Love Is in the Air

Love and adoration are in the air in the major cities of Azeroth… and in celebration of the occasion, you’re invited to share candy, perfume, and gifts with guards, townsfolk, and other players for special rewards.

However, a strange "love sickness" seems to cloud the hearts of many of Azeroth’s people. Is this widespread incident simply an outbreak of amore? Or will you and your fellow brave adventurers uncover a dark secret behind this plague of passion?

The Event

When: February 5-20
Where: Stormwind, Ironforge, Darnassus, Shattrath, Dalaran, Thunder Bluff, Orgrimmar, Undercity
Learn More: Wowhead, Wowpedia

Activities

Seasonal Boss: Use the Dungeon Finder to participate in a high-level encounter against Apothecary Hummel, granting a Heart-Shaped Box(which contains special holiday loot) as a daily reward.
Main Quest Line: The Steamwheedle Cartel suspects there's something shady about the goblin newcomers of the Crown Chemical Company. Investigators have been hired to get to the bottom of things -- with your help.
Daily Quests: Complete special daily quests to obtain experience, money, and Love Tokens to purchase holiday items. For detailed information about the quests, check out the Love Is in the Air guide on our partner site, Wowhead.


Item Rewards
Mounts
Big Love Rocket: The Heart-Shaped Box, a daily reward from the Dungeon Finder for defeating Apothecary Hummel, has a chance to drop a stylish flying mount: the Big Love Rocket!
Pets
Toxic Wasteling: This friendly disgusting (but friendly!) ooze will grow in size as it eats critters that cross your path.
Truesilver Shafted Arrow: Summon a lil’ winged goblin of love by spending Love tokens at your faction’s Lovely merchants, NPC vendors located in capital cities.
Amorous Accessories
Romantic Picnic Basket: Enjoy a lovely meal with your closest companions. This cute picnic basket that can be purchased with Love tokens at your faction’s Lovely merchants.
Forever-Lovely Rose: Wear this rose tied in your hair for female characters, or in your mouth for a male character. Available for Love tokens at your faction’s Lovely merchants.
The Heartbreaker: This strange experimental device has a chance to drop from the Heart-Shaped Box, a daily reward from the Dungeon Finder for defeating Apothecary Hummel.
Vile Fumigator's Mask: Open the Heart-Shaped Box from Apothecary Hummel and you might find this creepy mask that Royal Apothecary Society members wear.
Dinner Clothes: These classy suits and dresses can be bought from faction’s Lovely merchants for Love tokens.

Other Rewards:

Titles: If you complete all of the achievements for a particular seasonal event, your character will gain the special title The Love Fool.
Seasonal bonuses: You can receive different kinds of valuable buffs for your character in the form of candy found inside a Box of Chocolates. Of course, useful high-level loot will also drop when you vanquish Apothecary Hummel!
Achievements: There are 17 achievements linked to the Love is in the Air event; they can be completed for a total of 170 achievement points. Completing all of the achievements from each of the seasonal events listed in the What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been achievement will also unlock a special mount.

A 64-bit client is once again available for use with Patch 4.3.2. Before being able to launch WoW in 64-bit mode you will need to download the 64-bit client for PC/Mac (using one of the links below), and unzip it into your World of Warcraft directory. Once you extract the files you can start the 64-bit client by opening the Launcher as normal (Run as Administrator if applicable). To switch back to the 32-bit client, go into Options -> Game Preferences, and check the Launch 32-bit client setting. The game will display which version you are using at the bottom left hand corner of the login screen. ex: Version 4.3.2 (15211) (Release x64)

Build 4.3.2.15211 - PC link, Mac link

**Important things to keep in mind**

• The 64-bit client is being distributed separately from the Retail version as it is not yet supported for use with World of Warcraft.
• Launching the game in 64-bit mode can only be done after patching the game to version 4.3.2, downloading and extracting the necessary files.
• The game’s built in voice chat does not currently work when using the 64-bit client.
• [Mac] The 64-bit Mac client does not currently support the in-game movie recording functionality.
• [Mac] The 64-bit Mac client iTunes' Remote feature does not work at the present time.
• [Mac] The 64-bit Mac client does not currently support the customized LCD display for the Logitech G15 series of keyboards.
• [Mac] The 64-bit Mac client is currently not supported on 10.5 systems. You will need 10.6.8 or later for this version.

Additional System Requirements:
Windows XP Professional “x64 Edition” / 64-bit Windows Vista / 64-bit Windows 7 (latest service packs).Mac OS 10.6.8 or newer.Mac Computer with Core 2 Duo or better2 GB or more of RAM. [...]

Classes: General

• Vengeance is no longer triggered by receiving damage from other players.

Druids

• The Tier 13 Balance Druid 4-piece bonus now also increases the damage of Starsurge by 10%, in addition to its current effect.

Hunters

• Aspect of the Hawk now grants roughly 35% more attack power.
• Deterrence now also reduces damage taken by 30% while active.
• Black Arrow now ticks every 2 seconds for 20 seconds, as opposed to every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. The total damage dealt by the ability is unchanged.
• Lock and Load no longer benefits Arcane Shot, nor is it consumed by Arcane Shot.

Mages

• Fireball damage has been reduced by roughly 6%.
• Pyroblast initial damage has been reduced by roughly 6%. Damage over time is unchanged.

Paladins

• Holy Radiance now costs 40% of base mana, up from 35%.

Priests

• Mass Dispel should again prefer dispelling targets that have magic effects that can be dispelled.

