[WoW] 1.9.0 test realm is up.. sorta (and patch notes!)

Looks like they brought the test realms up, but the character copy mechanism is offline.

I've heard some interesting tidbits about higher ranks of spells for most (if not all) classes, as well as the incredibly awesome... BUG MOUNTS:

link to pic

(note this is an imageshack link, don't be surprised if it's offline due to high bandwidth)

You can still download the test client from the character copy page, but they haven't said when they'll bring the mechanism back on line.

Saw the patch notes here:

Link

New flight paths added between Ironforge and Chillwind Point. Also, between Chillwind Point and Light's Hope Chapel.

NICE! this will be a huge benefit for Baron runs!

I ran the test client this morning and got the patch. Here's the notes that came with it in case the unofficial link goes down...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- World of Warcraft Client Patch 1.9.0 (2005-??-??)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj
The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj will house two massive, unique dungeons -- the
Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, a 20-man raid dungeon, and the Temple of
Ahn'Qiraj, a 40-man raid dungeon. As players delve deeper into the
mysteries of Ahn'Qiraj, they will discover revelations of the
Silithid infestation and their shadowy masters, the Qiraji. Players
will have to complete a world event of massive proportions before
they can open the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj on their realm.
***During the public test of Ahn'Qiraj, the world event to open the
gates will be accelerated to allow testing of the dungeon content.***

Linked Auction Houses
Players will now be able to buy and sell goods with greater
effectiveness using the Linked Auction House system. Auction
Houses in Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Thunder Bluff will now share the
same pool of Horde player-created auctions, and Alliance players will
find the same to be true when visiting Ironforge, Stormwind City, and
Darnassus Auction Houses. This system has been expanded to support
the neutral Auction Houses as well. Tanaris, Everlook, and Booty Bay
will all be linked for players of both factions to access. In
addition, the "Looking for Group" and "Trade" channels have been
unified among the corresponding cities, meaning, for example, that
you can trade your goods or look for groups in Ironforge while in
Stormwind.

Multiple Battlegrounds Queues
Players will be able to enter multiple battleground queues. No longer
must you make the hard decision of which queue to join -- when queued
for all three, you can join the first one available or hold out for
that particular battleground which you've really got your heart set
on.

Soul Shard Bags
Tailors now can make soul bags to hold soul shards. The smallest is a
20-slot bag, the recipe for which can be purchased in Gadgetzan. The
recipe for a larger bag can be found in Scholomance, and one for an
even larger bag can be found in Molten Core. In the main UI, these
soul bags will display how many shards they contain. So long as the
soul bags have room, any soul shards a warlock creates will
automatically go into the bag.

Raid Calendar System
The raid-lockout system has undergone a significant change. The new
system will have all instances reset at a certain server time,
regardless of when you were actually saved to the instance. The reset
schedule is as follows:
Molten Core: Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance.
Blackwing Lair: Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance
Onyxia: Every 5 Days
Zul'Gurub: Every 3 Days
Temple of AhnQiraj (40-man): Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly
maintenance
Ruins of AhnQiraj (20-man): Every 3 Days
All resets will occur during off-hours, when the least amount of
raids are active.

Important Note for Mac OS X Users
The minimum supported Mac OS X revision for WoW will be changed in a
post-1.9.0 patch, from 10.3.5 to 10.3.9. If you are running 10.3.5 -
10.3.8 and need to get the free update, you can use Software Update
or you can click here for the direct download. This change will make
it easier for us to release future updates to the game, for example
to support upcoming Mac models based on Intel processors.

General
- All Disorient effects have been renamed Incapacitate effects. This
includes Gouge, Sap, etc.
- All Confusion effects have been renamed Disorient effects. This
includes Blind, Scatter Shot, etc.
- Food and Drink are now in separate categories, so you can only have
one food effect and one drink effect on you at a time. The only
effect should be that foods that used to stack with each other (you
could have two food effects on you at once) no longer will stack.
- On-next-swing abilities will no longer cause multiple weapon procs
on a single swing.

PvP
- Several civilian NPCs, who previously would assist non-civilians,
will no longer do so.

Druids
- Bear and Dire Bear form - Effects that lower armor will now lower
armor by a percentage of the druid's full armor, rather than just
base (caster form) armor. However, Enrage will still only remove 75%
of base armor.
- Omen of Clarity - Special attacks will no longer consume their own
clearcasting state. All melee attacks will now be able to trigger the
clearcasting state.
- Nature's Grasp - This spell can now trigger from special melee
attacks. It will no longer be possible to cast Entangling Roots at no
mana cost immediately after Nature's Grasp procs.
- Nature's Grace - The Nature's Grace buff will now appear on the
player upon completion of casting, before the travel time of the
spell. So, Wrath crits will now benefit the casting time of the next
spell cast.
- Insect Swarm - New icon.
- Improved Starfire - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes
or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap
Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc.).
- Omen of Clarity - This spell now works correctly with Bash, Rip,
Ferocious Bite, and Demoralizing Roar, granting a decrease in the
cost of the ability. Ferocious Bite will still use the entire energy
bar to generate additional damage.

