WoW Patch 5.3 PTR Build 16758 Datamining and Update Highlights

As previously covered, WoW Patch 5.3 is coming to the PTR pretty soon. Although it isn’t a huge patch like World of Warcraft 5.2, it is coming with some huge changes to PvP which have also been covered elsewhere. We will be taking a look here at some of the information that has been datamined and some of the information that has been elaborated on.

Mounts and Pets

It seems like there is a ton of new battle pets coming in WoW patch 5.3. They seem to mostly be from BC dungeons/raids. The new pets are named Coilfang Stalkers, Direhorn Runt (renamed Pygmy Direhorn), Fiendish Imp, Filthling, Gahz’rooki, Lesser Voidcaller, Lil’ Bad Wolf, Living Fluid, Menagerie Custodian, Netherspace Abyssal, Phoenix Hawk Hatchling, Pocket Reaver, Tainted Waveling, Tideskipper, Tito, and Viscous Horror.

Look at this cute triceratops.

Don’t worry, Cera. There’s always patch 5.4.

At least two new mounts have been datamined: Faerie Dragon and Armored Dragonhawk. Both of these seem to have different colored versions. Armored Dragonhawk comes from the new achievement Mount Parade: Obtain 200 Mounts (10 Points.)

Probably Alliance and Horde versions.

Class Spell Changes

Death Knight‘s Icy Talons, Might of the Frozen Wastes, and Threat of Thassarian tooltips has now been updated in order to reflect a hotfix.

Druid‘s cat form movement speed bonus is now cumulative, taking into consideration most of the other movement speed increases.

Mage‘s Frostbolt has had its healing, damage, and SP scaling increased by 15%.
 The talent Ice Floes now has a 15 second duration.

Monk‘s Stance of the Fierce Tiger increases damage done by 30% (previously 10%.) The talent Rushing Jade Wind no longer lists AP scaling amount in its tooltip. The mana cost for the Glyph of Uplift makes Uplift cost 16% mana (originally 6%.)

Priest‘s Binding Heal was nerfed; it now only heals 2 targets (down from 3.)

Rogue‘s Assasin’s Resolve tooltip is updated to reflect a hotfix.

Shaman‘s Capacitor Totem, Earthbind Totem, Earthgrab Totem Grounding Totem, Healing Stream Totem, Magma Totem, Searing Totem, Spirit Link Totem, Stormlash Totem, and Windwalk Totem now have 10% of the caster’s health, up from 5%. Chain Lightning no longer bases its damage off of jumps.

Warlock‘s Grimoire of Sacrifice now has a separate tooltip for Affliction and Demonology. The bonus for Demonology increases the power of many of your single target spells by 25% (originally 30%.) Drain Soul’s targets must yield experience or honor. Hand of Gul’dan now does Shadowflame damage instead of just Shadow damage.

Soulburn: Soul Swap (New): Grants the Soulburn empowerment to your Soul Swap. Soul Swap will instantly apply your Agony, Corruption, and unstable Affiction to your current target without requiring them to be removed from a previous target.

Warrior‘s Raging Blow and Raging Blow Off-Hand both no longer require you to be enraged. Execute (Arms) and Impending Victory (Arms) both have their damage and AP scaling increase by 4%. Intimidating Shout’s cooldown has been increased to 1.5 minutes (originally 1 minute.) Staggering Shout’s effect may be interrupted by damage caused.

 (Possible) Third Talent Spec

That’s right! You might finally be able to learn a third spec in WoW 5.3. Ghostcrawler had previously hinted in his tweets that we might see more than two specs. As of now, he’s being vague about the “Learn a Third Talent Specialization” tidbit datamined in the PTR build.

Misc. Changes

There is quite a large number of changes to some dungeon and raid abilities in WoW 5.3. Some selected spells that have been changed (some nerfed, some buffed) include Air Vent, Beguile, Earthquake, Static Wound, Valiona’s Flame, and Ventral Sacs. There are new various Viletongue spells: Viletongue Balm, Rush, Strike, Torch, and Venom.

Blacksmithing and Engineering see their Lightning Steel Ingot and Stabilized Lightning Source’s tooltips reflecting their 1 day cooldown.

The highlights of the WoW 5.3 achievement changes include some new Battle Pet reward achievements, three new Feats of Strength, and the previously mentioned Mount Parade achievement.

Two of the new WoW 5.3 Feats of Strength are the same thing: Darkspear Rebellion: Aid Vol’jin’s troll uprising during Patch 5.3: Escalation. It’s assumed that these are Horde and Alliance versions. The other new one is Malevolent Gladiator’s Cloud Serpent: Obtain the Malevolent Gladiator’s Cloud Serpent from Arena Season 12 of the Mists of Pandaria.

The new WoW 5.3 Battle Pet achievements are entitled Merciless Pet Brawler (Win 10 PvP pet battles through Find Battle with a full team of level 25 pets,) Vengeful Pet Brawler (50 PvP battles, other requirements same,) Brutal Pet Brawler (250 PvP battles; reward: Stunted Direhorn,) and Deadly Pet Brawler (1000 PvP battles; reward: title: Trainer.)

Stay tuned for further WoW 5.3 updates!