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Warlords of Draenor cinematic and release date to be revealed on August 14
The wait for Warlords of Draenor is coming to a close. No, we don't have a release date yet, but Blizzard has promised that they'll be releasing the release date on August 14th alongside the reveal of the expansion's cinematic. The announcement will be done during a live stream event featuring Mike Morhaime, Chris Metzen, Ion Hazzikostas, and Brian Holinka broadcast from the Ace Theatre in Los Angeles at 9:30 AM PDT on August 14th. If you're in the LA area, you can see the event in person -- doors open at 8:30 AM and seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis -- and get a Warlords beta key out of the deal, too. Additionally, Blizzard will be unveiling a new animated lore mini-series called Lords of War, which we're guessing will be similar to the Burdens of Shaohao series released during Mists -- but we'll have to wait to August 14th to see just what it will look like.
Breakfast Topic: What do you want to see in the alpha?
The Warlords of Draenor alpha is here, though this early version only contains a rather limited amount of content. Of course, an alpha test most definitely a testing phase, and an early one at that. Unlike the game at release where we'll have a whole expansion's worth of content ready for us the moment we log in, the alpha is both piecemeal and buggy -- since it's the alpha and other testing phases that get us to the pristine game we see at launch. That said, we'll soon be seeing the alliance joining the fight on the alpha as Blizzard opens Shadowmoon Valley for testing in the next build. When Shadowmoon opens, however, the horde's Frostfire Ridge zone will shut down, at least for now. But with Shadowmoon and alliance content on the alpha horizon, let's talk about what you want to see next in the alpha. Are you just waiting for more garrison details -- in which case this next build will be of great interest to you -- or are you craving end-game information? Tell us about it!
Stormwind to be repaired sometime during Warlords of Draenor
Lead Designer Cory Stockton tweeted last night that Blizzard hopes to get Stormwind repaired during patch 6.0's lifetime. Stormwind was destroyed during the cataclysm and Deathwing's onslaught. Ever since the place has had its fair share of ruins scattered about the city. In Mists part of the bridge and entry way leading to the Alliance hub was fixed, but that's all the progress that's been made. @Vigilate_MW We hope to get to it during 6.0. - Mumper (@mumper) June 6, 2014 Personally, I'm thrilled. Seems all the NPCs working their butts off to fix Deathwing's damage finally accomplished something. Good on them!
Warlords of Draenor: Understanding Draenor Perks
What's the point of a Draenor Perk? It's a question that seems to be fairly common among players, ever since the bonuses were mentioned in the patch notes for patch 6.0. As players level from 90 to 100, each level will bring with it a perk. Each class and spec has nine perks, and by the time you hit level 100, you'll have them all. However, the order that you receive these perks is completely random. You can't choose the perk, the perk chooses you. Wowhead dug up the full list of Draenor Perks for each spec and class, and the perks themselves seem to be pretty much the same -- bonus damage or a boost to specific player abilities. In many cases, it's just a flat percent damage boost. This seems all well and good, but players seem to be confused about the point of the perk system, since it looks a lot like something that was deliberately culled from the game a few years ago.
Warlords of Draenor: Music, sounds, and maps
While we've been seeing a lot of screenshots and art from the upcoming Warlords of Draenor expansion, much of WoW's in-game atmosphere is set by the music -- there's only so much we can get from these still images. So if you want to get a feel for the ambience of Draenor, you'll definitely want to check out the music and sound files Wowhead has compiled. There are 21 music files -- most no more than a minute and a half long, so it's not likely to be the entire soundtrack -- as well as numerous ambience, FX, creature, item, and spell sounds. Though it's a lot to sort through, the reward is great for fans of WoW's soundtrack. But if music isn't your thing, Wowhead also has 17 area maps to peruse -- and until launch day (or at least beta day), this is as close to Draenor as we're likely to get.
