Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsPatch 4.1: What we know so far
by Alex Ziebart 
Jan 6th 2011 at 9:00PM
We don't know everything that will be contained in patch 4.1, but between BlizzCon and more recent information, Blizzard has already outlined a number of the major features from the patch. Let's take a look at those features, shall we?
Hyjal daily quests
A new daily quest hub will be added to Hyjal, one of the two Cataclysm starting zones. This quest hub will actually progress the overall story of the zone. If you've quested through Hyjal, you know that players end up healing most of the damage done to the zone. Patch 4.1 will reflect that, and we'll be questing in a healed Hyjal. Perhaps some of those quests will actually take place in the Firelands, similar to the Joust quests or the quest to kill Nemesis? Time will tell.
The quests in Hyjal ended with the player pushing Ragnaros back into the Firelands, alongside Malfurion Stormrage and Hamuul Runetotem. Malfurion and Hamuul then discuss going to the leaders of the Horde and the Alliance to arrange closing off the Firelands completely. This raid zone will very likely be the climax of that story.
The final boss of the Firelands raid will be Ragnaros within the Sulfuron Keep, and we're likely to learn more of the reasoning behind Ragnaros's aggressive interest in Azeroth. The plan as of BlizzCon was to include a total of seven bosses. Perhaps more of our old friends from Molten Core? It would be a good opportunity for them to revisit the fetch mechanic from Golemagg that they were unable to properly implement back in vanilla WoW.
Abyssal Maw instance
Patch 4.1 will introduce another 5-man dungeon in Vashj'ir, this one completely underwater like the world zone that houses it. Back at BlizzCon, the developers tried to assuage the fears of the playerbase by being clear about trying to avoid the "Oculus effect," wherein quirky mechanics turned the dungeon into an annoyance.
This instance will have four or five bosses. Based on Alex Afrasiabi's recent comments, among these bosses may be an animal god, if not more than one.
More classic dungeon changes?
Before the launch of Cataclysm, the playerbase was grumbling about heroic Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep. While originally expected to be in at launch, it was later announced that these dungeons would be in patch 4.1 and not available at launch. That delay didn't actually occur. Both of the heroic classic dungeons made it in at launch. There may not be any of this in patch 4.1 after all, or we might see a different set of dungeons return.
Enhanced dungeon maps
At BlizzCon, the developers also discussed the planned addition (or extension) of dungeon maps. In addition to 2-D maps of the dungeons (many of which we have already), the basic UI will offer lore background for bosses, their basic abilities (though no mechanical or tactical explanation of the encounter), and the loot they drop.
This UI addition is unlikely to eliminate mods such as AtlasLoot, but it will be a great boon to players who try to remain addon-lite.
As of now, that's all that we know about patch 4.1. Do note, however, that almost all of this information dates back to the end of October, and patch 4.1 isn't even on the PTR yet. All of this information could change at any moment.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 6)
RetPallyJil Jan 6th 2011 11:13PM
Jousting was the single greatest mechanic ever added to WoW. MOAR JOWSTIN!
Al Jan 6th 2011 11:14PM
Hyjal jousting... it's like Tournament jousting, only with no directional control and an extra axis to deal with.
That'll be a fun daily...
Darkdust Jan 6th 2011 11:30PM
A jousting daily using the mechanic in Mount Hyjal would single-handedly make 4.1 rock for me.
Greg Jan 6th 2011 11:35PM
Jousting was more frustrating than exciting. Riding a mount that had the turn radius of a battleship while while spamming 1-2-3-4 lacked 'epic feel.'
Maribel Jan 6th 2011 11:49PM
I liked horse jousting. Hyjal jousting made me want to claw all my skin off.
RetPallyJil Jan 7th 2011 1:41AM
Tee hee look at all the wee baby gamers who never played the real Joust!
Angus Jan 7th 2011 2:17AM
RetPallyJil: My wife was like, wait, are we effing playing JOUST?!
Took her till the second wave to catch on.
I personally am sad I can only have one of the 2 pets and would love a daily that allows me to get the second.
llewsyr Jan 7th 2011 3:21AM
@RetPallyJil: I'm not a wee-baby gamer, and I most certainly spent about half my weekly allowance playing the crap out of that Joust cabinet at the chili parlor up the street from my house as a kid. So, understand that I hated the "homage" that Blizzard put in Hyjal. Why? NO HOVERING! Every flap imparts forward momentum. Grr.
