Blizzard makes patches for the game occasionally both to fix bugs, create new content, and try and balance out the scales a bit between the factions, classes, and races. The newest patch (3.1.0) is to be released soon, and there will be many new changes to the World of Warcraft. In order to be completely prepared for the patch, I suggest reading Blizzard’s official patch notes, however, I will do my best to go further in depth and explain the key points of what the patch will change.
New Raid
Ulduar is the newest level 80 raid, and it’s definitely not going to be an easy one. There isn’t much to say about this, it’s another raid. If you’re interested in trying out how the raid works before the patch actually comes out, you can always try it out on the Blizzard Public Test Realm.
New Gear
New raid? That means new gear! T8 will finally come out, and this gear should be significantly better than the old T7 gear, and all other gear below is considered useless in comparison. For a general view on what the T8 gear will probably look like, please navigate to the following link.
Class Changes
There have been minor changes to every class, however don’t worry! I don’t think it really looks like any class in specific has been “nerfed” or made weaker in any shape or form, it actually appears as if almost all classes have been buffed. For a complete list of the patch notes on the class changes, please navigate to the following link.
Dual Specialization Talents
This is going to be an entirely new feature, and this will allow players to swap between different spec trees at any time they want, so long as they are not in combat, mounted, etc. This allows you to select and use two different spec trees, but not at the same time of course. This will be available from all class trainers at level 40+, and will cost a hefty one time fee of 1,000 gold. Of course, while this may be impossible to get at level 40, you’re going to find it to be extremely useful once your character is of a higher level. I see this as being most beneficial to classes who can either tank or heal in one spec, and can dps in another. Since doing damage is the best way to level, most players tend to spec their character in this tree; hence eliminating the much-needed tanks and healers. Now, these players can easily swap between tanks and healers whenever they need to do an instance, and then when they need to quest simply switch back. The only down side is that you’ll need to have 2 sets of gear, depending on the situation. But no need to worry about the annoying swaps, there is a new feature that allows you to create and switch between gear/glyph sets, without even being near a lexicon of power!
There are many other changes, but these are the major ones that are actually going to make a difference in the World of Warcraft. Check out the link provided at the end of this article for more minor patch information I may not have covered.