Patch 1.6.0

Patch 1.6.0
“Assault on Blackwing Lair”
Patch logo
Release date	July 12, 2005
Initial version	4500
Interface .toc	1600 (changes)
Highlights & notes
Blackwing Lair introduced Darkmoon Faire introduced Battlemasters introduced Warlock talent trees revamped Warrior talent trees revamped
Official links
Patch Notes
Documented changes Undocumented changes
Patch chronology
← Previous Next → Patch 1.5.1 Patch 1.6.1
Useful links
Patches • Patches category

Patch 1.6.0, titled Assault on Blackwing Lair, was a major content patch for World of Warcraft that released on 12 July 2005. Among other changes, it featured the release of the Blackwing Lair raid instance, the introduction of the Darkmoon Faire to Azeroth, Battlemasters in major cities, and revamps of the Warlock and Warrior talent trees.

Trailer[]

Blackwing Lair Released[]

Nefarian's sanctum, Blackwing Lair, can be found at the very height of Blackrock Spire. It is there in the dark recesses of the mountain's peak that Nefarian has begun to unfold the final stages of his plan to destroy Ragnaros once and for all and lead his army to undisputed supremacy over all the races of Azeroth. Blackwing Lair is a max-level, 40-player raid dungeon, with many new encounters and tempting rewards awaiting the intrepid adventurer that dares enter its halls.

Darkmoon Faire[]

A gathering of the exotic from around the world and beyond, Silas Darkmoon has brought together the Darkmoon Faire as a celebration of the wondrous and mysterious found in Azeroth. While the Faire spends most of their time in parts unknown, they do stop from time to time in Mulgore and Elwynn Forest. When the faire is on its way barkers will stop by Orgrimmar and Ironforge to announce its arrival.

Battlemasters[]

There is a new way to enter the battleground queues. Battlemasters! Located in each of the cities, right-clicking on a battlemaster will allow your character to enter a battleground queue just like you normally would if you touched that battleground's entrance portal. The functionality is exactly the same, so when it's your character's time to enter the chosen battleground, you will be teleported directly in. Local guards can give you directions on how to find the battlemaster that you're looking for.

Details[]

General[]

Macintosh[]

• Some optimizations for terrain loading and rendering were added for the Macintosh build.
• Enabled multisample support in the video options.
• Fixed an issue where inspecting crafted items on other users could potentially show attributes that those items did not have.
• Updated the Mac sound code to use memory more efficiently.
• Fixed a Mac issue which caused some sounds to become slightly quieter after taking a gryphon ride.

PvP[]

• Honor System
  • There is now a progress bar on the Honor tab of your character window that displays how close you are to your next rank.
  • The honor screen now displays a bar indicating how far along your current rank you are (Scout, Private, etc). This will let you know whether you are moving towards your next rank or falling back towards your previous rank. from week to week.
  • There is a new "This Week" section of the Honor tab, which will display PvP accomplishments of the current week.
  • The "This Session" section of the Honor tab has been changed to "Today", and will now display the entirety of your accomplishments for the day instead of the most recent session.
  • Honor system reward items with a rank requirement will now require a lifetime "highest rank" of that rank, rather than requiring the character to currently have the required rank.
  • Players rank 11 or higher can now chat in the WorldDefense channel.
  • The WorldDefense and LocalDefense channels will now display your rank as well as your name when chatting.
  • Battleground scoreboards now display the time elapsed in a battleground.
• Warsong Gulch
  • Warsong Gulch has new item rewards at the appropriate faction vendor near the entrances to the zone. These are available starting at Honored faction.
  • Friendly flag carriers are now displayed on the overhead map in Warsong Gulch.
  • Both the Warsong Outrider Supply Officer and the Silverwing Sentinel Supply Officer of Warsong Gulch now offer distinct tabards for purchase. Those heroes who are of Exalted status with one of these factions may purchase the tabard for 5 gold (discounts not included).
  • Players now receive a faction bonus for completing the repeatable Warsong Gulch quests.
• Alterac Valley
  • Each team will now gain additional bonus honor if their towers are not destroyed by the end of the map. The more towers that remained intact, the more honor received.
  • If you manage to keep your faction's Captain alive for the duration of a battle, you will be granted extra points upon victory.
  • Several Alterac Valley vendor items are now bind on acquire.
  • The respawn time for tower guards (assuming the tower has not been destroyed) has been greatly increased.
  • Korrak the Bloodrager has gained immunities to many different spell and ability effects.
  • The minimum reputation needed to send a cavalry charge has been reduced to Honored.
  • Players of Revered or higher reputation may now call offensive air strikes if they have managed to rescue their respective Wing Commanders.
  • Alterac Valley's guard spawn is now controlled via a more intuitive mechanism. Please check the Officer Supply vendors for your faction to read up on the changes.
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the Alliance team from receiving honor for destroying towers.
  • Fixed a bug that was not awarding Horde credit for owning a mine at the end of a game.
• [Dispel Magic] can no longer be used on players participating in a duel unless the caster is in the duel.
• You are considered in combat for the entire duration of a duel.
• You can't assist players which are engaged in free-for-all PvP unless you are also in free-for-all PvP.
• If you have PvP combat toggled on, it will no longer be cleared when taking a flight.
• Hunter traps work properly in duels if the target is flagged for PvP and the hunter is not.
• Removing an insignia in PvP no longer marks both players as being in combat.

