Slashdot Mirror
World of Warcraft Patch 2.3 Coming Next Week
Blizzard has officially announced that World of Warcraft Patch 2.3 will be dropped onto live servers next Tuesday. It's a huge update to the behemoth of Massively Mutiplayer games, including elements like a new raid zone called Zul'Aman, significant class changes, new questing content in the Dustwallow Marsh zone, and an increase in leveling speeds between 20-60. The full patch notes are available on the official site. "Elsewhere Guild Banks let you keep track of and organize your stocks much more efficiently, the Auction House has been revamped so it is easier to use, and you will be able to pick up daily quests so you have something to keep you from falling asleep as you go back to the same dungeons or battlegrounds again and again. The old 40-man Alterac Valley battleground has been fiddled with, too, so it should now have extra added fun, and those of you around the mid-level mark should head to Dustwallow Marsh for new quests and speedy leveling."
Nothing special in 2.3...
Warriors getting buffed again (no, Mace nerf is not meaningful. Intercept buff is.) so Kalgan can rock his Season 3's.
You may see this as a troll post, but Blizzard has been clear with their actions they're not interested in class balance, only in buffing (making stronger) the classes that the dev's mainly play. For those uninformed, Kalgan is the head designer/game balancer, and his current favorite class is Warrior.
To all potential WoWers, don't bother picking it up; just wait out Warhammer or something. Players are leaving in droves over this: in all the brackets of Arena PvP (main form of PvP Blizzard tries to balance around) Warriors are overrepresented. For instance, of the top 10 2v2 teams, 8 of them have Warriors. Top 10 rated 5v5 teams, 7 or 8 [don't recall] have warriors. Contrast this with the class most whined about for being overpowered, Warlocks, which have a strong showing in the 2v2 bracket (indeed they're the only thing keeping Warriors in check, and they're getting a serious nerf vs. specifically Warriors in 2.3), but fairly weak showing in the 5v5 bracket (most important bracket) being made weaker and/or not buffed in patch 2.3 like all other classes are, and you'll see just how far away from the game Blizzard has fallen. They've got some serious balancing to do if they want to stay relevant.
The last numbers from Armory mining show only 4.5m CHARACTERS across all realms and regions (EU, US, etc). That means since Armory was implemented (last couple of months) only 4.5m characters have logged on. In reality the number of active accounts would be lower. But at any rate, 4.5m is a far cry from Blizzard's 9million trumpet they like to blow to keep Vivendi shareholders happy with the Blizzard purchase.
For those only interested in PvE, it's not looking to good on that front either. If Zul'Aman is similar to Kara, there won't be many guilds progressing past it either.
Blizzard needs to keep in mind the vocal minority is not the gold pot majority.