Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Wowhead's Patch 5.1 Guide

Original Link: http://www.wowhead.com/news=208409/wowheads-patch-5-1-guide

Wowhead's Patch 5.1 Guide

posted 1 day ago by perculia

Patch 5.1 is live today and we've got you covered on all the changes! While there's no new raids or dungeons this patch, there's plenty of things to keep players busy. There's a completely new way to increase the ilvl of your gear, new factions to grind reputation with for gear and mounts, dozens of new pets to collect, and solo PvE challenges with the Brawler's Guild. And if you've been curious to get back to the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde, new questlines and scenarios will cover these factions clashing on the shores of Pandaria.

We've got summaries of all the new content below, as well as links to blue posts and Wowhead's comprehensive PTR coverage.

Patch Notes and Overview

  • Two new factions offer new gear rewards and mounts while developing the Alliance and Horde conflict in Krasarang Wilds.
  • Players can permanently increase the ilvl of their gear through currency. Wowhead has developed several tools to display these stat increases for you.
  • The Brawler's Guild lets players fight challenging solo bosses for vanity rewards and achievements.
  • Five new scenarios cover the escalating conflict between the Alliance and the Horde.
  • Many new pets have been added--both wild pets and drops from classic raid bosses. Players can also upgrade the quality of their pets with Battle-Stones.
  • Wrathion has new legendary quests.
  • Commendations that increase reputation gains have been added.
  • Darkmoon Faire and Sunsong Ranch have new rewards and additional perks.
  • Below you'll find Blizzard's Official Patch Notes and Hotfixes for November 27th.
Originally posted by Blizzard (Official Post | Blue Tracker)Expand
Originally posted by Blizzard (Official Post | Blue Tracker)Expand

New Factions


Upgrading Gear Through Currency

The majority of gear upgrades in 5.1 will come through a new currency-based upgrade system. Players can permanently increase the ilvl of their 458+ gear by visiting a new Ethereal and cashing in spare currency.

We've also developed some features at Wowhead to help you plan your upgrades!
  • Each item's page has toggle options to display upgraded stats.
  • An Upgrade column has been added to search result pages. This displays all the upgrade versions for an item in icon form, similar to dynamic quest rewards. Mousing over these icons will display the upgraded versions.
  • A new search filter has been added: Can Be Upgraded, under General.
  • Advanced tooltip code has been added so you can display a specific upgraded item's tooltip.
Item TypeCurrencyStat IncreaseUpgrades
PvE Rares: Justice Point Rewards, Heroic Dungeon Gear1500+8 ilvls1
PvP Rares: Dreadful Gladiator1500+8 ilvls1
PvE Epics: BoEs, LFR, Normal, Heroic Raids, Valor Point Rewards, Crafted Gear750+4 ilvls2
PvP Epics: Malevolent Gladiator750+4 ilvls2
Upgrading your gear is as simple as visiting the new NPC at your faction's Pandaria capital and clicking the upgrade button. The UI has a handy preview of the stat increases, so you can compare the strength of several items before deciding which upgraded version you like the best. In-game tooltips also display how much an item has been upgraded, for easy reference.

  

Brawler's Guild

The Brawler's Guilds are fighting rings set up in Stormwind and Orgrimmar where players engage in solo PvE challenges by queuing up and fighting challenging bosses in a large pit. Winning increases your rank within the Brawler's Guild, making you eligible for more and more rewards. The areas are set up so that players fight in a central pit while spectators are encouraged to watch on the sides. We tested out some bosses on the PTR and have information and screenshots up.

The Horde area is located in the Valley of Honor and resembles the Ring of Blood--a large circular pit encased in wooden spikes. The Alliance area we think wins on style points--it's got a hidden entrance in the Deeprun Tram, an underground bar, and unique lighting. Check out our PTR visual preview of these two new areas, as well as a look at some of the fun Horde NPCs.

Participating in the Brawler's Guild may be a bit exclusive at first, since only players with  Blood-Soaked Invitation can join. 10 invitations are on the Black Market Auction House daily, and they also drop from select Alliance and Horde NPCs. Players with invitations can invite 10 friends a day.

Anyone can purchase the following items, regardless of reputation with the Brawler's Guild:
Players can voice their displeasure by throwing these rotten items:  Rotten Apple Rotten Banana Rotten Watermelon Expired Blackout Brew.

The following items require some rank:
In addition, there are some vendor trash rewards found in  Brawler's Purse and  Bulging Brawler's Purse, like  Golden Platter. Check out our rewards preview for the full list.

New Scenarios

The escalating conflict between the Alliance and Horde is most dramatically seen in new questlines and scenarios.

Assault on Zan'vess is a new scenario both factions can participate in. The Mantid are working with the corrupt Horde to bolster defenses in the Dread Wastes.

Each side has two faction-specific scenarios:
Alliance:
  • Krasarang Wilds: The Alliance find their base under attack by the Horde, and players must work with SI:7 and other Alliance NPCs from Jade Forest questlines to save the territory. Click here to read Wowhead's preview.
  • A Little Patience: The Horde have set up defenses at the Temple of Chi-Ji in Krasarang Wilds, and Varian and Tyrande are planning an attack. Tyrande wants to charge right in, while Varian senses a Horde trap and builds additional defenses. Click hereto read Wowhead's preview.
Horde:
  • Dagger in the Dark: In this scenario, players help Vol'jin investigate the dark origins of the Saurok, and then assist him in his subsequent betrayal by the Horde. Click here to read Wowhead's preview.
  • The last Horde scenario, Domination Point, was not available to test on the PTR.
Scenarios also have a few additional bonuses in 5.1. Dungeon Finder queue features have been added, such as leaders, backfill, vote to kick, and deserter debuffs. In addition, there is a chance to get ilvl 463 weapons as a reward for completing a scenario.

