Patch due soon, a pity is a poor one for Black Orcs.

1.2 will be going live tomorrow morning, 3/3/09. All North American servers will be brought down at 7:00 AM EST with Oceanic servers to follow at 9:00 AM EST. We expect all servers to be back up and running by 1:00 PM EST.

As always be sure you check the Herald for the latest information and updates during downtimes. We will update this message in the morning with a link to the final 1.2 Patch Notes.

At the moment the Black orc notes read:

Bug Fixes:
* 'Ave Another One: Fixed a bug that allowed this ability to gain benefits from stats.
* Can't Hit Me!: This ability will now behave correctly when interrupted.
* Challenge: This ability no longer requires an enemy target.
* Da Biggest: This ability will now continue after zoning.
* Da Greenest: This ability will now continue after zoning.
* Da Greenest: This ability's armor-buffing effect will now scale with level.
* Da Toughest: This ability will now continue after zoning.
* Da Toughest: Tooltip will now upgrade correctly.
* Loudmouth: Fixed a bug that allowed this ability to do critical damage.
* Loudmouth: Fixed a bug that allowed this ability to gain benefits from stats.
* Not in Da face: Damage increased to proper amount.
* Puddle O' Muck: This ability will now correctlyactually snare targets.
* Rock 'Ard: This ability no longer claims to lead to Gud Plan, or highlights while you have a Gud Plan.
* Stop Hittin' da Runts: The tactic will now restore the proper amount of Action Points.
* T'ree Hit Combo: This ability will no longer interrupt itself while moving.
* T'ree Hit Combo: This ability will now behave correctly when interrupted.
* T'ree Hit Combo: This ability will now cause the caster to be considered in Da Best Plan for the duration of the effect.
* Waaagh!: This ability's debuff icon tooltip now states correct reduction type, and no longer requires a target.
* Where You Going?: This ability's description has been updated to correctly reflect that this is actually a PBAoE.
Balance Changes:
* Big Brawlin': This ability will now disorient targets by 25%.
* Can Youz Hear me Now?: The damage boost of this ability has been increased.
* Can't Hit Me!: This ability will now deal Corporeal Damage.
* Can't Touch Us: Will now absorb more damage.
* Da Bestest!: This ability has been renamed to "Guud at Big Choppin!" and will now increase damage and Parry rate while using a great weapon.
* Da Big Un': This ability will now deal more damage, and affect a larger area.
* Da Biggest!: This ability will now grant a stat buff to nearby group members.
* Da Toughest: This ability will now grant less Wounds and health to the Black Orc when it triggers.
* Dat Was Great!: This Tactic has been changed to match the changes to Wot armor?. The Tactic will now increase the duration of Wot armor?, and reduce the victim's Toughness.
* Down Ya Go: This ability will now deal more damage, knock the target down for 3 seconds, and cost no AP to activate.
* Keep it Goin!: The damage boost of this ability has been increased.
* Loudmouth: The damage of this ability has been increased and changed to Corporeal. However, this damage will not critically hit or receive benefit from stats.
* Not in da Face!: This ability will now deal more damage and also make you and your group briefly immune to disabling effects.
* Rock 'Ard: This ability will now absorb more damage.
* Savin' Me Hide: This ability will now deal more damage, and will also reduce the magical damage taken by you and your group.
* Shut Yer Face: This ability will now deal more damage and cost no AP to activate.
* Skull Thumper: The additional damage caused by this ability's debuff has been increased, is now mitigated as Corporeal damage, and no longer gains an increase from stats. Additionally, the damage from this effect will show up on its own line in the combat log.
* T'ree Hit Combo: This ability will now deal more damage but will receive less damage contribution from stats.
* Taunt/Challenge: Will no longer force player pets to attack you.
* WAAAAAAAGH!: This ability will now deal more damage.
* Wot armor?: This ability has had its stacking % armor debuff replaced with a fixed-value armor debuff. Additionally, it will now apply its maximum debuff value in a single hit.

So a few new ones in here:

T'ree Hit Combo: This ability will now cause the caster to be considered in Da Best Plan for the duration of the effect.

A fix to long standing issue. Good Job.


* Taunt/Challenge: Will no longer force player pets to attack you.

A bloody stupid nerf. So much for being a tank in PVP.

*Stab you gooder: Reduced the amount of bonus critical damage given by this tactic.

Idiotic nerf based on issues with the Choppa.

It seems that Big Slash is now 360 degree, if this is the case its a nice buff.

Overall its seems as if its a patch for 2-handers. Some great individual buffs and fixes to the class but they lack a coherency that might be expected. Black Orcs have been devalued as tanks and using a sword and shield has taken a nerf.

Feedback from Black Orcs seems to be have been ignored and EU PTS feedback seems to be beyond a joke.

Survivability for Black Orcs: I see a possible new trend.

I would test this approach to the new patch.

We replace our resists talismans with wounds and our resist accessories with toughness/wounds/ initiative gear. We get a mixture of strenght/toughness/intiative and Block from our renown tree.

Now, if we get our resists in such a set up to say 25 to 30% mitigation unbuffed which should be rather easy to do. We can use Da Greeniest to break the soft cap. We then add to this our new anti-magic damage skill. This should leave us with decent survivability against casters. Would it be as much as an equivalent to 50% mitigation?

Now have a look at the following:

Blessed Pullets of Purity: This ability will now deal Spirit Damage.
Blessed Bullets of Confession: This ability will now deal Spirit Damage.
Blessed Bullets of Cleansing: This ability will now deal Spirit Damage.

This is just one example of what used to be unmitigated damage is now mitigated via resistances now.

Having done this we have added survivability/damage from other sources which in conjunction with the toning down of armour penetration across the board makes us tougher against melee.

We could also get into the habit of switching bellows more often even a 50% reduced Da Toughest would be of some use.

(Anyone want to write a bellows twisting addon?)

While a rebalancing of gear, talismans, renown and class build may be need. I do see potential in these changes and a few opportunities for our class.

It’s a team game so if I keep my team alive longer I am happy to let them get the kills while I buff and debuff.

I really would like a sword and board knockdown to augment this.