Before people say "omgweak patch!" realize they are adding an ENTIRE new raid instance and zone. That is a lot of shit.

In all probability there will be more to come. Looks like Blizzard just wants people to focus exclusively on Sunwell for the time being.

Dunno what to make of BT quality badge loot. Probably just trying to level the playing field so everybody can experience Sunwell. Same reason I imagine they lifted BT/Hyjal attunement restrictions.

And now for the Lore corner, brought to you by Emmy. :p

We have Kalegos in his Human form, then we have the Blue Ice Dragon form. Then there's a picture of a Fel Frost Wyrm.....this is not looking good for Azeroth's favorite Blue Dragon(Obviously Magylos isn't our favorite with him about to declare war on us!).

Going to take a dip into the sound files and upload what I find for you spoilerific lore types out there.

Edit: Dipped through the sound files, No voice acting! Nothing! They're getting crafty they are!(Or they don't have the files ready for this build yet).

There are a few sound effects here and there for Fel Elves. And also sound effects for the bosses and elemental types: Fel Golem, Frost Lord, etc.

Frost Wyrm Fel Fire attacks
Void God(Dark Naruu?)

Nooo, Kalecgos

Although, maybe the human form comes into play after we save him ^^ (I hope)

That scythe had better be a melee weapon from the raid instance, It's well past time for a new top-tier polearm

Too many daggers. But at least there's some fist weapons so hopefully enhance shaman will have good options for weapons.

Keep in mind the weapons pictured could also include five man loot and new badge rewards.

Probably. I can't see a 6 boss raid dropping 5 staves.

Well they pushing it a "tiny" bit too much if the badge loot is t6 quality.

Don't like to rant, but this is just getting out of control. Okay, MMOGs are literally the carrot on stick situation, But at least let us keep the bones you throw at us.

The lack of character progression in the game was irritating enough without blizzard taking out the only available route.

Personally I like this change, finally PvErs can get similar quality weapons as PvPers can from the arenas.

Yes, while I agree weapons is a fine change. But if they start adding gear similar to the t5 versions, I might get a tad upset because the itemization was very well done on some of the tier 5 gear(leather mostly) that some was minor downgrades from the t6 versions. If this carries over I could be farming 300 badges for patch day to replace my bt/hyjal gear. But I will hold off on ranting until I get on and see what it is all about.

Looks like I hit the money on M'uru being the Dark naruu in sunwell.

I really would not be too concerned Cirocco. If you look at swords specifically, there was always huge itemization holes for rogues. Essentially, the PvP blades are always better than what one could reasonably acquire at the same time. Remeber the days of everyone w/ a Latro's (blue) off-hand?

Once S1 went to honor, everyone had S1 blades, and Kara blades were basically obsolete, and then ZA came out but S2 blades are better than those. After that, there's basically your Talon, a couple Hiyal rares, S3 (rating req'd) and then Warglaives.

Obviously they are not going to make anything better than Warglaives pre-WotLK, so "BT'ish" weapons far as sword rogues go are gonna be in that Blade of Infamy/Savagery range at best, and probably not exceed S3 quality. As such, your Talon will be just fine. And considering how few have it, well worth maintaining. (will be even more rare w/ the Attunement drop). Just like many who toss their S2 blades for ZA ones, even though the S2 are in most cases better.

Bottom line, your Talon is not wasted. If badge pricing stays consistent, it'll be about 100badges for a 95-100dps type weapon. A welcome move for those unlucky on the ol' raiding drops, but really hate holding onto S2 swords as the only realistic alternative. I'll definitely chunk mine for a pair of ZA blades or these new heroic ones without even a second thought.

Been peeking through the MPQ files with the PTR patch, and I've found what I assume is going to be the names of the non-class specific sets from Sunwell Plateau -- then again, these could be for Season 4. Either way, I find the names uneventful;

Opportunist's Battlegear
Seer's Mail Battlegear
Seer's Ringmail Battlegear
Seer's Linked Battlegear
Stalker's Chain Battlegear
Savage Plate Battlegear
Crusader's Ornamented Battledgear
Crusader's Scaled Battlegear

http://www.divine-fury.com/images/andeh/setnames.png

EDIT: Been finding all sorts of cool stuff, I'll just update this post as I go.

