Are you ready to face the sanity-crushing power of an Old God? World of Warcraft patch 3.1 goes live today, sending would-be adventures deep into the ancient Titan city of Ulduar.
Don’t you love trailers? I love trailers. It’s nice to see Blizzard doing some actual in-game cinematics with WoW these days, even if they aren’t quite as eye-popping as their famous pre-rendered stuff. And… all right, maybe the voices could be a bit better (really, guys, you couldn’t afford to hire top-notch voice actors for this sort of thing) and it’s kind of cheesy, but I liked it enough all the same. Oh, Varian Wrynn – you’re such a dick. It’s kind of awesome.
You know, when you think about it… why don’t the major lore figures just get together and raid these places by themselves? They’re each practically a 25-man raid on their own, right? Tirion Fordring tanks, Tyrande heals, everyone else kills everything that moves. It’ll be much more convenient that way.
Anyway, 3.1! The top billing for the first major content update since Wrath of the Lich King launched in November is, of course, the raid dungeon located deep within the cavernous and ancient Titan city of Ulduar. With 14 bosses – more than any other raid in the game besides Naxxramas – many of which have additional “hard modes,” Ulduar is the game’s most ambitious raid since, well… ever. Also, it has hard-mode only boss Algalon the Observer, who reportedly “feeds on [our] tears.”
Ulduar has a heaping treasure trove of Warcraft lore for those who are interested in that sort of thing. Personally, I’m eager to get in and deliver the smackdown to imprisoned Old God Yogg-Saron – if you remember, we last fought his weakened brother, C’Thun, back in the Temple of Ahn’qiraj in the good old days of Classic WoW.
While the city of Ulduar is the biggest feature in 3.1, it’s certainly not the only one. All ground mounts can swim now, meaning you’ll never get dismounted because you didn’t jump over a stream precisely enough, and presumably you’ll get an extra boost in speed while swimming (I’m sorry, what was that? I couldn’t hear you, I was in Aquatic Form). The prelude to the Argent Tournament in Icecrown Glacier is up and running, and – most importantly – 3.1 finally gives players the expensive but oh-so-convenient feature to have two talent specializations at once.
Yes, you heard me right. After you’ve paid the one-time fee, you can switch between your two talent specs on the fly. As a Resto Druid who spends most of his time outside of raids not killing anything, this automatically makes 3.1 my most favoritest patch ever.
Now, we just need the servers to come back up. …and then, the inevitable bugs and crashes that will ensue.
