Project Lore

It's that time again! The patch notes of have been updated, and even though the PTR servers are down for the moment, I'm sure it won't be too long before we can get our hands on it. In addition to the usual round of class changes, there are two things worth paying attention to in this build. The first is the fact that meeting stones will no longer be level-restricted, as long as you're at least Level 15 (which is logical enough because you shouldn't be hitting dungeons until that point anyway). As the recent changes to the Dungeon system are going into effect with 3.3 (including the insta-port upon group completion), I'm not sure how helpful meeting stones are any more for the majority of players, though they still might be handy at gathering people for raids. The other bullet point you might notice is that Battlegrounds are now going to reward Arena points. Specifically, 25 of them upon victory (in addition to the normal amount of honor). Now, even though these are only available to players in the 71-80 tier, I still question the decision to make this sort of change. Sure, it might make earning the latest PvP gear a little bit easier, but doesn't that dilute the achievements made by a decent arena team? Perhaps some people more knowledgeable on the subject than me could chime in. There's a clear delineation between the Battlegrounds and Arena in style of play, and I'm just not sure throwing them together in the mixer like this makes either that much better. Edit: Arena points will be given out per DAILY BATTLEGROUND quest, not per victory. Anyway, here are the rest of the notes for your perusal:

General

• Meeting Stones: To use any Meeting Stone, it is only required that the character’s minimum level be 15. There is no maximum character level requirement for any Meeting Stone.

PvP Battlegrounds

• All level 71-80 Battlegrounds will now award victors 25 Arena points in addition to Honor.

Wintergrasp

• You must now have the following ranks to build or pilot siege vehicles:

Rank 2: Build/pilot Catapults. Rank 3: Build/pilot Demolishers. Rank 3: Build/pilot Siege Engines. Death Knight

• Army of the Dead: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Army Ghoul damage dropped by 50%. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Raise Ally: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Rune Strike: Threat generated by this ability increased by approximately 17%.

Mage Frost

• Fingers of Frost: This talent now triggers immediately on casting a spell rather than being delayed until the spell strikes the target.

Paladin

• Divine Intervention: Cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Flash of Light: This spell no longer causes a heal-over-time effect unless the player has the Infusion of Light talent.
• Lay on Hands: This ability now places Forbearance on the target and cannot be used on a target with Forbearance.

Holy

• Infusion of Light: This talent now causes the paladin’s Flash of Light spells to heal the target for 50/100% of the Flash of Light healing amount over 12 seconds.

Protection

• Aura Mastery: This effect of this talent has been reduced in duration to 6 seconds.
• Changes to Sacred Shield have been redacted.

Shaman

• Earth Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Fire Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Warlock Pets

• Inferno: The cooldown on this summoning spell has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

User Interface

• Group Disenchanting Option: In addition to rolling Need or Greed on items, players now have the option to elect for an item to be disenchanted if an enchanter of the appropriate skill level is in the group. Disenchant works exactly like Greed except if a player wins the Greed roll, they will receive the disenchanted materials instead. Players who choose Need will always win the item and will always beat those that choose Greed or Disenchant.