2.3 patch notes

[Diomedes]

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=2288042225&sid=1


World of Warcraft Test Patch 2.3.0

The latest patch notes can always be found at
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

Zul’Aman

Zul'Aman is a 10-player, level 70 outdoor instance located in the
Ghostlands. Players will be able to confront six new bosses including
the Forest Troll Warlord Zul'jin.

Guild Banks Introduced

The Guild Bank is a shared repository for an entire guild and will be
accessible through new NPC’s called guild bankers. The Guild Bank will
allow players with the appropriate permissions to store items and money
for use by the rest of the guild. Permissions to withdraw and deposit
money and items are controlled by the guild leader through the guild
controls menu. The Guild Bank is divided up into separate tabs so that
the guild leader may restrict access or group items into distinct
categories.
- Up to 6 purchasable tabs each containing 98 item slots
- Permissions to view/deposit/withdraw per tab
- You may use your Guild Bank withdraw limits to pay for item repairs
(now enabled on all merchants)
- Transaction logs of the last 50 actions in the bank viewable on a per
tab basis

General
- Experience: The amount of experience needed to gain a level has been
decreased between levels 20 and 60. In addition, the amount of
experience granted by quests has been increased between levels 30 and
60.
- Expertise: We have added a new stat and associated rating called
expertise and expertise rating. Expertise rating converts to
expertise at the same rate that weapon skill rating formerly
converted at. Each point of expertise reduces the chance for your
attacks to be dodged or parried by 0.25%.
- Healing reduction effects will now affect all health drain spells and
abilities (e.g. Mortal Strike will reduce health gained from Drain
Life).
- Healing: Almost all items and enchantments that provide bonus
healing now also provide a smaller number (approximately 1/3) of
bonus spell damage. There are a few items and enchantments where this
was not possible, such as random-stat items and Zul'Gurub
enchantments, but this is now the case on virtually all other items.
- On Kill Effects: Items and abilities that trigger on killing an enemy
will no longer trigger on using an ability that kills your pet.
- Weapon Skill: All items and abilities that granted weapon skill have
been changed. In most cases, they were converted to expertise or
expertise rating. Ranged attacks do not benefit from expertise, so
ranged weapon skill has generally been replaced by critical strike
bonuses or hit bonuses. In a few cases, talents have been changed to
other effects to avoid granting players excessive amounts of
expertise.
- A new flight path has been added to the Rebel Camp in northern
Stranglethorn Vale.
- Flying units can see ground units and vice versa at any altitude.
- Players no longer gain the moving AOE radius bonus if they are
jumping.
- Client spell cast requests are now sent to the server even if your
player is already casting another spell. This eliminates the need
for /stopcasting in macros to compensate for latency.
- Vendor Discounts: All vendors with an associate faction now give
discounts at all levels above neutral.
Friendly: 5% discount
Honored: 10% discount
Revered: 15% discount
Exalted: 20% discount
- Quest givers who have available daily quests will have a blue
exclamation point instead of a yellow one.
- Pets will try to get behind their targets when engaging in melee
combat.

Racial Abilities
- Dwarf: Gun Specialization now increases chance to critically hit
with Guns by 1% rather than increasing weapon skill.
- Gnome: Escape Artist cooldown increased to 1 min, 45 sec.
- Troll: Bow and Thrown Specialization now increases chance to
critically hit with those weapons by 1% rather than increasing weapon
skill.

[ Post edited by Hortus ]

[Diomedes]

