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Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings Updated for Patch 3.2

Check it out, Blizzard isn’t screwing players who got this legendary (as it’s so hard right? Nothing like Thunderfury, Mediv’s or Rag’s hammer was…).  I mentioned in the patch notes update a few seconds ago, Val’anyr has been boosted in patch 3.2 and here are the new stats!

• Item Level has been increased from 239 to 245
• Stamina has been increased from 52 to 55
• Intellect has been increased from 54 to 57
• Spell Power has been increased from 587 to 621
• Critical Strike Rating has been increased from 47 to 50
• Haste Rating has been increased from 46 to 49

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3.2 PTR build 10083 Patch notes updated

PvP
Arenas

• Beginning with season 7, players will no longer have access to the newest season’s weapons or shoulder armor and will not qualify for the Gladiator title/rewards with ratings from the 2v2 bracket alone. Ratings obtained through 3v3 and 5v5 game play will be required for these rewards, while the rest of the newest season’s items will remain available to players in all brackets (standard rating restrictions still apply).

Items: General

• Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. In addition, the amount of resilience needed to reduce critical strike chance, critical strike damage and overall damage has been increased by 15%.

Death Knight
Frost

• Blood of the North: Reduced to a 3-point talent. Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 5/10/15%. There is now a 33/66/100% chance whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates.

Druid

• Swift Flight Form: Druids who have acquired a mount able to go 310% flight speed will now also go that speed while in this form.

Hunter

• Snake Trap: The Mind-numbing Poison effect has been reduced to a 30% increase in casting time, down from 50% to match similar effects.

Mage

• Mirror Image: Images will no longer trigger the death sound when their time expires.

Paladin

• Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%. In addition, the benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player’s level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player’s level.

Shaman

• Earth Shock: Redesigned. This spell no longer interrupts spell casting, but rather reduces melee attack speed by 10% for 8 seconds (exclusive with similar effects such as Thunder Clap).
• Wind Shock: Has been renamed Wind Shear and no longer shares a cooldown with Flame, Frost or Earth Shock.

Enhancement

• Maelstrom Weapon: Now also has a chance to reduce the cast time of Hex.

Warrior

• Shield Slam: The benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player’s level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player’s level.

Professions
Engineering

• Flying Machine: The level requirement needed to learn how to build and use this machine has been reduced to level 60, down from level 70, and the engineering skill level reduced to 300, down from 350. Material costs reduced.

Items

• Tome of Cold Weather Flying: New heirloom item. Players who have reached level 80 can now purchase this book for 1,000 gold from Hira Snowdawn, the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran. Similar to other heirloom items, this item can be mailed to other characters of the same realm, account and faction. The book is consumed when read training the character in Cold Weather Flying. Requires level 68.
• Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings: This item’s stats and level have been increased to match the power level of healer weapons coming from the Coliseum 25-person normal difficulty instance. In addition, each time Val’anyr is equipped, Blessing of Ancient Kings will be placed on a 45-second cooldown before it can occur.

Bug Fixes
Warlock

• The visual for Demonic Circle should now despawn when the warlock dies or when the warlock otherwise loses the aura that allows transport to the circle.

Also the Isle of Conquest BG has received new changes:

The following changes have been made to Isle of Conquest. Some of these changes may appear in the build going live today, while others might not make it in until the next build.

• Added a new powerful AoE attack to the Generals.
  
• Added bonus honor for destroying a gate (note: this honor is only given out once when the first gate is destroyed. Destroyingadditional gates does not grant additional honor).
  
• Increased the range of the Flame Turrets on the Siege Engines.
  
• Decreased the starting reinforcement count from 400 to300.
  
• Achievements for the zone should all work correctly now.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the Keep Cannons to be unable to be repaired and despawn.
  
• Fixed a bug that was causing the alliance gate to not have collision at the start
  
• Lowered the movement speed of the glaive thrower (again).

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Resilience buff and PvP mana regen for Patch 3.2

It’s a subject we’re discussing a lot with good reason since the changes to mana regen and resilience itself is pretty sweeping. Let’s face it, healing and damage is pretty damn nasty right now in PvP to the point where if you don’t kill somebody in 2 seconds then they’ll most likely be healed to full just as fast if not faster.