Interview: Technical Game Designer Chadd "Celestalon" Nervig talks Warlords of Draenor
I was lucky enough to head over to Blizzard Campus this week to talk to Technical Game Designer Chadd "Celestalon" Nervig. Chadd is a huge part of the class design team, key to a lot of the changes we saw in the recent Warlords of Draenor patch notes, which is just what we discussed. We were also joined by Senior Community Representatives Zarhym and Lore. You can also find a much-abbreviated summary on Wowhead. Olivia: First up, is there anything you really wanted to clarify and get out there? Celestalon: I've tweeted about pretty much everything. This was the first version of the patch notes, there have been more changes since then, those patch notes are about a week old or so? Zarhym: Yeah it's like, tons of changes. [Rygarius] said he had a huge list of changes. Celestalon: There's another five thousand words that aren't up there yet, which [Rygarius] is working on now. There have been different amounts of patch notes released for different classes. Paladins have been complaining that they haven't got enough, rogues have been really happy that not much has changed. Is it safe to assume there's more to come? This is just step one? There's definitely more coming. Like, for example, paladins had relatively few patch notes, and a lot of that is we were relatively happy with how things played out, at least for ret and prot, with the exception of a few things we can solve with tuning – changing numbers. So a lot of what you see in the patch notes now is what we call design changes, so the mechanics that we want to change so we can get to some design that we like.
What the Dev Watercooler says about the future of PvE
This week's Dev Watercooler post served up a lot of changes for healers. But just because the article -- and the follow up conversations on Twitter -- is dense with healing talk doesn't mean that the tanks and DPSers out there can just ignore it, because these healing notes offer some tantalizing hints at what PvE group content in Warlords might be like. Of course we're missing a lot of details with Blizzard's bit-by-bit announcements, but we can make some leaps based on what we've been told so far. We already knew that the game would be changing significantly in Warlords. Stats are being reduced (squished) across the board, but Blizzard has already said that while stats will be going down, your relative power won't -- back in September Ghostcrawler assured us that mobs will still take the same time to kill, even though the numbers involved will be different. And in this update, Blizzard let us know that they're still on track for that relative power idea... that is, unless you're a healer, specifically saying, "we're buffing heals less than we're increasing creature damage." So just what does this mean for future PvE encounters? Let's take a look.
Breakfast Topic: Garrisons throughout the world
We know that in Warlords of Draenor, we'll only be able to establish our garrisons on Draenor itself. However, let's play pretend on this fine morning. If your character was given command of a defensive garrison in any zone in WoW to maintain the peace, where would you set up shop? Azeroth proper? Somewhere over in Kalimdor? The Outland we know and love? Remain in Pandaria, maybe? Personally, I think I would look toward Northrend. Northrend isn't central to anything, so it wouldn't be the most convenient location ever, but I can't think of a cooler place than Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, or the Howling Fjord to have a command post. They aren't my favorite zones in the game, Zagarmarsh claims that title, but they have exactly the right vibe for that kind of thing. A dangerous, imposing frontier? A possible location for future, civilized settlement by the Horde and the Alliance? It would give a sense of having a purpose in the overall scheme of things beyond the current war effort on the latest front, which is pretty cool. What about you?
My Warlords of Draenor dreams
I worry that I'm getting too excited for Warlords of Draenor. Letting my head run away from my heart, so to speak. I've done it before - pretty much before every expansion, I got super excited and imagined up a whole host of ideas for what the expansion was going to be like and all the cool things we were going to get to do and sometimes they came true and sometimes they didn't. Wrath of the Lich King ended up disappointing me greatly, because the Northrend I'd imagined wasn't even close to the Northrend we got (and to people who loved Wrath I probably sound like a crazy person) while Cataclysm ended up going so far beyond the revamp I expected that to this day I'm still very fond of it as a 1 to 60 experience. It started the transformation of the Horde/Alliance balance to one of much closer parity. Mists has been an interesting experience in that regard, in that I simply didn't expect the Pandaria we got at all, but I'm fairly happy with that - the hozen, jinyu, mogu, grummies and saurok are all far more interesting to me and did a lot to make Pandaria far from a monolithic experience. And so, I sit here imagining all sorts of things for Warlords and wondering how much of any of it I'll get to see.
The Queue: Elders, pet battles, and more
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. It's Monday, so let's jump right in. alpha5099 asked: Question in honor of the last days of the Lunar Festival: Given that the holiday is centered around Moonglade and the druids, it makes sense that the majority of the Elders are either Tauren or Night Elves, the pre-Cata druid races. But then the other race of Elder seems to be Earthen. Does this mean that there are Earthen druids?
