Patch 2.4, sunwell plateau

Volund · #1 01-01-2008, 04:24 PM

New Sunwell details from Swedish mag Level

Acacia sent a tip that Swedish magazine Level has released their annual WoW issue, and there are some juicy tidbits in there about patch 2.4, which as you probably know will feature the last expected instance before the next expansion, the Sunwell. Jeff Kaplan did the deed in an interview, and let us know that:

Sunwell Isle will be off the north coast of Silvermoon.
Magister's Terrace will be the 5-man instance, and the Sunwell Plateau will be the 25-man raid, designed to close off the Burning Crusade storyline (although Kaplan admits there are a few more stories in progress in case they need to delay Wrath at all)
There will be quests outside the dungeons, too, and they will tell the story of Tempest Keep
And with those quests, there will be a new faction, called the "Shattered Sun Offensive."
Finally, the limit of daily quests will raise in 2.4, from 10 to a whopping 25 (which is all the quests in your log. Money money money!)

There are a few more good story notes, but those are spoilers, so we'll put them after the break. If you don't want to know what you'll find in the Sunwell, don't click the link below. But if you're fine with hearing about it ahead of time, feel free to hit the link and move on.

Serious Spoiler Alert! Do not read on if you don't want to know what's in the instances.

The town outside the instance will start as a camp, and as more quests are done, it will grow into a full town, with some buildings being "retaken." Kaplan says it'll work just like the opening of the AQ gates, but on a smaller scale.
Some bosses in the dungeons will be inaccessible without reputation, and will be "unlocked" as the rep comes along.
One of the bosses in the 5-man will be none other than... Kael'thas. He's back. And apparently Kaplan says he'll have a large green crystal attached to his chest. Keeping him alive, maybe?
Kil'jaeden will feature in the 25-man instance, and Kaplan says it'll be a fight on par with Illidan. Other bosses in the 25 man: A pit lord named Brutalicus, the blue dragon aspect Kalecgos himself (who is enslaved under Kil'jaeden), a Fel Dragon (!), female Eredar twins, and a Dark Naaru (!!)
The Sunwell dungeon will be on par with the Black Temple, and all the drops will be above Tier 6.

Wow. Sounds incredible-- not just the stuff in the dungeon, but the events and quest hubs outside of it as well. Patch 2.4 is scheduled to drop sometime in 2008. Should be amazing.

Update: There's more:

"Balancing" for PvP coming.
Blizzard is extremely happy with daily quests, so expect to see more of those to encourage players to visit places they might not have.
Big plans for Arenas, especially in terms of "e-sport acceptance." Your guess is as good as ours as to what their plans are.

From New Sunwell details from Swedish mag Level - WOW Insider

Sifex · #2 01-29-2008, 07:32 AM

i was wondering what 2.4 was like thx for keeping me up to date!:grin:

Xerxes · #3 01-30-2008, 09:12 PM

Many thanks for posting this info. I think it's already been widely publcised, with Blizzard source quotes, that one of the last patches before Wrath would be Sunwell Plateau and that Kael'thas and Kil'jaedan would be making a come-back.

Everyone who'd completed the relevant quests in Netherstorm discovers how Kael serves the Legion and big bad KJ himself now. Also the hand-in of a "Verdant Sphere" item drop off him at Tier 5 level to the Naaru in Shattrath prompts a speech from KT to the city of Shatt to explain that he has not been beaten yet and will return. I think it's something along the lines of his soul is maintained in the spheres, and the Legion is keeping one safe for his return to the Sunwell Plateau instance.

If you want an idea of the Kil'jaedan fight, I think people should just imagine what it's like fighting Illidan and Archimonde both at the same time, then multiply both bosses' survivability and damage by 10.

Minor clarification:
- The mention of Kalecgos is probably valid and WoWWiki explains it well how he's involved, but he's not an Aspect. Aspect is the term reserved in Warcraft lore for the 5 individual great dragons who serve as grand leaders for their respective dragonflights.
- Kalecgos is a mature/senior dragon of the Blue Dragonflight, possibly on a par with Azuregos, but the Blue Dragon Aspect (leader) is Malygos the Spellweaver, who will make his entrance with WOTLK
- Just clearing that up.

