Patch 5.1 - "Landfall"

[Talolan]

Patch 5.1 "Landfall" is live today. Check out WoW Head's launch guide for a more in depth look.

The information below is my own interpretation of each new feature.

Here is an overview:

• Two new factions ramp up the Alliance/Horde war in the Krasarang Wilds
• Players can use Honor/Conquest, or Justice/Valor points to upgrade their current gear (as opposed to buying new gear)
• The Brawler's Guild lets you make solo boss fights in an arena setting.
• Five new scenarios cover the conflict between the alliance as horde (on top of the new Krasarang factions)
• Lots of new pets have been added to classic Vanilla raid bosses.
• Wrathion's questline continues.
• Rep commendations (that give you an account wide rep boost with a particular faction) are available.
• The Darkmoon Faire has new rewards.
• Your farm at Sunsong ranch has new rewards.

New Factions
The Alliance is bringing "Operation: Shieldwall" to Krasarang Wilds to combat the Horde's "Dominance Offensive." These both act as a daily quest hub where you kill off members of the opposing faction in an escalating conflict between the two factions. These work as PVE encounters so you don't have to worry about getting ganked by the opposing faction if you don't want to.

Each faction comes with all kinds of new faction gear to help fill out your loadout if you are still missing pieces. They also have new mounts available, which are newly remodeled versions of the classic alliance Gryphon and horde Wyvern. (The new models really are beautiful)

Upgrading Gear Through Currency
You can now upgrade your gear 4 or 8 item levels depending on the type of gear that it is and the currency used. 5.0 Justice Point gear, and Heroic Dungeon Gear can be upgraded 8 iLevels for 1500 Justice Points. The first tier of Honor PVP gear can be upgraded 8 iLevels with Honor points.

PVE Epic Gear (Raid gear, Valor Point rewards, crafted epics) can be upgraded 4 iLevels 2 times (for 8 levels total) for 750 Valor for each upgrade. Conquest PVP gear can also be upgraded 4 iLevels twice for 750 conquest points.

In many cases this will be a more efficient use of your honor/justice/conquest/valor points than buying all new items. And since Valor points drop like water now (Heroics, Scenarios, Dailies, etc), you'll have them to spend.

Brawler's Guild
Escalating difficulty solo fights against boss-like monsters. These all feature avoidable damage, and some of the fights follow predictable patterns. These fights aren't a matter of being a specific class or spec. They are a matter of being aware of your surroundings. Using your interupts and stuns. Using your debuffs. GETTING OUT OF THE DAMN FIRE.

Invitations can only be gotten in three ways: A) Buy an invitation from the Black Market Auction House, these start at 10,000 gold. B) Get an invitation from somebody who is in the Brawler's Guide (people who bought htem on the BM AH get 10 invites to invite other people for example). C) As a rare drop from the new Krasarang faction dailies and opposing faction enemies.

New Scenarios
Assault on Zan'vess: The Mantid are working with corrupt members of the Horde to bolster the Mantid hold on the Dread Wastes. Go stop them.
Krasarang Wilds: (Alliance Only) The alliance base is under attack by the horde. Work with SI:7 and other alliance NPCs from the Jade Forest questing storyline to save the territory.
A Little Patience: (Alliance Only) The Horde have taken over the Temple of Chi-Ji in Krasarang and Varian and Tyrande are planning an attack to liberate it. Help them free the temple.
Dagger in the Dark: (Horde Only) Help the Troll leader Vol'Jin investigate the origins of the Saurok, and assist after Vol'jin is betrayed by the horde!
Domination Point: (Horde Only) This wasn't available to test on the PTR. It is likely alliance vs. horde in Krasarang.

Additionally, several dungeon finder features like vote-to-kill, or refilling hte party when somebody leaves have been added to the scenario finder. Also iLevel 463 weapons can now be scenario rewards (That matches the iLevel of heroic dungeons).

Pet Battles
Lots of stuff for the pokemon player out there. You're better of just reading it on the WoW Head link.

Warlock Quest
Warlocks have gotten a lot of Lore updates in MIsts, and they continue in 5.1 Players will go to the Black Temple in outland to learn some of Illidan's secrets.

For the rest check out WoW Head's preview.

[Talolan]

Just as an update, the Warlock quest was pushed back to 5.2. Rather that introduce the quest in parts over a couple patches you'll do it all at once. At the end of the quest line, Azeroth's warlock will have discovered the secret of Felfire. (meaning Warlocks will have Green fire instead of Red)

I took part in the first day of Krasarang Wild's dailies yesterday for the Alliance. The potential for world PVP in this set of quests is FANTASTIC. Each day one side will be attacking or defending. The NPC's in the enemy base are NOT PVP flagged, so you can do all the quests without worrying about PVP if you are careful about using your AoE abilities.

I wasn't paying attention and a Horde death knight got my PVP flag raised because he stood in the middle of the mob pack I was killing. Thankfully there were a couple other alliance players in the area and we killed him. I wasn't so lucky a few minutes later when a Horde Mage and Monk were killing an alliance NPC pack near the next Horde pack I was working on. I probably could have beaten either of them 1 on 1 (I was in my tanking spec, and so I self-heal constantly), but I couldn't overcome both of them.

It was incredibly fun.

Something I'm looking to do with these dailes in the future is get a group of people together on an Alliance 'defend' day. Spread out, try to get some Horde players to raise their PVP flags and then kill them. Because that's what World PVP is for.

This should be fun.

[Talolan]

Combustible Treants!

Not in the patch notes of 5.1, is that any druid in Treant form who gains the "Cozy Fire" buff from a basic cooking fire will now be a flaming treant.