WotLK Classic Hotfixes – January 17th: Pre-Nerf Ulduar, Unholy DK Changes, Titan Rune Dungeons & More!

Wrath of the Lich King Classic Patch Notes

Version 3.4.1 Build 47612
January 17, 2023

Ulduar

• All encounters in Ulduar in Wrath Classic have been re-tuned to use the original (and in many cases) most challenging iterations from Patch 3.1 of original Wrath of the Lich King.
• The power level of items found in Ulduar, crafted items requiring Runed Orbs, Emblem of Conquest items, and Season 6 PvP Rewards have been increased from original Wrath of the Lich King.
  • Developers’ notes: This is again a change from the original game that felt appropriate since we’re releasing Ulduar in its pre-nerf state. Pre-nerf versions of most encounters represent a significant difficulty increase over how these encounters functioned in patch 3.3.5, and item power increases should give Ulduar a satisfying gear and boss kill progression, and make the effort needed to clear the “Hard Mode” versions of some encounters feel significantly more rewarding.
• The Realm’s First: Death’s Demise achievement now requires all four Titan Keepers to be completed on Hard Mode as well as the Assembly of Iron completed on the highest level of hard mode within the same lockout as the Yogg-Saron kill.
  • Developers’ notes: This is a change from 2009 intended to help situations where guilds vying for Realm First achievements might have to make a choice between trying to unlock Algalon and/or completing the keepers on hard mode versus pushing straight to Yogg Saron for the Realm First achievement, potentially missing out on better rewards while making that push. With the keepers required in addition to Assembly of Iron, all of the required bosses for Zero Lights in the Darkness and Algalon are part of the realm first achievement. This also makes it slightly more difficult to accomplish in general, by requiring all of these hard modes to be completed quickly, which feels more consistent with the modern knowledge and skill level of the players who would attempt this achievement.

Titan Rune Dungeons

• Titan Rune Dungeons are a new optional game mode that can be activated in Wrath of the Lich King Classic heroic dungeons by having all 5 players in the group interact with the Mysterious Device near each dungeon’s entrance to activate Defense Protocol Alpha.
• Activating Defense Protocol Alpha will increase the health and damage of the creatures in the dungeon, as well as add a new thematic gameplay effect based on the theme of the dungeon.
• To accommodate this new game mode, adjustments to loot acquisition have been made in Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, and Obsidian Sanctum.
  • Items that previously dropped in the 25-player versions of Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, and Obsidian Sanctum will now also drop in the 10-player versions of these raids.
  • Items that previously dropped in the 10-player versions of Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, and Obsidian Sanctum will now instead drop in Wrath of the Lich King heroic dungeons when groups opt-into the new Titan Rune Dungeon mode.
  • All bosses in 25 player Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, and Obsidian Sactum now drop more items per kill.
• A few specific items from 10-player raids have been added to the loot table for each boss in Titan Rune Dungeons. Each time a boss is killed with Defense Protocol Alpha engaged, one of these items will drop in addition to any other loot drops.

