starting-zones
Latest
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Pandaren introduction video
In what seems to be an update to the latest beta patch, the full video and audio files for pandaren just starting out on the Wandering Isle have been added. Like other starting zone videos, this one features a sweep over the Wandering Isle's gorgeous landscape, offering a small taste of what's to come. The voiceover feels like a marked departure from the other starting zones; there's a different flavor to the audio and music that feels entirely different from anything we've seen before. Of course, there's still one question that everyone is waiting to find out: Now that the official introduction has been added, how long will it be before we see Mists hit live servers? It's going to take a release date before we know that one for certain. However, the fact that the 5.0.4 PTR is now live seems to suggest sooner, rather than later. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
BlizzCon 2011 World of Warcraft Art Panel
I know that the World of Warcraft preview and question-and-answer sessions always tend to attract the most commentary at any given BlizzCon, but for my money, the most interesting ones in the long run tend to be those concerned with the game's artistic and technical sides. Seeing how developers got the game to look the way it does, and the reasoning behind the design of different races, zones, and items gives you a much better appreciation of the game while you're in it. The gorgeous Uldum sky didn't get there by accident. As you'd expect, the art panel contained a number of previews of the characters, locations, dungeons, and props we'll be seeing in Mists of Pandaria. If you're only interested in a peek at the male pandaren's model and animations, well, you can get that here, but there were a number of interesting observations made. Two of the things that really jumped out at me: They're experimenting with tier and item set models. Rather than pasting a design onto the standard-issue flat chest and leg pieces, for example, we may see swinging chains, ribbons, and other three-dimensional objects on more gear in the future. Technical advances in very recent months have made it easier and faster to add more detail to the environment. New texture tools have made it possible to add snow or lava between cracks in a road, or pooled in the nook of a hill, much more quickly than they could earlier. We'll have a full gallery of the panel up later! The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
Breakfast Topic: The starting zones you most love or hate
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. With Cataclysm looming, I find myself tearfully saying goodbye to the game as I've always known it. I have leveled (well, at least partially leveled) a character of every race on the Horde side (except an orc), and I've leveled a night elf out of the starting zone on the Alliance side. Now, everything has changed. The starting zones that I grew to love or hate are already different, and I'm not sure what to think about that. I loved the tauren starting experience, and I hope that it only gets better with the new expansion. However, I quickly tired of the orc/troll starting zone. Likewise, I did not have the urge to go through the blood elf starting experience with multiple characters. But once I gave it a chance, I enjoyed the undead experience quite a bit. I think what I enjoyed about the tauren and undead experiences was that I felt like I was involved in the lore. Additionally, I found that the scenery of Mulgore and Tirisfal Glades made the leveling experience more enjoyable. Which pre-Shattering starting zones do you think were the best, and which ones were the worst? With the world having undergone such a drastic change this week and more still to come, which new leveling experiences are you looking forward to the most?
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite starting zone?
No matter where we end up in our MMOs -- the hardcore end game raider, the PvPer, the trade chat troll -- we all share the same starting points: a delivery room at Warhammer Mercy Medical. No, wait, I mean that we all magically start our existence as fully grown adults who already possess advance combat training (just like real life, amirite?), and for whatever reason, we begin our story in the same spots as everyone else in the world. Perhaps we should be calling these starter zones "Mommy"? In any case, what's your favorite starting zone out of all the MMOs you've played? What evokes the strongest sense of nostalgia, provides the smoothest leveling experience, showers you with wondrous atmosphere and tells the best story? Some MMOs add newer starter zones long into the lifespan of the game, forcing players to choose between the creaky "old" newbie areas and the spiffy golden eggs that the devs just laid. As a bonus question, do you prefer these newer starting areas to the original ones?
