Notes for World of Warcraft Patch 6.1 with a comprehensive list of new content, features, and class changes are now available. For a quick overview of new content and features, check out our Patch 6.1 Feature Overview blog.

Table of Contents

World of Warcraft Patch 6.1

Last updated: 02-24-2015

New Character Models: Blood Elf

• Character models for Blood Elves have been overhauled with an increase to fidelity and texture resolution; while retaining the core look and feel of the originals.
• Some character models received additional tweaks and adjustments.

Twitter Integration

• Characters can now send Tweets for items, achievements, and screenshots from within the game client using the /share command.
• To activate this feature, visit Social options in the Interface menu to enable, add, or disconnect a Twitter account.

New Heirloom Collections Tab

• The Collections system now supports Heirloom items.
• Heirlooms can be upgraded to increase the maximum level that the item scales up to.
  • Heirlooms with no upgrades can scale up to level 60.
  • Heirlooms with 1 upgrade level can scale up to level 90.
  • Heirlooms with 2 upgrade levels can scale up to level 100.
  • Old heirlooms that have been upgraded to scale to level 85 are grandfathered in with 1 upgrade level.
• New Heirlooms for the neck slot are now available and allows the character to cast a heal once a minute. This heal shares a cooldown with potions and Healthstones.
• Vendors in Ironforge (Alliance) and Undercity (Horde) now sell Heirlooms for gold.
• Alternate methods for obtaining Heirlooms and Heirloom upgrade tokens are also available.
  • Darkmoon Faire sells Heirlooms for Darkmoon Prize Tickets.
  • Argent Tournament sells Heirloom upgrade tokens for Champion's Seals.
  • Some world events now sell Heirloom upgrade tokens for currency obtained through the event.
• Collecting 35 heirloom items awards a special mount that's usable by level 1 characters.

Garrisons, Followers, and Outposts

• New Garrison Visitors
  • One of five new visitors may visit each day offering a quest to anyone that visits players with a Tier 3 Garrison.
    • Defeat a dungeon boss: Completing this daily quest awards Garrison Resources.
    • Defeat a raid boss: Completing this weekly quest awards gold and an item level 645 token with a chance for it to be an item level 655 token.
    • Bounty (intended for 2 or more players): Group up with other players to hunt down and defeat a powerful enemy for gold rewards.
    • Relic: Completing these quests will reward gold and ultimately Harrison Jones as a new Follower.
    • Profession: Get your hands on more Primal Spirits, reduce surplus reagents, and buy new recipes for crafted upgrades and transmutes.
  • For the Pet Battlers out there, there's a separate chance for an additional visitor offering unique Pet Battles with a chance to award a bag containing Pet Battle items and new Battle Pets.
• Summon a Raid or World Boss
  • Players may find an item while completing a Garrison Invasion that that summons one of six new raid or world boss in the Garrison.
  • Summoned raid or world bosses have scaling health and is intended for 10-40 players.
• New Garrison Music Box
  • Players can assemble a music box allowing them to play music in their Garrisons.
  • The music box can be obtained as a reward from a new quest found in your Garrison.
  • New songs can be collected from throughout the world to expand your music library.
• New Garrison Vendor
  • There’s a new vendor coming to your Garrison who allows you to spend Garrison Resources on Follower Trait Retraining Guides or Follower Ability Retraining Manuals.
• New Follower Trait: Treasure Hunter
  • Treasure Hunter trait increases the amount of gold rewarded from a mission.
• Garrison Followers
  • Garrison Followers may now be upgraded to item level 675.
• Follower Missions
  • New Profession Missions are now available on upgrading a profession building to level 3. Successfully completing these missions award an item that allows instant completion of work orders.
  • Players can unlock Relic and Bounty missions for their followers by completing the corresponding Relic or Bounty quest offered by one of the random daily new visitors to the Garrison.
  • New exploration missions are available to players with a skill of at least 1 in Archeology. Successfully completing these missions can award Archeology fragments, keystones, or treasure maps for a Draenor zone. Treasure maps obtained in this manner do not require quest achievement completion for the Draenor zone.
  • Archeology Vendors in Stormshield and Warspear now sell an item that'll spawn a follower exploration mission for 5 Restored Artifacts.
  • New Level-100 Scouting missions to a Battlefield now awards an item that grants access to missions that award Apexis Crystals.
  • New Raid missions to Blackrock Foundry are now available for a cache that awards level 665, 680, or 695 items.
  • New follower missions have been added that can award gold, Apexis Crystals, Savage Blood, or Augmentation runes.
  • Level 90-94 gold and Garrison Resource missions will now continue to appear even if there are no Followers that are level 90-94.
  • Level-100 Garrison resource missions now award more Garrison Resources.
  • Scavenger trait for Followers now increases Garrison Resources gained from a mission by 100% (down from 200%).
• Follower Mission UI Improvements
  • List of missions available now displays the amount of bonus XP, gold, and resources awarded without having to mouse-over the mission tooltip.
  • Improved tooltips displaying which followers that can counter threats on a mission.
    • Followers that can counter a threat and available show up with a green checkmark.
    • Followers that can counter a threat but are out on a mission displays the time remaining until the follower is available.
    • Followers that can counter a threat but assigned to a building will display a working icon.
  • A new icon will notify the player when assigning a follower that'll receive less XP reward because they're below level or item level requirements.
  • Garrisons with 10 or more followers now have access to a sortable list with a quick overview of how many followers can counter a particular threat or how long a follower will be out on a mission.
• Garrison Buildings
  • Garrison Work Order Changes
    • Work orders now check if a follower is assigned to the building every 4 hours when factoring in production bonuses.
    • Followers assigned to work at a building now receive XP for each work order that they provide a production bonus on.
    • Players now have an option to queue up all remaining work order slots through the building's work order UI.
    • NPCs that accept Work Orders are now titled as such along with a new interaction cursor to make them easier to locate.
  • Alchemy Lab
    • Level 2: Followers working at the Alchemy Lab now offers a choice on the free potions you want to receive, but those potions are now soulbound.
  • Armory (Dwarven Bunker / War Mill)
    • Level 3: A daily quest has been added to allow players to exchange Iron Horde Scraps for an armor or weapon enhancement token.
  • Barn
    • Barn traps are no longer targetable, causes the cursor to be highlighted, or usable in Rated Battlegrounds, Arenas, or outside of Draenor.
    • Barn traps can now be placed on top of a trap that has already been sprung.
    • Savage Blood now drops more frequently when a follower is assigned to the building (it didn’t affect the chance previously).
    • Caged creatures now stack to 1000 (up from 20).
  • Barracks
    • A vendor at the Barracks now sells an item that allows a character to shrink their Bodyguards for 60 minutes.
  • Fishing Shack
    • Nat Pagle (Level 3 Fishing Shack) will now give you any of the standard baits if you ask nicely.
    • Lunkers can now be caught from fishing pools and have an improved catch rate with higher fishing skill.
    • Summoned Cavedwellers now drops random fish flesh and drops less Worm Supreme.
    • Fish Eggs used as turn-in for the Fishing Shack Daily quest are now bind on pickup and no longer have a sell value.
  • Lumber Mill
    • Lumber Mill no longer requires Garrison Resources to build or upgrade.
    • Work orders now award 30 Garrison Resource (up from 20).
  • Mage Tower / Spirit Lodge
    • The building now accepts Ogre Waystones as work orders awarding Apexis Crystals and a chance to receive an item that allows instant completion of a mission that's in-progress.
    • Characters visiting the Garrison are now able to use Mage Tower / Spirit Lodge portals.
  • Mine
    • Miner's Coffee no longer has a stack limit, is now bind on pickup, and has a sell price. It now has an exclusive category so it cannot be applied multiple times by splitting it into different stacks. However, the aura can now correctly stack up to 5 times.
    • Preserved Mining Pick no longer has a stack limit, is now bind on pickup, has a sell price, and offers a bonus even if you have the Peon's Mining Pick.
  • Menagerie
    • Reduced the difficulty of quests to unlock the Menagerie, elite pet challenges, and pet battle daily quests.
  • Salvage Yard
    • Tier-3 salvage recovered from Follower missions no longer has an independent chance to drop an uncommon (green), rare (blue), or epic (purple) item and will instead always drop one of them. This change is intended to reduce overall item spam without affecting their value. Existing chance for Tier-3 salvage to potentially also contain an uncommon Tier-2 salvage item remains unchanged.
    • Follower Weaponry and Armor Set tokens (War Ravaged, Blackrock, Goredrenched) no longer drops from salvage. Weapon and Armor enhancement tokens that can upgrade a Follower's weapon or armor item levels will continue to have a chance to drop from Salvage Crates.
  • Town Hall
    • The fireplace in Tier-2 and Tier-3 Alliance Garrison Town Halls can now be used as a cooking fire.
  • Trading Post
    • Players trading Garrison Resources for tradeskill materials can now shift-click to specify the amount of items they want to purchase.
    • Trading Post Parts that drop in Ashran now have a chance to drop from all creatures and NPCs that drop Artifact Fragments, with an increased drop chance based on the quality of the creature or NPCs.
    • Trading Post no longer requires Garrison Resources to build or upgrade.
    • Some merchants have started accepting Crescent Saberfish Flesh as payment.
• Garrison Invasions
  • Players that have performed above-and-beyond expectations for a Gold rating while defending their Garrisons from an invasion can now attain a Platinum rating. Platinum rating awards a level 660 item and a chance at obtaining an item that can be used to summon a raid or world boss.

