Belghast

SPOILS OF WAR – PRELUDE

* The Planes of Earth and Fire are suddenly showing an increase in activity, expanding their reach into zones previously left to other planar forces. Their Rifts and Invasions grow more numerous – but why?
* Look for new daily quests to appear in the cities of Sanctum and Meridian. Investigate the recent appearance of shells belonging to ancient golden dragon eggs, and mysterious coins showing up in Guardian and Defiant economies alike.
* Special reward packs for completing these new quests offer chances for uncommonly seen artifacts, rare and useful crafting materials, platinum and more. Reward packs also have a chance at containing a limited-time companion pet!

GENERAL

* Warfront-related guild quests now only progress on their proper maps.
* Multiple other quests requiring wins in Warfronts were fixed as well.
* Abandoning any variant of the Tools of Destruction quest will no longer remove Shadetouched Scepters, Blades, or Executors from your inventory. Additionally, Shadetouched Caches are no longer unique, so more than one can be held in your inventory at a time.
* Fixed a problem where some characters were not getting locked to the River of Souls raid properly.
* Shimmersand: Permanent Slumber: Fixed an issue that would sometimes prevent this quest from resetting correctly.
* Auto-AFK detection is now a bit less aggressive, so you won’t get flagged AFK just for stepping away briefly.

PTS 1.2 Addition #2 – 5/2/11

GENERAL
* Added weekly quests to Meridian and Sanctum to obtain a random Expert Rift lure.
* Currency caps are now shown on the character sheet.
* Potentially fixed player armors randomly changing color!
* Daily quest on offer for a particular day now stay the same before and after a shard restart.
* If the last leader-ranked member of a guild is removed due to trial player restrictions, a new leader will automatically be selected.

LOOKING FOR GROUP
* Dungeon Daily quests are now obtained via the Quest tab in the Looking for Group tool.
* Votekick. You can has it.

RIFTS AND INVASIONS
* Zone events now show on the main map which Wardstones need to be defended.
* Defender Achievements for each zone no longer list Rift events that do not occur in those zones.

COMBAT
* Diminishing Returns changes:
* Abilities are now consolidated into two groups for diminishing returns.
– Movement abilities [Root, Knockback, Snare] which were not previously set up with diminishing returns.
– Control abilities [Banish, Disarm, Silence, Fear, Confuse, Mesmerize, Stun]
* In PvP, being hit with a crowd control effect starts a diminishing returns timer. (We are currently testing this value at 30 seconds.) If you are hit with a second effect from the same group (Movement or Control) during that time, the effect is reduced by 50%. You are then immune to additional effects from the same group until the initial timer has expired.
* Crowd control-breaking effects have also been updated with the new Diminishing Returns groups:
* Breaks all effects:
– PvP Souls: Break Free
– Bladedancer: Untangle
– Elementalist: Sever Bonds
– Pyromancer: Flicker
– Ranger: Escape Artist – Escape Artist no longer grants immunities.
– Riftblade: Rift Walk
– Riftstalker: Flashback
* Breaks Control effects:
– Paladin: Devotion
– Reaver: Tempered Will
* Breaks Movement effects:
– Bladedancer: Flash of Steel
– Champion: Ruthless Pursuit
– Marksman: Getaway
– Riftstalker: Shadow Stalk
– Shaman: Battle Charge
– Vindicator: Unrestrained
– Warden: Dissolution
* Damage Reduction updates:
* The following powerful short-duration damage reduction buffs will no longer be overwritten by weaker effects:
– Nightblade: Twilight Shelter
– Riftstalker: Planar Refuge
– Vindicator: Phalanx
– Warlock: Neddra’s Essence
* The following abilities no longer stack with other powerful short-duration damage reduction buffs:
– Druid: Strength of the Fae
– Infiltrator: Ignore Pain
– Sentinel: Healer’s Covenant
– Void Knight: Singularity
* NPCs will prefer unstealthed targets when picking between targets they’re equally mad at.
* You should no longer see NPCs targeting ‘invisible man’ or other un-targetable phantoms.
* Falling damage no longer triggers abilities and other effects that react to damage taken.
* Fixed an issue causing ability effect tooltips on others to often show incorrect values.

SOULS
* Taunts can now be used three times before diminishing returns affects NPCs [previously 2 times].
* Fixed an issue with the use of Rogue tracking abilities while mounted that would cause the Rogue to ‘fall through’ their mount.
* Also fixed a bug with Feign Death and Slip Away abilities that sometimes didn’t keep you from gaining aggro right after use.
* Cleric snares now list the movement speed reduction on the effect tooltip.

