4.0.6 New Dig Sites,

[Boubouille]

Archaeology Dig Sites - New Dig Sites and Updated Table
Patch 4.0.6 increased the amount of dig sites in-game and made the farming of Tol'vir artifacts a little easier! A couple of Nerubian dig sites have also been added in Eastern Kingdoms and Northrend.

Tol'vir Sites added in 4.0.6 (Uldum) River Delta Digsite Cursed Landing Digsite Keset Pass Digsite Akhenet Fields Digsite Obelisk of the Stars Digsite Sahket Wastes Digsite Schnottz's Landing

Nerubian Sites added in 4.0.6 (Northrend) Pit of Fiends Digsite (Icecrown) Sands of Nasam (Borean Tundra) Nerubian Sites added in 4.0.6 (Eastern Plaguelands) Terrorweb Tunnel Digsit Plaguewood Digsite

The new Archaeology spawn rates are as follow, thanks to Simca for that wonderful table:

Races	Eastern Kingdoms (Pre-450)	Eastern Kingdoms (Post-450)	Kalimdor (Pre-450)	Kalimdor (Post-450)	Outland	Northrend
Dwarf	28.57%	32.73%	2.08%	1.45%	N/A	N/A
Fossil	26.53%	23.64%	27.08%	18.84%	N/A	N/A
Night Elf	4.08%	3.64%	62.50%	50.72%	N/A	13.79%
Troll	40.82%	36.36%	8.33%	5.80%	N/A	17.24%
Draenei	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	53.57%	N/A
Orc	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	46.43%	N/A
Nerubian	N/A	3.64%	N/A	N/A	N/A	24.14%
Vrykul	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	44.83%
Tol'vir	N/A	N/A	N/A	23.19%	N/A	N/A

"New" changes!

I found an old notebook in a box and so I wanted to share some changes we're expecting to come through.

In patch 1.10 we're going to make it so that when you're at level cap completing quests will turn XP into gold. So that should be a good change, there will still be a reason to complete quests at max level. We're also going to update some items. In BRD almost all items are going to become blue quality, so that should be a nice upgrade for people. Also all bracers, belts, and gloves will be BoE. Which should help get more people geared up through the AH to tackle this difficult dungeon.

We'll keep you updated should we find any other old notes that are no longer new or exciting.

[...] To expand on Bashiok's feedback, we'd also like to note that we're happy right now with priests feeling unique via their racial abilities. It's compelling gameplay for dwarf priests to get to keep Fear Ward to themselves.

These are some good changes, but can we get a better way to manage keys? I hate having to cripple my inventory space by making room for keys, there should really be a keychain or keyring of some kind...
We like the physical nature of holding keys in your bags and bank. That said we are trying to reduce the number of keys given by attunements and required to enter dungeons and the like. In the future we hope that keys will be mostly temporary items, although that is subject to change. We're also trying to keep better tabs on the number of equippable items we're creating that dual-purpose as keys.

Blue Posts

Item Level Requirements in Instances
The item level requirement was added to help players better gauge whether or not they might be ready to take on that content. We were seeing a lot of issues before where people were upset that someone was in a group that just didn't have the gear to take on the encounters. Or conversely they (personally) were upset that they didn't seem to be able to overcome an instance despite thinking they were ready for it. So, we've sort of baked in a system to better identify "readiness". It's merely a tool to indicate possible preparedness, not an indicator of skill or lack of skill.

We've mentioned it before, but it doesn't hurt to repeat, that we have been putting some thought into easing the requirement for premade or guild groups in the dungeon finder since those groups may want to help carry a lesser geared player through the encounter and generally have better overall coordination for achieving the completion of the dungeon. (Source)

Low level balance
The designers are actually actively looking over some of the lower level balance to try to ensure that those who either actively play those brackets or level up through them are having a good, balanced time. Most of the changes made were to serve the questing experience and introduction of abilities to new players, but certainly there's a possibility for some changes to be made and still keep that goal. (Source)

Heroic gear should drop randomly!
That's kind of the point of ... points (justice/valor). Even if you're not getting what you want you're eventually getting what you want. More or less. You'd also be blowing out drop tables to a pretty insane degree. Not too bad for a game like Diablo. Pretty bad for a game like WoW.

Also that system of allowing any boss to drop any item in Diablo II really encouraged some very bad forms of gameplay. It devolved into doing 'runs' of the easiest or most efficient bosses. Not exactly interesting. It's something we're actively trying to avoid repeating with Diablo III, and not something we'd want to encourage in World of Warcraft. (Source)

Bug - Treants sharing the same texture
The issue where all treant models share the same texture (including Withers and the Teldrassil Sproutling) is something we're aware of and we're hoping to resolve soon. (Source)

White Talbuk "bug" in 4.0.6
Correct! We discovered that the wrong texture had been applied to the White War Talbuks horns n hooves, but since we liked it, and you guys liked it, and it felt like a good fit for the art design in Outland, we decided to keep it.

