Patch 4.0.3a (beta)

This article currently contains all combined changes from 4.0.1, 4.0.3, 4.0.3a, and the Cataclysm expansion itself.

Welcome to the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta test! Patch notes listed here are not comprehensive and will be changed throughout the testing process.

To leave feedback about your test experience, please visit the Cataclysm Beta forums. You may need to clear your browser cookies and cache and log out of our live forums in order to view the beta forums.

General

 * The Alliance starting experience for worgen is available. Venture through the cursed lands of Gilneas to discover your true path!
 * Running Wild is a new racial ability for worgen. In place of a mount, this ability has a 1.5 second cast time and allows the worgen to run on all fours at their fastest mounted ground speed.
 * The Horde starting experience for goblins is available. Beginning on the Isle of Kezan in a goblin paradise, players will face a treacherous road ahead!
 * The level cap for all characters is 85.
 * The Guild Advancement feature is now fully implemented. You can discuss the elements of this feature and leave feedback for us on the Guild Advancement forum.
 * Creature damage output has been increased from roughly level 65 and up. These increases scale upward with level. Creatures in exterior zones at level 80 now have 2.5 times the damage output they did previously in beta, 3.2 times at level 81, and 4 times at level 82 and up. To leave feedback about how this change feels with regard to creature spawns in level 80-85 exterior zones, visit our forums here: Creature Damage Output Changes
 * Cataclysm Launcher Update
 * The new Cataclysm Launcher allows you to stream game data while you play. This will reduce the time you spend downloading, installing, and patching World of Warcraft. We'd like to get your feedback on the toolset and gameplay experience. Please head to the forums here for additional information: New Cataclysm Launcher Available
 * Flight Master's License is a new flight skill required for flying around Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, available to characters levels 60 and higher for.
 * Players may use our Character Copy feature for copying existing characters to beta realms, or may choose from high-level pre-made template characters.
 * Level 85 pre-made template characters are now available for copy.

PvP

 * Honor has been adjusted completely. Any activity which yields Honor will now award much less. The Honor cost of items has been reduced to compensate.
 * Tol Barad is now available for testing. Players can reach the zone by speaking to NPCs in the capital cities.
 * Battlegrounds
 * Battleground queues should once again be functional.
 * Twin Peaks is now available for testing:
 * The Battle for Gilneas is now available for testing.

Zones

 * Mount Hyjal and Vashj'ir are available for testing.
 * Deepholm is available for testing.
 * Uldum is partially available for testing.
 * Twilight Highlands is partially available for testing.
 * The level ranges of Gilneas and the Lost Isles are in the process of being adjusted slightly. Creature, quest, and quest reward levels are all being altered so that players finish questing in these zones roughly by level 12. Further fine tuning will continue in future content updates.
 * Several zones have had quest maps integrated.
 * Eastern Kingdoms
 * Arathi Highlands, Badlands, Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, The Cape of Stranglethorn, Dun Morogh, Duskwood, Eastern Plaguelands, Elwynn Forest, Hillsbrad Foothills, Hinterlands, Loch Modan, Northern Stranglethorn, Northshire, Redridge Mountains, Searing Gorge, Silverpine Forest, Swamp of Sorrows, Tirisfal Glades, Western Plaguelands and Westfall are ready for testing.
 * Kalimdor
 * Most zones in Kalimdor are available for testing, though work continues on polishing the quest experience and flow, as well as zone aesthetics.

Dungeons & Raids

 * Flexible Raid Lock System
 * All Wrath of the Lich King raids now use the new Flexible Raid Lock system. This system provides the opportunity for a character to defeat each raid zone's encounters once a week. A character may now complete the encounters during the week with different raids of either 10 or 25 players.
 * Trial of the Crusader now uses the Dynamic Difficulty system found in Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum.
 * Hero Points have been renamed Justice Points.
 * All 5-player Cataclysm dungeons are now available for testing.
 * Players no longer need to discover pre-Cataclysm dungeons in order to access them via the Looking For Dungeon system. All Cataclysm level 80-85 dungeons still need to be discovered before being unlocked in the system.

Classes: General

 * All spell and ability tooltips will now display damage averages rather than minimum and maximum damage potential. This feature is on by default but can be changed via the Display settings under User Interface options. Note: this change has not yet been implemented for the mage class.
 * Ammo has been removed from the game.
 * The character levels at which classes gain new spells and abilities have changed.
 * Many item and class stats have been changed or removed.
 * Rage has been normalized.
 * Spells and abilities no longer have multiple ranks and now scale with character level.
 * New talent trees have been implemented.
 * Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
 * Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend.
 * 31 points must be spent in the primary specialization tree before any points can be placed in additional trees.
 * Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
 * More information regarding our plans for talent trees can be found here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/4p0/classandmastery.xml

Death Knights

 * A dedicated tanking tree has been implemented.
 * The way in which runes recharge has changed.

