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BlizzCon 2013: Art panel featuring angry toucans, gronn-bone fortresses, spikes
Today's Art of Warcraft panel provided more than just an in-depth look at the new character models coming our way in Warlords of Draenor. We also glimpsed some of the exotic locations that we will visit once we cross through the new, rosier Dark Portal. One area features a fortress built in the skeletal remains of a massive gronn. With steaming fumaroles, gushing waterfalls, and vibrant flowering plants, Draenor appears to be a livelier place than much of Outland. Designs for the new garrison system displayed interiors for various additions, including what appears to be your future inn and smithy. Many of the new weapon, siege weapon, vehicle, and building designs were also shown. The visual look for the intimidating and aggressive Iron Horde has themes of metal, fire, and unabashed spikiness. Artwork of what appears to be a war barge could be Iron Horde in origin. The panel also showed some of the wild fauna that we will encounter through the Dark Portal. Included were a crazy armless rodent, a vicious sunflower-esque sprite, and one very angry toucan. Trippy whales appear to be the evolutionary ancestors of Zangarmarsh's fungal giants. Curiously, the whale artwork is labeled "Zangar Sea." Massive void giants appear to be the bigger, voidier versions of void walkers. Check out the full gallery of over 120 images below!
BlizzCon 2013: First look at Warlords of Draenor, Alliance-side
With the hotly-anticipated announcement of World of Warcraft's next expansion, Warlords of Draenor, comes the almost-as-equally hotly anticipated opportunity to get a glimpse of what's in store for us at the BlizzCon WoW demo station. I had a chance to run the first part of a new dungeon -- Bloodmaul Slag Mines -- with Matticus and a crew of other con-goers, but after that, I took the opportunity to play with some character creation and explore a little bit. Three of the playable races have new models available on the BlizzCon demo: orcs, dwarves, and gnomes. I picked a female dwarf mage, and spent a bit of time customizing her. While there don't seem to be any new hair style or color options (at least not yet), the new models blow me away. I really cannot overemphasize how impressive they are. I'm most struck by how true they feel. I have worried that with the character model upgrade, the toons that I've played for years and come to know and love would suddenly feel like different characters entirely. As it turned out, there was no need to fret. The models are exactly what I'd hoped they'd be: upgrades. They feel just like the characters we've grown to love, only with more polygons, more nuance, and more expression. Bravo, Blizzard, truly.
Over 1,000,000,000 Kobolds have been killed
It was revealed on the live stream today during the Art Panel that we've killed over 1,000,000,000 Kobolds in Elwynn Forest alone. We've taken a helluva lot of candles. There has been no indication if genocide charges are being brought up against the Alliance. We suspect there won't be, however. Fortunately though, candles are now cheap. But there are only 572 candle models in the game, and 42 of those are for the 42 different kinds of Kobolds in the game.
BlizzCon 2013: Inventory improvements in Warlords of Draenor
In the World of Warcraft: What's Next panel, Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street announced several new inventory updates on the way for Warlords of Draenor. Your bags are about to get a lot less cluttered. New account-wide collections similar to mounts and pets: heirlooms, toys, and possibly tabards. The toy box puts all of your fun vanity items in a spellbook type interface. They will no longer take up bag slots! You can set favorites in your toy box (as well as your mounts) to help sort them, and there will be a new button to "summon a random favorite" mount. Bags will be sortable without any external addons. Other new bag features include the highlighting of recently looted items, a gold piece icon on items which are safe to vendor, and colored borders around icons based on rarity (blue, purple, etc.) Quest items will no longer take up bag space. They will just be activated from the quest tracker. Crafting can be done using materials in your bank and the stack size of many materials is being increased to 100.
BlizzCon 2013: Hands on with Warlords of Draenor
"If you could describe the upcoming expansion [Warlords of Draenor] in one word, what would it be?" I asked an anonymous Blizzard developer. "Savage describes it." They weren't kidding. I'll tell you why in a moment.
BlizzCon 2013: Major stat and item changes
Three major changes to stats and items have been announced in the official Warlords of Draenor FAQ. They are: Hit and expertise will be removed New stats will be added, including Cleave and Movement Speed New armor itemization will allow easier sharing among classes Warlords of Draenor FAQ Q: Will you be making any changes to what Stats are available? One of our goals for Warlords of Draenor is to make the act of finding and collecting loot even more exciting for players. With that in mind, we're adding some fun new stats to gear, such as Movement Speed and Cleave, which gives you a chance to do extra damage or healing to additional nearby targets. In addition, we'll be retiring a few stats that players don't find very enjoyable to manage, such as Hit and Expertise. We're also making improvements to armor itemization that will make it easier to share armor pieces across classes. We'll have more details to share as development continues. source We also want to note that the item squish is active on the Warlords play stations at BlizzCon. More on this tomorrow at the systems panel, according to Cory Stockton.
