World of Warcraft Client Patch 1.9.0 (2006-01-03)

[Cairenn]

The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj

The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj will house two massive, unique dungeons -- the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, a 20-man raid dungeon, and the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, a 40-man raid dungeon. As players delve deeper into the mysteries of Ahn'Qiraj, they will discover revelations of the Silithid infestation and their shadowy masters, the Qiraji. Players will have to complete a world event of massive proportions before they can open the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj on their realm.
***During the public test of Ahn'Qiraj, the world event to open the gates will be accelerated to allow testing of the dungeon content.***

Linked Auction Houses

Players will now be able to buy and sell goods with greater effectiveness using the Linked Auction House system. Auction Houses in Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Thunder Bluff will now share the same pool of Horde player-created auctions, and Alliance players will find the same to be true when visiting Ironforge, Stormwind City, and Darnassus Auction Houses. This system has been expanded to support the neutral Auction Houses as well. Tanaris, Everlook, and Booty Bay will all be linked for players of both factions to access. In addition, the "Looking for Group" and "Trade" channels have been unified among the corresponding cities, meaning, for example, that you can trade your goods or look for groups in Ironforge while in Stormwind.

Multiple Battlegrounds Queues

Players will be able to enter multiple battleground queues. No longer must you make the hard decision of which queue to join -- when queued for all three, you can join the first one available or hold out for that particular battleground which you've really got your heart set on. Should a queue open while you are already in a battleground, you may switch to the new battle or remain in the current on.

Soul Shard Bags

Tailors now can make soul bags to hold soul shards. The smallest is a 20-slot bag, the recipe for which can be purchased in Gadgetzan. The recipe for a larger bag can be found in Scholomance, and one for an even larger bag can be found in Molten Core. In the main UI, these soul bags will display how many shards they contain. So long as the soul bags have room, any soul shards a warlock creates will automatically go into the bag.

Raid Calendar System

The raid-lockout system has undergone a significant change. The new system will have all instances reset at a certain server time, regardless of when you were actually saved to the instance. The reset schedule is as follows:
Molten Core: Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance.
Blackwing Lair: Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance
Onyxia: Every 5 Days
Zul'Gurub: Every 3 Days
Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (40-man): Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance
Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj (20-man): Every 3 Days
All resets will occur during off-hours, when the least amount of raids are active.

Important Note for Mac OS X Users

The minimum supported Mac OS X revision for WoW will be changed in a post-1.9.0 patch, from 10.3.5 to 10.3.9. If you are running 10.3.5 - 10.3.8 and need to get the free update, you can use Software Update or you can click here for the direct download. This change will make it easier for us to release future updates to the game, for example to support upcoming Mac models based on Intel processors.

General

· All Disorient effects have been renamed Incapacitate effects. This includes Gouge, Sap, etc.

· All Confusion effects have been renamed Disorient effects. This includes Blind, Scatter Shot, etc.

· Food and Drink are now in separate categories, so you can only have one food effect and one drink effect on you at a time. The only effect should be that foods that used to stack with each other (you could have two food effects on you at once) no longer will stack.

· On-next-swing abilities will no longer cause multiple weapon procs on a single swing.

· It is now possible to change the game's priority and processor affinity through Task Manager.

PvP & Battlegrounds

· The Defiler's Talisman and Talisman of Arathor are now available at Friendly reputation.

· Level 48, 38, and 28 versions of the Defiler's Talisman and Talisman of Arathor have been added.

· Two new rewards have been added for reaching Friendly reputation level with the Silverwing Sentinel and Warsong Outrider factions.

· New caster ring reward added for reaching Exalted status with the Stormpike or Frostwolf factions.

· When a player leaves a battleground before it concludes, they will be unable to re-enter any battleground queue for 15 minutes.

· Several civilian NPCs, who previously would assist non-civilians, will no longer do so.

· A bug has been fixed with the Warsong Gulch reward vendors that were allowing items achieved at reaching Friendly reputation to be purchased at lower reputation levels.