Hunters
- Arcane Shot - This spell can no longer trigger twice in one shot off
of the Paladin's Judgement of Wisdom.
- Aspect of the Pack and Aspect of the Cheetah - Periodic damage will
no longer trigger the Dazed effect.
- Aspect of the Wild - Radius increased. Tooltip updated to display
radius.
- Improved Concussive Shot - The stun effect's duration no longer
diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells
(e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc.).
- Tame Beast - The hunter will now turn to face the target during the
taming process.
- Bestial Wrath - Damage bonus reduced, duration increased.
- Unleashed Fury - Damage bonus increased.
- Pet Changes
+ Turtles can now eat raw and cooked fish.
+ Turtles can now learn Shell Shield, allowing them to reduces all
damage taken by 50% for 10 sec.
+ Hunters can now tame Sons of Hakkar. Sons of Hakkar are in the Wind
Serpent family and will know Lightning Breath (Rank 6).
+ Boars can now learn Charge, an ability that allows them to charge
to an enemy, immobilize that enemy for 1 second, and add a large
amount of Attack Power to the boar's next attack.
+ Gorillas can now learn Thunderstomp, an ability that causes high
threat area Nature damage.

Mages
- Impact - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is
diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot,
Hammer of Justice, Charge etc.).
- Netherwind Regalia - The 8-piece set bonus will now proc immediately
upon completion of casting the spell, before travel time on the
spell. This will allow the proc to affect the next spell cast as
intended.
- Arcane Concentration - Blizzard will now be able to gain a
Clearcasting state from this talent.
- Blast Wave - Will now show spell data in the talent page.

Paladins
- Due to significant talent changes, all Paladins' talent points will
be refunded and can be respent. Training costs for all talent
spell/ability replacements have been significantly reduced.
- Paladins can now learn Greater Blessings for the following spells:
+ Blessing of Might
+ Blessing of Wisdom
+ Blessing of Kings
+ Blessing of Sanctuary
+ Blessing of Salvation
Greater Blessings will cast the associated blessing on all raid
members that share the same class as the target. For example, if you
cast Greater Blessing of Might on a warrior in your raid, all
warriors in the raid party will receive Blessing of Might from you.
Additionally, Greater Blessings have an increased duration of 15
minutes. These blessings require twice as much mana as the single
target version, as well as a reagent. Paladins can purchase these new
Greater Blessing spells from their class trainers.
- Seal of Fury - The seal and judgement have been removed and replaced
with a new self-buff, Righteous Fury, which will increase threat from
Holy damage.
- Seals and Judgements - Added or increased damage per level so that
these spells keep pace between replacements.
- Judgements - Judgements that place a debuff on their victim will now
all have their duration refreshed when the judging paladin strikes
the victim with his or her melee swings. All these debuffs have had
their duration decreased to 10 seconds. In addition, Judgements that
place debuffs can no longer be resisted.
- Seal of Righteousness - Now does holy damage on every swing. It can
now proc correctly as well. The Judgement effect has been renamed
"Judgement of Righteousness" to differentiate it from the Seal damage
in the combat log.
- Judgement of the Crusader - The holy damage bonus has been decreased
as part of rebalancing paladin damage (which is still increased
overall).
- Seal of Command - The proc will occur more often, but will only do
70% of weapon-swing damage.
- Judgement of Command - Instead of placing a debuff on the victim,
this spell now does immediate damage. If the victim is not stunned,
they only take 30% of the total damage. The damage on this Judgement
was increased significantly.
- Judgement of Wisdom - Arcane Shot will no longer cause this to proc
twice on one shot. Channeling spells can now trigger this proc as
well.
- Vengeance - Special ability critical hits can now trigger Vengeance.
- Judgement of Righteousness - The damage of this judgement was
increased significantly. This judgement can now trigger procs.
- Holy Shock - Now heals friendly targets and damages enemy targets.
Mana cost reduced. Bonus from spell damage and healing items
increased.
- All Seals and Judgements have had their bonus coefficient from plus
spell damage re-evaluated. Some holy damage effects had no
coefficient before and now have a coefficient.
- Vengeance - Clarified the tooltip to indicate procs will not trigger
Vengeance.
- Summon Warhorse - Mana cost reduced.
- Summon Charger - Mana cost reduced.
- Consecration - No longer displays a debuff icon on targets in the
area of effect.
- Updated Aura tooltips to be more clear (include radius, fix
grammatical errors etc...).
- Judgement - Range increased, cooldown decreased, mana cost decreased.
Using Judgement will now initiate melee combat.
- Exorcism - Now usable on Demon targets in addition to Undead targets.
- Holy Wrath - Now usable on Demon targets in addition to Undead
targets.
- Seal of Justice - Mana cost slightly increased. The stun effect's
duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun
abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge,
etc).
- Seal of Righteousness - Damage bonus from +Holy damage items
increased, mana cost slightly increased.
- Seal of Command - Damage bonus from +Holy damage items increased.
- Seal of the Crusader - Mana cost slightly increased.
- Seal of Fury - Removed and replaced with Righteous Fury.
- Seal of Light - Mana cost slightly increased.
- Seal of Wisdom - Mana cost slightly increased.
- Seal of Command - Mana cost slightly increased.
- Hammer of Wrath - Missile speed of the flying hammer increased.
- Divine Protection, Divine Shield and Blessing of Protection - Targets
of these spells will now receive the "Recently Shielded" effect,
preventing another of these three spells from being applied to that
target for one minute.
- New Spell: Righteous Fury (level 16) - Increases the threat generated
by the Paladin's Holy attacks by 100%. Lasts 30 minutes.
- Blessing of Sanctuary - Now causes Holy damage to the attacker when
the blessed target blocks an attack in addition to the current
effect.

