Patch 3.3 = 1400 new PvE items = WTF

Hola blog lovers!!

The time has finally come my friends, its Turkey week here in the States. I for one can't wait to eat a bunch of stuffing, green beans, turkey, rolls, while drowning it in some gravy, watching football and yelling gobble, gobble, until I pass out from consuming too much alcohol.

It will be epic and it is what being fat American is all about. I do have to work the next day, but that is neither here or there. For this is a WoW blog and just incase you haven't been playing or keeping up with news, a HUGE patch(3.3) is coming out soon.

I have a HUGE, RAGING, clue right now...

When I say huge, I do mean HUGE. There is going to be three new 5 man instances all dropping item level 219 (Normal) and 232 (Heroic) epic loot. That's right, Blizzard is spoiling us with these three brand spanking new instances. I already wrote about this a couple months ago, so go check out that post and then come back...

Pretty dope right? This is history in the making folks. Blizzard has never released more then one new five man instance unless it was an expansion. Not only that, but if you read my post that I just linked, the return of attunements and a pretty decent and lore-filled quest line?

So why am I talking about it again since I already wrote a post about it? Good question and it is because I have obtained this map of what the new 5 man Frozen Halls are going to look like.

So from my understanding and my best guess, the gate to Icecrown is going to open. I am assuming that the X on the map is the entry point to the Frozen Halls. The skulls on the map represent where the three new 5 mans will be located, Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, and Halls of Reflection. I am also willing to bet that this 17 part quest chain (no link, MMO-Champion is blocked at my work =(...) has us killing stuff within the Frozen Halls as well as in the instances. You know its getting close when stuff like this is being released.

Makes me /giggle in anticipating....

I mean /manlylaugh...ya, that sounds better...

I think the patch would be pretty big just those changes, but no. They are also releasing a new raid. Both 10 and 25 man versions will be available and information about it is everywhere. Check out sites like MMO-Champion for loot tables and more spoilers like that. Interesting thing about the release of this new raid is that it is going to be gated. Check out my post a few days ago about my and other bloggers thoughts and overall how it is going to work.

LFG Tool and my thoughts...

One last thing in regards to the 5 mans and raids is the new cross server LFG tool. I am torn currently with this new addition...I can't tell if I am excited for the change or think its going to ruin stuff.

Before I get into how it works, I want to share a few thoughts on it. WoW, is indeed a fantasy world. One of the biggest things that got me addicted to this game is how huge and how much it is really like world. Let me explain further.

You want to do some raiding or some 5 man instances to kill badies and save the world. Cool, go travel or get summoned to the entrance and do your thing. You want to kill some opposing faction in some pvp? No biggie, go or get summoned to the entrance and do your thing.

But wait...

You see, with battlegrounds and arena...no one goes to the entrance anymore. You go to your battlemaster and get thrown into a pool of hundreds of thousands of players wanting to do the same thing. When the game starts there is a great chance that you are in there with few to no one from your own server, then you do your thing.

This takes away from being in a fantasy world and makes it seem like any other multiple game...such as Halo or Counterstrike. Where you just zone in and start killing people. The lore kinda gets lost and again, the feeling that you are in this fantasy world game in character gets lost. It just feels like a video game rather then a video game experience. Its hard to explain in words...hopefully you get what I mean.

Now, with the cross server LFG tool, you will again most likely not be in a group / raid with anyone from your server. Instead of flying to the entrance or getting summoned there, you just click accept and you are ported to a server dedicated for it with people that you have never seen or will ever see again.

It takes away something from the game for me. Yes, I know that you will still get the option to do it how you currently do it now, the LFG channel is not going away and Blizzard isn't forcing you to do it...so I am just going to have to check it out and see what I think about it.

However, I am not going in with a positive attitude. I was a big fan of non-cross server battlegrounds. The environment was thick and filled with a sense of responsibility to your faction. You didn't just want to win, you wanted to kill the SOBs and make them suffer for all the battles you had with them in the past. When cross-server BGs went live...all of that was lost. You just wanted to win, kill people, and get your marks instead of having that heated rivalry between factions and guilds.

I fear that cross-server LFG might do this too, just in a different way.

However...

It is a god send from the leveling and off hour point of view. Lets dive further into it shall we?

Currently, the level max is 80. That is 80 levels that you have to complete before you can get to the content that the majority of your server population runs. I just leveled up a druid and lock. Druid is 60, Lock is damn near 79. I barely found a group for Ramps and Blood Furnace during my outland leveling process. Before that I could only find 1 group for ZF and before that I coudn't find a group for anything besides level 18 WC.

I missed SM, Mara, BRD, Scholo, UBRS, LBRS, ect. All due to the fact that no one runs these anymore. Couple that with my playing time, off hours / low traffic, and no one is even in those instances.

You would think that it got better when I got out to Northrend. I remember on my Mage and my Shaman that there were people running the new 5 man instances all the time. Not anymore. I found a few groups for Nexus that were super fails and the same thing happened with AN. I kept on trying with AN due to having 4 quests in the instance, but I almost leveled out of the instances level range before finding a group.

Cross server LFG will be amazing in the regard that I will now be able to find groups for lower level instances with much more ease then I can currently. So hooray for that, but in regards to level 80 instances...I think I will stick to the old way of doing it by pugging in the LFG channel or running it with friends / guildies.

Ghostcrawler: 1400 new PvE items in Patch 3.3

Yes, that is correct. Ghostcrawler is a mad man, but atleast he has some humorous personality. Here is his post were he talks about all the new items and jokes around about how all items are going to change in the upcoming expansion.

More importantly, there is going to be 1400 new PvE items in this patch. Holy shit batman! I mean, doesn't that seem a little nuts to anyone besides me?

To put it in perspective when 3.1 dropped, there was 800 new PvE items between Ulduar and the begining of the Argent Tourney. Now we are adding 1400 items in this patch alone. I mean, I am not pissed or upset. I am just shocked more then anything. 1400 is alot of loot to look through for all my toons. That is alot of loot to go through to find the "best in slot" gear.

I am excited and overwhelmed at the same time, but thinking more about it. I guess it isn't too crazy. I mean there is going to be three new 5 mans, both with normal and heroic versions. A new raid with 10 and 25 man versions...not to mention heroic versions of both of them. You can't forget the new craftables and all the new loot for the new badge vendor.

Tis going to be crazy in 3.3 mon...WILD.

I think I have excited bored you enough for one day. Don't forget to vote for you favorite race in my poll. There is only a few days left and the Blood Elfs are still in the lead.

Until next time, I'm WTFout!!