PvP
- Battlegrounds
Daily quests have been added targeting a random battleground for that
day. Look for Alliance Brigadier Generals and Horde Warbringers near
your faction's battlemasters in all major capitals.
Dropping the Flag in a battleground will now result in a debuff that
will not allow you to pick up the flag again for 3 seconds.
Druids who are shapeshifted when they receive the Resortation buff
from battlegrounds will now correctly regenerate mana.
Players will now be able to cast spells for free in the Battleground
before it begins.
Players will now be able to cast spells for free for a few seconds
after being resurrected by a Spirit Guide in the Battleground.
Alterac Valley
Additional Warmasters no longer report for duty upon destroying an
enemy tower. However, destroying an enemy tower still eliminates
the associated opposing Warmaster.
All Warmasters are linked to each other and their respective
Generals and can no longer be pulled individually.
Honor from capturing towers has been increased.
All Commanders and Lieutenants have left Alterac Valley in search
for other battle opportunities.
Players will no longer be sent to their starting tunnels on death
unless that team controls no graveyards in the battleground.
Many NPCs in Stormpike and Frostwolf holds are no longer elite
Bonus Honor in Alterac Valley is now only awarded during the battle
for destroying enemy towers and slaying the enemy Captain. Upon
conclusion of the battle, bonus honor is also awarded for intact
towers, a surviving Captain, and for victory in the battle. The
total bonus honor awarded should be similar to the previous total.
The Horde and Alliance now have a limited number of reinforcements
available in the battle for Alterac Valley. The number of
reinforcements available is reduced upon player death, loss of
towers, and death of Captain Galvangar or Belinda Stonehearth. In
addition, all available reinforcements are lost upon the death of
General Drek'Thar or Vanndar Stormpike. If a team is reduced to
zero reinforcements, the opposing team wins the battle.
Towers and Graveyards in Alterac Valley are now captured in 4
minutes (down from 5).
Eye of the Storm
The points awarded from capturing the flag in Eye of the Storm is
now increase based on the number of bases the capturing team owns.
Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm
Additional bonus honor is now awarded upon conclusion of the
battle.

[Diomedes]

Druids
- Cure Poison and Abolish Poison are now usable in Tree of Life Form.
- Intensity (Restoration) increased to 10/20/30% mana regeneration.
- Rebirth cooldown reduced to 20 minutes, from 30 minutes.
- Remove Curse is now usable in Moonkin Form.
- Shapeshifting Spells: Some of these spells were causing additional
unintended threat. That additional unintended threat has been removed.
- Tranquility now gains additional benefit from spell damage and
healing bonuses.

Hunters
- Arcane Shot (Ranks 6 and above) now dispel 1 Magic effect in addition
to their normal damage.
- Explosive Trap: The initial damage dealt by this trap is now also
increased by 10% of your ranged attack power.
- Immolation Trap: The total damage dealt by this trap is now also
increased by 10% of your ranged attack power.
- Serpent Sting, Immolation Trap and Explosive Trap all gain additional
damage based on ranged attack power.
- Serpent Sting: The total damage dealt by this sting is now also
increased by 10% of your ranged attack power.
- Steady Shot: Tooltip clarified to indicate base weapon damage is used
in the damage calculation.
- Trueshot Aura (Marksmanship) no longer costs mana to cast and will
last until cancelled.
- Wyvern Sting (Survival) is now instant cast and has a maximum
duration of 10 seconds in PvP.

Mages
- Arcane Intellect and Arcane Brilliance mana costs reduced.
- Arcane Meditation (Arcane) increased to 10/20/30% mana regeneration.
- Detect Magic removed. All players may now see their target's
beneficial effects at all times.
- Evocation now regenerates 15% of total mana every 2 seconds rather
than increase Spirit based regeneration.
- Fire Ward and Frost Ward now gain additional benefit from spell
damage bonuses. Base absorb values of ranks 5 and 6 have been reduced.
- Hypothermia duration increased to 45 sec.
- Ice Barrier now gains additional benefit from spell damage bonuses.
Base absorb values of ranks 5 and 6 have been reduced.
- Improved Fireball: The reduction in damage coefficient caused by this
talent has been removed.
- Improved Frostbolt: The reduction in damage coefficient caused by
this talent has been removed.
- Portal Spells: Portal spells to capital cities can no longer be cast
in battlegrounds.
- Remove Curse range increased to 40 yards.
- (NEW SPELL) Ritual of Refreshment available on trainers at level 70.

