6.0 Is Coming: What is Going Away

No one can say for sure when the 6.0.2 patch will hit the live servers.  It could be two week or it could be six weeks but the smart money would be on four weeks.  Four weeks would allow us to have a month of playing around with the changes to get used to them in time for the next expansion which would come a month after that.  Being we have been told the pre patch would be out a month before the expansion it would lead most, myself included, to think the 6.0.2 patch will be live in one month.

So lets gets to the heart of the matter and let you know what is going away and what you have a month to get done if you want to.  Do it now or miss it.

What is Going Away:

Ahead of the Curve and Cutting Edge for SoO.

If you have not managed to snag yourself either of those achievements you have a month left to do so.  Not only are the achievements going away but the mount and titles* associated with them as well.   (*note: I've been informed the titles will still be attainable through the completion of the raid).

This also means that the wolf that comes along with the ahead of the curve achievement will be gone and the mount that drops from Garrosh in heroic when you get the cutting edge achievement will no longer be a 100% drop but like other last bosses before him it will still drop, just at a very low rate.

Siege Heirlooms

In flex, normal and heroic difficulty Garrosh has a chance of dropping an heirloom, or so I have heard because I have never personally received one on any difficulty, and those are going to be removed from the game as well.

Do not worry if you already have one, it will not be stripped from you.  But once the expansion comes out they will no longer drop.  However, once 6.0 comes out the drop rate for anyone that has never received one, like myself, will be 100%.  Thank F'N god I can finally get one.  So we will have one month to get as many as we can if we never had any luck previously because after that month is over we will never see them again.  I really hope that they change their stance on this.  I think leaving them in would be good for the game and give a reason to go back and do older content, but that is just my personal opinion of course, which oft times tends to differ from blizzards.

Brawlers Guild

Warlords will have all the same bosses that are currently in the brawlers guild but they will be buffed up to level 100 and everyone that has done them already will need to do them again.  I am sure there are a bunch of people out there curing blizzard right now with the thought they need to do hexos again.  I personally did not mind him but I hated Ahoo'ru.  We all have our bane.

All the achievements tied to doing the brawlers guild will be removed and become legacy achievements.  As well all your progresses with the brawlers guild will be reset.

Now, these changes are not (at least I do not believe) taking effect in 6.0, but the changes to gear will be taking effect and this might help people get past some issues they might have had with some bosses.  So if you want to say you did season 1 of the brawlers guild, get back in there and get it done.  Just in case it is removed when 6.0 comes, I would suggest you get all them done before that however.  Time is running short.

Challenge Modes

All challenge mode dungeons are being removed when 6.0.2 comes out.  The reason being is we are getting the skill changes and the stat changes in 6.0.2 and the challenge modes were not designed with those in mind.  So instead of wasting time to update the challenge modes they are just removing them and the achievements associated with them.

If you want your challenge mode title, challenge mode transmog, and challenge mode mount, you have only a month to get it done.  I know I would like to get it done myself.  Just never got around to getting a group to get anything better than silver sadly.  Good luck finishing it off.

Proving Grounds

Just like the challenge modes were not designed around the ability and stat changes the proving grounds was not.  So for that reason alone they are going to be removing them.  So if you want to get your golds get them now, if you want to test your luck at endless, do it now, if you want to take a shot at doing it wrong, do it wrong now.  In one month you will no longer be able to get these achievements.

However, like with the brawlers guild, there will be new achievements which are exactly the same as the present achievements.  They will just be for the new proving ground like they are for the new brawlers guild.  However, if you want to build up your legacy achievement count, if you are into that sort of thing, it is now or never for the original proving ground.

Reforging

Get ready to have to deal with one less thing you have to do for your gear once 6.0.2 drops and you get an upgrade.  Nothing really you have to do to get ready for this except maybe cry a little bit on the inside if you spent over 100K gold, like me, for a mount that could reforge only to have that mount be worthless and just a glorified, expensive, ugly mount with a funny jump while running animation.

