We’ve all been busy the last couple days, whether were leveling out our characters, playing the new goblin / worgen races, or even just exploring and leveling our professions, most of us really don’t have time to look at hotfixes and patches.

A couple of changes has hit the game since the release of Cataclysm, a couple bugs here and there but overall reception of Cataclysm has been very positive. We saw the world’s first 85 just 5 hours after release and to be honest, the release of Cataclysm was a lot better than Wrath and Burning Crusade.

December 8
General

• Guilds no longer receive guild experience when earning guild achievements. You can read more about this on our forums.
• If a guild maxed their experience gains for the day, subsequent tallying of individual members’ weekly and total experience gained was not always properly being saved and stored. This has been corrected.
• The achievements Heroic: Lost City of the Tol’vir Guild Run, Heroic: Shadowfang Keep Guild Run, and Baradin Hold Guild Run are now properly awarded and show up in the Guild Achievement window.
• Corla will now always drop an item and the Red Winter Hat does not replace her regular loot drop. It’s because she cares.
• Specific mounts, when used in Eastern Kingdoms, were not receiving the appropriate movement speed modifiers between land and ground. This has been corrected.
• Players can enter and finish Wintergrasp or Tol Barad even if no players from the opposing faction are queued.
• Players are now able to acquire “A Winter Veil Gift” for 2010 if they had completed “A Winter Veil Gift” in 2009.

Dungeons & Raids

• Several items which drop from bosses in Cataclysm five-player dungeons have been correctly reclassified so that the intended classes can roll Need when in a Looking For Dungeon group.
• Rock Borers no longer award reputation when killed in The Stonecore.
• Evolved Twilight Zealots killed by Raz in Blackrock Caverns no longer award experience if tapped by players.
• Players are again provided a spectral flying mount while in spirit form if killed in Ahn’Qiraj: The Fallen Temple.
• The Tamed Tol’vir Prowlers in Lost City of the Tol’vir award much less experience when killed.
• Players can now use Wind Tunnels while in combat, returning them to Siamat’s platform in Lost City of the Tol’vir.
• Deep Murloc Drudges in Throne of the Tides no longer grant experience when killed.

Items

• Players are no longer able to refund an alternate-cost item if they level up during its refund timer.
• Stormrider’s Cover was requiring an incorrect class token to purchase from vendors. This has been fixed. Until a patch is applied, the Stormrider’s Cover will still list a Crown of the Forlorn Protector being a required currency, however, it can be correctly purchased with a Crown of the Forlorn Vanquisher.
• The Filet Knife quest reward from “Something Edible” in Vashj’ir is a caster weapon and now has spell power. So sensible!
• The on-use effect from Tosselwrench’s Shrinker is no longer counting as an elixir buff. Additionally, no extra ranged attack power or other stats are granted.
• Eastern Plaguelands quest reward trinkets no longer have on-use effects that grant ranged attack power.

Professions

• Fishing skill gains were increasing too rapidly past 500 skill and have been adjusted.
• The tradeskill nodes were too dense in Deepholm and Twilight Highlands for Mining and Herbalism. Several have been removed.
• Mining nodes were too dense in the entrance cave to Uldaman and have been thinned out.
• Players are no longer able to use a Lifegiving Seed while shapeshifted and receive the appropriate error message when attempting to do so. Additionally, the effect is canceled when entering combat.
• Enchant Weapon – Mending no longer gives haste when it procs on attacks or spells. Now, it just gives the proper heal.
• Creating a Runescroll of Fortitude II now correctly grants skill-ups.

Quests & Creatures

• All existing guard posts in the world (e.g. Goldshire, Azure Watch, Bloodhoof, etc.) now properly spawn level 85 capital city guards.
• Quests for the Hydraxian Waterlords have been properly deprecated.

Cataclysm Zones
Deepholm

• Players no longer receive experience from killing Mercurial Droplets.
• Deepstone Elementals now spawn more quickly.
• Captive Quartz Rocklings in Lorthuna’s Gate now respawn more quickly.
• Players now receive much less experience when killing Irestone Rumblers.
• Players no longer have issues with camera direction while trying to attack Zoltrik Drakebane after having jumped onto his Pyremaw mount on the quest “The Twilight Flight”.
• Stone Trogg Berserkers now do less damage.

