Posted by Heartbourne on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 - 31 Comments
Tags: patch 3.2, patch 3.3, speculation
Project Lore bloggers have been all over speculation over the last few months. iTZKoopa has been talking about the possibilities in the next expansion, and our posts about lore are certainly not devoid of our own theories. pixiestixy has also had her fair share of wacky ideas. As far myself, way back, just after the release of patch 3.1, I wrote about what we might expect in patch 3.2, which was just released today. How well did my crazy speculation hold up?
My first prediction is that this patch would not contain a major raid instance. This was largely wrong, but not completely off. The Crusader’s Coliseum instances do not contain trash, and bring a new model for raids that is more friendly to non-hardcore raiders. In that sense, I was not far off the mark. In fact, many of our bloggers consider the new style of raiding to hardly be raiding at all. Blizzard probably wants to get as many players ready for the final battle with Arthas in patch 3.3 as possible. Do you consider Crusader’s Coliseum to be a major raid instance, or is it just to appease the progression raiders with something to do until patch 3.3?
Where I was really spot on was the topic of PvP. A new battleground was indeed introduced, and it is an epic 40 versus 40 battleground. The battleground system was updated heavily, with some small mechanic changes and increased honor when battling near objectives. Wintergrasp was indeed largely reworked with a limit on players, a queue, and auto-forming raids. The Horde versus Alliance theme is being pushed, and we will likely see some major Horde versus Alliance take place with the final encounter with Arthas.
Now, crazy ideas for patch 3.3 are a-brewing in my head. What do you think? What do you want to see in patch 3.3 along with the fall of Arthas?
Related Posts: Project Lore Horde Ragefire Chasm 1.2, Project Lore WotLK Beta 3.9: The Oculus, Project Lore WotLK Beta Week 1 Wrap Up, Project Lore Horde Deadmines 2.4, Project Lore Horde Deadmines 2.5,
By madarra on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
oh no im last
By Shamtastik on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Project Lore don’t speculate, we initiate.
First rule of Project Lore, you do not speak of Project Lore!
By Pauldy on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Something to do until 3.3 we haven’t even finished 3.2 on many servers. Our server just had the first downing of 25 man Alagon last week. No one on our servers have completed all the hardmodes yet and we are already on to new content what gives? We had from ~6 months on faceroll content whose challenges were more in getting the right gear to drop than the encounters themselves, to new content that was a good luck with that RNG thing till we decide to nerf it content to ~4 months later new faceroll content again?
I’m all for keeping it playable for casual players but I think most rational people expected them to keep a pace. Instead they rush it out the door and last night instead of raiding I went on a naxx run, we quickly discovered many of the doors are now gone allowing you to pull from outside the boss rooms. We were in the military quarter on gothic when suddenly we got about 6 waves of mobs come running through the walls. We downed 4 of the waves before the 5th and 6th hit us and we wiped.
All of this because they make huge changes and don’t spend any time testing them, we get to test it in game then when they finally get it playable it’s time for the next round of testing.
By Pauldy on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Err, we haven’t finished 3.1.
By Cozmus on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I am very dissapointed with this patch coming so quickly. Honestly my head is spinning as I am just now getting through Ulduar content. WoW is quickly becoming a jumbled mess of a headache. What do I do? Take a break and be even more behind the next patch? I see this patch as an appeasement to hardcore players, not casual players. Casual players still had plenty to do with 3.2. Maybe smaller content patches would have worked better. Add something here, expand on something there. Instead it’s like Blizz just dropped an A-Bomb on us and everywhere I turn somebody is telling me “check this out” “do this” “we just did that, have you?”
SLOW DOWN
By PatrickD on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
I just got my first flying mount with 3.2. Give me some time to catch up.
I’ve been playing since the original beta back in 2004. I am the POSTER BOY for casual gameplay.
By Octaviax on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
This patch is prelude to 3.3. This patch is meant to gear players for the coming battle that will decide the fate of Azeroth, as well as introduce a new BG.
