Blizzard details new WoW patch

By Robert Purchese Published 8 November, 2007

Kill trolls in Zul'Aman.

Blizzard has whipped the wraps off its upcoming content patch 2.3 for World of Warcraft.

The biggest feature is a 10-man raid instance lurking in the Ghostlands called Zul'Aman, an outdoor dungeon probably not too dissimilar to Zul'Gurub all those many moons ago. There will be six bosses to murder for epics, each bearing the aspect of a different ferocious creature.

Forest troll leader Zul'jin will meet you for the final showdown, but Blizzard also wants to offer returning raid groups a challenge with bonus rewards for completing time-limited objectives.

On top of all the new goodies in Zul'Aman there will be a full set of new Honour, Badge of Justice and gladiator rewards to buy, and Engineers will now be able to build themselves fancy Flying Machine mounts.

Elsewhere Guild Banks let you keep track of and organise your stocks much more efficiently, the Auction House has been revamped so it is easier to use, and you will be able to pick up daily quests so you have something to keep you from falling asleep as you go back to the same dungeons or battlegrounds again and again.

The old 40-man Alterac Valley battleground has been fiddled with, too, so it should now have extra added fun, and those of you around the mid-level mark should head to Dustwallow Marsh for new quests and speedy levelling.

Speaking of speedy levelling, Blizzard has made it much easier to get to 60. Not only do you require less experience to go up a rank now, but you will also be given bigger amounts of experience as a reward for completing quests between levels 30-60.

Healers worried you are a bit wimpy compared to a Fury Warrior or something will be pleased to know that one third of your bonus healing will go towards your spell damage now, and the skill rating on items is being replaced by a new statistic called Expertise.

This takes into account how adept you are with your weapon, and reduces the chance that your opponent will dodge, block or parry your blow.

Full patch notes are expected soon, so keep your eyes on the official European World of Warcraft site.

Further down the line Blizzard is looking to implement an high-end 25-man raid instance called Sunwell Plateau located north of Silvermoon City.

It is also keen to keep adding five-man content so you can find an adequate challenge and get good rewards without spending your life playing the game. Not that I ever did that.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 5 years ago

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  • the_sas_man #1 5 years ago

    zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

  • magicpanda #2 5 years ago

    Good patch! Might find me going back, winters coming, I can tell by the extra hair growth.

    You spelt Epix wrong Rob. ;)

  • Thamuhacha #3 5 years ago

    We all have to make sacrifices in life

    Can I suggest to the WoW players that they make a sacrifice for the rest of us?

    Namely: stop playing this incredibly boring old load of tat and force Blizzard to make something new and interesting?

    Thanks

  • shido #4 5 years ago

    Zul'jin....sounds familiar....The troll dude from Warcraft 2 perhaps?

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #5 5 years ago

    I was going to go for epix n' all ;)

  • Kami #6 5 years ago

    Blizzard seem desperate now... then, they've got actual competition now.

    I still think the speedy levelling to 60 is stupid. Most economies in the game are designed as such that you can level and make money successfully, getting epic mount by 60. This is going to massively **** over economies as prices go up to compensate the need for more gold, sooner. And you're going to get a bunch of talentless pricks hitting Outland instances.

    And if they want to add 5-man content - why not add new instances? They're dropping heroic key access (I still have a heap of friends still in WoW - wish they'd join me in Hellgate) to Honoured (WHich is a shit idea too... "Yeah, heroic... umm, I never even done this instance on normal. I just got rep questing...";), so why not add some new instances? Oshu'gun? Hell, why not go the whole hog and actually do what they promised ages ago - Grim Batol, Uldum et al? It would keep players more satisfied than cheap 5-man kills in the game world, and of course - more heroic instance oppertunities... oh, and tweaks to old raid instances so they're applicable end-game.

    None of this hasn't been suggested a million times on the Blizzard forums though...

  • CouldntResist #7 5 years ago

    "We all have to make sacrifices in life

    Can I suggest to the WoW players that they make a sacrifice for the rest of us?

    Namely: stop playing this incredibly boring old load of tat and force Blizzard to make something new and interesting?

    Thanks"

    Bitter much?

  • Thamuhacha #8 5 years ago

    No. I just quite enjoyed the stuff Blizzard did before the repetitive hackyslash level grinding raid-a-thon that they solely focus on now.

  • magicpanda #9 5 years ago

    "And no, there is not any competition to WoW, not by a country mile."

