Project Lore

QuestHelper/Carbonite & Extended QuestLog/DoubleWide Features Incoming I've never been one to play on the PTR.  Like many other players I don't want to spoil the upcoming content or experience "unfinished" gameplay.  And yet I spend hours a week just staying current with the latest news and revelations, from the Live realms and the PTR.  I guess that would make me a bit of a hypocrite - I won't spoil by playing, but get spoiled by reading occasionally - but that is the price I pay for knowledge.  So when my buddy noticed that the patch notes had changed again, he knew I would be interested. Blizzard began implementing QuestHelper functionality as part of the Secrets of Ulduar patch, and I was okay with it.  They have been trying to make leveling easier for some time now, and that change was the next logical step.  The devs seemed to have found a happy middle ground between the hardcore and the casual players thanks to additions to the tooltips.  In essence you still had to read the quest text to find out where mob X or item Y was located.  Only when you were in the general location - being able to mouseover an objective - would you be tipped off.  No biggie.  Enter Call of the Crusade, which is taking it a step further.

• A skull graphic will be placed on the map in the general area where players can find creatures they must kill for a quest.
• A skull graphic with red eyes will be placed on the map in the general area where creatures can be found that must be killed in order to collect quest objects.
• A gear/cogwheel graphic will be placed on the map in the general area where players must loot quest objects found in the world.
• A chat bubble graphic will be placed on the map in the general area where players must interact with a specific NPC for a quest.
• A yellow question mark graphic will show on the map to provide the location of a NPC whose quest the player has completed.

Aside from these obvious benefits, former downloaders of quest helping mods should see an increase in available system resources and (slightly) more secure accounts. Okay, this is way further then I expected Blizzard to go.  Before the hardcore base goes all "reading comprehension" on us let's take a step back.  Remove yourself from the discussion and just look at WoW as a product.  Blizzard, the creator of said product, is looking at QuestHelper, and mods like it, and realizes that it is one of the most downloaded add-ons for World of Warcraft.  What would you expect them to do?  Would you want them to simply ignore the actions of millions of players?  No, of course not. Here's the rub, many other UI changes are getting the option to be toggled on or off, but Zarhym's updates make no mention of that for the topic at hand.  If you want to play WoW the hardcore old school way it doesn't seem to be an option.  The freedom of choice is what the hardcore should be complaining about, not the dumbing down of a part of WoW that you are no longer a part of. Under what circumstances would you accept the added features to the world map?  Would it have been acceptable to you if it was implemented back in 2004?  Should the option be defaulted off?  Are you going to abandon your helpful questing mod if the feature goes live?  With the amount of subscribers reaching a plateau, does it even matter at this stage in the game? Let the QQ begin. <popcorn>

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Good lord.  You do a post on just recently announced content and the day it goes live Blizzard drops a cavalcade of new information on the WoW playing populace.  I don't know about you, but when this much information comes out at once I tend to become overwhelmed.   Sure, there isn't much to digest rogue-wise (yay Axes! </sarcasm> Daggers fo' lyfe yo!), or even priest-wise, so that cuts out most of the critical thinking that goes into patch notes for me.  With nothing to QQ about I have been focusing on the little gems and locating overlooked modifications. For example, the ability to level in battlegrounds (via quests, not killing people, which would be cooler) is one hot tamale.  It's also a feature that has been requested for some time.  When this was originally discovered pre-patch notes, people were worried about the state of twinking.  Well, Blizzard has all those level 19 rogues in VanCleef gear covered with the power to turn off XP gain.  That feature is simply huge and goes well beyond twinking to "classic" servers.  While not exactly the same as a vanilla or TBC locked server, turning off your XP gain can enable nostalgic gamers to level a character to 60, or 70, and play as if it were 2004, or 2007!  In the end I think this is a great solution to the classic server problem.  It enables those rosey-eyed gamers to (almost) get what they want, but doesn't cost Blizzard much of anything. My fellow vanity pet collectors are likely rejoicing over the new critters we can add to our stables.  It isn't just a token addition either.  Sure, the Argent Tournament has another one, and you can go the cheesy way and purchase one from Breanni, but the true nuts will be out in Un'Goro, Stranglethorn Vale and numerous other areas farming the pets from elite raptors across Azeroth.  A total of 8 vanity pets have been added to the game (not including Argent Tournament rewards).  Pet owners aren't the only players getting some dinosaur action.  Horde players can pick up a poisonous Ravasaur mount from the trainer in Un'Goro.  Yes, the mount is Horde only. We also have more profession changes.  The biggest one that I came across was the change to potion stacking.  No longer will raiders have to dedicate a full bag to their assorted potions, as they will now stack to a respectable amount, 20.  Of course I foresee most raiders filling their bags with stacks of 20 anyways, crazy blocks that they are.  In Cooking we have the tweak to the Chef's Hat.  The fashionable cookware not only makes you looks good, no to mention dedicated to the art of cuisine, but enables Wolfgang Puck impersonators to cook faster.  I'll be picking up one of these bad boys for that utility.  Still no concrete data on the "increase benefits" to the Engineering goodies though, but it's nice to see that Potion Injectors give an added 25% benefit when used by a tinkerer.  Gas cloud discovery is being moved to the Mote Extractor and off the Goggles.  What the hell took so long? Call of the Crusade is shaping up to be a nice patch.  It may not have an ostentatious sized raid like Secrets of Ulduar, but it does have a copious collection of changes.  What diamonds in the rough have you most excited?  Perhaps actual (epic) diamonds?  Maybe the bloating of the Dalaran Sewers Arena map?