Blizz has said, they want to include content for all kinds of players in thes ebig patches. This patch’s main focus was PVP balance and a new BG. They threw in this raid for the above, and to build on the Tournament storyline
By bloodraptor on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
i dont think patch 3.3 will be the patch to bring icecrown citidel into the game but certanly something to do with the scourge. or i could be wrong and it will bring fight with Arthas, but what would end up being in patch 3.4?
By cocopuff on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
this patch came way to soon all summer i been slacking of leveling my alts trying to ge them some good gear brining them closer to 80 finnaly i decided to get serious and actauly do something this summer so i started leveling my DK skill in mining and trying to get some honnor under belt when bam the patch hits teh servers i been checking out the new BG and i have to say it was kind of a disapoinment the glaive thrower was very well done andthe siege engine is badass but once again i find my self breaking down a gate with bombs aand vehicles and trying to kill the general and trying defend teh alliance keeppp with peashooters for artilery on a bumpy torrain i expected something new only taht drags back is the honnor 800 honnor battle thats for a loss may not be much but more the notehr BGs give
By Shamtastik on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
TBC “ended” at 2.4.3, what’s stopping Blizz from making Wrath stop at 3.4.3? I’m mostly assuming they are going to kep feeding us hays until the secret MMO is done.
By m on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I think it would be cool to have a sort of PVP Raid. I still haven’t figured out how it would work in my head yet but i think it would promote the horde vs. alliance and new raid vs. arthas. Idk if my idea could ever work…
By pixiestixy on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I <3 wacky ideas. Let the speculation continue! It also will be interesting to see how quickly info starts coming out on 3.3 since we just got 3.2…
By Whitesuperman26 on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
I would like to see horde and alliance players be able to team up against Arthas because in alot of the videos horde and alliance generals are fighting together, and allowing them to join together in a raid could make for some really fun and interesting things. Maybe they can group together, but PVP would still be allowed within the raid instance, so if someone has an argument, they can fight it out while waiting to fight Arthas.
By Fengel on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Most thing in the patch suck, like the emblem system for example. Now the servers will be filled with noobs in tier 8.5 and even tier 9 gear that have no clue on how to play their class. Some servers high guilds allready find it hard to get good players (frankly because most guilds only look at someones gear), I wanna bet it’s only gonna get worse.
Like the new raid raid tho, not the concept itself that much but the bosses aren’t as easy as anyone expected. We had people in the guild saying let’s put it on the calendar and skip ulduar, well I can tell them and you: bad idea. Linear progression still is your best way as the bosses in the new raid, aren’t tank and spank like all guessed.
By Alayea on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
I was hoping that Blizzard would wait on releasing patch 3.2 because it still had (has) quite a few bugs. Missing a chunk out of your bear? Can’t see the Feral Spirit UI half the time? Mobs running through walls in Naxx? X-002 Deconstructor having way more adds than there’s supposed to be? And that’s just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. >_<
By Apoxz on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Now i hate to sound like a kill joy but is it too easy to get kit now, i know it’s wicked stuff and what have you but all these patches are coming hard and fast, be good to finish one patch first.
just a thought
peace out lorefolk
Apoxz
By Quetlan of Bloodhoof on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 3:23 am
I just have one thing so say: “Slow down Blizzard!”
By dannie on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 5:09 am
Im very glad Blizz put out this content. My server has had 25 cleared with hard modes on farm 2 weeks after its arrival so we geared up our main raiders again, just as we did with naxx then, it was to choose what 80 alt was next.
Come on blizz make HARD content.
By Mr.Vincent on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 6:47 am
I really hope Blizz doesn’t give us Icecrown Citadel until the final patch of WotLK. They ruined BC completely by releasing BT too early and having us kill Illidan before Kael’thas…ILLIDAN BEFORE KAEL’THAS!!!!! Blizz needs to go vanilla WoW Naxx on Icecrown where you need to be on your top game to get through everything, trash included. Screw AoE bananzas I want Icecrown to make me cover my moniter in blood, sweat, and tears.
By Revons on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 8:09 am
@Fengal
Woah there buddy Don’t you think they learned their class while leveling 1-80? Raids are about team work not lone wolfness. Plus you can only get 2 pieces of T8 from badges, Cool down and spend your badges on new epic gems.
