The most peculiar changes of the kernel 2.6.29 are:

• support for Intel’s hardware kernel mode-settings;
• initial support for the “brtfs” filesystem (it is still reccomended to use it only on testing environments, and not on production machines);
• updates for “Graphics Execution Manager” and “DRM”;
• support for WiMax 802.16 stack;
• support for eCryptfs for encrypted filesystems.

Links
The Linux Kernel Archives: http://www.kernel.org/;

Linux Kernel 2.6.29 Changelog: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.29;

Linus Torvalds’s announcement: http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/3/23/449.

Test Patch Notes Disclaimer: The test realm patch notes only apply to features that exist on the public test realms. We provide these patch notes to players who wish to know what features and changes exist in the test environment in order to more effectively test these features.

To learn more about the Public Test Realm, visit our Test Realm Page.

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.0.2

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

General

• All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 51-point talents. Several new spells and abilities have been added for all classes. Players will need to visit their class trainer to learn new spells.
• The Kirin Tor have made their move and so has Dalaran. Please watch your step around the crater that has been left behind!
• The Barber Shop has been implemented and you can now visit one of the Barber Shops in the major cities to change your appearance. Be sure to get your Shave and a Haircut!
• The all new Achievement System has been implemented and the Achievement panel can be accessed via the interface. While many achievements are not retroactive, we have done our best to credit as many as possible. Gamemasters will not be able to grant achievements for past accomplishements.
• Stormwind Harbor is now open for business.
• New towers have been added outside Of Orgrimmar and in Tirisfal Glades. Crews are currently at work to establish a new Zeppelin route to Northrend for your travel pleasure. Please no /spit off of the towers.
• A new entrance is now viewable in the Caverns of Time.
• Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating now modify both melee attacks and spells.
• Spell casting and spell channeling pushback has been changed to the following:
  • When casting a spell:
    • The first and second hit will add .5 secs each to the cast time.
    • All hits after the second will have no effect.
  • When channeling a spell:
    • The first and second hit reduces current duration by 25% of total duration each.
    • All hits after the second will have no effect.
  • Spellpower:
    • All items and effects which grant bonuses to spell damage and spell healing are being consolidated into a single stat, Spellpower. This stat will appear with the same values found on items which grant “increased spell damage and healing” such as on typical Mage and Warlock itemization.
      • For classes which do not heal, they should see no change in the character sheet other than new tooltip wording.
    • Healing characters will see their bonus healing numbers on the character sheet decrease, however, all healing spells have been modified to receive more benefit from spellpower than they received from bonus healing, with a net effect of no change to the amount healed by their spells. Some talents have had to be rebalanced to accommodate this change, but the amount healed will remain roughly the same. In addition, some talents will provide only healing spell power.

Known Issues

• The current patch notes are incomplete, but will be progressively more comprehensive in each patch.
• All classes are currently undergoing a balancing pass of all talent trees.
• Inscription is not fully implemented and still has non-functioning glyphs.

Druids

• Brambles (Balance): Now increases the damage done by your Treants, and also damage caused from your Treants and Barkskin has a 5/10/15% chance to Daze the target for 3 sec.
• Celestial Focus (Balance): The stun proc now works with Starfall. This talent no longer has Wrath pushback protection, but instead increases your total spell haste by 1/2/3%.
• Challenging Roar now has a 3 minute cooldown, reduced from 10 minutes.
• Control of Nature (Balance) has been removed.
• Entangling Roots: Can now be used indoors.
• Faerie Fire (Feral): Now an 11-point talent, down from being a 21-point talent.
• Feral Charge (Feral) is now a 21-point talent, up from being a 11-point talent.
• Feral Charge (Feral): Can now be used in Cat form.
• Feral Instinct (Feral) no longer increases threat generated in Bear form, but now increases damage done by your Swipe ability by 5/10/15%.
• Feral Swiftness: The movement speed buff can now be used indoors.
• Focused Starlight (Balance)is now Nature’s Majesty (Balance): Increases the critical strike chance of your Wrath, Starfire, Starfall, Nourish, and Healing Touch spells by 2/4/6%.
• Force of Nature (Balance): Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes, down from 3.
• Furor (Restoration): Now increases your total Intellect while in Moonkin form by 2/4/6/8/10%.
• Hurricane: No longer has a cooldown (was 1 minute).
• Improved Faerie Fire (Feral): Now also works with spell hit, in addition to ranged and melee hit %.
• Improved Mark of the Wild (Restoration): Now a 2-point talent, down from a 5-point talent.
• Improved Tranquility (Restoration): Now also reduces the cooldown of your Tranquility spell by 25/50%.
• Mangle (Feral): Now increases the damage done by Maul in addition to Shred.
• Moonglow (Balance): Now also works with Starfall. Moved to tier 2, up from tier 5.
• Moonkin Form (Balance) no longer increases your attack power or causes you to regenerate mana off melee attacks, but now has a chance to cause you to instantly regenerate 2% of your total mana every time you critically hit with a spell.
• Nature’s Focus (Restoration): Now a 3 point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Also moved to Tier 1, up from Tier 2. Now also includes Nourish, Entangling Roots, Wrath, and Cyclone.
• Nature’s Grace (Balance): Now also reduces the global cooldown of your Wrath spell by 50% while in effect.
• Nature’s Grasp (Balance): Can now be used and can proc indoors. This is now a base ability at level 11 and has a 100% chance to proc.
• Nature’s Reach (Balance): Now also reduces threat generated by Balance spells by 15/30%.
• New Spell: Revive – Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with health and mana. Cannot be cast when in combat. (Ranks 1-7 added)
• New Talent – Genesis (Balance): Increases the damage and healing done by your periodic spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• New Talent – Improved Insect Swarm (Balance): Increases your damage done by your Wrath spell to targets afflicted by your Insect Swarm by 1/2/3%, and increases the critical strike chance of your Starfire spell by 1/2/3% on targets afflicted by your Moonfire spell.
• New Talent – Mother Bear (Feral): Increases the bonus attack power for Bear Form and Dire Bear Form by an additional 20/40/60%, and for each friendly player in your party, damage you take is reduced while in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form by 1/2/3%.
• New Talent – Natural Reaction (Feral): Increases your dodge chance while in Bear Form or Dire Bear Form by 2/4/6%, and you regenerate 1/2/3 rage everytime you dodge while in Bear Form or Dire Bear Form.
• New Talent – Nature’s Splendor (Balance): Increases the duration of your Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom and Flourish spells by 10/20/30%.
• Omen of Clarity (Restoration): Now a passive spell. Now also works for spells (healing and damage). Proc rate is roughly 6% with a 10 second internal cooldown.
• Primal Tenacity (Feral) now reduces damage while stunned by 5/10/15%, and reduces the duration of fear effects by 5/10/15%.
• Remove Curse can now be used in Tree of Life form.
• Soothe Animal can now be used on Dragonkin as well as Beasts.
• Soothe Animal is now instant cast.
• Subtlety (Restoration): Now a 3-point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Also moved to Tier 2, up from Tier 3. Also now only reduced threat for Restoration spells, and reduces the chance that your healing over time spells (Lifebloom, Regrowth and Rejuvenation) will be dispelled, rather than all Druid spells. Threat management for Balance can now be found in the Balance tree, within Nature’s Reach.
• Survival of the Fittest (Feral): Increased to 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3%.
• The mana regeneration penalty when in Bear Form, Dire Bear Form and Cat Form has been removed.
• Tranquil Spirit (Restoration) now also includes Nourish.
• Tree of Life (Restoration): 30% snare penalty has been removed.
• Tree of Life (Restoration): Can now cast Dispel Curse.
• Tree of Life (Restoration): You can now cast all Restoration spells (Healing Touch) in the form, but Tree of Life now only reduces the mana cost of your healing over time spells (Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Regrowth and Flourish) by 20%.
• Vengeance (Balance): Now also works with Starfall.

