WoW Patch 2.1 Preview

By: Byron Mudry - Messiah

Earlier this week, Blizzard released what may be the biggest set of patch notes yet for the World of Warcraft. The notes are not your standard fare of small changes, tweaks and fixes, instead it appears to be a massive set of additions and changes to the game. This has shocked and pleased many players at the same time. Shocked many, as this comes so soon after the release of the Burning Crusade, and pleased many that are already done most of the Burning Crusades content. So, what are the big changes?

The Black Temple opens!

The most anticipated addition has to be the opening of the Black Temple. While many players will never see the inside of this raid instance, it will be the end game goal of every raider out there. Not much is known about the Black Temple other than it was the once home of pit lord Magtheridon, until Illidan defeated him and took over the Temple. It now houses Illidan and his followers and more importantly the Tier 6 Raid armor set and other Epic loot that can only be found there.

Additional Group and Solo Content

In addition to the new raid instance, several new group and solo quest hubs have been opened throughout the Outlands. They are the Ethereum Prison (Consortium related), Skettis (The Arakkoa capital city), and Ogri'la (the ogre plateau of enlightenment, if that is even possible). All three open up to players that have reached level 70 and have enough reputation with the appropriate faction.

Skettis

The Ethereum Prison is an area where you deal with the Consortiums enemies the Ethereum. It has a ton of new quests, items and solo and small group content.

Orgri'la

Skettis can be found in the mountains of Terrokar and must be accessed with your own flying mount. It is mainly aimed at solo and small groups, but does have some 5 man bosses. It also has many rare and epic rewards available as well as access to a new flying mount, the Nether Drake. The Drake is obtainable through a long and difficult quest chain, and is a 280% speed epic flying mount.

The last of the new areas is Orgri'la, found in the Blade's Edge Mountains. Again this area is to host a ton of new quests, with a bit more focus on 5 man content this time, new rare and epic rewards and more. Orgri'la and Skettis will also feature many of the very popular bombing run type quests, several from your own mount! I know I can't wait to try these out as they were some of my favorite quests in the Hellfire Peninsula.

Class Changes

Oh, man, where to start. Each class has a huge list of changes. Some are drastic, some are tweaks. All in all though most seem pretty solid, although a few bug me.

The biggest and best to me are:

All Rogues get improved Sap! This means all Rogues will be good for crowd control in instances, however it also means that you need to watch out in PvP even more. Hunters mend pet improved. This is no longer a channel spell, instead it's a casted heal over time spell. A great change and much needed. Hunters who feign death will not appear dead to party members or interrupt friendly spells being cast on them. Druid epic flight form is available through what is said to be a long and difficult quest chain. Warriors ignoring slowing effects during charges, intervene, etc

Some of the "nerfs" are:

Paladins lose some healing power due to illumination returning 50% mana instead of 100% Shamans lose the ability to have different ranks of Windfury on different weapons to increase the proc rate. Item Changes

Shadow Priest Tier 5 Item
(old and new)

Another big change is that many items and drops are changing with the patch. For starters all Tier 5 and above items have been upgraded, which is great news for raiders as currently they are sort of bleh. Allot of items that had extra armor as part of their bonus are being looked at and upgraded. In Heroic instances, the end bosses will now always drop an epic item which is good news for raid and group players alike. Also all Heroic bosses have had epic gems added to their drop table. Another minor loot change is the addition of several new sets of Darkmoon cards which can be traded in for even more powerful trinkets at the Darkmoon Fair.

Just one of the changes to Tier 5 items is shown to the right. The first Shroud of the Avatar is the existing one, while the second one is the new improved version. All the Tier 5 items saw similar improvements.

Profession Changes

Professions have also undergone many significant changes. The biggest two being how Elixirs work for Alchemists and the addition of a ton of new goggles for Engineers. Fishing has also undergone a change to make it easier and quicker to fish. Most of the other professions have had minor tweaks done to them.

Elixirs now are labeled as with offensive or defensive, and each player can only have one of each effecting them at a time. In addition Elixirs have all become much cheaper to make, but also have a lesser effect on players. Elixirs however do now stack with class abilities such as Arcane Intellect. They can also be carried in stacks up to 20. This will be a significant change to raiders who are used to using 3 or 4 different elixirs at a time to maximize their effectiveness in raids. Engineers should be thrilled that so many new patterns will open up to them at skill level 350. This should allow them to level to 375 more easily by creating either items they can use, or at least provide more options.

PvP Changes

Just so that PvP players would not feel left out a new PvP arena has been added: The Ruins of Lordaeron. Along with this will likely come new rewards that players need to fight towards.

Also two new titles are available for all those vain PvP'ers that need everyone to know that they are the best of the best. If you become exalted with all three PvP battlegrounds (Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin and Warson Gulch) you can earn the title of Justicar if you are Alliance or Conqueror if you are Horde.

Overall

As you can see the patch pretty much covers all aspects of the game. As such there really is something for everyone. If you don't believe me, check the complete patch notes in our Wiki.

Of course these being notes from the test realm they are open to change before release to the regular servers, but so far they look pretty good.

Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been missed? Found an error? We would love to hear from you! Please email me: Byron Mudry at messiah@tentonhammer.com