As everyone knows, the patch being used for Classic is the latest Naxx/Undead Invasion patch…with several things being manually turned off to be activated later on in phases.
The primary thing I want to do in this thread is point out a few things that will be available in phase 1, 2 and 3 that were uniquely changed or updated in “later phase patches” that change significantly the phase 1/2/3 experience. This is mainly to point out the big changes that happened in PvP and PvE during the time and will only cover a few class balance changes.
I will start with 1.3 the Dire Maul patch “Phase 2”
- Many of the 5 man dungeons had sweeping nerfs: Strat, Scholo, BRS and BRD. Most of the nerfs are to mostly BS spawn/respawn rates and grouped enemies.
- ZF had its loot buffed in the grave popping area as well as Zum’rah. And also sweeping nerfs to the basilisk boss and temple event.
1.4 adds the gurubashi arena and PvP parts of “Phase 2”
- PvP diminishing returns to many CC abilities started here and are available immediately.
- Strat and Scholo get serious buffs to gear drops.
1.5 released BGs (phase 3) and a couple notable things
- Wands now auto attack instead of needing to press every time, available immediately.
- Dishonorable Kills are implemented but since we are running off patch 1.12, they are going to be active during phase 2 instead of after the BGs are out!
1.6 changes Strat and Scholo spawns cut down further and also UD Strat event can reset to allow reattempts. This should be available phase 1.
1.7, the ZG patch. This is basically “Phase 4”.
- Debuff limit changed from 8 to 16. This will be immediately available for the first phase which significantly reduces the difficulty (and clunkyness) of early bosses due to 40 man raids being more synergistic due to debuff versatility.
- Battleground Holidays might be available in phase 3 instead of phase 4.
- Battleground AFK system will likely be available in phase 3.
- Racial leader buff and honor nerfs already in effect for those wanting to do it in phase 2.
Patch 1.8 is the other part of Phase 4 (The dragons)
- All instant attacks are normalized depending on the weapon! This does not affect auto attacks but does affect things like Ambush or Mortal Strike. A two handed weapon always seen as 3.3 speed, daggers 1.7, other one handed weapons 2.4. This is available immediately.
- Repairing leather, mail or plate now has the same scaling as cloth. In other words there’s no serious disparity and this will be available immediately.
- Reaching higher pvp ranks (6-14) allows more players and this is immediately available phase 2.
- Korrak summon quests are likely gonna not be available at all in classic because these were removed in 1.8 and the NPCs were removed after 1.10.
- Huge amounts of nerfs to AV NPCs, their damage, their hp and their drops were made. These will be immediately available on Phase 3.
- Sweeping nerfs to BWL and ZG were made in this patch and will be a thing at the start of Phase 3 and 4.
Patch 1.9 was the AQ patch here are the Phase 1-3 changes this will bring…
- Linked auction houses (to be honest, I prefer this lol). Available phase 1 of course.
- You can queue more than one battleground at a time, will be available phase 3.
- Raid reset changes were made during this patch ranging from 3-7 days per raid instance.
Patch 1.9.3 had massive sweeping nerfs to Zul’Gurub raid instance as well as a buff to reputation bonuses.
Patch 1.10 had a lot of high impact changes, many of which affect phase 1-3
- Weather effects don’t change much but they are available phase 1.
- Massive sweeping changes to dungeon loot, drop rates and drop quality. Stratholme, Scholomance, Blackrock Depths, and Blackrock Spire affected.
- The bonus gold for completing a quest at max level was added in 1.10 and is immediately available phase 1.
- You can no longer dispel spam people with no debuffs.
- Hunter shots now have the same normalization as instant melee attacks. Now all weapons will be treated as 2.8 attack speed when calculating an instant attack base damage.
- AQ nerfs go live and are available immediately after the instances are unlocked.
- Blackrock Spire nerfs to trash are live and are available immediately.
Pre-Naxx Patch v1.11 has a truckload of phase 1-3 effects
- HoTs now snapshot (not sure why this was added)
- Intimidating shout and Fear will have a 3 times higher chance to break on damage in pvp.
- Multihitting spells don’t cleave stealthed targets.
- ALL PvP gear up to and including rank 14 is unlocked. So when phase 2 is unlocked its entirely possible all weapons are too…
- Major NPC removal to AV, most NPCs are gone. Whatever is left got another HP nerf.
- Keychains are a thing and no longer have to waste inventory space. I am sure this is already available.
- Stack sizes of many crafted/gathered items are 10 and 20 now. Phase 1 active.
- ZG/AQ20 items get buffs and quality upgrades so this is available as soon as the instances release.
- Release timers are gone from dungeons. You enter the instance, you rez. Available immediately.
- ZG items no longer require additional items to complete like Bijous and Coins. Just get the primal hakkari piece and you are good to go. This is likely going to be immediately available when ZG is released.
- Several nerfs to AQ are delivered to boss hp and a soft fix to make the Ossirian Pull more consistent.
- AQ now has fast travel via NPC when you’ve cleared bosses so the runback doesn’t take 2 1/2 years.
And the last patch 1.12 that adds Naxx and many important phase 1-3 changes.
- Rogue vanish removing hunters mark/fairie fire etc was added this patch and currently works in phase 1. Many other vanish fixes were also added.
- Cross Realm Battlegrounds are a thing. So when Phase 3+ happen, it’ll not be locked to a server.
- Slows and Speed increases cancel each other out equally rather than a multiplicative application to the entire value. This will be available immediately.
- Eviscerate now scales off attack power.
- Sweeping nerfs to ZF difficulty including the removal of elite status from the heros popped from the graves…meaning that ZF spamming can be some insane xp grind.
- The “V” and “Shift V” nameplate thing was added in this patch.
I’m fine with things being easier and not as clunky (still plenty of it to go around) but it probably answers questions some people have with this version…