Updated February 9, 9:00a.m. PST.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm patch 4.3.2 is now available on all realms! Below you'll find the official patch notes.

Notes for all World of Warcraft patches can be found here.

Table of Contents

• Classes
• Dungeons and Raids
• Items
• User Interface

Classes: General

• Vengeance is no longer triggered by receiving damage from other players.

Druids

• The Tier 13 Balance Druid 4-piece bonus now also increases the damage of Starsurge by 10%, in addition to its current effect.

Hunters

• Aspect of the Hawk now grants roughly 35% more attack power.
• Deterrence now also reduces damage taken by 30% while active.
• Black Arrow now ticks every 2 seconds for 20 seconds, as opposed to every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. The total damage dealt by the ability is unchanged.
• Lock and Load no longer benefits Arcane Shot, nor is it consumed by Arcane Shot.

Mages

• Fireball damage has been reduced by roughly 6%.
• Pyroblast initial damage has been reduced by roughly 6%. Damage over time is unchanged.

Paladins

• Holy Radiance now costs 40% of base mana, up from 35%.

Priests

• Mass Dispel should again prefer dispelling targets that have magic effects that can be dispelled.

Rogues

• Adrenaline Rush no longer triggers a global cooldown.

Dungeons & Raids

• You can now form same-faction raids with Real ID friends, allowing you to enter Raid Finder in groups larger than 5, run older normal or heroic raids, or participate in Battlegrounds. You will not yet be able to run normal or heroic Dragon Soul with cross-realm raids of Real ID friends.
• Several typo fixes and clarified descriptions have been added to the Dungeon Journal entries for Dragon Soul.
• Players no longer benefit from a role-based need bonus on the second of multiple copies of the same item on a single Raid Finder boss kill. For example, a player who chooses Need on two set piece tokens or two weapons (and wins the first) will only automatically roll 1-100 for the second from that particular boss.
• Baradin Hold
  • The roaming Eyes of Occu'thar have been replaced by hateful creatures who serve Alizabal.
• Dragon Soul
  • Yor’sahj the Unsleeping
    • The Shaman spell Unleash Life now properly only triggers Deep Corruption on its target. Previously, this affected both the caster and the target.
  • Warmaster Blackhorn
    • The visual warning for Twilight Elites' Blade Rush should be easier to see.
  • Spine of Deathwing
    • Burning Tendons health has been reduced by 15% in 10- and 25-player Heroic mode. This change eases the burst damage requirement to complete the encounter, which should allow players to make use of more varied raid compositions.
  • Madness of Deathwing
    • The Priest spell Leap of Faith is no longer usable while under the effect of Carrying Winds.

Items

• Vial of Shadows damage (Lightning Strike) has been reduced to approximately one-third of previous damage. However, it will now trigger approximately 3 times as often. This is intended to keep overall DPS the same while reducing burst damage, especially in PvP.
• Maw of the Dragonlord can now have its effect triggered by healing from Holy Word: Sanctuary.

User Interface

• Fixed a bug that caused the Mature Language Filter to reset on exit.
• A notice is now displayed 15 minutes prior to the player being disconnected by parental controls.

We’ve selected some of our favorite screenshots featuring your Transmogrified characters and created a new screenshot gallery. You can view, sort, and comment on these wonderful creations, and discuss the items that were used to create these unique looks. Send in your Transmogrification screenshots for a chance to be featured in future updates!

 

It’s been quite a while since we’ve shared information regarding our forum MVP program. If you frequent Blizzard forums you’ve no doubt seen jade text stamped across threads here and there. Those with the power to wield green words are regular players -- just like you -- who’ve been recognized for their contributions to the forums in one way or another. And since we want to provide these player advocates with the resources they need to continue being awesome posters, MVPs have direct lines of contact with Blizzard community managers.

Now the time has come to bolster the MVP ranks. Those chosen for the program aren’t official representatives of Blizzard, and they don’t have to agree with every decision we make. They also aren’t expected to give up their posting personas in order to join. Our goal is to find frequent posters who are a positive influence on the gaming community in some form, whether it be through posting strategy guides or tips on various aspects of gameplay, or even just bringing a positive and constructive tone to the forums when socializing with their peers.

If you or someone you know fits the description of a Most Valuable Poster as laid out in the MVP FAQ, email us at MVPs@Blizzard.com. We select MVPs based on a large set of criteria, so don’t be discouraged from putting your name out there if you only post on, say, the Protoss Discussion or DPS Class Role forums. MVPs are welcome to post wherever they’re comfortable, including across the Diablo III, StarCraft II, and World of Warcraft forums.

But remember! The key to being a strong candidate is having a solid posting history. We’re always on the lookout for the next shining beacon of good within the community to join the illustrious ranks of our MVPs.