Priests
- Martyrdom - This talent will now trigger on melee special abilities
as well as on melee swings. The tooltip has been clarified to
indicate this ability only works on melee strikes.
- Mind Blast - Threat raised on ranks 7, 8, and 9. Incorrect data had
been entered in those spells, resulting in less threat generated than
designed.
- Blackout - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is
diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot,
Hammer of Justice, Charge, etc).

Rogues
- Mace Specialization - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes
or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap
Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc...).

Shaman
- Lightning Shield - This spell will now proc when the shaman is struck
by elemental attacks.
- Stormstrike - Earthbind and Stoneclaw totems will no longer use up
charges of Stormstrike.
- New Spell - Tranquil Air Totem. Creates a totem that reduces the
threat caused by nearby party members by 20%.

Warlocks
- Searing Pain - Increased damage on all ranks of Searing Pain.
- Infernal and Doomguard - Increased armor 10% and damage 30% on both
pets.
- Soul Link - This spell can no longer be partially dispelled off the
warlock. In addition, Soul Link can no longer be used on non-demon pets.
- Hellfire - Victims of Hellfire are now able to resist properly.
Warlocks continue (as designed) to be unable to resist their own
damage.
- Curse of Shadow and Curse of the Elements - These curses can no
longer cause resistance to become negative. To compensate, both
curses now increases the damage taken from the appropriate schools by
a percentage.
- Summon Felsteed - Mana cost reduced.
- Summon Dreadsteed - Mana cost reduced.
- Pyroclasm - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is
diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot,
Hammer of Justice, Charge, etc).

Warriors
- Execute - Improved Execute and other discounts to the Execute ability
will now correctly convert the resulting extra rage into damage.
- Retaliation - This ability will no longer lose charges when the
attacker is behind the warrior.
- Sword Specialization - Special attacks now properly trigger the
chance to gain an extra attack.
- Sweeping Strikes - Whirlwind and Retaliation will now correctly
consume the charges from Sweeping Strikes.
- Bloodthirst - The damage component has been increased to 45% of
attack power.
- Enrage - The talent will now grant 5/10/15/20/25% extra damage when
enraged, instead of 8/16/24/33/40%.
- Mace Specialization - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes
or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap
Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge, etc).
- Improved Revenge - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or
is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap
Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge, etc).

Racial Traits
- Troll Racial Abilities
Troll Berserking
+ Is now triggered off any critical hit on you, including spells and
ranged attacks.
+ Melee/ranged haste bonus and duration reduced.
+ Now adds spell damage in addition to the haste bonus.
+ Berserking now ability requires a small amount of mana, rage, or
energy (depending on your class) to activate.
Throwing Mastery
+ Trolls now also receive a bonus to Bow weapons in addition to
Throwing weapons.
- Orc Racial Abilities
Blood Fury
+ Now applies a healing effectiveness debuff on the user instead of
the attack power penalty. The healing debuff is applied
immediately upon using the ability.
Hardiness
+ Resistance is now applied to just Stun mechanics.
- Gnome Racial Abilities
Escape Artist
+ Casting time lowered.
- Dwarven Racial Abilities
Stoneform
+ No longer snares the user.
+ Armor bonus increased.
+ Duration lowered.

