The Ruby Sanctum

A powerful war party of the Black Dragonflight, led by the fearsome
Twilight dragon, Halion, have launched an assault upon the Ruby Sanctum
beneath Wyrmrest Temple. By destroying the sanctum, the Black
Dragonflight look to crush those that would stand in the way of their
master’s reemergence into Azeroth and to ultimately shatter the
Wyrmrest Accord – the sacred bond that unites the dragonflights.

The battle that is to come will surely deal a crippling blow to the
Red Dragonflight, however, it is up to you to stop this unprecedented
offensive and defend the Ruby Sanctum. First you must face the assault
of Halion’s servants, Saviana Ragefire, Baltharus the Warborn, and
General Zarithrian, before squaring off against Halion the Twilight
Destroyer, a new and deadly force in this realm.

• Copied
  Test Realm characters are not copied with their achievement history in
  order to better facilitate the character copy process.

PvP

• The
  amount of Honor awarded for an Honorable Kill has been increased by
  100% for characters of all levels. Given that all avenues in the game
  which award players with Honor do so with a calculated conversion from
  a specific amount of Honorable Kills, this change means that all Honor
  players can obtain through various means will be increased by 100%. To
  offset against this in two key areas, experience gains in Battlegrounds
  have been reduced by 50% and Honor awarded for completing each
  Wintergrasp weekly quest has been reduced by 50%. When pairing the
  Honor rewarded from Honorable Kills being increased by 100% with the
  50% Honor reduction from Wintergrasp weekly quests, and 50%
  experience-gain reduction from completing objectives in Battlegrounds,
  players will notice no change in the net amount of Honor or experience
  awarded in either case.
• Battlegrounds
  • The
    Random Battleground system has been added! Similar to the Random
    Dungeon system in the Dungeon Finder, players can now queue for a
    random Battleground.
    • The Random Battleground
      option can be found in the Battleground tab of the PvP frame and is
      only available for level 80 characters at this time.
    • If this option is selected, players may not queue for specific Battlegrounds and a random Battleground simultaneously.
    • Similar
      to the Random Dungeon system, players will not know for which
      Battleground they are chosen when selected from the queue until they
      zone into the Battleground.
    • The Random Battleground option will only allow a group size of 5 players to queue together.
    • Bonus rewards will be offered for choosing the Random Battleground option.
      • Winning
        a Battleground using the Random Battleground option for the first time
        in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional
        Honor currency and 25 Arena points.
      • Winning additional
        Battlegrounds using the Random Battleground option after the first
        random win will award players with 15 Honorable Kills worth of
        additional Honor currency.
      • Losing a Battleground using
        the Random Battleground option will award players with 5 Honorable
        Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
  • Daily Battleground quests have been removed in place of the Random Battleground option.
  • Battlegrounds will no longer award Marks of Honor.
    • Players
      with existing Marks of Honor can still turn them in to their respective
      faction’s quest givers, including individual marks for those who may
      have more marks for one Battleground than another.
    • Items which previously required Marks of Honor will have their costs adjusted to remove these requirements.
  • Whenever
    a Battleground has the holiday bonus active, it will now be referred to
    as "Call to Arms" in the Battleground tab and Calendar. In addition,
    Call to Arms Battleground Honor rewards have been changed.
    • Choosing
      a specific Battleground with the Call to Arms bonus active will yield
      the exact same rewards as when choosing the Random Battleground option.
      • Winning
        a Call to Arms Battleground for the first time in a day will award
        players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency and
        25 Arena points.
      • Additional Call to Arms Battleground
        victories after the first win for a player that day will award them
        with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
      • Losing a Call to Arms Battleground will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
    • When
      using the Random Battleground option, players will not receive
      additional rewards if the Battleground chosen under the Call to Arms
      bonuses. In addition, the rewards for the first victory of the day
      cannot be earned more than once, regardless of whether or not it is
      obtained from the Random Battleground system or the Call to Arms
      Battleground.
• Wintergrasp
  • The
    internal balance system now only changes when a faction achieves 2
    consecutive defenses after an initial capture of Wintergrasp, up from
    1. More details can be found on our PvP forum.

