Patch 3.4.1 PTR Development Notes - Updated for Ulduar Raid Testing 12/08/22

Greetings!

With Ulduar raid testing resuming very shortly we wanted to again give an update on recent bug fixes and adjustments in 3.4.1 and the Ulduar raid.

Of note, we detailed plans to test an adjustment to the Death Knight spell Summon Gargoyle yesterday and this change is present now on the 3.4.1 PTR.

General Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused you to receive an interface error if the Move Pad was enabled.
• Fixed an issue that caused an interface error when opening and closing the world map.
• Resolved an Issue that caused an interface error when viewing the group browser while in a party with a party leader offline.
• Fixed an issue that caused an interface error when refunding an item to a vendor.
• Fixed an issue that caused an interface error when reporting another player and when closing the report frame.
• Resolved an issue that caused an interface error to appear when opening the scoreboard in battlegrounds.
• Fixed an issue that caused player power bars (mana, rage, etc.) to have a faded color for players who died and then released or were resurrected.
• Resolved an issue that prevented the Stable Master UI to appear when using the Call Stabled Pet ability.
• Resolved an issue causing hunter pets to generate focus too rapidly.
• Resolved an issue where Grounding Totem was incorrectly absorbing reflected spells.
• Fixed an issue where players who were sent to the Frostfield graveyard in Storm Peaks could become disconnected from the game.
• Fixed various issues related to item level adjustments in Ulduar.
  • Ranged Weapons from Ulduar now have the appropriate weapon DPS.
  • Decimator’s Armguards item level was adjusted to the appropriate level.
  • Delirium’s Touch item level was adjusted to the appropriate level.
  • Fixed an issue with the Sigil of the Vengeful Heart tooltip not being updated to reflect the higher item level.
  • Fixed an issue with Dark Matter displaying the incorrect critical strike rating value in the tooltip.
  • Legplates of the Endless Void now have the correct stat values.
• Resolved an issue that would cause a game crash when opening multiple profession panes.
• Resolved an issue causing the Hunter ability Kill Shot to crash the client for the hunter and other nearby players.
  • Developer’s Note: This was temporarily resolved early in the last testing period by disabling the animation related to this spell, but we’ve committed the “full fix” for this now and re-enabled the Kill Shot animation.
• Fixed an issue causing Kill Shot and Volley to not gain appropriate bonus attack power from Hunter’s Mark.
• Fixed an issue that caused Oil of Immolation and Troll’s Blood Elixirs to cause the player’s potions to become “permanently” on cooldown.
• Stormjewel gems are not correctly unique-equipped.
• Fixed an issue preventing the Argent Tournament quest “The Stories Dead Men Tell” to be uncompletable.
• Fixed an issue causing the Warrior ability Devastate to not play appropriate sound effects.

