We’ve seen an influx of new pets and mounts to go collect since the release of WoW Patch 4.1 last week, and I’m here to show you how on For the Hoard. We’re starting off the action with something simple but cute — the Winterspring Cub. Hope you enjoy the episode, and keep a lookout for more FTH episodes coming very soon!

This is more or less a heads-up for people who haven’t checked their client or tried to log on today, but Patch 4.1 has indeed gone live! The files for the update round out to about 325 MBs, so it shouldn’t take long to download at all. If you’d like a more comprehensive look at everything this content patch has to offer, you can either click here or just scroll down the page a bit.

To those who have been living under a rock or just re-entered society from their decades-long hermitage and are still getting the hang of this whole “internet” business, Patch 4.1 does not include a new raid instance, PvP season, or tier of gear. While this is atypical for what we’ve come to expect from a content patch, we should see Patch 4.2 much sooner after this one than normal, and it should contain all of these things. In fact, I’d expect to see it in testing on the PTR within the next week or two.

For the time being, let’s all do our best to enjoy both “new,” arguably more challenging 5-man Level 85 Heroics, and handy UI features. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to log in and make sure that my guild still exists. And if it doesn’t, it looks like I’ll be giving an extensive report on just how well the Guild Finder works!

[Update 1] Patch day blues. Anecdotally, I experienced a lot of problems trying to enter one of the new instances through the Dungeon Finder and I know some friends had similar troubles. Officially, the first round of hotfixes has been applied. They certainly won’t resolve all current issues, but you can find the list of changes here.

[Update 2 -- April 27] Second round of hotfixes have been applied.

Whether you need a refresher or just haven’t been keeping up with it, Blizzard has put up a full post detailing every nook and cranny of the upcoming content patch. Despite my current disappointment with the state of World of Warcraft, I can’t deny the fact that packing 4.1 with new features at least partially redeems the lack of a new raid dungeon (it certainly shows they’ve been working on something). Here’s a quick summary of what to expect, with the full notes on Blizzard’s site:

Rise of the Zandalari

The days when great troll empires stretched across ancient Kalimdor are long past. Millennia of war and internal strife have stripped these nations of their power, lands, and glory. As Azeroth recovers from the destruction of the Cataclysm, the world’s divided troll populations face a bleak future. These dark times have spurred the trolls of the Zandalar, the historically wise and scholarly tribe from which all trolls originated, to take drastic action. They have embarked on a bold crusade to save their race by uniting trolls into a single mighty empire. With the Zandalari’s aid, the fallen capitals of the Gurubashi and Amani nations—Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman—are already rebuilding, replenishing their forces for a bloody campaign to expand their territories.

Yet Vol’jin and his Darkspear trolls are not aligned with the Zandalari. They have sworn to stand with their Horde comrades—and even work with the Alliance—should the trolls ignite a new war on Azeroth. Soon, Vol’jin might be forced to act on his promise, for if the Gurubashi and Amani are left to their own devices, the world will know the legendary strength and savagery of the ancient troll empires once again.

Guild Challenges

Built into the Info panel of the guild user interface, Guild Challenges are weekly tasks guild groups can tackle for additional guild experience, achievements, and gold. At the top of the guild user interface Info pane, a new Guild Challenges section is displayed and broken into three categories: Dungeons, Raids, and Rated Battlegrounds. Any guild group will qualify for Guild Challenges credit and there is a set number of times each challenge can be completed per week.

Guild Finder

Guild Finder is a new system designed to enable easier and faster guild recruitment. Guild leaders and players who are looking for a guild to call home will use the Guild Finder to meet one another and begin communications that can lead to a prosperous membership. Whether you’re a guild leader looking to fill your ranks or a player looking for a guild that meets your strictest requirements, the Guild Finder provides an easy way to make new friends!

Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms

A new system intended to lower queue times, Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms offers additional rewards for queuing as the currently least represented role. To be eligible for the additional rewards you must solo queue for a random level-85 Heroic in the role that is currently being Called to Arms, and complete the dungeon by killing the final boss. Every time you hit these requirements (there is no daily limit) you’ll receive a goodie bag that will contain some gold, a chance at a rare gem, a chance at a flask/potion, a good chance of receiving a non-combat pet (including cross faction pets), and a very rare chance at receiving a mount

Clearly the most important thing, though, is that this is a good indication Blizzard is ready to release the patch itself. There is a high chance we will see “Rise of the Zandalari” this coming Tuesday.

My early days in World of Warcraft were bogged down by real-life requirements. I was in college, busting my hump attempting to obtain two degrees at the same time. I managed to keep my priorities straight, graduating on schedule without losing much sanity (just tons of sleep). Video games, mainly WoW and Day of Defeat, were tools, not entertainment. I used them as designed, as avenues of escape from the stresses of the meatspace.

In WoW, I struggled to level as fast as my peers, obtaining most of my XP during binges between projects, assignments and tests. Solidsam (one ‘m’ back then) struggled to remain on the cusp of the gear curve during the early vanilla raids. Hardcore as All That Remains (not the band) was, my avatar was consistently on the chopping or sitting block due to number other highly-geared rogues in the guild. Realizing my predicament, I did something radical, I strove to differentiate Solidsam, to make him needed, wanted, even required, beyond my sparkling personality. I strove to become the de facto supplier of raid consumables from the cooking and fishing secondary professions.

The hours spent farming to cap, a task I took on before Solidsam reached his personal goal, thank god, sessions spent acquiring high-level materials and seconds it took for it all to disappear saved my early raiding career. All too often it was just a smidgen of extra stamina for Ragnaros (and Vaelastrasz) that was required. It didn’t matter that I could only raid a handful of days – back when the guild raided seven days a week – the constant supply of tasty buffs guaranteed Solidsam’s spot.

I continue to flex my culinary muscles and lightly hold my fishing line for a nibble to this day as a homage to the “pointless” professions that kept my early raiding career alive (even made a guide). Now, like so much of WoW, it’s become increasingly easier, but that’s okay. I still bring the buffs to each raid and even dungeons now. Patch 4.1’s additional quests should save my inner Gordon Ramsey countless hours.

If you head over to MMO-Champion, you’ll see the full run down of the quests, including the associated tasks. There are a total of 40 new quests, 20 for each discussed secondary profession, 10 for each faction. Blizzard saw the need for global distribution of these particular talents. Soon, no matter where you call home, even Darnassucks, you can fire up the cooking flames or drop a line for profession skill points and consumables. You can even have your fill of daily quests out of secondary profession quests alone.