Massively^™

Great news for World of Warcraft gamers today, as the weekly Tuesday maintenance leaves behind a nice present: patch 2.4.2. WoW Insider has the full monty on what you can expect when you log back in. The full patch notes will give you the details you crave. WI always goes that extra step, though, and has additional information from the community about stealth changes. Did you know there's a new Zebra mount being added to the game?

Here's the bullet-point rundown:

• Major changes to the PvP Arenas.
• The Mage spell Polymorph now works quite differently.
• Tweaks to the Jewelcrafting, Enchanting, Engineering, and Leatherworking professions.
• The bosses Vexallus and Kael'thas are no longer immune to taunt on Normal difficulty in the Magisters' terrace encounter.
• Hunters will have to learn new tactics due to some controversial changes to class and pet abilities.
• Weaponsmiths will now be able to enjoy their non-unique one-handed items.

We've been wondering for months now what Blizzard is holding back. Wrath of the Lich King seems like a very competent, well-planned addition to World of Warcraft, but it's all so samey. More zones, more loot, more content, the usual. The addition of the Death Knight and a PvP-focused overland zone are interesting, but hardly revolutionary - Burning Crusade changed so much about the game that it's been hard not to be a little dissapointed. Now Massively's sister site WoW Insider offers a hint that perhaps there's more to the expansion than the company has let on. WI reports on a post to the MMO-Champion site, from a forum-goer who found something intriguing in the newest 2.4.2 patch notes.

Buried in the code are several programming strings that hint at big changes to the WoW Recruit-A-Friend program. At the moment all the program offers is a few days of extra play time if your companion opens up a subscription. The strings, though, suggest that someday your referred friend may be tied much more closely to you. Hints are there that you'll be able to teleport your friend to you, that recruiting a friend may increase your reputation with certain in-game factions, and even that you may be able to grant levels to your friend's character. If these additions to the game are to be believed, this system will have limits; you won't be able to teleport your friend around beyond a certain level, and characters that have leveled past a certain point will no longer be able to have levels granted to them.

The notes also imply that your own character's level is somehow tied to the number of levels you can grant a friend; perhaps some sort of metacurrency. This is fascinating news, if true, and hints at the possibility of even more changes coming to World of Warcraft in coming months. Certainly here at Massively we've been talking enough about subjects related to this; it's wonderful to see Blizzard coming at the problem of the endless grind from such a unique angle.

While no more major patches are expected to hit World of Warcraft before Wrath of the Lich King is released, we'll probably see quite a bit of tweaking between now and then. The next patch due for the service, numbered 2.4.2, makes some major changes to the way that Arena battles rewards PvP players. Previously, members of an Arena team were rewarded with Arena points based on the overall rating of their team. IE: if the average of the team members was 1900, and each team member participated in enough fights, everyone on the team was rewarded Arena points as if their rating was 1900. As of the upcoming patch, that's no longer the case.

Individual Arena ratings will now be taken into account. According to Blizzard Community Manager Drysc, "if a character's personal rating is more than 150 points below the team rating, they will earn points based on their personal rating instead of the team rating." Individuals will no longer be able to 'float' their way to large amounts of Arena points. Arena gear previously required just a certain team rating, but with change that rating will also apply to a character's personal Arena rating. If a team's average Arena rating is more than 150 points below the team rating, they'll be queued against appropriate opponents. This will prevent individuals from quickly improving their personal ratings through individual matches. And finally, "If a team does not enter an arena match that is starting they will lose points equal to the amount that would have been deducted if they had played and lost." This will work to prevent teams from abandoning matches until they compete against a group they are specifically looking to fight.

WoW Insider is reporting on the notes for the next patch to World of Warcraft. Even with the recent release of the much-awaited Patch 2.4, there are still numerous tweaks that have to be made. It's expected that there will be a number of these smaller patches between now and when the Wrath of the Lich King expansion releases, but no further 'major' patches ala the Sunwell.

Patch 2.4.2 offers up several different changes to the game, including:

• A major revamp of the way players are rewarded Arena points.
• Being polymorphed by an NPC no longer causes player characters to heal, a potentially major change.
• A new tameable pet for Hunters.
• Tweaks to the Jewelcrafting, Enchanting, Engineering, and Leatherworking professions.
• The bosses Vexallus and Kael'thas are no longer immune to taunt on Normal difficulty in the Magisters' terrace encounter.
• A series of minor tweaks to the abilities of almost every class.

The full patch notes are available at WoW Insider.