Patch 4.1: official patch

[evil950510]

Patch 4.1 will soon be upon us, and it's high time we dig into the meat of this patch to digest the new content, features, and official patch notes. The rise of the Zandalari is happening soon on a realm near you, so make sure you've read up on the new level-85 Stranglethorn quest line, as well as the updated dungeons of Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman -- now suitable for five level-85 players with an average item level of 346 or higher. All-new epic gear, rare mounts, pets, and other interesting treasures await you, should you be able to rise to the challenge of the Zandalari!

If you've found yourself waiting in dungeon queues longer than you'd like, we have a new system, Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms, you should know about. The Dungeon Finder will be offering an additional incentive to players of underrepresented class roles. With this feature we hope to get you into the action faster.

We've also built a new Guild Finder feature into the game interface and plan to expand upon its functionality in upcoming patches. Whether you're a player looking for a guild, or a guild leader looking to recruit, this system facilitates those activities. We're continuing to update, improve, and adjust the Guild Advancement system and want to make sure you're given the tools to find and maintain a fun guild.

If you're already tackling content with your guildmates, you'll probably be interested in the upcoming Guild Challenges. By completing dungeons, raids, and Rated Battlegrounds in guild groups, you'll attain new achievements, accrue gold for the Guild Vault, and earn guild experience above the current daily cap. We plan to introduce more Guild Challenges in future updates.

Now, without further ado, here are the official 4.1 patch notes.


Hunters
Deterrence no longer requires a melee weapon to be equipped.
Explosive Trap now has a new spell effect.
Master's Call now has a new spell effect.
Multi-Shot damage has been increased by 250%.
Tame Beast now tames pets to match the hunter's level, rather than 3 levels below.
Pets ◦ The Feed Pet ability now instantly heals 50% of the pet's health. Cannot be used in combat. Requires diet-appropriate food.
◦ The Happiness/Pet Loyalty System has been removed. Hunters will no longer have to manage Happiness for their pets, and the previous damage bonus for pets being happy will now be baseline for all tamed pets.
◦ Bloodthirsty no longer generates Happiness.
◦ Carrion Feeder no longer restores Happiness.
◦ Guard Dog no longer causes Growl to generate additional Happiness.
◦ Summoned pets now start with 100 focus, up from 0.

Glyphs ◦ Glyph of Mend Pet is now Glyph of Lesser Proportion, which decreases the size of the pet slightly.

Hunter Bug Fixes ◦ Hunters will no longer automatically acquire a new target if the current target dies in the middle of a cast.
◦ Aimed Shot and Steady Shot should no longer start casting Auto Shot on a new target when the "Stop Auto Attack" option enabled.
◦ Auto Shot now automatically turns off until reactivated once Freezing Trap is cast on an enemy player.
◦ Deterrence: The area damage of the paladin ability Hammer of the Righteous will no longer hit hunters with Deterrence active.
◦ Distracting Shot and Multi-Shot are now properly 40-yard range.
◦ Intervene (Tenacity pet ability) range has been increased so that the pet will properly intercept attacks.
◦ Multi-Shot now properly has a 1-second global cooldown.
◦ Scatter Shot's disorient effect should no longer sometimes be broken by the hunter's Auto Shot.

For the full read vist:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/04/22/patch ... #continued

[Saturo]

Mages

◦Arcane Blast cast time has been reduced to 2.0 seconds, down from 2.35 seconds. In addition, the stacking effect of Arcane Blast now increases the damage done by Arcane Explosion, and Arcane Explosion does not consume that effect.
◦Arcane Explosion damage has been increased by 30%.
◦Arcane Missiles damage has been increased by 13%.
◦Blizzard damage has been increased by 70%.
◦Frost Armor has been reworked:
◦It now reduces physical damage taken by 15%, instead of providing 20% additional armor.
◦The Chilled proc from Frost Armor can no longer proc Fingers of Frost.
◦The attack speed slow from the Chilled proc is now 20%, down from 25%, but it also affects ranged attack speed.
◦Frost Armor also no longer increases Frost resistance.
◦Frostbolt damage has been increased by 10%.

Talent Specializations
Arcane
◦Arcane Barrage damage has been increased by 13%.
◦Improved Arcane Explosion now also reduces the mana cost of Arcane Explosion by 25/50%.

Fire
◦Combustion no longer has a global cooldown.
◦Ignite is no longer triggered from periodic critical effects.

Frost
◦Fingers of Frost bonus damage applied to Ice Lance has been increased to 25%, up from 15%.
◦Ice Barrier base damage value has been increased by approximately 120%. In addition, the benefit from spell power has been increased by approximately 8%.
◦The root effect from Shattered Barrier now shares diminishing returns with the root from Improved Cone of Cold.

