Blizzard
Yes, items like Obsidian Edged Blade will be in during Phase 1. This is due to a related decision to not bring back the original item stats, because it would have felt really weird if an item's stats changed while you were wearing it.
We think it would feel weird to drop Tier 2 items with their 1.12 item stats in Molten Core (except the Tier 2 pants from Ragnaros, of course).Blizzard
Please clarify whether this means drop % or actual item drop tables. Changing mageblade drop % when more items get added to the table isn't that big of a deal, changing whether bindings drop in Phase 1 is entirely different.Blizzard
For me, some of the fun of clearing a dungeon is discovering the loot as you go, but for those who want more information: the drop tables are mostly from 1.12.
There is a significant exception to that, in Phase 5, when Relics are added to drop tables. When they were originally added, in patch 1.10, they affected drop tables significantly enough that simply removing relics from the drop table until Phase 5 wouldn't be sufficient. It would have had effects on the drop-rates of other items that we didn't feel were acceptable or authentic. So for that specific change to item drops, we did reproduce the boss drop-tables from the previous patch (1.9). Before Phase 5, the affected bosses have the 1.9 drop tables, and once Phase 5 hits, they'll use the 1.10 drop tables.
That change doesn't affect MC or Onyxia very heavily, so you should expect those drops to launch in a state very similar to their final phase 6 state. Again I don't want to give it all away, so I'll leave a bit to exploration and discovery here. :)
This seems mindbogglingly stupid. You're releasing catchup gear released in 1.10 at the same time as the original pre-DM loot tables? So MC and BWL will be an even bigger cakewalk with catchup gear meant for AQ/Naxxramas?
Edit: For instance, why would casters ever go Onyxia now? Mages' tier 2 headpiece is strictly worse than Spellweaver's Turban from Upper Blackrock Spire. Such a dumb change.Blizzard
Hi judgement_classicwow, and thanks for the question.
As /u/pazorax mentioned earlier, we want there to be some exploration and discovery to this, so I can't dig super deep into exact specifics around when individual quests, items, or rep items will be available. Painting in broad strokes however, Thorium Point and Jintha'alor quests should be available during phase 1. Most quests in Cenarion Hold will be available during phase 5 along with the AQ Gate opening content. The general methodology was to make quests, recipes, items, and the like available when it makes sense to do so and feels relevant to the rest of the available content.
