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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPatch 4.1 will not contain Firelands raid content
by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 3rd 2011 at 8:00PM
This is a step toward much smaller (and faster) content patches, much as we had back in vanilla WoW. Blizzard could release a small set of features far more rapidly than the current "monolithic" patches. Firelands and its associated raid content will now be included in patch 4.2. Patch 4.1 will entirely focus on the return of Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub.
[via Eurogamer]
Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 7)
Starlin Mar 3rd 2011 8:31PM
Why don't they just nerf the current content? I guess if we can gear up in ZA and ZG then the indirect nerf will come by us somewhat overgearing the place.
Deathknighty Mar 3rd 2011 9:00PM
Because that would be "catering to the casuals".
But besides that, how would feel if you were Paragon and the content you had worked so very hard was nerfed because it was too hard? You feel pretty irritated.
And anyway, nerfing just to let us complete it isn't how a game should work. If you're playing a single player game and you're stuck on a bossfight, the game, unless it is a very bad game, doesn't make itself easier. The same applies to an MMO.
What I think will happen here is that this change will allow getting very low level epics easier. That'll make it easier and quicker to get past the first obstacles, and also let players who started later catch up without ruining it for everyone. The epics they get will let them get the "proper" epics that'll help them make high end progress.
I think this is a good idea - this new patch philosophy will allow for better balance, as more frequent patches will allow them to fine tune things more and attend to bad changes faster - it should also let them bundle in other stuff, like Hyjal dailes, updating Silithus, Arathi, etc. It's a good thing.
mibu.work1 Mar 4th 2011 9:40AM
They are not nerfing the current raids because they want raids to only be accessible to people who are willing to gear up. If you want to raid, you do heroics, if you want to do heroics, you have to do randoms until you have good enough gear. If you want to do ZA and ZG, you either have to have spent most of this time getting gear from normals and working up to heroics for a challange.
Essentially, the raids are for people who want to work at them, but most guilds that DO want to work at them have VERY little content on farm at the moment, and they want people to get the raid experience as best as they can. Besides, considering how much better T11 gear is than 346, it would be impossible for most guilds to attempt T12 content with current gear levels.
Essentially, think of the ZA and ZG heroics, probably the most epic heroics to date, to be the raid content for the most casual gamers, and tough farm content for the raid-ready gamers.
paragorillabear Mar 4th 2011 12:31AM
Why is Deathknighty being downranked? I don't get it.
? ?
Xsinthis Mar 3rd 2011 8:34PM
So they're releasing next tiers dungeons, but not next tiers raids?
/confused
won't that make next tier, and this one, faceroll?
cyanea85 Mar 3rd 2011 8:48PM
This isn't t12. Think of this as t11.5.
I kinda like this decision, personally. It really doesn't feel like the non-uber, non-elite guilds (like mine) had enough time with the content to get through it. The 353 stuff will help.
Xsinthis Mar 3rd 2011 8:51PM
Well they're releasing epics with the new dungeons, which means more people who can't not stand in fire get into raids decked out in epics.
I do not like this at all, plus we were all assuming that this patch was months away, lots of time for progression.
Amanda A. Mar 3rd 2011 9:37PM
The Zul'epics are lower item level than even the first tier normal mode raiding epics-- they're close enough that someone in them won't be that far off someone in raid epics and will probably be able to progress to tier 12 content, but they're still slightly inferior. What's more, the 5-mans themselves are tuned for a higher item level, and have a higher item level entry requirement than current heroics. And, from what I hear from people on the PTR, they require raid-like levels of tactics and awareness. If you stand in the fire, you will not be getting any epics because your group will be wiping.
It's more that it'll let alts and people who have bad luck on drops be geared for the next raiding tier. It also gives a progression for serious players who don't raid. They do exist, I promise. (It'll also make mael crystals available to non-raiders for less than an arm and a leg each.)
And I think I like this system. Release a raid tier, 2-3 months later release a new heroic tier with gear that's close enough to normal mode raid gear to help people catch up, in case they want to jump in on the next set of raids. It keeps people from being locked out of Deathwing's Lair because they didn't start raiding over a year ago. Then release a new raid, then release a new heroic, etcetera.