Items
- All of the Tier 2 Class Armor sets have been updated with new art.
- The following weapons and shields have been updated with new art:
Perdition's Blade, Obsidian Edged Blade, Gutgore Ripper, Core Hound
Tooth, Aurastone Hammer, Drillborer Disk, Staff of Dominance.
- Many of the pieces from the Tier 2 Armor sets have received updated
statistics. The armor sets with the most extensive changes include
the Netherwind, Nemesis, and Judgement sets. Other sets received
fewer revisions, or none at all.
- Slimes have been latching on to more valuable items and they will now
be dropping better loot than they used to, including coin drops and
special bags.
- Drop rates of Darkmoon Cards 2-8 (Portals 2-8, etc..) have been
reduced. Ace drop rates have been increased.
- The drop rate of Shadowcat Hides has been increased.
- The Lifestealing enchantment now does shadow damage rather than
fire damage.
- Manna Biscuits now have two separate spell effects so they stack
correctly with other food and water.
- Well Fed buffs from special foods will no longer stack with each
other.
- The enchanter-made wands are now correctly flagged as Bind on Equip.
- Silithus air elementals have a slightly increased chance of dropping
essence of air
- Stormshroud Shoulders have been fixed to be a superior item and have
had the stamina on them slightly increased as well.
- Whistle of the Black War Raptor was changed to Bind on Acquire.
- The Runed Stygian Belt is no longer Unique.
- Bandages will now appears as "Consumable" in the auction house.
- Jadeanar humanoids and demons in Felwood and Winterfall Furbolgs in
Winterspring can now drop Runecloth.
- Winterfall Furbolgs will not drop Winterfall Firewater as often.
- The Seal of Wrynn, Nogg's Gold Ring, and Talvash's Gold Ring have
been improved to be superior items.
- All Giants in Azshara now drop cash and items appropriate for an elite
creature.
- The attack speed slowing effect from Thunderfury has been reduced,
and no longer stacks with other such effects such as Thunderclap.
- The Reckless Charge ability of the Goblin Rocket Helmet and Horned
Viking Helmet is now considered a disorient instead of a sleep effect.
- Flamewaker Legplates and Sash of Whispered Secrets improved to have
the proper stats of an epic item.
- Broken Silithid Chitin is now marked as a poor item.
- Albino Crocscale Boots now has the appropriate geometry attached.
- Darkshore Grouper now has an appropriate sound when moved in your
inventory.
- The effect of the Freezing Band is now considered a Freeze effect.
- The Force Reactive Disk's and Cloak of Fire's effects will no longer
gain a benefit from effects that increase spell damage.
- The Insightful Hood and Southsea Head Bucket will now cover hair
properly.
- The proc ability of the Halberd of Smiting can no longer cause
another proc.
- The Glimmering Mithril Insignia will no longer make a player immune
to Death Coil.
- The Goblin Mortar's stun effect now has a description.
- Six Demon Bag tooltip changed to note that the target must be in
front of the caster.
- The Fiery War Axe is now in fact, Fiery.
- The Abyssal Plate Gauntlets are now Bind on Equip.
- Items with the Frost Blast ability will now deal the correct damage
listed.
- Gauntlets of Shining Light is now spelled correctly.
- The Pure Elementium Band now has a sell price.
- The Mendicant's Slippers now have the proper amount of stamina for
the level of the item.
- Arcanist's Bindings had more resistances than proper for the item,
and these were removed.
- Alcor's Sunrazor is now Bind on Equip.
- Transforming Thunderstrike and Shadowstrike will no longer consume
additional copies of the item that might be in the inventory.
- Added a note to the tooltip for the Healing and Mana Draughts
available in Alterac Valley that informs the player they are only
usable in Alterac Valley.
- Incorrect amounts of abilities such as Attack Power, Increased Fire
Damage, or Increased Healing Damage were being applied to all random
item property world drops. Two handed weapons such as Staves had much
lower amounts of these abilities, while ranged and one handed weapons
had too much. All further drops of these items will have the correct
amounts, but previously dropped items will not be affected by this
change.
- The Shardtooth Meat quest item can no longer be fed to a Hunter pet.
- Blue Dragon Card - This trinket will no longer proc from non-combat
abilities.
- Shield Spikes - Shield Spike damage will no longer occur on ranged
blocks.
- Halberd of Smiting - This weapon will no longer proc multiple time
off one swing.

Professions
- An Alchemy recipe to Transmute Heart of Fire into three Elemental
Fires has been added at the Friendly level of the Thorium Brotherhood.
- Epic items that are level 51 and above will now disenchant into a
Nexus Crystal. Also items that normally disenchant into Large
Brilliant Shards have a very small chance of disenchanting into a
Nexus Crystal. New more powerful enchanting recipes that require
these Crystals can be found in the new Ahn'Qiraj content.
- Enchanters can now turn some of their dusts and shards into magical
oils. These oils when applied to weapons add a temporary bonus to
magical damage or mana regeneration that stacks with permanent
enchantments. The lower levels of these recipes are found on normal
enchanting vendors. The higher level versions are found on special
vendors and are rewards for high Zandalar faction.
- The Enchanting Trainer in Cenarion Hold in Silithus sells some of
both new types of enchanting formulae.
- Schools of fish have appeared around the world that can be fished
from a few times before being fished out. These schools tend to
contain valuable fish types such as Oily Blackmouth or Firefin
Snapper. In some places, wreckage can be fished from for even better
rewards.
- The cooking trainers around the world sell the recipe for Sagefish
and Greater Sagefish. These two fish types can be found in schools in
inland areas and provide health and mana regeneration as well as
additional mana regeneration for 15 minutes after eating.
- Engineers with skill 250 or greater, who have completed Umi
Rumplesnicker's 'Are We There Yeti?' quest line, should seek her out
again in Everlook.