Hit, Expertise, Parry and Dodge

All those stats are no more.  Why do I tell you this as if it means you need to do something about it?  Because hit, expertise, parry and dodge are going away, that is why.  When you are running your raids on your healer and a piece of gear with hit on it drops and no one needs it.  Take it.  When you are running your raids on your plate damage dealer and something with parry or dodge drops and no one needs it.  Take it.

The gear might seem useless now, but in a months time that hit or expertise or parry or dodge that was no them might very well end up being haste or critical strike or mastery.   So might as well hold on to it in your bags and maybe it will become an upgrade even if it is not an upgrade right now.

For me this is wonderful news.  I have never had any luck getting a healing helm or the tier helm on my priest but I do have one with hit on it for my shadow set.  Well guess what, come 6.0.2 that piece with hit will be my disc piece because it no longer has hit.  So do not just say, it has xxx on it, it is not for me.  If no one needs it, grab it and maybe it will be for you.

Your Stats

Yes, your stats are going away.  There is nothing you can really do to prepare yourself for that.  It is just going to happen and you are going to have to deal with it.  But maybe you can start to mentally prepare yourself to accept that this is what is going to happen.

To give you an idea what it will be like I will use my main as an example.  While there is still a lot of tuning to be done, so take this with a grain of salt, but it will give you an idea of the extent of how much your stats will change.

I am currently topping out around 400K on most fights in SoO in my current gear.  My current gear with the change to stats will have me topping out at roughly less than 5% of that number, as in under 20K.  Scary huh?  Well just to let you know, from my testing on beta, I am 100% capable of killing basically everything I have been killing in the same amount of time and with the same amount of ease.

It is just going to be a case of wrapping your mind around seeing smaller numbers.  Much much smaller numbers.  While I still kill things in the same amount of time it really sucks, to a huge amount, to see these tiny numbers popping up when I hit stuff.  It takes some time adjusting too and I can see a great many people having an issue with the stat squish.  A huge issue with the small numbers.

Hunter Alert: Spirit Boar

A unique skin for a boar will be going away with 6.0.2 and Bendak over at Eyes of the Beast gives you the how to on how to get this baby before we never get to see him again.

Warlock Alert:  Green Fire

While you will still be able to get green fire after 6.0.2 there will be an achievement added for doing it before 6.0 was released and a title that your warlock and any other warlocks you have will be able to use.  Once 6.0 is release you will no longer be able to get the achievement or the title and I must admit of the black harvest does sound like a cool title.  So go get it now.

For those that do not know how to start it go to the timeless island and start killing rares on your lock.   Heck, kill everything.  It can drop from anything but rares have a higher drop rate.  You can also buy the quest item from the auction house.  Once you get it, just follow the quests and get your green fire and when done, if you are color blind like me, you will say, I see no difference.  But at least I will have a new title.

Blackfantom Deeps, Razorfen Kraul & Upper Blackrock Spire

Make sure to check out which ever transmog sites you like to look at to see if there is any gear from these dungeons that you might miss.  Some of the old dungeons have some of the best looking gear and much of the gear you might have grown to love will never be seen again once these dungeons are done with their redesign.

Even if you do not need anything I would suggest going on a sight seeing tour and taking a look at what these dungeons were like in their original form because it is sure to change.  Not to mention getting the original achievements and of course the Jenkins title and the achievement associated with it before it is moved to legacy achievement status and no longer attainable.

Valor and Justice Points

To spend or not to spend, that is the question.  Yes, we will officially have absolutely no reason what so ever to run dungeons any longer.  While some people did it as a fun way to get some valor when they needed it or for alts for some quick content while getting a little valor or spamming it for some justice points so you could buy heirlooms or convert it to honor there will be no reason to ever run a dungeon again once you do not need gear from it.  And with timeless island gear, no one will ever need gear from these dungeons so expect them to be a virtual ghost town.

