Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsMore information on 3.2 release date, Coliseum, new Battleground
by Michael Sacco 
May 22nd 2009 at 7:42PM
Hot on the heels of the Under Development page for Patch 3.2, we received a few more tidbits of information from Community Manager Zarhym, responding to posts on the official forums. In bold are the players' questions.
The Argent Coliseum: Does this mean a raid and a instance will be in there?
Yes, there will be a 5-player version, then a 10/25-player version. The bosses will be different for the two versions. Think Ring of Blood or Amphitheater of Anguish, but more epic.
The new Battleground (Isle of Conquest): So, it's WG combined with AB?
If anything, Wintergrasp combined with Alterac Valley with a few more twists.
Do you really think Ulduar achievements will last a year? Instances become stale after 6 months even with achievements. Yea 3.2 won't be till later this year and by then Ulduar will have been played to death and people will want something fun and new to do and not some small joke instance since we won't see Icecrown till April/May next year probably.
Would it help if I told you that your presumed timelines are way too inflated? :)
I was expecting most of this information, and I'm glad that my suspicions that the Coliseum would be a Ring of Blood-style event were confirmed. This isn't really an avenue Blizzard has used for a raid before. The hinting that 3.2 will come a lot sooner than we think is also comforting -- since it means that 3.3 and Icecrown are even closer.
I'll have a speculation post about what we can expect in the Coliseum soon. Until then, keep your eyes peeled -- we'll update you as soon as we get any more news!
Filed under: Patches, News items, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
lolf May 22nd 2009 8:29PM
Someone predicted this exactly on the forums about two weeks ago and got his character forum banned. And he wasn't being an ass like most people on there
Phantom May 22nd 2009 8:37PM
im hoping its looks like the area under Wyrmest temple where OS is 3 tunnels and each leading to 5/10/25 man instances and each even is random with a new random and fun boss and some old ones and maybe some famous NPCs also
would be awesome to 25 man Hogger =)
devilsei May 22nd 2009 8:42PM
*Lich King's Scientists hovering over the dismembered body of Hogger, paw missing*
"We can rebuild him, gentlemen. We have the technology. We can make him stronger, faster, smarter, better..."
Lich King: "I uh... don't want to spend alot of gold on this..."
Hogger: I have returned alliance filth, not only as a knight of the dark plague of undeath, but as vengeance incarnate! You all shall fear the name of Hogger once more!! *holds out his replaced paw, which is a soft boxing glove, shot towards them and held to his arm by a spring*... OH COME ON!
Futue May 23rd 2009 8:39AM
Lich King: "I uh... don't want to spend alot of gold on this..."
LOL
atree496 May 22nd 2009 8:40PM
Idea for one of the bosses
"Magister's Terrace was merely a setback..."
doug May 23rd 2009 1:28AM
Oh god no. Please no.
Muffiny May 24th 2009 12:09AM
"The Argent Coliseum was merely a setback..."
Reinard May 22nd 2009 8:41PM
Why does everyone assume Icecrown will be 3.3? Because BT was? Didn't Blizzard admit that was a bad idea and a mistake and they won't do it again?
Has this been confirmed or something, and I missed it?
Caiginn May 22nd 2009 8:46PM
It was confirmed, iirc. I don't have the link because I'm at work.
Maybe someone can confirm? Or prove me wrong even? :)
devilsei May 22nd 2009 9:09PM
I think the "mistake" they admitted was them hyping up Black Temple and Illidan as the end-all raid of TBC when it was really Kil'jaeden.
RogueJedi86 May 22nd 2009 9:09PM
Blizz confirmed it back at BlizzCon after they announced WotLK. They said 3.1 would be Ulduar, 3.2 an unknown raid, and 3.3 would be Icecrown Citadel, the last big patch of the expansion. It will be last because they hated how they did did Black Temple so early in the BC cycle, having to do the Sunwell thing for filler.
z3rb May 22nd 2009 10:08PM
BT was 2.1, sit. Blizzard have said Icecrown Citadel will be in 3.3.
wowspoon May 22nd 2009 8:48PM
Gief trailer with :
Thrall: Garrosh, I'm not going to be a pussy anymore
*Kicks Garrosh's ass*
Thrall: Proove yourself usefull or I'll kick your ass once again!
