Patch 2.4.0

Patch 2.4.0
“Fury of the Sunwell”
Release date	March 25, 2008
Initial version	8089
Interface .toc	20400 (changes)
Highlights & notes
Isle of Quel'Danas instances Combat Log improvement.
Official links
Official patch notes Official "Under Development" page
Documented changes Undocumented changes
Patch chronology
← Previous Next → Patch 2.3.3 (Undocumented changes) Patch 2.4.1 (Undocumented changes)
Useful links
Patches • Patches category

Patch 2.4.0, titled Fury of the Sunwell, was a content patch that released on 25 March 2008.

Trailer[]

Fury of the Sunwell[]

The glorious fount of arcane energy known as the Sunwell empowered the high elves for millennia, until the death knight Arthas laid siege to the elven kingdom and corrupted its sacred energies. Seeing no other alternative, a band of survivors led by Prince Kael'thas destroyed the ancient fount. Over time the surviving elves fell prey to a crippling magical withdrawal.

Now, promising salvation for his people, Kael'thas has returned. Soon the Sunwell will shine once again, but whether the sacred fount will usher in deliverance or destruction remains to be seen.

In Memoriam: Gary Gygax[]

Blizzard Entertainment would like to dedicate the patch in memory of Gary Gygax. His work on D&D was an inspiration to us in many ways and helped spark our passion for creating games of our own. As avid D&D players and fellow game developers, we were all saddened by the news of his passing; we feel we’ve lost a true adventuring companion. Thanks for everything and farewell, Gary. You will be missed.

Combat Log Improvements[]

The combat log has undergone improvements that allow more robust combat text filtering including the ability to define custom colors for enemies and friends, as well as combat text filtering for self and others.

Global Arena Tournament[]

Players will be able to create level-70 characters with epic equipment and compete on special tournament realms in a new global arena tournament. For more information, details and entry requirements, please visit the official tournament pages.

General[]

• The Sunwell Isle is now available for play. This area includes a new quest hub and 5-player and 25-player instances.
• The combined forces of Shattrath have launched an attack on the Isle of Quel'Danas, to confront Kael'thas and the Legion at the Sunwell and surrounding areas. Players will now be able to gain reputation with the Shattered Sun Offensive and participate in a new set of daily quests.
• A representative of the Keepers of Time has been spotted at the World's End Tavern in Shattrath. Players in good standing with the faction will be granted ease of passage to the Caverns of Time.
• Characters will now retain talented spell ranks so when they retalent they do not have to relearn the spells from trainers.
• Spell Haste: Spell haste now reduces the global cooldown on spells, down to a minimum of 1 second. This change does not apply to melee and ranged abilities.
• Item Cast Spells: Many spells cast by items were being cast as if the caster were the same level as the item. Most of those will now be cast at the player's level, giving them a reasonable chance to miss, be dispelled, or be resisted.
• Resilience: Now reduces the magnitude of mana draining effects by the same amount that it reduces critical strike damage. The Tooltip has been revised to reflect this.
• Spirit-Based Mana Regeneration: This system has been adjusted so that as your intellect rises, you will regenerate more mana per point of spirit.
• Weapon Skill: Points will be gained faster in weapon skills for levels 1 through 59.
• The Daily Quest limit has been increased to 25.
• Non-self % based haste spells will no longer stack with each other.

Racials[]

• [Find Treasure]: This ability no longer deactivates upon death.

Druids[]

Hunters[]

Mages[]

Paladins[]

Priests[]

