Hello Mist of Pandaria! Hello Patch 5.04!
As promised in my previous WoW Patch 5.04 post I will do an update post if my Mist of Pandaria Patch 5.04 was successful.
I am glad to tell you that the World of Warcraft optimization for patch 5.04 was a success in my machine. Running the launcher for the first time will play the World of Warcraft Mist of Pandaria Opening Cinematic, then users will have the traditional EULA agree blah blah blah.
Lots of changes just like the patch update for WoW Cataclysm launch in 2010. I’m glad there is not much architectural remake/major changes for the main cities (Ogrimmar, not sure about Stormwind) like in Cata.
Let me give the highlights (or my favorites), quote official explanation from Blizzard, and give some personal comments (warning: may be noob comments so please bear with me).
Mounts, Pets and Achievement Galore
Account-wide mounts, pets, and achievements! It’s finally here, and you’ll be able to enjoy just about every mount and pet you own on any character, and any license, under a single Battle.net account. You can also work on a wide variety of Achievements from multiple characters.
I love this change as my other toons can share the other toons (in the same account) achievement and pets. This includes achievement, achievement points, mounts, plethora of pets and even achievement title (e.g Jenkins)
We had difficulty finding the mounts and pets tab, so if you are having the same problem, just look for the horse head icon in the main toolbar (or press Shift-P)
Bye Bye Relics, Ranged and Thrown weapons
The ranged/relic/thrown item slot has been removed. All weapons should now be equipped in the weapon slot, and ranged weapons, including wands, have been adjusted to be more powerful.
Relics are useless. Sad patch day for the Inscription professionals. But they (Inscription profession) can create good weapons (staff), maybe I will try that out soon.
Bye Bye Conquest points
PvP Season 11 ends. As usual, we’ll be determining who is getting end-of-season awards, so stay put and don’t change realm if you think you’re eligible. Conquest points will also automatically convert to Honor points at this time.
Eligible? I wish!!! Got some extra honor points from the conversion and honor caps are gone now (maybe temporarily) so its good.
Unli Daily Quest
The Daily Quest cap is removed. While this will truly shine in Mists of Pandaria with far more robust daily quests, you can certainly take advantage of it before then.
I believe I never used up the (25) limit, I’m a casual player 🙂 but I guess this is a good change for those who like to lots of dailies.
AoE loot Galore
AoE looting! Round up a ton of enemies, nuke ‘em, and then pick up all of their loot with a single right click – bag space permitting.
I have not tried but this is promising for farming (ok for cloth farm, not sure for skinning/etc.)
Wow patch 5.04 Character Abilities Changes
Blizzard did some massive changes on the abilities. Too many to mention, and some are too difficult to understand, better read the full release notes for Wow patch 5.04.
But Blizzard WoW Team also highlighted the changes in each of the character class’ Spellbook and Abilities (press P) ( What has changed Tab) as well as give some quick guide on the key changes (affecting abilities, spells, rotations) (Core Abilities Tab)
Some of top of my mind classes and changes:
Wow patch 5.04 Druid Changes
The Feral specialization has been split into Feral (for Cat-focused druids) and Guardian (for Bear-focused druids) specializations. Each of the four specializations has a more distinct and different set of tools, but all of the spells available to the specialization are now useful. For example, Feral and Guardian druids can cast Healing Touch for a useful amount of healing, and Balance and Restoration druids can make better use of the Cat Form and Bear Form abilities they have
I’m curious to know more about the Guardian specialization. I noted some considerable changes on my feral druid action bar (some missing icon meaning the spell, and abilities are gone). But what is really interesting that Druids have a lot of specialization available Resto, Balance, Feral and Guardian).
Wow patch 5.04 Druid Travel Form Change
It seems that Druid Travel Form have some changes. Previously it was a cheetah but now it looks like a deer or reindeer? (will look for this one in the official patch release notes).
Wow patch 5.04 Priest Changes
Mana pools are fixed for all casters (more on this below). Chakras are now more similar to warrior stances. Changes have been made to Discipline to further support the damage absorption playstyle. Shadow priests now have Shadow Orbs as a resource, which can be generated by some of their basic spells, and spent on either strong damage or crowd control.
The use of shadow orb as resource may be similar to paladin and death knight resource usage, but getting used to this one may be a challenge (at least for me imho). I noted few changes on my shadow priest action bar abilities and spells (missing 1 or 2 only). For Healing, sorry I don’t like healing much so I haven’t check changes with the holy spec.
Noted on my priestess gear: PVP power – new terminology
Official explanation:
Spell Penetration has been replaced by PvP Power, and Resilience is now PvP Resilience
More descriptive now. Makes more sense to me.
Wow patch 5.04 Hunter Changes
There is no longer a minimum range for the class. The ranged weapon slot has been removed from the game; hunters now equip their ranged weapon in the main hand weapon slot. Hunters now benefit from Expertise as their ranged attacks can be dodged. Any type of pet can now choose any specialization (Ferocity, Tenacity, or Cunning).
Huntard Rule No. 1: Equip that bow or gun to main hand slot.
The removal of hunter minimum range will be a great changer for the huntard gameplay. Wow patch 5.04 Hunter Pet changes are kinda powerful and it looks very promising, but I am worried that it will be “nerfed to the ground” come next patch 🙂
That’s all for the Wow patch 5.04 class changes. Maybe I can try and post other classes changes over the weekend.
Some personal notes: Seriously, I think I’m getting too old now because I cannot understand all the changes in one sitting. Maybe I’ll try out with one toon first and focus on it. Then when I’m comfortable with the changes I will move on to the next toon/class combo changes.
Special thanks to Bashiok (and to Blizzard and WoW Dev Team) for coming up with the Wow patch 5.0.4 Survival Guide, it’s my source for the quoted text above.
For more details kindly visit:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7045643/504_Survival_Guide-8_24_2012
For other World of Warcraft articles, kindly visit my other wow posts.