Cosmetic Transformations and Toy Effects

• Improvements have been made to the way that cosmetic transformations are handled. Previously, using another transformation would overwrite or cancel an existing effect. Now, characters can retain multiple cosmetic transformations and the one with the highest priority will be visible. If a higher priority transformation is canceled or expires, the next highest priority transformation will then be visible.
• Cosmetic transformation effects that do not have a mount riding animation are now temporarily suppressed when using a mount (previously, the effect is either canceled or prevented the use of mounts while active). Characters will regain the transformation once they dismount.
• Cosmetic transformations that alter the character's appearance now have a higher priority than Druid combat forms. This means Druids can keep a transformation while shapeshifted.
• Many Druid shapeshift forms now have attachment points on the head and back for cosmetic toy effects such as Blazing Wings or Pepe. Additional shapeshift forms may receive attachment points in the future.
• To retain and improve readability in rated PvP environments, cosmetic transformations are now suppressed for all classes while inside a rated PvP environment (Arenas or Rated Battlegrounds).

General

• Accounts with an inactive subscription are now able to log in with the same restrictions that Starter Edition accounts have with the additional perk of being able to join guilds that characters on the account already are a member of.
• Removed the requirement to have a character that's level 55 or higher to unlock the Death Knight as a playable class.
• New Graphics Options
  • Particle Density in graphics settings now have 3 detail levels (down from 5). This may affect the number of particles generated by some particle systems.
  • Ambient Occlusion
    • Added new ambient occlusion method NVIDIA HBAO+, available on all DirectX 11 capable video cards.
  • Anti-Aliasing
    • MSAA is once again supported, with additional controls for fine-tuning under Advanced graphics options.
    • A new SSAA anti-aliasing option is now available for high-end video cards.
  • New Lighting
    • Per-pixel deferred point lights have been added to create more realistic lighting throughout Draenor.

Itemization

• Tertiary Stats for Avoidance, Speed, and Leech now provide about four times as much benefit per stat point.
• All rings, neck, cloak, and trinket items that can be acquired in Nagrand (A level 98+ zone) or later should now be better suited for the character's loot specialization. This means tanks should no longer receive items with no bonus Armor and healers should no longer receive items with no Spirit from sources like item tokens, quests, or Personal loot mode in Dungeons and Raids for those item slots.