• [Chastise] no longer disorients the target, but now is instant cast and roots the target for 2 seconds.
• [Fear Ward] is now usable while in Shadow form.
• [Focused Will] now reduces damage by 2/3/4%, up from 1/3/5%.
• [Inner Focus]: [Chastise] now benefits from Inner Focus. In addition, [Starshards] no longer consumes Inner Focus.
• [Mass Dispel] now affects a maximum of 10 targets, increased from 5.
• [Power Infusion]: Infuses the target with power, increasing their spell haste by 20% and reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20%. Lasts for 15 seconds. This will not stack with other haste effects, such as [Heroism], [Bloodlust], or [Icy Veins].
• [Power Word: Shield]: Using low ranks of this spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.
• [Prayer of Mending]: This spell will now fade from players who leave or enter an instance, change continents, or exit the game.
• [Reflective Shield]: The reflective damage from this talent no longer breaks crowd control effects which break on taking damage.
• [Shadowguard]: No longer consumes the charge of Inner Focus when triggered.
• [Silent Resolve]: This talent now affects Surge of Light, Power Infusion, Inspiration, Spirit Tap, Blackout, Levitate, Shackle Undead, Touch of Weakness, Hex of Weakness, and Symbol of Hope.
• [Touch of Weakness]: No longer consumes the charge of Inner Focus when triggered. It will also function properly even when the Priest with Touch of Weakness on is silenced or stunned.
• [Vampiric Touch]: Casting lower ranks of this spell is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.

Rogues[]

Shaman[]

Warlocks[]

Warriors[]

PvP[]

• Diminishing returns on honor for kills is being eliminated.
• Honor will now be instantly calculated, and available for player use.
• Players that have the resurrection sickness debuff will be worth no honor.
• Added new PvP daily quests that send players to Halaa and the Spirit Towers of the Bone Wastes. These quests are available for Alliance and Horde at their respective local quest hubs.

Arenas[]

• Personal Rating: The amount a player’s personal rating can climb above his or her team’s rating is now limited.
• The benefits of drinking out of combat have been delayed while in the Arena. It will now take four seconds before the full benefit of the mana regeneration will come into effect.
• Queue times for arena matches have been reduced. Players will now be able to enter matches faster than previously.
• [Shadow Sight] now increases damage taken by 5% rather than dealing damage over time. Duration has been reduced from 21 seconds to 15 seconds.
• Players feared outside of the Arena (through the world or outside the arena walls) will now be teleported back to the center of the arena map.

Battlegrounds[]

• If a player dies 50 times or more in a battleground, they will no longer be worth honor for the remainder of that battle.
• When you first enter a battleground, messages about other players joining the battleground will be linked together for the first minute. You will see a message in AV like "28 players joined" rather than a line for each player that joined. After the first minute, it will work as it always has. In addition, all of the messages about other players leaving the battleground and getting marks of honor once the battleground is complete have been removed.
• Battleground Rune Buffs: Speed, Restoration, and Berserking buffs received from battleground runes will no longer cause Stealth or Prowl to break.

Alterac Valley[]

• Captain Balinda Stonehearth can no longer be interrupted, silenced, or have her spells slowed. In addition, her water elemental cannot be banished, and does increased damage.
• Vanndar Stormpike and Captain Balinda Stonehearth have had their health totals reduced to match the health totals of Drek'Thar and Captain Galvangar.
• Warmasters/marshals in Alterac Valley now increase each other's maximum health and damage by 25%. This is a stacking effect.
• Horde players will now start the battle closer to Drek'Thar and Frostwolf Keep.
• There is now a Join as Party option.

Warsong Gulch[]

• When both flags are held, the flag carriers will receive 50% increased damage done to them after approximately 10 minutes and 100% increased damage after approximately 15 minutes.
• Flag carriers can now be tracked 45 seconds after picking up the flag.

Professions[]

• Added several new tradeskill items to the new Sunwell Daily faction vendor:
• Two new meta gem recipes.

Alchemy[]

•  [Gift of Arthas] now stacks to 20.
•  [Transmute: Arcanite] no longer has a cooldown.

Cooking[]

Enchanting[]

• Reduced the materials required for  [Enchant Shield - Resistance]

Engineering[]

Fishing[]

• New Fishing Daily Quests! Visit the mysterious old man fishing at Silmyr Lake outside of Shattrath City to discover what treasures he has to offer.
• [Find Fish] now correctly tracks Schools of Tastyfish and Muddy Churning Waters
• Feltail fishing nodes have been changed to Brackish Mixed Schools; they now produce mostly [Golden Darters] and some [Feltail].
• Removed the level requirement from the expert fishing book, [The Bass and You].

Herbalism[]

Jewelcrafting[]

• A new jewelcrafting recipe has been added to transform 3 of each color of green quality gems into a single random blue quality gem. This recipe is available from grandmaster jewelcrafting trainers.

