New Patch

First, here are the current patch notes... http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2723732

Second, I was going to make a post about upcoming games (still might) and one on the May 21st Rapture bungle (probably won't). However, I decided that since the new patch is just weeks or so away, that this post should come first.

Before I get into upcoming 4.2, let me take a moment to comment some on 4.1. The revamped heroic 85 versions of old raids Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman ended up providing a lot of fun including some new challenges not common with 5 man dungeons. Also, class balancing seems about right from this patch, and dps players were relieved with the return of potent AoE attacks. Finally, the dungeon call to arms system seems to have worked in lowering the queue times of the heroic dungeons released prior to 4.1, but the new dungeons still suffer from the 25-30 minute dps queue times. Overall, the patch gets 9 hot dogs out of 10 hot dogs.

Now to 4.2. This new patch will introduce a new raid and a new questing zone revolving around the story of Ragnaros and the Firelands. My initial feeling is that the idea seems really cool, and that something new is always good since Blizzard rarely fails on this game. However, I know that many long time players are starting to get annoyed with the repackaging of old content into new content such as the return of Nefarian, Onyxia, Zul'Gurub, Zul'Aman, and now return of Ragnaros. I know for me, I enjoyed most of the new content, but the question has to be asked if Blizzard is out of original ideas for this franchise. Stay tuned on that...

Now for the actual content:

New raid and questing hub! Ok, that comes out a lot more excited than I personally am for this new 10 or 25 man encounter since my current guild (and I stress current) is still stuck on Cho'gall, and haven't so much as pushed Atramedes or Chimaeron. However, for those with fully competent raiding guilds or groups, a new raid is almost always a good thing. As far as the questing hub, I haven't seen much of a preview or noticed what kind of gear or rep will be given from these quests, so whether this is good or not remains to be seen.

Lastly, some comments on the notes:

• There are various class changes that I won't comment on simply because there are a few classes with which I could care less.
• The turning of a BoE into a BoP if rolled on with a need roll is a much overdue mechanic that will help reduce the ninja factor some.
• Guild experience will be easy to gain for some of you in lower level guilds.
• All current raids are being nerfed along with t11 gear being now purchased with justice points making way for new t12 gear from the new raid. This puts the pressure on slacking guilds to get this content done before the new release.

There you have it.