Patch Notes for 2.0.1

[Fenavian]

New patch notes for those who haven't seen em yet.

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- World of Warcraft Client Patch 2.0.1
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The latest patch notes can always be found at
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/und ... plemented/

Looking for Group Interface Tool

A new Looking For Group tool designed to assist players in finding groups for
instanced dungeons and quests will now be available. This interface gives
players the option to be added to a pool of other players also looking for a
group, as a means to expedite the process. In addition, players will also be
able to search for additional members in situations where they have a group
and are simply looking to find more players.

For a complete overview of this new interface, please take a moment and read the
information contained on our comprehensive Looking for Group preview.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningc ... group.html


General

- All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to
new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 41-point talents. Several
new abilities have also been added for all classes.
- All pets will now receive a percentage of their master's armor, spell damage,
spell resistances, attack power, and stamina.
- Low-level spells cast by high-level players will receive smaller bonuses from
+healing and +spell damage.
- HoTs, DoTs, and channeled spells have been re-balanced to receive a more
appropriate (higher) percentage of +spell damage and +healing.
- HoTs from different sources will now stack (i.e. multiple druids can cast the
Rejuvenation spell on 1 target).
- New item property "Resilience" has been introduced. Resilience reduces your
chance to be the victim of a critical strike, and reduces the amount of damage
critical strikes do to you.
- Weapon Skill now does the following:
- Weapon skill will no longer reduce the percentage damage lost due to
glancing.
- The player will gain 0.1% to their critical strike rating per weapon skill
against monsters above their level.
- When casting a buff on a low level target, the appropriate rank of the buff
will automatically be applied.
- In PvP, Crowd Control effects will last no longer than 12 seconds instead of
the full duration, with a chance of a heartbeat resist.
- Players will no longer lose faction when under the influence of "Mind Control"
or the Gnomish Mind Control Cap.
- Several improvements have been made to the Macintosh client, including support
for Multi-Threaded OpenGL on Intel Macs running OS X 10.4.8 or higher.


PvP

- Honor System Revamp
- Current honor totals have been reset.
- Players may display their highest lifetime rank title (accessible from
character sheet).
- Honor points earned each day may now be spent as a form of currency.
- Check the PvP tab of your character sheet to see your honor information.
- PvP rewards are no longer unique.
- Marks of Honor earned from battlegrounds are no longer turned in for
reputation or honor. They are now used in addition to honor points in order to
purchase rewards.
- Two New Arenas are now available in three different modes.
- 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 matches
- Players may queue up at Goblin NPC's in Stormwind, Ironforge,
- Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Gadgetzan


Druids

- The talent "Swiftmend" will now include bonus healing from the talents
"Improved Rejuvenation" and "Empowered Rejuvenation".
- "Feline Swiftness" has been renamed "Feral Swiftness". Dodge % increase now
also applies to Bear and Dire Bear Forms.
- "Improved Moonfire" has been reduced to 2 ranks, for a 5/10% bonus.
- "Insect Swarm" has had damage on all ranks increased. Mana cost of ranks 1,3
increased. Mana cost of ranks 4,5,6 decreased.
- "Nurturing Instinct" now grants the benefit at all times, but the bonus has
been reduced to 25/50% of Strength.
- "Omen of Clarity's" duration has been increased to 30 min.
- "Improved Starfire" has been renamed to "Celestial Focus". It now also
increases the chance to resist pushback when casting Wrath by 25/50/70%.
- "Blood Frenzy's" benefits have now merged with "Primal Fury".
- "Improved Leader of the Pack" has been reduced to 2 ranks for 2/4% total
health healed.
- "Pounce" no longer requires the druid to be behind the target.
- "Barkskin" is now usable while stunned.

Hunters

- Traps can be set while in combat, but require a 2 second arming time.
- "Auto shot" will be automatically enabled if the Hunter steps out of melee
range while in combat with target.
- 1 Agility will now grant 1 Ranged Attack Power.
- "Auto shot" is now reset when casting Aimed Shot.
- "The Beast Within's" Bonus damage caused has been reduced to 10%, but now also
reduces the mana cost of all spells by 20%.
- Freezing Traps will now cancel combat when cast.

Mages

- "Frost Nova" (Water Elemental Spell) has now been renamed "Freeze".

