What's Happening...

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Patch 2.3.2 Notes

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- World of Warcraft Client Patch 2.3.2
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The latest patch notes can always be found at
WoW -> Patch Notes -> Current Patch Notes


General
- /timetest is a command that can be run to provide information
on game performance. /timetest 0 turns the command off. When the
command is issued, the next time a player uses a flight master to
travel, certain statistics will be measured and displayed at the end
of that flight. All weather effects and spawns are shutdown during
the test.
- Effects triggered from being critically hit: Many abilities and
talents were changed in 2.3.0 to allow them to trigger from critical
strikes that occurred while the player benefitting from them was
sitting.
- Quest givers with blue question marks no longer show up on the
minimap.
- NPC's who you have completed a quest for will display a question mark
on mouseover rather than an exclamation point.
- The bank controls for the guildmaster level of a guild is now grayed
out. A guildmaster always has full access to a guild bank and this
cannot be changed.
- A "Withdraw-Repair Only" button has been added to the guild bank
controls. If this is set for a guild rank, then that rank cannot
actually withdraw funds from the guild bank, but they can still use
that daily amount of money for repairs.
- You will now automatically stand up when attacked, even if the attack
doesn’t land.
- Boat and zeppelin vendors and NPCs are back on duty.
- Reduced network latency by disabling the Nagle algorithm.

Druids
- Lifebloom: When this ability is refreshed it will take on the
strength of the incoming Lifebloom effect, rather than maintain the
existing strength.
- Ravage: The damage multiplier on this ability has been increased from
350% to 385%.

Hunters
- Arcane Shot: Ranks 1-5 will once again deal bonus damage based on
attack power.
- Aspect of the Viper effect increased.
- Freezing Trap is no longer limited to one target at a time.
- Pet leveling speed has been increased.

Mages
- Cold Snap (Frost) cooldown reduced. It is now in the Ice Block
position in the talent tree. This ability will no longer reset the
cooldown on Fire Ward.
- Conjure Mana Gem mana restore variance substantially reduced,
(Rank 5 – Emerald) now restores 2340 to 2460 mana and has three
charges.
- Ice Block (Frost) is now available on the trainer to all mages at
level 30.
- Icy Veins (NEW Frost Talent) decreases casting time of all spells by
20% and increases the chance your chilling effects will freeze the
target by 10%. Lasts 20 sec. 3 min cooldown. It is now in the Cold
Snap position in the talent tree.

Paladins
- Crusader Strike (Retribution) now causes 110% of weapon damage and
no longer gains any bonus from spell damage.
- Righteous Fury: This spell will no longer cost twice the listed mana
to cast.
- Sanctified Judgements (Retribution) now returns 80% of the Seal's
mana cost, increased from 50%.

Rogues
- Ambush: The damage multiplier on this ability has been increased from
250% to 275%.
- Cheat Death: When multiple attacks land simultaenously, all those
resolved after the attack which triggered Cheat Death will now have
their damage reduced by 90% as intended. However, the combat log will
still report them doing full damage.
- Hemorrhage: Rank 4 of this ability no longer has its charges consumed
by non-physical attacks and spells.
- Hemorrhage weapon damage reduced from 125% to 110%, but the damage
debuff has been increased.
- Hemorrhage: This ability now correctly does additional damage when
its debuff has already been applied.
- Preparation now resets the cooldown of Shadowstep and no longer
resets the cooldown of Adrenaline Rush.
- Shadowstep now adds a 3 second, 70% movement speed increase.
- Sinister Calling now also increases the percentage damage bonus of
Hemorrhage and Backstab by 2/4/6/8/10%.

Shaman
- Lightning Shield mana cost reduced.
- Water Shield now restores mana periodically regardless of how many
charges remain. Duration increased to 10 minutes.


Warlock
- The health cost taken from the Warlock after using Health Funnel will
now remain consistent between uses.

Warrior
- Defiance: The expertise granted by this talent now works properly in
all stances.
- Warriors no longer lose rage when using a macro to enter a stance
they’re already in.

Professions
- Cooking
Goldthorn Tea was erroneously unlearned by most players who had
learned the recipe. The recipe has been re-enabled and can be
learned again from Henry Stern in Razorfen Downs at no cost.
- Enchanting
Enchant Shield - Resilience now requires a Runed Fel Iron Rod instead
of a Runed Adamantite Rod.
- Leatherworking
Increased the range of leatherworking drums to 40 yards. Drums of
Panic remains unchanged at 8 yards.

Items
- Amani Charm of the Witch Doctor: Tooltip typo corrected.
- Hearthstone: The cast time on this item is no longer affected by
spell haste.
- Hex Shrunken Head: This item now has a 20 second shared cooldown with
other similar trinkets.
- Icy Chill Enchant: The triggered effect from this enchantment will
now cause a melee slow and movement snare as intended.
- Idol of the Unseen Moon: This item now has a 30 second cooldown on
being triggered.
- Idol of Terror: The triggered agility buff from this item no longer
overwrites other agility buffs.
- The Netherscale Ammo Pouch is no longer a Unique item.
- The Knothide Quiver is no longer unique.
- The Vengeful Gladiator’s Grimoire is now available on vendors.

