World of Warcraft Patch 7.1 - Return to Karazhan Hits October 25

[Steven Bogos]

World of Warcraft Patch 7.1 - Return to Karazhan Hits October 25

Patch 7.1 brings with it a new raid-style 5-man dungeon: Karazhan, for those of you who enjoy more intimate end-game content.

In a developer Q and A [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE0Wr9Hdrdw], Blizzard revealed some info on its upcoming World of Warcraft patch 7.1 - Return to Karzhan, including its release date. The patch, which focuses on the return of popular raid Karazhan retooled as a "raid-like" 5-man dungeon, will hit on October 25.

The Q and A mostly focuses on upcoming balance changes, and is with World of Warcraft's new director, Ion Hazzikostas. Hazzikostas was named the new director this week, replacing Tom Chilton, who is moving to a mysterious new project within Blizzard.

As well as the Karazhan dungeon, patch 7.1 introduces a small new raid that's supposed to bring the Stormheim story to an end, and adds some new outdoor Suramar content that's part of the Nightfallen story.

Return to Karazhan is a dungeon available on Mythic difficulty and has 9 bosses. Being such a long and difficult dungeon, Blizzard hopes that players will tackle it with a raid-like mentality, in that a small group of friends will get together to try and kill two or three bosses a night.

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It's a nice alternative for players who like to play with their friends, but aren't necessarily a part of a big enough guild to do the big raids.

Source: Blizzard [https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/20327354/patch-7-1-return-to-karazhan-arrives-on-october-25#comments]

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[Paragon Fury]

While this still looks cool - you lost me WoW. My subscription ended on the 13th, and I don't really plan on renewing. While the world and leveling was cool and the dungeons were awesome the first time through, I'm NOT a fan of Diablo's infinite-replay through the exact same thing with ever more bullshit mechanics for marginally better gear system, the World Quests were merely "Meh" and I don't have any remaining friends on WoW to raid or do Mythics/Dungeons with anymore and PvP is a fucking trainwreck because you won't fucking fire Holinka, so I think I'm done.

 

[Karadalis]

While this still looks cool - you lost me WoW. My subscription ended on the 13th, and I don't really plan on renewing. While the world and leveling was cool and the dungeons were awesome the first time through, I'm NOT a fan of Diablo's infinite-replay through the exact same thing with ever more bullshit mechanics for marginally better gear system, the World Quests were merely "Meh" and I don't have any remaining friends on WoW to raid or do Mythics/Dungeons with anymore and PvP is a fucking trainwreck because you won't fucking fire Holinka, so I think I'm done.

The problem with WoW currently is that for years and years they have fostered a "single player" mentality, culminating in the garrisons.

You didnt need other players for anything anymore unless you wanted to raid.

And now they suddenly pull a complete 180. Wich in theory is great, more group content in an MMO is kinda the suposed reason for it to be a MMO right? Only that WoW hasnt been MM for a long long while and the current playerbase is not able to cope with the fact that now suddenly you have to use your brain for 5 man content.

Speaking of brains: Blizz must have lost theirs with the current Gear system.

The item level madness is so batshit crazy that you can equip a item that is 10 whooping levels ABOVE you currently equipped and end up being worse off! Less damage and less survivability because you replaced your blue item with a purple! Add in the warforged, titanforged and random stats nonsense and its complete chaos...

And the blizz devs stated that this all was put in to make the gearing process more fun and clear cut.. people should know just by looking at an items icon if its better then what they have equipped but the complete opposite is the case.

That all being said:

Legion is still better then the last THREE expansions and does remind a bit to wrath of the lichking even thought the new areas feel a little bit... small and the main storylines are also rather short.

Its a flawed gem wich suffers from an unhealthy dose of blizzards arrogance that they have built up over the years. (We know better then the people who play our game, "you think you do.. but you dont" etc etc)

EDITH:

Seems in the latest QnA they talked about alot of legions current issues, thought little action about these things is on the horizon... more of "we are aware of the problem but have no solid plan how to tackle it yet"

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

While this still looks cool - you lost me WoW. My subscription ended on the 13th, and I don't really plan on renewing. While the world and leveling was cool and the dungeons were awesome the first time through, I'm NOT a fan of Diablo's infinite-replay through the exact same thing with ever more bullshit mechanics for marginally better gear system, the World Quests were merely "Meh" and I don't have any remaining friends on WoW to raid or do Mythics/Dungeons with anymore and PvP is a fucking trainwreck because you won't fucking fire Holinka, so I think I'm done.

