World of Warcraft Patch 1.7.1 Brings Many Changes

World of Warcraft Patch 1.7.1 Brings Many Changes

Possible exploit addressed, new challenges await

The development team at Blizzard Entertainment has announced the
content of Patch 1.7.1. The numerous changes were also outlined in a release on
www.worldofwarcraft.com.

The changes include:

• Battlegrounds

  • Altered geometry in Arathi Basin to prevent a possible
    exploit.

Hidden within the jungles of Stranglethorn, an ancient Troll
city full of peril has been uncovered. Do you have what it takes to delve into
its mysteries with a band of hardy explorers? There’s only one way to find
out! Zul’Gurub is a high-level, 20-man raid instance with 120 new rare and
epic items to uncover. Adventure awaits!

Arathi Basin

Join the League of Arathor or the Forsaken Defilers as they
battle for the precious resources stockpiled within the latest Battleground,
Arathi Basin! Pitting 15 members of each faction against each other, the race
is on to be the first to 2000 resources, capturing strategic landmarks around
the Basin to increase your team’s gain and cripple the enemy. With an all-new
set of reputation-based rewards, there’s never been a better time to join the
war!

Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza

The Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza is a grand new event
set along the coasts of Stranglethorn Vale. Early on the appointed day,
friendly neighborhood goblins will visit Ironforge and Orgrimmar to inform
aspiring anglers of the grand tournament and give instructions. At the
appropriate time, the shout will ring out across Stranglethorn to bait your
hooks and cast your lines!

General

• The debuff limit has been increased to 16 (from 8). In
  addition, the client will now display all 16 debuffs.

• Switching weapons in combat triggers a 1 second global
  cooldown for all abilities for rogues and a 1.5 second global cooldown for
  everyone else.

• Possessed units (e.g. Mind Control, Eyes of the Beast etc…)
  can now cancel combat mode by clearing your current target. In addition, the
  UI will have a gold border when the possessed unit is actively in combat mode
  with the target.

• Several stun spells and abilities that were previously
  unresistable can now be resisted as was always intended.

• Damage absorption no longer protects against falling,
  drowning, or fatigue damage.

• The targeting circles for area effect spells will no longer be
  cancelled when the caster moves.

• Absorbed and resisted environmental damage is now shown in the
  combat log.

• If an attack deals non-physical damage, the type of damage is
  now reported in the combat log.

• Fixed bug where you could kill someone in a duel with spell
  reflection.

• Auras and shapeshift forms can be cancelled while you are
  fleeing or confused.

• Fixed bug where you couldn’t right click to attack a hunter
  who is feigning death.

• You can no longer unequip weapons while they are disarmed.

• Debuffs and area effect spells now use their actual cast level
  rather than effective cast level for calculating periodic resistance.

• Escape Artist works with Frost Nova and Frost Trap again.

• Damage absorption is now applied before damage splitting
  effects.

• Casting spells on your pets and summons will no longer cause
  guards in neutral towns to attack you.

• Fixed a bug where mana was being regenerated while channelling
  spells that use mana.

• Fixed a bug where the Dazed ability used by creatures when
  attacking targets from behind was countered/dispelled by some spells (e.g.
  Blessing of Freedom).

• Fixed a bug where area of effect periodic damage spells were
  being resisted more frequently than they should have been when casting lower
  level ranks of the spell (affected spells were Blizzard, Consecration,
  Explosive Trap, Flamestrike, Hurricane, Rain of Fire and Volley).

• Effects that make players immune to physical will no longer be
  immune to the "Recently Bandaged" effect from First Aid.

• Made general improvements to the camera.

• You are no longer able to kill players in duels with reflected
  DoT spells

• When you swap weapons in combat, you start your swing again,
  instead of continuing your last swing.

• Fixed bug where self-inflicted damage, like Poisonous Blood,
  wouldn’t break stealth.

• When an attribute increasing effect (e.g. Arcane Intellect) is
  refreshed on a target, it will no longer reset the target’s health or mana and
  then increase the total.

• Spells and effects that reduce attack speed will no longer
  stack with each other. Some spells this change effects include Thunderclap,
  Frost Armor, the Doomguard’s Cripple spell, the Icy Chill enchantment, and
  Hurricane.

• Players who have died can now view the contents of their bags
  and view menus (ie the character sheet, quest log, etc). This change also
  applies to Hunters that are using Feign Death.

• Pets now switch to a new target if possible when their current
  target is polymorphed.

• Meeting Stones

  • A number of miscellaneous improvements have been made that
    should allow for better group forming when using the meeting stones.

