OK. So we’re getting a new raid – the Firelands. We might even be getting a second new raid in patch 4.1, which some theorize is the War of the Ancients raid. My main, a Paladin, is finally going to see Divine Storm add holy power, which should solidify our ability to put out competitive AOE numbers. These changes and a host of others don’t excite me near as much as a pair of little changes for rogues. Did I say little? I meant supermassiveomgforpvpfuntimes.
Category: World of Warcraft
4.1 Patch Notes
*Edit – Since this old post is getting a lot of attention from players looking for patch notes I wanted to link the current notes here – http://us.battle.net/wow/en/game/patch-notes/ptr-patch-notes . – Feel free to let me know if you see a more recent set of notes on Blizzards site.*
Finally, the long-awaited patch notes for 4.1, the first major Cataclysm content patch, have been made available. In addition to the notes below, I’m pretty sure we’re going to get the Firelands raid to kill Ragnaros and probably another one – both dropping tier 12. In later posts I’ll probably go into some of these changes in more detail but for now here’s a few of my personal favorites from the patch:
Divine Storm now generates 1 point of Holy Power if it hits (i.e. successfully lands on) 4 or more targets. – Hurray for more Paladin AOE potential.
Stealth base cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10, and the movement penalty from being in Stealth has been removed. – Non-rogues that PVP are crying right now… crying tears of blood in preparation for all the incoming deaths.
The Guild Perk, Cash Flow, no longer prints out text to the Chat Log. Instead, the daily amount deposited is shown in the Guild Vault Money Log. In addition, players can view the weekly contribution in a new window at the bottom of the Money Log. – Cause that was really annoying.
Continue on to see the patch notes in their entirety.
Daily Thoughts: Item Level is the New Gearscore
To be oh so cliché, the more things change the more things stay the same. WoW is no exception to the rule. I’m not talking about whether or not new bosses or gear are too similar to old ones, which are complaints I’ve heard from a couple of fellow players who’ve been wowing since vanilla. Nope, I’m instead here to talk about players and how regardless of what is added to the game, we’re always going to act the same way. Prior to cataclysm and 4.0.3 I suppose, gearscore ruled pugs. The gearscore addon, which attributed a point value to each piece of gear and gave a “score” for each player based on that gear was the loathed standard from which players were judged before being invited to a random group or raid. Not content with mere players making their own system for judging the “goodness” of others, blizzard implemented the average item level. Viewed on both your character sheet and on your armory profile, it is the new number from which all characters must be judged. I say this sarcastically of course, as there are much more important factors; see: Skill. Now instead of a gearscore requirement, we see “looking for heals for *instance*, 350ilvl or higher”
Along the same lines are the recruiters for small or social guilds and their message. Prior to cataclysm we’d see “Friendly leveling guild looking for members of all levels. Have tabard and 4 bank tabs, pst xxxx for invite”. Quite often after spamming a couple of those, random /trade trolls bash the poster, mocking their guild tab message. Usually undaunted, they continue the recruitment spam. Now the trolls have a new topic to mock the social guild recruiters for, “we’re a level 4 guild…”
Anything else you can think of that we keep doing over and over as players? Aside from standing in fire.
Daily Thoughts: 4.0.6
Those anxiously awaiting patch 4.0.6 should be happy to know that this patch should be hitting the live servers tomorrow. This includes the redefining of how many players constitutes a “guild group”, fixes and adds to the “luck of the draw” buff, adds some balance to Tol Barad and Strand of the Ancients, makes Retributions mastery possibly their best stat, along with a plethora of other class and instance changes. This patch has seen a ton of revisions already – you can find the most current after the break – with more possible by the time it goes live. I’m pretty happy with the changes overall. We should see some class balance, random dungeon finder groups might be a little more manageable, and did I mention the buff to retribution? Continue on for the most recent patch notes (as of this posting) in their entirety.
Luck of the Draw Buffed
The buff we receive for being in groups with random party members through the dungeon finder system is getting buffed, says Ghostcrawler – the leader systems designer of Wow. Each party using the dungeon finder system will see a 5% buff to health, healing and damage for each random member up to 15% increase. This should make pugs a significantly easier process, at least in terms of gear, organization, and skill needed to complete them. In the post GC also comments that the 5% buff we should have been getting already was broken and only working in some dungeons. 4.0.6 is bringing all sorts of goodies. Check the full text out after the break. (more…)
Patch 4.1 and Confirmed Hyjal Daily Quests
*Edit* Seeing as this old post is still getting a lot of views – I wanted to redirect people to more recent information. Check out THIS and THIS for more updated patch 4.1 info and the patch 4.2 trailers (which include dailies) respectively.
A recent post of mine mentioned that daily quests would be coming, though I wasn’t entirely sure when. I went back and checked the information (credit to Wow Insider’s blog for confirming) and there will be a new daily quest hub added to Hyjal in patch 4.1. The term ‘hub’ suggests it will contain several repeatable quests, similar to deepholm or Tol Barad, and unlike the pair of solitary quests available in Uldum for Ramkahen reputation. Those of you dying to grind Hyjal rep for the great loot they offer, but don’t want to put on a green tabard and hit up dungeons should finally be satisfied.
Other content this patch will add is the Firelands raid, where we will kill Ragnaros for good, and a 5 man underwater dungeon in Vashj’ir. I’d imagine Firelands will be tier 12 raiding gear. Also, the Enhanced dungeon maps is expected to make it live in 4.1. Dungeon maps should be more detailed, including boss lore, abilities, and loot.