Patch 5.1

[luckton]

The first World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria patch of the year is in development and now available for testing on the Public Test Realms. This patch will include several updates to the ongoing conflict between the Horde and Alliance, the new Brawler’s Guild, Pet Battle improvements, assorted bug fixes, and more. If you'd like to help us test out this patch and provide feedback, you can start by copying your character over to a test realm. Once you've had a chance to try things out, be sure to visit our Public Test Realm forum to discuss the patch.

Note: Features mentioned in the 5.1 Patch Preview may not initially be available on the PTR, and could be included as testing progresses.

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 5.1.0

General
The Pandaren Campaign begins!
The conflict between the Horde and the Alliance has ignited a new series of daily quests along the shore of the Krasarang Wilds.
Players can visit their faction strongholds in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to begin the quest to summon their war fleets to the continent of Pandaria. (Please note: The Alliance version of this quest is not yet complete, but will still unlock the new missions and features).
Players will both valiantly defend their faction’s outpost and assault the opposing faction's headquarters.
Two new Reputations have been added: Alliance players can earn reputation with Operation: Shieldwall, while Horde players will curry favor with the Dominance Offensive.
Players can slay rival NPCs and opposing faction players along the shore to earn commissions that can be spent to upgrade their faction's base.
Look for strategic objectives to capture, including graveyards and towers. Commissions can be spent to recruit guards that will help protect this captured territory!
Players who are truly dedicated to their faction can spend their commissions on an item that will give their fellows an extra reputation group quest for the day. Horde players can speak with Ongrom Black Tooth, while Alliance players can contact Proveditor Grantley for details.

Pet Battles
A new item has been introduced that can be used to upgrade the quality of Battle Pets: Battle-stones.
Battle-stones are available in two basic types, general purpose Battle-stones that can be used to upgrade the quality of any pet, and family specific Battle-stones, which can only be used to upgrade pets of a specific pet family.
Battle-stones are available in two qualities: Flawless Battle-stones can upgrade pets directly to Rare quality, while Polished Battle-stones will upgrade a pet to Uncommon quality.
Players will have a very small chance to obtain a general purpose Flawless Battle-stone after winning a match against wild pets; defeating higher level opponents increases the chances of obtaining a stone. These valuable items are not soulbound, and can be sold on the Auction House.
Family specific Flawless Battle-stones can be found in the Sack of Pet Supplies obtained from performing Pet Trainer quests, and are Bind on Pickup.
General purpose Polished Battle-stones can be purchased for 1000 Justice Points.
Pet Journal
The quality of each pet is now visible in its slot in the Pet Journal.
Pets can now be filtered by name, type, rarity and level, and filters will remain in place each time the Pet Journal is viewed.
It is now possible to search locations in the Pet Journal. For example, searching “Westfall” will display all the Battle Pets that can be found in Westfall.
Right clicking a pet's portrait will now offer the option to look it up in the Pet Journal.
Players can now keep up to 650 pets.
Battle Pet tooltips will now display whether a pet is owned, and how many pets of that type are owned.
Pet Quality is now displayed in battles, and will be visible on portraits, names and tooltips.
The level of battle pets in a zone can now be seen on the map, and it’s now possible to see the strength of wild pets relative to your team at a glance.
Backline pets now display debuffs affecting them as well as the remaining duration of these effects.
The experience multiplier obtained by all seven Grand Master pet trainers in Pandaria has been increased to x5 from x3.5.
The experience multiplier obtained by defeating Pet Trainers Julia Stevens, Old Macdonald, Zunta, and Dagra the Fierce has been reduced to x2.5 from x3.5.
Macros have been added that allow for summoning random pets and random favorite pets.
The achievement Taming the World now awards the Safari Hat, which increases pet experience gained from Pet Battles by 10%.
The I Choose You achievement has been added for defeating Zen Master Aki. The reward for this achievement is 3000 gold.
A new Master Pet Tamer offering daily quests has been added to the Darkmoon Faire. Completing quests for the new trainer will offer the chance to acquire a new pet: the Darkmoon Eye.
Two new Battle Pets now roam Darkmoon Island waiting to be caught.
Fixed a bug where the Gazelle would join pet battles.

