Staff Writer Joe Iuliani has been playing through the new Black Temple patch that was released at the end of May. Today, he files this report on the patch and what it's been adding to his gameplay experience.

It's been nearly two weeks since the release of the newest WOW patch, and across the board, I think it's been pretty damn cool.

If you don't have a flying mount, well most of this content really just won't apply to you. Of course, if you've been playing the Burning Crusade since its release, there is no real reason not to. I suppose being lower than 70 isn't going to make things interesting either. Come on, level people, coffee is your ally.

Blizzard renews World of Warcraft with new solo and five man quests that generate quick money and loot. Many quests are repeatable with a number of blue items dropping. Additionally, there is a new group to achieve faction with, the Sha'tar Skygaurd (it wouldn't be an MMO without some more faction grinding). The quest lines start off right next to the flight point in Shattrath The Sha'tar have two main camps, one in Skettis located in Terokkar Forrest and near Ogri'la in Blade's Edge Mountains. As you gain faction with the Skygaurd, a flight path opens between the two locations. As you can imagine, this makes loot questing more convenient.

The "King of the Ogres" quest line is one of the first in the new patch. It begins in the Circle of Light in Shattrath City, (I almost missed the start, keep an eye out on the way to the portals to the cities) and just follow the quest instructions. A nice feature of this quest line is that if you luck out and find another group killing the required mobs, you can just loot along with them. The quest item drops away from the mob, not on the corpse. This line is worth it just to be named King of the Ogres in Blade's Edge. It's also the pre-requisite for all the Ogri'la quests (Any quest involving Apexis Shards) Stick around for the giant Ogre celebration they have for you. Throngs of dancing ogres, how do you beat that? Ok, well you can beat it lots of ways, but this is just fun.

Read Joe's full report here.

I agree with the second poster, I'm tired of grinding anything, let alone faction just to buy a new item. I want what Everquest 2 gives me but in WoW. I want player housing, heritage type quests with trophies, a woodworking profession to make furniture, collections, collections, collections, I want a guild leveling system that announces to the whole server a guild ding. I want to be able to see raid content but not worry about raiding, i.e. let me do it for the story and just seeing what's in the places, I could care less about the loot in that respect.

When they add these things to the game, then I will return otherwise I bide my time patiently with EQ2 until this happens or Conan comes out.

Originally posted by elocke

I agree with the second poster, I'm tired of grinding anything, let alone faction just to buy a new item. I want what Everquest 2 gives me but in WoW. I want player housing, heritage type quests with trophies, a woodworking profession to make furniture, collections, collections, collections, I want a guild leveling system that announces to the whole server a guild ding. I want to be able to see raid content but not worry about raiding, i.e. let me do it for the story and just seeing what's in the places, I could care less about the loot in that respect.

When they add these things to the game, then I will return otherwise I bide my time patiently with EQ2 until this happens or Conan comes out.

It's obvious that Blizz has run out of ideas for this game. Seems all they can think of doing is adding more tedious faction grinding. WoW has never seeemed so devoid of purpose. I can't wait to head to an instance I've already been to also so that I have a small chance of getting an item I want, though a higher chance I've pretty much just wasting my time. It's even more fun when someone of the same class is in the group, and you have that small chance for item drops, and then a 50-50 chance to actually win the item if it does drop.

Not to mention that the patch introduced many problems such as the game crashing, locking up, etc., for seemingly no reason. Although it seems to be because of addons -- so I guess it's their subtle way to tell you not to use them anymore.

I can't wait for a game that doesn't suck.

Faction grinding is not fun, at all *yawn* Congratilations to all who already got the Netherwing mount by grinding eggs, or the skettis mount by repeating the same quest 100x. At least these factions are not compulsory as difference to the 4 other factions you need to grind to Revered so you can enter in heroic dungeons.

Were these grindings interesting with great story line quests then I could share some or your excitement, but not with this.

And this is all the new content, because if you are in a very good clan you won't see Black Temple in half a year. If you are in a normal-good clan, you won't get there never, just like you were just able to kill the first or two first bosses in Naxx. Congratulations to the few pros that already are there. But I hope the content for the rest of the year doesn't stop here....

Ridiculous.

The patch mostly offer solo content, but despite all the solo content, soloers ain't worth anything.  They are subpar characters.  Anyone will solo better then a player who is devoted to soloing.  Adding solo content while making sure soloers still lack-a-lot when soloing (compared to raiders).  LOL, this trash come directly from dimwits of services, Furor and Tigole (the fact this gear still lack, not the content itself).  I wonder why anyone waste their time with these guys.  They just won't get it, ever.  Brad isn't half as desesperate as these 2 clowns.

Did these solo quest lead to solo-uberness?  No, thereby they are more pointless stuff tries to appease the mass...and in the long run, it will just not be enough, cause you don't give them what they deserve, while you sure do tease them a lot.  It is like waving red meat in front of a lion, then giving him Mioux Mix food instead.  Lame on every level.  If you can't handle soloing properly, don't do it.

With al the boo-hooing going on around here, I thought I'd chime in and say that I've been playing since release, and I'vebeen having more fun than ever recently. Just started my rogue character recently, and it's been a real blast. As for Paladins not being able to solo, I've got a LV 61 paladin that I've played solo through 99% of the game.

As for "anyone being able to solo better than someone who playes solo"... well, the guy who said that is an idiot!