Here comes the next content patch (3.2)

[Rendakor]

The reason I don't really like this change is that WG didn't cause server crashes on Andorhal*. It didn't even really cause lag outside of the zone itself when the quests were dailies. Then they made them weeklies, which caused server-killing lag every tuesday and no lag any other time. This, I though, was a poor change, creating lag sometimes when there was no lag before. Now they're putting in a population cap, with a silly random queue mechanic, that's just going to make things more annoying. I realize that I am probably the exception here, but from my server's perspective, they're nerfing something (again) that wasn't broken.

I think we're only a patch or two away from WG being turned into a normal BG and VOA moved elsewhere, tbh. Which is unfortunate, to me, because I like server-based PVP. I still despise cross server BGs because you never have a sense of knowing the people you're fighting.


*which is surprising, because otherwise Andorfail is a pretty shitty server.

[Malakili]

I love this change!  Why you ask? Becuase I don't give a crap about WoW PvP and now I can fly over Wintergrasp, which is a thorn in my side whenever I want to fly from Dalaran to Borean Tundra.

[Merusk]

I love this change!  Why you ask? Becuase I don't give a crap about WoW PvP and now I can fly over Wintergrasp, which is a thorn in my side whenever I want to fly from Dalaran to Borean Tundra.

Good lord, yes.  The number of times I've dismounted because I clipped some small "shouldn't be part of WG, it's a mountain you tools" edge while AFK flying has lead me to take the gryphon when flying west.. or avoiding that part of the map entirely.

[Kail]

The people who think it's a bad idea probably know their faction will now lose all the time, shutting off access to Emalon. Which sucks.  Hell, it only takes 20 coordinated Horde to wipe the Alliances ass NOW.. when it's limited to equal sides, the Alliance is never going to have control of WG again on my server.  Hilarious.

Well, personally, I think it's going to make things easier for me to win.  Horde on my server rarely has more than two full raids up in prime time, so it's not like it'll limit us much, but we have tenacity ranging from 3 to 15, which suggests that some Alliance nut punching is incoming.  But even with being outnumbered a hojillion to one, we still took WG with enough regularity that I'd be able to run Vaults every week (if they hadn't fucked it up, but that's another rant).  Even when we lost, I still had fun (tenacity of eighteen let my level 74 take on multiple level 80s at once, it was awesome), and got a ton of rewards.

I'm pissed off for two reasons:

1- It looks like the whole PvP angle of the game is skewing off even further into "we don't know what we're doing, wheeeeee" territory.  The whole design pre-launch seemed focused around getting people to come to WG ("Tokens!  Persistent kind of impact on the world for the victor!  By far, the best honor/time ratio of anywhere!  Come one, come all!").  Now, they're trying to shoo people away from it ("You don't want to run it more than once a week, do you?  Oh, plus now you have to sign up fifteen minutes in advance, and you can't bring in too many people at once, priority seating for high levels").  It just looks schizophrenic.  If you don't want people to play WG, the thing you have to do, the one and only thing, is make some other activity give out better rewards than WG.  That's it.  Then everyone who likes open world PvP can scrap over WG and you won't get a trillion people clogging up the tubes.

2- It homogenizes the gameplay even more.  Right now, WG is the best open world PvP in the game.  Not saying much, since it's competition is like, Halaa and stuff, but still.  There's plenty of BGs, I don't really need another one (especially if it's basically a more tedious version of SotA).  There isn't much open world PvP, and it pisses me off to see that after trying for years to get people to participate in it, as soon as they succeed, they yank the plug.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I don't think massive world pvp was ever blizzards pvp goal, they just added it because of warhammer.  Blizzard has also been about sport pvp, skirmishes and quick matches, whether it be arena or BG.  Oh sure the original AV took days but they quickly moved away from that.  I always saw WG as their little experiment which ultimately failed, probably from a hardware standpoint.

[Gobbeldygook]

The alliance on my server only win WG when they paradrop in at the start of the match.  Now that they can't paradrop, they're never going to win again.

[Fordel]

My server was always fairly equal, usually only rank 1-2 Tenacity, if any at all. All this is going to do is ensure a bunch of people will get left out and pissed off, on both sides. 

[Malakili]

I don't think massive world pvp was ever blizzards pvp goal, they just added it because of warhammer.  Blizzard has also been about sport pvp, skirmishes and quick matches, whether it be arena or BG.  Oh sure the original AV took days but they quickly moved away from that.  I always saw WG as their little experiment which ultimately failed, probably from a hardware standpoint.