Druids

 * A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids. The feature is functional, but the interface art is still a work in-progress.

Hunters

 * Five pets can now be stored with the hunter at all times. Any one of these five pets can be summoned via the Call Pet ability.
 * Focus has replaced mana as a new resource.
 * Hunters now start with a pet at level 1.
 * The Stable will now store 20 pets. If a pet is moved into the Stable, its talents are wiped.

Mages

 * There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for mage portals. Clicking on the Teleport or Portal buttons will expand the list of choices available.

Paladins

 * Paladins now have a new resource bar.
 * We are in the process of overhauling many paladin talents, spells and abilities. Expect updates in upcoming patches.

Warlocks

 * There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for warlock pets. Clicking on this single button will open up the list of available pets to summon.
 * Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.

Items

 * Resilience no longer reduces the chance a player will be critically hit by an opponent.
 * Durability: cloth, leather, and mail now have as many points of durability as plate, making the repair cost on death much closer to equal for all classes.

Professions

 * Archaeology, a new secondary profession, has been added. Players can learn this profession in order to search for ancient artifacts around the world to advance their Archaeology skill and create unique new items.
 * To recover artifacts, you need to collect artifact fragments. Fragments are found in dig sites visible on your map. When you reach a dig site, use the Survey ability. Your survey tool will indicate the approximate direction and distance to the cache of fragments. You can collect fragments three times in a dig site before you need to move to a new dig site. Once you have enough fragments, you can solve an artifact to learn a little more about Azeroth's past. Happy hunting!
 * Research sites that are too high a level (60-85 zones and continents) will no longer show up if a player's Archaeology skill isn't yet high enough.
 * All kinds of artifacts will grant 5 points of skill. Previously, lower-level artifacts wouldn't grant any skill.
 * Keystones now count as 12 fragments.
 * Players now gain experience when collecting fragments.
 * Many bugs have been fixed with keystones and dig sites.
 * The updated glyph system is now functional.
 * The Reforging interface has been implemented and the NPCs should now be functional for testing this feature.

User Interface

 * Several default User Interface options have been altered. Be sure to browse through the new settings and leave feedback about any potential issues or bugs.
 * The ability to use third-party addons has been enabled.
 * Leave feedback about the latest user interface changes here:
 * Spell Alerts have been added to notify players when procs on select spells and abilities occur. A visual notification will display around the character and the activated ability will be highlighted on the action bar.
 * The Arena Teams pane has been improved.
 * Auto-quests have been added to the game. Players will automatically be given an auto-quest by entering specific areas in the game world. This alert will appear distinctly in the Objectives pane via the Advanced Quest Tracking feature. These quests will still be given to players with full Quest Logs, but will count toward the 25 total allotted quests if the log is not full.
 * The Character pane has been redesigned. Character stats can now be shown or hidden via the Show All Details/Hide All Details button on the bottom left. When shown, all character stats will be visible in a window to the right of the pane. Stat sections can be reorganized by clicking and dragging them up or down the pane.
 * The Professions panes now have more filtering and search functionality, as well as buttons to easily link recipes in the chat frame.
 * Many of the yellow System Messages that would display in the chat frame when leveling up have been removed.
 * New text animations now alert players as they level up, also providing information on when new talents, spells and abilities are available.
 * Professions and Class Trainers windows have been altered to more clearly display available and upcoming purchases.
 * Raid frames are now available and have temporarily replaced the standard party frames so that players can test them.
 * The Spellbook interface has been improved for greater ease-of-use and visual appeal.

Graphics

 * Improved water and lava rendering system (Video Options - Liquid Detail on the Graphics Panel)
 * Dynamic Sunshafts effect (Video Options - Sunshafts on the Graphics Panel)
 * Multi-monitor support (Video Options - Monitor on the Graphics Panel)
 * OpenGL Hardware Cursor support for Windows (Video Options - Hardware Cursor on the Advanced Panel)
 * Experimental support for DX11 (enabled by passing ‘-d3d11’ on the command line or adding  to the Config.WTF file)

