Across the breadth of Azeroth, the Horde and the Alliance have dealt crushing blows to Deathwing’s elemental minions and fanatic Twilight’s Hammer cultists. Through it all, the Earthen Ring has never wavered from its tireless charge, holding Azeroth itself together amid the tidal fury and errant magical energies that churn at the Maelstrom. Yet as the elements continue their chaotic upheaval, it seems that the noble shamanic order might finally be on the verge of breaking beneath the great weight that rests on its shoulders. Even Thrall, for all of his wisdom and skill, has grown aggravated by his failure to effectively communicate with Azeroth’s elements. Recently, his calls were acknowledged, but the malevolent entity that responded has only intensified Thrall’s fears and doubts….

Looks like Thrall stood in the fire.

Patch 4.2 is nearly upon us. It will almost certainly be released this Tuesday, the 21st, bringing the new Firelands raid, lots of new daily quests in the Firelands, and much more.

Check out the current patch notes.

The Dungeon Journal (currently labeled ‘Encounter Journal’ in-game) is one quite handy dandy feature currently being tested on WoW’s Public Test Realm for Patch 4.2. A cheat sheet of sorts, this new tab can be accessed via the bottom, right-hand menu of buttons in-game, right next to the dungeon finder. It gives all sorts of useful information about Cataclysm dungeons and raids, including a basic synopsis of lore, boss character models and detailed lists of abilities with which bosses will attempt to pummel you in an encounter.

While the feature doesn’t specifically give tactics, an experienced player should be able to take hints from the boss’s listed abilities and decide how to perform. I’m guessing that the addition of this feature and making this information easily accessible without a trip to WoWhead, TankSpot or other website of choice may make players pretty harsh against anyone who goes into an encounter without at least some information.

Want to do a random dungeon but worried about getting put in one you don’t yet know? This will help cancel those worries. Plus, it will ease strain on players who simply cannot alt-tab out without facing dire consequences. Heard enough? Take a look at the video below to get a feel for how it works.

Beth'tilac, "The Red Widow" is one of the first bosses you will encounter in The Firelands.

Yesterday’s videos were only the beginning of Blizzard’s Patch 4.2 coverage. According to Bashiok, here’s the line-up for the next few days:

4/28

• “The Firelands” Raid Preview
• “A Legendary Engagement” Legendary Staff Preview
• “The Regrowth and Molten Front Quest Hubs”
• BlizzCast 16

4/29

• “Elemental Bonds” Quest Preview
• Tier 12 Teaser

5/2

• Dungeon Journal Teaser (Ama’s note: This is the integrated boss info thing they talked about wanting to implement at BlizzCon 2010).

As of this writing, only the first item on the list has been released, but it’s arguably the most exciting. The official boss descriptions (including hints as to their fight mechanics) follow my own summation of the features culled from both the official preview and an interview Cory Stockton recently did with Buffed (there’s even more info here, it’s worth reading in its entirety):

• Seven bosses (including Ragnaros), the first four of which can be tackled in non-linear fashion.
• No hidden or optional bosses, but Ragnaros’ Heroic fight is vastly different from his Normal one (indications that this will be the only way to see his entire body).
• The raid instance will be about the size of the Alterac Valley sub-zone, and will take place mostly outside, so that players can mount up and attempt to bypass some of the mobs wandering about.
• There will be more UI elements such as bars and meters to better track what bosses are doing, instead of having to always keep an eye on the debuff box. Also, there will be no fire resist required in the instance (and the bosses won’t have it, either).
• “Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest” is the new Legendary Staff. It will have an offensive proc, take a long time to make, and require a few non-raiding efforts from the rest of your guild. Completing the staff will reward you with the item, a lengthy cinematic event, and everyone in your guild (presumably of sufficient reputation) will also gain access to a unique vanity pet.
• Other dungeon rewards include the requisite Tier 12 gear, Epic recipes for all professions, and three new mounts (flaming Anzu likely being the rarest/most wanted).

Onto the boss descriptions! Continue Reading

It’s been more than a couple months since we started talking about World of Warcraft’s Patch 4.1 around here, and all the chatter is starting to make me antsy.

I think I’m not the only one. Perhaps its just a spring lull, but I’ve been seeing more and more of my friends, including myself to a certain point, falling out of love with WoW. Yet with something big on the horizon, I can’t help but be hopeful that some revamped old content mixed with a splash of new will reintroduce a bit of that magic that always draws me back in to Azeroth.

Sure, there’s no Firelands raid (and no Ragnaros to beat up on), but the rise of the Zandalar tribe through revamped Zul’Aman and Zul’Gurub are a huge draw to me. What can I say, I’m a sucker for trolls. Plus the Call to Arms feature should be interesting to see in action, as should a whole new caveat of balance, PvP, class and profession changes to consider. It’s a major content patch — and we’ve had many of these before — but somehow this one, for me, just seems to carry more weight.

I suppose in-game boredom can be an obstacle for all of us at one point or another, especially the hardcore players who zoom through the new content too fast for developers to keep up. The wait for them stretches even longer.

Heck, for a lot of us there’s still new content to get through from other release of Cataclysm nearly 5 months ago. Personally, I still have questing to finish, revamps of old zones to see and professions to cap off. But I’ve also been less hardcore of a player as of late. I’m hoping that 4.1 brings something that inspires me to turn that around. We’ll see — and hopefully soon. Not sure how much longer I can take the suspense!