Battlegrounds (1.5.1) out tomorrow!

[Dooms]

1.5 Patch which includes battlegrounds came out in the US today so we will get it tomorrow!

Would link to the patch notes but the US site seems to be down now.

[Scientist]

Yeah Ellia told me this morning, Im really excited!

[redpiggy]

Yay yay yay yay yay yay

[Grey M@a]

Mention on the Euro forums that it's friday for us :/ hope it is tomorrow anyway then I can find out which of the add-ons will need updating (again)

[ERU]

OMG i wasnt expecting it TOMORROW!!!!!

[Allen]

Mention on the Euro forums that it's friday for us :/ hope it is tomorrow anyway then I can find out which of the add-ons will need updating (again)

It'll be tomorrow as Maintenance has moved from Friday's to Wednesday's.

Is the BG's the lvl 50+ area's? If so, bummer...

[beanbandit]

Patch notes taken from http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/un...testrealm.html

Patch 1.5 Supplemental Changes
General Battlegrounds changes

A new "Join as Group" option has been added to the battleground queue. The leader of a group (both raid and normal) may now use the "Join as Group" option to enter all members of the group (up to the maximum number for that battleground) to the queue simultaneously to ensure that all members of the group will be added to the battle together.
All friendly players will now show up on the overhead and mini-map while in a battleground (regardless of whether they are grouped).
Players entering a battleground queue now receive a system message informing them that they have successfully entered the queue.
The mini-map icon for the battleground queue will now show the amount of time you have waited. In addition, the "seconds" field of the estimated wait time has been removed.
Spirit Guides may only resurrect a maximum of ten players per "wave".
Going AFK in a battleground will cause that player to be disconnected from the game.
Alterac Valley

Enemy NPC lieutenants and commanders now have a team bonus honor value.
Enemy NPC lieutenants and commanders no longer respawn.
Enemy towers are now destroyed rather than captured (a one-time event per tower). The mechanics for destroying a tower are very similar to their previous capture mechanic.
The enemy NPC mine layer no longer respawns when killed.
The respawn time for laying mines has been slowed.
All Alterac Valley quest items (ie: armor scraps) are zone-bound, and will be lost if taken outside the battleground instance.
Korrak's respawn time has been increased to 30 minutes.
NPC's in the entrance tunnels will no longer fight enemy NPCs, only enemy players.
Lok'holar the ice lord and Ivus the forest lord are now friendly to Horde and Alliance players (respectively), and will therefore no longer affect friendly players with area-of-effect spells.
Sound effects have been added to critical battleground events (ie: a graveyard being assaulted).
Additional items for purchasing have been added to the quartermasters in the entrance tunnels. The types of items you may purchase is based on your reputation with the quartermaster.
The Alliance and Horde NPC captains now periodically shout a "rallying cry", granting a powerful effect to all friendly players in the battleground. Killing the enemy's captain will deny the ability for the enemy to gain a rallying cry.
Ivus the Forest Lord now uses a winter Ancient Protector model rather than a Keeper of the Grove model.
Warsong Gulch

The duration the flags will remain on the ground before automatically returning has been changed from 2 minutes to 10 seconds.
The Boots of Speed now have a random spawn timer between 2 and 3 minutes, and the effect duration has been lowered to 10 seconds.
Warsong Gulch now has a minimum of 8 players on each side to start a new instance. The maximum is still 10 players.
Bug Fixes

It should no longer be possible to "double capture" a single flag in Warsong Gulch (get credit for two flag captures for capturing only one flag).
Fixed a bug in Warsong Gulch where a carried flag would not be captured if the carrier was standing on their own flag when it was returned.