UI
A new banner will appear when a player is subjected to an effect that causes them to lose control of their character. The effect that caused the loss of control and remaining duration will be displayed. Configuration options are available in the “Combat” section of the “Interface Options" menu.
A search bar has been added to the mount section of the Mount and Pet Journal.
The Mount and Pet Journal remembers which tab you were last using.

Brawler's Guild
Underground fighting rings have sprung up in Stormwind and Orgrimmar that will give brawlers a chance to earn bragging rights by testing their solo PvE mettle against some of the toughest creatures found in World of Warcraft.
Players will prove their skill, and increase their rank with the Brawler's Guild, as they win matches against some of the most difficult solo encounters in World of Warcraft.
As their Brawler's Guild rank increases, players will unlock additional rewards and activities within the Brawler’s Guild.
Brawlers on a realm will gather together into the blood spattered ring to watch as their peers face down their own opponents. They can watch the battles in progress to learn from hardened Brawler's Guild veterans as they wait for their own turn to fight.
If this is your first night at Brawler's Guild, you have to fight.

Looks like Bliz isn't playing around.  Doesn't look like any new raid or dungeon content so far, but it's nice to see a good pace on new content delivery in any form from them 

[Simond]

If this is your first night at Brawler's Guild, you have to fight.

[Paelos]

I like the Brawlers club idea. The extra rep factions already make my head hurt.

[Simond]

Well, I suppose that's one way to piss off the Alliance Garrosh. 

[luckton]

Datamining continues on the various fan sites.  Somewhat big news:

BACK TO OUTLANDS, MOTHER DOOKERS!   

http://ptr.wowdb.com/items/92563-the-eye-of-the-storm

[Simond]

Well, I suppose that's one way to piss off the Alliance Garrosh.  

...and Jaina goes over the edge too. This is going to be fun.

E: Welp, Blizzard has gone crazy. They've got Vol'Jin and Lor'themar actually doing stuff. 

[Paelos]

Good. Maybe we'll get back to war instead of this LET'S ALL HOLD HANDS AND HAVE A REN FAIRE WHILE WE FACE THE EVIL THAT THREATENS TO DESTROY US.

[Fabricated]

I wonder if the Horde will ever take any permanent losses that actually show in the world and not an instance.

[Paelos]

I hear they killed a guy in a novel. 

[Merusk]

I hear they killed a guy in a novel. 

Heh.  About the only significant Horde loss, ever, though some would throw Kael'Thalas in there as well.  Then there's the, "We totally made this guy up and killed him off an expansion later. It's absolutely the same thing! Plus you get to kill the Warchief (that everyone hates) at the end. It's totally equitable!"

 

[Simond]

I wonder if the Horde will ever take any permanent losses that actually show in the world and not an instance.

Well, 90% of pre-WC3 Horde characters ended up as raid or dungeon bosses. Does that count?

[Fordel]

Not when the Horde constantly claims they aren't the same Horde as the pre-WC3 ones.

[Ingmar]

Not when the Horde constantly claims they aren't the same Horde as the pre-WC3 ones.

And 90% of WoW players probably never played Warcraft 3, let alone prior incarnations.

[SurfD]

Not when the Horde constantly claims they aren't the same Horde as the pre-WC3 ones.

Does that mean the Horde gets to drop everything the Lich King ever did on the Alliances doorstep, cause, you know, Arthas and shit?  Where do we stop that particular circle jerk?  Is it the Horde's instead cause of Nher'zul (of course, different Horde at that time)?  Or do we go back yet again and blame it all on the Dranei (from who Archimonde sprang, from whom the Lich King eventually resulted, who then Join the Alliance, making it the Alliance's fault?)  Where does it stop?