Hunters

• All aspects now have a 1 second global cooldown, down from a 1.5 global cooldown.
• All pet families now have one unique ability. New abilities have been added for families such as bears and sporebats.
• Stablemasters can now accommodate two additional pets.
• Pets now have their own trees. These can be accessed via the talent panel.
• Animal Handler (Beast Mastery): No longer increases speed while mounted, but now reduces the cooldown of your Master’s Call ability by 5/10 sec.
• Arcane Shot: No longer dispels magic effects.
• Aspects now no longer cost mana.
• Aspect of the Beast: Now increases melee attack power by 10% for the hunter and the hunter’s pet.
• Aspect of the Viper – The hunter takes on the aspect of the viper, instantly regenerating mana equal to 100% of the damage done by any ranged attack or ability, but reduces your total damage done by 50%. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.
• Avoidance, Dash / Dive and Cobra Reflexes are now pet talents instead of pet skills.
• Bestial Swiftness is now a pet talent tree talent, and has been removed from the Beast Mastery Hunter tree.
• Bite now has no cooldown, does the same damage and costs the same Focus as Claw, so works as a Focus dump.
• Clever Traps (Survival) has been renamed “Trap Mastery.”
• Combat Experience (Marksmanship): Now grants 3/6% Agility, up from 1/2%.
• Concussive Barrage (Marksmanship): Can now proc from Volley and Multi-shot attacks.
• Counterattack: Damage increased by 20%, and now also scales with your Ranged Attack Power.
• Deterrence (Survival): Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, and now also increases your chance to resist spells by 60%. Now has a new spell effect.
• Disengage: This ability has been re-designed. Now leaps the Hunter backwards up to 13 yards. 30 second cooldown. Disengage now also only has one rank (rank 1).
• Distracting Shot: This shot now “taunts” the target onto the Hunter. The taunt effect will last 6 seconds. Distracting Shot now only has one rank (rank 1).
• Every hunter pet can learn Growl, Cower and either Bite or Claw (never both).
• Focused Fire (Beast Mastery): Now increases the critical strike chance of your Kill Command by 10/20/30% while Kill Command is active. This effect can stack up to 3 times, but diminishes for each charge of Kill Command.
• Hunter pets can now learn talents in one of three trees depending on family. Pets gain talent points starting at level 20 and earn an extra talent point every 4 levels.
• If a hunter tames a pet that is more than five levels beneath their own level, the pet will then have their level increased to five levels beneath the hunter’s own level.
• Improved Arcane Shot (Marksmanship): Now increases the damage done by your Arcane Shot by 5/10/15%.
• Improved Feign Death (Survival): This talent has been replaced with Survival Tactics.
• Improved Hunter’s Mark (Marksmanship): Now a 3-point talent, and now increases the amount of attack power granted by your Hunter’s Mark ability by 10/20/30% and reduces the mana cost of your Hunter’s Mark ability by 33/66/100%.
• Improved Stings (Marksmanship): Now a 3-point talent, down from 5-points.
• Kill Command: This ability now increases the damage done by your pet’s special abilities by 60%. Each attack will reduce the damage bonus by 20%. 1 minute cooldown.
• Loyalty, Training Points and the hunter Beast Training button no longer exist. Hunter pets can now learn all skills at their level. They will get new ranks automatically as they gain levels.
• Master Tactician (Survival): Chance to proc increased to 10%, up from 6%.
• Mongoose Bite: No longer requires you to dodge in order to use this ability.
• Monster Slaying (Survival) and Humanoid Slaying (Survival) has been combined into “Improved Tracking”.
• New Talent – Aspect Mastery (Beast Mastery)
• New Talent – Hunter vs. Wild (Survival): Increases you and your pet’s attack power and ranged attack power equal to 10/20/30% of your total Stamina.
• New Talent – Improved Tracking (Survival): Increases all damage done to targets that are being tracked 1/2/3/4/5%.
• New Talent – Lock and Load (Survival): You have a 33/66/100% chance when you trap a target and a 10/20/30% chance when you sting a target to cause your next 3 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot spells to trigger no cooldown, cost no mana and consume no ammo.
• New Talent – Survival Tactics (Survival): Reduces the chance your Feign Death ability and all trap spells will be resisted by 2/4%, and reduces the cooldown of your Disengage ability by 2/4 sec.
• New Talent – T.N.T. (Survival): Your Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Explosive Shot have a 5/10/15% to stun targets for 2 sec when they deal damage, and increases the critical strike chance of your Explosive Shot and Explosive Trap by 5/10/15%.
• Pathfinding (Beast Mastery): Now also increases the movement speed while mounted by 5/10%.
• Rapid Killing (Marksmanship): This will now proc off Chimera Shot, but no longer works with auto-shot.
• Readiness (Survival): Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes.
• Savage Strikes (Survival): Now includes Counterattack.
• Silencing Shot (Marksmanship): This spell will now interrupt the current spell being cast on the target and lock out that school for 3 sec if the target is immune to silence effects.
• Spirit Bond (Beast Mastery): Also increases healing done to you and your pet by 5/10%.
• Steady Shot now uses ammo. In result, its bonus damage has been slightly reduced. Players can notice a damage increase based upon what ammo they use.
• Steady Shot: Now has a 2.0 cast time, up from 1.5.
• Surefooted (Survival) now reduces the duration of movement impairing effects by 16/25/50% (instead of resist % chance).
• Survival Instincts (Survival): This has been moved to tier-2, up from tier 6.
• Survivalist (Survival): Now increases your total Stamina, instead of your total Health.
• The arming time has been reduced to 1 second, from 2 seconds for all traps.
• Tranquilizing Shot: Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds (down from 20), and now dispels Enrage and Magic effects.
• Trap Mastery (Survival) is now an 11-point talent.
• Trueshot Aura – This aura is now raid-wide and now increases all ranged and melee attack power by 10%. In addition, this spell now only has one rank. All other ranks have been removed.
• Wingclip: No longer does damage.

Mages

• Arcane Blast effect duration reduced to 3 seconds, and now increases damage by 25/50/75% instead of reducing cast time.
• Arcane Focus (Arcane) is now 3 ranks and increases chance to hit and reduces mana cost of Arcane spells by 1/2/3%.
• Arcane Fortitude moved to tier 2, increased to 3 ranks, now increases armor equal to 50/100/150% of Intellect.
• Arcane Impact renamed Spell Impact and now affects Blast Wave, Fire Blast, Cone of Cold, and Ice Lance.
• Arcane Potency now applies when Presence of Mind is active, talent prerequisite changed to Presence of Mind.
• Arcane Subtlety now reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by 15/35%, and no longer reduces the resistance of targets.
• Arctic Reach now also affects Deep Freeze.
• Blast Wave now knocks all affected targets back.
• Conjured mana gems no longer disappear from your backpack after being logged out for more than 15 minutes. Higher ranks of Conjure Mana Gem will recharge an existing mana gem to maximum charges.
• Counterspell now costs 9% of base mana.
• Elemental Precision moved to tier 2.
• Empowered Arcane Missiles renamed Arcane Empowerment and no longer increases mana cost. It now also increases damage caused by Arcane Blast.
• Empowered Fireball reduced to 3 ranks, now increases damage by 5/10/15% of spell power.
• Empowered Frostbolt reduced to 2 ranks, increases damage by 5/10% of spell power and increases critical hit chance by 2/4%.
• Flame Throwing moved to tier 3.
• Frost Armor, Ice Armor, Mage Armor and Molten Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.
• Frost Channeling now reduces mana cost of all spells by 4/7/10%.
• Frost Warding now increases armor and resistances of Frost/Ice Armor by 25/50%, now gives Frost Ward and Fire Ward a 15/30/5 chance to negate damage caused and restore mana equal to damage caused by the warded spell.
• Ice Floes renamed Cold as Ice, now reduces cooldown of Cold Snap, Ice Barrier, Summon Water Elemental, and Deep Freeze by 10/20%.
• Impact moved to tier 3, reduced to 3 ranks for 4/7/10% chance to trigger, now triggers from any damaging spell (Fire, Frost or Arcane).
• Improved Blink now also reduces mana cost by 25/50%.
• Improved Counterspell now always silences the target for 2/4 seconds.
• Improved Fire Blast moved to tier 1, reduced to 2 ranks, reduces the cooldown by 1/2 seconds.
• Improved Flamestrike moved to tier 2, renamed World in Flames, now increases the critical hit chance of Flamestrike, Blast Wave, Dragon’s Breath, Living Bomb, Blizzard, and Arcane Explosion by 2/4/6%.
• Improved Frost Nova renamed Ice Floes, moved to tier 1, increased to 3 ranks, now reduces cooldown of Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Ice Block, and Icy Veins by 7/14/20%.
• Improved Mana Shield has been renamed to Arcane Shielding, reduces mana lost per damage absorbed by 17/33%,and now also increases resistances granted by Mage Armor by 25/50%.
• Improved Scorch now increases Fire, Frost, and Arcane damage done to the target by 2/4/6/8/10%.
• Incineration moved to tier 1, increases the critical hit chance of Fire Blast, Scorch, Arcane Blast, and Cone of Cold by 2/4/6%.
• Invisibility now makes the caster invisible after 3 seconds, reduced from 5 seconds.
• Magic Absorption reduced to 2 ranks, increases resistances by .5/1 point per level, and restores 1/3% of total mana on a resist.
• Magic Attunement (Arcane) now also increases the range of your Arcane spells by 3/6 yards.
• Mana Shield now drains 1.5 mana per damage absorbed.
• Master of Elements now affects all spell criticals.
• Mind Mastery reduced to 3/6/9/12/15%.
• Molten Shields now gives Fire Ward and Frost Ward spells a 15/30% chance to reflect the warded spell.
• Polymorph now costs 12% of base mana.
• Portal spells now cost 18% of base mana.
• Prismatic Cloak (Arcane) increased to 3 ranks for 1/2/3% and now also reduces the fade time of Invisibility by 1/2/3 seconds.
• Pyroblast cast time has been reduced to 5 seconds.
• Remove Lesser Curse has been renamed to Remove Curse.
• Shatter no longer has a prerequisite.
• Slow Fall now costs 6% of base mana.
• Slow mana cost reduced.
• Summoned Water Elemental’s Waterbolt range increased, mana cost reduced, Freeze range increased, mana cost increased.
• Teleport spells now cost 9% of base mana.
• Winter’s Chill reduced to 3 ranks, Frost damage spells have a 33/66/100% chance to trigger the effect and the effect increases chance to crit with Arcane, Fire and Frost spells.