[...] As it happens, you'll get to enjoy the new textures for a bit longer. Since this issue isn't something that can be hotfixed, we currently expect the talbuk to return to its former state with a future patch. (Source)

Nerfnow - Holy Cows
Nerfnow.com posted an interesting WoW-related comic earlier this week.

[pomop]

woot! Old school changes! XD

edit - Ah I remember that patch that change the exp to gold... You got like 1 or 3 gold per quest, I don't remember how much exactly. Think it was 1g and 30 or so silver. Good times.... Good times.

[mezmir]

Holy crap thats back from when I started playing lol....

[Deleted]

Might start getting back into Archaeology with all these changes, farming Tol'vir fragments made me suicidal pre-4.0.6 :<

[dotSeed]

Everyone who joined late-TBC or Wrath should really take a look at the patch change-log (even just the main topics each major patch) to realise how far the game has come. Back when quest items didn't sparkle, when there were no minimap icons for quest-givers or the like, when pets didn't scale at all, when group buffs were learnt from random world book drops, when the debuff limit on all mobs (including raid bosses) was eight, when blessings only lasted 5 minutes...

People really forget.

[AvalonTLW]

I remember when rogues lost their combo points just by clicking a new target... i miss CLASSIC WoW.

[Chaoslux]

Everyone who joined late-TBC or Wrath should really take a look at the patch change-log (even just the main topics each major patch) to realise how far the game has come. Back when quest items didn't sparkle, when there were no minimap icons for quest-givers or the like, when pets didn't scale at all, when group buffs were learnt from random world book drops, when the debuff limit on all mobs (including raid bosses) was eight, when blessings only lasted 5 minutes...

People really forget.

Don't use Rend, Thunderclap or Demo Shout, the warlocks needs their dots.

By the way, there is a thread here on MMO-Champion which listed nearly 300 of the changes made to the game. It was an awesome nostalgia thread because it wasnt describing it using rose-tinted glasses. It listed every single thing that SUCKED and were changed for the better.

[Deleted]

XP changing to gold is nice... Finally I have something else to do at level 60 except our 40man raid.

[Wolfie of Medivh]

I kinda want to ram my first into the whiny fark who wrote that comic's face. Repeatedly. Maybe with a spiked glove on.

[Culexus]

XP changing to gold is nice... Finally I have something else to do at level 60 except our 40man raid.

Ive got enough to do with farming felfood, weapon oils and all the stuff. I really hope they someday change that stupid farming and introduce epic 80 man raids! ()

[Dalanos]

I really hope they do look at low level pvp brackets. Do you know how hard it is to pvp as a warrior when you get snared constantly? Or how hard it is to be a caster when you're silenced most of the time?

[viivii]

That is not THAT long ago is it AvalonTLW? ;>

[Deleted]

Hmmm Tol'Vir artifacts still spawn in Uldum (only). How's that going to affect the annoying problem of diging aroudn the world while you wait for Uldum digsites pop up?

[Penric]

I had about 9 tol'vir digsites in about 2 hours. I was blown away, so happy.

Finally the staff and mount looks reachable to the common gnome.

[Duilliath]

That Nerf Now comic is spot on. Good job!

[ulv]

Hmmm Tol'Vir artifacts still spawn in Uldum (only). How's that going to affect the annoying problem of diging aroudn the world while you wait for Uldum digsites pop up?

Uldum pops more often for me.
http://i.min.us/icb6YK.jpg

[Deleted]

I don't like Idea nerfing uldum, I'm dedicated to get that mount. Blizz flaptards they tend to give stuff for free, sucks to be them

/bite me

[f311]

I don't like Idea nerfing uldum, I'm dedicated to get that mount. Blizz flaptards they tend to give stuff for free, sucks to be them

/bite me

Yeah they give stuff for free dont they, Im at 89 tol'vir solves, yes thats 89 (it isnt a typo) with no sign of the mount.

[Kalx]

"In patch 1.10 we're going to make.."
what is patch 1.10 ? 4.1.0 or what

vuuuuuuuuuush there goes the joke

also, does anyone remember this?

It's fun because some of the stuff actually happened!

[Deleted]

Hmmm Tol'Vir artifacts still spawn in Uldum (only). How's that going to affect the annoying problem of diging aroudn the world while you wait for Uldum digsites pop up?

how it helps is that when there are more Tol'vir Digsites overall, theres more chance of one popping up, the fact that you can make a little gold from grey items was good enough for me to try and get my recipe again but with more chances for tol'vir digsites its like making archaeology a proper profession not like ...... Fishing /Cower