm Patch 4.0.6: Racial Changes
3. WoW Patch 4.0.6: Death Knight changes

The most important change for Hunters is that you can now auto shot while moving. Aimed shot now deals more damage (200%), Arcane shot damage has been increased also (by 15%). Concussive show duration is now 6 seconds and Deterrence now provides 100% miss chance for melee attacks.

Aspect of the Wild, Aspect of the Hawk and Aspect of the Fox can be casted while mounted. Trap Launcher, Distracting shoot and Scare Beast will cancel auto shot from now (this will have hunter to not cancel crowd control by auto shotting while moving).

Freezing Trap and Wind Clip have now 8 seconds duration for pvp targets, Kill Command deals 20% more damage and Kill Shoot scales better with Hunter’s attack power. Finally, Master’s Call cooldown is 35 seconds now and its range increased to 40 yards.

WoW Patch 4.0.6: Beast Mastery Hunter changes

Animal Handler will give more attack power as bonus (25% bonus attack power). There are no other changes for Beast Mastery talents.

WoW Patch 4.0.6: Survival Hunter changes

Black Arrow and Explosive shot damage are nerfed by 15%. Hunter vs. Wild will now give more stamina (15% at 3 talent points) and Into the Wilderness will give 5% less Agility (10% bonus agility).

WoW Patch 4.0.6: Hunter Pet and Glyph changes

Pets armor now scales with a different way, all pets will have the same armor value (70% of Hunter’s armor). Shale Spiders will have Web Wrap ability and Bad Manner (from monkey pets) will now break from damage. Glyph of Concussive Shot changed and now limits the maximum run speed of target.

Check patch notes for more about WoW patch 4.0.6

Related posts:

1. Patch 4.0.1 Class Mechanics Changes
2. WoW Patch 4.0.6: Death Knight changes
3. WoW Patch 4.0.6: Warrior changes

There are a lot of  changes for Death Knights in patch 4.0.6. Death Coil got nerfed and now deals 10% less damage. Icebound Fortitude won’t only make you immune to stuns, but it will also breaks any active stuns on you – i think pvp death knights will be really happy about this. Resilience will now reduce Necrotic Strike‘s absorb effect and Necrotic strike debuff will have now 10 seconds duration instead of 15.

Virulence will now be passive for all Death Knight specs. Runic Focus will increase hit chance in addition to its old benefits.

WoW Patch 4.0.6: Blood Death Knight changes

Bone Shield got buffed, now will have 4 charges instead of 3. Crimson Scourge talent is completely redesigned, now it gives 10% chance to get a free Blood Boil whenever you melee on a target that is debuffed with Blood Plague. Heart Strike and improved Death Strike have their damage increased. The most important is that now Blood Shield stacks, so every extra Death Strike will just increase the absorb amount.

Scarlet Fever debuff is applied now from Blood Plague and not from Blood Boil and Will of Necropolis now gives you a free Rune Tap while buff is active. Blood Death Knight tanks will have to change their play style and spec according to these changes

WoW Patch 4.0.6: Unholy Death Knight changes

The new Unholy Death Knight mastery is named Dreadblade. It increases Shadow damage by 2.5% per mastery point. Dark Transformation, Rage of Rivendare, Shadow Infusion and Unholy Might got nerfed and their damage bonus has been reduced.

A new talent has been added. Death’s Advance: While Unholy Runes are both on cd, all cannot reduce death knight’s speed. Thats a pretty nice talent for pvp death knights.

Desecration now also procs from Necrotic Strike, Runic Corrution procs while aura is already active but it will increase aura duration for 3 more seconds. Sudden Doom can now be proced only from main hand attacks (thats a huge nerf for DW Unholy Death Knights) and finally, Virulence now grants 30% additional disease damage.

WoW Patch 4.0.6: Frost Death Knight changes

Frost Death Knight aoe damage got nerfed. Howling Blast now deals 40% less damage to every target except the current target. Chillbrains now causes Chains of Ice to root the target for 3 sec (good for pvp death knights) but Hungering Cold now has only 8 seconds duration in PvP targets. Finally, Might of the Frozen Wastes now also increases all damage (melee) by 12% when death knight wields a two-hand weapon.

WoW Patch 4.0.6: Death Knight glyph changes

A new glyph added. Glyph of Dark Succor increased the minimum healing from Death Strike to 15% of maximum health. To get this to work you must be in Unholy or Frost  Presence.