Quests & Reputation
- The Timbermaw Furbolgs have received a faction revamp!
+ The Timbermaw Furbolg faction is now named "Timbermaw Hold."
+ Certain named Deadwood and Winterfall Furbolgs are now giving more
positive Timbermaw Hold faction when killed.
+ Old quests have been revised, and several new quests involving the
Timbermaw Furbolgs have been added.
- Reputation caps for killing monsters now happen at the end of a
level, rather than in the middle of it. For example: if reputation
gains for killing a monster were previously capped at the middle of
the range for Friendly on a monster, then they are now capped at the
end of Friendly.
- Reputation is now its own category in the chat window; you can change
the color of reputation gains and losses as reported in chat without
it affecting other miscellaneous information.
- All Alliance versions of the quest "Heeding the Call" now give
uniform reputation increases.
- Warlock quests that teach imp summoning now all uniformly award
reputation increases for respective racial factions.
- Spells now may have a casting requirement of current reputation with
a faction.
- All versions of the quests "A Donation of Wool," "A Donation of
Silk," and "A Donation of Mageweave" have had the level of the quest
raised so that higher level characters performing them will be able
to receive the full reputation gain. The minimum level requirement
for the quests have not changed, though the amount of XP gained when
completing any of these quests will be different than from before.
Mageweave will continue to give more XP than Silk, and Silk more XP
than Wool.
- The Alliance version of the quest "Centaur Bounty" now gives
Stormwind faction for completion.
- The Horde version of the quest "Centaur Bounty" now gives the same
amount of XP as the Alliance version (which means it was increased).
- The quest "Zaeldarr the Outcast" now gives an Argent Dawn reputation
increase upon completion.
- A bug with the reputation system has been fixed that was preventing
some awards to Horde and Alliance factions from being shared properly
amongst all member factions of the team.
- The quest "Ledger from Tanaris" now gives a reputation reward for
Gadgetzan upon completion.
- The quest "Supplies for Nethergarde" now has an additional reward of
increased Stormwind reputation.
- Fixed typos in both quest versions of "All Along the Watchtower".
- Fixed typos in both quest versions of "Lessons Anew".
- A kobold has been moved away from Piznik so that it won't keep
evading in the quest "Gerenzos Orders".
- Fixed typos in the quest "Signets of the Zandalar".
- Fixed typos in the quest "Rotten Eggs".
- The cleansed plants of Felwood have been modified:
+ There is no longer a gossip option to interact with them; simply
right click on the plant to receive your buff or fruits.
+ The amount of items you get from plants has been adjusted.
+ A corrupted whipper root plant was bugged to require one fewer
plant salves than intended to be cleansed; its now fixed to
require the salves just like the other whipper roots.
- Fixed two bugs where Pratt McGrubben in Feathermoon Stronghold was
not offering to re-teach Wild Leather Shoulders and where he was not
properly teaching Wild Leather Leggings.
- Fixed typos in both quest versions of "Power over Poison".
- The level of the quest "Piercing the Veil" has been increased from 3
to 4, bringing it in line with similar quests.
- Sayges Dark Fortune of Damage buff now only increases damage from a
randomly determined range of 1-10%.
- A coin reward has been added to the quest "Worth Its Weight in Gold".
- Vahlarriel in the second part of the quest series "Vahlarriel's
Search" now has something to say when returning with the pendant.
- The level for the quest "Parts for Kravel" has been raised to bring
it in line with the other quests of the Kravel series.
- You now need fewer Scorpashi Venoms to complete the second quest of
the "Reagents for Reclaimers Inc." quest series.
- Baron Revilgaz now should be a little more vociferous.
- Fixed a bug with the Horde Hallows End quest "Ruined Kegs" that
allowed the Alliance to interact with the keg.
- Hallows End Pumpkin Treats should no longer be on the same timer as
combat-oriented potions. Really.
- Xabraxxis Demon Bag will now last slightly longer in the world once
he is killed (3 minutes, up from 2).
- The reward for the quest "An Audience with the King," "Seal of
Wrynn" - has been improved.
- The reward for the quest "Gnome Improvement," "Talvashs Gold Ring"
has been improved. XP and reputation rewards for the quest have also
been increased.
- The reward for the quest "Noggs Ring Redo," "Noggs Gold Ring" has
been improved. XP and reputation rewards for the quest have also
been increased.
- The Horde Quest "Material Assistance" should no longer auto-launch an
incorrect (deprecated) quest.
- The quest "Galen's Escape" now gives an additional coin reward upon
completion, as well as an increase of reputation amongst the players
factional team.

Raids & Dungeons
- Noxxion in Maraudon now has the correct immunities.
- Noxxion is now social and will bring friends if pulled past other
creatures.
- Abyssal Templars are no longer marked as Humanoid.
- Twilight Stonecallers in Silithus should now aggro properly.
- Gordok Reavers and Warlocks now have a slightly larger radius for
detection and "call for help."
- Drop rate of Dark Runes in Scholomance has been reduced.
- The Altar of the Deeps in Blackfathom Deeps will now give players
the Blessing of the Deeps.
- The abomination event in Stratholme was been reworked with new
technology to insure there are no more premature resets.

