As we wait for the coming of patch 2.3.2, it's nice for us WoW players to have more news about the next big patch 2.4. Patch 2.4 is interesting and much awaited because it will contain the 25 man raid harder than Black Temple and Hyjal and thus probably the most difficult content until the Wrath of the Lich King expansion comes out. This claim is made even more concrete by the Blue response by Eyonix on the WoW website that there most probably won't be a patch 2.5. World of Raids shares this exciting information with us!
The Swedish magazine Level has published an interview with Jepp Kaplan (Tigole) on the upcoming patch 2.4 and its main content: the Sunwell Plateau. In an earlier interview we learned the patch might arrive in 2007 on the PTR! The most important bits from the article are (thanks to WoWinsider for the translation):
* Sunwell Isle is a new zone, north of Silvermoon City
* The 5-man wing of the instances is called Magister's Terrace featuring normal and heroic difficulty
* The raid wing is called Sunwell Plateau, players can fight 6 raidbosses [sic] here and the one of the main stories of Burning Crusade continues here
* Outside the instances there will be lots of quests (daily quests too), wrapping up the story of Tempest Keep
* The questhub [sic] of the zone will be interactive, as players complete quests, the activity in the town will increase more and more, eventually growing into a big town, similar to how Silithus prepared for the Qiraji war, on a smaller scale though
* The quests and instances introduce a new faction called "Shattered Sun Offensive", the Aldors and Scryers unite under this name to stop Kael'thas from summoning Kil'Jaeden (upd)
* One of the bosses in the Magister's Terrace will be Kael'thas, whose story continues the Verdant Sphere quest. He'll have a large green crystal attached to his chest ^^
* Kil'jaeden will be featured in the 25-man instance, and the EPICness of the fight will be on par with Illidan's. There are 5 more bosses: Brutalicus, a pit lord; Kalecgos, the blue dragon from the Sunwell Trilogy (who is enslaved by Kil'jaeden); a Fel Dragon; female Eredar twins; and a Dark Naaru!
* The raidinstance [sic] is designed for players with Tier 6 equipment and it will be slightly more difficulty than Black Temple (upd)
* There won't be a Tier 7 raidset, however there are sets in the loottables [sic] (upd)
* The raidinstance doesn't have an attunement requirement, but players of the entire realm must complete a certain amount of daily quests on the Sunwell Isle, to unlock the last 3 bosses (upd)
* Patch 2.4 will raise the limit of daily quests from 10 to 25, to encourage more players to visit them regularly
* Lots of PVP balancing to come in the patch
* Blizzard has big plans to increase the e-sport acceptance of the Arena games
While I most probably won't see the new 25 man content in the Sunwell Isle the way my guild is progressing through the TBC raid content, it's a nice way to keep the guy who have killed Illidan already a new thing to look forward to. I also like that there will be a new 5 man dungeon and more daily quests and daily quest slots for the people like me can't. Having a new faction called the Shattered Sun Offensive should mean new reputation rewards and I guess a new heroic key to obtain. I'm excited to see what kind of new loot you can get from their reputation and from the bosses inside the 5 man dungeon on both normal and heroic modes.
I wonder what kind of pvp balancing Blizzard has in mind for this patch and what exactly Tigole meant when he mentioned something about Arena battlegrounds gaining more e-sport acceptance.
Looking at just these details makes me more and more excited! What more when even more information comes along!
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