They did mention it in the patch notes. And because they did have it in the patch notes, means a lot of people didn’t actually read them all the way through, or not at all, judging by all the “OMG, did they remove the vendor and not tell us?” posts. It also means you fall into this category, since you made a comment suggesting they do the very thing they did. It was so bad that Blizzard had to make a separate post in the forums, where all they did was pretty much copy the section from the patch notes regarding the gear upgrade change, an pasted it, then changed a few words.
Here’s what the patch notes said:
- War Mode and Primal Storms gear will no longer be upgradeable by trading gear and upgrade currency (Trophies of Strife/Storm Sigils) at the vendors. These items will use the other item upgrade vendors that Valor, Honor, and Conquest gear currently use (ex: Corxian in the Gladiator’s Refuge).
And here’s the Blue post about it, which came a day later: Changes in 10.0.5 to Item Upgrades