Want to know more about how a Blizzard MVP operates? World of Warcraft MVP Eldacar recently spoke with WoW Insider in this behind-the-scenes interview.

The World of Warcraft Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of fan artwork.

Would you like to share your artistic talents with the community? Submit your fan art today!

The battlefields of World of Warcraft are littered with the bones of those who have become casualties in the ongoing conflict between the Horde and the Alliance. You do not need to become one of them. One of the keys to victory is knowledge, and that is where the World of Warcraft War College enters the picture. In these discussions between players, you can learn and share strategies with other players to improve your tactics and improve your odds of emerging victorious from the field of battle.

Are you a veteran Gladiator with countless victories tallied? Are you new to World of Warcraft and striving to improve your PvP skills? In this weekly feature, we invite players of all skill levels to ask questions, share tips and tactics, and join a conversation dedicated to surviving and thriving in World of Warcraft PvP.

This week, the topic of discussion is:

Join the War College forum thread here.

The Deluge
A monsoon is coming. We will soon inundate you with Mists of Pandaria information, starting with the upcoming media event and everything that follows. It’s going to be a very exciting time for World of Warcraft, and we are all super impatient for it to happen.

But… we’re not quite there yet. I want to make that clear upfront, because this blog isn’t directly Mists of Pandaria related. You won’t find any announcements here, just a philosophical discussion that you may or may not find interesting. If you’re looking for thrilling announcements, you know what I’m going to say: Soon™.

Multiple DPS Roles
I said this blog isn’t directly relevant though, because I want to discuss a topic that we did struggle with a lot during Mists development, and indeed through most of World of Warcraft. We have classes with multiple DPS specs, and for mage, warlock, hunter, rogue, warrior and death knight, there isn’t even a melee vs. ranged distinction between those DPS specs. The question comes up all the time: “what is the role of these roles?” I don’t think there is a right answer here, and we’ve even changed the design a few times over the last several years. Again, I’m not couching this in terms of an imminent announcement or anything. This is fundamentally one of those designs that could go in a lot of different directions. It’s something we discuss a lot, and we figured given the strong opinions of our forum-posting community, many of you probably do as well.

A paladin can choose from among specs that let her be a tank, melee DPS or healer, and can shift around which role she fills in a raid or BG team from week to week. Through the Dual Spec feature, she can even do so within a single evening. If her group doesn’t need another healer, or if she needs a break from tanking, she can become a DPS spec fairly easily without having to swap to a different character. A warlock doesn’t have that luxury. Yet, the warlock still has three specs. Is the idea, then, that you are supposed to swap from Destruction to Demonology and back depending on the situation? Is the idea that you play Affliction if you like dots and Destruction if you like nukes? Or do you just switch to whatever theoretically does 1% more DPS for the next fight?

Players are sometimes cavalier about throwing around the claim that there’s a “lack of design direction” when they want their character buffed. Of course, classes always have a design direction; players just sometimes disagree with it. My point is that just because we debate whether the current design is the best possible one doesn’t mean there isn’t a design at all. That distinction is important. And of course, we do have a directive for which DPS spec you should play: whichever one you enjoy the most. But that doesn’t mean that is the best model or that it can’t ever change. There are other models we could try.

Model One – Everyone is equal all the time

If your DPS and utility are the same across specs, then you just play whichever one you prefer. Maybe you like the kit of the Frost mage, or maybe you like the rotation of the Fury warrior, so you play them. As I said above, this has been the model we have used for a while now, with mixed success. The challenge is that “all the time” caveat. We can get all of the DPS specs pretty close together on target dummies, and indeed they actually are very close on target dummies today. Our encounters aren’t target dummies though. Having some adds increases the damage of dot-specs. Having lots of adds increases the damage of strong AE specs. Having to move on a fight, and how often and far you have to move, can cause DPS to go up or down differently. Even if DPS is only off by a few percentage points, many players will respec to the one with the highest DPS (even if it’s theoretical, even if for them they will do lower personal DPS than if they had stuck with a more familiar spec). A mage who just loves Fire might be frustrated if he ever has to go Arcane, while another player might be happy that he gets to try different specs for different fights.

The class stacking we’ve seen on the Spine of Deathwing encounter relates to the need for massive burst damage in a specific window, such that the difference between a one minute DPS cooldown and a two minute DPS cooldown matters. Even if we could make sure every spec had the same AE vs. single target damage, do we now need to also ensure every spec can do the same DPS in burst windows of various lengths? Is that even mathematically possible? Or do we just test every spec for every raid encounter of the current tier and tweak class mechanics around for whatever is the current status quo? That implies a high rate of change, and I wonder if we’d lose a little bit of the fun of experimentation and theorycrafting if it was basically accepted that you could take any spec to any fight and do about the same damage. It’s more balanced, yes, but does it lack depth or flavor?  Is it fun?

