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WoW: Preparing for 3.1
MMORPG.com World of Warcraft Correspondent Deborah Dietrich writes this look at WoW, 3.1 Update.
Preparing for 3.1
We don’t know when, but we do know what. Expansion 3.1 is coming. If you want to take a sneak peek, the public test realm (PTR) is available. In the meantime one can run Naxx once more; take on Malygos one more time and attack the Obsidian Sanctum, yet again. Or one can utilize the excess time to prepare for the coming expansion. Are there certain items that are worth stockpiling? Are there things that should go on the auction house now, before 3.1 shunts them to the clearance rack? How will the changes in 3.1 impact the value of items in your inventory? Now that you’ve run every dungeon, done every heroic and achievements are getting a bit stale, what items should you focus on farming?
Of course gold is the ultimate fungible commodity. Probably one of the best things you can farm is gold. So start doing those lucrative dailies. There’s a lot of new stuff coming in 3.1 and you’ll need a bit of jingle in your pocket if you want to buy the hottest items right away. As with every expansion, prices will soar for whatever is considered the latest and greatest. And all this new equipment will take gems and enchants. Then there’re glyphs for dual specs. You’ll want to have a reserve of gold on hand when 3.1 goes live and gold doesn’t take up bank space.
But we all have professions. Who are the winners and who are the losers in 3.1? What gathering skills should one focus on? Should our gathering toon be seeking herbs or ore? What items should go on the auction house before prices plummet? What should we stockpile in anticipation of an increase in value?
Bind on Equip Items
You’ve seen the spam in Dalaran: “Je’Tze’s Bell, only 10k. Cheaper than the AH!” “Nobles Cards for sale. The Darkmoon Faire is coming. Get ‘em while you can.” If you have bind on equip items to sell, now is the time to get rid of them. Uldar is bringing a ton of upgrades and as folks slot in 226 level trinkets, the value of the Je’Tze’s Bell and Greatness trinkets will drop. As players secure higher level items in Uldar and new higher level BoE items appear on the auction house, demand for the current crop of BoE items will fall precipitously.
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Herbs/Flasks/Elixirs
The yield from herbing will increase in 3.1. Herbalists will be able to put in less time to yield the herbs they need for elixirs and flasks or to sell on the auction house. The value of your stockpiled herbs is likely to plummet for this reason alone, especially for those herbs used to make elixirs.
There are some fundamental changes coming for Alchemists. In 3.1 the time span on flasks will cut in half. Flasks that currently last two hours will now last for one. This will allow players more ability to customize their use of flasks. Does your guild run of Uldar last three hours? You’ll use 3 one-hour flasks and get exactly the coverage needed rather than 2 two-hour flasks, with one hour of coverage going to waste. Alchemists will be compensated for this change by a doubling in yield on flask production. Those with stockpiled flasks will be able to turn their current two-hour flasks into 2 one-hour flasks.
Players entering entirely new content are likely to see an increase in deaths and total wipes, so flasks will gain in popularity over elixirs until the new instances enter the farm stage. I predict a drop in elixir sales and the herbs used to manufacture them. Flask sales should remain fairly constant. Herb prices will drop. Elixir demand will decline.
Where raiders were buying two flasks for a typical raid before, now they will buy three. It will take fewer herbs to make those three flasks than it took to make two in 3.0 so prices of individual flasks will drop. However, new content will make folks likely to feel the need to maximize their stats and the drop in price will make them likely to use flasks where they might have foregone their use in the past or use elixirs for content their guild has on farm. This should counterbalance the increase in supply 3.1 will bring.
The Flask of Pure Mojo (+38 mana/5) may gain in popularity over Flask of the Frost Wyrm (+spell power by 125) as healers face new mana issues in 3.1. Elixir masters who used to see 2 to 3 extra elixirs or flasks per stack created will now see 3 to 6. Overall I see a wash for Alchemists: cheaper herbs, larger yields, increased usage coupled with increased supply.