Gilneas

• There are now more Rampaging Worgen in the introductory worgen questing experience to support large groups of questing players.
• Worgen characters must now complete “Endgame” for Admiral Nightwind to gain the option to port to Rut’theran Village.
• Liam has been given lessons in anger management and team work. He will now properly stay with his soldiers during “The Battle for Gilneas City” event.

Kezan

• Both the Rope Ladder and Last Chance Yacht Boarding Mortar objects will now sparkle while on the quest “Life Savings”. Now with more sparkles!

Mount Hyjal

• Players in a party on the quest “Black Heart of Flame” are all now able to loot the Black Heart of Thol’embaar after killing Thol’embaar, because it’s only fair.
• Blazebound Elementals no longer reward experience when Flameseer’s Staff is used on them.
• Players will now receive the error message “You are in the wrong zone” when trying to use Spawn of Smolderos outside of Mount Hyjal.
• Twilight Flamecallers and Twilight Overseers now respawn more quickly.
• Players no longer get attacked by guards when landing in Nordrassil with a hostile player targeted. It was a rather rude introduction to Mount Hyjal really.
• Twilight Stormwakers now respawn more quickly for the quest “Slash and Burn”.
• Flame Ascendants needed for the quest “Might of the Firelord” now respawn more quickly.

Twilight Highlands

• Blackscale Mistresses and Blackscale Raiders in Twilight Highlands now spawn less frequently and award less experience per kill.
• Targets killable by turret vehicles for the quest “Off The Wall” no longer grant experience.
• Twilight Abductors and Twilight Flamequenchers at Vermillion Redoubt no longer grant experience or provide loot.
• Subjugated Firestarters no longer grant experience or provide loot.

Uldum

• Players can no longer get stuck in a phase after watching the cutscene that triggers upon completion of quests “Missing Pieces” and “Reduced Productivity”.
• Bloodsnarl Scavengers killed by players with the aid of Salhet’s Lions during the quest “Salhet the Tactician” will not provide experience. If you want something done, sometimes you just have to do it yourself.
• Creatures in Neferset City needed for the quest “Bleeding the Enemy” now respawn more quickly.
• Players will now correctly switch phases after turning in the quest “Gobbles!”

Vashj’ir

• Players will now be in the correct phase with Wavespeaker Valoren after completing the quest “Communing with the Ancient”. Seeing ghost question marks on the mini-map is no fun for anyone.
• The Deepfin Scrounger Anchor Attack! now only roots players for 5 seconds, down from 20 seconds.
• The damage of the Devious Great-Eel is now correctly reduced if a player does not immediately engage the eel in combat after the Eel-Splosive Device is triggered while on the quest “Here Fishie Fishie 2: Eel-Egg-Trick Boogaloo” (Horde) or “The Brothers Digsong 2: Eel-Egg-Trick Boogaloo” (Alliance).
• Smuggler’s Scar now has two guard posts, up from one, and Deepmist Grotto has one guard post, up from none. In addition, Cavern Crawlers are now immune to crowd control effects. Even ganking should have its limits.
• Players are no longer able to retain the 450% swim speed increase from the Abyssal Seahorse through devious, devious means.
• Earthmender Duarn’s yell is now only visible to the player interacting with him for the quest “Making Contact”.
• Overseer Idra’kess’s yell can now only be seen if a player is within range of him.
• The following creatures or objects in Vashj’ir now respawn more quickly: Conch Shell, Starfish, Stormind Helmet, Stormwind Spear, King Gurboggle, Fathom-Lord Zin’Jatar, Warden Azjakir, Akasha, Varkul the Unrelenting.
• Elendri Goldenbrow is no longer offering a conflicting deprecated quest “Curious Distraction”.
• There were instances where Duarn and Erunak weren’t always spawning in the event for the quest “Nespirah” which have been fixed.
• Players of the opposite faction can no longer kill the lures for the Seahorses. It’s just mean and wrong. And mean.
• Private Pollard no longer has a duplicate personality when players complete the quest “Spelunking”, and Gorruk is correctly sitting after being healed.
• Horde players are now gaining the appropriate reputations when completing quests in Vashj’ir.
• The Earthen Ring quests in Vashj’ir now correctly grant reputation with The Earthen Ring.
• Ancient Conduits for the quest “Ascend No More!” now respawn more quickly.
• The cutscene which leads players to the submarine upon speaking with Erunak for the quest “Defending the Rift” should no longer sometimes drop players out of phase.
• Nespirah Abscesses needed for the quest “Body Blows” now have more spawn locations and respawn more quickly.
• The Corroded Key that is obtained during the quest “Kliklak’s Craw” is now a multi-drop item and can be looted my multiple members of a party. And there was much rejoicing.