Glyph of Death’s Embrace wont give you anymore runic power back when you heal your-self via Lichborne.

Check patch notes for more about WoW patch 4.0.6

Related posts:

1. Death Knight Cataclysm and patch 4.0.1 Talents
2. Death Knight Macros (Unholy, Blood, Frost)
3. WoW Patch 4.0.6: Warrior changes

Bastion of Twilight Trashes Strategy and Tactics

Bastion of Twilight has many trashes, their spawn time is two hours (adds before each boss will stop spawning after you kill it). Halfus’ trashes are pretty easy, just cc each patrol pack and kill the mobs one by one. The caster packs from left and right side must be pulled behind the stairs otherwise you will die from a really deadly beam.

Before Valiona trashes are easy. Just avoid wirlwinds from Orges, and interrupt Fire elemental castings, if you do that you won’t have any problem dealing with them.

After you kill Valiona and Theralion, you will face the most difficult trashes just before Ascendant Council.

Envolved Drakonaar: Avoid his cleave, heal tank hard while he is channelling Blade Tempest and move out of fires on his Twilight Rapture cast.

After you kill Envolved Drakonaars the next room if full elementals. There are four kinds of elementals (Earth, Wind, Fire, Frost). To kill them you must combine them by two.

Pull always together Earth and Wind, each of them makes a stacking debuff on tank, when you get hit by the opposite elemental this debuff is removed. After you kill them do not forget to keep the tanks alive until debuffs disappear (BoP doesn’t work any more). Fire and Frost elementals must be pulled together, Fire elemental will cast a fires on ground, you need to move inside this fire the Frost elemental to remove its shield. When you remove Frost shield, you will be able to interrupt this aoe frostbolts.

Trashes before Cho’gall are pretty easy, you can CC the big packs and deal with them fast.

If you are looking for Bastion of Twilight strategy and tactics for each boss full the related links below.

Related posts:

1. The Bastion of Twilight: Cho’gall Strategy and Tactics Guide
2. The Bastion of Twilight: Valiona and Theralion Strategy and Tactics Guide
3. The Bastion of Twilight: Ascendant Council Strategy and Tactics Guide

Cho’gall has two main phases. First phase starts when you pull boss and after 25% of health points phase two starts. For this fight you have a bar which shows your corruption status. This bar is similar to Atramedes sound bar, and your corruption is increased when you get hit by some special abilities (I will explain later).

The main Cho’gall strategy is to keep your corruption bar low and interrupt / move fast. Interrupts are the key for a kill here.

Cho’gall Strategy and Tactics Guide: Corruption bar

25% filled bar: You will gain Corruption: Accelerated debuff. This debuff cause you to gain two stacks of corrupted blood every second. Corrupted blood is a dot that makes damage to you and all nearby players. This should be dispelled fast.

50% bar: You start casting Corruption: Sickness which deals damage to everyone in front of you. When you get 50% filled in corruption bar you need to move away from raid or turn you back to not face anyone.

75% bar: You will start casting shadow bolts to all nearby players, so when you get this you need to move away (off course this doesn’t affect melee and tanks).

100% bar: From now and until you die you become immune to any incoming heals  but you gain 100% more damage and all your spells are instant.

Cho’gall Strategy and Tactics Guide: Phase 1 (until 25% hp)

Convertion: Cho’gall will mind control 5 players (two on 10 man) and they will start channelling a spell on him. You must interrupt them really fast, because they give to Cho’gall a damage increased buff which lasts 20 second. In our kill we were stacked up when no add was up and we were rotating priest fears / and fire mage dragon breaths to mass interrupt players fast.

Corrupting Adherent: Cho’gall will summon a Corrupting Adherent every 1 min and 20 seconds. Adherent will be summoned from one of the portals on the left and right side of the room. The first one will come from left (as you face the throne), the second one from right, third left, etc…)

Adherents must be tanked and killed away from the raid. At this point you need to spread your raid to avoid getting hit by Corrupting Crash, which are bolts and they increase your corruption bar. These bolts are really easy to avoid and none must get hit by them. Be sure to interrupt every Depravity cast, since it deals damage and increases corruption bar. Corrupting Adherent must be killed really fast because the longer it stays alive the more aoe damage you will take.

