I can't remember a time when Blizzard wasn't working on or promoting a massive patch for World of Warcraft. Love it or hate it, the game really hasn't slowed down in its seven years and one day of existence. And now players have yet another patch to keep them playing until the next expansion drops.
Hour of Twilight, more mundanely known as patch 4.3, will be going live soon. To get you all in a fervor, Blizzard have put together a 9 minute video showcasing the three new 5-person dungeons. They all look suitably dramatic, although the lack of music makes the video a bit of a chore to sit through. Nonetheless, I'm sure it has plenty of people drooling.
As well as the new 5-person dungeons -- End Time, Well of Eternity and Hour of Twilight -- the patch also adds a bunch of new content:
Raid Finder - Raiders can use this more efficient method to put together a "specifically tuned" version of the Dragon Soul raid.
Dragon Soul - A 10 and 25-person raid which Blizzard is touting as "the most epic raid encounter" they have ever designed.
Transmogrification - This will allow you to change the appearance of your weapons and armor, so you can have up to date armor with a lovely vintage feel. Splendid.
Void Storage - All players, regardless of level, will be able to open up 80 slots of long term storage space.
Fangs of the Father - Rogues get a new legendary quest line.
New Darkmoon Faire - Darkmoon Faire has been getting a bit long in the tooth, so it's been redesigned with new challenges and prizes.
There should be plenty to keep you occupied for the first part of the game's eighth year. There's more information about it here.
Transmorgification is cool, but so many of the textures and patterns are recycled.
They really do give great incentives to continue playing, though. I'd love to see a character dressed up in the old sub-tier 1 sets while it's tier 24 or whatever they're up to now.
I love how even after seven years strong, people still think that the fabled "WoW-killer' will exist in every new hyped MMO to come out. 10+ million people just don't quit all at once.
Of course, take that with a grain of salt as I stopped playing earlier this year...
@Francisco Medina: Thanks for that. I was wondering how many comments it would take for some douchebag to proclaim that 'WoW is dying'. Didn't have to wait long, it seems.
@Qraze: WoW has outlived so many games that either players OR developers claimed to be a 'WoW-killer' and it will continue to do so. Especially since ToR has been called a WoW-clone, WoW-with-Lightsabers, StarWoW: The Old WoWpublic, etc,.
@Arttemis: I've been trying(unsuccessfully) to get my Blood Elf Paladin alt some Tier 2(Judgement[the best armor/tier set in the entire game, hands down]) since 2009. He has 0/8 pieces so far. :(
I just might have to resubscribe for the 4.3 patch, as opposed to just waiting for 5.0/Mists of Pandaria.
the funny thing about mmo posts on dtoid is that a. you will rarely see a lot of posts because everyone who would REALLY care to read the article are obsessively playing the game and b. the posters you DO see are all the quiet lurkers.
p.s. lurker isnt a derogatory term. just in case someone wanted to go batshit insane over that little quip.
Since I got the annual pass to get free diablo3, I will be playing this as soon as possible.
I tried the public test realm to check out the new dungeons, but people are leaving the groups too much. This will be much better when the real servers get 4.3 and I can finish all the bosses.
meh, i was done with this game long ago. i was sitting in dalaran trying to sell high lvl herbs for 2 hours and missed a planned hangout by accident. then i realized how much money i had pumped into this one game as opposed to all the others id played and i was rather disgusted. this game is NOT worth hundreds of dollars.
yes, i know part of that was on me, but wow... has this weird effect on people. i secretly believe that blizz employs or gets paid info from psychologists on addictive behaviors and what bolsters them.
WoW is actually on a downslope, and I would be surprised if it wasn't usurped by the first game that looks to have a good enough grasp of the MMO genre to do it; Guild Wars 2. If you look at Mists, Blizzard is clearly gearing up for a showdown with GW2 with dynamic events and an auto-attackless class.
That being said, WoW is an amazing game and I might check back in for the 4.3 content.
WoW IS in it's twilight. It's been great, but very long in the tooth. Skyrim set the bar so high, looking at WoW now is a joke. The best AND worst part of WoW is the player base. I'm sure it will go free to play before too long. MMO's in general become tiring in their endlessness.
@Ramm - Oh man, those shoulders were fantastic looking. Daggers in the middle of a golden tome, and an executioner's mask in gold, red, and black? Awesome.
This may hold some value as I've been playing tf2 since its inception. 4 years ago, however valve decided to not try to cash in as it were to my addiction to the game.
Most other games lose that reward center part after a while.
Yeah once I've thoroughly thrashed Skyrim and then Zelda and then a couple other games that I've been eyeballing I'll come back to WoW for a little while and check out the new stuff.
Yeah, I don't really believe there will ever be a "WoW killer" per say. But I Definatly think TOR is going to hurt it. Hard.
Just to use an example, litererally 4/5's of my guild in WOW is migrating to TOR when it releases...
Haha, man some of these posts are just plain ridiculous. If you are a mmo fan of any kind, then you know about older ones like Everquest, the original, that is still going, maybe not strong, but it is still going. It would take WoW years, if not a decade, to get anywhere near eq's lv of players, and until that day comes they are still making a ton of cash off monthly subs.
