World of Warcraft Patches to 1.9

Xehn writes "The much-anticipated 1.9 patch has been released and can be downloaded via the Blizzard Downloader." Among many new features the Patch includes a complete revamp of the Paladin class, and the inclusion of the first unlockable 'World Event': The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj. From the patch notes: "Players will now be able to buy and sell goods with greater effectiveness using the Linked Auction House system. Auction Houses in Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Thunder Bluff will now share the same pool of Horde player-created auctions, and Alliance players will find the same to be true when visiting Ironforge, Stormwind City, and Darnassus Auction Houses. This system has been expanded to support the neutral Auction Houses as well."

Comments

Re:also know as the PvP whiners rejoice patch

[Godai]

I can't believe how much of what you wrote I disagree with.

First, my guild has several pallies and thier intial reactions were mixed. Some liked what they were getting and some hated it. Once they'd all had a chance to mix around on the test server though, they'd pretty much come together at "reasonably happy" to "okay with it". None of our pallies are unhappy anymore, the most displeased now of the opinion that it simply "doesn't do much for what I'd hoped, but at least it does X, Y & Z". About half our pallies PVP too, and a couple of them are consistently high (ie. first, second or third) in the standing at the end of a battleground. Pallies who say their class sucks at PVP are, frankly, poor paladins.

Second, the 'nerf' to hunter pets (as in making them uniform) is hardly unexpected and actually makes a lot of sense when you look at from a different angle. Bliz has been saying for MONTHS that this was coming, and explained why: they have always wanted pet customizability to be soley from pet points, and not from the base pet. The reasoning is actually very simple: if base pet mattered, eventually all hunters would have the same two or three pets, because those two or three would be the 'best'. Not only would this reduce uniqueness, it would create competition for those few pets. The vision of the pet is that players will choose an animal that they like (whether for the slight variation in abilities it can learn or for aethetics) and that will help provide player distinction. In my opinion, this is a far better tack to take.

Finally, I laugh at the notion that unified LFG & General channels will result in only 'local players' being accepted into groups. I can't remember the last time I joined a pick-up group (PUG) and found all 5 (or 10, or whatever) were in Ironforge (I play Alliance); inevitably at least one person is on the other continent and usually more. This is because you could always join a General chat channel from elsewhere if you knew how, and by the upper levels most had figured it out. Linked auction houses is nothing but a Good Thing(tm).

Frankly, this is looking like one of the better patches unless you're one of those Paladins that for some reason thought they'd be promoted into Gods.