Patch 4.1/4.2 Content - Firelands raid not in patch 4.1
We now have a very official blue post for the information, Firelands is not part of Patch 4.1. See the previous news post for more information.



Originally Posted by Bashiok (Blue Tracker)
By now you’ve seen that the redesigned Heroic five-player dungeon versions of Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub are on the PTR, featuring all-new boss mechanics, updated epic-level loot, and some rare mounts for players to try to tame.

You may be asking, "where's Firelands?”

Our goal with each major patch release, and especially with each expansion, is to learn from the past and use that knowledge to improve the game as we move forward. One of our biggest regrets in the pacing of Wrath of the Lich King was the Crusaders' Coliseum. The Trial of the Champion 10- and 25-player raid was released while many raiders were still busy with Ulduar, which meant a premature end to Ulduar raiding -- and a lot of players didn't get a chance to experience all of Ulduar's content during the normal expansion progression.

Having learned that lesson in pacing from Wrath of the Lich King, we don’t feel Cataclysm needs a new raid tier just yet. We’re close, though, and Firelands will be part of patch 4.2, which is expected to hit the PTR very soon after 4.1 goes live.

One of our long-standing development goals has been to release more regular content updates for you to enjoy. Our plan is to package features like raids, dungeons, and daily quest hubs into smaller content updates and release them as soon as possible, rather than wait and release them as large but infrequent updates. Our first significant step in this direction will be Cataclysm patch 4.1, and we hope the rest of our content updates moving forward follow this model.

This new flexible approach to updates allows us to release content like Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub so that you'll have more challenges to overcome while we make the flames of Sulfuron even fierier and this second showdown with the Firelord even more climactic.

While we know that some raiders feel prepared to smack down the Firelord once again, releasing an epic raid dungeon before its time would, in the words of Ragnaros himself, be "too soon!"

If firelands isn't being released why are people finding all of this content?

A good amount of development progress had already been made on Firelands by the time we decided it would be better to release it in the following patch. Because of that, a lot of information about what is now considered 4.2 content was already in the game files for the initial 4.1 PTR build. This just reinforces what Bashiok said about 4.2 being scheduled for release on the PTR shortly after 4.1 goes live.

Development for both patches is currently well in progress.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 4.1/4.2 Content - Firelands raid not in patch 4.1 started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 145 Comments
  1. Sensei_Sin's Avatar
    We were not prepared!!!

    Ahem... Well this is actually pretty cool, it gives people more time to finish the current tier of content, instead of trying to rush to Firelands and have people hit brick walls.
  1. Therec's Avatar
    If this means that 4.1 is coming out in a few weeks and 4.2 is coming out in April-May, i'm fine with that. If this means that 4.1 is coming out in April-May and the new tier isn't coming out for another 4-5 months, that's the dumbest thing that blizzard will have done.
  1. Notos's Avatar
    I kind of like the idea they're presenting here, especially if the next patch will go up on the ptr shortly after the current one goes live. I think this will definitely help with polishing up content patches as far as bug reporting/fixing and things like that go, since testers won't have such an overwhelming amount of content to go through and can have more focus to their testing.
  1. Maerlimb's Avatar
    ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDIN|G ME BRO? WTF IS THIS???? NO RAID?? NOOOO RAAID?
    fuck blizzard
  1. DiamondTear's Avatar
    I wish they had just put in a true attunement of clearing all the other raids before being able to enter firelands (for each character). Then they could have removed that when they thought that it was time. This would have allowed for better split between serious and casual guilds.
  1. Nathanyel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by MasterHamster View Post
    Blizzard learns from their mistakes.

    Although that doesn't really stop the complaining.
    Indeed, this blue post lacks emphasis on that the time between 4.1 and 4.2 will likely be much shorter than the time between 4.0.3a and 4.1
  1. Jademist's Avatar
    I like that...more content in small packages more often, rather than waiting months on end to see something new.

    I really like that.
  1. Wolfie of Medivh's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Therec View Post
    If this means that 4.1 is coming out in a few weeks and 4.2 is coming out in April-May, i'm fine with that. If this means that 4.1 is coming out in April-May and the new tier isn't coming out for another 4-5 months, that's the dumbest thing that blizzard will have done.
    Yeah, that's pretty much my opinion. If this means more content in smaller chunks, i'll take that. I just don't want Wrath-like content dispersal - 6 months between raids, nothing significant in between.
  1. Jindujun's Avatar
    so wait.. they wont add a new raid tier but hands out pvp gear like it's skittles?
  1. Maerlimb's Avatar
    NERDRAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAAAAQAAAAAAGE
  1. Prag's Avatar
    They need to be less anxious to put out patches and focus on listening to PTR testing responses, work out bugs and improve the overall quality of the release.

    More frequent patches seems to be in the opposite direction, aka the direction they've been going in for the last 7-8 months which has netted us a lot of issues.
  1. Soahar's Avatar
    Firelands in 4.1?

