Patch Notes : Wednesday, January 28, 2004

[Bulor]

Patch Notes

Wednesday, January 28, 2004


It’s very important that everyone log into the game tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. PST. We will be conducting our first stress test and need at least 1000 players on the server to test stability.

FIRST STRESS TEST: Tomorrow, Thursday, January 29, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. PST.


Major Changes


* Character levels have been increased to level 30!
* Damage reduction abilities no longer have twice the effect they were meant to have.
* Smelt Mass Copper has been added so you can smelt 10 copper ore at once.
* The Dwarven miner area in Mulgore has been expanded to accommodate more spawn points and players.


Classes in General:

* Specialization bonuses now improve healing spells.
* Interrupts (Kick, Shield Bash, Earth Shock, etc.) are no longer guaranteed. There is a 75% chance they interrupt casting.
* Hate generated by wands has been reduced.


Mage:


* Frost Nova: Hate generated by this spell has been reduced. The spell now prevents the target from moving, but they can still perform other actions. The spell has a chance of breaking each time damage is taken. Frost nova’s duration and cooldown have been increased.


Paladin:


* Sense Undead: The duration has been increased to 3 minutes.


Priest:


* Brainwash: The casting time has been increased to 1.5 seconds.


Shaman:


* New spells added: Flametongue Totem (Levels 24 & 38) and Windfury Weapon (Levels 26 & 40).
* The effects from multiple Earthbind Totems no longer stack.
* The axes skill can now be abandoned.


Warlock:


* Sense Demons: The duration has increased to 3 minutes.
* Drain Soul: The hate has been reduced and replacement versions have been added.


Warrior:


* Battle Stance and Defensive Stance can now be entered while seated.
* Bloodrage tooltip has been fixed to reflect actual rage gained.
* Demoralizing Shout tooltip has been updated to reflect the actual damage reduced.
* Revenge and Overpower are both now instant cast with 5 second cooldowns.
* The duration for Hamstring has been increased and the cooldown has been removed. The effects no longer stack.
* Shield Block now improves the chance to block by 75% and has a cooldown time of 5 seconds.
* Thunderclap no longer stacks when multiple warriors use it on the same target.


Tradeskills:


* More uncommon drop recipes have been added to the barrens.
* Some leatherworking recipes have been changed to require light hides instead of medium hides.
* Find Herbs and Minerals have had their duration increased to 3 minutes.
* Medium hide drops increased slightly on lvl 15 – 25 monsters.


Combat:


* Spell casting creatures no longer automatically retreat when engaged in melee combat.
* Losing a duel cleanly interrupts spell casting.
* Hate is once again generated when harmful actions are made to sleeping or stunned creatures.
* The minimum creature attack range has been reduced to 5 yards.


Quests:


* The Thwarting Kolkar Agression quest now requires 3 sets of attack plans be destroyed instead of 4.
* Lt. Benedict’s Chest should always contain an item now.
* Mad Magglish should spawn more frequently now.


Creatures/Spawns:


* More poachers have been added to the gnoll camps in Mulgore.
* More crawlers have been added to the Durotoar beaches.
* Savannah prowler stealth lowered so they are no longer fully invisible.
* Wildlife density has been toned down in the open plains areas.
* Bewitching shriek is now single target only and the visual has been fixed.


Bugs:


* Fixed the sleeping/stunned bug for login/logout.


Misc.:


* The following text emotes have been added: growl, bark and pity.


Beta?


With the beta signups starting later this evening, we've been getting hit with a lot of alpha/beta questions. Answers to a few of the most common are listed below:


All alpha testers in good standing are automatically entered into the beta test. Neither you nor your Blizzard representatives have to do a thing. Also, anyone who is still in the pending mode due to the alpha lock-out will be automatically admitted into the beta as well. Again, there's absolutely nothing that they or their Blizzard representative needs to do.


Lastly, if you live in the same household with someone who wants to sign up for the beta, there is no issue with address duplication because you won't be signing up, you are already in the program.


I hope that clears up any concerns that some of you might be having.