I dunno, before there was even a single battleground in the game there was quite a bit of world PvP for world PvP's sake.  Even then it was a lagfest though.  I remember back when they were marketing the game the whole "Tentative peace is starting to be strained" aspect was a big draw, and I think a lot of people looked forward to the Horde v. Alliance fighting.  This was a long time ago MMO design wise though.   WoW has gone steadily and consistently towards the mini game model since then.  In fact, WoW is essentially a thinly veiled series of mini games at this point, and becoming less and less veiled all the time.

[Sjofn]

wintergrasp to become a 100 v 100 bg

Quote from Blizzard staff
Wintergrasp

    * To provide players with a more transparent notification of when Wintergrasp battles occur, as well as better control zone population and stability, several changes have been made.
    * Players now have the option to queue for Wintergrasp from a Wintergrasp Battlemaster in any capital city or by simply entering the Wintergrasp zone.
    * Queuing will begin 15 minutes before each battle. If chosen, you will automatically be teleported to the zone. Any players in the zone who have not been chosen from the queue will be teleported out when the battle begins.
    * The queue system remains active for the entire battle. As soon as a player leaves, a new one will be chosen from the queue.
    * Trying to enter Wintergrasp during an active battle for which you have not been chosen will teleport you out. Please note that, as you are now able to fly over Wintergrasp, you will only be teleported out if you try to land and join the battle.
    * Level 80 players get higher priority in the queue than lower level players. In addition, a random selection of queued players will be taken from both the Battlemasters and the zone itself.
    * The queue will accept up to 100 players from each faction, resulting in a maximum battle of 200 players at a time.

Man, I don't even play Wintergrasp hardly ever, and that sucks.

The holy paladin changes still piss me off most (and remember, I have a frost tank DK!). Apparently in my heart of hearts I am still a paladin.

[Arinon]

In fact, WoW is essentially a thinly veiled series of mini games at this point, and becoming less and less veiled all the time.

I think Blizzard discovered, along with most of their player base, that people really don't enjoy dealing with the massive part of MMO aside from as a metric to judge one's progress and show off one's shiney.

[Malakili]

In fact, WoW is essentially a thinly veiled series of mini games at this point, and becoming less and less veiled all the time.

I think Blizzard discovered, along with most of their player base, that people really don't enjoy dealing with the massive part of MMO aside from as a metric to judge one's progress and show off one's shiney.

Yep, I agree.  Unfortunately, I really do enjoy the massive part :(.

[Merusk]

The holy paladin changes still piss me off most (and remember, I have a frost tank DK!). Apparently in my heart of hearts I am still a paladin.

I think I might start playing my hunter again after all the DK futzing.  After years of the Hunters being tossed around Blizz has left them pretty much alone so far.. so clearly I need to get interested in their class to get them nerfed again. Buahaha.

[Sheepherder]

From a technical standpoint the new Wintergrasp is a good idea, something like that should be in an instanceable zone on a separate physical server.  Anyone whining that putting it in an instance makes it not "world pvp" really needs to do themselves a favour and become an hero.  The player limits are objectionable, but then I honestly doubt two hundred people will be showing up most of the time.

[Fordel]

From a technical standpoint the new Wintergrasp is a good idea, something like that should be in an instanceable zone on a separate physical server.  Anyone whining that putting it in an instance makes it not "world pvp" really needs to do themselves a favour and become an hero.  The player limits are objectionable, but then I honestly doubt two hundred people will be showing up most of the time.

Maybe if you play on a small server, any of the ones on the upper end of population will hit the 100vs100 limit without even blinking.

[Chimpy]

From a technical standpoint the new Wintergrasp is a good idea, something like that should be in an instanceable zone on a separate physical server.  Anyone whining that putting it in an instance makes it not "world pvp" really needs to do themselves a favour and become an hero.  The player limits are objectionable, but then I honestly doubt two hundred people will be showing up most of the time.

Maybe if you play on a small server, any of the ones on the upper end of population will hit the 100vs100 limit without even blinking.

And on the vast majority of those, where alliance is used to having 2:1 or better odds, the tears of "OMG Horde is unbeatable" will be flying all over the place.

[Fordel]

I imagine it will even out more then most people think, since 100vs100 is no tenacity.


