It took awhile after the holiday doldrums, but Blizzard is finally back in the swing. Todays weekly maintenance will bring Patch 2.3.2 live — otherwise known as the end of HARP. Aside from Rogues, Mages also got some significant changes… most notably trainable Ice Block. Also don’t forget to check your latency/lag/ping after the patch, for many players it will be lower with Blizzard disabling the Nagle algorithm (no more Windows tweaking needed) — a bonus for twitchy PvPer’s.

For those who have forgotten the other little changes in the patch, as always, I’ve highlighted the PvP specific changes in the patch notes at the end of this article.

As for 2.4, Blizzard continues to tease and tantalize:

“Tons of content that’s sure to blow your mind, AND it’s coming…”soon”!” -Eyonix

This hype about 2.4 falls right in line with the BlizzCast that will take place this week. According to Blizzplanet, the BlizzCast is scheduled to take place Thursday, January 10th. Hopefully they do not disappoint on the PvP end.

And finally we have this note from Eyonix saying that the Armory is now fixed… although I’m still getting “character data unavailable” for just about all my searches. Oh well, I guess I need to wait “some time for each character to update”.

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 2.3.2 (PvP Specific)

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

General
- /timetest is a command that can be run to provide information on game performance. /timetest 0 turns the command off. When the command is issued, the next time a player uses a flight master to travel, certain statistics will be measured and displayed at the end of that flight. All weather effects and spawns are shutdown during the test.
- Effects triggered from being critically hit: Many abilities and talents were changed in 2.3.0 to allow them to trigger from critical strikes that occurred while the player benefitting from them was sitting.
- You will now automatically stand up when attacked, even if the attack doesn’t land.
- Reduced network latency by disabling the Nagle algorithm.

PvP
- Warmasters/marshals in Alterac Valley now increase each other’s maximum health and damage by 20%. This is a stacking effect.

Druids
- Lifebloom: When this ability is refreshed it will take on the strength of the incoming Lifebloom effect, rather than maintain the existing strength.
- Ravage: The damage multiplier on this ability has been increased from 350% to 385%.

Hunters
- Arcane Shot: Ranks 1-5 will once again deal bonus damage based on attack power.
- Aspect of the Viper effect increased.
- Freezing Trap is no longer limited to one target at a time.
- Pet leveling speed has been increased.

Mages
- Cold Snap (Frost) cooldown reduced. It is now in the Ice Block position in the talent tree. This ability will no longer reset the cooldown on Fire Ward.
- Conjure Mana Gem mana restore variance substantially reduced,(Rank 5 – Emerald) now restores 2340 to 2460 mana and has three charges.
- Ice Block (Frost) is now available on the trainer to all mages at level 30.
- Icy Veins (NEW Frost Talent) decreases casting time of all spells by 20% and increases the chance your chilling effects will freeze the target by 10%. Lasts 20 sec. 3 min cooldown. It is now in the Cold Snap position in the talent tree.

Paladins
- Crusader Strike (Retribution) now causes 110% of weapon damage and no longer gains any bonus from spell damage.
- Righteous Fury: This spell will no longer cost twice the listed mana to cast.
- Sanctified Judgements (Retribution) now returns 80% of the Seal’s mana cost, increased from 50%.

Rogues
- Ambush: The damage multiplier on this ability has been increased from 250% to 275%.
- Cheat Death: When multiple attacks land simultaenously, all those resolved after the attack which triggered Cheat Death will now have their damage reduced by 90% as intended. However, the combat log will still report them doing full damage.
- Hemorrhage: Rank 4 of this ability no longer has its charges consumed by non-physical attacks and spells.
- Hemorrhage weapon damage reduced from 125% to 110%, but the damage debuff has been increased.
- Hemorrhage: This ability now correctly does additional damage when its debuff has already been applied.
- Preparation now resets the cooldown of Shadowstep and no longer resets the cooldown of Adrenaline Rush.
- Shadowstep now adds a 3 second, 70% movement speed increase.
- Sinister Calling now also increases the percentage damage bonus of Hemorrhage and Backstab by 2/4/6/8/10%.

Shaman
- Lightning Shield mana cost reduced.
- Water Shield now restores mana periodically regardless of how many charges remain. Duration increased to 10 minutes.

Warlock
- The health cost taken from the Warlock after using Health Funnel will now remain consistent between uses.

Warrior
- Defiance: The expertise granted by this talent now works properly in all stances.
- Warriors no longer lose rage when using a macro to enter a stance they’re already in.

Tags: News

3 Responses to “2.3.2 Live, BlizzCast This Week, Armory Fixed (Maybe)”

1. Silenthand Says:
   January 8th, 2008 at 8:50 am

   Im not really annoyed at having to spec away from ar/prep. Just the fact I’ll have to regem/enchant my new daggers.

2. celk Says:
   January 8th, 2008 at 9:21 am

   Yupppppppp I still haven’t decided if I want to go 19/42 or go 0/20/41…. I play a lot of 2s so what to do what to do…

3. Winter Says:
   January 9th, 2008 at 1:10 am

   Iceblock oh yea.

   Shadowpriests are a lot easier and Sl/Sl locks are now possible to beat. Rogues too.

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