Ulduar Raid-Specific Fixes and Adjustments

• Ulduar General
  • Fixed an issue that allowed you to gain the Keeper of Ulduar buffs from Hodir, Freya, Thorim, and Mimiron outside of the Yogg-Saron encounter.
  • The RX-214 Repair-o-matic stations should now properly repair vehicles.
  • Fixed an issue preventing players from swapping to 10-player mode of the raid leader had an active 25-player raid ID lock.
• Flame Leviathan
  • Fixed an issue causing Flame Leviathan to take too long to spawn after the final Ulduar Colossus is killed.
• XT-002 Deconstructor
  • The Health of XT-002 Deconstructor has been reduced on Hard Mode in both 10 and 25-player versions.
    • Developer’s Notes: The version of the fight we had present on PTR was the very first version of XT-002 Deconstructor that was live for a very short time in 2009. This version was never defeated, and with good reason; it had an unfeasibly large health pool and players couldn’t hope to beat the enrage even with perfect gear and play at that time. We considered a lot of changes and ultimately decided to reduce the overall health to make it more in-line with this boss’s place within Ulduar as the 2nd required boss. The real-prenerf version of this boss will continue to be relegated to legend, just like a certain Old God residing in his winter vacation home in southern Kalimdor was.
  • Fixed an issue causing XT-002 Deconstructor to not case Searing Light and Gravity bomb in 10-player mode.
  • Resolved an issue causing the 25-player version of Heartbreak to apply to the 10-player version of the boss when the hard mode is engaged.
• Razorscale
  • Reduced the berserk timer from 600 seconds to 360 seconds.
  • Dark Rune watchers have had their abilities correctly restored to pre-nerf levels:
    • Chain Lightning may be cast while the Dark Rune Watcher is moving.
    • Chain Lightning’s range is now 100 yards (up from 30).
    • Chain Lightning’s damage has been increased in both 10-player and 25-player modes.
• Ignis the Furnace Master
  • Health increased in 10-player and 25-player modes by 20%.
  • Scorch Ground damage doubled in both 10-player and 25-player modes.
  • Molten Periodic Damage increased.
  • Strength of the Creator buff has been increased from 15% to 20% per stack.
• Kologarn
  • Stone Grip now deals 4000 damage per second on 10-player and 5000 damage per second on 25-player.
  • Eye Beams now move slightly faster.
• Thorim
  • Unbalancing strike default recast time reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds.
  • Unbalancing strike is no longer an “on next hit” style attack and is now correctly an instant melee attack.
  • Fixed an issue where the Dark Rune Warbringers would not properly clean up when the encounter ends.
• Mimiron
  • Fixed an issue that caused Mimiron to immediately engage players on hard mode, before his RP had reached the appropriate point.
  • The Magnetic Core is now flagged to always be free-for-all lootable.
  • The Aerial Command unit should no longer spin at ludicrous speed during phase 4.
• General Vezax
  • The Faceless Horrors leading up to Vezax should no longer be skippable.
• Yogg-Saron
  • Fixed an issue that allowed players to reach and remain in the room containing the Brain of Yogg-Saron before the encounter begins.
  • Guardian of Yogg Saron’s health has been increased on both 10-player and 25-player modes.
  • Immortal Guardians health has been increased on both 10-player and 25-player modes.
• Algalon the Observer
  • The floor of the Celestial Planetarium is no longer quite so bright and more closely matches the original Wrath of the Lich King encounter space.
  • Fixed an issue causing the graphical effects of Cosmic Smash to vanish when another object with transparency was between the player camera and the effect.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the Supermassive achievement to not clear its progress after a wipe properly.

Hello again!

Going into the weekend we wanted to give some updates on some bug fixes we managed to get hotfixes out for today:

• Fixed an issue where XT-002 Deconstructor’s Tympanic Tantrum ability was being mitigated by armor.
• Fixed an issue where the Ancient Conservators in the Freya Encounter were casting random, incorrect spells.
• Resolved an issue preventing Freya from consistently using her abilities in Phase 2.
• Fixed an issue causing the Brightleaf’s Essence buff to persist on all creatures in Ulduar after the Freya encounter ends.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing Hodir from using the Icicle spell.
• The Saronite Animus will now correctly spawn after 8 vapors spawn rather than 6 on the General Vezax encounter.
• Fixed an issue that caused General Vezax to only cast Mark of the Faceless or Shadow Crash if a recent cast of Searing Flames was interrupted.

We’ll likely have a bunch more fixes out on Monday. Thank you again to everyone who has tested and helped provide bug reports so far!

Quick update for Kill Shot.

We’ve sent a hotfix that will temporarily remove the spell visual from Kill Shot. This should prevent the crash for now while we work on a full fix.

Greetings,

Just wanted to add a few other issues that we are aware of and are working on fixes for:

• Players may experience frequent crashes when using Kill Shot or Frost Trap. Please avoid using these spells for the time being.
• When you are piloting a Demolisher vehicle and it is destroyed, you may not be able to use all Demolisher abilities when piloting another Demolisher vehicle.
  • As a workaround, relogging will restore the ability to use all Demolisher abilities

Additionally, to facilitate the testing of bosses after XT-002 we have added a teleporter skip to take players to the Antechamber of Ulduar even if XT-002 has not yet been defeated. You will need to engage Flame Leviathan at least once to activate the teleporters in Ulduar.

Thanks to everyone who has joined us for testing so far!

Greetings!