Leatherworking[]

•  [Shadow Oil] will now fit into Leatherworking Bags.

Mining[]

• Increased the skill up potential for most smelting recipes.

Quests[]

Dungeons and raids[]

Caverns of Time: Heroic Black Morass[]

• Rift Keepers and Rift Lords now have reduced hit points.

Caverns of Time: Mount Hyjal[]

Caverns of Time: Old Hillsbrad[]

• The Human Illusion effect will now always be removed properly when a player leaves the instance.
• Durnholde Lookouts no longer spawn in the Heroic version of the instance. The placement of creatures around Durnholde Keep in Heroic mode is now identical to that of Normal mode.

Hellfire Citadel: Magtheridon's Lair[]

• Many gameplay elements of the encounters in Magtheridon's Lair have been changed to decrease their overall complexity and difficulty.

Karazhan[]

• Players will no longer need the [Master’s Key] to enter Karazhan. The gates to Karazhan will still require the Master's Key to be unlocked.

Tempest Keep: The Eye[]

Tempest Keep: The Mechanar[]

• The Mechanar: It is no longer possible to gain an additional  [Badge of Justice] by bringing [Cache of the Legion keys] obtained in other copies of the instance.

Zul'Aman[]

•  Jan'alai will now only teleport players to him if they are too far away.

Items[]

