The Fury of the Sunwell: WoW's Latest Patch

atch 2.4 has hit the live realms after much anticipation. Anyone below level 70 may have a hard time finding new content to plow through, but for those of us who have been sitting at the level cap for months, patch 2.4 offers up new incentive to keep playing and paying for our accounts. With a new 5-man dungeon, 25-man raid and more daily quests than you can probably even handle, World of Warcraft subscribers just may have a reason to hold out just a little longer until the next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is released.

Monument or idol? Donate gold and
she'll dub you 'of the Shattered Sun.'There hasn't been a new 5-man dungeon in quite a while. It's been so long, in fact, that you may remember the last dungeon being added via patch was Dire Maul. This is probably also due in part to the fact that there have only been three 5-man dungeons added via a patch — Dire Maul, Maraudon and Magister's Terrace. It just goes to show just how rare a new 5-man dungeon in WoW really is, and why this new content patch is so exciting for new and old players alike.

The premise of the new content patch is this: Kael'thas Sunstrider, though he was defeated in a previous 25-man raid, is still at large. He has set himself up on the Isle of Quel'Danas, just north of Eversong Woods (the beginning zone for blood elves). It's the players' job to assist the Shattered Sun Offense in taking Kael'thas down once and for all. The actual fight against Kael'thas is an interesting one, and I am definitely in favor of allowing players a chance to defeat him rather than make him another raid encounter.

The quests you embark on while on the isle are presented in phases. How quickly the next set of daily quests come to your server depends on its general population and how determined its player base is. From what I have been experiencing so far, the drop rates for some of the creatures you must kill are horrendous and I couldn't even imagine doing the new dailies on a PvP server.

Patchwork: majestic until you
realize that's my robe,
not his headdress.Before patch 2.4 you were only allowed to do ten daily quests per day, but after the patch our quest logs have made room for 25 quests. I jokingly said to some of my guild mates after the patch hit, "I think there's almost too much to do in the game right now."

I still think this way. My guild likes to raid on Saturday and Sunday evenings. If I have time, I'll log on during the afternoon to do some of my daily quests, which not only includes Quel'Danas, but also the pre-existing dailies as well. This barely leaves any time for me to hit up the battlegrounds before raiding, and so my mission for better time management begins.

I never counted myself as a WoW addict until the patch was released. If you weren't already hooked by Blizzard's MMO behemoth before, you will most likely have a hard time prying yourself away now. Maybe if each quest didn't award the player with 10 gold each, it would be much easier to resist its temptations. Not everyone is concerned with the new badge loot or becoming exalted with the Shattered Sun Offense. Personally, I am taking full advantage of the gold falling from the sky and buying myself my epic flying mount. For those of us with particular financial goals in mind, the patch couldn't have come sooner.