Patch 4.1/4.2 Content - Firelands raid not in patch 4.1

[Boubouille]

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.

• Firelands raid will not be in Patch 4.1

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.

[Merin]

Glad to see the bit about faster patching is reality. I'm ok with a small delay, like most everyone else I still got content to finish and the line about Ulduar does ring true. If it was a full tier long delay though in the vein of WOTLK ... oh man would I have had a tizzy

[Wolfie of Medivh]

So... how long? Any sort of actual ya know time frame here, or should I look forward to staring at Cho'gall's butt and Nef's flank for the next 6 months?

[MasterHamster]

Blizzard learns from their mistakes.

Although that doesn't really stop the complaining.

[Alraml]

I agree with their view. It seemed like Ulduar was over in a heartbeat and then we were stuck with ToC for too long

[Arcangel14]

4.1 a month or less away imo, which would mean Firelands would be 3 or less months away.
Just a guess though

[Wsc51595]

I like that blizz, knows that they can step back but I hope this won't disrupt three tiers of raiding

[Wolfie of Medivh]

Glad to see the bit about faster patching is reality. I'm ok with a small delay, like most everyone else I still got content to finish and the line about Ulduar does ring true. If it was a full tier long delay though in the vein of WOTLK ... oh man would I have had a tizzy

Yeah, i just don't trust it'll be a short break. If Blizz is serious, I'd love them to commit to having 4.1 or whatever this ZA/ZG patch will be called out within 3 weeks, since it is two dungeons and a daily quest hub. If Blizz is serious about giving us smaller bits of content, that's fine, but I want it tested and out the door faster then.

[Fujisaw]

dont understand why they call it 4.1? expansion.teir.patch has always been the theme now 5.3.9 could just mean deathwing is here.

[Inirit]

dont understand why they call it 4.1? expansion.teir.patch has always been the theme now 5.3.9 could just mean deathwing is here.

So I guess 1.12 was... which tier?

[MasterHamster]

I'm frankly amazed that people complain about this. Like, think back.
Wrath of the Lich King progressed too fast, had too many separate lockouts, some people got geared in a couple of weeks.

Now, Blizzard is trying to mix WotLK with Vanilla. Everything isn't served on a plate, but is more available anyway. The only reason raids lasted so long in vanilla wasn't mainly due to "difficulty", it was because of what was needed of a guild in order to progress. Resistance gear, endless faction grinds, no real items outside of raids. You could get a couple of suitable epics if you spent a couple hundred hours farming mobs. Getting exalted with Argent Dawn, ah what a pleasure. 40 people needed the Onyxia Scale Cloak just for BWL. Attunements everywhere. Even when Naxx had been out for a while, you'd still start in Stratholme and LBRS. Level 57 blues.

If you think Blizzard is stretching out current raids, do consider the guilds who did MC for a year and a half.

Oh, how fun it was.

[Strikesuit]

The 353 gear isn't going to get new people over the hump, though. These raids are more demanding than many players can handle.

[Zehroh]

dont understand why they call it 4.1? expansion.teir.patch has always been the theme now 5.3.9 could just mean deathwing is here.

As stated in an article.. they don't want every X.1 be an expansion tier.

[Cephalio]

Glad to hear this, Blizzard. Hopefully it'd take a few
months before we see Firelands.

[Scarfy]

This will give those of us in slower-progressing guilds a chance to experience the current content while not feeling rushed to go into the next tier of things

[Alraml]

dont understand why they call it 4.1? expansion.teir.patch has always been the theme now 5.3.9 could just mean deathwing is here.

Gonna be at least 4.4 until we see Deathwing, with this more consistant patching it may be 4.5

[DerpderpHAMMA]

I hope blizz knows what they are doing. Not to beat a dead horse, but Rift is looking more and more appealing to people each and every day. By no means am i saying Rift will beat wow, but people are migrating there. They believe people are shitting themselves over ZA and ZG commin back, but to what i have seen, most people arent. Even if most people arent ready for Firelands, we would still like the option, right? Its only 2 dungeons to hold us over for god knows how long, may be 1 month, may be 4. But still, i would like to see Firelands be open just to show that they are attempting to put out major content.

Like has been said before, alot of individual raids with different themes would be nice, but i cant see them doing this.

[Simca]

dont understand why they call it 4.1? expansion.teir.patch has always been the theme now 5.3.9 could just mean deathwing is here.

That's not how it worked in Vanilla at all though. Maraudon was a 1.X.0 patch, for example. Certainly not a raid, nor remotely important.

[Archermit]

While it is nice to see that they made raid content challenging enough to stop to many farming 12/12, 4.1 brings with it 2 5 man dungeons that drop 353 gear, this will open teh door for a lot more people to get into the raids since some of the earlier bosses will be more or less nerfed since those people will now have gear that is 7 item levels higher than what the bosses require.

On the plus side at least now my guild has a chance to maybe try to get some HC kills since we plan on getting al'ikir and nef down in the next 2 weeks. must kinda suck for those people. Well at least they didnt add a icc buff to BoT / BWD to get more people clearing it before fire lands

[Felyna]

So happy it's a move back towards Vanilla patches. rather see some new content and balances every 2-3 months or so than 6+ months between content patches