Patch 4.0.6

[Greentitch]

Lots of heroic nerfs and class changes for those of you who can't read other sites at work.

General
Guild bank vouchers that players unlock as guild rewards now correctly state that they can only be used by Guild Leaders.
Many rare creatures that went into hiding upon Deathwing's emergence into Azeroth have made a return! In addition to finding new homes in a post-Cataclysm world, they drop new, improved loot, provide a healthy experience bonus, and respawn much more quickly when killed. Happy hunting!

Dungeons & Raids
Level 85 players can now choose any normal dungeon via the Dungeon Finder. Choosing Random Dungeon will still not add Blackrock Caverns or Throne of the Tides into the rotation.

Blackrock Caverns
Beauty now spawns with only two pups in Heroic difficulty. Not to worry though, the missing pup has been adopted by a wonderful, if not insane family.

Grim Batol
Faceless Corruptors now move 10% more slowly.
Players may still use spell and abilities while afflicted by Forgemaster Throngus's Impaling Slam.
Valiona's Devouring Flame damage has been reduced by 20%.

Halls of Origination
The duration of the Flame Wardens' Raging Inferno has been reduced by 80%.
Anraphet's Nemesis Strike now does 75% of weapon damage, up from 50%. In addition, the damage-over-time effect applied by this ability does 15,000 damage every 2 seconds, up from 9,000.
Earthrager Ptah's Flame Bolt now deals more damage per second on Heroic difficulty.
Setesh seeks a portal every 25 seconds, up from 20.

Lost City of the Tol'vir
Lockmaw no longer tolerates fighting in his treasure room.

Shadowfang Keep
Baron Ashbury
Sadly, in his hubris he has forgotten how to Mend Rotten Flesh.
Lord Walden
Conjure Poisonous Mixture now deals more initial damage.
Frost Mixture is now area-of-effect damage.
Toxic Catalyst now deals less damage over time.

The Stonecore
Stonecore Earthshapers' Dust Storm does slightly less damage.
Corborus
The warning time for Thrashing Charge has been increased by 1 second. In addition, Thrashing Charge now happens 4 times, down from 5.
The visual for Rock Borers spawning during the submersion phase is now different from the Thrashing Charge visual.
High Priestess Azil
She grew! She's now 175% the size of a human, up from 125%.
Gravity Wells should kill Devout Followers more quickly.
The cast time of Force Grip is now 1.5 seconds, up from 1.
The size of the warning visual for Seismic Shard has been increased to more accurately reflect the area it affects.
Slabhide
The ground phase lasts longer and has fewer stalactites.
Ozruk
There is now a precast visual on the ground to make it clear how far away a player must get to be clear of Shatter.
The cast time of Shatter has been increased to 3 seconds, up from 2.5.
Shatter damage is now reduced by armor, but has been increased by 33.3% (repeating, of course) as a result.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug that made Ozruk's Shatter knockback component 10-yard range while the damage had a 15-yard range. Both are 15 yards now.

Throne of the Tides
The damage done by Lady Naz'jatar's Shock Blast and Naz'jar Tempest Witch Chain Lightning has been reduced.
Tainted Sentries Swell damage has been reduced.
The damage of Blight of Ozumat has been reduced by 25% per stack.

The Vortex Pinnacle
Creatures
Desperate Speed cast by Temple Adepts has had its duration reduced significantly.
Altairus
The visual effects in this encounter have been adjusted to make the wind direction easier to read.
Cyclones now knock players straight up, and players hit by a cyclone cannot be hit again for a few seconds.
Asaad
Skyfall Stars are now summoned to help him defeat players.
Static Cling has had its cast time increased to 1.25 seconds, up from 1.
Grand Vizier Ertan
His health has been reduced slightly.
He now knocks away players standing too close to him when he retracts his Cyclone Shield, which now inflicts Nature damage if it touches players.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug that made Ozruk's Shatter knockback component 10-yard range while the damage had a 15-yard range. Both are 15 yards now.