Shaman

- Shaman with the appropriate talent spec are now able to dual-wield.
- Self-weapon buffs such as Windfury Weapon can be applied to both main and
off-hand weapons.
- Rockbiter's weapon functionality has been changed. It is now a damage proc
instead of a flat attack power bonus.
- Windfury Weapon and Rockbiter Weapon enchantments will only benefit the weapon
with the enchantment on it.


Warlocks

- The range of "Drain Life" and "Drain Mana" spells have been increased.


Warriors

- Rage generation from dealing damage has been normalized.
- All Rage awards are averaged with our expected rage per swing (adjusted for
weapon speed).


Items

- The "Far Sight" effect has changed so that the camera now zooms in to a
distant location, rather than instantly showing the distant view. This also
affects the items: Ultra-Spectropic Vision Goggles, the Ornate Spyglass, and the
Hunter ability "Eagle Eye."
- Spells can now require either a totem item or a totem category item to cast a
spell. This means that the Enchanting Rods now count as all of the lower level
enchanting rods as well, so you only need a single enchanting rod instead of all
six. This also means that "Finkle's Skinner" now counts as a Skinning Knife.
Several weapons that are picks have been flagged as counting as a Mining pick as
well.
- Items that give bonuses, such as critical strike percentage, have been
modified to adhere to a combat rating system.
- All current items will provide the exact same benefit from ratings at level 60
as they provided before the ratings system.
- Thrown weapon items no longer stack, but use durability instead. One unit of
durability is lost per throw, and these items can be repaired.
- The tool tip for the Great Staff of the Guardian now shows the proper increase
of 28 to the party spell critical rating.
- Items that are useable from player inventory with a cooldown will now update
the cooldown in real-time.
- Players will no longer be able to sell the "Blue Skeletal Horse" to vendors.
- The damage Proc from the item "Misplaced Servo Arm" will no longer break the
Rogue ability "Gouge".
- The "Skull of Impending Doom" has been changed and will now increase run speed
by 60% for 10 seconds, but deals damage equal to 60% of your maximum health and
drains 60% of your maximum mana for over 10 seconds.
- The Backfire effect on the "Net-O-Matic" will no longer break on damage.


Professions

- All of the profession-made items that have been created up to now have been
given proper stats based on the current expansion item level progression table.
- Most of the items made by Tailoring/Leatherworking/Blacksmithing have had
their creation time reduced. Now the cap on time required to make an item in
those professions is based on quality and level.
- New Max times required.
- Level 31+ Green Items at least 8 sec
- Level 31+ Blue Items at least 15 sec
- Level 31+ Purple Items at least 25 sec
- Skill level now determines what items you can disenchant.
- Skill 1= Level 1-20
- Skill 25= Level 20-25
- Skill 50= Level 25-30
- Skill 75= Level 30-35
- Skill 100= Level 35-40
- Skill 125= Level 40-45
- Skill 150= Level 45-50
- Skill 175= Level 50-55
- Skill 200= Level 55-60
- Skill 225= Level 60-65
- Players will no longer lose an item when attempting to disenchant on a boat
when the loading screen appears.


User Interface

- Meeting Stone gossip options have been removed from Innkeepers in preparation
for the new LFG system.
- LFG/LFM UI
- Tips have been added to Loading Screen tips and new player tips
- Meeting Stones now function similar to a Warlock Summon spell.
- Players select party member to be summoned and right click the stone. A
second party member then clicks the portal to summon.
- Enchanting UI has been vastly improved.
- Raid UI now supports frame for Main Tank.
- Spell Alert (Enemy Cast bar)
- Defaults to off
- Enabled through Interface Options
- Displays targeted enemy's cast bar when they are casting.
- May also be displayed with "V" key functionality.
- Auto-loot may be enabled with just one click in the Interface Options.
- Character sheet UI now displays more precise melee, ranged, and spell stats.
- Players can now cast item targetable spells on items that are in your action
bar. For instance you can cast feed pet and have the food you want the pet to be
fed in one of your action bars.
- Semi-charged items can no longer be placed in the Auction House.
- A knowledge base has been added to the in-game UI.
- Searchable database of FAQ's and common support issues.
- Keyrings have been expanded to hold more key-type items and will now size
dynamically for the number of keys in possession.
- The Hunter ability, "Mend Pet," will now turn red when a pet is out of range.
- Players will now be able to disable ability messages in the floating combat
text.
- Players will now be able to scroll down their ignore list if it extends beyond
one page.
- The tooltips for the Show Dispellable Debuffs and Show Castable Buffs options
will now specify they only apply to raid pullout groups.
- Significant changes have been made to User Interface customization.
- For specific details, please visit
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... 5623&sid=1.