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Skinning/Leatherworking, Mining/Blacksmithing & Tailoring
There are new patterns forthcoming, presumably out of Uldar, which create bind on equip items. I remember well the good old days when my ability to create the desirable Belt of Blasting garnered me some nice returns in Shattrath. The tailoring patterns are confirmed to be rare Uldar drops, but Wowhead did not indicate how the more numerous 3.1 blacksmithing and leatherworking patterns are obtained.
In any case, the Blacksmithing patterns all required Titansteel bars, Eternal Earth and Saronite bars. The Leatherworking patterns all required Heavy Borean Leather, Arctic Fur and Icy Dragonscale. The Tailoring patterns required either Moonshroud for healing oriented armor or Spellweave and Ebonweave.for cloth armor with hit rating. Ebonweave, Moonshroud and Spellweave are made from Frostweave cloth, Infinite Dust, and Eternal Fire, Eternal Life or Eternal Shadow, respectively. The ingredients mentioned should see their value increase when 3.1 goes live and folks begin to acquire the new patterns, especially those ingredients whose creation is on a long cool down.
All the new belts from Uldar drops, Emblems of Conquest purchases or crafting will need new Eternal Belt Buckles. Score another one for blacksmiths. These take Saronite Bars, Eternal Earth, Eternal Shadow and Eternal Water. With all the blacksmithing patterns requiring Eternal Earth, the price of this item should climb quite a bit and the other eternals should see a price increase as well.
Enchanting/Inscription/Jewelcrafting
I would say it is “Katie bar the door” for these professions. Everyone will be upgrading their armor and weapons as they venture into Uldar. New armor and weapons means new enchants and gems on a regular basis until a significant number of folks have maxed out many of their characters with the new best-in-slot items.
While there are new epic gems, which will come from the fishing daily of all places, they are a rare reward and unique equipped. As I read the reports from the PTR, I can only have one of the seven new epic stormjewels equipped at any given time. I won’t be able to have a Runed Stormjewel in a red socket for its +23 spell power and a Brilliant Stormjewel in a yellow socket for its +20 intellect. I’ll have to choose one. They do not appear to be BoP, so should sellable on the auction house, much like the Eye of the Sea reward from the fishing dailies in the Burning Crusade. The relative rarity of this reward and the fact that it is a unique-equipped items means its insertion into the game should have only minor impact on jewelcrafters. The price of enchanting mats and jewelcrafting gems is due to soar.
As for Inscription, folks will need tons of new glyphs initially. Changes to the various classes, new glyphs and dual specs should drive the prices of glyphs to the moon. Start stockpiling those glyph mats now!
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Meat and Fish
Fishing just got more attractive. It will be easier to level, since you’ll be able to fish anywhere regardless of skill. You have a new daily fishing quest, which yields some very nice rewards. Fishing is being added to the Wintergrasp battleground. All the fish needed to create the Fish Feast used to buff raids will be obtainable in that one location. All these factors should increase the numbers of fisher folk and make the fish needed for the Fish Feast (glacial salmon, mussleback sculpin and nettlefish) easier to obtain. More fisher folk and easier to obtain fish for the Fish Feast will likely mean a decline in demand for these fish. Demand for meat and other types of fish should see a slight increase as players more consistently eat food to maximize their stats for the new, more challenging content.
Other Losers
If you have Northsea Pearls or Siren’s Tears in stock, you might want to try and unload them. According to El’s Extreme Anglin’, these will be common rewards from the new fishing dailies. The patterns that call for these items will become sub-par as folks equip Uldar drops. These two items may well be little more than vendor dross once 3.1 goes live.
Of course the PTR is still live and more changes are coming. There will be tweaks and balancing, but it is unlikely items already introduced will be withdrawn, so what we see now is a fairly good indication of the winners and losers in the 3.1 commodities game.
cool thx for the post stradden i need to get back into this game. been out of it for like 2 weeks cuz ive been so busy
Why do you keep calling it an Expansion? its just an update, an expansion is a update like BC and WOTLK.