Model Two – Everyone has specialties and you match the spec to the situation
Under this model, we would establish spec specialties. For example, Arcane could be good for single-target fights while Fire is great at AE fights. Some of that design already exists in the game, but we try not to overdo it. If you really like playing one mage spec, or really detest constant spec swapping, then this model isn’t going to be to your liking. Furthermore, we don’t want to overstrain our boss design by having to meet a certain quota of AE vs. single target fights and movement vs. stationary fights and burn phase vs. longevity fights or whatever. It is also really hard to engineer these situations in Arenas or Battlegrounds (for example, both mobility and burst are extremely desirable in PvP), so in those scenarios there still may just be one acceptable spec.

Model Three – You swap specs to gain specific utility
If we used this model, then you might switch out to a different spec to gain a specific spell. Again, we have some of this today. A DK might want Unholy’s Anti-Magic Zone for a certain fight. Hunters might go Beastmaster to pick up a missing raid buff. Mages might go Fire for situations where Combustion shines. Druids might go Balance when they need the knockback from Typhoon. A little of this sort of thing goes a long way though. As in Model One, not every player wants to have to swap specs. If you just like Survival, you might resent having to go BM just to buff someone. If knockbacks are too potent, then it really constrains your raid composition and makes even casual guilds feel like they need to keep a stable of alts or benched players for every fight. If, for example, there wasn’t a boss in the current raid tier for which warrior abilities really shine, then warriors start to feel like a third wheel, yet trying to make sure every boss in a tier has a moment for every spec to shine is a pretty daunting task.

The extreme case of this is the “utility” spec who does middling DPS, but brings a lot of synergy and utility that improves all of the other specs. This was the Burning Crusade model, where classes like shaman and Shadow priests were brought to raids just to make the pure classes (and warriors, who were always treated as pure classes back then for some reason) do better DPS. In Lich King, we changed the design to make different raid buffs and abilities more widespread and give groups much more flexibility in their raid (and to some extent dungeon) comps. We heard from Shadow priests that they wanted to do competitive damage, not just be there to make everyone else more awesome. But even today we get a lot of requests to improve the utility of someone’s spec so that they are more likely to get invited to a group.

Model Four – There is just a best spec for PvP and PvE
This was the model of vanilla World of Warcraft, and we understand some players wouldn’t mind it returning. In this model Arms and Frost and Subtlety (and other specs) were designed to be good for PvP, while others, Fury and Fire and Combat perhaps, were designed to be good for PvE. The PvP specs might have better mobility or survivability or burst damage, while the PvE specs have better sustained damage over the course of a 6-10 minute boss fight. A lot has changed since vanilla. We don’t make many raid or dungeon encounters these days where DPS specs can just stand in one place and burn down a boss. Mobility, survivability, and burst damage can all be really useful on particular encounters, sometimes trumping the higher DPS offered by a competing spec. (There’s that old adage that dead do zero DPS.) In addition, if there is a PvP spec and a PvE spec, then for pure classes that implies that your third spec lacks much of a role. (The good leveling spec? Is that exciting?) Furthermore, our Mists of Pandaria talent tree design explicitly takes away some of the tools from the traditional PvP specs and makes them available to other specs in the class. If this works out, then you can take your Frost mage raiding, or have an Arcane mage for PvP who uses some of what traditionally were Frost’s control and escape tools. That’s great if you PvP and love Arcane, or PvE and love Frost. It’s less cool if you were the kind of player who was totally comfortable with the simpler (and possibly easier to balance) design of having dedicated PvP vs. PvE specs.

Model Five – Don’t have multiple DPS roles
This is the most controversial model and the one that would require the most change, meaning we are almost certainly never going to do it. For sake of completeness though, you can argue that classes never should have been designed with multiple specs that fill the same role. In this model, either Arms or Fury goes away and gets replaced with something. (Archery? Healing?) Warlocks and other pure classes would need a massive redo to end up with say a melee and tanking warlock. Everyone becomes a hybrid. The hardest decisions becomes whether you want to be the ranged or melee DPS version of your class (like druids or shaman). This idea is elegant from a design perspective because it un-asks all of those questions about how much more damage pure classes should do than hybrids to justify their narrower utility. But, perhaps counter-intuitively, elegant designs often aren’t the strongest ones (I could write a whole blog on that topic alone). Model Five is the kind of rhetorical question you could go back in time and ask before WoW launched, but not the kind of thing we could change today without taking an enormous amount of effort, to say nothing of the irate players who would feel bamboozled that we were so dramatically changing their character out from under them. I try to never say never, but this model isn’t the kind of change you make in a mature game. It’s here only for completeness and because I suspect some of you will bring it up.