BlizzCon 2013: Moving into Warlords of Draenor's garrisons
Arguably one of World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor's biggest selling points is its just-announced garrison system. A panel at BlizzCon and the official FAQ have details as to what this version of player housing will look like. Garrisons will be phased outposts that players will establish in any zone on Draenor and use as headquarters for their adventures there. A garrison is basically a small town that can be upgraded and customized, but it has a functional aspect as well. Players meet NPCs during questing that will go back to the garrison where they can be put to work doing missions whether you're logged in or not. The garrison is integrated into the game world and can be visited by one's friends. Different buildings in the garrison bestow different bonuses, such as an infirmary healing followers and inns allowing for greater recruiting. Buildings can be upgraded three times with a specialization choice at the end, and they can be decorated with monuments and trophies from achievement rewards (among other sources). Crafting, even in professions that you haven't trained, will be available, and Blizzard is promising that epic-quality gear can be made through this system.
BlizzCon 2013: Dance Studio in the new Garrisons?
The above graphic was shown during the What's Next? panel without comment. Listed as one of the buildings that can be added to garrisons is Dance Studio. Is this a joke? Are they trolling us? Or is Blizzard finally delivering on the Dance Studio promise? It most likely is just a fun addition to the UI mock-up. But it's fun to speculate. Update: Yup! Just trolling us. A+ trolling Blizzard, please troll again. J. Allen Brack said on the live stream interview: "We talked about and developed a whole bunch of different animations and different technology that we could use. We didn't really come up with a really great game system behind it. It is something that we talked about. It is something that we wanna do at some point. But it's not something we're currently working on."
BlizzCon 2013: Hearthstone card revealed
The Hearthstone card that BlizzCon attendees and Virtual Ticket viewers will receive is the Elite Tauren Chieftain card. It comes with rocking (literally) animations. This will be automatically showing up in the battle.net account that is attached to the BlizzCon ticket or the Virtual Ticket.
BlizzCon 2013: World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor revealed
World of Warcraft will continue its adventures in its fifth expansion pack called Warlords of Draenor. Blizzard announced the new expansion at BlizzCon today following heavy rumors when the title was discovered in a trademark database. The expansion will pit players against "a savage enemy without remorse." The opening ceremonies showed a trailer for the expansion, which boasted a slew of features for the new expansion. These include the world of Draenor, an increased level cap to 100, the ability to instantly advance a single character to level 90, a garrison to build and defend, and new character models. You can keep an eye on warlordsofdraenor.com and the official FAQ from BlizzCon for more information once it launches and watch the trailer after the break.
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor Announced
Blizzard Entertainment has announced World of Warcraft's fifth expansion, Warlords of Draenor. The expansion will bring players to Draenor, the original homeworld of the Orcs. The expansion leads players to familiar and new locations seen in WoW's first expansion, The Burning Crusade. Highlights of Warlords of Draenor include: Build and upgrade your own garrison New character models New PvP zones Level cap raised to 100 Boost one character to level 90 and play immediately More on the expansion as the day continues. Expect lots of updates as we cover BlizzCon 2013.
BlizzCon 2013: Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone betas
At BlizzCon, Blizzard gave an update on two of its titles in beta: Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone. Heroes of the Storm will begin sign-ups for the MOBA's beta program today (opt-in is live right now on Battle.net accounts), while Hearthstone will go into open beta next month. Rob Pardo amended the timeline for the latter, saying, "In Blizzard-speak, that might be January." Mobile versions of Hearthstone for iOS and Android platforms will come out in the second half of 2014. You can follow these announcements and more on Massively's BlizzCon liveblog.
BlizzCon 2013: Beta opt-in now active for "Heroes of the Storm"
Dustin Browser announced a few minutes ago during the BlizzCon 2013 Opening Ceremonies that beta sign-ups are now active for the Heroes of the Storm beta. If you're worried about how to find it, head to your Account page on Battle.net and then the Games and Codes menu. Under that, click Beta Profiles and you'll see the new Heroes of the Storm opt-in at the top. UPDATE: The Heroes of the Storm cinematic has now been uploaded to YouTube in glorious HD. Thanks, Stiven!
Massively's BlizzCon 2013 liveblog: Opening ceremony and WoW presentation
BlizzCon 2013 is now underway, and we're expecting big news from the folks at Blizzard, like more details on the Diablo III Reaper of Souls expansion. There's also the first ever Innkeeper's Invitational for Hearthstone, the white-knuckle gameplay of the StarCraft 2 tournaments, and the Hollywood insanity of the upcoming World of Warcraft movie. Most MMO gamers, however, are anxiously waiting to hear about World of Warcraft's fifth expansion. Is it happening? Whom are we fighting? Where are we going? Are there any new classes and races? If you want to be among the first to know but didn't snag a ticket, real or virtual, then join us in the comments below as we blog about all the juiciest news -- live! And don't forget that the opening ceremonies are being streamed for free!
