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.

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!

Yes, yes, I know. We’re a few days late on this news, but if you’ve just come off a weekend-long bender like the Lore Hound crew (or… just myself), then you too can revel in the glorious word: Trolls are making a comeback! Truly the best news for fighting off that killer hangover, two new Heroic Level-85 dungeons will be introduced with the content — Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman. If both of those names sound familiar, they should; the former was a 20-man raid removed as the Cataclysm swept over Azeroth, the latter a late-term Burning Crusade dungeon best known for its time-limit reward mechanic and badass Amani War Bear mounts. Consequently, as of the new patch’s release, Zul’Aman will also cease to be a raid.

Zul’Gurub will feature the bulk of the changes with brand new encounters and its lore/design tweaked in accordance with everything that has occurred post-apocalypse, but perhaps the most interesting thing about the pair is that they will be classified as a different tier of Heroic than those already in the game, reflective of their increased difficulty and 353 ilevel loot. As with the initial tier of Heroic content, you’ll need to meet a minimum ilevel again, that target being 346. As a bit of a reward for your patience, Tier 2 Heroic Randoms will reward you with 140 Valor Points, as opposed to the 70 offered with Tier 1. No word on whether or not you’ll be able to earn both bonuses every day.

And for the collectors out there wondering what will happen to their precious mounts and pets, here’s what Blizzard has to say on the matter:

New versions of the rare raptor, tiger, and bear mounts will be available, while the old versions of these mounts will remain unique to those who already have them. We’ll reveal more about how these updated mounts can be obtained in the future.

In addition, Patch 4.1 will bring the usual bevy of class and balance changes, though you may be wondering what’s up with the Firelands raid. Certainly this couldn’t be the first major content patch in a long time without a raid attached? Well, Blizz is playing coy with details at the moment, and despite the early testing, Patch 4.1 may still be weeks or months off from final release. On top of that, MMO-Champion has uncovered models likely used in the Firelands (notably, Ragnaros with legs), plus some indication of new dailies found in the earliest set of files.

While we’ll have to wait on the big raid reveal, both Zul’Gurub and Zul’aman are available on the PTR right now.

The Hakkardest part is saying goodbye!

With all the Cataclysm news we hear about every day, it’s hard for us to decide what is and isn’t worth reporting. We don’t want to spoil too much, and we certainly can’t keep up with the hardcore news sites most of the time, but we are interested in details that reflect the lore and player experience. Heaps of things are changing in the expansion, of course. Lots of quests will be tweaked or nixed forever, an unfortunate realization that has led some of our own (and no doubt many others) to polish off their Loremaster achievements and pay tribute to the old school Azeroth before it’s gone.

It’s hard to say why this particular item stings more than a handful of lost quests. Perhaps because it represents some “bigger” part of the game. With notable exceptions, quests slip through the mind like a greased pig; the bread crumbs that lead to the feast, if you will. And though it may be no longer, it was once a major goalpost for end-game raiders. A place worth getting to and fighting through with nineteen of your closest — or perhaps most hated (lawl guild drama) — pals: Zul’Gurub.

A careful overview of the latest Guild Achievements added to the beta brought to bear something missing, which was subsequently confirmed by a Blue:

Zul’Gurub is gone as a raid instance come Cataclysm.

Tiger mounts, Polymorph: Turtle, Zandalar Tribe rep? If you really want ‘em, you better go get ‘em, now.

Now, it’s possible some of these things may find their way into the new incarnation of the zone, but I wouldn’t bet my hat on it. After all, Blizzard wasn’t exactly kind to the War Bear mounts from Zul’Aman after Patch 3.0 came out (and made the time limit trivial).

As for Zul’Gurub itself — well, it’ll still be there, you can fly over it, and it will presumably play a large part in the new questing experience and storyline of Stranglethorn Vale. It just won’t be a raid anymore. Sure, like everything else in the world, time must move forward and perhaps ZG has outlived its usefulness. But when placed against the facts that Ahn’Qiraj remains untouched and you’ll be able to fight Ragnaros in two different places, it makes you wonder why it got singled out in the first place.

So shed a tear, pour a forty, for Zul’Gurub: a raid that, in short order, will cease to be.