Secrets of Ulduar

• Since discovering Ulduar in the Storm Peaks, adventurers have journeyed to the titan city to learn more about its mysterious past. Further exploration has revealed that the magnificent complex is above all a prison, intended to permanently confine the Old God of death, Yogg-Saron. This ancient horror has corrupted its guards, and now it is breaking through the last of its restraints. Faced with the peril of Yogg-Saron's imminent freedom, a band of mortals has made preparations for a sweeping assault on the city. Overcoming the legions of iron minions and towering defenses at the city's entrance will take tremendous strength, but even that great victory may not be enough to overcome the madness that dwells below.

The Argent Tournament Begins!

• As the might of the Scourge wanes under the pressure of Azeroth's heroes, the Argent Crusade have taken a foothold in Arthas's back yard. Off the northeastern coast of Icecrown, the Argent Crusade have sounded the call for the most bold and brave adventurers of the Horde and Alliance to take part in the Argent Tournament. Representatives of all ten faction capitals, from Undercity to Exodar, have traveled to the tournament grounds to find champions among their heroes who will prepare for the inevitable battle against the enemy of all living beings, the Lich King.

In Memoriam: Dave Arneson

• Blizzard Entertainment would like to dedicate Secrets of Ulduar in memory of Dave Arneson. We were greatly saddened by the news of Dave’s passing. His work, passion, and creativity helped give life to an entirely new genre of gaming, and our fondest memories of playing Dungeons&Dragons continue to inspire us. Farewell, Dave, and thank you. You will be missed.

General

• Due to significant talent tree revisions, all players will have their talent points reimbursed. Several new spells and abilities have been added for select classes. Players will need to visit their class trainer to learn new spells.
• All Ground Mounts may now swim without dismounting the rider. Flying Mounts still may NOT, and will dismount the rider upon entering water.
• The Argent Tournament, a permanent in-game event, has come to Icecrown. Players interested in taking part in this event should visit the Argent Pavilion located on the west side of the tournament grounds. Features include:
• New ways of gaining reputation with capital cities.
• All new daily quests, achievements and titles.
• New rare and epic items, tabards, pets, banners, faction shirts and mounts.
• Mounted combat, and much more to come!
• Players level 40 and higher will now be able to visit their trainer to pay a one-time fee and access the dual talent specialization feature.
• The achievement Brew of the Year has been removed from the Brewmaster meta-achievement. The achievement Brew of the Month has been added in its place.
• Noblegarden has been redesigned into a week-long holiday with new items, quests, and more. Various achievements have been added, including the meta-achievement Noble Gardener, which is now required for the meta-achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been.
• Applying a glyph no longer requires a Lexicon of Power. The same rules for switching between dual talent specializations now apply to switching glyphs and cannot be performed while in combat, Battlegrounds (except when Preparation is up), or Arenas (no exceptions).
• New music can be heard at the Argent Tournament grounds and in Ulduar.

PvP

• Arenas
• Enemy Unit Frames: This feature is only available while in Arenas, with several options in the Interface Options.
• Battlegrounds
• Battleground quests “Concerted Efforts” (Alliance) and “For Great Honor” (Horde) now require an Alterac Valley Mark of Honor in addition to the current requirements. These quests now award more honor upon completion.
• Players will now be able to queue for battlegrounds from any location. Leaving a battleground will return you to the location from which you entered.
• Alterac Valley
• Drek’Thar, Vanndar Stormpike, the tower Heralds and Warmasters have received a hit point and damage upgrade in the level 80 version of Alterac Valley.
• Strand of the Ancients
• Capturing the Southern Graveyard will now automatically capture both the East and West Graveyards.
• Seaforium Barrels can now be looted while mounted, seen from anywhere in the zone, and found at the Central Graveyard.
• Teleporters can now be used while mounted and can now be seen from anywhere in the zone.
• Lake Wintergrasp
• Daily quests “Slay Them All!” (Horde) and “No Mercy for the Merciless” (Alliance) have had their PvP kill requirements reduced to 10 from 20. NPCs defending the fortress and south towers now count toward these dailies as well.
• The number of NPCs defending fortress has been increased.
• Siege Engines now have Steam Pressure as a resource type (replaces energy).
• The southern Siege Factories can be captured.
• The time between battles will be saved should a realm shut down. If Wintergrasp is active when a realm shuts down, the battle will restart from the beginning when the realm is once again live.
• Towers in Southern Wintergrasp now have more defensive cannons.

Races: General

• Command (Orc Racial): Applies to shaman pets, and now correctly applies to death knight pets.
• Gift of the Naaru (Draenei Racial): The heal has been changed to an instant-cast heal-over-time.
• Stoneform (Dwarf Racial): No longer makes you immune to poison, disease and bleed effects for 8 seconds. Instead, using Stoneform will clear those effects when cast. Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes from 3 minutes.