Racials

• Dwarf
  • Stoneform when used, now triggers a 30-second shared cooldown with other PvP trinkets that breaks crowd-control effects.

Class Changes

Talent Balance

Developer Commentary: A primary focus for class changes in Patch 6.1 is improving overall talent balance. Not every talent needs to be useful in every situation; and in fact it’s often better if they have strengths and weaknesses. But we do try to have each talent be useful in some situations, and make them close enough in value that if you really enjoy the gameplay of a talent you don’t feel like you’re dragging your group down by using it.

For these changes we focused primarily on tuning (tweaking numbers), and nearly all changes are buffs to underperforming talents. The goal is to reach more variety of viable builds, without bringing down the existing popular choices.

• Death Knight
  • Talents
    • Breath of Sindragosa no longer has an initial Runic Power cost, but only applies the Mark of Sindragosa for Blood Death Knights.
    • Death Siphon now heals the Death Knight for 400% of damage dealt (up from 335%).
    • Defile now only reduces damage taken for Blood Death Knights.
    • Necrotic Plague damage has been increased by 20% and now only grants Runic Power to Blood Death Knights.
• Druid
  • Talents
    • Bristling Fur (Guardian) now has a 30-second cooldown (down from 1 minute).
    • Force of Nature's Treants has been buffed with a 35% increase to their health and spellpower, and an 80% increase to their armor and attack power.
    • Guardian of Elune (Guardian) now also reduces the rage cost of Savage Defense by the Druid's base dodge chance percentage.
    • Moment of Clarity (Restoration) now lasts 7 seconds (up from 5 seconds).
    • Rampant Growth (Restoration) now also increases the healing of Swiftmend by 20%.
    • Renewal now instantly heals for 30% of max health (up from 22%).
    • Stellar Flare (Balance) damage has been increased by 16%, and now has a duration of 24 seconds (up from 20 seconds).
• Hunter
  • Talents
    • Barrage damage has been increased by 21%.
    • Exhilaration now instantly heals for 30% of max health (up from 22%).
    • Glaive Toss damage has been increased by 25%.
    • Powershot damage has been increased by 62%.
    • Stampede now lasts 40 seconds (up from 20 seconds).
• Mage
  • Talents
    • Alter Time now has a 1-minute cooldown (down from 1.5 minutes).
    • Comet Storm (Frost) damage has increased by 94% but deals 33.3% less damage in PvP combat.
    • Evanesce should now provide protection against many more effects, and function more consistently.
    • Ice Nova (Frost) now roots the target instead of stunning them, but the root is no longer affected by diminishing returns.
    • Mirror Image copies of Frost Mages now deal 15% less damage with Frostbolt.
• Monk
  • Talents
    • Ascension now increases Spirit by 10% instead of increasing maximum mana by 20%.
    • Breath of the Serpent (Mistweaver) healing increased by 50%.
    • Chi Burst damage has been increased by 51%. Also fixed a bug that caused its damage and healing to vary based on specialization.
    • Chi Explosion (Mistweaver) healing while in Serpent Stance is increased by 40%, and is now usable while channeling Soothing Mist. Healing while in Crane Stance is reduced by 33.3%.
    • Chi Torpedo damage has increased by 150% and healing has increased by 42%.
    • Hurricane Strike (Windwalker) damage increased by 25%.
    • Ring of Peace now incapacitates all enemies for 5 seconds (up from 3 seconds).
    • Zen Sphere has been improved. Its detonation damage has increased by 97%, detonation healing has increased by 70%, but periodic healing has been reduced by 39%. Also fixed a bug that caused its damage and healing to vary based on specialization.
• Paladin
  • Talents
    • Empowered Seals (Protection, Retribution) has been improved. Liadrin’s Righteousness now increases haste by 20% (up from 15%). Uther’s Insight now heals the Paladin for 2% of maximum health every 3 seconds (up from 1% every 2 seconds).
    • Execution Sentence's healing dealt by Stay of Execution has increased by 100%.
    • Final Verdict (Retribution) now increases the radius of the next Divine Storm by 50% (down from 100%).
    • Hand of Purity now reduces damage taken by 15% (up from 10%).
    • Sacred Shield's (Holy) mana cost has been reduced by 34%.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Alabaster Shield has been removed.
    • Glyph of Harsh Words is now only available to Holy Paladins.
• Priest
  • Talents
    • Auspicious Spirits (Shadow) no longer cause Shadowy Apparitions to not deal damage. Instead, it now increases Shadowy Apparition damage by 100% in addition to still granting 1 Shadow Orb.
    • Cascade may now hit the same target twice. This results in an increase to total healing, so its healing has been reduced by 35% to compensate (the total healing in a 20-player raid will be slightly higher than before).
    • Clarity of Purpose's (Holy) healing has increased by 20%.
    • Divine Star (Shadow) damage increased by 20%.
    • Halo now displays an indicator on the ground to make it easier for the casting Priest see where the ability is most effective. Additionally, Halo's visual effect has been synchronized so a character will receive the effect when the nova intersects with them.
    • Insanity (Shadow) now also affects Mind Sear.
    • Mindbender lasts for 20 seconds (up from 15 seconds).
    • Psychic Scream now has a 30-second cooldown (down from 45 seconds).
    • Saving Grace's (Discipline, Holy) healing has increased by 50%, but now reduces future healing dealt by 15% (up from 10%). Additionally, the talent is now instant-cast, but its effectiveness is reduced while in PvP combat.
    • Surge of Darkness now has a 12% chance to trigger (up from 10%).
    • Void Entropy (Shadow) damage increased by 80%.
    • Void Tendrils' health has increased by 30%.
• Rogue
  • Talents
    • Burst of Speed now has a 3-second cooldown.
    • Death from Above's damage has increased by 25%. For Assassination Rogues, the talent now also increases the duration of Envenom.
    • Leeching Poison has been redesigned. It now grants 10% Leech while active, and no longer applies a poison effect to the target. Its Shiv effect remains unchanged.
• Shaman
  • Talents
    • Ancestral Guidance now triggers from all damage or healing dealt, including multistrikes, instead of only direct damage or healing.
    • Storm Elemental Totem damage and healing has increased by 30%.
• Warlock
  • Talents
    • Cataclysm now also applies Unstable Affliction for Affliction Warlocks.
    • Charred Remains (Destruction) now reduces Incinerate damage by only 50% (down from reducing Incinerate damage by 60%).
    • Demonbolt (Demonology) damage decreased by 25%. Additionally, Demonbolt no longer deals reduced damage in PvP combat, reverting the hotfix from January 21 in Patch 6.0.3.
    • Grimoire of Sacrifice (Affliction, Destruction) now increases damage of affected spells by 25% (up from 20%).
    • Grimoire of Service now summons a second demon for 25 seconds (up from 20 seconds).
    • Kil'jaeden's Cunning now has a 35-second cooldown (down from 1 minute).
• Warrior
  • Talents
    • Avatar now lasts 20 seconds with a 1.5-minute cooldown (up from lasting 24 seconds with a 3-minute cooldown).
    • Second Wind now increases Leech by 25% (up from 10%).
    • Siegebreaker (Arms, Fury) damage and knockback distance has increased by 50%.
    • Slam (Arms) damage has increased by 43%.