Druids[]

Hunters[]

Mages[]

Paladins[]

Priests[]

• [Mind Flay] - Will now cause damage to targets immune to movement slowing effects.
• [Shadowform] - Changed so all spells except Holy can be cast rather than only Shadow and Discipline spells. Tooltip updated. This fixes several bugs that prevented various actions (creating tradeskill items, mining, summoning a mount, using a hearthstone and many more).
• [Spirit of Redemption] - Tooltip updated to be more clear.
• [Touch of Weakness] - Stronger versions of this effect on enemy targets will no longer be replaced by weaker versions.

Rogues[]

Shaman[]

Warlocks[]

Warriors[]

Items[]

Professions[]

• Thorium Brotherhood now offers several new recipes. Additionally, several of the old recipes now have different faction requirements.
• Additional Smithing/Leatherworking/Tailoring/Enchanting Recipes added to Timbermaw Hold at Honored Reputation
• Additional Smithing/Leatherworking/Tailoring/Enchanting Recipes added to Argent Dawn at Honored and Revered Reputation. Also new First Aid recipe added to Argent Dawn at Honored.
• Lokhtos Darkbargainer in Blackrock Depths now has many additional recipes that can be learned at Honored, Revered and Exalted reputation. Recipes are available for Enchanting, Tailoring, Leatherworking (all three specialty types), Blacksmithing (Armorsmithing, and Weaponsmithing (all three specialty types).

Quest[]

Raids and Dungeons[]

• Several spawns removed from Scholomance. This should make for a more enjoyable 5 player experience.
• Several spawns removed from Stratholme. This should make for a more enjoyable 5 player experience. Also, you will now be able to make additional attempts at Ramstein and/or Baron Rivendare should your initial attempt fail.
• The trapped chests in Stratholme will now show up for [Detect Traps] and can be disarmed. In addition, the number of creatures that come out of the trapped chests has been reduced.
• Many creatures in Stratholme have gained Detect Invisibility/Stealth.
• The loot tables in Molten Core have been revised slightly.
• Characters that die and release in the Molten Core will now receive a minimap corpse marker and arrow that will lead them to the window next to Lothos Riftwaker in Blackrock Mountain.
• Phase shifted imps are no longer hit by Magmadar's Lava Bomb.
• Damage and resist messages from Magmadar's Lava Bomb shows up in the combat log.
• Fixed a bug that was causing the Cache of the Firelord (Majordomo Loot chest), the Chest of The Seven (Blackrock Depths seven dwarves chest) and the Gordok Tribute Chest (Dire Maul) from despawning too soon.
• The chance for an Epic quest item dropping from the Majordomo's chest has been increased to 100%.
• The Corrupted Forces of Nature in Maraudon will now pursue correctly.
• Dire Maul has had several spawn locations changed and a slight increase in population.
• Crystal Fang, the rare spawn in Blackrock Spire, will now potentially appear.

