Live Patch Notes Disclaimer: While we make every effort to include all upcoming changes in our patch notes, please be aware that occasionally some changes are unintentionally omitted.

Patch 1.8.1 Changes

Battlegrounds

• Certain geometry exploits in Arathi Basin have been fixed.

• The tooltip on the Lightforged Blade has been updated to correctly show its minimum level requirement of 47 and its Bind on Acquire status.

• Fonts should once again display properly.
• Fixed bug preventing UI scripting error messages from wrapping.
• Fixed per-character saved variables for non-English character names.

Patch 1.8 Changes

Disturbance at the Great Trees

Something is amiss in the Emerald Dream. Immense dragons with the shimmering emerald scales of the Green Dragonflight have been sighted guarding the portals at the Great Trees... but these once-noble creatures crawl with a new, strange menace, not the peace for which Ysera is known. Bring many allies should you dare to confront them; their powers are formidable and they will not hesitate to crush any who draw near.

The Stirring of the Silithid

The arid sands of Silithus are shifting. Something is awakening beyond the wall to the south... Aid the Druids of the Cenarion Circle as they delve into the mysteries of the desert. Seek answers behind the Twilight Hammer's presence. Discover more about the alien creatures known as the Silithid as you explore their hives. Many new endeavors await the high-level adventurer!

Hallow's End

When the decorations of Hallow's End light up Azeroth's cities, you know there's mischief afoot! Seek special vendors in Orgrimmar or Ironforge and get your hands on treats! Aid a sick orphan in a little trick-or-treating! Deathcaller Yanka, attending the Forsaken's Wickerman Festival, and Sergeant Hartman of Southshore are seeking your aid in keeping the enemy out of their holiday affairs -- are you up to the challenge?

General

• Instant Attacks
  The mechanics of most instant melee attacks have been modified to improve item balance. Previously, instant melee attacks did damage based on the damage range of the weapon, plus a bonus for the player's attack power. This bonus was then multiplied by the speed of the weapon. As a result, slow weapons did more damage than was intended, and fast weapons were considered inferior by most players. We have changed the way the attack power bonus is calculated for instant attacks. This change does NOT affect attack power calculations for normal melee attacks. Instead of multiplying by the speed of the weapon, the attack power bonus is now multiplied by a fixed number pulled from the following table:
  
  • Two-handed weapons: 3.3
  • Daggers: 1.7
  • All other one-handed weapons: 2.4
  As a direct result of this, many weapons have shifted position in their relative power. In particular, many Epic (purple) quality items are now more powerful than slower Superior (blue) weapons.
  This change was not made to reduce the power of instant attacks, but to correct the relative imbalance of weapon itemization. At a given level requirement, epic quality weapons should always be more powerful than superior quality weapons.
  Please also note that all normal weapon swings will be completely unaffected by this change. The following abilities are affected by the design change: Sinister Strike, Ambush, Backstab, Whirlwind, Mortal Strike, and Overpower.
  
• The cost per point of durability to repair plate, chain, and leather items has been reduced to be equal to the cost of repairing cloth items of the same quality.
• You can now repurchase up to 12 items that you have sold to a vendor. There is now a buyback tab on all merchants that you can select to repurchase the last 12 items you sold since you last logged in. When your character leaves the game or zones to a different area, this list of items will be cleared, so if you have accidentally sold something, don?t wait to buy it back. Buy it back immediately.
• Perception (Human Racial) is now usable while stealthed.
• Guardians and pets in aggressive mode no longer attack civilians.
• There is now a spell effect when you increase your reputation to a new level.
• Channeled spells that are cancelled by movement can no longer be cast while moving.
• Pets no longer break off attacks when their target is affected by Warlock Fear.
• The "Knockout" mechanic has been renamed "Disorient" and all tooltips that referenced this mechanic should be updated.

PvP

• Honor System
  • The percentage of players that may reach ranks 6 through 14 has been increased.
  • Lower-level players should advance in the Honor System more quickly than they had previously (although this change does not affect the highest ranks they can achieve).
• Battlegrounds
  • Each Battleground has an individual turn-in quest associated with its related victory/loss condition. Upon completion of a Battleground, the winning side will be awarded three Marks of Honor while the losing side will be awarded one Mark of Honor. Three Marks of Honor may be turned in to the associated questgiver for Honor Points and faction increase. Should players complete this turn-in quest, they will find that the bonus Honor Points for completion are twice that of normal turn-in conditions (individual).
  • Players of levels 10 - 19 will now be able to participate in the battle for Warsong Gulch.
  • Alterac Valley has received an overhaul:
    • In order to keep teams in Alterac Valley more numerically balanced, players will now enter Alterac Valley on a one-for-one basis (i.e. if there are 30 players in the battleground for each side with 10 players in the Alliance queue and 2 players in the Horde queue, only two players from each team will be added, bringing the total to 32 per side).
    • The minimum number of players required to start a battle in Alterac Valley has been lowered to 20 (the maximum is still 40).
    • Points for completing the map and winning have been slightly decreased.
    • Graveyards and graveyard capture points are now at different locations. The banners players must interact with in order to capture a graveyard have been distanced from each other somewhat in order to alleviate "graveyard zerging" and make graveyards more meaningful to both defense and offense.
    • Several terrain changes were made to fix some geometry exploits as well as to adjust for the new graveyard mechanic.
    • Iceblood Graveyard has been fortified.
    • The Frostwolf Relief Hut now has appropriate guards.
    • A great avalanche has closed off both the eastern and western segments of Alterac Valley. This has displaced the Syndicate, the Wildpaw Gnolls, and many of the Winterax Trolls.
    • Due to the avalanche, Korrak the Bloodrager and a small band of surviving Trolls have made the Snowfall Graveyard their new home. Players will find that Snowfall is now under Korrak's control and they must defeat Korrak and his Troll guards if they wish to take Snowfall.
    • The quests Korrak the Bloodrager (Alliance), Korrak the Everliving (Alliance), The Legend of Korrak (Horde), and The Return of Korrak (Horde) have been removed from the game. The rewards for the initial quest involving Korrak have been moved and can be acquired by completing the quest associated with winning a match in Alterac Valley. We realize that some players may have had the Korrak quest and never completed it. These players may have already completed the quest for killing the General and thus might not be able to benefit from the rewards from the previous quest line. We have opted to add an extra quest step at the end of the General kill quests to reward players that fall under such conditions.
    • A new item has been added as one of the reward choices for the quests Hero of the Stormpike and Hero of the Frostwolf.
    • NPC difficulty has been scaled down. All NPCs have had their power reduced by 15-30%.
    • There is now a portcullis at the end of each of the entrance tunnels inside Alterac Valley. They will rise two minutes into the battle.
• The PvP Tier2 Alliance and Horde Cloth armor sets have new updated textures.
• Hunter traps no longer affect opposing players when the hunter is not flagged for PvP.