User Interface
- The Guild UI has been significantly improved. Now when you click on
a guild member, it will open up a side panel with all the information
about that member including their note and officer's note.
- There is now a Guild Info panel for each guild. That panel allows a
guild to enter long term information and messages about the guild
that is too long for the message of the day. The guildmaster can use
the guild control panel to determine who has access to change the
text in this panel.
- Options have been added that allow raiders to not display their base
party UI when the Raid UI is up. Also, you can choose to only display
effects on players that you can dispel or ones you can cast. This is
all in the interface options pane.
- A "tip of the day" feature has been added to loading screens within
the game.
- Under Video Options there is now a slider to control the detail of
spell effects. Lower settings can help to improve performance.
- Auction buyers/sellers will now receive a detailed invoice of the
transaction.
- The casting bar has been brightened back up, it was appearing darker
than intended due to a bug.
- A new option has been added to Interface options, "Sticky Targeting."
When this is turned on, you will not deselect your current target when
you click on empty space.
- A new interface option, "Detailed Loot Information" has been added
that defaults to 'on.' If you turn it off you will only see the roll
and Need/Greed option of the player who won the item rather than
information for every player.
- Open bags that are in your bank will now have a bluish background to
them to allow easy differentiation between inventory bags and bank
bags.
- The Friends List and Guild UI will now display when a person is AFK.
- It is now possible to use the dressing room UI to model items that
are being rolled for in the Group Lood/Need Before Greed Popup window.
- Add-ons, Macros and Keybindings can now be saved on a per character
basis, so you can have different characters load different add-ons/
macros/keybindings.
- The Ignore command will now ignore emotes.
- The Interface Options Pane has been split up into a normal panel
and an advanced panel.
- In the initial loading screen there will be a tip displayed. This
can be turned off from the interface options menu.
- Any time an item is distributed using the "Master Looter" system and
the item is quality epic or above there will be a confirmation
dialogue to confirm that the item is going to the correct person.
- Key bindings can now be saved either globally or on a per character
basis.
- Add-ons can now be saved either globally or on a per character basis.
- In addition to the set of macros shared by all characters, each
character gets an additional 18 macros available to them.
- Added the ability to link enchanting recipes in chat.
- Optimized UI event handling in raid situations.
- Optimized UI layout engine to improve loading times.
- The game will no longer accidentally load UI files that are dropped
loose into the top level installation directory.
- The EquipCursorItem() script function uses slot numbers consistent
with the rest of the inventory functions. Any macros which use this
function should be updated by adding one to the slot number used
currently.
- New TOC entry for dynamically loadable add-ons: ## LoadWith: Addon1,
Addon2, etc. - Indicates that your add-on should be automatically
loaded after ANY of the add-ons specified on the LoadWith line are
loaded.
- The 8th return value from GetItemInfo() is no longer be localized,
instead is one of a number of INVTYPE_* tokens.
- A new 9th return value from GetItemInfo() is the inventory icon for
the item.
- debugprofilestop() will now return sub-milisecond (floating point)
values.
- Added Texture:GetTexture() which returns the filename (without
extension) of the file for the texture.
- Added FontString:SetNonSpaceWrap(true|false)
- Added Frame:GetFrameType() which returns the type of a frame.
- Added Frame:IsFrameType("typeName") which returns true if the frame
is of type typeName, or a subtype of typeName.
- New 8-param form of Texture:SetTexCoord(ULx, ULy, LLx, LLy, URx, URy,
LRx, LRy)
- Parent frame scales are cumulative instead of overrides.
- Textures and FontStrings now have IsVisible() and IsShown() functions
with the same semantics as the frame functions of the same name.
- Added Button:SetFont(), which works like the equivalent FontString
function.
- Added ScrollingMessageFrame:SetFont(), which works like the
equivalent FontString function.
- Special honor awards show up in the combat log.
- Druids can preview different weapons in the dressing room while in
moonkin form.
- The Disgusting Oozeling will share its disgusting aura with you even
while you are PvP enabled.
- Emotes show up in the chat log file.
- Combat messages no longer show up in the chat log file.
- Resurrection spells will return pets to life with the appropriate
amount of health and mana.
- Talent improvements to buffs will persist across instance boundaries
and logging out.