Eastern Kingdoms

• High Sorcerer Andromath is no longer offering the deprecated quest “Ur’s Treatise on Shadow Magic” in Redridge Mountains.
• The deprecated quest “Mor’zul Bloodbringer” in Burning Steppes is no longer offered to Horde or Alliance warlock characters.

Kalimdor

• Horde players can now turn in the quest “Forged Documents” to Suja in the cooking hut in Orgrimmar.
• Azshara quests now yield Bilgewater Reputation as intended.
• Kranal Fiss no longer offers the deprecated quest “Call of Fire” in Northern Barrens.
• Warlocks will now receive an “Immune” error when casting Enslave Demon on Impsy in Felwood.
• “Nothing Left for You Here” can now still be completed if the player has already completed “My Time Has Passed” in Stonetalon Mountains.
• “We’re Here to Do One Thing, Maybe Two…” can now be completed by simply going to Saurboz in Stonetalon Mountains and is not affected by the wagon.

Outland

• Sha’tar Vindicators are level 65 now, down from 85, and no longer tearing through Auchenai Doomsayers in Terokkar Forest needed for the quest “Evil Draws Near”.

December 7
General

• It is no longer possible for an ill-mannered person of the opposing faction to one-shot a flight trainer in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, which in turn made the 500 players standing on top of the flight trainer with their mammoths really sad.
• Fallen Hero’s Spirits in Icecrown can no longer have their pockets picked.
• Ray’ma and Brew Vendor Brew of the Month Club vendors are now spawning properly.
• The achievement “Stood in the fire” is granted when standing in a zone boundary different than Deathwing’s spawn location. In addition, players can now get this achievement by walking into the wake of Deathwing’s fire after he has passed.
• If faction mounts do not translate to a mount of the opposite faction when performing a paid faction change, they will now be removed.
• Players are no longer able to endlessly kite the outdoor Battlemasters.
• Several combat issues involving mind control mechanics have been fixed.

Battlegrounds

• NPCs and vehicles now have the correct Cataclysm values for health and damage in the 80-84 and 85 Strand of the Ancients, Isle of Conquest, and Alterac Valley level brackets.
• Some players were unable to enter 10- vs. 10-player Battlegrounds when the option to enter became available. This has been corrected.

Priest

• Low-level priests will now properly take Shadow Word: Death backlash damage when casting Shadow Word: Death.

Shaman

• Lightning Shield again properly deals damage while the shaman is casting other spells.

Dungeons & Raids

• The Mana Burn ability that is cast when Arcane Aberrations die in Dire Maul has been replaced with an Arcane Explosion ability that does not drain mana.
• Al’akir’s Lightning Cloud now despawns when the encounter is defeated in Throne of the Four Winds.
• Players are no longer able to use Killing Spree on Ozumat in Throne of the Tides. The message “Invalid Target” is displayed.
• Players are no longer placed oddly when affected by Ulthok’s Squeeze in Throne of the Tides.
• Temple Guardian Anhuur in Halls of Origination will now lose Shield of Light at the appropriate times. He was cheating.
• Millhouse Manastorm in The Stonecore will not stay linked to trash packs he is no longer stationed at after a group wipe.
• Razorgore and Chromaggus in Blackwing Lair will no longer cause an infinite loop of encounter mind control mechanics when pets or companions are present.

Items

• Tattooed Eyeball should not be epic quality and is now superior.
• Wailing Weeds no longer give experience, have any drops, or are able to be gathered in Mount Hyjal.
• Items which have refund options available no longer have their expiration cooldown recorded incorrectly when more than one is purchased within a short amount of time.
• An issue which prevented players from rolling Need on certain relics found in dungeons has been corrected.
• Helm of the Thousand Needles now has 12 Strength and 17 Stamina in addition to the 12 Hit Rating it had before.
• Spider’s Silk now drops from most all spiders in the level range of 16-25.
• Stag Flanks now drop from level-appropriate stags.
• Big Mouth Clams and the Black Pearls they sometimes contain again drop off of many creatures.
• Corpse Dust and Infernal Stones are no longer available from vendors.
• The stats for the one-handed mace Shatterscale Mightfish have been corrected.
• Rogues are now able to equip and use Morningstar of the Order. However, the tooltip for the item still shows Main Hand in red, and right clicking on the item when it is equipped returns the message “You do not have the required proficiency for that item.” This display issue will be corrected in a future patch.
• Passengers are now force ejected from multi-passenger mounts that have been converted into a Reindeer or Brewfest Kodo. This works for both NPCs and PCs.

