Patch 6.1 - Meh or hell yeah?

I didn't realise that patch was so close, as in next week!  Official release date is February 24 and I am excited about some of the changes. Stick me on the hell yeah end of the stick.

The Grumpy Elf was on the meh end of the 6.1 bandwagon. He wasn't particularly excited about the new changes because:

• They should have come out with WoD release
• The social media stuff and selfies is for kids (ie he's too old for that shit)

Blizzard has never released a game till they thought they were ready.  Though many may disagree, I think that Warlords of Draenor was as it could be for release.  The server crashing thing with too many people in the instances - could they really predict that when they didn't have problems with it in beta testing?  "Why didn't they just upgrade the servers so that they could handle the extra load?" said a lot of people.  Well, how would you like it if you had to pay for a $2500 for a 2 million dollar life insurance when you could get away with a $300 for a $150,000 life policy? Because you don't have  3 kids and a mortgage right now but you might in the next year or so, right? So, you can't blame Blizzard for not knowing what it would do until it hit, you don't know how many people are going to start playing from Day 1.  You have to applaud them though, they got onto the instance server thing within a few days. A few days to have instance servers fixed is faster than getting bloody Telstra out to fix my damned phone line.

Also, having all those things from patch 6.1 ready for release meant that they would have to push back the release date.  People couldn't wait any longer for the expansion, in my opinion.  They were already itching for something to do, and if Blizz announces a release date, they stick to it.

So what's my take on the new things coming?

New Heirloom tab

Yeah I wish they'd had this before.  But people were excited with their new found bag space with reagent bank and toy tab, so this may not have been as exciting.  Now that we've all filled our bags with shit again, people may be excited to find somewhere to park all their heirlooms - though really, they don't take up too much space on my main since I store them all on crappy bank alts.

Updated Blood Elf models

People are going to start playing their Blood elves again so they can see some pert butt, nipples on men and sculpted backs with these character updates.  I think they'll be appreciated more because everyone was too busy looking at their Forsaken, Tauren, Trolls, Humans, Gnomes, Night elves and Dwarves.  I do wonder why Draenei were done before Blood elves though - you'd think since they came out together they'd be updated together.  I guess that's why people thought Blood Elves should have been updated with release.

Selfies and Tweeting pics

I think it's useful to have this function but it makes no difference to me.  At least Blizz is getting "with the times"!

A Buttload of Garrison upgrades - practically all win

• Win! Something to shrink that stupid Bodyguard
• Win! Treasure hunter trait. OK, I agree with Grumpy Elf, should've had this from release.
• Win! Garrison UI being updated because Master plan is so successful and useful
• Win! Platinum invasions - I'm not sure if I can do them on all invasions but Botani will definitely be an easy Platinum invasion
• Win! Easier to catch Lunkers, and Nat will sell those baits to catch fish
• Win! Trading Armour scraps for follower item upgrade. At last they are useful
• Win! Ashran Auctioneer parts now have an increased drop rate.  Though, I probably won't keep my trading post much longer...
• Poo! Salvage yard nerfed for drops.  I don't have one so I don't really care.
• Poo! Scavenger boost to resources from missions nerfed.  It was a bit OP anyway.

I like that there will be a summonable raid bosses in the Garrison (more party times for groups more than 10!) and also there was the expected increase in item level for your followers and Blackrock Foundry Missions. 

Resto Druid changes

• Moment of Clarity now lasts 7 seconds instead of 5.  So I can get four free regrowths in now instead of three.  Good for mana heavy fights!
• Rampant Growth now also increases the healing of Swiftmend by 20%.  I can see that these two talents (MoC and RG) were buffed because everyone was choosing Germination.
• Genesis no longer requires a target to cast.  About bloody time, the thing was an AoE effect, it's like finding a target to cast tranquility.
• Can't cast Ironbark or Displacer beast when silenced.  Well, I did expect that to be coming.

Pet Battles

• Raiding with Leashes III with new pets to get, will be fun for me.  Though I have not used any of my new pets, really, as part of  my pet battling repertoire yet.
• Garrison pet battles easier - I thought of EJ and Raven when I heard this was coming!

Cooking

I hated how better food dropped from the barn than from cooking.  I like that there will be a +125 stat food (self only - does that mean the food is soulbound? That's a good idea) so that we can all bring our own good food to raid, and it feels like cooking is WORTH doing.  Maybe now I'll be able to get Lil Leftovers.

Fishing

• Lunker drop rates increased yay!
• Nat can give baits now and they last for 10 minutes instead of 5 minutes.  Much better when you're using it with worms.

Archaeology

• Yay, you can hold 250 fragments now.  I had a really annoying time when I had a rare item to solve and it took 200 fragments and I couldn't pick up 7 fragments (I had 198) because I had reached the max limit.  I had to buy one of the special items to make up the rest of the archaelogy item which was expensive. 
• I can now put Restored artifacts in the reagent tab! Yay!

Ashran

• Time between battles is now 10 minutes, thank goodness.
• The PvP events now award 100 conquest instead of 125.  They should have made it 50 or 75, in my opinion.
• Queue times are shorter.
• They got rid of most of the Ashran only scrolls and wands.  YAY BAG SPACE! Though I will miss the Town Portal scroll.

I found it amusing that people said they were "done" with the expansion already.  The things that they enjoy are done, probably.  But that's because they're not looking to do other things in game, say pet battles or achievements, raiding or PvP.  I play a hell of a lot and I still am not done with those things. Perhaps it is a little disappointing that there is no new "content" in terms of quests, lore, dungeons etc, but Blackrock Foundry only just came out and LFR is out this week - that should keep people busy for a while!  I know it will keep my busy!

So, what side of the fence are you sitting on? Meh or Hell yeah?