World Environment
- Elven NPCs in Scholomance will now animate properly.
- Players should no longer be able to walk on steep terrain.
- Players should no longer be able to move slowly through some locked
doors and gates.
- Nida Winterhoof in Thunder Bluff now sells Flowers for the sensitive
Horde player.
- The Short John Mithril's chest in Stranglethorn Arena will now
display an effect when it is being opened so its harder to open the
chest unnoticed.
- Night Elf food vendors have changed their supplies slightly.
- Chests in Maraudon have been disabled for good.
- In Wetlands, Bluegill Murlocs will now be more plentiful and several
other Bluegill camps have been thinned.
- All mount sounds, when standing still and pressing spacebar are now
all in place.
- Tauren males now use their off-hand attacks animation.
- The Zeppelins propeller from Under City should now animate properly.
- Flight Paths
+ New flight paths added between Ironforge and Chillwind Point.
Also, between Chillwind Point and Light's Hope Chapel.
+ Fixed a problem with the flight paths between The Crossroads in
The Barrens and Zoram'gar Outpost in Ashenvale.
+ Fixed the flight over Yojamba Isle from Booty Bay in Stranglethorn
to Sentinel Hill in Westfall.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that caused Crimson Templar to be doing much more damage
with it's fireball attack than intended.
- Fixed a bug that could cause Guard Slip'kik to move while trapped in
ice.
- Fixed a bug that caused Azure Templar, Earthen Templar, and Hoary
Templar to be resistant to Fire.
- Fixed a bug that would cause Time Lapse to cause hate reduction even
if the target resisted the effect.
- Fixed a bug that allowed pets to be targeted by "Wild Polymorph"
during the Nefarian encounter.

What is the new CoS/CoE % dmg modifier?

What is the new CoS/CoE % dmg modifier?

Looks like 5%, at least at rank2:

link to pic

Looking for a pally to comment on the pally changes. I have never played one but am curious as to the effect on the class.

Looking for a pally to comment on the pally changes. I have never played one but am curious as to the effect on the class.

A friend who is currently playing one remarked "not a lot of changes, really". It seems that the changes aren't nearly as in depth as the druid or hunter revamps.

Shard bags....sweet!

Tyrian wrote:
Looking for a pally to comment on the pally changes. I have never played one but am curious as to the effect on the class.

A friend who is currently playing one remarked "not a lot of changes, really". It seems that the changes aren't nearly as in depth as the druid or hunter revamps.

Wait a Paladin said this?? color me not shocked!

Can we say Nerf bat 9000? just kidding, doesn't seem too bad.

Felsteed is now 100 mana to summon... don't have the Dreadsteed to test. The 5% dmg on new CoS/CoE is definitely accurate. Bet people would rather have the Ruin nerf instead now...

Wait a Paladin said this?? color me not shocked!

Well, they did get some nice top-end stuff, but it didn't appear to me that there were any HUGE sweeping changes.

But I've never played a pally, so I don't have any firsthand experience.

Strekos wrote:

Felsteed is now 100 mana to summon... don't have the Dreadsteed to test. The 5% dmg on new CoS/CoE is definitely accurate. Bet people would rather have the Ruin nerf instead now...

I've never had ruin, so this works for me.

Post deleted 'cause I answered my own stupid question by reading more carefully.

As an actual paladin player, my view on the changes is that they are more about making play a bit less annoying than actually changing effectiveness much.

Blizzard wrote:

- Transforming Thunderstrike and Shadowstrike will no longer consume
additional copies of the item that might be in the inventory.

Colour me stupid, but who's carrying around more than one Thunderstrike/Shadowstrike?

Blizzard wrote:

- The Fiery War Axe is now in fact, Fiery.

This took twelve months?

Engineers with skill 250 or greater, who have completed Umi
Rumplesnicker's 'Are We There Yeti?' quest line, should seek her out
again in Everlook.

OMG can i get a Yeti as a real pet? Yahooooooo

I think boars are going to be the pet of choice for pvp post 1.9

Are they overpowered? They dont seem to be but the 1 second stun with a 15 second recast will be an invaluable utility to a hunter trying to get clear of melee range. There is another catch too. It can be cast during combat but the minimum range is 8 yards. So bascially hunters will probably use the tactic of putting the pet on stay when trying using wing clip to clear melee range. Triggering the boar's charge/stun should be simpler if less effective than the Feign Death/Icetrap combo.

The gorilla aoe special does decent damage but rank 1 I found on a 32 mistvale gorilla and it has a lengthy 1 minute recast. I guess it can be used as an aoe taunt but if they were going to do that then just make it an aoe taunt without damage and lessen the recast significantly.

Paladin changes makes them seem more playable now. I would suspect everyone will use seal of righteousness now. The mana costs for the seals and judgements are still pretty expensive but the increased damage on the righteous judgement makes for a nice finisher for runners etc. (pre level 40 and hammer of wrath that is)

Who knows. This may be the end of shield hearth since pally's can stick around and do some damage. Plus, the 1 minute cooldown between shields may force the issue most of the time.

Was it really necessary to make the logistics of engame raid zones MORE inconvenient? Bleh.

- Bestial Wrath - Damage bonus reduced, duration increased.

[vader]Nooooooooooooooooooo[/vader]

In case my fellow Warlocks haven't read, the CoS and CoE have had their damage bonus upped from 5% to 10% on the latest version of 1.9 on the test server

Just read that this morning. Very good news for warlocks. 5% was far too low.

Now we just need some type of stat bonus on the MC shard bag at least (considering the insane material requirements) and for diminishing returns to remain off our enslave demon spell. Really wish they hadn't removed the abillty to soul link with enslaved demons. Takes away some of the utility of a 31pt talent, and I can't imagine there was anyone out there complaining about how often they saw a warlock with a sacrificed VW soul linked with his infernal wreaking havoc in pvp. That just doesn't happen and if it does its over with rather quickly.