Dungeons & Raids

• Culling of Stratholme
  • Players may now skip the initial introduction dialog to this dungeon once they have completed it at least once.

Classes: General

• Several
  raid buffs have had their ranges increased to 100 yards, up from 45
  yards, to prevent select buffs from repeatedly getting applied and
  removed during highly mobile encounters. Some buffs, such as paladin
  auras, totems, shouts and Blood Pact are intentionally meant to have
  shorter ranges and remain unchanged.

Death Knights

• Icy Touch: This ability now causes a very high amount of threat while the death knight is in Frost Presence.
• Rune
  of Razorice: Now stacks 5 stacks of 2% Frost Vulnerability instead of
  10 stacks of 1% Frost Vulnerability. Proc chance changed to 100%.
• Talents
  • Blood
    • Abomination’s
      Might: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc on certain
      strikes. Rank 1 is 5% attack power and Rank 2 is 10% attack power. The
      self strength buff remains unchanged.
    • Will of the
      Necropolis: There is no longer a cooldown on the frequency at which
      this talent can be activated. In addition, this ability can now also be
      triggered by damage which deals less than 5% of your health.
  • Frost
    • Endless
      Winter: No longer causes Frost Fever to be applied by Chains of Ice,
      but instead grants 2/4% strength. The previous functionality of this
      talent can now be attained via the Glyph of Chains of Ice.
    • Improved Icy Talons: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc. The self haste buff remains unchanged.
    • Nerves of Cold Steel: Now increases off-hand damage by 8/16/25%, up from 5/10/15%.
    • Unbreakable Armor: The amount of strength granted is now 20%, up from 10%.
  • Unholy
    • Scourge
      Strike: Now deals 70% weapon damage, plus 12% of physical damage done
      as shadow damage for each of the death knight’s diseases on the target.
      The net result should be larger strikes with no diseases present, while
      maximum damage with all diseases applied to the target should stay the
      same.

Hunters

• Talents
  • Beast Mastery
    • Ferocious Inspiration: This ability is now an aura and provides 1/2/3% damage to all party or raid members within 100 yards.

Mages

• Frostbolt: Spell power scaling on this spell has been increased by approximately 5%.
• Talents
  • Arcane
    • Arcane
      Empowerment: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc off of
      critical strikes. The self damage buff remains unchanged.
    • Incanter’s
      Absorption: This talent now only grants additional spell power when
      damage is absorbed by Mana Shield, Frost Ward, Fire Ward, or Ice
      Barrier. The limit of 5% of the mage’s health on the spell power buff
      has been removed.
  • Fire
    • Burning Soul: Threat reduction is now 10/20%, up from 5/10%.
  • Frost
    • Brain
      Freeze: This talent now allows your next Fireball or Frostfire Bolt to
      be instant and cost no mana. There is a small internal cooldown to keep
      the Frostfire Bolt from immediately triggering Brain Freeze again.

Priests

• Talents
  • Discipline
    • Renewed Hope: now has a 60-second duration, up from 20 seconds, but a 20-second cooldown.

Rogues

• Rupture: The damage-over-time component of this ability can now produce critical strikes.
• Talents
  • Subtlety
    • Filthy
      Tricks: Now Reduces the cooldown by 5/10 seconds and energy cost by
      5/10 of Tricks of the Trade, Distract and Shadowstep abilities, and
      reduces the cooldown of Preparation by 1.5/3 minutes.
    • Ghostly Strike: If the rogue has a dagger equipped, this ability now deals 180% weapon damage instead of 125%.
    • Hemorrhage: If the rogue has a dagger equipped, this ability now deals 160% weapon damage instead of 110%.
    • Slaughter from the Shadows: Now adds 1/2/3/4/5% damage to all attacks in addition to its current effects.
    • Waylay: The debuff from this talent can now be caused by Backstab in addition to Ambush.

Shaman

• Flame Shock: The damage-over-time component of this ability can now produce critical strikes and is affected by spell haste.
• Talents
  • Elemental Combat
    • Elemental Oath: This ability is now always on as a passive aura.
  • Enhancement
    • Unleashed Rage: This ability is now always on as a passive aura.

