Patch 5.3 Overview (Other Changes)

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Quests

Shado-Pan and The August Celestials daily quests no longer have a faction prerequisite to be Revered with the Golden Lotus.

To be honest, I really didn't like how the Shado-Pan and August Celestial reputations were locked out until one gained rep with the Golden Lotus, especially when it comes to questing on alts and attempting to get specific profession recipes. I'm glad it's going away.

• The Strength of One's Foes: All bosses in Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of the Endless Spring now have a chance to drop either a Sigil of Power or Sigil of Wisdom.
• A Test of Valor: Reduced the amount of Valor needed for this achievement to 3000 Valor Points, down from 6000.

These are changes that make the first few legendary quest chains less time-consuming to complete.

Creatures

• Creatures that are outdoors in the world and are Level-90 and above now have a chance to drop Lesser Charms of Good Fortune.
• Rare spawns in Pandaria (except Zandalari Warscouts, and Zandalari Warbringers) and bosses in Battlefield: Barrens will now always drop Lesser Charms of Good Fortune.

These changes make me pleasantly happy. I really don't like being forced to do dailies to get my Lesser Charms. I still wish there were more ways to get them, however.

Rare spawns in Pandaria (except those on Isle of Thunder) now have a chance to drop a bind-on-pickup invitation to the Brawler's Guild.

This is a nice change considering only a few rare spawns drop the invitation. There's a pretty decent saturation of invitations anyways but at least getting one off rare spawns saves some gold.

Pet Battles

Battle Pet drops have been added to Burning Crusade raids. These new pets can be obtained from raid bosses in Karazhan, Tempest Keep and Serpentshrine Cavern. Obtaining all of these new pets will reward players with a new battle pet, Tito!

This is an implementation that gives players some motivation to solo raids for battle pets, much like in 5.1.

Protection for bad luck streaks have been added to Battle-Stones from pet supplies bags and wild battles. Each bag or battle that does not provide a stone has a progressively better chance to award a stone to the player.

This is a great implementation. While I definitely like the bonus roll equivalent, it's going to be nice to have a good chance of getting Battle-Stones.

All Pet Battle daily quests on Pandaria, Beasts of Fable and Spirit Tamer quests will now award experience, valor, and Lesser Charms of Good Fortune.

It's a shame that these are still dailies, but at least they're less like the faction-related dailies (and reasonably quick, too!).

Dungeons and Raids

Players can now choose to receive loot for specializations other than the one that's currently active. This feature can be accessed by right-clicking on the character portrait and selecting the option from the drop-down list. Loot specialization is available for bonus rolls, Raid Finder, Heroic Scenarios, and Mists of Pandaria quest rewards.

I like this addition because sometimes I may want to get some gear for my off-set but I don't want to ruin a run by going as an extremely undergeared <insert role here>.

Bonus rolls, Treasures of the Thunder King, Amber Encased Treasure Pouch, Cache of Mogu Riches, and Dividends of the Everlasting Spring now have a small chance to award a larger than usual amount of gold.

This is a minor change, but at least now the gold rewards from bags and bonus rolls won't always be ~30 gold.

Protection for bad luck streaks have been added to bonus rolls. Each bonus roll that does not provide loot has a progressively better chance to award loot to the player.

This is one of my favorite changes this patch. Now I won't feel like I'm wasting my bonus rolls to only get extra gold. However, it may be possible to cheese loot off specific bosses if one needs the loot of them (though it's still largely luck-based).

Reduced the number of Lesser Charms of Good Fortune needed for the Mogu Runes of Fate weekly quest to 50, down from 90.

This was actually hotfixed in awhile ago. It's a great change that allows players to have to not do a ton of dailies just to get some bonus rolls.

Gate of the Setting Sun is now available in Normal difficulty, and accessible to level 89 characters.

It's interesting that this came in now given that the "Heroic-only" instances were originally intended to have Normal mode equivalents. The notable point to make here is that there's now another Mist of Pandaria instance option to queue for while leveling up (since it feels awfully limited at the moment).

PvP

• All characters now have a base Resilience of 65%.
• Battle Fatigue now reduces the amount of healing and absorbs by 45%, up from 30%.
• PvP Power conversion ratio to obtain 1% damage at level 90 has been changed from 265 to 400.

Some people really don't like these changes. Personally, I don't have an enormous problem with them in particular. The resilience/PvP Power change allows players without PvP gear to PvP without a major power disparity (which was the original intention of PvP Power/PvP Resilience). However, PvPers will still have a noticeable advantage as they can deal a little more damage. Also, healers all got a global PvP nerf.

PvP Power bonus to healing is now based on class and specialization. Healing specializations receive a 100% bonus to healing from PvP Power (hybrid healers in a damage specialization receive 70%, and all remaining specializations and classes receive 40%).

This was already more or less in place, though there's now some finality to the fact healers and hybrids are intended to gain a better benefit from PvP Power for healing done.

Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas now have an ilevel cap. All gear will be scaled down to ilevel 496.

This is another change that some players are against. Like the changes above, this allows players to do Arenas while not being at an incredible disadvantage. Instead, players have to outplay each other to win, which I like (or play an overpowered class, which indicates a balance problem).

Mid-season catch-up for Conquest Points has been added. Players will now see their cap on Conquest Points increased by 1000 per week since the start of Season 13 minus the amount of Conquest Points earned so far in this season.

Like above, this allows players who want to join PvP to have a chance to get in on it without too much of a disadvantage.

Items

The Voidbinders are back in capital cities and shrines.

The Voidbinders upgrade equipment for players at the cost of various currency. They were removed in 5.2 so that players couldn't upgrade high-tier epic items and become incredibly strong (otherwise a Valor reset may have been forced).

Players starting on Cataclysm content can purchase level-80 gear from Iris Moonweaver in Hyjal and Erunak in Vashj'ir to more easily qualify for Blackrock Caverns and Abyssal Maw: Throne of Tides.

While some people may be against players getting free gear, it's leveling gear and it prevents frustration in entry-level instances.

Unclaimed Black Market Containers are now available on the Black Market Auction House. What's inside? It's a mystery! When opened, the container has a chance to contain any item that can be available on the BMAH.

This could be an interesting little thing to dump money on. It's a bit of a gamble, but who knows? Someone might end up getting something like this for a few thousand gold.

This is the end of the second half of the patch 5.3 overview. Click here to go back to the first half of the patch 5.3 overview.