3.1 Roundup

3.1 is coming extremely quickly, so I figured this might be a great time to talk about all the cool new changes and updates.  This might be one of the biggest patches to hit, giving everyone, hardcore, casual and hasual something new to do.  So let’s get to it.

RAIDS

Ulduar

We’ll hit the raids first, because, well, this is the biggest addition.  The raid of Ulduar is coming in this patch, which brings you 14 all new bosses for both 10 man and 25 man raids. On top of this, 10 of the 14 bosses will have “hard modes” that, when triggered, will give you better loot.

The lore of the zone is quite simple – Ulduar is an undiscovered vault of the Titans (large, powerful beings that shaped Azeroth) and we are going in to investigate.  Upon further investigation, we realize that the Titan vault is not holding vast treasures or superior knowledge, but rather the Old God Yogg-Saron, a ruthlessly evil entity whose vile influence has infected not only those who guard Ulduar, but a fair amount of Northrend (which we, the players, have come into contact with in various zones).  Because Yogg-Saron has broken free, Algalon the Observer is attempting to contact the Titans about his lack of imprisonment, which could cause Azeroth to be destroyed in order to save others.  The quest line has us going after Algalon to stop the transmission, and can only be completed when defeating most of the boss modes in their various hard modes.  Sound pretty badass, right?

From what I’ve read, these boss fights sound absolutely fantastic.  The first fight you come across is actually a large vehicle war outside the main gates – all players jump into various siege engines and attempt to break through the full scale war that has taken place.  From then on you venture deeper and deeper into Ulduar, defeating the guardians of the vault and finally coming face-to-face with the Old God, Yogg Saron.  I don’t think I’ll ever witness this content, though I’m sure videos will pop up.

For those of you keeping track, we’ve faced an Old God in the past, C’thun in Silithis’ Temple of Ahn’Qiraj.  I had the oppurtunity to face this baddy and while I died almost immediately, it was great to take part in this old school dungeon.

Oh and the bosses of Ulduar will drop some Tier 8 gear as well and there are plenty of achievements to complete, awarding you new rare titles and mounts.

Emalon the Stone Watcher

Along with the massive PVE raid, another wing will be added to Wintergrasp’s raid instance.  Emalon the Storm Watcher will be available to both 10 man and 25 man raids, and will give you Tier 8 tokens and PVP gear for your trouble. Similar to Archevon (and located in the same place), he might also drop a rare Mammoth mount.  Don’t forget, you have to have control of Wintergrasp to fight him.  I’m really excited for this!

THE ARGENT TOURNAMENT

Think that’s enough to keep you guys busy?  Well how about this lil’ addition – The Argent Tournament, a new PVE permenant event that takes place in Icecrown.  The Argent Crusade is starting a tournament, similar to medevil times, in Northern Icecrown to bolster the troops before our inevitable march to Icecrown Citadel to face Arthas.  Here you’ll rally with your faction, gain access to new mounts and pets, and even have a new way to gain reputation.  It’s a long grind to get there, but with the prospect of cool new mounts/items/tabards/pets in exchange for tokens, it should be a lot of fun.  I’ll probably be hitting this first.  There will be an abundance of quests and daily quests to sink your teeth into.

What you spend most of your time here doing is building the tournament and becoming a “Champion” for your faction, the actual tournament won’t hit until 3.2.  But still, it’ll be a great way to get some of those difficult Achievements.

DUAL SPECS

I mentioned this before, but the official deets on this have hit.  Anyone over level 40 can purchase dual specialization for 1000g and you can access it anywhere you want.  That price point is a one time purchase, you can switch specs as many times as you want.  Your glyphs, talents, and (in a future patch) gear will switch over as well, so don’t worry about having to respec any longer!

Unfortunately, you hunters will have to respec your pets every time you do this, though i don’ tknow why you’d want to purchase this anyway unless you want a Raid spec and a grind spec.

In any case, I’ll be getting this for my Death Knight so I can finally tank for some groups!

NOBLEGARDEN

The once “single day” holiday is now going to be a whole week, and some of the stuff you do for it sounds so much fun.  They’ve delayed the holiday to be after Easter (not all the bugs are out of it) but I’ll do a run-through the achievements when we get closer to it landing. You’ll need to complete all the Noblegarden achievements to get one step closer to riding that sweet epic Proto-drake.

OTHER GREAT NEW STUFF

That’s not all!

• Ground mounts will now swim!  Flying mounts will not.
• On a related note, you have a chance to fish up a CoralShell Turtle mount, which is a ground and SWIMMING MOUNT. Do I smell a reference to the next Expansion? Or do I just smell fish.
• While we’re talking about fishing, they’ve changed the way you fish a bit.  Fish no longer “get away,” but now you can fish up “junk fish” which are not usable for cooking recipes but do award you fishing skillups!  Which means you can now SKILL UP ANYWHERE.
• New Fishing Daily Quests!  Similar to the ones given in Shattrath, you have a chance to get a small pet or rare items for handing them in.
• Glyphs no longer need the Lexicon of Power to be used.  They’ve added 50 new Glyphs to the game as well. Inscriptionists, get to work!
• TONS OF CHANGES TO CLASSES.  I’m not going to go through all of them here, obviously, but they are making lots of changes to the way classes work.  We will be awarded a free respec.
• Three new racial mounts (wolf, skeletel horse and kodo) are available to the Horde, to even out the number of mounts the Horde has versus alliance.
• The hearthstone cooldown has been dropped from one hour to one half hour!  This is kind of a big deal, no more waiting around for it to reset.
• The Glory of the Raider Achivements will no longer award you ProtoDrakes.  This kinda stinks, but if you get the new gear from Ulduar and attempt this, those mounts will no longer be rare.
• You can now Preview Talent Changes!  No longer will you accidentally pick a talent you didn’t want, forcing you to respec and spend that gold.  Now you can try out the talents, see what combinations you like, then cement them for use. Pretty cool.
• Looking for group has gotten a few new upgrades (thank god). Now you can select roles (healer, tank, dps) so people know what you can bring to the group.  A perfect addition with the new Dual Specs.
• Now this is awesome – Dungeons maps!  Now, when you’re in an instance and hit the “map” you’ll see a layout of the dungeon.  You can finally figure out where other people are! Unfortunately these are only for Wrath of the Lich King instances and raids, hopefully they will implement them into the older ones…
• With the Argent Tournament, you can purchase Commendation badges for Alliance and Horde factions, which, when turned into said factions, award you 250 rep.  This’ll help you get your main factions up to exalted with ease.
• There is a new Legendary healing mace that can be put together using drops from Ulduar bosses.

There’s a ton more, but I can’t really remember it right now.  In any case, it seems as this might be the largest patch they’ve put in a long time, color me excited!  What are your thoughts?