Paladins
- Cleanse and Purify range increased to 40 yards.
- Crusader Strike (Retribution) cooldown reduced from 10 to 6 seconds.
- Exorcism mana cost reduced.
- Hammer of Wrath mana cost reduced.
- Holy Wrath mana cost reduced.
- Improved Seal of the Crusader (Retribution) benefits folded into the
base spell. This talent now gives the benefits of the Sanctified
Crusader talent instead.
- Pursuit of Justice (Retribution) is now 3 ranks and increases
movement speed by 5/10/15% and also reduces the chance you'll be hit
by spells by 1/2/3%.
- Sanctified Crusader (Retribution) renamed Sanctified Seals, which now
increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and melee
attacks by 1/2/3% and reduces the chance your Seals will be dispelled
by 33/66/100%.
- Vengeance (Retribution) duration increased from 15 to 30 seconds.
- Vindication (Retribution) frequency and duration increased and now
reduces all attributes by 5/10/15%, not just Strength and Agility.
- Weapon Expertise (Protection) renamed Combat Expertise, now increases
expertise by 1/2/3/4/5 and total Stamina by 2/4/6/8/10%.

[Diomedes]

Priests
- Chastise (NEW) is now available to Dwarf and Draenei priests at level
20. Chastise causes Holy damage and incapacitates the target for 2
seconds.
- Circle of Healing: The base amount of healing from this spell has
been reduced along with increasing the bonus it receives from bonus
healing effects. Characters with more than 1338 healing will see
their Circle of Healing heal for more than previous patches.
Characters with less than 1338 healing will see their Circle of
Healing heal for less.
- Cure Disease and Abolish Disease range increased to 40 yards.
- Elune's Grace (Night Elf) effect changed to reduce chance to be hit
by melee and ranged attacks by 20% for 15 seconds. There is now only
1 rank of the spell.
- Fear Ward is now available to all priests at level 20. Duration
reduced to 3 minutes, cooldown increased to 3 minutes.
- Fixed a bug where the global cooldown was triggered when shifting out
of Shadowform.
- Meditation (Discipline) increased to 10/20/30% mana regeneration.
- Pain Suppression (Discipline Talent) is now usable on friendly
targets, instantly reduces the target's threat by 5%, reduces damage
taken by 40% and its cooldown has been reduced to 2 minutes.
- Prayer of Healing, Circle of Healing and Holy Nova (healing effect)
now gain additional benefit from spell damage and healing bonuses.
- Power Word: Fortitude, Divine Spirit, Prayer of Fortitude and Prayer
of Spirit mana costs reduced.
- Power Word: Shield now gains additional benefit from spell damage and
healing bonuses. Base absorb values of ranks 10, 11 and 12 have been
reduced.
- Starshards (Night Elf) is no longer channeled, costs 0 mana, is now a
Magic effect, lasts 15 seconds, causes damage every 3 seconds and has
a 30 second cooldown.

Rogues
- All poisons will now enchant the weapon for 1 hour, increased from 30
minutes
- Blind is now a physical (no longer a poison) attack. Reagent
requirement removed. Now shares the same diminish category as Cyclone
and is now diminished in PvE as well as PvP.
- Fleet Footed (Assassination) now increases movement speed by 8/15%.
- Riposte is now subject to diminishing returns in PvP.
- Rogue's Deadly Throw missile speed increased significantly and snare
duration increased slightly.
- Ruthlessness now only affects melee finishing moves. It no longer
works with Deadly Throw.
- Shadowstep (Subtlety) can now be used at any time, not only while
stealthed. Threat caused by next Ambush, Garrote or Backstab is
reduced by 50%. Cooldown increased to 40 seconds.

Shaman
- Chain Lightning cast time reduced to 2.0 (from 2.5), mana costs
reduced, benefit from spell damage reduced appropriately.
- Cure Poison and Cure Disease range increased to 40 yards.
- Elemental Focus (Elemental) now reduces the mana cost of the next 2
damage spells by 40%.
- Frost Shock is no longer subject to diminishing returns.
- Grounding Totem: This totem is now destroyed upon redirecting any
spell to itself.
- Lightning Bolt cast time reduced to 2.5 (from 3.0 where applicable),
mana costs reduced, benefit from spell damage reduced appropriately.
- Lightning Mastery (Elemental) cast time reduction reduced to
.1/.2/.3/.4/.5 seconds.
- Lightning Overload (Elemental) now has a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to
occur and the additional spell causes half damage and no additional threat.
- Mana Spring Totem effect increased.
- Mental Quickness (Enhancement) now also increases spell damage and
healing equal to 10/20/30% of your attack power.
- Two-Handed Axes and Two-Handed Maces are now trainable by all Shaman
at the appropriate weapon masters. The Enhancement talent has been
replaced by Shamanistic Focus.
- Shamanistic Focus (New Enhancement Talent): After landing a melee
critical strike, you enter a Focused state. The Focused state reduces
the mana cost of your next Shock spell by 60%.
- Shamanistic Rage (Enhancement) now also reduces all damage taken by
30% for the duration.
- Spirit Weapons (Enhancement) threat reduction increased to 30% from
15%.
- Rockbiter Weapon: For ranks 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 the increased damage
resulting from this enchantment has been reduced slightly to match
the intended numbers given in the tooltip. Ranks 1, 2, 3, and 9 are
unchanged.
- Water Shield: This spell no longer costs any mana to cast and its
duration has been shortened. At the end of its duration, it now
grants mana for any remaining globes. In addition, the mana granted
per globe has been substantially increased.
- Windfury Weapon: This enchantment can no longer be triggered while
you are disarmed.

