WrathOfTheLichKing
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What we learned from BlizzCon
Here it is-- a comprehensive, one-post guide to everything we learned at BlizzCon 2007. From Alleria to Zul'Aman, it's all here. Everything we know about Death Knights, Wrath of the Lich King, what's happening in Azeroth between now and the next expansion release, what Blizzard thinks about midlevel content, and how they're going to deal with the AFKers in Alterac.From top to bottom, in alphabetical order, here's every single new thing WoW Insider learned (and confirmed-- no speculation here) in Anaheim this weekend. If you have questions or additions, add them below, and I'll either update the list, or answer them to the best of my knowledge. Enjoy.
Officers' Quarters: New content, new challenges
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.With another BlizzCon behind us, the wealth of information about upcoming content has been at times overwhelming. As a player, I'm always excited to learn about what's around the corner. But as a guild leader, I worry about what kind of ugliness is going to crop up as a result of it. From the upcoming patches to the WotLK expansion, new challenges will arise to test the savvy, determination, and people skills of officers in all types of guilds. Just like the CEO of any good business, a guild leader shouldn't just react to challenges as they arise, but anticipate them and take steps to meet them head-on. Let's examine what's in store for Warcraft guilds and what we can do now to transition smoothly into the future.
Do we also get Flying Sheep on Fire?
As the world found out this last weekend via Blizzcon, there are some grand plans in store for World of Warcraft and Wrath of the Lich King. One of the many things that was mentioned was the creation of Engineering-based flying mounts. however earlier today we received an email from someone calling themselves "Blizguy" and claiming to have leaked information about the upcoming Engineering mounts that will be featured in Wrath of the Lich King. Since I love the idea that Engineering is going to finally get some much-needed love, we figured we'd pass along this rumor. The claims are that the flying Gyrocopter will actually be a flying siege vehicle, much like the Dwarven Gyrocopters, Dwarvish Flying Machines and Gnomish Flying Machines from the original Warcraft RTS series. The rest of the rumor claims: Will require the max level of Engineering. Schematic will be obtained through a series of quests. Is a flying siege weapon! Will require level 78 to use. (Claims likely will be changed to 80.) Will have durability like any other piece of gear, and will require occasional repairs. My question is, if they're implementing the gyrocopters from the RTS series, will they be slow, heavily armored versions, or zippy but poorly armored flyers? Or perhaps will we see a combination of both with the lighter ones for scouting? In either case, while this is all only unsubstantiated rumors at this point, I have to admit, zooming in for an attack on a gyrocopter would be a pretty cool addition to PvP. (Never mind that whole "Horde didn't have gyrocopters" thing... heh) And hey, there might actually finally be a use for that airport outside Ironforge, even if only as a place for quest-givers.
New expansion, new map
In Wrath of the Lich King, we'll get a new continent, new talents, a new class, a new profession, and probably lots of things we don't even know about yet. However, it looks like some of the old is also changing. Inspired by a post over at Casual WoW, the above image shows the WotLK map with outlines from the current live map superimposed in blue. So what's changed? Kalimdor changed in shape significantly. No longer looking quite so much like a penguin, it now has a more crescent-shaped profile. Two new islands off the southwest coast of the Eastern Kingdoms. New bit of land north of Westfall, west of Stormwind on the west coast of EK. Islands Northwest of Tirisfal removed, and two small ones added north of Scarlet Monestary [thanks, Captain Tonga] Why do you think these changes were made? Theorize away. It looks like mostly unreachable areas that were removed, but I can't imagine what they're going to do with that new chunk of land near Stormwind. Of course, this is just artwork, and may not correspond that closely to actual in-game geography, but I bet something is going on there.
Changes to the events calendar
It would appear that the appearance of L70ETC at the Darkmoon Faire heralded a couple of changes to the overall in-game events calendar. One fairly cool, and another that stands to cause some questions. It would appear the schedule for the Darkmoon Faire has changed so that once every three months, it will now cycle through Terokkar Forest, ostensibly in the location it is in now. For those collecting the new cards this is a useful change, as it saves you from having to portal back to Azeroth, and then hearth back to Shattrath just to get your item. For everyone else who isn't collecting cards, it gives you a chance to blow your fellow players to bits in a game of Tonks. It also marks the first permanent location with the Darkmoon Faire in neutral territory, which will probably lead to some fairly decent World PvP.The other thing that is different with the in-game events calendar is that the Halloween holiday, Hallow's End is missing. Now, we don't know if this is simply an oversight on Blizzard's part since the Hallow's End page is still there (after all, they did just get finished with an awesome weekend full of Blizzcon festivities!) or if this is an intentional removal from the calendar. I do know that if it was an intentional removal, I'm going to miss getting those silly costume wands that you could use on other folks in your party. Sure, the wisp forms got annoying as they removed just about all chance of fighting. But it was fun to flap around as a bat, or try to make your Skeletal form jump -- and watch it fail miserably, thus just making it hop-levitate without moving its feet. And what about throwing rotten eggs at the opposite faction? There again, Blizzard may have something even spookier up their sleeves to start ramping up for Wrath of the Lich King... Perhaps another Scourge invasion? I guess we'll have to wait and see. [thanks RogueJedi86!]
