Mists of Pandaria Classic 5.5.4 PTR Development Notes

Welcome to the Public Test Realm (PTR) for Mists of Pandaria Classic: Siege of Orgrimmar, patch 5.5.4.

Patch 5.5.4 will introduce several updates including the Timeless Isle zone, the Proving Grounds scenarios, the conclusion of the Legendary questline, new world bosses, updates to the Celestial Dungeons, and the Siege of Orgrimmar raid.

Please note that some of these features are not available for test yet, and will be added to the PTR over the next few weeks.

Now Available For Testing

New Zone: Timeless Isle

  • A mysterious island, lost for millennia to the currents of time, has emerged from the mists off the eastern coast of Jade Forest.
    • The Timeless Isle is inhabited by all manner of strange and powerful creatures that will test the mettle of solo explorers, but great rewards await the brave and skillful: epic loot, bind-to-account gear, Mogu Runes of Fate, pets, mounts, toys, and much more.
    • The Isle is filled with secrets and mysteries, many of which dynamically become available to explorers. You may encounter hidden treasure chests, rare and elite creatures, and events across the isle.
    • You can also join the ranks of the Ordon, the faithful of Ordos, and gain the ability to engage in PvP with everyone - even your own faction!
  • The Timeless Isle is home to five new world raid bosses.
    • Players may face each of the four Celestials in a trial of combat.
    • Heroes who have earned the legendary cloak from Wrathion may access the sanctum of the fiery Yaungol demigod Ordos, atop the Timeless Isle.
  • To gain access to this zone, visit your faction’s shrine in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

Legendary Questline

  • Wrathion’s final quests are now available for dedicated heroes who have fought on his behalf throughout the pandaren campaign.
    • Complete Wrathion’s final tasks on the Timeless Isle and defeat Garrosh Hellscream in the Siege of Orgrimmar Raid to upgrade your celestial cloak to Legendary quality!
    • Only players equipped with a Legendary cloak can reach the Sanctum of Ordos atop the Timeless Isle. (This privilege extends account-wide.)
    • Note: This questline will not be completable until Siege of Orgrimmar raid releases on PTR.
  • To continue this questline, meet Wrathion at the Tavern in the Mists in the Veiled Stair.

Future Testing

The following features are not currently available for testing.

  • The Siege of Orgrimmar raid
  • Celestial Dungeon updates
  • Challenge Mode updates
  • Proving Grounds

We’re planning to run our first Siege of Orgrimmar raid playtest:

  • Friday, April 24 - Sunday, April 26

Known Issues

We are tracking the following known issues, and we are working to address them.

General

  • Heirloom items levels don’t increase with character level, although the stats do increase.

Timeless Isle

  • Treasure chests are not lootable.

User Interface

  • Nameplates are using the modern WoW version instead of the Classic one.
  • The Transmog UI won’t be available during the first few weeks of the PTR. Trying to access it will cause LUA errors.
  • There is an extra “Help” micro button on the action bar, causing the bar to cover one of the bag icons.
  • There are random texture strings attached to weapons on the Character Selection screen.

We have updated the PTR ahead of raid testing, which is now underway.

Now Available For Testing

Raid: Siege of Orgrimmar

  • The tensions stoked by Garrosh Hellscream’s arrogance have reached a boiling point with the destruction unleashed upon the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. Leaders of the Alliance and Horde lay siege to Hellscream’s capital in order to topple the ruthless Warchief once and for all!
  • Siege of Orgrimmar includes 14 new encounters, starting beneath Mogu’shan Palace in Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

Raid Testing

  • This playtest will start at 10:00 a.m. PDT on Friday, April 24, and will conclude at 8:00 a.m. PDT on Monday, April 27.
  • PTR vendors have been added and now offer Legendary cloaks and Timeless Coins. These vendors are located near the vendors who offer Heroic Siege Gear in each faction’s appropriate shrine.
    • Many glyphs that have been previously unavailable prior to 5.5.4 are now available for testing via the Glyphataur NPC.
  • A teleportation NPC has also been added inside the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, and will teleport players to any boss of their choosing.
    • PLEASE NOTE: While we have relative confidence in the teleportation functionality, teleporting to specific bosses directly in an unintended order may result in undiscovered issues with your raid. Our recommendation is to complete the raid in the original intended order.
  • During the PTR test, raids will reset daily, meaning that boss lockouts will reset daily instead of weekly. This is to facilitate attempting bosses repeatedly, if desired.

Legendary Questline

  • Testers can now complete the Legendary Cloak questline by killing Garrosh Hellscream during “Judgment of the Black Prince”.

Edit Mode

  • Edit Mode is now available as a quality-of-life option for interfaces.