PvP
Tol Barad
Players will now be teleported out of the Tol Barad micro dungeons 15 minutes before the beginning of the next battle.

Classes
Death Knight (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Necrotic Strike's absorption effect is now reduced by the target's resilience. In addition, its debuff duration has been reduced to 10 seconds, down from 15.
The spell hit bonus previously given by Virulence (Unholy) has been rolled into the Runic Focus passive effect that all death knights possess.

Blood
Bone Shield now has 4 charges, up from 3.
If Death Strike is used while a Blood Shield is already active, the new absorb will stack with the old one instead of replacing it.
Scarlet Fever now applies via Blood Plague, rather than Blood Boil.

Frost
Chilblains now also causes Chains of Ice to root the target for 1.5/3 seconds.
Hungering Cold now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.

Unholy
Blightcaller (Mastery) has been redesigned and renamed Dreadblade. It increases all Shadow damage by 2.5% per point of mastery.
Death's Advance (new talent): While both Unholy Runes are depleted, movement-impairing effects cannot reduce the death knight below 75/100% of normal movement speed.
Sudden Doom is now triggered only from main-hand auto attacks, and is normalized according to weapon speed rather than having a fixed percentage chance.
Virulence has been redesigned. It now grants 10/20/30% additional disease damage.

Glyphs
Glyph of Dark Succor (new talent) raise the minimum healing done by Death Strike from 7% to 20% of maximum health, but only while in Unholy or Frost Presence.

Runeforging
Swordbreaking and Swordshattering now reduce disarm duration by 60%, up from 50%.

Druid (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Entangling Roots now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Hibernate now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Moonfire mana cost has been reduced from 18% to 9%.
Nature's Grasp now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Prowl is no longer broken by enemies using Demoralizing Shout or Demoralizing Roar.
Skull Bash's lockout time has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 5.
Soothe is now instant cast, down from 1.5 seconds.
Worgen and troll druids now have new art for Swift Flight Form.

Balance
Sunfire mana cost has been reduced from 18% to 9%.
Total Eclipse (Mastery) benefit from mastery increased by approximately 33%.

Feral
Infected Wounds now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.

Restoration
Empowered Touch now also affects Regrowth. In addition, after Tree of Life is no longer active, this talent will only refresh the most recently cast or refreshed Lifebloom, and will not refresh other copies of Lifebloom.
Natural Shapeshifter has been reduced to a 3/6-second increase to Tree of Life's duration, down from 5/10.
Symbiosis (Mastery) benefit from mastery increased by approximately 16%.
Tree of Life no longer grants immunity to Polymorph. In addition, its duration has been reduced to 25 seconds, down from 30.
Wild Growth healing has been increased by 30%, and the cooldown has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10.

Glyphs
Glyph of Entangling Roots redesigned. It now reduces the cast time of Entangling Roots by 0.2 seconds, rather than making it instant cast.

Hunter (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Cobra shot cast time is now affected by haste.
Concussive Shot duration has been increased to 6 seconds, up from 4.
Freezing Trap now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Master's Call now has a 35-second cooldown, down from 1 minute, and its range has been increased to 40 yards, up from 25. In addition, the visual effect is more obvious.
Steady Shot cast time is now affected by haste.
Wing Clip now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.

Marksmanship
Wild Quiver (Mastery): Chance for this to trigger per mastery has been increased by approximately 17%.

Survival
Black Arrow damage has been reduced by 25%.
Explosive Shot damage has been reduced by 25%.
Hunter vs. Wild has been increased to 5/10/15% Stamina, up from 4/8/12%.
Serpent Spread can now only affect up to 4 targets per Multi-Shot, down from unlimited.

Glyphs
Glyph of Concussive Shot redesigned. It now limits the maximum run speed of the target while Concussive Shot is active.