CLERIC
INQUISITOR
* Nysyr’s Rebuke: Now shares the same diminishing returns group as other Control abilities.
* PTS bug fix: Life and Death Concord: The cooldown given to Bolt of Depravity when this procs will now show properly in the UI.
SHAMAN
* Vengeance of the Frozen Earth: No longer applies a snare to the target if they are already snared.
TEMPLAR [PvP]
* Barb of Shackles: Now shares the same diminishing returns group as other Movement abilities. No longer applies a snare to the target if they are already snared.
* Blessing of the Martyr: Now gives your damaging abilities a 20% chance to remove 1 buff effect from enemy players. Once triggered, this cannot happen again for 2 seconds.
* Ethereal Shell: Once triggered, cannot happen again for 15 seconds. Reduced duration to 5 seconds; damage reduction reduced to 3% per point spent.
* Arcane Defenses: Spell damage reduction has been reduced to 1% per point spent.

MAGE
ARCHMAGE [PvP]
* Due to the below changes, characters with Soul Points spent in Archmage will receive a free soul respec.
* Lethargy: Removed.
* Degeneration – New Ability: Channels dark energy into the enemy player, dealing Death damage over 3 seconds and removing a single buff effect from the target each second. 30 second cooldown. This ability is obtained after spending 10 points in Archmage.
* Ethereal Shell: Once triggered, cannot happen again for 15 seconds. Damage reduction has been reduced to 3% per point spent.
* Steelweave: Physical damage reduction reduced to 1% per point spent.
CHLOROMANCER
* Seed of Life, Soul Tether: Can no longer be cast on a pet.
DOMINATOR
* Durable Control: Now causes Transmogrify, Mass Exhaustion, and Disorient effects to break after the enemy receives damage equal to 1.5-3% of your max Health, plus 0.15-0.3% of your maximum health for each point spent in Dominator. This only occurs with enemies above 85% health.
ELEMENTALIST
* Water Elemental’s Ice Bolt no longer snares the target.
NECROMANCER
* Skeletal Zealot, Skeletal Horror: Readjusted their armor values, which were not previously readjusted after the cloth armor increase in 1.1. Other pets are unaffected.
PYROMANCER
* Ground of Strength: Reduced resistance bonus to 60.
* Cinder Burst and Fulminate can no longer be used within 5 seconds of each other.
* Cinder Burst/Pyromancer’s Armor: Fixed an issue where the damage from Cinder Burst would consume a Pyromancer’s Armor proc incorrectly if the proc occurred after Cinder Burst was cast but before it landed on the enemy.
STORMCALLER
* Spark of Life: Can no longer be cast on a pet.
WARLOCK
* Improved Life Leech: Updated ability description for more clarity.

ROGUE
INFILTRATOR [PvP]
* Against All Odds: Now triggers from stun, root, or disarm, reducing damage by 3-15% for 5 seconds. Once triggered, cannot be triggered again for 15 seconds.
* Evading Thoughts: Reduced duration to 2 seconds per combo point.
* Take Cover: AoE damage reduction reduced to 3% per point spent.
MARKSMAN
* PTS Bug Fix: Rapid Fire Shot: Fixed a bug where all hits for this would crit if the first hit was a crit.
SABOTEUR
* Traps will no longer follow you when zoning into an instance or using a porticulum.

WARRIOR
PARAGON
* Touch of Tranquility: Now shares the same diminishing returns group as other Control abilities.
VINDICATOR [PvP]
* Forced Recon: No longer applies a snare to the target if they are already snared.

ZONES
* Resolved some issues with major or elite Invasions not dropping loot – mostly seen in Stonefield and Iron Pine Peaks.
* Fixed a bug which could occasionally cause players to ‘pinball’ over areas of water.
SANCTUM
* Guardian players wondering how they can be knighted as a member of the Sanctuary Guard can now speak to Sir Guysun Lawless in the Lodge of the Planes to the rear of Sanctum. Sir Guysun can direct those seeking this honor to where they may have prerequisite quests incomplete. [Kain storyline quests]
SILVERWOOD
* Rift: Gedlo Supply Drop: Adjusted to prevent creatures getting stuck in stacks of crates…again.

DUNGEONS AND RAIDS
* With the upcoming addition of the Looking for Group tool, we’re also in the process of tuning our Expert Dungeons to be completable with one appropriately geared healer per group, instead of frequently requiring a second full healer on top of support heals. Additionally, the power of the items purchased from the Expert Dungeon stores has increased to assist gearing up for further challenges. With these changes we expect more dungeons to be completed more often; as a result, the cost for Expert Dungeon merchant items has increased. Overall, this should net a similar or improved gain rate of plaque-purchased items.
* Reduced the damage dealt by general Expert Dungeon NPCs.
* Dungeon Daily quests are now obtained via the Quest tab in the Looking for Group tool.
* All Raid bosses now drop 5 Plaques of Achievement for each member of the raid.
ABYSSAL PRECIPICE
* Added a portal to Calyx’s platform that activates once he is killed that allows players to exit the instance.
IRON TOMB
* Humbart the Bold no longer cleaves players behind him!