Class Changes

Rogue

  • Subtlety
    • Rogues will no longer experience Ambush disappearing from their spell book when the Tier 16 4-piece bonus for Subtlety activates.
  • Combat
    • Sinister Strike changes from patch 5.5.0 have been reverted.
      • Sinister Strike’s Energy cost increased to 50 (was 40) (placed back into its original 5.4 state).
      • Sinister Strike’s weapon damage increased to 240% (was 192%) (placed back into its original 5.4 state).
        • Developers’ notes: In the previous phase, the Tier 15 set bonus would have out-performed the Tier 16 set bonus, and there were measures originally taken in 5.4 to ensure that Rogues did not feel required to continue using their Tier 15 set. As such, we are following suit and adjusting Sinister Strike so that the Tier 16 set bonus will now be an upgrade for Combat Rogues.

Big Fixes

  • Fixed a bug where Subtlety Rogues using the 4-piece Tier 16 set would lose access to Ambush.

Future Testing

The following features are not currently available for testing.

  • Celestial Dungeon updates
  • Challenge Mode updates
  • Proving Grounds

A Note on Flex Raiding

The final phase of the original Mists of Pandaria introduced Flexible Raid Difficulty, which existed in a format much different from the flex raiding feature that players have since come to know and use in subsequent expansions. The original Mists of Pandaria format for the system required manual (rather than automated) party creation, existed as its own difficulty level, and awarded gear at lower item levels than Normal difficulty, with no unique gear appearances which could not otherwise be achieved by participating in Normal raids.

In Mists of Pandaria Classic, Celestial Dungeons were introduced as a means to help players gear up and bridge the gap into Normal difficulty raids, one of the social underpinnings core to the game. Due in large part to the skill and knowhow of the game’s current players, these efforts have been successful. For this reason, and to avoid reintroducing a system which would counteract efforts to bring players into Normal raids, “Flexible Raid Difficulty” will not be available as its own difficulty in Mists of Pandaria Classic, at this time.

Known Issues

We are tracking the following known issues, and we are working to address them.

General

  • Heirloom items levels don’t increase with character level, although the stats do increase.

Timeless Isle

  • Treasure chests are not lootable.

User Interface

  • Nameplates are using the modern WoW version instead of the Classic one.
  • The Transmog UI won’t be available during the first few weeks of the PTR. Trying to access it will cause LUA errors.
  • There is an extra “Help” micro button on the action bar, causing the bar to cover one of the bag icons.
  • There are random texture strings attached to weapons on the Character Selection screen.

Now Available For Testing

Celestial Dungeons

The new Season 3 Celestial Dungeons are now available.

In this patch, players will finally confront Garrosh Hellscream for his crimes against the Horde, the Alliance, and Pandaria. They’ll soon find that the Warchief and his Kor’kron Guard have taken over more than just the Horde capital of Orgrimmar. They also control every Mists of Pandaria dungeon. Players will face Kor’kron soldiers throughout the dungeons and some of Garrosh’s most elite followers will appear to strengthen the dungeon bosses. To survive the new challenges ahead of them, players will need to petition the Celestials for their most powerful blessings.

New Enemy Buffs

  • Glory to the True Horde: Creatures in the Celestial Dungeons will have their Damage and Health increased.
  • Kor’kron Banners: Banners are now planted throughout the dungeons that empower nearby enemies
  • Periodically, a boss is influenced by Garrosh Hellscream, and will use an ability based on one of his loyal followers from the Siege of Orgrimmar Raid.
    • General Nazgrim, Wavebinder Kardis, and Siegecrafter Blackfuse have answered Garrosh’s call to arms.

New Player Buffs

Sensing the impending conflict against the Kor’kron, the Celestials have a final empowering boon that is bestowed upon players when all four Celestials are summoned simultaneously. The stars themselves will reshape in the sky to signify this immense moment.

  • Celestial Witness
    • Witnessing the arrival of the August Celestials infuses players with the Celestial Witness buff, increasing their Damage and Healing done, and reducing their damage taken for an extended period.

Transmog

The new Transmog system is now available. Gold costs will be adjusted in a future PTR build.

Item Updates

CURRENCIES

  • New Currency creation August Stone Clusters (3rd August Celestial Currency).
  • Daily Quest updated to grant the new currency when the 3rd Celestial phase is active.
  • Introduced the same currency conversion to the Throne of Thunder Celestial dungeon currency, allowing you to downgrade your currency to the old August Stones, buy Valor, buy Justice, transfer August stones to characters on your account, and buy mount/pet loot boxes.

VENDORS

  • Vendor created and placed in both shrines for Horde and Alliance.
  • Vendor list creation. Including placing all items on the vendor lists, conditioning them based on class/requirements, and applying extended costs based on the new currency to all of them.
  • Updating the costs for all of the ‘Legendary Quest’ progression available from the Throne of Thunder Vendor, to now also be available from the Siege of Orgrimmar Celestial Vendor at 50% the cost of the Throne of Thunder Vendor’s. This means if you’re trying to catch up, you’ll be able to buy the pieces twice as fast from these August Stone Clusters when the final version of Celestial Dungeons release.