Rogues

• Adrenaline Rush no longer triggers a global cooldown.

Dungeons & Raids

• You can now form same-faction raids with Real ID friends, allowing you to enter Raid Finder in groups larger than 5, run older normal or heroic raids, or participate in Battlegrounds. You will not yet be able to run normal or heroic Dragon Soul with cross-realm raids of Real ID friends.
• Several typo fixes and clarified descriptions have been added to the Dungeon Journal entries for Dragon Soul.
• Players can no longer win multiple copies of the same item on a single Raid Finder boss kill. For example, a player who chooses Need on two set piece tokens or two weapons and wins the first, will not be eligible for the second on that particular boss.
• Baradin Hold
  • The roaming Eyes of Occu'thar have been replaced by hateful creatures who serve Alizabal.
• Dragon Soul
  • Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
    • The Shaman spell Unleash Life now properly only triggers Deep Corruption on its target. Previously, this affected both the caster and the target.
  • Warmaster Blackhorn
    • The visual warning for Twilight Elites' Blade Rush should be easier to see.
  • Spine of Deathwing
    • Burning Tendons health has been reduced by 15% in 10- and 25-player Heroic mode. This change eases the burst damage requirement to complete the encounter, which should allow players to make use of more varied raid compositions.
  • Madness of Deathwing
    • The Priest spell Leap of Faith is no longer usable while under the effect of Carrying Winds.

Items

• Vial of Shadows damage (Lightning Strike) has been reduced to approximately one-third of previous damage. However, it will now trigger approximately 3 times as often. This is intended to keep overall DPS the same while reducing burst damage, especially in PvP.
• Maw of the Dragonlord can now have its effect triggered by healing from Holy Word: Sanctuary.

User Interface

• Fixed a bug that caused the Mature Language Filter to reset on exit.
• A notice is now displayed 15 minutes prior to the player being disconnected by parental controls.

Every year the druids of Moonglade hold a celebration of their city’s great triumph over an ancient evil. During the Lunar Festival, citizens of Azeroth have the opportunity to honor their elders by celebrating their sage wisdom, sharing in magnificent feasts, and of course…shooting fireworks!

The Lunar Festival returns to Azeroth in a cascade of pyrotechnics on Sunday, January 22! With the start of a new year, elders of generations past manifest around the world to impart their wisdom upon all who would listen. Should you encounter these venerable spirits in your travels and take the time to heed their wisdom, they may even pass along tokens of their gratitude -- Coins of Ancestry, the lessons of a past age in physical form. Gather enough of these Coins of Ancestry and the Cenarion Circle will open to you their stores of celebratory fireworks, trinkets, garbs, and recipes!

The Cenarion Circle have even more cause to celebrate this year than any previous, for this year also marks the first Lunar Festival since the return of many Ancients that had fallen in battles past: Goldrinn, Malorne, Aviana, and Cenarius himself. But this celebration is muted by the eternal torment of one of their own -- Omen, blessed by the moon goddess Elune, has risen again from the depths of Moonglade’s lake. Driven mad by the Burning Legion’s tainted magics during the War of the Ancients, Elune’s blessing of immortality means that he will forever be cursed to return in his maddened state at the advent of a new year. Heroes are called to help ease this tormented Ancient’s suffering, in the hopes that perhaps next year will see him return with a clearer mind.

Lunar Festivities end Sunday, February 12.

During the scheduled server maintenance on the week of January 31, the Dragon Soul raid will become enveloped by the “Power of the Aspects” spell, reducing the health and damage dealt of all enemies in the raid by 5%. This spell will grow progressively stronger over time to reduce the difficulty and make the encounters more accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic difficulties, but it will not affect the Looking for Raid difficulty.

The spell can also be disabled by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of Dragon Soul, if a raid wishes to attempt the encounters without the aid of the Dragon Aspects.

For those of you who raided in Firelands and/or Icecrown you’re no doubt aware that as time goes on we want to keep people progressing by adjusting the difficulty. For any number of reasons a group may be having difficulty on a specific encounter each week, and our intent in adjusting the content is to ensure the ability to keep progressing, enjoying the content, and gearing up. With Icecrown we progressively buffed the players, and while this slow progression (and ability to opt-out of the buff) were both beneficial, it led to an expectation of your characters power, and once you left the raid you could certainly feel less effective. For Firelands we attempted to fix that by nerfing the content instead of buffing players, but we nerfed the content difficulty all at one time, which was counterproductive for players who really didn’t need as severe a change as we made. With Dragon Soul we’re attempting to do the best of both by having a progressive nerf to the content, keeping player power constant while providing small increases in assistance over a long period of time, as well as allowing players to opt-out of the assistance by speaking to Lord Afrasastrasz.

We hope you continue to enjoy Dragon Soul, and that these changes encourage you to attempt a higher difficulty, or just keep pushing to down that next boss.

We previously introduced the ability to form cross-realm parties with Real ID friends, and now with Patch 4.3.2, we're adding the ability for players to use that same functionality to form raids to run older normal or heroic raids, or participate in Battlegrounds!

This will allow you to join up with your Real ID friends from other realms and:

• Form a cross-realm raid and use Raid Finder
• Jump in to any classic dungeon or raid and be automatically placed in the same instance
• Join forces and dominate the Battlegrounds

Please note, you will not yet be able to run normal or Heroic Dragon Soul with cross-realm Real ID raids.

As we look forward to the BattleTag system, it’s a very exciting time for World of Warcraft. No matter what realm you and your friends are on you’ll be able to team up and take on group content throughout the game.