Cho’gall Strategy and Tactics Guide: Phase 2 (below 25% hp)

At phase 2 Cho’gall will summon tentacles around him, those tentacles must be killed fast by dps. Their cast needs to be interrupted to keep your shadow bar low. This is your first priority for this phase. Interrupt casts, kill tentacles and dps Cho’gall while no tentacles are alive. Note that at phase 2 Cho’gall will stop casting mind control and summon Adherents, but your shadow bar will be filled really fast, so this is a really high dps and healing phase. If you are fast this will be a kill!

Thats all, i think that Cho’gall strategy is not so hard, this is an easy end boss (at least much more than Ascendant Council) and keep in mind that Cho’gall drops 8 epic items on 25 man (5 misc and 3 Tier 11 items). I hope you found usefull this Cho’gall Tactics Guide.

Related posts:

1. The Bastion of Twilight Strategy and Tactics Guide
2. The Bastion of Twilight: Ascendant Council Strategy and Tactics Guide
3. The Bastion of Twilight: Valiona and Theralion Strategy and Tactics Guide

Cataclysm wow patch 4.0.6 will have tons of changes. This is a review of most important changes on racial abilities. These racial changes will effect mostly the Alliance races, from Horde races only Tauren druids get a small buff. If you want to read all official 4.0.6 patch notes, you will find them in World of Warcraft Official Website.

Dranei and Gnome racials in patch 4.0.6

Dranei racial is getting a huge boost. Now it will heal for 20% of target’s health of 15 seconds. This will make Draneis really power full for PvP and PvE. In addition to 1% hit self buff, Dranei now becomes a really good choice for some dps classes. Gnomes escape artist has now 1.5 minute cooldown but be care! you can use it while you are not snared or rooted, and of course this will waste your cooldown

Dwarf, Worgen and Night Elf racials in patch 4.0.6

Dwarfs after patch 4.0.6 must be happy. They will get a super survival ability (and that’s not only for pvp use, since survival abilities are really important on current raiding content). So… Stoneform now reduces damage taken by 10% and guess… it will increase your size while the buff is active.

Worgen’s running ability (Darkflight) will now have a 2 minutes cooldown and won’t waste a GCD. Some thing for Human racial Every Man for Himself, has now a 2 minute cooldown. Note that Every Man for Himself will still share cooldown with PvP trinkets. Night Elf druids on patch 4.06 can hide their self while shapeshifted.

Patch 4.0.6: Tauren cats and bears can aoe stun!

The only change for Horde races is for Taurens, the War Stomp stun can be used by Tauren druids while they are shapeshifted. I guess now Tauren race will be the first choice for Horde PvP druids…

Cataclysm Patch 4.0.6 and its racial changes

I see Alliance getting a huge boost on their racials. I guess this will affect mostly battleground and arenas. But most of the changes are really useful for raid usage also. They will increase player’s survivability (Dranei, Worgen, Dwarf race) which is really important to have successful raids in Cataclysm.

Remember you can always read 4.0.6 patch notes in World of Warcraft Official website. I am sure that patch 4.0.6 will give many paid race changes to Blizzard.

Related posts:

1. Racial Changes on Cataclysm
2. WoW Patch 4.0.6: Warrior changes
3. Worgen and Goblin race change will be avaliable just after Cataclysm expansion will be released

In this Ascendant Council tactics guide you will learn about all the bosses abilities (there are 5 bosses on this encounter: Feludius, Ignacious, Arion, Terrastra and Elementium Monstrosity). I guess your have already killed Halfus and Valiona and Theralion so now it’s time to deal with Ascendant Council bosses.

This encounter has three main phases. In the first phase, at the start of the fight, you will face Feludius and Ignacious. After you dps one of them at 25% health points (i will explain later about this mechanic) second phase starts. Arion and Terrastra will become active now, and when you get one them at 25% again, all the four bosses will become one named Elementium Monstrosity. This is phase 3.

Phase one and two 25% health points mechanic

On each phase (one and two) there will be two bosses active. When one of each boss gets on 25% health points, they will both disappear and the next phase starts. After second phase, all four mobs will become one and Elementium Monstrosity will become active. Monstrosity‘s health points will be the sum of the four bosses. It is really important (critical for a kill) to to finish each phase with 25% healthpoints on each boss!

You will need to to stop / calm down / switch dps to succeed on this. But it is really important to have both of bosses on 25% at the very same time. Otherwise killing Elementium Monstrosity is almost not doable.

Phase one: Feludius and Ignacious strategy

Ignacious

He casts a frontal fire attack (Flame Torrent), so he must be tanked facing away from the raid. From time to time Ignacious will cast Burning Blood debuff on a random player, which increases the fire damage taken but it also increases the damage done to Ignacious. I suggest to dispel this.

