Hope you have a mage

[Oatboat]

What's in Patch 4.0.3a
Sammew posted an interesting list of the features you should and should not expect in Patch 4.0.3a on the official forums (http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/134406/403a-what-is-in-it-what-is-not). Zarhym also jumped in, and announced a 20% reduction to the XP required to gain levels from 71 to 80.

What is not in:

Creating worgen/goblin characters
Worgen/Goblin start zones
Archeology
Professions past 450 (Illustrious Grand Master)
Guild leveling
Guild achievements
Eastern Kingdoms/Kalimdor flight
New Zones (80+)


What is in:

Portals in Dalaran/Shattrath Removed
Class trainers in Dalaran where portals once were
New race-class combinations (excluding worgen/goblin)
New Gnome/Troll starting areas
Changes to existing zones
New cata load screens
New cata intro cinematic
New cata login screen
New music
City Quartermasters, with rep tabards
Bug fixes
Class balancing
Druids, paladins, priests, and shaman will have their talent trees reset
Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 is being reduced by 20%
New tamable hunter pets (Monkey, fox, dog, and beetle, as well as new skins for existing pet classes.)

[Lyonheart]

Iza dooze haz a Mage!

[Buetzel]

yeah.. in ... 2 or 3 teams i believe... the rest... well... not so happy...

[BrothelMeister]

Lol, even with the bold underlined part i had re-read to find where u referenced mages :p

[Daeri]

But in addition to the class trainers in Dalaran & Shattrash, Blizzard promised a AH as well back in September. Not sure this promise will be kept though : http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26859191406&pageNo=2&sid=1#20

[Oatboat]

on a positive side though....

71-80 exp needed down 20%.

Thats kinda exciting.

[Boylston]

Honestly, this is great for us. Here's why:

Easy, all-city, portal access in Dalaran/Shattrath for the last two expansions caused a situation where the entire playerbase congregated to the same city. This just creates lag and congestion for people, magnified even more by multi-boxing.

I think their approach is going to be to allow the player base to disperse among capital cities more evenly. Tools like the LFDungeon tool, BG queues, and summoning stones mean that you don't need to have everyone's home hearthstone site be conveniently located to PvE/PvP end-game activities.

Pick a town based off flavor and other convenience factors, and don't worry about having to hearth with 99% of the server population. Win for boxers, IMO!!

[blast3r]

"Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 is being reduced by 20%"

OMG, this is awesome!

[blast3r]

Sucks about removing of portals, though. Oh well, such is life.

[Owltoid]

Honestly, this is great for us. Here's why:

Easy, all-city, portal access in Dalaran/Shattrath for the last two expansions caused a situation where the entire playerbase congregated to the same city. This just creates lag and congestion for people, magnified even more by multi-boxing.

I think their approach is going to be to allow the player base to disperse among capital cities more evenly. Tools like the LFDungeon tool, BG queues, and summoning stones mean that you don't need to have everyone's home hearthstone site be conveniently located to PvE/PvP end-game activities.

Pick a town based off flavor and other convenience factors, and don't worry about having to hearth with 99% of the server population. Win for boxers, IMO!!

I totally agree. Other than questing there isn't a whole lot of use to portals right now. I use them to go back to the old world, but now I can just set my hearth to Ironforge and call it good. The queue system for everything has made mages and warlocks utility much less needed, which is great IMO.

[crowdx]

What is the point in Dalaran in the expansion with all the portal gone, or even shat for that matter (it was already dead).
How do they intend to keep these hubs alive? seems such a waste :(
As I posted in another thread here, we basically just got 2 free levels from 71 - 80, so with BoA gear it is 4 levels less, that is HUGE to us boxers, no more collection quests :D

[Tonuss]

Boylston is right, though (and I believe that this was Blizzard's desire as well)-- removing the portals moves the server populations back into the old world cities and reduces the lag that you get by jamming everyone into a single rest stop. Lag in Dalaran was even worse than it ever was in Shattrath, IMO. Even better, most people will congregate in Orgrimmar and Stormwind, with Undercity and Ironforge likely to be the next most crowded. That leaves us with two cities that will likely be relatively empty and lag-free.

