Patch 3.3 – Present and Future Outlook
Patch 3.3 is the best thing to ever happen to World of Warcraft. The looking for group matchmaking system is spectacular.
Within the last three days, I have run almost twenty instances without any major trouble. The new instances are fun and challenging but the best thing is just the efficiency of groups. It is also really nice playing a holy paladin because it never takes me more than about 15 seconds to find a group.
I know that I will eventually have some bad experiences, but currently it has been nothing but fun. The matchmaking system also does a good job of pairing people with wide varieties of skill and experience. I am decently geared. Most my gear is on par with Ulduar 25 and now a couple pieces of tier 9 quality gear. I have had some groups with lesser geared tanks but great dps and other groups with over-geared tanks and lesser DPS. Either way, the matchmaker strikes a balance so that the group can make it through the instance with little difficulty and everyone can have fun. Hardcore geared players get their successful instance runs and the lesser geared players that would not usually be able to find a group get to actually just run instances.
The other thing that has struck me is just how friendly everyone is. Everyone has been very kind and considerate. If someone accidentally pulls or makes a mistake and wipes it is not a "NOOB!! LERN TEH INSTANZ!!!1!" but more of a "Everyone makes mistakes, do not worry about it" attitude.
This is all great in the short term but what about the long term. What does this mean for the future players?
Rohan wrote up his thoughts on the patch as well as predictions about players leveling characters.
"You know, in a few months there are going to be some sick skilled tanks available. Imagine levelling to max purely by running dungeons with PuGs. Those tanks who come out of that are going to be really good."
I completely agree with him on that. Before patch 3.3, when people would level characters they just quest their way to the level cap. It was the most efficient way. You could always list yourself under the looking for group interface but depending on your server, there might be no one running instances. Plus, you had to deal with the travel to and from the instance. If you are leveling in Hillsbrad, why would you want to make the journey all the way out to Blackfathom Depths and back? Simply put, it was a pain to find the group and with travel it was simply inefficient compared to solo questing.
At max level, people would complain that since other players soloed their way to the level cap, these players had no idea how to function in a group.
Now, there is no reason not to always be listed in the matchmaking tool while leveling. You get automatically paired up and can teleport to and from the location. It has taken all the work out of forming and instance group as well as given a larger pool of players to pick from.
This should push more and more people to run instances while leveling (but WoW is such a solo game, right guys?) and since more people are grouping while leveling, hopefully the skill of the average player will increase.
Between the immediately positive results I am getting now and the impact I believe this patch is going to have on the future of WoW for years to come, I have no doubt that this is the most important and well done patch in the history of this game.
And yes, I am still playing Darkfall on the side.