But Which is the Best Model?
Hell if I know! I fundamentally believe that none of these models is, without question, the obvious right one. All of them have advantages and disadvantages, and there are probably other models you could come up with that are variants on these five, or perhaps even something new. Like I said, we’re not announcing a philosophy change yet. If we get enough feedback for one model or another, we might eventually change our minds. Also for this blog we’re going to lock the comments and ask that you post your replies in this forum thread. Just remember that even we don’t believe that there is one correct answer, so please keep that in mind when you’re composing your feedback.

Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street is the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft and holds the world record Wild Strike crit… at least until beta starts.

The monsters continue their path of destruction in the latest expansion to the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. Aftermath: Crown of the Heavens follows up on Throne of the Tides, introducing a completely new set of Monster hero races and classes. Players can now control demons, dryads, and ogres, each with exciting powers that will drive completely new deck-building strategies.

In addition to powerful Horde and Alliance allies such as Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage, Tyrande, High Priestess of Elune, and Sylvanas, Queen of the Forsaken, Aftermath: Crown of the Heavens will also introduce more murloc monster cards including an epic murloc.

Each Crown of the Heavens pack has a chance to give you all-new Loot™ including the Corrupted Hippogryph mount, Ogre Mage Costume item, and Gregarious Grell pet.

This set also includes the new tournament-friendly pack and box configuration: 36-pack display supports eight-person draft tournament play out of one box, and the 16-card pack size and configuration improves the limited (sealed and draft) play experience.

You can purchase Crown of the Heavens cards in the Blizzard Online Store:
http://us.blizzard.com/store/search.xml?q=aftermath
Visit www.wowtcg.com for more information on Aftermath: Crown of the Heavens and other World of Warcraft Trading Card Game releases.

 

It wasn’t long ago since we first announced an approaching milestone. This awe-inspiring event -- sure to leave the planet standing still, its people in awe of the greatness -- is upon us. You may now collect your refreshing fountain drinks at ampm convenience stores in remarkable, limited-edition creations forged for just this purpose. Kil’jaeden, Illidan, the Lich King, and Deathwing have been memorialized on what are now the only drinking cups that have ever mattered. They will only wait so long for you to realize the growing thirst within you. They will not tolerate your failure to locate your nearest ampm.

Get your epic World of Warcraft cup today and become a part of history. Just don’t forget that, in this case, even history needs a straw.

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft: Cataclysm patch 4.3: Hour of Twilight. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below will go live the moment they are implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this thread in the days ahead as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Features & Support Guide
• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Customer Support & Service Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

 

February 7

• Dungeons and Raids
  • Dragon Soul
    • After the instance is cleared, Crimson Lifebinder now resurrects the non-player characters at Wyrmrest Temple, and they are fully functional.
    • Ultraxion
      • The event leading to Ultraxion now requires 15 Drakes killed, down from 24.
         
• Events
  • Love is in the Air
    • Players are now able to receive Lovely Charms while on the quest "Test Your Strength", when the player's inventory has both the Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide and Lovely Charm Collector's Kit.
    • Players now have the chance to receive both the Lovely Charm and Grisly Trophy from a single kill.
  • Lunar Festival
    • Elder Dawnstrider now spawns farther away from nearby Flame Crest mobs.
       

• Items
  • Maw of the Dragonlord should now have its effect triggered by healing from Holy Word: Sanctuary.
  • Windward Heart should now have its effect triggered properly by Healing Rain.

 

February 2

• General
  • Mass Dispel should once again dispel up to 10 friendly or enemy targets.
  • Resilience should now properly reduce the damage over time effects for targets affected by Mind Control.
     
• Dungeons and Raids
  • Dragon Soul
  • Lord Afrasastrasz no longer offers the option to disable the Power of the Aspects buff in Raid Finder mode.
    • The Spine of Deathwing
      • Corrupted Bloods should no longer maintain threat after reconstituting themselves from residue.
         
• Events
  • Darkmoon Faire
    • Soothsayer's Runes and A Treatise on Strategy should now drop from all appropriate Heroic and raid bosses.
    • Murozond's Temporal Cache now has a chance to contain Monstrous Egg and A Treatise on Strategy.
       

• Quests and Creatures
  • Players who inadvertently disconnect during Tailgunner! should now find themselves able to complete the quest.
  • Baby Crocolisks have been given tiny teething rings, and Tiny Teeth! should no longer transfer to other players.
  • Players should no longer encounter any invisible Young Crocolisks during the quest The Pit of Scales.
     
• Items
  • Cunning of the Cruel will now trigger its Shadowbolt Volley approximately three times as often, but will deal approximately one third as much damage. This results in the tooltip for the item being incorrect, but should moderate its burst damage in PvP.

 

 

January 9

• General
  • Killing a boss in a guild group while using the random Heroic Dungeon Finder should now award guild reputation and experience.
  • Mobs that have been damaged by Shadowy Apparitions should again provide experience when defeated.
  • Darkmoon Tonk and Darkmoon Zeppelin should no longer become a horde balloon after performing a faction change from Alliance to Horde.
     