I think you are dividing the bucket too cleanly into “classes that can survive” and “classes that can’t.” There has been a vigorous debate for some time within the community (and not just this forum) about damage and healing being too high in PvP. While some classes are worse than others, those are also the classes that received additional nerfs. Overall we need for characters to be a little more survivable when being beat on. They need a little more room to come up with a counter of some kind so that too many fights are not “use your ability within this 1 sec window or lose.”

So there won’t be situations anymore where evenly matched players will be insta-gibbing each other; and the changes to mana regen are going to make it so healers won’t be able to just bomb out heals nonstop and get away with a full mana bar, however. Players are worried that the regen across the board will be so low that DPS mana users will have some serious problems keeping up their damage in a long fight. I like blizzard’s response to that in particular.

That assumes that caster mana is balanced around 30 second fights. It isn’t, and we aren’t talking about suddenly going to 30 minute fights. It could very well be a problem in practice, but we think it’s premature to assume that all dps casters are going to run out of mana now. There can be something between the two extremes of dying in 2 GCDs and having endless matches where the team to go OOM first loses. There can be something in between a sprint and a marathon.

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Patch 3.2 Changes to Professions

We’ve already been given the head’s up earlier about the profession changes but I’m not sure the exact specifics were released just yet. They haven’t given me exact numbers at all on some of the number changes:

• Alchemy
  • All stackable potions now stack to 20.
  • Added a new pattern for Flask of the North, usable by players with a high alchemy skill. The recipe is purchased from Northrend trainers. Flask of the North increases your spell power, attack power or Strength for 1 hour and is usable in arenas. It is not consumed when used.
  • Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion no longer usable in arenas. Amount of health and mana has been increased, and the cooldown reduced.
  • Five new epic gem transmute recipes are available from the Northrend trainer. The recipe for transmuting a Cardinal Ruby can be learned from a quest, given by Linzy Blackbolt in Dalaran.
  • The Mixology benefits from Northrend elixirs and flasks have been increased.
  • Rage potions can now be used by druids.
• Cooking
  • Blackened Dragonfin Recipe: Now only requires 1 Dragonfin Angelfish.
  • Chef’s Hat is now superior quality and allows the chef to cook faster.
  • Increased the drop rate for recipes from the Outland Daily Cooking quests.
  • Increased the chance to get a bonus Dalaran Cooking Token from the Spice Bag.
  • The recipe for Captain Rumsey’s Lager can now be randomly found in the quest reward crate, barrel, or spice bag from the cooking dailies.
• Enchanting
  • Values on Northrend ring enchants increased.
• Engineering
  • Added a schematic for a Goblin Welding Beam that can heal friendly mechanical units.
  • Alarm-o-Bot functionality changed. Materials required reduced.
  • Box of Bombs no longer requires an anvil.
  • Doubled the duration on Nitro Boosts.
  • Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications.
  • Increased the passive bonus provided by Springy Arachnoweave, Flexweave Underlay and Nitro Boosts.
  • Increased siege damage caused by Saronite Bombs and the Global Thermal Sapper Charge.
  • The Ultrasafe Bullet Machine and Saronite Arrow Maker schematics have been simplified to create a full stack of the appropriate ammunition. No longer requires an anvil. Reduced the materials required to make this ammunition.
  • Mote Extractor now has innate tracking for gas clouds while it is in your inventory. Tracking of gas clouds has been removed from goggles.
  • Potion Injectors now increase the amount gained by 25% when used by engineers. Quantity produced by recipes for Runic Healing and Mana Injectors has been increased.
  • Significantly reduced the cooldown on MOLL-E.
  • Spynocular belt enchantment changed to a Brassbolt Rebreather, allowing engineers to breathe underwater.
  • Transporter devices are no longer classified as trinkets and can be used directly from your inventory.
  • Reduced the materials to create all engineering Dragonlings, and reduced their cooldowns, although they still cannot be used in Arenas.
• Fishing
  • Players with 300 or higher cooking have a chance to find a Waterlogged Recipe in the Bag of Fishing Treasures awarded by the Northrend fishing dailies. This item can be traded to other players and rewards several Dalaran Cooking Rewards when turned in.
• Herbalism
  • Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6).
  • Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health. No longer affected by global cooldown.
• Inscription
  • Added a new Glyph of Claw for young feral druids who haven’t yet obtained Mangle. Inscribers can learn this glyph from the trainer.
  • Master’s Inscriptions increased.
• Jewelcrafting
  • Dragon’s Eye gems stat bonuses increased.
  • New recipes have been added for cutting epic gems and can be purchased using Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s tokens.
  • Icy Prism now has a chance of yielding an epic gem.
  • Raw epic gems can be obtained via the following means:
    • Prospecting Titanium Ore
    • Alchemy transmutations
    • Purchased with Honor
    • Purchased with Emblems of Heroism
• Leatherworking
  • Added recipe for Heavy Knothide Leather to Leatherworking trainers (rather than a vendor recipe). Changed several recipes to use Heavy Knothide Leather instead of regular Leather.
  • Fur Lining values increased.
• Mining
  • Toughness (Rank 6) provides more stamina.
• Skinning
  • Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating.
• Tailoring
  • Embroideries improved.