Professions

• There is no longer a School of Fish in Elwynn Forest that like to think of themselves as in “testing,” nor do they yield Peacebloom when fished. This School of Fish is no longer a part of the counterculture and will no longer give you flowers when fished.
• Recipe: Feathered Lure is no longer on the vendor list for the Cooking reward vendors, as it’s returning an error “The Spell is not available to you” when players attempt to learn it.
• Electrostatic Condenser no longer provides inconsistent loot chances for each gathering profession.
• Training in Archaeology should now properly generate dig sites around the world according to the player’s skill level.
• Archaeology daily quests are now properly flagged as dailies.
• A Fossil Archaeology Find at the Un’Goro Terror Run dig site spawned beyond the range of the dig site area and has been removed.
• There was an inconsistency in Cooking skill-ups between Lavascale Minestrone and Lavascale Fillet which has been addressed.
• Some Leatherworking recipes which require a skill of 525 were missing from the vendor Misty Merriweather and have been returned.

Quests

• Cataclysm Level 80-85 Zones
• Mobs that spawn infinitely during the Temple of Earth finale within Deepholm do not grant experience.
• Players are no longer ported out of the Maelstrom if they have “The Eye of the Storm” in their quest log when they go through the portal to the Maelstrom.
• Twilight Proveditors for the quest “End of the Supply Line” in Mount Hyjal should respawn at a more consistent rate.
• Zin’jatar Raiders respawn more quickly for the “Buy Us Some Time” quest in Kelp’thar Forest, Vashj’ir.

Eastern Kingdoms

• Completing the quest “Never Surrender, Sometimes Retreat” is now updating Gilneas properly.
• Forsaken Sailors were dealing too much damage to those questing in Gilneas. Their damage output has been reduced.
• If a player completes the objectives of “Bad Medicine” outside of Northern Stranglethorn, then the quest “Just Hatched” will not auto-launch, but Corporal Sethman will have the quest available when the player turns in the quest “Bad Medicine” to Brother Nimetz. If the player completes “Bad Medicine” within Northern Stranglethorn, then “Just Hatched” is auto-launched.
• Quest givers in The Exodar, Teldrassil and Dun Morogh are all now offering the level 50 mage quest “Meet with Maginor Dumas” leading players to Stormwind.
• The deprecated quests “Foreboding Plans” and “Encrypted Letter” are no longer being offered to players by the Syndicate Documents in Hillsbrad Foothills.
• The deprecated quests “Looking Further” and “Morganth” are no longer being offered by the Old Lion Statue in Redridge Mountains.
• The cutscene for “Lordaeron” in Silverpine Forest will now properly play if the player is mounted when starting the quest.
• High Priest Venoxis should spawn properly during the “High Priest Venoxis” quest event in The Cape of Stranglethorn.
• The quest “The Holy Water of Clarity” will be offered regardless of the order in which the player completes the prerequisite quests in The Cape of Stranglethorn.
• The NPCs of Bloodgulch no longer disappear when players skip the cutscene during the quest “Eye Spy” in Twilight Highlands.

Kalimdor

• 60 completed quests in Winterspring are now required in order to earn the Winterspring Quests achievement.
• Players should no longer experience issues completing the quest “The Reason Why” when attempting to interact with the various Moonstones in Ashenvale.
• Players are no longer able to attack other players while in Diemetradon form during the quest “Ever Watching From Above” in Un’Goro Crater.
• It is no longer possible to pick up the deprecated quest “The Gordunni Scroll” in Feralas.
• The deprecated quest “Hunting in Stranglethorn” is no longer being offered by Roon Wildmane in Desolace.
• Questgiver Melizza Brimbuzzle in Desolace now respawns at a much more reasonable rate after dying.
• Jinky Twizzlefixxit now provides players with a replacement River Boat quest reward via her gossip text if a player deletes it while in Thousand Needles.
• Antechamber Guardian now spawns correctly for “What Lies Within” in Tanaris.
• The quest “Sandscraper’s Treasure” is no longer being offered to Alliance players via the Sandscraper’s Chest in Tanaris.
• The Antediluvean Chest is now correctly spawning inside the Antechamber of Uldum within Tanaris and there is no longer an issue with it spawning outside of the chamber.