Here comes the next content patch (3.2)

[Hawkbit]

Is there an indication of when this will go live?  I know Blizz isn't too specific, but just wondering if there's a best guess yet.

[K9]

Probably early August, this does seem to be a pretty quick turnaround for Blizz.

[Draegan]

I got my priest to 60 and need to gather and I think I want to wait for the mount costs to come down.

Only problem is that I just found AOC again and Aion is coming late Sept.

Not a lot of time!

[Simond]

You should be playing EQ2 in Mistwalkers, anyway. 

[Selby]

I got my priest to 60 and need to gather and I think I want to wait for the mount costs to come down.

I've got 5 alts parked waiting to take advantage of the cost breaks between 60 and 40 ;-)

[apocrypha]

Heh, I was levelling a couple of 64 alts yesterday in Zangarmarsh and was thinking how annoying it was not to be able to get flying mounts until 70, which really means 77 because everyone goes to Northrend at 68ish. So I posted on the EU suggestions forum, with a pretty well thought-out and carefully worded argument for lowering Expert Riding level requirements.

5 minutes later someone replies saying "Yeah, they're doing that already in the next patch". I felt like a right noob 

[K9]

Season 7 gear looks sweet.

[Fordel]

Best Patch Ever:

Patch 3.2 BOP Items Trade
A very nice feature was added to the game with the latest PTR patch, according to the interface files and a few in-game tests you can now trade BOP items with members of your raid who participated in the kill. This change will probably considerably lower the amount of GM petitions each day.

    * BIND_TRADE_TIME_REMAINING = "You may trade this item with players that were also eligible to loot this item for the next %s."; -- Time remaining to trade a bound item.  Example: You may trade this item with players that were eligible to loot this item for the next 1 hour 30 minutes.

[Selby]

Patch 3.2 BOP Items Trade

About time!  I understand the BoP system even if I don't necessarily like it, but having complete restrictions that don't allow for mistakes or an "oops!" was frustrating.

[sinij]

How do they plan to stop groups of people exploiting rolls by forming "rolling alliances" ?

[Selby]

How do they plan to stop groups of people exploiting rolls by forming "rolling alliances" ?

The same way they stop people who agree to "not roll against each other" - absolutely nothing.

[K9]

How do they plan to stop groups of people exploiting rolls by forming "rolling alliances" ?

Use master loot and don't PuG?

[sinij]

How do they plan to stop groups of people exploiting rolls by forming "rolling alliances" ?

The same way they stop people who agree to "not roll against each other" - absolutely nothing.

There is key difference - with people "not roll against each other" both people need an item and come to agreement.  With new "pass the loot" you have people who don't need/want/already have it rolling on items to pass it to their buddy.

ML won't help... you have Player A and Player B rolling on item. Player B doesn't need item but eligible to roll on it. When Player B wins, he passes it to Player A. Now Player C who also rolls on items gets hosed.

[Malakili]

ML won't help... you have Player A and Player B rolling on item. Player B doesn't need item but eligible to roll on it. When Player B wins, he passes it to Player A. Now Player C who also rolls on items gets hosed.

Don't pug.  If you do pug and yous ee this happen.  Kick the people from the raid and never invite them again. 

[Kail]

Patch 3.2 BOP Items Trade

About time!  I understand the BoP system even if I don't necessarily like it, but having complete restrictions that don't allow for mistakes or an "oops!" was frustrating.

I'm probably stating the obvious, but it would also help with gearing up new players.  Nobody in the raid needs the new sword, we can pass it to one of our second stringers.  No more DEing +agi daggers just because our Rogue isn't here.

Edit: never mind, I'm an idiot....  sigh...

[kildorn]

This stops the loot roll disconnect issues, and the "I greeded for my offset what do you mean I should have said something before the DEr got it?" issues.

Yeah, it might be a bitch in a pug, but loot rolling a bitch in pugs? Heavens, I've never heard of such a thing!

[Lantyssa]

It also means groups of friends or guildies can roll on something, or not, and sort it all out later.  Maybe even after having time to get a few other drops to see about the best distribution.

It certainly will be welcomed for my Sunday night group.  Which brings up my next question... is this only for raids, or will it apply to groups as well?

[Paelos]

2 New changes coming that I like: http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=69870.0

1 - New tokens can be used to buy anything set piece. They are no longer specific to head/shoulder/chest/leg/hands. This is a move I was calling for when they originally released tokens, because you can upgrade your gear without worrying about the type of boss you are killing. It also makes all bosses worthwhile even after you have killed them enough to get one set of tokens through the system. It really cuts down on the offspeccing and unusable tokens as well. However, it doesn't solve the class balance issue of many tokens being sent to a few ppl because of the disparity.

2 - You have the option to extend your raid lockout for another week. For a casual raiding crew like mine, this is HUGE for us getting to higher end content in the timeframe we can accomplish. We can only raid one day a week, but this means that after we've cleared out the first 5 bosses enough, we can extend the timer and start where we left off last week instead of doing it all over again. In my mind if they can do this, it means we can start down the road of extending timers indefinitely, which is what I really want.

Thoughts?

[Fordel]

We can't keep a consistent lineup for the two days a week we raid as is.


Theoretically, it should help progression. Reality is I think there will just be more group setup wankering.

[Paelos]

As long as the ID can be individually extended by the entire raid and not just the leadership, then I don't think there will be many setup problems.

