More on Patch 3.0
Blizzard has updated its Under Development page to talk about Patch 3.0.2, dubbed Echoes of Doom. At this point, this page just lists the highlights of the upcoming patch and refers you to the PTR patch notes for more details.
Here’s the relevant bit from the Under Development page. Nothing there we didn’t already know about, but it’s nice to see it summed up.
The upcoming Echoes of Doom patch will set the stage for the November release of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King — and help you prepare for your first foray into Northrend.
- New class spells and talents: Players will have access to each class’s revamped talent tree, including the new 51-point talents.
- Stormwind Harbor: Visit the newly constructed Stormwind Harbor, where Alliance players will be able book passage to Northrend come Wrath of the Lich King’s release.
- Barbershops in capital cities: Customize a character’s look with a stylish haircut, a shave, and other trimmings.
- New zeppelin towers: New air-travel platforms for the Horde will be erected outside Orgrimmar and in Tirisfal Glades.
- Two brand-new Arenas: The new player-vs.-player Arenas will feature challenging new layouts, terrain hazards, and moving obstacles.
- Hunter pet skill revamp: Hunters will be able to customize their pets’ abilities in a whole new way.
- New Inscription profession: Customize your favorite spells and abilities by taking up this new primary profession.
- New user-interface options: Save bag space with the revamped mount and non-combat pet storage system, and keep your guild organized with the new in-game calendar.
- Achievement system: Start unlocking achievements and earning points for your reputation levels, profession masteries, and quest accomplishments.
- …and much more!
Of course the big question is: When will Patch 3.0 hit the live servers?
Although Blizzard has not announced a date, they have announced that ladder for Arena Season 4 will be ending on Tuesday, October 14th. Since Blizzard had previously announced that “the current arena season will end in respect to the ladder upon the release of our next major patch”, I think it is safe to say that there is a strong possibility that Patch 3.0 will launch on October 14th.
So my job for the next two weeks is to get Petopia ready for the new world order. I’ll be doing that offline for now because I don’t want to disturb hunters who need to know where to find Claw 6. *grin* But I hope to launch the shiny new post-Patch 3.0 Petopia very early (like 3am Eastern) on October 14th.
(By the way, I’ve been calling the upcoming patch “Patch 3.0″ because it’s shorter and, well, in the context of the major changes that .2 on the end doesn’t mean much to me. But I’m worried that since Blizzard insists on specifying this as “Patch 3.0.2″ everywhere that I’m going to confuse people. I’m not worried about readers here so much as the less with-it hunters who may be hitting Petopia in droves after the patch trying to figure out what happened to Bite on their bear. Thoughts?)
60 Comments
WOOHOO! I still win the guild pool on this one. I was basing it on Hallow’s End, though.
Some other stuff to bring in, Patch 3.0.2.9000+ will also see several new racials which will affect Hunters.
Blood Elf- Mana Tap is gone, Arcane Torrent now gives 15 Energy, 15 Rune Power, or 6% base mana back. That’s a BIG thing for the BE Hunter on the go.
Trolls get to do the Voodoo Shuffle.
They’re pulling the Priest racials. Symbol of Hope is being made trainable to all, as is Devouring Plague, and Desperate Prayer is now a talent.
Maybe you can call it Patch EoD? :)
Echo’s of Doom…… doesn’t bode well for a big game changing patch does it? You’d think they’d name it “Dawn of the new world” or something a bit more upbeat… if this patch is buggy that Echo’s of Doom is gonna bite um in the butt.
I cant wait for this patch to come out, especially for all those pets that have been neglected in the past, for me the first on my list of pets I always wished were usable is the sporebat! By far one of my favorite pet skins which will finally be useful come patch3.0, or should I say patch 3.0.2 :P
*Blinks* Pepsi, out of curiousity, were you around for the launch of TBC? Not that I am going to give away any spoiler material, just….. be ready.
*Nods* I was expecting, and even predicted it to be around the 13th, a month before the release of wrath.
Mania, if you are going to still do a skills page for the specifics on damage for each rank, then just put a disclaimer there at first explaining what happened, and why you don’t have the exact mobs that teach those skills any more. *Grins* Aahhhhhhh, finally a bit less stress….. not that it matters. I love my hunter.
Palla-
I’m trying to think of a big patch launch that WASN’T buggy!