  

Pet Battles

Several new wild pets have been added, mostly to fill out pet families that were scarce on capturable pets, like Mechanicals and Dragonkin. Click here for a full list of all the new wild pets, their locations, screenshots, and abilities.

To get players revisiting some well-loved dungeons, Blizzard added 12 BoE pets that drop from select bosses in Blackwing LairTemple of Ahn'QirajMolten Core, andNaxxramas. Check out the full list here! Collecting them all rewards players with Raiding with Leashes and  Mr. Bigglesworth.

There are several Pet Battle UI improvements, including improved sort features, wild pet levels indicated on zone maps, several tooltip improvements, and wild pet quality displayed in the UI. Check out our screenshots and preview of all the changes.

Players can upgrade the quality of their pets with Battle-Stones.
  • Flawless Battle-Stones upgrade pets to rare quality. There is a general-purpose stone ( Flawless Battle-Stone) as well as stones that are family-specific.
  •  Flawless Battle-Stone is BoE and can be sold on the AH, but family-specific stones are BoP. These are acquired by battling pets of the same family, or from Pet Tamer daily quests.
  • When using a stone on a pet, their levels decrease in a similar manner to capturing a wild battle pet: no levels lost from 1-15, one level lost from 16-20, two levels lost from 21-25.
  •  Polished Battle-Stone upgrades pets to uncommon-quality and is available for 1000.
Pet Tamers:

Vanity Items


Legendary Chain

Class Changes

General

General Changes

Reputation Changes

To help with alts and reputation farming, in 5.1, each faction now has a special commendation that can be purchased at Revered from quartermasters which unlocks a 100% bonus reputation gain for all characters on the account. The primary character at Revered also earns double reputation as they work towards Exalted.

So far only Mists of Pandaria reputations are affected by this system, and no word if gaining Friendship with Tiller NPCs will be affected by this.
Check out more of the blue posts in Wowhead's 5.1 Reputation Preview.

PvP

Blizzard recently wrote a Dev Watercooler on upcoming PvP changes and possible ideas. Here are the changes that made it into 5.1:
  • Loss of Control UI: An improved UI will show when your character is crowd-controlled in the center of your screen.
  • Honor and Conquest Points can be used to upgrade PvP gear.
  •  Spirit of Harmony can now be purchased for 600  Conquest Points at the Conquest Quartermaster.
  • Level 90 players can now queue for Wintergrasp and Tol Barad via the PvP tab to battle one another in these epic conflicts.

Darkmoon Faire

Several new additions are coming to the Darkmoon Faire in 5.1.
  • A new carousel gives players the buff  WHEE!, which increases experience and reputation gains.
  • Jeremy Feasel is a new pet tamer players can defeat in the hopes of obtaining Darkmoon Eye.
  • Many other new pets are available on the Isle, including ones bought with tokens and wild battle pets.
  • To learn more about the new pets and rides, check out our preview.

Sunsong Ranch


  • Players can now grow  Unstable Portal Shard on their farms which turn into one of four capital city portals at random. Check out the complete details here.
  • Players can purchase  Portable Refrigerator for 10  Ironpaw Token each.
  • Runty crops will look more visible in 5.1.
  • If you plant a vegetable crop and are already Best Friends with Tiller NPCs, you'll get useful bonus profession seeds instead of gifts you no longer need.

Achievements

Highlights include many new Scenario achievements,  Wakener which rewards a title, a series of exploration achievements for finding objects like  Statue of Xuen, and several pet battle achievements with fun rewards.
NameDescription
 Bottle ServiceHit an angry spectator in the head with an Expired Blackout Brew.
 Brawlin' and Shot Callin'Reach Rank 8 with Bizmo's Brawlpub.
 Brawlin' and Shot Callin'Reach Rank 8 with Brawl'gar Arena.
 Haters Gonna HateWin a brawl with ten stacks of You Stink!
 I'm Your Number One FanCheer a player on after they have won a brawl.
 Now You're Just Showing Off/ Now You're Just Showing OffDefeat the following rare brawl bosses.
 Rabble Rabble RabbleTake Willard "Bubbles" Wilcox's portal to Orgrimmar.
 Rabble Rabble RabbleTake Zippi Gallox's portal to Stormwind.
 The First Rule of Brawler's GuildGet invited to brawl at Bizmo's Brawlpub in the Deeprun Tram.
 The First Rule of Brawler's GuildGet invited to brawl at Brawl'gar Arena in The Valley of Honor in Orgrimmar.
 The Second Rule of Brawler's GuildReach Rank 7 with Bizmo's Brawlpub.
 The Second Rule of Brawler's GuildReach Rank 7 with Brawl'gar Arena.
 You Are Not Your $#*@! Legplates/ You Are Not Your $#*@! LegplatesWin a brawl.