  • You will no longer be kicked from the meeting stone queue
    when a player declines a group invite or when inviting someone that is
    already in a group.

  • You will now be informed that you have left the meeting
    stone queue when the group leader logs out.

  • Tanks and Healers will now be immediately added to the group
    by the meeting stone when they are the 5th member of the group.

  • You can now be added to a group by the meeting stone when
    that group contains characters that have disconnected.

PvP

• Battlegrounds

  • Battleground "holidays" have been added to Warsong Gulch,
    Alterac Valley and Arathi Basin. Holidays occur during most weekends,
    starting on Thursday night at midnight and continuing until Tuesday morning.
    During a holiday, emmissaries from that Battleground will be found in the
    major cities, and honor/faction rewards for performing objectives in that
    battleground are increased.

  • Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin will now be level-banded as
    follows: 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60

  • System Messages have been added to Warsong Gulch to replace
    the heralds.

  • Battleground queue functionality has been improved to
    eliminate certain types of "traffic jams" that could prevent instances from
    starting

  • Losers of Warsong Gulch are now given a "Ribbon of
    Sacrifice" which they may turn in to Captain Shatterspear or Sentinel
    Farsong for a faction reward.

  • Offensive use of damage immunities no longer causes the flag
    to drop in Warsong Gulch.

  • In the Battlegrounds, you will now automatically be
    resurrected by Spirit Healers unless you choose to decline.

  • A bug that allowed ghost players to pass through the Warsong
    Gulch starting gate has been fixed.

  • Alterac Valley now correctly rewards honor for owning
    graveyards at the end of the game.

  • Characters that use the Battlemaster to enter a Battleground
    will now port back to that Battlemaster when they leave the Battleground for
    any reason.

  • Fixed range check for removing insignia from players in
    Battlegrounds.

  • Fixed a bug that would cause players to stand up when a
    turnin was made in Alterac Valley.

  • Players will no longer be able to gain health by repeatedly
    entering and leaving the effect of a Battle Standard.

  • Entering a battleground now resets the timer for the AFK
    flag. This should prevent players being kicked by the AFK timer moments
    after they enter the Battleground instance.

  • Using the /who command while in a Battleground instance will
    now only display players in your instance.

  • The requirement to purchase special Food and Bandage
    consumables for Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin has been lowered; they are
    now available for use at Friendly and Honored, respectively.

• Consecration and other similar spells can no longer be used by
  non-PvP flagged players to damage PvP flagged enemies.

• Racial "Leaders" have been strengthened, and are now worth
  slightly less honor.

• Players may no longer purchase items that require a PvP rank
  unless they meet the rank requirement at the time of purchase.

Druids

• Improved Starfire – The stun effect can now be resisted.

• Druids should now be able to shapeshift back into caster form
  while Feared.

• Cat Form – The base weapon damage of the form has been
  increased.

• Cat Form – Each point of agility now adds 1 attack power.

• Cat Form – Rip’s damage per combo point has been increased.

• Cat Form – Ferocious Bite’s damage per combo point has been
  increased. In addition, extra energy now converts to damage at a higher rate.

• Cat Form – Replaced global cooldown on Tiger’s Fury with a 1
  second self cooldown. In addition, its duration has been increased to 6
  seconds.

• Cat Form – Rake’s damage has been increased.

• Entangling Roots now shares the same duration in pvp as other
  long-duration forms of crowd control (ie: polymorph, fear, sap).

Hunters

• Due to significant talent changes, Hunters will have all
  talent points refunded and can be respent. Training costs for all talent
  spell/ability replacements have been significantly reduced.

• Survival and Beast Master talent trees have undergone major
  revisions in an effort to give Hunters additional, viable choices when
  selecting talents.

• Deterrence – Will now increase parry chance when using Fist
  Weapons.

• Deflection – Will now increase parry chance when using Fist
  Weapons.

• Improved Concussive Shot – The stun effect can now be
  resisted.

• Trueshot Aura – Attack Power and Ranged Attack Power bonus
  increased, mana cost decreased, area of effect increased.

• Frost Trap – Updated tooltip to reflect duration of the Frost
  Trap Effect.

• Aimed Shot – Fixed tooltip to correctly display shot time.

• Auto Shot – Fixed a bug where switching targets would cancel
  Auto Shot. Switching targets should now continue firing on the newly acquired
  target.

• Scatter Shot – Should now cancel combat mode when used.

• Eyes of the Beast – Cast time reduced.

• Flare – Fixed the tooltip to accurately reflect the actual
  radius of the effect.

• Ranged Weapon Specialization – Now affects all ranged weapon
  attacks (e.g. Arcane Shot).

