Earlier today, we mentioned Bashiok's patch 5.2 release date estimate of late February. However, the blog post in which this tentative release date was mentioned contains a lot of great information on preparing for the patch which should not be missed.

Some of the topics covered include:

• How to reach the Isle of the Thunder King and entering the new raid instance.
• Throne of Thunder normal difficulty available in the first week, Heroic difficulty opens the week after
• Throne of Thunder on Raid Finder opens the same week as Heroic raids (Week 2) with a new section each week after that
• 480 item level needed to enter Throne of Thunder on Raid Finder
• All Valor points will be reset and converted down to Justice points
• Current Valor items will have their costs reduced (25-50% reduction)
• Valor item upgrades won't be available in patch 5.2
• Recapping the Legendary meta gem and what will happen to your Sha-Touched weapons
• Ability to champion select reputations for the first Heroic and Scenario queue of the day
• The Tillers can also help your reputation by issuing you work orders from the various factions.
• 5.2 Valor items are tied to raid reputation from boss kills and not dailies (which can be earned via Raid Finder)

If you're still looking for ways to prepare for patch 5.2, our very own Kristin wrote up some excellent points to get yourself ahead of the pack.

Tags: justice, legendary, meta-gem, raid-finder, throne-of-thunder, tillers, valor

Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria