As is tradition, the US servers are patched a day before those in the EU. This week was no exception, as we saw our cousins across the pond upgraded to 4.0.3a before us. This patch brings with it the changes to the old world as the surface of Azeroth is remade. Many old areas that we’d grown used to over the years will be lost forever.
I often watch Twitter on patch days – it gives me an idea what to expect. Will European Wednesday be smooth and trouble free, or do problems in America tell me that we’ll have extended maintenance late into the night?
But along with the waiting and the gnashing of teeth, I also saw a lot of mourning and regret. A lot of people said they’d miss aspects of the old ‘pre-Shattering’ world and regretted not taking screenshots of particular locations.
Since we were still in the unchanged world in Europe, I thought I’d give people a second chance. I offered to go around and capture images on demand. These were the requests that came back over Twitter.
Hannah Solo: “A nice wide shot of Tanaris would be sweet. I’m kicking myself for not heading out that way, ready.”
Krazytoast: “I would have to say if I wasn’t too sleepy last night, I would have taken a picture of Blanchy. I posted a few pics last night.”
Dr Bombay: “a photo of king magni on the IF throne! i had no idea he was going away in this patch. he was my favorite faction leader. : (”
Anea: “Ashenvale. I have it fixed in my mind, but perhaps a deliberate screenshot of significance would have been nice”
Maleficently: “Forgot to get my screenies of Rut’theran and Auberdine. So sad timez.”
Leet Sauced: “go high-five Cairne before he takes off. ^Vik”
Mishweha: “I forgot to take one of Cairne. D:”
ZeroZerg: “Well, I took a ton of screenshots of things I know will change. Personally… Loch Modan. I loved that dam. Auberdine too.”
The Elitists: “southshore”
Below is an gallery of images that I managed to snag before the servers went down that I hope handles most of these requests. Apologies for the quality of a couple of them – jpeg image compression seems to do horrible things to dark skies.
The images are watermarked, but you’re welcome to ask me for the originals. Just drop me an email at me@manaobscura.com or post a comment here and I’ll mail them straight over to you. Originals are 1680×1050.
Hope this helps!
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thanks again for the shot of magni. well, at least he’s one with the heart of IF now. i have some pix of loch modan dam, too, because that’s where i logged out. i actually set up camp on the forehead of the face on the left as we’re facing the dam from the wetlands. /sigh, i’m gonna miss that damn dam.
Beautiful shots, thanks for sharing š
That’s so kind of you to do, Gaz. I appreciate people’s requests. I didn’t see you asking this or I might have asked for one too – but I think everyone else has got it covered pretty well. Farewell, old world!
That is so very nice of you.
but cheer up, the new world is amazing !
I have to say, I’m quietly looking forward to the expansion pack arriving on the doorstep soon. I’ll probably re-boot the account in a few days to get patched and have a poke around beforehand.
Any tips of what to look at that I might be a bit bewildered with? I’ve not been in Azeroth for a year.
Take a look at the new Gnome starter area and see what you think of Gnomeregan! There’s also a ton of other changes around – a whole world to explore! Many of the quests have also been redone – the new 1-60 experience is a real treat.
Mage wise, the talents have changed, glyphs have changed, some rotations have changed, stats have changed, gemming has changed, etc. There should be enough guides here to get you started though š
Thanks so much, going to link to this post.
Great site btw, got you in my reader now!
Thanks for doing this Gaz, very cool.
In fairness, I rolled a Gnome Priest last night and really like the new area there as well, so it’s a fond farewell and a bright new day.