Glyphs
◦Glyph of Frost Armor (new glyph): Frost Armor also causes the mage to regenerate 2% of maximum mana every 5 seconds.

[Lisaara]

*doesnt care about the mage part* HELLS YEAH!!!

Druids
◦Lacerate bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased initial damage done.
◦Efflorescence has a new spell effect.
◦Enrage no longer increases physical damage taken.
◦Lifebloom's bloom effect has been reduced by 20%.
◦Prowl has a new icon.
◦Savage Defense has been redesigned slightly. Instead of a single charge absorption, it now places an absorption effect on the druid absorbing up to 35% of the druid's attack power (modified by mastery, if applicable) in damage and lasting 10 seconds. There are no longer any charges on the effect.
◦Stampeding Roar's duration has been increased to 8 seconds, up from 6. The movement speed effect has been increased to 60%, up from 40% and is no longer cancelled by cancelling shapeshift form.
◦Swipe (Bear) cooldown has been reduced to 3 seconds, down from 6, and is now on trainable at level 18 (training cost has been reduced). In addition, the bonus threat from this ability has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.
◦Swipe (Cat) damage has been doubled.
◦Thrash bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.
◦Druids now innately have 100% pushback protection from damage while channeling Tranquility.

Talent Specializations
Balance
◦Starsurge damage has been reduced by 20%.
◦Solar Beam is now more responsive when enemies move into or out of it.

Feral
◦Berserk is no longer on the global cooldown.
◦Feral Swiftness now also causes Dash and Stampeding Roar to have a 50/100% chance to instantly remove all movement impairing effects from the affected targets when used.

Restoration
◦Gift of Nature (passive) also reduces Tranquility's cooldown by 2.5/5 minutes.
◦Efflorescence has been redesigned. It creates a healing zone at the feet of a Swiftmend target, but this healing zone now restores health equal to 4/8/12% of the amount healed by Swiftmend to the three most injured targets within 8 yards, every 1 second for 7 seconds. This periodic effect now also benefits from spell haste, but the individual ticks cannot be critical effects. In addition, Living Seed is no longer a prerequisite talent for Efflorescence.
◦Malfurion's Gift now reduces the cooldown of Tranquility by 2.5/5 minutes.
◦Nature's Swiftness now also increases the healing done by the affected nature spell by 50%.

Glyphs
◦Glyph of Rake is now Glyph of Pounce, which increases the range of Pounce by 3 yards.

Druid Bug Fixes
◦The troll druid models for Flight Form and Swift Flight Form has slimmed down to be more in scale with other druid flight forms.
◦Druids should no longer have UI issues after leaving a vehicle.

[Nubhorns]

I wanna be excited over my non-hunter main too!

Warriors

♥ Charge and Intercept no longer have diminishing returns on their stun effects.
♥ Colossus Smash now ignores 50% of a hostile player's armor (PvP), but continues to ignore 100% of a non-player character's armor (PvE).
♥ Heroic Throw is now available from trainers at level 20.
♥ Heroic Leap is no longer on the global cooldown, similar to other warrior movement abilities.
♥ Inner Rage is now available at level 56.
♥ Intercept now has a 1.5-second stun, down from 3 seconds.
♥ Pummel is now usable in all stances.
♥ Rallying Cry (new ability) is available from trainers at level 83. It temporarily grants the warrior and all party or raid members within 30 yards 20% of maximum health for 10 seconds. After the effect expires, the health is lost. It has no cost, no stance requirements, and is not on the global cooldown. It has a 3-minute cooldown, but also shares a cooldown with Last Stand.
♥ Shield Bash has been removed from the game.
♥ Spell Reflection cooldown has been increased to 25 seconds, up from 10.
♥ Whirlwind now has its cooldown reduced by 6 seconds when it deals damage to 4 or more targets. The Whirlwind effect caused by Bladestorm remains unchanged.

Talent Specializations
Arms
♥ Improved Hamstring now reduces the global cooldown on Hamstring by 0.25/0.5 seconds in addition to its current effects.
♥ Juggernaut no longer adds 2 seconds to the Charge stun, but instead lowers the cooldown of Charge by 2 seconds (to 13 seconds total without the glyph).
♥ Lambs to the Slaughter now causes Mortal Strike to refresh Rend in addition to its current effects.
♥ Strikes of Opportunity value per point of mastery has been increased by 10%.
Fury
♥ Precision (passive) now increase auto-attack damage by 40%, in addition to the 3% hit it offers currently.
♥ Unshackled Fury now only grants 2 base points of mastery, down from 8.
Protection
♥ Shield Mastery no longer affects the cooldown of Spell Reflection, however, it now allows Shield Block to proc a second aura that reduces magic damage by 7/14/20% for 6 seconds.
♥ Gag Order now applies to Pummel and Heroic Throw, giving these abilities a 100% chance to silence the target for 3 seconds. In addition, Gag Order lowers the cooldown of Heroic Throw by 30 seconds.

