PTR: 3.3.5 Patch Notes

Posted by on May 10, 2010 - 12 Comments »

Hold your horses!  Wait on those character transfers! The Patch Test Realm ain’t up just yet, but it should be reasonably soon due to the release of preliminary patch notes today. Unlike the last one we got, there don’t appear to be any sweeping changes to class balance or anything of that nature. In fact, with this patch encompassing the only remaining high-level content until the expansion (and, at that, nothing significantly more difficult than Icecrown Citadel), it would almost seem like a waste of time to bother.

But the Ruby Sanctum raid dungeon is still an important update, and along with it come several new social options no doubt tied into future Battle.net 2.0 functionality. It seems like they’re taking some cues from chat add-ons and are allowing players to “pop out” a new window, say, to keep whispers with a specific person separate from everything else. Also, the Friends List is getting a couple of upgrades, including the ability to add Real IDs (Blizzard’s cross-game identification) and communicate with them.

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.3.5

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

General

  • The Ruby Sanctum, an all-new 10- and 25-player raid featuring normal and Heroic difficulties, is now available for testing! Players will find the dungeon entrance below Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight.
  • Copied Test Realm characters are not copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

User Interface

  • Chat Frame
    • Players can now right-click on any chat type (Whisper, Trade, General, Party, Raid, etc.) and choose the Pop Out Chat option. This will move that chat type to a separate tab in the Chat frame which can be undocked and moved anywhere on the screen.
      • Using the Pop Out Chat option on a Whisper will place the conversation with that player in a separate tab.
      • Any time a conversation with another player is put into its own tab, the tab will glow when a new message is received.
    • Hovering over the Chat Frame and using the mouse wheel will allow players to scroll through chat text.
    • Players can select Classic Mode under Interface Options to keep the Chat Frame functionality closer to what it was prior to patch 3.3.5.
    • The Simple Chat User Interface option has been removed.
  • Friends List
    • A new icon has been added to the top left of the Chat Frame which will open up the Friends list.
    • In addition to its current functionality, the Friends List will now allow players to add Battle.net accounts (Real ID). Players will have to confirm that they are friends in order for a Real ID to be added. Once Real ID friends, players can communicate cross-game, cross-faction and cross-realm.
    • A new Pending tab has been added where players can accept or decline a Real ID friend request, or select the Report Spam or Block Communications buttons.
    • Players can now select from three statuses which will be visible to their friends: Available, Away and Busy.
    • A Broadcast window has been added to the top of the frame. Players can use this to broadcast a message to all of their Real ID friends online. This message will also be displayed under the broadcaster’s Real ID information in each friend’s list.
  • For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114