[edit] World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta Patch Notes (version 12803)

Welcome to the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta test! Patch notes listed here are not comprehensive and will be changed throughout the testing process.

[edit] General

• The Alliance starting experience for worgen is available. Venture through the cursed lands of Gilneas to discover your true path! Currently the female worgen character is not available for testing.
• The Horde starting experience for goblins is available. Beginning on the Isle of Kezan in a goblin paradise, players will face a treacherous road ahead!
• The level cap for all characters is 83.
• Elements of the guild leveling, perks, and roster page are now functional. Players should once again be able to buy and register guild charters, which now only require five signatures. See the Known Issues section for issues associated with this new system.
  • The amount of experience required to reach new guild levels has been substantially reduced.
• Creature damage output has been increased from roughly level 65 and up. These increases scale upward with level. Creatures in exterior zones at level 80 now have 2.5 times the damage output they did previously in beta, 3.2 times at level 81, and 4 times at level 82 and up. To leave feedback about how this change feels with regard to creature spawns in level 80-85 exterior zones, visit our forums here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26435496423&sid=2000
• Cataclysm Launcher Update
  • The new Cataclysm Launcher allows you to stream game data while you play. This will reduce the time you spend downloading, installing, and patching World of Warcraft. We’d like to get your feedback on the toolset and gameplay experience. Please head to the forums here for additional information: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26262801168&sid=2000
• Players may use our Character Copy feature for copying existing characters to beta realms, or may choose from high-level pre-made template characters.

[edit] PvP

• Tol Barad is now available for testing. Players can reach the zone by speaking to NPCs in the capital cities.
• Battlegrounds
  • Battleground queues should once again be functional.
  • Twin Peaks is now available for testing: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/features/twinpeaks.html
  • The Battle for Gilneas is now available for testing.

[edit] Zones

• Mount Hyjal and Vashj'ir, two new level 80-82 zones, are available for testing. Deepholm, a new level 82-83 zone is available for testing. Players may find their way to these zones by speaking with temporary teleportation NPCs located in any major city.
• The level ranges of Gilneas and the Lost Isles are in the process of being adjusted slightly. Creature, quest, and quest reward levels are all being altered so that players finish questing in these zones roughly by level 12. Further fine tuning will continue in future content updates.
• Several zones have had quest maps integrated.
• Eastern Kingdoms
  • Arathi Highlands, Badlands, Blasted Lands, The Cape of Stranglethorn, Dun Morogh, Duskwood, Eastern Plaguelands, Elwynn Forest, Hinterlands, Loch Modan, Northern Stranglethorn, Northshire, Redridge Mountains, Searing Gorge, Silverpine Forest, Swamp of Sorrows, Tirisfal Glades, Western Plaguelands and Westfall are ready for testing.
• Kalimdor
  • Most zones in Kalimdor are available for testing, though work continues on polishing the quest experience and flow, as well as zone aesthetics.

[edit] Dungeons & Raids

• Blackrock Caverns, a new level 80-81 five-player dungeon, is available for testing.
• The Stonecore, a new level 82-84 five-player dungeon, is available for testing.
• Throne of the Tides, a new level 80-81 five-player dungeon, is available for testing.

[edit] Classes: General

• All spell and ability tooltips will now display damage averages rather than minimum and maximum damage potential. This feature is on by default but can be changed via the Display settings under User Interface options. Note: this change has not yet been implemented for the mage class.
• All hunter and warlock pets have been deleted to address a data corruption issue. Hunters will need to tame new pets, while warlocks will notice the names of their pets have changed.
• Ammo has been removed from the game.
• The character levels at which classes gain new spells and abilities have changed.
• The glyph system is in the process of being altered. Existing glyphs may not be fully supported or functional.
• Many item and class stats have been changed or removed.
• Rage has been normalized.
• Spells and abilities no longer have multiple ranks and now scale with character level.
• A first pass on new talent trees has been implemented.
  • Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
  • Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend.
  • 31 points must be spent in the primary specialization tree before any points can be placed in additional trees.
  • Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
  • More information regarding our plans for talent trees can be found here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/4p0/classandmastery.xml

[edit] Death Knights

• A dedicated tanking tree has been implemented.
• The way in which runes recharge has changed.

[edit] Druids

• A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids. The feature is functional, but the interface art is still a work in-progress.

[edit] Hunters

• Five pets can now be stored with the hunter at all times. Any one of these five pets can be summoned via the Call Pet ability.
• Focus has replaced mana as a new resource.
• Hunters now start with a pet at level 1.
• The Stable will now store 20 pets. If a pet is moved into the Stable, its talents are wiped.

[edit] Mages

• There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for mage portals. Clicking on the Teleport or Portal buttons will expand the list of choices available.

[edit] Paladins

• Paladins now have a new resource bar.
• We are in the process of overhauling many paladin talents, spells and abilities. Expect updates in upcoming patches.

[edit] Warlocks

• There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for warlock pets. Clicking on this single button will open up the list of available pets to summon.
• Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.

[edit] Items

• Resilience no longer reduces the chance a player will be critically hit by an opponent.
• Durability: cloth, leather, and mail now have as many points of durability as plate, making the repair cost on death much closer to equal for all classes.

[edit] Professions

• The updated glyph system is now functional, though several classes still need passes on their glyph choices.
• The Reforging interface has been implemented and the NPCs should now be functional for testing this feature.

