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Live
PTR
10.1.0
PTR
10.1.5
User Interface Changes
Patch 3.3 Guide
Icecrown Citadel
The Ashen Verdict
Tier 10 Armor Sets
Quests
Other Additions
UI Changes
3D Models
Icons
Tips
Patch Notes
Helpful Links
The biggest
UI changes
in this patch is, without doubt, the new Looking for Dungeon (LFD) system. In some ways it is only a big improvement over the old LFG/LFM one, but in many ways it's a revolutionary change over it. It allows for relatively quick group assembly, that includes players from multiple realms. The game uses players' input to determine who will play the role of tank, healer, or DPS, in case more than one member of the group are capable of performing two of those things. It also teleports players straight to the dungeon - summoning stones are about to become very obsolete!
The other UI changes that should be mentioned are the improved quest interface and the changes to nameplates visibility. As soon as both features are complete, players will be able to track quests on the world map, as well as make large packs of mobs display their nameplates on the screen in a more... civil manner, not hiding every single pixel behind a wall of red health bars and names.
Dungeon Tool
When referring to the Dungeon Tool, its biggest element shines brightly - the Looking for Group feature.
Looking for Dungeon
is a more powerful version of the Looking for Group/Looking for More tools. Its functionality has been expanded so much, it's addictive. Some of the old LFG/LFM features are currently missing, and I think that is intentional - for example players cannot view other queued players, nor can they see their group members as the group is forming. However the players' ability to select the dungeon(s) they wish to be queued for, and the interface of the corresponding window (as seen on the left) are light years ahead of what they were. The other 2 categories of dungeons (only Wrath of the Lich King Heroic is shown here) of dungeons are Random Lich King Dungeon and Specific Dungeons.
On the right is the main LFD window. It allows players to select and change their roles anytime they are not in a queue. Its dropdown menu allows selection of dungeon range to queue for: Random WotLK Heroic, Random WotLK Dungeon, and Specific Dungeons (as shown on the left). 2
Emblems of Frost
and were the rewards for the first random LK Heroic, and 2
Emblem of Triumph
+ for the first random LK dungeon. This is at level 80 - lower levels will earn some extra experience as well, I suspect.
Stone Keeper's Shard
s will drop only for player whose faction controls Wintergrasp on their own server. Players can participate in as many random heroics/dungeons they are want to, every day (barring the
Dungeon Cooldown
of 15 minutes, but it is unlikely that a group will finish a dungeon in less than 15 minutes). The Emblems reward applies only to the first one however. Also, no other dungeons (TBC/Classic) offered extra rewards.
I mentioned the
Dungeon Cooldown
just a moment ago. It's a new feature that prevents players from queuing for a random heroic, deciding they don't like it (since every member in the group is told what the random dungeon is going to be only after the entire group has been assembled (see on the right)), and then leaving and trying to find a better or easier dungeon. Players who do leave a party early will be also punished with
Dungeon Deserter
debuff - also lasting 15 minutes.
Another interesting feature is the
Teleport to Dungeon
option. As long as there are at least 2 people queued for the same dungeon, and they have been assigned to the same group, they will all be able to click on the eye icon on the minimap, and opt to be teleported to the dungeon instantly. And in addition to this
Luck of the Draw
(5% damage, healing, and health) is a buff every party member gets when they enter a random dungeon. Go, random dungeons, go!
And now a bit about group assembling. Players can start their own group and still join LFD - the feature looks to fill as many gaps as needed. A full group of 5 players can still use the LFD, since it's a feature about dungeons, not players. It also is worth mentioning that several interesting things happen while your group is still assembling.
First, hovering the mouse cursor over the minimap eye icon (eyecon?) will produce a tooltip similar to the one on the left - the game will try to match people with different roles as best as it's possible.
Second, if any player already assigned to a group leaves the queue, the rest of the group gets priority over newly queued players. In a way the entire group moves to the front of the line, as a compensation for the one who left abruptly. And finally, when the entire group is ready and a window like the two above pops up for every player, everyone who accepts will be able to see the status of the other players (green check mark for players who also accepted, question mark for those waiting, and red cross for those who ditched the group in the last moment). When a player accepts, they are automatically teleported to the inside of the dungeon.
And the last big new feature is the new "Disenchant" option in the roll window. As long as there is at least one enchanter in the group, every player can select "Disenchant", instead of Need/Greed. As shown on the screenshot, DE rolls are almost identical to Greed rolls - with the exception that if a player wins a DE roll (that is, if they roll higher than all other DE or Greed rolls), they have their item automatically disenchanted. In addition, there is a UI setting that allows players to enable a more compact display of rolls - showing only the winning roll, and its type. Very handy feature.
And just to close this section up - anyone in the group can now suggest a player to be removed! Right Click - Uninvite, and the other 3 members (other than you and the suggested player) will see a window that prompts them to vote whether the supposedly bad player should be removed from the group. An effective way to deal with ninjas this is.
Quest Tracking
The much-rumored about quest tracking feature has finally been made available! Most of it is self-explanatory from the screenshot, but a few clarifications are needed:
The numbers on the map indicate where the player is most likely to complete a certain objective of the quest. The blue areas are the few most "popular" locations to earn credit for the
currently selected quest
.
Clicking on a quest the objectives of which are in a different zone will not take you that zone's map.
Clicking the minimize-like button in the top right corner will reduce the size of the map (see
image
) so it fits in ~1/4 of the screen, allowing players to navigate between objectives easily.
Nameplates Visibility
Ever found yourself in a boss fight where the 30 adds' nameplates moving constantly make it impossible to target the right one? It looks like Blizzard might fix situations like this - or break them completely. The nameplates visibility changes are something Blizzard developers are tweaking with in this patch, trying to figure out how to make them stack, or overlap, or generally not cover your whole screen. It's work in progress, but here is what we know about the feature so far (quoted from
here
):
The range at which you can see the nameplates is now much longer.
You can no longer see the nameplates through objects which block line of sight.
Instead of the nameplates trying to sort themselves, they just overlap. We think this makes them more useful for very large groups (example: Onyxia whelps).
As long as you are able to peer into the doorway of a room, you will see nameplates of players or creatures in that room.
Similar to the first point, pillars and bridges in Arenas will not hide friendly or enemy nameplates.
Nameplates for totems can be toggled under “PRODUCTION” settings in “Interface Options” on the test realms. We will look into adding this functionality for pets as well.
The way nameplates are sorted when large numbers of creatures and players are grouped together is not fully functional and we will continue to address the way these are sorted and displayed throughout the testing process. In the mean time, you can choose to toggle this feature back to its original functionality, also under "PRODUCTION" settings.