Druids

• Due to significant talent changes, talent points for Druids have been refunded and can be respent. Training costs for all talent spell/ability replacements have been significantly reduced.
• Hurricane - No longer a talent. Now available to all Druids at level 40. Damage and Mana cost increased on all ranks. Spell is now cast on a targeted area up to 30 yards away and affected by Nature?s Reach. Multiple Druids casting Hurricane will no longer stack the slowdown effect. Radius of effect decreased slightly.
• Remove Curse - Updated tooltip to reflect that it's usable on friendly targets only.
• Shapeshifting - Fixed a bug where the Chilled effect caused by Ice Armor/Frost Armor was not removed properly when shapeshifting.
• Swipe - Self cooldown removed.
• Tranquility - Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes. Mana cost reduced by 25%.
• Cat Form - The attack power bonus from the base cat form will now calculate correctly on zoning or logging in.

Hunters

• Counterattack - Now properly sets its cooldown.
• Throw - Use of this ability will no longer cause a global cooldown with all other abilities.
• Auto-shot is now cancelled when you die.
• Added Lightning Breath pet ability for Wind Serpents. This ability instantly hits a single target for Nature damage at medium range.

Mages

• Arcane Missiles - Should now properly report the correct "out of range" indicator on the action bar.

Paladins

• Judgement of Light and Judgement of Wisdom will now benefit players that are immune to Holy effects (e.g. Divine Shield).

Priests

• Psychic Scream - Updated tooltip to reflect that damage caused to the feared target may break the effect. Included radius in tooltip.
• Devouring Plague (Undead) - Will now properly consume the Inner Focus effect when cast.
• Shadowguard (Troll) - Tooltip updated to reflect actual functionality.
• Elune's Grace (Night Elf) - New icon.

Rogues

• Vanish - Fixed a bug where the Chilled effect caused by Ice Armor/Frost Armor was not removed properly when vanishing.
• Parry - Minimum level to train this ability has been lowered to 12.
• Shoot Bow/Crossbow/Gun - Fixed a bug where these abilities could be used faster than intended.
• Throw - Use of this ability will now only cause a cooldown with Shoot abilities.
• Ambush - Now uses normalized attack power.
• Backstab - Now uses normalized attack power.
• Riposte - Now properly sets its cooldown.
• Sinister Strike - Now uses normalized attack power.

Shaman

• Lightning Shield - Tooltip updated to reflect actual functionality.
• Ghost Wolf - Will now correctly have its cast time reduced by Nature's Swiftness.

Warlocks

• Death Coil - Cooldown reduced, mana cost increased, and now causes a short Fear effect that is not diminished.
• Corruption - Duration reduced and damage per tick increased. Total damage over duration approximately identical.
• Curse of Agony - Duration reduced to 24 seconds and damage per tick increased. Total damage over duration approximately identical.
• Conflagrate - Conflagrate will now correctly remove Immolate rank 4 from its victim when cast.
• Bane - Now reduces casting time of the Soul Fire spell in addition to Immolate and Shadow Bolt.
• Intensity - Now reduces chance to be interrupted during cast time of Rain of Fire, Hellfire and Soul Fire spells.
• Pyroclasm - Now gives a chance to stun when Rain of Fire, Hellfire, and Soul Fire spells damage the target.
• Soul Link - Percentage of damage split with pet has been reduced.
• Soul Link - Is now a spell cast on your pet that gives an aura to both you and the pet. This aura increases all damage caused by you and your pet by 3% and splits 30% of all damage taken by the caster to the pet. The aura will last as long as the pet is active, and the pet must be the target of a dispel effect in order to dispel this ability.
• Summon Felhunter - Has a new, unique sound effect.
• Lesser Invisibility (Succubus) - Tooltip updated to reflect actual functionality.
• Fixed a bug that would cause the Master Demonologist buff to be removed if the pet was banished.
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