[Diomedes]

Warlock
- Banish can no longer be cast on targets tapped by other players or
groups.
- Drain Life and Siphon Life now reduce the amount healed when the
warlock is affected by healing reducing effects (e.g. Mortal Strike,
Wounding Poison).
- Hellfire: This spell will no longer cause enemy spells to increase
casting time or reduce channel time. It will also no longer prevent
flag captures in Battlegrounds.
- Nether Protection (Destruction) now has a new, more distinct visual
effect.
- Ritual of Souls now takes significantly less time to cast and complete.
- Seed of Corruption detonation will now obey line of sight.
- Shadow Ward: This spell now gains additional benefit from spell
damage bonuses. Base absorb value of rank 4 has been reduced.
- Soul Siphon (Affliction) now increases damage by 2/4% and no longer
affects Drain Mana.

Warrior
- Charge will work more often when targets are up against unpathable
areas like walls and poles.
- Devastate (Protection) now combines the effects of Sunder Armor into
its effect. It is also now affected by all talents and items that
affect Sunder Armor.
- Disarm is now subject to diminishing returns in PvP.
- Improved Berserker Stance (Fury) now also reduces all threat caused
while in Berserker Stance by 2/4/6/8/10%
- Intervene will no longer place you in combat.
- Hamstring now has a 10 second duration when used on PvP targets.
- Mace Specialization (Arms) now has a reduced chance to occur but
generates 7 rage instead of 6.
- Shield Slam (Protection) now always tries to dispel one Magic effect
on the target.
- Tactical Mastery: This talent also now grants greatly increased
threat from Mortal Strike and Bloodthirst when in Defensive Stance.
- Weapon Mastery (Arms) now reduces duration of Disarm effects against
you by 25/50% rather than giving you a 50% chance to avoid or full
immunity to Disarm effects.

[Diomedes]

Professions
- You can now control-click on a recipe to see how the item that is
made by that recipe will look on you in the dressing room.
- Alchemy
Added a sound for when a cauldron is created.
- Blacksmithing
A new world drop recipe for an Adamantite Weapon Chain has been
added. This new weapon chain both reduces disarm duration and
increases parry rating.
- Cooking
Daily cooking quests are now available from The Rokk in Shattrath
City! In addition to gold, you can receive random cooking reagents
and new recipes as a reward for completing these quests.
- Enchanting:
Duration of wizard and mana oils created by enchanters has been
increased.
- Engineering:
Engineers can now create incredible new flying machines! Find Niobe
Whizzlespark in Shadowmoon Valley to learn these fantastic new plans.
Plans for a new Field Repair Bot are rumored to belong to a select
few Gan'arg Analyzers in Blade's Edge Mountains.
- Fishing:
Fishermen and women can now track fishing nodes. This ability is
learned from a journal sometimes found in crates obtained through
fishing.
New fish can now be caught in Zul'Aman and Deadwind Pass. Recipes
for preparing these new fish are obtained through the daily cooking
quests.
Fishing difficulty reduced for some areas in Nagrand.
- Herbalism
Picking herbs will no longer cause effects on items to trigger.
- Jewelcrafting:
A new skyfire meta gem recipe can be obtained from the Coilskar Siren
of Shadowmoon Valley. This new meta gem increases critical strike
rating and critical strike damage with spells.
- Leatherworking:
Stylin' hats no longer require Zhevra leather.
Greatly increased the radius of the Drums of Battle, Drums of
Restoration, Drums of Speed, and Drums of War.
Removed the casting time from the Drums of Battle, Drums of
Restoration, Drums of Speed, and Drums of War.
Slightly increased the radius of Drums of Panic.
Reduced the casting time of Drums of Panic and added a global
cooldown equal to the casting time.
Drums of Speed and Drums of Restoration are no longer world drop
recipes, and can now be obtained from the Mag'har and Kurenai faction
vendors with revered standing.
A new recipe is available from Grand Master leatherworking trainers
to create glove reinforcements, providing a substantial armor bonus.
Reinforcements are a permanent enchantment and cannot be placed with
other permanent enchantments.
New recipes are available from Grand Master leatherworking trainers
to make 20 slot quivers and ammo pouches.
New recipes are available from the Honor Hold, Thrallmar, and Lower
City quartermasters to create 24 slot quivers and ammo pouches.
- Mining
Mining will no longer cause effects on items to trigger.