· Reputation rewards for the PvP Battlegrounds have been adjusted:

· Superior Health Draughts, Superior Mana Draughts, and Battleground-specific bandages are now available uniformly at Friendly reputation.

· Major Health Draughts and Major Mana Draughts are now available uniformly at Honored reputation.

· Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin now offer Battleground-specific rations at Friendly reputation.

[Cairenn]

Druids

· Bear and Dire Bear form - Effects that lower armor will now lower armor by a percentage of the druid's full armor, rather than just base (caster form) armor. However, Enrage will still only remove 75% of base armor.

· Omen of Clarity - Special attacks will no longer consume their own clearcasting state. All melee attacks will now be able to trigger the clearcasting state.

· Nature's Grasp - This spell can now trigger from special melee attacks. It will no longer be possible to cast Entangling Roots at no mana cost immediately after Nature's Grasp procs.

· Nature's Grace - The Nature's Grace buff will now appear on the player upon completion of casting, before the travel time of the spell. So, Wrath crits will now benefit the casting time of the next spell cast.

· Insect Swarm - New icon.

· Improved Starfire - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc.).

· Omen of Clarity - This spell now works correctly with Bash, Rip, Ferocious Bite, and Demoralizing Roar, granting a decrease in the cost of the ability. Ferocious Bite will still use the entire energy bar to generate additional damage.

· Cat Form - Feline Swiftness will now regain its speed increase when moving from indoors to outdoors.

· Cure Poison - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

· Remove Curse - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

· Abolish Poison - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

Hunters

· Arcane Shot - Will no longer trigger two Judgement of Wisdom effects with one shot.

· Aspect of the Pack and Aspect of the Cheetah - Periodic damage will no longer trigger the Dazed effect.

· Aspect of the Wild - Radius increased. Tooltip updated to display radius.

· Improved Concussive Shot - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc.).

· Tame Beast - The hunter will now turn to face the target during the taming process.

· Bestial Wrath - Damage bonus reduced, duration increased. In addition, while enraged, the beast will be immune to Disorient effects (e.g. Scatter Shot, Blind, etc.)

· Unleashed Fury - Damage bonus increased.

· Pet Changes

· Base pet speed is now standardized for all pets, including legacy pets. Pet speed can still be modified through the talent Bestial Swiftness and pet abilities such as Charge, Dash, etc.

· All hunter pets will now always deal Physical damage for their base attack.

· Turtles can now eat raw and cooked fish.

· Turtles can now learn Shell Shield, allowing them to reduce all damage taken by 50% for 10 sec.

· Hunters can now tame Sons of Hakkar. Sons of Hakkar are in the Wind Serpent family and will know Lightning Breath (Rank 6).

· Boars can now learn Charge, an ability that allows them to charge to an enemy, immobilize that enemy for 1 second, and add a large amount of Attack Power to the boar's next attack.

· Gorillas can now learn Thunderstomp, an ability that causes high threat area Nature damage.

Mages

· Impact - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc.).

· Netherwind Regalia - The 8-piece set bonus will now proc immediately upon completion of casting the spell, before travel time on the spell. This will allow the proc to affect the next spell cast as intended.

· Arcane Concentration - Blizzard will now be able to gain a Clearcasting state from this talent.

· Arcane Missles - Will now be able to trigger procs based on dealing damage.

· Remove Lesser Curse - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

· Blast Wave - Will now show spell data in the talent page.

· Conjure Water (Rank 7) – Will now create ten waters instead of four.

· Pyroblast – Damage bonus from + spell damage items increased.

[Cairenn]

Paladins

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

· Paladins can now learn Greater Blessings for the following spells:

· Blessing of Might

· Blessing of Wisdom

· Blessing of Kings

· Blessing of Sanctuary

· Blessing of Salvation

Greater Blessings will cast the associated blessing on all raid members that share the same class as the target. For example, if you cast Greater Blessing of Might on a warrior in your raid, all warriors in the raid party will receive Blessing of Might from you. Additionally, Greater Blessings have an increased duration of 15 minutes. These blessings require twice as much mana as the single target version, as well as a reagent. Paladins can purchase these new Greater Blessing spells from their class trainers.

