Real 1.12 Patch Notes

[lemekim]

Likely incomplete, but they were taken off the PTR downloader (which is up currently up! Hurry and get it before it gets swarmed)

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/ptr/

World of Warcraft Public Test Patch 1.12.0

Cross-Realm Battlegrounds
For the first time in the history of World of Warcraft, you will be able to face off against players from other realms in the Battlegrounds. PvP Battlegrounds link Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Arathi Basin so that players from several realms will be combined into one huge matchmaking pool. Replenish your mana, sharpen your blades, and get ready for some brand-new challengers!
World PvP

The stage is set for intense, objective-based land battles as Horde and Alliance vie for control over important strategic positions and resources around Azeroth. Head
out for Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands to engage the enemy on the field!

General

Threat Reduction Effects
This system has been redesigned to eliminate inconsistency in how the effects work. Previously, some were additive (for example: 30% reduction + 20% reduction = 50% reduction) while others were multiplicative (30% threat reduction multiplied by 20% threat reduction equals 44% threat reduction). They are now all multiplicative. This also prevents unpredictable behavior when the total reduction percentage was equal to or greater than 100%.
Haste and Slow effects
Previously Haste and Slow effects worked inconsistently, with spells working differently from weapons, and hastes and slows not acting as inverses of each other. We have revised the system so that all haste and slow effects work the same way, and haste and slow percentages perfectly cancel each other out (30% haste and 30% slow combine to no change). As a result, we had to change the tooltip numbers on all spell haste effects, and on all melee and range slow effects. The numbers in the tooltips are different, but the game functionality is unchanged (other than slight rounding errors). Those tooltips that changed will now display larger numbers than they used to display. Conceptually, haste values indicate how much more of that activity you can perform in a given time. 30% melee haste means 30% more swings in a given time. Slow values indicate how much longer an activity takes to complete. 30% slow means an action takes 30% longer to finish. For those interested, the new haste and slow effects work mathematically in the following way. Each effect separately multiplies the attack timer of your weapon or casting time of your spell. They are multiplied in sequence (order doesn't matter) and the final result is the attack timer or casting time. The multipliers use the following equations:

Haste effects: multiplier=1/(1+percent/100)
Slow effects: multiplier=1*(1+percent/100)

As an example, a 50% haste generates a multiplier of 0.666; a 50% slow generates a multiplier of 1.5. If they are multiplied together the result is 1. A 50% haste on a 3.0 speed weapon makes it 2.0 speed, resulting in you getting 30 swings per minute instead of 20 swings per minute: 50% more swings. A 50% slow on a 3.0 casting time spell generates a casting time of 4.5. It took you 50% longer to finish casting the spell.
The deserter debuff will now continue to expire even while you are offline.
Druids

Barkskin: The tooltip has been changed to 25% due to the haste effect change.
Ferocious Bite: The Book of Ferocious Bite (Rank 5) now drops somewhere in the world.
Furor: This talent now works correctly with Cat Form again.
Improved Shred: The discounted cost for Shred will now be displayed correctly even when you are not in Cat Form.
Rip: Lesser potency Rips will no longer overwrite greater potency ones.
Hunters

Spirit Bond: This ability will now be correctly reapplied when you resurrect in a battleground and your pet is polymorphed or otherwise unable to act normally.

Mages

Arcane Missiles: It is no longer possible to cast this spell on an evading mob. In addition, the animation will now stop when the target is dead.
Arcane Power: It is no longer possible to gain the benefit of this spell and Power Infusion at the same time by careful timing.
Frost Armor Chilled effect: The tooltip has been changed to 100% due to the haste effect change.
Ice Armor Chilled effect: The tooltip has been changed to 100% due to the haste effect change.
Polymorph: This spell will now be removed when a player leaves a battleground. This prevents some bugs involving polymorph from occurring.
Evocation will no longer be usable while silenced.

Paladins

Divine Shield: The tooltip has been changed to 100% due to the haste effect change.

Priests

Mind Control: The tooltip has been changed to 25% due to the haste effect change.
Psychic Scream: This spell now uses the same resistance checks as the Warlock spell Fear.

Rogues

Due to significant talent changes, Rogues will have all talent points refunded and can be respent. Training costs for all talent spell replacements have been significantly reduced.
Eviscerate: Manual of Eviscerate (Rank 9) now drops somewhere in the world.
Garrote: The damage from this ability has been increased approximately 50%.
Relentless Strikes: This ability will no longer trigger when your finishing move does not hit your target.
Sap: Enemy rogues will now always lose stealth when you Sap them.

