3.2 Patch Notes and the Forum Uproar
So, there comes the time again when the PTR is very close and the next content patch notes are being released. This time I’ve spent some quality time reading all the whining on the EU WoW forums. Pretty amusing I must say. I won’t copy the whole notes here, as you can find them pretty much anywhere now, but I’ll keep to some more interesting points.
Rogues
- After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.
- Sword Specialization: This talent is now called Hack and Slash and applies to axes as well as swords.
There are axes in my Sword Spec! Sounds like Blizzard’s plan to make me use more weapons, which sounds pretty nice. About the ridiculousness of a stealthy thief using axes, well, Combat specced rogues aren’t very stealthy anyway. We carry maces and swords already, so who cares. More options are never bad. Not many changes otherwise though (one Shadow Dance that I skipped ’cause I’m totally not interested in that tree anyway) – guess the class is more or less fine now.
Achievements
- A Brew-FAST Mount: A new Feat of Strength achievement for acquiring any epic Brewfest mount.
- Have Keg, Will Travel: Now requires either a Brewfest mount or using Brewfest Hops to transform yours into one.
Yay for Brewfest change! This means I’ll be getting my Violet Proto-drake after all, without the need for two weeks of BRD grinding. I’ve never seen the mount drop last year despite doing the encounter a lot of times, and I’d be very angry (but not very surprised) if I won’t see it this year as well. That change of course doesn’t make the Violet drake much easier to get – it still requires a lot of commitment.
Emblem System Changes
- Both the 10 and 25 player instances of the Crusaders’ Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
- Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
- The heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Triumph.
- The existing achievements to collect 1, 25, 50, etc. Emblems of Heroism, Valor, and Conquest have been converted to Feats of Strength since Heroism and Valor Emblems are no longer attainable.
- New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.
And this is the single most controversial change in the patch notes, and it makes the most interesting posts on the forums to read. I fully support this change – it will make my alts happy with means to get better gear, it will make new players happy with means to get better gear faster (without the need to endlessly farm Naxx-10/Naxx-25 and always being few steps behind), and most importantly it will make guilds happy to recruit geared raiders more easily without the need to either poach them from other progressed guilds or to drag them through old content for too long.
This patch makes me a sad panda. Two players I really respect are now not renewing their suscriptions after they run out due to these patch notes.
And in some ways I can totally understand, WoW always used to reward the best players with the best gear, and it seems now that anyone putting in a couple of hours a week in heroics can walk around in the same gear that other people spent hours working hard to achieve.
It’s a sad state of affairs. Time to reinstall Lotro I think.
They can never please everyone at once…
Quote Vaneras at our forums:
“The end goal of all these changes is help minimize the growing gear gap that is causing a lot of frustration for players trying to experience the latest content as well as encourage players to continue running the dungeons that were previously released.”
That is something I fully support. We had an example of a gear gap in our last Naxx-25 and I have to say we were really lucky to get so many useful drops there.
And for us? Well we have our two pieces of T8.5 now, should we really care if some people we don’t even know will have these two pieces after some months of PTR and then a month or two of “couple hours in heroics a week”? Cause getting all that Valor + Conquest gear is certainly going to take them a while. Meanwhile we’ll be using T9.5 by then anyway.
Btw, it’s been exactly the same with PvP gear for quite a long time now, and I don’t hear any PvPers quitting the game over last season’s gear availaible for honor points, badges or whatnot.
I don’t like my government in my economy, and I damn sure don’t like my PvE in my PvP. They need to get this under control, and honestly, the struggle that existed has been conquered by people who understand skill > gear. I reiterate, skill is greater than gear. It’s pretty much making me mad about the content of 3.2 patch as well, because prior to, I’ve spent countless of days working on my Arena status, honor points, etc.
Now, I find that I can just scrub my way past what I expect is another hallway dungeon, now just consists of one room and bosses that walk to me, dropping epix, by the two’s. Level 200 gear. Tier 7. Better itemization too! So let’s see, I build my PvE set, pug the hell out of 25 man content now, and just by my full set of Furious gear? What the hell is going on? People used to drool at the Furious gear you know…it’s a hell of alot easier to go through the PvE world to get my PvP.
And it’s not equally balanced at all. You want to roll even into VoA with PvP gear, sometimes people won’t take you because it’s a PvE world, true enough, but I see people rocking heads in PvP with full T8.5 prior to 3.2 and not having to invest in anything except a trinket. Don’t see people saving up their honor for that new T7.5 do you? But it’s acceptable to have my coffee poured into someone else’s mouth? Right.
You want to bring back the challenge, then the people know what to do to step up to get shit done, done deal. Ezmode instances and raids that give you and me the same gear, and then joe blow who just hit 80 rolls deep in heroix and get’s better shit than me, and has a full set of Furious? I have a right to be mad.
And yeah, I have been contemplating not renewing my subscription because of this, and another contributing factor to this is “Jedi > Orc” from what I hear.
Oh, and if someones wants to troll the fact that “skill > gear” on me, I still have a right to complain. It was a bad setup, the content may have bridged a gap, but it closed it hard on PvP. Apparently pride is no longer needed, and you even get a map for your dungeon now. Be sure to stay within the circle. Heaven forbid this place see a new and improved BRD. Not like it would launch that additional instance anyway.
—Cheers to 3.2