Today is World of Warcraft patch day, 2.0.1 — one of those doom and gloom type patches too, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Here’s the patch notes from WoWWiki, pulled from pre-release information, so y’know, be wary. Here’s some patch mirrors from same source, but considering the latest round of keyloggers going around the last week, y’know, be wary.

The big thing, of course, is the new talents for everyone, but there are also new limits on disenchanting based on item and skill level, which I suppose is the bandaid to deal with keylogging bastards (i.e. dismantling your stolen character will take alot longer now).

Never mind all that though, I’m more interested in the warrior community right now, which is heating up nicely because of the patch changes to threat and rage and tanking.

Some of the warrior collective is so upset, in fact, that they’ve planned a little protest march on the Thunderlord realm on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at 4:00 pm Eastern time (formation at 2:30 pm Eastern). Planned activities include a naked gnome walk (or naked dwarf paladin walk if you’re supporting the equally alarmed shamans) from Ironforge to Stormwind.

Reply #23 by Blizzard party pooper, Drokthul, locks the thread:

Anyone caught participating in this event or any event with the sole purpose of disrupting the game play for others will be punished.

You know who else hates public protest? Communists. You’re not a communist are you, Drokthul?

I’m. totally. kidding.

Not that I would encourage people to be disruptive, but I think if you want to play on the Thunderlord server on Wednesday, you ought to go play on the Thunderlord server on Wednesday. And if you want to have some … refreshments … while you’re playing on Thunderlord on Wednesday, I think you ought to have those refreshments while playing on Thunderlord on Wednesday. And if your thing is interacting with other players in the public chat channels while knocking back refreshments on a Wednesday on Thunderlord, I think you ought to do exactly that.

And send me the screenshots, because I’m all about chaos and anarchy.

More about the warrior issues:

WoW Forums: “THIS is why warriors are whining so much”
WoW Forums: A zippy poem to commemorate Patch 2.0.1 — I hope my guild’s warriors don’t catch wind of this. We might need them for loot farms on Wednesday, although from the looks of the patch changes and all the discussions, heh, maybe we won’t.
WoW Forums: “Million warrior march” General forum thread discussion. Oh and by the way, the title “Million Gnome March” was for the LAST warrior protest in January 2005. We’ll need a new catchy title for THIS protest. Gnome Tea party was also taken for the LAST protest. (My stuff about the LAST protest: They Will Overcome, The Gnome Tea Party and The Tea Party in Pictures.)

UPDATE: For-real patch notes from the updater after the jump.

World of Warcraft Client Patch 2.0.1

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/implemented/ (Foton’s note: “can always be” actually means “will eventually be”)

Looking for Group Interface Tool

A new Looking For Group tool designed to assist players in finding groups for instanced dungeons and quests will now be available. This interface gives players the option to be added to a pool of other players also looking for a group, as a means to expedite the process. In addition, players will also be able to search for additional members in situations where they have a group and are simply looking to find more players. For a complete overview of this new interface, please take a moment and read the information contained on our comprehensive Looking for Group preview.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/townhall/lookingforgroup.html

General

* All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 41-point talents. Several new abilities have also been added for all classes.
* All pets will now receive a percentage of their master’s armor, spell damage, spell resistances, attack power, and stamina.
* Low-level spells cast by high-level players will receive smaller bonuses from +healing and +spell damage.
* HoTs, DoTs, and channeled spells have been re-balanced to receive a more appropriate (higher) percentage of +spell damage and +healing.
* HoTs from different sources will now stack (i.e. multiple druids can cast the Rejuvenation spell on 1 target).
* New item property “Resilience” has been introduced. Resilience reduces your chance to be the victim of a critical strike, and reduces the amount of damage critical strikes do to you.
* Weapon Skill now does the following:
o Weapon skill will no longer reduce the percentage damage lost due to glancing.
o The player will gain 0.1% to their critical strike rating per weapon skill against monsters above their level.
* When casting a buff on a low level target, the appropriate rank of the buff will automatically be applied.
* In PvP, Crowd Control effects will last no longer than 12 seconds instead of the full duration, with a chance of a heartbeat resist.
* Players will no longer lose faction when under the influence of “Mind Control” or the Gnomish Mind Control Cap.
* Several improvements have been made to the Macintosh client, including support for Multi-Threaded OpenGL on Intel Macs running OS X 10.4.8 or higher.