Patch 1.5 Changes
****Battlegrounds arrive!****


The Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley battlegrounds are now available. The Warsong Gulch entrances may be found in the northern Barrens near the Mor'Shan Rampart (Horde) and south of Silverwing Outpost in Ashenvale (Alliance). The Alterac Valley entrances may be found east of Sofera's Naze in Alterac (Horde), and in the Headlands of Alterac (Alliance).
General

Wands - The Shoot Wand ability is now a toggle. While active, it will continue attacking with the equipped wand until cancelled (e.g. moving).
Pet speed has been increased when out of combat and following their master.
Berserking (Troll Racial) - Updated tooltip to clarify ability only usable following a melee critical.
Hardiness (Orc Racial) - Fixed a bug that caused many abilities to ignore the additional resistance.
It should no longer be possible to disarm traps created by friendly players.
PvP
Honor system
Dishonorable kills - gained by killing a trivial Civilian NPC - now has a negative impact on a player's honor. Enough dishonorable kills will reduce a player's rank all the way to zero.
Players may now see an "estimated contribution point value" in the combat log for an honorable kill. Note that this value does not take diminishing returns against the same player into account, and is therefore "estimated".
"Team Contribution Points" has been renamed to "Honor"
Added tooltips to the different elements of the Honor System UI.
Players will see their last week's kill data in the "Last Week" section of the Honor System UI even if they did not achieve the 25 honorable kills required to gain standing or rank.
Fixed a bug where the PvP trinket rewards were not always removing the effects they were designed to remove (e.g. Polymorph, Fear, Stun).
Sitting characters will now stand up immediately after an attack, even if stunned.
Players can no longer swap inventory gear while dueling.
Dueling is now allowed within Everlook.
Hunters

The Hunter Epic quest has had some of its Demonic Corrupters re-tuned. It should also be noted that Hunters that attempt to bypass the single player portion of the encounter by using another class to do their tasks will fail the quest.
Tranquilizing Shot - Is now properly affected by Efficiency and Hawk Eye talents.
Unleashed Fury - Fixed a bug where the damage increase was lower than stated in the tooltip. It should now increase damage by the listed amount.
Growl - Rank 1 effect improved.
Volley - Damage increased.
Pet speed has been increased when out of combat and following their master.
Spirit Guides in Battlegrounds will now summon/resurrect your current pet when the Hunter is resurrected.
Unstabling dead pets no longer puts players into a degenerate state where their pet only partially exists. Unstabled dead pets can now be properly revived, and players can no longer train more pets than their stable can hold.
Fixed a bug where magic shots were missing too frequently when used on a target with Blessing of Protection active.
Mages

Mage Armor - Now has a new, unique icon.
Paladins

Fixed a bug where a Hunter's magic shots were missing too frequently when used on a target with Blessing of Protection active.
Priests

Inner Fire - Now stacks with other effects that increase attack power and armor.
Holy Nova - Cooldown decreased.
Feedback - Casting a higher rank of the spell will now replace an existing, lower level effect.
Unbreakable Will - Fixed a bug that caused many abilities to ignore the additional resistance.
Rogues

Riposte - Fixed a bug where the ability was not usable against a disarmed or unarmed target.
Vanish - Should be a lot more responsive when used to avoid incoming attacks.
Shaman

Fixed a bug where Fire Nova, Flametongue, Stoneclaw and Windfury Totems had incorrect level caps when cast by higher level shaman. All totems should now be summoned at the level of the caster.
Flametongue Totem - Tooltip updated to clarify that only the main-hand weapon is enchanted.
Windfury Totem - Tooltip updated to clarify that only the main-hand weapon is enchanted.
Fire Resistance Totem - New icon.
Frost Resistance Totem - New icon.
Grounding Totem - Fixed a bug that allowed some area of effect spells to be "grounded" and/or destroy the totem.
Warlocks

