Patch 4.0.3a (The Shattering) Patch Notes

Good morning folks, happy patch day.

The servers are down and 4.0.3a (The Shattering) is dropping as we speak. The world of Azeroth as we have known it for years will forever change.

Here are the patch notes for those that are behind firewalls, yet would still like to see what is in store for us this afternoon. The color coding is mine, Blue for the section titles for general stuff Red for each class section, even those normally colored something else.

For now I will keep my opinions about the changes to myself, more on that later.

Enjoy.

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Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.0.3a

The latest patch notes can always be found HERE

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found HERE

The Shattering of Azeroth
In the frigid wastes of Northrend, the final battle against the
merciless Lich King ended in victory for Azeroth’s defenders. Upon
returning home, veterans of the unforgiving conflict against the
Scourge were showered with praise for their valiant sacrifices, while
the honorable dead were mourned. Yet as hope flared anew in the wake
of the Lich King’s fall, Azeroth’s native elemental spirits grew
confused and erratic, setting off a series of deadly natural
disasters. Horde and Alliance leaders scrambled for clues about the
troubling state of the world, but nothing could have prepared them for
what was to come.

Without warning, the corrupted Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, erupted from
the stone heart of Deepholm, the domain of earth within the Elemental
Plane. Jagged fissures were torn across the earth, and monstrous waves
pummeled coastal regions. From Thousand Needles to the Blasted Lands,
the surface of Azeroth was reforged through violent upheavals. Now,
the Horde and the Alliance must defend their homes against Deathwing
and his minions, burdened by the unsettling fact that the world as
they know it has changed… forever.

Azeroth Shattered
Deathwing’s return has had an immeasurable impact throughout the
Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Players will notice drastically altered
terrain, thousands of new quests from levels 1-55, and updated level
ranges for some zones to improve the questing flow.

New Race/Class Combinations
In the wake of a world on the brink of destruction, members of the
Horde and Alliance have taken to new cultures and studies, mastering
crafts previously foreign to them. Many existing playable races now
have new class combinations. Check the official World of Warcraft:
Cataclysm website for a breakdown of the new combinations.

General
The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm cinematic trailer and login screen
have been added to the game.
Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 has been reduced by
20%, which increases leveling rate by 25%.

Classes: General
Due to several talent revisions for select classes, druids, paladins,
priests, and shaman have had their talent trees reset.
The damage and healing done by players from levels 1-79 has been
retuned, with the base points of almost all spells and abilities
reduced. This was done to bring combat times at low levels to a more
reasonable length. For most abilities that deal weapon damage, the
weapon damage percent now rises per level until level 80, and starts
at a lower percent.
Healing Rain, Efflorescence, Holy Radiance, Holy Word: Sanctuary now
have a diminished effect when healing more than 6 players at once.
Mortal Strike, Furious Attacks, Wound Poison, Widow Venom, Permafrost,
Improved Mind Blast, Monstrous Bite, and Legion Strike now reduce
healing by 10%, down from 25%.
Effects which are broken from taking too much damage (Fear, Frost
Nova, Entangling Roots, etc.) now break automatically from about half
as much damage taken as before.

Death Knight (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Death Pact now heals for 25% of maximum health, down from 40%.
Death Strike now heals for 25% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds,
down from 30%, and will heal for a minimum of 7% of maximum health,
down from 10%. The tooltip may not yet be updated to reflect this
change.
Icebound Fortitude now provides 20% damage reduction, down from 30%
(now 50%, down from 60% when talented), and has a 3-minute cooldown,
up from 2 minutes.

Blood
Rune Tap now heals for 10% of maximum health, down from 15%. The
tooltip may not yet be updated to reflect this change.

Glyphs
Glyph of Rune Tap now heals for 5% of maximum health, down from 10%.

Bug Fixes
Frost Fever critical strikes now apply the correct amount of bonus damage.

Druid (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Bear Form now provides 10% bonus health, down from 20%.
Nourish no longer consumes Omen of Clarity.
Rejuvenation has had its mana cost increased by 30%.
Soothe now has a 1.5-second cast time.
Swipe (Cat Form) can now be used even if the druid does not have a
primary target selected.
Thorns: beginner tooltip revised to no longer imply the spell could be
kept up at all times. In addition, Thorns damage has been reduced by
60%.

Balance
PvP set bonus redesigned. While not in an Eclipse state, critical
attacks against the druid restore 5 Solar or 7 Lunar energy, whichever
is more beneficial. This effect can only occur once every 6 seconds.