Build: 47014

December 8, 2022

Testing Focus - Ulduar “Pre-Nerf”

• The Ulduar raid is now available for testing in both 10 and 25 player versons.
  • To facilitate testing we have re-enabled Character Copy from live realms, as well as added new items to the PTR vendors in Dalaran.
    • Of note, Dungeon Gearatuar in Dalaran also sells the Celestial Planetarium key to access Algalon the Observer’s room.
  • We’ve also added functionality to the teleporters within Ulduar to allow groups to skip to any area of Ulduar right away.
  • Additionally, the door to the Celestial Planetarium is open and Algalon can be accessed freely.
  • Please note that in the release version of the game, you will need to progress through the instance as normal to unlock additional teleporters, and you will need to complete the pre-requisite tasks to unlock the Celestial Planetarium as was the case in 2009.

Ulduar Known Issues

• When a player is affected by Slag Pot on the Ignis the Furnace Master encounter, their portrait and buff/debuff bars display as if they themselves were Ignis.
• Iron Dwarf Mole Machines that spawn during the Razorscale encounter play their initial spawn animation twice.
• During Phase 4 of the Mimiron encounter the Aerial Command Unit spins at extremely high velocity.
• The initial impact animation of Hodir’s Fury during the Flame Leviathan encounter does not properly clean up and despawn when the spell animation completes, and will persist indefinitely in the encounter space.
• Yogg-Saron does not display its appropriate death animation when it is defeated.
• The achievement progress for Supermassive during the Algalon encounter does not reset its progress properly after a failed attempt.
• The Ulduar Teleporter objects do not change their appearance state after being activated.

Summary of Ulduar Adjustments

There are far too many changes to list in their entirety, but here is a rundown of meaningful changes as well as each bosses’ most significant pre-nerf adjustments. We cannot stress enough that the pre-nerf changes listed here are not comprehensive nor overly detailed in all cases. This is merely an overview of major adjustments we made to bring the encounters back into their most challenging early states.

Realm First! Death’s Demise

• 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 to qualify for the achievement.
  • Developer’s Notes: This is a #change from 2009 but this has been done to help situations where guilds vying for Realm First achievements feeling forced to potentially make a choice between trying to unlock Algalon and/or complete the keepers on hard mode or pushing straight to Yogg Saron for the Realm First achievement, potentially missing out on better rewards while making the push. Making the keepers required as well as Assembly of Iron smooths this out somewhat as all of the needed bosses for both Zero Lights in the Darkness and Algalon are on the critical path to the realm first achievement, and also makes this 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.

Flame Leviathan

• Towers of Flame, Storm, Life, and Frost health increased
• Tower of Frost additionally slows movement speed by 20%
• Grab Pyrite may not be used on Salvaged Choppers in the encounter’s pre-nerf state
• Flame Vents won’t cancel early when Turrets on Flame Leviathan die.

Razorscale

• Devouring Flame’s damage is increased and may crit.
• Devouring Flame’s damage category is undefined rather than “Magic”
• Devouring Flame periodic damage occurs every 1 second rather than ever 2 seconds
• Fireball Damage increased
• Fireball and Flame Breath defense category is undefined rather than”Magic”
• Dark Rune Sentinel has access to whirlwind on 10 player in addition to 25 player mode
• Razorscale will cast Flame Buffet during phase 2
• Berserk Timer is 10 minutes down from 15.

Ignis the Furnace-Master

• Slag Pot damage increased
• Boss Damage is increased across the board
• Strength of the Creator’s damage mod reduced from 20% to 15%
  • Developer’s Note: In this state Strength of the Creator is slightly less powerful than its post-nerf state, but this is offset by significantly increased damage that the boss deals with all other abilities

XT-002 Deconstructor

• (25 Player) XR-949 Salvagebots (pre-XT trash mob) will cast Deploy Salvage Claws twice as often
• Health and damage increased in all raid sizes and modes for XT-002 and all adds
• Searing Light and Gravity bomb now reference the same version of the Heartbreak spell used in 10 and 25 player mode.
  • Developer’s Note: Originally these were split to make this less punishing on 10 player. Not so in pre-nerf mode
• Gravity Bomb damage increased
• Light Bomb damage increased
• Light Bomb Radius increased from 8y to 10y
• Heart Overload visual occurs much more often
• The amount of health and damage increase XT-002 gains when Heartbreak is active has increased dramatically
• Shock now chains to up to 3 targets
• Tympanic Tantrum duration increased from 8 to 12 seconds
• Defense Matrix range increased from 30 to 45 yards
• Defense Matrix damage reduction aura increased from 7 to 8 yards
• The ability Trash Compactor, cast by the add XD-175 Compactobot has had frequency adjustments:
  • Initial cast delay reduced between 5 and 15 seconds to a consistent 5 seconds
  • Frequency reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds
• Berserk Timer is 6 minutes down from 10

