News

By: Jarno Kokko May 08, 2007

Major changes to the World of Warcraft endgame incoming

Blizzard has been very busy with the upcoming 2.1.0 update to World of Warcraft. It started with a set of patch notes a mile long and the improvements to the identified problems with the Burning Crusade expansion just keep coming. The latest update to the Public Test Realms was published yesterday and the magnitude of the changes to the late-game itemization and raiding is becoming clear - the alterations are pretty major.

Blizzard hasn't commented on the reasoning behind changes as the work is still unfinished. Eyonix, Blizzard's Community Manager limited his comments to confirming that the changes are happening.

"Many epic items in the game have had their statistical values improved, and more improvements are underway."

World of Raids has been tracking the changes to the itemization as they have appeared on the test realms, but even they had to basically throw their arms up and just point to a folder full of screenshots of the upgraded items. There are just so many changes as just about every epic-level drop from heroic-mode 5-man dungeons and all 10- and 25-man raid dungeons is getting an upgrade. Overall the item changes point to an average upgrade of 5-10% to all attributes of all endgame epic items - with some added changes to some previously inconsistently designed items.

So, what does this all mean for a World of Warcraft player?

Nothing much changes in the gameplay prior to level 70 - and there was no need, as it already is pretty well balanced.
Many epic items from level 70 raid instances such Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye are no longer the same or worse than the best rare-level (blue) items available from normal 5-man dungeons or high level quests, adding extra incentive to tackle these encounters.
The total power level of a raid group is increased approximately by the same amount that was lost when the new consumable limits were put in place as the 2.1.0 testing began.

So, the changes are pretty much what the players have been asking for. Raiding high level instances is once again the road to items that are actual upgrades from the baseline items everyone has at level 70, and the previously broken character advancement by item upgrades after the level cap is again in the game.

Additionally, you no longer need to farm for a truckload of materials for flasks, elixirs, potions and other consumables to every raid to reach the "intended" power level the encounters were designed for. On top of the item changes, many of the high-level raid instances are receiving a rebalancing pass in 2.1.0. to make them more feasible for a non-perfect raid to tackle. On top of all this, Blizzard is also ensuring that the top raid guilds who keep on pushing the edge of what's possible in the World of Warcraft get some new targets as Battle of Mount Hyjal and Black Temple are added to the game at the same time.

Release date of the 2.1.0 update has not yet been published, but based on previous patching patterns, I would expect this update to reach live servers before the end of May.

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