Healer Damage

Developer Commentary: Another change being made for Patch 6.1 is to bring the damage potential of healers up to a level that is sufficient and balanced. Healers’ damage potential will still pale compared to that of a dedicated damage dealer or tank, but it should no longer feel like you’re totally ineffective when attempting to do some outdoor content.

• Druid
  • Restoration
    • Naturalist now also increases the damage of Druid spells and abilities by 15%.
  • Talents
    • Heart of the Wild (Restoration) now increases spell damage by 150% (down from 200%), and Agility in Cat Form by 75% (down from 110%).
• Paladin
  • Holy
    • Denounce damage has increased by 50%.
    • Holy Shock damage has increased by 50%.
• Shaman
  • Restoration
    • Telluric Currents causes Flame Shock, Lava Burst, and Lightning Bolt to cost no mana and deal 100% more damage.

Classes

• Death Knight
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Runic Power now generates 2 Runic Power every second for 5 seconds when struck by a movement-impairing effect (down from 3 Runic Power).
  • Armor Sets
    • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Blood Death Knights now only applies Anti-Magic Shell to 1 additional ally within 15 yards (down from 2 allies).
• Druid
  • General
    • Ferocious Bite damage increased by 5%.
    • Healing Touch no longer heals for 50% more when cast-on-self for Balance Druids.
    • Mangle damage increased by 27%.
    • Moonfire's mana cost has been reduced by 55%.
    • Shred damage increased by 20%.
    • Thrash (Cat Form) damage increased by 20%.
  • Balance
    • Balance Druids now learn a new passive ability at level 38, Nature’s Bounty.
      • Nature’s Bounty causes Healing Touch to be Critical Strikes for 8 seconds after killing an enemy that yields experience or honor.
    • Starfall damage has decreased by 16.6%.
    • Starfall and Sunfall now only hits targets affected with Moonfire or Sunfire by default.
      • Glyph of Guided Stars has been renamed to Glyph of Untamed Stars and is now a Minor glyph. Glyph of Untamed Stars expands Starfall and Sunfall to hit all targets within range.
  • Feral
    • Moonfire (Feral) damage increased by 5%.
    • Rake damage increased by 5%.
    • Rip damage increased by 5%.
    • Swipe damage increased by 20%.
  • Restoration
    • Genesis no longer requires a target.
    • Ironbark is no longer usable while silenced.
    • Nature’s Cure can no longer be cast while in a shapeshift form and is now classified as a Nature School ability.
  • Talents
    • Displacer Beast is now classified as an Arcane School ability and can no longer be used while silenced.
  • Armor Sets
    • PvP 2-piece set bonus for Balance Druids now has a visual effect to indicate when the Druid is unable to generate a Starsurge charge from Entangling Roots.
    • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Balance Druids has been redesigned. When Starsurge hits a player, the cast time of Starfire is reduced by 30%, and the damage of Wrath is increased by 30% for 6 seconds.
• Hunter
  • Beast Mastery
    • Improved Focus Fire now grants an 8% increase to attack power per Frenzy stack consumed (up from 5%).
  • Marksman
    • Careful Aim now increases critical strike chance of Steady Shot, Focusing Shot, and Aimed Shot by 50% (down from 60%).
    • Chimaera Shot damage increased by 30.4%.
    • Sniper Training is now 25% more effective.
  • Survival
    • Trap Mastery no longer reduces the cooldown of all traps and Black Arrow by 6 seconds.
    • Black Arrow now has a cooldown of 24 seconds (down from 30 seconds).
    • Enhanced Traps now reduces the cooldown on all traps by 33% (down from 50%).
  • Hunter Pets
    • Basilisks now have a pet family ability. Stone Scales reduces damage taken by the pet. Previously, Basilisks did not have a pet family ability.
    • Hydra pets should no longer be excessively large.
    • Spirit Beast's Spirit Beast Blessing now also provides a 5% increase to critical strike chance. Does not stack with other critical strike chance buffs. Previously, other exotic pet families provided buffs to 2 stats while Spirit Beasts provided only 1.
• Mage
  • Arcane
    • Presence of Mind can now be applied to Polymorph spells.
  • Fire
    • Fireball now replaces Frostfire Bolt for Fire Mages.
  • Frost
    • Deep Freeze's stun effect now always breaks on damage from Ice Lance or Ice Nova, but no longer has a chance to break from other damage sources.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Frostfire Bolt has been replaced with Glyph of Ignite. Glyph of Ignite causes Ignite to also reduce the target’s movement speed by 40%.
    • Glyph of Splitting Ice effect can now hit targets up to 60% further away from the primary target, but no longer ignores crowd-controlled targets.
  • Armor Sets
    • Tier-17 4-piece bonus for Fire Mages is now approximately 0.7 procs per minute (down from 1 proc per minute).
    • PvP 2-piece set bonus for Frost Mages has been redesigned. Cone of Cold now leaves behind a patch of ice on the target area slowing any enemies caught within it by 50% for 6 seconds.
    • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Frost Mages has been redesigned to increase Frostbolt damage by 30% against unsnared targets, and increases Frostbolt damage by 50% against snared targets.
• Monk
  • General
    • Rising Sun Kick (Windwalker, Mistweaver) now causes enemies to take 20% increased damage from the Monk's abilities (up from 10%).
  • Brewmaster
    • Elusive Brew is now highlighted when the Monk has 15 stacks of it.
  • Mistweaver
    • Mana Tea now restores mana equal to 3 times the Monk's unbuffed Spirit (instead of 4% of maximum mana).
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Blackout Kick has returned.
  • Armor Sets
    • PvP 2-piece set bonus for Windwalker Monks has been replaced by the PvP 4-piece set bonus. Touch of Karma's redirected damage can now exceed 50% of the Monk's maximum health.
    • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Brewmaster Monks now only applies Guard to 1 additional ally within 15 yards (down from 2 allies).
    • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Windwalker Monks is now the PvP 2-piece set bonus. The Monk now receives a 2% reduction to damage taken for each stack of Tigereye Brew consumed for 20 seconds.
• Paladin
  • Holy
    • Beacon of Light heals should no longer benefit or consume Glyph of Flash of Light's effect.
  • Protection
    • Seal of Truth is no longer available to Protection Paladins. Seal of Command is now replaced by Seal of Righteousness instead of Seal of Truth.
  • Talents
    • Beacon of Insight (Holy) now increases healing received by the target by 40% (up from 30%) and moves to the next most injured ally when the target reaches 90% health (instead of full health).
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Alabaster Shield has been removed.
    • Glyph of Harsh Words is now only available to Holy Paladins.
    • Glyph of Immediate Truth is now only available to Retribution Paladins.
    • Glyph of Judgment is now automatically learned at level 25.
  • Armor Sets
    • PvP 2-piece set bonus for Holy Paladins now lasts 12 seconds (up from 8 seconds).
    • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Holy Paladins has been redesigned. Eternal Flame or Word of Glory now also reduces damage taken by the target by 5% for each Holy Power consumed (maximum of 15%) for 6 seconds. This effect only works in PvP combat.
• Priest
  • General
    • Power Word: Shield now absorbs 10% less damage.
• Rogue
  • Armor Sets
    • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Combat Rogues has been redesigned. Using Vanish instantly generates 5 combo points and the next Ambush, Eviscerate, Revealing Strike, or Sinister Strike will be a critical strike.
• Shaman
  • General
    • Grounding Totem now protects both party and raid members (up from only party members). Additionally, fixed an issue where Grounding Totem was incorrectly redirecting Provoke (Monk), Growl (Hunter Pet), and Defile (Death Knight).
  • Elemental
    • Enhanced Chain Lightning now makes Earthquake instant cast, and increases the damage done by the next Earthquake by 300% when Chain Lightning or Lava Beam strikes 3 or more targets (instead of increasing Earthquake damage by 60% for each target struck).
  • Restoration
    • Restorative Waves now increases all healing done by 40% (up from 30%).
  • Talents
    • Echo of the Elements has been redesigned. Echo of the Elements now causes Earthquake, Fire Nova, Lava Burst, Lava Lash, Riptide, Spirit Link Totem, Stormstrike, and Unleash Life to have 2 charges. Other abilities that reset the cooldown of these abilities will instead grant 1 charge.
    • Frozen Power should no longer cause Frost Shock to trigger a new Mastery: Molten Earth (Elemental). Note that this does not stop Molten Earth effects that are already in progress or in the process of being triggered.
  • Armor Sets
    • Tier-17 2-piece bonus for Elemental Shaman now increases multistrike damage by 1% per stack (down from 2% damage increase per stack).
    • Tier-17 4-piece bonus for Elemental Shaman now requires the Shaman to consume 12 Lightning Shield charges to trigger (down from 15 charges).
    • PvP 2-piece set bonus for Restoration Shaman now grants 975 Versatility after dispelling a harmful Magic or Curse effect from an ally (up from 780 Versatility).
    • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Restoration Shaman now triggers when the target of Earth Shield drops below 50% health (up from 35%) and Earth Shield will immediately consume up to 4 charges (up from 3 charges).
• Warlock
  • See also: Talent Balance.
• Warrior
  • General
    • Execute damage decreased by 11.4%.
    • Shield Barrier now absorbs 24.4% more damage.
    • Thunder Clap's (Arms, Protection) snare effect now lasts for 10 seconds or 8 seconds while in PvP combat (up from 6 seconds).
  • Protection
    • Improved Defensive Stance now increases armor by 10% (up from 5%).
  • Armor Sets
    • Tier-17 4-piece bonus for Arms Warriors now causes Colossus Smash to generate 20 rage (down from 30 Rage).