Holy sh*t that rocks!

Also all purge/cleanse spells have had thier mana increased. Bad for PVE, Awesome for PVP. Soon they will kill decursive as well. Interesting times coming.

I can't imagine there was anyone out there complaining about how often they saw a warlock with a sacrificed VW soul linked with his infernal wreaking havoc in pvp.

I do this quite a bit actually. Very effective, especially w/o dminishing returns

Both soul link not working w/ enslaved demons and diminishing returns on enslave are on the "Being Investigated" sticky list on the test forum. So, those changes may be unintended. I sure hope so, we'll see.

I do this quite a bit actually. Very effective, especially w/o dminishing returns

I agree. I've used this a few times myself and do not see any reason to remove the ability from the game. You are powerful only for a short while and any opposing warlock in a battleground can just banish your infernal and take you out.

Using this is world pvp is iffy at best as from what I've seen the infernal gets buggy when you take him far away from where he was initially summoned, and soon goes into evade mode and disappears after he breaks an enslavement.

It makes the warlock marginally more powerful for a short while which I would say is an even trade off considering the reagent cost, the quest involved to get the summon, and the long cooldown on the spell.

I wonder if they've removed the ability to have a druid (or priest if they are fast enough) res your pet after you sacrifice it so you can retain both the sacrifice buff and the master demonologist buff. +38% shadow damage would be nice

I wonder if they've removed the ability to have a druid (or priest if they are fast enough) res your pet after you sacrifice it so you can retain both the sacrifice buff and the master demonologist buff.

From waht I hear this is currently "working as intended." so they may not remove this ability. Can you imagine if they leave it in + the 10% dmg modiefer from CoS? mmm +38% sounds good.

Dr.Ghastly wrote:
I wonder if they've removed the ability to have a druid (or priest if they are fast enough) res your pet after you sacrifice it so you can retain both the sacrifice buff and the master demonologist buff.

From waht I hear this is currently "working as intended." so they may not remove this ability. Can you imagine if they leave it in + the 10% dmg modiefer from CoS? mmm +38% sounds good.

Well with CoS as it is right now, you get MORE than +38% doing the same thing... the 10% bonus is still a nerf on mobs/people w/ low shadow resist. Which is why it's getting nerfed of course.

I'm not complaining, 10% is better than what I thought we were getting.

Strekos wrote:
Dr.Ghastly wrote:
I wonder if they've removed the ability to have a druid (or priest if they are fast enough) res your pet after you sacrifice it so you can retain both the sacrifice buff and the master demonologist buff.

From waht I hear this is currently "working as intended." so they may not remove this ability. Can you imagine if they leave it in + the 10% dmg modiefer from CoS? mmm +38% sounds good.

Well with CoS as it is right now, you get MORE than +38% doing the same thing... the 10% bonus is still a nerf on mobs/people w/ low shadow resist. Which is why it's getting nerfed of course.

I'm not complaining, 10% is better than what I thought we were getting.

CoS 10%
MD 10%
DS 15%
SL 3%
Total 38%

edit: Nm. You mean the + vulnerability gives us more in 1.8, and you are partially correct. It CAN, but doesn't always. The +38% I listed above would be garunteed.

They're doing weird things with the paladin talents. Consecration, the AOE damage spell, was moved to the Holy tree from the Retribution (attack) one in the latest change. Which is fine with me, I guess, since they seem to be pushing paladins into Holy anyway.

Dr.Ghastly wrote:
Strekos wrote:
Dr.Ghastly wrote:
I wonder if they've removed the ability to have a druid (or priest if they are fast enough) res your pet after you sacrifice it so you can retain both the sacrifice buff and the master demonologist buff.

From waht I hear this is currently "working as intended." so they may not remove this ability. Can you imagine if they leave it in + the 10% dmg modiefer from CoS? mmm +38% sounds good.

Well with CoS as it is right now, you get MORE than +38% doing the same thing... the 10% bonus is still a nerf on mobs/people w/ low shadow resist. Which is why it's getting nerfed of course.

I'm not complaining, 10% is better than what I thought we were getting.

CoS 10%
MD 10%
DS 15%
SL 3%
Total 38%

Yeah but in game NOW:

CoS ~18%
MD 10%
DS 15%
SL 3%

total approx 46%

The major in the Paladin class is that it will reduce the effectiveness of "critadins"... which happens to be the build I am currently using. Figures. Really, any retribution spec is in danger of being effected.

The net effect is the Seal of Command will supposedly proc at a slightly higher rate, but will dish out 30% LESS damage. There is a post in the WoW forums that I'm too lazy to look up that compares the critadin in 1.8 and 1.9. The end result of their analysis is that if you leave your build as is, the damage you deal goes down about 10% overall.

I haven't seen any alternate builds to counteract this nerf, yet. Pallys will receive a free respec.

I think I'll spec holy this time around.