[Malakili]

2 - You have the option to extend your raid lockout for another week. For a casual raiding crew like mine, this is HUGE for us getting to higher end content in the timeframe we can accomplish. We can only raid one day a week, but this means that after we've cleared out the first 5 bosses enough, we can extend the timer and start where we left off last week instead of doing it all over again. In my mind if they can do this, it means we can start down the road of extending timers indefinitely, which is what I really want.

Thoughts?

Depends.  The progression has generally assumed that people are going to have a fair amount of gear  from previous fights for the later fights.  Which means, if they really wanted that feature to be used to "clear" the instance in 1 go (even if that 1 go was 2 months, or whatever), then the fights wouldn't be able to assume much loot upgrade.    The side affect of that, of course, is that guilds that do raid 4 days a week, or more, would be able to clear the place in a week or two tops from the time its released. (obviously the very top guilds are going to clear it that fast ANYWAY, but this would open up that kind of speed to a LOT more people I suspect, unless they fill the instance to the brim with hard technical fights.)

[Gobbeldygook]

The side affect of that, of course, is that guilds that do raid 4 days a week, or more, would be able to clear the place in a week or two tops from the time its released.

They thought of that.  The Coliseum will start off with one boss unlocked and a new one unlocked every week.

[WindupAtheist]

Wait wait wait, slow it down for me. Does this mean one can do heroics for tokens and eventually end up in full poopsock purples without setting foot in anything above a five-man?

[Ingmar]

Wait wait wait, slow it down for me. Does this mean one can do heroics for tokens and eventually end up in full poopsock purples without setting foot in anything above a five-man?

Sort of, with the caveat that it looks like at any given time the very very top items are a different badge. Also there might not actually be a 100% full suit available through badges. But more or less, its back to the TBC badge method yes.

[Kail]

Wait wait wait, slow it down for me. Does this mean one can do heroics for tokens and eventually end up in full poopsock purples without setting foot in anything above a five-man?

I don't think so.  

What happens now when you kill a boss, say, the Horsemen, they'll drop something like this, which a Rogue, Death Knight, Druid, or Mage can turn in at a vendor for their Teir 7 shoulders.  I think the only change is that now, they'll be able to turn any token in for any piece of armor, rather than a specific one for the shoulders and another for the pants, etc.  So you'll still need to raid to get the tokens, you just won't have to raid a specific boss for your underwear and a different one for your socks and so on.

[Malakili]

Wait wait wait, slow it down for me. Does this mean one can do heroics for tokens and eventually end up in full poopsock purples without setting foot in anything above a five-man?

Not really.  Starting with the next patch you'll be able to get Ulduar level gear, which will be one tier behind at that point.  I assume we can figure that trend is going to continue, meaning you'll always be a tier or so behind, rather than now, which is more like 1.5-2 tiers behind.

[Gobbeldygook]

Wait wait wait, slow it down for me. Does this mean one can do heroics for tokens and eventually end up in full poopsock purples without setting foot in anything above a five-man?

Here's the relevant bit from the patch notes.

# Emblem System Changes

    * Both the 10 and 25 player instances of the Crusaders' Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
    * Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
    * The heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Triumph.

There are three levels of tier 9.  The top level presumably drops from Coliseum 25 Hard Mode, the middle one from 10 man hard/25 man normal, and the bottom level is probably 10 man normal, all of which are superior to ulduar gear.  You can buy the middle and bottom tier 9 set pieces with emblems of triumph, but the very top tier can only be bought by downing bosses.

Mid-Level cost: Head/chest/legs, 75 emblems.  Hands/shoulders, 45
Low-Level cost: head/chest/legs, 50 emblems.  Hands/shouldesr, 30.

There are also a bunch of new wintergrasp rewards with an ilevel equivalent to Ulduar if that's more your thing.

tl;dr: You can grind out naxx and ulduar epics by doing heroics, you can buy some t9 stuff by doing the heroic dailies.

[Fordel]

Keep in mind, this will take you like... 3 months worth of daily heroic grinding.

[Ingmar]

Keep in mind, this will take you like... 3 months worth of daily heroic grinding.

For the T9 pieces, but you can get significant amounts of, say, 25-ulduar quality stuff just from the normal heroic badgers.

[Musashi]

That's probably as good a hardcore/casual balance as you're ever going to see right there.  It's to the point where it's almost overkill.

[WindupAtheist]

Can any of this get me a weapon better than my Titansteel Destroyer without sitting through some dumbass raid or becoming king of the arena?

[Rasix]

Can any of this get me a weapon better than my Titansteel Destroyer without sitting through some dumbass raid or becoming king of the arena?

I'd settle for something to turn it into a titansteel axe.

[Ingmar]

Can any of this get me a weapon better than my Titansteel Destroyer without sitting through some dumbass raid or becoming king of the arena?

I don't think there are any badge weapons over ilvl200, at least none leap to mind.

[Musashi]

Can any of this get me a weapon better than my Titansteel Destroyer without sitting through some dumbass raid or becoming king of the arena?

I'm sure you'll be able to upgrade that thing in the next patch.

[SurfD]

Can any of this get me a weapon better than my Titansteel Destroyer without sitting through some dumbass raid or becoming king of the arena?

Sunwell released with badge weapons, to bring people up to par with stuff that was roughly equivilent to the weapons of the previous raid tier (BT / Hyjal), so if we do not get weapons with this coming patch, I estimate a 90% probability that Icecrown will ship with badge weapons when it goes live, roughly equiv to T9.x content stuff.