The problem with WoW currently is that for years and years they have fostered a "single player" mentality, culminating in the garrisons.

You didnt need other players for anything anymore unless you wanted to raid.

And now they suddenly pull a complete 180. Wich in theory is great, more group content in an MMO is kinda the suposed reason for it to be a MMO right? Only that WoW hasnt been MM for a long long while and the current playerbase is not able to cope with the fact that now suddenly you have to use your brain for 5 man content.

Speaking of brains: Blizz must have lost theirs with the current Gear system.

The item level madness is so batshit crazy that you can equip a item that is 10 whooping levels ABOVE you currently equipped and end up being worse off! Less damage and less survivability because you replaced your blue item with a purple! Add in the warforged, titanforged and random stats nonsense and its complete chaos...

And the blizz devs stated that this all was put in to make the gearing process more fun and clear cut.. people should know just by looking at an items icon if its better then what they have equipped but the complete opposite is the case.

That all being said:

Legion is still better then the last THREE expansions and does remind a bit to wrath of the lichking even thought the new areas feel a little bit... small and the main storylines are also rather short.

Its a flawed gem wich suffers from an unhealthy dose of blizzards arrogance that they have built up over the years. (We know better then the people who play our game, "you think you do.. but you dont" etc etc)

EDITH:

Seems in the latest QnA they talked about alot of legions current issues, thought little action about these things is on the horizon... more of "we are aware of the problem but have no solid plan how to tackle it yet"

Hey man Mist of Pandaria was not that bad, infact it was rather a really good expac. Especially all the content it offers. I mean Thunder King and Siege of Orgrimmar Patches is putting Hellfire patch for Warlords of Draenor and this Return to Karazhan patch to shame.

 

[Proto Taco]

Blizzard needs to lay off the RNG. They keep centering ever more mechanics around it and it's quickly turning WoW into a glorified slot machine rather than a team sport.

 

[Imre Csete]

Played from release to mid-WotLK, and the BC Karazhan was probably my favourite raids ever. I had the good fortune to raid hardcore before they removed raid attunements, so I did many runs to help new guild members get into Karazhan and into SSC.

Fun times.

 

[Karadalis]

Hey man Mist of Pandaria was not that bad, infact it was rather a really good expac. Especially all the content it offers. I mean Thunder King and Siege of Orgrimmar Patches is putting Hellfire patch for Warlords of Draenor and this Return to Karazhan patch to shame.

You mean the siege that went on for over 14 friggin months with no other content added in those 14 months? THAT siege of ogrimar?

And the thunderking raid was a weird and in my eyes jarring disparity from the oriental/chinese setting of pandaria. I mean wtf? The Aztec aesthetic was out of place in wrath of the lichking and it was hell out of place in mists of pandaria. Infact most of the item skins from that raid are outright ugly. No one had asked for a friggin troll raid in the middle of WoW china... infact the whole oriental setting was really undersold with both flagship raids having little to nothing to do with the oriental style of pandaria. (again: we are in WoW china and we get a troll and a Orc themed raid.. the fuck?)

Then there was mists horrible horrible daily quest grind that really sucked the joy out of the game since there was nothing else to do at max level. The timeless island wasnt in yet and that farm you got to manage was a pain in the butt.

Shame too since at the beginning it had a rather interesting and intruiging storyline with your character having to learn about pandaria and its people, causing and solving all sorts of trouble.

Strong story... fell flat in gameplay.

Pandaria did nothing to prevent the downward trend in subscribers that WoW had been going on ever since cataclysm.

The whole "kung fu panda" thing didnt really help either, many people didnt took the expansion serious because of that and thus mists did little in making former players want to come back.

Mists was objectively NOT a good expansion.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Blizzard needs to lay off the RNG. They keep centering ever more mechanics around it and it's quickly turning WoW into a glorified slot machine rather than a team sport.

The influence from the Diablo team definitely shows, and that is what is driving me away to not renew. I didn't care for the infinite repeat of content there, I ain't going for it here either.

