Author’s Note, 1/22/09: Last night, I came to the realization that my earlier joy in what I thought was a change to herbalism was only a change to questing. (Even though the mushrooms in the Dalaran Underbelly show up as herbs if you’re tracking.) My apologies to everyone for not better verifying this supposed change (although, in my weak defense, I thought I’d picked a couple herbs in Stone Peaks on Tuesday in one second.) Changes to the original post are noted by strikethrough and bold italic text.
Despite the Northrend disconnects every few minutes yesterday, I was able to get some daily quests done before we started Obsidian Sanctum (10-man) last night. (I won the Dragon Hide Bag!)
The first thing I noticed while gathering mushrooms for the daily cooking quest, is that, as hoped, Herbalism gathering for quests is now a 1-second cast.1 Unfortunately, despite my earlier jubilation, Herbalism remains a 5-second cast. While I had hoped this would not be the case after the changes to mining were announced, I’d not seen anything official (or unofficial) on the subject. After all, if I can skin a rhinoceros with a dull, rusty, 82-cp Skinning Knife in one second, why did it take three five seconds to pluck a flower? Now, if I could just bend over while on my gryphon or drake, and pick that flower while mounted, I’d be very, very happy. (Don’t shoot me, Druids!)
The next thing I noticed, and thought I’d seen discussed well before the patch, is that my Magnificent Flying Carpet is no longer a vehicle, but a mount. That makes a huge difference: Casting a spell (or picking a flower) will now automatically dismount me, which is pretty convenient if I get attacked while mounted (instead of having to hit the Leave Vehicle button).
There were also several nice icon upgrades in the patch, including, for example, Preserved Holly.
So what else did you notice that was new, different, and undocumented?
- I should note that I searched for the changes I discuss in the Patch Notes, but didn’t find them listed. If your eyes are better than mine, let’s just keep it our secret, mmkay? ↩
Two thumbs up for the carpet change!!
Strumpet last blogged about These books were made for walking … new meme
Two thumbs up for new commenters!
I noticed the same thing you did, but in a different way. When I was grabbing some mushrooms in Dalaran sewers I noticed the “collecting” time was super fast now. Good change. Another cooking-related change that I beleive was undocumented.. Gigantic Feast and Small Feast (425 skill recipies) both had their skill-up levels changed so they are now yellow after 440 cooking. Before they were green, in the same skill-up category as the 400 skill recipies. Minor detail, I know.. but if you were like me and was waiting for the Fish Feast recipie to get into the game (450 skill) it was a nice surprise.
riffraff last blogged about Upgrade with a glowy red enchant!
Unfortunately, I don’t rely on my cooking skill nearly as much as I should. I do the dailies, but that’s about it. I did finally get my Fishing > 100; just need to get high enough to use the book, etc. And I will get there…just doesn’t seem to be time to do it at the moment.
The only undocumented change that I can think of is that they increased the amount of Pygmy Suckerfish you get while fishing. Before it was something like a 6% drop rate, but last night I got a stack and a half fairly quickly. I say fairly simply because nothing about fishing is truly fast (well, that and the fact that Wintergrasp kept crashing Northrend made it hard to accurately track fishing time). I think they’re used for some kind of alchemist flask, but I’m not positive. All I know is my alchemist buddy keeps asking for the things, so now I don’t have to sit in Dragonblight for an hour to get a handful of them.
Ragar last blogged about Hail to the Chef
You, sir, win my award for Blog Name of the Week! Congrats on the Hail to the Chef award, as well.
Here’s a not so good undocumented change, mostly affecting bear tanks:
http://quaiche.blogspot.com/2009/01/undocumentd-nerf-handwraps-of-preserved.html
Lifeblood (the herbalism heal) has acquired a GCD. This makes it inconvenient to slip it into a macro.
Nibuca last blogged about Horray for random!
Ewww.
I don’t use it, but it has a place on my spellbar. But yeah…so much for incorporating it into “Oh sh…” macros.
Can’t remember the name, but the daily cooking quest where you were required to cook 12 Nothern Stews, has been reduced to only requiring 4. Eases the acquiring of chilled meats.
OUTSTANDING! That almost takes the sting out of the realization that herbalism is NOT a 1-sec cast.
There’s some new animations not documented. People have commented on the new Moonfire animation, but Hellfire and Blizzard also got some updates.
The thing I noticed, though, was a new animation on drake mounts. If you turn while landed, your drake will flex his (or her) wings slightly. Looks really nice. I also noticed that drakes (and presumably other winged flying mounts) will ‘glide’ now while in flight instead of flapping their wings 100%.
I haven’t checked my Netherrays for new animations, but I should.
I got stupidly excited that I’d got some new and interesting thing stuck in my bank by mistake. Turned out to just be holly…
Sorry for your disappointment. And I have to tell you, that just made me LOL. I think I need more coffee!