First Impressions of the Patch

[Arnath]

1: quest text scrolling gone

I may actually be able to help you out with this one. To disable quest fade completely, type /script QUEST_FADING_ENABLE = nil; into your chat box. Normally, this resets every time you log in, but if you /script RegisterForSave(QUEST_FADING_ENABLE), it will save it. /script QUEST_DESCRIPTION_GRADIENT_CPS = #; will speed up the quest fade: a higher number results in a faster fade. If you set the number high enough it's basically like there is none. Again, to make it save, you have to use RegisterForSave.

Arnath

Edit: Stupid quotation marks

[Artega]

Can't play right now (bad homework, bad!), but there's an uproar on the forums over Eviscerate getting blocked, losing all combo points, and not doing any damage.

Is it true that it's not doing any damage, or is it just being somewhat-absorbed by the block and the forum idiots just coming out to play?
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* Artega picks up his shield.

* Artega laughs at the over-powered rogues.

:P

[Quark]

Edit: *Note to self: better yet, don't*

[Treesh]

Can't play right now (bad homework, bad!), but there's an uproar on the forums over Eviscerate getting blocked, losing all combo points, and not doing any damage.

Is it true that it's not doing any damage, or is it just being somewhat-absorbed by the block and the forum idiots just coming out to play?
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I wish I would have seen this earlier. I could have popped on with a rogue of mine and checked what's going on for you. Now I've been disconnected from the server and haven't tried to log back in yet.

[Arethor]

Well Looks like Fileplanet won.

Fileplanet: About an hour wait before a 30 minute download. Average download rate of around 700 kbps

Blizzard's Downloader: ran for about 2 hours with a high of maybe 12 kbps and an average of around 3 kbps and only getting 50% done before the Fileplanet's download completed.

[Arethor]

After finally getting the patch installed (11:30) and being able to login after 3 attempts (Luck?) I hopped on Terenas as it was the last server i was on and didn't want to chance a disconnect of any kind.

Hotbars
My first gripe if you will is that i had to reset all of my hotbars. Once this was done however it seemed like my screen was a lot more open than it previously was, although this could also be because of lack of addons clogging up the screen. I do however like the way the hotbars are set up and plan on using the default WoW bars from now on.
Score: -1 addon

Quest Tracker
The Quest tracker is another nice addition although i have mixed feelings about it at this point. You're only able to track 5 quests at a time which may or may not be a good thing. It's good because you won't clog up your screen, bad because i like to be able to tell at a glance what quests i'm working on. The coloring of the quest info is also a little difficult to read depending on the background, and you cannot move the tracker. This leads me to think I may end up going back to QuestMinion or MonkeyQuest.
Score: Draw

Chat Bubbles
Albeit unneccessary the chat bubbles do have one good use. I was playing my undead mage who was running the Prodigal Lich quest series in Tirisfal Glades. One step requires you to pick up a candle from the table next to the lich and bring it somewhere to kill a named mob. A chat bubble popped up from the quest giver, reminding me to grab my candle. I can however see how this could cause problems in crowded areas. On a bright note I didn't see anyone using the chat bubbles in either Brill or UC so there is hope that it won't be an abused form of spamming.
Score: Draw (?)

I didn't really get to try out any of the other new features, Meeting Stones, Dire Maul, etc. But my overall initial impression was one of pleasure and hope. If nothing else, the new hotbars will give me a reason to ditch Cosmos and find less bloated solutions to my additional needs.

[MongoJerry]

More notes:

Your login screen now displays you as a ghost, if you're a ghost.



Here's one of the minibosses in the highest level part of Dire Maul. He wasn't that hard, though.



To get to the final boss, you need to kill the arcane elementals around five crystals spread over that part of the instance. You have to destroy the crystals to release the demon that provides the power to the prince. The elementals themselves hit hard -- particularly casters, because they have a harsh mana burn attack. Also, some of them have an aoe arcane missles attack. Prayer of Healing counters that easily, though. They only come two or three at a time and don't have a lot of hit points, though, so they can be taken down.



You can see the demon to the left.



Here's the demon. He doesn't take much special to kill him. He releases these eye of kilrogg looking things that teleport players to underneath the dog. The eyes can be killed easily, though.



And here's the prince. He's a simple night elf who fights melee. He knocks people around a bit, but otherwise doesn't do anything special or require any special tactics.

In summary: Dire Maul has nice artwork but is a pathetically easy instance. Also, the drops are insanely rich and way too strong for how easy it is.

[Warlock]

I may actually be able to help you out with this one. To disable quest fade completely, type  /script QUEST_FADING_ENABLE = nil; into your chat box. Normally, this resets every time you log in, but if you /script RegisterForSave(QUEST_FADING_ENABLE), it will save it. /script QUEST_DESCRIPTION_GRADIENT_CPS = #; will speed up the quest fade: a higher number results in a faster fade. If you set the number high enough it's basically like there is none. Again, to make it save, you have to use RegisterForSave.

