by Skumball
Skumball’s Junkbox Blog
… ish.
Blog #2: Patch 4.0.1!
The servers are down, we’ve had all the typical trade spamming, and you’ve realised it’s actually not the end of the world… Yet. So, what’s going on? Patch 4.0.1 is what! Let’s have a look and see what all the fuss is about…
If you want to view the patch notes yourself, then all you have to do is click here. Link automatically opens in a new window or tab.
First, before I go into any of what’s coming in I want to make clear what is not going live…
- Cataclysm… No, it’s not the Cataclysm patch or expansion, that will be at a later date.
- New zones… Again, no. They will be coming with the Cataclysm patch.
- Archeology… No.
- New caps for levels and professions… Another no.
- New races and class combinations… Yet again… No.
- Flying in Azeroth… Surprise surprise… No.
Don’t log into the game and wonder why these aren’t live yet… This is not the Cataclysm patch, it’s is the ‘systems’ patch. It will bring in the main UI and game mechanic changes, basically all the techy junk that makes the game and everything in it work.
Another thing I have to point out too, is that your addons will be out of date. Seriously. If you use any addons, update them before you even think about logging into the game… Most will be completely broke, others will just spew out alot of errors. Update your addons and disable anything old. The addon authors have been (and usually are I must say) very good and have already update dtheir addons so that you can download them in advance and have them working almost right away. Not all of them have though, there will be some bugs n glitches, but give those time and they will be fixed.
Now that’s all out of the way with, let’s get to finding out what’s new and what you can expect to be doing when the servers go back up tomorrow.
Patch 4.0.1 – What’s New?
New Launcher
We’re getting a shiny new launcher and download system for patches. The launcher’s looks will be updated from the WotLK stylings to a more Cataclysm appropriate design – and if anyone has played on the PTR (I can’t say about the Beta version as I haven’t played that) then you’ll agree it looks absolutely frigging AWESOME! Dragons, lava, fire and brimstone! It’s all there, and it’s a massive improvement over the WotLK one in my eyes, which was just abyssmally shite.
The way we download patches is also changing… Gone are the bloody annoying days of spending 6 hours once the servers are back up trying to download the patches! The patches themselves will now be streamed to you as you play once you have downloaded the first small key components of the patch. For those of you who will scratch your head reading this and have no clue what I mean, here it is in simple terms… When a new patch goes live you will only have to download a small part of it before you can play the game, rather than the whole thing. Then it will continue downloading and updating the game as you play. However you will experience some game bugs while this happens. The game will try to download and prioritise the components of the patch as you get to them, but in life nothing is perfect and this will be no different. You might experience slow or laggy gameplay while it ‘loads as you play’, but just give it a few seconds and you will be able to continue with no problems.
New Quests & Events?
Yup, we’re getting a few new quests to prepare for Cataclysm as part of the pre-Cataclysm events. Head to your local capital city and see what the Doomsayers are blabbering on about…
Reforging
Yes! Reforging IS going live this patch! I’ll quote from the patch notes here as it makes more sense and is a much-less a wall-of-text than how I would explain it…
Players can now visit special Reforging NPCs in capital cities located near Enchanting trainers. 40% of any one secondary stat on an item can be can be allocated to add a new secondary stat to the item. The stat being added cannot already exist on the item. An item cannot have more than one reforged stat at a time, though the Reforging of an item can be undone and changed.
Dungeons, Raids, and the Badges and Honor Changes…
First, in ICC Chill of the Throne is gone! No more 20% dodge nerf! They didn’t need to make ICC easier than what it already is (a pure and utter lolfest), but with the way stats now scale with the Cataclysm mechanics (the mathy behind the scenes junk) then it’s probably a good thing.
All your emblems and Honour points are gone too! I stole them! Actually I didn’t… They are being converted to a new system which is much better than the old I think. I won’t explain it here though, instead I’ll link you to Wkjezz’s already produced and great guides on the topic:
There is also a new ‘flexible’ raid lockout system. It allows you to complete instances in different raid groups, rather than one group all being saved to the same run.
Here’s an example of what would happen in the old system:
- You and your mates are in a raidgroup for ICC10 and you’re on a full 12 boss run. After 6 bosses you realise that the Hunter in the group is actually a Huntard, and he ends up getting kicked from the raidgroup (rightly so). But you’ve been in there for 3 hours almost and it’s nearly bedtime for some of the, so you decide to continue tomorrow night. Now if the Huntard forms a group during the day and goes and kills a few more bosses, that’s what you’ll be saved to. You’ll have lost your chance to kill those bosses for that week.
With the new system, you can kick the Huntard, let everyone go to bed, and you don’t have to worry about the Huntard stealing your bosses. He can go and kill those bosses, but with the new system he will be on a seperate raid lockout from you if he’s not in your group the next day. He can go and be a moron in his own group, and you can finish your run without him or worrying he will steal you bosses.
Also introduced this patch though is the restriction on raids and how you’re able to do them. You can now only do ICC for example once a week, you have to choose whether to do it on 10 or 25 player modes. And in Cataclysm (not this patch), both modes will drop exactly the same gear – which is a damn good thing in my eyes.
Classes, Talents, and Glyphs
There’s a whole bunch of changes coming… First, the glyph system has changed – we now get 3 types of glyph: Prime is the new one, in addition to the old Major and Minor glyphs. Also Glyphs themselves are now ‘stored’ once you learn them and you can swap them out – no more buying new glyphs all the time! Most of the current glyphs have changed in some way shape or form too. If you want to see the full range of glyphs and their effects, I’ll direct you here (link opens in a new tab or window automatically). Also, if you’re a scribe then you can make an absolute fortune with this patch – everyone needs new glyphs!
I won’t go into the full class changes here, there are simply way too many. It would warrent a massive guide on each class, and probably even spec. But in short, the new talent trees are here, as are the new abilities and stuff like a Paladin’s Holy Power mechanic. I’d also advise you to go to your class trainers as soon as possible to see if you have anything new to learn! If you want to see the new talent tree’s and set up a spec in advance though, here’s the WoWHead talent Calculator (link opens in a new tab or window automatically). That’s the Cataclysm version as they haven’t updated the live one yet, so just don’t spend the last 5 points you have to see what you can do at level 80.
Guilds
With Cataclysm the focus of gameplay is orientated around Guilds, bye-bye crappy PuGs! Guilds are now capped at 1,000 members. If you have more in your guild already, they will all remain, but you can’t invite any new members until you fall below the 1,000 limit.
UI and Graphics & System Changes…
We’re getting a ton of changes here… The shiny new water and lava effects are going live, shiny new sunlight effects are also in! Also for you nutters who play using multiple moniters there’s new support implemented for that too, as well as experimental DirectX11 changes and support.
Pretty much every window ingame has been redesigned or changed… Character menu, the Spell Book, Professions windows, the Guild menu… the list could go on and on and on and on… I advise you to familiarise yourselves to the changes ingame as soon as you have the chance, though it should be really easy to do so, and the new ones look waaay cooler than the old ones 😛 Instead of explaining it all, which would probably take me days to write it all up here, I’ll share with you some images… And yes I sort-of stole them from MMO-Champion, but bugger it 😛 Enjoy!
Back to the top!That’s it from me for now. Feel free to leave me comments and/ or messages, feedback is always greatly appriciated and any questions you have I’ll do my best to answer them 🙂
And remember you can always view my other posts and submissions to the community here: Skumball’s Junkbox
Peace out!
-Skumball*
* Each sold seperately.
** Batteries not included.
*** May contain Nutz!