Dungeons and Raids
- Heroic Coilfang Resevoir- Steamvaults
Mekgineer Steamrigger's Main Chambers Access Panel is no longer
interactable until Mekgineer Steamrigger has been killed.
- Tempest Keep- The Eye
The number of Blood Elves guarding Prince Kael'Thas' room has been
reduced.
- Zul’Aman
The Amani'shi Warrior's Charge ability now has a minimum range.
The melee haste provided by Halazzi's Frenzy has been reduced to
100%.
Dragonhawks in Zul'Aman can now be skinned. This doesn't include
dragonhawks that do not have loot.

Quests
- Blade's Edge Mountains: Players accepting the bombing run quests in
Blade's Edge Plateaus will no longer cause other players in the
region to stand up.

User Interface
- There is now an option to turn off the screen edge damage flash when
you have a fullscreen UI up.
- You can sell stacks by dropping them on the merchant window again.
- Ready check (/readycheck) will now display a visual display of each
party/raid member's status next to their name. This will display in
the Party UI, the Raid UI and the raid pullout UI. A player will get
a check mark if they are ready, a question mark if they have not
replied and a red X if they are not ready or are afk.
- You can now see raid members on the minimap as dark blue dots in
addition to party members which still display as light blue dots.
- You can now shift click names while the petition window is open to
paste them into the petition.
- Fixed various problems with /castsequence getting stuck.
- /cast will toggle spells again unless the name is prefixed with an
exclamation mark, e.g. /castsequence Steady Shot, !Auto Shot

Bug Fixes
- Characters may now possess up to five Paper Flying Machines in a
single stack.
- Fixed “Spell/Ability is not ready yet” message when clicking quickly
at the beginning of a cast.
- Fixed a server disconnect when moving the mouse over recipes in the
guild bank.
- Gnomish Universal Remote will now work properly with the Fel Cannon.
- Disconnecting a USB HeadSet will no longer cause problems with the
Voice Chat dropdown menus.
- Clockwork Rocket Bots will no longer attack each other in Shattrath
City.
- Channel changes will now appear properly in the chat log after zoning
in or out of instances.
- Unplugging headphones/speakers then plugging them back in while in
WoW no longer disables all sound in WoW
- If the original owner of a custom channel gives leadership away their
options menu will no longer show that they have moderation privileges.
- The first custom created guild ranking will now properly show up in
the Guild Control pane drop down menu.
- Control-clicking on inventory items that teach recipes will now
properly display you wearing the item made by the recipe in the
dressing room UI.
- Fixed an issue that was not allowing all charges of a Field Repair
Bot to be used.
- Creatures with random player targeting crowd control abilities such
as fear, charm, or sleep will now properly choose a random eligible
target rather than just choosing the nearest eligible target.
- The various Hallow’s End broom mounts now have their proper real-time
(rather than game-time) duration of 14 days.
- Tricky Treats now have their proper real-time (rather than game-time)
duration of 24 hours.


I find it funny whenever Blizzard incorporates a feature from a popluar mod (the ready check display in this case). I guess it really is a good thing that they pay attention to what their users want, even if it does take them a while to implement things like this.

Hunter's rejoice! Finally the pets should level faster...guess I will be testing this with my scorpid this week. I've had a scorpid, with the intent of using him in arena to mask my stings, for a while. But since it takes so long to level a pet, he's sort of been stuck at 65, making him pretty useless in arena, since he's dead about a minute in most of the time. Keeping my fingers crossed that leveling has really been fixed.

Friday, January 4, 2008

BRK - Lowbie Hunter Guide

Over at BRK (Big Red Kitty) I discovered their new project - a lowbie hunter guide *movie*. It's fun to watch! The pet taming one especially had me giggling. I could totally see an newbie hunter watching that movie and deciding to go on a big white bear hunt. Keep up the good work BRK, and feel better soon!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Journal of a Hunter: Level 1 - 5 A New Beginning


Featherrain

Today is the beginning of a new adventure. I find myself in Camp Narache in the surprisingly green hills of Mulgore. I have chosen the path of the hunter, and already I have successfully killed my first Plainstrider. It was a young one, but it put up a good fight.

I will be logging the progress of my Tauren Hunter in these Journal entries. This is not meant as a complete guide to leveling a hunter, but rather a record of my own experience as I begin the journey as a new faction (Horde) and race (Tauren).

Level 1 - 5

  • Complete all the quests in Camp Narache. (Mulgore 45,77)
This was fairly straightforward so far the biggest issue has been bag space. I am looking forward most to level 10, when I will be able to tame my first pet.