Assembly of Iron

• Damage and healing of all abilities increased across all raid sizes and modes
• Rune of Death periodic damage is increased
• Electrical Charge healing increased
• Static Disruption has been re-added to the encounter
• (25 Player) Overwhelming power debuff duration reduced to 25 seconds from 35 seconds
• (25 Player) Meltdown duration reduced to 25 seconds from 35 seconds

Kologarn

• Crunch Armor now stacks and the duration is increased to 20 seconds from 6 seconds
• Focused Eyebeam damage increased
• Focused Eyebeam may target tanks
• Focused Eyebeam will no longer whisper players to inform them that “Kologarn focuses his eyes on you!”
• Petrifying Breath will now cast when no players are near Kologarn, even if the boss is being directly attacked
• (10 Player) Rumble damage increased, and range increased from 7 to 10 yards
• Stone Grip periodic damage increased
• Stone Shout damage increased
• (25 Player) Stone Nova damage increased
• Squeezed Lifeless duration reduced to 10 seconds (up from 15) and will kill players at the end of the duration
• Falling Rubble will no longer cancel an active cast of Stone Grip.

Auriaya

• Sanctum Sentry – Strength of the Pack damage buff increased from 30% to 50%
• Sanctum Sentry – Savage Pounce range increased from 8-25 yards to 8-30 yards
• (25 Player) Savage Pounce damage increased
• Seeping Essence Stalker – Seeping Feral Essence damage increased
• Sonic Screech damage increased
• Terrifying Screech fear duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds

Hodir

• Shatter Chest will now occur at 120 seconds rather than 180 seconds.
• The Mage NPC spell Toasty Fire has an added Initial Cast Delay of 10 seconds
• The Shaman NPC spell Storm Clould has an added Initial Cast Delay of 27 seconds
  • Developer’s Note: The original delay of these spells had variability. For example Toasty Fire actually had an initial cast delay of 10 to 15 seconds. Given that Hodir is an intense DPS race we don’t want players to feel compelled to reset or wipe in order to get the ideal minimum delay of 10 seconds before the initial cast of Toasty Fire so we’ve removed the upper end of the original delay and guaranteeing the cast at 10. This is still a significant increase to the difficulty of the fight given the strict timer on the Hard-Mode chest.

Thorim

• (25 Player) Iron Ring Guard will now hit all targets in a 10 yard radius with the spell Whirling Trip instead of just the tank
• Aura of Celerity no longer buffs the MC’ing Priest’s entire raid and now only buffs the party of the MC’ing Priest
• Aura of Celerity Radius increased from 30 to 40 yards
• Chain Lightning may now chain to up to 99 targets (up from 8)
  • Developer’s Note: I’m Sorry…
• Supercharged affects damage of all schools, not just physical
• Whirling Trip may now chain to up to 5 targets in a 10 yard radius
• Thorim’s Unbalancing Strike initial cast delay reduced from 15 seconds to 10 seconds and the frequency has increased from every 25 seconds to every 20 seconds.
  • Unbalancing Strike cast has increased in “priority” amongst the boss’s actions
    • Developer’s Note: This makes Unbalancing Strike share cast priority with Chain Lightning. It’s not exactly clear what the implications of this change are but it’s what shows up in the original data. Let’s find out together! Weeeeee!
• Thorim’s Chain Lightning cast frequency increased to 8 seconds up from 12 seconds
  • Developer’ Note: Thorim will now cast this spell directly instead of buffering it with a target filter that removed potential melee targets if Thorim was just about to or had recently cast the spell Lightning Charge. Sorry Melee…
• Thorim’s base damage as increased across all raid sizes and difficulties
• Runic Colossus will not cancel an active cast of Runic Smash when he enters combat.