• Dungeons and Raids

  • Hour of Twilight

    • Archbishop Benedictus

      • Thrall and Archbishop Benedictus should no longer fail to complete their roleplay introduction (preventing players from completing the instance).

  • Well of Eternity

    • Mannoroth

      • Starting the Mannoroth encounter should no longer remove Stealth effects.

  • Dragon Soul

    • Twilight Elite Dreadblades and Twilight Elite Slayers should now refrain from doing melee attacks while mounted, and always engage and melee players after landing on the gunship deck.

    • Ultraxion

      • All Fading Light debuffs and Aspect crystal buffs on players should now be cleared when the encounter ends.
    • The Madness of Deathwing
      • The Corrupted Parasite debuff is removed from a character who leaves the zone.
         
• Events
  • Darkmoon Faire
    • Players should now be able to complete the quests "The Captured Journal" and "The Enemy's Insignia" after having completed them in a previous month.
       
• Items
  • Vial of Shadows proc damage should now be increased by ranged attack power for hunters.
  • Souldrinker and Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps no longer have a chance to proc twice for paladins with Seal of Truth active.
  • Vishanka, Jaws of the Earth now invokes Speaking of Rage bonus damage that is treate as ranged damage and benefits from ranged critical strike chance.
     
• Quests and Creatures
  • Pelturas Whitemoon should no longer becomes unresponsive after a player completes the quest "All's Well".

 

December 23

• Dungeons and Raids
  • Dragon Soul
    • Morchok
      • Morchok has been working out, now moves faster in all phases of the fight, and can no longer be kited.
    • Hagara
      • Players can no longer use Spiritwalker’s Grace to avoid the Watery Entrenchment debuff.
    • Ultraxion
      • Fading Light should now always appear in raid frames when a player is affected by it.

 

December 20

• General
  • Algaefin Rockfish no longer swim in schools, and schools of Deepsea Sagefish have taken their place along many coastlines.
     
• Classes
  • Hunters
    • Multi-Shot, modified by the talent Serpent Spread, should now properly spread Serpent Sting to other targets that are within range when a nearby player is affected by Serpent Sting.

  • Paladins

    • Horde Paladins should find that Judgement of Truth now properly triggers item procs that it is intended to trigger.
       
• Dungeons and Raids
  • Deadmines
    • Helix Gearbreaker's Stickybomb should no longer break Stealth.
    • Vanessa VanCleef's Vigorous VanCleef Vindicator achievement should no longer break Stealth.
  • Vortex Pinnacle
    • Minister of Air
      • The knockback for Lightning Nova has been reduced from roughly 12 yards to 8 yards on normal difficulty, and from18 yards to 12 yards on Heroic difficulty.
  • Well of Eternity
    • Mannoroth
      • Felhounds, Doomguard Devestators, and Felguards are no longer capable of dealing critical hits.
  • Zul'Aman
    • Amani'shi Warbringer's damage has been reduced by 12%.
    • Amani'shi Medicine Man's summoned Protective Ward health has been reduced by 60%.
    • When an Amani'shi Scout is alerted, he now idles for 1 second before running to summon reinforcement.
    • Amani'shi Reinforcement's damage has been reduced by 15%.
    • Amani'shi Flame Casters' Fireball Volley now inflicts less damage.
    • Jana'lai's Flame Breath ability now inflicts less persistent fire damage.
    • In Dragonhawk form, Daakara's Flame Whirl spell increases fire damage taken by a lesser amount.
    • Daakara's Creeping Paralysis now inflicts less damage.
  • Zul'Gurub
    • Berserking Boulder Roller's Boulders now inflict less damage.
    • Bloodlord Mandokir's Decapitate cooldown has been increased by 5 seconds.
    • Gurubashi Shadow Hunters are now immune to Disarm.
    • Gurubashi Shadow Hunter's Shadowed Shot ability now inflicts less damage.
    • Gurubashi Blood Drinker's Blood Leech ability now inflicts less damage.
    • Lesser Priest of Bethekk's Shadowflame ability now inflicts less periodic damage.
    • High Priestess Kilnara's Wave of Agony now deals less damage.
    • Jin'do's Twisted Spirit health has been reduced.
    • Jin'do's Twisted Spirit damage has been reduced.
    • Jin'do's Shadows of Hakkar now inflicts less damage.
  • Dragon Soul
    • Morchok
      • Double Stomp damage should now only come down on the heads of the two players closest to the boss.
    • Hagara
      • Ice Waves will not spawn until Hagara finishes casting Frozen Tempest.
      • Spell immunity mechanics such as Ice Block and Divine Shield should now temporarily block damage from Watery Entrenchment, but should not remove the debuff.
      • Ice Tomb can no longer be avoided by a raid of players all standing within a smokebomb.
    • Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
      • Yor'sahj now deals triple melee damage to player-controlled pets and targets them with Void Bolt.
      • The Firebloom heal triggered by the Druid tier-12 should no longer cause Deep Corruption.
      • Yor'sahj's damage has been reduced by up to 10% on 25-player Heroic difficulty, bringing the difficulty of the encounter closer to that of 10-player Heroic difficulty.
    • Spine of Deathwing
      • A Safe Fall aura has been added to the start of the encounter, preventing players from taking falling damage, should their parachutes end early.
      • Corrupted Bloods now use Burst regardless of crowd control conditions, including silence.
    • Madness of Deathwing
      • Deathwing should no longer fire two Elementium Meteors when a limb tentacle is destroyed at the same time that Deathwing is casting Elementium Meteor.