Bug Fixes
Cobra Shot now properly increases the duration of the Serpent Spread Serpent Sting.

Mage (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Arcane Barrage mana cost has been reduced by 8%.
Arcane Blast mana cost has been reduced by 12%.
Counterspell lockout duration reduced to 7 seconds, down from 8.
Fireball mana cost has been reduced by 25%.
Polymorph now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Ring of Frost: Radius shrunk to 8 yards, and inner "safe" radius is now 4.7 yards (exactly matching graphic). Dispelling the effect of Ring of Frost will now make the target immune to being refrozen for 3 seconds. If a second Ring of Frost is cast by the same mage while the first is still active (via Cold Snap), the first will now disappear and cease functioning. In addition, Ring of Frost now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
When a mage uses the Invisibility spell, it will now also cause their pet Water Elemental to become invisible.

Arcane
Slow now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.

Fire
Firestarter now allows the mage to cast Scorch while moving (regardless of which armor spell is used), and no longer eliminates Molten Armor's critical strike chance reduction.
Flashburn (Mastery) benefit per mastery has been increased by 12%.
Living Bomb mana cost has been reduced by 22%.

Frost
Deep Freeze damage done has been reduced by 20%.
Fingers of Frost can no longer be dispelled and now also increases Ice Lance damage by 15%.
Frost Specialization now only grants 2 base points of mastery (instead of , reducing all Frost damage to frozen targets by 15% from previous values. However, Frost Specialization now increases base Frostbolt damage by 15%.

Paladin (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Forbearance
The duration has been lowered to 1 minute, down from 2.
Lay on Hands now causes Forbearance on the target. It used to only cause it when cast on the paladin.
This was an old design from when Divine Protection caused Forbearance and the paladin didn't want to prevent a tank from using their defensive cooldown.
Lay on Hands cannot be a critical effect and will not be affected by most abilities which modify healing (such as Beacon of Light).
Since only Divine Shield, Lay on Hands and Hand of Protection cause Forbearance, the tooltips have been adjusted to better explain the mechanic.
Holy Wrath no longer counts nearby critters when dividing damage among its targets.
Seal of Truth: All single target attacks (including Judgement, Hammer of Wrath, Exorcism, and Templar's Verdict) can now trigger this seal.

Holy
Protector of the Innocent heals for 30% less.

Protection
Vindication no longer allows Hammer of Justice to interrupt stun-immune targets. With Rebuke baseline, this functionality is no longer necessary.

Retribution
Act of Sacrifice will no longer cause Cleanse to remove movement impairing effects from vehicles the paladin is riding.

Priest (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Mind Control now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Mind Sear can now be channeled on friendly targets in addition to enemy targets. In addition, Mind Sear's damage has been increased by roughly 15%.
Prayer of Healing effectiveness has been reduced by 15%.

Discipline
Divine Aegis: Critical effects from Prayer of Healing now award a bonus amount in addition to the default, always-proc Divine Aegis effect.
In addition to Strength of Soul's existing effects, when Power Word: Shield is placed on oneself, the priest becomes immune to silence, interrupt, and dispel effects for 2/4 seconds.

Holy
Chakra
Binding Heal and Holy Word: Serenity now refresh the duration of Renew on the target, in addition to the other direct heals.
Binding Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal can now trigger Chakra: Serenity.
Mind Spike can now trigger Chakra: Chastise.
Circle of Healing effectiveness has been increased by 30%.
Guardian Spirit: The absorb/heal from this ability can now never exceed 200% of the maximum health of the target.

Shadow
Shadow Orbs benefit from mastery has been increased by approximately 16%.

Rogue (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Blind now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Crippling Poison now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Sap now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Stealth is no longer broken by enemies using Demoralizing Shout or Demoralizing Roar.

Assassination
Deadly Momentum critical strike bonus now lasts for 15 seconds, up from 10.