Sorry if I sound bitter about it but I think it is a horrible idea to remove the incentive people had to do content.  In truth the only time I have ever done a dungeon or scenario after I no longer needed the gear was for valor or to help and friend, but even at that I helped the friend on the character that could use the valor.  So removing the only reason to do them is as good as just removing the content itself.  I think this is a huge mistake on blizzards part.  But, this is not to complain about bad business practices, this is to warn you about what is going away.

With valor and justice points going away everything that you used to be able to buy with them you can now buy with gold.  Sadly for a great many people there really is not much left to buy but for the people that there are still things they need it is an awesome change.

If you are not a good gold makers and want heirlooms, spam dungeons now.  Buy every single heirloom for free basically, because it is just justice points, before you have to actually spend gold to buy them.  If you are willing and able, get every single heirloom now while you still can before being stuck having to spend your gold to get them.  However, if you are good at making gold, I guess buying them would be better than spamming the dungeons for you.

If you want a new set of heirlooms for an alt you feel like leveling in these last two months now is the time to make your decision.  Grind dungeons, while you still can, for justice to buy them or wait a month and just buy them with gold?  To spend or not to speak, that is the question.

Either way, I think it will take a lot of adjusting for many people like myself who always used valor as a way to inspire me to do content.  I did things because I wanted to cap.  Without valor, there is no need to do anything, so it will take a lot of getting adjusted to for me and maybe for you. I really do not even see the reason to even log in at all unless it is raid night if not for valor.  Big mistake removing it, huge mistake.  /rant

Abilities

Say goodbye to some of your CC, CC breakers, personal utility, and even some abilities you have become used to from the rarely used to the rotational staple.  Many classes and specs have been gutted having many abilities removed.  So do not be too surprised if you go looking for an ability you have had forever and it is no longer there.

This, like the stat squish, is going to take more mental adjustment than game play adjustment.  There really is no way to prepare for losing an ability you have had for as long as you can remember except to accept the fact that it is gone.

From playing on the beta I can tell you that you will often find yourself wishing you had something that was removed, like scatter shot, or hitting an ability that is no longer there, like me trying to hit kill shot as survival, but you will get used to it like it or not.

So far I am not very fond of the removal of situational things like scatter shot and still hate to see it gone but I have been able to adjust to no kill shot at survival or no serpent sting as beast mastery.  I still occasionally have instincts kick in and notice my sting is not up while in beast mastery and have to remember I do not have it.  It will take time to adjust too.

There is no real way to prepare other than to understand, or hope, that it will all be okay and get mentally prepared for possibly losing something you loved.

Movement

Blizzard has went the exact opposite way of what I would have liked to see it go.  I would have loved for more movement to be included in the game to make it move active, more reactive, and faster paced.  This would have included a lot of movement for all classes but blizzard has went the exact opposite way.

It will, of course, effect healers and casters the most as they realize many of the abilities that have always been instants and now have cast times.  Also many instant cast abilities ended up victims of the previous header and were just removed. While this is something you really need adjust to mentally, it is something you can prepare for a little bit.  In theory anyway.

Warlocks, stop using KJC and do not use fel flame.  Shamans, do not move while casting lightning.  It will help you adapt to not moving.  Healers, even more so those jumpy druid ones, try to stand still as often as you can.  All casters will be dealing with everything or nearly everything having a cast time and you can start getting used to that by nailing your feet to the ground.

To help in that effort, even if you have an instant, this is how you will handle it to get used to it.  When you cast the instant wait for the global cooldown to finish before you move and do not cast another spell until you stop moving.  Yes, it will greatly hurt your performance, but it will give you a good feel for what it will be like.  It will not be perfect, but it will get you into the land locked feeling you will have to live with for the entirety of the next expansion sadly.

I know there are other things I missed, I'll try and update if they pop into mind or someone mentions something I missed in the comments, but that is all for now.  Tomorrow I will post what is coming in 6.0 so you know what to look forward to on that end.