Paladins

• Attack Power and Spell Power scaling on all Seals and Judgements other than Command and Blood has been reduced.
• All Auras now affect all party and raid members within the area of effect.
• Anticipation (Protection) moved to tier 1, now increases chance to dodge by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Avenger’s Shield (Protection) cast time reduced to .5 seconds, duration increased to 10 seconds.
• Avenging Wrath no longer causes Forbearance, damage increase reduced to 20%, now increases healing done by 20%.
• Blessing of Freedom renamed Hand of Freedom. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. Now costs 6% of base mana.
• Blessing of Light and Greater Blessing of Light removed. Their effects have been folded into all relevant abilities.
• Blessing of Protection renamed Hand of Protection. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. All ranks now cost 6% of base mana.
• Blessing of Sacrifice renamed Hand of Sacrifice, is now only 1 rank and transfers 20% of the damage taken to the caster, duration reduced to 12 seconds, cooldown increased to 2 minutes. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. Now costs 6% of base mana.
• Blessing of Salvation renamed Hand of Salvation, now reduces total threat on the target by 2% per second for 10 seconds while also reducing all damage and healing done by 10%. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. Now costs 6% of base mana.
• Blessing of Sanctuary reduced to 1 rank, now reduces all damage taken by 3% and generates rage, mana or runic power when a parry/dodge/block occurs.
• Consecration now scales with attack power and spell power.
• Conviction (Retribution) now increases critical chance with all spells and melee attacks.
• Divine Intellect (Holy) moved to tier 2, increases total Intellect by 3/6/9/12/15%.
• Divine Intervention cooldown reduced to 20 minutes.
• Divine Protection and Divine Shield now cost 3% of base mana.
• Divine Protection now reduces all damage taken by 50% and increases time between attacks by 100%.
• Divine Purpose (Retribution) now reduces chance to be hit by spells and ranged attacks by 1/2/3%.
• Divine Strength (Holy) moved to tier 1 in the Protection tree.
• Exorcism mana cost reduced and now scales with attack power and spell power.
• Eye for an Eye now reflects 10/20% damage from all critical hits.
• Fanaticism now increases chance to critically hit by 5/10/15/20/25%.
• Forbearance duration increased to 3 minutes.
• Greater Blessing of Salvation removed.
• Hammer of Justice now costs 3% of base mana.
• Hammer of Wrath is now considered a Retribution spell, moved from Holy, mana cost reduced, now instant cast, global cooldown increased to 1.5, missile speed increased, now usable on targets below 35% health and now scales with attack power and spell power.
• Healing Light (Holy) moved to tier 2.
• Holy Shield (Protection) cooldown reduced to 8 seconds.
• Holy Shock (Holy) range changed to 20/40 yards when used on enemies/friends respectively, cooldown reduced to 6 seconds.
• Holy Wrath is now instant cast, causes a 3 second stun, cooldown reduced to 30 seconds, radius reduced to 10 yards.
• Illumination (Holy) moved to tier 3.
• Improved Blessing of Might increased to 10/20/30/40/50%.
• Improved Concentration Aura (Protection) moved to the Holy tree.
• Improved Concentration Aura moved from the Protection tree to tier 4 in the Holy tree.
• Improved Devotion Aura (Protection) moved to tier 4, reduced to 3 ranks, now increases armor of Devotion Aura by 17/34/50% and increases all healing done to units affected by Devotion Aura by 1/2/3%.
• Improved Hammer of Justice (Protection) now reduces cooldown by 10/20/30 secs.
• Improved Righteous Fury (Protection) threat bonus folded into base spell, talent still reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%.
• Improved Sanctity Aura (Retribution) renamed Sanctified Retribution, now causes all units affected by Retribution Aura to cause 2% more damage.
• Improved Seal of Righteousness (Holy) moved to tier 1, renamed Seals of the Pure, now affects Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption.
• Improved Seal of the Crusader (Retribution) renamed Heart of the Crusader and the effects now apply to all Judgement spells.
• Judgement has been replaced with 3 new spells; Judgement of Light, Judgement of Wisdom, and Judgement of Justice. All Judgement spells are considered ranged attacks for purposes of how they hit and how they critically hit. All cause damage based on attack power and spell power.
  • Judgement of Light now heals based on the Paladin’s attack power and spell power, the effect can not trigger more than once ever 4 seconds.
  • Judgement of Justice will no longer prevent Fear effects, but will only prevent NPCs from fleeing (e.g. at low health).
  • Judgement of Wisdom now restores mana based on the Paladin’s attack power and spell power, the effect can not trigger more than once every 4 seconds.
• Lay on Hands no longer drains all mana, cooldown reduced to 20 minutes.
• Precision has been removed.
• Pure of Heart (Holy) reduced to 2 ranks, now reduces duration of Curse and Disease effects by 25/50%.
• Pursuit of Justice reduced to 2 ranks for 8/15% movement increase and 1/2% less chance to be hit by spells.
• Redoubt (Protection) moved to tier 2.
• Repentance (Retribution) mana cost changed to 9% of base, duration increased to 1 minute (10 second PvP duration), now usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.
• Retribution Aura damage increased and now gains damage based on Holy spell power.
• Righteous Defense no longer costs mana and the global cooldown has been removed.
• Righteous Fury now increases threat caused by Holy damage by 90%.
• Sacred Duty now also reduces the cooldown of Divine Protection.
• Sanctified Light (Holy) now also increases the critical chance of Holy Shock.
• Sanctity Aura (Retribution) removed.
• All Seals have been reduced to 1 rank and now cost 14% of base mana. The duration has been increased to 2 minutes and are no longer consumed when a Judgement spell is cast. The effects can be triggered from all weapon based special abilities.
  • Seal of Blood now increases Judgement damage by 45% of weapon damage.
  • Seal of Command now increases Judgement damage by 30% of weapon damage, 60% on stunned targets.
  • Seal of the Crusader has been removed. The effects of Judgement of the Crusader have been folded into all relevant abilities.
  • Seal of Righteousness deals damage based on weapon speed plus an amount based on attack power and spell power, increases Judgement damage by 25%.
  • Seal of Vengeance now applies its effect on every swing, causes damage based on attack power and spell power, increases Judgement damage by 10% per stack of the damage over time effect.
• Spiritual Focus (Holy) moved to tier 1.
• Stoicism (Protection) moved to tier 2, now reduces duration of Stun effects by 10/20/30% and reduces chance your spells will be resisted by 10/20/30%.
• Summon Warhorse and Summon Charger mana cost removed and no longer causes a global cooldown.
• Toughness (Protection) moved to tier 3 , now also reduces the duration of movement slowing effects by 10/20/30/40/50%.
• Turn Undead (ranks 1 and 2) removed. Turn Evil now granted at level 24, mana cost changed to 9% of base.
• Unyielding Faith (Holy) moved to tier 2.
• Vengeance (Retribution) now stacks up to 2 times, reduced from 3.
• Vindication reduced to 2 ranks for 10/20% attribute reduction.

Priests

• Absolution: This talent has swapped positions in the talent tree with Improved Inner Fire.
• Circle of Healing (Holy): Now works on any targets in the caster’s raid, and is now a “smart” heal and chooses the lowest health targets to heal first within its range. Also now has a 6 second cooldown. Also no longer will heal summoned Snakes from Hunter’s Snake Trap.
• Enlightenment: Increases your total Stamina, Spirit and Spell haste by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Focused Will (Discipline): Now increases healing effects on you by 3/4/5%, down from 4/7/10%.
• Force of Will (Discipline): This talent now increases your spell damage by a flat amount, rather than increasing your spells by a %. (Now increases school %, rather than selected spells damage %). In other words, your spell damage gained from this talent is now reflected on your character sheet, rather than the skill tool-tips.
• Focused Power: Increases your total spell damage and healing done by 2/4%, but no longer increases your chance to hit with Mind Blast, and Mass Dispel.
• Holy Fire: Cast time reduced to to 2 seconds, down from 3.5. Damage increased roughly 60%. Duration for the damage over time effect reduced to 7 seconds, down from 10. Holy Fire now has a 10 second cooldown.
• Improved Inner Fire (Discipline) – Now also increases the effect of Inner Fire spell by 20/40/60% (Includes the +spell power on higher ranks, as well as total number of charges).
• Improved Shadow Word: Pain (Shadow) – Now increases damage done by your Shadow Word: Pain by 5/10%, but no longer increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain.
• Levitate now costs 3% of base mana.
• Lightwell (Holy): Cast time reduced to .5 sec, down from 1.5 sec. Charges increased to 10, up from 5. Now breaks from any attack that hits you for 30% or more of your total health. Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5.
• Mind Control now has only one rank and costs 12% of base mana.
• Mind Soothe now has only one rank, costs 6% of base mana and has no max target level.
• Mind Vision now costs 3% of base mana.
• New Talent: Improved Spirit Tap (Shadow) – Gives you a 50/100% chance to gain a 50% bonus to your Spirit after gaining a critical effect chance from your Mind Blast or Shadow Word: Death spells. For the duration, your mana will regenerate at a 25% rate while casting. Lasts 8 sec.
• New Talent: Twin Faiths (Discipline) – Increases your damage and healing by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Pain Suppression (Discipline): Cooldown increased to 3 minutes, up from 2.
• Power Infusion (Discipline): Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes, down from 3.
• Prayer of Mending – This spell can now critically hit.
• Psychic Scream now costs 15% of base mana.
• Searing Light (Holy): Now also increases the damage of your Holy Nova and Penance spells.
• Shackle Undead now costs 9% of base mana.
• Shadow Focus (Shadow): Now a 3 point talent, down from 5. Now also reduces the mana cost of your Shadow spells by 2/4/6%.
• Shadow Resilience (Shadow): Now reduces physical damage taken by 2/4%, but no longer reduces the chance to be critically hit by spells.
• Shadowform (Shadow): Now has an innate 30% threat reduction. Now has a shapeshift UI.
• Silence (Shadow) global cooldown removed.
• Silent Resolve (Discipline): Now a 3 point talent, down from 5 points.
• Spirit Tap (Shadow) – Talent reduced to 3 points, down from 5. Now also leads into “Improved Spirit Tap”
• Wand Specialization (Discipline) has been removed.