I’m all for calling it Patch 3.0 (or 3.0.x if you must)… especially if you’re referring to it in text that will remain well after the patch ships (i.e. on the Petopia database rather than in a blog post). Unless you make clear that you’re referring to changes that have to do with the major version number, the less with-it hunters you’re worried about will just start getting further confused once Patch 3.0.3, 3.0.4, etc start coming out.
*Laughs* Not buggy, Sei, though it will be that.
SPOILER WARNING: What follows is a brief overview of the events that happened pre-TBC, and my guess as to what is going to happen pre-wrath.
Pre-TBC, a massive invasion of Azeroth began, so people had a lot of fun little quests and such to do as the enemies of Azeroth attacked major cities around the world. There are certain scripts in Wrath that suggest the world was attacked by the scourge before everyone sailed to Northrend to start beating down Arthas, including an hint that Orgrimmar was razed. My best guess is that when patch 3.0.2 hits is that we’ll start seeing world events similar to TBCs, only focusing around, obviously, Arthas’s offensive towards Azeroth. Just my wager.
Gazmik: That’s a good point.
Palla-
I’ve been in the game for quite some time. Heck, I remember having TBC get so screwed up I was stuck on a lvl 15 Draenei character on a boat floating between Netherstorm and HFP. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything. But, that wasn’t the worst, there were other issues.
There probably will be a world event though. We’ll have to see.
Razing of Orgrimmar would be great, not that I want it to burn, but I would love to defend the bastion of the horde from the minions of Arthas, Rp wise it would give Lienna the perfect reason to go to northrend.
From what little I’ve heard, since I’m trying to go mostly spoiler free, the Background in wotlk will be far better than TBC was. Now if they can just fix sporebats for me then I’ll be happy!
*nods* They’ve hinted at it here and there. I figured you’d been around for at least close to two years, Sei, wasn’t sure though. And Mania! Ghostcrawler responded! Still and all, I wonder how the numbers on casters went from being right back to being 3% behind in DPS.
call it Patch Pet
Since it’s the ultimate patch for hunter pets, been waiting for for years it actually earns its own bullet point on the patch page
As Gazmik suggests Mania, just calling it 3.0 (or at most 3.0.x) is probably your best bet. If I recall the launch of TBC correctly, they made it to something like 2.0.14* before they deemed it “done” and waited for 2.1 before making any further changes.
(*I didn’t quite remember correctly: according to the patch notes page, they stopped at 2.0.12)
Dude im so stoked for Wotlk Finally Beastmasters not only have no class weakness but now the only thigns i was really afriad of will have 50% casting time kuz of my Core hound (naming him Scruffles, noone take it) though so far im hoping to get an orange or white one without having to tame one lower than 61 or having to walk thru darkshore even tho i can easily take down all the guards at once, if any beta testers find a white or orange wrath hound around lv 70 thatd be awesome
afraid of mages btw, SUCK CORE HOUND Pyrøßlåst (fer sum reason that gnome ends up in like half of the arenas and eots that i do)
though i think ill be afraid of fury warriors now not lookin forward to being smacked around by dual 2 handers
sry bout the 3 posts
darn it…
aah! nevermind…
Hi Mania,
here’s another one for your Worms section - Jormuttar:
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?npc=30340
Unfortunately, this level 80 quest mob from the Storm Peaks is not yet tameable. I hope that Blizzard changes that, as this worm with its green skin would be unique among all the other brown worms.
mania you could just save the old files for now and leave the current ones up then add a new table for the updated ones. that way hunters can look at the new pets they want for patch 3.00.2 or whatever its called. kinda like what you did with the Live pets and the WOTLK pets. just add one in the middle called 3.00.02(echos of doom) pets or something. and just put the new pets in a newer folder. I can help if you need, i do web programming. send a email if u want.
Its not like warriors need Titans Grip to beat us even now, Luc. Or anyone else, or that matter….
Palla-
I started playing in August of ‘05 on a computer with no sound (it had been struck by lightning, the power went through the ethernet port and out the speakers.) I’ve played just about everything, but I’ve only got three 70’s- a Paladin, a Shaman and a Warlock.
Don’t feel bad, Sei, I only have four seventies, and I’ve been playing since March of 05. *Chuckles* Paladin, warlock, hunter, and druid.