Once you're 85 and done questing, it won't matter where you're set up anyway, most of the tools (LFD, BG, etc) have auto-teleport options.

[BrothelMeister]

What home city will the Troll and Goblin have? I'm gonna guess Orgrimmar, which will still make that city awful.

I'll probably start setting Hearth to Undercity since that'll be closest to Stormwind, and Tol'Barad, which should be where all the action is anyway :)

[Ualaa]

Blizzard wants 95% of play to occur at maximum level, in whatever areas are presented from the current expansion. With portals to everywhere in Shatt/Dal, a large percentage of players would be bound there, so they can easily travel each capital city, plus CoT.

With the removal of the portals, Shatt/Dal is much less convenient than SW/IF or Ogr. So the play is once more moved back to where the current stuff is, as Blizzard wants.

The only real reasons for the portals, was for training in the old world.. which was a little bit of a time sink, not much but still so. With the changes to spell ranks, we need to visit trainers much less frequently, and can even check when we next need a visit for training. Placing trainers in Shatt/Dal, allows us the infrequent training -- when we need it, and will speed up that phase of the leveling process.

[Boylston]

The trainers replacing portals in Shatt/Dal makes these places VERY attractive hearthstone homes for players who are leveling up through the appropriate level zones. You will spend time in Shatt as you level through BC content as it will be a convenient hub for flightmaster transportation and will be the place you hit once you need a trainer. (Same with Dalaran as people go from 68-78).

[daviddoran]

the portals were too convenient, and the source of all the lag in dalaran, cause you pretty much HAD to hearth there if you ever wanted to get to the other content areas. Now they are simply hearthstone locations for people leveling through the content near that zone, and not everyone else.

But it definately will make mages more sought after. Glad I have one :)

[Tin]

Honestly, this is great for us. Here's why:

Easy, all-city, portal access in Dalaran/Shattrath for the last two expansions caused a situation where the entire playerbase congregated to the same city. This just creates lag and congestion for people, magnified even more by multi-boxing.

I think their approach is going to be to allow the player base to disperse among capital cities more evenly. Tools like the LFDungeon tool, BG queues, and summoning stones mean that you don't need to have everyone's home hearthstone site be conveniently located to PvE/PvP end-game activities.

Pick a town based off flavor and other convenience factors, and don't worry about having to hearth with 99% of the server population. Win for boxers, IMO!!

I lag more in SW and IF than dala and the first place is a pain in the A.. to get around in.

How would that look in cata. - realy hope the have optimite the citys.

[Owltoid]

I lag more in SW and IF than dala and the first place is a pain in the A.. to get around in.

How would that look in cata. - realy hope the have optimite the citys.

I'm not sure how it's possible that you lag more in SW and IF than Dalaran. Anyone else have this experience?

[Velassra]

"Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 is being reduced by 20%"

OMG, this is awesome!

I'll agree, I just can't get around to finishing my shaman team to 80; I hated the 70-80, imo, takes way to long. (Although I have more 80's than I ever had 70's at TBC.) This, w/ the 10% on the shoulders will help alot. Like my Paladin, Priest and Warlock at the launch of WoTLK, they'll get to level cap, just in time for an expansion lol.

[Kalyse]

When is this patch?

[Daeri]

I'm not sure how it's possible that you lag more in SW and IF than Dalaran. Anyone else have this experience?

Yes, but only when SW is very crowded, typically during a major event (like right when the first pre-cata introduction quests were released) which happens very rarely. My lag and even framerate really is tied to the size of the nearby crowd...

[Ualaa]

Dalaran, unlike SW/IF/Ogr has a very high particle density -- everything looks very nice.
Also it is relatively open, so you can see much further.
The design of the older cities, in general your vision is limited.

An equal number of toons in Dalaran is much worse than elsewhere.
But that's not saying you cannot have a lot more in SW than is typical in Dal.