Shaman

Grounding Totem: This totem will no longer absorb multiple effects from Entrapment in a 10 second period.
Windfury Totem: The weapon enchantment from this totem will now only trigger off normal melee swings. This means abilities such as Sinister Strike, Mortal Strike, and Hamstring will no longer trigger the Windfury Totem.
Reincarnation should now display the cooldown timer when used.
Chain Heal - After the initial target is healed, the healing effect will jump to the most damaged target (by absolute health) within range. In addition, if a raid member is the initial target it will look for valid raid targets to jump to rather than non-raid targets as a priority, making it consistent with group targeted Chain Heals.

Warlocks

Cripple (Doomguard): The tooltip has been changed to 45% due to the haste effect change.
Enslave Demon: The tooltip has been changed to 40% due to the haste effect change.
Health Funnel: This spell will now work correctly on low-level enslaved demons.
Howl of Terror: This spell now uses the same resistance checks as the Warlock spell Fear.
Siphon Life will now properly gain a benefit from Shadow Mastery.

Warriors

Flurry: The text on the tooltip has been corrected to indicate it triggers on all types of attacks.
Shield Slam: This ability will sometimes no longer remove more than one beneficial effect from the target.
Sword Specialization: This ability can no longer trigger off of itself.
Items

+30 Spell Damage Enchantment: Fixed a bug with this enchantment which was preventing it from benefiting healing spells.
Blade of Eternal Darkness: The triggered effect from this weapon will no longer occur when the spell being cast has its effect broken by causing damage.
Blazefury Medallion: The triggered effect from this item will no longer break Gouge.
Bonescythe Armor: The Eviscerate bonus will no longer trigger when your Eviscerate does not hit your target.
Darkmoon Card- Twisting Nether: The dialog for this resurrection will now always reappear after the Spirit of Redemption effect has completed.
Eye of the Dead: Holy Shock now interacts properly with this item.
Ranged Elemental Damage: Our ranged combat system does not allow a ranged weapon to do a mix of Elemental (Fire, Frost, Arcane, etc.) and Physical damage. Many ranged weapons existed which were listed as doing Elemental damage and did not function properly (the damage was dealt, but was treated as Physical). All of those weapons have been changed to deliver the Elemental damage as a chance on hit effect. Hurricane was previously changed this way in 1.11. The following ranged weapons are also fixed in 1.12: Bow of Searing Arrows, Dwarven Hand Cannon, Heartseeking Crossbow, Dark Iron Rifle, Galgann's Fireblaster, Quillshooter, Shell Launcher Shotgun, Venomstrike, and Verdant Keeper's Aim.
Talisman of Ascendence: This item will no longer trigger from physical damage effects. In addition, if either of the buffs from the item are cancelled, they will both be cancelled.
Zandalarian Hero Charm: Item tooltip corrected to match the effect tooltip.
The Items that summon mounts have been changed in their color/quality. Items that summon normal mounts are now blue(superior)items and items that summon swift mounts are now purple(epic) items.
Fixed a bug that allowed you to use items which restored health or mana while you were already full health or mana.
Fixed a bug with the Jom Gabbar trinket which was causing it to trigger a category cooldown for a duration longer than intended.
Fixed a bug that prevented Arcane Missiles from being able to trigger the effect of Wrath of Cenarius.
Clarified the tooltips for the Stormshroud armor and Kalimdor's Revenge to explain that they deal Nature damage.
Fixed a bug that caused the Blooddrenched Mask to hide a character's hair.
Warbear leather now stacks to 20.
Professions

Engineering: The damage from sapper charges can now be resisted. The overall DPS of the charges should not be significantly altered from what it currently is.
Engineering: Explosive sheep do fire damage instead of physical damage.
Raids and Dungeons

Uldaman
Reduced the number of Shadowforge Ambushers that attack after looting the quest chest.
Shadowforge Ambushers are no longer elite.
The respawn of the Stone Stewards has been changed to 2 hours (from 30 minutes).
Zul'Farrak
The respawn of the 2 Troll/1 Basilisk patrollers should now be 2 hours.
Reduced the damage dealt by the Sul'lithuz Abomination and Sul'lithuz Sandcrawler.
Dead Heroes are no longer elites.
Theka the Martyr will now only remain immune to physical damage for 30 seconds before reverting to normal.
Antu'sul's Sul'lithuz Broodlings now only hatch 4 at a time and are significantly weaker.
Witch Doctor Zum'rah will no longer call as many dead heroes to his aid when aggroed.
Weegli Blastfuse now has slightly more hit points.
Antu'sul's Warden no longer attempts to knock adventurers into Antu'sul's lair.
Sandfury Cretins who engage the party during the pyramid event are no longer able to cast shadow bolt.
Mauradon
Noxxious Scions will no longer spawn when you cleanse Celebrian Vines.
User Interface

