With each patch, whether it's minor or major, I've noticed that there are many who cry foul and others who are willing to sing praises of joy. In this latest (patch 3.3.3) I've noticed a few things that can be seen as both good and bad.
Dungeon Finder Up/Downgrades
Patch notes: "The Deserter debuff given to players who leave a dungeon prematurely when queuing via the Random Dungeon option has been increased to 30 minutes, up from 15 minutes. The cooldown for using the Random Dungeon option remains 15 minutes."
ALSO
"Players who use the Vote Kick option will now be prompted to provide a reason for kicking a party member. This reason will be presented to everyone in the party except for the person voted to be kicked."
What the patch notes fail to state is that you no longer have to wait 15 minutes before vote kicking somebody. When you zone in you can look at everyone and make a random, or calculated, choice to vote kick a party member right away. But first the debuff.
I like that the deserter debuff is 30 min. Longer is good, it makes those tanks think twice before dropping from group as soon as they zone in and realize they are in the Occulus for the 93rd time. I still think that people should be given the Deserter title that can't be removed for 24 hours. Psychologists tell us that people are happier when they make committments, so if you queue in the LFD tool make a committment to it. If you plan on going AFK or a taco bell run, take yourself out of the Random Dungeon Finder queue, please. If you're afraid of getting put into the Occulus, queue up for a specific dungeon and take fewer rewards. Even though I like the 30 min debuff, it should still be longer. If you accept the fact that your dungeon will be random, you also need to accept whichever dungeon you're thrown into.
Disclaimer: I have only voted to kick somebody 4 or 5 times. Each time it was because somebody kept DC-ing multiple times. I've heard stories of people kicking others because their gear wasn't ICC level, but I've never experienced it. I think most people are reasonable creatures when it comes to pugging dungeons nowadays. But I suppose it will be nice to make somebody state the REASON to the whole group why they are being a jerk before they get away with it. For all sensible and understanding people, this feature will not mean a whole lot and therefore is neither good nor bad.
The biggest issue, however, is one that is not stated in the patch notes (yet). "Now I can kick you as soon as you zone in and I see your gear sucks." Nice. Another way of saying this is "now I can kick you before 15 mintues are up because you are our healer and you were DC'd from the start and we all would like to get on with the dungeon please." This feature will be both a blessing and a curse, depending on who is wielding the power of the vote kick. Some will say it's good, others will say it's bad, but the truth is it is both. Like I said, most random dungeon finder pugs are filled with people who range from good to "not quite a jerk but a little annoying...I know I have to gogogo, shut up already." This tool will be abused by the jerk, the selfish, the arrogant and the elitist. If I ever get kicked from a dungeon with this kind of person, fine. I can wait 15 minutes and chances are I'll find a pretty good group on the other side.
Professions
Cooldowns are being removed for various tasks. Titansteel, Moonshroud, Spellweave, Ebonweave. For me, this is good. I like putting up more than one titansteel bar on the AH at once, but hate having to wait a week to make all the gold from it. Now I can make and post multiple per day, increasing my gold intake significantly. That is, of course, if I'm able to find enough titanium nodes while mining. Add to this the fact that I can turn in my frozen orbs for Eternals, it will make the titansteel creation process that much more fluid.
The bad? This may very well lower the price of titansteel as a massive shift in the supply curve will shift the equalibrium price. So in the end volume will increase but income per bar sold will decrease. But will I profit? That is yet to be analyzed. I may find that I still profit even though I sell more at a lower price. As anything in economics, you can guess but you'll never know for sure until it happens.
Auras
My Shaman found this one very interesting, it seems that there will be a few buffs that procced off crits that will now be permanent auras (see links to wowwiki below). (Note only the portion of the buff that affects the party/raid will be an aura):
Mage: Arcane Empowerment
Shaman (Elemental): Elemental Oath
Shaman (Enhancement): Unleashed Rage
Warrior: Rampage
Remember, some of these auras won't stack with similar auras provided by other classes, but it's still a nice passive benefit for these classes. Is it making things too simple? Maybe. Is simple always bad? No, sometimes simplicity means that you can focus on other things to make you a better player or better analyze a potential raid group makeup.
These are just a few of the things in the most recent patch notes. So whether you are somebody who tends to see the positive or negative in patch notes, this patch is just perfect for you.
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