3.1 PTR notes. (The important bits)

Yes as promised, it's here. My thoughts on the 3.1 PTR patch notes. I warn you now. As always I try to spin a new angle on an old topic. So this is NOT me rehashing opinions on class changes and how they will affect raiding. How would I know anyway? I don;t even have a lvl 80! So without any further ado, here goes! (All info and pictures can be found at MMOChampion's page here.)



First off, new Tier 8. It seems like Blizzard has learnt not to take things to the extreme. Yes, during TBC things were very, um... colourful. We looked like ugly ducklings. We hated it. But that didn't mean we wanted cold, dead, black and brown armor with the occasional tusk thrown in the pot for effect. We like colour, we just want it to match, that's all we ask.





-One thing I've noticed is that pally gear seems to look either like colourful, bright, happy clowns, or something out of Mortal Kombat. Thank god, this time it's leaning towards Mortal Kombat.





-As usual, DK gear looks totally badass.I think they're taking over warlocks as king of the Tier gear.





-Speaking of warlocks, their gear looks pretty cool, but kinda like Lost Ones. I really, really hate Lost Ones.





-OMG WTF IS THAT THING ON TOP OF ROGUE TIER 8?!?!?!?! /retch





-Blizzard: Making volcanic shammy shoulders since Tier 5.





-omg warriorz r vikingz! kewl uber leet dood! lolz (I for one feel ever blogger has to make a tasteless 'WoWChat' joke at least once in their blogging career.)



Obviously there's dual-specs. There's been a lot of controversy surrounding them, but I'm gonna say I'm on the side that's looking forward to them. This completely erases my antagonising over whether to stay Prot or go Holy at lvl 80, and that's sweet. There is the issue that most people will probably have absolutely no experience in their new spec role, but that's easily solve by running TBC raids. Most of them can easily be 5 manned, and Hyjal and BT can be 15 manned.


No more black/plagued proto drakes? WTF!! Sure Ulduar equipped people would have an easier time, but did they get rid of Amani War Bear after Black Temple came out? No! This is really cruel, giving us one of the coolest mounts in-game then taking them away in a matter of months. I totally agree with keeping it challenging, but pulling these mounts as soon as new content comes out is a bit much. Dammit I'm pissed. /QQ.



And some other details, carrying on from that small little QQ of mine...



Dungeon maps! Finally! People have been complaining about this since WoW first came out. This will rock, especially for some of my purist friends who can't/don't want to use addons. It remains to be seen how these rank up next to some of those very good dungeon map addon's out there.


30min cooldown on hearthstones? Lol wut? Why on earth did Blizzard cut hearthstone cooldown in half you ask? (Actually, I bet all of you already know this, but I'll carry on anyway.) In all honesty, it's because players QQed over the loss of ghetto hearthing. Either that or they're making up for that... thing on top of Rogue Tier 8. /shudder.



It seems Children's Week has gone to Northrend with the rest of you buggers. No, I'm not trying to be a Ratshag wannabe, I'm actually British, and so hold the right to say the word bugger, and any other British word, like rubbish, anytime I feel like it. So there's now Gorloc/Wolvar kiddies, so that means I can get 3 pets a year now! And of course, there's swimming mounts now to help you give you're tour of Northrend a little faster. ( Though I have to admit, 1/2 a ton of horse and steel (Pally charger) swimming daintily through the water does look a little weird.

And finally, there's the much rumoured, no one really knows anything about, (Drumroll please.) Argent Tournament! (Wooo! Yeah!! That's right!!!) Offering new, mounted combat, which Blizzard has been hinting about since TBC came out. Also Blizzard is taunting us with tabards for each city, which I feel have always been missing from this game. (If I'm a brave representative of Stormwind, how come I can't wear their tabard?) Anyway, the rewards. Stop getting me off track. Pets and mounts for each city, sweet new gear, (Ok, maybe not for the raiders, it basically equals out to Heroic gear) a new currency to fill our currency page up, buy all this stuff, and oh yeah, BUY THAT KICKASS ARGENT HIPPOGRYPH!!!(By the way, I've totally just realised that the Agrent Hippogryph is one of the really good Cenarion Hippogryph models thay never put in game. I've always wanted a hippogryph. Sadly, the only one that I know of that's currently in game is the Cenarion War Hippogrph, and although it does look really cool, (Especially when flying in Zangarmarsh) I really hate Cenarion, followers of Cenarion, and ALL factions that have the word Cenarion in their name. What a stupid name anyway. Sounds like Centurion. /humph

So there you have it, my angle on this much overused and wrung out blog topic. I'm sure you've heard the gist of this many, many times, even if you hadn't zoomed off to MMOChampion you would have known exactly what's on it. But hey, as a WoWBlogger, you can't exactly ignore the biggest thing to hit WoW since the announcement of WotLK. I have a few more post's lined up, I'm running out of time to do them! (In fact, the next post has to be out by Friday, so I'll have to churn it out by tomorrow.) Until tomorrow then,

Drazmor.