User Interface[]

• Raid UI has been significantly improved. You can now open the raid UI and drag the name of a class to your gamefield to have a listing of all players of that class be displayed on the game field. Likewise you can drag a group name to your playfield to have the players in that group displayed on your gamefield. In either case the display will show the health, mana and limited buffs or debuffs on each player in the group or class and you can click on a player listed this way to target that player. You can then right-click on the class or group UI element to make some modifications to how the UI displays or to remove the UI element.
• If you cycle through targets with the Tab key, manually select a different target using another method, then quickly hit Tab again, your last Tab-selected target will be re-selected and you can continue Tab-selecting where you left off. Clearing your target will restart the Tab selection process.
• Items on the action bar now remain there even after they are consumed.
• If you shift-click on an item link while you are entering chat text, the item link will now be pasted into your text.
• Mail recipient auto-completion will now use names from your guild as well as your friends list.
• Hitting Escape will now cancel ranged weapon auto-shots.
• The pet UI will now be greyed out while you are mounted to reflect the fact that you can't command your pet.
• NPCs which give dishonorable kills have the rank of Civilian and show up with a white title background in the targeting frame.
• The effect of damage resistance and vulnerability is now displayed in the combat log.\
• Combat abilities which are fully blocked show up correctly in the combat log.
• Crushing and glancing blows show more information in the combat log.
• Damage from poisons and curses now shows up in the UI after the caster has been killed.
• Players now receive an error message if they try to join a meeting stone queue and are in a raid or are not the party leader.
• TargetUnitsPet() is obsolete and has been removed from the scripting system.
• Added UnitInRaid(), TargetLastTarget() and TargetNearestRaidMember() to the scripting system.
• The GetPlayerMapPosition() script function will only work for you, your party and raid.
• Fixed an issue where chat window positions may not be restored to the correct positions when re-entering the world.
• Fixed occasional crash when speech bubbles are enabled around NPCs that talk a lot.
• Fixed occasional crash when listing a chat channel with a large numbers of players.
• Fixed temporary lockup experienced by spell casting players when they are kicked.

World Environment[]