· Seals and Judgements - Added or increased damage per level so that these spells keep pace between replacements.

· Judgements - Judgements that place a debuff on their victim will now all have their duration refreshed when the judging paladin strikes the victim with his or her melee swings. All these debuffs have had their duration decreased to 10 seconds. In addition, Judgements that place debuffs can no longer be resisted.

· Seal of Righteousness - Now does holy damage on every swing. It can now proc correctly as well. The Judgement effect has been renamed "Judgement of Righteousness" to differentiate it from the Seal damage in the combat log.

· Judgement of the Crusader - The holy damage bonus has been decreased as part of rebalancing paladin damage (which is still increased overall).

· Seal of Command - The proc will occur more often, but will only do 70% of weapon-swing damage.

· Judgement of Command - Instead of placing a debuff on the victim, this spell now does immediate damage. If the victim is not stunned, they only take 50% of the total damage. The damage on this Judgement was increased significantly.

· Judgement of Wisdom - Arcane Shot will no longer cause this to proc twice on one shot. Channeling spells can now trigger this proc as well.

· Vengeance - Special ability critical hits can now trigger Vengeance.

· Judgement of Righteousness - The damage of this judgement was increased significantly. This judgement can now trigger procs. The bonus from spell damage items has been increased slightly.

· Holy Shock - Now heals friendly targets and damages enemy targets. Mana cost reduced. Bonus from spell damage and healing items increased.

· All Seals and Judgements have had their bonus coefficient from plus spell damage re-evaluated. Some holy damage effects had no coefficient before and now have a coefficient.

· Vengeance - Clarified the tooltip to indicate procs will not trigger Vengeance.

· Summon Warhorse - Mana cost reduced.

· Summon Charger - Mana cost reduced.

· Consecration - No longer displays a debuff icon on targets in the area of effect.

· Updated Aura tooltips to be more clear (include radius, fix grammatical errors etc...).

· Judgement - Range increased, cooldown decreased, mana cost decreased. Using Judgement will now initiate melee combat.

· Exorcism - Now usable on Demon targets in addition to Undead targets.

· Holy Wrath - Now usable on Demon targets in addition to Undead targets.

· Seal of Justice - Mana cost slightly increased. The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc...).

· Seal of Righteousness - The damage bonus from +Holy damage has been reevaluated on this seal. Since the damage is delivered on every swing, the bonus has been reduced. However, paladins attacking with faster weapons should see an overall increase in the bonus from + spell damage gear. Mana Cost slightly increased.

· Seal of Command - Damage bonus from +Holy damage items slightly increased.

· Seal of the Crusader - Mana cost slightly increased.

· Seal of Fury - The seal and judgement have been removed and replaced with a new self-buff, Righteous Fury, which will increase threat from holy damage.

· Seal of Light - Mana cost slightly increased.

· Seal of Wisdom - Mana cost slightly increased.

· Seal of Command - Mana cost slightly increased.

· Hammer of Wrath - Missile speed of the flying hammer increased.

· Divine Protection, Divine Shield and Blessing of Protection - Targets of these spells will now receive the "Forbearance" effect, preventing another of these three spells from being applied to that target for one minute.

· New Spell: Righteous Fury (level 16) - Increases the threat generated by the Paladin's Holy attacks by 60%. Lasts 30 minutes.

· Blessing of Sanctuary - Now causes Holy damage to the attacker when the blessed target blocks an attack in addition to the current effect.

· Hammer of Justice - Is now a Protection spell.

· Repentance - Is now considered an Incapacitate effect.

· Blessing of Wisdom - Mana regeneration over time will no longer generate threat.

· Purify - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

• Cleanse - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

[Cairenn]

Priests

· Martyrdom - This talent will now trigger on melee special abilities as well as on melee swings. The tooltip has been clarified to indicate this ability only works on melee strikes.