[Diomedes]

Items
- All old world dungeons have had their loot revisited. Players will
now find that all loot dropped inside instances will be of Superior
quality.
- Arena Relics: New relics have been added to support all talent trees
for relic users. In addition, most of the arena-system relics have
been renamed so there is a more consistent naming convention.
- Arakkoa Feather: This item can now be sold to a vendor.
- Ashtongue Talisman of Lethality: This item will no longer trigger
when the victim of your finishing move is immune to that attack.
- Ashtongue Talisman of Vision: The mana granted by this trinket has
been increased.
- Ashtongue Talisman of Zeal: The damage over time affect from
judgments has been adjusted so that it will work properly. It now
has a shorter duration, and is not refreshed by melee attacks.
- Band of Eternity will now make the correct sound when moved in a
player's inventory.
- Bloodsea Brigand's Vest will now make the correct sound when moved in
a player's inventory.
- Boundless Agony can now be disenchanted.
- Cataclysm Raiment: The bonuses on this set have been adjusted.
- Cooldown removed from Noggenfogger Elixirs. The shrink effect will
no longer stack with other shrink effects.
- Cowl of Benevolence will now make the correct sound when moved in a
player's inventory.
- Crystalforge Raiment: The bonuses on this set have been adjusted.
- Darkmoon Card: Vengeance: This item will no longer trigger from
environmental damage.
- Dropped items that were rings/trinkets/one handed weapons that were
previously unique are now unique-equipped. That means that you can
have more than one of those items, but you can only have a single one
of them equipped.
- Gladiator’s armor pieces of like nature from various seasons will now
all meet the requirements for their shared set bonus. This means if
you are using 2 pieces of Season 1 gear and 2 pieces of Season 2 gear
of the same design you will now have your 4 piece set bonus.
- Gladiator's Chain Gauntlets: The bonus damage on these gloves has
been increased from 4% to 5%.
- Grand Marshal's Dragonhide Helm: The intellect on this item was
increased slightly to match the equivalent Horde-only item.
- Hand of Antu'sul: The effect that triggers from this item will no
longer cause a cooldown on Warrior's Thunderclap ability.
- Lightfathom Scepter will now make the correct sound when moved in a
player's inventory.
- Low Level Cloth Items: All agility and strength on low-level cloth
items has been replaced with other stats, usually bonus spell damage,
but also sometimes other stats beneficial to mana users.
- Merciless Gladiator's Chain Gauntlets: The bonus damage on these
gloves has been increased from 4% to 5%.
- Mystical Skyfire Diamond: A cooldown has been added to this item’s
effect, but the chance for it to trigger has been increased.
- Ogri'la Faction Vendor: This vendor now sells potions useable
anywhere for a large number of Apexis Shards.
- Shadowmoon Grunts will no longer drop Black Temple quality loot.
- Shiffar's Nexus Horn: Many spells and abilities can now trigger this
item that were unable to before.
- Tidefury Raiment: The additional mana granted to Water Shield by this
set has been increased.
- Tome of Fiery Redemption: This item no longer can be triggered by
casting blessings.
- Totem of the Thunderhead: The additional mana granted to Water Shield
by this totem has been increased.
- Unstable Flask of the Sorcerer: This flask will now provide the bonus
to healing specified in its tooltip.
- Vambraces of Ending will now make the correct sound when moved in a
player's inventory.