[luckton]

Garrosh is leading the Horde as if it was the pre-WC3 Horde, because he himself is pre-WC3 Horde.  The Horde today only has two races that were apart of the old Horde, and the Trolls aren't liking the way things are these days.

If/when we kill Garrosh though, what's going to be the incentive for there to be a Horde/Alliance rivalry?  Right now it's Garrosh's blood rage that keeps Varian pissed off enough for them to continue to beat each other up.  If that goes away, do we once again go back to a semi-truce, "fight just for kicks" relationship like we kinda had with Wrath?

[SurfD]

Garrosh is leading the Horde as if it was the pre-WC3 Horde, because he himself is pre-WC3 Horde.  The Horde today only has two races that were apart of the old Horde, and the Trolls aren't liking the way things are these days.

If/when we kill Garrosh though, what's going to be the incentive for there to be a Horde/Alliance rivalry?  Right now it's Garrosh's blood rage that keeps Varian pissed off enough for them to continue to beat each other up.  If that goes away, do we once again go back to a semi-truce, "fight just for kicks" relationship like we kinda had with Wrath?

Well, We still have the Bansheeitch Queen stuffing things up on the inter-horde political agenda, so after both Horde and Alliance get done dancing on Garrosh's corpse and high fiving each other for ridding the world of that bloodthirsty throwback, the Alliance can always fall back on pointing the finger at the highly questionable motives of the undead menace among us.

[Merusk]

Yep.

As to "where does it end?"  It ends when every last orc and undead are off Azeroth, one way or another.  Orcs are the invader species and have shown an unwillingness for the balance that was there before. (Where's the outcry at despoiling Ashenvale?)  Undead hate all life and will be a problem like the Scourge until utterly destroyed. 

[Lakov_Sanite]

Technically humans/dwarves/gnomes/orcs/draenei/worgen/undead are all "invader species" since they spring from constructs of the titans or are simply from another world, the only natural races thus far are Tauren, Trolls and Pandas.  Elves and goblins are just mutant trolls as well.

[Merusk]

Humans, Dwarves and Gnomes are mutants like the elves & goblins. Humans are mutated Vyrkul who, so far as we know were native as far back as 15,000 years ago.  Dwarves and Gnomes are mutants of Titan constructs infected with the curse of the flesh.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Vrykul were also titan constructs prior to the curse of flesh, mutant aliens still count as foreign species.

[Merusk]

The Vyrkul aren't really established as being constructs or not. Only that they knew of the titans and lived at the same time as them somehow.  Makes little sense that they'd have constructed two artificial races and then a flesh race, but LOLLORE.

In any event there's no returning to just the native species of Tauren & offshoots, trolls, centaurs, ogres and Pandas.  The Burning Legion started all this nonsense with their lust for power and want to destroy Azeroth for reasons I'm not totally clear on.  Pure destruction? An ancient war with the Titans?  The lulz?

So the question ultimately is Titanic (constructive) vs. Demonic (destructive) influence.  The Horde and the Orcs/ Undead are demonic influence and set to go that way time and again. Their particular tribe of Trolls and almost all Tauren got caught-up in the war because of first contact being with the orcs, though Admiral Pridemoore was a big enough racist that he would have shit all over them, too. (We're better off with him and the jackass who dealt with the blood elves being dead.  Lorderon was a bunch of fucksticks.)

If they come 'round and say "shit you're crazy" I could see things being resolved.  So long as the orcs themselves can be reigned-in.

[Lakov_Sanite]

One of the five mans in wrath is LITERALLY a vrykul factory.  I'm not sure where you are getting their association is losely tied to the titans, they flat out say they were constructs in a couple instances.

[Sjofn]

You actually fight a buncha vrykul constructs in some of the five mans (HoL for sure, I can't remember if there are many in HoS), so yeah, they are in the same boat as gnomes and dwarves. Humans are the runty mutant offspring of the flesh-cursed vrykul.

[SurfD]

You actually fight a buncha vrykul constructs in some of the five mans (HoL for sure, I can't remember if there are many in HoS), so yeah, they are in the same boat as gnomes and dwarves. Humans are the runty mutant offspring of the flesh-cursed vrykul.