Glyphs
♥ Glyph of Spell Reflection reduces the cooldown of Spell Reflection by 5 seconds, up from 1 second.

Charge and Intercept no longer have diminishing returns on their stun effects.

Edit: And while I'm at it:

The Reins of the Dark Phoenix, purchased from the Guild Vendor, has had its art improved. It's now less transparent and indisputably more awesome.

[Makoes]

Hunter Bug Fixes ◦ Hunters will no longer automatically acquire a new target if the current target dies in the middle of a cast.
◦ Aimed Shot and Steady Shot should no longer start casting Auto Shot on a new target when the "Stop Auto Attack" option enabled.

lol YAY! Since the other topic source links kept changing this part, happy to see this again

Oh right, the call to arms thingy...Guess I should go spec my Druid to bear now. Tank/healer, that will work for that. With the goody bag being BoA, I can use her to farm up all the neat stuff my characters need. Sadly, I will most likely be one of the huge influx of really really bad tanks to take advantage of this, and my greatest apologise to anyone whom ever gets stuck with me.

Guess this also means I'll have to dungeon run for jp/gear for tanking...hmmmm time to go stalk my guilds bearass tank's armory page

[Sukurachi]

so I wonder what those two specialty pet foods will now do?
they USED to raise happiness.
if I recall, in a recent change, one of the two recipes (spiced mammoth treat) now simply feeds your pet and raises health, while the other (sporeling snack) still says regains happiness.

I may have missed more recent changes... but it seems the recipes sort of become useless now?

[Akyo]

doesnt those treats add a stat increase to the pets anymore?

[AdamSavage]

Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms

A new system intended to lower queue times, Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms offers additional rewards for queuing as the currently least represented role. To be eligible for the additional rewards you must solo queue for a random level-85 Heroic in the role that is currently being Called to Arms, and complete the dungeon by killing the final boss. Every time you hit these requirements (there is no daily limit) you'll receive a goodie bag that will contain some gold, a chance at a rare gem, a chance at a flask/potion, a good chance of receiving a non-combat pet (including cross faction pets), and a very rare chance at receiving a mount.

General

* Conquest Points are now purchasable from the Valor Quartermasters at 250 Conquest Points per 250 Valor Points.
* Honor Points are now purchasable from the Justice Trade Goods vendors at 250 Honor Points per 375 Justice Points.
* Justice Points are now purchasable from the Honor Trade Goods vendors at 250 Justice Points per 375 Honor Points.
* Resilience scaling has been modified for linear returns, as opposed to increasing returns. Under the new formula, going from 30 resilience to 40 resilience gives players the same increase to survivability as going from 0 to 10. Resilience now scales in the same way armor and magic resistances do. A player with 32.5% damage reduction from resilience in 4.0.6 should see their damage reduction unchanged in 4.1. Those with less than 32.5% will gain slightly. Those with more will lose some damage reduction, increasingly so as their resilience climbs.
* A dead player can now be resurrected by targeting them using the Party or Raid Frame even if they have released. No more hunting for corpses.


PvP

* The rate at which Honor Points are earned has been doubled.


Arenas

* Arena matchmaking can now extend beyond a team's Battlegroup.


Battlegrounds

* Battleground raid leaders can now move players from other realms among raid subgroups.
* The Focused Assault and Brutal Assault buffs have changed.
o After 3 minutes of both teams having the flag, both flag carriers will get Focused Assault, which increases damage taken by 10%.
o Every minute afterward, an additional stack will be applied to increase damage taken by an additional 10%.
o After 7 minutes, Brutal Assault will be applied in place of Focused Assault. In additional to the damage debuff, this debuff also caps the player's movement speed at 100%. The damage taken debuff works the same and will add 10% to the debuff up to a maximum of 100% damage taken.

* Arathi Basin:
o Arathi Basin is now available as a 10v10-player rated Battleground.
o Flags should now cap in 7 seconds, down from 8.

* The Battle for Gilneas:

* Flags should now cap in 7 seconds, down from 8.
* Graveyard Changes
* Players who die at a control point that they own will now be teleported to the next closest graveyard, instead of the one at which they died.
* If a player's team owns the Mine and Waterworks, and dies at Waterworks, they will be teleported to the Mine.
* If an Alliance player's team only owns Lighthouse, and dies at Lighthouse, they will respawn at their base.
* If a Horde player's team owns Waterworks and Mine, and dies at Lighthouse, they will respawn at Waterworks.

* Twin Peaks Graveyard Changes:

* Players will now only spawn at their base graveyard when they die in the enemy base.
* Defending players will respawn at the middle graveyard.
* Midfield players will respawn at the middle graveyard.
* Attacking players will respawn at their base graveyard.

