WoW Beta Patch 0.10.0
By: Thurston "Ratboy" Hillman
And so we have it, another patch filled with solutions, fixes and of course some odd quirks here and there. All in all from the past few days of playing it, the 0.10.0 patch for the WoW Beta has been a definite improvement over the previous patch and this trend continues to show how much Blizzard Entertainment strives for quality products.
Major Changes:
Raid Groups & High Level Locations: Sadly due to my level in the Beta, I havent dared to venture into any of the High Level Locations, so I cant really say anything about those. Also I have yet to engage in a raid group (though I am soon intending on doing it for my next instance dungeon), so again I cannot comment. If you are interested in these features (or all the others for that matter) feel free to read about them on the Blizzard Patch Notes site located at: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/patch-9-18-04.shtml
Deeprun Tram: When the new patch came out, the first thing I wanted to look into was this much talked about Deeprun Tram. So my first stop in the new patch was to catch a griffon ride to Stormwind and check out this amazing new piece of transportation.
My initial impression of the tram was pretty much awe (as it is with most stuff I see in WoW). The Tram itself is accessed from the Dwarven District in Stormwind or the Gnomish end of Ironforge, going through either end loads up a quick instance that is the Deeprun Tram (it is one of the few loading pieces of the game). The load to enter the Tram Station takes my computer roughly 3-6 seconds, so its not a big deterrent to wait for.
Once I tried the Tram out a few times (well, enough times to get 124 pictures for ) I started thinking about it versus the griffon rides. First off, the tram is (currently ) free, though there is a little booth section that looks like it COULD hold some sort of ticket vendors. Secondly, the Tram ride is seemingly quicker to take then a griffon ride. Of course if you are taking multiple griffon rides I would spend the extra silver to simply save time and take the direct griffon services.
On a final note for the Tram; try not to hop off! It takes a fair while to get back to either end depending on where you exit from the tram, of course the underwater aspect of the Tram is something neat to take in if you have some time to kill.
A TenTonHammer gallery of the tram can be viewed here:
Three TenTonHammer video clips of the Tram can be viewed here:
http://wow.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=UpDownload&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=3
The Death of Skill Points and the Introduction of Professions: While this didnt have a huge impact on my character, the death of skill points is an interesting change to the game. Originally you accumulated skill points to spend on acquiring skills, but now that has been replaced with purchasing the training for the newly named professions.
Thankfully however you still need to use the skills and improve in them before you can purchase higher-level training. So there is currently no real way to simply go in and buy all the training you want. Again this change isnt really major, but it simplifies the profession style of skills making the game a bit less number confusing.
Talents: Talents have been added for the shaman and druid class, so those two classes now have access to talent trees! Several of the currently existing talent trees have been flip flopped around with numerous changes here, there and everywhere!
As far as my personal experience with the talent tree reworks, Ive noticed that Ive been forced to remove all my current talents and reallocate them. Seems that with the new patch one of my arcane talents disappeared from tier one of the tree and those points vanished into the blue yonder (though their still shown as being used). Again, talents have seen some reworking and seem to operate a bit better now.
General Notes: All right, now lets get to the part that really counts about this whole patch, the things Ive really started to notice about it. Keeping in mind that I play a mage, I am slightly jaded on a few of the changes but I can tell you what has affected me so far.
Firstly there has been a neat change to the quickbar at the bottom of the screen. Originally I would have to guesstimate the range of my spells and start far back and inch my way in so I could get maximum effectiveness with ranged magic attacks. Now if you target an enemy the number in the quickbar will be red if you arent in range. This has been INCREDIBLY useful for planning attacks on enemies.
One interesting thing that happened to my character was that once the patch was installed and I went to see my trainer, I was given a quest I had previously gone through before. Of course I did the quest again (yeah free XP) but it was another strange quirk I noticed.
Another piece of note in the new patch is the strange delay that occurs when you engage in eating and drinking. Being a mage I eat and drink tons upon tons of conjured foodstuffs, and Ive been noticing in the new patch there seems to be a lag time from when I eat to when I sit down, sometimes even canceling the effects of the food.
Final Thoughts: All in all this patch is a standard Blizzard patch, which means it has taken an existing amazing product and improved upon it while keeping it a fine quality item. Whether or not youre looking for higher-level locations, or a crazy gnomish invention that takes you halfway across a continent; this patch has it for you!
However I would like to remind all Beta Players and non-Beta Players at this time that you can come spend some time over at our site; wow.tentonhammer.com. Our site is covering news, posting galleries, and hosting a friendly community in anticipation of WoW going gold. All this will be continuing even after the game goes live, and until then were even doing weekly give-aways for pre-orders of WoW! So come check us out.
-Thurston Ratboy Hillman
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