Furor returns to World of Warcraft
Alex Afrasiabi, AKA Furor, has returned to work on World of Warcraft. Alex began his career as the guild leader of a famous Everquest guild (Fires of Heaven) and then came to work at Blizzard, eventually becoming Lead World Designer for WoW. He left WoW and was rumored to be working on the Titan project. But now, according to the BlizzCon schedule, he is the Creative Director for what we assume is the next expansion. He will be on World of Warcraft: The Adventure Continues panel. Also appearing on the panel is Game Director Tom Chilton and Dave Kosak, who was formerly the Lead Quest Designer and is now listed as the Lead Narrative Designer. As this panel will be discussing the direction of the story, Chris Metzen will of course be there as Senior Vice President of Story and Franchise Development. The panel will be at 2:30 p.m. PST on the A Panel Stage. So if you are interested in the story and/or the return of Furor, the Adventure Continues panel is for you. If you're not attending BlizzCon and don't have the Virtual Ticket, WoW Insider will definitely be covering this panel.
Reminder: Free live stream of the BlizzCon opening ceremony, e-sports
BlizzCon is upon us! If you haven't purchased a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, you will still be able to watch the opening ceremony for free by visiting BlizzCon.com. It all starts Friday at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT). E-sport events including the StarCraft II WCS Global Finals, World of Warcraft Arena Global Invitational, and Hearthstone Innkeeper's Invitational will also be free to stream all weekend. The Virtual Ticket gives you access to all of the developer panels and the closing ceremonies spread out over Friday and Saturday, as well as some in-game goodies and VODs for all of the events. If you're at work or otherwise unable to watch the live stream, we've got your covered here at WoW Insider with live blogs of the opening ceremony and all the World of Warcraft panels.
15 Minutes of Fame: Road to BlizzCon cosplay -- the grind to perfection
There's simply something about Amanda. When we first spied her making the rounds with her stunning green-eyed paladin at BlizzCon 2010, we found ourselves captivated. Yet Amanda wasn't a finalist in 2010. She didn't draw crowds by displaying huge swaths of bare skin, parading up and down the promenade in front of the convention center. Not a seamstress, she doesn't even craft all of her costumes' parts and pieces personally by hand. What Amanda Wisley does is cosplay with heart. The die-hard fan outsources her imagination to create costumes that exemplify the spirit she sees in the game she loves. This WoW lover loves to bring her visions to life, sharing them over long hours walking the convention floor and grounds to visit with other fans. But while this year's BlizzCon will see her buried inside a full fur suit as a pandaren monk, will her hopes of participating in Blizzard's official costume contest get buried as well? In an upsetting discovery made long after tickets had been purchased and her costume was in progress, Amanda learned early last month that she'd not been lucky enough to snag one of the coveted sign-ups for the costume contest. She's been assured that she's high on the waiting list -- but after months of preparation, a successful race for BlizzCon tickets, booking air travel and accommodations, and of course all the expenses of creating her costume itself, will she get her shot at walking across the BlizzCon stage? Take a look at the emotional highs and lows of this determined cosplayer's road to BlizzCon 2013 as her costume and itinerary laboriously come together.
Heroes of the Storm shows off its first key artwork pre-BlizzCon
It's not even time for Blizzard's convention, but a revelation has already surfaced for those rabidly following the upcoming Heroes of the Storm. The first key artwork of the game has been released via Twitter, so anyone who was worried that the game would not feature a variety of characters from Blizzard's popular franchises can now rest easier. And if you're not a fan of Blizzard, you can start speculating whether this game will settle the eternal battle between Scary Black Armor Guy and Futuristic Space Marine With A Lady On His Shoulder. Those of you who are fans will recognize several staples from various games, including Illidan, Sylvanas, and the Lich King from World of Warcraft alongside Tychus Findlay and Lady Never-Actually-Appearing-In-Her-Own-Game (better known as Nova) from StarCraft II. it remains to be seen whether we'll hear more about the game when BlizzCon kicks off, but under the circumstances, it seems likely.
BlizzCon 2013: Murkalot is in the mail
If you are attending BlizzCon or have the Virtual Ticket, Murkalot the battle pet should be in your mailbox. The murloc pet based on the new Crusader class for Diablo III started showing up in mailboxes on Wednesday evening. Unlike previous event pets, Murkalot will not be showing up in all of your characters' mailboxes because pets are account-wide. I'm not sure how Blizzard picks which character to send it to. It showed up on a level 90 I haven't played in a while, but it may have been the first character I logged into after it got mailed out. Murkalot's idle animations include disappearing into a beam of light and then falling on the ground afterward. He picks himself up and shakes himself off before returning to his ready position. Are you attending BlizzCon virtually or physically and have you received your Murkalot yet? What do you think of him?
The Think Tank: What do you predict for this year's BlizzCon?
BlizzCon is back this year after a brief vacation in 2012, and Blizzard fans are bursting at the seams to find out what the studio has in store for the future. We have a handful of Blizzard fans on the Massively staff, so I thought I'd poke around and see what types of predictions we can get for the con. Will World of Warcraft announce a new expansion? Is the studio plotting a new game entirely? Or will cosplay be the only interesting aspect of the whole event?