Feral
Brutal Impact now increases the mana cost of spells on the victim by
5/10% for 10 seconds, down from 15/30%.
Leader of the Pack now heals for 4%, down from 8%.
Survival Instincts now provides 50% damage reduction, down from 60%,
and its cooldown has been lowered from 5 minutes to 3 minutes.
Swipe (Bear Form) damage has been reduced by 20%.
Vengeance is no longer cleared on exiting Bear Form, and instead is
cleared upon entering Cat Form.

Restoration
Empowered Touch now procs from Healing Touch as well as Nourish.
Heart of the Wild: the Bear Form Stamina bonus from this talent is now
2/4/6%, down from 3/7/10%.
Malfurion’s Gift no longer has Fury of Stormrage as a prerequisite talent.
Natural Shapeshifter now also increases Tree of Life duration by 5/10 seconds.
Revitalize is now a 2-point talent, down from 3. It provides a 20%
chance to return 1/2% of the druid’s total mana on periodic heals from
Lifebloom or Rejuvenation. This effect cannot occur more than once
every 12 seconds.
Swift Rejuvenation is now a 1-point talent, down from 2. The global
cooldown reduction this talent provides to Rejuvenation remains 0.5
seconds.
Symbiosis: heal-over-time spells (Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom)
can no longer benefit from this Mastery merely by refreshing
themselves. A different heal-over-time spell must be present.

Glyphs
Glyph of Healing Touch now reduces the cooldown on Nature’s Swiftness
by 10 seconds after using Healing Touch, up from 5 seconds.
Glyph of the Treant (new) allows druids to keep the original treant
Tree of Life look… if they must. Must they?

Bug Fixes
Blood in the Water now refreshes Rip to the correct value.
Flight Form now properly appears in the trainer window before Expert
Riding is learned.

Hunter (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
All special attacks based on weapon damage (except Scattershot) are
now normalized.
Scare Beast is now available at level 36, up from level 14, and has
had its training cost updated.
Deterrence is now available at level 78, up from level 36, and has had
its training cost updated.
Disengage is now available at level 14, down from level 78, and has
had its training cost updated.

Glyphs
The level requirements for glyphs that affect Scare Beast, Deterrence,
and Disengage have been altered to correspond with the level changes
of these abilities.

Bug Fixes
The Core Hound pet ability Ancient Hysteria now places its own unique
debuff on affected players that has the same effect as Sated and
Exhaustion.
Certain pets should no longer forget how to Dash.

Mage (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Arcane Blast now increases damage of the next Arcane Blast by 10% per
stack, down from 20%, reduces cast time by 0.1 seconds per stack, and
increases the mana cost by 150%, down from 175%. In addition, the base
cast time of Arcane Blast has been lowered to 2.35 seconds.
Arcane Explosion now costs 15% of base mana, down from 18%.
Arcane Missiles damage has been increased by 5%.
PvP set 4-piece bonus changed to increase damage by 5% instead of
providing 5% Haste.

Arcane
Arcane Barrage damage has been increased by 5% and its cooldown is now
4 seconds, down from 5 seconds.
Arcane Concentration: Now has a much higher chance (13/27/40%) of
entering a Clearcasting state. This effect cannot occur more than once
every 15 seconds. The tooltip still states that there is a 3/6/10%
chance, as it averages out to approximately the same chance with the
internal cooldown applied.
Arcane Specialization again increases arcane damage by 25%.

Fire
Blazing Speed no longer dispels movement slowing effects (it still
dispels effects that totally stop movement).
Fire Specialization again increases periodic fire damage effects by 25%.
Molten Shields now also causes Blazing Speed to dispel movement
slowing effects in addition to its current functionality.
Pyroblast base mana cost is now 17%, down from 22%.

Frost
Deep Freeze: the cooldown on this ability is no longer reduced by Haste.
Early Frost now reduces Frostbolt cast time by 0.3/0.6 seconds, down
from 0.35/0.70 seconds.
Fingers of Frost proc chance is now 7/14/20%, down from 10/20/30%.
Frost Specialization again increases all damage against frozen target by 25%.
Reactive Barrier is now triggered by any damage which causes the
mage’s health to be below 50%, even if the mage was already below 50%.
Shatter now also increases Frostbolt damage by 10/20% against frozen targets.
Shattered Barrier duration is now 2/4 seconds, down from 3/6 seconds.

Glyphs
Glyph of Evocation now heals for 40%, down from 60%.
Glyph of Deep Freeze now increases damage done by Deep Freeze by 20%
(no longer increases Frostbolt damage against Deep Frozen targets).

Bug Fixes
Improved Polymorph now correctly shares diminishing returns with
controlled stuns.

Paladin (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Exorcism damage has been increased by approximately 50%.
Holy Radiance now has reduced effectiveness on targets over 8 yards
away from the paladin.
Seal of Truth: periodic damage from Censure reduced by 25%.