Rogues

• Anesthetic Poison now also dispels one Enrage effect on the target.
• Blade Twisting (Combat) now cause all damaging melee attacks to have a 10% chance to daze for 4/8 seconds movement speed reduced by 70%.
• Camouflage (Subtlety) reduced to 3 ranks for 5/10/15% speed and 2/4/6 secs off the cooldown of Stealth.
• Cloak of Shadows cooldown increased to 1.5 min.
• Crippling Poison reduced to 1 rank, slowing movement by 70%.
• Dagger Specialization (Combat) renamed Close Quarters Combat, moved to tier 3, now increases critical strike chance with Daggers and Fist Weapons by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Damaging poisons now scale with attack power.
• Deadened Nerves (Assassination) reduced to 3 ranks, now reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%.
• Deflection (Combat) reduced to 3 ranks, increasing parry by 2/4/6%.
• Disarm Trap range increased to 20 yards, cast time reduced, now requires stealth.
• Dual Wield Specialization (Combat) moved to tier 1.
• Elusiveness (Subtlety) moved to Tier 3, now reduces cooldown of Vanish and Blind by 30/60 sec and Cloak of Shadows by 15/30 sec.
• Energy regeneration should now be smoother.
• Endurance (Combat) now reduces cooldown of Evasion and Sprint by 30/60 secs.
• Envenom now also increases your chance to apply poisons by 25% for 2-6 seconds (based on combo points).
• Evasion, Sprint and Vanish cooldowns reduced to 3 min.
• Find Weakness (Assassination) is now a passive talent, reduced to 3 ranks, increases damage of offensive abilities by 3/6/9%.
• Fist Weapon Specialization (Combat) removed.
• Fleet Footed (Assassination) now reduces duration of movement impairing effects by 25/50% rather than increasing resist chance.
• Gouge is now only 1 rank and causes damage based on attack power.
• Improved Ambush (Subtlety) moved to Tier 4, reduced to 2 ranks for 25/50%.
• Improved Eviscerate (Assassination) now increases damage by 7/14/20%.
• Improved Expose Armor (Assassination) now reduces the energy cost by 5/10, no longer increases duration.
• Improved Poisons (Assassination) now increases chance to apply poisons by 5/10/15/20/25%.
• Improved Slice and Dice (Combat) reduced to 2 ranks, increases duration by 25/50%.
• Improved Sprint (Combat) moved to Tier 4.
• Initiative (Subtlety) moved to Tier 4, increased to 33/66/100% chance.
• Kick is now only 1 rank and no longer causes damage.
• Lethality (Assassination) now also affects Riposte.
• Lightning Reflexes (Combat) moved to tier 4.
• Mace Specialization (Combat) no longer stuns enemiesnow ignores 3/6/9/12/15% of target’s armor.
• Master of Deception (Subtlety) reduced to 3 ranks.
• Mind-Numbing Poison reduced to 1 rank, slowing casting speed by 60%.
• Murder (Assassination) moved to tier 6, increases damage by 2/4%.
• Mutilate (Assassination) no longer requires you be behind the target.
• Nerves of Steel (Combat) now reduces damage taken while Stunned or Feared by 15/30%.
• Opportunity (Subtlety) reduced to 2 ranks for 10/20%.
• Pick Lock and Disarm Trap no longer require Thieve’s Tools.
• Poisons skill removed. All finished poisons are available on vendors rather than created by the rogue.
• Precision (Combat) now also increases chance to hit with poison attacks by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Premeditation (Subtlety) duration increased to 20 seconds, cooldown reduced to 20 seconds.
• Preparation (Subtlety) no longer refreshes the cooldown of Premeditation.
• Relentless Strikes (Assassination) moved to Tier 1 Subtlety, made 5 ranks for 4/8/12/16/20% chance.
• Riposte (Combat) now slows the target’s melee attacks by 20% instead of disarming them, awards one combo point.
• Serrated Blades (Subtlety) moved to Tier 3.
• Setup (Subtlety) chance to gain a combo point increased to 33/66/100%.
• Shadowstep (Subtlety) is no longer usable while rooted.
• Surprise Attacks (Combat) now also increases Hemorrhage damage.
• Vanish no longer requires the reagent Flash Powder.
• Vigor (Assassination) moved to Tier 3.
• Vile Poisons (Assassination) reduced to 3 ranks, now increases damage of poisons and Envenom by 7/14/20% and increases dispel resistance by 10/20/30%.
• Wounding Poison no longer stacks, reduces healing by 50%.

Shaman

• All totems are now considered on the “Physical” school, and no longer magical spells.
• Anticipation (Enhancement): Now is a 3-point talent, down from a 5-point talent and now reduces the duration of disarm effects on you by 16/25/50%.
• Ancestral Knowledge (Enhancement): Now increases your Intellect by 2/4/6%, instead of increasing your total Mana by 2/4/6/8/10%.
• Call of Flame (Elemental): Now also increases the damage of your Lava Burst spell by 2/4/6%.
• Call of Thunder (Elemental) now also increases the critical strike chance of your Thunder spell.
• Concussion (Elemental) now increases the damage of your Thunder and Lava Burst spells.
• Convection (Elemental) is now a 3-point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Now lowers the mana cost of Thunder and Lava Burst.
• Earth’s Grasp (Elemental) is now a tier-1 talent, up from tier-2.
• Elemental Devastation (Elemental) is now a tier-2 talent, up from tier-4.
• Elemental Focus (Elemental): Now also can proc off Lesser Healing Wave and Healing Wave, and can be used on all healing spells.
• Elemental Fury (Elemental) now requires Elemental Focus as a pre-requisite
• Elemental Precision (Elemental): Chance to hit reduced to 1/2/3% from 2/4/6%, but threat reduction increased to 10/20/30% up from 4/7/10%.
• Enhancing (Enhancement) Totems is now a Tier 1 talent, up from Tier-2.
• Flametongue Totem is now a flat spell damage totem. All ranks have been modified.
• Flametongue Weapon: Now has a passive spell damage.
• Frostbrand’s snare effect has been increased to 50%, up from 25%.
• Ghost Wolf’s mana cost is now 13% base.
• Grace of Air Totem has been removed. (Agility has been rolled over into Strength of Earth Totem)
• Healing Grace (Restoration): Healing Way and Ancestral Fortitude are now affected by the dispel resistance portion of this talent.
• Improved Fire Totems (Elemental) is now (again) Improved Fire Nova Totem. It now has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets for 2 sec.
• Improved Lightning Shield (Enhancement) is now Improved Shields, and is in Tier-2.
• Nature’s Blessing no longer increases spell damage from Intellect, and the effect has been reduced to 5/10/15% from 10/20/30%. This is in result of the new spell power system. Players should notice little to no change in the power of the spell relevant to healing spells.
• New ranks have been added of Water Shield, starting at level 20. (Level 20, 27, 34, 41, 48, 55, 62, 69)
• New Spell: Earthliving Weapon – Imbue the Shaman’s weapon with earthen life. Increases healing done by x and each heal has a 20% chance to proc Earthliving on the target, healing an additionaly over 12 sec. Lasts 30 minutes.
• New Talent: Cleanse Spirit (Restoration) – Cleanse the spirit of a friendly target, removing 1 poison effect, 1 disease effect, and 1 curse effect.
• New Talent: Elemental Shields (Enhancement): Increases the damage done by your Lightning Shield orbs by 5/10/15%, increases the amount of mana gained from your Mana Shield orbs by 5/10/15% and increases the amount of healing done by your Earth Shield orbs by 5/10/15%.
• New Talent: Mental Dexterity (Enhancement) – Increases your Attack Power by 33/66/100% of your Intellect.
• New Talent: Tidal Force(Restoration): Increases the critical effect chance of your Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave and Chain Heal by 60%. Each critical heal reduces the chance by 20% and lasts 20 seconds.
• Rockbiter ranks 5 through 9 have been removed. Windfury Weapon is intended to replace Rockbiter at level 30.
• Shapeshifting will no longer cancel Water Walking.
• Stoneclaw Totem: Health of the Stoneclaw totem is increased by 5% of the Shaman’s total health.
• Stoneskin Totem now increases armor instead of reducing physical damage.
• Storm Reach (Elemental): Now also increases the radius of your Thunder spell by 10/20%.
• Strength of Earth Totem now also increases agility.
• The range of all “friendly totems” has been increased to 30 yards, up from 20.
• Tidal Focus (Restoration): Now works with Earth Shield.
• Totemic Mastery talent removed and replaced with “Tidal Force”.
• Tranquil Air Totem has been removed. (Threat is being addressed by modifications to the base threat of players and/or “baked” into tanking abilities.)
• Unleashed Rage is now raid wide.
• Windfury Totem is now a flat 20% melee haste totem. All ranks have been modified.
• Windwall Totem has been removed.
• Wrath of Air is now a flat 10% spell haste totem.