Changes

• Flame Cap now shares a cooldown with most potions.
  • Developers’ notes: This item was erroneously omitted from the list of potions that were added to the same exclusive category when the consumable system was overhauled in Patch 2.1.0, and this has lingered as a bug since then. This item is difficult to obtain, prohibitively expensive on most realms, and incongruent with the normal rules around consumables in Wrath Classic. This is also something that likely would have been changed in original Wrath, had it been used as widely as it will be in upcoming releases, due to the nature of many encounters.
• The Death Knight spell Summon Gargoyle no longer snapshots the haste level of the controlling Death Knight at the moment the spell is used, and now dynamically updates the haste value to use with each cast of Gargoyle Strike.
  • Developers’ notes: In testing, this adjustment has not made a huge difference in Death Knights’ power relative to most other classes and has smoothed out a lot of the rough edges in gameplay that the previous haste snapshot methods caused. We will continue to monitor DK performance and representation in raids in the coming weeks, and make further adjustments should they prove to be absolutely necessary.
• Several adjustments have been made to the Group Finder tool.
  • An icon has been added when browsing the available dungeon and raid activities to
    warn players if they have already completed or are otherwise locked to that dungeon or raid. This reminder should reduce situations where a player may list themselves for an activity that they are already saved to.
• Class colors have been added to group listing names.
• Soul of Iron and Survivor of the Firelord Titles have been added for characters that completed those challenges in Season of Mastery and moved their character to Wrath Classic.
• Additional functionality has been added to the Guild Calendar.
  • Guild Masters and officers may now create guild events and announcements and Mass Invite any players that have signed up for created events.
  • Existing guild events may be edited by the GM or officer who created them or
    “Moderators” designated by the creator of the event (to assign a moderator, right-click a player’s name who has signed up and select “Grant Moderator Status”)
  • Guild announcements may now be edited by the GM or an officer with sufficient
    permissions.
• The Orb of Naxxramas is now available just inside the entrance to Naxxramas. You may use it to teleport directly to Frostwyrm Lair.
  • Developers’ notes: Please note that the Immortal and Undying achievements will still require you to clear the entire raid, without any deaths during any boss encounters, within a single lockout. That can be done in any order now.

Fixes

• Resolved an issue causing abilities cast directly after the Hunter ability Misdirection to not queue properly.
• Fixed a bug that would cause client performance to momentarily drop when an achievement was selected while in combat.
• Fixed a bug that caused players to become flagged for PvP when using a Saronite Bomb in Eye of Eternity.
• Resolved an issue with The Festering Emerald drake’s jump animation in areas where flying is not allowed.
• Fixed a bug that caused queued spells that replace auto-attacks to proc some talents and abilities they should not.
• Fixed several visual issues with the Equipment Manager.
• Fixed an issue that caused players to sometimes become disconnected when their spirit is released to Frostfield Graveyard in Storm Peaks.
• Fixed an issue that caused players to not receive credit towards some objectives of the
  Wintergrasp Ranger achievement.
• Resolved an issue where Borean Man O’War could not be caught during the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby.
• Fixed a visual bug with the Raid Info UI frame.
• Fixed an issue where the Death Knight ability Death Coil would heal enemy targets while Dancing Rune Weapon is active and the Death Knight cast the spell on themselves with Lichborne active.
• Fixed an issue causing the Underbelly Croc in the Dalaran Sewers arena map to incorrectly appear to be floating in the playable area of the arena.
• Added a line to the Corpse Explosion tooltip clarifying that it can be used on the player’s own ghoul pets.
• Fixed several visual issues with water appearing inside Northrend Dungeon instances.
• Fixed an issue where Captain Shely could disappear and become non-interactive during the quest Fire Upon the Waters in Dragonblight.
• Fixed a bug causing the Shaman ability Grounding Totem to absorb spells that had been reflected.
• Fixed an issue that could rarely cause Kel’thuzad to reset during phase 1 of his encounter in Naxxramas.
• Resolved an issue preventing the Skybreaker and Orgrim’s Hammer airships from appearing on the World Map in Icecrown.
• Fixed a bug where snares applied to a target while that target is immune to snares will still apply the slow effect when the immunity expires.
• Re-added missing sound to the Warrior ability Devastate.
• Fixed an issue causing a Hunter pets’ focus regeneration to be too high.
• Updated the tooltip for the Libram of Divine Judgement to clarify that the proc effect cannot occur for players level 80 and higher.
• Fixed an issue where the learnable recipies present on the Profession Trainer UI could be incorrectly centered.
• Resolved an issue causing the Valgarde Inn in Howling Fjord to not be properly flagged as a rested XP zone.
• Fixed an issue that was causing players to become dismounted from the Festering Emerald Drake in water.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Sated debuff to not clear from player pets when a boss encounter ends.
• Fixed an issue in Utgarde Pinnacle causing Grauf to use a running animation while in the air.
  • Developers’ note: We will never forget our best sky-shuffling proto-dragon boy.