Bugs

- The Rend Blackhand arena event in Upper Blackrock Spire will now properly
reset after a wipe.
- Players will no longer resurrect with low mana and health if they died and
released on a Zeppelin or Ship.
- Fixed an issue where effects with 100% chance to be applied were being
resisted.
- Fixed an issue where high level players were not being properly credited the
right amount of faction reputation.
- Party members will now be properly credited for completing the "Dead Man's
Plea" quest when a totem or pet gets the killing blow on Baron Rivendare.
- Slowing abilities and spells will no longer decrease the speed of a player
when traveling by Gryphon.
- Fixed an issue where players were re-taining talent based abilities even after
re-training.
- Fixed an issue where the Warlock spell "Shadowburn" was improperly consuming
two Soul Shards.
- Fixed an issue where players were unable to click on anything if they had any
add-ons installed.
- Fixed an issue where players were able to use "Mana Burn" on mobs and players
without mana.
- Fixed an issue where spells that proc while a player was standing would not
proc if they were sitting or lying down.
- Fixed many interface overlapping graphic issues.
- Fixed an issue where Seal of Justice (Rank 2) will now refresh with melee
strikes.
- Blood Elf mobs in Azshara will now have the correct model.
- Fixed an issue where a spell with two procs would be reflected and one of the
procs would still hit the player that reflected the spell.
- Fixed an issue that was putting Hunters back into combat when they have the
"Spirit Bond" Talent or have the Cryptstalker set bonus.
- Fixed an issue where players were being awarded the wrong item when double
looting a corpse under the master loot option.
- Fixed an issue where players interrupted while casting would have a longer
cast time than normal.
- Fixed an issue where players could not see enchants when inspecting another
player.
- Fixed an issue where extra attacks from "Windfury Weapon" would not proc
"Flurry" when they crit.
- Fixed an issue where players that were killed in freezing traps would be stuck
there until releasing.
- Fixed an issue where Warlocks were able to despawn a pet to gain a free "Soul
Shard"in the Battlegrounds.
- Warrior "Shield Slam" and "Shield Bash" will no longer trigger a proc from an
equipped weapon.
- Fixed an issue where players were able to consume a Mana Emerald at full mana.
- The totem, "Wrath of Air," will no longer be useable in "Ghost Wolf" form.
- Fixed an issue where Warrior "Battle Shout" was causing too much threat.
- Fixed an issue where computers with ATi video cards were sometimes having
problems when displaying a certain texture.
- Fixed an issue where the Warlock spell "Death Coil" gained double the benefit
from the talent "Shadow Mastery".
- Player pets will no longer attack CC'ed targets while in Passive mode.
- "Prayer of Spirit" will no longer cast on the user if there is no other target
selected.
- "Lightning Shield" will now have the appropriate cool-down time between uses.
- Fixed an issue where materials were being consumed if a player logged out
before an enchantment had finished being applied.
- The Hunter, "Auto Shot," ability will no longer activate on resurrection.
- Fixed a bug where "Inner Focus" was not being consumed when using "Mind
Soothe."
- Fixed a bug where Rogues were able to use the ability "Ghostly Strike" when
not facing their target.
- Warlock pet dismiss sounds will now play properly.
- Fixed an issue where Fist weapons were sheathing improperly.
- Bags will no longer overlap the Bank UI when the game window is resized.
- Players will no longer be able to whisper to enemy players in Battlegrounds.
- The Skeletal Gryphon ride for the Eastern Plaguelands PvP event will now fly
at its correct speed.
- Players will no longer be able to jump onto the top of the Dun Baldar Fortress
in Alterac Valley and get behind the terrain to attack other players.
- Shapeshifting will now break "Nogginfogger Elixir" effect.
- You will no longer die when Feign Death is finished channeling.
- "Scatter Shot" will now properly do damage even if the target is immune to the
confuse effect.
- "Aspect of the Cheetah" will now properly trigger with absorbed damage.
- Casting a lower rank polymorph on a target that is already under the effect of
a higher rank will cause an error message and not consume mana.
- The talent, "Master of Elements," will now properly proc off of totems.
- Players will no longer be attacked by same faction guards when using mind
control on an enemy player to attack.
- "Vanish" will now properly un-target the Rogue from the attacker when the
attacker is in the same party.
- The talent, "Improved Chain Heal," will now properly add to the base healing
done.
- "Healing Wave" Ranks 11 and 12 will now benefit from the Shaman talent,
"Healing Way."
- "Improved Curse of Agony" will now properly increase the base and spell power.
- Warlocks will now be properly credited a Soul Shard from their pet when they
take a flight path.
- Warlocks will now be properly credited a Soul Shard from their pet when they
are dead at the end of a Battleground match.
- Warlocks will now be properly credited a Soul Shard from their pet when they
enter an Arena.
- Casting "Dark Pact" after exiting combat will no longer put you back in
combat.
- The tool tip for the "Great Staff of the Guardian" now shows the proper
increase of 28 to the party spell critical rating.
- Several Chest spawns in Dustwallow Marsh will now properly spawn above ground.
- Items that can give +Stamina/Intellect from random suffixes will now properly
apply while dead.
- "Beastmaster's Gloves" will now give the proper 2% crit chance for Hunter
pets.
- Fixed a bug where you can end up with overlapping bags after resizing the
window.
- Various graphical errors will be noticeable while viewing maps.