Warlock

• Aftermath (Destruction) – Now a 2-point talent, down from 5.
• All demon abilities and spells will automatically be learned as pets gain levels. Demon Master trainers will be removed.
• Avoidance (Felguard): Now reduces damage taken from area of effect attacks by an additional 80% and is automatically learned for the Succubus, Imp, Voidwalker, and Felhunter at level 10.
• Bane now reduces the cast time of your Haunt spell.
• Blood Pact now works raid-wide (not just in party).
• Cataclysm (Destruction) – Now also increases your chance to hit with Destruction spells by 1% per point.
• Consume Shadows (Voidwalker): Duration reduced to 6 seconds, and effect increased 66%. Now also greatly increases all nearby allies’ stealth detection while channeled.
• Curse of Recklessness will no longer prevent Fear effects, only prevent NPCs from fleeing (e.g. at low health).
• Dark Pact: Tooltip updated to be more consistent with other similar effects and now restores 200% mana leeched from your summoned Demon, up from 100%.
• Demon Armor – Now increases healing done by spells and effects by 20%, but no longer has in-combat health regeneration.
• Demon Skin, Demon Armor and Fel Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.
• Demonic Sacrifice: Succubus effect reduced to 10% increased shadow damage, down from 15%. Imp effect reduced to 10% increased fire damage, down from 15%. Felguard effect now increases Fire and Shadow damage, instead of just Shadow.
• Doomguard: Health increased 20%, mana increased 24%.
• Emberstorm now reduces the cast time of your incinerate by 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5 seconds.
• Fel Armor – Now increases your spell damage equal to 30% of your total Spirit, but no longer increases healing done by spells and effects by 20%.
• Felguard: Health increased by 10%.
• Felhunter: Paranoia and Tainted Blood have been replaced with Fel Intelligence and Shadow Bite.
• Fel Intelligence (Felhunter): Increases total Intellect and Spirit of party and raid members by 3%. Lasts until cancelled.
• Fel Stamina (Demonology) has been merged with Fel Intellect into Fel Vitality.
• Howl of Terror now costs 15% of base mana.
• Infernal: Cooldown reduced to 15 minutes, down from 1 hour. Duration reduced to 1 minute, down from 5 minutes+. Health increased by 30%, damage increased by 60%, and armor increased by 30%.
• Imp: Health increased by 20% , Armor increased 16%, mana regeneration increased 200%.
• Improved Curse of Weakness (Affliction) is now “Frailty” – Increases the amount of attack power reduced by your Curse of Weakness spell by 10/20%, and increases the amount of armor reduced by your Curse of Recklessness by 10/20%.
• Improved Enslave Demon (Demonology) is now a Tier 5 talent, up from Tier 4.
• Improved Lash of Pain (Destruction) and Improved Firebolt (Destruction) have been merged into one talent, Demonic Power.
• Improved Shadow Bolt (Destruction) – Now increases damage by your next Shadow damage spells by 3/6/9/12/15%, down from 4/8/12/16/20%.
• Mana Feed: Tooltip updated to be more consistent with other similar effects.
• Master Demonologist (Demonology) – Most effects have been altered.
  • Master Demonologist – Felguard (Demonology) – Now increases all damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and reduces all damage done to you by 1/2/3/4/5%.
  • Master Demonologist – Imp (Demonology) – Now increases Fire damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and critical hit chance with Fire spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.
  • Master Demonologist – Succubus (Demonology) – Now increases Shadow damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and critical hit chance with Shadow spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Nether Protection has been reworked. It now has a 10/20/30% chance when you’re hit with a spell to reduce all damage by that spell school by 60% for 10 seconds.
• New Talent: Demonic Empowerment (Demonology) – Grants your Summoned Demon power for a short time.
• New Talent: Eradication (Affliction) – Your Corruption, Siphon Life and Curse of Agony ticks have a 5/10/15% chance to increase your spell haste by 20% for 8 sec. This effect has a 10 second cooldown.
• New Talent: Improved Felhunter (Affliction): Your Felhunter gains mana equal to 50/100% of the damage done by its Shadow Bite ability, and increases the effect of your Felhunter’s Fel Intelligence by 1/2%.
• New Talent: Molten Core (Destruction) – Your Shadow spells and damage over time effects have a 5/10/15% chance to increase the damage of your Fire spells by 10% for 6 sec.
• Pyroclasm (Destruction) – Now also includes Conflagrate.
• Rain of Fire (Doomguard): A bug has been fixed which caused each tick of Rain of Fire to consume its mana cost.
• Ritual of Souls: Charges increased to 25, up from 10.
• Shadow Bite (Felhunter): Deals Shadow damage plus an additional 5% Shadow damage over time effect on the target. 6 second cooldown.
• Shadowfury (Destruction) – Can now be cast while moving. Stun duration increased to 3 seconds, up from 2.
• Soul Link (Demonology) is now an 11-point talent (used to be a 31-point talent), but the 5% bonus damage from this talent has been removed. In addition, the damage absorbed by Soul Link is now 15%, down from 20%.
• Soul Siphon (Affliction): Now also increases the damage of your Drain Soul.
• Soulstone now generates a log entry indicating who casted and received a soulstone.
• Spell Lock (Felhunter) global cooldown removed.
• Succubus: Health increased by 20%, armor increased 22%.
• Summon Dreadsteed/Felsteed: Mana cost removed, global cooldown removed.
• Suppression (Affliction) is now a 3-point talent, down from 5. Now increases your chance to hit with Affliction spells by 1/2/3%, down from 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Unstable Affliction (Affliction): Silence effect reduced to 3 seconds, down from 5.
• Voidwalker: Health increased by 20%, Damage increased by 16%. The amount of attack power the Voidwalker gains from its master’s spell damage has been increased by 45%.

Warrior

• Anticipation (Protection) now increases chance to dodge by 1/2/3/4/5%, moved to tier 2.
• Blood Craze (Fury) now regenerates 2/4/6% of total health over 6 seconds.
• Blood Frenzy (Arms) moved to Tier 9, now increases physical damage caused by 1/2%.
• Bloodthirst (Fury) now restores health based on a % of total health.
• Challenging Shout cooldown reduced to 3 minutes.
• Concussion Blow (Protection) now causes damage based on attack power.
• Death Wish (Fury) no longer makes you immune to Fear effects.
• Death Wish and Sweeping Strikes have swapped locations in their respective talent trees.
• Deep Wounds (Arms) now requires Impale, causes 16/32/48% of weapon damage over 6 seconds.
• Defensive Stance now increases threat by 45%.
• Defiance (Protection) removed, replaced by Incite and moved to a new location on tier 2.
• Disarm rage cost reduced to 15.
• Enrage (Fury) now increases damage done by 3/6/9/12/15%, limitation on number of attacks removed.
• Hamstring now only has one rank and no longer causes damage.
• Impale (Arms) moved to Tier 3, no longer requires Deep Wounds.
• Improved Berserker Rage (Fury) now generates 10/20 rage.
• Improved Bloodrage (Protection) now increases rage generation of both the instant and over-time effects by 25/50%.
• Improved Charge (Arms) now generates 5/10 rage.
• Improved Defensive Stance (Protection) reduced to 2 ranks, now reduces spell damage taken by 3/6% and any block/parry/dodge has a 50/100% chance to enrage the warrior causing 5/10% more damage for 12 sec.
• Improved Disarm (Protection) reduced to 2 ranks, now reduces the cooldown of Disarm by 10/20 sec and increases damage taken by disarmed targets by 5/10%.
• Improved Disciplines (Arms) removed.
• Improved Mortal Strike (Arms) now increases damage by 2/4/6/8/10%, no longer reduces cooldown.
• Improved Rend (Arms) reduced to 2 ranks for 25/50%.
• Improved Revenge (Protection) now increases damage Revenge causes by 10/20% and gives a 25/50% chance to stun.
• Improved Shield Bash (Protection) now also increases the damage of your Shield Slam ability by 5/10%.
• Improved Shield Block (Protection) now has 2 ranks and reduces cooldown of Shield Block by 5/10 secs. It no longer increases the number of blocks.
• Improved Shield Wall will now increases the damage reduction by an additional 5/10% and reduces cooldown by 30/60 seconds.
• Improved Slam (Fury) moved to Arms.
• Improved Sunder Armor (Protection) renamed Puncture ,reduced to 2 ranks for 1/2 rage cost reduction.
• Improved Taunt (Protection) removed, effect made baseline.
• Improved Whirlwind (Fury) now increases damage of Whirlwind by 10/20%, no longer reduces cooldown.
• Iron Will (Arms) now has only 3 ranks, reducing the duration of Stun and Charm effects by 10/20/30%.
• Last Stand (Protection) cooldown reduced to 6 minutes.
• Mace Specialization (Arms) now ignores 3/6/9/12/15% of target’s armor.
• Mocking Blow now only has one rank and causes weapon damage, cooldown reduced to 1 min and can now be used in Defensive Stance.
• Overpower now only has one rank and no longer causes any bonus damage (i.e. weapon damage only).
• Poleaxe Specialization (Arms) now also increases critical damage done by Axes and Polearms by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Precision (Fury) moved to Tier 5.
• Pummel now only has one rank and no longer causes damage.
• Rampage now causes all party and raid members within 20 yards of the Warrior to go on a rampage, increasing melee critical hit chance by 5% for 10 seconds when the warrior scores a melee critical.
• Recklessness now increases the critical hit chance of the next 3 special ability attacks by 100%, lasts 12 seconds, cooldown reduced to 5 minutes.
• Retaliation duration reduced to 12 seconds, charges reduced to 12, cooldown reduced to 5 minutes.
• Shield Bash now only has one rank and will cause damage based on a % of AP.
• Shield Block now increases chance to block and amount blocked by 100% for 10 seconds. Cooldown increased to 60 seconds, rage cost reduced.
• Shield Slam is now available to all warriors, starting at level 40.
• Shield Specialization (Protection) moved to Tier 1, now increases rage by 2 on a successful block.
• Shield Wall now reduces all damage taken by 50% for 12 seconds, cooldown reduced to 5 minutes.
• Sword Specialization (Arms) can no longer trigger more than once per 6 seconds.
• Taunt cooldown reduced to 8 sec.
• Thunder Clap damage increased, cooldown increased.
• Toughness (Protection) moved to tier 3 now also reduces the duration of movement slowing effects by 10/20/30/40/50%.

PvP

• Arenas
  • Buffs that have 30 seconds or less remaining will be removed once the game starts. However, the mage spell “Invisibility” is not affected by this change.

Professions

• New Profession: Inscription is available to train up to 375.

