The Iron Tide, New Character Models, Warlord's Deathwheel

   The Iron Tide has arrived! The dark portal has turned red, and with it have come hundreds of Iron Horde orcs. Both Nethergarde Keep and Okril'lon Hold have been taken over by them, and there is a quest line within which you attempt to undermine their efforts by sabotaging war machinery, collecting their plans and killing their lieutenants. It's far from a challenging quest line, and you're awarded at the end of it with an achievement that will become a 'legacy' achievement in a month's time when the quest line is removed, an 'of the Iron Vanguard' title, and an Iron Starlette companion pet. There are also a ring, neck piece, cloak and trinket with item level 515 to be received from the quests, so it's well worth doing on any character that could do with a few easy upgrades before the expansion.

   The new character models have been integrated, and they're easily toggled on and off in the game menu>system>advanced window. A lot of people are unhappy with them, but for the most part that's simply because it's a change they have to get used to, and that can be hard. I know I'm sad to see some of the features I chose for some of my characters get changed for the worse - Spinegrinder seems to have suffered the most - but otherwise, I have to say that I'm quite pleased with the rest of the changes. More than pleased, in fact - to a small degree, it's like a new game. Some might say that's an extreme statement for just new character models, but when you're focused more on your character and their adventures than on the game's raiding and PvP content like me, it's a pretty big deal. And I've fallen in love with Daeaye all over again.
   We'd already seen comparisons between the old and new faces, but seeing the comparison with your own character feels quite different, and I can't believe how good Daeaye looks, and how bad she used to look. But of course I barely noticed at the time. Yes, female trolls always felt a bit unfinished, with their jerky idle stance and their lack of ability to blink, but I loved them anyway. But now? I watched her blink a few times and called Seeg down see it.

   She. Looks. Fabulous.

   I have changed her face and her hair, however. I love what they've done with the 'cute' face, as I've said before, but I always wanted her to look both attractive and fierce at the same time, but that never felt possible before. Now, however, you have the choice between cute, ugly, cute, fierce, and a mixture of the three. I couldn't be happier. But I had to change her hair because, as much as I adore the mohawk, I didn't like the sudden shade-change in the character portrait. A silly reason, perhaps, but it bothered me, so I changed it to my second favourite hair style. I'm still over the moon with her, though! She runs a little better now, too.

   Vol'jin has now taken his place in the Warchief's hall in Orgrimmar, and all of the Kor'kron have been replaced by ordinary orc, troll and tauren grunts. Orgrimmar almost seems safe and welcoming again! And, Xan'tish has his snakes back. Also, I realise this isn't something that happened in the patch, but I've only just realised that the rug in the centre of the warchief's hall is a very rough map of Azeroth, minus Pandaria. They need to sew a new piece of hide to it.

   The wonderful, wonderful toybox has been implemented, freeing up a good amount of bag and bank space. A few items are automatically added, but they've not been removed from your bags or banks, whereas other items you have need to be added manually. A few items that used to be trinkets are now no longer so, such as the Super Simian Sphere and the Orb of Deception, and now count as toys to be used directly from the toybox tab, which is in the same interface as the mounts and companion pets. So go through your banks and collect anything labelled 'toy' in the tool tip. Delete those that say 'already known', and 'learn' the ones that don't. The toybox also tells you all the remaining toys you've yet to collect and how to obtain them in the same vague manner as the companion pets tab, as well as toys that are presumably coming in the next expansion. So we are clearly going to see a good increase in the silly vanity items that I love since we have somewhere to put them now. This has, as I've said, also freed up some bank space, so while we were 'only' given a void storage tab, we've also been returned some of our bank bags and slots, too. There are also simple achievements such as Toying Around, Having a Ball, and Tons of Toys, and it counts your progress in your collection along the top.

   And last, but certainly not least, is something that Blizz failed to bring to most of our attention. The Horde Chopper - the Warlord's Deathwheel - was added in patch 6.0.2, but not only was the file put in place, but it was actually added into the game. The mount is already in the mounts tab of all Horde players who logged in last month and it looks awesome. Unlike most other mounts, your characters hands actually grasp the handlebars. And Daeaye rocks it. I want to fly in the next expansion to get the most out of the scenery and exploration, but I swear this is one mount I'm excited to become valid again.

   The Alliance mount has yet to be added, however, suggesting they're going to have to wait a little longer before they can purchase their version. I only have one Alliance character, however, so I'm personally far from fussed about that! But I do hope on their behalf that they don't have to wait too long. I would imagine that there will be a vendor towards the end of the Iron Tide or in the next expansion myself.