Combat
Main Gauche (Mastery) now provides a chance to deal an attack for 100% of main-hand damage. This attack can trigger Combat Potency.
Restless Blades now also reduces the cooldown of Redirect.
Vitality now increases attack power by 25%, up from 20%.

Subtlety
Executioner (Mastery) has been increased from 2% to 2.5% per point.
Find Weakness now grants 35/70% armor reduction, up from 25/50%.
Preparation no longer resets the cooldown of Evasion.
Sanguinary Vein now gives a rogue a 50/100% chance for their own Bleed effects to not break their Gouge.
Shadowstep's cooldown has been increased to 24 seconds, up from 20 seconds.
Sinister Calling now grants 30% Agility, up from 25%, and increases Backstab and Hemorrhage damage by an additional 40%, up from 25%.

Shaman (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Chain Heal's effectiveness has been increased by approximately 10%.
Hex now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Purge now dispels a single effect instead of two.
Tremor Totem has been redesigned. The totem is now usable under Fear, Charm, or Sleep effects, and pulses much more rapidly, but lasts 6 seconds and has a 1-minute cooldown.

Elemental Combat
Earthquake damage has been increased by approximately 10%.

Enhancement
Flametongue Weapon damage now scales from attack power instead of spell power (for Enhancement shaman only).
Purge no longer has its mana cost reduced by Mental Quickness.

Restoration
Cleansing Waters no longer fires its heal effect twice when a shaman removes a Magic and a Curse debuff with a single cast.
Deep Healing (Mastery) has been increased to 3% per point, up from 2.5%.
Greater Healing Wave mana cost has been increased by 10%; healing done has been increased by 20%.
Mana Tide Totem has been redesigned. The totem no longer multiplies the Spirit of those affected by it. It instead gives a flat amount of Spirit equal to 400% of the casting shaman's Spirit, exclusive of short-term Spirit buffs affecting the shaman when the totem is dropped.

Warlock (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Curse of Exhaustion now reduces movement speed by 30%, down from 50%. Its range has been increased to 40 yards, up from 30.
Demon Armor and Fel Armor no longer cost mana and last until canceled.
Fear now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Fel Armor now increases the warlock's maximum mana by 10% instead of regenerating health.
Seduction (Succubus) now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.

Affliction
Unstable Affliction's silence effect has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 5.

Demonology
Demon Soul: Imp redesigned. It now increases the critical strike chance of all non instant cast Destruction spells by 30%, rather than increasing critical strike damage. Duration reduced to 20 seconds.
Felstorm (Felguard) damage has been reduced by 20%.
Immolation Aura damage has been reduced by roughly 30%.
Inferno no longer increases the radius of Hellfire, but instead increases the duration of Immolate by 6 seconds in addition to its existing effect.
Master Demonologist (Mastery) benefit from mastery increased by approximately 33%.

Destruction
Burning Embers damage has been reduced by 15%.
Fiery Apocalypse (Mastery) benefit from mastery increased by approximately 8%.
Improved Soul Fire now increases Fire and Shadow damage done by 4/8%, rather than 7/15% spell haste. In addition, this talent has been moved to tier-3 Destruction, switching places with Aftermath.

Warrior (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Hamstring now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Inner Rage has been redesigned. It now reduces the cooldown on Heroic Strike and Cleave by 50% (to 1.5 second) for the next 15 seconds. 1-minute cooldown. It still cannot be used during Deadly Calm. This ability was originally designed to help warriors with rage capping, but the Heroic Strike and rage normalization changes seem to have solved that problem on their own. This new design will still allow warriors to burn off excess rage faster, at their discretion.
Slam cast time is now affected by haste.

Fury
Bloodthirst damage has been increased by approximately 30%.
Raging Blow weapon damage percent (at level 80+) has been increased from 110% to 145%.

Protection
Charge's stun continues to not trigger diminishing returns for Protection warriors who have the Warbringer talent.