Sunwell Exalted Necklace -- "Your spells have a chance to call on the power of the Arcane if you're exalted with the Scryers, or the Light if you're exalted with the Aldor."

References to a Holyform -- "Assumes a Holyform, increasing healing dealt by $s1% and reducing melee damage taken by $s2%. Holyform lasts until cancelled."

Enchant Deathfrost -- "Permanently enchant a weapon so your damaging spells and melee hits occasionally inflict an additional 150 Frost damage and reduce the target's melee, ranged, and casting speed by 15% for 4 sec."

Not sure if this was confirmed before, but there's a lot of "Brutal" items, i.e. Brutal Libram of Justice, Brutal Libram of Fortitude etc.

Quick Dawnstone, Forceful Talasite & Reckless Noble Topaz are the names of the new gems, can't find the metas

Legendary bow -- Increases ranged attack speed by $s1%. Does not stack with quiver or ammo pouch haste effects.

Weapon Oils just for Sunwell Isle, Blessed & Righteous Weapon Coating -- While applied to target weapon, wielder has a chance to regain $ mana on each spell cast. & While applied to target weapon, wielder has a chance to gain $ attack power on every melee or ranged attack for $45401d. Only functions on the Isle of Quel'Danas, on the Magisters' Terrace, and on the Sunwell Plateau. Lasts for 1 hour.

That sure sounds like the s4 honor gear, aka. vindicator stuff.

Nothing in the patch notes about unlocking bosses. I am hoping they dropped this idea.

Mechanical, undead, and most elementals look like they are going to feel the pain of poison/bleed like everything else now. That will make for some interesting DPS shifts in some places, as well as jumble up some Rogue theorycraft, particularly in the areas of Mutilate and finisher effectiveness of Evis&Envenom (ie: never use again?).

Who else in the raiding community agrees that they should not remove attunment, but keep the Kael and Vashj changes so that T6 guilds that need to attune new people can easily attune someone new to keep chugging alone in T6.

I personally agree with the Black Temple and Hyjal attunements being lifted, but ONLY if there's a large gear check in mid Sunwell, preferably the first or second unlocked Boss by rep. Brutalicus probably would be the best boss for this, give him a short enrage timer, extremely hard hitting moves that can't be countered by healer stacking in some way, only gear, and possibly a MS debuff of sorts to push healer gearing.

Reason I say this is due to potential backflagging if there's a gearcheck in Sunwell without lifting Kael attunements. Imagine you're cross server recruiting for Sunwell, but you have to bring whoever you recruit up to T6 gear level to deal with the Sunwell bosses. If they're not keyed, not only do you have to gear through through Black Temple and Hyjal, you have to kill Kael and Vashj as well. That's a lot of backflagging just to bring one Trial up to par with the Sunwell bosses, and is a lot of wasted time. Granted, the changes to fighting Vashj and Kael w/o clearing their instances will help(and I personally would have been fine with just this change too, as opposed to full attunement lifting), it's still a large roadbump.

So, assuming Sunwell has a gearcheck somewhere in it; which it should, offering no attunements and T6 weapons from badges without a gearcheck for the Black Temple clearing guilds would be a slap in the face without one; the Hyjal and Black Temple attunements being lifted is a huge help to gearing out newer members to the Sunwell level.

Imo they should keep easy access to Kael and Vashj, maybe even nerf them more to make the attunement easier, but still keep it, so everyone will at least experience killing Kael before moving on. He deserves that.

I suspect this will just turn this thread into a giant argument. If Drysc's quote about BT quality badge loot is true, it appears they just want everyone to get a taste of the current endgame before WotLK.

What really does it matter if they still have attunements on BT and Hyjal? In a perfect world attunements are put in place to form a progression model to do the content, but realistically they are in game to slow down the rate in which guilds go through content. Now that Sunwell is the main focus for high end, what does it really matter if the attunements are lifted?