PvP

* Honor System Revamp
o Current honor totals have been reset.
o Players may display their highest lifetime rank title (accessible from character sheet).
o Honor points earned each day may now be spent as a form of currency.
o Check the PvP tab of your character sheet to see your honor information.
o PvP rewards are no longer unique.
* Marks of Honor earned from battlegrounds are no longer turned in for reputation or honor. They are now used in addition to honor points in order to purchase rewards.
* Two New Arenas are now available in three different modes.
o 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 matches
o Players may queue up at Goblin NPC’s in Stormwind, Ironforge,
o Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Gadgetzan

Druids

* The talent “Swiftmend” will now include bonus healing from the talents “Improved Rejuvenation” and “Empowered Rejuvenation”.
* “Feline Swiftness” has been renamed “Feral Swiftness”. Dodge % increase now also applies to Bear and Dire Bear Forms.
* “Improved Moonfire” has been reduced to 2 ranks, for a 5/10% bonus.
* “Insect Swarm” has had damage on all ranks increased. Mana cost of ranks 1,3 increased. Mana cost of ranks 4,5,6 decreased.
* “Nurturing Instinct” now grants the benefit at all times, but the bonus has been reduced to 25/50% of Strength.
* “Omen of Clarity’s” duration has been increased to 30 min.
* “Improved Starfire” has been renamed to “Celestial Focus”. It now also increases the chance to resist pushback when casting Wrath by 25/50/70%.
* “Blood Frenzy’s” benefits have now merged with “Primal Fury”.
* “Improved Leader of the Pack” has been reduced to 2 ranks for 2/4% total health healed.
* “Pounce” no longer requires the druid to be behind the target.
* “Barkskin” is now usable while stunned.

Hunters

* Traps can be set while in combat, but require a 2 second arming time.
* “Auto shot” will be automatically enabled if the Hunter steps out of melee range while in combat with target.
* 1 Agility will now grant 1 Ranged Attack Power.
* “Auto shot” is now reset when casting Aimed Shot.
* “The Beast Within’s” Bonus damage caused has been reduced to 10%, but now also reduces the mana cost of all spells by 20%.
* Freezing Traps will now cancel combat when cast.

Mages

* “Frost Nova” (Water Elemental Spell) has now been renamed “Freeze”.

Shaman

* Shaman with the appropriate talent spec are now able to dual-wield.
o Self-weapon buffs such as Windfury Weapon can be applied to both main and off-hand weapons.
* Rockbiter’s weapon functionality has been changed. It is now a damage proc instead of a flat attack power bonus.
* Windfury Weapon and Rockbiter Weapon enchantments will only benefit the weapon with the enchantment on it.

Warlocks

* The range of “Drain Life” and “Drain Mana” spells have been increased.

Warriors

* Rage generation from dealing damage has been normalized.
o All Rage awards are averaged with our expected rage per swing (adjusted for weapon speed).

Items

* The “Far Sight” effect has changed so that the camera now zooms in to a distant location, rather than instantly showing the distant view. This also affects the items: Ultra-Spectropic Vision Goggles, the Ornate Spyglass, and the Hunter ability “Eagle Eye.”
* Spells can now require either a totem item or a totem category item to cast a spell. This means that the Enchanting Rods now count as all of the lower level enchanting rods as well, so you only need a single enchanting rod instead of all six. This also means that “Finkle’s Skinner” now counts as a Skinning Knife. Several weapons that are picks have been flagged as counting as a Mining pick as well.
* Items that give bonuses, such as critical strike percentage, have been modified to adhere to a combat rating system.
* All current items will provide the exact same benefit from ratings at level 60 as they provided before the ratings system.
* Thrown weapon items no longer stack, but use durability instead. One unit of durability is lost per throw, and these items can be repaired.
* The tool tip for the Great Staff of the Guardian now shows the proper increase of 28 to the party spell critical rating.
* Items that are useable from player inventory with a cooldown will now update the cooldown in real-time.
* Players will no longer be able to sell the “Blue Skeletal Horse” to vendors.
* The damage Proc from the item “Misplaced Servo Arm” will no longer break the Rogue ability “Gouge”.
* The “Skull of Impending Doom” has been changed and will now increase run speed by 60% for 10 seconds, but deals damage equal to 60% of your maximum health and drains 60% of your maximum mana for over 10 seconds.
* The Backfire effect on the “Net-O-Matic” will no longer break on damage.

