Yesterday was patch day for Euro servers and after the incredibly long patch time for Splitpaw (again), we finally got chance to dive into the game.
After patching my UI (ProfitUI Reborn), I dive straight into the melee that is Lavastorm to investigate the new zone. First order of the day /who, culled at 100 players. Most of these players are hanging around the docks, looking at the new shiny armour.
There are a number of new quests located in the cave off the docks and these are set for mid 40′s and level 80. The mid 40′s quests lead you out into the old part of Lavastorm and a nice little tradeskill quest right from the off (shame I can’t fish for toffee).
The level 80 quests are where I headed, I collected a couple of quests and set off left down the new beach, swashies being culled all over the place due to the void mobs that double up and wander around the area. More players than mobs makes for a gruelling solo session.
The quests are pretty fun if a little frustrating with the number of players there and the rewards that are very nice indeed, the Order of Flame is the faction that lets you get some good items including a 35 Haste belt and some items that made Mori in our guild squeal when she saw it 
One of the big changes in the game update was the addition of a new UI element called the Threat Meter, it shows you where you are on the mobs hate list as a percentage. A nice addition, if you are on top of the hate list you can see the person who is next in the chain so you can adjust your hate output.
As I use Profit UI I don’t know whether others got this added UI element, there is now an Auto Melee attack bar that allows you to time your spells and combat arts so you can trigger your auto attack (it doesn’t always fire). I find it really helpful and it has taken some getting used to.
Tonight is HQ night in the guild, but once that has been done I’m going to go back and continue questing in the zone.
Related posts:
I’ll have a look at the new quests when I get on tonight.
The hate meter is ok for tanks but I found a problem with it last night as Sres knows (the wonders of voice chat). If an additional mob wanders into the fight and aggros you, the meter shows 100 as your top of that mobs hate list. This is how it’s meant to work but I’d prefer it to show my position on my target’s hate list, rather than the mob hitting me. It’s pretty obvious when I’m taking hits that I’m top of a mobs hate list.
I think I need to turn on something in my UI though as I don’t see the health/power bars over the mobs unless I mouse over. This means as I found out last night I also miss the new hate bar.
That said, not sure I want the bars over the mobs on my screen, not sure I need it as a healer either. I usually manage aggro fine without it, though I can see how it could be useful for tanks and high DPS classes.