With Patch 6.1 on the public test realm there’s tons to talk about this week. Let’s check out some of the big additions and changes heading to Warlords of Draenor.
Blizzard Statue
Before diving into what 6.1 will bring us I want to take a minute and quickly mention the awesome gift that Blizzard sent to long time WoW players. For those who subscribed within the first 60 days of World of Warcraft going live and maintained a subscription ever since, Blizzard sent them a miniature replica of their giant statue that resides in the courtyard of their Southern California campus. This was such a great surprise that came out of no where. Most people received the package before even getting a shipment notification. The box the statue came in has the 10th anniversary WoW logo on it along with a “Thank you” underneath. Here is a picture of mine just after unboxing it:
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Patch 6.1
Patch 6.1 is live on the PTR and official patch notes are live. Here are some of the more notable additions on the way.
New Blood Elf Models
One of the greatest improvements Warlords of Draenor brought to the game were new, higher quality character models. Unfortunately, Blood Elves weren’t ready in time for the launch of the expansion and will now be added with this patch.
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Old model on far left
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Old model on far left
These new models are obviously a huge improvement and I’m excited to see them make it into the game. Some of the other races will also be receiving some minor adjustments in this patch as well to further refine their look.
Heirloom Collection
A new system to store account bound heirlooms will go live with the patch and can be found as an added tab in the collection window next to pets and mounts. This collection manager will help keep all of your heirlooms organized and easily accessible by any characters on your account. This makes having to mail items back and forth between alts a thing of the past. The collection system will show you what pieces you have, what level they scale to and which items you’re missing.
Patch 6.1 will also introduce a new Heirloom neck item that allows the user to cast a heal with a 1 minute cool down. Obtaining Heirlooms will also become much easier. Vendors in Stormwind and Undercity will sell them for gold. There will be a few other ways to obtain them including in Darkmoon Faire with Prize Tickets.
Lastly, if you acquire all of the Heirlooms, you’ll receive a special mount that can be used by any character regardless of their level. Even your brand new level 1 noob.
Being Social
A cool new feature being added to the game is the ability to send Tweets when you obtain an item, earn an achievement or take a screenshot. When one of these things happen, a social button appears that when clicked allows you to compose and send a tweet. If, for example, you obtain a new item you can tweet out your happiness with a link to that item for your followers to see.
Speaking of social, an interesting new item is being added to the game: The S.E.L.F.I.E. Camera! This item can be obtained as a reward from a non-rare follower mission in your garrison. Once you acquire it, using it opens a special camera mode where you can take a selfie of your character complete with their arm in the shot holding the camera and silly faces being made. You can then of course tweet these images out to your heart’s content.
Another follower mission will allow you to upgrade the camera to the S.E.L.F.I.E Camera MkII which will give you three filters to apply to your images - Sketch, Black and White, and Death.
Both the social sharing features and the selfie camera are pretty cool additions to the game. The ability to easily share cool moments to Twitter from in-game is going to be a lot of fun especially to see what others are doing and earning. While I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot of silly pictures coming from the new S.E.L.F.I.E. Camera, it could have some pretty neat applications for those with a creative mind. It’s also a great way to document achievements or key moments in the game like the first downing of a raid boss.
Garrisons
Garrisons are getting a lot of love in Patch 6.1. First, there will be one of five new visitors swinging by your garrison every day offering a variety of quests and rewards. The patch notes detail what type of quests these visitors may offer:
- Defeat a dungeon boss: Awards a bag with a chance to contain a level 630, 645, or 655 item token.
- Defeat a raid boss (weekly quest): Awards a bag with a chance to contain a level 645, or 655 item token.
- Bounty (intended for 3 or more players): Defeat a named elite NPC for a bag containing Apexis Crystals, and a chance to contain a level 645, or 655 item token.
- Relic: Complete a series of quests to recover a relic for a bag containing Apexis Crystals, and a chance to contain a level 645, or 655 item token. Completing a relic mission unlocks it as a potential mission for your followers. Completing all 6 relic missions will unlock Harrison Jones as a follower!
- Profession: Turn-in tradeskill reagents for Primal Spirits and work order tradeskill reagents.
- For the Pet Battlers out there, there's a separate chance for an additional visitor offering unique Pet Battles with a chance to award a bag containing Pet Battle items and new Battle Pets.
Here’s what’s very cool about these quests - they have a chance of awarding an item that will allow the garrison owner to spawn one of six new raid bosses in their garrison to take on. These bosses will have a scaling health pool to accommodate 10 - 40 players! So, invite your friends and guildies into your garrison, throw a raid boss at them and document their struggle with your shiny new S.E.L.F.I.E Camera!