• Improved Concussive Shot – Will now have a chance to stun
  targets that are afflicted with other slowing effects (e.g. Wing Clip).

• Hawk Eye and Barrage have swapped locations, and we added 1
  more rank to Barrage.

• Freezing Trap now shares the same duration in pvp as other
  long-duration forms of crowd control (ie: polymorph, fear, sap).

• The resist rate for hunter traps is now based on the hunter’s
  skill rather than the level of the trap.

• Pet Abilities

  • Hunters now have the first round of pet customization
    available. New passive abilities include increased armor, stamina, Fire
    resistance, Frost resistance, Nature resistance, Shadow resistance, and
    Arcane resistance.

  • All Hunter pets have their abilities unlearned. Training
    points have been fully refunded. (Abilities the Hunter has learned to teach
    their pets have not been lost. For example, if you have the ability to teach
    your pets "Claw 3", you will still be able to do so in this patch. However,
    your pet will have to be taught this ability again by using the Beast
    Training interface.)

  • Hunter pets can now be untrained of all their skills from
    any beast trainer in the major cities. Similar to talents, untraining a
    specific pet scales up as you do it more times: 10 silver, 50 silver, 1
    gold, 2 gold, 3 gold, etc., eventually stopping at 10 gold.

  • Training point costs for all abilities have been rebalanced.
    You’ll now be able to use all your pet’s training points with meaningful
    choices. To help make "hunting" pets more viable in more situations, the
    Growl ability is now free to all pets.

  • Hunter pets can now learn a maximum of four active
    abilities. Active abilities include Claw, Bite, Dash, Dive, Cower, Prowl,
    Screech, Scorpid Poison, Growl, and Furious Howl.

  • Bats, owls, and carrion birds can now learn the Screech
    ability, a fast single-target attack that also lowers the attack power of
    all enemies within melee range of the pet.

  • Cats can now learn Stealth. In addition to being unseen,
    they receive a damage bonus for their first attack coming out of stealth.

  • Scorpids can now learn Scorpid Poison. The poison deals
    Nature damage over time and stacks up to five times on a single enemy.

  • Wolves can now learn Furious Howl. The howl adds a flat
    amount of damage to all nearby party member’s next attack (within 15 yards).

• Hunter pets now gain experience based on the level difference
  between them and their target rather than the difference between the Hunters
  and their target. This will make it much easier to level up a low level pet.
  Keep in mind that the Hunter must still kill creatures from which he/she will
  gain experience.

• The tooltips for quick Hunter shots have been updated to show
  them as instant abilities.

• Feign death is no longer resisted by players.

• Hunters are now able to name their pets while mounted.

• Hunter’s pets will be smarter about when to use Dash/Dive.

• Fixed bug where Aimed Shot wouldn’t cancel properly when the
  target moves out of range.

• Fixed a bug where lower level versions of Immolation Trap and
  Explosive Trap were being resisted more than they should be.

Paladins

• New Spell: Hammer of Wrath (Level 44) – Hurls a hammer that
  strikes an enemy for Holy damage. Only usable on a wounded target.

• Blessing of Sacrifice no longer shares damage with dead
  Paladins (You can no longer kill Paladin Ghosts).

• Paladins can no longer activate Divine Favor on the previously
  cast healing spell.

• Seal of the Crusader – Fixed a bug that displayed the
  incorrect amount of attack power increased by ranks 2, 3 and 5 of the spell.

Priests

• Focused Casting – Mana cost removed. Now no longer triggers
  the global cooldown on all other spells.

• Vampiric Embrace – Now heals 20% of the damage actually caused
  (including critical hits, buffs etc…) but now only heals when shadow spells
  cause the damage.

• Switching to Shadow Form no longer cancels Holy buffs on a
  priest.

• You can cancel melee combat while mind controlling by clearing
  the target, like you can normally.

• Blackout – Fixed a bug where rank 2 of the talent wasn’t
  giving a chance to stun.

Rogues

• Riposte – Will now initiate combat when used.

• Deflection – Will now increase parry chance when using Fist
  Weapons.

• Mace Specialization – The stun effect can now be resisted.

• Shoot Bow/Gun/Crossbow – Should no longer cause a global
  cooldown on all other abilities.

• The fire damage from the Blazefury Medallion and the Gutgore
  Ripper’s effect should no longer immediately break Gouge.

• Riposte – Fixed a bug where the ability was not usable when a
  special attack (e.g. Gouge) is parried.

Warlocks

• Inferno – The stun effect can now be resisted. Tooltip updated
  to reflect enslave duration after the initial summon.