• Flight Paths
  • Added a Wind Rider Master to Camp Taurajo in The Barrens.
  • New Horde Flight Paths --
    • Camp Taurajo in The Barrens <-> Crossroads in The Barrens
    • Camp Taurajo in The Barrens <-> Thunder Bluff in Mulgore
    • Camp Taurajo in The Barrens <-> Freewind Post in Thousand Needles
  • Fixed several problems with the flight path from Undercity to Hammerfall while passing through the Ruins of Andorhal.
  • Fixed some problems with the Ironforge to Stormwind flight path.
  • The Darkshire <-> Booty Bay flight paths no longer fly over the Gurubashi Arena in Stranglethorn Vale, and therefore no longer flag fliers as being in Free-for-All PvP. Also, they should no longer fly through the zeppelins coming in and out of the Grom'gol Base Camp.
• Graveyards
  • Feralas, Durotar, Mulgore, Darnassus, Tirisfal Glades (excluding the Bulwark graveyard), Elwynn Forest & the Eastern Plaguelands have now all been converted over to the new graveyard system. The system will place your character's spirit at the closest allowed graveyard in the zone. For example, an Alliance character dying closer to the new Darnassus graveyard, detailed below, will use that graveyard rather than the one located at Dolanaar. Starting area graveyards are still reserved exclusively for characters of similar faction that die within their confines. For example, the spirit of a Horde character dying right outside of Deathknell will not use Deathknell graveyard, but will instead go to the next closest Tirisfal Glades graveyard.
  • A Horde-only graveyard has been added in the northern section of Durotar, just to the south of Orgrimmar. In addition to serving northern Durotar, Horde characters dying in Orgrimmar, The Hall of Legends and Ragefire Chasm will use this new graveyard. Alliance characters dying in Durotar will continue to only use the Razor Hill graveyard.
  • A Horde-only graveyard has been placed at the northern base of Thunder Bluff in Mulgore. Horde characters dying in Thunder Bluff will also use this new graveyard. Alliance characters dying in Mulgore will continue to only use the graveyard at Bloodhoof Village.
  • An Alliance-only graveyard has been added at the eastern end of Darnassus. Alliance characters dying in Darnassus will use this new graveyard. Horde characters dying on Teldrassil will still only be able to use the graveyard at Dolanaar.
  • An Alliance-only graveyard has been added just outside of Ironforge, around the side of the mountain. It is only for use by Alliance characters that die inside Ironforge and in the Gates of Ironforge sub-area of Dun Morogh. Horde characters dying therein will continue to only use the Kharanos graveyard.
  • The Ruins of Lordaeron above Undercity now has a Horde-only graveyard. Horde characters dying inside the Undercity will use this new graveyard. Alliance characters will continue to solely use the Faol's Rest graveyard.
  • A neutral graveyard has been added at the Eastvale Logging Camp in Elwynn Forest. The graveyard at Goldshire is now for use by the Alliance exclusively. Horde characters dying in Elwynn Forest and its sub-areas, as well as in Stormwind, The Stockade and the Deeprun Tram, will have their spirits travel to the new graveyard at the Eastvale Logging Camp.
  • A neutral graveyard has been added on the island of Caer Darrow in Western Plaguelands. It will serve characters who die on Caer Darrow and in Scholomance.
  • A neutral graveyard has been added in the Eastern Plaguelands near the northwestern shore of Blackwood Lake. Characters that die in The Fungal Vale will continue to use the Darrowshire graveyard due to the mountains between it and the new graveyard. Additionally, characters dying in Stratholme will now use the new Blackwood Lake graveyard.
  • A neutral graveyard has been added in Feralas, just to the southwest of Dire Maul. Characters dying in Dire Maul will use this new graveyard.
• Darkmoon Cards have been seen dropping from high level Humanoids around the world. Collect a set of them and bring them to the Darkmoon Faire when it is in town!
• The "Human, Theramore" faction is now the "Theramore" faction. This faction is allied with the Alliance and is at war with the Horde.
• High Elves now have their own distinct faction -- "Silvermoon Remnant". This faction is allied with the Alliance and is at war with the Horde. Not all High Elves are a part of this faction.
• Several NPCs around the world are now associated with the proper faction.
• Dimetradons in Un'Goro Crater should be found more regularly now.
• Fire Elementals in Searing Gorge should be easier to find.
• The pair of gryphons guarding the entrance to the Hinterlands have finally decided to stop staring at one another and will now wander around the entrance to the pass.
• Rashona Straglash was moved to be with other cloth-centric citizens in Orgrimmar.
• Several NPCs that were not marked as Civilians are now correctly labeled.
• Dark Strand Cultist and Enforcers are now correctly labeled Humanoid.
• Morbent Fel's level was slightly reduced to better fit the level range of Duskwood.
• Brinna Valanaar in Azshara now sells higher level arrows.
• Hadoken Swiftstrider of Camp Mojache, Feralas and Dinita Stonemantle in Ironforge received promotions; they are now significantly tougher than before.
• Certain floating herbs, minerals, and chests should now be more down to earth.
• The Barrens should now feel more alive.
• Sickly Gazelles now have a sickly look to them.
• Jarven Thunderbrew in Kharanos warns players in Common now, and not in Dwarvish.
• The Wastewander Scufflaw of Tanaris now spells his own name correctly.
• Swift Green Raptor has been renamed to  [Swift Olive Raptor] for clarity.
• An icon has been added at the Kalimdor continent map level for Revantusk Village.
• Revantusk Village will now have an arrow pointing in its direction on the mini-map when you get close enough to it.
• Fixed some typos in Gilnid's text in The Deadmines.
• Fixed some typos in Supervisor Raelen's text in Elwynn Forest.