    TOO SOON EXECUTUS!!!!!
  1. NefariousNinja's Avatar
    I hope 4.1 offers more than the balancing and two heroics. I'll be a sad panda.

    EDIT: Their statement just seems to hide that they aren't ready and not "oh, we don't want to push content too fast."
  1. Kiro's Avatar
    Our goal with each major patch release, and especially with each expansion, is to learn from the past and use that knowledge to improve the game as we move forward. One of our biggest regrets in the pacing of Wrath of the Lich King was the Crusaders' Coliseum. The Trial of the Champion 10- and 25-player raid was released while many raiders were still busy with Ulduar, which meant a premature end to Ulduar raiding -- and a lot of players didn't get a chance to experience all of Ulduar's content during the normal expansion progression.
    What? That's what they learned from ToC? No. People were burnt out on Ulduar then, and ToC was a failure of a raid in a box which included bad art, thus nobody was happy. What happened to blizzard? It's like they just don't care anymore. This is just sheer laziness all around honestly, what a hobbled shell of a company anymore... Sucks as this game used to get the vast majority of my free time. Now on the other hand, I'm playing more games since I'm playing only twice a week in WoW now because the content is beat.

    Thanks blizzard fanboys for allowing the game to end up the way it has now by patting them on the back for every time they mess up or screw the fanbase over. You are responsible for this, and I hope you're happy...
  1. Luminar's Avatar
    While it did seem that Firelands was coming a bit fast, who knows? The PTR will be up for, at a bare minimum, at least another month. Within that time, people could easily get a hang of things and take on unfinished raids accordingly. We've been surprised by the community before, so who's to say that it can't just rush the content and then say, "Okay, Blizzard. We're done. You wanna release Firelands or are you going to admit that putting it off to 4.2 was just a stalling tactic to finish it?"

    Edit: But I do have one question: *Ahem*

    ABYSSAL MAW! WILL WE HAZ IT!?
  1. Tablemaker's Avatar
    Thanks blizzard fanboys for allowing the game to end up the way it has now by patting them on the back for every time they mess up or screw the fanbase over. You are responsible for this, and I hope you're happy...
    I am pretty sure they have the numerical data to back up and refute any silly idea you think you have about the game. There were still a vast majority of guilds working on clearing all of the hardmodes in Ulduar, unlocking Algalon and finishing their first Val'nyr. We finished our Val'nyr maybe 5 weeks after ToC was released... and the gating of ToC, was that really needed?
  1. Metaz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Therec View Post
    If this means that 4.1 is coming out in a few weeks and 4.2 is coming out in April-May, i'm fine with that. If this means that 4.1 is coming out in April-May and the new tier isn't coming out for another 4-5 months, that's the dumbest thing that blizzard will have done.
    I agree with this. I know most people weren't done with Ulduar (think my guild killed Yogg 0 Watchers 2nd week into Toc Normal - and we were around 150ish worldwide back then) when Toc came out and so didn't get to fully experience all the really fun hardmodes how they should have been done. I know not everyone has the time to raid 5 times a week and many of those who do need a little longer to achieve the same results as those who progress quicker. That is all well and good.

    However like the guy I quoted, I think there does need to be a line in the sand somewhere. If the time between 4.0 and 4.1 (if it comes out in a few weeks time, say 4 weeks) and the time between 4.1 and 4.2 are the same then that would be completely stupid considering the lack of real endgame content in 4.1. I am sure? / hope this won't be the case but we shall see.

    My guild is currently at 11/13 hc and there are a lot of others also in the same kinda area, another 4-5 months of the opening tier or more? No thankyou.
  1. Future's Avatar
    People QQ'ing that 4.1 doesn't seem to bring enough to warrant being a patch get out please.

    Don't you remember the infamous 2.2? What did this colossal patch bring to the table. Only the most (un)memorable feature ever guys!



    Voice chat reppin'. Yeah.
  1. Cows For Life's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DiamondTear View Post
    I wish they had just put in a true attunement of clearing all the other raids before being able to enter firelands (for each character). Then they could have removed that when they thought that it was time. This would have allowed for better split between serious and casual guilds.
    Why? So the ego-driven players have something to pat themselves on the back about?
  1. MasterHamster's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kiro View Post
    What? That's what they learned from ToC? No. People were burnt out on Ulduar then, and ToC was a failure of a raid in a box which included bad art, thus nobody was happy. What happened to blizzard? It's like they just don't care anymore. This is just sheer laziness all around honestly, what a hobbled shell of a company anymore... Sucks as this game used to get the vast majority of my free time. Now on the other hand, I'm playing more games since I'm playing only twice a week in WoW now because the content is beat.

    Thanks blizzard fanboys for allowing the game to end up the way it has now by patting them on the back for every time they mess up or screw the fanbase over. You are responsible for this, and I hope you're happy...
    I'm personally happy they stopped catering only to players like you.

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