One thing they did that I haven’t seen posted anywhere is Skinning now gives a bonus to your critical hit rating. My Skinning is at 248 and I have +9 to crit rating. I’m guessing each time you max Skinning you get +3, so by the time you get it all the way to max cap you’ll have +18 to crit rating.
Which, of course, makes us hunters even more terrifying >:3
I cannot wait to be able to tame silithids, is anyone else as excited about these guys as I am?
@ Mania
I’m not worried about readers here so much as the less with-it hunters who may be hitting Petopia in droves after the patch trying to figure out what happened to Bite on their bear. Thoughts?)
If it was my site:
Don’t remove any obsolete content - the search engines all point to it and you have inbound links. Make a small include file with a short explanation/declaration of obsolescence and add a link to your main page. Stuff the include into the top of your obsolete content.
Have fun :P
You know, in ptr av I easily beat down a rogue and a warrior (not at the same time, mind) with a lvl 65 gorilla… I dunno, warriors may be buffed but so are we!
Btw, pvp is gonna be awesome - I mean epic clashes in the field of strife awesome! Everyone’s gonna zone in just to test their new skills and their opponents. Nobody went for Drek!!
also, /agree w mhuu on the site.
Palla, Sei: You two make me feel bad. I’ve been playing since 05 and only have 1 70, though I have 1 of every class (except mage & priest). I really only enjoy Hunter, tho I look forward to DK =D
I know people with ten or twelve seventies, so four feels like a low number to me.
I need to rant for just a second. The new Fel armor for warlocks, untalented, lets them regenerate at a rate that WE HAVE TO PUT TWO TALENT POINTS INTO. AND ITS BASELINE!!!! Not only that, but with the new synergy talent, warlocks regenerate their minions health based on the amount of damage they do, AND they give their pets better stats based off of their own. That means that of the two and a half pet classes, hunters are the only one with out that particular talent option. Don’t get me wrong, longevity is awesome, kindred spirits is nice but needs something else to shiney it up, but most of the rest of the tree was either left alone or nerfed into blaughness.
I think I am just royally miffed that ALL FOUR of my prefered classes and the specs therein are getting very little in the ways of love. My beloved Holy tree, the first tree I ever put a talent tree into, EVER, has continued to be slighted. I have watched as other healing classes got nice ability after nice talent, while Holy shock, the 31 point talent, still remains one of the best low tier talents. Divine illumination is so lack luster it isn’t funny, even if it is mildly effective, and after heavy testing with beacon of light, I retain my stance that it is situational, a mana hog, and overall not worth the trouble. Judgements of the pure and sacred cleansing are both a waste of a talent, even if they did buff pure to a minute. We’re already popping out flash of light after flash of light, any faster and we beat the global cooldown to the punch, and get to sit there and do nothing for a moment. Blaugh. Unlike most people, however, I do like Enlightened judgements. Reach out and judge some one! Serious pity that our judgements and seals in general now scale for crap with spellpower.
Ahhhh, feral druids. How I love/hate thee. With Blizzards new focus on tanking being fun, bear form has gotten some nice buffs! …..not so my cat form. Two new talents for cats, but ALL talents do more things, BETTER for bear form. Not to mention Blizzard mentioned that there’d be certain talents for certain forms to take….. yet I see two new, bear only talents, and ZERO cat only talents. Hm.
I’m not hugely put out with my warlock. Just metamorphisis is weird. A huge armor buff, a 20% damage buff, and a reduction in snare time. Oooookkkkaaaayyyy. The 20% damage buff is nice, but….. this is demonology spec. I want something to do with my DEMONS. Not ME becoming a demon. The original form of the spell even dismissed your minion! Thats been changed, and I am not saying it doesn’t make sense for a warlock to change into a demon. Just…. it needs to flow better with the rest of the tree, which it doesn’t. Just oddness.
/end rant.
Been playing since launch, with only about a 2 month break. Only 2 70’s…hunter and ‘lock. And my 3rd 70…will be a hunter lol. All horde, different servers. Hunter is looking a lot better than anything but affliction on my ‘lock. As of the 29th, imp is doing more dps for demo than the felguard, which is kinda sad. I really wanted a new pet for my ‘lock, guess I’ll just have to get all new pets for my hunter and be happy with that.