Arnath

Edit: Stupid quotation marks
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Wonderful to know - this will make a couple of quests significantly easier (thinking particularly of that one in felwood that requires getting to a cauldron defended by a hundred furbolgs...). Experimenting with it I cannot get it to save, however - I've tried the format you list and several close variations and had the command accepted without an error message, but on logging out and back in the delay is back. Is there another step I need to follow?

[Drasca]

In summary:  Dire Maul has nice artwork but is a pathetically easy instance.  Also, the drops are insanely rich and way too strong for how easy it is.
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I was waiting for that comment. Expect more of the same, and constant attempts to up the loot and special areas. Standard tactic that renders previous archaically areas futile to play in.


But to address the new patch:

New patch gripes: Fear is nerfed again. Not just upped mana cost... I could've lived with that if fear wasn't so supernerfed already (even alliance rogues boast how pathetically weak a spell it is), but I may no longer "pre-buff" fear against mobs.

You probably know better than most, but for those that do not: Psychic fear does not break from being resisted, and may be instant. It can and will last the full 8 second duration more often than not. . . as opposed to fear, which may break in 1-2 seconds and takes longer to cast than that from interrupts.

I.e. Near useless in pvp except pulling off someone else...

and now becoming a lot harder to wield PvE. Not that I'm against better skill for fear, but throw me a bone pvp and I ask... are other class PvE CC skills nerfed against pre-buffing?

Well? Can you re-sleep the sleeped? Repolymorph mid poly duration? Etc?

I've very rarely had two warlocks in the same party (rare to see another warlock period), so I haven't noticed seperate re-fearing pre-buffs yet.



New patch wonders: Ogrimmar guards are finally worth half a damn! I love them! Pre-patch, Horde's really gimped in terms of town defense. We get a few sparing guards that spawn slowly, and do jack against enemies. Once I went to stormwind, I became instantly jealous of guards that can daze, spawn fast, and often... but now I want to see what cool amazing abilities our new guards have.

One note about pre-patch stormwind though, its very easy to ride through your Allliance capital scott-free after the initial bridge. I was doing so for a good 10-15 minutes until I entered a building and auto-dismounted. Then I went fishing in stormwind canals. Where are your patrolling guards? Not that we had a lot of patrols in Ogrimnar at all. Alliance outnumber horde on my Mannaroth server, and consequently we encounter more people with have less skill and alliance suffer from inflation worse than we do.

[liffuie]

agree with easy, after the first run, we where like , is that all? Lbrs one group or scholmance one group is MUCH more of a challenge imo. the loots even for m-c capable guilds are decent, but the difficulty. Hell scholmance two groups is prob more diffcult then D-M

on the other hand, they changed my strikers mark graphic, it looks so nice now.

front shot


side shot


the way they changed devout robe on the other hand is ICK=/ first thing my friend said when she logged in "return! i want a return!" her shoulders like nice though, almost like egyptian cloth headpiece the way it has pieces hanging down the shoulders and rune symbols on it

[Brother Laz]

So Dire Maul looks very nice, but the monsters are pathetic and drop showers of uber loot. Remind you of a certain other expansion by Blizzard? :rolleyes:

[Mirajj]

More notes:

Your login screen now displays you as a ghost, if you're a ghost.

It also now shows your C how it does ingame, if you've chosen to disable helms and/or cloaks.

[Icebird]

Sure you've got enough chat and combat panes Liffuie? I see a big space in the middle that isn't filled yet. :)

Chris

[Arnath]

Wonderful to know - this will make a couple of quests significantly easier (thinking particularly of that one in felwood that requires getting to a cauldron defended by a hundred furbolgs...). Experimenting with it I cannot get it to save, however - I've tried the format you list and several close variations and had the command accepted without an error message, but on logging out and back in the delay is back. Is there another step I need to follow?
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Did you try adding quotes around it? As in, /script RegisterForSave("QUEST_FADING_ENABLE"). I originally had them in there, but was looking it up to check and saw a site without them. However, I think they might be necessary.

Arnath

[Phoenix]

If you don't get the script thing working, you can try out a small simple mod called QuestFade that fixes it for you. Check teh link for some info on the mod and other mods Miron has made. Direct download for QuestFade is here (zip) or here (rar).

[liffuie]

what can i say=/ i like to see all the flavor text of whats happening=p but since it all goes by to fast clumped up in one window lol

[oldmandennis]

Last night I noticed a LOT more brusiers in BB... makes it possible for the horde to use that town.

[MongoJerry]

So Dire Maul looks very nice, but the monsters are pathetic and drop showers of uber loot. Remind you of a certain other expansion by Blizzard? :rolleyes:

Yeah, no kidding. I expected the loot to get more powerful. That's obviously going to happen from now until, well, as long as the game is around. But I was hoping for some interesting encounters -- at least with the final bosses. They did such a good job of creating interesting encounters with the other high level instances that I'm grossly disappointed that nothing in Dire Maul was that way. It was all just tank, heal, and kill. Very little thought is needed.

[Artega]

Last night I noticed a LOT more brusiers in BB... makes it possible for the horde to use that town.
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Or vice-versa. No more ganking sprees with my twin Worn Daggers :(

[Quark]

Or vice-versa.  No more ganking sprees with my twin Worn Daggers :(
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Aww, I feel so sorry for you.