Edited: I misread the cross-realm information – Cross-realm Mythic raiding is EXCELLENT news!

It’s quite daunting waking up to see twitter exploding with opinions about some WoW news that was released while I was asleep. One of the problems with the time delay is that I see opinions before I see what the actual news it. It’s confusing, but more often than not, there’s an awful lot of complaining that appears and it gets me worried. No different this morning. As usual, I think people are getting their knickers in a knot. I’m incredibly happy about most things, and a little conflicted about one..

Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way first.

• New Timewalking Dungeons – yes please! Even though I’m not a huge fan of dungeons, it gives people something else to do. And I quite enjoyed Cataclysm dungeons, so this is something I’m looking forward to. Also, not sure if there’s an answer to this yet, but Stonecore and Vortex Pinnacle have mounts that drop in them – here’s hoping they drop in Timewalking mode too!
• Adding a random mount drop to all Timewalking dungeons – hell yes!

  

  That Infinite Timewalker mount looks AWESOME (and I don’t give two hoots that it is essentially a reskin of an existing model – it’s beautiful). I love dragon mounts, so this is super exciting. Yes, it’s going to have a low drop rate, and yes that’s going to be very annoying. But I don’t have a problem with this. I love the excitement of getting a rare mount drop! To be honest, this is something I think they should have done from the start. I think that there should be a rare random mount drop for all expansion dungeons – it gives people a reason to run them while they’re current, too.

• Cross realm mythic raiding – this is a the BEST news in these patch notes! It will make it a lot easier to pug groups, which is really important with a dwindling end-of-expansion population. I might even get the chance to do some Mythic raids after all! I know this doesn’t impact everyone, but it’s something that has really been upsetting me lately, and making me wonder what I will do once we finish our Heroic kills. This gives small raid teams like mine the opportunity to actually do mythic raids. I’m very excited 🙂
• Valor is back. And so are Item upgrades. Huzzah! I’m actually really happy about this. I know many others won’t be – I know that the old argument “we will be forced to run content we don’t want to do for the upgrades”. Bollocks. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. And if you have a team that is “forcing” you to do this, you need to find a new team. The tier is almost over. Many MANY teams are well and truly done with the tier – the competition is over. For those of us who still have bosses to get down, this might be that tiny little boost that helps us push a boss over. It’s a nerf without calling it a nerf. I don’t have a problem with that. I certainly don’t feel any obligation to run dungeons for this little boost of help – if I feel like it I’ll do it. But if I don’t, then I won’t.
• Loot galore – so we have Baleful items with a chance to gain extra item levels, and Mythic Dungeons that could drop a new 110 Heirloom trinket (shiny!) and 725 ilvl gear. I like that the Baleful gear may drop higher ilvl. I feel my alts are quite weak going in to Tanaan and this has been a real barrier to me sending them in there. Having better gear will be a big help! And a new heirloom trinket – that’s always nice 🙂
• Increased Felblight drop rates – This will probably cause the price of some items (like the super dooper gems) to drop, but overall this will be helpful for people wanting to craft their own gear (I know it will for me!).
• Some pvp stuff – I don’t pvp, but season 3 is due to start soon. So there’s that.

So the big one:

Hellfire Citadel

• Defeating Archimonde on Heroic difficulty or higher will reward players with a mysterious fragment of dark power that begins a quest which will lead to the Grove Warden mount.

This is where a lot of people are up in arms. I’m in two minds about it.

Disclaimer: it’s quite likely that I will get this mount. Our team is due to spend our second full night of progression on Heroic Archimonde on Sunday, and chances are we’ll get him down. (I am assuming that the quest and the mount reward will be awarded for those who have already defeated Archimonde on Heroic or higher difficulty in some fashion.)

It makes sense that there is a mount reward from the end of expansion boss. There always has been, so it was very weird that there wasn’t one all along. So I’m glad they’ve kept the consistency of having the mount reward by putting this in.

Here’s the rub. I don’t think it should have been this mount that was the reward. When this moose mount was announced my twitter absolutely exploded. I could not believe just how many people tweeted their excitement about this mount. Of course there were the folks booing that it was flagged as a store mount, but even then most of those people admitted that they would still buy it anyway. It’s been quite a big deal. So I can understand the frustration that this glorious mount is now gated behind Heroic raid content. There are a lot of people who just won’t get this mount.

Now one can argue that with the higher gear drops from the Mythic dungeons and the ability to upgrade gear with valor points and the higher drop rate of felblight means you can craft gear faster, that you could get geared up pretty quickly to run through heroic Archimonde. And all of that is true. For some people. Some people will pay for the carry, and that’s fine too. But there is a group of people who can’t do this, and it’s for them I’m a bit disappointed. It’s the family and friends raiders. It’s the very people Blizzard have been so focused on encouraging to play. Wasn’t the point of flexible raid sizes for F&F raiders? Wasn’t group finder introduced to encourage people to get a random group of people together to raid? Wasn’t that all for F&F? Putting this mount, (specifically this mount) behind a heroic end boss is going to be quite disappointing for those players. I can understand their frustration. My only hope for them is that they are able to take advantage of the item upgrades and can push through the get Archimonde down.

A couple of things that I think are not great about this announcement:

1. The Grove Warden should not be the mount reward. Aside from what I’ve mentioned above, it also doesn’t match the theme of the WoD expansion. I personally think the Illidari Felstalker should be the mount reward. The models are used in the fight itself, and I think is quite a good fit. 
2. There’s a quest associated with this achievement. This is actually my biggest issue with this announcement. I get the impression that the quest line will be quite short and there’s not too much involved in it. However the Developers have said that it will reveal a bit about what’s in store for Azeroth in the coming expansion. I personally don’t feel that this information and this quest line should be gated behind more difficult content. Yes, have the mount, but don’t have the quest there too.

Look, for me, I’ll get the mount and I’ll get to do the quest so I’m happy. I think people do have the right to be disappointed about the moose mount being behind a heroic raid boss kill, but the mount reward should be there (just a different one!) I just wish people were a little more… polite with their frustrations.

The other changes coming in this patch, I think, are pretty awesome, and I’m looking forward to them. I’m looking forward to getting the nostalgia feels from Cataclysm dungeons that a lot of other people have been getting from the others. I’m looking forward to upgrading my gear a bit for my alts so that they aren’t such easy targets in Tanaan! There’s plenty to look forward to. Here’s hoping 6.2.3 comes out soon.

What are your thoughts on what’s coming up? And will you get the Moose Mount, or is your team unlikely to get Heroic Archimonde down?