WoW Patch 4.2 - The Aftermath

Hot on the heels of Patch 4.1, Patch 4.2: Rage of the Firelands was thrust upon us in all its glory. With it came the opening of the Firelands, a new season of PvP, a brand new raid instance, and a host of other changes and additions. Because of the massive amount of content in this newest patch it left
many players (myself included) eagerly anticipating its arrival. Now that the patch has hit, and we have had some time to settle in, what do we the players, really think about Patch 4.2? Below you will find some of my own personal thoughts and opinions on the aftermath.

While I - like many of you - read the patch notes, and even spent quite a bit of time on the PTR, I still found myself eagerly awaiting the release of
Patch 4.2. Playing a patch on the live servers is always much better than on the PTR for obvious reasons. So when Patch 4.2 was released I
quickly downloaded the patch (thank you background downloader!) and attempted to wait patiently for the servers to come back up, although I
did have a few moments of weakness where I considered bombarding the forums with QQ messages. Once the servers were up I logged on and dove
right in.

Now that I’ve had some time to play, reflecting back I realize that Patch 4.2 was, without a doubt, one of the best patch releases I have experienced in a very long time. Which surprised me as you probably all know by now, I personally felt this patch was just a tad bit rushed. But despite that, in my personal experience, the launch of this patch went very smoothly. I experienced very few bugs, the servers didn’t require any
heavy maintenance , nor did they crash entirely. In fact despite a few minor glitches here and there, I could hardly tell that a new patch had
been implemented. This left me to ponder the question that if it was possible that almost 7 years later, Blizzard may have finally figured
this patch thing out (/knock on wood).

Okay so now we all know that I was super awesomely amazed by the smooth release of the patch, let me share my thoughts on what really matters, the contents of said patch.

Since the arrival of my twins I am anything but a hardcore raider. I simply don’t have the time, however, this isn’t such a bad thing since with their arrival it is cemented that along with my wife and older daughter I am now the proud owner of my very own in home 5-man team. And as soon as they can hold a mouse we will begin training. Now back to the topic at hand...

While I was excited about the release of the new raid instance, since I currently participate in a more casual guild that had not quite
completed the previous content, I was a little bummed out about the addition of the new raid.

Shannox is found inside the new raid instance released in Patch 4.2 (Image Source)

Why did I feel this way you wonder? As most guilds, when a new raid instance is released, all the players in that guild want to immediately dive right in, forgetting about any old content for the most part. And while we did go back and complete the old instances and even got the achievement, with all the nerfs to the bosses that were also heralded in with this patch, it left the victory feeling rather empty. Since I already felt this patch was
ushered in to quickly, I felt more than a little cheated, even though I’m sure many other players will disagree.

Despite my unhappiness with our inability to prove our worth against max level bosses, I am pleased with the new instance. Even though the first night we got wtfpwned by some glitchy mobs, I’ve found my time in the zone to be enjoyable. The bosses are challenging and are also some of the most visually appealing bosses this player has personally seen in a very long time.

With raiding taking a back burner, I have been drawn to the more casual aspects of WoW and was disappointed to find that no new 5 mans were introduced with this patch. Leaving casual players unable to raid, stuck in the same old instances, defeating the same old bosses. However, there is some hope in the form of the new daily quest hub found in Mount Hyjal and later the Firelands and the quest chain surrounding Thrall and Aggra.

While I personally have only completed a minimal amount of the new daily quests, I have found them engaging and have so far enjoyed the storyline behind them. These new quest hubs have definite potential. Ask me again in a month though and my tune may have changed. It isn’t all sunshine and roses though. I found myself deeply disappointed in the Thrall quest line. Being a big fan of Thrall, I was thrilled to get a look into his
deepest inner-most thoughts. But I felt the quest chain as a whole was too short, repetitive, and felt hastily thrown together, especially the ending.

alt="Firelands Portal"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/100492/preview"
width="500">

The
portal into the Firelands zone. ( href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2685001" target="_blank">Image
Source)

Overall, I find myself surprisingly pleased with Patch 4.2, even though I still maintain that it could have waited another month or two. The good things big and small mentioned above, and some that I didn’t get the chance to cover such as the introduction of the dungeon journal, the epic
quest chain to create a legendary staff,  and the removal of the key ring, far outweigh the bad. So for now, I think I’ll keep my QQing at a minimum and simply sit back and try to enjoy the new content Blizzard has created for us. Until the next patch that is.

What are you favorite and least favorite aspects of Patch 4.2? Share them with us in the comment section below!