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Notable Notes from Patch 3.2.2
On Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Blizzard released Patch 3.2.2 - mostly tweaks and a few bug fixes - to World of Warcraft and three days later a minor patch -3.2.2a - to fix bugs in 3.2.2.
As usual, it was not fun to play on Patch Day. The culprit this time was server lag, but the Wednesday rolling restarts and Friday's bug patch seem to have fixed at least the worst of it. Lag still seems more noticeable than before 3.2.2, though.
Here are some highlights from 3.2.2.
Content
- Onyxia's Lair has returned as a 10- or 25-man level-80 raid instance. (See Wowhead comments.) One of the less likely rewards is supposed to be Brood of Onyxia, a "very rare" 310% speed ("extremely fast") epic flying mount.
Class, Talent, and Stat Changes
- Death Knights and Paladins got the usual mix of buffs and nerfs.
- Beast Mastery Hunters got a mixed bag:
- Bestial Wrath - duration reduced to 10 seconds. Nerf.
- The Beast Within - duration reduced to 10 seconds. Nerf. But...
- The Beast Within now gives 10% damage increase *at all times* - in addition to its enraged effect. Buff!
- Various other classes got what look like some buffs.
- For a change, Arcane Mages came out a little ahead:
- Although it was far from clear in the notes, the new Missile Barrage effect (no mana cost) is an *addition* to the previous proc (double-speed channeling), not a replacement. (Unfortunately, it is clear that the tooltip text remains awkward, and the grammar atrocious.)
- The mana cost of stacking Arcane Blast was reduced slightly (from 200% to 175%), and the maximum size of the buff stack was increased (from 3 to 4).
- On the other hand, the duration of the Arcane Blast increased-damage buff was reduced (to 6 seconds) - a clear nerf. The duration is renewed with each cast but timed from the beginning of the cast, which doesn't leave you much time between casts for such niceties as Slow, Spellsteal, Mana Shield, or - heaven forbid - changing targets - especially considering the sorry state of the targeting algorithms. [Corrected.]
- The Armor Penetration boost from Patch 3.2 has been cut in half. (Blizz giveth, and Blizz taketh away.)
Professions
From my perspective, the highlight of the patch is this section (links added):
- The blacksmiths of Orgrimmar grew tired of running to the rear of the city to craft items and have installed a new anvil & forge at the General Store in the Valley of Strength.
- Inscription
- Added a recipe for Runescroll of Fortitude. This item grants a stamina buff equal to the highest rank of Power Word: Fortitude (untalented) to all players in the raid. The effect of this runescroll is exclusive with other stamina scrolls and Power Word: Fortitude.
- Leatherworking
- Added a recipe for Drums of Forgotten Kings. These drums increase all stats by 8% for all players in a raid. The effect of these drums is exclusive with Blessing of Kings.
- Added a recipe for Drums of the Wild. These drums grant a buff equal to the highest rank of Mark of the Wild (untalented) to all players in a raid. The effect of these drums is exclusive with Mark of the Wild.
The above provides a way for a group in an instance or a raid to get a priest buff without a priest, a paladin buff without a paladin, and a druid buff without a druid. Yay! This seems to me extremely helpful.
And a huge huzzah! for the long-overdue addition of a more convenient anvil in Orgrimmar.
Unannounced Changes
Things that were changed without notice:
- Trial of the Champion
- There is now an option to bypass the drawn-out procession that introduces this instance.
- At the end of the jousting phase, it is no longer necessary to run out of the instance (and back in) to give your group a chance to heal and buff. The previously mounted bosses now simply stand and wait for you to regroup.
- The second boss - Eadric or Paletress - no longer waits to be triggered. As soon as the trash trios are dispatched, the boss takes a few steps forward and goes into action.
- Hunters may be unpleasantly surprised to find that Kill Shot now has a minimum range.
Etc.
You can find the complete patch notes (Patch.txt) in your WoW directory or online. In theory, "the latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/" - although occasional delays and glitches do occur. In this case, the "glitch" is that "the latest patch notes" refer to 2.2.2a, not 2.2.2, and comprise not much more than, "We fixed some bugs." (Not an actual Blizzard quote.)
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