Quests

• Players in a raid group will once again no longer be eligible for quest credit, except for specially-designated Raid quests. We are continuing to explore ways of allowing players who want to engage in solo or small-group questing while in a raid group (for example, while waiting for a Highmaul raid to form, or in a Rated Battleground queue), without also allowing raid groups to trivially complete quests that were never designed with groups of that size in mind.
• Legendary Ring Quest Line
  • A new epic follower awaits those that complete the latest chapter in the Legendary Ring Quest Line!
  • Characters can now select the version of the ring they want to receive when completing a step of the Legendary Ring Quest Line that provides an upgrade.
• Legacy
  • Cruisin' the Chasm: Resolved an issue where characters were not receiving completion credit after riding the Rental Chopper.
  • Ridin' the Rocketway: Resolved an issue where characters were not receiving completion credit after riding the Redhound Two-Seater prototype.

World Environment and Events

• Flight Path Improvements
  • Improved the logic used for connecting flight paths. Players are now able to fly through flight points that they have not discovered yet if it'll result in a more direct flight path to a destination point.
  • A button has been added for characters in the middle of a flight to get off at the next known flight point.
• Nagrand
  • Added two mailboxes in around the Black Market near Ring Of Blood in Nagrand.
• Darkmoon Faire
  • The Darkmoon Faire have added an exciting new racing event with opportunities to obtain new unique prizes!
  • New achievements and rewards have been added to the Darkmoon Tonk Challenge and Darkmoon Ring Toss.

Creatures and NPCs

• Khadgar has decided to dismiss his remarkably realistic mirror images from capital cities across the land. Adventurers answering his summons and seeking to enter Draenor may once again find him near the Dark Portal in Blasted Lands.
• Spires of Arak
  • Sethekk Wind Serpent is undead and should no longer be skinnable.

Pet Battle

• New battle pets have been added to Black Temple, Caverns of Time: Hyjal Summit, and Sunwell Plateau along with a new achievement, Raiding with Leashes III to collect them all. Completing the achievement to collect all the new Battle Pets will award a Naaru pet.
• Level 100 characters with a Tier-3 Garrison can complete a quest to receive an Ultimate Battle-Training Stone to increase a single Battle Pet to level 25.

Dungeons and Raids

• Personal loot mode received quality-of-life adjustments. Bosses that can be looted now have a custom graphical effect. Popup notifications from looting a boss have also been revamped.
• Raids
  • Blackrock Foundry
    • Dungeon Journal entries for Blackrock Foundry have been updated with fight mechanics that have changed from hotfixes.
    • Hans’gar & Franzok
      • Tanks are now able to use abilities and cooldowns while grabbed by Hans’gar or Franzok's Crippling Suplex.
    • Kromog
      • Mistweaver Monks can now cast Mana Tea while grabbed by Rune of Grasping Earth.
• Dungeons
  • Completing the first random Heroic Draenor Dungeon of the day no longer awards a reputation bonus with Pandarian factions.
• Challenge Mode
  • Increased the item level of gear awarded from completing daily Challenge Mode quests to 660 (up from 640).

PvP

• Grand Marshal Tremblade or High Warlord Volrath now offer scrolls of Enchant Illusion – Glorious Tyranny and Enchant Illusion – Primal Victory to players with a rating of 2400 or higher in Rated Battlegrounds, and 3v3 or 5v5 Arenas.
• Flask of Conquest has been added as a potential drop at the end of a Rated Battleground match. The flask increases Conquest Point gains from Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds by 25% for 2 hours and the effect persists through death. The flask does not affect the character's Conquest cap and the drop chance is in addition to the existing chance for Conquest Points.Battlegrounds now reward the appropriate level of experience at lower levels.
• Primal Gladiator's and Primal Combatant's Badges now have a 2-minute cooldown (up from 1 minute).
• Mists of Pandaria era PvP Gloves no longer have an on-equip bonus.
• Ashran
  • There's now a 10 minute delay between battles after Grand Marshal Tremblade or High Warlord Volrath has been defeated (down from 30 minutes).
  • Grand Marshal Tremblade and High Warlord Volrath no longer award Conquest Points when defeated.
  • Ashran's queuing system received substantial changes to reduce wait times.
  • Event objectives now award 100 Conquest Points (down from 125).
  • Rare creatures and NPCs now drop 40-50 Artifact Fragments (down from 60-80).
  • Guards in Ring of Conquest now drop 6-8 Artifact Fragments (down from 8-11).
  • Ashmaul Pearls and Ghost Truffles have been removed. Players can now buy potions from Crafticus Mindbender (Alliance) and Dazzerian (Horde) for 10 Artifact Fragments each.
  • Kowalski's Music Box now has a 15-minute cooldown (down from 1 hour).
  • Scroll of Mass Invisibility, Scroll of Replenishment, and Scroll of Town Portal has been removed.
  • Wand of Death, Wand of Mana Stealing, and Wand of Neutralization has been removed.

Battlegrounds and Arenas

• A new queuing system is in place to help improve matchmaking for Oceanic arena teams hosted on Australian game servers. This new system will attempt to match an Oceanic arena team against another Oceanic team before looking for opponents from the broader North American player pool. There's an expectation that queue times may be a slightly longer as a result but the increase should not be significant.
• Bonus Honor received from winning a Battleground should now correctly convert into XP for characters that are below level 100.
• Eye of the Storm: Icon for the flag should no longer be incorrectly displaying in the center of the map even though it's been picked up by another player.