[edit] User Interface

• Leave feedback about the latest user interface changes here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26560766722&sid=2000&pageNo=1
• Spell Alerts have been added to notify players when procs on select spells and abilities occur. A visual notification will display around the character and the activated ability will be highlighted on the action bar.
• The ability to use third-party addons has been temporarily disabled for the test environment.
• The Arena Teams pane has been improved.
• Auto-quests have been added to the game. Players will automatically be given an auto-quest by entering specific areas in the game world. This alert will appear distinctly in the Objectives pane via the Advanced Quest Tracking feature. These quests will still be given to players with full Quest Logs, but will count toward the 25 total allotted quests if the log is not full.
• The Character pane has been redesigned. Character stats can now be shown or hidden via the Show All Details/Hide All Details button on the bottom left. When shown, all character stats will be visible in a window to the right of the pane. Stat sections can be reorganized by clicking and dragging them up or down the pane.
• The Professions panes now have more filtering and search functionality, as well as buttons to easily link recipes in the chat frame.
• Many of the yellow System Messages that would display in the chat frame when leveling up have been removed.
• New text animations now alert players as they level up, also providing information on when new talents, spells and abilities are available.
• Professions and Class Trainers windows have been altered to more clearly display available and upcoming purchases.
• Raid frames are now available and have temporarily replaced the standard party frames so that players can test them.
• The Spellbook interface has been improved for greater ease-of-use and visual appeal.

[edit] Graphics

• Experimental support for DX11 (can be enabled by passing ‘-d3d11’ on the command line or adding SET gxApi "d3d11" to the Config.WTF file).
• OpenGL Hardware Cursor support (can be enabled on the Video Resolution Panel).
• Improved water and lava rendering system (enabled by the Liquid Detail slider on the Video Effects Panel)
  • 0 = Classic Water
  • 1 = New Water (fake reflections)
  • 2 = New Water (ocean has real reflection for terrain)
  • These values are likely to change during Beta.
• Dynamic Sunshafts effect (enabled by the Sunshafts option on the Video Effects Panel).

[edit] Known Issues

• The Swift Spectral Gryphon does not increase movement speed.
• Floating Combat Text is not functioning.
• The Abyssal Seahorse requires Artisan Riding to use, but the Subdued Abyssal Seahorse only requires Expert Riding to learn.
• The portal from the Deepholm Temple of Earth to Orgrimmar currently spawns players underneath the world.
• Worgen are playing their idle sound effect every time they stop moving.
• All Heirloom items now have durability.
• Robes do not have durability.
• There is a section of missing geometry where the floor and wall meet in Fireland Hatchery.
• The bones for the quest "Spirits of Stonemaul Hold" cannot be interacted with.
• There is a large section of terrain that is blocking the entrance to Night Web's Hollow.
• Characters cannot interact with Egg of Onyxia for the quest "The Brood of Onyxia."
• Several cloaks are displayed incorrectly on draenei females.
• Ground mounts can be used when underwater in Vashj'ir.
• Corpses are not tapped on the quest "Free Your Mind" allowing other players to use the Sovereign Rod on targets they did not kill.
• While on the quest "Blood and Thunder!" NPCs will despawn prior to the event and the quest cannot be completed.
• Sound is cutting in and out during two segments of Mor'norokk's voiceover during the quest, "Some Spraining to Do".
• The spell effect visuals for Healing Rain and Earthquake look awkward when cast on a staircase or a steep incline.
• Guild control and guild banks are experiencing issues related to the new guild leveling interface and functionality. In addition, guild experience may not display properly when players change zones, and guild members will be demoted to the lowest guild rank when logging out.
• Battleground queues are undergoing significant changes and are not currently operational.
• Players are currently unable to create new worgen characters.
• Selecting high Liquid Detail when using Geforce 6 & 7 series video cards will currently prevent lava and water from rendering properly. You can temporarily restore liquid to the world by reducing the Liquid Detail setting via the Video Effects Panel, or by typing “waterDetail 0” in your Config.WTF file.

[edit] Bug Fixes

• Players should no longer get stuck at the loading screen when teleporting to Moonglade en route to Hyjal.
• Characters with two professions learned should again be able to train new spells.
• There is no longer a section of geometry missing from where the floor and wall meet in Fireland Hatchery.
• Gnome and troll character no longer have a broken background displayed as well as a LUA error at the character selection and creation screens.
• Sudden Death procs should now reset the cooldown of Colossus Smash.
• Hairstyles should no longer cause the male worgen face to disappear.
• Shadow Protection is now functioning correctly.
• Entering a phase with phased terrain (i.e. Rim of the World) no longer boots players from flying mounts.
• Players are now able to receive Stoneskin Totem from shaman trainers.
• The quest "Up the Volcano" can now be completed.
• Characters now ride the Swift Seahorse for the quest "Waking the Beast."
• The mob Tendril from Below should no longer fall below the world when killed.
• Globe of Boiling Water should now drop from Scalding Water Lords for the quest "Full of Hot Water."
• The quest "Blackfin's Booty" can be completed.
• The quest "Offering to Azshara" can be completed.
• The quest "Seeds of Discord" should reset properly.
• The rug in Stormglen Inn is should no longer be experiencing z-fighting with the floor beneath it.
• The fire damage from lava should no longer hit players at any height.
• Trainers are functioning properly.
• Selecting a character on the character select screen after creating a new one will no longer cause the game to display and act on the character two slots above the selected one.