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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Common patch 4.1 questions
by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 2nd 2011 at 11:00AM
We've been seeing the same questions about patch 4.1 repeated fairly frequently over the last few days, so I'll be trying to tackle a small batch of those today.
Everyone in the entire world asked:
What will happen to our valor points in patch 4.1?
Since Blizzard is not adding a new tier of points, your valor point tally the day patch 4.1 launches will be rolled down into your justice points. I know that for certain. I'm pretty sure that if you end up over the cap of 4,000 justice points when your valors are rolled down, you will be able to go over the cap. But you won't accrue any more justice points until you've spent some.
Erevan asked:
It was announced in the PTR patch notes that the revamped 5-man versions of ZG and ZA will have an ilevel requirement of 346 and drop 353 epics (fantastic approach, IMO, to allowing better 5 man drops without immediately invalidating current raid equipment).
Here's my question: do the above ilevel numbers reflect the regular or heroic versions of ZG and ZA, and what gear requirements/loot drops can we expect from whichever one it isn't?
I don't believe there will be a normal version of these instances -- they're heroic only. What Blizzard is doing with these new 5-mans is providing a method of advancement for players who don't raid. They expect you to run the 5-man dungeons that were in at launch until you can do them on their heroic difficulty. Once you've conquered those and reached an ilevel of 346, you can step up and do Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub heroics. Essentially, heroics are becoming tiered content, just like raids. Tier 1 is all of the heroics that were in at launch. Tier 2 is Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub. Tier three will be whatever comes in patch 4.2 (or patch 4.3).
Personally, I think it's a great step for people who can't raid. Zul'Aman will even have a timed run again, which should add yet another layer of challenge to the instance. I like it.
Steve asked:
How confident should we be that new raid content will be included in 4.1? Thus far, and unless I've missed something, any mention of new raids has been excluded from the patch notes. We know that Firelands and the new Caverns of Time raids are coming, and we've seen some new tier 12 trinkets, so clearly something is in the works. But is it possible that they would limit the new content to the new 5-mans in 4.1 and hold off on new raids until 4.2?
It's entirely possible that Blizzard is going to change up its way of doing content patches. It might break up raid content and non-raid content into their own patches. But I wouldn't assume that's what's happening yet. Patch 4.1 went up on the PTR fairly bare-boned. There was a lot to datamine but not much actually available for play. Only an early iteration of Zul'Gurub and its associated quests were available the night the PTR went live. No Zul'Aman, no gear, not much of anything. I fully expect that Blizzard rushed this one out onto the PTR and it's going to be there for a long time -- long enough to add in some of that raid content.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 11 of 12)
Ianmis Mar 2nd 2011 3:33PM
No, you don't have to find the entrance of dungeons to run them since patch 4.0.6.
Oscar Mar 2nd 2011 3:55PM
Awesome, thank you
Mamaryno Mar 2nd 2011 3:20PM
Concerning Valor gear-will the gear now bought with valor points be available with JP's after the patch? Im guessing yes but with Blizzard, one never knows
Ianmis Mar 2nd 2011 3:32PM
Is there a legitimate reason why we no longer see Strength polearms? The last one I could find was a blue drop out of normal Violet Hold in Wrath? Why do pallys, DKs, and warriors have the skill but will be laughed out of the game for using them now as they no longer provide the correct stats? Oddly enough I did come across a green with random stats at 85 that was str based but that won't stop me from getting laughed at if I were to try to use it. I also noticed that there were no current epic 85 polearms from the raids. What's up with that?
Boobah Mar 2nd 2011 4:10PM
There aren't any strength-based staves, either, although in that case there's really only one spec of one class that could use it.
Although that's a large part of why there aren't any strength-based polearms, either; you can't titan's-grip a polearm, everybody else who might reasonably want one can use a two-handed mace, and everybody else for whom it's optimal can also use two-handed axes and swords.
It's kinda like asking for more feral maces, really. There just isn't much point in clogging up loot tables that very few people will actually use. Unless we get something like Quel'delar again, we shouldn't expect to see any.
Grovinofdarkhour Mar 2nd 2011 3:59PM
"the system can't tell the difference of a legit vote to kick vs an illigit one"
But they could certainly improve this, if they wanted to.
It wouldn't take much to keep a tally of how many mobs are initially aggroed by each party member. If anyone else in the group is anywhere NEAR the tank in that number, a vote-kick is obviously more justified and shouldn't push up anyone's "kick timer".
It wouldn't take much to have the system look for people who queued as tanks in fury spec, DKs wearing intellect gear, AFK'ers sending no input to the server for several minutes, the initials "STFU" in chat, or any of a host of reasons we might think justify a kick. Why aren't they set up then? Because Blizzard wants us to be good boys and girls, actually speak up and point these things out to the offenders, in case it's an honest mistake. They have to just trust that we'll do our part in these sorts of matters, and if we do, our reward is that the overall quality of play by others will improve. They're not going to start monitoring all the chat in real-time during every random, so they leave the policing to us, with limits.
Long story short, ratio of justified-kicks-to-unjustified-kicks doesn't matter. Blizzard thinks you kick too much, period. If you wanna be told "you can't kick yet" less often, make a conscious effort to use the kick option less often.
Randomhour Mar 2nd 2011 4:02PM
If both my Email and account were hacked and either the secret question was changed or forgotten, is there any way I could get one of them back?
Grovinofdarkhour Mar 2nd 2011 4:08PM
Call & beg?
But seriously, if my email was hacked, I would DEFINITELY deal with that first.
WoW isn't going anywhere, and I haven't heard of anything the bad guys could do to your toon that Blizzard couldn't fix. (Unless you *were* a guildmaster...)
