The View From Down Here

So, was I right?

Patch 2.1 has arrived. How have my predictions for how it would turn out come true?

Well, no new 5-man instances turned up, but that’s hardly a surprise. It has, though, been nice to get some of my bag space back now that Elixirs stack in lots of twenty. The increase in stats on my epic gear was nice too, and it seems that the cleave means I don’t feel like I’m on a knife edge in terms of being spatted with every single pull.

I had my third go at Heroic Hellfire Ramparts last night. It had been hit quite hard with the nerf bat – the oh-so-life-threatening cleaves gone, other things hitting not quite so hard. Still harder than a level 70 instance, but only by just enough to keep it interesting. Still a few wipes, but not so many as before (and none on bosses!)

I’m really enjoying the challenge of these revamped dungeons, though some of the challenge seems to be gone in the new patch. There’s still plenty to do with them though, and I wouldn’t come close to saying that they shouldn’t have been adjusted.

The focus here appears to be “Make more content more accessible”. And in that it’s succeeding admirably, not just with end-game dungeons (Shadow labs has seen some trash removed, I’m told) but further up the chain whereby now every successful downing of Lady Vashj gives a free Serpentshrine Cavern attunement for someone not in the raid.

As always, I remain unconvinced about the new outdoor group quests, but that’s just my playstyle.