[crowdx]

Dalaran, unlike SW/IF/Ogr has a very high particle density -- everything looks very nice.
Also it is relatively open, so you can see much further.
The design of the older cities, in general your vision is limited.

An equal number of toons in Dalaran is much worse than elsewhere.
But that's not saying you cannot have a lot more in SW than is typical in Dal.

With there re-designing of cities like SW, I think the same issues may arise, the new SW is a much larger city than Dalaran and if a lot of people use it as home base I could see lag issues arise in the expansion. I had a quick look around on the PTR and there are a of of new added bits in SW.

[Ualaa]

Out of curiosity...

How much of the city is self contained districts, like the current city.
When in the Trade District, you cannot see Old Town, Dwarf Quarter or the Mage Area.
So even if those were all very high polygon counts, they wouldn't strain your system at all.

How much of the city is vast open space, like Shatt/Dalaran?

[crowdx]

Out of curiosity...

How much of the city is self contained districts, like the current city.
When in the Trade District, you cannot see Old Town, Dwarf Quarter or the Mage Area.
So even if those were all very high polygon counts, they wouldn't strain your system at all.

How much of the city is vast open space, like Shatt/Dalaran?
There are no extra large spaces BUT I think it depends on how the designers grouped the area. It did feel a little more sluggish than live although this is most likely due to bein gon a Dev server and not live.

[Multibocks]

So we are expected to get a portal if we want to go to, say Dalaran? That or walk/fly?

[Zub]

So we are expected to get a portal if we want to go to, say Dalaran? That or walk/fly?
i guess the boats/zeps to boean tundra and howling fjord will still be active.
Isn't Dalaran coming back to hillsbrad anyway?

[Multibocks]

Those boats and flying take forever =(

[Zub]

Those boats and flying take forever =(
no they take the normal time :-)
Portals just set our expectations too high hehe

remember when you used to raid MC/BWL? as Horde? now that was a pain.
Then again, i'm only jesting. i got a mage :-)

[Khatovar]

remember when you used to raid MC/BWL? as Horde? now that was a pain.
Then again, i'm only jesting. i got a mage :-)

"*@&%(% DPS didn't set hearth to Kargath!! -50DKP!!"

[Multibocks]

I have a mage, but Im single boxing now. It doesnt help my alts =X

[Zub]

"*@&%(% DPS didn't set hearth to Kargath!! -50DKP!!"
or warlocks quitting the guild on a nerdrage because they had to summon 35 people running late and got told off because they ran out of shards.

[Multibocks]

Wait wait, so let me get this straight. I can't fly in azeroth until Cata launches and they take away the portals now?!

Big FU blizzard. I love running places.

[Acidburning]

if I parked 2 60's at a summon stone, could they summon my 80s? This portal thing hampers my shalls run for druid mounts

[Ualaa]

In theory..

I seem to remember not being able to summon toons to certain dungeons, because they were either too high or too low for the instance in question.

If you have a warlock on your team, or better yet a team of warlocks... You can use that as a means to summon others about.
I've used my warlock to get lower toons to Dalaran, when a mage was not willing to help.

[lans83]

In theory..

I seem to remember not being able to summon toons to certain dungeons, because they were either too high or too low for the instance in question.

If you have a warlock on your team, or better yet a team of warlocks... You can use that as a means to summon others about.
I've used my warlock to get lower toons to Dalaran, when a mage was not willing to help.


They changed the summoning stones a while back. You still have to meet the minimum level requirement, I think, to be summoned, but no cap on it now. I used my shamans when they were only 35 to summon my 80 pally to SM, then again to Scholo when they were high enough for that. Not sure if they changed it again or not. Someone mentioned in trade chat the other day that mage portals are getting cooldowns after Cata launches. Any truth to this? I know portals have a 1 minute cooldown, but I was thinkin more of 30 minutes or longer. If so, expect to see mages asking for high prices for ports, more than now. Just hope they don't increase the cost of rune stones for the portals too.

[Ualaa]

That's a nice change.

I remember offering to run a friend through something, but he couldn't summon me.
And it was quite a run, and flight to him.