I was expecting the patch to be at least a week before the expansion comes out. A full month would be wonderful. It’ll give me a chance to set up my hunter’s spec and get her new stable slots so she can go out taming and trying all the pets with new family abilities. This also includes the new exotics (excluding the rhino, of course). It’ll be a great chance for me to gather info on pets to help other hunters in my guild (since I am the class leader) and will also help me decide what exotic I want. Though I’m seriously torn between a silithid and a corehound…
I`m SO freaking excited to play with the new patch, you have NO idea!! :D!!! I too have been playing for about 3 years and seriously I have 1 level 70 BE hunter XD and I just love her to bits. BMs will be better for PVP and PVE! But I can`t wait to test out new pets and sink my Chimera`s jaws into an unsuspected gnome ;P
Grand total of two 70’s for me (BM hunter and feral druid) - and that’s having played the game since November ‘05 or so. I’ve been working on a shaman as well, but she’s only made it to level 40 so far.
On the feral druid tangent: Rend & Tear is almost pure cat, as is King of the Jungle, and Savage Roar was added to baseline purely for Feral Cats’ benefit. The relocation of Savage Fury also makes pure DPS builds actually possible now, and Mangle (Cat), Rake and Rip have all had their base numbers buffed incredibly. Oh, and Maim was changed to require a certain amount of damage to be dealt before it breaks. I’m actually pretty happy with the way ferals are turning - it’s just that quite a bit of it doesn’t really show up in the talent trees.
Maim I’ll agree to, I love it now. However rend and tear, while mainly cat, still has a bear portion, of which none of the new bear talents have a cat portion, hence my annoyance. I have to disagree with king of the jungle, I almost think bear form gets more out of it then cat. King of the jungle is two more mangles every thirty seconds, bear its a 15% DPS increase every minute for ten seconds. Meh either way, really. Though it is nice to be able to get off all five poitns and then rip or ferocious bite within ten seconds. Savage fury has also always been around, it was just in a different porton of the tree, and now includes bears. The increase to mangle WAS significant, the damage to rip was minor, the damage to rake…. *LAUGHS* Initial damage is still bad, but….well, I think its bugged. My rake, with mangle up, ticks for 500 every three seconds, which is way more then it should be. Now, as for Savage roar, if they are aware that cat form NEEDS that sort of attack power boost, then shouldn’t that alert them that something is wrong? Rogues get a good deal of utility out of slice and dice, but it isn’t, per se, nessecary to make them competitive for DPS. I just really think they need to work on cat form DPS at the moment, and not try to band aid it with a skill like savage roar, as pleasing as that skill is. It feels like it was their entire answer to the ferals lack of DPS.
Palla-
My Warlock leveled as Affliction, and I’m thrilled with how Affliction works now. They might as well get rid of Nightfall entirely. It really is useless. I don’t have time in any rotation I’ve worked on that allows me to even use an instant shadowbolt. Right now, I’m casting Haunt, Unstable Affliction, then all the instants, then siphon life, and I end the battle without so much as a drop in health. I could actually get rid of Fel Armor and STILL be at full health.
My Paladin leveled Holy, but I got so frustrated healing in small groups that I went Protection. I like that Protection now allows me to do some serious damage while tanking. Still not as face melting as Retribution, but at least it’s now a viable solo tree.
My Shaman leveled, for the most part, as Restoration. She still is. I’m a phenominal healer, but got kicked out of the guild I was in for various reasons including some very personal ones. I created her to be my healer in the end, and she is close to unkillable even if she is a bit slow to level.
They are, btw, in order, Shijoshin, Joushigun, and Aijoshin. Joushigun was my first lvl 70, Shijoshin my second, and Aijoshin my third. I’m working Horde lately. Seidouyumi and Kuranaiyumi are my highest level Horde, and both are Hunters.
Illidius, Argial, Edgar, Gegia. Hunter, warlock, paladin, drood. I have a fifty five troll shaman I leveled as restoration, recently respecced to enhancement and enjoy it. I have a Fifty five warrior I am running as fury, I just enjoyed that more then I did arms. Fourty five combat rogue. I have some others between twenty and fourty I mess around with. I’m having problems alt leveling lately.
Edgaer* sorry. Woot double!
I’d suggest you save all the current data, even if you don’t leave it live on the site… just in case.
