Patch 4.3 Notes from MMO-Champion

4.3 looks so exciting! New instances, new raid, interesting stories going back in time... I think I have to make some sort of comment or I'll explode!


New 5 man dungeons

All of them in COT? Well, COT is going to be one busy place come 4.3. I am looking forward to seeing these dungeons - it's funny you know, people have said they have done Zandoms 50+ times for each one to cap their Valor points (ugh writing valor instead of valour still annoys me!!!) and lazy me has hardly done any Zandoms because I hate pugging. I have done 6 ZAs and 7 ZGs. Which explains why I still haven't got a Bear achievment... because I am lazy. I should go back and do those Troll dungeon achievements at some point.

But back to the new 5 mans...

End Time:  Nozdormu shows you the future if Deathwing wins
So I may be fighting an angry Sylvanas??  Aww, how am I going to attack or support an attack on my heroine?  I don't mind fighting Tyrande, though she is another pretty cool character.  That wimpy picture that everyone is whinging about doesn't do her much justice (I agree she looks rather subservient and dependent on Malfurion but maybe all females have to have their "Oh baby I need you, hold me" moment).  I think this is picture from Raneman is a great depiction of the Trinity of Tyrande, Malfurion and Illidan.

Oops but I am digressing again.  Back to the instance discussion.  I noticed Baine Bloodhoof is the only tortured male ghost walking around in End Time.  Well I bet his anger and frustration stems from the fact he's stuck for all eternity as a ghost with Sylvanas, Tyrande and Jaina and he won't get any booty since ghostly forms can't participate in mortal pleasures....

Sylvanas in End time - coz you can never have too many pictures of Sylvanas

Well of Eternity: Journey to the past and witness the War of Ancients
I am looking forward to seeing Queen Azshara and tell her I dug up her Dressing Gown!  I love all this old lore stuff.  And we will get to fight Mannoroth as well (though I will be disappointed if he just looks like Magtheridion - hoping for a slightly different colour).  Let's hope that there will be some nice looking loot that I can wear for looks from the deadly beautiful Queen (who is supposedly the greatest mortal mage in existence)

Nozdormu in Well of Eternity - why do all dragons take Night Elf human forms?

Hour of Twilight : Present day - get Thrall to Wyrmrest for the final Deathwing battle
So we're going to escort Thrall to Wyrmrest with the Dragon Soul and kill all the baddies in our way.  Yeah!!!  I like these escort quests where you go with a hero - there seem to be more Horde heroes than Alliance ones (Thrall in Escape from Durnholde, Sylvanas in Halls of Reflection, Arthas in Culling of Stratholme being the only semi Alliance one I can think of).

I think Thrall is hot.  I am totally en-Thralled.

New Raid Instance - Dragon Soul

Well, I wonder how far we are going to get here.  It will likely take us AGES to get anywhere.  But it will be fun to try something new.  At every patch we used to get a whole bunch of people suddenly playing again, and our raids would suddenly be full...... though there may not be that many this time because not that many appeared last patch, much to my disappointment.


New Gear

Well I've already made my comments on Tier 13 Druid gear.  But now you can't buy Tier with Valor points, so looks like everyone will have to raid.  You know sometimes it used to annoy me that people who didn't raid but just ran dungeons every day would initially have much better gear than me because they ran their dungeons and capped their Valor points - as mentioned before I am inherently lazy and hate doing daily dungeons.  Wonder if I will feel better now with this change.  Probably they will just have nice gloves/pants/chests like they used to have which are comparable to Tier.

Shaman tier shoulders look nice I think!  I actually like the set overall, but I wonder what other shamans think.

Personally I like black Rogue Tier best, but at least this helm isn't hideous... and are the hands uncovered so they can pickpocket better or what?  That bit seems odd.  I'm a bit meh about the rogue Tier.

Now I think the helm is great on the Warlock tier with that creepy faceless look (great so we don't have to look at their ugly mugs), but I'm not sure about the Rainbow Brite colours.  I think Fel colours or red/purple look better for warlocks.  I actually think it looks a bit girly - wondering what the male warlocks will be looking like in these pansy colours

And this is my view on Mage Tier.  I hope we have some nice cold cave to raid in so they can wear their padded winter wedding/princely coat with the built in torch and see-in-the-dark goggles.  Nuff said.

Well, at least Warriors are fully covered.  Not an ounce of flesh showing anywhere.  And they've even got a belt that looks like a giant nappy/groin protector.  It does have a Decontamination Unit feel to it though, or maybe a beekeeper.  And the helm looks kind of like Deathwing to me.

I noticed there will be lower level LFRaid queues which is pretty good for those casual raiders, I am wondering if it will be worth doing those to get the practice for the real raid.  It's on a different lockout to the Normal and Heroic raid, and the gear level is a bit lower too.  I think that would appeal to those casual players.

And about that new legendary...

From Ghostcrawler (on How did the team decide to make a Rogue weapon rather than a tanking weapon for this legendary?) 

"... We thought that Rogues had maybe felt a little bit not special in this expansion with all the high damage numbers that were being done by classes like Mages. We thought it was just the right opportunity to make them shine and feel kind of special...."

Tell that to Roshii... as if he doesn't do enough DPS already.  At least we only have 2 rogues, and it will be pretty obvious who is going to get that legendary.  No offence to Malaetus of course, but anyone who runs into Rag's hammer 4 times in one night is legendary in other ways.... maybe not in a good way, but legendary all the same :P  But hey, that's another story for another post!

Epic gems will drop in the new raid in Normal and Heroic only. Each player gets a geode when a boss is killed which has a small chance to contain an epic gem, most will have rare gems. It is rare enough to take all of 4.3 to replace all of your red rare quality gems with red epic gems.

Well, I am not going to gem any of my stuff unless I am POSITIVE I am not changing it for a while.  You know this will probably just mean that people are going to be on their alts all the time doing raids to help boost their chances of getting more epic gems.  I have to say... BUMMER to Nok, Fue and Belinia for hoarding 120 stacks of pyrite thinking that Epic gems were going to be prospected...

New Class changes

Melee classes will be getting a buff that is only active in the new raid to help them compete with ranged classes.

Well that will make Moopie and Roshii happy.  I've noticed that Moo isn't up there in DPS like he used to be.  And I often hear them crying about the lack of melee buffs in raid.

Other New Stuff

"Quite a few" new profession recipes will be added.

I wonder if I'll get new enchanting stuff.  I doubt it.  Probably more crafted gear recipes and JC recipes obviously for the new gems.

And there is only one new mount I can see - and that's from killing Deathwing.  Where's the vanity pet love?  Hehehe.

Well that's my thoughts on Patch 4.3.  Would love to hear your thoughts!