Patch 6.0.2, the pre-expansion patch, is just weeks away and is already available for testing on the private test realm. This week we look at five new features that will drastically improve the game.
1. Inventory Management
The improvements to inventory management could very easily be one of the greatest quality of life changes headed our way with this patch. Each of your bags can be given one of the following designations: equipment, trade skills and consumables. When you click the new Clean Up button all items will be sorted in your various bags based on these designations. Items will also have colored borders matching their rarity to be easily identified and vendor trash items will have a coin symbol indicating that they can be sold with no worry. In addition, tradeskill items can now stack beyond 20 up to a new welcomed maximum of 200.
Speaking of trade skills, players can now unlock a new tab in their banks for storing reagents. This new storage for raw materials will clear up your bag space and keep it that way as crafting items will no longer require reagents to be carried by the character - they will be pulled directly from the bank and reagent bank if needed, from anywhere.
A new account wide Toy Box will be the new home for all of the fun knick-knacks we've picked up and be accessible in a new window similar to that of the pets & mounts window. This new system will also show the toys you haven’t yet collected and describe how you can acquire them. An all new carrot on a stick!
Could it get better? Yes! Blizzard is adding another tab to the Void Storage system giving us another 80 slots for storing equipment we really want to hang on to.
All of these changes are going to make inventory much easier and far more efficient. Having to delete an item to make room for a new one will now be something we do much less of.
2. New Quest Log
The quest log and world map have now merged into a single window providing more information in a more convenient way. Now all relevant quest info will be displayed when viewing the map and be organized based on proximity to your character. Merging these two windows is going to make managing numerous quests at a time much easier and reduce the amount of backtracking to complete quests. The new quest log and map will also highlight important quests that advance the story and should not be missed.
3. New Character Models
The revamped character models that have slowly been revealed over the past several months have been truly fantastic. The increased poly count and texture resolution of the models in addition to new body and facial animations will breathe new life into the game. The races that will receive an overhaul in time for the patch are the Dawarf, Gnome, Night Elf, Tauren, Orc, Troll, Human, Draenei and Undead. You can see what they look like on the official Warlords of Draenor site.