WRUP: Our patch 4.1 reactions
Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game -- and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!
It's the weekend once again! This week, in addition to asking our writers what they're doing this week, I asked them for their reactions to patch 4.1 and the announcement of the return of Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub. Are they excited? Are they dreading going back to those places?
Alex Ziebart (@AlexZiebart): In between exploring the PTR, raiding on my paladin and running heroics on my priest, I'll probably play through the Dragon Age II demo a couple more times. It's more fun than I expected it would be, as I wasn't a big fan of Dragon Age: Origins. It's still flawed, but so very fun. As for patch 4.1, I'm pretty excited! I didn't think I would be so eager to see Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub back again, but I am. I want to see how they'll improve on it with current resources. I really hope Budd isn't involved in Zul'Aman this time around though, that instance deserves a lot more than WoW's extremely poor comedy relief.
Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey): Finding a useful way to destroy a failed hard drive. I'm considering fire. As for 4.1 -- that ZG mount better be a tiger. TIGER TIGER TIGER. Also holy cow to the rogue Stealth changes -- I can Sneak with impunity.
Basil Berntsen (@outdps): I'll be playing wow this weekend. I don't play any other, inferior, games; I'll be the last one to turn off the lights on WoW. My reaction to 4.1 is that I don't even feel like I got a decent chance to take a bite out of this content. Maybe this is the crotchety old man hovering barely below the surface of my personality coming out, but I want things to move slower, damn it. A tier of raiding is no trivial thing to be a part of and represents a huge investment in time and organization, and it gets basically thrown out the window with this new design philosophy of anyone can get ready for the current content with nothing more than some time in the AH and 5-mans. If they still had the BC and back system of forcing guilds to get up through the tiers, that would be another thing. Breakneck content releases are fine there, because we won't be waving farewell to the relevance of these bosses. Also, get off my lawn.
Brian Wood (@FrostheimWHU): This weekend is a desperate attempt to catch up on emails, and rewrite guides for the recent hunter hotfixes. Patch 4.1 currently contains insufficient hunter info to care about. ZA? ZG? Pfah. Gimme pet collars and I'll be excited!
Chase Christian (@madsushi): I am going to be playing a ton of Minecraft. I recently got hooked and set up my own home server, and my guildmates and I have been building some pretty epic creations. My guild will also be working pretty hard on Al'Akir this weekend, hoping to score a kill. Bonus: STEALTH AT 110% SPEED WITH NO COOLDOWN. I am downloading the PTR now, and I will just be moving in and out of Stealth all day long.
Daniel Whitcomb (@danielwhitcomb): Hopefully, I'll have some time on the PTRs to check out the new death rune change for frost death knights. Otherwise, I have a nasty cold, so I may just try to sleep it off. 4.1? I have had troll fatigue in the past, and it may pop up again here, but I can deal if the new ZA gives Zul'jin and the Amani Empire the sendoff they deserve as major lore figures, instead of having them steamrolled by Redneck treasure hunters. Farstrider quests and lore, please!
Joe Perez (@Lodurzj): PTR if it's up, if not I'll be diving back into some arena matches. I've rekindled my love of 2v2 strategic combat and hopefully will be throwing myself back into it with the fervor usually reserved for fan(insert descriptor here) and sparkle vampires. Personally I'm happy they are bringing back the troll instances. I didn't really get to do ZA much when it was the height of cool, and running it after the fact was just pointless. I did however run ZG into the ground, but I still love that place so much I'd go again and again and again. Most people seemed to really like the troll instances, and I certainly am one of them. BRING ON THE LANKY TUSKY VOODOO PEOPLE!
Josh Myers (@elamqt): Playing some RIFT, some DCUO, some Everquest II, some LOTRO. Oh wait, no, I'll be playing WoW. (Though I do have a huge hankering to play Morrowind after watching the trailer for Skyrim yesterday.) I'll probably chain running battlegrounds on my shaman. Or, at best, trying to chain run battlegrounds with 30 minute queues.
As for the bonus question? I'm already ecstatic for 4.1 based on the AoE change for enhance alone. Also, Zul'Aman was my favorite raid instance in this game. I'm a tad worried to see it as a five man, but happy to see it is back.
Kelly Aarons (@Cadistra): Work work work. The usual. Trying to improve my cat DPS rotation, as something just isn't right. Desperately farming leather, as I finally maxed out Leatherworking. As for 4.1? I. Am. STOKED. So so excited. I love troll instances.
Matt Low (@matticus): If PTRs are up, will check out the revamped troll instances. My reaction: Ugh. Ran these two places a bajillion times when they were raid instances. On my alts. Not exactly thrilled to do them again even if they received slight modifications.
Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo): I have to prep a lot of columns for next week since I'll be gone at GDC most of the time. Lots of writing to do this weekend. As for Patch 4.1, it looks amazing. I love the nostalgia feel, I love those two instances, and I'm mega-pumped for Firelands. I love new-Ragnaros.
Matthew Rossi (@MatthewWRossi): Gonna test Arms DPS out and run some troll instances if I can. Working on raiding has been slow lately but we got some nice first kills this week that pump up the exited factor. I really want ZA to be awesome this time around.
Sarah Nichol (@mentalshaman): I'll be playing a nice mix of RIFT and WoW, hopefully with a lot of PTR thrown in for good measure. I doubt RIFT will ever replace WoW in my affections, but it's a fun change of pace. I'm hoping that our guild gets to kill Nefarian this weekend, time for that dragon to go down! I'm very excited about patch 4.1; it is a sign of things to come -- the content patches in Wrath and The Burning Crusade just can't compare with this. ZG and ZA are great bonus content, but they shouldn't be seen as central to this content patch, but the howls of despair from our former raid leader when he saw ZA in those notes was mildly amusing. Hopefully we'll have fun there and wipe away his bad memories!
The weekend is the perfect time to kick back, relax and enjoy some game time. Are you an achievement junkie? Can't get enough raiding? Rolling a new alt? Considering taking the leap into roleplaying? Whatever your favorite way to play World of Warcraft, let us know in the comments what you're playing this weekend!
