So last week, Blizzard dropped it’s 3.3 content patch. I don’t know about everyone else, but for me this is easily my favorite content patch of the expansion so far. I thought that 3.2 was a pretty big flop, especially in comparison. It had some good ideas but I didn’t think anything really stood out. 3.3 has been a lot more interesting, and here are some of the reasons why.

Looking for Dungeon System Success

The looking for dungeon feature has finally given players what the LFG feature never could. With “looking for group”, you would rarely be able to find party’s because you had to queue for specific dungeons, and party rosters were much more in the hands of players. Not only that, but with only a server of people to choose from, the feature just didn’t work well.

The looking for dungeon feature really stepped things up. Using your entire battlegroup to find players means that it actually works. The daily LFD quest will let players actually get to know the well designed 5 man instances that most people have forgotten about, with the meaningful reward of two emblems of frost for doing a heroic each day; a reward that will actually keep players coming to these dungeons. Not only that, the weekly raid quests will actually make some use of the raids that will be otherwise forgotten, and once again gives everyone access to frost emblems.

Icecrown Citadel – Putting the Cool Factor back into PvE

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but how weak was Trial of the Crusader as a raid when compared against others? I know a lot of people liked the fact there was no trash, and yes that was a nice feature, but having a major raid instance that occurred almost entirely in a single arena seemed pretty lame to me. (Actually, doesn’t that sound kind of like Blizz trying to do to PvE what they did to PvP, literally putting loot into an arena?) I’m not a lore expert by any means, but come on, TotC was pretty lame, I didn’t really care at all about the superfluous plot. Random boss and lame boss encounters in the same room… and the whole jousting, knights of the round table scenario really doesn’t fit the warcraft universe in my opinion. So how would Blizzard rebound from this?

Enter Icecrown Citadel

Although I haven’t seen all of it yet, or much of it at all for that matter with the content being released gradually, I have to say I’m sensing that Blizzard finally hit the mark with a WOTLK raid zone. The atmosphere is a lot better than TotC, rehashed Naxx, or even Ulduar for that matter. Not only that, but like Illidan for BC, Arthas is the big bad villain of WOTLK, and everything else is kind of fluff along the way. Even the bosses seem a lot cooler than what we’ve seen recently, and the instance itself looks really nice.

I know the “hardcore” players will complain that things are too easy, but I think people just have to face the fact that 40-man endless grind fests aren’t going to return. There are a lot worse things than not having to  raid 6 days a week 5 hours a raid to get decent gear, and for those of us who want to be competitive in PvE, hard-modes are there.

How Awesome is the Disenchant Feature?

Just a side note but this really saves a lot of time and is a great feature, especially considering that people are actually going to be running 5 mans again. Sucks for enchanters who are going to be getting a lot less tips, but honestly they’ve gotten enough free gold from me for pushing a button. Yeah, grind my dust enchanters, grind it and like it.

Damage and Class Adjustments Finally Settling In

Ah the best thing about this patch is I think PvP is more balanced than ever. I know, I know, this is a rogue site, and rogues could use some love right now, but aside from that I think the game is going in the right direction. I’m talking about 3s, which is where PvP balance does and should matter. There’s still a ton of burst and damage can be heavy, but at the same time things have come a long way from season 5’s rediculous damage and death knight dominance. If you look at the top of the 3v3 bracket for any battlegroup, you’ll see a wide variety of class combinations succeeding. Not only that, it seems like skill is gradually working its way back into importance (I know skill is a pretty ambiguous word here but I’m going to use it anyway). If BC arena was a chess match, then WOTLK arena thus far has been chess games with a 60 second time limit. Hopefully this season will reach some happy medium between the two.

But yeah, when I say things are balanced, I’m sure as hell not including warrior or feral damage, and the burst of wizard cleave needs some kind of a look as well. But the next season hasn’t even started so let’s see how things will be adjusted.

The other thing that has me pumped about balance? Blizzard talking about decreasing healing and increasing survivability, something myself and lot of players have been calling for since WOTLK came out. I’ll ellaborate on this is the future.

What Happened to Nition?

A lot of people ask this question. To quote our friend Dkay who left the comment,

“Nition simply just stopped playing WoW, he lives in Indiana now and is doing good. He just got bored of WoW, he might play cataclysm when it comes out he said.“

That’s the basis of what happened, Nition hasn’t played seriously seriously since BC / very early WOTLK, and it’s kind of hard to write about WoW when you’re not playing.

Small In Game Fixes Patch Today

Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted.

To review previous in-game fixes, please visit: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=20677858456&sid=1

12/14/09

• In Ulduar, the Salvaged Demolisher’s Hurl Boulder ability will now properly ignite tar.
• Vault of Archavon bosses are again able to be hit by area of effect abilities.
• The trinket Ephemeral Snowflake will now be triggered by all healing spells.
• The players’ Gunship will now appropriately dock after achieving victory.
• Lord Marrowgar will now do significantly less melee damage in both the 10 player normal and 10 player heroic difficulty.

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Chains of Ice is no longer limited to a single target. In addition, when Chains of Ice is used on a snare immune target with Everlasting Winter talented, it will once again apply Frost Fever.

Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Druids will now be able to shapeshift out of a spell-reflected Entangling Roots spell.

Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Everlasting Affliction can now refresh the duration of Corruption on a target when the Warlock casts Shadow Bolt. This talent also refreshes the duration of Corruption with Drain Life and Haunt.

Related posts:

1. 3.32 Patch Notes
2. Countdown to WotlK
3. Where to level in Wotlk, Leveling on Cho’gall
4. Patch 2.4.3 is LIVE, Cheat Death Nerf Breakdown