• Spell Lock (Felhunter) – In addition to interrupting
  spellcasting, it will now silence the target for a short duration.

• Benefits received from the old Master Conjuror talent should
  now be removed on all Warlocks.

• Firestone – When a Firestone is equipped, it should no longer
  interrupt tradeskill creation.

• Demonic Sacrifice – All effects gained from sacrificing the
  pet should no longer be dispellable.

• Conflagrate – The Conflagrate spell is now instant cast. The
  damage and mana cost has been raised on all ranks of the spell.

• Fear will now cause creatures to flee immediately, even if
  they are already moving.

• Succubus pets will be smarter about when to use Seduction.

• Succubus pets can now autocast Lesser Invisibility.

• Fixed a bug where Fear and Curse of Recklessness, when used
  together, would prevent targets from casting spells.

• Fixed a bug where Soul Link and Power Word: Sheild, when used
  together, would heal the Warlock instead of splitting or absorbing damage.

• Demon Armor – The armor increase will now stack together with
  Scrolls of Protection.

• The Improved Drain Mana talent no longer does additional
  damage from plus damage items. This bonus damage was unintended and was a bug.

Warriors

• Deflection – Will now increase parry chance when using Fist
  Weapons.

• Retaliation – Will now cause a maximum of 30 retaliatory
  strikes in 15 seconds. In addition, retaliatory strikes will not be possible
  while stunned.

• Improved Revenge – The stun effect can now be resisted.

• Mace Specialization – The stun effect can now be resisted.

• Retaliation, Recklessness and Shield Wall will no longer be
  cancelled if you switch stances while the effect is active.

• Shield Slam – Threat caused increased.

• Shoot Bow/Gun/Crossbow – Should no longer cause a global
  cooldown on all other abilities.

• Sweeping Strikes will now ignore dead targets, and will ignore
  PvP enabled targets if you are not PvP enabled

Items

• We have determined that the defense statistic was being
  applied to items too liberally, causing those items to be stronger than they
  should have been relative to other items of the same level with different
  effects. As a result, we have reduced the amount of defense points on all
  items with bonuses to defense by approximately 33% in order to bring those
  items in line with other similar items.

• Proficiency Bonuses have been added to the game. Some sets of
  equippable items have been added that will give bonus effects to the player
  only if they have a specific skill, such as Leatherworking.

• With the new ability to train Hunter pets with considerable
  magical resistance, the amount of pet resistance granted by the set bonuses
  for the Giantstalker’s and Dragonstalker’s has been reduced while the pet
  health granted has been increased.

• The Earthfury set bonus that increases the range of totems now
  works with the Mana Tide Totem.

• The Giantstalker’s set bonus that increases Volley damage now
  works properly.

• The Lawbringer Paladin Set’s Healing Circle effect now only
  affects your party, but the range of the heal has been increased to 30 yds.

• The pants and gloves for the Dreadmist, Magister’s and Devout
  sets have had their Agility removed, and other statistics slightly increased.

• The free mana cost buff provided by the Mage’s Netherwind
  armor set is now called "Netherwind Focus" and will be noted in your combat
  log.

• The effect of the Judge’s Gavel has been changed to a stun.

• Flarecore Gloves now bind when equipped.

• Flarecore Leggings and Robe now provide a damage bonus to all
  spells, not just fire spells.

• The duration of the Bonereaver’s Edge weapon debuff has been
  lowered, but the frequency of the effect has been raised.

• The Polychromatic Visionwrap is now a cloth item with
  durability.

• The Searing Needle’s proc will now do the listed damage of the
  tooltip.

• The Unstoppable Force now has a short duration stun instead of
  a knockback effect, and the stun will occur less frequently.

• Changing stances no longer removes the Orb of Deception
  effect.

• When you have more than one transformation aura (Orb of
  Deception, Noggenfogger, etc.), the last one applied is the one that is shown.

• Several of the Molten Core Epic Weapons have been updated with
  new weapon glows.

• Totems affected by the Earthfury set bonus no longer have
  their effect flicker when players are outside their normal radius.

• Fixed bug preventing several items, such as the Goblin Jumper
  Cables, from being gift wrapped.

• Fixed bug where equipping and unequipping set items and other
  items with the same bonus as the set bonus could reduce the affected stats
  twice until logout.

• Sayge’s Dark Fortune of Resistance now adds +25 to all schools
  instead of +10%.

• PvP reward gloves that grant stealth detection have had the
  detection reduced somewhat.

• There are now items in the game that have a duration on them
  that is measured in real time. For instance, there are fish that have a
  four-hour duration; they only last four hours regardless of whether or not the
  character is logged in.