    Unfortunately there isn't at the moment and there's nothing on the horizon. It's rubbish.

    A bastard child of WoW and Eve wrapped up in the Warhammer 40k license could do it.

  • WrongShui #10 5 years ago

    Its missing the most important patch.

    Removal of the Hunter Dead Zone. At last.

    Poor mages :(

  • CouldntResist #11 5 years ago

    "No. I just quite enjoyed the stuff Blizzard did before the repetitive hackyslash level grinding raid-a-thon that they solely focus on now."

    Yes i spent half my life playing D1/SCBW/D2/WC3. I haven't played WOW but that doesn't mean i don't recognise the fact that millions of people do play and enjoy it.

  • Bumhug360 #12 5 years ago

    " stop playing this incredibly boring old load of tat and force Blizzard to make something new and interesting?"

    Yeah Blizzard make something else, how about a Starcraft 2

  • Thamuhacha #13 5 years ago

    And when Starcraft finally gets a release and is actually really good then HOORAY.

    Until then, they only have WoW.

    I appreciate that it is enjoyed by many, but that has come at the cost of Warcraft RTS, any diablo games and any new stuff

    And Starcraft 2 is only being made because the Korean online servers have probably dropped below 2 million games a minute or something :-)

  • Nill #14 5 years ago

    True, WoW is the biggest MMO out there, and will probably continue to be for at least a few more years.

    Warhammer and Age of Conan may steal some of its user-base as they come along, although I doubt they'll really manage to kill of something as big as WoW is, no matter how good they are.

    However, the game has become stale, unimaginative and repetitive a long time ago. And it has indeed lost large chunks of its user-base. I know lots of people that has moved on from it, it's just that there are new players waiting to replace them as they leave.

    Imagine if Blizzard would've succeeded in keeping every single one that ever purchased WoW, they'd probably be three times as large/many.

  • hula hoops #15 5 years ago

    I missed playing WoW ... :(

    I sold my accounts and just been told that the new owner has screwed the characters and managed to get them banned and deleted ... hic.

    Even after transferred hands for 3 months I still have emotional attachement to my little selfs.

    But I have vowed not to return to Azeroth or any virtual worlds for that matter.

  • TriggerHippie #16 5 years ago

    @Thamuhacha

    I totally agree. Blizzard used to be one of my favorite developers. Their artist style was, and I think still is, second to none. But since working on WoW they've just done bugger all else. Roll on Starcraft 2!

  • M83J01P97 #17 5 years ago

    If you have tried the new patch on Blizzards Public Test Servers you will know the level 20-60 exp increase is not really speedy at all... we are not going to see people getting to the high levels after only playing for a week or anything like that for example.

    They have simply added a few hundred exp on top kills and quests which eliminates some of the repetitive grind that you were always forced to do. So basically it's just a 'tweak' rather then a complete overhaul of the leveling.

    "I missed playing WoW ... :(

    I sold my accounts and just been told that the new owner has screwed the characters and managed to get them banned and deleted ... hic."

    Thats probably the reason you account was banned then. Blizzard don't allow people to sell characters for real life money anymore. Which is fair enough if you ask me. WoW is a game after all. Not Second Life...
    Edited by M83J01P97 at 08/11/07 @ 13:02

  • Orange #18 5 years ago

    They could bring in a free boobies patch and I still wouldn't go back.

  • Lemming81 #19 5 years ago

    I do like WoW - but then it's the only MMORPG of it's kind (ie. accessable for those of that don't like spreadsheets - I'm looking at you Eve) that is polished and fun enough to play.
    If Warhammer Online beats it, then I'll glady switch over. I would have switched already had D&D Online not been a shambles.

    I Still have hopes for the KOTOR MMO and Star Gate Worlds though.

    Need me some sci-fi after all this orcs and elves crap.

  • VicViper #20 5 years ago

    I only recently got in to wow, about 3 months maybe, at only lvl 44 i'm still stuck in what everyone calls the old world. At the moment I'm enjoying myself but by by lvl 70 i can probaly see myself getting really tired of the grind and same thing other and over, and yet they only really add more of the same, But looking at numbers you can't call it nothing but a commercial success.

    I agree with Lemming81 though wheres the decent sci-fi mmo, ok tabula rasa granted, but star gate worlds sound awsome and then theres the new bioware/lucas arts mmo so hopefully I won't have to wait for long.