Nah.  The current lore is very ambiguous about the origins of the Vyrkul and Kvaldir.  From what we have seen so far, all "original" Titan Construct races (with the possible exception of the Mecha Gnomes, which appear to be more decendants of Mimiron, rather then direct Titan Constructs) appear to be mainly stone / earth based in body composition.  Pretty much every main Titan Watcher creation (again, with the exception of Mimiron) always appear much more stone / earthen textured then mechanical in nature.

The Metal construct races (the Iron Vyrkul / Dwarves / Giants) were second string constructs that were built by Lokien using the Forge of Wills after he was turned by Yogg'saron.

My pet theory is that the Vyrkul and Kvaldir were actually intended by the Titans to be the original "Inhaibatant" races of Azeroth, one for the Land, and one for the Sea.  A lot of Kvaldir lore seems to indicate that they were a fairly active civilization on the ocean floor before they were "displaced" by the Naga when Ashzara took her city with her to the bottom in the Sundering.

[Ingmar]

Yeah that was my impression, much like dwarves don't come from iron dwarves, vrykul don't come from iron vrykul.

[SurfD]

Yep.

As to "where does it end?"  It ends when every last orc and undead are off Azeroth, one way or another.  Orcs are the invader species and have shown an unwillingness for the balance that was there before. (Where's the outcry at despoiling Ashenvale?)  Undead hate all life and will be a problem like the Scourge until utterly destroyed.  

Orcs have never, that I am aware of, shown an unwillingness to preserve the balance that was there before, when given a chance.   Especially while Thrall was still at the reins.  It's not really like they just go wantonly rampaging around the countryside destroying everything they see.  Hell, half the reason Thrall picked everybody up and headed for Kalimdor in the first place is because he wanted to find somewhere to settle down and try to live in relative peace.

As for Ashenvale, that is a classic exampe of Alliance VS Horde he-said-she-said mentality in action.  The Horde logging crew headed by Grom might have been perfectly willing to trade with the Night Elves for lumber, but we will never really know, since the Elves chose to initiate first contact by shooting first and asking questions later, leaving the Orcs little choice but to fight back.  Which of course, resulted in the series of events leading up to Ashenvale as it is today, and the lasting dislike between the Orcs and Elves.   The current "despoiling" of Ashenvale as it stands as of Cata likely has more to do with A: the need for more lumber to fuel the war-effort / Fix Orgrimmar and B: some of the Orcish commanders in that area thumbing their noses at the Elves out of spite due to the Elves constant attempts to interfere with the logging operations then it does with Orcs being somehow innately distructive of their environment.

Also, It would be intersting to know exactly how much of the "active" orcish population since the events of Warcraft 3 was actually born on Azerothian soil.  Many of them probably consider Azeroth their home, regardless of where their parrents came from.

As to the Undead.  I still dont really get where the whole "The Forsaken are Nothing better then Slightly Smarter Scourge" thing comes from.  The large majority of them likely dont give two shits about what the "living" are up to, as long as the living are not trying to bash their skulls in.  The Forsaken, by and large, simply want to be left in peace to get on with the rest of their "lives".  The problems largely arise from the fact that most of the living human population are a bit reluctant to accept Uncle Bob, or Cousin Joe back into the family circles when Bob and Joe happen to be sentient, re-animated corpses.

[Ingmar]

Couldn't be anything to do with 2/3 of their quests being about engineering plagues to wipe out all life.

[SurfD]

Couldn't be anything to do with 2/3 of their quests being about engineering plagues to wipe out all life.

And how is the Forsaken obsession with Biological Warfare (which was mainly about engineering Plagues to kill Scourge, and later Worgen, not all life) any more or less dangerous then Goblin / Gnomish obsession with Building things that will probably Blow us all up, or kill us all in 1001 creative ways simultaneously, or the Dwarvish obsession with digging in places they really shouldnt be digging. (I am still waiting on the Expantion where some Dwarvish Archaeology team unleashes the terror from the Deep on us in the name of Historical Research.)