• Alterac Valley Spring Water now has a minimum level of 55.

• The Lobotomizer’s proc name has been changed to "Brain
  Damage".

• Corrected the art for the Nether-lace Tunic.

• The Marshal’s Lamellar Legplates now have the proper strength
  bonus.

• The Fire Runed Grimoire and Darkmoon Card: Heroism are now
  properly considered armor items.

• The spirit buff from Bottled Alterac Spring Water should now
  work for shapeshifted druids.

• The Marshal’s Silk Gloves now has the Mana Shield improvement
  effect.

• The effect tooltips for The Black Book, Gutgore Ripper, and
  Natural Alignment Crystal now properly list their duration.

• Scout’s Blade now properly sheathes at the hip.

• A few items in the Alliance PvP Rogue and Druid sets were
  previously misnamed, this has been corrected.

• The Cenarion and Earthfury Vestments now have proper
  durability values.

• The Sergeant Major’s Silk Cuffs and First Sergeant’s Silk
  Cuffs now have the same amount of stamina.

• The stun from the Tidal Charm trinket no longer breaks when
  damage is dealt to the stunned target.

• The Fade effect on the Stealthblade will no longer trigger the
  cooldown for the Rogue’s Feint ability.

• The effect of Black Amnesty will now be noted in the combat
  log.

• Rethban Ore, Black Diamonds, and Pristine Black Diamonds may
  now be found in the Miscellaneous Junk category of the Auction House.

• Blue Wedding Hanbok name changed to reflect the actual color
  of the dress.

• The minimum level 48 Lorekeeper’s Ring and Advisor’s Ring now
  properly consider their effects to be passive.

• Hair should no longer stick through the Helm of Endless Rage.

• Key to the City is now considered Uncommon loot.

• The Amulet and Orb of the Darkmoon have had their stats
  improved and are now Epic (purple).

• Fishing poles which provide the same bonuses as lures now get
  the extra bonus from the lure when it is applied.

• Fixed bug where moving enchanted weapons from one hand to the
  other would remove the equipped enchantment benefit.

• Fixed bug where swapping two equipped trinkets would remove
  one of the trinket’s passive effects.

• Night Dragon’s Breath can now be used while silenced.

• Texture for the Dragon’s Touch wand corrected.

• Bind on Equip Bracers and Belts in Molten Core now drop more
  often.

• Cenarion Helm texture fixed.

• Invulnerable Mail changed to a lower duration effect, but your
  own melee swings will not interrupt the invulnerability.

• All item based self heals will no longer be effected by
  equipment that provides bonuses to healing. This change affects both the
  Arcanite Champion and the Crusader Enchantment.

Pets

• You can now modify the auto-cast status of pet spells in the
  pet spellbook.

Professions

• New crafted sets have been added that require reagents found
  only in Zul’Gurub or through the reputation gained from adventuring therein.

• Only spells and abilities that target enemy units will cancel
  the World Enlarger effect.

• Black Lotus is no longer soulbound.

• Blackfury and Black Amnesty now bind when equipped.

• Catseye Goggles have had their stealth detection increased
  somewhat.

• The Mooncloth Robe pattern changed so it displays as white
  quality instead of blue since it is vendor purchased.

• The Effects of Flasks will now persist through death.

• Free Action potions can now be dispelled.

• Wildvine potions have been improved.

• Dreamless Sleep potions now take full effect in 12 seconds
  instead of 15.

• There is now a Horde cooking recipe that uses Tender Crocolisk
  Meat found at Brackenwall Village.

• Dark Iron Boots have been added as Blacksmithing plans that
  require Exalted reputation with the Thorium Brotherhood.

• Timbermaw Reputation Recipes are no longer sold in limited
  quanities with a restock time. If you have the reputation, you will always be
  able to buy the recipe.

• Significantly more Stranglekelp has started washing ashore to
  the beaches of the world.

• Dark Iron mineral nodes will now sometimes appear in the
  Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge.

• Enchanting an item with an enchantment that will cause the
  item to become soulbound will now prompt the enchanter with a warning message
  before the enchantment is cast.

• The Gnomish Death Ray now only can be cast if the target is
  within 20 yards. Previously you could cast this on players outside that range,
  even though the spell immediately failed.

• Cured Rugged hides now stack to 10 instead of 5.

Quest

• A great number of quests and events added to Zul’Gurub.

• A level 50 class quest has been added for the Rogue (Lord
  Ravenholdt in Ravenholdt Manor), Priest (Ogtinc in Azshara), Mage (Archmage
  Xylem in Azshara), and Hunter (Ogtinc in Azshara).

