User:Surafbrov/Unknown patch

These patch notes were obtained from the same website that had the patch 0.5.3 patch notes. http://www.bloodwinterclan.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2925

The release date for these patch notes were Friday, November 21, 2003. Patch 0.5.3 was released on December 11, 2003. The only known patches prior to 0.5.3 were patch 0.3.4 and 0.4.0. Patch 0.3.4 was an E3 2003 build which took place in May of that year. 0.4.0 was an internal alpha build per the World of Warcraft Diary (pg. 237), which took place in August 2003. There must of been another, public, alpha patch after 0.4.0 and before 0.5.3.

Patch notes

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Welcome to our first major patch for Friends and Family! The biggest news is that we have enabled the Dwarves for play. The classes remain the same, but you will be able to explore the Dwarven lands and help us to polish them with your comments. Be sure to use the /suggest and /bug features to submit your feedback, and post em to the forums while you are at it!

Your Human characters have been disabled, but not deleted. You will return to them at a later time when we are ready to test higher level zones. I have to say again that all of you have been doing a fantastic job helping us out. Keep it up!

We've also added over 400 more Friends and Family to the program to help increase load. Expect to see some new faces around town.

The Alpha has been relatively stable. The most common problems and their solutions are:

• Log In/Patching Problems. In most cases this is because you need to update your IP information (click on the Manage Account Button on the WOW Login screen). Also, sometimes the patch or realm servers are down.
• Video Options Crashing. Adjusting your video options and then attempting to click on a creature can cause a crash. Make sure you log out after setting your options and then log back into the game to avoid the crash.
• Slow Framerates in General. One tip that might help. Check your BIOS settings and make sure your AGP Aperture setting is set to at least 256 if not higher.
• Slow Framerates on Macintosh. Disabling the "Trilinear Filtering" option in the game's Options menu (Esc key) might increase frame rate on certain video cards.
• Crashing with errors 132 or 0 ("No Output Device" Errors). These are almost always due to drivers being out of date. Make sure you have the latest version of your Video and Sound drivers installed, and that you have DirectX 9.0 installed. This goes for whether you get the errors or not, as it can affect a whole number of things like graphical glitches and other strange behavior with the game.
• GeForce 5200FX. We are working with NVidia to resolve the slow framerate issues with the 5200FX.
• Who and Whois Crash. Repeated use of the Who command has been reported to cause a lockup/crash.
• Exiting Game Crash. If you use ALT-F4 to end the WoW client or "Exit Now" from the quit dialog you will receive a crash.

Okay, here are all the changes for this patch:

Spells & Abilities

• [Devotion Aura] tooltip fixed.
• Skill gain rates changed for many Holy spells.
• Skill gain rates changed for many Arcane spells.
• Potions now useable while immune to physical.
• Auras no longer pulse state effects on the Paladin or his party members.
• Food/Drink now auto-sit you, and you must remain seated to gain the benefits.
• Training cost of [Divine Favor] (Rank 2) reduced to 7s 50c.
• [Divine Favor] (Rank 1 and 2) now makes you immune to all spells and purges existing debuffs.
• [Divine Favor] (Rank 1) duration increased from 5 to 6 seconds.
• Fist of Justice animation changed.
• Mechanical Immunity template changed (e.g. Harvest Golems no longer immune to [Frostbolt], [Arcane Missiles], [Holy Strike], and Sundering Strike).
• [Holy Strike] tooltip changed...it's hopefully more clear now.
• [Dispel Magic] (Rank 1) available at level 18, from 22.
• [Dispel Magic] (Rank 2) available at level 32, from 36.
• [Arcane Missiles] no longer aggroes the target immediately, only the actual missiles will generate threat.
• Auras skill line removed from character skill list...and it no longer has any effect on Auras.
• Holy Word: Shield now generates threat.
• [Divine Favor]/ [Divine Shield] cooldown increased to 2 minutes.
• Heals and Buffs now generate 33% less threat.
• The bonus damage versus undead has been removed from the [Holy Strike] line.
• Seal of Salvation is now a 14th level spell.
• [Seal of Protection] is now an 18th level spell (raised from 14th level).
• [Seal of Fury] is now a 36th level spell (raised from 12th level).