Warlocks

• Immolate: The damage-over-time component of this spell can now produce critical strikes.
• Talents
  • Demonology
    • Demonic Pact: This effect now has a 45-second duration, up from 12 seconds, and a 20-second internal cooldown.

Warriors

• Revenge: Damage done by this ability (base and scaling) increased by 50%.
• Talents
  • Fury
    • Rampage: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc from critical strikes.

Items

• Frozo
  the Renowned has moved into the Dalaran Magus Commerce Exchange and
  will be trading your Frozen Orbs for various other trade goods.
• Glyphs
  • Death Knights
    • Glyph of Chains of Ice: Now causes Chains of Ice to apply Frost Fever instead of dealing damage.
    • Glyph of Disease: When this glyph causes Frost Fever to be refreshed, it will now also trigger a refresh of Icy Talons.
  • Mages
    • Glyph
      of Fireball: No longer increases critical strike chance of Fireball.
      Instead, it now reduces the cast time of Fireball by 0.15 seconds.
• Mechanostriders: Summoning any of these mounts is now perfectly mechanical-sounding!

Professions

• Runed Orbs: Recipes which require this item have had their material requirements significantly reduced.
• Fishing
  • The
    "Monsterbelly Appetite" daily fishing quest has changed so it now takes
    place outside the Violet Hold in Dalaran. The quest still requires a
    Severed Arm and has been renamed to "Disarmed!"
• Inscription
  • Most recipes that required 2 inks now only require 1.
• Mining
  • Titansteel Bar: Creating this item no longer results in a cooldown.
• Tailoring
  • Glacial Bag: Creating this item now invokes a 7-day cooldown.
  • The cooldown and location requirements have been removed from creating Moonshroud, Spellweave and Ebonweave.

Quests

• Many quests which require vehicles have had their vehicle mechanics updated and improved in the interest of fun.