Holy
Beacon of Light now lasts 5 minutes, up from 60 seconds.
Blessed Life: the effects of this talent cannot occur more than once
every 8 seconds, up from every 2 seconds.
Illuminated Healing absorb shield now absorbs 10% of the total amount
healed, up from 8%. Each point of Mastery increases the effect by an
additional 1.25%, up from 1%.
Light of dawn has been redesigned. It no longer has an enforced
cooldown, now costs Holy Power instead of mana, and scale in direct
proportion to the amount of Holy Power used. In addition it now heals
the 5 most injured group targets (including self) in a 30-yard frontal
cone.
Protector of the Innocent no longer triggers from self-heals.

Protection
Divine Bulwark now grants 2.25% less block chance per point of
Mastery, up from 2%.
Holy shield no longer increases chance to block. Instead, it increases
the amount blocked by an additional 10%, for a total of 40% damage
blocked.
Shield of the Righteous: Contribution of attack power halved (now 60%
with full Holy Power) and base damage brought up so that a level 85
paladin in Heroic dungeon gear deals the same damage with no
Vengeance, but Vengeance has less impact.
Shield of the Templar now reduces the cooldown of Guardian of Ancient
Kings by 40/80/120 seconds, down from 1/2/3 minutes.
Wrath of the Lightbringer now increases Crusader Strike and Judgement
damage by 50/100%, up from 30/60%.

Retribution
Crusade now also has a proc on kill to increase the healing done by
the paladin’s next Holy Light by 100/200/300% for 15 seconds, in
addition to its current effects.
Divine Storm: This ability has been redesigned. It no longer consumes
Holy Power and instead costs 5% of base mana. It shares a cooldown
with Crusader Strike and hits all nearby enemies for 60% weapon
damage.
Pursuit of Justice now has an 8-second internal cooldown, shared with
Blessed Life.
Rebuke no longer initiates Auto Attack.
Sanctity of Battle now also causes Divine Storm’s cooldown to be
reduced by Haste effects.
Zealotry no longer consumes 3 Holy Power, but still requires 3 Holy
Power to use.

Glyphs
Glyph of Beacon of Light now makes Beacon of Light free, instead of
increasing the duration by 30 seconds.
Glyph of Divinity has been redesigned. It now grants the paladin 10%
of maximum mana upon use.
Glyph of Light of Dawn now increases the total number of most injured
targets healed by 1.

Priest (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Binding Heal now provides roughly double the amount of healing.
Prayer of Healing has had its mana cost reduced by nearly 30% and its
base points and Spell Power coefficient increased by 20%.

Discipline
Divine Aegis is now always triggered by Prayer of Healing in addition
to critical heals from all other spells.
Grace has been increased to 4/8% stacking 3 times, up from 2/4% stacking.
Inner Focus now works with Binding Heal, but no longer works with Heal.
Power Word: Barrier has been redesigned. It no longer acts as a shared
absorb shield. Instead, all affected friendly targets take 30% reduced
damage for the duration of the shield, which is now 10 seconds, down
from 25 seconds.

Shadow
Shadow Orbs: redesigned slightly. The Shadow Orbs continue to increase
damage done by Mind Blast and Mind Spike and stack up to 3 times, but
now when the priest casts Mind Blast or Mind Spike (consuming the
orbs), the priest gains a 15-second duration buff (Empowered Shadow),
which increases the damage done by all Shadow periodic spells.
Empowered Shadow does not stack. Mastery increases the damage bonus of
Shadow Orbs and Empowered Shadow by the same amount, 10% with the base
8 Mastery, and an additional 1.25% per Mastery.
Vampiric Embrace healing to the caster has been reduced to 6%, down
from 12% (there was a tooltip error which stated that the self-healing
amount was 15%). Party members still receive 3% healing.

Bug Fixes
Dark Archangel now correctly increases the damage done of certain
abilities by 4%.

Rogue (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Deadly Poison base damage and attack power coefficient have been
increased by 30%.
Recuperate now restores 2% of maximum health, down from 3%.
Venomous Wounds base damage and attack power coefficient have been
increased by 30%.

Combat
Aggression now increases damage of Sinister Strike, Backstab, and
Eviscerate by 7/14/20%, up from 5/10/15%.
Bandit’s Guile now gives 10/20/30% increased damage as the rogue gains
greater insight, up from 5/10/15%.

Subtlety
Executioner no longer affects Recuperate.

Bug Fixes
Bandit’s Guile now applies more consistently to all of the abilities
it’s supposed to modify.
Player guardians and temporary pets now stop attacking when a rogue
uses Vanish, but city guards will not.

