By now everyone has read and posted about the 1.3.4 sneak peak we got yesterday. So... uhm... yeah.. I'm late doing it but when the post went up on the US forums we were in Vulture Lord (damn you 8th boss, down to 14%) and then I basically couldn't be arsed typing anything up at 11pm :)
So here goes my wee look over what was announced
At this point the plan is to have 1.3.4 on PTS by the first week of February or (at the latest) early the second week of February. Patch notes, of course, will accompany the opening of Warpstone. We know this, but it's good to have it confirmed and more importantly when we can expect the full patch notes which we're all keen on.
We will be introducing an entire new line of weapons earned via RvR (this is the "feature players have been asking for"). These weapons will be purchasable via a vendor and will not be bought using medallions or crests, instead utilizing an entirely new currency system earned via Scenario gameplay from tiers 1-4. More information about these new items and how they're earned will be forthcoming in a Dev Diary with Developer Sean Bosshardt.Ahh, so I'm wrong (there's a surprise, my track record isn't the best). My money was on the Warlord weapons being purchasable with warlord tokens and the sovereign dropping from the Kings. The mechanic sounds good though, although it will lead to a lot more scenario fights this will help those who prefer smaller premade battles, though it's worrying for the pugs who will get steamrolled by the top end premades. I can see the currency being much as they do for WoWs battlegrounds. For each scenario you get a generic currency but for winning a scen you get three special tokens (drawing or losing would be one token) based on that pairing. So you might find that some weapons may cost 20 Greenskin tokens and 100 Generics.. Best hope your party likes the greenskin scenarios...
We are completely reworking the current structure of Scenarios by removing some of the less popular and streamlining the tiering of Scenarios. There will be more details upcoming in a Dev Diary from Content/RvR Lead Mike Wyatt next month. Streamlining the tiering sounds... interesting. Some have commented that it probably means adding rank 40 only scenarios as well.. Wouldn't that be adding more rather than streamlining them? Though thinking about it now they might go for 1-15 being tier 1, 16-30 being tier 2, 31-39 being tier 3 and tier 4 scens for rank 40's only... Maybe... We'll have to wait and see, one thing that is almost guaranteed though.. Thunder Valley will be dissapearing (about time, it's dreadful)
The last tidbit is a change to the way that the campaign functions. Starting with 1.3.4, once a Contested City flips into the Captured state (otherwise called "Stage 2") the Open RvR Campaign will now restart, leaving the realm sieging their enemies city with a tough decision: Stay in the city, possibly defeating your opponent's King, or retreat back to the open field to defend your realm? This is actually pretty neat, the attacked forced could (in theory) lock down the opponents city if the underdog points are high enough, highly unlikely but would be amusing to have both kings dead. But seriously, it's a nice idea, gets people back out to the battlefield quicker. It's more renown from one zone lock than an hours worth of empty city instances. Hopefully this also means scenarios will open up fully and we can put the Reikland Factory and Twisting Tower scenarios during stage one of a city siege.
Looks decent enough so far. But, we're waiting about a month for the actual patch notes so it may yet change. As others have stated and so have I, it's highly unlikely this will be a huge combat and class update, I don't expect any nerfing of classes or abilities in this patch, that will come in the next major I believe. Anything else mentioned on forums etc is just pure speculation with no solid proof.