Mac

- Added support for Multi-Threaded OpenGL on Intel Macs running OS X 10.4.8
or higher. Depending on hardware, scene and graphicalsettings, this can raise
frame rates up to a factor of 2X.
- Improved video hardware detection and default settings, especially with
Intel video.
- Vertex Animation Shaders have been disabled for systems with Intel video.
- Improved iTunes key-binding feature for smoothness and track name display.
- Fixed a bug where Tutorial Tips would not be marked as viewed correctly
on PowerPC Macs.
- Fixed a rare crash bug in the audio code.
- Improved support for Weather Shaders.
- Added support for changing the mouse sensitivity in WoW. Previously, the
Mac version ignored the value from the slider in the Interface Options dialog.

[Fenavian]

This is from the link from my first post about the new honour system.

Patch 2.0 Honor System Changes
Patch 2.0 introduced changes to the honor system. The following selection of questions address those changes:

What is the new player-versus-player (PvP) honor system?
Like the current PvP honor system, the new honor system provides a way for players to participate in PvP combat and obtain rewards by defeating their opponents. The key difference in the new honor system is how the rewards are obtained. With the new honor system, you will obtain honor points that can be accumulated and spent like currency on rewards such as items, weapons, and armor.

Do I need to keep playing to keep my honor points intact?
No, the honor points will accumulate like currency, similar to the gold and silver you can obtain through killing monsters or completing quests, and will not degrade or be lost over time. This allows you to participate in PvP at your own pace, working toward the honor rewards, which you can purchase as soon as you have enough honor points to do so. There is no longer any ranking associated with the honor system, so you no longer have to worry about maintaining a rank or standing under the honor system. Players still interested in measuring their PvP ability against fellow players will be able to participate in the Arena System, which is a separate, new form of competitive PvP in The Burning Crusade.

Is there a limit to how many honor points I can accumulate?
Yes, there is a limit to how many honor points a character can accumulate, but it is currently set to be approximately twice as much as the most expensive reward. If you max out your honor points, you'll need to spend some before you can earn additional honor points.

The limit of course, is subject to change depending on what works best for long-term game balance.

Are honor points the only thing needed to purchase the rewards?
The battleground marks of honor currently awarded for participating in Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and Alterac Valley will also factor in to the cost for many of the rewards. The amount of honor points and marks of honor required will vary for each reward. However, for most items the honor cost is the most significant part of the item's cost.

How are honor points earned?
Honor points are earned in a very similar manner to the honor rewarded in the current honor system. The game tracks your participation in world PvP as well as PvP within battlegrounds. As you kill enemies and assist your allies against the enemy, you'll earn honor. You will be able to track a rough estimate of your approximate amount of honor points received, and the points will then be calculated and awarded each night.

Will the honor and battleground reputation rewards available in the current system still be available?
All of the same rewards are available in the new honor system, costing both honor points and marks of honor from the appropriate battleground.

What will happen to my current battleground reputations, honor, and rank?
A new title system will display your highest rank achieved under the old honor system, but ranks will no longer play a part in the new honor system. The battleground reputations will carry over to the new system, and still be visible and increase through participation in the various battlegrounds, but the current rewards are now only available through the new honor system. However, you will be able to obtain a special title if you obtain exalted reputation with each battleground faction. This title may be displayed through the new title display system.

How will dishonorable kills factor in to the new honor system?
Although this is subject to change, we are not currently planning to have dishonorable kills play any role in the honor system. The NPCs around the world will no longer be set as civilians, so killing them will not impact your ability to obtain honor points.

