Patch 5.3.0 (undocumented changes)

This article lists all undocumented changes for Patch 5.3.0. All documented changes should be listed on the main article.

General

 * Undid a change from patch 5.0.4 that prevented players switching between certain talent specs from resetting their resources to 0 (mana, energy, etc.).

Death Knight

 * The restriction limiting players to one death knight character per realm has been lifted.

Hunter

 * Trap triggering has a new animation.

Mage

 * General
 * Slow Fall (ability) can no longer be cast while Blazing Speed is active; an "Invalid target" error is generated.
 * Frost
 * Fingers of Frost's tooltip no longer mentions Scorch, which was made Fire-only in Patch 5.2.0.

Shaman

 * Talent
 * Healing Tide Totem has a new graphical effect to differentiate it from Mana Tide Totem.

Warlock

 * The water-walking effect of Glyph of Nightmares is now disabled upon taking damage.
 * The Soulburn water-walking effect of Unending Breath is now disabled upon taking damage.

Warrior

 * Unbridled Wrath replaces the portion of Second Wind that generated rage when the Warrior is struck by a Stun or Immobilize effect.

Creatures

 * Rare NPCs on the Isle of Thunder no longer drop Tome of Valor, instead now awarding Valor Points directly to the player upon kill.
 * Andrestrasz, a level 5 red dragon has been added in a cave in Ahn'Qiraj: The Fallen Kingdom.
 * Elariel has been added on the eastern coast of Teldrassil.
 * Elizabeth Birdsong has been added walking the streets of Stormwind.
 * The water-walking effect of Reins of the Azure Water Strider is now disabled upon taking damage.

Quests

 * Daily quests now reset at 3am PDT on US realms, instead of 3am PST / 4am PDT.
 * Nana Mudclaw now sends eligible players a letter to inform them that the quest Inherit the Earth is available.
 * The Infection buff from the daily at Dread Wastes no longer persists through zones.
 * Freeing a Captive Pandaren Spirit for the quest Free Spirits now dismounts you.
 * A Change of Command
 * High Marshal Twinbraid's health has been reduced to 13.1 million, down from 130.8 million.
 * Warlord Bloodhilt's health been reduced to 11.7 million, down from 119.9 million.
 * Collecting Muddy Crawfish for the quest Crawfish Creole now dismounts you.
 * Kadrak now has a new dialogue option for To the Rescue! (quest), working around the phasing bugs with Brutusk. It puts the player on a wind rider to Splintertree Post, giving credit for the quest upon landing.

Dungeons

 * Lost City of the Tol'vir is now accessible at level 83, but cannot queue until level 84.

Raids

 * Karazhan
 * Netherspite now drops 1-3 Netherwing Egg.

Scenarios

 * Mobs in scenarios no longer drop any loot, and resources cannot be obtained from their corpses.

Farming

 * You are now auto-dismounted when tending to your farm, instead of being told "You are mounted".
 * Sound effect when using the Master Plow has more oomph.

Achievements

 * Specific new achievements:
 * Deadly Pet Brawler (Win 1000 PvP pet battles through Find Battle with a full team of level 25 pets.)
 * The achievement Waste Not, Want Not no longer requires the Cooldown Power-Up that was removed in patch 5.2.0.
 * Split Personality: Achievement description reworded. Original description: Defeat Grand Magus Telestra in The Nexus on Heroic Difficulty after having killed her images within 5 seconds of each other during both splits.

Professions

 * Mantid Archaeology projects can now be solved while in motion (may be a bug as other projects are unchanged).

Items

 * Blood-Soaked Invitation now has a chance to drop from any Pandarian champions or Zandalari Warbringers.
 * Jeeves received a new icon.
 * The proc from Capacitive Primal Diamond now has a duration of 1 minute.
 * Several items from Lei Shen had their spelling fixed:
 * Lei Shen's Grounded Carapace
 * Lei Shen's Orb of Command
 * Soul Prism of Lei Shen
 * Unerring Vision of Lei Shen
 * Doomed Crown of Lei Shen
 * Several items from Karazhan, Serpentshrine Cavern, and Tempest Keep have had their sell prices increased.
 * Tabard of the Scarlet Crusade is available once again.
 * Complimentary Brewfest Sampler was renamed to Alcohol-Free Brewfest Sampler.

Pet Battles

 * Celestial Dragon now learns Flamethrower at level 1 as opposed to Breath (pet battle ability).
 * "Starcraft 2" has been changed to "StarCraft II" in Mini Thor's source information.
 * Fury of 1,000 Fists has been renamed from Fury of 1000 Fists.
 * Pet battles appear to no longer give player experience in the wild. (Confirmed to be an unintended bug)

World environment

 * Overseer Elaglo now roams the path between the Brawl'gar Arena and Ragefire Chasm in Orgrimmar.
 * The Kor'kron have put the Valley of Spirits in Orgrimmar under lockdown. All vendor, auction house, bank, stables, portal, and training services have been suspended. NPCs to accomplish these tasks can still be located elsewhere in Orgrimmar.
 * With the Darkspear Headhunters relieved of their duties, the Valley of Spirits is now much easier for Alliance players to infiltrate. Kor'kron Overseers react as friendly to Alliance players, though patrolling Orgrimmar Wind Riders, Scouts, and Orgrimmar Grunts that spawn in reaction to proximity to civilian NPCs are still a threat.
 * Alliance players who visit Razor Hill will find the standard complement of Razor Hill Grunts have been replaced by Darkspear Headhunters. Unlike the old Grunts, both the static Headhunters and the spawning Headhunters are maximum level.
 * Horde players at Razor Hill will find the Razor Hill Grunts replaced by Kor'kron Overseers, supervised by High Overseer Bloodmane, who also directs incoming caravans from the Barrens.
 * Yeniss at Sen'jin Village can be observed preparing Sen'jin Guardians for the impending battle with the Kor'kron.
 * Players level 85 to 90 now receive a "Contested Territory" buff while in the Northern Barrens. This marks the zone for those players as Contested, where it would normally be "Horde" on PvP realms. It is considered Contested on PvE realms as well, but this has no effect, as it does not flag them for PvP.
 * A Halfhill Kid has been added atop the highest peak of Halfhill Market, which will scream like a human male when interacted with.
 * Darkmoon Island is now a Cross-realm zone.

User Interface

 * Players must now select at least one role in the PvP interface before being allowed to queue for battlegrounds.
 * tradeSkillLink encoding changed significantly. The first four fields were re-arranged, and specialization data was added for Cooking.
 * The HUD for the scenario Assault on Zan'vess no longer has PH placeholder graphics
 * New Loading Screen Tips have been added.
 * There is now an explanation provided for why a player cannot release their spirit while a party/raid member is still in combat in a dungeon or raid instance.
 * Battlegrounds are now divided in categories (Capture the Flag, Domination, Raid Battle, Siege, Power Orbs, Payload).
 * There is now a small picture about your faction when a Battleground is ready.
 * "Pulsing" text announcements in middle of the screen (such as Runty crop tip, Quick Shot and Teleport out announcement at Darkmoon Faire among many others) now have a dramatic chord accompanying them to attract more attention.
 * The faction description window now has a check-box for Bonus Reputation.
 * Several new arena team icons have been added.
 * Down-voting a battleground no longer prevents players from queuing for it through the Call to Arms or Specific Battlegrounds options.