Improved Drain Mana - Damage caused is now considered Shadow damage and is no longer reduced by armor.
Improved Voidwalker - Now increases all Voidwalker spells (now also including Sacrifice) by 10/20/30%.
Improved Succubus - Now increases Succubus spells by 10/20/30%.
Master Summoner - In addition to decreasing casting time of summoning the Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus and Felhunter, it now reduces mana cost by 20/40%.
Improved Enslave Demon - In addition to reducing the attack speed and casting speed penalty of enslaved demons, it now reduces the resist chance of Enslave Demon by 2/4/6/8/10%.
Demonic Sacrifice - Is now instant cast.
Improved Firestone - Now also improves the bonus Fire spell damage of Firestones by 15/30%.
Inferno - The summoned Infernal will now be enslaved for 5 minutes before turning on its summoner.
Drain Mana - Targets with no mana will no longer be valid for Drain Mana (Rank 4), making it consistent with all other ranks of the spell.
Improved Drain Mana - Damage caused by this talent is now improved by the Shadow Mastery talent.
Conflagrate - Range increased.
Siphon Life - Is now instant cast, damage increased.
Paranoia - No longer causes threat when cast.
War Stomp (Doomguard) - Now has a maximum of 5 targets.
Pet speed has been increased when out of combat and following their master.
Honorable kills will now generate a Soul Shard when Drain Soul and Shadowburn are used.
Spirit Guides in Battlegrounds will now resurrect your last Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus or Felhunter. If the Doomguard or Infernal were the last active pet or the previous pet was killed before the Warlock, an Imp will be summoned.
Improved Curse of Agony - Fixed a bug where Curse of Agony (rank 1) was not improved by the talent. The talent will now work properly with all ranks of Curse of Agony.
Warriors

Deathwish - Is now usable while under a Fear effect, which will also remove the Fear effect.
Overpower - Fixed a bug where the ability was sometimes blocked.
Improved Cleave - Now increases damage bonus by 40/80/120%.
Blood Craze - Talent design changed. It now regenerates 1/2/3% of the warrior's total health over 6 seconds after being the victim of a critical strike.
New Fury Talent: Dual Wield Specialization - Increases damage with the off-hand weapon by 5/10/15/20/25%. Note: the additional damage also increases rage generation significantly.
Iron Will - Fixed a bug that caused many abilities to ignore the additional resistance.
Enrage - Increased the number of charges to 12. Decreased the duration to 12 seconds. The new duration is the limiting factor for slower weapons (e.g. Arcanite Reaper will typically get one less swing), while dual wielding and faster weapons will make better use of all of the charges over the duration of the ability.
Concussion Blow - Changed to an instant, stunning attack and removed the damage portion.
Shield Specialization - In addition to increasing % chance to block, it now gives the warrior a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to generate 1 rage on a successful block.

[beanbandit]

Items

The following item sets have had their statistics, effects, and set bonuses updated: Arcanist, Netherwind, Prophecy, Transcendence, Felheart, Nemesis, Cenarion, Stormrage, Nightslayer, Bloodfang, Giantstalker, Dragonstalker, Earthfury, Ten Storms, Might, Wrath, Lawbringer, and Judgement.
Mature Blue Dragon Sinew and The Eye of Shadow can both now drop off appropriate level demonic and blue dragonkin monsters. It should be noted that both Lord Kazzak and Azuregos will guarantee a drop of the aforementioned items but to get the items from the lesser creatures will be a much rarer occurrence.
Essence of Eranikus now has a poison cloud graphic around it when used.
Murloc Scale Belt and Breastplate recipes now are white items instead of green since they are vendor bought.
Gryphon Mail Gauntlets now have a proper inventory icon.
Ogre Toothpick Shooter now uses the proper attack animation.
Distracting Dagger now sheathes properly.
Mountain Giants in Feralas now drop loot more appropriate to their elite status.
The Druid of the Claw quest in Teldrassil will now provide a weapon choice more appropriate for low level Night Elves.
The Dreadmist set now has a bonus for wearing all 8 pieces of the set.
Cutthroat's Loincloth name changed to Cutthroat's Pants.
Ritual Kilt name changed to Ritual Leggings.
Felstriker effect's name changed to Felstriker to reflect the previously patched item name change.
Ogre Pocket Knife, Peacemaker, and Lok'delar, Stave of the Ancient Keepers now sheathe properly.
Dragonbreath Chili's effect visual fixed.
The Oblivion's Touch wand properly shoots now.
Deepstrider Tumors are now a 100% drop off Deepstrider sea giants in Desolace.
New art has been added for Nightslayer, Lawbringer, and Beaststalker's item sets.
The Arcanist Crown has updated art.
Professions