V key functionality has been improved in several ways.
V key now shows summoned monsters (such as the gargoyles in Stratholme.)
V key now shows both monsters and player enemies.
V now shows enemies only (no longer shows friendly targets.)
Shift-V now shows friendly targets only, not enemies (with a new bindable hotkey.)
Control-V shows both friendly targets and enemy targets (with a new bindable hotkey.)
New floating combat text has been added to the game with a number of options. You can see when you take damage, when you are healed and how much, when you acquire and lose auras and much more. You can turn on the new options in the newly revised options screen.
The Need Before Greed and Group Loot countdown timers will now have a 3 minute countdown when there is a bind on acquire item on the corpse. This should allow a bit more time in making a decision to roll for an item.
Automatic Quest Tracking has been added to the game and is turned on by default. Any time you advance a quest by advancing one of the requirements, the quest information will appear on your screen for 5 minutes before fading. You can turn this option off from the options screen.
There is now a confirmation dialogue when you attempt to disband your guild.
Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that caused some non-combat pets to be referred to as Minions instead of Pets. Mini Diablo however has escaped this fate and will continue to be referred to as a Minion.

Notes of interest:

Windfury Totem: The weapon enchantment from this totem will now only trigger off normal melee swings. This means abilities such as Sinister Strike, Mortal Strike, and Hamstring will no longer trigger the Windfury Totem.

I didn't think it was possible, but Blizzard managed to make Horde raiding even weaker - this is a huge reduction to Horde's melee DPS - depending on how many people actually get Windfury, it can be a reduction of as much as 10% of melee DPS. And absolutely no other buffs to raiding Shamans to offset this. Fantastic! I honestly don't think Blizzard knows what they are doing any more.

[MongoJerry]

I didn't think it was possible, but Blizzard managed to make Horde raiding even weaker - this is a huge reduction to Horde's melee DPS - depending on how many people actually get Windfury, it can be a reduction of as much as 10% of melee DPS. And absolutely no other buffs to raiding Shamans to offset this. Fantastic! I honestly don't think Blizzard knows what they are doing any more.

I'm at a loss for words. A buff that doesn't stack with temporary weapon enchants is overpowered, but Blessing of Kings + Wisdom + Salvation on every spellcaster and hunter in a raid isn't? Horde raids already deal less dps, have less life, and have less mana to work with, and Blizzard is *nerfing* Horde dps even further? Shaman need their ability to buff raids increased not nerfed! This is unbelievable.

[oldmandennis]

+30 Spell Damage Enchantment: Fixed a bug with this enchantment which was preventing it from benefiting healing spells.

This would go great on a Hammer of the Gathereing storm for PvP. Too bad PvP isn't going to be fixed until the expansion.

[Kevin]

Notes of interest:

Windfury Totem: The weapon enchantment from this totem will now only trigger off normal melee swings. This means abilities such as Sinister Strike, Mortal Strike, and Hamstring will no longer trigger the Windfury Totem.

I didn't think it was possible, but Blizzard managed to make Horde raiding even weaker - this is a huge reduction to Horde's melee DPS - depending on how many people actually get Windfury, it can be a reduction of as much as 10% of melee DPS. And absolutely no other buffs to raiding Shamans to offset this. Fantastic! I honestly don't think Blizzard knows what they are doing any more.

Um wow, that is a little nuts. And what about heroic strike? If it doesn't proc off of HS anymore either, an attack that is on next swing, um ouch. I don't get this one at all. If they made some totems that could hit for a 40 yard radius and anyone in the raid could benefit, then maybe since horde could stack some stuff (make any of the totems that don't have an aura equivalent do this, so only windfury, grace of air, strength of earth, tranquil air, and stoneskin. But not the resists, heals, or cleanses, though with judgement of light and wisdom you could make an arguement for the mana spring (not tide) and healing streams too. :))

[Quark]

Windfury: Once again Blizzard manages to obliterate an entire system because of a minor flaw.

[Jester]

Everybody look on the bright side!

At least the debate between Grace of Air and Windfury totems just got a whole lot easier!