• Reputation gains given to a player on the Alliance, Horde, or
  Steamwheedle Cartel factions directly will now cascade down to member factions
  through the middle of the Exalted reputation level.

• The summoning crystals of Andorhal have been removed; as a
  result, Araj the Summoner will behave like a normal spawn. The respawn time on
  Araj once he is slain is 10-15 minutes. It should be noted that the spawns
  surrounding where he holds dominion have been maintained; players seeking to
  defeat him should not be shy about bringing friends with them.

• Araj the Summoner now has increased hit points and does
  increased melee damage.

• Araj the Summoner no longer drops a Corruptor’s Scourgestone
  100% of the time when killed.

• The text for the Horde and Alliance versions of "Araj’s
  Scarab" now reflect the changes done to the Araj encounter.

• The text for the Horde and Alliance versions of "Alas,
  Andorhal" now reflect the changes done to the Araj encounter.

• The Argent Dawn quest "The Active Agent" now offers a choice
  of rewards: Seal of the Dawn and Rune of the Dawn. Both may be used just like
  an Argent Dawn Commission.

• Players seeking to replace their Seal of the Dawn (or get a
  Rune of the Dawn instead) once they’ve finished "The Active Agent" quest
  should speak with Betina Bigglezink in Eastern Plaguelands.

• The Seal of the Dawn is now unique, no longer has any cash
  value, and is no longer disenchantable.

• The level 5 quests had the ranged weapon removed from their
  reward options. This was done to make sure hunters upgrade their melee damage
  in the levels before obtaining a pet.

• Added text to the Test of Endurance quest to indicate you
  might need to bring some friends along.

• The amount of XP and Stormwind reputation has been increased
  for completing "Hilary’s Necklace" quest.

• Torek in Ashenvale (the questgiver for Torek’s Assault) is now
  PvP enabling.

• Important Blackrock Documents for the Horde quest, "Warlord’s
  Command," no longer despawn. They can still randomly spawn at one of four
  locations.

• Two new quests have been added to Thorium Point in the Searing
  Gorge for Thorium Brotherhood reputation turnin for players with neutral
  faction. You will now be able to turn in Iron and Heavy Leather to increase
  your reputation with the Brotherhood.

• "The Darkreaver Menace" quest has had its reward improved; any
  Shaman who has already completed the quest should speak to Sagorne
  Creststrider in Orgrimmar to get their new reward.

• The Boulderslide Ravine quest in Stonetalon Mountains now more
  clearly points players to the Boulderslide Ravine.

• The original Hakkar quest (the one that involved killing
  Hakkar’s Avatar in the Sunken Temple) has been extended, and now offers a
  reward.

• Completing the initial Magram or Gelkis quest in Desolace now
  gives appropriate positive and negative reputation gains.

• The completion dialogue for the "A Rogue’s Deal" quest has
  been clarified.

• All 8 versions of the "A Donation of Runecloth" quest have had
  their quest text clarified.

• Certain mobs and NPCs that erroneously had plus or minus
  reputation gains on kills for Horde or Alliance have been corrected.

• Various quest typos fixed.

Raids and Dungeons

• Characters will now receive an error when attempting to enter
  a raid dungeon if the reason they cannot enter is because they are not in a
  raid group.

• Fixed a bug that was preventing Rallying Cry of the Dragon
  Slayer to fire when Onyxia’s head was turned in (assuming a head was not
  already up).

• You can now no longer avoid Onyxia’s confuse effect by jumping
  or moving erratically.

• Death Knight Darkreaver in Scholomance shouldn’t be so noisy
  anymore.

• The Ogre Tannin Basket in Dire Maul should stick around longer
  if someone opens it and does not initially loot the tannin from it.

• A few Molten Core bosses now drop Fiery or Lava Cores.

User Interface

• New "Dressing Room" Interface now available! If you
  control-left click on any item, item reference (vendors, quests) or item link
  (chat), a UI panel will appear showing your character wearing that item. You
  can then use the same command (control-left click) on additional items to add
  to the preview appearance. In addition, the Auction House now has a checkbox
  in the upper right-hand corner; if checked, any item you click on within the
  Auction House will automatically be previewed on your character.

• Need Before Greed and Group Loot options have been improved.
  The rolling window that appears when an item of the threshold and above is
  looted now has three buttons: a Need button (the dice), a Greed button (the
  coin), and a close button. Any players who select Need will get a chance to
  roll first for the item, with the high roller winning. If no one selects Need,
  all characters who selected Greed will then roll, with the highest roll
  winning the item. If everyone closes the window, the item becomes lootable by
  anyone in the group.