• Players will now be able to purchase level 70 Superior quality PvP items from reputation vendors [1].
• Avatar Regalia: The two-piece bonus from this set will now be consumed by [Vampiric Embrace] as intended.
•  [Bloody Brass Knuckles],  [Eerie Stable Lantern],  [Baelog's Shortbow], and  [Snakeskin Bag] have been upgraded to Superior items.
•  [Blue Suede Shoes] can now be disenchanted.
• Crystalforge Raiment: The two-piece set bonus will now work properly. Additionally, the four piece bonus will now only work on the next [Holy Light] cast, as intended.
• Cyclone Regalia: Trade skills will no longer consume the Energized effect.
•  [Darkmoon Card: Madness]: The buffs from this item will no longer interrupt casting and channeling.
•  [Deadman's Hand]: This item's effect now works while the victim is sitting. In addition, its effect is now properly considered a root for purposes of being dispelled or removed.
•  [Deathwing Brood Cloak]: These cloaks are now bound on equip instead of bound on pickup.
• Druid Balance PvP Sets: The bonus movement speed for Bear, Cat, and [Travel Form] has been removed and replaced with a new bonus to [Wrath] and [Starfire].
• Druid Restoration PvP Sets: The bonus movement speed for Bear, Cat, and Travel Form has been removed and replaced with a new bonus to [Regrowth].
•  [Discombobulator Ray]: This item will again not work on mounted players.
• Frostfire Regalia: The resistance bonus from this set now works with the Burning Crusade ranks of [Mage Armor].
•  [Gladiator's Leather Gloves]: This arena bonus will now properly school lock enemies when the damage from [Deadly Throw] causes them to stop channeling.
• The Gladiator's Thunderfist 4 piece set bonus has been reduced from 70% to 50%.
•  [Gnomish Mind Control Cap]: Victims of the Gnomish Mind Control Cap will no longer get [Forbearance] when the mind control is terminated due to [Blessing of Protection].
•  [Gnomish Poultryizer]: This item will again not work on mounted players.
•  [Goblin Rocket Launcher]: Creatures will no longer gain health while affected by the Stun from this item.
•  [Heavy Netherweave Bandage]: It is no longer possible to have two players bandage the same target simultaneously using this item.
•  [Netherweave Bandage]: It is no longer possible to have two players bandage the same target simultaneously using this item.
•  [Idol of the Crescent Goddess]: The mana discount on [Regrowth] has been increased.
•  [Idol of Feral Shadows]: The bonus damage to [Rip] has been increased.
•  [Idol of the Raven Goddess]: The bonus healing, critical strike rating, and spell critical strike rating from this item have been increased. In addition, it no longer sometimes fails to apply the healing bonus.
•  [Idol of the Unseen Moon]: The cooldown added in a previous patch has been removed.
•  [Idol of Ursoc]: The bonus damage to [Lacerate] has been increased and the tooltip clarified to indicate it applies to both initial and periodic damage.
•  [Idol of the White Stag]: Duration increased.
• Items intended for Retribution Paladins have had their stats adjusted. Retribution Paladins should see an increase in dps as a result.
•  [Jade Pendant of Blasting]: This item no longer increases physical damage dealt.
• Justicar Raiment: The 2 piece bonus will now always give the correct amount of bonus healing to the [Judgement of Light] effect.
•  [Libram of Absolute Truth]: The [Holy Light] mana discount has been increased.
•  [Libram of Divine Purpose]: The bonus damage on Seal and Judgement of Righteousness has been increased.
•  [Libram of Mending]: The mana regeneration buff has had its duration increased. The name of the buff granted by this item changed to Grace of the Naaru to avoid having the same name as the [Light's Grace] talent.
•  [Libram of Righteous Power]: The bonus damage for [Crusader Strike] has been increased.
•  [Libram of Souls Redeemed]: The bonus for [Flash of Light] has been decreased and the bonus for [Holy Light] has been increased.
•  [Libram of Wracking]: This item now increases the damage on [Holy Wrath] and [Exorcism] instead of decreasing their mana cost.
•  [Nether Vortex] are no longer Bind on Pickup and can now be purchased from  G'eras for 15 [Badges of Justice]!
•  [Masquerade Gown]: The spirit bonus from this item will now properly trigger all benefits from the [Incarnation: Tree of Life] talent.
•  [Masterwork Stormhammer]: The Chain Lightning cast by this item will no longer jump to secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
•  [Mojo]: A pvp-flagged player can no longer kiss Mojo and cause non-flagged players to become flagged.
•  [Moongraze Stag Tenderloin] can now be consumed by hunter pets that eat meat.
•  [Noggenfogger Elixir]: It is no longer possible using this item to keep the Old Hillsbrad human illusion outside of the instance.
• Paladin Healer Gladiator Sets: The set bonus changing [Hammer of Justice] cooldown has been changed to a set bonus increasing the amount healed by [Holy Shock].
•  [Pendant of the Violet Eye]: Paladin Judgment spells will again properly trigger this item.
• Players can now only carry 80  [Conjured Mana Biscuit] at a time.
•  [Primal Nether] is no longer Bind on Pickup.
• PvP Relics: The bonus resilience from Idols, Librams, and Totems is no longer stackable by swapping between multiple relics.
• Resilience has been added to all Retribution Paladin PvP gear.
• Added  [Shattrath Flask of Pure Death] and  [Shattrath Flask of Blinding Light] to the reputation flask vendors in Shattrath.
• Shaman Elemental PvP Sets: The resistance on Lightning Bolt spell pushback has been reduced to 50%.
• Shaman PvP Boots: The pre-Burning Crusade bonus to increase Ghost Wolf speed no longer works for players over level 60.
• Shattrath Flasks now work inside the Sunwell Plateau raid instance.
• Skull of Gul'dan: This item now shares its cooldown with other similar trinkets.
•  [Steam Tonk Controller]: This item can no longer trigger the Warrior talent [Second Wind] when it is driven out of range by the Warrior.
• The On Use effect has been properly changed to passive for the following items:  [Blue Overalls],  [Brantwood Sash],  [Firewalker Boots],  [Gloves of Kapelan],  [Hellion Boots],  [Hibernal Gloves],  [Hibernal Pants],  [Kimbra Boots],  [Mistscape Gloves],  [Nightsky Trousers],  [Sacred Burial Trousers],  [Turquoise Sash], and  [Woolen Boots],  [Spinesever].
•  [Thunderstrike]: The Chain Lightning cast by this item will no longer jump to secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
•  [Tome of the Lightbringer]: The block value and buff duration have been increased.
•  [Totem of the Pulsing Earth]: The mana discount for Lightning Bolt has been increased slightly.
•  [Vengeful Gladiator's Waraxe]: The weapon delay has been reduced.
• Weightstones and Sharpening Stones: The bonus damage from these temporary enchantments now works while shapeshifted.
•  [Winterfall Firewater]: The tooltip no longer specifies only melee attack power.

User interface[]

World Environment[]

Bug Fixes[]