I’ve got two characters that are just now entering the final leveling curve before 80 instances. My Priest is level 80, and my Paladin tank is level 72 or so. Both are staring the Cataclysm leveling dead in the eye, and having a drought of ANYTHING new to do prior to level 85 endgame, and even then nothing new accessible until doing the entire month-long Firelands dailies (again) and chain running standard Heroics long enough to qualify by iLevel for the new stuff… crap!

Crappity crap crap.

Seriously? Firelands dailies would only be useful for killing time, but not much else. Getting to 353 shouldn’t be that hard. With all of the 378 Justice Gear, 365 crafted weapons (and cheap Chaos Orbs to craft them), 359 rep and crafted gear it shouldn’t be that hard. Slap on a couple pieces of 377 starter PVP gear, you are all set. Going from fresh 80 to LK heroics took a little effort. I think today, its even smoother.

In other words, fewer (if any) Zulroics/Ulduar and more content similar to what is available with 4.3.

Mostly responding to Thelandira – I agree with about 1/2 and disagree with about 1/2.
I agree that the Transmog/Void Storage, Darkmoon Faire, etc are things largely overlooked by most players in the area of “something ELSE to do @ max level other than raiding”. Although it’s not something that really interests me (I’m a dungeon crawler at heart), I recognize that these are things that non-runners can do in the game. I think the fact that they don’t give superior (or any) phat loots is the reason they are largely ignored.

LFR tool … in my eyes it’s something else for max level players to do to both help them prepare for the “real end game raid”
I have to wholeheartedly disagree with this. Being a player that first did some (3) of the bosses on normal mode, then doing them in the LFR, I can say that the LFR absolutely does not prepare you for doing the exact same content in normal mode. There are many mechanics in normal mode that are either not present, or EXTREMEMELY toned down in the LFR version. A group using the same tactics in normal mode that they did in the LFR will very likely be unpleasently surprised when they wipe for no apparent reason. It would have been OK to simply tone down some mechanics, but to remove some entirely I think is robbing LFR players from a good raid experience.

[regarding LFR]… as well as something to do for those that are not really raiders per se but want something to do/see on their time schedule.
I don’t understand this at all, being as the LFR has the exact same scheduling requirements as normal mode raids. It would even be argued that LFR requires possibly more time commitment if you consider that a guild that works together often can finish the instance in less time than a PUG typcially can (even accounting for the reduced difficulty).

(this next part isn’t directly toward Thelandira)
Regarding LoS pulls, there’s a difference between “able to do” and “typcially do”. Most pulls isn’t not needed mostly due to the design of the instance and/or the encounter, but there are certainly a ton of possibilities in many of the dungeons. There are some encounters where the groups I was in – it was the prefered way of doing the encounter (e.g. Geddon and Shazrah in MC). I don’t want to fill this up with a wall of text of various pulls that have the ability to be LoS pulled, suffice to say I can think of at least a handful in most instances from MC to ICC. I only come up short when thinking of Cataclysm content. Although to be fair, I did take a break from the game and pretty much skipped Tier 11 content entirely.

That’s my take on it, anyway. just a guess.

6.) New legendary item and quest
7.) New boss in BH
8.) New raid

I’ve been awake for 15 minutes, finished my first cigarette but only part of my coffee. I have two initial thoughts on your topic and will try to explain them out the best I can:

My first thought is that it appears that Blizz is trying to do their part at the whole “What else do we do at level 85 other than raid?” qq’n scenarios. Would it have been nice to have the Zulroics and new 5 mans in normal mode like Mag Terr and ICC 5 mans? Of course it would have. But, looking back, when Mag Terr was released the only other things released with it was Sunwell and the whole “Help build us up” phasing thing that was the Isle of Quel’danas….which actually was “Help build us up and “then” you can see Mag Terr & Sunwell”. With LK it was “Ok, follow us along the story and run these shiny new ICC 5 mans and “then” you can go see the big bad that is LK in the ICC raid”. For the life of me I can’t remember/think of what was released when the Zulroics were released…but ya….the Zulorics could have been done with a little more thought. Now, look at what we have here in front of us:

1.) Transmogrification – though it may not be the “thing to do” for everyone, it does give max level players (and lower level players as well) something to do other than raid/JP & VP grind. It brings MANY players into old content (maybe even some for the first time) to acquire moggin’ gear. And, from what I have read, has been asked for for years.

