World of Warcraft 1.11 Update Unveils the Necropolis, More

Blizzard released the 1.11 update to World of Warcraft, a major update to the companyis massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG). The patch introduces a new 40-person instance called the Necropolis, and includes many changes, enhancements, and clarifications for all of the character classes (Mages and Shamans have their talents reset due to major changes). Numerous other changes have been added, too.

Necropolis

The most change in the 1.11 patch is the addition of a new 40-person instance called the Necropolis. The Necropolis is the home of the Lich King KeliThuzad, and it is located floating above the Plaguelands. It is also the home of new Scourge invasions, so players should be ready. Blizzard said the Necropolis will "present even the most experienced and powerful players with an epic challenge."

Classes

Character classes have the usual assortment of major changes to each of them, and Mages and Shamans have both had their talents reset so that players can respend them for free. This is due to the fact that they have had major structural changes to the talent trees (Mages have a brand new talent, as do Druids).

Quests

"Dozens" of quests have been added throughout the game, including many new ones at Lightis Hope Chapel in the Eastern Plaguelands (most likely pertaining to the new instance). A new Legendary item (the most rare and powerful level of item) quest has been added, as well.

Mac-specific changes

The following Mac-specific changes were made:

  • "Maximized Windowed Mode" on a multiple display setup now leaves extra displays available for desktop use.
  • In windowed mode, the window position and size is now saved on exit.
  • Command-clicking the zoom button in windowed mode will now toggle amongst a few standard sizes.
  • The desktop is no longer displayed when switching between full-screen resolutions.
  • Cinematic support on 10.4.x systems has been revised to use CoreVideo for playback.
  • Fixed a bug that could disrupt window sizes of other apps and desktop icons when switching in and out of fullscreen mode.
  • Keyboard event processing has been improved and is less likely to drop keystrokes.
  • The config.wtf variable "screenshotFormat" allows the user to choose "png", "jpeg", or "tga" (Targa) format for screen shots.
  • Fixed an issue in WoW where pasting in multi-line text from the clipboard would result in one long line of text in the text view.
  • Fixed an issue where international characters were not being copied and pasted correctly in some situations.
  • Conditional support for future OpenGL performance enhancements in OS X.
  • Fixed a bug which could cause improper on-screen positioning of game scene when using a mod such as CTWorldFrame, in conjunction with fullscreen effects such as the glow & death effects.

Everything Else

The release notes for this patch are epic in length, and include everything from changes in stack size for some items, to new items like keyrings (for holding more than one key in a given slot), to changes in reputation with some factions, to changes in various aspects of the PvP system, to numerous changes in various raids, to changes in the user interface, to numerous changes to the scripting system, and many other changes. Reference the release notes that come with the update for details.

The update can be obtained through the WoW client.