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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 12 of 12)
Felinae Mar 3rd 2011 2:10AM
While I haven't seen a blue post stating definitively what will happen, there are currently no instances in game that can be entered as both a raid and a dungeon.
I would expect that the raid will cease to be when the 5 man dungeon goes live.
Mojo is teh cute, I was rapt when the raid I used to lead made a point of giving me the first one that dropped. :)
RogueJedi86 Mar 2nd 2011 7:40PM
ZG as an instance doesn't exist in regular form since Cataclysm, so wouldn't the 4.1 ZG just be ZG, and not Heroic ZG? You can't have a heroic version if the original version doesn't exist. When you go into ZG, you'll automatically be in the heroic version even if you don't have heroic selected on your portrait?
For that matter, what about ZA? Will the regular version be the old 10-man raid, and the heroic version the 5-man version? How does that work?
That seems to me to be what Erevan was asking.
lowlight Mar 2nd 2011 7:56PM
As a frost DK, I hardly even want to play until 4.1 comes out! Hurry up!
JohnnyN Mar 2nd 2011 9:39PM
hi there, first time commenting here. Question: whatever happened to smithy or whatever the was name of the tauren pirate boss of classic deadmines? is he dead? How did he died? Why Blizzard keeps mistreating the cool tauren npcs(ie Cairne, Gamon, etc). Ok, those were 2 questions :-)
Amaxe Mar 2nd 2011 8:46PM
I have a question for the Queue... though it is more of a WTF question than one I hope to get a real answer to.
What in the HELL are these Horde in Gadgetzan (my server is pvp) thinking one shotting people inside the city limits when the guards essentially net and slaughter them in seconds?
I mean I suffer at worst a 1% equip damage as a level 44 mage with heirlooms being killed in PvP by a level 85. They take a much bigger hit from being killed by PvE mobs.
Did the IQ over on Stonemaul take a sudden drop or something?
nickishulk Mar 2nd 2011 11:41PM
So me and a friend where both wondering about the cost of the mats for the sandstone drake if they where bought using a goblin. Do you get the 20% discount for the mat vendors or does the discount only apply to vendors that have a faction.
Grovinofdarkhour Mar 3rd 2011 1:34AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
Diablo Mar 3rd 2011 1:45AM
I like the idea of 'variations' on instances, less important for low-level non-repeated instances, however on progression and massively repeated instances it might be neat to make different features available to 'mod' it a little, including speed runs (maybe for bonus loot or acheives), 100% clear runs, minimal patrol-slip through runs, and other rewards/acheives that branch off from a single generic instance.
dzar34 Mar 3rd 2011 11:31AM
I think having tiered 5-mans is absolutely phenomenal idea. As someone who wants to raid, but not sure if I'll have the time, I love the fact that I will get the chance to continue to progress at level cap if it turns out I can't raid
dzar34 Mar 3rd 2011 11:43AM
I have a question. I'm sure the answer to this can only really be speculation, but here goes: I am a player who absolutely loves the lore of the game- I read the Warcraft books and have loved following the stories of the games from Warcraft I. While WoW offers an amazing chance to experience the lore, the fact that I have never raided and not sure if I'll have the time once I reach cap (though I hope so), I am forced to miss out on many huge lore moments. While I would love the experience of fighting Illidan or taking on Arthas, I have never been able to do it, and now that everyone has moved on to Cata stuff, I fear I will never get the chance. While I would love the opportunity to go for all the great gear and achievements that raids have to offer, I really just want the experience of getting to see these fights and be a part of them. My question is this: do you think Blizzard will ever make it so their raids (particularly the older ones from vanilla and BC) are toned down to a 5-man mode (separate from the raid itself), just for players who really want to be a part of the fights and the lore of the game? This way, it would make it easier to get a group together and take on these massive lore characters without the need to get a giant raid together and spend hours doing it. I'm not against raiding, I think it's cool as hell, I just want a chance to get to "live" the lore a bit.