Tanking and Survivability Changes

We are making some adjustments to tank survivability based on what we’re seeing in Icecrown Citadel. We feel this is particularly important in preparation for upcoming Heroic attempts. This is tricky and occasionally subjective, so we might very well make more adjustments as we get even more data.

Paladin

• Sacred Duty now provides 2 / 4% Stamina, down from 4 / 8% Stamina. The cooldown advantages of the talent remain unchanged.

Death Knight

• Frost Presence now provides 8% Stamina, up from 6% Stamina.
• Icebound Fortitude now provides 30% base damage reduction, up from 20% damage reduction. For a geared tank with high defense, this translates to 50% damage reduction, up from 40%.

It’s important to note that we aren’t trying to single out paladins here. We like the tank balance of warriors and druids at the moment, and we have a larger sample size of warrior tanks that we can compare. Another solution would have been to buff warriors, death knights and druids and then increase boss damage accordingly. Obviously, that would have been a much larger change with greater risks and a longer delay.

Though Ardent Defender is always a possible target for changes, we like that this talent provides such a distinction between warriors and paladins. Rather than have all the tanks have the same health, armor, avoidance and cooldowns, we’d rather have four unique tanking classes rather than just superficial or artistic differences. Yes, that design is harder to balance, but we think class distinction is ultimately more interesting, which is better for the long term health of the game. The goal remains to have all four tanks be viable for any encounter, assuming sufficient gear and skill, and any differences in performance on individual encounters to be minor. “Minor” is obviously a subjective term.

Please note that the death knight change will result in a small survivability increase in PvP, which we think is appropriate. We chose it partially with that in mind.

Icecrown Citadel: Raid Weekly Quests

Now that Icecrown Citadel has been fully unlocked, allowing players the ability to progress in 10- and 25-player formats to defeat the Lich King, new raid weekly quests have been unlocked! These quests are specific to the Icecrown Citadel raid dungeon and do not correspond with the standard random raid weekly quest offered in Dalaran. Here's an overview of what you need to know.

One of five quests will be randomly available each week in both 10- and 25-player versions of the dungeon. This means each player has the opportunity to complete two Icecrown Citadel raid weekly quests each week if the dungeon is run in both versions, however, these quests have to be completed within the raid version (10- or 25-player) in which they are offered.

If a player obtains one of these quests but does not complete it that week, the quest will automatically be removed from the player's Quest Log the next time Lord Marrowgar is defeated under a new raid ID, or when zoning into an instance with a new raid ID where Lord Marrowgar has already been defeated. This only applies if the random raid weekly offered when the player enters a fresh Icecrown Citadel raid instance happens to be different from the one already in his or her Quest Log. Players can otherwise simultaneously have both the 10- and 25-player raid weekly quests in their Quest Logs and complete either of them at any time during the week in their respective raid versions. The quests given each week in 10- and 25-player versions of Icecrown Citadel will be randomly determined once Lord Morrowgar is killed, or once a player zones into an instance where Lord Morrowgar has already been killed.

The Quests:

• Deprogramming - Look for a rogue named Infiltrator Minchar outside of Lady Deathwhisper's chamber. He'll speak of a brainwashed operative who needs saving from the lady's powerful means of influence. While engaging Deathwhisper, keep an eye out for a warrior named Darnavan among her minions. He must live if your raid group is to succeed in completing the quest.
  
  
• Securing the Ramparts - After taking the platform up to the ramparts from Lady Deathwhisper's chamber, a lieutenant of your faction will seek your help in slaying the Rotting Frost Giant on the other end of the ramparts terrorizing his troops. Bring the monster down and return to the lieutenant for your reward.
  
  
• Residue Rendezvous - Should you succeed in killing Deathbringer Saurfang, you will soon meet Alchemist Adrianna upon lurking further into the citadel. She will task your group with the unfortunate job of being infected by both a Green Residue from Rotface and an Orange Residue from Festergut. While infected with both residues, at least one player from the raid must speak with Alchemist Adrianna in order for everyone in the group to receive credit.
  
  
• Blood Quickening - Outside the Crimson Hall awaits Alrin the Agile to inform your group that his friend, Infiltrator Minchar, has been captured by the San'layn for interrogation. Should you choose to help in rescuing Minchar, you will have 30 minutes from the moment you step foot in the Crimson Hall to kill Blood-Queen Lana'thel before she executes him. Fortunate enough for you, she will not kill Minchar if she is busy fighting your group.
  
  
• Respite for a Tormented Soul - If your group can successfully free Valithria, she will morph into her humanoid form to offer you a quest in a more approachable manner. Providing each player who accepts the quest with a Pulsating Life Crystal, a channeling device, Valithria will speak of a way to save Sindragosa's spirit. Members of the raid who use these crystals on Sindragosa when she is below 20% health will slowly stack on her the Life Infusion debuff. Reaching 30 stacks (10-player) or 75 stacks (25-player) of Life Infusion before she dies will provide the frost wyrm with an aura of Soul Preservation. If your group manages to give Sindragosa this aura before killing her, a quest item can be obtained from her remains to complete Valithria's task.

The Reward:
Completing any of these quests will reward each member of the group with a Sack of Frosty Treasures and a healthy chunk of gold. The sack will contain Emblems of Frost and other potentially valuable items!

Recent In-Game Fixes

02/05

• Rimefang now flies less frequently in all raid formats.
• Animated Bones summoned by the Anub’ar Necromancers, no longer award experience when defeated.
• The amount of damage being absorbed by sacred Shield and Power Word: Shield is being reduced by 10% correctly in only battlegrounds, Arenas, and Wintergrasp.
• The range of the Lich King’s Remorseless Winter aura has been increased in Halls of Reflection.
• The Val’kyr Shadowguards in the Icecrown Citadel Lich King raid encounter should always properly pick up their target.
• Deathbringer Saurfang should gain blood power less rapidly in normal 10 and normal 25 player modes and players can also no longer zone in while this encounter is active.
• Sindragosa’s Backlash ability can no longer crit.
• The Fountain of Light proc effect can now heal players outside of the caster’s party.

Druid

• The rejuvenation procs from the Druid Tier 10 will now work better in a raid group and not avoid targets that have any rejuvenation spell on them though it will continue to avoid targets that have the casting druid’s rejuvenation on them.

Warrior

• The damage bonus done by Devastate has been appropriate increased to be in line with the changes made in patch 3.3.2.

Our next interview has been with Cavis from Unity, which is a alliance raiding community.
Click here to read it or just follow the link under Steamwheedle Cartel at the top menu.

Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted.

To review previous in-game fixes, please visit: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21723843880&sid=1

2/3

• Blood Queen Lana’thel will now begin her flight phase a little earlier in 25 player mode, Vampiric Bite is no longer mitigated by armor, and the damage of Vampiric Bite has been reduced.
• Toravon will not be affected appropriately by Area-of-Effect damage spells.
• The Frost Orb corpses in the Toravon encounter will now despawn faster.
• Players who are dead will now get credit as intended when defeating the Valithira Dreamwalker encounter.
• Players can no longer zone in while the Valithria Dreamwalker encounter is active.
• Anti Magic Shell no longer resets the Mystic Buffet stacks in the Sindragosa encounter.
• The Val’kyr in the Lich King encounter are no longer affected by Death Grip and will head to ledges faster.

I just had to share this awesome trailer. This game is gonna be epic!