 

• Items
  • Timepiece of the Bronze Flight now has a red socket.

 

• Quests
  • Players on the quest Patricide can no longer receive the Fragment of Deathwing's Jaw while in a Raid Finder group.
  • Graham Van Talen should no longer incorrectly offer Gnome Engineering and Goblin Engineering once the player has sufficient Engineering skill level.
  • Pelturas Whitemoon should now be quite willing to complete the quest Orendil's Cure for multiple players.
  • Players are now able to complete the quest Trial of the Naaru: Mercy by beating the 55-minute timer.

December 12

• Classes
  • Druids
    • Pounce should now apply its Bleed to targets beyond its normal range when used with the Glyph of Pounce.
    • The Mass Regeneration effect from the druid tier 13 bonus now heals 25% of the healing received by the druid from Frenzied Regeneration, down from 50%. The tooltip will be updated in a later patch.
  • Paladins
    • Holy Radiance should now stack properly with other paladins' Holy Radiance, with all valid targets nearby being properly healed.
  • Warriors

    • Bladestorm will now properly apply its immunities to spell effects that are in flight when Bladestorm is activated.
       

• Dungeons and Raids

  • Hour of Twilight

    • Archbishop Benedictus

      • Thrall should no longer despawn when no players are near him after the gauntlet has been completed.

  • Throne of the Four Winds

    • Al'Akir

      • Wind Burst should no longer knock players back too far.

  • Dragon Soul
    • Morchok
      • Earthen Soldiers, Ancient Water Lords and Earthen Destroyers now move faster.
      • Morchok's Resonating Crystals should now always target the closest players when they explode.
    • Yor'sahj the Unsleeping

      • Damage done by Forgotten Ones, Void Bolt AOE, and Searing Blood has been reduced on 25-person, Heroic difficulty.

      • Yor'sahj's health has been reduced by 10% on 25-person, Heroic difficulty.

    • Hagara the Stormbinder
      • Hagara’s Frost Shield can no longer be broken by Shattering Throw to avoid her Frozen Tempest phase.
    • Warlord Zon'ozz
      • Disrupting Shadows no longer deals AoE damage or knockbacks when the duration is reduced with Mage Armor on Heroic raid difficulties.
    • Warmaster Blackhorn
      • Shockwave can now be broken by trinkets and other effects that cancel stuns.
      • Blackhorn's Vengeance now accrues at a rate of 1% per 2% of missiong HP on Raid Finder difficulty.
      • After Warmaster Blackhorn is killed, the deck fire on upper decks is no longer present on Heroic difficulty.
      • Warmaster Blackhorn, the Twilight Elite Slayers, and the Twilight Elite Dreadblades are no longer able to attack players while mounted.
    • Spine of Deathwing
      • Blood Corruption: Earth will no longer morph into Blood Corruption: Death when dispelled.
      • Blood Corruption: Earth now applies two stacks of Blood of Neltharion when it expires on 25-player heroic difficulty.
      • The health pools for Burning Tendon, Corrupted Blood, Corruption, and Hideous Amalgamation have been reduced by 6 to 11% for 25-person raids on both normal and Heroic difficulty.
      • Hideous Amalgamations with the Superheated buff no longer pulse their AE damage after being thrown from Deathwing's back.
    • Madness of Deathwing
      • Damage done by Elementium Blast, Corrupted Blood, and Blistering Heat have been lowered on Raid Finder difficulty.
      • This encounter should now complete when all players die after Deathwing has been defeated.
         
• Items

  • Darkmoon Zeppelin should no longer be converted to a Horde Balloon during an Alliance to Horde faction change.

 

December 6

• General
  • Transmogrified items should always lose their transmogrification when mailed.
  • The Darkmoon Firework no longer has a duration, is now holiday-bound, and requires Darkmoon Faire to be active.
  • Darkmoon Faire revelers who enter an off-limits area in ghost form should now be properly ported out.
  • Entangling Roots, Freeze, and Frost Nova should now properly break when the affected player takes damage while a damage absorption effect is also active.

