World of Warcraft: Classic’s latest patch, patch 1.13.4, is now live! Blizzard is adding a variety of features to the game with this patch, including battleground holidays and the latest battleground, Arathi Basin, as well as a handful of bug fixes.
The first thing to discuss in the battleground holidays, which we did a full writeup about here. The important thing to know, though, is that Blizzard has implemented the holiday feature that emphasizes a single battleground each week. These weeks will never be consecutive for each battleground, and will grant extra honor and reputation with the appropriate faction for that battleground. They’re a great way to help with your honor grind as well as your rep grind if you’re aiming for a specific reward from the honor vendors!
Second, we have the latest battleground, Arathi Basin! This classic (get it?) battleground was active in Vanilla and fills in the sizeable level gap between Warsong Gulch (Level 10 and higher) and Alterac Valley (Level 51 and higher). Arathi Basin’s level requirement is 20 or higher, providing something other than Warsong Gulch to do until you unlock Alterac Valley in the later levels.
Arathi Basin works somewhat similar to a King of the Hill style format, with five bases to be captured. These five are Farm, Stables, Lumber Mill, Mine, and Blacksmith, arranged around each other in a semi-diamond with the Blacksmith on a small island in the middle. Players compete to see who can hit their resource goal first in a 15-versus-15 matchup, with a faction generating resources depending on how many of the objectives they control.
Each of the objectives gives an identical amount of resources, so no single objective is more desired than the other. However, some are more geographically difficult to defend or attack than others, and some objectives are closer to a faction’s spawn.
Finally, we have a handful of bug fixes, which we can rattle off pretty easily. There isn’t too much here, and most are just quality-of-life changes.
- Players will receive warning dialogue when entering a raid with an active lockout, helping to avoid accidental raid saves
- Harvesting nodes (mining and herbalism) on zone boundaries will be more “reliable”
- Multiple particle effect changes, such as making Thunderfury and Perditions Blade brighter than before
- Fixed issues with Nefarian momentarily flying away at the beginning of Phase 2
- Honorless Targets are now immune to Mind Control
- Hunter pets now move in a straight line towards targets instead of going to behind them
- Shaman mana tide totems now deliver a fourth tick of Mana Tide more reliably
- Warlock Blood Pact is no longer re-cast when Amplify Curse or Nightfall take effect
And those are the changes in patch 1.13.4! Get out there and claim an objective for whatever your faction of choice is – Arathi Basin awaits!