Ignacious will jump on a random ranged player knocking him back and he will run back to the main tank leaving a fire patch on his way. The last and the most important ability is Aegis of Flame. He will cast a shield on himself. This shield must be dpsed fast because this makes an aoe damage to hole raid. You need to dps the shield and when it’s off to interrupt Ignacious‘ aoe cast.

To get Aegis of Flame shield down fast, every dps must switch on Ignacious and remember to interrupt as soon as possible after the shield is down (This is similar to Twin Valkyr’s shield).

Feludius

He casts Hydro Lance, a frost bolt on a random player. Hydro Lance is an 1.5 second cast ability and must be always interrupted. I suggest to keep a ranged dps on Feludius during the Aegis of Flame shield, just to avoid deaths from Hydro Lance bolt. He will also cast Heart of Ice debuff on a random player which makes frost damage but also increases damage done to Feludius. I suggest to dispel this.

Feludius will randomly cast Water Bomb, and everyone who will get this (cannot be avoided) will get Waterlogged debuff. This debuff reduces movement speed and after some time it will freeze inside an ice block, which makes a lot of damage. To remove Waterlogged debuff you must run fast inside the fire path that Ignacious spawns after each jump.

Feludius special ability is named Glaciate, this is an aoe damage spell but it is based on your distance from Feludius. Everyone must be standing 20 yards away from Feludius when he casts Glaciate (this includes your main tank).

Phase two: Arion and Terrastra tactic

Arion

Arion will blink into a random place on room and he will start casting Lightning Blast. Lightning Blast is a 4 seconds cast and makes a lot of damage, but you can interrupt this. With that way you help your healers to keep everyone alive, since phase 2 has a lot of movement, and aoe damage.

Arion will also set Lightning Rod debuff to 3 random players  at the 25man version. After 5 seconds he will cast Chain Lightning on those players, which jumps to everyone on 20 yards. The debuffed players must run quick away from everyone else, otherwise chain lightning will wipe your raid! While someone has Lightning Rod debuff there is a yellow arrow on his head, so be fast on moving, this is number one wipe reason for this fight.

Arion will also summon a tornado on the room, if you get hit by tornadoes you will get Swirling Winds debuff which will save you from Terrastra’s Quake aoe cast. When Terrastra is casting Quake everyone must have Swirling Winds debuff to survive.

Terrastra

When Terrastra casts Eruption, she must be moved. Spikes will come from the ground, they don’t deal so much damage but you can easy avoid it.  She will also cast Harden Skin shield. You must dps her fast at this point because Harden Skin increases her damage done by 100% until shield is off. After shield is removed Terrastra will loose 10% of her health. A good tactic for this is to have almost all your dps on Arion and switch fast on Terrastra when Harden Skin is casted.

Terrastra will also spawn a ground effect which gives you the Grounded debuff. You must take this to survive Arion’s Thundershock.

Phase 3: Elementium Monstrosity tactic

After phase 2 ends, everyone will get stunned, all four bosses will become one now, Elementium Monstrosity. This is a burn phase. Requires a lot of healing and dps so you must be sure to keep all healing, survival and dps cooldowns for this phase. Elementium Monstrosity has 3 main abilities. Electric Instability which is a chain lightning spell, so everyone must spread around if possible. He will also grab 3 random members of raid, and will raise them on the air. Be sure to heal those player at close to full health points.

Finally Elementium Monstrosity will drop frost circles on the ground. These frost circles on the ground grow up the more time you stand on them, and they also buff Elementium Monstrosity with more damage. You must kite the boss.

In short about phase 3: Stay spreaded (melee off course cant spread), heal everyone since raid damage is becoming more and more, heal the people that are on the air, keep on kiting boss out of the frost spots, and push your dps at max. If you have all previous phase transitions with each boss at ~25% you will have high chances for a kill.

As last I have to say that this is definitely the most difficult encounter for normal modes. It involves and lot of RNG, some huge spike damages, at lot of moving, spreading and target switching. If you have the luxury to chose which dps to invite, you should really prefer ranged over melee.

Here is a video from my guild The Aunans dealing with Ascendant Council 25 man

Related posts:

1. The Bastion of Twilight: Valiona and Theralion Strategy and Tactics Guide
2. The Bastion of Twilight Strategy and Tactics Guide
3. The Bastion of Twilight: Cho’gall Strategy and Tactics Guide