Volund · #4 02-02-2008, 11:37 PM

Most of the changes listed below are from blue posts on the official forums. The list will be updated once the official patch notes have been released.
There are no plans for a Patch 2.5.0.[1]
[edit] General

The limit of daily quests is being raised from 10 to 25.
A new faction called the Shattered Sun Offensive is being brought in with the introduction of the Sunwell Plateau.
Spell Haste: Spell haste now reduces the global cooldown on spells, down to a minimum of 1 second. This change does not apply to melee and ranged abilities.[2]
Characters will now retain talented spell ranks so when they retalent they do not have to relearn the spells from trainers.[3]

[edit] PvP

Battlemasters are now standing on platforms with collision around them.[4]
Diminishing Returns removed from Honor Kills [5]
Honor calculations will become instant rather than daily [5]
If a player has Resurrection Sickness, they are not worth any honor [5]
If a player is killed 50 times in one battleground, they are not worth any honor for the duration of the Battleground [5]
Shadow Sight is now going to increase damage taken by 5% rather than dealing damage over time. The duration has also been reduced from 21 seconds to 15 seconds.[6]

[edit] Items

Players will now be able to purchase level 70 Superior quality PvP items from reputation vendors.[3] (Reputation vendors in Outland.) [7]
Items intended for Retribution Paladins have had their stats adjusted. Retribution Paladins should see an increase in dps as a result.[3]
Players can now only carry 80 Conjured Manna Biscuits at a time. [8]

[edit] User interface

GM messages now appear with a Blizzard icon near their name.[9]
When looting Bind on Pickup items, the confirmation dialogue now lists the name of the item in the dialogue. You can now verify that you are picking up the correct bind on pickup item.[10][9]
Bind on Pickup items that only you can pick up (Heroic Badges for instance) will no longer bring up a confirmation dialogue.[11][9]
The profession UI search field has been improved and now allows for searching of more types of things. For instance you can search for items by socket color, by effect ("Critical Strike" for instance) or search gems by their effect ("Strength" for instance). In addition, the searching of items by level has been made more intuitive. You can now search for items by level with "15-20" to search for items that you can make that have a minimum level required of 15 to 20.[9]

Various improvements will be made to the combat log.[12][13]
Various improvements to the Interface Options window. [14]

[edit] Classes

[edit] Druid

Lacerate now deals additional damage based on your attack power. [15]

[edit] Mage

Spellsteal will no longer overwrite a longer duration buff.[16]

[edit] Priest

Prayer of Mending's overwrite has been fixed.[17]
Priests are now able to use Fear Ward in Shadowform. [18]

[edit] Shaman

Healing Grace will reduce the chance that all of your spells will be dispelled by 10/20/30%. [19]

[edit] Warlock

Patch 2.4 will remove the restriction for Ritual of Summoning that prevents players from summoning players into instances. Provided the player meets the instance requirements, you'll be able to summon them in from anywhere in the world.[20] The summoning restriction has also been lifted from Netherstorm. [21]

[edit] Warrior

Off-hand weapon critical hits from Whirlwind trigger Flurry and Rampage which should improve damage a bit.[22]
Endless Rage will provide significantly more rage. [23]

[edit] Professions

[edit] Cooking

New recipes will be added so that one doesn't have to catch fish to be able to advance up to maximum skill level.[24]

[edit] Enchanting

Added a recipe to convert a [Void Crystal] into two [Large Prismatic Shards] with a likely 23 hour cooldown.[25][26]

[edit] Fishing

New Fishing Daily Quests! Visit the mysterious old man fishing at Silmyr Lake outside of Shattrath City to discover what treasures he has to offer.[27][26]

[edit] Mining

The various types of ore will be adjusted so that you can consistently level up your skill from the nodes available in the zones where your character will be leveling, without you having to go back and spend lots of extra time in areas where you don't have any quests.[28]

[edit] Dungeons and raids

All 25-player raid bosses that drop set tokens will now drop an additional token![29]
All 25-player raid bosses will now drop more gold.[29]
Gems obtained through Heroic difficulty instances are no longer Unique-equipped. [30]
Loot dropped by Doom Lord Kazzak and Doomwalker has been changed to Bind on Equip. In addition, the cash dropped by these bosses has been significantly increased.[29]
Scale of the Sands reputation will now be awarded in Hyjal at a much higher rate. [29]

[edit] Magister's Terrace

5-Man instance with Heroic (Kael'thas is a confirmed boss.)

[edit] Sunwell Plateau

Sunwell Plateau will be a 25-Man raid[31] available at level 70 with a difficulty of the Black Temple or higher. All drops will be above Tier 6. The instance will be designed in the same style as Silvermoon.

[edit] Environment

[edit] Sunwell Isle

The Sunwell Isle will be, according to Blizzard, "a cool 'public' area featuring brand new daily quests" shipping in Patch 2.4.

a bit more info, slightly retarded looking, but w/e