Known Issues

 * General Issues
 * Sending a whisper to players from different realms will show the wrong name in the chat logs.
 * Players are unable to see the corpses of characters from other realms inside of an instance or Battleground.
 * Several helmet models appear as error cubes on goblin male characters.
 * Mounts (both flying and ground) cannot be used in several parts of the world.
 * Pet health is not being correctly restored after dismounting.
 * Hair and facial color for the worgen Character Creation screen is not correctly working.
 * War Games are causing several issues when inside of a Battleground that may prevent the game from being correctly played.
 * New Battleground level brackets are not yet implemented.
 * Training higher levels of riding skill may cause lower levels to become trainable again.
 * Random Battleground rewards may show up incorrectly or not at all on the queue window.
 * Female tauren point their guns and crossbows into the air while shooting.
 * Several worgen female and male death knight faces are distorted.
 * Players do not remount Swift Spectral Gryphons if they dismount them.
 * Battleground experience gains are too low.
 * Professions are having issues when logging out.
 * Goblins and worgen cannot use the Dungeon Finder after changing factions.
 * The client may lock up when trying to connect to a realm from the Realm Selection window.
 * User Interface
 * The  command causes a LUA error.
 * Some Runeforging abilities do not show up in the Runeforging interface.
 * The display for Conquest points shows a maximum of 13 points.
 * Combat
 * Players are unable to get the Veteran buff when joining a Tol Barad battle after it has started.
 * The spell effect visuals for Healing Rain and Earthquake look awkward when cast on a staircase or a steep incline.
 * Pyroblast cannot be used with a /cast Pyroblast macro.
 * Druids are unable to correctly train Insect Swarm.
 * Entangling roots is putting a buff on the caster.
 * Quests
 * cannot path causing him to evade if pulled during combat.
 * s cannot be interacted with after trying to be picked up by a Shapeshifted Druid.
 * The quest "" is not updated when quest items are looted.
 * will teleport around while players fight him.
 * Players are unable to interact with s after placing a banner in them while on "".
 * does not offer to teleport players to Stormwind during "".
 * The quest "" cannot be completed.
 * The Pimento vehicle for the quest "" will not mount the player after using the gossip options.
 * Turning in "" deletes a quest item required for further parts of the quest chain.
 * The gnome quest "" cannot be completed.
 * The quest "" cannot be completed.
 * "" cannot be completed because the item does not properly work.
 * "" cannot be completed.
 * Dungeons & Raids
 * 's platform is no longer transparent.
 * Harvested Soul does not show up on the buff bar.
 * Players may become stuck in combat after killing.
 * It is possible to be dropped under the world after being released from 's Squeeze.
 * Several bosses respawn after a soft instance reset.
 * Several doors do not reopen after an instance soft reset.
 * The exit portal from The Stonecore does not remove players from the instance.
 * There is no corpse arrow indicator on where to go if one dies and releases from The Stonecore.
 * Tradeskills
 * Several Cataclysm recipes are missing from trainers.
 * Players are unable to solve the Highborne Soul Mirror item.
 * Spinal Healing Injector and Z50 Mana Gulper place potions on permanent cooldowns.
 * It is not possible to learn Illustrious Grand Master Engineering.
 * Several leatherworking recipes require 530 skill to learn.
 * If you abandon both professions, one of them may repeatedly come back at 1 skill level after logging back into the game.
 * Trainers sometimes display no money or level requirements to train some profession ranks.
 * Environment
 * There is a collision wall in Greymane Court in Gilneas City that players can be stuck behind.
 * There are pathing issues where mobs may go under the terrain on Nespirah and L'ghorek.
 * There is a wall of collision in Shadowfang Keep that may prevent player progression.