2.) Void Storage – although I have yet to really utilize this feature, it was implemented for many that wanted/needed the extra storage space for old stuff. And more storage is something that is ALWAYS asked for.

3.) Darkmoon Faire Island – a HUGE revamp of the faire with it’s own island and mini-games. Not necessarily “needed” but a wonderful thing none the less. (You really should take the time and check it out. It is lots of fun and very well done…hey…that rhymed…giggle)

4.) LFR tool – again, not necessarily needed (was it even asked for? I dunno), but in my eyes it’s something else for max level players to do to both help them prepare for the “real end game raid” as well as something to do for those that are not really raiders per se but want something to do/see on their time schedule.

5.) three shiny, new 5 mans – albeit they are heroic mode only, they get us out of those damn Zulroics. YAY!!!!!!!!!! (for me personally, I’d have been happy if this was all Blizz released this patch…anything to get away from the Zulroics in my eyes is just BRILLIANT! lol)

My whole point to this is that maybe Blizz had a little too much on their plate, compared to when Mag Terr & the ICC 5 mans were released, to be able to give us the new 5 mans in reg mode like Mag Terr & the ICC 5 mans were. To implement the new 5 mans into reg mode as well might have pushed back the patch a bit.

My second thought is on your question of “Can you name one boss fight in the new instances where it is possible to perform a Line of Sight pull?” Ummm….I can’t really think of many bosses where this is possible, both new and old alike. Off the top of my head, which is still a little fuzzy…coffee is only about half empty now, I can only think of two bosses that you can LoS in all dungeons that are in the game. There is the second boss in Shadowfang Keep (can’t think of his name). For quite a while he was either LoS’d out into the hall to help funnel his adds…or he was kited all the way past the dining hall & kitchen and into the large courtyard to keep the adds from spawning. The only other boss I can think of is the first boss in AK:Old Kingdom. He can be LoS’d out of his room and into either room to the left or right, depending on which side you cleared up to him….although I’ve never seen him LoS’d into either area and not sure if it would have made the fight easier or not. Other than those two, I can’t think of any other bosses that can be LoS’d…both in all dungeons and in all raids. As far as I know all dungeon & raid bosses are “run right in and smack me in the face please”. Oh, there’s the boss in Deadmines (can’t think of his name) in the goblin machine part/forge thingie area that is usually LoS’d/kited up the ramp.

Now the trash, on the other hand, in almost all dungeons and raids is a mix of “LoS me please” and “smack me in the face here please”. I’ve not run the new 5 mans enough to be able to say whether any of the trash is LoS-able. But with pretty much all of them being CC-able in one way or another makes up for that…I guess.

My point is, mostly all bosses in dungeons and raids are “smack me please” fights where the tank has had no reason to LoS them. They are all pretty much “fight me here and stay out of any goop I throw your way”. Would it be nice to have had more variety? Of course. But, as far as I can remember, Blizz has rarely ever designed boss encounters where LoS’n the boss was needed. Hell, many of the boss encounters lock you in the same room and you couldn’t LoS them if you tried.

What I would like to see changed up a bit is the trash. It has always baffled me that some of the trash encounters, in all the dungeons and raids, are sometimes harder to fight than some of the bosses are. I am almost positive that throughout my 5 years of playing I have died to trash more than I have to bosses….which to me makes no sense. The bosses are the “big bads” of the place…but yet their minions have more pieces of my butt cheeks in their teeth than they do. Go figure.

This is great and all, but if it is really all there is, it’s gonna get ugly.

I’m trying to think, though… there is a precedent for there being at least new content ‘dump’ after a major boss kill raid but before the new expansion.

Burning Crusade, we killed Illidan in Black Temple, then they released Sunwell. Do I remember that right? And we had the undead event prelude to Wrath.

In Wrath, we killed the lich King, and there was the cataclysm prelude event with the whole Twilight swtuff in our capitals and stuffs.

So, maybe there will be progressive intro to pandaria stuff. Maybe it will be a real big deal, since we’re mving from having a ‘big bad’ of the epxnasion to a renewal of war hostilities.

Maybe the new content we’ll see is the sacking of Jaina’s proud island of Theramore, and taking part in an actual buildup to war. I mean, taking actual part, not just ffive quests and a couple dailies with three new NPCs.