Shaman (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Chain Heal mana cost increased from 17% to 20% of base mana.
Earthliving Weapon now only has 25% of its full chance to proc from a
single hop of Chain Heal.

Elemental
Elemental Reach now also increases Searing Totem range by 7/15 yards.
Fulmination now has a Spell Alert visual associated with it, which
appears when the shaman gets to 9 Lightning Shield charges.

Warlock (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Bane of Agony damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Bane of Doom damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Corruption damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Death Coil damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Drain Life damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Drain Soul damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Immolate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Incinerate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Rain of Fire damage has been increased to be more comparable to other
area-of-effect abilities.
Searing Pain damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Seed of Corruption damage has been reduced to be more comparable to
other area-of-effect abilities.
Shadowbolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Soul Fire damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Demonology
Hand of Gul’dan damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Destruction
Chaos Bolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Conflagrate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Shadowburn damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Bug Fixes
Drain Life: The Soulburn version of this was charging 17% of base mana
instead of 12% like the normal version. This has been corrected.

Warrior (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Cleave damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
Execute damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
Heroic Strike damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
Overpower now does 125% weapon damage, down from 150%.
Rend base damage has been reduced by approximately 17% and percent of
weapon damage per tick lowered to 25%, from 30%.
Shield Block now only increases block chance by 25%, but excess block
that pushes avoidance plus block to over 100% is now converted to
critical block chance.
Slam now costs 15 rage, down from 20, and now does 125% weapon damage,
down from 150%.
Victory Rush damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
Whirlwind now does 65% weapon damage, down from 75%.

Arms
Mortal Strike now does 150% weapon damage, down from 185%.
Second Wind now heals for 2/5% of total health, down from 5/10%.
Strikes of Opportunity now does 100% weapon damage, down from 115%.

Fury
Blood Craze now heals for 1/2/3% of total health, down from 2.5/5/7.5%.
Bloodthirst damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
Raging Blow now does 110% weapon damage, down from 150%.
Unshackled Fury now gains approximately 50% more benefit per point of Mastery.

Protection
Critical Block now grants an equal amount of block chance and critical
block chance (1.5% each per point of Mastery).
Devastate no longer provides bonus threat.
Shield Slam: Contribution of attack power reduced to 60%, down from
75%, and base damage brought up so that a level 85 warrior in Heroic
dungeon gear deals the same damage with no Vengeance, but Vengeance
has less impact. In addition, Shield Slam no longer generates 30%
bonus threat from its damage.
Vigilance no longer provides 3% damage reduction, but still refreshes
Taunt and provides Vengeance.

Glyphs
Glyph of Bloody Healing increases the healing received from
Bloodthirst by 40%, down from 100%.
Glyph of Intimidating Shout no longer causes targets to flee slowly,
but roots them instead.
Glyph of Shield Wall increases damage reduction to 60%, but increases
the cooldown from 2 minutes to 4 minutes (talented).

Bug Fixes
Taste for Blood should once again proc on every other tick of Rend.

Achievements
The Gladiator reward mounts now award Master Riding.
What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been now awards Master Riding.

Items
Mysterious Egg now takes only 3 days to turn into a Cracked Egg and
has a slightly greater chance of awarding the Reins of the Green
Proto-Drake.
PvP set bonuses now provide 70 of stats such as Agility, Intellect,
and Strength (down from 100) at 2 pieces, and 180 of these stats (down
from 300) at 4 pieces.

Professions
Perfect Gem Cutting and Mixology have been removed as trainable skills
and are instead passives profession abilities. When players reach the
appropriate skill levels, they will start getting bonuses from
Mixology (they must know the recipe to gain the benefit) and/or
cutting perfect gems (depending on their profession, of course).

Alchemy
Alchemy recipes now require Crystal Vials. Deathwing broke all the
others because he’s mean (or because he didn’t want alchemists to
carry 5 different vials around with them).

Engineering
The Engineering Tinkering enchants will no longer provide their bonus
stats, but the activated effects will stack with other enchants. In
4.0.1 the stats were there (but hidden) and are now removed.

Bug Fixes
Several epic gem transmutes that were missing from the trainer have
been added back.

Bug Fixes
Certain area-of-effect abilities are no longer ignoring the
area-of-effect damage cap.
Mobs and NPCs should no longer appear to randomly gain or lose health
during combat.
Re-summoning pets in Battlegrounds should no longer count towards a
player’s total healing done.

Known Issues
Some tooltips may not reflect the most recent changes to certain abilities.
Worgen hunters are currently unable to learn Dual Wield.
The achievement Explore Tol Barad will not be possible to complete
upon release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.