New Engineering firework recipe added.
Added leatherworking recipe for mid level blue bracers.
Dragonbreath Chili proc rate has been reduced.
Restorative Elixir name changed to Resorative Potion with potion cooldown timer. Functionality has been changed so it should be more effective as it now dispels one harmful effect every 5 seconds for 30 seconds.
Two new transporter recipes have been added, with one for gnomish and one for goblin engineers. Gnomish engineers can get their recipe from Gadgetzan, Goblin engineers from Everlook.
Tribal Leatherworkers who have restarted their profession are now able to relearn the various Wild Leather patterns if they've already completed the quests prior to restarting the profession. Speak with Pratt McGrubben (Alliance) or Jangdor Swiftstrider (Horde) in Feralas to relearn what you once knew!
Small Throrium Veins now sometimes will have Emeralds or Diamonds.
Engineering Vendors now sell Blacksmith's Hammers.
Both types of the engineer made Jumper Cables now share a cooldown. It was never intended to allow a player to use jumper cables XL and jumper cables within the same period of time.
Solid Dynamite was inadvertently broken in the 1.4 patch to require harder materials than it should. This has been fixed.
Wicked Leather Bracers Plan is no longer bind on acquire.
Jumper Cables no longer have a chance to break when they fail.
Elemental Flux added to blacksmith vendors.
Raids & Dungeons

Molten Core
Firesworns that are moved too far away from Garr will now become quite enraged until they move closer to Garr.
The eruptions from the lava in Ragnaros's Lair will now always happen while Ragnaros is in combat. However, these lava eruptions occur less frequently, do less damage, and the damage they inflict is now resistable.
The maximum range of the Wrath of Ragnaros spell has been increased.
Additional new raid items have been added to the treasure lists for Azuregos, Lord Kazzak, and bosses in Molten Core.
Onyxia - Fixed a bug that was causing Onyxia's Tail sweep to no longer cause knockback.


Quests

Searing Gorge has a new quest hub for both Alliance and Horde players called Thorium Point. The supported level ranges are 45-52. Craftsmen will be happy to know that the Thorium Brotherhood has opened up many new opportunities to gain favor amongst their clan (even for level 60 players).
The Hinterlands has a new Horde quest hub known as Revantusk Village, located on the eastern coastline. Horde players level 44-52 are encouraged to visit Revantusk Village and assist the Revantusk with their myriad problems and tasks!
All members of both the Horde and Alliance are reporting low stockpiles of various textile resources! Donations of cloth are now being accepted in the following locations: Darnassus, Stormwind, and Ironforge for the Alliance; Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Thunder Bluff for the Horde. Seek out an official Cloth Quartermaster for more information.
Several quests have been added to Feralas for level 45-52 characters.
Krueg Skullsplitter has moved from Thousand Needles to a more appropriate location at Camp Mojache in Feralas.
Highlord Demitrian is back! For those players unraveling the mysteries of Thunderaan, you may once more speak with the Highlord.
Dwarven Priests may now undertake the Molten Core discovery quest; "Attunement to the Core." By fixing this bug, we had to open the quest to all players once more. If you have already done the quest, you will not be required to do it again in order to access the Molten Core via the portal.
Highlord Bolvar Fordragon should no longer despawn when "The Great Masquerade" is activated.
Characters on the "A Strange Historian" quest are now correctly prompted to find Chromie in the northwest corner of Andorhal, where she and the ruined inn have been moved to.
The Gordok Courtyard Key and the Gordok Inner Door Key are now zone bound items. These items only exist within the Dire Maul zone instance, and players will lose these keys from their inventory if they leave the zone.
Everyone's favorite Alliance quest, "Deep Ocean, Vast Sea" now gives a substantial coin reward in addition to the choice of item.
Rage Scar Yetis in Feralas no longer give the quest item for the "Mark of Quality" quest.
Completing the "Mark of Quality" quest now gives Darnassus and Thunder Bluff faction increase where appropriate.
Merideth Carlson should only hand out her free horse feed now to people who have already completed the quest for it.
The "Unfinished Gordok Business" quest has been fixed to allow certain Human Priests access to it who had difficulty previously.
Sea Elementals and Sea Sprays in Feralas should now be giving out the proper version of Oglethorpe's distress beacon.
The end of the Paladin Epic Mount quest "Grimand's Finest Work" now makes it clearer that Lord Shadowbreaker's acquisition of the Arcanite Barding is only temporary.
Jeziba in the Ruins of Andorhal now faces the correct direction when pointing to his Catalogue of the Wayward.
Fraggar Thundermantle now correctly tells you to return to him, and not his evil, two-eyed twin, Frobe Thundermantle when completing the Skull Rock Clean-up quest.
The Branch of Cenarius no longer drops off of Prince Raze. It now properly only drops off of Geltharis for the quest, The Branch of Cenarius.
Failed quests will now indicate (Failed) in the quest log so it is easier to see them.
Typos fixed in the Paladin Epic Mount quests.
User Interface