[Diomedes]

Dungeons and Raids
- Elite mobs outside of pre-Burning Crusade dungeons have been changed
to non-elite.
- The level ranges of pre-Burning Crusade dungeons have been adjusted
to a narrower range.
- Meeting stone level requirements, the Looking for Group system, and
quests have been adjusted to match the new dungeon level ranges.
- Auchenai Crypts
Wandering Ghosts are now neutral to players
Summoned Ghosts now take longer to summon in.
- Auchindoun: Sethekk Halls
Mobs inside Sethekk Halls will now continue to award Lower City
reputation into Exalted.
- Hellfire Citadel: Magtheridon’s Lair
Mind Exhaustion is not applied until Magtheridon is successfully banished.
- Karazhan
The number of creatures that must be killed in the Karazhan Servants
Quarters area before a miniboss spawns has been reduced.
Phase hounds in Karazhan will now phase out less frequently.
Coldmist Widows no longer wipe threat when casting Poison Bolt volley.
The Chess Event chess in Karazhan now has a tap list so it can only
be looted by players who were involved in the chess event.
Wrath of the Titans will no longer cause Shackle Undead to break.
- Tempest Keep
All four advisors have had their health reduced by 10%.
All of the summoned weapons have had their health reduced by 10%.
The ability “Meteor” has been renamed to “Dive Bomb”.
The Blood Elves that patrol the Tempest Bridge no longer patrol
directly into Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider’s chamber.

Quests
- New random Daily Dungeon quests have been added for both the heroic
and non-heroic five-person Outland dungeons, as well as for the
5-person Caverns of Time instances. Each day both a single heroic
and a single non-heroic dungeon are randomly targeted by these
quests. The Consortium quest givers can be located in Shattrath's
Lower City
- Aether rays can now be wrangled earlier.
- Dustwallow Marsh
Many new quests have been added to the zone.
The Steamwheedle Cartel have just completed building the new town of
Mudsprocket in south west Dustwallow Marsh.
- Level 1-60 dungeon quests have had their experience and faction
rewards increased.
- Many elite creatures and quests in the level 1-60 experience have
been changed to accommodate solo play.
- Nutral, the flight master in Shattrath City, now has a quest for
characters who are level 70 and do not yet have a riding skill of
225. The quest will direct a character to visit the appropriate
riding instructor in Shadowmoon Valley so that the player will know
where they can purchase the skill necessary to use a flying mount.
- The icon for the Charged Crystal Focus has been changed.
- The Repolarized Magneto Sphere now only functions within the Blade's
Edge Mountains.
- Upon completion of the Ghostlands quest, "A Little Dash of
Seasoning", if a character still has the Apothecary's Poison; it will
be removed from their inventory.

[Diomedes]

User Interface
- The Auction House UI has been much improved. The useless categories
have been removed (Plate-Cloak for instance) and a number of
additional sub categories have been added. In addition, many items
have had their category changed so that they make more sense.
- The Auction house time periods have been changed. Now items can be
put up for sale for 12, 24, or 48 hours. The option to put up items
for 8 hours has been removed.
- The Battle Map has been renamed to the Zone Map and can be turned on
for any zone rather than just PvP objective zones. There is now a
drop down in the world map screen that allows you to choose when the
zone map should display.
- Many On Use Items now display the cooldown in the item tooltip.
- When you take damage and have a full screen UI up, the edges of the
screen will flash red so you know you are under attack.
- Inspect distance has been increased to 30 yards.
- Mind control and possession action bar has been revamped.
- You can now send up to 12 items in a single mail message.
- When you have an outgoing mail open, you can right-click on items to
attach them to that outgoing mail.
- When you have a trade window open, you can right-click an item to
move it to the trade window.
- When you have unopened mail, you can mouse over the recent mail icon
and get the name of the people who most recently sent you the mail.
- When you speak with an NPC with a single function (Banker, Flight
Master, Etc) and who has no other gossip options or quests you will
go straight to their functional pane rather than to the gossip pane.
Most importantly this means that clicking on a flight master will
bring up the flight path map directly rather than the gossip pane
with the option to bring up the flight path map.
- Quests that are much below your level will now have the tag
(Low Level) in the gossip pane attached to the quest. This will
make it easier to tell which quest to accept when a quest giver has
both low and high level quests.
- You can now set the loot threshold (/threshold) with a word as well
as the loot threshold number for an instance-
/threshold Epic- also sets the party loot threshold to Epic items or
better quality
/threshold Rare-sets the party loot threshold to Rare items or better
quality
- NPCs with a single function will now display an icon that indicates
their function on mouseover.
- The value of the TargetNearestDistance setting is validated at load
time.
- If a non-standard refresh rate is selected in the video options, it
will now be saved.
- Many On Use items now display the cooldown in the item tooltip.
- The tooltip for Block on the character sheet now displays the amount
of damage reduced by a successful block.
- New macro commands: /targetlastenemy, /targetlastfriend
- New macro command to target by entire name: /targetexact
- For more details on UI macro and scripting changes, see the UI and
Macro forum.