· Dispel Magic - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

· Cure Disease - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

· Abolish Disease - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

· Mind Blast - Threat raised on ranks 7, 8, and 9. Incorrect data had been entered in those spells, resulting in less threat generated than designed.

· Blackout - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc...).

Rogues

· Sword Specialization - Special attacks such as Sinister Strike, and Mortal Strike now properly trigger the chance to gain an extra attack.

· Mace Specialization - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc...).

· Slice and Dice - This finisher can now trigger the Ruthlessness talent.

Shaman

· Lightning Shield - This spell will now proc when the shaman is struck by elemental attacks.

· Stormstrike - Earthbind and Stoneclaw totems will no longer use up charges of Stormstrike.

· New Spell - Tranquil Air Totem. Creates a totem that reduces the threat caused by nearby party members by 20%.

· Grounding Totem - This totem will no longer absorb the spell from Crippling Poison or Deadly Poison.

· Purge - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

· Cure Poison - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

· Cure Disease - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

· Poison Cleansing Totem - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

· Disease Cleansing Totem - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.

Warlocks

· Searing Pain - Reduced mana cost by 10%.

· Infernal and Doomguard - Increased armor 10% and damage 30% on both pets.

· Soul Link - This spell can no longer be partially dispelled off the warlock. In addition, Soul Link can no longer be used on non-demon pets.

· Hellfire - Victims of Hellfire are now able to resist properly. Warlocks continue (as designed) to be unable to resist their own damage.

· Curse of Shadow and Curse of the Elements - These curses can no longer cause resistance to become negative. To compensate, both curses now increases the damage taken from the appropriate schools by a percentage.

· Summon Felsteed - Mana cost reduced.

· Summon Dreadsteed - Mana cost reduced.

· Pyroclasm - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc...).

[Cairenn]

Warriors

· Execute - Improved Execute and other discounts to the Execute ability will now correctly convert the resulting extra rage into damage.

· Retaliation - This ability will no longer lose charges when the attacker is behind the warrior.

· Sword Specialization - Special attacks such as Sinister Strike, and Mortal Strike now properly trigger the chance to gain an extra attack.

· Sweeping Strikes - Whirlwind and Retaliation will now correctly consume the charges from Sweeping Strikes.

· Bloodthirst - The damage component has been increased to 45% of attack power.

· Enrage - The talent will now grant 5/10/15/20/25% extra damage when enraged, instead of 8/16/24/33/40%.

· Mace Specialization - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc...).

· Improved Revenge - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc...).

· Unbridled Wrath - Only normal melee swings will trigger the rage generation from this ability.

Racial Traits

· Troll Racial Abilities
Troll Berserking

· New functionality: Berserking is now an activated ability that increases your melee, ranged, and casting speed by 10% to 30%. The value scales upwards towards 30% depending how low your health is when you activate the ability.

· Now lasts 10 seconds.

· Now requires a small amount of mana, rage, or energy (depending on your class) to activate.

· No longer requires being struck by a critical to activate.

· Now has a three minute cooldown, up from two minutes.

· No longer has a global cooldown.

Throwing Mastery

· Trolls now also receive a bonus to Bow weapons in addition to Throwing weapons.

· Orc Racial Abilities
Blood Fury

· Now applies a healing effectiveness debuff on the user instead of the attack power penalty. The healing debuff is applied immediately upon using the ability.

Hardiness

· Resistance is now applied to just Stun mechanics.

· Gnome Racial Abilities
Escape Artist

· Casting time lowered.

· Dwarven Racial Abilities
Stoneform

· No longer snares the user.

· Armor bonus increased.

• Duration lowered.

[Cairenn]

Items

· All of the Tier 2 Class Armor sets have been updated with new art.

· The following weapons and shields have been updated with new art : Perdition's Blade, Obsidian Edged Blade, Gutgore Ripper, Core Hound Tooth, Aurastone Hammer, Drillborer Disk, Staff of Dominance.

· Many of the pieces from the Tier 2 Armor sets have received updated statistics. The armor sets with the most extensive changes include the Netherwind, Nemesis, and Judgement sets. Other sets received fewer revisions, or none at all.

