Tuesday, October 11, 2005

WoW Patch 1.8 - Blizzard gets a clue?

Link to the World of Warcraft 1.8 patch notes.

To start off I just want to say that I am surprised by this patch. I don't get to play tuesdays because the servers are down for weekly maintenance during my play time... so I really don't do anything with WoW unless there is a patch going live. Well 1.8 blind sided me and now that I am at work... I am catching up on the patch notes. But enough of my boring life... onto the commentary.

Disturbance at the Great Trees and The Stirring of the Silithid... or as I like to call them... epic loot for the casual crowd. No long raid instances! The dragons should offer the chance for pick up raids to hopefully beat them into the ground. The new content in Silithus basically breaks down into grind for epic items. Will have to see how it pans out though.

Next we have "The mechanics of most instant melee attacks have been modified to improve item balance." Probably the most controversial of the patch changes... but it really doesn't need to be. Most epic weapons are now better than their blue cousins. Fix that was needed... even though I hate loot being > player skill. You were near the top end with easier to get blue items... but now those are slightly nerfed. Oh well.

My favorite patch note... "The percentage of players that may reach ranks 6 through 14 has been increased." Finally!

Then there is... "Alterac Valley has received an overhaul", but I doubt this will pull people out of Arathi Basin. Most people only grind the FOTM battleground because of the epic rewards for exalted and revered reputation. Which just got easier... "Each Battleground has an individual turn-in quest associated with its related victory/loss condition. Upon completion of a Battleground, the winning side will be awarded three Marks of Honor while the losing side will be awarded one Mark of Honor. Three Marks of Honor may be turned in to the associated questgiver for Honor Points and faction increase. Should players complete this turn-in quest, they will find that the bonus Honor Points for completion are twice that of normal turn-in conditions (individual)." Hopefully it does make it easier and maybe gets some more battlegrounds open.

Bug fix that has been around forever for my shaman class... "Ghost Wolf - Will now correctly have its cast time reduced by Nature's Swiftness."

Leatherworking got A LOT of new items... so maybe it is a good thing I held onto it. However I don't have skinning anymore so probably be stuck in the auction house for materials.

"Latency upon entering crowded areas, such as Ironforge and Orgrimmar, should be substantially reduced." I am skeptical at best on this... we will see when I log on tommorow.

Farmers = OWNED. "Tyr's Hand now has the proper outdoor elite monster respawn time.
Hearthglen now has the proper outdoor elite respawn time."
Never could figure out why these places spawned every couple seconds resulting in the perfect gold farming spots.

Overall it seems Blizzard is making some good moves. I must say that I am surprised and I will continue to play :) This is exactly what I needed to stay interested!

4 comments:

  1. Have you found the game runs worse now since the patch?

    My guild and I have always had problems, and some comment that its worse with the patch.

    All i know is that its pretty laggy in silithus , just cuz EVERYONE is hanging out there. Well, everyone higher than lvl 50 anyways.

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  2. No problems in Ogrimmar and it actually loaded without freezing. I was able to open my paperdoll and mailbox with no freezing.

    I am on a middle ground system... and I've had no problems what so ever with WoW other than when everyone else was having problems.

    I only played for 30 minutes today before servers went down :(

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  3. Anonymous1:35 AM

    After playing it, the patch is pretty bogus from a 'soloing' standpoint. You can't solo any of the elemental bosses, requiring at least two people for them. The Dukes are a five-man minimum, with the Air one really requiring you to have more people helping. Forget about the Greater Wind Stone guys.

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  4. Silithus content is good in the fact it finally is a stepping stone progress type thing for casual gamers to get into raiding and more group dynamic content other than 5 man instances.

    It was foolish of me to think it was straight grind for epics. That is what BG faction and other such things are for.

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