User Interface

• New Calendar feature: Players will be able to access the new Calendar feature by clicking on the new icon located in the top right corner of their mini map. The calendar will track in game events, allow raid scheduling, and more.
• New Vanity Pet and Mount changes: Players will now be able to access their non-combat pets and mounts by clicking on the pets tab in the Character Info panel. These pets and mounts will be now learnable much like spells or abilities. Once a vanity pet or mount is learned, the icon will disappear from within a player’s inventory andreappear in the appropriate tab under the pet tab under Character Info. Say goodbye to your vanity pets and mounts taking up bag and bank slots!
  • Lost pets and mounts (one time quest rewards) can be recovered by visiting a stablemaster.
• A new Agro Warning is now available and currently functioning in dungeons.
• Focus Frame is now available. Players will be able to right click on any unit frame and select “Set Focus”. The focus frame will only display when the focus is set. Players may also set a “Focus Cast Key” in the options/combat panel that can be bound to shift, alt, or ctrl. When holding the focus cast key and triggering an action, the action will be performed on your focus and not on your target.
• Lost tabards (one time quest rewards) may now be restored by visiting a tabard vendor.
• Lost keys (one time quest rewards) may now be restored by visiting a blacksmith.
• Error messages should play less frequently.
• Tradeskills can now be linked by shift-clicking the tradeskill icon.
• Quests can be shared with party members at any distance.
• Quests can be shared with party members by linking the quest into party chat.
• Quests can be shared in raids but not battlegrounds.
• Randomized Daily quests may now be shared, but only on the same day as the quest is given.
• A 5 minute timer will appear over the player’s unit frame showing the countdown until your PvP flag is cleared.
• The /cower emote now has an animation.
• Macros and key bindings are now saved server-side so there is no longer a need to reconfigure them when logging in using another computer.
• Shift-clicking to loot mail: You can now hold Shift and click on mail in your inbox to automatically loot any items and gold without opening the mail. This default behavior can be changed via Auto Loot Mail in the Interface Options (Controls).
• Combat Log Changes:
  • The combat log now differentiates between a spell failure due to resistance and spell failure due to missing the target. Where once both events reported as a resist; a spell missing the target is now reported as a miss.
  • Overhealing is now reported in the combat log.
  • When a source of damage is entirely prevented (by a shield block, a full resist, or a damage shield like Power Word:Shield, the prevented amount will now be displayed.

Items

• Druids and Shaman can now use items while shapeshifted.
• The Abyss Shard has been changed to grant a passive 15 stamina bonus, but no longer removes the soul shard requirement from casting a voidwalker.

Devilsaur Eye now increases your pet’s attack power for a short duration instead of increasing its critical strike chance. It also provides a small amount of passive Agility

Unfortunately, I have not been able to attend, but my friend Artanis did and he has made a very nice report; since his report is in Italian I will give you the most important details in English.

The show opened with Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock on the “Original Series”,� that gave brief presentation of the game; unfortunately it was pretty much it and after him, Emmert took charge of the show.

A very important aspect of the game is that players will start with a personal small ship, but despite being in charge of it they have not the official rank of “Capitan”; this title will be earned through the game. The ship is fully customizable and upgradable.

Players will not be able to nominate other players as crew, but they can recruit NPCs for the various position; these NPCs can be trained and they will advance in skills while the player progress through the game. Other players can actually come on board the ship, visit it, and be transported to other places.

The content will be spread on both the planets, where players can teleport and do quests, and in space, where players can engage battles with various enemies. During the panel, it has been said that there may be special space events, for example various Borg invasion.

Regarding the release date, Emmert refused to specify any actual day, but he explicitly admitted that he actually know it and it is not that far since the developers already have a working engine and therefore they just have to work on the content.

During the webcast, Cryptic showed a brief video about the gameplay; I have to admit that the quality of the graphic is extremely good considering that the game has not been finished yet.

Now, these are just some of the details announced on “Star Trek Online”, so stay tuned for more informations.

A last note: if you are Italian and you are planning to play Star Trek Online, my friend Artanis is already starting to collect applications for “cadets”; you can find all the information on this page.

Links

Star Trek Online Official Site: http://www.startrekonline.com/;

Artanis’ Report (in Italian): http://artanis.myblog.it/archive/2008/08/10/star-trek-online-panel-resoconto-completo.html.

The Star Trek Online logo is copyrighted by CBS Studios Inc.

Carmack stated that Doom 4 will be based on the ‘Tech 5′ engine, but still it will look much better than the other games based on the same engine; as comparison for the better quality, and especially the computation power needed, Carmack indicated that Doom 4 will run at 30 fps where Rage can achieve 60fps.

It will be released on different platforms, but Carmack admitted that “the PC version will support significant visual improvements over 360 or PS3 versions.”

No release date has been given, so … as usual it will be released “when it’s ready”.

The fans of the “Quake” series will be disappointed to know that there is no sequel currently under development.

Link

QuakeCon’s home page: http://www.quakecon.com.

According to the announcement (link) Cryptic will unveil more details and the first gameplay footage at the annual Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas on Sunday, August 10, 2008.

While we still have to wait months for the release of the game, the official site (link) is allowing people to register. Most probably the registration will give absolutely no privileges when the game is released, but still it allows the fans to participate to the community.

Links

Star Trek Online Official Site: http://www.startrekonline.com/;

Star Trek Online announcement: http://www.startrekonline.com/node/62.

The Star Trek Online logo is copyrighted by CBS Studios Inc.

This version has been the result of three months of development by more than 150 kernel developers and still Linus Torvalds wanted to pass through 9 Release Candidate releases before the Gold Release.

Some of the changes included in the kernel 2.6.26 are related to:

• PCI Express Active State Power Management;
• KVM support for IA64 and PPC architectures;
• basic para-virtualization support for KVM;
• a UVC web-camera driver;
• Read-only bind mounts;
• OLPC support.

A deep explanation of all the changes can be found on Kernel Newbies’s web site (http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_26).

Links

The Linux Kernel Archives: http://www.kernel.org/;

Linus Torvalds’s announcement: http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/7/13/216.

Here the content:

General

• Dispel effects will no longer attempt to remove effects that have 100% dispel resistance.
• Parry Rating, Defense Rating, and Block Rating: Low-level players will now convert these ratings into their corresponding defensive stats at the same rate as level 34 players.
• Haris Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry. Check her out in the World’s End Tavern!
• Mounts at 30?! Yes, it’s true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.
• Blood Elf flightmasters outside of Silvermoon City and Tranquillien have traded in their bats for glorious fire-breathing dragonhawks.
• Alcohol cooldowns have been rolled into Drinks: All 10-second cooldowns have been removed and replaced with the 1-second Drink cooldown.
• Numerous flying non-combat pets have had their flight height modified to no longer skim along the ground: captured firefly, dragonhawk hatchlings, moths, owls, parrots, phoenix hatchling, spirit of summer, sprite darter, and tiny sporebat.
• Nether Ray Fry (a non-combat pet) is now available from the Skyguard Quartermaster. This requires an Exalted reputation with Sha’tari Skyguard.
• Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.
• Placing an item in your bank will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress if the spell was cast by that item.
• You can no longer move backwards to stop racing rams.
• When a stun wears off, the creature that was stunned will prefer the last target with the highest threat, versus the current target.

Druids

• Barkskin: The cost of this spell is now reduced by Tree of Life Form.

Hunters

• Growl: Pets will no longer generate additional threat from this ability based on attack power buffs cast on them. Attack power buffs on their master will still indirectly increase the threat generated by the pet’s Growl.
• Pet Aggro: Pets will no longer generate threat immediately from being summoned.
• Scare Beast: This spell will now be limited correctly to one target.

Paladins

• Greater Blessing of Light Rank 1: This spell will no longer overwrite Greater Blessing of Light Rank 2.
• Summon Warhorse is now available at level 30.

Priests

• Mind Vision: This effect will now be cancelled immediately on targets who use an Invisibility Potion or Gnomish Cloaking Device.
• Spiritual Healing: Ranks 2-5 of this talent will no longer prevent refreshing Prayer of Mending.

Rogues

• Cheat Death: This talent has been rebalanced significantly. Killing blows are no longer 100% absorbed. If the Rogue is below 10% health, the killing blow is still completely absorbed; if the Rogue is over 10% health, enough damage will be absorbed to reduce the Rogue’s health down to 10%. For the following 3 seconds, damage is not always reduced by 90%; it is now reduced by a maximum of 90%, depending on how much resilience the Rogue has. The damage reduction will be four times the damage reduction resilience causes against critical strikes.

Shaman

• Earth Elemental: This pet will now leash back to its totem when pulled beyond 50 yards away.
• Lightning Overload: This talent will no longer do excessive damage when used with Lightning Bolt Ranks 2-10.

Warlocks

• Curse of Shadows: This spell has been removed.
• Curse of Elements: This spell now applies to Arcane and Shadow damage, as well as Frost and Fire.
• Demonic Sacrifice: This ability will now interact correctly with the Spirit Guide resurrection system in battlegrounds. A sacrificed pet will not be resummoned on death, and will not prevent keeping a record of the most recently created pet.
• Health Funnel: This ability will now cancel channeling when the target pet is Banished.
• Ritual of Summoning: The mana cost of this spell will now be properly deducted when cast.
• Summon Felsteed is now available at level 30.

Warrior

• Revenge: Ranks 1-5 of this ability now have damage ranges instead of fixed damage values (like ranks 6-8.)

PvP

• The Warsong Gulch flag can no longer be picked up at the same time as a flag is capped.

Professions

• Alchemy
  • Philosopher’s Stone now requires 200 Alchemy.
• Cooking
  • Juicy Bear Burgers now correctly increase healing as well as spell damage.
• Jewelcrafting
  • Activated beneficial effects from jewelcrafting trinkets can no longer be dispelled.
• Mining
  • Green quality gems can be found in mining nodes again. The drop rate of blue gems from mining nodes remains unchanged.
• Tailoring
  • Removed the cooldown from regular Mooncloth.
  • Herb bags can now hold Un’goro Soil and Evergreen Pouches.
  • Mycah of Sporeggar has discovered how to create 28 slot herb bags.
  • New Tailoring patterns are available from Haughty Modiste in Steamwheedle Port, Tanaris: Haliscan Jacket and Haliscan Pantaloons.