  • Kami #21 5 years ago

    Blizzard's laziness is just annoying, their promises empty. Long before TBC there was talk of Uldum (which was meant to follow on from the Uldaman chain), Grim Batol (Where Deathwing currently resides)... where are they? Why are the userbase still waiting?

    I got fed up at endgame content though. Raiding is fine but try being the only willing holy-spec paladin in a guild. You end up kitted out, sure, but at the cost of knowing you're expected to be at every raid every day (I quit WoW after being expected to pull an all-nighter. Yes, they were well aware I couldn't do that long beforehand but I was expected to pull nine hours of raiding off). Raiding is too much a chore.

    Even with that though, there's not really much getting added in the way of variety for those wanting to stay out of raiding. There're a ton of potential places - Cav..erns of Time is crying out for one or two more instances, Uldum and Grim Batol we've covered, Oshu'Gun in Outland. Hell, why not open up Dalaran? I couldn't have cared less about rep grinding new factions.

    It's a shame because WoW is a well-designed game. But it's getting fat and lazy, and there IS competition surfacing - it'll take a while to get going though. For the forseeable future, WoW is still going to dominate but Conan, Warhammer, Tabula Rasa... there is potential.

    I don't want WoW to die, I may go back someday. When I do though, I want Blizzard to be over their lazy spell and delivering more new goods more often. It's a shame, I don't think Blizzard right now can see beyond the money side to the long-term future. Bubbles do burst if you're not careful...

  • quantumsheep #22 5 years ago

    Avoided this like the plague for three years, yet some guys at work all started playing so I thought I'd join in. It's only £10 for the game and a free month, so thought I'd give it a proper go.

    I started playing last week, and despite my reservations (I hate fantasy games, don't have much time etc) I'm really quite enjoying it.

    Played for three evenings (and yes, I was very aware these were hours I'd never get back) and I'm lvl 15 now, so still a huge amount to do. Was thinking of getting burning crusade next month, as I'd love to have a blood elf character.

    So, for a newbie, the game is actually quite fun. The addition of people I know in the game makes it more fun. I stopped playing Star Wars Galaxies after my friends left. It just wasn't fun anymore.

  • hula hoops #23 5 years ago

    @M83J01P97:

    No. The reason which he told me was that he was caught buying gold and using obscene languages.

    I don't understand really, why would Blizzard ban someone who swear in their game? I mean, just a temporary ban should be sufficient to get the message across.

  • jamespo #24 5 years ago

    fantastic... no need for players to look for a girlfriend just yet then

  • Katsumoto #25 5 years ago

    I love how people have this bizarre impression that if you play MMOs you dont have a girlfriend, are ridiculously sad, etc etc, but...

    if you spend your afternoons slagging off people on forums over consoles you dont own, games you dont play, and then go and play Halo 3 all night, you must be cool and down wit' the crew y'all.

    No, we're all sad. Face it.

  • yagisencho #26 5 years ago

    I've just recently rejoined the game after a 1.5 year absence. Good timing, too, as I really wasn't looking forward to the level 30-60 slog (that I'd already done repeatedly). So to those old school players who are bitter that the young-uns have it easy these days...foo on you.

  • Aria #27 5 years ago

    @Katsumoto
    Agreed.

  • a8a #28 5 years ago

    I have to admit that I get more annoyed than anything else playing wow these days - it has its good points, admittedly; its a much faster paced game than previous MMOs, and questing is more interesting than grinding, and the art style is great - but there are so many design flaws that it just really annoys me now and then.

    For example, the way that the entire PvE difficulty is based on the concept of link. Fighting those mobs one by one you would *never die*, so its almost like Blizzard added an artificial layer of difficulty once they realised it was far too easy by placing mobs ridiculously close together, and making about half of them run away into MORE mobs when you beat them up. I have died so many times (as shaman, no crowd control :o ) due to circumstances which are largely beyond my control, and that is one of the most annoying things in the game.

  • gremly #29 5 years ago

    "We all have to make sacrifices in life

    Can I suggest to the WoW players that they make a sacrifice for the rest of us?

    Namely: stop playing this incredibly boring old load of tat and force Blizzard to make something new and interesting?


    Guess thats why blizz are hireing MMO staff?

  • Lov3 #30 5 years ago

    How about making PvP fair? That would be nice for everyone who didn't pick warlock 70 levels ago.