Believe it or not, I'm going to actually take a look at the next patch notes. I know! I'm as shocked as you are because I tend to try to avoid the upcoming patch notes like the plague. I have a friend who tries to chat with me about them every time there's a patch coming up, and I usually get grumpy with him. In my experience, Patch=Nerf for druids in some way shape or form. Don't get me wrong here. I'm down with the classes being "equal" across the board. But there's always that fear that they're trying to make your specific role obsolete or are going to nerf you into the ground, leaving you to pray for quick hot fixes to be able to enjoy your class again. We all have the same fears, I'm sure. But I digress. I figured since I've started writing a blog about WoW, I may as well step away from the entries full of stupid mistakes and take a look at the upcoming patch. So, here goes nothin'!
First, click here to read up on the next patch. It's a big one, so I'm not going to copy it all down here. It'd make this entry more of a novel than it's already going to be.
New Instances and Raids:
Alright, let's start at the beginning here. /nerd goggles on They've added a new dungeon and raid called the "Crusader's Coliseum." It actually sounds like a lot of fun! From what I read, it is set up similarly to the Ring of Blood and Ampitheatre of Anguish quests, where you fight a gauntlet of bosses, each getting progressively harder. Cheers to Blizz on this one! The setup of this raid instance is pretty complicated, with essentially 6 separate Lockouts:
5 man normal mode
5 man Heroic mode
10 man normal mode
10 man heroic mode
25 man normal mode
25 man heroic mode
For the 5 man versions, we're getting a new daily dungeon quest added to the Dalaran questgivers' rotations. Hot! Because I still refuse to go back into the Oculus. This adds another "out" so to speak. Though, I'm not sure how well geared we'll have to be for the heroic version of this 5-man. As long as there aren't too many poisons involved, I'm a happy druid.
Another cool quirk about the new raid: Crusader's Tribute. This rewards your team MORE for being Epic Letesauce! So based on the number of attempts it takes you to down the raid (aka- how many times you wipe), you stand the chance at getting some pretty hot drops. Very nice! Well, for us non-raiders this isn't that great, but for you raider folks...very nice!
Dungeons and Raids Updates:
They've now added the ability to extend the lockout period for a raid or instance. I...guess...that's cool? I mean, if you PuG for Naxxramas 10 on Sunday night, but can't finish until the following Sunday, this will allow the group to save the raid an additional week in order to try to finish it when the entire party can meet again. It offers the potential for folks like myself to pick up a really good group, hammer out some of a raid and save it for the following weekend, rather than having to go back and clear the entire thing all over again because we didn't finish it before the Tuesday cutoff. I'm just not sure I foresee this being used a lot, and I'm not sure how effective this will be. You'd have to be pretty trusting that everyone would show up at the time that the group agrees to meet to finish it off. I'm a little skeptical of this one. But if it ends up Working As Intended™, it'll be pretty damn awesome!
The rest of the patch notes are the same-old, same-old. Nerf this, buff that. Lots of class nerfs, buffs, Mp5 is getting buffed, etc etc. Nothing too exciting. (I feel bad for my kitty druid friends out there, though. Ouch!)
Other groundbreaking changes...Travel form at level 16 for druids? You get your mount and riding skill at level 20 now? For 4 gold? Epic Mounts at level 40? Flight at 60? Faction Discounts now, for Epic Flight training? OMG! System Overload Folks? TOO MUCH TOO SOON!
What happened to Hard Work=Reward or Patience=Reward? You let Pavlov down. You really did. You made him cry. Are you happy, Blizz? Are you?!
hehe At any rate, these changes will make leveling your alts a LOT easier, not to mention cheaper. So, no excuses for me anymore. I'll have to actually start leveling them. I can't wait!
There was just too much in the patch to really get into it all. We all know the drill. Nerf This. Buff That. Then for the next two weeks, we'll be on rolling restarts for hot-fixes. Let's send Blizz some cookies!
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