Cataclysm: Guards in starting zones buffed to level 90
Planning on kicking off Cataclysm by killing all the quest givers in newbie zones? Think again: Blizzard has increased the level of starting zone guards in areas like Coldridge Pass and Deathknell to 90. These guards are currently level 65 on the live servers. The change, which guarantees you'll be at least five levels lower than the guards, takes advantage of existing game mechanics to protect lower-level players from mischief. NPCs that are five levels higher than you are exceedingly difficult to hit (spell casters will suffer a 39 percent chance to miss) and frequently wallop you for higher-damage-causing crushing blows far more often. The guards will also have higher health pools as well. This contrasts vividly with guards on the live server, who are prone to dying if a level 80 character accidentally sneezes on them. Level 90 guards are better suited to protecting newbie players from max-level griefers. Note that only starting areas will see these high-level guards. The guards in major cities are now level 85 -- dangerous, but soloable. Players who are upset by this change are encouraged to stop being jerks who grief newbies. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
The Tattered Notebook: Through the Darklight
Welcome, wandering adventurers, to another chapter of The Tattered Notebook. This week, we'll take a crack at our first guide for Sony Online Entertainment's EverQuest II. Actually guide is probably a strong term; this will be more along the lines of a chronicle, since we'll examine the path I traveled through one of the game's many starting zones and offer a bit of commentary along the way. Why the change in direction, you may be wondering, and whatever happened to my exiled ratonga wizard? Well, I've spent the last couple of weeks betraying him and have hit something of a roadblock, both on his betrayal quest and with regard to his leveling pace. Consequently, I figured, what better time to roll up what is likely to be the first of many alts and take a small break from my main? Character attention spans have never been my strong point, I'm afraid. Never fear, though; more ratty adventures are in the offing. For now, your captain (and mine) as we navigate the treacherous terrain of newbville is a dark elf shadowknight. Not the most original combination, I'll grant you, but he sure looks cool. Without further ado, turn the page and let us dive deep into the Darklight Wood.
The Tattered Notebook: Post-Halas Reborn interview with producer Dave Georgeson
Hello there, brave Norrathian adventurers! It is I, Seccia Ravenloft, back again from my recent excursion to track down "The One Final Truth." While I didn't find "The One Final Truth," I did run across Dave Georgeson again, and that made the whole excursion totally worth it. Last week, I noticed a fair number of you had some problems with Shader 3.0 in EverQuest II. I'm sorry to hear that your pathetic non-Tier'dal computers cannot handle the wonderous onslaught, but I certainly brought that up with Dave in this interview, as well as the controversial decision to remove the starting areas of Freeport and Qeynos. Plus, I may have even weaseled a small detail or two on the next expansion out of him, thanks to my incredible interrogation techniques. But why shall we delay the inevitable any longer? To the interview, quickly!
Worgen starting zone preview from Scrolls of Lore
In lieu of providing any new information on Cataclysm in the wake of BlizzCon, Blizzard's been showing the goblin and worgen starting zones at a lot of major gaming conventions, which means a good handful of players have had the chance to try them out. Nostra from popular lorecrafting site Scrolls of Lore is one of those handfuls, and they've written up a fantastic walkthrough of the worgen starting zone, starting from your character's royal connections and subsequent infection and culminating in Deathwing's cataclysm. What's not explained (so far, likely because no one's able to get that far yet) are how the night elves play into the whole worgen "thing" as shown in the Cataclysm trailer, but there's still a lot of new information on phasing, quests, and scenery in Gilneas besides what we've already covered, as well as accompanying photos. It's definitely worth a read. Hopefully Blizzard will continue to fill in more blanks in the worgen storyline as we get closer to the expansion's release, or maybe even update the Cataclysm site more than once every four months. In the meantime we can rely on sites like Scrolls of Lore to give us exhaustive previews of public demos like this one. Thanks, Nostra! World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
BlizzCon 2009: Worgen and Goblin starting areas with the Props team
The Props team at BlizzCon showed a video on what they do, and also displayed a lot of the characterization and mood setting of the new Goblin and Worgen starting areas. The Lost Isles for the Goblins are just beautiful and quirky and funny, abounding in tropical drinks, a breakfast machine, and a "rocket-catapult-turtle-powered-machine" (and did they actually build a railroad out of bamboo?), although I have to say that the Dickensian/Victorian feel of Gilneas is just...words fail me. It's lovely. This is perhaps the loveliest, most haunting, spooky and creepy zone Blizzard's ever done, and...it's going to be an almighty lagfest when Cataclysm hits. Oh well. Truthfully, I had no idea just how much of what we think of as the "landscape" is in fact the Props team at work.As an FYI for readers who have observed this on previous video, yes, there are gold-sellers' ads popping up on Viddler, and no, we're not happy about it, and we certainly didn't put them there. BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!
BlizzCon 2009: Live blogging the Cataclysm new starter zones
Live from the BlizzCon press room it's character creation for Worgen and Goblins. We're going to write up our experiences live, so keep your eyes on this post.Be warned, below there be spoilers!
Gamestop makes another funny
Whoever writes the descriptions for Gamestop and EB Games is quite the joker -- we already reported on their hidden little note for the early preview, but now that we're getting closer and closer to the Wrath of the Lich King release, they've posted another funny on the preview page.This time, they're making fun of the starting zones -- apparently the "Borean Tundra" is where the Packers play (chuckle), and a "Howling Fjord" is what you get when the windows of your Tauren Taurus are cracked open (guffaw). Cute. Just don't quit that day job of writing descriptions for Gamestop's sales pages.Thanks, djtyrant!
