WoW: Echoes of Doom Patch Impressions

It was right about early July when I last logged into Azeroth, and man, has it changed. With the 3.0.2 Echoes of Doom patch, there have been a slew of tweaks to the user interface, as well as new quests, game features and skills to take a look at. As soon as I logged in, I was treated to something that felt entirely new, forcing me to familiarize myself with the new update. Once I started to get a firmer grasp on things, I was fairly impressed with what Blizzard has done, and looking at some of the skills that open up for the 71-80 level tier, the excitement over The Wrath of the Lich King expansion finally hit me.

According to the game lore, the magicians of Dalaran have decided that they've sat out of the fight for long enough, so they decided to move to the front lines of the upcoming war, taking their entire city with them. Left in its wake is nothing more than a crater with remnants of the city's arcane barrier and some floating rocks. It's an impressive sight, especially considering that this city inhabited this low-level zone since the game's launch back in 2004. Now, it's hovering above Northrend, smack dab in the middle of the action, acting as the central hub for the new island. Though, unless you've been playing the beta, you'll still have to wait until next month to see all this new central city has to offer.

Some of the changes that were immediately apparent had to do with the mounts in a player's inventory. With the new expansion comes a new pet tab on your character sheet. What this does is do away the need to have your mounts or pets taking up slots in your inventory. Rather, they'll each take up one of 12 slots in your pets tab, keeping those precious slots in your bag open, giving you extra room while questing. It's a really nice tweak, especially considering how much loot you'll receive during raids, where you'll need every bit of space possible to make the most of things.

The next new element that cropped up was that the new inscription job has now been implemented, and along with that comes glyph slots that you'll find as a new tab in your spellbook and abilities sheet. Think of glyphs as enchants, but rather than effecting your gear, glyphs add bonuses to your various spells and abilities. You'll be able to do things like add the chance of a critical strike from an attack, or do away with the need for reagents when casting some abilities, further helping you to fortify your character. As a mage, I was able to go to the auction house and buy two glyphs -- one that increases the damage from my frost nova, with the other increasing the distance travelled when I cast blink. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. To assign these new items to a slot, you'll need to head to a lexicon of power, which will be located near an inscription trainer, acting similar to a blacksmith's forge. At the onset of the game, you'll have access to five glyphs – three for minor glyphs, with two for major glyphs. You'll also be able to unlock a third major glyph slot, but you'll have to wait until you hit level 80 before that happens.

New talent trees have now been implemented, but there's nothing just yet that shows off the new abilities that will be available when the expansion is released next month. Some of the new talents are fantastic, adding some extra perks to a class' skillset, but there are also a few new talents that left us scratching our head. Though you can never please everyone, I'm confident that Blizzard is in the process of tweaking these new trees and if not, there's already a little something for everyone. If that's not enough for you, Blizzard has borrowed a page from Microsoft's playbook, implementing a system that has worked so well for the Xbox, and is more than likely to do well for WoW: Achievements.