(The other half of my allowance went to the Galaga machine right next to it.)
loop_not_defined Jan 7th 2011 8:04AM
@Greg
All you did was press 1-2-3-4? Lol, no wonder Argent Tournament jousting was so frustrating for you.
I'd love a chance to play the Mount Hyjal version of jousting again, though.
Aaron Jan 7th 2011 10:15AM
The first 10 or so times I jousted I was terrible, but after getting Crusader on 3 toons I could joust while watching youtube vids. By the end of the expac I set little speed records for myself by watching the debuffs from besting other factions.
Still on the fence about it though. It wasn't THAT bad, but do I miss it? Not really.
Hache Jan 7th 2011 11:01AM
This IS Joust:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4cgLL8JaVI
Boozard Jan 14th 2011 12:38AM
they shoul dmake it more like balloon fight than joust.
Amaxe Jan 27th 2011 5:35PM
Being old enough to have played the old coin-op Joust in Arcades (That's right Boys and Girls... video games used to be played in 6 foot tall boxes with a screen. 25 cents a play and only one game per machine), I hated this, and hearthed out of there. I can tolerate it as a closed off thing irrelevant to the game as a whole. I think if they expanded it or made it mandatory, I'd be gone from WoW.
Vehicular quests in WoW work better in Cataclysm simply because (thus far for me), they don't have the game breaking 'do this or get stuck at a quest hub' flaw it had in WoLK. They are simply a mechanic to do action which isn't normally important.
If they go back to the WoLK model of vehicle quests, I'm going to be ticked off.
Sean Jan 6th 2011 9:37PM
Patch 4.1 should also be implementing sweeping changes to the horribly designed Tol Barad. Since the win-trading stopped, Alliance hasn't had TB one single time.
dark_abyss Jan 6th 2011 9:47PM
Did we forget about the "battle of the ancients" CoT Raid? I expect it in this patch, if not the next
undeadflamingo Jan 7th 2011 1:50AM
The War of The Ancients raid is unlikely to be in this patch (Two raids in one patch might be going to far), but wowpedia tells us that it'll be "A part of the progression to fight against Deathwing" (Which i assume either means learning about him first-hand, or if the bronze dragonflight lost all of morality, changing time to weaken him). Also, we don't know if it's the War of The Ancients described in the WarCraft 3 manual, the novels, or a new version.
Boobah Jan 7th 2011 4:41AM
The plan is that every tier in Cataclysm will have two or three raid instances, so there should logically be at least one other instance released at the same time as Sulfuron Keep, and the only other raid instance I've heard about in the works is the War of the Ancients raid.
This doesn't mean it WILL be in 4.1, but it is somewhat indicative.
Ice Jan 7th 2011 10:47AM
"Two raids in one patch might be going to far"
Why? Blizzard has said repeatedly that they will be making "6 boss raids" instead of one big 12 boss raid so that one raid can be done in day when its past the progress, remember when you had to use two days for ICC/ulduar because "lets leave X boss and last one for tommorow" or something? And I'm not talking about end ICC where you had 30% buff and it was done in 3 hours.
And I do believe they've said MULTIPLE instances per tier/patch. Its kinda like episodic content over at singleplayers, more content faster but with smaller partions. And I do hope that is same here. Instead of waiting 6 months for 12 boss raid we might wait.. 3-4?
Now, 6 bosses per instance are fine in a way, but its certainly not enough for 4-6 months worth of raiding ALONE (coughTOCcough)
This is mostly why its way better to have 6+6 than one 12 boss raid. Also for variety.
Remember BC?
Kara
Gruul+Maggie+ZA
Serpent +Tempest keep
Hyjal+Black temple
Sunwell
So much variety and choices!
Wotlk?
Naxx(+OS+Maly both 1 boss fights..)
Ulduar
Toc(+Onyxia, 1 boss that 'noone' cared about..)
ICC(+"Ruby", 1 boss that 'noone' cared about...)
negativegirl Jan 31st 2011 2:42PM
I wish. God, I can't wait for that.
I just finished reading the trilogy (again) and it makes me excited to be able to (hopefully) see it!
Warhead Jan 6th 2011 9:52PM
Ugh, a spoiler warning would have been nice. That said, I hope this patch isn't dropping any time soon. I haven't been to Hyjal yet. I would like to be able to quest in the same zone everyone else has, rather than a "healed Hyjal" in which I played no part. Perhaps they will phase it? I hope.