Patch 1.16.4

* Patch Notes

**Patch 1.16.4** was released on December 20, 2022.

## Patch notes

### Unexpected Visitors in Durotar

* Anchor's Edge: Kul Tirans of the expeditionary fleet led by Lieutenant Alverold have finally returned, the promised reinforcements of Tiragarde. Settling on a new island that has been called Anchor's Edge, just south of the Echo Isles. Already, scouts and commandos have pushed into the southern Echo Isles and may become a threat to the Horde if not dealt with in time!
* A Kul Tiran Embassy now rests in the Stormwind Harbor, the Kingdom of Kul Tiras and Stormwind have opened diplomatic ties once again, but the stubborn nature of Kul Tirans and their hatred of the Horde may prove to be trouble for Stormwind with more torches on the pyre of War.

### An Effort to Cleanse Felwood

* Bloodvenom Post has been redesigned to fit a troll expedition.
* Talonbranch Glade: The Ancient Treant Ethwyr sacrificed himself to cleanse this part of Felwood. Now, druids loyal to Fandral study the area, trying to replicate his feat. But not all is what it seems.
* Shrine of the Betrayer: An ancient statue devoted to Illidan, built by the exiled highborne a millennia ago. It is currently occupied by blood elves and a wayward demon hunter.

### Shift in The Tides of Stonetalon

* Powder Town: Once aligned with the Venture Company, Nazz Firecracker sees an opportunity with the Durotar Labor Union (Mostly from being underpaid) and aligns his town with the Horde for new ventures. Find out if Powder Town's loyalties are true, and discover why this settlement is called 'Powder Town' in the first place.
* Bramblethorn Pass: Located in eastern Stonetalon Mountains, in the hills above Windshear Lumbermill to the southeast, the Bramblethorn Quillboar have discovered a great evil, now retreating to the southern passageway to avoid the ghosts of their once kin on the upper cliffs.
* Bael Hardul: Once established during the Third War during the battles of Stonetalon Peak, this dwarvish settlement has been reoccupied by the Explorers' League, looking to use it as a base of operations to see if dwarven ancestry can be linked to Kalimdor, and to discover more secrets of Azeroth, and the mysteries of the Stonetalon Mountains themselves.
* The Venture Co. has entrenched itself deeper in Stonetalon Mountains and established the Blacksand Oil Fields, extracting any liquid gold they can with total disregard to the environment, this cannot be allowed to continue!

### Trouble in the Badlands

* New Dark Iron dig site looming above Angor Fortress with Dark Irons searching for artifacts.
* Crystalline Oasis: The only water to be found in the Badlands, it is here that a magical crystal can be found, and with it, the Blue Dragonflight surveying its properties.
* Redbrand's Digsite: The Redbrand Estate (A newly introduced noble household in Ironforge) established this dig site in the southern Badlands to look into the ancient heritage of dwarves (And to earn some money), it has been overrun by Troggs, with much of the family killed.
* Scalebane Ridge: Dark Iron whelp hunters and dragon skinners, these greedy dwarves have located here to boldly seek profit for Shadowforge.
* Ruins of Corthan: The ancient capital of an old civilization named after its once warrior king. This place is inhabited by Earthen, who have recently begun to uncover these ruins and catalog them for an unknown purpose.

### Devouts of Ashenvale

* Forest Song: This elven shrine has been reinforced by Fandral's forces. Sentinels and druids try to stop the Warsong Clan advance deeper into Ashenvale. However, internal quarrels may prove even more difficult to resolve.

### Expansion in Feralas

* Thalanaar: Once a small elven outpost on the border of Thousand Needles has increased in size significantly. A group of Sentinels at odds with Shandris Feathermoon now occupy this base, expanding their influence in both Feralas and Thousand Needles.

### Exiles in Dustwallow Marsh

* Deserter's Hideout: Theramore exiles/deserters/refugees who are loyal to the Kul Tiran cause.
* Blackhorn Village: Grimtotem Tauren causing trouble in the region.
* Westhaven Hollow: Once a Kul Tiran settlement south of Theramore, this place was destroyed by the horde in the Third War, and is now occupied by an orcish necromancer with foul intent.
* Hermit of the Eastern Coast: South of Theramore along the ocean lays a lonely house situated in the mountains.
* With the Dustwallow Marsh update, comes the continuation and the finale of the Shady Rest Inn storyline. You might end up with more questions unanswered…

### Bananas of the Tel'abim Isle

Found off the eastern coast of Tanaris, Tel'abim stands as the center for banana export, overseen by the neutral Tel Company, Tel Co. for short. Recently the apes of the island have started a rebellion against the company, driving them off of collection sites and demolishing equipment, it's up to you to restore order to the island and help Tel Co. resume collection, or else Azeroth might never see another banana again.

