style="">The Call of the
Crusade, aka Patch 3.2

style="width: 193px; height: 133px;" alt="PTR"
src="/image/view/70963">

The
patch of all patches is slowly making its way to the
live servers. The size of this patch in both megabytes and content is
staggering. There is not a facet of the game being left untouched. Old
world
Azeroth will see many more mounts for lower level characters and more
Zeppelins
and portals. PvP has a whole new zone (Battleground) and PvE gets all
kinds of
modifications. 
Professions have
something to look forward to (Engineering especially), and some things
will be
going away (Ulduar Proto-Drake).

The
volume of changes is fairly large, but looking at some
bite-sized chunks, we’ll attempt to review the highlights.

First
of all, let’s review the cool new content:

style="">New Raid Instance –
Argent Coliseum

class="MsoNormal"> style="width: 354px; height: 244px;" alt="Coliseum"
src="/image/view/70961">

Keeping
with the “Get in, get some loot and get out”
methodology, Blizzard is recreating another Ring of Blood style
encounter with
all kinds of different difficulty flavors. There will be the 10 Man
Normal and
Heroic, as well as the 25 Man Normal and Heroic to satisfy all your
raid size
needs. The coliseum offers multiple ways for players to gather gear and
introduces another “Tribute” run where player
parties gather better loot the
less they die.

style="">New 5 Man Dungeon –
Trial of the Champion

Trial
of the Champion will pit heroes of each faction
against the players. The Horde and Alliance will face different bosses
in the
encounters which is definitely a new twist.

style="">New Boss – Koralon
the Flame Watcher

In
addition to the new instance, there is a new boss in
Vault of Archavon – Koralon the Flame Watcher. Will Koralon
be the next rung up
on the difficulty ladder like Algalon or will they scale it back a bit?
Did you
hear about the next boss for VoA? I think it’s going to be
Calgon the
Relaxation Watcher.

[protip]You can test out the bosses yourself, watch the test realm forum for specific testing times.[/protip]

style="">New Battleground –
Isle of Conquest

style="width: 350px; height: 412px;" alt="Isle of Conquest"
src="/image/view/70962">

A new
40 Man battleground is heading our way with more of
what we’ve seen in the latest incarnations of PvP territories. style="">  Siege
vehicles, nodes to capture, keeps to
defend, it’s all in there.

style="">New Dailies – Argent
Tournament

Two
new quest hubs and more dailies are going to be
available as the Argent Circus increases the size of the carnival.
Showing just
how much fun we can have in Arthas’ backyard, players will
play and quest for
new mounts and new heirlooms among many other rewards.

style="">New Holiday – Pilgrim’s
Bounty

While
this content may or may not launch exactly with the
patch, it is new content. Now say this in your best John Wayne voice
“Well
don’t fret about that pilgrim.” (Watch
“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” or at
least look it up.) The new holiday is obviously a play on Thanksgiving
and
provides yet another set of achievements, recipes, cosmetic trinkets
and all
the things we’ve grown (or is that groan) to love with
holiday events.

In
addition to the new content, much of the established
content is receiving a face lift, a nip and tuck, or a flat out whack.
The
major modifications include the following:

style="">Class changes

There
are so many class changes already announced that this
article can’t do them justice. Lucky for us, some of our
writers have been able
to tackle the preliminary test realm changes. You can read up on the
Druid, Death Knight, Hunter, Paladin, Mages and Warlock. Some of the
class
changes haven’t been announced, so keep watching for updates.

style="">PvP – Wintergrasp

New
for Patch 3.2, Wintergrasp will be receiving a cap on
the number of participants. Players may queue up for the battle 15
minutes
prior to the start, and the “instance” of
Wintergrasp will allow the first 100
participants for each side into the battle. Will capping the battle at
200
players work out? Hopefully extensive testing can be completed on this
prior to
it going live.

style="">Raids – Loot
Distribution

Loot
in raids will now be transferrable as “Item will bind
soon” 
and can be traded to any
party/raid member eligible to loot that item. This is quite a feat as
the
number of “oops” from the master looter
won’t require a ticket to a GM.

style="">Profession changes

Engineers
seem to be getting the lion’s share of the
profession boost, but many professions are seeing beneficial changes.
In
addition to improving current engineer gadgets (Mana/Health Injectors
will
provide a 25% buff), the overall usefulness of being an engineer is
getting
better. Mote tracking will work better, MOLL-E is getting a shorter
cooldown,
and these are just the first round of changes.

A
welcome change to Alchemy that helps us all is that Potions
will stack up to 20 per slot. Fishing and Cooking professions are also
getting
more recipes and rewards, many centering on the new holiday, The
Pilgrim’s
Bounty.

style="">New Emblems –Consolidation
of Old Emblems

Emblems
of Heroism and Valor are officially on the
endangered species list as they will become extinct when the Patch goes
live.
All instances that drop these two emblems in the current live game will
start
dropping Emblems of Conquest. Emblems of Conquest become generic and
can be
traded for Emblems of Heroism or Valor. The latest and greatest raid
will offer
up Emblems of Triumph. The forums are a buzz with discussions about
players
getting tier 8 gear without ever setting foot in a raid, but
we’ll address that
later, if we need to.

 

class="MsoNormal">

class="MsoNormal"> style="width: 100px; height: 111px;" alt="Custodian"
src="/image/view/70960">

The changes to mounts are both welcome and a long time in
the making. Who hasn’t wanted a mount at level 20? The
Barrens may not be the
worst zone to adventure in at higher speeds. On top of mounts being
available
sooner, the flying mounts will be available to level 60 players,
meaning that
the Outlands will be a lot easier (and faster, the standard flying
mount will
be a 150% speed increase – it is currently 60%).

style="">Achievements

Children’s
Week will have a whole new set of achievements
and quests to be completed in Northrend. Much of the new achievements
will
revolve around the Argent Crusade as well as the raids.

style="">Classic/Retro Raiding

Experience
points will become voluntary, not compulsory if
the latest patch goes live. Players will have the option to turn off
the
experience gains for their characters which provides twinks a benefit
as well
as those role players who want to truly role play at a certain level.

style="">UI Changes

Boy
howdy, we’re looking at some decent changes. style="">  Casting
bars of a target will show whether or
not the spell is interruptible at their portrait. Hopefully this will
cut down
on the misfires only to find that a boss can’t be interrupted.

All
items will now show vendor prices, another way that
Blizzard is cutting out some addon developer’s mod.

Last
but not least, totems will no longer be targetable by
name so those Shaman brave enough to enter PvP areas can rely on them
for a
least a second or two longer.

 

style="">The Only Thing
Constant is Change

Patch
Notes always need to be taken with a grain of salt, so
don’t get too attached or disappointed if the news changes.
These latest
changes seem to be fairly stable though, so expect most of them to
arrive in
some fashion or another. Watch Ten Ton Hammer for ongoing coverage of
Patch
3.2, The Call of the Crusade.