Project Lore

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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Blizzard Poster Wryxian added a wall of blue text to the official forums yesterday, dealing entirely with the upcoming patch. Being the first major patch since Wrath of the Lich King went live means we expect many changes, but the list is slowly leaning towards ridiculousness. As of yesterday, the up-to-date Player Test Realm notes for Patch v3.0.8 stands at a full six posts from our boney friend. Needless to say, it is a lot to digest and cover.

Not everything is new to the list, so if you have been keeping yourself abreast of the situation, then you will only have to add small morsels to your extensive knowledge. Every aspect of World of Warcraft will see some small changes with v3.0.8. Some of the most drastic changes target the newly added Wrath content, namely the Death Knight class. Most of that information is old hat, but tweaks to Wrath's PvP contributions aren't. Despite the laundry list of changes to Lake Wintergrasp and Strand of the Ancients, nothing comes off as earth shattering, except the change in marks. For some actual game changes we have to move to the professions.

Here are some of the highlights to the profession changes:

• All flasks no longer require an alchemy lab to create. (Alchemy)
• Reduced the cooldown on Northrend Alchemy Research from 7 days to 3 days. (Alchemy)
• Succulent Orca Stew and Shoveltusk Soup have been removed from the requirements for any cooking achievements as they will not be added to the game. (Cooking)
• Many high level enchantment recipes have had the amount of Infinite Dust and Greater Cosmic Essence requirements significantly reduced, but with Dream Shards being added to them. (Enchanting)
• Added a new recipe to convert a frozen orb and some green quality gems into several superior quality gems. (Jewelcrafting)
• Mining veins and deposits no longer require multiple hits to receive all the ore. Players will receive around the same amount of ore, stone, and gems they would have received from multiple hits. (Mining)

Personally, my two main toons are not too effected by any of the changes. My priest is in it for the money, thus she is a strict gatherer – Skinning and Herbalism. The rogue will love the change to mining, even though it is four years late, for its speediness.  The flip side is that he will miss the ability to Sap, ninja and go for a HK that he enjoyed so. Heck, even their class changes aren't worth mentioning.  Can't complain about cheaper enchants though!

Blizzard managed to squeak in some UI changes that no one specifically asked for, but are happy to see. The company has pledged to implement much needed anti-scamming measures into WoW and the first of such will come with this patch. MMO-Champion.com gave us the first details and screenshots the other day, and it is a valiant effort by Blizzard, but I am not sure how much scamming it will curb. In practice a GM chat request window will pop-up when a GM wishes to chat with you. Upon clicking it a self-contained GM chat window will show up on the screen.

This is all fine and dandy, but the biggest problem is the dissemination of the information. I doubt most players will realize the request feature has been added, so they won't expect it, leaving some of them open to the same type of scamming we see today. At least Blizzard is finally trying something though, even if it is just to cover their ass.  Naturally, the one thing Wryxian didn't update us on is when the patch is coming out...

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