alt="WoW Mists of Pandaria Logo" />

World of Warcraft Patch 5.4.2 is set to
hit live servers today, December 10 and we couldn't be more excited.
While this patch is on the small side, with no major new content
updates, it shouldn't be written off quickly. Unlike other small
patches, Patch 5.4.2 contains two big changes for players: a cross
realm raid finder and cross-realm mail for account bound items.
Combine this with some other small changes incoming and this patch
becomes kind of a big deal.

Want to know more about Patch 5.4.2
while you wait for it to go live? Read onward to see all the stuff
players should know about in this patch:

Cross-Realm Raid Finder

If you have ever lamented the time it
takes to find a raid group, Patch 5.4.2 could hold the answer to your
problems. In this patch players can queue up for raids cross-realm
for Mists of Pandaria Flex Raid and World Bosses. To queue up
cross-realm players need to do the following:

• Find “Other Raids” in the social
  raid tab.
• Fill out the fields and click “List
  My Name”.
• Check out the “Browse” tab to see a
  list of all players interested in that particular raid.

It is important to note that this is
not the Group Finder from Warlords of Draenor that we learned
about at BlizzCon. This is a precursor to that idea, but not at all
the same and will be totally reworked before we see it again in Patch
6.0. The raid finder we can expect to see in 6.0 will allow players
to group for almost everything (raids, 5-mans, etc) and be much
easier to find and use in game.

Cross-Realm Mail

In Patch 5.4.2 players will, for the
first time ever, be able to maul Heirlooms and any other account
bound items to any character on your account. Server difference no
longer matters, if the character is on your account, you can mail
account bound items to it. To send an account bound item to a
character on another realm, simply open up your mail box and address
the mail to “Playername-Servername”.

Not sure what counts as an account
bound item? Account bound items will always have a text indicating
their status in the item's tool tip. Some examples of account bound
items include:

• Heirlooms
• Reputation Insignias
• Burning Seed

Remember, only account bound items are
eligible to be sent across realms. Money and other non-account bound
items are still susceptible to the normal rules of mail.

alt="Ironfeather Heirloom" />

Blizzard In-Game Store

While the Blizzard Store was available
during the PTR, it is still not certain if we will actually see it in
game when this patch goes live. At last glance on the PTR, the store
had added new categories for Mounts and Pets and added a feature that
allowed players to view an item in Blizzard's model viewer. Store
details were not included in the latest patch notes, so it very well
may not make it to live servers today. With that being said, we
likely can expect it sometime in the near future.

Bipsi's Bobbing Berg

This item is Mage-only and available
from The Anglers faction. Bipsi's Bobbing Berg works just like
Anglers Fishing Raft, which means you can attack and fish while
mounted. It also temporarily increases speed if the player jumps
while mounted.

alt="Bipsi's Bobbing Burg" />

Patch Notes

As you can see, there is a lot to be excited about in Patch 5.4.2 and this
is only the big stuff. Check out all the details of this newest patch below:

World of Warcraft Patch 5.4.2 PTR

Classes

Mage
Talents

• Temporal Shield's healing should now be correctly modified
  by effects that affect healing (Battle Fatigue, Mortal Strike,
  Dampening).

Warrior
General

• Intervene no longer removes movement-impairing effects on
  use. The talent Safeguard will continue to remove movement-impairing
  effects.
• Improved checks on pathing for Intervene and Safeguard to
  address situations where Warriors may wind up under the terrain.

Quests

• Catch and Carry: Druids can no longer attempt to catch Sacks of
  Grain while in flight form.
• Lost Treasure: Resolved an issue where players may be unable to
  open Cache of the Legion.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Cross-Realm raid browser now has new categories for Mists of
  Pandaria World Bosses (Celestials and Ordos) and Flexible raid
  difficulty for Siege of Orgrimmar.
• The cross-realm raid browser is accessed through the 'Social
  Pane' (bound to the O key by default) and look for the 'Raid' tab on the
  bottom right.
• From there you can set the character as looking to join a raid
  or browse players that are forming up for a raid.
• For more information on this change, please see the thread
  titled Cross-Realm Raid Browser on the PTR Discussion forum.
• Players are now able to place raid markers in the world even while
  dead.

Siege of
Orgrimmar
Norushen

• Resolved a situation where Quarantine Measures may
  sometimes fail to destroy all life within the Quarantine Zone.

Galakras

• Resolved a situation that may cause demolition NPCs to
  stop opening the door to one of the towers.

Paragons of the Klaxxi

• Resolved an issue where players may fail to gain Hisek the
  Swarmkeeper's special ability if they were in the middle of casting a
  spell while interacting with his corpse.

Items

• Players are now able to mail account-bound items to other
  characters that reside on a different realm on the same account. To send
  cross-realm mail: enter the character's name, followed by a hyphen "-",
  followed by the realm name. Note that cross-realm mail can only send
  account-bound items, not other items or gold.
• Additional information and testing discussion for this
  cross-realm mail can be found in this thread on the PTR Discussion
  forum.
• Crashin' Thrashin' Flyers should now be able to damage each other
  while in a sanctuary area.
• MiniZeps should now be able to damage each other while in a
  sanctuary area.

UI

• The Customer Support button has moved. Customer support can now be
  reached in-game by selecting Help option through the Game Menu (Game
  Menu is bound to the Escape key by default).

Bug Fixes

• Resolved an issue that caused players to not receive credit
  towards the Drop It! and Drop It Now! achievements.