Professions
Find Herbs, Fish, and Minerals are no longer canceled upon entering an Arena or rated Battleground.
A socket has been added to all crafted epic armor pieces that did not already have one.

Alchemy
Alchemist's Stones for Agility, Strength, and Intellect have been added.
The number of herbs required to create flasks has been reduced, while the Volatile Life needed has been increased slightly.
The drops from Tiny Treasure Chests have been improved slightly.

Archaeology
Archaeology finds now grant a guaranteed skill point up to 50 skill, and then no longer grant skill gains, as opposed to granting up to 100 skill very slowly.

Engineering
The Electrified Ether recipe now creates 2 to 3 Electrified Ether instead of 1.
The Heat-Treated Spinning Lure buff duration has been increased to 20 minutes, up from 5. In addition, the recipe now creates 2 at a time.
Synapse Springs now increase Agility, Strength, or Intellect (whichever is highest for the character).
Volatile Air now has an increased chance of dropping from rich mining nodes and Pyrite.

Jewelcrafting
Vivid Dream Emerald (new gem) provides resilience/spell penetration and can be purchased for 3 Illustrious Tokens.

Leatherworking
The 500 to 510 skill-up range for Leatherworking has been improved.

Tailoring
Darkglow Embroidery (Rank 2) now increases Spirit instead of restoring a flat amount of mana.

Items
Left Eye of Rajh: Chance of triggering increased.
The PvE warlock 4-piece set bonus (Fel Spark) now increases the damage done by the next 2 Fel Flame spells by 300%, rather than increasing the critical effect chance of one by 100%.
The PvP hunter 4-piece set bonus has been increased to 10% Focus regeneration, up from 5%.
The PvP warlock 4-piece set bonus has been redesigned. It now reduces the cooldown of Death Coil by 30 seconds.
The PvP warrior 4-piece set bonus has been redesigned. It now reduces disarm duration by 60% (does not stack with any Weapon Chains).
PvP trinkets will now clear disarm and silence effects.
Right Eye of Rajh: Chance of triggering increased.
Weapon Chains now reduce disarm duration by 60%, up from 50%.

Quests & Creatures
Tol Barad Peninsula
Spawn rates at Rustberg Village have been increased.

[Vecko]

While the heroics are really fun and challenging to do with a guild group, they can be a nightmare with random groups found through the dungeon finder. I think I'm going to like these nerfs

Also curious whether the buff to the balance druid mastery is going to make the stat more desirable. Guess my next stop is the elitist jerks forum

[ash]

PvP trinkets will now clear disarm and silence effects.




and YAY subt rogues. I'm looking forward to trying it again when patch hits.

[Septih]

While the heroics are really fun and challenging to do with a guild group, they can be a nightmare with random groups found through the dungeon finder. I think I'm going to like these nerfs

Also curious whether the buff to the balance druid mastery is going to make the stat more desirable. Guess my next stop is the elitist jerks forum

Same situation for my druid and my dk. Makes spending valor points hard :<

[Commando]

I'm slightly confused. The PTR patch notes suggested all sorts of nerfs for DK tanking, but what I see in the 4.0.6 patch notes are buffs... We get free 9% spell hit, stacking Blood Shield (woo!) and an extra charge on Bone Shield, and all we lose is easy AoE -10% physical damage debuff which we'll now have to use Pestilence for rather than Blood Boil. Not that I'm complaining, of course - just seems strange to threaten nerfs and then give buffs.

Demo Warlock still hasn't been fixed, I see. Solving the problem of "The Felguard isn't competitive on single target fights" with "Nerf Felguard AoE" seems a bizarre choice. I guess we really are supposed to use the Succubus.

[ash]

The Felguard aoe nerf was due to pvp I suspect.

[cronulus]

Are these patch notes added to the previous PTR notes?

I regret the dumbing down of heroics. I liked having a challenge in 5 man content. The challenge was still only there in achievements and/or when 'undergeared'. It would've been only a matter of time untill people started outgearing it and for it to become a zergfest again. If I want some laidback-with-cheetos-on-the-gut-'action' I'll level an alt.

