[Cairenn]

Drums of War Cross-Realm Battlegrounds

• For the first time in the history of World of Warcraft, you will be able to face off against players from other realms in the Battlegrounds. PvP Battlegrounds link Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Arathi Basin so that players from several realms will be combined into one huge matchmaking pool. Replenish your mana, sharpen your blades, and get ready for some brand-new challengers!

World PvP

• The stage is set for intense, objective-based land battles as Horde and Alliance vie for control over important strategic positions and resources around Azeroth. Head out for Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands to engage the enemy on the field!

General

• Threat Reduction Effects
  • This system has been redesigned to eliminate inconsistency in how the effects work. Previously, some were additive (for example: 30% reduction + 20% reduction = 50% reduction) while others were multiplicative (30% reduction and 20% reduction made 44% reduction, from 0.7*0.8). They are now all multiplicative. This also prevents unpredictable behavior when the total reduction percentage was equal to or greater than 100%. Please note that in almost all cases, when stacking multiple threat reduction effects you will experience less threat reduction than previously.
• Haste and Slow effects
  • Previously Haste and Slow effects worked inconsistently, with spells working differently from weapons, and hastes and slows not acting as inverses of each other. We have revised the system so that all haste and slow effects work the same way, and haste and slow percentages of the same magnitude perfectly cancel each other out (30% haste and 30% slow combine to no change). As a result, we had to change the tooltip numbers on all spell haste effects, and on all melee and range slow effects. The numbers in the tooltips are different, but the game functionality is unchanged (other than slight rounding errors). Those tooltips that changed will now display larger numbers than they used to display. Conceptually, haste values indicate how much more of that activity you can perform in a given time. 30% melee haste means 30% more swings in a given time. Slow values indicate how much longer an activity takes to complete. 30% slow means an action takes 30% longer to finish.
• The deserter debuff will now continue to expire even while you are offline.
• Honorable Kills now diminish at a rate 10% per kill rather than 25% per kill.
• Temporary item buffs (e.g. poisons, sharpening stones and shaman weapon buffs) will no longer persist through zoning or logging out due to technical issues. This feature is anticipated to be activated once more with the expansion.

Druids

• Barkskin: The tooltip has been changed to 25% due to the haste effect change.
• Cat Form: This form now has an innate threat reduction component.
• Ferocious Bite: Book of Ferocious Bite (Rank 5) now drops off The Beast in Black Rock Spire. In addition, Ferocious Bite now increases in potency with greater attack power.
• Furor: This talent now works correctly with Cat Form again.
• Improved Shred: The discounted cost for Shred will now be displayed correctly even when you are not in Cat Form.
• Rip: Lesser potency Rips will no longer overwrite greater potency ones.
• Fixed a bug where the incorrect sound was being played by the Claw attack.

Hunters

• Spirit Bond: This ability will now be correctly reapplied when you resurrect in a battleground and your pet is polymorphed or otherwise unable to act normally.
• Improved Concussive Shot: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the hunter is killed before their shot reaches the target.
• Growl now correctly initiates combat when used by a pet in passive mode.
• The Ferocity talent now correctly applies to non-physical hunter pet abilities such as Lightning Breath and Thunderstomp.
• If a hunter has tamed one of the following creature types, they will no longer potentially change colors if resummoned:
  • Son of Hakkar - Red
  • Frenzied Bloodseeker Bat - Brown
  • Deep Stinger - Red
  • Dark Screecher - Gray
  • Cave Creeper - Brown
  • Bloodaxe Worg - Black
  • Scarshield Worg -Brown

Mages

• Arcane Missiles: It is no longer possible to cast this spell on an evading mob. In addition, the animation will now stop when the target is dead.
• Arcane Power: It is no longer possible to gain the benefit of this spell and Power Infusion at the same time by careful timing.
• Frost Armor Chilled effect: Due to the haste effect change, the tooltip has been changed to 25%.
• Ice Armor Chilled effect: Due to the haste effect change, the tooltip has been changed to 25%.
• Ignite: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the caster is killed before their spell reaches the target.
• Impact: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the caster is killed before their spell reaches the target.
• Frostbite: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the caster is killed before their spell reaches the target.
• Polymorph: This spell will now be removed when a player leaves a battleground. This prevents some bugs involving polymorph from occurring.
• Evocation will no longer be usable while silenced.
• Reduced the number of messages that appear in the combat log when using Combustion.
• Winter's Chill: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the caster is killed before their spell reaches the target.