So it looks like 4.1 is finally hitting the live World of Warcraft servers today. This means loads of recycled stuff like Zul’Aman and Zul’Gurub along with some new bits in the form of Guild Challenges, the Guild Finder and the epic failure-to-be/tank money-maker known as the Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms. No raid, no Ragnaros and no super-epic legendary weapons, not until 4.2 which should hit the PTR in 3, 2, 1 …

As emergency major content patches go, Blizzard has at least attempted to bulk this one out with some semi-decent roughage but, that said, the knowledge that we should have an encounter with Ragnaros … well it burns. It’s conspicuous in its absence. However, this patch - unlike prior ones - also seems to focus solely on level 85 characters and, from someone who spent her mid 40s being ganked in STV, well I’d love to say the idea or returning appeals. Needless to say, it doesn’t.

I remember just before the release of Black Temple, IGN did a video piece where one of the devs showed them around this massive dungeon, the pinnacle of TBC’s endgame and a comment was made that most players - basically you and me - would never see this content. It was simply too hard, to uber, for most players and so would only be accessible to the Ensidias and the Paragons of the day.

For some reason, after that, everything changed and Blizzard started being all-inclusive. The endgame - which continues to mean an epic raid against the fearsome X (plus minons) in their stronghold Y - is still about raiding. That’s never going to change but it will get easier, after all, just look at ICC. It started as a truly impossibly task - as taking the Lich King down should have been - but once the World Firsts were out of the way, a buff was introduced that slowly, over the next few months, lowered the difficulty. It was still hard, still required numerous wipes and so much knowledge of tactics but the impossible became possible. Is that what’s going to happen with Ragnaros in 4.1 or with Deathwing at Cataclysm’s conclusion?

Are you gonna kill this guy again just for the loot?

In patches past, you used to get better gear by doing the end-game stuff, which in turn made it easier to get to and kill the final bosses of the story arc, the Illidans, the Kil’Jaedens, the Ragnaroses’ and the Lich Kings of their expansions. Now you can get the same gear as someone doing the hardest of heroics can wear the same level of gear as someone doing Bastion of Twilight and taking Sinestra’s shiny drops as their own.

In theory this works well, it’s inclusive - as long as you like running heroics and collecting badges - but there’s still something to be said for raiding the old fashioned way, for starting at A and working your way through to Z. Collecting gear via heroics just seems a little bit like cheating, after all it’s the experience which makes you a good raider.

The addition of the Zuls, now reborn as level 85, five-man dungeons, just adds to this problem. Blizzard’s main touting point was the level of gear you can get by running the dungeons and it feels like they got their marketing screwed up. The focus should be on the encounters, not the loot. Loot has and always should be a reward for getting down the boss, not the reason for killing them in the first place. And, of course, this is something they’re gonna keep on doing as WoW goes from one extreme to the other.

But because they’ve put all their eggs in one recycled basket, I can’t help wondering how long the Zuls will keep raiders entertained. Yes there will be pets and mounts but it’s still stuff we’ve done before … only much harder and I don’t think that’s the way Blizzard should be going. Only time will tell though but I’d be interested to know whether you’ll be doing the new 4.1 content for the lore, for the loot or for the challenge? Drop us a line in the comments box below.