Bug Fixes

 * Quitting a guild will no longer cause a client crash for all other online guild members.
 * Characters should no longer become visually stuck in an animation pose.
 * Players are again able to Party chat with players from other realms inside instances and Battlegrounds.
 * Many helmet models have been fixed for goblin male characters that previously displayed error cubes.
 * Robes now have durability.
 * The Subdued Abyssal Seahorse correctly requires Artisan Riding to learn.
 * The portal from the Deepholm Temple of Earth to Orgrimmar no longer spawns players underneath the world.
 * Player portraits are correctly lit.
 * Trainers are now displaying portraits.
 * Worgen can now train from Herbalism trainers.
 * Random Battleground queues now work for players below level 80.
 * The worgen new player cinematic should play upon logging in.
 * Launching the client with the sound card disabled no longer asserts the client.
 * Modifying guild news filters that do not apply to current news items no longer causes the news items to swap positions in the list.
 * Player names should not show up as "Unknown" in guild news if they are offline.
 * Guild achievements with individual player criteria are now displaying the character name of the character who flags the criteria.
 * There is no longer a LUA error when scrolling through bank tab permissions with over 5 bank tabs.
 * The 7th bank tab cost is correct.
 * Filtering a profession does not prevent players from seeing the bottom recipe.
 * Rank 2 of Killing Streak is no longer triggering the effect of rank 1.
 * Priest talents can no longer be chosen before the prerequisites are met.
 * Some hunter talents can no longer be chosen before the prerequisites are met.
 * Conflagrate is doing its intended damage.
 * Strand of the Ancients is now working correctly for the attacking and defending teams.
 * Dreamstate is now correctly enhancing Innervate.
 * Demon Soul will not remove Metamorphosis.
 * Entangling Roots spell visual is no longer persisting in the ground after it wears off of a target.
 * Burning Embers is now functioning correctly.
 * Rank 2 of Jinx: Curse of the Elements is no longer drastically reducing damage taken by the target.
 * Glyph of Renew is no longer reducing healing output.
 * Glyph of Holy Nova is working.
 * Runic Corruption can no longer cause the visual cooldown on runes to display incorrectly.
 * Glyph of Spirit Tap works.
 * Spiritual Focus now increases hit rating for spells, not melee attacks.
 * The healing value from Devour Magic by a felhunter is correct.
 * Periodic abilities should all correctly benefit from haste.
 * Glyph of Shadowburn is functioning.
 * Rank 1 of Improved Tracking no longer has a "NNF" tag.
 * The final heal of Lifebloom benefits from Gift of Nature.
 * Drain Life is now restoring the correct amount of health.
 * Archangel Wings are correctly placed on character models.
 * Rank 1 of Impending Doom no longer causes Bane of Doom to fall off early.
 * Psychic Scream no longer only causes one target to flee.
 * Attack is now placed on the warlock pet bars.
 * Thunderstruck is now stacking its buff and no longer returns an error message.
 * The glyph of Lifebloom critical strike chance increase is now working.
 * The spell effect for Solar Beam is now consistent with its radius of effect.
 * Anaimiss the Hive Queen and Harakiss the Infestor now scale down properly when tamed.
 * Owl's Focus is functioning.
 * Culling the Herd is proccing correctly.
 * Ritual of Refreshment is functioning.
 * Shaman totems can be recalled.
 * The quest giver item Tattered Treasure Map cannot drop again after the quest "The Horde's Hoard" has been completed.
 * Sound is no longer cutting in and out during two segments of Mor'norokk's voice over during the quest, "Some Spraining to Do".
 * The bones for the quest "Spirits of Stonemaul Hold" can again be interacted with.
 * Characters can again interact with Egg of Onyxia for the quest "The Brood of Onyxia".
 * While on the quest "Blood and Thunder!" NPCs should no longer despawn prior to the event.
 * Coldlight Murlocs are now dropping Enormous Eel Eggs.
 * The "Defending the Rift" quest can be turned in.
 * The "Camel Tow" quest can be completed.
 * Your client should no longer crash when looting the quest item: What does ‘The end of all things' mean for me.
 * Characters should no longer die while performing the Rocket Boot Boost quest.
 * It is now possible to finish "Thunderdrome: Grudge Match".
 * Sentinel's Pawns and Warden's Pawns for "The Warden's Game" and "The Sentinel's Game" can be interacted with.
 * The "Recover the Cargo" quest chain no longer has a quest 2 levels higher than the quest before it.
 * The Alliance quest "The Angerfang Menace" is now available for Alliance players.
 * Players can obtain the Grimtotem Battle Plan for the quest "Confirming the Suspicion".
 * Cassa Crimsonwing now offers players an option to take a gryphon to complete the quest "Survey Alcaz Island".
 * Orno Grimtotem no longer becomes stuck in an Evade state.
 * Hyjal NPCs should remain appropriately visible after completing specific quests in Hyjal.
 * Players can see Ysondre if they die or leave her area of interest after completing "Ysondre's Call".
 * Ysondre no longer becomes stuck during "Taerar's Fall".
 * Players can re-obtain the quest "Nothing a Couple of Melons Won't Fix" if it's abandoned.
 * Players can accept the quest "Perfect Yeti Hide".
 * Dynamically changing the difficulty in the Halion encounter will no longer break the Twilight Orbs.
 * No trash pulls in Icecrown citadel are under the world anymore.
 * Several raid and dungeon bosses are no longer despawning immediately when dying.
 * Bosses are correctly rewarding Justice Points when killed.
 * Tradeskill items correctly require some specialized professions to learn.
 * Leatherworking recipes no longer disappear from the trainer window after it's closed.
 * Fishing is no longer unlearned when logging out.
 * Players no longer suddenly die while running around Thunder Bluff.
 * Twin Peaks Battleground: There is no longer a section of missing water in the tube near the Horde base.