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Patch 3.2 PvP and Battleground Changes!

There is a lot to cover here for PvP folks. Arenas, battlegrounds, and PvP in general is being changed in a very significant way. We knew already there is a new Battleground being released:

Isle of Conquest, the new 40 vs. 40 player siege-style battleground is now available for testing.

• Two level brackets are available: 71-79 and 80.
• Defend the walls of your keep and protect your general by killing enemy players and destroying their siege vehicles.
• Capture the Docks, Airship Hangar, or Siege Workshop for access to destructive siege vehicles or strategic attacks on your enemy’s base.
• Capture the Oil Derrick or Cobalt Mine for their resources to garner reinforcements and a steady flow of bonus honor.
• To claim victory, bust through the enemy’s keep walls (or find other ways to get inside) and kill their general, or obliterate your opponents until their reinforcements are depleted.

In addition to the new BG, all BGs are being shortened (you can win faster now) and you can get experience from doing Battlegrounds now too! Standing by nodes in BGs that need to be captured will give you a 50%+ bonus to honor gained for actually defending the fucking thing you were supposed to be in the firts place! About time.

• Arenas
  • The newest season of Arena gear can only be purchased if you meet the requirements with your 3 or 5 player team rating. Rating requirements from 2 player teams can still be used to purchase the previous season of gear.
  • Dalaran Sewers
    • The entire Arena has increased in size by 25%.
    • Mounts can now be used in this Arena.
    • The position and collision of the crates on the central platform has been modified.
  • Ruins of Lordaeron
    • Alcoves have been removed from the starting chambers.
    • Two line-of-sight tombstones have been added to the slime pool on the southern side of the map.
    • The collision around the central tomb has been smoothed out to prevent players from becoming stuck on the terrain as often.
• Battlegrounds
  • Battleground experience has arrived!
    • Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).
    • Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar – both located near the Battlemasters in either city – and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.
    • Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.
    • Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.
    • Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would’ve been accumulated if experience gains were not turned off cannot be recovered.
  • Battlemasters in major cities affiliated with specific Battlegrounds have been replaced with a Battlemaster for each faction that will allow players to queue for any Battleground. Battlemasters for specific Battlegrounds will still be seen around the cities during corresponding Battleground holiday weekends.
  • When standing at a capture point that you control, you will gain a buff called Honorable Defender. This buff grants +50% honor gained from kills. This currently affects Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest.
  • Arathi Basin
    • The time it requires to capture a base has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
    • The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
  • Eye of the Storm
    • The time it requires to capture the center flag has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds
    • The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
  • Strand of the Ancients
    • The faction starting on attack/defense will now be randomized at the start of each match.
  • Warsong Gulch
    • There is a now a 20 minute timer on this battleground. After that time, the team with the most flag captures wins. If this would result in a tie, the team that captured the first flag wins. If neither side has captured a flag, then the game ends in a tie.

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