World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

Welcome to The Overpull, Ten Ton Hammer's weekly newsletter that discusses all things WoW.
 

Patch 3.2 has been released. Let that soak in a minute. Seriously, the patch that seemed way off in the distance is now hitting us all upside the head.

The dungeons, the tournament changes, the mount changes, the recipe changes, the emblem changes are all now in the game. In case you have been on vacation digging a mineshaft with no internet, read up on the Hot Content so you don't show up at the party dressed like a clown.

Biggest win in memory - a patch day where the servers go live before people on the west coast get home from work.

And lest we forget, who called it? Quote from last week's Overpull:
"Blizzard wants to get the patch out the door as soon as possible so that Blizzcon can be all about the next expansion that they are going to announce."
That's right, who's your daddy? I'll be naming the winners of the Blizzcon Tournament next week.
   
Blues Clues 

While not technically a Blue Post, there is a new addition to the Call of the Crusade website showing the trailer for Patch 3.2 in all it's HD glory. It's in-game machinima style so it's cool, but it's no cinematic.

As pointed out by AngryBeaver in our forums Blizzard is really just a data mining company. They announced plans to begin collecting non-personal system information. I give them my address and my credit card information already, having them dig through my porn collection doesn't really bum me out.

   

This week work has played a cruel trick on me, or it was collusion of the highest sort. I've been cranking away on a monster project (as in big project, not something cool like a Mothra project) with a few hours of sleep sprinkled in and about 6 hours on planes and 9 hours of driving. But I have shrugged off the yoke and can jump back into the game. As I hit "restart" from the downloader screen, the final 500 or so megs of Patch 3.2 are making their way into my Blizzard Updater. I'm in no hurry, so settle down, we're going to be here a while.

Where does one even start the discussion about the patch? Have we been over this ground so many times it looks like a cattle path heading to the feed barn? I for one am jazzed. Granted it doesn't take much, but I am really looking forward to so many aspects of the Call of the Crusade.

Biggest impacts on my game:

Mount-ains of fun
My poor neglected alts get their mounts after sitting in the HR office waiting as the head of HR kept explaining "you know how it is, the management isn't releasing the funds for mounts until next quarter when the new product ships."

5 Man Runs Mean Something
The core group of jackholes I run with keeps getting smaller (I know that isn't shocking any of you), but we can always muster a 5 man group. Now we can actually go run 5 Man instances and achieve some worthwhile results. The new emblem system is still a mystery but I know that getting emblems is better than not getting emblems.

New Battleground and Wintergrasp
I know many are concerned about the Wintergrasp system, but change was needed. My feeling is that the negative impacts will be far outweighed by the positive impacts. I was wrong once, but who knew Microsoft would ever go over $3 a share. The new Isle of Conquest is huge, I hope that it can bring back some of the magic of Altarac Valley. I'm not wearing rose-colored glasses, there was a time when AV was fun. It was immediately after the AFK-reporting function went in, and before the sprint to the bosses became the only way to play (yes, it was a very short period of joy).

Concerns:
What the heck am I going to do first? The amount of content I'd like to consume is akin to grabbing a spork and heading off to eat an elephant. As old what's his face said during Burning Crusade...You (I) are (am) not prepared. That was Illidan right? He should see someone about that throat issue.

Trivia time for transposers - Do you remember when patch 2.3 shipped? It had Zul'Aman, reduced leveling requirements and guild banks. How long ago does that seem? Answer: November, 2007 doesn't seem like it was almost 2 years ago. Time flies when you're trying to get that dern War Bear.

As I predicted. it appears Blizzard wants to get this patch behind them so they can focus on the expansion during Blizzcon. What awaits us at this year's edition? It's doubtful we'll see new classes or races. That means they have to dazzle us with one ton of new content. How can they provide enough content to keep the majority of the subscribers happy? They have their work cut out, I already have more to do that I have hours in the week. Will more content really be compelling? Changing factions is high on my list of cool, but that should be out well before the expansion. What cards will they hold close to their vest and what part of their hand will tip at this year's Blizzcon?

Stop by the forums and let's swap war stories about the patch, patches and patching.

Time's up, pencils down. The Update is at 99%, I'll see you in gam.......[[fade to black]].


Have a great week, and thanks for reading.

-Jay "Medeor" Johnson