Patch 4.3:

Blizzard just released another big dump of news about the upcoming patch, and it’s very mixed news. Rarely have I felt such a mix of joy and anger.

The Good Dungeons:

First, the positive news. Blizzard has announced the three new five man dungeons 4.3 will bring, and they sound utterly amazing.

The first, End Time, will involve traveling into future to visit the Hour of Twilight predicted in “Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects.” In that future, Deathwing has won, and every living thing on Azeroth has been killed–including Deathwing himself. Hey, he is insane.

End Time looks like it might also feature the conclusion of the Infinite Dragonflight story — and perhaps a battle with an alternate Nozdormu.

It’s embarrassing how excited about this dungeon I am. I literally did a happy dance after I read the preview. Thank god no one was around to see.

But that’s just the start. The second, Well of Eternity, has players traveling back 10,000 years to battle the servants of Queen Azshara and steal the Demon Soul, an artifact that may hold the key to Deathwing’s demise. Cue nerdgasms from every lore fan on the face of the Earth.

The last, Hour of Twilight, has players escorting Thrall to Wyrmrest Temple for the final battle with Deathwing. This sounds the least interesting of the three, but hey, at least we get to see Northrend again.

I never thought anything would beat the Icecrown Citadel dungeons, but if anything can, these just might.

The Bad Decisions:

Now we come to the less positive news. According to an interview with Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, tier 13 will not be at all available from valor points. Rather than rewriting my thoughts, I’ll provide a copy of the angry rant I posted on their forum:

“This is a very bad decision. There is a severe rift in this community, with the raiders and the non-raiders pitted against each other. This will make that much worse, as the raiders will be able to lord over the rest of populace with their tier sets. Meanwhile, the casual players — justifiably or not — will grow jealous of the raiding community. It doesn’t matter who you see is the issue here — the casuals or the hardcores — it’s a conflict that harms the community, and restricting tier gear to raiders will only make it worse. You think the scraps over needing tokens for helm and shoulders are bad? Wait until all tier pieces are from tokens only.

It feels like Blizzard is endorsing the player-held notion that those who don’t raid should be treated as second-class citizens.

Furthermore, this will destroy dungeon queues, unless valor can be used for something equally essential (though I can’t quite picture what that could be — tier gear is about as good as it gets). I really don’t relish the idea of four hour dungeon queues for DPS. And if valor will be just as essential, then what’s the point of doing this at all?

I never understood what the harm is in allowing tier gear to be purchased with points/emblems. In Wrath, all pieces of the last two tiers were purchasable with emblems, and it didn’t break the game. In fact, quite the opposite. Subscriptions were at their peak, and PUGs thrived. Blizzard is fixing something that was never broken.

This also throws cold water on those who had hoped to use the raid finder as a stepping stone to normal mode raids. Good luck going far when T13 is limited to those who’ve already done normal modes. Yes, I’m sure you will be able to clear normal in dungeon/LFR gear, but try telling that to elitist PUGers and guild leaders. ‘I want a fast run, sorry.’

If raiders really need something to make them feel special (you know, beyond the mounts, titles, and achievements they already get), make the valor version of T13 have slightly lower stats and ilevel than the normal and heroic versions. At least the non-raiders will still get the set bonuses”

Now, to be fair, I did overreact a bit when I posted this. We don’t know the details of this, so maybe it won’t be as bad as it sounds. Zarhym has confirmed T13 will drop from the Raid Finder, so that helps a bit. I’m still really worried about what this is going to do to dungeons, though, and I still see this as completely pointless and unnecessary. I don’t like how Blizzard seems determined to reinforce the elitist attitudes of the raid community, either.

The Ugly Sets:

Actually, they’re not all that ugly, but I needed to complete the reference. While I was covering 4.3, I figured I’d make mention of the latest T13 sets released: mage, shaman, and druid.

I’d say the mage set, Timelord’s Regalia (Go go Doctor Who jokes!) is my favourite so far. The head’s a little goofy, but the shoulders and colours are great, and the “techno-mage” concept is very original.

Shaman is definitely my least favourite T13 set to date. The shoulders are decent, but those orange crystals are hideous, and the head looks like something you’d buy at Petsmart for your dog.

The Zangarmarsh-inspired, bioluminescent Druid set is very middle of the road. It’s pretty, and very druidic, but a little simplistic for a set for the end of the expansion. But I suppose that makes sense for a druid.

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So, what do you think, dear reader? Are you as excited about the new dungeons as I? What do you make of the new tier restrictions? How are you liking the new set looks?