WOW patch 3.3 in "coming weeks"

By Oli Welsh Published 6 November, 2009

What does that mean for Cataclysm?

During yesterday's Activision Blizzard investor conference, Blizzard chief Mike Morhaime said the next World of Warcraft update would be released "in the coming weeks".

VG247 heard the words, and got so excited they thought Morhaime was actually referring to next expansion pack Cataclysm. Bless.

However, we're pretty sure he means the update known as Patch 3.3, which is currently on WOW test servers. This update introduces three five-man dungeons and one 10 or 25-player raid within Icecrown Citadel, and allows players to fight the Wrath of the Lich King end boss, Arthas.

The patch will also introduce the new dungeon system, with cross-server grouping and other features that make it easier to find a party and more rewarding to run dungeons. There's also a quest-tracking feature allowing quest objectives to be tracked on the in-game map. For more info, we recommend that you check out WOW.com's patch guide.

As the final major update to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, the imminent appearance of patch 3.3 raises questions about how soon we can expect to see Cataclysm. A release before the end of next year seemed unlikely, but Blizzard allowing WOW to go without major content updates for a whole 12 months would be unprecedented. Could Cataclysm be coming sooner than we thought?

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • superdelphinus #1 2 years ago

    hello mum

  • anomagnus #2 2 years ago

    they're prep for cataclysm in mar/apr by having the actual cataclysm event re-do the entire world, and then drop the expansion itself in may/june

  • spadge #3 2 years ago

    I read it was Sept 2010, might be wrong. Not a player myself, but have an avid 12yr old son who's besotted by it.

  • rodpad #4 2 years ago

    I wager 10p on May 2010.

  • actionfitz #5 2 years ago

    hoping for early next year too, by early I mean summerish or sooner.

  • thebuzzard #6 2 years ago

    I guess the news at VG247 was reported by somebody who doesnt play WoW or an idiot.
    Edited by 1 at 06/11/09 @ 11:02

  • Eraysor #7 2 years ago

    Cannot wait for that new dungeon system, it's going to be awesome.

  • zerokoolin #8 2 years ago

    I recall an interview with Mike Morhaime at blizzcon and he said something about two blizzard games will be coming out next year one in the first half (StarCraft 2) and another in the second half (which I assume is Cataclysm) but knowing blizzard if it was Cataclysm I reckon a launch date around november 2010

  • RedSparrows #9 2 years ago

    I hope Arthas is the most OTT fight ever.

    Shame I'll never fight him.

  • Lemming81 #10 2 years ago

    "There's also a quest-tracking feature allowing quest objectives to be tracked on the in-game map."

    I've been following the WoW.com coverage and this has passed me by. Link?

  • Orange #11 2 years ago

    IMO they are fast tracking in light of falling subs and Old Republic. Putting out content when they need to and they have the resources to ramp things up without a problem.

  • darkmorgado #12 2 years ago

    Orange, their subs are going UP not down. The only snag they've had recently is the whole China thing.

  • barnettbeans #13 2 years ago

    perhaps calling the author an idiot is stern.
    p.s
    Hello mum made me laugh why -15 EPIC WIN I think.

  • jambo74 #14 2 years ago

    World of Wierdos 3.3

  • thebuzzard #15 2 years ago

    When did idiot become the nastiest insult the internet has ever seen? Idiots!

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #16 2 years ago

    @zero - i think you'll find it's the other way around- With TBC they have always said that releasing illeden when they did was a huge mistake and seeing as the first opening lines of the Cataclysm trailer stats 'has the battle rages on aginest the lich king' (or along those lines) putting two and two together would mean facing Arthus/Lich king in the 25 man raid will happen just before/during the cataclyum event.

    Seeing as 3.3 IS the final patch, going from the devs stating 'The last patch will be icecrown' way back, saying November 2010 would mean we would have to wait a whole year until the next big content update, very unlikely to happen if anyone knows the whole Vanilla>TBC wait was the same and kinda almost killed many players interest.

    It's more then lilkly Q1/2 2010 as the next big update will be the expantion pre-patch/event more then likely and seeing as a certain other IP is getting released in Q4 thats kinda 'big' it's kinda follish to go head to head with that IP.
    Edited by 1 at 06/11/09 @ 15:16

  • CaptainTrips #17 2 years ago

    If they introduced a patch to turn it into Road Rash that would be AWESOME!

  • JamieR #18 2 years ago

    dose this mean you wont need quest helper no more is that what it means by "There's also a quest-tracking feature allowing quest objectives to be tracked on the in-game map."

  • sonicgoo #19 2 years ago

    You don't 'need' quest helper right now either...

  • Kami #20 2 years ago

    "Orange, their subs are going UP not down"

    Speaking factually, their subs base has been declining for a while now - Blizzard used to be all about boasting about the size of their userbase but they don't anymore because it is shrinking. It's not - pardon the pun - cataclysmic, but it has definitely been going down a bit for a while. We could toss around reasons, but there are many.

    I think a Spring release for Cataclysm is very likely but I would hope Blizzard learn from WotLK and pace it down a bit. I loved the social side of raiding, I left the game with my hunter in T9.5's - but it was so much effort to be gunning at that top level, and rather like days of yore when a guild is up there we didn't take in new people, because we simply didn't have the time to gear people up before the next big patch and raid. Blizzard completely screwed up. There is no mistaking how badly they have cocked WotLK up. It has been, in my opinion, an absolute disaster. It's been rushed, it's done everything Blizzard swore blind they would never do again, it has once again created a multi-tiered raider class and worst of all - the epics and legendaries, sad to say, have been butt ugly this time around as well, so there isn't even pimp value.

    Cataclysm looks great and I will go back and try it out, of course I will, but I do feel that Blizzard need to slow the pace down, get things right, get some good designers in and really push the boat out. WotLK was a bit like having a tour of the Riviera in a bullet train - there is some lovely stuff there but you're speeding by it so bloody fast you'll either miss it or fail to appreciate it. They need to just relax, take some deep breaths and pace themselves because the reality is this whole one-expansion-a-year promise is frankly, if WotLK is anything to go by, doomed to fail in a miserable fashion.

  • Wyrm #21 2 years ago

    I imagine there will be another content patch pre-Cataclysm, so maybe summer 2010? They'll have a Deathwing related world event and give us some of the new stuff like the new Stat and Talent systems, as with previous Expansions.

    Can't wait for Cataclysm though, Wrath was good, the improvements to story-telling and questing were outstanding, but regurgitating the TBC format of Expansion (new disposable continent, 10 more levels...) just ended up feeling stale. Going back to locations we know and love and ripping them apart sounds like something exciting.

  • thebuzzard #22 2 years ago

    No they have said 3.3 is the last content patch for Lich King, Cataclysm is much further along than previous expansions were at this stage. It will be out late spring my money would be on May-ish.

  • levitate #23 2 years ago

    Blues have said themselves there are tons of things that are going to be changed in Cataclysm and some of them they have no idea how to do it. Like tanking stats for example. They have the hunter and warlock class to overhaul. The list is long.

    They've been painting themselves into a corner ever since TBC and they are reaching that corner very very fast, they have been wriggling out of the trouble on several occasions but it's certainly going to catch up with them in the end.

    I don't expect Cataclysm to be released in Spring 2010, maybe September-October but even so that's going to be at least 7-10 months of no content updates. I think they might be hoping the community will be too busy fighting Arthas and speculate about the next expansion to take any notice...

    ...What I really hope is that other MMOs take the opportunity of catching up.

  • Nephirion #24 2 years ago

    As its Activision/Blizzard I expect the expansion to be £39.99