Professions

• Harvesting from Draenor Mining and Herbalism nodes should now provide more experience points. Previously, only True Iron nodes were providing the correct amount of XP.
• New recipes have been added to create items that boost the item levels of crafted armor pieces to 680 and weapons to 670.
• Alchemy
  • Alchemists can now transmute for Savage Blood and various Sorcerous elements.
  • Alchemists can now craft an upgradable alchemy trinket.
• Archeology
  • Increased the maximum amount of Arakkoa, Draenor Clans, and Ogre archeology fragments that can be held at a time to 250 (up from 200).
  • All rare Draenor archeology projects no longer cost more than 200 fragments to solve.
  • Brittle Cartography Journal can now be dug up by characters with an Archeology skill of 1 (down from 575).
• Blacksmithing
  • Crafted shields no longer counts towards the limit on Unique-Equipped: Warlords Crafted items.
• Cooking
  • New cooking recipes have been added for food that gives 125 bonus to a stat.
• Fishing
  • Fishing vendors on Draenor now sell a consumable item that enables automatic filleting of fish caught in Draenor.
  • Small and normal sized fish caught in Draenor can now be filleted in a stack of 5 (down from 20 for small and 10 for normal). Filleting larger fish will still award more resources.
  • Different sizes of Savage Piranha have been consolidated into Savage Piranha and can be consumed directly for the transformation effect.
  • Players can now always catch enormous fish from pools, regardless of skill.
  • Fish that have already been caught can be converted to the appropriate amount of flesh.
  • Draenor fishing bait now lasts for 10 minutes (up from 5 minutes) to match the duration of fishing lures.
• Inscription
  • The following glyphs now have recipes and are no longer sold by vendors.
    • Glyph of Cleanse
    • Glyph of Flying Fists
    • Glyph of Purification
    • Glyph of Purify Spirit
    • Glyph of the Solstice

Items

• Apexis Crystals
  • Characters can now accrue up to a maximum of 60,000 Apexis Crystals (up from 20,000).
  • Dawn-Seeker Rilak (Alliance) and Dawn-Seeker Kirrik (Horde) have set up shop in Stormshield and Warspear offering powerful new items (item level 670) in exchange for Apexis Crystals.
  • Apexis Crystal vendors have been reorganized with their titles now denoting what it is that they're selling.
• Toy Box
  • Blazing Wings effect now lasts for 15 minutes (down from 1 hour) with a 30-minute cooldown (down from 1 hour).
  • Mini Mana Bomb has been added to the Toy Box for Horde characters that have completed the achievement, Theramore’s Fall.
  • Piccolo of the Flaming Fire has been rebuilt into a Toy Box item. Players can channel for 30 seconds to cause those around them to dance with a 5-minute cooldown. Additionally, the effect will no longer interrupts eating or drinking.
  • Ruthers’ Harness has been added to the Toy Box.
• After completing storyline achievements for a Draenor region, characters now receive a reminder to visit the vendor that they're now eligible to purchase treasure maps for a given zone.
• Griftah now sells a variety of transmogrification items for Dingy Iron Coins. In addition, he now sells a Rogue-specific toy, Barrel of Bandanas. Barrel of Bandanas spawns a barrel that gives players that use it a random visual bandana buff for 30 minutes.
• Season 1 PvP boots and belts sold by Kezzik at Area 52 in Netherstorm are now more comparably priced to their other Season 1 counterparts (1750 Honor).
• Replica belts for Blood Guard and Knight-Lieutenant have been added to complete visual sets that were previously incomplete for transmogrification. These new items are sold by the vendors who sell the rest of the set, Tini Smalls and Krixel Pinchwhistle at Area 52 in Netherstorm.
• All Brawler’s Guild shirts are now unique. Replacement Brawler’s Guild shirts can be purchased from Quackenbush or Paul North if the character has defeated a boss that awarded it.
• Several trinkets obtained from Draenor rares are now able to be disenchanted (previously, the items could not be disenchanted).
• A number of Main Hand weapons have been converted to One-Hand so they'll work better with transmogrification.
  • Arcanic of the High Sage
  • Butcher's Terrible Tenderizer
  • Dagger of Blazing Radiance
  • Dagger of the Sanguine Emeralds
  • Dagger of the Shattered Crucible
  • Fang of the Earth
  • Franzok's Headsmasher
  • Hoof of Yalnu
  • Koloch Na, the Blood Feast
  • Mindbreaker Scepter
  • Shard of Crystalline Fury
  • Soulcutter Mageblade
• Apexis Crystals are now uncommon quality (green). There's been no change to the item's drop rate or availability.
• Grimoire of the Four Winds should now correctly able to be used by characters that are at least level 85.
• Honorary Brewmaster Keg is now unique. A replacement Honorary Brewmaster Keg can now be purchased from The Metal Paw in Binan Village for those who have completed the Pub Crawl achievement.
• Moroes' Famous Polish now has a 30-minute cooldown (up from 10 minutes) to keep it consistent with other cosmetic transformation cooldowns.
• Nat's Fishing Chair is now unique. A replacement chair can be purchased from Nat Pagle if the character has completed the achievement Learning from the Best.
• Neural Silencer now also blocks Swapblaster effects.
• Primal Combatant and Primal Gladiator trinkets have had their power increased.
• Reins of the Amber Scorpion is once again back in stock for purchase from Ambersmith Zikk.
• Restored Artifact is now considered a trade good and can be placed in the Reagent Bank.
• Sargerei Disguise now has a 60-minute cooldown (up from 30 minutes).
• Scavenger's Eyepiece's effect now persists through death.
• Theramore Tabard can now be re-obtained by Alliance characters that have completed the achievement, Theramore’s Fall at a tabard vendor.

UI

• New Colorblind Options
  • Players can now access a new suite of colorblind filter options under Accessibility settings in the Interface menu.
• New Death Recap Screen
  • When a character is killed, a new screen now shows more information on what killed you.
• Premade Group leaders can now automatically accept applicants via a new "Auto Accept" checkbox after the group has been listed.
• Improved the ordering for categories in the currency tab.
• Players now receive a banner notification after defeating a dungeon, raid, or world boss in Warlords of Draenor or Mists of Pandria.
• Loot eligibility lockouts for Draenor world bosses (Drov the Ruiner, Tarlna the Ageless, and Rukhmar) are now tracked in Raid Info under the Raid tab.
• Popup notifications such as those for completing an achievement or receiving a reward after a Battleground match can now be dismissed by right-clicking on it.
• Added an "Ignore this bag" option to Profession bags for bag clean up.
• All multi-page windows now support mousewheel scrolling.