-Jester

[Treesh]

Notes of interest:

Windfury Totem: The weapon enchantment from this totem will now only trigger off normal melee swings. This means abilities such as Sinister Strike, Mortal Strike, and Hamstring will no longer trigger the Windfury Totem.

I didn't think it was possible, but Blizzard managed to make Horde raiding even weaker - this is a huge reduction to Horde's melee DPS - depending on how many people actually get Windfury, it can be a reduction of as much as 10% of melee DPS. And absolutely no other buffs to raiding Shamans to offset this. Fantastic! I honestly don't think Blizzard knows what they are doing any more.

Thanks Blizzard. Thanks a ton. Really helpful there. I already bring less to the raid than most other classes and now you're taking this away too? *sigh*

I just want to know the reasoning behind this change. If they are going to keep this change, WHY? I just want one solid reason and I know I'm not going to get it.

Edit: I'm not exactly thrilled about the V key change either. It was handy for the damned Jandice fight to not have to use a macro or anything to get her retargeted easier. I also like to have the V key up to show pet health a bit easier, but since they had already changed that a few patches ago to NOT show the friendly pet bars out of your group when in a raid, it's not as helpful as it used to be anyway. Bleh.

[teske]

I just want one solid reason and I know I'm not going to get it.

Procs of procs are removed from everything. Form what I recall (and I don't play a melee class) the last few patches changed quite a few items to not proc of their procs. It seems like Blizzard thinks of theses double procs as bugs.

And the other changes looks like they fixed some other inconsistencies. To me it looks like they consolidated some odd code.

[Mirajj]

This seems like a small, rushed patch to get cross server BG's out, and to reduce Rogue whining to a tolerable level.

At least they aren't touching hunters much. *wipes brow*

[Monkey]

To me it looks like they consolidated some odd code.

Although I've heard rumors of a 1.13 patch before the Burning Crusade, it's possible that the pre-expansion content pipeline is just running dry. So rather than pull content back out of the expansion, they're cleaning up odds and ends and buffing the UI by incorporating some of their favorite mods.

[Cryptic]

Did anyone else notice that they originally told us that 1.12 would have something that alleviated the grind to rank 14 ... and now that feature is nowhere to be found?

[MongoJerry]

Did anyone else notice that they originally told us that 1.12 would have something that alleviated the grind to rank 14 ... and now that feature is nowhere to be found?

I believe the feature is simply supposed to be making the curve easier. The fact that it's not mentioned in the patch notes doesn't mean that it hasn't been implemented or won't be implemented.

On the brighter side, Blizzard has discovered a terrific way to solve the problem of unbalanced factions in world PvP. With the windfury totem nerf as the last straw, all Horde players will reroll Alliance. With everyone playing Alliance, nobody will be on the short faction, everybody gets the buff from the PvP zones, and everyone will be happy.

I usually don't subscribe to this kind of doomsaying negativity, but being in a Horde guild trying to scrape and claw through a Naxxramas dungeon that already tests the limits of your dps, mana bars, and tanking equipment, knocking off 10% or more of our warrior and rogue dps is just going to be killer. Some people here don't want to talk about the differences between Alliance and Horde, but whenever I see Alliance guild videos showing all those blessings even on mages and hunters and think of all the materials we have to farm to get potions, zanzas, food, and drink buffs to even approach the benefits of those buffs, it drives me crazy. Then Blizzard decides to nerf the one buff we have that brings our melee dps up to par? It's just complete baloney.

[oldmandennis]

It doesn't look like will have any further Shaman changes implemented for patch 1.12.

GG. I'm glad I canceled my subscription. It's a six month sub, so they have 2 months left to put out an AMAZING preview of 1.13.

BG server groupings are out. Looks like I woln't be playing with any of you, cause you aren't in my cluster. Well it really looks like I woln't be playing with you because PvP sucks even more then it does now. If there is one thing worse then pugging with gibbering idiots, its pugging with carebear gibbering idiots. Honestly, the fantastic thing about the WC3 PvP was that you found your own level. If you played a couple of nights a week, a couple of hours a night, you found your level. You didn't have to play with complete morons, and you didn't have to play with micromangaing gods. Knowing bliz, when they finally get around to putting matchmaking in, they will do it on something stupid like average gear level, allowing noobs with dreadnaught to get crushed by pros with warlord's.

[lemekim]

Some further information about the Windfury totem nerf and the reasoning behind it, courtesy of Eyonix:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.a...an&T=669879&P=3

The change to the Windfury Totem for patch 1.12 was implemented because we felt the burst damage of all melee characters under its effect was too high. Even once the change is live, the Windfury Totem will still have great potential in providing substantial improvement to the overall dps of a group.