Classes: General

• Armor Penetration Rating: All classes now receive 25% more benefit from Armor Penetration Rating.
• The damage threshold for Fear, Psychic Scream, Hex, Intimidating Shout, and Turn Evil to break early has been significantly reduced.
• Haste Rating: shamans, paladins, druids, and death knights now receive 30% more melee haste from Haste Rating.
• Hysteria, Tricks of the Trade, Enrage, Wrecking Crew, Death Wish, Arcane Power, Owlkin Frenzy, Beast Within, and Avenging Wrath damage bonuses no longer stack together.
• Mana Regeneration: The amount of mana regeneration derived from intellect and spirit has been reduced by 40%; however, talents that allow for mana regeneration while in combat have been increased. As a result, in-combat regeneration for classes with those talents will stay the same, while out-of-combat regeneration will be lower.
• The shaman’s Fire Elemental and Spirit Wolves, mage’s Water Elemental and Mirror Images, and druid’s Treants have all gained avoidance from area-of-effect damage similar to what warlock and hunter pets already have.
• Taunts: All player or pet-generated taunts now have a shared diminish category. In addition, Taunt-type effects from pets and from classes other than death knight, druid, paladin, and warrior have been set such that bosses can be made immune to them while still affected by death knight, druid, paladin, and warrior taunts.

Death Knights

• Anti-magic Shell: The amount of damage this ability can absorb is now limited to 50% of the death knight’s health.
• Blood Boil’s damage increased to make up for Pestilence no longer doing damage.
• Blood Boil now does some damage to undiseased targets and extra damage to diseased targets. Its damage radius has been decreased to 10 yards.
• Blood Plague: Now lasts 15 seconds untalented.
• Blood Strike: Bonus damage for diseases is now a multiplier rather than a flat bonus.
• Death Pact: This heal cannot be critical.
• Death Strike: The amount of healing per damage done has been reduced by 20%. Now deals 75% weapon damage, up from 60%.
• Frost Fever: Now lasts 15 seconds untalented.
• Frost Presence: Now grants 5% damage reduction instead of 15% magic damage reduction.
• Obliterate: Bonus damage for diseases now increases damage done by a percentage rather than a flat amount.
• Pestilence does no damage and has only 1 rank.
• Plague Strike and Blood Plague no longer remove heal-over-time effects. Plague Strike’s damage increased quite a bit to compensate.
• Raise Ally now has a cooldown greater than 15 minutes and can no longer be used in Arenas.
• Raise Dead: Duration lowered to 60 seconds and cooldown lowered to 3 minutes. The cooldown on this ability now begins when the pet dies rather than when it is summoned.
• Rune of Cinderglacier now procs per minute instead of a 5% chance.
• Rune of the Fallen Crusader: This weapon enchant now provides only 15% strength, but its chance to proc is doubled.
• Rune of Razorice now affects Frost damage done by the death knight only, but stacks up to 10%.
• Strangulate no longer does damage and has been reduced to 1 rank.
• Talents
• Blood
• Abomination’s Might: This effect can now also be caused by Death Strike.
• Blade Barrier: Now grants 1/2/3/4/5% damage reduction instead of 2/4/6/8/10% parry.
• Blood Aura: Replaced with Improved Blood Presence. This allows the death knight to keep the healing-from-damage-done bonus of Blood Presence in any presence, and increases healing received while in Blood Presence.
• Blood-Gorged now grants armor penetration instead of expertise.
• Bloody Strikes: The bonus damage this talent grants to Blood Boil has been reduced to 10/20/30%.
• Bloodworms now heal more.
• Dancing Rune Weapon: Damage done by, and duration of this pet is reduced by 50%, but the cooldown is reduced to 90 seconds. Attack speed of pet increased from 2.0 to 3.5.
• New talent: Improved Death Strike: Increases Death Strike damage by 10/20%, and critical strike chance by 3/6%.
• Heart Strike: Bonus damage for diseases is now a multiplier rather than a flat bonus. No longer affected by Glyph of Blood Strike.
• Hysteria: This ability now causes the target to lose health rather than take damage.
• Might of Mograine: No longer affects Obliterate.
• Scent of Blood: Will now proc on a dodge, parry or when taking damage, and now grants 10 runic power per charge. Internal cooldown removed.
• Spell Deflection: This talent has been increased to 15/30/45% damage reduction from a direct damage spell.
• Sudden Doom now procs a free Death Coil instead of requiring you to push the button. Ranks reduced from 5 to 3.
• Vampiric Blood: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes from 1 minute.
• Will of the Necropolis: This ability now has a 15 second cooldown on how often it can occur. No longer triggers from damage amounts less than 5% of the player’s health.
• Frost
• The following talents have moved in the Frost tree: Runic Power Mastery, Glacier Rot, Killing Machine, Chilblains, and Endless Winter.
• Black Ice: This talent now provides a 2/4/6/8/10% bonus to Frost and Shadow damage instead of 4/8/12/16/20% to Frost.
• Blood of the North: Now also increases damage dealt by Frost Strike by 3/6/9/12/15%.
• Chillblains: Now a 15/30/50% movement speed debuff up from 30%. Can no longer be dispelled.
• Frost Aura: Replaced with Improved Frost Presence. Allows the deathknight to keep the health bonus of Frost Presence in any presence, and decreases magic damage taken while in Frost Presence.
• Glacier Rot: 3rd rank added, and damage bonus increased to 7/13/20%.
• Howling Blast: Base damage and scaling doubled. This ability no longer deals bonus damage to targets with Frost Fever. 8-second cooldown. Swapped positions with Hungering Cold in the talent tree.
  0 comments
  Go ahead and login or register

  ---

  Anonymous Comment

  Your Comment

  *Required Email

  *Required Name

  *Required DOB