Innkeepers around the world now have a gossip option that lets you join a meeting stone directly from the innkeeper rather than going to the location of the meeting stone. Also these Innkeepers will now have background lore about each of the dungeons.
Levels Required for meeting stones have been increased. The intent is that a group will not receive party members from a meeting stone that don't really have a chance of completing the dungeon.
Meeting Stones have had their rules for what players are grouped with what other players relaxed. This means groups who use meeting stones (or innkeepers) should have their groups formed much more quickly than they were previously.
Pets of other party members will now display in the party UI. You can see pet health and harmful effects on the pet. You can turn this functionality on and off in the Interface Options menu.
Players can now target other players in a raid by clicking on their name in the raid window. Additional Raid UI improvements coming soon.
Added visual effects for healing power and spell power enchantments.
Your main action bar now displays the number of the bar that you are currently displaying.
In Master Looter mode, items are no longer opened up for looting by all party members after the round-robin looter closes their loot window. The Loot Master always distributes items over the loot threshold.
Rolling on items while charmed/hexed/etc. now works, as does /random and receiving items from the master looter.
When a player dies in an instance and then uses the spirit healer, the body in the instance now turns to bones.
Players can no longer mail or auction an item that they've just disenchanted.
When a ghost player is resurrected into an instance that has become full, they no longer come to life wherever their ghost happens to be standing. Instead, they get ported to the closest graveyard.
Players must now bind a bind-on-equip bag to put it into a purchased bank bag slot.
Items split from stacks can now be dropped directly into (or onto) bank bags without any mysterious error messages.
Added a "Maximize" windowed video option which will maximize the game window and remove the borders for a fullscreen experience which allows popup windows.
Trying to use a hearthstone, consumable, etc. while logging out now displays a more appropriate message: "Another action is in progress."
The login interface files are now checked to make sure they haven't been tampered with or corrupted. This is to improve account security in public game rooms.
Added the function TargetNearestPartyMember() to the UI scripting system.
World Environment