I put in a suggestion to Blizzard to put on their log-in screen, then their loading screen, then a screen where you have to read a very very short, bolded, capitalized note explaining where your mounts went and how to use them. Then to proceed you have to type out “I understand where my mounts went” before you can play.
They have to do something like this, or for about 2 weeks after Patch 3.0 goes live all you will be seeing in all the chats everywhere is “OMG, where did my mount go?!?!”
Ganieda: That’s why I use Perforce. :>
Goofball Jones: Egad, yes — it was bad enough in beta and those were people who theoretically knew about the changes.
I still see it in the beta today.
That and about the 5th Death Knight quest, you hve to steal a horse and noone can figure out how to get off it. Even though it’s written on the screen… ugg how many times have I typed “Press 1″
I kinda understand that one, Pepsi. No one is really used to mounting up on a ‘regular’ horse and getting a completely different set of commands. Still, after ten minutes…. you’d think they’d figure it out on their own….
Oh, Palladia! You’re Illidius?
*spastic waving*
Always need to give props to my buddies in attempting to keep the forum civil.
Srsly, joking about BM 51 point talent = RACISM?? *facedesk*
Ansawa! I KNEW I should have recognized that name! *Waves* Yea, thats me. *Rolls his eyes* That idiot wouldn’t know a good joke if it hit him in the face. Ghostcrawler was just poking fun at a non-existant 61 point talent that she probably thought’d be amusing. I thought it was amusing personally, but people will take any excuse they can to burst into flame. But seriously, what do they think insulting and calling the devs stupid ((The least of the insults they hurl Blizzards way)) is going to get them?
Pall I’d be a little more understanding if it wasn’t a HUGE button on the bottom of the screen. lol
Goofball, after spending some time on the PTR, I chuckled quite loudly at your post and COMPLETELY agree. >_<
I put in a suggestion to Blizzard to put on their log-in screen, then their loading screen, then a screen where you have to read a very very short, bolded, capitalized note explaining where your mounts went and how to use them. Then to proceed you have to type out “I understand where my mounts went” before you can play.
I’ll bet my account info that even IF bliz implemented this, you’ll still have trade flooded with “Dude wheres my mount?!”.
People don’t read up on the patch notes. I do, but I’m weird.
And the ‘air guitar’ thing is funny. Apparently our pets are playing Guitar Hero III while we’re playing WoW.
@Seidouyumi: Seems to me that the bard class wasn’t a joke afterall!
I was so disappointed about the new content which will come with WotLK, that I decided to make a long break until Blizzard will *really* improve the game. I know, most of you will not understand me, but I expected innovation and not evolution from WotLK. Meanwhile I am playing WAoR and I’m still happy about it.
As a WoW hunter player I was not waiting for a lot of more pets but no real improvement in hunter abilities. May be I am not blind enough to feel satisfied with these nice but less helpful new hunter things.
Anyway, have fun with WoW even when it will be “business as usual”.
I will leave this professional, but still enthusiastic made site until Blizzard changes the character balance in a better way than it is now.
Just thought I’d give everyone a heads up on this, but when BC came out, everyones pvp honour points got reset to 0…And I’ve heard rumors that this might happen again…so for anyone out there who’s thinking of saving you honour points…it might not ba a good idea, cuz theres a good chance they wont exsist come the expansion…
Nah Makoes. That was the original idea, but they recently went back and changed their minds. Again. You get to keep your honor. BUT, in exhchange, all things that cost honor at eighty will cost a LOT more.
what will be worse than the ‘dude wheres my mount’ come patch will be the constant ‘how do i get to northrend’ come expansion. people STILL ask this in beta and not only do they ask but 5 seconds later someone else is asking. imagine that in live. pretty sure it’ll even happen with the patch too.
I can’t wait for 3.0.2! It has to come out already! So many Hunter pet things. I want the special, albino (although really small) Devilsaur!
I’m guilty of the HOW I CONTROL HORSE and HOW I GET TO NORTHREND gaffes, sigh. I honestly didn’t see that my action bar had changed for like 10 minutes, and I couldn’t see the new zeppelin tower since all my graphics settings had been turned down to the lowest level.
Echoes of Doom
I once read in PC Gamer than you should never give something a title that could be used as a summary of the review.
[...] the other hand, it we are now awfully close to the new pet system going live so there isn’t much time left if they are going to change [...]
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