Professions

* All of the profession-made items that have been created up to now have been given proper stats based on the current expansion item level progression table.
* Most of the items made by Tailoring/Leatherworking/Blacksmithing have had their creation time reduced. Now the cap on time required to make an item in those professions is based on quality and level.
o New Max times required.
+ Level 31+ Green Items at least 8 sec
+ Level 31+ Blue Items at least 15 sec
+ Level 31+ Purple Items at least 25 sec
* Skill level now determines what items you can disenchant.
o Skill 1= Level 1-20
o Skill 25= Level 20-25
o Skill 50= Level 25-30
o Skill 75= Level 30-35
o Skill 100= Level 35-40
o Skill 125= Level 40-45
o Skill 150= Level 45-50
o Skill 175= Level 50-55
o Skill 200= Level 55-60
o Skill 225= Level 60-65
* Players will no longer lose an item when attempting to disenchant on a boat when the loading screen appears.

User Interface

* Meeting Stone gossip options have been removed from Innkeepers in preparation for the new LFG system.
* LFG/LFM UI
o Tips have been added to Loading Screen tips and new player tips
o Meeting Stones now function similar to a Warlock Summon spell.
+ Players select party member to be summoned and right click the stone. A second party member then clicks the portal to summon.
* Enchanting UI has been vastly improved.
* Raid UI now supports frame for Main Tank.
* Spell Alert (Enemy Cast bar)
o Defaults to off
o Enabled through Interface Options
o Displays targeted enemy’s cast bar when they are casting.
o May also be displayed with “V” key functionality.
* Auto-loot may be enabled with just one click in the Interface Options.
* Character sheet UI now displays more precise melee, ranged, and spell stats.
* Players can now cast item targetable spells on items that are in your action bar. For instance you can cast feed pet and have the food you want the pet to be fed in one of your action bars.
* Semi-charged items can no longer be placed in the Auction House.
* A knowledge base has been added to the in-game UI.
o Searchable database of FAQ’s and common support issues.
* Keyrings have been expanded to hold more key-type items and will now size dynamically for the number of keys in possession.
* The Hunter ability, “Mend Pet,” will now turn red when a pet is out of range.
* Players will now be able to disable ability messages in the floating combat text.
* Players will now be able to scroll down their ignore list if it extends beyond one page.
* The tooltips for the Show Dispellable Debuffs and Show Castable Buffs options will now specify they only apply to raid pullout groups.
* Significant changes have been made to User Interface customization.
o For specific details, please visit http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=36975623&sid=1.