DUNGEONS

  • All final bosses of Celestial Dungeons now drop Siege of Orgrimmar Celestial items and all of their loot tables have been updated to reflect that. These loot tables turn on with the release of the Celestial Dungeon Phase 3.
  • Dungeon bosses all drop the new currency.

UPGRADES

  • Players can now upgrade their items 2 times. The additional 2 will be introduced later on, just like in original MoP.
  • If you are upgrading Non-Warforged Items - it will cost 250 Valor Points per upgrade and you may upgrade twice for 7 item levels each (total of 14). This makes Non-Warforged items on par with Warforged items.
  • If you are upgrading a Warforged Item - it will cost 1000 Justice Points per upgrade and you may upgrade twice for 4 item levels each (total of 8).
  • The Legendary cape starts with 2/2 upgrades automatically. This was a change back in the day that we’re going to keep.

PvP

  • Updated the Base Resilience from 65% to 72% (71% in 2s, 72% in 3s and open world, and 73% in 5s). 72% was the original 5.4.0 release Base Resilience for the season.
  • Updated Battle Fatigue from 45% to 55% reduction in healing. 55% is the original 5.4.0 release Battle Fatigue.

The following features are not currently available for testing

  • Challenge Mode updates
  • Proving Grounds

Known Issues

We are tracking the following known issues and we are working to address them.

General

  • Heirloom items levels don’t increase with character level, although the stats do increase.
  • Fishing pole items become invisible when equipped to the main hand.

Celestial Dungeons

  • The Extra Action Button appears in the top left of the screen, instead of lower middle.
  • Hovering over the Celestial Power UI bar gives a LUA error.
  • The previous bosses’ health will be displayed on the right under the minimap until you engage the next boss.

Timeless Isle

  • Censor of Eternal Agony and Fire-Watcher’s Oath turn players transparent instead of red.

Class & Combat

  • Hunter
    • Aspect of the Iron Hawk appears on 2 slots after logout.
  • Warlock
    • Selecting the Demonology specialization causes a LUA error.
    • Highlighting the Demonology resource bar causes a LUA error.

User Interface

  • Opening the Pet Collections UI causes a LUA error.
  • Scrolling in the Interface tab causes a LUA error.
  • Nameplates are using the modern WoW version instead of the Classic one.
  • Purchasing additional Transmog outfit slots causes a LUA error.
1 Like

Now Available For Testing

Siege of Orgrimmar Raid Test

  • 10:00 a.m. PST on Friday, May 8 through 8:00 a.m. PST on Monday, May 11.
  • PTR vendors have been added and now offer Legendary cloaks and Timeless Coins. These vendors are located near the vendors who offer Heroic Siege Gear in each faction’s appropriate shrine.
    • Many glyphs that have been previously unavailable prior to 5.5.4 are now available for testing on the Glyphataur NPC.
  • A teleportation NPC has also been added inside the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, and will teleport players to any boss of their choosing.
    • While we have relative confidence in the teleportation functionality, teleporting to specific bosses directly in an unintended order may result in undiscovered issues with your raid. Our recommendation is to complete the raid in the original intended order.
  • During the PTR test, raids will reset daily, meaning that boss lockouts will reset daily instead of weekly. This is to facilitate attempting some bosses more frequently, if desired.

Future Testing

The following features are not currently available for testing.

  • Challenge Mode updates
  • Proving Grounds
    • Proving Grounds is available in game, but there are multiple impactful bugs preventing us testing it. For example, testers cannot leave Proving Grounds without hearthing, and the tracking UI and timer don’t update properly.

Known Issues

We are tracking the following known issues, and we are working to address them.

General

  • Heirloom items levels don’t increase with character level, although the stats do increase.
  • Fishing pole items become invisible when equipped to the main hand.

Siege of Orgrimmar

  • Immerseus - The visual for Swirl may be in a different location than the actual damage location.
  • Siegecrafter Blackfuse - The cut scene before Siegecrafter Blackfuse may get stuck and require you to cancel to close it.

Celestial Dungeons

  • The Extra Action Button appears in the top left of the screen, instead of lower middle.
  • Hovering over the Celestial Power UI bar gives a LUA error.
  • The previous bosses’ health will be displayed on the right under the minimap until you engage the next boss.

Timeless Isle

  • Censer of Eternal Agony and Fire-Watcher’s Oath turn players transparent instead of red.

Classes

  • Hunter
    • Aspect of the Iron Hawk appears on 2 slots after logout.

User Interface

  • Opening the Pet Collections UI causes a LUA error.
  • Nameplates are using the modern WoW version instead of the Classic one.
  • Purchasing additional Transmog outfit slots causes a LUA error.
1 Like