At worst, it'll just go back to win trading, with defense being a moot point. Which isn't all that bad as long as the games last a decent tick of time.

[ezrast]

On my server (Sargeras) I actually think the change will decrease win trading. As is, the battleground turns over basically every fight and it's at the point where few people even bother to queue up join for defense - thus, the 100 player cap is a straight nerf to the offense. Which is bad for the server in my opinion - since more people are interested in VoA than Wintergrasp (some seem to like WG but it's always been an unplayable mess to me) anyway, it's beneficial to have it turn over as often as possible. Though, even with the change I doubt offense will win less than 90% of the time.

edit for stupid

[bhodi]

I shouldn't need to say this, but DUMP YOUR RUNED ORBS if you have any. The price is going to plummet (it has already started) and I expect it to land somewhere between 1x and 2x frozen orb price after someone is going to be able to run a few 5man heroics and walk away with a runed orb out of it.

[K9]

Has anyone seen any comment on whether we'll be able to trade up marks?

If not I'll be dumping my stack of spare valorous emblems into bracers.

[bhodi]

You won't be able to trade up marks, but EVERYTHING will drop conquest and you can downgrade to buy gems and heirlooms and such.

[K9]

Yeah, I got that, I was just wondering whether there had been a b lue response.

Guess I'll dump my emblems for bracers anyway. I'll still make back plenty of conquest emblems in short order.

edit: On the flip side the Ulduar BoE crafting patterns will probably jump in price post-patch.

[Fabricated]

I shouldn't need to say this, but DUMP YOUR RUNED ORBS if you have any. The price is going to plummet (it has already started) and I expect it to land somewhere between 1x and 2x frozen orb price after someone is going to be able to run a few 5man heroics and walk away with a runed orb out of it.

Thank god. I won the plans for the tank boots and I've only been able to get 2 orbs so far.

[Gobbeldygook]

Datamined notes are hot off the presses at all of the usual sources.  Highlights:

-New raid instance contains a real full t9 set.  Most of them are obvious placeholders (When you read the list yourself, assume anything with the words '2 seconds' or '5%' are placeholders)
-NEW JC RECIPES: JCs can transmute blue uncut gems into epic gems.  STOCK UP.
-Harvest Festival is now a full-blown Holiday with a shitload of achievements.  I would bet it will now be a part of the Meta
-New mini-holidays: Day of the Dead (Probably on the same day as the real Day of the Dead) and Pirates' Day (September 19th, obviously).  Probably not a part of the meta.
-Trinkets: Greatness cards still great, but there is a better version in 25-man t9.
-New boss in Vault.
-This Patch's Unexpected Achievement Nerf: Rapid Defense nerfed from 2 minutes to 3 minutes.

[Ingmar]

Some of the stuff is wrong, for example they've already confirmed that the datamined change to Intimidating Shout isn't correct.

[K9]

Priest T9 Healing 4P Bonus (Prayer of Healing) (Class: Priest) -- Increases the critical strike chance of your Prayer of Healing spell by 5%

Yea, that's worse than the T8 2-set, so I don't see that happening.

[kildorn]

I'm loving the artwork for 3.2. Though the 1h mace artist still needs to be beaten severely.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Take a look at these horde fist weapons and justify playing anything else.  

[K9]

I think you should combine that with the coffin lid you'll also be getting.



The polearms and maces look awful though, all of them.

[Sjofn]

The polearms are weird but not nearly has horrible as that one 1h mace model. Wtf IS that, I ask you.

[kildorn]

The polearms are weird but not nearly has horrible as that one 1h mace model. Wtf IS that, I ask you.

A gear with a lightbulb on it, duh.

[March]

Well... confirms my constant opinion that I play WoW despite the art.

I've just never understood the neanderthal fetish when it comes to weapons of high-war.  Epic Polearms held together by what appears to be duct-tape; My-pretty-pony swords; and shields from the workshops of Grok and Og.

[Simond]

Oh man, the Horde guns are  - they're literally a hand cannon.

[Rendakor]

The one horde staff is literally a piece of wood with a shoveltusk horn on top of it.  I've yet to see a cooler looking 2 hander than Armageddon in WotLK.

[Chimpy]

Come on, Journey's End is the best looking 2h weapon ever.

Hobby horses are ftw.

[Sjofn]

disco pony staff >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> all