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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.
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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 12)
fallemwarrior Mar 2nd 2011 12:31PM
In that case i want a fuzzy bunny dungeon of cuteness and cuddliness :D
OHHH COME on dont tell me you wouldnt want one!
CDave Mar 2nd 2011 12:42PM
@MattKrotzer- I'd raid that
Matthew Mar 2nd 2011 12:53PM
I agree Cutaia, I wanna kill Grimtotems. Raid style. Burn Magatha!
Grovinofdarkhour Mar 2nd 2011 1:05PM
"there is a center of troll civilization yet to be seen in World of Warcraft. There was once an ancient empire of troll tribes united"
http://www.wowpedia.org/Zandalar
Let's get ready to RUMBLE!!!
RetPallyJil Mar 2nd 2011 1:31PM
How about Zul'Overkill?
Blayze Mar 2nd 2011 1:35PM
I can't wait to go to Zul'Duar.
Or Zul'Daman.
Or Zul'Dum.
Also, something I've noticed:
Zul'Gurub is the home of the Gurubashi.
Zul'Aman is the home of the Amani.
Zul'Drak is the home of the Drakkari.
Zul'Farrak is the home of the... Sandfury?
And then there's the Darkspear.
I think we've found the secret troll type: Verb Trolls.
Killik Mar 2nd 2011 2:19PM
@cutaia Well gnomes do get Gnomeregan and more wouldn't be horrible.
I'd also like to see more tauren bosses and the Grimtotem are begging for an instance appearance. But I suspect zoning in and massacring, essentially, a bunch of people dressed as Native Americans just wouldn't sit well.
mibu.work1 Mar 2nd 2011 3:40PM
It's quite possible we'll see a new troll raid, seeing as we've only seen three of the four branch tribes (Seen: Jungle, Forest, Ice. Haven't seen: Shadow), and one faction of the root tribe, the Zalandar Trolls, who may be the oldest sentient civilization native to Azeroth. Considering the Gurubashi were able to once command the forces of Neptulon, and the Ice trolls could styme the advance of the scourge, the Desert Trolls (who are really jungle trolls) could tame the servant of the old gods, and the Forest trolls could Absorb their own gods, I think we're in for some epic troll action at some point.
Now, for those of you who say "Oh great, MORE troll content." I would like to say this: Trolls have, thus far, had these dungeons, in order of level: Zul'ferrak, Sunken Temple, Zul'Gerub, Zul'Aman, Gundrak Keep, Zul'Drak. Six. Four Dungeons and Two raids, soon to be Six Dungeons out of a total of 59, discounting heroic SFK and DM, and not counting raids. So they got 10% of all dungeons, add the 28 raid instances (discounting repeats) and dungeons make up 6% of all Instanced content.
Trolls have had ONE content patch, Two once 4.1 comes out.
As for the Darkspear, it took them Almost SIX YEARS to get a plot advancement on their main story. If anything, trolls have been neglected. When they've had the same level of content as the NAGA, you know trolls need more attention.
Bernie Roscoe Mar 2nd 2011 8:28PM
I'm excited about Zul'again!
Rude Hero Mar 2nd 2011 9:15PM
To be honest, they have to put hooks for subsequent expansions *somewhere*. It's possible that we'll see something trolly in 4.2, but I suspect we'll be seeing something of Zandalar and the Undermine whenever we feel like punching Azshara in the face, which has already been confirmed to be sometime after Cata.
Evelinda Mar 3rd 2011 7:05PM
@cutaia
i think it's at least partly because the trolls are so insular; they don't play nice with other races (or even most of their own race), so their dungeons tend to be pretty exclusive, unlike other dungeons which may have a "main" race, but will also often have other races in there working with them.
also, those pesky trolls a freakin everywhere. you can barely walk a mile without tripping over a troll in azeroth. given how adaptable they are, it's no surprise really that they have quite a few power centres for us to go trash
Thiron Mar 2nd 2011 11:09AM
While current valor epics will be available for JP in 4.1, what happens with tier helms and shoulders?
shawn Mar 2nd 2011 11:20AM
Is this definitely the case? Is there documentation to support it? I may have easily missed it and would like clarification.
fallemwarrior Mar 2nd 2011 11:25AM
Think t7 and t8 they will probably still require the raid to get them
Thiron Mar 2nd 2011 11:35AM
It's not in patch notes, but it was said numerous times when the justice/valor system appeared.
With each new tier of gear, valor points are converted to justice, and previous tier valor gear will be sold for justice points.
That way they introduce new tier valor gear without need for new "points", like we had a number of emblem tiers in WotLK.
The question is, what happens with helms and shoulders, since they need raid-dropped emblems ATM.
Steve Mar 2nd 2011 12:23PM
Those emblems should still drop off the raid bosses that drop them now. I expect you'll still need them to purchase the gear.
Minstrel Mar 2nd 2011 1:04PM
-------------------------------------
"It's not in patch notes, but it was said numerous times when the justice/valor system appeared.
With each new tier of gear, valor points are converted to justice, and previous tier valor gear will be sold for justice points. "
-------------------------------------
Yes, this was always clear. But what isn't clear to me is: will there be a new tier of gear in patch 4.1? Essentially, my understanding was that when t12 comes out, existing valor points will become justice points, so people can't horde VP to immediately get t12.
But I've not read anything about t12 gear in patch 4.1. Have I simply missed it?
Vladeon Mar 2nd 2011 2:33PM
It's always been the case that when a new .x patch comes out (3.1 [Ulduar], 3.2 [ToC], 3.3 [ICC], 4.0 [BWD, BOT, TotFW]) a new raiding tier and therefore a new gear tier (T8, 9, 10 and 11 respectively) has been released. Even though it's a fallacy to say that past is prologue, I think there's a very strong pattern. The fact that there hasn't been any information about the tier items not being released in datamining yet isn't necessarily something to be concerned about. It's always been the case that the tier items haven't been datamined till the end of the ptr testing because the devs need to know the full extent of class changes before they can make tier items, otherwise we get things like the holy paladin tier 11 that's completely useless because the changes they've done to holy paladins were after the fact.
TL;DR version: don't worry, there will most definitely be a new gear tier in 4.1.
Caliea Mar 2nd 2011 11:09AM
Gah! I'm confused. Obviously I've missed some news... Valor points are changing/reverting to Justice points? I need moar info please. Can someone point me in the right direction?
WaterRouge Mar 2nd 2011 11:16AM
Basically here's how it's going down.
You know how in Wrath there were 4 different types of badges in which each one equated to a tier of gear? Well in Cataclysm that isn't happening anymore. In PvE you're either getting Justice or Valor points and that's it. The NEWEST/FRESHEST tier will always be bought with Valor while EVERYTHING ELSE will be bought with Justice.
So three patches from now, assuming every patch is a new tier, you will be using Valor points on those T4 (Cata) items and using Justice on T1 (like now), T2 (like in 4.1), and T3 items.
The reason your current Valor points are being converted to Justice points is so that you can't "cheat" and spend them on T3 gear without actually doing that level of work. If they didn't push them down into Justice basically what people would do is just save up a ton of Valor and when the new patch is released spend it all and get top level gear by having done easier content.