• You can now disable the slow scrolling of text when you are
  receiving a new quest.

• Opening the overhead map will now "ping" your location your
  map (to make it easier to notice your location when there are many friendlies
  nearby on the overhead map).

• The overhead map now displays a directional icon for your
  character.

• Spell effects that stack multiple times on a character will
  now display a number in the bottom corner indicating how many times the effect
  has stacked. For example, if a player has had the Sunder Armor ability used on
  them three times, the Sunder Armor effect icon will display a 3 in the corner.

• A confirmation dialog is now shown when you choose to make an
  Inn your home.

• The tooltip for spells like Seal of the Crusader correctly
  reflects the benefit of the spell, instead of occasionally being off by one.

• Using /random will now send the text to your party or raid
  wherever they are instead of the local area around the player that used
  /random.

• When in a raid group, the group you are in will now appear
  above your name next to your portrait.

• Mail recipient name completion now works with offline guild
  members even if you are not showing them in the guild UI.

• Guild ranks and player notes are now filtered by the profanity
  filter.

• The temporary mana cost reduction of Burst of Knowledge and
  similar effects is now reflected in tooltips.

• Quest rewards are now linked in chat like other items gained.

• You can auto-equip items while in flight by right clicking on
  them, as you would normally.

• You can now use the Escape key to exit out of pop up
  dialogues.

• Fixed bug preventing the Release Spirit dialog from showing if
  you die while jumping in lava.

• Fixed lua error when relinking poor and standard quality items
  from loot messages.

• Consumable items on the action bar will now always show the
  number remaining, even if there are none in your inventory.

• You can create the directory InterfaceIcons, and any 32×32 .blp
  or .tga files you put in there will be available in the icon list for your
  macros.

• Pet spells in macros are now supported, both using /cast and
  using CastSpellByName().

• If you omit the rank of a spell in /cast or CastSpellByName(),
  it will use the highest rank of the spell which you know.

• While it will still be possible to override files in
  Interface/FrameXML, doing so is discouraged (and is likely to become
  impossible in a future release). Significant API additions are being made to
  eliminate the need for such direct FrameXML changes.

• You will now be able to list .lua files directly in the addon
  .toc file.

• The SetPoint() and SetAllPoints() script functions can take an
  actual frame instead of a frame name.

• TargetNearest* script functions will only work in response to
  a button click or a key binding, to discourage addons which scan the
  battlefield for targets.

• Addon-specific Saved Variables!

  • Each addon’s saved variables will be saved in the file WTFAccount{accountname}SavedVariables{addonname}.lua,
    and will only be loaded when the addon is loaded.

    IMPORTANT: The first time you enter the game with this change, you must make
    sure all your addons are enabled, or their saved variables will be lost! If
    you accidentally do this once, you can recover by quitting the game, moving
    your backup SavedVariables.lua into place and restarting the game with
    addons enabled.

   

• Addon Loading On Demand!

  • If you add the following line to your addon’s .toc file, it
    will not be loaded at the normal load time, it will instead be dynamically
    loaded upon request:

    ## LoadOnDemand: 1

    You can query to see if an addon is loaded by using the new
    IsAddOnLoaded("addonname") function, and you can load an addon dynamically
    using the LoadAddOn("addonname") function. This function returns true if the
    addon is loaded successfully, and can be safely and efficiently called even
    if the addon is already loaded.

    For your convenience, the function UIParentLoadAddOn("addonname") is
    provided which will attempt to load the addon and pop up an error message if
    it failed to load for any reason.

    Once an addon is loaded, the ADDON_LOADED event is sent, with arg1 set to
    the name of the addon. An addon can listen for that event, and when it
    recieves that event with it’s own name, it can safely access its saved
    variables.

    An important thing to note is that when an addon is loaded dynamically, it
    doesn’t have access to any of the virtual frame templates that are defined
    by FrameXML, including font definitions.

   

• New Scripting Functions

  • debugprofilestart() – starts a timer for profiling during
    debugging.

  • millis = debugprofilestop() – return the time in
    milliseconds since the last call to debugprofilestart()

• New UI Element Member Functions

  • handlerFunction = Frame:GetScript("handler") – (for handlers
    like "OnShow", "OnEnter", etc) which returns the current event handler for a
    frame.

  • Frame:SetScript("handler", function) – sets the action/event
    handler for a frame (or removes it with a nil function)

  • Frame:SetBackdrop(nil) / Frame:SetBackdrop({bgFile = "bgFile",
    edgeFile = "edgeFile", tile = false, tileSize = 0, edgeSize = 32, insets = {
    left = 0, right = 0, top = 0, bottom = 0 }}) (Note: This is a table
    argument)

  • FontString:SetFont("font", size [, "flags"]).