Quests

• Bhag’thera now spawns at a normal quest spawn rate.
• For the quests, Intercepting the Mana Cells and Maintaining the Sunwell Portal, phased characters will not be able to see non-phased character AoE effects and vice-versa.
• For the quests, Intercepting the Mana Cells and Maintaining the Sunwell Portal, pets gaining/losing phase status will now properly break off combat from unphased/phased opponents.

Dungeons and Raids

• Players can now be summoned to raid instances from heroic dungeons.
• Magister’s Terrace
  • The Stun component to the Sunblade Mage Guard Glaive Throw has been removed and the Bounce range reduced.
  • Vexallus and Kael’thas are now tauntable in Heroic mode.
  • Vexallus’ damage caused by Pure Energy has been decreased.
  • Kael’thas’ Arcane Sphere has had its visual size increased. His Arcane Sphere attack has had its range decreased and the damage/second of Phase two on Normal mode has been decreased. (Heroic mode remains unchanged.)
  • Sunblade Warlocks have had their damage reduced slightly.
  • Fel Crystals in the Selin Fireheart encounter have had their health reduced slightly.
  • Warlord Salaris and Kagani Nightstrike have had their damage output reduced slightly.
• Sunwell Plateau
  • Creatures in the area around Grand Warlock Alythess and Lady Sacrolash will no longer spawn while the twins are in combat.
  • Nether Protection will now correctly trigger from Kil’jaeden’s Shield Orb Shadow Bolts.
  • Vanish now correctly wipes threat on Kil’jaeden.

Items

• Bow of the Verdant Keeper’s Aim: This item’s triggered effect no longer breaks the effect of Scatter Shot.
• Brutal Gladiator’s Pummeler has had its Stamina value increased to the appropriate value.
• Clockwork Robot Bots fight amongst themselves again…without attacking people in the arena. Well… they’ll blow up other Bots in the arena, but you know what we mean.
• The Eredar Twins will now award the same items regardless of which order they are killed in.
• Invisibility Potions: These potions now are on the same cooldown as other combat consumable potions (such as mana potions.)
• Pendant of the Violet Eye: This item will again work correctly with Holy Light and Flash of Light.
• Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen: The triggered effect from this Item can now occur on periodic damage ticks.
• Thori’dal, the Star’s Fury is now Unique as intended.
• Vengeful Gladiator’s Baton of Light: This item now appears in the correct position on the vendor list.

User Interface

• The help interface has been simplified dramatically. Players will no longer be required to select a category when opening a GM ticket. In addition, players can use the “Talk to a GM” button to fill out a ticket that requires a GM response or the “Report Issue” button to fill out a ticket that does not require a GM response.
• Target buff/debuff timers that appear when you cast a spell are now more visible.
• Time Management features have been implemented! These features include an alarm clock, stopwatch, and viewing your computer’s local time.
• The new stopwatch feature can be accessed via the /stopwatch, /sw, or /timer slash commands. Inputting a time into the slash command will make the stopwatch count down. For example, /stopwatch 1:0:0 will make the stopwatch count down from an hour, /stopwatch 1:30 will make it count down from 1 minute, 30 seconds, and /stopwatch 30 will make it count down from 30 seconds.
• Added the following macro commands: /targetenemyplayer, /targetfriendplayer.
• Added key bindings for tab targeting players.
• Ctrl-Tab and other target nearest friend functions will no longer target you.
• Targeting using /target will prefer live targets over dead ones.
• You can no longer click the minimap to cast ground targeted spells.
• Invisible players with Hunter’s Mark can see the hunter that put the mark on them.
• Vendor items now show their Duration in Inventory.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum.

World Environment

• Winterspring Ice Thistle Matriarchs and Patriarchs may now drop Thick Yeti Fur.
• Skinning any Winterspring Ice Thistle yetis may now result in Thick Yeti Fur.
• Increased the drop rate of Pristine Yeti Horns from Winterspring Ice Thistle Matriarchs and Patriarchs.
• Goblin Weather Machine- Prototype 01-B weather changes will no longer force the affected character to stand.
• Collector’s Edition Pet Redemption NPCs/items/quests have been relocated/modified to/for towns with mailboxes (Goldshire, Razor Hill, etc.).
• Young Sporebats and Greater Sporebats in Zangarmarsh now drop Sporebat Eyes for the quest Gathering the Reagents.
• Blacksmithing Supplies vendor and repairer, Blazzle, in Area 52 is now next to the forge and anvil outside the inn.
• Banker Meeda, in Area 52 is now in the…well…the bank, along with a guild vault and guards. The other three Area 52 bankers are still located in the auction-house-turned-bank.
• Wastewander Bandits and Rogues should be more plentiful in the northern parts of Tanaris.

Bug Fixes

• The mage spell, Counterspell now shows in the combat log.
• Gan’arg Analyzers will no longer occasionally become friendly to players.
• Talented abilities that cost a percentage of base mana will no longer display an incorrect mana cost when inspected by a player of a different class or level.
• Guild leaders should now be able to properly promote a new guild leader regardless of their range.
• Druids: Mangle will no longer incorrectly indicate a 100-yard range on the tooltip.
• Hunters: Using an instant ability after Steady Shot will no longer lock out auto shot.
• Hunter Snake Trap will no longer break players out of stealth if the snakes pass near the stealthed character.
• Hunters: Concussive shot will now properly have a chance to proc Bow of Searing Arrows.
• Rogues: The talent Heightened Senses, Rank 1 and Rank 2 will now affect attacks from wands.
• Using Jewelcrafting figurines will no longer cause scrolling combat text to appear twice.
• Fixed an issue in which shadows were not appearing properly for users with GF4 video chipsets in Open GL mode.
• Corrected an issue in which users with Creative X-FI sound cards would sometimes hear a slight popping noise when running.
• Players will now correctly receive a Battleground Mark message for the marks that are received at the end of a battle.
• Corrected an issue where the initial trigger or activation sounds for Immolation Trap and Explosive Trap could not be heard by some players.
• Smelt Hardened Khorium will now properly require a forge instead of an anvil and hammer.
• Corrected a typo in the tooltip for the Druid spell Rip (Rank 4).
• Looting a Nightmare Vine will now properly no longer apply poison when the node is looted.
• The Figurine- Seaspray Albatross ability will now properly restore the correct amount of mana.
• First Aid bandages can no longer be applied to a player with the Recently Bandaged debuff. An error message of, “Could not activate more than one bandage” will be displayed.
• Corrected the tooltips to read properly for the flight paths from The Stormspire, Toshley’s Station, Blade’s Edge, and Area 52.
• Greater Elementals summoned by a shaman will now properly have a combat log entry.
• Players will no longer become stuck on the Nimboya’s Laden Pike when driving it into the ground.
• The quest, “Going Going, Guano!” will now have a more consistent level requirement for the dungeon.
• The quest, “Into The Scarlet Monastery” is now available to players of the appropriate level for the instance.
• Blueleaf Tubers can now be properly looted.
• The quest turn-ins for the Ahn’Qiraj war effort now give the appropriate amount of credit for each successful quest turn-in.
• Cloak of Shadows will now properly remove Shrink.
• Nightbane will no longer become unresponsive and unkillable during his air phase.
• Several items sold by the Consortium reputation vendor Paulsta’ats are now bind on pick-up: Formula: Enchant Weapon- Major Striking, Design: Delicate Blood Garnet, Design: Shifting Shadow Draenite, Design: Lustrous Azure Moonstone, Design:Thick Golden Draenite.
• It is no longer possible to delete a character that is an arena team captain without first promoting another player to captain.
• Taunts will now properly stick when a target is stunned while being taunted.

Links

World of Warcraft’s web site: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/;

World of Warcraft’s Patch Notes: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html.

The saga started 15 years ago with the first installment and it was immediately a success. The first Doom is considered by many the father of 3D games on the consumer computers’ market.

id Software seems to pay great attention on the quality of this new game since it is already looking for new talented, ambitious and passionate individuals to join its developing team.

Links

id Sofware’s home page: http://www.idsoftware.com/;

Artanis’ announcement: http://artanis.myblog.it/archive/2008/05/08/doom-4-incoming.html.

The Doom logo is copyrighted by Id Software, Inc.

Here the content:

Druids

• Talent: Primal Fury (Rank 2) will now be properly unlearned when it is untalented.

Hunters

• Aspect of the Viper: This ability now grants an additional amount of mana each 5 seconds equal to 35% of the hunter’s level.
• Boar Charge: This ability will no longer make Growl cast immediately after it generates excessive threat.
• The pet ability Growl will no longer scale with pet Attack Power and now scales with the hunter’s Attack Power..
• Dire Ravens in Blade’s Edge Mountains are now tameable.
• Scare Beast: The range on this spell has been increased to 30 yards and it is now instant cast.
• Tamed Drywallow Snappers now will know Bite 5 (instead of Claw 5.)

Mages

• Talent: Improved Blink (Arcane) now reduces chance to be hit by 13/25% and the duration of Rank 1 has been increased to 4 seconds.
• Completing the quest “Arcane Refreshment” will now properly teach the spell Conjure Water (Rank 7).
• Polymorph: Mounted creatures will no longer remain mounted while polymorphed.
• Molten Armor will now do damage while a damage absorption shield is active.
• New Teleport/Portal: Theramore and Teleport/Portal:Stonard spells are available at portal trainers in their respective locations. You must be level 35 to learn these new spells.

Paladins

• Flash of Light and Holy Light will now work properly with castsequence macros.
• Seal of the Crusader: This ability now increases the damage dealt by Crusader Strike by 40%.
• Talent: Precision (Ranks 1-3) will no longer improperly display daggers and staves as a weapon class in the tooltip.
• Paladins that already have Apprentice Riding skill can now properly learn Summon Warhorse from the trainer.