* Warsong Gulch:

* The graveyards outside both bases have been lowered in elevation and are no longer on the same plane as the main flag room entrances to either respective base.

[Cialbi]

*doesnt care about the mage part* HELLS YEAH!!!

Druids
◦Enrage no longer increases physical damage taken.
◦Prowl has a new icon.
◦Swipe (Bear) cooldown has been reduced to 3 seconds, down from 6, and is now on trainable at level 18 (training cost has been reduced). In addition, the bonus threat from this ability has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.
◦Feral Swiftness now also causes Dash and Stampeding Roar to have a 50/100% chance to instantly remove all movement impairing effects from the affected targets when used.

Nice! Maybe I'll actually use Enrage more often now. It's also nice that Shadowmeld and Prowl will (hopefully) have different icons now.
Giving Swipe at a low level again - that took long enough! I remember how hard it was to tank at level 15 with no Swipe available, and would have absolutely hated tanking for 20+ levels without Swipe. I'm also glad that Swipe has a shorter cooldown; I was rather lacking in AoE threat when leveling to 80, thanks to a lack of Thrash.
And the buff to Feral Swiftness talent, which is already mandatory for tanks, will be sweet - once I actually get Stampeding Roar.

[Lisaara]

*doesnt care about the mage part* HELLS YEAH!!!

Druids
◦Enrage no longer increases physical damage taken.
◦Prowl has a new icon.
◦Swipe (Bear) cooldown has been reduced to 3 seconds, down from 6, and is now on trainable at level 18 (training cost has been reduced). In addition, the bonus threat from this ability has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.
◦Feral Swiftness now also causes Dash and Stampeding Roar to have a 50/100% chance to instantly remove all movement impairing effects from the affected targets when used.

Nice! Maybe I'll actually use Enrage more often now. It's also nice that Shadowmeld and Prowl will (hopefully) have different icons now.
Giving Swipe at a low level again - that took long enough! I remember how hard it was to tank at level 15 with no Swipe available, and would have absolutely hated tanking for 20+ levels without Swipe. I'm also glad that Swipe has a shorter cooldown; I was rather lacking in AoE threat when leveling to 80, thanks to a lack of Thrash.
And the buff to Feral Swiftness talent, which is already mandatory for tanks, will be sweet - once I actually get Stampeding Roar.

I'm also loving Swipe's damage being buffed. We hit like a declawed kitten as is.

[Cialbi]

doesnt those treats add a stat increase to the pets anymore?

Nope; not since 4.0.1

[Sukurachi]

Wowhead says the PTR has closed, so I guess it's official then? Patch is today?

[AdamSavage]

My client downloaded something so I'm guessing that was the patch. I expected it to be bigger though.

[Boven]

It's nice pets'll start with 100 focus, but I'm more concerned with their health. Getting dazed off a mount with the pet on defensive only to see him get one-shot because he spawned with 6k health instead of 90k or more stinks. Is there any word on whether that got fixed too?

[Vephriel]

It's stated under Known Issues that 'Pets do not initially spawn in with the correct amount of health.' so at least they're aware of it and probably working on it.

[Sukurachi]

they also appear to have done something to the Launcher...

normally, I get the account login and the authenticator on the same page.
now, it's as if they went back to the old way: entering account info, then new window, enter authenticator info.

[TygerDarkstorm]

So trying to do dungeons after you can log on....yeah...I was flying on Aeonaxx in Org, got my queue to pop as DPS (only took like 5 mins) and instead of teleporting into the dungeon, it dismounted me while leaving me on my mount and I smacked the ground still on board my drake and died. -_-

Not to mention my addons and mechanics and such in the dungeon feeling out of whack. I had abilities lighting up saying I could use them but then actually wouldn't go off. So yeah, I'd wait a bit to do dungeons unless you use like no addons and are grounded before accepting. Didn't help I got HoO normal with a few people who were...a little less than stellar.

[Vephriel]

Hmm, I can't click the 'Find Group' button in the Dungeon Finder tool...it presses down, but does not recognize an action happening. Not sure if that's an Addon causing it or if it's just broken.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I know I won't be doing dungeons until probably tomorrow or at least after more of my addons get fixed. I couldn't even see how much damage and DPS I was doing because my addon wasn't working.

But yeah, fair warning to anyone doing dungeons right now, make sure you're on the ground or at least near it lest you have the same thing happen to you that happened to me. Falling on my mount to my death was not fun. -_-

[Aleu]

I've actually noted my pets having more trouble holding aggro. Usually I can shoot a mob once to tag it and my pet pulls off right away. However, two auto shots are now pulling off him and I know I don't do that much damage... D: Is this just me?