World of Warcraft patch 5.4.8 has been made available by Blizzard, with the developer also releasing the patch notes for the update.
Patch 5.4.8 brings with it numerous tweaks to classes, achievements and the game’s user interface, with a couple of changes to boss encounters in raids also being made.
The patch comes before the release of the World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor, which is set to release in the autumn and already has fans salivating at the prospect of the new continent that it will introduce to the expansive WoW world. During our time at BlizzCon 2013, we got a hands-on preview of the expansion which you can read right here.
Along with the new continent, Warlords of Draenor will also raise the level cap to 100, allow players to build and upgrade garrisons and will also improve the graphics of the decade-old game by raising the polygon count on a number of the character models.
Before you get too excited about that, though, you better check out the changes Blizzard has made to WoW with patch 5.4.8. The patch notes, which were revealed on Battle.net, are as follows:
World of Warcraft Patch 5.4.8
Classes
- Druid: Resolved an issue where Cat Form’s movement speed bonus was stacking incorrectly with Warrior’s version of Stampeding Shout granted via Symbiosis.
- Rogue: Burst of Speed can now be activated to remove movement-slowing effects even if another movement speed bonus such as Sprint is already present (the speed bonuses will still not stack).
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Siege of Orgrimmar:
General Nazgrim
- General Nazgrim no longer calls in an additional wave of forces at 10% health on Raid Finder difficulty.
Garrosh Hellscream
- Increased berserk timer for Garros Hellscream to 25 minutes (up from 18 minutes) on Raid Finder difficulty.
Items
- All upgradable epic quality items introduced in Patch 5.4 (items found in Siege of Orgrimmar and Timeless Isle) are now eligible to be upgraded an additional 2 times for a total increase of 16 item levels.
- Heirloom weapons awarded by Garrosh Hellscream have been increased by 8 item levels to keep them competitive with the additional 2 upgrade levels given to other items.
- Mistweaver Ai on the Timeless Isle next to the Celestial Court now sells a token called Deeds of Valor for 3000 Timeless Coins. When used, Deeds of Valor grants 100 Valor Points to the character, up to the 1000 Valor Point maximum per week.
- For additional details behind this change, please check out the forum thread titled: Gear Changes in Patch 5.4.8.
UI
- UI Add-Ons are no longer able to update a number of CVars while the player is in combat. A complete listing of CVars affected by this change can be found in the forum thread titled: 5.4.8 Changes to CVars While In-Combat.
Achievements
- Going to Need a Bigger Bag is now an account-wide achievement and items obtained by all characters on the account now contribute credit towards completion. This means the achievement can be completed by obtaining all the required items across multiple characters instead of having a single character obtain all the items needed.