Freya

• Tidal Wave’s defense category changed from Magic to None
• Tidal Wave’s Prevention Category changed from Silence to None
• Unstable Energy periodic damage increased
• (25 Player) Brightleaf’s Essence damage buffs to Lashers and Freya increased from 50 to 60%
• (25 Player) Growth of Nature’s health mod increased from 20 to 30%
• (25 Player) Iron Roots periodic damage increased
• (25 Player) Stonebark’s Essence damage mod increased from 50 to 75%
• (25 Player) The ability Displace Roots has been re-added to Guardian Lasher trash mobs leading up to Freya

Freya (Elder Ironbranch)

• Iron Roots spell category is no longer categorized as a root effect.
  • Developer’s Note: This effectively means that certain talents and abilities that prevent or remove roots will not prevent this root effect

Mimiron

• Plasma Blast periodic damage increased
• Deafening Siren silence radius increased from 10 yards to 15 yards
• Emergency Mode (Cannon) damage and health increased
• Emergency Mode (Mimiron) damage and health increased
• Flames damage increased
• Ice Turret’s defense category changed from Magic to None
• Ice Turret’s prevention category changed from Silence to None
• Rocket Strike’s speed increased from 7y/sec to 10y/sec
• Rocket Strike duration reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds
• (25 Player) Explosion damage increased
• (25 Player) Heat Wave base damage and periodic increased
• (25 Player) Ice Nova damage increased

General Vezax

• (10 Player) Recast delay of Shadow crash changed from a range of 10-15 seconds to a flat 10 seconds
• (25 Player) Recast delay of Shadow crash changed from a range of 10-15 seconds to a flat 7 seconds
• Boss and add damage and health increased across all raid sizes and difficulties

Yogg-Saron

• (25 Player) Yogg-Saron Health Increased

• Boil Ominously range increased from 7 yards to 8 yards

• Diminish Power now stacks up to 4 times

• Focused Anger Duration proc cooldown removed

• Focused Anger can now proc from any damage, not just player damage

• Guardian of Yogg-Saron may now cast Dominate Mind

  • Initial Cast Delay of 15 seconds
  • Recast frequency is 5-10 seconds

• The cast frequency of Drain Life cast by Immortal Guardians and Marked Immortal guardians has been reduced from 20-30 seconds to 10 seconds

• Constrictor Tentacles no longer despawn on the transition from Phase 2 to Phase 3

• Guardians of Yogg-Saron spawn more frequently in Phase 1

• Crusher Tentacles Spawn more frequently in Phase 2

Algalon the Observer

• Damage has been increased across the board in all raid sizes and difficulties
• Boss Melee attack damage increased and attack speed slowed down.

Welcome to the Wrath Classic patch 3.4.1 PTR!

Build: 46722
November 21, 2022

Testing Focus

Titan Rune Dungeons

• Titan Rune Dungeons have been added to Wrath of the Lich King Classic and are now available for testing.
  • To access this feature, enter any level 80 heroic dungeon and interact with the Mysterious Titanic Relic floating near the entrance.
  • All five members of your group channeling the Relic will cause all enemies in the dungeon to gain additional health and damage, as well as additional effects, depending on the dungeon.
    • For PTR testing, we’ve set the requirement to one (1) player activating the Relic.
  • Gear that formerly dropped in Normal 10-player versions of Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, and The Obsidian Sanctum can now drop from dungeon bosses when they’re under the effects of the Mysterious Titanic Relic.
  • Please use this thread for Feedback on Titan Rune Dungeons.
• In order to facilitate testing of Titan Rune Dungeons, we’ve wiped the PTR of all existing characters, and we’ve disabled the character copy function.
  • Our intent is to do our initial round of testing with less-geared characters. We’re specifically looking for feedback around how these dungeons feel in mostly blue/heroic gear.
  • Please use the starter templates and gear vendors to set up a fresh character for these tests.

Raids

• Ulduar testing is coming soon.
• Please note that Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, and The Obsidian Sanctum are not available on the PTR at this time.

Argent Tournament Grounds

• The first Phase of the Argent Tournament Grounds area in northeastern Icecrown is now available for testing.
• In this initial phase of the Argent Tournament event, the Crusader’s Coliseum is still under construction and the Argent Tournament Grounds are available as a daily quest hub.

In the coming weeks we’ll re-open character copy, and we’ll test Ulduar in its “pre-nerf” state. Please keep an eye on this thread for updates as we unlock additional content on the Wrath Classic PTR for testing.

Thank you!