The pre-Warlords patch will be coming out on Oct. 14th, which is next Tuesday, and is a month minus one day before the release of Warlords of Draenor.
6.0 is bringing:
Iron Horde Invasion:
The Iron Horde is invading through the newly red Dark Portal, and has launched a surprise attack into the Blasted Lands, taking over Nethergarde Keep and Dreadmaul Hold (which might be called Okrillan Hold right now... the Horde town is what I'm getting at here.) You'll be able to participate in a battle against the Iron Horde to liberate these towns and stop the Iron Horde's advance into Azeroth. There will be a quest chain here that I believe awards an Iron Star companion pet.
Upper Blackrock Spire:
UBRS will be a level 100 dungeon when Warlords launches, but at the beginning of 6.0, it will be available to players as a level 90 5-man. No word yet on the loot available, but UBRS-90 will allow you to battle against the first three bosses.
UPDATE: UBRS level 90 will reward iLevel 550 loot, which is pretty damn good, if you ask me. It all reuses vanilla models (though some of these, mainly weapons, will also return at level 100.) Blizzard says they'll implement a minimum iLevel to be roughly for people who have a few pieces of SoO LFR gear, so if you've been playing throughout the last year, you should be fine. The 550 gear will not be upgradeable, so if you have a Flex-mode piece that is fully upgraded (or obviously any Normal or Heroic gear,) you won't find anything much better, but for those of you (us) who stuck mainly to LFR, there will be some very nice upgrades that should last you in Spires of Arak or even Nagrand.
Huge Class Changes:
The 6.0 ability squish is going to be coming next week, so if you haven't been playing in the Beta, be prepared to see your action bars a little lighter. Some will rejoice to see annoying abilities (Inquisition, anyone?) go, while others will lament the loss of iconic ones (Overpower...? Where are you?) Some specs have definitely been hit harder with the squish than others. If you play an Enhancement Shaman, for example, I think the biggest change to your bars you'll notice is that you'll use Frost Shock instead of Earth Shock. But if you're, say, a Marksmanship Hunter, you're going to notice some considerable differences.
Item Squish:
Yes, everyone's health, damage and healing are going to be dropping by an order of magnitude or two (at least everyone at 90.) This is going to feel really, really weird at first, seeing DoTs ticking for only three-digit numbers and such, but I promise you, in a few hours of play you're going to forget that it happened and simply adjust to the new numbers.
The good news is that, with the changes to level-scaling, you'll actually probably have a much easier time running old content, and you'll see those huge numbers again when you start fighting things that are an expansion behind you.
Many, Many Things Going Unattainable:
Sadly, I really don't think I'm going to get my Kor'kron War Wolf. If you haven't gotten that, or your Challenge Mode Gold armor set (or mount or title,) or your Garrosh Heirlooms, well... better work on that now. If you're a Warlock, don't panic too much - you can still get Green Fire post-6.0, but you won't be able to get the Breaker of the Black Harvest title, as that will be given out only to those who beat Kanrethad before 6.0.
Legendary Chain - Last Call:
If you haven't started the Legendary chain (and seriously, if you haven't, why not? You just need to listen to Wrathion rant for a bit,) you should do so now. You'll only have a month to get the whole thing done before the expansion launches, which I doubt will be enough time (though with A Test of Valor being taken out, that'll cut a lot of time from it.) Still, even if you don't get the cloak itself, you might be able to wrangle the Meta Gem or some other intermediate reward. Plus, it's a cool chain, and worth checking out.
For those worried about Ordos - you won't need the cloak anymore to get to him, so if you never got it, you can go hit that guy up for some awesome, always-Warforged what-will-now-be-called-heroic gear.
Justice and Valor - Gone!:
Justice and Valor points are both disappearing. You'll get 47s for every point you have, so actually it's not a bad idea to just rack up as much as you can for a nice spot of gold. Luckily, the vendors will not be going away. Instead they will just sell their stuff for gold. Heirloom Vendors - specifically just the ones who sell them for JP - will be sent on a patch-long vacation until Blizzard can implement their new heirloom system. The only things going away permanently are the Commendation Badges sold in Dalaran I believe, for Wrath-era factions.
Siege of Orgrimmar Format Update:
SoO is going to be converted to the new raid system. That means that Flex is now Normal, Normal is now Heroic, and Heroic is now Mythic. Also, it means that LFR, Normal, and Heroic (under the new name systems) will now be 10-30 flexible, and Mythic will be locked at 20 players. Gear rewards will remain the same iLevel, but will be labeled differently to reflect the changes to the difficulty categories.
All those Bag Things:
I wrote a whole article earlier about bag stuff. All that is happening next week.
Old Stats Getting Phased Out:
I actually think there are a handful of pieces from the really old content, like vanilla stuff, that will still have things like Dodge or Parry. But Hit and Expertise are totally going away, and any modern gear, gems, or enchants are going to be converted from these old stats into new, more useful ones.
And Last But Certainly Not Least - New Character Models!:
Yes, everyone who is getting a new model except for Blood Elves (wait for 6.1, I think) will be getting their new models. You will either love or hate them! But the good news is that if you're in the latter camp, there are two things you can do. One: you can simply change the settings in your Advanced tab to show the old models. Two: Barbershops will now let you change your character's face, so if that sly, clever expression now seems to look kind of oafish, you can pick a new one!
Finally, Finally!
Yes, this means Warlords is really coming. For the first time in 13 months, WoW will have a new patch with new stuff to do (I'm eager to get into the new UBRS.) This will also be a great opportunity to get through the shock of the ability squish and prepare for serious play in Draenor.
No comments:
Post a Comment