World Environment
- Stranglethorn Vale
Saltscale Murlocs are no longer elite
Saltscale Tide-Lords no longer have frost nova
Mosh'ogg Ogres are no longer elite
The fear on Mosh'ogg Lords is reduced
- Lowered the fireball damage of Defias Pillagers
- Increased the cooldowns on the heals of Kurzen Medicine Men
- The standard Disarm ability that many creatures use now has a
duration of 5 seconds instead of 6 seconds.
- Sonic Burst now silences for 6 seconds instead of 10.

Bug Fixes
- An issue with spawn rates in Forge Camp: Terror and Forge Camp:
Wrath has been fixed.
- Fixed the position of one of the Box of Mushrooms objects at
Ango'rosh Stronghold for the quest, "Stealing Back the Mushrooms".
- Fixed the position of a mineral node in the Blade’s Edge Mountains
so that it is no longer floating in the air.
- Fixed a problem with the directions in the quest, "The Ultimate
Bloodsport".
- Fixed a bug in the pet sheet stamina mouseover tooltip that showed an
incorrect health increase value.
- Fixed an issue with aura stacking and debuff cooldowns when
reapplying a debuff after being charmed.

[Diomedes]

Bah, they're already changing them, but they also posted them on the wow website in addition to the forums post:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

[Raka]

Increased the cooldowns on the heals of Kurzen Medicine Men

These guys in northern stv are bastards

Best fix whole patch imo

Also - Heart of the Wild druid talent now gives +10% AP instead of +20% strength... also, buffs inc to FAP weapons! (And maybe even scaling of Maul / bear mangle)

[Mike (jp / Jopan)]

Bah, they're already changing them, but they also posted them on the wow website in addition to the forums post:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

Yeah... and there are some SERIOUS warrior changes in the new notes that I'm none-too-happy about.

    * Improved Intercept and Weapon Mastery have swapped locations in the talent trees.
    * Sweeping Strikes and Deathwish have swapped locations in the talent trees.
    * Sweeping Strikes (Fury) now lasts 10 seconds and affects your next 10 swings.
    * Whirlwind: This ability now strikes with both weapons when a Warrior is dual-wielding.

Okay, the 4th one there I like... but not really because it's just a cookie thrown to Fury Warriors to say "hey, sorry about taking Death Wish away". Sweeping Strikes was one of my least favorite Arms talents and I only ever took it because you HAD to take it to get Mortal Strike. Swapping that with Death Wish is absurd. Moving Improved Intercept into the PvP tree was a wise move, but I'd much rather have seen it swapped with Blood Frenzy rather than useless Weapon Mastery. If you really want to separate the PvP and PvE trees, you might as well do it right.

FU Blizz. (And I'm not one to usually talk like that. Most of the time I'm the one saying "these aren't nerfs, they're just changes that you don't like." Well, these changes are uncalled for and are bullshit.)

[Giller]

New feature that missed the patch notes, but was confirmed to be intended in the WOW PTR forum:

Heroic keys now require HONORED reputation instead of REVERED.  HUUUUGE buff for my alts!

[Raka]

I think its a good change, because honoured through revered was getting more and more challenging over time, as people finish with non-heroic dungeons forever.  It still doesn't mean being honoured will mean you CAN do heroics, but its good to remove this additional, artifical barrier