  • StatusBar:SetStatusBarTexture("file" [, "layer"])

  • lines = ScrollingMessageFrame:GetMaxLines()

  • ScrollingMessageFrame:SetMaxLines(lines)

  • ScrollingMessageFrame:EnableFading([isEnabled]) (Defaults to
    true)

  • ScrollingMessageFrame:SetFadeDuration(seconds)

  • ScrollingMessageFrame:SetTimeVisible(seconds)

  • ScrollingMessageFrame:Clear()

  • lines = EditBox:GetHistoryLines()

  • EditBox:SetHistoryLines(lines)

  • EditBox:SetIgnoreArrows([isIgnored]) (Defaults to true)

  • r,g,b,a = FontString:GetTextColor()

  • Frame:SetParent(nil, or "parent" or parentFrame)

  • numChildren = Frame:GetNumChildren()

  • child1, child2, child3, … = Frame:GetChildren()

• Addon Saved Variables

  • SavedVariables will no longer drop stored numbers to single
    precision.

  • Infinite/Nan values no longer cause corrupted
    SavedVariables.lua file. (Written as nils with comment)

• Chat and Combat Logging

  • The script functions ChatFrameLog() and
    ToggleCombatLogFileWrite() are obsolete.

  • Added script function: isLogging=LoggingChat([newState])
    (Returns new state (or current state if no argument))

  • Added script function: isLogging=LoggingCombat([newState])
    (Returns new state (or current state if no argument))

  • New slash command /chatlog toggles chat logging (/combatlog
    toggles combat logging)

  • The file for the chat log is LogsWoWChatLog.txt and the
    file for the combat log is LogsWoWCombatLog.txt

  • Chat and combat log files will be appended to rather than
    overwritten.

  • You now receive combat log messages and damage feedback when
    you are being attacked by creatures you can’t see.

  • If you call a tamed Deepmoss Hatchling, you are no longer
    notified that you hatched.

  • Fixed disconnection caused by relinking an item in a
    different locale than that of your client.

  • Looted items now always show their names in the appropriate
    quality color.

  • You now get combat feedback when you take damage from unseen
    opponents, like the Unseen in Raven Hill.

  • Fixed damage display on the character sheet when you have
    Fury of the Frostwolf or Stormpike’s Salvation.

World Environment

• The Ranazjar Isle sub-area has been added off the northwest
  coast of Desolace. The Ranazjar Isle puzzle piece now properly pops when you
  venture there.

• Entering the zeppelin towers at Durotar and Grom’gol Base Camp
  no longer incorrectly flags you as being in the Valley of Strength.

• Argent Dawn, Timbermaw, Zandalar and Arathi Basin vendors now
  show you their entire inventory regardless of current reputation, allowing
  players to peruse their full range of wares. The items in question now require
  the appropriate reputation level to make use of them.

• Some of the ship and zeppelin paths have been modified.

• Gor’tesh and Grol the Destroyer should no longer stay in evade
  mode indefinitely.

• A new inn has been added to the Grom’gol Base Camp in
  Stranglethorn Vale at the base of the zeppelin tower.

• The Champion’s Hall and the Hall of Legends have new load
  screens.

• Some Horde quest NPCs were moved to new locations to promote
  more intuitive quest flow: Storm Shadowhoof who was previously at Bloodvenom
  Falls in Felwood has been moved to Everlook. Witch Doctor Mau’ari who was
  previously in Orgrimmar has been moved to Everlook.

• Scorpids above level 10 now drop more valuable parts than they
  did previously.

• Rare Felwood creatures should now have loot.

• Twilight’s Hammer creatures in Silithus can now be
  pickpocketed.

• Zone bound items, such as the Gordok Courtyard Key, will no
  longer leave your inventory if you are a ghost outside their intended zone.
  Reviving in a zone outside the item’s listed zone binding will still cause the
  item to disappear, however.

• Pelturas Whitemoon’s faction has been fixed; the NPC is now
  properly associated with Darnassus.

• Narm Faulk is now a part of the Ironforge Faction.

• Hadoken Swiftstrider now has gossip text.

• Ferra can now be skinned.

• Fixed a typo in Ogunaro Wolfrunner’s greeting to those who are
  not yet friendly with Orgrimmar.

• Fixed a typo on a signpost in Western Plaguelands.

• Sayge’s buffs at the Darkmoon Faire are now exclusive to one
  another.

• Onyxia no longer teleports from point to point while flying.