Just wanted to clear that up incase any noobs are reading :)
Expansions add to the game, and Uludar is certainly adding to the game, though I do see where you are coming from, it's a matter of semantics really :)
Expansions add to the game, and Uludar is certainly adding to the game, though I do see where you are coming from, it's a matter of semantics really :)
I think the "correct" term is content update or content patch. But yeah it is just semantics but usually "expansion" means a lot more than in an update.
3.1 certainly will be like a mini-expansion thought. There is some major content coming (besides Ulduar) along with major, fundamental changes to the game. I am certainly looking forward to it.
So if I create a character and "add" it to the game I guess I am creating an expansion. Under the pretense I am adding to the game.
Sometimes I feel that it's useless to actually speak my mind on this "general" chat for we are confined by (mod edit)
I just read the patch notes, I'm not seeing how this is a content update, all i see are bug fixes and more tweaking.
Anyone care to give bullet points, the article writer seems to only have talking about how things are going to depreciate in worth, due to the changes.
So, how is this major, and what content is being added, like i said, all i see are changes and bug fixes.
Thw two major things I was referring too are:
1. Ulduar - The raid is pretty big and has a lot of bosses. Some of the boss encounters are very unique and interesting and between the numerous hard modes and options with some of the fights, it is much more than a straight up raid.
2. The more interesting thing for me is the Argent Tournament. It is a really interesting PvE related event. Here is a link to it: http://www.wowinsider.com/guide-to-the-argent-tournament/
It reminds me a lot of the gate building event in EQ2 and it is interesting that it is supposed to span a long amount of time (WOW Insider says it won't be done before 3.2 comes and one can assume that will be late Summer at the earliest). I think its a great event and hope its done well. So in a way, I guess you could that this isn't so much about Blizzard adding content, but players creating it (given however the tournament comes out).
It seems all they can come up with is new reputation items grinder. That's one of the reason i left wow, you cant buy anything with gold these days, you have to grind for everything.
Idiotic statement because Wow has the least grind feeling of all fantasy mmorpg's these days (daily open world PvPquests, tabards that eleminate the mindless kiling, the minigames quests and gear based on competitive PvP ladder systems, etc ...)
NO the real innovative thing in patch 3.1 is dual specs
Meaning omnivalent classes can be full healer/full tank or full DPS class just by having 2 talent point settings and choosing with ONE button to become a tank or healer.
Watch the activity in the dungeons (as from level 40) go up by 200%. No more waiting for that healer/tank.
The pure DPS classes are even better off: they can spec PVE AND PVP in their 61 deep talent point setting.
Add to this the ONE button change in the full change gear selection and you have a winner.
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Again a winning strike which will widen the gap between WoW and the "wannabees".
With EACH major content patch World of Warcraft widens the gap between what people like to play and the morons who think they know something about gaming.
It suits me: it makes those idiotic Wow haters even more frustrated.
Zing!
Except that the dual-spec ability will cost an inordinate amount of gold, so only the people with 'mains' and a lot of extra cash will be willing and able to DS their alts.
So, I very much doubt the lower instances will get any more love than they do, right now; which is to say: next to none (unless you're high-level and are kind enough to drag a low-level or four through, while you go for the achievements you missed whilst levelling). I guess I'm sad, in that I actually miss the hour-or-two hell-for-leather runs through Scholo and UBRS, or the timed runs through Strat, that actually took skill and a moderately clued-up group. :P You just don't get that buzz, any more, especially with the arguably "care-bear" heroics that are available, now, and I fully expect new instances to be worse, with what's-his-face leaving (or having left) Bliz.
Don't get me wrong: I'm looking forward to Ulduar and the ability to dual-spec... but the grind is still no better than before (regardless of whether it's better than other games or not), PvP still sucks (opinion from 3 years on a PvP realm) and Battlegrounds are still unbelievably biased towards one side or another, due to a badly designed battlegroup mechanic.