 

• Classes
  • Hunters
    • Kill Command should now always consume the Resistance is Futile! buff, regardless of whether the target has Hunter's Mark or not.
    • Reverted a bug fix that caused Bombardment to be consumed by the next Multi-Shot. Fixing this bug proved to be a significant dps loss, so Bombardment once again lasts for its full 6 second duration regardless of the number of Multi-Shot casts. The tooltip will be updated in a future patch to reflect that this change is intended.
  • Paladins
    • Divine Aegis, Ancestral Awakening, Ancestral Vigor, Holy Priest Mastery, Holy Paladin Mastery, and Living Seed now trigger properly based on pre-absorb healing, even if the triggering heal is fully absorbed.
  • Warriors
    • Deep Wounds should now be correctly activated by critical hits from Opportunity Strike, Raging Blow, Heroic Leap, and Intercept.
    • Using Pummel, modified by Gag Order, will now Silence the target for 3 seconds in addition to locking out the spell school for 4 seconds.

 

• Dungeons & Raids
  • End Time
    • The trash preceeding Echo of Baine should now hit for less Fire damage.
  • Hour of Twilight
    • Flailing Tentacles now despawn shortly after they appear, and can no longer be attacked.
  • Well of Eternity
    • Players should no longer lose the Shadowcloak buff when a group member leaves, joins, or zones in or out of the instance.
    • Mannoroth
      • Magistrike Arc should no longer be activated by pet attacks, and now has a 100% chance of being activated after a 3 second cooldown.
      • Rogue Stealth and mage Invisibility are no longer broken when Doomguard Devastators land and become valid targets, or when other Demons spawn from the Nether Tear portal.
  • Dragon Soul
    • Accepting a Warlock summon while riding a drake taxi in Dragon Soul should now cancel the drake ride and port the player to the location of the summon.
    • Fall of Deathwing is now available via Raid Finder once you have completed Siege of Wyrmrest.
    • Players who have killed the final boss in one of the wings of Dragon soul via Raid Finder will be more likely to enter fresh instances on subsequent Raid Finder instances that week. This should make it easier to kill earlier bosses that they might have missed.
    • Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
      • The Aggro Radius has been properly adjusted for all difficulties of this encounter.
      • Slimes, Mana Voids, and Forgotten Ones have had their HP reduced by 20% on Raid Finder difficulty.
      • Pets cannot be summoned during the decent into this encounter.
    • Warlord Zon'ozz
      • Ball damage should now be splitting its total damage amongst all players nearby on Raid Finder difficulty.
      • Pets cannot be summoned during the decent into this encounter.
    • Ultraxion
      • Players should no longer find themselves in the Twilight Realm after Ultraxion has been defeated.
      • Essence of Dreams should strain CPUs less in 25-player raids. This buff will now activate once per second for each healer who has the buff, and the healing done by the effect will equal the amount of health healed by the healer within that one second window.
    • Spine of Deathwing
      • Corruption, Hideous Amalgamation, and Burning Tendons are now level 88, up from 87, and have had their health slightly increased.
    • Madness of Deathwing
      • Priests under the effect of Spirit of Redemption will now receive credit for defeating Deathwing as long as they were part of the encounter.
  • Temple of Ahn'Qiraj
    • The Prophet Skeram, the Illusions of The Prophet Skeram, Princess Yauj, Lord Kri, and Vem no longer grant reputation when killed.
  • Throne of the Tides
    • Lady Naz'jar
      • All of the creatures in the Lady Naz'jar gauntlet are now immune to mind control mechanics.
  • Zul'Gurub
    • High Priest Venoxis has been convinced to clean up after himself when his encounter is reset, and his venom puddles should disappear.

 

• Items
  • Bracers of Flowing Serenity now have a +20 Intellect socket bonus that is properly applied when the gem requirement is met.
  • Foul Gift of the Demon Lord and Varo'then's Brooch should no longer be usable by players under the effects of crowd control spells.
  • All three Heart of Unliving trinkets now additionally provide a passive intellect bonus.
  • Mana Tide Totem now benefits from Heart of Unliving.
  • Pit Fighter and Master Pit Fighter now have more stamina.
  • The Moonwell Phial trinket buff shold no longer be disabled when the player enters combat.
  • The paladin tier-13 four-piece set bonus should now increase healing done by Holy Radiance by 5%, down from 20%.
  • The priest tier-13 two-piece set bonus should again trigger a 23-second Temporal Boon for non-Discipline priests, up from 20 seconds.

 

• Quests and Creatures
  • While on the quest "Archival Purposes", players should now be able to open Elementium Gem Clusters.

