2.4 Patch Notes: Real, Fake, or sort-of Fake?

Now I don’t remember the exact notes for each class that were listed in the “unofficial” 2.4 patch notes that were posted on worldofraids.com, but I feel the need to think some through right now… because some seem strange, and other seem to break the class to be honest.

First off… the ONLY Rogue update on the list: Envenom no longer consumes poison charges. That raises some questions, 1 in particular that I posted on the Blizzard Rogue boards that may or may not have sparked a small conversation (probably not… which makes me sad). My question was that if it won’t consume poison charges, would it work with Wound Poison as well as Deadly Poison since they are the stacking poisons we have access to? And if that doesn’t bake your noodle, what about with poisons without charges? Would Envenom then act like the damage modifier for Mutilate? That would be cool. That would mean Envenom would be a replacement for Eviscerate against poisoned targets that would have the same mechanic as Eviscerate... but if the damage is still poison CHARGE based, then it would only be for Deadly/Wound poison.

What does this mean for builds? Well, PvP would definitely change as you would see more Shadowstep 20/0/41 builds, as well as Hemo/Assassination builds instead of the normal Hemo/Combat 0/31/30 builds. As far as PvE, the builds wouldn’t really change that much. The Combat 19/42/0 builds would still exists with Vile Poisons, but the hybrid Hemo support builds would partially have their Combat points split into Assassination. I haven’t gotten a chance to play around with the different build possibilities, but they should be interesting if this little nugget of information on 2.4 turns out to be true.

Now, on to what little I remember about the other classes. =p

Warlocks got the damn shaft, and hard. Coefficients were changes as well as the Imp Shadowbolt debuff would now only effect the Warlock who cast the debuff. That is lame considering debuffs from other classes already have an effect on the damage from other classes (bleed Druid debuff that increases Rogue bleed damage for example). Hopefully those were fake, as this would cut down on their PvE DPS by a significant amount.

Druids had a few things nerfed. The main thing… the Lifebloom ability had its coefficient changed. But also, their primary PvP CC, Cyclone, had its range reduced. Now that probably won’t matter in the long run if true, but in the arena, every second and every yard counts.

Priests… say goodbye to mass mana burn spam in the arena if this goes through (/wave). I know it sucks for them, but even I have to admit that it was a bit too strong for PvP. During several stints in EoTS a couple weeks back, a Priest and I teamed up to defend the BE Tower the entire game. Well, any caster that decided to try their luck, was not only locked down by me, but during the course of 6-8 seconds, was completely out of mana thanks to the Priest… starting at full each time. I was amazed at how well it worked in the arena as well, partnering up with a guildmate’s alt (Drazhara). While I do believe it should have been changed, cutting its effectiveness in half was a bit too extreme. What ever happened to mini patches?

I’ll have to look over the notes again as my brain doesn’t seem to be working this morning. 2.4 should be coming soon on the PTR, and if my crappy memory serves, it should be ready today… but maybe not stable. But as far as the validity of these patch notes, one thing has been true for the past year or so…

… there is always SOME validity to “unofficial” patch notes released on the Blizzard boards.