A Little Bit of 2.4

I've been meaning to get around to posting about the upcoming 2.4 patch for a while now, but every time I start to put something together, another tasty morsel is announced. Well, this what has caught my eye just for now.

Number one with a bullet are the new items purchasable with Badges of Justice. WowHead has posted them already, and I'm drooling like Homer with a jumbo box of donuts over the Gauntlets of Rapidity (75 Badges), the Scaled Drakeskin Chestguard (100 Badges), the Leggings of the Pursuit (100 Badges) and a ring named Angelista's Revenge (60 Badges). There's also one more item of such enormous power that I tremble at the mere mention of its name - the Crossbow of Relentless Strikes for 150 Badges. By Elune's petticoat, that's a lovely piece of hunter gear.

Naturally there are a lot of raiders QQing over T6-equivalent loot being bought for tokens that can be grabbed from mere Heroics and lowly Kara, but I disagree. Just one loot progression path caters for just one type of player, and one type of game. Battleground loot creates a different game, as does Arena loot. Even crafted loot creates a different game (more on that in a bit). Having many ways to get geared does tend to wreck the "BT gear = I am awesome" rules, but they were always a bit stale and simplistic. It also means there's a better pool of talent for raiding guilds, which is good... right?

A new area is coming, called the Isle of Quel'Danas, with a 25 man raid instance called The Sunwell Plateau contained therein. This instance is above Black Temple in difficulty, which makes it Very Scary Indeed. I have no illusions about running through there, but there are a number of pretty amazing patterns that drop in the instance, and I hope to see the Embrace of the Phoenix on the AH soon. Holy goblin pornography batman, that's a sweet item. There's also a 5 man instance called Magister's Terrace, which is meant to be around Shattered Halls / Shadow Labyrinth difficulty. There's a nice hunter chest piece called the Hauberk of the Warbringer (no Wowhead link yet) in there, so I might have to check it out.

Of particular interest to me is the news that Primal Nethers and Nether Vortexes are becoming bind on equip in the patch. This unlocks numerous patterns for all levels of player, and creates a few interesting little economies within the game. Vortexes are also purchasable with 15 Badges and 7 gold, which is another good use of Badges if you really want one.

2.4 also sees the attunements for Hyjal and Black Temple removed, which allows mere mortals to see those instances before the expansion launches. This is cool, although extremely unpopular with the raiding crowd for obvious reasons. They're also removing the requirement of downing all the other bosses before fighting Vashj and Kael'thas in their respective instances. This removal is fine with the Burning Crusade winding up now, but I hope they keep the occasional attunement in WotLK. I hope they avoid the "kill the final boss in this instance and you can progress to the next instance" thing though - that's an obviously artificial barrier.

PvE tokens can also be used to buy PvP gear, with Tier 4 tokens equating to S1 Gladiator's gear, Tier 5 and 6 tokens buying S2 Gladiator's gear, and Tier 6 Sunwell tokens buying S3 belts/bracers/boots. The ever-useful Badges can also be used to buy S2 battlegrounds armor. Is there anything Badges can't do?

Obviously, that's a small slice of what I've seen around the traps for 2.4. MMO Champion is probably the best place for more details. Whee!