Xfire has chats up from BlizzCon
Yes, even though we've been extremely busy here at BlizzCon, the guys from Xfire (who stopped by our party on Thursday, as did a few folks from Upper Deck and Blizzard), haven't been slacking off, either. They've posted quite a few live chats over the weekend, and here's a roundup for you to browse through. Their biggest event was probably a chat with Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan-- I actually was standing right next to him when they did this one. If you're an Engineer, check it out for sure-- he says they'll be able to craft flying machines! They also chatted it up with a few high profile players: The1Crow and Beraa from MYM (and here's part 2), The Hukhukhukhukhuks from Team EG (parts 1 and 2), and even Jonas from Nihilum. And we have no idea why they wanted to do this, but before the Con, they even sat down to chat with us-- here's part 1, part 2, and the Lightning Round! (guess which is my favorite part) Amanda, Elizabeth and I all made predictions about what would happen, and we got a lot of stuff right (and, ok, some stuff wrong). Plus, Xfire has lots more from the floor, including pictures, updates, stories, news, and tons of other stuff. Thanks to them for all their help this weekend, and go check out their coverage!
BlizzCon Day 2 liveblog session roundup
It's been another Warcraft-filled day here in Anaheim, with several meaty sessions with the Blizzard developers digging in to the mechanics of the game and some of the changes we might expect in future patches and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Once again we camped out near the life-giving sustenance of two 110-volt friends to bring you as close to the action as it happened as possible -- here's a roundup of the sessions we liveblogged today at BlizzCon: Professions and items Legendary Pictures Warcraft film panel WoW PvP Panel Day 2 Class panel Q & A Lore and quests panel For those of you who missed it, here are all the sessions from day 1: Opening Ceremony Wrath of the Lich King live demo session WoW Class Panel Dungeons and Raids Panel
BlizzCon Day 2 Class Panel notes and Q&A
Because this is a repeat panel from yesterday, we didn't liveblog it. But here are some notes as well as the Q&A session from today.Senior Vice President of Game Design, Rob Pardo announced that they would be going through the same information as yesterday, but more quickly so that there would be more time for Q&A. The crowd applauded.Notes of differences or embellishments compared to yesterday's panel: Shamans were witch doctors in Warcraft 3. PvP balancing is done for 2v2 or 3v3, etc. WoW is not a dueling game, so class abilities in team PvP are worked on as opposed to single class vs. single class. Talents were inspired from Diablo 2. Moonkin Itemization in the PvE environment is not supported currently and is being worked on. Mages are the "experimental" class. The three classes of the Paladin put the class in three different roles as opposed to, for example, the Mage who is DPS, regardless of spec. Priest's Lightwell will get some scaling from gear. Warlocks got booed again. Death Knight notes: Hero Classes are classic Warcraft 3 characters and should have an Epic feel to them. There are class balance concerns, particularly with tanking. But because tanks are hard to find for groups, adding a different tank was considered a good idea. Death Knights will have their own Rune Resource system. Q&A after the break.
Notes from the BlizzCon press conference
Blizzard's J. Allen Brack, Frank Pierce, and Rob Pardo sat down in front of a small group of members of the press this morning to answer question about Blizzard's history, games, and outlook, and WoW Insider was there. In the hourlong chat, we covered Wrath of the Lich King, WoW's past, whether WoW should appear on a console or not, and what's going to happen to the old world. Just for you guys, I personally asked about Heroic Deadmines, midlevel content, and what they're going to do about those AFKers in Alterac Valley.My notes from the chat are after the jump. There were not one but two PR people hovering around the developers, so even they had to stop themselves from revealing secrets, but they did provide a lot of background and a lot of clarification about what players want to know about Wrath of the Lich King and Blizzard behind the scenes.
[Updated] BlizzCon Day 2: Professions and Items session liveblog
We are back at our happy little camp of the power source spot in the press area to liveblog the WoW Professions and Items panel with Tom Chilton, Travis Day and Jon LeCraft.Updated: This post has been cleaned up and extensively added to after it was partially eaten by a technical error.Liveblog after the jump.
Breakfast Topic: What do you think of what you've seen and read so far?
BlizzCon is half way through and I'm just eating it all up! As much as it is, it's really never enough though. I want to read everything and play it today -- thus begin the months and months of anticipation, but I suppose that's how it is with such games!What do you think of BlizzCon and Wrath of the Lich King so far?