There is no WoW killer, only WoW distractions. One million people leave, 700,000 come back when the new game turns out to suck. Most people have no clue how to make enduring content in other mmo's, and that is WoW's biggest issue atm is they are starting to lose that ability too.
I am tired of WoW, but my dad, my brother, and a few real life friends all play the game, and I log on when they are on, and log off when they aren't. Thankfully I play fun games on my consoles, just a shame most of the really fun ones are pre 2003.
Man, I loved WoW. I can't wait to see Titan. Considering how much Blizz squeezed out of WoW's engine, I'm really excited to see what they will do with a modern engine. So tempting to get back into Azeroth for a chance to kill Deathwing.
I was a little bit shocked to see the Pandaren made into reality, but it's Blizzard so i'm sure it will be awesome.
I wish people would quit saying WoW is about to die, or on it's last legs. It's a dumb statement. Games like the original Everquest and Ultima Online are still going, and they've been out of the limelight for over a decade. Even if WoW lost 80% of it's players, it would still have 2 million... and 2 million is more than enough for a MMO to grow on.
A year from now, WoW will have over 8 million subs. SWTOR will have 2 million. That's plenty for both to survive.
They are good are recycling models and trying hard to make you care.
But for me, that ship has sailed. I watched this after stopping playing for the vast majority of the last three years, and can say that I saw only a handful of new models, ideas, or content in watching this.
I got years of fun out of this game, dont get me wrong or think me a hater. It is just like having sex with the same woman for a long time, eventually, its a rehash.
You secretly believe they have psychologists on the staff?? I didn't think this was a secret?? There is no way they got that reward-playtime balance right without research and testing.
Also, GW2 won't beat out wow because a lot of people don't like pvp.
TOR is hyped to all hell right now, there is no way it can live up to it's hype. I'm not saying it won't be a good game, but people will inevitably be disappointed when the second coming is predicted, and all we get is another mmo. (albeit with a good license)
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Contest:
11:30 PM on 11.23.2011 | 
get them 6x exp weekends ready......
They really do give great incentives to continue playing, though. I'd love to see a character dressed up in the old sub-tier 1 sets while it's tier 24 or whatever they're up to now.
Of course, take that with a grain of salt as I stopped playing earlier this year...
@Qraze: WoW has outlived so many games that either players OR developers claimed to be a 'WoW-killer' and it will continue to do so. Especially since ToR has been called a WoW-clone, WoW-with-Lightsabers, StarWoW: The Old WoWpublic, etc,.
@Arttemis: I've been trying(unsuccessfully) to get my Blood Elf Paladin alt some Tier 2(Judgement[the best armor/tier set in the entire game, hands down]) since 2009. He has 0/8 pieces so far. :(
I just might have to resubscribe for the 4.3 patch, as opposed to just waiting for 5.0/Mists of Pandaria.
p.s. lurker isnt a derogatory term. just in case someone wanted to go batshit insane over that little quip.
Actually, they're all bitching on MMO-Champion.
This patch aesthetically looks good, but the actual bosses are quite lacklustre.
Can't really expect much more though, Blizzard have pretty much stated that this expansion's a write-off and they're pumped for Mists of Pandaria.
I tried the public test realm to check out the new dungeons, but people are leaving the groups too much. This will be much better when the real servers get 4.3 and I can finish all the bosses.
yes, i know part of that was on me, but wow... has this weird effect on people. i secretly believe that blizz employs or gets paid info from psychologists on addictive behaviors and what bolsters them.
That being said, WoW is an amazing game and I might check back in for the 4.3 content.
This may hold some value as I've been playing tf2 since its inception. 4 years ago, however valve decided to not try to cash in as it were to my addiction to the game.
Most other games lose that reward center part after a while.
Wait, no? Hm.
Just to use an example, litererally 4/5's of my guild in WOW is migrating to TOR when it releases...
There is no WoW killer, only WoW distractions. One million people leave, 700,000 come back when the new game turns out to suck. Most people have no clue how to make enduring content in other mmo's, and that is WoW's biggest issue atm is they are starting to lose that ability too.
I am tired of WoW, but my dad, my brother, and a few real life friends all play the game, and I log on when they are on, and log off when they aren't. Thankfully I play fun games on my consoles, just a shame most of the really fun ones are pre 2003.
I was a little bit shocked to see the Pandaren made into reality, but it's Blizzard so i'm sure it will be awesome.
A year from now, WoW will have over 8 million subs. SWTOR will have 2 million. That's plenty for both to survive.
But for me, that ship has sailed. I watched this after stopping playing for the vast majority of the last three years, and can say that I saw only a handful of new models, ideas, or content in watching this.
I got years of fun out of this game, dont get me wrong or think me a hater. It is just like having sex with the same woman for a long time, eventually, its a rehash.
Also, GW2 won't beat out wow because a lot of people don't like pvp.
TOR is hyped to all hell right now, there is no way it can live up to it's hype. I'm not saying it won't be a good game, but people will inevitably be disappointed when the second coming is predicted, and all we get is another mmo. (albeit with a good license)
The information isn't new, the video is. But I thought I'd save people time by repeating the info about the patch. I know, I'm horrible.