 

[Karadalis]

So much negativity on this forum.. Jesus Christ...

Personally, I'm still enjoying Legion. I thought the levelling was fun, class order halls were great, Suramar was excellent (we need more quests on the lines of Withered training), World Quests break up a good amount of monoteny from dailies.

I just want them to add more world quest variety, and keep true to their promise of updates. Not every patch needs to be a goliath of content. A couple Trial of the Crusader content updates would be pretty awesome.

Saddened that I had to cancel my sub. Though, that was purely because I have literally no free time, nothing to do with the game content. Definitely the second best expansion bar Wrath of the Lich King.

Watched a flythrough of the bosses in Kara. It looks like a pretty solid dungeon, about on ICC dungeons level.

So instead of talking about its shortcommings and controversial points you want us to blow sugar into blizzards ass?

I only praise one thing sir.. and thats the SUN!

Besides just praising things and acting all sugary happy makes for incredible boring conversations...

"The new expansion is awesome!"

"I agree!"

*commence crickets noise*

I do have good news for you thought, according to their latest QnA the withered storyline will move on in 7.1

And i do say that Legion is the best expansion since Wrath.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

I think Legion is an excellent expansion, but it will take some time to iron out the issues like class balance, and get people back into the jive of doing group content. Turning out a 5-man raid like Mythic Karazhan is probably a good first step.

One notion I think they should float is to not make the random dungeon or raid finders cross-realm. If I'm queuing on Shadowmoon, I should only get players from that server so this allows new players to (almost literally) network with more seasoned players who are either levelling alts or just killing a bit of time. Treat them like dynamic interviews for guild invitations or such.

 

[Proto Taco]

I only praise one thing sir.. and thats the SUN!

Elune give you strength!

l
So instead of talking about its shortcommings and controversial points you want us to blow sugar into blizzards ass?

I only praise one thing sir.. and thats the SUN!

Besides just praising things and acting all sugary happy makes for incredible boring conversations...

"The new expansion is awesome!"

"I agree!"

*commence crickets noise*

I do have good news for you thought, according to their latest QnA the withered storyline will move on in 7.1

And i do say that Legion is the best expansion since Wrath.

Yes, constructive criticism is good. But endless complaining in almost every post on these forums is a pretty good indicator to the pessimism of the community.

And for the most part. Hardly anyone has even discussed the actual focal point of the patch.. People seemingly just clicked on the thread to whine that "WoW hasn't been good since vanilla".

And to each their own, but if you have criticisms of a game, surely it makes sense to put them in a place where their devs actually see them? For example.. Their forums. Otherwise, there's really no point.

I'd hardly say 6 reasonably laid out posts detailing individual critical perspectives on a game are 'endless whining'.

The truth is WoW is floundering and the common thread you see between every player's 'whining' is that they feel manipulated. They're tired of putting all this time and effort into a game that's intent on flagrantly disregarding their investment.

Blizzard needs to stop treating their players like pets who'll run away if you open the door and make the logical leap to realize that if it's fun, people will continue playing long after they've completed all of the latest 'content'(don't even get me started on their abuse of that word).

People play MMOs to be around a community of like-minded individuals in a commonly understood alternative setting to blow off steam and have good times. Like a living Valhalla. The only sure path to long-term MMO success is to realize that and begin treating your 'game' like the community it is rather than the cash cow you want it to be.

Build it and they will come. Force them to come and no one will want you to build it.

 

[Jburton9]

With this recent expansion, I feel they have thrown in the kitchen sink, I see flavors from every prior expansion in Legion. There are quite a few aspects of the Legion expansion that I like and have enjoyed. I am concerned though about so many key storyline heroes being killed off, so where does that leave the story now, how do you win, where do you go from there?

Additionally with much of their remaining original talent leaving, I am wondering how the new lead dev is even capable of properly running the game or will end up just doing what he has done previously, playing word war lawyer and not addressing or fixing issues.

Good observations made by other posters, I do agree the Diablo RNG influence feels strong with the itemization and I feel it takes the uniqueness away from items when it ends up being RNG'd numbers slush in the status listing.

They have promised this time to not repeat the previous expansions mistake of failing to produce any content after the expansion is released so hopefully they will keep to that promise.