People may not agree, of course - but that doesn't make me wrong. ;)
eve trodites call their content updates an expansion - whats the difference. this patch definitely expands the game - more so that additonal empty space. then theres the argent tourny, some kind of jousting and prizes and games, its looking like a great patch.
also how did whoever it was conclude that no content was being added...thats just fucking stupid. anyway i still cant fathom why people come to wow posts to boast about how their superior intelect gains them the ability to dislike a game.
This patch looks grand, and the timing is nearly perfect - the core raiders - now sorry thats not the top 1% anymore boo-fucking-hoo -but the top 30% are all but ready. the pacing is great so far, i hope it carries on at this rate, i feel i had enough time to bask in my early epics and more than enough time to prepare while others geared a little slower. i think its great everyone gets to gear up.
but ofc, lets pretend the games pants and it blows and what not. yeah hooray for bashing wow its so goddamned cool i get a hard on over it
Well when you consider how much content is being added it is certainly close to being an expansion. Basically this is the rest of the stuff they wanted in Lich King, but it was not vetted enough yet.
Blizzard and Turbine continue to update their games as much through updates as through expansions.
(Ok - I'll try not to seem like a troll this time :-) )
People actually complained about having to travel to level up fishing?
There's already no sense of epic achievement upon reaching 80 in WotLK, as there was reaching 60 in original WoW. I think an awful lot of players must hate levelling and Blizzard seems to only listen to them. It is really very frustrating how WoW is becoming a Quake-like Diablo clone if that makes sense. One wonders what point _any_ levelling serves given there's so little regard for it.
Maybe a Diablo 3 (even without the great dark and forboding art of 1 & 2 - it's been WoWified) will attract some of these players away and there can be just a tad more focus on what made original WoW and other MMORPGs like EQ fun to play.
Cause call me crazy - but if people complain levelling in WoW is boring - maybe Blizzard should do something to make it _more_ exciting, rather than continually depreciate it to the point where it's even MORE boring cause it's been made so easy and the callenge is gone.
Except that the dual-spec ability will cost an inordinate amount of gold, so only the people with 'mains' and a lot of extra cash will be willing and able to DS their alts.
I do not think 1000 gold is an inordinate amount. Just questing last night, I made 300-400 gold easily and that;s just selling junk and quest rewards. In my opinion, you really do not need DS before level 70 anyway, because most people have friends or guilds that are max level and can rapidly run you through an instance. And by level 70 you will have 1000 gold or more.
DS isn't available until level 40 anyway and I see no need to DS then or anytime near then. Old players will know the spec they want to level with and new players may get over-whelmed with two specs and trying to balnace gear and skill to do more than 1 spec. I cannot wait to see all the DS tanks and healers try to think they know how to tank or heal just because they can.
wary: i still cant fathom why people come to wow posts to boast about how their superior intelect gains them the ability to dislike a game.
LOL one of the best statements ever! I get so sick of people riding a false superiority horse just because they play some other game they like better. Those people don't know how 'dumb as a post' they sound. No pun intended.
WoW has it's flaws, but I've never played an MMO that didn't irritate me in some ways. It's a great game. That doesn't mean it's 'better' than EQ2, Asheron's Call, Eve, etc, etc, those games are great too. Their qualities don't diminish WoW any more than WoW's diminishes theirs.
I didn't stop (or start with) reading fantasy fiction because the Lord of the Rings trilogy was one of the best fantasies at the time it was written; I continued to read different books by different authors with different styles - and even (gasp!) read outside the genre. The point is almost no one reads (who actually reads) just one book, why would anyone stop with just one MMO over the years? I mean, I've read Tolkien's work 3 times, that's enough for me! Move on, nothing more to see here. Just like reading, as well, I get sick of the whole MMO genre, so have to take a break from them all, too (I've been playing MMO's since the first year of EQ).
It looks good,hope we can get more and more happiness in the newest version.Thanks for WOW team!^ ^