Breakfast Topic: How are you killing time until Warlords?
We may not see another patch before Warlords of Draenor, which means the content in the game right now could be all the content we'll have for a while. And though plenty of players are still working through Siege of Orgrimmar raid content or collecting endless numbers of Timeless Coins, some of us are already starting to get bored of the Warlords waiting game. But sometimes, not having any new content on the horizon can give you a chance to stretch your virtual wings and work on in-game goals you haven't gotten around to yet. Maybe now is the perfect time to try your hand at PvP, the Brawler's Guild, or finishing up your Loremaster (or the Insane) achievement. So tell us, readers -- how are you killing time before Warlords arrives?
What are you looking forward to in Warlords of Draenor?
There's always a lot to be excited about at BlizzCon, where announcements and new game information tumble freely from developers' lips. But now that things have calmed down and we've all had some time to think about it, we'd like to know what you're most looking forward to in World of Warcraft's next expansion, Warlords of Draenor. With ten new levels, the new/old continent of Draenor, and player-built garrisons, there are a lot of cool features on offer here -- but just which one is your favorite? (And which, like the long-discussed dance studio, will be lost to time?) Let us know what feature most piques your interest -- and if it's not anything in our poll, let us know in the comments! %Poll-85803%
Breakfast Topic: To fly or not to fly?
We're getting used to this now, flying being restricted on new continents. It happened in Northrend, it happened in Pandaria, and now it's going to happen on Draenor. But what's your take on Blizzard's repeated removal of our in-game wings? Personally, I support the absence of flying for the first character. I've mentioned it before, but that first yak ride to the top of Neverest blew my mind. The beauty of it, the sense of adventure as my yak skipped happily up the narrow paths to the summit, I loved it. If I'd hopped on a dragon and flown there, I'd have missed that magic. So, to that end, I support the devs in the idea that they should not give us our wings the very second we happen upon a new continent. However, once the sense of wonder has faded, it gets old pretty quickly. Even in Mists, I would probably have preferred to be able to fly earlier on my alts, to have something like the now-defunct Tome of Cold Weather Flight available. Getting flying still feels like an achievement when you hit 90, but I wonder whether it really adds anything to the leveling experience the ninth time around. And I'm not looking forward to waiting for 6.1, personally. %Poll-85757%
Breakfast Topic: Does Warlords of Draenor need another class or race?
Speculation was rife in the days leading up to BlizzCon, with people wondering what the new expansion would bring in terms of classes and races. There were various rumors of various levels of hilarity, such as Mo'arg for the Horde and Ethereals for the Alliance, or Ogres, Demon Hunters or Corgis... you name it, it was speculated. Then Blizzard pulled a fast one on all of us: Warlords of Draenor will have neither a new race nor a new class. And I'm OK with it. Personally, I think the last thing we need from both a PvP and a PvE perspective is another class. We're having enough trouble with the eleven that we do have at our disposal, and adding in a twelfth would not help matters. They'd also have to increase server capacity again, and who knows whether they even have the tools to do so. As far as new races go, in my personal opinion, the sheer amount of speculation indicates how people didn't really have a firm idea on what they wanted. And really, what would you have wished for from the existing races? Naga? Ogres? Ethereals? Personally, none of those excited me. But I'm just one person, what do you think? %Poll-85765%
7 things casual players need to know about Warlords of Draenor
The dust has finally settled from the BlizzCon newstravaganza, which means it's time for us more casual players to figure out just what's going on with World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion, Warlords of Draenor. Here's the basics: Where's the expansion set? Draenor, before it became Outland. Yep, we're heading back in time for this expansion. What's the new level cap? 100. But don't panic if you haven't even reached the Mists level cap yet, because Blizzard is going to boost one of your characters to level 90 so you can play in Draenor. What can I do in Draenor? In addition to the standard leveling, questing, dungeoning, and raiding, the expansion will have garrisons for you to build. Think of them as a seriously amped up version of the farms in Mists, letting build your own in-game city. What new classes or races are coming? None -- however, all of the current classes are getting new models. It may not sound like much, but it makes the original WoW races look brand new. When will I be able to play? We don't know yet. But as with most Blizzard games, we suspect it will be out "when it's ready." So that's what the next expansion has in store for us. But there are some upcoming gameplay changes that will definitely help low-level or more casual players find their footing and get through the game -- if that means you, read on for 7 things you'll want to know about the next expansion.
