Alas, I can't take full credit for the awesome title of this post, that honor goes to Radioted, a reader and commenter over at WoW.com
So after much downtime of getting all the servers gussied up, 3.3 hit us, and in this bloggers opinion, it's actually been pretty smooth.
Far from perfect mind you, but still, most of the features are working as intended (or some semblance there-of) and that's saying a lot for patch day. I'll break down review of what I've tinkered with so far.
The most interesting part of the patch, in my humble opinion, is the new random LFG, which looks to be an invaluable tool in the future of the game. The instance server load for the night of a patch release was, of course, staggering, making our favorite "Additional instances cannot be launched at this time" message make it's triumphant return to the game. Hello loading screen that refuses to load, bane of my existence, unbeatable boss forever and ever. And hark, there was a multitude of forum goes, and their QQ's drowned the Blizzard page, salty words in a torrential downpour...
...ahem...
It's patch day, lots of people want to do the new stuff, and it looks like as the game goes on that you'll have an easier time getting groups. Anyways, the Random LFG seems to be working like a charm. After queueing yourself up for a random group, you get matched up EXTREMELY quickly, I'm talking like a couple seconds. Now, this may be because non-dps rolls are in high demand (healers and tanks) and that there are many hungry dps nipping at the heels of these rolls, so your milage may vary. Any of my toons marked up for a tank or healing roll along with dps checked off was always delegated to the non-dps roll.
Warping into dungeons is pretty darn cool once everybody is ready to go, and it really is super handy for those people who always forget to repair their gear or forgot their tanking belt (you know who you are). Of course, some of these pugs may be like the horror stories we've all heard before, alts coming out of the woodwork with sub-optimal gear. Blizz has stated so far that low gear scores will restrict you from accessing tougher heroics, and so far I haven't set foot in an instance yet where players were at least a majority of blues and epics, so it's been quite acceptable.
Of course, with pulling people from different servers that you may only communicate with with in just one dungeon, you increase anonymity, which on the internet translates into a greater likelihood that your group members will be dicks. If your fiddling around on alts, prepare for some colorful constructive criticism.
The new disenchant option on loot is a godsend. Does the DE for you and rolls out the shard if nobody has needed or greeded. Pretty fantastic.
As for the new 5 mans. I've managed to do two so far. Getting pulled in mid instance for the second one restricted my access to the third, though I've heard that I'm not missing much from an unfortunate server bug near the end of the Halls. From what I have done on heroic, these places are tough. Granted, they still don't quite hit the level of difficulty that Heroic Magister's Terrace had when it came out in BC (CC was an absolute MUST!), but they're a step up from Heroic ToC 5, which is all fine in my book. The bosses are epic with lots of abilities, the music is cool and moody, and the atmosphere feels just right.
Cross-faction mailing for heirloom items is also in effect. Haven't tried bags or gold yet, but it'll be next on the list. Rolling around in super high-damage gear at low levels never gets old to me. More-so, lower level characters are now much more resilient than they used to be. Chopping down the mana costs at low levels was a fantastic idea and makes the starting and learning experience much more smooth for new players. It also makes the game look more appealing as you'll rarely have to eat and drink before level 20. This could end up being a sort of double-edged sword though, as not conveying this information to new players early on may lead to neglect later in the game. The new tutorial system in game hopes to counteract this.
Well, thats all I got for my first round of 3.3. Hopefully some raid reflections will be coming up soon!
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