Priests

• Fear Ward will no longer be consumed while under the effects of cyclone.
• Mana Burn: This spell can no longer trigger effects that require the target to be struck with a critical hit.
• Power Word:Shield now has the correct sound associated with it and can no longer be heard from large distances.
• Talent: Power Infusion will now consume the correct amount of mana when cast on yourself.

Rogues

• Ability: Blade Flurry: This ability can no longer hit critters as its secondary targets and will now use a proper range calculation for all secondary targets.
• Talent: Mutilate (Assassination) will no longer incorrectly appear multiple times in the combat log when used.

Shaman

• Ability: Frostbrand Weapon: Rank 6 damage has been increased very slightly.

Warlocks

• Drain Soul: Channeling of this spell will now always stop when a player target dies.
• Pets: Using a sacrifice effect to kill your own pet will no longer trigger effects that should only occur when killing an enemy.

Warrior

• Sweeping Strikes: This ability can no longer hit critters as its secondary targets and will now use a proper range calculation for all secondary targets.

PvP

• Arenas
  • If a character’s personal rating is more than 150 points below the team rating, they will earn points based on their personal rating instead of the team rating.
  • If the average personal rating of the players queuing for a game is more than 150 points below the team’s rating, the team will be queued against an opponent matching or similar to the average personal rating.

Professions

• All 23-hour profession cooldowns are now 20-hour cooldowns.
• All 4-day cooldowns are now 3 days, 20 hours.
• Enchanting
  • Removed the cooldown from Void Shatter.
  • Void Shatter recipe now correctly requires 375 enchanting.
• Engineering
  • The Engineering supply item Delicate Copper Wire will now properly fit into engineering bags.
• Jewelcrafting
  • Brilliant Glass no longer requires a forge.
  • Brilliant Glass now has a small chance to make an epic gem.
  • Quick Dawnstone, Reckless Noble Topaz, Forceful Talasite are now all available at the Quel’danas gem vendor.
• Leatherworking
  • Completing the quest “The Journey Has Just Begun” will now properly teach how to make an Onyxia Scale Cloak.
  • Greatly reduced the reagent cost for Glove Reinforcements. Also reduced the skill gain range slightly.

Quests

• The categories for the quests “Wanted: Sisters of Torment” and “Wanted: The Signet Ring of Prince Kael’thas” have been fixed to now properly read as Magister’s Terrace.
• The Shadowy Disguise will no longer be applied to druids while they are in Moonkin or Tree of Life form for the quests “Who Are They?”
• Jailor Eston and Jailor Marlgen for the quest “The Rescue” should now respawn more frequently.

Dungeons and Raids

• Black Temple
  • Illidan will no longer despawn if a raid group wipes during his death speech.
• Karazhan
  • Nightbane’s Charred Earth ability will now properly deal Fire damage.
• Magister’s Terrace
  • Vexallus is no longer immune to taunt on Normal difficulty.
  • Kael’thas is no longer immune to taunt on Normal difficulty.
  • Wretched Skulkers, Wretched Husks, and Wretched Bruisers will now reset properly.
  • Sunblade Imps will now reset properly.
  • The doors in Heroic Magister’s Terrace will no longer respawn after a soft reset if a boss has already been killed.
• Sunwell Plateau
  • Hellfire will no longer remove Dark Touched in the Eredar Twins encounter.
• Tempest Keep: The Eye
  • Void Reaver’s Arcane orbs now generate combat log entries.

Items

• Arcane Charges now deal arcane damage.
• Abilities and trinkets that trigger after killing an opponent that gives experience or honor will no longer activate after killing mobs during bombing quests.
• Battlecast’s Garb should now properly grant pushback resistance in addition to interrupt resistance.
• Borderland Fortress Grips have had their stats updated.
• Botanist’s Gloves of Growth have had their texture corrected.
• Bow of Searing Arrows and Red Whelp Gloves will no longer break crowd control effects.
• Brann Bronzebeard’s Lost Letter: This item will no lonber display a damage range in its tooltip.
• The Cloak of Swift Mending now has a level requirement (70).
• Crusader’s Scaled Battlegear: The tooltip spelling has been corrected.
• Elixir of Demonslaying: This elixir now grants ranged attack power against demons as intended.
• Goblin Jumper Cables are no longer a trinket item.
• Hazza’rah’s Charm of Healing Haste rating reduced.
• Items that enchant other items no longer have tradeskill requirements (Mithril Spurs, Shield Spikes, Weapon Chains, etc.).
• The Helm of Fire has had its casting range reduced.
• The Magic Candle has had its casting range reduced.
• Many items sold by Consortium vendors are now bind on pick up: Formula: Enchant Weapon- Major Striking, Design: Delicate Blood Garnet, Design: Shifting Shadow Draenite, Design: Lustrous Azure Moonstone, Design: Thick Golden Draenite.
• Many items sold by Aldor reputation vendors are now bind on pick up: Design: Gleaming Golden Draenite, Design: Royal Shadow Draenite.
• Many items sold by the Shattered Sun quartermaster are now bind on pick up: Naaru Ration, Design: Ember Skyfire Diamond.
• The Lower City reputation item, Recipe: Flask of Chromatic Resistance, is now bind on pick up.
• Most Main-Hand weapons are now One-Hand weapons.
• Naturalist’s Preserving Cinch have had their stats updated.
• Nightfall now has a chance to fail on targets over level 60.
• Ravager: Judgements will no longer auto-refresh and break the effect from this item while its effect is active.
• Reins of the Black War Elekk spell and buff now correspond to the item name.
• Renataki’s Charm of Trickery has had its energy reduced.
• Rocket Boots Xtreme and Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite now properly share the same cooldown.
• The Romantic Picnic Basket will now display the blanket properly.
• Shard of Azzinoth no longer shares any cooldown with Shaman elemental totems.
• The socket bonus modifiers of some items will now properly display the bonus healing.
• The reduced cooldown of Shaman Nature’s Swiftness provided by the 4 piece set bonus from the Seer’s Ringmail Battlegear PvP armor will now apply properly.
• Shattered Sun Pendant of Might: The triggered effect from this item will no longer break Scatter Shot or other crowd-controlling affects. The visual on the Scryer version has been updated.
• Shifting Naaru Sliver: Using this item no longer puts players into combat.
• Silithyst Dust: The bonus from turning this item in no longer works for players above level 63.
• The Skyshatter Helmet’s gem socket bonus will now properly reflect the plus damage in the tooltip.
• Shadowsong Panther will no longer prematurely despawn.
• Talasite Owl: This trinket will now properly restore full mana as described.
• Ten Storms Set: The Chain Heal bonus from this set has been reduced by 5%.
• Troll Male off-hand items are now the same size as the main hand item.
• Tauren weapons while sheathed have had their graphic readjusted to their pre-patch (2.4.0) state.
• The Winterfall Firewater buff is no longer dispellable.
• Wushoolay’s Charm of Nature Haste rating has been reduced.

User Interface

• The guild log scroll bar will now properly display.
• Black Lotus will now show up under the Herb subcategory in the auction house.
• Primal Nethers will now show up under the Materials subcategory in the auction house.
• Mailboxes can now be tracked on the minimap.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum.

World Environment

• Creature versions of the Polymorph spell no longer heal the affected target.
• The dragons in Blade’s Edge Mountains will no longer instantly knock you off your mount.

Mac

• Fixed a bug causing ATI kernel panics; all spell effects should now be visible.
• Weather effects are again visible on systems with ATI 2×00 graphics such as aluminum iMac.
• Fixed a bug that precluded use of the FireWire iSight microphone with voice chat.
• Symlinks can be used again for Interface and WTF folders and subfolders.
• Cinematics playback is working again.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where secondary sound effects would not work with the Use Hardware option enabled in the Sound options of the User Interface.
• Fixed an issue where attempting to use some instant cast spells with Auto-Dismount in Flight checked in the interface would fail.
• Items that have multiple charges will now properly display the amount of charges.
• Fixed an issue where chain damage spells were chaining to critters.
• Female Draenei horns will now correctly protrude through certain plate helms.
• The Vengeful Gladiator’s Rifle will now play the proper sound when used.
• The Cursed Vision of Sargeras now gives the buff, “Sense Demons” which can be canceled normally. Additionally hunters and druids are able to track two things at once while using the item.
• It is no longer possible for pets to get stuck in place after exiting the Spectral Realm in the Kalecgos encounter.
• Blood Elf Priest: Consume Magic will now require the buff to be active in order to work properly.
• Undead and Blood Elf Priest: Touch of Weakness will now properly reduce the melee damage of the attacker.
• Fixed an issue where some spells had extraneous Floating Combat Text messages when using the Auras option.
• Fixed an issue where sometimes debuff icons on a target did not scale properly to indicate the spells had been cast by you.
• Ritual of Souls (Warlock) and Ritual of Refreshment (Mage) will no longer be placed on cooldown without having completed the summon.
• Looting a boss while a player is outside of the instance will no longer cause the corpse to despawn in 2 minutes if the player still has loot on the corpse.
• Whirlwind now has the correct sound associated with it.

PA Semi is famous for its design of sophisticated, low-power chip. According to Forbes Apple acquired the company to move away from Intel, whom so far produced the chips for the iPod and iPhone.

Neither P.A. Semi nor Apple have provided any further details on the deal, but Apple should release its quarterly report today.

P.A. Semi was founded in 2003 by Dan Dobberpuhl, a lead designer at DEC for the well-regarded Alpha and StrongARM; the company now count 150 employees.

Links

Apple’s site: http://www.apple.com/;

Forbes’ article: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/04/23/apple_buys_chip_designer_pa_semi_for_278_million.html.