Zanathos Mar 3rd 2011 10:15PM
The new 5 man gear will be superior to current heroic gear, but below gear from current raids. This will make current raids a little easier to do, and get people ready for the next tier. It won't make the next tier easier.
othragon Mar 3rd 2011 8:36PM
I'm glad we're not facing a Raid content patch every single time a patch is deployed. Making Heroic gear tiered is a smart move, making the introduction to raiding less blunt as it is at the moment.
othragon Mar 3rd 2011 8:38PM
Heroic Tier 1: ilvl 346 gear from all the starting Cata Heroics
Heroic Tier 2: ilvl 353 gear from the new ZG and ZA
There's no Tier 12 on the horizon, except for the trinkets datamined, but those don't necessarily have to go live when 4.1 hits.
Whyisretgimped Mar 3rd 2011 8:43PM
This smacks of blatant incompetence on Blizzard's part. They planned the patches ahead of time, but screwed up their implementation. We're now going to get the poorly implemented, poorly planned, piecemeal garbage that was Burning Crusade. The expac where they had to throw a whole raid on at the end which had a story line that had little to do with the original story they intended on writing (remember the CGI with what was supposed to be the last boss shouting how we weren't prepared?).
Now we get ZA and ZG. It isn't even new content. ZA wasn't really new content when it was originally released. It was basically ZG with gear that was so ugly your mother would slap you if you wore it (paladins wrapped in bamboo and poo? Seriously?). This is going to be the worst major patch Blizzard has ever released.
The bottom line is that they made heroics and the raids too damn hard and a fraction of the people that should be progressing through them, are. Cry all you want about LK being too easy, at least a decent percentage of the players actually got to see the insides of the raids. Not sure why any game developer wants to make parts of a game that 90% of its players never see. The excuse that you have to "work" for something in a video game is asinine. Why the hell am I playing a game if it's work. That's what raiding in vanilla and BC felt like and they finally fixed it in LK. Too bad they listened to the social reprobate hardcore players on this expac. Now it's going to be the definition of WoW suck.
Deathknighty Mar 3rd 2011 9:05PM
"remember the CGI with what was supposed to be the last boss shouting how we weren't prepared?"
Ironically, it seems Blizzard was not prepared. :P
In other news, the reason a game is fun is because it is challenging, and because of the satisfaction you know awaits you at the other end. God mode games are fun for a couple hours, then they're really boring.
Oh console commands, thou ruined Morrowind for me. ;(
Drakkenfyre Mar 3rd 2011 9:22PM
Quel'Danas was NOT made up to cover anything. It was the final piece of the Burning Crusade story, and planned from the beginning.
They admitted ending Black Temple early was a mistake, but Sunwell and everything else was NOT tacked on. Black Temple was 2.1, Sunwell was 2.4 with story and quests leading up to it, that's a HELL of a long time for something that was supposed to be tacked on.
Raginghobo Mar 3rd 2011 11:22PM
This smacks of blatant nerd rage, I can even taste the nerd rage in your username.
pancakes Mar 4th 2011 12:07AM
Go kill Kael in TK sometime, Whyisretgimped. Turn in the quest reward (or read the comments/completion text here: http://www.wowhead.com/quest=11007#comments). Tell me again they pulled SWP/MgT out of nowhere.
epicboyz Mar 4th 2011 1:17AM
@ Deathknighty
Well i dont know about the rest of the player population but i want God mode... i NEED God mode... Give me a lvl 101 toon decked in T22 gear with an ilvl of over 9k, driving one of those extermination jets from Terminator 2, blowing everything away with my custom Martin Fury mini gun, while my tamed Alien queen tanks the entire universe! MWHAHAHAHaHahahaha!!!!!!!!!
after all... "what is best in life?"
Sorcha Mar 4th 2011 5:18AM
I've just spent 20 minutes trying to find the pre-BC release article with Metzen discussing how Sunwell would be added in a future content patch. I cannot find it to save my life, but I can assure you it's undeniable proof that progression was always intended to go that way...if Kael'thas showing up in Shattrath and shouting YOU DIDN'T KILL ME NOOBS wasn't enough.
Matt Mar 4th 2011 7:50AM
Sorcha, you can find it quoted somewhere in Wowwiki (probably Wowpedia too), but the actual source article, which was from 2005 IIRC correctly, is lost to the sands of time.
Note that 2005 is before TBC was released.
Philster043 Mar 19th 2011 5:20AM
Actually, if it hadn't been for Zul'Aman I never would've gotten the thrill of wearing the Grimgrin Faceguard ( http://www.wowhead.com/item=33479 ) on my druid. It's still my favorite headgear in the game that I've ever worn on any character and I regretted having to set it aside for better gear.
I actually hope they've come up with a lvl 85 version, that would be awesome.