By Pegraath on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 8:51 am
@Revons
People don’t generally learn to work together in a large team until 80, and then you go through OS, Naxx, EoE and so on. Of course if you were raiding BC or vanilla you probably know your class if you played it regularly.
Now the gear is available for someone who might have only run UK Heroic multiple times (in theory) but still has sparkly epics barely distinguishable from someone who has done half of Uld25, the number of players who don’t know their class enough to raid properly is going to rise. I’d like to see a graph of wipes per day per raid attempted in Ulduar for a month before and after the patch.
By Dagimpster on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 8:59 am
3.2 is a By pass raid which is going to give people the ablitiy to just get enough gear fro IC. each week you get a total of 4 bosses (all the sme boss just 4 diffren modes).. i think the release of the patch may have been rushed a little but i think it was something that had to be done if they plan on releasing IC by the end of the year
By DRAMATIC CHIPMUNK on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 9:52 am
PL DO A VIDEO OF ToC!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Highwayman on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Honestly, with the AT, I agree it’s exactly like QD only not as massive a time investment simply because Northrend is not a massive zone. Do I think that it’s a good idea? Of course I do! It’s nice for people who a> aren’t in a hardcore raid guild to do some ‘hardcore raid’ type stuff and get ‘raid’ gear but it’s especially nice for b> those of us who do work quite a great deal (guess where I’m replying from!) to spend the few hours we get a night to get some high quality gear.
I do hope that they don’t rush IC though. Perhaps teir IC much like they did with Kara, SSC, Hyal and what not…give the hardcore players a chance at doing what they want as well.
IC will definitly have to have a massive scale up in terms of difficulty if it’s not to dissapoint and perhaps give us casuals a chance at something such as a world wide event for the opening?
By cocopuff on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 10:35 am
guys come down i today the new bage gear aand i saw my t7-t8 gear was better then most of the badge gear so i want better gear i have to run uldaur and the new instance my DK in herioc gear mostly with some naxx 10 gear the only thing he can out of the marks is the tier gear like my rogeu he has to go into vaults uldaur and later the new instance to get a good necklace a good ring good boots even my mage fresh 80 still in yellows after gathering the gear from teh vendor and i still could better in naxx 25 so chill out blizzard isnt giving any free rides you still have to put in an awfull amount of work into it
By Sam on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 11:00 am
@Dramatic
PL won’t do a ToC video. Remember Naxx? Naxx 25 was on farm for a few months before they did a Naxx 10 video series that lasted a month.
They haven’t done Maly or OS let alone Ulduar. It’s quite a shame that they don’t provide videos that are up-to-date with the current game content.
By Wittgenstein on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 11:55 am
@Sam
Man, they have their own business to do…ComiCon has passed, and there are a few events that all the PL guys will probably go (BliizCon…) before getting back to the videos.
I want more videos too, but anyway, PL is not their main project, so, up-to-date videos will probably not come.
By cocopuff on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
wittgenstein@
in my opinion they should comit to one thing PL hasnt had a good video in months not that the mount runs were bad but when the last time the whole gang got togather
By Fengel on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
@Revons: you wouldn’nt believe the amount of people wearing nothing but epics that have no clue on how to play their class, even characters with 90+ days played on them. Just yesterday we kicked a disc priest that didn’nt wanna specc in to guardian spirit because for him it was a wasted of talent points and he never had to use it. Where any Disc priest knows that this talent is a major tank savior. Also: yes 2 pieces of T8 from emblems. But: also 2 pieces of the lowest T9 gear in about 3 weeks (2 emblems of triumph every day from doing the daily dungeon). I find it ridicilious.
By Rayl on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 2:36 am
@Fengal Disc priests dont have guardian spirit…..holy does……..lol
By Kyle on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 7:38 am
at first, i didnt think icecrown raid was going to come out until the very end of wrath of the lich king. now, seeing how fast blizzard is throwing content at us, im starting to think, well maybe icecrown is the next big instance, coming next patch! oh dear, this is wayyy to fast, even some hardcore players are just getting their hardmode achievments and other less hardcore people arent even at yogg yet. i think blizz definitely needs to slow down, content wise, let people get this great content you gave us done before you throw another one at us >.>