PTR 3.3: New Build Deployed, Patch Notes Updated

The new build brings several changes, but we still have to wait for the Halls of Reflection.

It looks like that little bit of extra maintenance on the PTR today wasn’t just for show, as a new build of 3.3 has been deployed on the test realms. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be quite as substantial as the first two, as there seem to be no new instances to run through. Part of me wonders if they’ll just keep Halls of Reflection internal for the duration of the testing period in order to preserve the secrecy of whatever events might transpire there.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any new or interesting changes. Here are the updated patch notes:

Druid

• Rebirth: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 20 minutes down to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Gift of the Earthmother: Redesigned. This talent now increases spell haste by 2/4/6/8/10% instead of its previous effect.

Hunter

• Call Stabled Pet: Cooldown reduced from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Mage

• Improved Scorch: The debuff from this talent no longer stacks, and instead can apply the full effect from a single cast of Scorch.

Priest

• Power Word: Shield; This spell can now be cast on non-raid/party friendly targets.
• Improved Devouring Plague: This spell now deals 10/20/30% of its total periodic effect instantly, up from 5/10/15%.
• Shadowform: This talent also now causes Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Pain, and Vampiric Touch to benefit from haste. Both the period length and the duration of these spells will be reduced by haste. In addition, the mana cost has been reduced from 32% to 13% of base mana.
• Vampiric Embrace: This ability is now provides a 30-minute buff that cannot be dispelled, instead of a target debuff.

Shaman

• Reincarnation: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 60 minutes down to 50 minutes (Improved Reincarnation will continue to lower the cooldown by 10/20 minutes).

Warlock

• Create Soulstone: The cooldown on this spell and duration of its buff have been lowered from 30 minutes down to 15 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Decimation: Redesigned. When Shadowbolt, Incinerate or Soul Fire hit a target that is at or below 35% health, the cast time of Soul Fire is reduced by 20/40% for 8 seconds. Soul Fires cast under the effect of Decimation cost no shards.
• Molten Core: Redesigned. Shadow spells and damage-over-time effects have a 12% chance to increase the damage done by Incinerate by 5/10/15% and Soul Fire by 4/7/10% for 12 seconds. In addition, Molten Core now has a new spell effect.

User Interface

• Non spell-based tracking now persists through logout.
• Any party member may mark raid targets.
• Users will be warned when their talents are reset due to a new patch.
• “/Settitle” command has been added.
• Instant quest text is on by default.
• “Tentative” status added for calendar responses.
• Players below level 10 may not join raids.
• Ignore list expanded to 50 to match the friends list.
• Unit frames added for special encounters.
• Interface element added next to the mini-map to show what dungeon you are in (ex: 10- and 25-player Heroic dungeons marked with a skull).
• Experience earned for a quest will display in the Quest Rewards section.
• Confirmation box added when buying stable slots.
• Macro Changes

Symbol “@” added as a synonym for “target=”;. For example, “/cast [@focus] Flash Heal”.
New macro conditionals: “vehicleui” (if the player has a vehicle UI) and “unithasvehicleui” (if the target of the macro has a vehicle UI).

Character and Creature Nameplates

• The range at which players can see nameplates has been significantly expanded.
• You can no longer see nameplates through objects which block line of sight.

As long as you are able to peer through the doorway of a room, you will see nameplates of characters and creatures in that room.
Pillars and bridges in Arenas will not hide friendly or enemy nameplates.

• Totem nameplates can be toggled off under “PRODUCTION” settings via “Interface Options” on the test realms.
• Instead of nameplates for large groups of players or creatures trying to sort themselves, they will now overlap. This functionality can be toggled off under “PRODUCTION” settings via “Interface Options” on the test realms.

Addon Author Changes

• “registerForClicks” added to xml buttons.
• “MouseIsOver” has been converted to a “C” function for increased efficiency (e.g. /dump PlayerFrame:IsMouseOver() ).
• When an addon file is loaded, the addon name and an addon table are passed to the file through ‘…’. The same addon table is passed to every file loaded by a particular TOC file (example at the top of a Lua file: “local addonName, addonTable = …;”.
• “motionScriptsWhileDisabled” attribute added to buttons. This allows “OnEnter”; and “OnLeave”; to fire while the button is disabled.
• “GetFileHeight()” and “GetFileWidth()” added to Texture objects. 0 is returned if no texture file is associated with the texture.
• You can now query for a list of completed quests with “QueryQuestsCompleted()” then wait for the “QUEST_QUERY_COMPLETE” event, and call “GetQuestsCompleted(<luatable>)”.

As you can see, several spells have been redesigned (and I’m personally pretty happy about the reduced cooldown on Rebirth), but some of the most exciting changes are coming to the User Interface. Though allowing anybody in your party to mark targets may seem like trouble waiting to happen for an unruly group, it should be quite beneficial for those that know how to control themselves. It takes some of the sweat of the tank or raid/party leader if other people can be designated to mark targets on the fly.

Likewise, I’m glad that they’re finally adding a “tentative” option to calender responses. I’m sure we’ve all had days when we weren’t entirely sure we’d be able to make it to a raid or not, and just knowing that much makes organizing them a heckuva lot easier.

As for the nameplates? Well, I always have them on, and while I can see a few problems with allowing them to overlap, I think it’ll be much less confusing than the current setup which has them bouncing all over the place when there is a large group of mobs to deal with. That makes them extremely hard to individually target with the mouse. You go to click one and its nameplate has just jumped across the screen, and we all know that mis-targeting can, on occasion, lead to rather unfortunate consequences.

As a side note, MMO-Champion has revealed that Oswald the Penguin will now once again go by his old name, Mr. Chilly. One might wonder why Blizzard did such a quick one-eighty!

This new build is sure to bear more fruit as we continue to explore what it offers, so please stay tuned, and let us know what you think of the changes above!