Totally Warcraft

So here we are again, on the verge of the final major patch of this expansion. It feels like only yesterday when we were all raging at M’uru wipes. Here’s a brief overview and reaction to the upcoming patch.

There are a LOT of changes coming to the new player experience system. Believe it or not there are still people out there that don’t play this game. I know it’s hard to believe! Between not getting dazed any more in the first five levels and rogues starting out actually dual-wielding, I’d say this is a welcome improvement for new and old players alike. Updated tooltips will help better explain what your abilities actually do to a newbie. These changes are awesome and will vastly improve new player experience.

Scrolling through the notes here… blah blah blah AOE damage cap blah blah blah… “Pet Resilience: All player pets now get 100% of their master’s resilience.” … HURGH. Holy sweet Jesus it’s about time they did that. How long has this been wanted? Probably ever since resilience was introduced with the Burning Crusade. Continuing on, we see ANOTHER will of the forsaken change. Are you freaking kidding me? This ability has to be the most messed with, toyed around, tinkered mechanic in the game. It seems like every patch they change it in some minute way. This time it shares cooldowns with similar trinkets. Neat, I wonder what the next patch will hold for WotF. I guess this is the reason they added “Will of the forsaken nerf” to the dropdown box of reasons when you try to close your account.

Unique totem art is cool. Aesthetics, while petty, do play a huge role in the “presentation” of the game. “Players no longer need to kill the final bosses in all four wings of this dungeon in order to teleport to Sapphiron. Teleportation orbs have been added to allow players access back and forth from Sapphiron’s lair.” Betrayer of Humanity runs, anyone? This is awesome. So far so good.

Some of the class changes are pretty mundane. DKs are getting a threat boost with Rune Strike. Druids get more haste in resto. A lot of hunter pet changes, mostly to improve avoidance and streamline the pet’s talent trees. They also doubled the speed at which hunter pets level. It seems like we get a lot of help with leveling in these final patches. Not much in the way of changes for mages, some mana cost improvements in fire which will be welcomed. Now as for paladins, something that made me raise an eyebrow was lay on hands causing forbearance – if used on yourself. Making it a 20 minute cooldown is a little much also. Paladin’s already don’t have many “Holly Crap!” abilities, so having to choose between 50% less damage and a full heal sucks the big one.

Priests get some shadow improvements, with haste now affecting their DOTs. Rogues don’t really have anything of note, except when ‘deadly’ is stacked to five stacks, your offhand poison will proc. That’s a nice addition. For shaman, you can now ankh every 15 minutes if you have it talented. Also elemental mastery in the elemental tree has been changed to 15% haste instead of crit chance. This is an AWESOME change, since elemental shaman are already stacked on crit. Warlocks have a bunch of talents switching around and changing. Conflag has been redesigned as has the talent Molten Core. Honestly, I have no idea what these changes mean because a warlock is one of the few classes I’ve never leveled. Sorry, kids. Oh, and warriors. Let me summarize your class changes:

Right, now that I’ve completely summarized the warrior class changes with the blank space above, let’s move on to the Icecrown content. As far as the “gated” entry to the multiple wings, it confuses me to a point. Elite guilds are going to spend two weeks clearing the first wing and the rest farming the crap out of it until the second wing is opened. They’ll have a substantial amount of gear and will probably blow through the second wing in just one raiding week. I could be wrong, because I have no idea of the difficulty level of Icecrown Citadel. From years of raiding experience and watching what the top guilds do, however, it’s pretty easy to guess what’s going to happen. I truly hope someone does blow through the fast wing, be it Ensidia or vodka or whoever, because I am dying to see what happens to the Lich King at the end. Arthas is a personal favorite villain of mine. Anyway, moving on. The new, NEW looking for group system features cross-realm pick-up groups. This idea is awesome, and I really hope it works out. Some things that could hold it back include laggy transitions, bad group make up and lack of leadership. I for one hope the launch goes smoothly.

This by far is not coverage for the entire load of patch notes. It just covers the most pertinent issues and changes. If you have any questions or comments, please follow the link here to discuss it on the forums.

For the full listing of patch notes, follow this link.