Patch v2.0

[Arnulf]

From Blizzard poster Drysc:

I think I hear the clattering of weapons and cries of death. The messenger is being killed right now.

[Zarathustra]

I think I hear the clattering of weapons and cries of death. The messenger is being killed right now.

Did you see the message he delivered in response to useless set items dropping?

This patch introduces almost all of the features/changes that affect the game as a whole for the expansion release, without the expansion actually being released. As announced previously with the expansion delay this patch will have a much longer lead time before the expansion releases. The new changes and features, we felt, were more than worth going ahead and releasing it around the same time we were going to anyway so that everyone could enjoy them sooner rather than later.

He's being skewered now over Judgement Breastplates and the like being pretty difficult for Horde players to enjoy "sooner rather than later".

[NiteFox]

Did you see the message he delivered in response to useless set items dropping?
He's being skewered now over Judgement Breastplates and the like being pretty difficult for Horde players to enjoy "sooner rather than later".

Twink Blood Elves on TBC day one?:)

[nobbie]

I assume that non-bop paladin equipment now drops galore on Horde side as well.

This brings up an interesting point with respect to item drops in WoW 2.0.1:

It was - "Before the Storm" - already very time consuming to complete an 8-piece dungeon or instance class set. With patch 2.0.1 it is even more time consuming as sets now drop for 9 instead of 8 classes for both factions. This issue will not be addressed before the release of BC when Tx set part count will be lowered from 8 or 9 to reasonable 5 pieces (for the new dungeons/instances).

[Quark]

They changed the holy fire graphic. It's not impressive anymore.

Ever since the beta went up, people have been literally screaming over the Rogue stealth changes. Night Elves waddled like ducks, and were absolutely ridiculous when using spring+stealth.

However many weeks later, Blizzard finally says:

The animation speed increase is a known issue and is currently slated to be corrected in the next patch.

Until then though I recommend playing the Benny Hill music while stealthed, it's totally hilarious.

... Right. Because multiple 20+ page threads didn't bring this to their attention in time. I fully believe this is another intended change that has backlashed.

[Zarathustra]

Another reply on the issue of item drops:

With this patch we have released many features/changes in preparation for the upcoming expansion. One of these changes is that Paladin items will now be found by the Horde and Shaman items by the Alliance.

Although some of these classes might not be available by the opposite faction until the Burning Crusade release, this is indeed an intended change.

It's intentional that you find items for whom no one in your raid has a use. Please, someone... anyone... explain that one to me.

[oldmandennis]

It's intentional that you find items for whom no one in your raid has a use. Please, someone... anyone... explain that one to me.

It's not difficult to explain, its just difficult to justify. Removing the faction specific flag from loot tables is obviously an intentional act. It was clearly done to prepare for TBC. Sometime after it was done, they decided to push out this half assed patch. In all likelihood, much if not most of the developers are still pushing full steam ahead on TBC. They clearly lack the sort of source control and internal QA that you would expect from a mission critical, 9-figure business. The few developers they did put on BTS lacked the ability to roll back that change, and merge in the new trees, etc..

It's almost as if they want to give Warhammer a chance.