The rogue subtlety changes also jumped out to me! <3 subtlety and love the buffs I see there!

Concerning warlocks, I'm not to sure what to make of the changes.
Demo aoe nerf was coming for PvE. They were xploiting on AoE heavy fights but as Ian said, I still don't quite understand why succu would be a viable option for demonology. Same goes for affliction + felhunter but to a lesser extent. Shadowbite seems designed to benefit from an affliction spec. On the other hand; what would happen to succubi if they weren't an option in those 2 specs? They're not really being loved in PvP either!

Destro changes I'm not sure what to make of. The 15% haste to 8% damage would seem like a nerf to me. What about demo and affliction losing Improved Soul Fire (moved up a tier)? They won't have to lose cast time on a subpar spell anymore but they'll lose the haste. The mastery buff seems a bit obvious since it wasn't as usefull as other ratings, they might complement eachother more now. The Demon Soul change for imps looks awesome!

[Brechnar]

I regret the dumbing down of heroics.

QFT. Even though it means I often do just one run per evening, I really enjoy the challenge. I don't see why they would want to nerf it.
I wonder if the changes to Protector of the Innocent mean I'll actually have to watch my own health again now :/

[Septih]

There aren't that many nerfs tbh, especially when you see that some things have been buffed too (grr at them fixing the standing on the boss trick in VP). Some of them are to help with group comps (i.e. first boss SFK and Beauty in BRC). It's not like they've suddenly become face-roll.

[Greentitch]

Lets take a closer look at the heroic changes.

Blackrock Caverns
Beauty now spawns with only two pups in Heroic difficulty. Not to worry though, the missing pup has been adopted by a wonderful, if not insane family. Not really much of a change. It was the easiest fight in the instance and just means you only need 2 CCs instead of 3 to trivialize the fight.

Grim Batol
Faceless Corruptors now move 10% more slowly. Not much of a nerf really. 10% more time to DPS them isn't gonna help if your group isn't slowing them properly.
Players may still use spell and abilities while afflicted by Forgemaster Throngus's Impaling Slam. Guess this was so that you wouldn't be RNG-screwed by getting your healer impaled and then shot up by the flame arrows.
Valiona's Devouring Flame damage has been reduced by 20%. Yeah it's a nerf. Not really needed as it's not a hard part of the fight. You still won't be able to live through it if you don't move.

Halls of Origination
The duration of the Flame Wardens' Raging Inferno has been reduced by 80%. Would you prefer your melee to actually be able to take part in the fight or have a slightly harder easy mini boss?
Anraphet's Nemesis Strike now does 75% of weapon damage, up from 50%. In addition, the damage-over-time effect applied by this ability does 15,000 damage every 2 seconds, up from 9,000. This whole fight felt a little underpowered, it's a nice buff.
Earthrager Ptah's Flame Bolt now deals more damage per second on Heroic difficulty. Simply a buff!
Setesh seeks a portal every 25 seconds, up from 20. Basically means you'll need slightly less DPS to beat the encounter as there will be less portals.

Lost City of the Tol'vir
Lockmaw no longer tolerates fighting in his treasure room. Bug fix to prevent abuse.

Shadowfang Keep
Baron Ashbury
Sadly, in his hubris he has forgotten how to Mend Rotten Flesh.Not really needed, but it didn't really contribute to the difficulty of the fight. It just made the fight longer if you missed an interrupt.
Lord Walden
Conjure Poisonous Mixture now deals more initial damage.
Frost Mixture is now area-of-effect damage.
Toxic Catalyst now deals less damage over time. These 3 sound like they are just a balancing of the abilities in the fight. I don't think it's a buff or nerf.