Gaining Honor

What is the Honor System?
The Honor System allows players to gain Honor Points based on PvP kills and battles that can be used to spend on special rewards. Players earn Honor Points mainly through Battlegrounds and World Outdoor PvP. For more competative battles, participate in the Arena System.

Can I earn honor if I am in a group?
Yes. When grouped with other players, honor are divided equally amongst the members of the party. Just like in groups for killing monsters, players can gain bonus experience for killing players while in a group. If the character levels of some group members are significantly higher than others, the amount of honor gained by the lower level members will be reduced, just like it is with monster experience.

What if I do less damage than the rest of my group, say through healing, damage over time, or area-of-effect spells? Do I still get the same amount of honor as my group?
Yes. Players who are grouped in a party equally split the honor they earn. The Priest who heals will receive an equal share of points as the Warrior who is swinging away at the target.

What happens if we take out a faction leader in a raid group? Who gets the honor?
Members of the raid group that taps the creature will share the honor points equally. The points will be distributed the same way as experience points. It should be noted, however, that strategic targets are there to promote conflict and role-play between the Alliance and Horde, so players will find that killing enemy leaders will not be a disproportionately large source of honor.

If I am a raid leader, will I receive more honor than other non-leader raid group members?
No. Honor is divided equally among all raid-party members.

If I am on the other end of the battlefield as my party or raid group, will I still get honor for any kills they make?
No. Earning honor falls within the normal rules of experience gain. Players must be in the general area to receive the honor.

Will I get credit for killing guards?
Based on player feedback we have decided to no longer award honorable kills for killing NPCs that are not racial leaders. This will prevent players from feeling as though they need to "grind" NPC kills for honor. This change will also help the honorable kill totals mean more than they otherwise would.

What happens if I am fighting a player and that player runs away, then another player or group finds the player and kills him or her? Do I get any honor having damaged the player first?
No. If a player does not take damage for 1 minute since the last time they were attacked in PvP, any damage done by the first player is null and void. The next player or group who finds and kills the target gets the credit.

Will there be additional honor gained for rapid-fire killing? For instance, three honorable kills in thirty seconds.
There are no current plans to reward players for going on killing sprees, other than the normal honor they earn.

Will there be a survival bonus? For instance, each kill beyond the first without dying equates to more honor.
This will not be a feature upon initial implementation of the Honor System, but is a possible candidate for continued refinement.

Rewards

What incentives do I have to gain Honor Points in the Honor System?
By killing other players and racking up honor, players will gain access to new equipment and weapons. Some of these weapons also require Battleground tokens.

Can I earn Honor Points in Arena Matches?
No. This is a seperate system where players earn Arena Points that can be used on special Arena weapons and equipment.

Honor Decay

Once I gain Honor Points, do I keep it indefinitely, or do I have to keep earning it?
There is a limit to how many honor points a character can accumulate, but it is currently set to be approximately twice as much as the most expensive reward. If you max out your honor points, you'll need to spend some before you can earn additional honor points.

Battlegrounds

How does the Honor System fit in with the Battlegrounds?
In the Battlegrounds players will be fighting primarily against other players which will net honor points. There will also be other methods of earning honor in the Battlegrounds besides player-vs-player battles. Battlegrounds are instances geared towards promoting player-vs-player combat, so players who complete objectives in Battlegrounds will receive honor.

Will killing players in the Battlegrounds automatically result in me getting more honor than if I kill someone on the other parts of the realm?
No. However players participating in Battlegrounds can earn honor in other ways besides killing players.

Misc.

Will one class have an advantage over the others? Some classes seem to be better equipped for gaining honor than others; was that taken into consideration?
During our testing we did not come across any one class that had a distinct advantage over the others. Each class has an equal chance of gaining Honor Points depending on how it is played.

It seems that some realms have way more Alliance than Horde members. How will this affect the Honor System ?
Contrary to popular belief, the numbers of Horde and Alliance are very similar on player-vs-player realms.

How am I supposed to play the game when every where I go someone is waiting to gank me? The graveyard is nice, but I want to see the rest of the world too!
Players who chose to create characters on a PvP realm are supposed to feel a sense of danger where ever they go, that is why we offer player-vs-player realms!

What happened to the old ranks?
Ranks from the previous sytem are now purely cosmetic. They no longer affect anything beyond the name above a character that has previously earned them.