Bugs

* The Rend Blackhand arena event in Upper Blackrock Spire will now properly reset after a wipe.
* Players will no longer resurrect with low mana and health if they died and released on a Zeppelin or Ship.
* Fixed an issue where effects with 100% chance to be applied were being resisted.
* Fixed an issue where high level players were not being properly credited the right amount of faction reputation.
* Party members will now be properly credited for completing the “Dead Man’s Plea” quest when a totem or pet gets the killing blow on Baron Rivendare.
* Slowing abilities and spells will no longer decrease the speed of a player when traveling by Gryphon.
* Fixed an issue where players were re-taining talent based abilities even after re-training.
* Fixed an issue where the Warlock spell “Shadowburn” was improperly consuming two Soul Shards.
* Fixed an issue where players were unable to click on anything if they had any add-ons installed.
* Fixed an issue where players were able to use “Mana Burn” on mobs and players without mana.
* Fixed an issue where spells that proc while a player was standing would not proc if they were sitting or lying down.
* Fixed many interface overlapping graphic issues.
* Fixed an issue where Seal of Justice (Rank 2) will now refresh with melee strikes.
* Blood Elf mobs in Azshara will now have the correct model.
* Fixed an issue where a spell with two procs would be reflected and one of the procs would still hit the player that reflected the spell.
* Fixed an issue that was putting Hunters back into combat when they have the “Spirit Bond” Talent or have the Cryptstalker set bonus.
* Fixed an issue where players were being awarded the wrong item when double looting a corpse under the master loot option.
* Fixed an issue where players interrupted while casting would have a longer cast time than normal.
* Fixed an issue where players could not see enchants when inspecting another player.
* Fixed an issue where extra attacks from “Windfury Weapon” would not proc “Flurry” when they crit.
* Fixed an issue where players that were killed in freezing traps would be stuck there until releasing.
* Fixed an issue where Warlocks were able to despawn a pet to gain a free “Soul Shard”in the Battlegrounds.
* Warrior “Shield Slam” and “Shield Bash” will no longer trigger a proc from an equipped weapon.
* Fixed an issue where players were able to consume a Mana Emerald at full mana.
* The totem, “Wrath of Air,” will no longer be useable in “Ghost Wolf” form.
* Fixed an issue where Warrior “Battle Shout” was causing too much threat.
* Fixed an issue where computers with ATi video cards were sometimes having problems when displaying a certain texture.
* Fixed an issue where the Warlock spell “Death Coil” gained double the benefit from the talent “Shadow Mastery”.
* Player pets will no longer attack CC’ed targets while in Passive mode.
* “Prayer of Spirit” will no longer cast on the user if there is no other target selected.
* “Lightning Shield” will now have the appropriate cool-down time between uses.
* Fixed an issue where materials were being consumed if a player logged out before an enchantment had finished being applied.
* The Hunter, “Auto Shot,” ability will no longer activate on resurrection.
* Fixed a bug where “Inner Focus” was not being consumed when using “Mind Soothe.”
* Fixed a bug where Rogues were able to use the ability “Ghostly Strike” when not facing their target.
* Warlock pet dismiss sounds will now play properly.
* Fixed an issue where Fist weapons were sheathing improperly.
* Bags will no longer overlap the Bank UI when the game window is resized.
* Players will no longer be able to whisper to enemy players in Battlegrounds.
* The Skeletal Gryphon ride for the Eastern Plaguelands PvP event will now fly at its correct speed.
* Players will no longer be able to jump onto the top of the Dun Baldar Fortress in Alterac Valley and get behind the terrain to attack other players.
* Shapeshifting will now break “Nogginfogger Elixir” effect.
* You will no longer die when Feign Death is finished channeling.
* “Scatter Shot” will now properly do damage even if the target is immune to the confuse effect.
* “Aspect of the Cheetah” will now properly trigger with absorbed damage.
* Casting a lower rank polymorph on a target that is already under the effect of a higher rank will cause an error message and not consume mana.
* The talent, “Master of Elements,” will now properly proc off of totems.
* Players will no longer be attacked by same faction guards when using mind control on an enemy player to attack.
* “Vanish” will now properly un-target the Rogue from the attacker when the attacker is in the same party.
* The talent, “Improved Chain Heal,” will now properly add to the base healing done.
* “Healing Wave” Ranks 11 and 12 will now benefit from the Shaman talent, “Healing Way.”
* “Improved Curse of Agony” will now properly increase the base and spell power.
* Warlocks will now be properly credited a Soul Shard from their pet when they take a flight path.
* Warlocks will now be properly credited a Soul Shard from their pet when they are dead at the end of a Battleground match.
* Warlocks will now be properly credited a Soul Shard from their pet when they enter an Arena.
* Casting “Dark Pact” after exiting combat will no longer put you back in combat.
* The tool tip for the “Great Staff of the Guardian” now shows the proper increase of 28 to the party spell critical rating.
* Several Chest spawns in Dustwallow Marsh will now properly spawn above ground.
* Items that can give +Stamina/Intellect from random suffixes will now properly apply while dead.
* “Beastmaster’s Gloves” will now give the proper 2% crit chance for Hunter pets.
* Fixed a bug where you can end up with overlapping bags after resizing the window.
* Various graphical errors will be noticeable while viewing maps.

Mac

* Added support for Multi-Threaded OpenGL on Intel Macs running OS X 10.4.8 or higher. Depending on hardware, scene and graphical settings, this can raise frame rates up to a factor of 2X.
* Improved video hardware detection and default settings, especially with Intel video.
* Vertex Animation Shaders have been disabled for systems with Intel video.
* Improved iTunes key-binding feature for smoothness and track name display.
* Fixed a bug where Tutorial Tips would not be marked as viewed correctly on PowerPC Macs.
* Fixed a rare crash bug in the audio code.
* Improved support for Weather Shaders.
* Added support for changing the mouse sensitivity in WoW. Previously, the Mac version ignored the value from the slider in the Interface Options dialog.

Furl Archive of WoW Forum threads:
Gnome March Information Here, page 1
Gnome March Information Here, page 2
THIS is why warriors are whining so much, page 1
The zippy poem, Remember, Remember …, page 1
Million warrior march, page 1