The Thorium Brotherhood faction is now peaceful - players cannot go to war with them.
The Wildhammer Clan in the Hinterlands is now a peaceful faction to the Alliance, meaning Alliance players cannot intentionally declare war on them.
A new graveyard has been added near the east coast of the Hinterlands at the Overlook Cliffs.
The two Hinterlands graveyards are now using a system that will ensure that the spirits of dead characters go to the closest graveyard.
Buliwyf Stonehand, the dwarven weapon master in Ironforge, now properly tells you about the weapons that Woo Ping can train you in, instead of talking about himself. He does like going on about his own martial prowess.
Krinkle Goodsteel of Gadgetzan submitted a complaint to the local Repairer's Union and has had his ability to repair durability reinstated.
Brave Wildrunner of Bloodhoof Village in Mulgore no longer patrols through the kodo mounts.
Added new load screens for Deadmines, Wailing Caverns, Uldaman, Razorfen Downs, and Zul Farrak.
Discovering Valor's Rest now also pops the Southwind Village puzzle piece on the Silithus area map.
Many of the Swift Mounts have gained eye glows and some have had other tweaks made to them to improve their looks.
Additional mithril nodes have been added in Un'Goro crater
Genavie Callow in Undercity is now properly on the Undercity faction.
The Grow effect that Bom'bay in Sen'jin Village would sometimes cast on characters was reduced from 100% to 50% growth.
The Lazy Peons in The Valley of Trials now make a wood chopping sound when they are hacking at the trees.
The Dark Summoners of the Eastern Plaguelands have finally fully materialized and are no longer ghostly in appearance.
In Silverpine Forest on Fenris Island, moved a Rot Hide Plague Weaver's spawn point from inside a tree.
Neeka Bloodscar of Kargath no longer speaks as if she is in the Barrens.
Flight Paths

New Horde Flight Paths
Valormok in Azshara - Bloodvenom Post in Felwood
Kargath in Badlands - Thorium Point in Searing Gorge
Flame Crest in Burning Steppes - Thorium Point in Searing Gorge
Tarren Mill in Hillsbrad - Revantusk Village in Hinterlands
Undercity - Revantusk Village in Hinterlands
New Alliance Flight Paths
Ironforge - Thorium Point in Searing Gorge
Morgan's Vigil in the Burning Steppes - Thorium Point in Searing Gorge
The flight path from Undercity to Kargath no longer clips into the ground just south of Dalaran.
Bug Fixes

Fixed bug causing all tailoring recipes to show up as "orange"

[Starburn]

phew.. I was waiting to read about tailoring bug fix...

thankfully it's there.. all the way at the bottom

[Mblaster]

WooT

[ERU]

phew.. I was waiting to read about tailoring bug fix...

thankfully it's there.. all the way at the bottom

Thank god !!!!

[Dooms]

It'll be tomorrow as Maintenance has moved from Friday's to Wednesday's.

Is the BG's the lvl 50+ area's? If so, bummer...

When you join you join with people your sort of lvl...

all the lvl 20 to 30 in one instance, all the lvl 30 to 40 in another, 40 to 50 etc etc

One of the battlegrounds is 10players vs 10players and the other is 40v40 methinks

[Mblaster]

When you join you join with people your sort of lvl...

all the lvl 20 to 30 in one instance, all the lvl 30 to 40 in another, 40 to 50 etc etc

One of the battlegrounds is 10players vs 10players and the other is 40v40 methinks

That's right, but it's only the Warsong Gluch one (10vs10) that separates the levels like that, the Alterac Valley one (40vs40) will be 50+ only (I think). So everyon gets to have some fun The Warsong Gulch BG is the place to go to rack up huge numbers of kills, 10vs10 fast paced gameplay in a capture the flag style game.

[ERU]

From www.wow-europe.com :

Prepare for Battle!
The Battlegrounds have arrived!
Daliniya, 08/06/2005

On Wednesday morning there will be an extended maintenance downtime due to the release of the latest patch which will include the long-awaited Battlegrounds. After this patch, players will be able to take on the opposing faction for control of Alterac Valley and Warsong Gulch. Much honor will be gained and many songs will be sung of those who are able to hold these grounds. Don’t miss your chance to make a mark on the world! Read more about Battlegrounds by checking this Press Release and the new Battlegrounds section of the Game Guide.

Para bellum!

[Stoo]

At last!

No longer will my summoned "pet" vanish on me when I'm on my horse etc, and I won't have to constantly hammer the wand button to shoot.. *rejoices*

[Father-Time]

Me Likes, well its a start at least

Honorable kills will now generate a Soul Shard when Drain Soul and Shadowburn are used.
Spirit Guides in Battlegrounds will now resurrect your last Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus or Felhunter. If the Doomguard or Infernal were the last active pet or the previous pet was killed before the Warlock, an Imp will be summoned.