ITEMS
* Dragonslayer Covenant, Order of Mathos, and Icewatch notoriety merchants now sell only a single version of their armored mounts.
* Greater Bottle of Tricks, Exalted Bottle of Tricks, Whisker Concoction, Sheepish Concoction, Prancing Concoction, and Abyssal Modifier now share the same diminishing returns as Control abilities.
* Guise of Death and Shroud of Anti-Life now sort properly as Trinkets in the Auction House.
* Fixed Swift Desert Najmok to move at epic mount speed (110%). It was incorrectly using the rare mount speed (90%).
* Corrected an issue with the Greater Essences Rekindled Flameshard, Cinder Flamesource, Combusted Flamesource, Engulfed Flamesource, and Smoldering Flamesource which prevented them from proccing correctly in some situations.

PVP/WARFRONTS
* Diminishing Returns changes:
* Abilities are now consolidated into two groups for diminishing returns.
– Movement abilities [Root, Knockback, Snare] which were not previously set up with diminishing returns.
– Control abilities [Banish, Disarm, Silence, Fear, Confuse, Mesmerize, Stun]
* In PvP, being hit with a crowd control effect starts a diminishing returns timer. (We are currently testing this value at 30 seconds.) If you are hit with a second effect from the same group (Movement or Control) during that time, the effect is reduced by 50%. You are then immune to additional effects from the same group until the initial timer has expired.
* Elementalist: Water Elemental’s Ice Bolt no longer snares the target.
* Inquisitor: Nysyr’s Rebuke: Now shares the same diminishing returns group as other Control abilities.
* Paragon: Touch of Tranquility: Now shares the same diminishing returns group as other Control abilities.
* Templar: Barb of Shackles: Now shares the same diminishing returns group as other Movement abilities.
* Greater Bottle of Tricks, Exalted Bottle of Tricks, Whisker Concoction, Sheepish Concoction, Prancing Concoction, and Abyssal Modifier now share the same diminishing returns as Control abilities.
* Crowd control-breaking effects have also been updated with the new Diminishing Returns groups:
* Breaks all effects:
– PvP Souls: Break Free
– Bladedancer: Untangle
– Elementalist: Sever Bonds
– Pyromancer: Flicker
– Ranger: Escape Artist – Escape Artist no longer grants immunities.
– Riftblade: Rift Walk
– Riftstalker: Flashback
* Breaks Control effects:
– Paladin: Devotion
– Reaver: Tempered Will
* Breaks Movement effects:
– Bladedancer: Flash of Steel
– Champion: Ruthless Pursuit
– Marksman: Getaway
– Riftstalker: Shadow Stalk
– Shaman: Battle Charge
– Vindicator: Unrestrained
– Warden: Dissolution

CRAFTING
* Crafting daily and weekly quests now scale to match your character level and always award appropriate experience and notoriety.
* Made adjustments to sync up Runebreaking and Outfitter better. Previously, items crafted by Outfitters were too high level to be runebroken by an equal-level Runecrafter. The level ranges for Runebreaking have been updated and expanded to account for this and to be more flexible in general.
* Restricted the drop of crafting Cores to specific mob types when in Shimmersand, Iron Pine Peaks, and Stillmoor – once discovered, these can be targeted for hunting if you’re after more Cores!
* Brilliant and Blazing Life Resistance Rune recipes are now differentiated by required skill and planarite cost.
* Resistance Vial recipes now cost 2000 planarite, Heroic Warding Potion recipes now cost 2500 planarite, Brilliant Resistance Rune recipes now cost 1500 planarite, Blazing Resistance Rune recipes now cost 10,000 planarite.

GRAPHICS AND AUDIO
* Fixed an issue with physics which could cause players to become stuck in a ‘falling’ state on certain collision. Oh, silly gravity.
* Corrected some audio stuttering at the end of combat, specifically in Iron Pine Peaks, Shimmersands, and Droughtlands.
* Turned up the relative volume of the ready check sound.

UI/SETTINGS
* The Guild Exp contribution column on the Guild UI has been changed to show the member’s total Achievement score.
* Raidframe ready check marks should be more readable.
* Text for raid warning messages should be more visible, appear instantly, and come with a sound effect.
* The Settings option for ‘Show All Party Buffs’ is now ‘Show only my buffs on target’, which behaves the same was as the Debuff visibility options.

CLIENT
* Added alert flashing (similar to aggro flashing) to the client on the Windows taskbar for LFG popups while the game is minimized.