Thoughts on WoW’s 7.1.5 Patch

Patch 7.1.5 comes out on Tuesday, followed by the upcoming Nighthold patch a week later. Fairly large changes are coming to WoW that are worthy of a little commentary.

WoW secondary stat changes in legion

Fixing Secondary Stats aka WoW’s Worst Itemization Ever

Blizzard really screwed up with Legion’s itemization and stat weights. Secondary stats have been so jacked up that items 15+ levels ahead other items would sometimes be a 30%+ downgrade. I’m wearing items in the 850 range (aka fresh level 110) and choosing not to equip items in the 870 range (higher end raids) simply because on stats. That’s slightly absurd.

The coming fix will address this by a big of nerfing some stats, make others better, etc. Basically they’re adjusting the weights. I’m not really knowledgeable about how all of that works. I use an addon called Pawn which handles a lot of those calculations for me when deciding which gear is better (an addon I’ve never had to use until secondary stats were so jacked up), but hopefully won’t have to use it much moving forward.

I just want to know that having 200 agility is > having 190 agility. Keep it simple. Stat complexities aren’t helping my immersion any.

MoP Timewalking dungeons

Mists of Pandaria Timewalking Dungeons

I enjoyed most of Pandaria’s 5-man dungeons. I’m looking forward to trying them again when they come around in the rotation. I wish Timewalking dungeons were available all of the time, and that their rewards were better. Dare I say it, this is a reason I actually liked the token system in previous expansions. I liked choosing what I do and receiving tokens that I could spend on anything. Would be cool if I could do Legion or Pandaria (or any era) dungeons and receive modern credit towards new items rather than just the knickknacks.

7.1.5 brawlers guild

Brawlers Guild

I never did the Brawlers Guild stuff in the past. The concept of single-player activities is nice. I like challenges, and some of them in the video previews look fun. I like the activities that break up the daily drawl of emissary quests and raids.

Single-player content in general is also nice. Jumping in and doing something without having to organize the people makes sense when looking for activities to fill in the holes between raids.

wow micro holidays ahn'qiraj

Micro Holidays

I’m doubtful that I will get into these much. I feel as though the WoW holidays have really slipped over the years. They aren’t creating enough “woah, cool” factor anymore. When the Christmas and Halloween events first started rolling out — even for a few years — they were always great to see. Now they’re mostly ignoreable and forgettable since they haven’t updated them. These little micro-holidays just don’t do it for me.

Gul'dan in WoW 7.1.5 Nighthold

Nighthold

Here’s the real bread and butter content contained within 7.1.5. Nighthold showcaes many familiar names like Krosus, Tichondrius, and Gul’dan. I not only look forward to besting them, but seeing the story unfold and continue. We have raided regularly since like … October? That’s a while to do pretty much the same thing. Emerald Nightmare was cool, but I feel as though it had little to do (if anything) with Legion. It was more of a nod to the players clamoring for it over the years.

I fear the amount of trash in Nighthold. Emerald Nightmare was fine for trash. ToV was fine (though we were sorta promised none).  With 10 bosses, I’m worried we’ll have tons of demons and Suramarian themed packs to wade through. It’s simply unnecessary to inundate with trash. Bosses need not involve garbage mobs designed to do nothing but increase the time spent in a raid.

Final Thoughts

7.1.5 represents a good deal of content, and really the first big patch of the expansion. I’m hopeful that we will see continued patches at a reasonable rate (perhaps more often than even this one) as we journey along in Legion’s lifespan. We still need to hear more about Argus, and how the rest of this story will unfold. I’m ready! Bring on the reasons to log in and keep playing.

  • I never paid much attention to stats, since I mostly do PvP and stats are normalized in all types of instanced PvP, so iLevel is king. I really wasn’t aware of this issue.

    Also, I wouldn’t exactly call 850 “fresh level 110”. You can’t get anything above baseline 845 doing WQs (and your iLevel already has to be pretty high to see those) and you have to do Mythic+2 before you even start getting above baseline 840ish. Normal Emerald Nightmare drops 850. So, I would say 850 is more like “Mythic+5/heroic ready 110”.

    I never do any of the holiday stuff, raid or Brawler’s Guild. So this patch was kind of disappointing for me. I was kinda looking forward to more content. Just got into a new guild that isn’t dead though so I might try my hand at raiding if I have the time to devote to it. The Brawler’s Guild does look interesting though I might check that out.