Ryu3010 Mar 2nd 2011 4:24PM
I'm still thinking that they put the new 5 mans out early to make sure they get fully and completely tested before beginning raid content. From my experience from former patches, once raid content comes out all 5 mans are ignored.
synistarx Mar 2nd 2011 4:54PM
MMO was showin somethin with Bind-on-Bnet account stuff...would that happen to be a change to the heirlooms being able to go server-to-server?
SuicidalCabbage Mar 2nd 2011 5:39PM
Question for the Queue,
I never really understood how Arthas was able to beat Illidan at the base of the Frozen Throne. Illidan has been around a LOT longer than Arthas and is a master of arcane arts, slaying demons, and all around great fighter. Seriously, he's got one sweet resume.
Arthas on the other hand comes off as being good but not great. Sure he was a decent fighter and paladin, but it wouldn't seem likely that he's anywhere near Illidan's skill level. So Frostmourne has to be the great equalizer.
Was Ner'zul/Lich King that powerful enough to offset the skill difference? Was it luck? Or do I fail at understanding lore?
Helston Mar 3rd 2011 8:18AM
I believe you're underestimating the power of both the Ner'zhul and Arthas. I think (someone who's read Rise of the Lich King would be far better informed) Arthas' only real weakness as a paladin was his arrogance and aggressiveness. In the midst of battle he would've been a huge force. Upon taking up Frostmourne, Ner'zhul was able to turn Arthas' weaknesses as a paladin into strengths as a death knight.
An interesting note is how Arthas and Illidan were equals shortly before Illidan obtained the Skull of Gul'dan, indicating that Arthas himself had improved since then, or it was his proximity to the Frozen Throne, and the fresh injection of power that helped him defeat Illidan. Ner'zhul may not have been around for as long as Illidan, and it was his apprentice's power (who actually craved power) which transformed Illidan, but Ner'zhul has his spirit torn away from his flesh, then empowered by Kil'jaeden himself. As Ner'zhul was on the brink of dying himself, it was a last-desperation sort of thing, akin to an adrenaline rush or a wounded animal that allowed him to send so much power to Arthas.
Finally, that fight between Illidan and Arthas was actually summed up pretty badly by the cinematic. I remember seeing somewhere that Blizzard wished they could've made that a proper cinematic, as opposed to the in-game cinematic they had. This would've made it obvious that Illidan wasn't killed in the fight, and probably would've showed the duel to be much, much closer. In the Matthias Lehner quest chain you get to play Arthas in that fight, and Matthias mentions that this is the one fight where Arthas gets close to dying. What's more, Arthas gets a debuff during that fight called Pierced Heart: "Your heart has been grazed by Illidan's glaives. If only you could rid yourself of this useless thing...".
Illidan lost the fight, but he bloody well managed to get one of his glaives into Arthas' heart. Considering he's fighting a very strong paladin-turned-death knight, who had long ago been chosen to become the Lich King and who had been infused with heaps of power coming from someone heavily empowered by Kil'jaeden, I'd say Illidan did a good job.
Ben Howard Mar 2nd 2011 4:50PM
can i haz plz?
Ben Howard Mar 2nd 2011 4:55PM
(Ignore that previous comment - stupid auotfilling password app)
Can you expand on the Valor point issue? I can't find anything about this in the patch notes for 4.1, so I don't understand what is happening. Does this mean I will lose valor points when 4.1 drops? what if I am a few hundred points shy of getting that trinket I want? Do I have to start over again? Does this mean that current Valor Gear will be purchasable with Justice Points? You're answer creates more questions yet no answers. Please?
(cutaia) Mar 2nd 2011 5:20PM
"Does this mean I will lose valor points when 4.1 drops?"
Yes. If you have 1000 Justice Points and 1000 Valor points the day before 4.1 drops, the next day you will have 2000 Justice Points and 0 Valor Points.
"what if I am a few hundred points shy of getting that trinket I want?"
It doesn't matter, because...
"Does this mean that current Valor Gear will be purchasable with Justice Points?"
...of this. Yes. That Valor trinket you were saving for the day before 4.1 dropped, will now cost Justice Points. This means you will not only NOT have more work to do for it...but you'll actually have less work to do for it because you'll be able to run heroics for Justice Points.
Raginghobo Mar 2nd 2011 5:56PM
Why do blizzard make you farm heroics to find a wand? Relics etc are available from justice points but no wand love.
I'm pretty well geared now but I still have a Ilevel 308 wand that I cant get rid of, no matter how many times I kill Corla.
Jonathan Mar 2nd 2011 6:02PM
Is it just me or have the PTR servers been down for the past few days? I haven't seen them up since Sunday.
Artificial Mar 2nd 2011 6:08PM
@Grovin: You're right about them wanting people to actually talk to each other than work these things out. Most of the rest of what you posted is dead wrong. In particular, you'd just suggested a system to guarantee mages don't sheep (since that almost always draws aggro, which is then picked up by the tank easily since you did nothing but sheep something). Sure, I'll continue to CC for my guild, but in randoms, if I'm getting a free "kick me" sign posted on my back for doing CC? Forget it. Go without CC ya bastages. :p
"It wouldn't take much to" improve the system? If you don't think it through, it frequently seems that way, but if you actually think about it, it becomes harder to see what changes you could make to improve it. Thinking it'd be easy to improve is a sure sign you haven't thought about it hard enough. As the old saying goes, "confidence is that feeling you have before you understand the problem." The most obvious an idea seems, the more likely you're missing something...
Will Mar 2nd 2011 6:09PM
Question about the VP => JP conversion:
Will the Tier 11 head and shoulders still require raid tokens, or will we be able to buy them with JP?
Sashiel Mar 2nd 2011 6:13PM
Question to The Queue:
Is Zul'Aman Raid Mode going to be removed? I dont want to lose my chance on Mojo the frog :( farming him for ages.