· Slimes have been latching on to more valuable items and they will now be dropping better loot than they used to, including coin drops and special bags.

· Drop rates of Darkmoon Cards 2-8 (Portals 2-8, etc..) have been reduced. Ace drop rates have been increased.

· The drop rate of Shadowcat Hides has been increased.

· The Lifestealing enchantment now does shadow damage rather than fire damage.

· Manna Biscuits now have two separate spell effects so they stack correctly with other food and water.

· Well Fed buffs from special foods will no longer stack with each other.

· The enchanter-made wands are now correctly flagged as Bind on Equip.

· Silithus air elementals have a slightly increased chance of dropping essence of air

· Stormshroud Shoulders have been fixed to be a superior item and have had the stamina on them slightly increased as well.

· Whistle of the Black War Raptor was changed to Bind on Acquire.

· The Runed Stygian Belt is no longer Unique.

· Bandages will now appears as "Consumable" in the auction house.

· Jaedenar humanoids and demons in Felwood and Winterfall Furbolgs in Winterspring can now drop Runecloth.

· Winterfall Furbolgs will not drop Winterfall Firewater as often.

· The Seal of Wrynn, Nogg's Gold Ring, and Talvash's Gold Ring have been improved to be superior items.

· All Giants in Azshara now drop cash and items appropriate for an elite creature.

· The attack speed slowing effect from Thunderfury has been reduced to 20%, and no longer stacks with other such effects such as Thunderclap. The rate at which the weapon procs has also been lowered.

· The Reckless Charge ability of the Goblin Rocket Helmet and Horned Viking Helmet is now considered an incapacitating effect instead of a sleep effect.

· Flamewaker Legplates and Sash of Whispered Secrets improved to have the proper stats of an epic item.

· Broken Silithid Chitin is now marked as a poor item.

· Albino Crocscale Boots now has the appropriate geometry attached.

· Darkshore Grouper now has an appropriate sound when moved in your inventory.

· The effect of the Freezing Band is now considered a Freeze effect.

· The Force Reactive Disk's and Cloak of Fire's effects will no longer gain a benefit from effects that increase spell damage.

· The Insightful Hood and Southsea Head Bucket will now cover hair properly.

· The proc ability of the Halberd of Smiting can no longer cause another proc.

· The Glimmering Mithril Insignia will no longer make a player immune to Death Coil.

· The Goblin Mortar's stun effect now has a description.

· Six Demon Bag tooltip changed to note that the target must be in front of the caster.

· The Fiery War Axe is now in fact, Fiery.

· The Abyssal Plate Gauntlets are now Bind on Equip.

· Items with the Frost Blast ability will now deal the correct damage listed.

· Gauntlets of Shining Light is now spelled correctly.

· The Pure Elementium Band now has a sell price.

· The Mendicant's Slippers now have the proper amount of stamina for the level of the item.

· Arcanist's Bindings had more resistances than proper for the item, and these were removed.

· Alcor's Sunrazor is now Bind on Equip.

· Transforming Thunderstrike and Shadowstrike will no longer consume additional copies of the item that might be in the inventory.

· Added a note to the tooltip for the Healing and Mana Draughts available in Alterac Valley that informs the player they are only usable in Alterac Valley.

· Incorrect amounts of abilities such as Attack Power, Increased Fire Damage, or Increased Healing Damage were being applied to all random item property world drops. Two handed weapons such as Staves had much lower amounts of these abilities, while ranged and one handed weapons had too much. All further drops of these items will have the correct amounts, but previously dropped items will not be affected by this change.

· The Shardtooth Meat quest item can no longer be fed to a Hunter pet.

· Blue Dragon Card - This trinket will no longer proc from non-combat abilities.

· Shield Spikes - Shield Spike damage will no longer occur on ranged blocks.

· The Gnomish Death Ray's backfire will now affect players even if they have an immunity effect, such as Divine Shield.

· The Zandalarian shoulder enchantments now properly display their effects on the item enchanted.