World of Warcraft v3.1.0 Patch Preview
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Category: News ArchiveHits: 990
The biggest nerf in the patch notes seems to be one that will dramatically impact dual-wielding Death Knights. According to the notes, Howling Blast is switching places with Hungering Cold in the Death Knight Frost tree. This means that Howling Blast is now a 51-point talent. It also means that Death Knight's can no longer pick up every DPS-enhancing talent in every tree, which should engender some serious scrambling among Death Knight players who cherish their DPS to find a new talent build. There's also much debate about apparent buffs to Hunters (possibly for the new raid) being seriously unbalancing for PvP, where Hunters are already considered overpowered. Blizzard does take pains to point out that this is not the final patch, so there will doubtless be more changes to come.
There are of course quite a few other changes in store for gamers. The new Ulduar raid is going live for testing, and the long-awaited dual-spec feature will now be available through trainers for a fee of 1,000 gold pieces. There are also numerous smaller changes in the patch, including class changes, new pets and rideable mounts, and a Gear Manager feature that will allow players to rapidly switch armor sets. Interestingly, one small announcement may actually be the biggest news of all. Apparently ground-based mounts will now be able to swim without dismounting the rider, and a new aquatic mount has been added to the game. This is fuelling speculation that the long-rumored underwater Maelstrom area may be added to the game either in an upcoming patch or as the next expansion pack.
