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Mythic announces the first live expansion to Warhammer Online!

Michael Zenke
Updated ·5 min read

Massively.com recently had the chance to speak with Warhammer Online Executive Producer Jeff Hickman. Mr. Hickman laid out for us the much anticipated 'bombshell' news for their PvP-focused MMO: an entire expansion being released over the next few months as live events.

Warhammer Executive Producer Jeff Hickman: We've been launched for four or five months now, and all we've done for this time is looking at the game, listening to our players, playing the game ourselves. We've been drilling down into all of the little pieces that weren't quite right for us. We've been looking at client/server stability, what we can do with the RvR system, introducing the two new classes ... we've drilled down on any and all concerns that players might have to perfect the game as it stands right now.

With that starting to be under control, we looked ahead and said to ourselves, "we have about four or five months to do some really interesting, cool new events." We're calling it a live expansion. We're trying to hit really hard for players that haven't tried Warhammer, or perhaps players that tried it and then went off to play Lich King or something like that. We want them to come back, see all the improvements we've made, and all the new content coming up.

We're calling it "a Call to Arms."

Read on below the cut for full details on the expansion, head over to the official site for their take, or click through to one of our related posts for further information:

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A Call to Arms really starts at the end of February. It's a number of different events starting with what we're calling the "Bitter Rivals" live event. It's going to be a lot like previous events we've had in the past. It will be tied into the Tome of Knowledge, generally there will be a whole bunch of tasks and quests and interesting things you can do to earn rewards – all while learning about the story of Warhammer. Bitter Rivals is all about the Dwarf Slayer and the Orc Choppa finally coming to Warhammer Online.

We've spent a lot of time preparing for those classes, especially working to prepare for the Slayer. It's just so iconic for our game. The Call to Arms is all about the kings of each faction calling up reinforcements. The story of the Bitter Rivals event leads into the unlocking of these two new careers in early March. As a player you get in and take on quests and tasks, RvR activites, and can finally unlock the new classes about a week early. They'll be available for everyone else a week later than the Bitter Rivals participants.

We'll continue going down that path, then, something big is coming. The kings of the realms are continuing this call to arms, resulting in two more live events. One is in April, the other in May, and I don't have a whole lot of details to share with those two ... but they lead up to the grand entrance of our new game zone that we're putting in. This zone is what we're tentatively calling "The Land of the Dead." It's a dungeon, but it's really more than that. It's an external zone with an internal dungeon attached to it.

The Land of the Dead is based in the lore of the Tomb Kings, and we're specifically targeting it as a successor to what we did in Dark Age of Camelot with "Darkness Falls." This is an RvR-gated dungeon, and you have to earn control over the dungeon from your enemy. Dungeon control will constantly be flipping back and forth. There will even be overlapping control, where you're actually fighting for ground in the dungeon against the other faction.

It features dozens of new Public Quests, new types of PQs, new instances, new lairs, new weapons, items, and rewards ... and, of course, the Tomb King tomb itself. It's a massive pyramid at the center of the dungeon that you can choose to have crazy epic adventures in. All of this together is the "Call to Arms". It's the rise of the Tomb Kings, and the calling up of reinforcements by the kings to go exploit this new area. All of this taken together is just this massive arc of three months, where there is constantly new content coming into the game.

Here's the timetable for these events:

  • Call to Arms: Bitter Rivals Live Event (March):

  • The Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer answer the Call to Arms and join WAR! (March)

  • Call to Arms: Beyond the Sands Live Event (April)

  • Call to Arms: Rise of the Tomb Kings Live Event (May)

  • Land of the Dead Opens (June)

Mythic has announced the first expansion to Warhammer Online! Check out the announcement itself, the two brand-new classes coming to the game, and the enormous new dungeon/zone slated for a few months away! Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!