Arena Battle evolves in Patch 2.4

If you haven't yet tested the Public Test Realm with patch 2.4 and enjoy PvP I suggest you go and try the new Areana Tournament realm out.

Be sure to train and get ready for the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament. It will be a great event with competitive 3vs3 Arena with high price money. Be sure to read the info on Blizzards Areana Tournament Information site and regisiter as soon as it becomes available.

As the great 2.4 patch evolves the latest changes applied mostly to Mages and Shamans in order to make them more viable for arena battles.

PTR Patch 2.4 changes

Shamans Receive Buffs 1.) Shamans received several buffs to help boost their presence in the arenas. Shaman's Flametongue weapon will now cause their target to receive 25% less healing and stacks up to two times, for a total of 50% less healing possible. This effect will last 5 seconds and will be refreshed with each successful hit of Flametongue Weapon. 2.) Ghost Wolf casting time was decreased to 2 seconds, which is down from 3 seconds. Meaning Improved Ghost Wolf will be instant cast for Shamans with the talent. You have to wonder how exactly this helps the shaman, since Ghost Wolf does not break snare effects? 3.) Shamanistic Rage is now a Physical Ability and can no longer be dispelled or purged. The duration of Shamanistic Rage is reduced to 15 seconds, while the cooldown is also reduced to 2 minutes instead of 3. 4.) Earlier in the week Blizzard posted that Elemental Mastery and Nature's Swiftness would share a 10 second cooldown, but this has since been removed and will no longer be the case. 5.) Lastly the Global Cooldown of Totems has been reduced to 1 second, down from 1.5 seconds. 6.) Toughness now also decreases the duration of snare effects by 10/20/30/40/50%, along with the original talent of increasing armor by 2/4/6/8/10%. Mage Changes The mana cost of Blink has been significantly reduced, and Improved Blink now decreases the chance for all attacks to land on the mage by 25% for 2 / 4 seconds. This is a much needed buff for Mages who are constantly pressured in arena games, and should go a long way to making them viable again. Earlier in the week Blizzard also made Icy Veins and Bloodlust / Heroism stop stacking for mages, but they have since changed this. In addition to these changes Mages also received a huge buff to Mana Shield, now it will be affected by Spell Damage. Talented the damage absorbed compared to mana lost is nearly 1 to 1 now! Warlock Life Tap Nerfed - Warlock's Life tap will now transfer a percentage of maximum health into a percentage of maximum mana. To a Warlock dressed in full season 3 attire this means they will gain around 600 less mana from each life tap than they did previously. Priest Power Infusion Changed - Power Infusion no longer causes the target to have increased damage. Instead the target will now have casting time decreased by 20%. Hawkstrider and Elekk PvP Mounts Return! - Blizzard has decided to bring back the Blood Elf and Dreanei War mounts. These mounts work exactly the same as all other race's PvP mounts. You will need 30 Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin, and Warsong Gulch Marks of Honor. The models are really neat looking, but are not complete as Blizzard plans to do a little reworking on coloring and appearance yet in order to ensure all character models will look good on the mounts. "... of the Shattered Sun" Player Titles - Players will be able to purchase the title of "(Your character name) of the Shattered Sun" upon reaching exalted. The price is rather heavy for now at 1,000g as Blizzard will want to keep the title prestigious for now. Karazhan Attunement Removed - Players will no longer need to be attuned to Karazhan in order to enter the instance, although a player with the Karazhan attunement will be needed in order to open the door for their party. See ya all on the Battlefield!