Bug Fixes

• Garden Sickle now correctly sheathes on the hip.
• Fixed an issue where Rogues would automatically fail the Gladiator's Sanctum coliseum scenario when they use the Death from Above talent.
• Fixed an issue where characters that underwent a paid faction change may be unable to complete the achievement for Upgrading the Mill.

Since we first stepped foot on the Draenor of the past, we’ve been inexorably drawn toward one intriguing tale among a multitude of storylines taking place there. In patch 6.1, the quest line that began with ‘Call of the Archmage’ will continue, and the stakes have never been higher. What follows is just a glimpse of some of the additional new items and updates within the patch.

Spoilers follow from here! Do not read this post any further if you do not want story details spoiled.

Garona Halforcen

Some may know Garona from her exploits in Azeroth. This powerful rogue assassin was responsible for the death of King Llane Wrynn. Along with her son Med’an, she aided the New Council of Tirisfal in their brutal struggle against the Twilight’s Hammer and the evil ogre magi Cho’gall.

The escapades of Garona of Draenor have proven no less signficant. Not long after you first arrived in this savage land, Garona attempted to assassinate Khadgar, but you captured her.

Since then, Khadgar has tried to break the mind control that Garona clearly suffers from. His efforts, and yours, have been in vain … until now. In patch 6.1, you’ll receive a new quest to infiltrate a Shadow Council stronghold and steal an artifact. Khadgar hopes to be able to free Garona’s mind.

Your First Legendary Follower

In the savage world of Draenor, you may not have any true friends, but you can forge partnerships with a meaningful purpose. Thanks to Garona, you’ll learn what Gul’dan is up to, and you’ll get the opportunity to witness firsthand as he attempts to take control of the Iron Horde and capture Grommash Hellscream.

Gul’dan is making enemies on all sides.

Thereafter, you’ll obtain your first Legendary follower. Garona comes to you with three abilities befitting an Assassination Rogue, as well as the Master Assassin trait, which greatly increases the chance of success on any mission she is assigned to. Furthermore, she starts at a follower item level of 630.

More to Do

In patch 6.1, you’ll now see new visitors to your Garrison: quest-givers offering you a variety of activities if you’ve reached Garrison Tier 3. These include:

• Bounty Quests – Group up with two or more additional players to hunt down and defeat a powerful enemy and you’ll earn gold and a chance to get an heirloom quest item off of the creature you kill for the quest.
• Profession daily – Get your hands on more Primal Spirits, reduce your surplus reagents, and buy the new recipes for crafted upgrades and transmutes.
• Relic Quests– Completing these quests will reward gold and ultimately Harrison Jones as a new Follower.
• Daily dungeon quests- Daily dungeon quests will reward Garrison Resources.
• Weekly Raid quests – These quests will reward gold and an ilevel 645 or 655 token.

Invasions will also be going Platinum- You’ll now be able to earn new rank when running a Garrison Invasion taking your performance in defending it from Gold to Platinum. The last boss within a Garrison Invasion will also have a chance to drop a summonable Raid boss item. You’ll want to get 10-40 players together in your Garrison before you activate it.

Other New Visitors

There’s a new vendor coming to your Garrison who allows you to spend Garrison Resources on Follower Trait Retraining Guides or Follower Ability Retraining Manuals.

Followers can now obtain the Treasure Hunter trait, which increases the amount of gold awarded from a mission that rewards gold. There are a number of new Follower missions available to you in patch 6.1, including missions that reward Apexis Crystals, Savage Blood, Augmentation runes, Archaeology Artifacts, and items that instantly complete work orders.

A new visitor to your garrison’s pet menagerie who comes bearing rewards for pet battlers and the promise of a new pets. This coincides with the discovery of a number of new pets in the raid dungeons of Outland. Pet collectors will want to delve into Black Temple, Hyjal Summit, and Sunwell Plateau in search of a dozen fierce companions and the achievement reward pet K’ute.

Jukebox and Music Rolls

Customize the music that plays in your Garrison by picking up a new quest in your Garrison to build your very own jukebox. You’ll be able to collect Music Rolls and apply them to your Jukebox so you can set the mood as you go about maintaining your base in Draenor.

Patch 6.1 arrives on February 24. Check out the PTR patch notes to prepare for all of the changes coming to WoW, and get a better look at some of our other new features here.

New Warcraft Fan Art
The World of Warcraft Fan Art Section has been updated with two new pieces of fan artwork.

New World of Warcraft Comic
Last but not least, we've added a new community comic to our gallery submitted by redik.

Send us your comics by the end of each month to be considered. Don’t tarry; eternal fame for your art are only a few panels away!

In Warlords of Draenor, players can use Apexis Crystals to buy new gear, collectable items, and even Followers. With enough Crystals, even those who are having no luck with the RNG goblins can get new and powerful gear to help them take their adventures even further. Currently, the Apexis traders in the Horde town of Warspear and Alliance town of Stormshield offer gear up to item level 655, but in Patch 6.1, you’ll be able to trade up to ilvl 670 Ethereal Waist, Head, Wrist, Legs, Hands, Back, and Finger (ring) items.

There are already lots of ways to get Apexis Crystals, and with the patch we’re introducing even more in the form of new Missions and purchasable Scouting Missives, which will be available for 200 Garrison Resources each. These Missives can be purchased in your Garrison and will unlock an additional Apexis Crystal daily quest.

A change to questing is also coming with the patch that makes it so players will no longer be able to work on quests and complete them while in a Raid group (though Apexis Crystals will still drop from enemies). You’ll still be able to use the Group Finder tool to locate five-player groups you can join to complete your Apexis dailies.

You can read the complete Patch 6.1 notes here.

For more information on gathering and spending Apexis Crystals, check out Wowhead’s handy guide.