With the patch very close to being live on the Public Test Realms (PTRs), players are going to have an opportunity to test out the new content being made available for the 1.10 patch. As has been previously stated, much of our design focus for this patch was directed towards improving and creating content for players that don't wish to raid at level 60. I've detailed much of what's in-store below.

A brand new quest series has been added for each class which will allow players the opportunity to upgrade their existing dungeon set. The current dungeon sets consist of rare items that range from level 52 to 58. Each new set however, once fully upgraded through completing each quest in the series will provide players with four high level rare (blue) items, and four epic (purple) items. The upgraded sets are textured differently so that they are fully distinguishable from the standard dungeon set.

The new quest series begin with soloable quests, but eventually will take players into instances such as Scholomance, Stratholme, Blackrock Depths, along with both Upper and Lower Blackrock Spire. What's particularly exciting is that these quests challenge players to fight brand new bosses which have been added to each of these dungeons. These bosses, while created and placed for the purpose of the dungeon set quests, have been fully itemized so players can kill them for loot, whether or not anyone in the party even has the associated quests.

In addition to itemizing the new bosses, we've done an extensive review for the overall itemization of these dungeons, and have made several noteworthy improvements. For instance, many items which were previously uncommon (green), will now be rare (blue) and of course their statistical values have been improved. Also, in addition to the new items which drop from the new dungeon bosses, we've added new items to existing monster loot tables throughout these instances. Drop rates on several valuable items have been improved, such as set pieces which were previously difficult to obtain, i.e. Devout Bracers. The drop rate of epic quality items in these dungeons, such as the Felstriker, were also significantly improved.

Furthermore, all current dungeon sets have been standardized, meaning that now, belts, bracers and gloves for all nine sets will be BoE (bind-on-equip), as previously some classes had three items that were BoE while others had two.

Players will also notice that the placement for many of the set items has been optimized. For instance, players seeking the Magister Boots will no longer have to kill the Postmaster but rather take down Hearthsinger Forresten in Scholomance, a more convenient endeavor.

To further enhance the experience of grouping in these dungeons, we've adjusted the player cap for each so that it's in-line with the exact number of players that we tuned the difficulty of the dungeon for. Below are the new player caps for each dungeon.

Stratholme: 5 players
Scholomance: 5 players
Blackrock Depths: 5 players
Blackrock Spire: 10 players

We realize that it will take some players time to adjust to the new dungeon caps, however, it should be understood that with the intended caps in place the rewards players will receive when running through these dungeons will be that much greater. Currently loot designed to drop for a party of five is often being split between a raid party of ten. With the appropriate caps in place, players will have an easier time finding groups to complete dungeon quests, in obtaining rare and epic item drops, and probably most important, each player's individual contribution to the success and dynamic of the party will increase substantially.

Another change which will be particularly helpful for players end-game, is one we've made which will convert quest experience at level 60 to a value in gold. When the patch goes live, players at level cap can turn in quests and receive gold based upon a ratio of the experience that would've been gained if it were possible that they could level further.

This system will also carry over for the expansion, when players reach level 70.

This should also make questing in dungeons much more viable since typically experience for level 60 dungeon quests is fairly high, making for a decent reward in gold for each successfully completed quest.

In closing, we're really excited about the opportunities patch 1.10 will offer players in terms of improving their end-game characters. Feel free to use this thread to post your thoughts on that which I just disclosed.