Java Edition 15w49a

15w49a is the forty-fourth snapshot released for 1.9.

Blocks & items

 * Beacon
 * Now drops any contained item when exiting the GUI.
 * No longer accepts items from from hoppers.
 * NBT tag removed.
 * Cactus
 * Will break if lava is adjacent.
 * Cactus on sand will break if water or lava is in the block above.
 * Cobweb
 * Cobwebs now catch snowballs, eggs, thrown potions, XP bottles, and ender pearls, causing the item form of the projectile to be dropped.
 * Crops and nether wart
 * Hitbox now changes as the plant grows.
 * Doors
 * Are now placed facing left/right depending on which half of the block you click on, unless neighboring doors cause them to place a certain way.
 * Elytra
 * Increased damage when flying into a wall.
 * End crystals
 * Now require air or replaceable blocks in the two blocks above the block it's being placed on.
 * Can no longer be placed to intersect other entities.
 * Fire
 * Chance of going out in rain increased by 20 percentage points (now 20% + 3 percentage points per age).
 * Furnace
 * The  block is no longer available as an item.
 * Lily pad
 * Bounding box changed, now 15/256 high (from 1/16) and inset from three edges of the block by 1/16.
 * Melons
 * Melons and glistering melons are now oriented the same way.
 * Pistons
 * Unextended pistons, downwards-facing pistons, and upwards-facing piston extensions are now considered to have a solid top surface, like upside-down stairs and top-half slabs.
 * Among other things, this means mobs can now spawn on them.
 * Powered rails and activator rails
 * Powered rails and activator rails no longer transmit power to each other. Apparently that was a bug.
 * Tripwire and tripwire hooks
 * Removed the distinction between "suspended" and "non-suspended": formerly, tripwire would only work if the whole stretch and both hooks were all above solid blocks or all not above solid blocks.
 * Trapped Chest
 * Now appears in the Redstone tab of the Creative inventory instead of Decoration Blocks.

Mobs

 * All mobs
 * Improved path finding
 * Zombies, Zombie Pigmen, Slimes, Magma Cubes, Wither Skeletons, Spiders, Cave Spiders, Silverfish and Endermites now fight back when hit by other mobs.
 * Knockback no longer changes the Y-axis speed of flying and falling mobs.
 * Ender dragon
 * No longer teleports through Nether portals or End portals.
 * Can no longer ride anything.
 * Can no longer have status effects.
 * Enderman
 * Can no longer pick blocks from behind walls.
 * Horse
 * Now rotates with the player.
 * Shulker
 * No longer float above the ground.
 * Skeleton
 * No longer find shade to hide under if equipped with a helmet.
 * Snow golem
 * Using shears on a snow golem will remove the pumpkin head (and remove 1 durability from the shears). The pumpkin is not dropped.
 * Wither
 * No longer teleports through Nether portals or End portals.

Other

 * Arrow entity
 * Now take the thrower's motion into account. For example, an arrow fired forward by a player in a speeding minecart will fly faster relative to the ground, an arrow fired backwards will fly slower, and an arrow fired sideways will have motion in the direction of minecart travel.
 * Arrows that bounce off a target (e.g. a shield or a sitting dragon) and may be retrieved will become dropped items if near zero momentum after being bounced.
 * Combat
 * Sweep attacks now do damage to mobs affected by the knockback.
 * The Infinity enchantment no longer effects Spectral and Tipped arrows.
 * Commands
 * now auto-completes itself when pressing TAB.
 * now has a  parameter to specify which players will see the particle, as well as a   parameter to specify particle parameters (for iconcrack_, …).
 * End portal
 * In the 0.0000000001% chance that all 12 frame blocks generate with eyes already present, the portal will now be active.
 * Exhaustion
 * Sneaking now increases exhaustion by half as much as walking.
 * Frost Walker enchantment
 * Now functions whenever the player is standing on ground, regardless of whether the ground is a solid block or not.
 * Lightning
 * No longer destroys item frames, leash knots, paintings, and armor stands.
 * SmallFireball entity
 * No longer damages (or angers) fire-immune entities.
 * Sounds
 * Added several new sound events:
 * block.furnace.fire_crackle
 * block.waterlily.place
 * entity.cow.milk
 * entity.hanging.place
 * entity.hanging.pop
 * entity.itemframe.add_item
 * entity.itemframe.break
 * entity.itemframe.place
 * entity.itemframe.remove_item
 * entity.itemframe.rotate_item
 * entity.leashknot.place
 * entity.painting.break
 * entity.painting.place
 * entity.snowman.ambient
 * entity.snowman.death
 * entity.snowman.hurt
 * entity.squid.ambient
 * entity.squid.death
 * entity.squid.hurt
 * item.armor.equip_chain
 * item.armor.equip_diamond
 * item.armor.equip_generic
 * item.armor.equip_gold
 * item.armor.equip_iron
 * item.armor.equip_leather
 * item.bottle.fill
 * item.bottle.fill_dragonbreath
 * item.bucket.empty
 * item.bucket.empty_lava
 * item.bucket.fill
 * item.bucket.fill_lava
 * item.chorus_fruit.teleport
 * item.hoe.till
 * item.shovel.flatten
 * Renamed sound event  to.
 * Status effects
 * Health Boost effect now shows multiple red hearts instead of the one similar to Regeneration.
 * Absorption effect now shows a single red heart with a yellow outline around it.
 * Nausea effect will now stop instantly when cleared using Milk or with commands.
 * Statistics
 * : Tracks the distance a player has glided using elytra.
 * Thrown projectiles (snowballs, eggs, ender pearls, bottles o' enchanting, and thrown potions)
 * No longer collide with non-opaque blocks.
 * Even non-opaque blocks that are solid, such as glass. See.
 * Are "caught" and converted to the item form by cobwebs.
 * Now take the thrower's motion into account. For example, an arrow fired forward by a player in a speeding minecart will fly faster relative to the ground, an arrow fired backwards will fly slower, and an arrow fired sideways will have motion in the direction of minecart travel.