Tel'abim is a Level 54-60 leveling zone, with the primary neutral quest hub being Tel Co. Basecamp, found on the southern shore of the island. You can fly directly to the island using a Flight Master, as the flight point will be unlocked when you unlock the Gadgetzan flight point too.

* Tazzo the Outsider has set up shop east of the basecamp, looking for adventurers to aid with his ventures on making a... gargantuan banana?
* Help Tel Co. resume production by scavenging and acquiring missing machine parts, clearing gorillas and chimpanzees, and finally finding out who's the big monkey behind the rebellion.
* Bixxle's Storehouse at the northern side of the island needs aid in clearing non-ape wildlife and nagas in the Jagged Isles up north, along with other tasks.

This list is not extensive, there are other questlines and secrets you will have to discover yourself, good luck! And one last thing, the ground is full of bananas, feel free to grab one for a snack.

### Pre-1.12 Alterac Valley

With the release of Patch 1.16.4 Alterac Valley will be restored to its original state from early Vanilla, with a few custom additions on top.

Here's the changelog:

* The original terrain has been restored and the Wildpaw and Winterax areas on the left and right of the Field of Strife are no longer walled off.
* Several graveyards have been moved to their original positions.
* All creatures have been respawned to match their exact positions before the battleground was changed. Wrong spawns like the soldiers fighting in the middle have been removed, while other missing spawns have been restored.
* All explosive mines have been respawned on the original spots.
* Added many missing mining nodes that were there originally, including in the Winterax cave.
* Restored Master Ryson's quest to find the All Seeing Eye, which enables players of the faction who capture it to get a buff that increases their stealth detection and shows nearby humanoids on the minimap.
* Restored Ryson's Beacon. Players can plant a beacon in the enemy base, which if not destroyed within 60 seconds, will allow everyone from their team to spy on the enemy through the Globe of Scrying.
* The quest that requires you to win Alterac Valley has been replaced with the original quest to kill Korrak the Bloodrager.
* Korrak is now spawned at the Snowfall Graveyard at the start of the battleground, and drops a decent amount of gold and items for the side that manages to tag and kill him first.
* Players who participate in slaying Korrak will be marked with a debuff, which unlocks some special interactions inside AV (custom feature).
* One of the tents in the Winterax area contains a crate with a disguise you can put on to enter the Winterax cave peacefully and do a secret quest inside (custom feature).
* If one side is outnumbered at the start of the battleground, they will get a short buff to help them get into a better starting position (custom feature).
* The amount of resources required to launch a ground assault has been significantly reduced.
* Fixed a bug that prevented alliance from launching ground assaults.
* The bosses in the Irondeep and Coldooth mines can no longer be killed by other NPCs.
* Most vendors and quest giver are no longer aggressive.

### Community Art Museum

Your creative efforts haven't gone unnoticed by the goblins of Gadgetzan, and they have gone through the effort of building a proper art museum in Steamwheedle Port! Being rich in gold brings taste in art they say, most of the time anyway.

You can now find a dedicated art museum of your favorite Art Contest winners in Tanaris, located in Steamwheedle Port to the east of Gadgetzan.

### Snowing in the Winter Veil Vale

It's that time of the year again, the Winter Veil Vale returns! The Winter Veil Vale has been moved into its own instanced zone, filled with new quests!

* GIFTS ARE MISSING! Venture into the woods and figure out what happened!
* Icepaw Village needs assistance with festive preparations, bring ample food and wrapping paper, and you might be rewarded!
* Talk to the revelers from all over Azeroth on why they celebrate the holiday in the first place and hear their side of the story!
* Assists the denizens on other various tasks for rewards such as Winter Veil Brew and a pair of warm winter socks of your own!
* Even if the vale moved to a new location this doesn't mean the old quests are gone, hunt down Snowball for a 20-slot bag, world epics, recipes, and even a mount! Hunt down specific players for a snowball pelting for your own Winter Veil tree, now with new targets!

### ...and more:

* Vanilla dungeons now have maps when instanced! Maps for custom dungeons will arrive at a later patch.
* A baby Murloc on the shores of The Hinterlands? Maybe you can figure out what it wants.
* A lady in Hawk’s Vigil needs your assistance on something that looks like a normal cheating affair, though things might take a sinister turn.
* The Desolace centaur rivalries escalate, and the tribes are looking for even more aid from those that can prove their loyalty. A true test of skill or power, and you might end up as an honorary member of the clans and gain access to exclusive recipes depending on the clan you sided with.
* WoW.exe: increased sound channel count has been reverted to its default value due to causing crashes.
* WoW.exe: 4GB memory awareness patch had been reverted to its previous value due to causing crashes in some edge cases.
* Improved Field of View + Sound in background modification will be still optional and available in the additional binary file.