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Normally when Blizzard starts releasing this much information on a patch in such a short time frame it means that the patch is on the horizon.  I'd be pretty shocked if Call of the Crusade came out so soon after Ulduar, but Blizzard has to battle with Summer somehow.  After all most guilds are still working on their first clear of the Titan and Old God happy fun zone.  Getting behind on our raiding won't stop us from absorbing all the new information though! As we already knew, the coliseum will be completed when Patch 3.2, an update that basically revolves around the Argent Crusade, is launched.  The additional details that Bornakk gave us yesterday are the interesting morsels.

• A new "epic 10- and 25-player raid dungeon with five encounters".  The new raid will also contain an interesting property, the raid will sport four difficulty levels, 10- and 25-man normal and 10- and 25-man heroic.  Did I read that right, we get one boss per week?  Or are my reading comprehension skills shot from lack of sleep?
• Crusader's Tribute - The tribute system is an attempt to reward the best players for their consistency.  The setup "will limit players on the number of attempts they get in the Coliseum each week."  The less attempts you need to clear, the more rewards you can reap.  Utterly fail and you get nothing.  Better be sure to have well-oiled, well-geared, alert and sober members in the runs.
• New 5-man dungeon with three encounters.  Each encounter will reward a Champion's Seal.
• New tier of armor and weapons.  The phat loot will be modeled with Alliance- and Horde-specific themes.

The added difficulties are nice, but I fear having to farm four different raids for gear.  Hopefully Blizzard realizes how annoying that will be, and distributes the gear accordingly.  At first I thought that the lockout mechanic was rather annoying, but if they do plan on releasing Call of the Crusade soon, then the small amount of content combined with the lockout period would allow players to keep Ulduar as their main target, and head over to the Coliseum for a quick fix of loot and change of scenery.  I would equate it to a lengthier Malygos, better loot, but not the focus. I like the Crusader's Tribute idea, but I am sure I will get annoyed with the mechanic once a healer disconnects on the pull.  But in theory, rewarding for skill and dedication is a good way to go.  All things considered, the Coliseum definitely follows the same design philosophy as Argent Tournament, solo gameplay.  Allow me to finish.  Although you need buddies to help you through the raids and dungeons, I'd wager that it'll all be over quickly which means it should be PUG friendly.  Also, I haven't read anything on the raid's difficulty. I can't help but wonder what is going to be the lore behind the area.  I mean are these encounters just to challenge our skills for the upcoming conflict with Arthas, or did some nefarious organization infiltrate the Coliseum and set up shop?  I'm sure many of you don't care about the storyline aspect, but I need more than just loot. Do you raid leaders already have A and B groups in mind for the Coliseum Tribute runs?  Think the new content will be ezmode, or another small step up in difficulty? Let's not forget the other, more Argent Tournament-based, Patch 3.2 details that Amatera detailed earlier this week, and Heartbourne's profession changes.