The Stonecore
Stonecore Earthshapers' Dust Storm does slightly less damage. Depends how much slightly is. To be honest it was a little high for a trash mob.
Corborus
The warning time for Thrashing Charge has been increased by 1 second. In addition, Thrashing Charge now happens 4 times, down from 5.
The visual for Rock Borers spawning during the submersion phase is now different from the Thrashing Charge visual. I never understood why people had so much trouble with this fight but apparently it's the encounter groups wipe on the most. I'm guessing because they give up here instead of Ozruk
High Priestess Azil
She grew! She's now 175% the size of a human, up from 125%. Now that's what I call a buff!
Gravity Wells should kill Devout Followers more quickly. Makes sense. This was clearly how you were meant to deal with the adds but it felt a bit lackluster.
The cast time of Force Grip is now 1.5 seconds, up from 1. Don't really see what difference it will make given it was always interrupted during the channel portion anyway.
The size of the warning visual for Seismic Shard has been increased to more accurately reflect the area it affects. After dying twice in a single fight to this I'm happy
Slabhide
The ground phase lasts longer and has fewer stalactites. It's a nerf, but to be honest that fight was annoying not hard.
Ozruk
There is now a precast visual on the ground to make it clear how far away a player must get to be clear of Shatter.
The cast time of Shatter has been increased to 3 seconds, up from 2.5.
Shatter damage is now reduced by armor, but has been increased by 33.3% (repeating, of course) as a result. So it's easier to move out of, but more fatal if you don't. Sounds reasonable to be honest.

Throne of the Tides
The damage done by Lady Naz'jatar's Shock Blast and Naz'jar Tempest Witch Chain Lightning has been reduced. I guess you could have a group that didn't have any interrupts...
Tainted Sentries Swell damage has been reduced. If you couldn't purge the buff it was ridiculously hard to heal through that ability. If you could it was trivial. Though it's a pity because it was awesome to spell steal.
The damage of Blight of Ozumat has been reduced by 25% per stack. So the imba buff phase is now slightly easier. Because that's going to change anything...

The Vortex Pinnacle
Creatures
Desperate Speed cast by Temple Adepts has had its duration reduced significantly. Sounds fair. Changes to easy trash to make it less irritating if someone misses an interrupt is fine by me.
Altairus
The visual effects in this encounter have been adjusted to make the wind direction easier to read.
Cyclones now knock players straight up, and players hit by a cyclone cannot be hit again for a few seconds. Ever get chain cycloned out of the fight with no control? I have...
Asaad
Skyfall Stars are now summoned to help him defeat players. Nice buff. Should make the fight a little more exciting.
Static Cling has had its cast time increased to 1.25 seconds, up from 1. *shrug* Makes it marginly easier for those without imba latency to get the achievement.
Grand Vizier Ertan
His health has been reduced slightly.
He now knocks away players standing too close to him when he retracts his Cyclone Shield, which now inflicts Nature damage if it touches players. A good change. I liked this fight before we found you could just stand in the middle.


So all in all there are just as many buffs as there are nerfs. Most of the changes are simply changes. Most of the nerfs are quality of life rather than difficulty. I doubt you'll notice the changes in most of the encounters.

[Vecko]

Alchemist's Stones for Agility, Strength, and Intellect have been added

Almost didn't notice this one. Really looking forward to finally getting a proper trinket

[ash]

lol @ the druid shape-change that came up on mmo-champ

There are going to be some pissed people for a while about that

It seems there may be a possibility of attempting to train a druid now, instead of a roflkitesillydurid, or feral druids being able to get out of every single mage possible ability except for the 2nd deep freeze (assuming trinket available)

and vecko; yes its good - engineers also got the same stuff. Currently there is only an int variation of on use glove enchant I think...

[Demonheart]

I'm having trouble connecting to the PTR. Downloaded client, copied characters, yet can't see any realms on realmlist when I try to connect. If someone has the PTR, can you go to

WOW folder
-> data
-> enGB
-> realmlist.wtf

open it using notepad and paste it here