Monday (25 Apr) - Is Patch 4.1 Here?

Monday (25 Apr) - Is Patch 4.1 Here?

The test realm has closed. Wowhead believes that Patch 4.1.0 could come on Tuesday. A full maintenance period (3am to 11am) has been scheduled.

The latest patch information is mostly good news for Wild, and even Sista. Much better than what things looked like early on. Oh, and there is even something for Bean in here. Read on.

Druid Healing Changes:

Lifebloom had it's bloom reduced by 20%, but that will not have much of an effect on Wild, as I don't rely on the bloom portion of that spell.

Tranquility now has 100% pushback protection, which means that damage will no longer break the spell. With Gift of Nature, the 8 minute cooldown of tranq is reduced to 3 minutes, so it can be used more often than once per encounter.

Nature's Swiftness, which makes a spell instant cast, has fallen out of favor. However, NS now has an additional perk - it increases the healing of the affected spell by 50%. A 20k Healing Touch would become a 30k heal. Wild still uses NS and this is a great change.

Efflorescence has been redesigned and Wild will have to test it out to see if it is improved or not. The graphic was also changed (I think because it looked exactly like one of the boss abilities in a raid). Then they snuck in this extra - in the current talent tree, to get Efflorescence you were forced to take Living Seed as well. That link no longer exists. Wow. For those of us (Wild) who have little use for Living Seed, that's like giving us back three talent points to put to better use!

For Sista, she gets some nice changes, too.

Sista's Swipe ability (her AoE attack) has had it's damage DOUBLED. Sista uses that ability a LOT, particularly with Kire always aggroing whole rooms full of mobs. :P Although now Sista might actually be able to pull aggro.

There is also a nice addition to Feral Swiftness, giving cats a chance to break out of movement impairing effects.

Hunter Fortress information:

Multi-shot (when we get it) has had it's damage increased by 250%. Wow.

Taming a beast now matches the hunter's level, instead of 3 levels lower. PLUS, pets are now always happy. Feeding them restores health only, and can't be used in combat.

Other Stuff:

Wailing Caverns has been altered: "The maze section has been removed to make the overall dungeon more accessible and quicker to complete. Nearby creatures and bosses have been adjusted to compensate." We should schedule a run!

Oh Wow, look at this! Many "Account Bound" heirlooms are now labeled as "Battle.net Account Bound", meaning that they can also be traded or mailed to characters that are on different World of Warcraft accounts under the same Battle.net account." I believe that this means that the Wild Family can now share heirloom items across BOTH accounts, not just the one they are in! No more having to buy heirlooms for each account, or being forced to pay for account moves to relocate gear.

There is a lot more in this patch, including many Pvp changes as well. Honor point gains will be doubled. Note that in WSG the graveyards have been dropped to a lower elevation, so that they are lower than main flag room entrances - obviously, this is to discourage graveyard camping. For Bean, who just HATES to take fall damage when jumping down from the graveyard, this just might eliminate that. :-)

I am posting and emailing this on Monday night so I can't kibitz if it turns out this is only a normal maintenance day. Here's hoping 4.1 is here.