I find it hard to credit that the Forsaken would take the time and resoucres to effectively reach out and save the Blood Elf nation simply for sentimental reasons on Sylvanas's part, if her overall goal is to eventually kill them all off anyway.

Sure, I won't argue that the Forsaken methods are fairly questionable, but much of that whole mess comes down to which side of the Fence you fall on regarding the question of "Did Sylvanas actually know what Putress was doing with the Plague in his tenure as head of the Royal Apocathary Society".    Her original orders were to create an Anti Scourge Plague.  Putress (as a tool of the Legion through Varimathras), modified the Plague she wanted into something that would destroy both Scourge AND Non Scourge, because it was a way for the Legion to kill two birds with one stone, while conveniently allowing them to lay a large part of the blame on Sylvanas if their plot was exposed.  Without knowing exactly how much oversight Sylvanas had directly into the operations of the RAS, it is fairly acceptable to conclude that every single "test this terrible potion on those captured dwarves / gnomes / humans / puppies/ whatever" quest was not directly rubber stamped by Sylvanas herself as she cackled maniacly while imagining the world melting in toxic goo.

[Merusk]

Hitler wasn't a bad guy because the Americans dropped the bomb.

that's your argument.  way to go.

[SurfD]

Hitler wasn't a bad guy because the Americans dropped the bomb.

that's your argument.  way to go.

What?  How the heck do you get that out of what I said?  How exactly does one even begin to compare Sylvanas to Hitler?

[Sjofn]

I'm sorry, the whole "oh, that plague is for the SCOURGE, not All Life" is bullshit. It was spelled out to my Forsaken newbies time and time again that the Forsaken party line is "fuck the living. The Scourge too, of course, but seriously, fuck the living." Fuck, one of their "catch you later, dude" lines is Death to the Living. I murdered so many random, innocent people in the name of research for the Forsaken, and then later in the name of "fuck those guys," it truly boggles my mind that anyone can still trot out the "come now, they're just misunderstood" bullshit.

And no, feeding poisoned beer to prisoner dwarves, feeding poisoned pumpkins to prisoner humans (and I don't give a shit if they were Scarlet Crusade people), having "farms" where live humans are buried up to their necks and are clearly suffering for no good reason is not the same as goblins blowing themselves up, the gnomes irradiating themselves, or the dwarves (gasp!) digging.


EDIT: And plague aside, Sylvannas IS clearly totally cool with raising people from the dead to become part of her undead hordes without their consent. Gosh, how could anyone make a connection between her and her Forsaken and the Scourge?

[Lakov_Sanite]

To be fair, when those people are raised from the dead they are giving a choice of whether to join the forsaken or not.  Considering that all these re-animated corpses are fully sentient, it's not really an evil act to bring people back from the dead.  Yes they might be opposed to it but I can't call it outright evil.

[Sjofn]

Their "choice" is "join us, or we'll re-kill you." That's not really ... a choice.

Anyway, my main beef with the Forsaken is less that they're evil, but that players refuse to own the hell out of it. All the Forsaken NPCs totally own it! With no apologies! And it totally works!

[Lakov_Sanite]

Their "choice" is "join us, or we'll re-kill you." That's not really ... a choice.

Anyway, my main beef with the Forsaken is less that they're evil, but that players refuse to own the hell out of it. All the Forsaken NPCs totally own it! With no apologies! And it totally works!

None of the in game stuff suggests people get "re-killed"  one guy goes off and tries to build his own forsaken with elbows but you only kill him cause he's starting an army to take over.  Other than that, people are just left to go do whatever.

[Ingmar]

Hitler wasn't a bad guy because the Americans dropped the bomb.

that's your argument.  way to go.

What?  How the heck do you get that out of what I said?  How exactly does one even begin to compare Sylvanas to Hitler?

Forsaken plan: genocide
Other things you mention: fit within conventional warfare, or are just foolish or careless, not malicious.

Intent matters.