Patch Date and Raid nerfs

[Arcdelad]

End of Arena Season 4 Coming Soon / Patch 3.0.2 Release date
Season 4 will end on October 14, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Patch 3.0 deployed on live servers on the same day. (Not surprising = 95% chance to happen)

[blizzard]Quote from: Nethaera (Source)We’re currently planning to end the fourth Arena season on October 14, 2008, and as always -- this date could easily change. This Arena Season is only ending in respect to the ladder, meaning we'll be taking a snapshot of the season's ladder and then go through our normal process to determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards. This process should take approximately one week. It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for the arena-specific title and/or Armored Nether Drake to refrain from transferring their character to another realm between the date outlined above, and when the end-of-season rewards are physically awarded.[/blizzard]

Upon the end of this Arena Season, teams and ratings will not be wiped, and will carry forward allowing players to earn points each week and purchase gear until the launch of the expansion (November 13, 2008).


WotLK - All TBC Raid instances massively nerfed
It seems that the latest build brought an interesting change to TBC instances : all monsters in TBC raid instances had their health points reduced by 30%, bosses included. We don't know yet if this change is final, but below are a few exemples of changes for some of these instances, more values will be added as we go through the instances. Feel free to contribute with your own lists in comments.

Note : The change isn't confirmed by Blizzard yet. We don't know if this change will be pushed live, and we don't know when it will happen but we might see this change shipped with Patch 3.0 before the release of the expansion

The Sunwell Plateau
Monster Health (TBC) Health (WotLK)
Sunblade Protector 550,000 387,000
Sunblade Slayer 240,000 171,000
Sunblade Arch Mage 190,000 136,000
Sunblade Cabalist 190,000 136,000
Sunblade Dawn Priest 190,000 136,000
Kalecgos 3,700,000 2,180,000

The Black Temple
Monster Health (TBC) Health (WotLK)
Coilskar Harpooner 170,000 120,000
Coilskar Soothsayer 170,000 120,000
Coilskar Sea-Caller 170,000 120,000
Dragon Turtle 100,000 73,353
Aqueous Spawn 66,000 44,012
Aqueous Lord 440,000 309,000
Leviathan 550,000 387,000
High Warlord Naj'entus 3,800,000 2,655,000
Dragonmaw Wind Reaver 200,000 140,000
Dragonmaw Sky Stalker 200,000 140,000
Dragonmaw Wyrm Caller 200,000 140,000
Bonechewer Worker 60,000 17605
Bonechewer Taskmaster 170,000 120,000
Illidari Fearbringer 550,000 387,000
Supremus 4,500,000 3,186,000

Serpentshrine Cavern
Monster Health (TBC) Health (WotLK)
Hydross The Unstable 3,400,000 2,390,000

[Shadowwolf]

/sigh

The HP reduction is sad to me. Yes its nice these guys will be easier to kill, but if they reduce things by 30% plus with the overall bonuses to DPS output most classes will be getting....IDK, I just dont think that its necessary. Part of the whole challenge to places like BT and whatnot is overcoming the HP along with the other obstacles. May as well call all the high end raid bosses Heroic Bosses at that point because most of the challenge just goes out the window.

[Kothnok]

Maybe that last 1% may feel like 1% now.

[Belandand]

Interesting. What I want to know is if they will retain the badge of justice gear reward system but this time have gear for every few levels available instead of having gear just for lvl 80. If the former is true, then getting badges for gear will be a universe easier than atm. But somehow I don't think they'll keep the exact same badge system. They might call them medallions of justice or some other kind of "heroic" sounding name.

[Shadowwolf]

WotLK badges work differently. Theres badge gear per raid instance (Naxx 10 and 25) and I believe theres overall badge gear but the badges arent the same as BC so they arent interchangeable.

[Riddlerr]

[blizzard]Quote from: Bornakk - To coincide with the upcoming new talents and mechanic changes for classes in the next patch, we are making some adjustments in existing raid content to provide a smooth transition when the upcoming patch is released. The creatures and bosses in raid dungeons that were introduced in The Burning Crusade will have their health reduced, and most will have their standard melee damage output reduced as well, but their spell and ability damage are not being changed. These changes are being made in all raid dungeons from Karazhan to Sunwell Plateau as well as the outdoor encounters of Doom Lord Kazzak and Doomwalker. On top of this Illidan is also doing his part and will stop casting Shear on players.
[/blizzard]

[JohnnieRat]

Shear was BS anyways since it meant that ONLY warrs can tank him bsically