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Blue poster Zarhym on Wednesday night announced some pretty huge mount changes coming up for the next major content patch, 3.2. You'll be able to learn your apprentice, journeyman and expert riding skills all considerably earlier than before and at a reduced cost. As an added bonus, regular flying mounts now will fly at 150% speed, instead of 60%. All of this, Zarhym said, is "to further improve the leveling experience in World of Warcraft." Here's the breakdown of changes to cost and level requirements, according to what Zarhym posted, with my own notes in italics:

• Apprentice Riding (Skill 75)
  • 60% land mount speed
  • Requires level 20 - a whole 10 levels earlier
  • Cost: 4 gold - way down from 35g
  • Mount cost: 1 gold - instead of 10g
  • Mail will be sent to players at level 20 guiding them to the riding trainer

• Journeyman Riding (Skill 150)
  • 100% land mount speed
  • Requires level 40 - OMG 20 levels sooner!
  • Cost: 50 gold - currently 600g
  • Mount cost: 10 gold - down from 100g
  • Mail will be sent to players at level 40 guiding them back to the riding trainer

• Expert Riding (Skill 225)
  • 150% flying mount speed instead of 60%; 60% land mount speed
  • Requires level 60 - Previously level 70
  • Cost: 600 gold (faction discounts now apply) - currently 800g
  • Mount Cost: 50 gold - down from 100g
  • Can now be learned in Honor Hold (Alliance) or Thrallmar (Horde)

• Artisan Riding (Skill 300)
  • 280% flying mount speed; 100% land mount speed
  • Requires level 70
  • Cost: 5,000 gold (faction discounts now apply)
  • Mount Cost: 100 gold - instead of 200g

And, after getting lots of questions from other posters about Cold Weather Flying, Zarhym replied that at least that much will "remain unchanged." It looks to me like these changes will help leveling go quite a bit faster, especially when in many of the wide, open spaces common throughout Azeroth. Not to mention the zones in Outland, too! AND the huge price slashes will mean that it's much less of a hardship for players to pay for mounts, especially for those poor alts. Most people in the forums seem to be pretty ecstatic about the announcement, but there are plenty also who are starting to say that the changes are catered toward the casual player (or that they should have been implemented xx months ago!). But these changes will affect everyone across the board - and in my opinion, it's all for the good. It's not about being lazy when leveling - it's about enjoying the game. And I think for a lot of us, mounts are fun. Zarhym also announced that the casting time for summoning all mounts will go from its current 3 seconds down to 1.5 seconds. Which, to me, equals a greater chance that I'll be able to get my mount out in time after breaking stealth and before getting attacked. And maybe you also can successfully escape any other baddies heading your way before entering combat. I guess that would "improve the leveling experience" in my book. Add this to all the other changes coming for Call of the Crusade, and a new battleground, and I'm just giddy. So what does everyone else think about these upcoming changes? FTW? Or FTL?

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What, No Official Trailer? Wow, Blizzard's holiday announcement was certainly unexpected.  The company began discussing the intimate details of Patch v3.2 starting with its official title, Call of the Crusade.  Previously, we were enlightened to some of CotC's updates thanks to various forum revelations, like the new battleground and Argent Tournament updates.  Now we have some additional juicy details to salivate over. As the title suggests, Patch v3.2 will bring us one step closer to the upcoming battle with Arthas.  In preparation, the Argent Crusade will drastically expand their operations in the area thanks to all the resources we have happily donated.  Those of you who are, like me, a bit bored of the Argent Tournament will be happy to know that the Crusade will unleash a collection of "new dailies, rewards, and more" in an attempt to lure us into the soon-to-be-erected coliseum.  The Crusade's new digs is no joke, it'll contain not only a 5-player challenges, but 10- and 25-player ones as well.  It is unknown what these tasks will be, PvP, PvE or some combination thereof. For the PvPers out there, not me, you've got two things coming your way.  Amazingly, the start of Season 7 at the outset of Patch v3.2 probably isn't the most exciting bit of news.  Nope, that would belong to the Isle of Conquest announcement, a new "large-scale siege Battleground."  According to Zarhym, the Isle will be a battle over resources that plays out in the style of “Wintergrasp combined with Alterac Valley.“   I absolutely loved the age old Alterac Valley - not the original, original incarnation, but the tweaked vanilla WoW version - and combining it with the best aspects of open world PvP makes this rogue sharpen his pokers and "practice my stabbing". Best of all, it appears that Blizzard has gotten ahold of their patch development cycles, because this patch is expected in a more timely manner.  When chastised by a player who didn't expect the patch before the end of the year the disembodied skull of Zarhym stated that his "presumed time lines are way too inflated? :)"  Of course he could have been referring to when we will see Icecrown Citadel...that wouldn't be bad either. New solo content, check.  New PvP content, check.  New PvE content - probably part of the Coliseum updates - check.  So ladies and gentlemen, let the thoughts, impressions, QQing and sequels of excitement begin!

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