Garrosh: Oh noes, I was wrong, I have to proove I'm good again! What if I join the Argent Crusade?! They're good guys.
*Garrosh enters the Argent Tournament and gets awesome enough to enter the Coloseum*
Later in the game you're finally getting to fight Garrosh, but then über-Varian comes and "omg you're so n00b why don'tcha kill him, PMS-power like me FTW" and kicks his ass, then Thrall gets pissed and jumps in to fight Varian, then you get bored and attack both of them but then Jaina jumps in to stop it all but then you kill her once and for all for being a pussy..
That's my opinion.
jd May 22nd 2009 9:19PM
Is there a way to make commenting automatic. I don't see anything to make it so. I don't really want to be an aol member or do that tracking char thing. Just comment on articles without having to return to my email client everytime. I stopped commenting because I got tired to logging in all the time to the yahoo account.
Also, greying out comments is an eye strain causer.
And further complaints lol. The old thread interface was better looking. Otherwise it's one of my most visited sites.
Reuben May 22nd 2009 10:55PM
There is indeed a way to make comments "automatic." I actually don't remember how to set it up, but as you can see near the bottom of the page there is an option for "Returning." That is where I log in to make comments, and never requires me to check my email for confirmation.
Also, WoW.com is a part of Joystiq, and all of Joystiq uses the comment-graying-out system, so I don't really see that changing.
Kylenne May 23rd 2009 1:15PM
Your old password is invalid, if you pay attention to the confirmation email for a comment, it will give you a new password to use. Just put that in the Returning password box with your email address and you should be all set.
It annoyed the hell out of me too until I finally noticed it--they really need to make that more prominent in the confirmation email. I kept tabbing over to Gmail because it was so buried.
Slyght May 22nd 2009 9:22PM
It's a long-standing misconception the Blizzard said there would be a raid in patch 3.2, but we have no quote from a Blizzard employee saying this. It was only second-hand information from an article on Curse.com.
I had been predicting for a while that there would be no full fledged raid dungeon in 3.2, and the focus would be on the Argent Tournament and a new BG. Blizzard still wants most people to see Icecrown, and the a lot of players probably won't have Ulduar cleared by the time 3.2 comes out, not to mention the hard modes. While adding an additional raid tier before Icecrown sounds good on paper, that would mean even less people would get to experience IC, and we'd have another Sunwell scenario on our hands which Blizzard wants to avoid.
Naxx is T7, Ulduar is T8, and Icecrown is T9. It may not seem like a lot of dungeons, but keep in mind that the number of bosses per tier is equal to TBC, not to mention hard modes, heroic modes, etc.
I'll be bold and predict that 3.2 is on the PTR on May 29th (Under Dev updates usually indicate it's a week or two away), and say it goes live in early August pre-Blizzcon. Expect 3.3 very early next year (maybe very late this year), leading into beta testing for the next expansion in the Spring, and a release of the next expansion in the Summer.
grobirn May 22nd 2009 9:56PM
There is no way in hell that Blizz are going to release an expansion in the middle of summer draught. Basically only the the period September to April are possible months, unless they really want to lose huge huge sales and get bad publicity proclaiming "WoWs latest expansion sales fails to meet expectations", which marketing/sales will never allow happen. By far the most likely date for the next expansion is Christmas again - and only really Christmas 2010 would be realistic.It could be a fall 2010 release, and theoretically a spring 2010 release, but chances for that are extremely slim.
Expansion announced at Blizzon, then released for Christmas 16 months later, just like both the previous expansions (although they missed the deadline a bit on TBC).
SaintStryfe May 22nd 2009 10:57PM
Blizzard can and will release the game when ever they want, and people will buy it because they want new content. This is not a traditional game, and does not rely on dates to move it - shovelware THQ games may need to be released in November for Christmas release, but not WoW. It can be released in Feburary, or November, or when ever, and people will buy it.
kabshiel May 23rd 2009 1:32AM
There's no real pattern to when Blizzard releases games. They've released them in every season and pretty much everything they've made has been a big hit.