Please see my above response concerning our reasoning for the Windfury change. The only other patch 1.12 changes that I'm aware of concern Grounding Totem and Lightning Shield, and are minor. The Grounding Totem will no longer absorb the effect from the Entrapment Hunter talent. Concerning Lightning Shield, Air Bubble pockets in underwater regions will no longer consume a charge from this spell.

We have no plans to compensate the dps loss caused by the change to the Windfury Totem. We wouldn't have made the change if we felt the need to compensate.

I just explained why, Ratul. We felt that in its current state Windfury Totem allowed for too much burst damage (dps). We don't feel the need to compensate because our goal was to reduce the totem's potential for damage in a group/raid.

No one is lying. We try and provide information and insight into our plans and goals for various aspects of this game's development. Things change, unfortunately. It's this type of reaction that prevents me from providing players with greater detail of future content.

Reading this made me realise that Devs have as much understanding of the current faction balance as the poo-slinging monkeys in my neighborhood zoo. And these are the people we expect to solve all problems in the Burning Crusade expansion? Hahaha.

[nobbie]

On the brighter side, Blizzard has discovered a terrific way to solve the problem of unbalanced factions in world PvP. With the windfury totem nerf as the last straw, all Horde players will reroll Alliance.

Didn't Blizzard plan the opposite for the upcoming WoW expansion: Lure more Alliance players over to the Horde side with an "attractive" Blood Elf race? And now a major "burst damage" nerf for the Horde "paladins" who already have to struggle with the immobility and weakness of their totems anyway (compared to the Paladin buffs)?

I can't help, but this looks more like Blizzard had again an open ear for some whining Alliance PvP players (the majority of their paying player base).

[Arnulf]

[...] And now a major "burst damage" nerf for the Horde "paladins" who already have to struggle with the immobility and weakness of their totems anyway (compared to the Paladin buffs)?

I can't help, but this looks more like Blizzard had again an open ear for some whining Alliance PvP players (the majority of their paying player base).

I'm sorry, but I take offense at this. I feel personally insulted.:(

[Trien]

Furor: This talent now works correctly with Cat Form again.

Oh joy... broken with a minor patch, and I'm going to have to wait until 1.12 before it's fixed?!?

[Monkey]

Didn't Blizzard plan the opposite for the upcoming WoW expansion: Lure more Alliance players over to the Horde side with an "attractive" Blood Elf race? And now a major "burst damage" nerf for the Horde "paladins" who already have to struggle with the immobility and weakness of their totems anyway (compared to the Paladin buffs)?

I can't help, but this looks more like Blizzard had again an open ear for some whining Alliance PvP players (the majority of their paying player base).

Hey, don't try to pin this on the Leggolazs of the world--As all of the non-whining Alliance will tell you, those guys aren't smart enough to put a concerted effort behind "Nerf Windfury". If they even know what the spell does, they're probably unaware that there's windfury weapon and windfury totem.

This seems heavy-handed enough to come from the depths of the beast itself. The style and broadness of it reminds me of the weaponswap and defense nerfs (although those were factionless). One would think Blizzard retested all raid content with this nerf in place. Then again, I'm one of those who has (wrongly) thought Blizzard would do a lot of obvious things.

Although my cancelled subscription is ticking away as we speak, I do feel for the Horde in this. If they want to nerf DPS, how about replacing some of the more absurd weapons with ones that have reasonable damage and a threat-reducing on-equip buff?

I also feel for the Community Managers--the test realms went down rather quickly yesterday, sending folks to the forums with criticism of the world PvP events, the content pipeline as relating to the expansion, and the windfury nerf.

My favorite quote:
[CM]: It's not sand, it's silithyst.
[Troll]: Oh, so it's magic sand!

Edit: Hey, looks like the entire WoW website is down now, too.

[ima_nerd]

Ya gotta love a game that tries to balance its PvP and thus messes up PvE (Priest Dispel?).

*goes back to playing EQ1 progression server*

[Zippyy]

I'm not exactly thrilled about the V key change either. It was handy for the damned Jandice fight to not have to use a macro or anything to get her retargeted easier. I also like to have the V key up to show pet health a bit easier, but since they had already changed that a few patches ago to NOT show the friendly pet bars out of your group when in a raid, it's not as helpful as it used to be anyway. Bleh.

It says in the notes that shift-V will show friendly and hostile targets, but it's unclear whether this will include extra-group pet bars. There's always hope!