Wrath of the Lich King concept art
More eye candy for you -- this gallery contains concept art from Wrath of the Lich King. We're pretty sure the Tuskar Chief is moonlighting from Grant Theft Walrus.%Gallery-5526%
Wrath of the Lich King screenshots
We've got some WotLK screenies for you, including some areas of note from around the Northrend continent including scenery from Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra and Grizzly Hills. We'll keep this short and sweet so you can get on with the ogling.%Gallery-5525%
First impressions: Wrath of the Lich King and Utgarde Keep
I just got done playing through a quest in Northrend and up to the first boss of Utgarde Keep, and here's my general impressions of what I saw. Elizabeth was a little disappointed with what she saw this morning, but I grabbed a press pass and snuck into the press room here at BlizzCon (where playing time was relatively unlimited), and I feel I got a pretty good impression of the Howling Fjord zone, and the first 5-man we'll see in WotLK.So what did I think? Click the link below to find out.
BlizzCon Day 1 Liveblog session roundup
We've managed to commandeer a patch of the press seating area located conveniently next to a dear, beloved power outlet and have been camped out all day bringing you live coverage of all the presentations here in the BlizzCon main hall. The big news of the day was the official confirmation of Wrath of the Lich King as the next expansion, to be released, in true Blizzard style, "whenever it's ready." We've got loads of pics and specs from both the opening keynote and the Wrath of the Lich King live demo session earlier today, as well as some great mechanics discussions from the Class Panel and Dungeons and Raids Panel. Here's a roundup of all the session liveblogs from Day 1: Opening Ceremony Wrath of the Lich King live demo session WoW Class Panel Dungeons and Raids Panel
Wrath of the Lich King hands-on demo from BlizzCon
As you may already know if you've been following my Twitter updates from the BlizzCon floor, I've spent the last several hours standing in line to play the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. And while I want nothing more than to tell you just how incredible this expansion is going to be, this demo was very limited and didn't show off any of the exciting new stuff that I'm eager to get my hands on. My impression is that the demo is a very early draft of the coming expansion, and the interesting stuff just isn't ready for us to play with yet. Curious to see what I thought of the new demo content? Keep reading!
WoW Moviewatch: Wrath of the Lich King
Fresh from Blizzard today, here's the trailer for Wrath of the Lich King. My first impressions? It looks surprisingly similar to old-world Azeroth -- which shouldn't be surprising, I guess, because it is in the same world, after all. "So come then, you heroes" is the new "You are not prepared." I can't wait to make a Death Knight.
Wrath of the Lich King Demo panel: liveblogging from BlizzCon
We are live on the floor at BlizzCon, and in just a few minutes, the devs will sit down on stage and show us everything that the Wrath of the Lich King entails. Tom Chilton, Jeff Kaplan, and Lee Sparks will all be here right around 1pm (2 minutes by my clock), and updates are forthcoming.The liveblog starts right after the jump. Here we go!
Official WotLK page live
Blizzard's official Wrath of the Lich King page has gone live, including the cinematic, story links, zone overviews, artwork, and the same feature rundown you've already seen:The Lich King Arthas has set in motion events that could lead to the extinction of all life on Azeroth. With the armies of the undead and the necromantic power of the plague threatening to sweep across the land, only the mightiest heroes can oppose the Lich King's will and end his reign of terror for all time. Blizzard Entertainment's latest expansion to World of Warcraft – Wrath of the Lich King – adds a host of epic content to the existing game world. Players will achieve soaring levels of power, explore a vast new continent, and battle other high-level heroes to determine the fate of Azeroth... There's not too much there on the game mechanics, Death Knights, Inscription, or anything, but it sure is pretty. By the way, it looks like the leaked FAQ was 100% legit.
Death Knight details
BlizzCon is in full swing, but sadly, I'm not there. However, holding down the fort back home does have one advantage: I'm free to scour the internet for things like this 1up article, which brings some interesting details to light about the Death Knight class. The DK is the most interesting feature of Wrath of the Lich King as far as I'm concerned and, according to them, here's how it'll work: Plate-wearing tank/DPS hybrid Upon reaching level 80 and embarking on a quest "similar in difficulty to the Warlock epic mount quest," the ability to create a new Death Knight character will be unlocked. Starts around level 60 or 70, "intended as an alternative, advanced class for end-game use only" The class mechanic seems very, very strange; I think I'll have to see a video or something before I really understand it:Rather than using rage, energy, or mana, Death Knights have a special "rune sword" displayed beneath their health bar, onto which the player can etch six different runes (choose between Frost, Blood, and Unholy). Different abilities require different mixes of runes, and using abilities consumes the requisite runes until a cooldown timer causes them to be available again.As far as I can understand, that sounds interesting. And difficult.Update: Mike Schramm, here from BlizzCon. 1up missed one thing: in the video we just saw, Death Knights summoned pets (yup, just like the Diablo Necromancers). More info coming-- we're planning on liveblogging the expansion demo in about an hour, so stay tuned!Update 2: More information from the live blog behind the cut.