User Interface

• All Alert pop-ups now have new and fresh Alert icons.
• Auction House
  • If the Auction House on a realm is unavailable for any reason, an alert will pop up informing players who attempt to access it.
  • Players can now Right-Click to place an item in the Auction frame.
  • Entire
    stacks of a specific item type can be placed in the Auction frame and
    several options have been added for choosing how to list auctions.
    • Stack
      Size: If a stack of items has been added to the Auction frame, players
      can select the size of the stack they wish to sell. If an invalid stack
      size is entered (i.e. a stack of 21 Saronite Ore), the Create Auction
      button will be grayed out.
    • Number of Stacks: In addition
      to selecting the size of a stack, players can select how many stacks of
      an item they wish to sell (i.e. if a player has a total of 43 Saronite
      Ore in the Auction frame, they can choose to list 2 stacks of 20, 4
      stacks of 10, 8 stacks of 5, 43 stacks of 1, etc. If the number and
      amount of stacks listed results in a remainder, the left-over items
      will be placed back in the player’s bags automatically).
    • Stack
      Size and Number of Stacks are linked mathematically so that altering
      the variables of one may automatically calculate the amount of the
      other (i.e. if a player puts 20 in the Stack Size field and 43 Saronite
      Ore are in the Auction frame, the Number of Stacks field will change to
      2 by default. If a player only wishes to sell one stack of 20 Saronite
      Ore, the Number of Stacks field can be manually changed to 1).
    • Price:
      Players can now choose to input the price of an item Per Stack or Per
      Item by selecting either option from a pull-down. If Per Item is
      selected and a player is selling a stack of that item, the Auction
      House will multiply the selected Per Item price by the amount of that
      item in the stack. If Per Stack is selected, the player can enter the
      total price he or she wishes to charge for each stack of that item
      being listed.
    • Auction Post Completion Bar: If multiple
      items or stacks of items are being listed at once by a player, a
      Posting completion bar will appear showing the total progress of each
      individual auction being listed once the Create Auction button is
      selected. The greater the number of individual listings being made in a
      single press of the Create Auction button, the longer this process will
      take. Players can still browse the Auction House while the Posting
      completion bar is in progress, but moving around will interrupt the
      progress, similar to moving while attempting to create multiple
      bandages with First Aid. Just as with creating bandages, auctions that
      were completed prior to the character moving or otherwise canceling the
      actions will successfully be listed.
• Dungeon Finder
  • The
    Deserter debuff given to players who leave a dungeon prematurely when
    queuing via the Random Dungeon option has been increased to 30 minutes,
    up from 15 minutes. The cooldown for using the Random Dungeon option
    remains 15 minutes.
  • The Random Dungeon cooldown is no
    longer displayed as a debuff. Instead, players will see the cooldown
    time remaining displayed in the Dungeon Finder window when Random
    Dungeon or Random Heroic Dungeon is selected from the pull-down.
  • If
    a player in your party has the Deserter debuff, or is on cooldown from
    the Random Dungeon option, his or her character name will be displayed
    in the Dungeon Finder window listed as "On Cooldown," preventing the
    group from queuing.
  • Anyone in a dungeon party can now
    re-queue their group for a dungeon, as players will still be prompted
    whether or not to accept their chosen role.
  • Players who
    use the Vote Kick option will now be prompted to provide a reason for
    kicking a party member. This reason will be presented to everyone in
    the party except for the person voted to be kicked.
  • When
    joining as a group, more generous level requirements will be used
    instead of Random Dungeon level requirements so that players of
    different levels joining together will be eligible for a greater number
    of dungeons.
  • World Event bosses (such as Ahune for the
    Fire Festival) will now be accessible through the Dungeon Finder.
    Players must use the Dungeon Finder to access these bosses.
  • Parties
    randomly created via the Dungeon Finder will always be arranged in the
    party interface from top to bottom in the following order: tank,
    healer, damage, damage, damage.
  • If a random party is created via the Dungeon Finder and a player cannot roll Need on an item, a reason will now be provided.
• Authenticator
  Frame: If a player has a Battle.net Authenticator attached to his or
  her account and selects Remember Account Name at the login screen, the
  next time that player logs into World of Warcraft, a field to input the
  Authenticator code will be displayed below the password field.
• The
  World Map will now provide an option to display different levels of a
  multi-layered dungeon, zone, or city (i.e. players can view the map of
  the Dalaran Sewers without having to be in that location).
• Quest Tracking Feature
  • The Quest Tracking Objectives Frame can now be widened via the Interface Options menu.
  • The short description for a tracked quest is now displayed on the Map in the quest pane.
  • Quest
    items in a player’s inventory which begin quests now each have an
    exclamation point overlaid on their icons to make them more easily
    identifiable.
  • If a players selects Track Low Level
    Quests, the quest objectives will no longer appear dim on the Map, nor
    will the exclamation points appear dim over NPC heads or on the
    Mini-Map.
  • Objectives Frame
    • The
      Objectives Frame will now list the number of quests displayed at the
      top. In addition, players can now click on the word "Objectives" at the
      top of the Objectives Frame for a list of sorting and filtering options
      which will determine how quests are ordered. Any quests or achievements
      filtered or sorted out of the Objectives Frame are still being tracked
      and are simply hidden in this frame.
      • Sorting
        • Sort by most difficult quests.
        • Sort by least difficult quests.
        • Sort by quests closest in proximity to the player (this will automatically update as players travel around).
        • Manual
          sorting: This allows players to Right-Click on each quest name in the
          Objectives Frame and determine in what order they should be placed.
      • Filtering
        • Toggle achievement tracking.
        • Toggle completed quest tracking.
        • Toggle tracking quest objectives in other zones.
    • Players
      can now Shift + Click on a quest objective or check the Track Quest box
      on the Map to track a quest in the Objectives Frame.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Bug Fixes

• When
  speaking to an NPC for which a player has 2 or more quests and not all
  of them are complete, the incomplete quests will now correctly show as
  a gray question marks in the dialog box. In addition, repeatable quests
  will be properly colored as blue exclamation points or question marks
  in the dialog box for NPCs with multiple quests available, or for which
  the player has multiple quests in progress or completed."