Tradeskills

• Armor kits made by leatherworkers can only be applied to Chest, Legs, Hands, Feet now.
• Mining Times changed to 3 seconds from 5 seconds per attempt.
• Add timing to applying sharpening stones/weightstones
• Many Smithing Recipes changed slightly and generally made easier
• Wool drops increased slightly at levels 16-30
• Survival Skill expanded and improved. (And Survival Fires no longer burn anyone)
• Copper nodes increased somewhat in 10-20 and 20-30 zones.
• Engineering skillups reduced on blasting powder and dynamite

Combat & Looting

• New, improved random number generator should result in fewer "runs" of deflects and loot should be better distributed.

Items

• Relics removed (Priest only trinket items)
• Mana Potions now are on drop tables
• Mana potion effectiveness increased significantly

Transports & Exploration

• Gryphon to Ironforge/Stormwind made prohibitively expensive. Please play in the Dwarven lands.
• Exploration Experience added when you find a new location.
• Disabled ports to Kalimdor so we can concentrate testing in key areas.

Misc

• Corpse decay is much faster now for mobs and players.
• Trading with full bags no longer disconnects both players.
• Added "/random x [y]" to generate a random number from 1 to x (or x to y), and sends the results to nearby players
• Names above party members' heads are now a different shade of blue, making it easier to differentiate party members
• Terms of Service now clearly states that profanity and other obscenities are prohibited from names.

Quests & Mobs

• Creatures chase slower now, giving players a greater chance of escape.
• "Elmore's Task" quest text change to better describe Grimand Elmore's location.
• "Give Gerard a Drink" quest text change to better describe it as a "repeatable" quest.
• Spawn times in Fargodeep Mine increased.
• "Wanted: Hogger" quest now listed as Elite. Elite quests either target elite mobs or send the player into areas containing elite mobs.
• "Kobold Candles" and "Shipment to Stormwind" quests updated. First quest's candle requirement slightly increased. Second quest's candle requirement removed.
• "Cloth and Leather Armor" quest text updated.
• "Jasperlode Mine" quest updated. The "Scout through the Jasperlode Mine" trigger was expanded.
• Finding Oats for Poor Old Blanchey should be easier.
• The coin reward was significantly increased for the Dry Times quest in Redridge.
• Old Murk-eye was lowered to level 20 but made an Elite mob.
• Increased the number of Harvest Golems/Watchers/Reapers.
• Increased the drop rate on Miner's Union Cards.

Bugs Fixed

• "Walking Dead" problem fixed. No more ghost MOBs.
• Sounds now play at correct volumes. Distant combats will not sound as if they are right next to you.
• Targeting corpses for looting should be much easier now.
• Fixed the problem where if the local player possessed a unit (such as Eye of Kilrogg) and moved it around, the game would assert or access violate.
• Spells controlling the local player's movement (such as Fear) no longer cause the client to crash.
• Hit testing (mouse clicks) models was occasionally causing access violations due to models being hit tested before having been animated for the first time. Fixed.
• Players' movement speed is no longer incredibly slow after re-spawning from a death while swimming upwards.
• The jump animation sequence is no longer interrupted by the fall animation, unless the player falls past the elevation from which he jumped.
• Many numerous small bug fixes in.
• If the server crashes during a vendor transaction, you will no longer lose your gold without having the purchased items.
• Corpses no longer replay their death animation and sounds whenever you encounter them for the first time. This should have an impact on performance in areas heavily laden with corpses.
• Falling through world should now port you to your last bindpoint.

Once again, thank you for your help in testing the Alpha of World of Warcraft!