The Light and How to Swing It: Paladining at BlizzCon
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Seasoned ret paladin Dan Desmond is here to answer your questions and provide you with your biweekly dose of retribution medicine. Contact him at dand@wowinsider.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions! Wow, what a weekend. Not only was the convention a lot of fun but it was great to meet fellow paladins and non-paladins alike. Most of my time was spent meeting people, watching panels, and playing demos. Amidst the chaos I didn't allocate much time to mulling things over, how the proposed changes in Warlords of Draenor would affect how I, and so many other ret paladins, approach the game, so now that I've had a decent night's sleep and my liver is mostly alcohol-free, I'm spending my day off in blessedly quiet reflection. We didn't see much of any class discussion this year, and unless I missed an entire panel there wasn't a single paladin-related question throughout the entire convention. There are some big questions that it would be nice to have answered, like the permanency of holy power, the relative weights of our stats, the deletion of the warlock class, etc. We did get a few overall changes, changes that will affect ret in turn, so let's see how some of these could impact our day-to-day facesmashing in Warlords of Draenor.
Warlords of Draenor interview with Senior Game Producer Ray Cobo
Over the hectic BlizzCon weekend, I had the pleasure of sitting down with World of Warcraft Senior Game Producer Ray Cobo. Ray oversees various aspects of game design, with a specific focus on the art and design elements of WoW. WoW Insider: So, the character models we've seen so far look amazing, the dwarves, gnomes, the orcs and draenei, what else are we expecting to see at the launch of the expansion? Ray Cobo: Well, we're also going to have gnomes, we're also going to have undead, I think we're working on everything we can up to launch. Our hope is to be able to get them all out at the same time, and that includes trolls, that includes draenei. But it comes down to, you know, we only have so many hands in the fire, so we will just have to see what we can do. So are you able to say anything about the ones that are furthest from completion? The ones that we're least likely to see at launch? Well, of course the ones that we've seen at the con are the ones that are furthest along, we feel they're kind of representative of the kind of direction we want to go there, and we feel really good about them as a set.
Xbox Live features Planets Under Attack, big board, card, and puzzle game sale this week
Yes, the majority of you will probably be playing Halo 4 or Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on Xbox Live this week. This we know. But just in case you're looking for something else, Major Nelson has a whole list of new content on Xbox Live this week. Perhaps, for example, the new version of Atari's Warlords, available for 800 Microsoft Points. Or one of three new Kinect Sports games, for 240 points each, or an XBLA version of Targem Games' Planets Under Attack, for a full 1200 points.There's a sale on, too: Carcassone, Catan, Magic: The Gathering, Magic 2012, Super Puzzle Fighter HD, and the two Puzzle Quest titles are all half off, for just 400 Microsoft Points each, and Ubisoft's I Am Alive is 33% off, down to 800 Microsoft Points. A downloadable course pack for Tiger 13 is as 50% off, and that's not all. Later on this week, Major Nelson says Microsoft will be hosting an "Xbox Live is 10" sale, which will include discounts on some content, as well as giveaways to some Xbox Live members "who have been with us the longest."We mean, sure, it'll mostly be Halo 4 and Black Ops 2. But just in case, there's some good deals there, too.
Learning to play Warlords isn't as easy as you'd expect
We considered ourselves pretty good at the Atari 2600 version of Warlords, but that boast required only proficiency at swinging a paddle around to hit a ball into our opponents' corners. So we questioned the necessity for a "how to play" video for the update, until we watched it and remembered this update is ... an update. This thing's got actual strategy in it! You have to lead a "Rally Snoot" character to a control point -- a control point! -- and then have him wait for another to arrive in order to capture it. You can boost the shields around your castle, and even aim shots. In other words, there's stuff do do other than frantically moving a paddle around to deflect a single giant pixel.
Warlords screens are fairly full of fireballs
The constituent elements in the latest batch of screenshots for Atari's Warlords remake are just what you'd expect: Castles, tiny soldiers and more fireballs than could possibly be numbered by anyone, even if they're using some kind of sophisticated fireball-counting apparatus.