 

December 2

• General
  • The Looking-For-Dungeon / Looking-For-Raid system should now properly assign classes to the roles that are most needed, as long as those roles are selected. It should no longer confine them to Tank/Healer/DPS priority if other roles are in short supply.
  • Master looter can no longer assign items in Looking-For-Raid groups to players that are already locked to that boss for the week.
  • Players should be unable to trade loot they got from Looking-For-Raid encounters to players that are loot locked to that boss.
     
• Classes
  • Death Knights
    • Raise Ghoul, Blood Tap, Empower Rune Weapon, and Army of the Dead no longer benefit from the cooldown reduction and the duration increase from the buff Last Defender of Azeroth.
  • Druids
    • Druids can no longer cast Barkskin while Hexed.
    • Frenzied Regeneration is now correctly healing for 0.30% health for each point of Rage consumed and matches the amount in the tooltip.
    • Efflorescence should now correctly heal if the Swiftmended heal is absorbed by effects like Necrotic Strike.
  • Priests
    • A Priest with Spirit of Redemption who dies as the round is ending in Strand of the Ancients should no longer become permanently stunned for the rest of the game.
  • Rogues
    • Killing Spree should no longer return a script error when only stealthed targets are nearby.
  • Warriors
    • Deep Wounds should now only proc from crits, not passive damage.
    • Bladestorm will now always grant immunity when it is cast.
       

• Dungeons & Raids
  • Well of Eternity
    • Eyes of Peroth'arn should now despawn after the stealth phase.
    • During the Mannoroth encounter in the Well of Eternity, players who drop combat via abilities like Vanish and Invisibility should no longer lose the Gift of Sargeras buff.
    • Displaced Shadowbats should now properly despawn in all situations.
    • Druids are no longer removed from their Shapeshifted form when they gain the Shadowcloak buff.
  • Hour of Twilight
    • Thrall should no longer be able to be killed in the gauntlet leading up to Archbishop Benedictus.
    • Thrall will no longer aggro additional trash packs in the Asira Dawnlayer gauntlet if a player mind controls a mob.
  • Dragon Soul
    • All bosses in Dragon Soul are now awarding both guild XP and reputation when defeated, in normal and Heroic raid difficulties.
    • Hagara
      • Ice Walls now move 15% slower on LFR Raid Finderdifficulty
    • Ultraxion
      • The minimum heal required to activate Essence of Dreams is now 1500, up from 500.
    • Spine of Deathwing
      • Players should no longer get disconnected once they release their spirit after jumping or falling off Deathwing.
    • Madness of Deathwing
      • Deathwing now properly slouches down and becomes attackable for phase two.
      • Corrupted Deathwing should now cast his spells appropriately when switching between platforms.
      • The Madness of Deathwing encounter should will appropriately die, play the end cinematic, spawn his appropriate loot chest, award Valor Points, and despawn when players defeat him.
  • Blackrock Caverns
    • Raz the Crazed's Furious Swipe should now properly hit enemies.
  • Temple of Ahn'Qiraj
    • All bosses should again reward the expected amount of Brood of Nozdormu reputation.
       
• Items
  • The Speaking of Rage proc from all three versions of Vishanka, Jaws of the Earth should no longer miss against opponents of any level, regardless of the player's Hit Rating.
  • If a player loots a Heart of Flame with a full inventory, the item will be mailed to them.
     
• Quests and Creatures
  • Kilix the Unraveler should no longer offer the deprecated quest "All Things in Good Time".
  • Telenus and Kali Remik no longer offer the deprecated quest "Seek the Farstriders".
  • Blackhowl Footsoldiers should no longer path under the terrain or path oddly around stairs.
  • The Crystalspire Stone Drake will no longer despawn for players who have engaged Zoltrik Drakebane

We understand that picking out the appropriate desktop wallpaper to fit your tastes and complement your décor can be an arduous task. To that end, we’ll be offering you help every Tuesday by featuring a new downloadable Diablo III, StarCraft II or World of Warcraft wallpaper image on our community sites.

Here’s what we have for you this week. Enjoy!

Battle.net Balance is now live! As we announced previously, Battle.net Balance is a new feature that gives players an alternate way to purchase Blizzard digital products and services directly through their Battle.net accounts. Players are now able add to their Battle.net Balance using a variety of payment methods, and then use that balance toward select Blizzard Entertainment digital products and services, such as World of Warcraft realm transfers, character name changes, and other paid services; as well as digital versions of select Blizzard games, including Diablo II and StarCraft II. In the future, players will be also able to use Battle.net Balance for the digital World of Warcraft Battle Chest and WoW digital upgrades and to purchase digital products through the online Blizzard Store, including World of Warcraft game-time codes and Pet Store pets and mounts. In addition, with the upcoming launch of Diablo III, players will have the option to use Battle.net Balance to buy and sell items in the game’s currency-based auction house.

For more information, check out the Battle.net Balance FAQ, or head to the Battle.net Balance page in Account Management to manage your balance.