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WWI '08 Notes from the PvP panel
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/The_future_of_PvP_in_WoW_Notes_from_the_WWI_08_dev_panel'; Here at WoW Insider, we pride ourselves on bringing you the latest, greatest news about the World of Warcraft we all know and love. (You haven't all gone off to play Diablo, have you?) What this means is that we crawled out of bed at what our watch says was three in the morning, even though by local Paris time it was already mid-morning under a sunny sky. We've fought our ways through crowds at the Worldwide Invitational to bring you a front-row seat to today's PvP panel, starting shortly. For the latest updates on the game's PvP system -- right from the developers! -- keep reading for live updates from the panel.
All World of Warcraft classes dissected at WWI 2008
You can't escape World of Warcraft at Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational. Between class-specific panels and the giant WoW dev panel. Here's a look into the future of each of the classes, including a ton of information on the upcoming Death Knight class: Death Knight Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior
Joystiq chats with Jay Wilson on Diablo 3
click to embiggen var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Diablo_3_s_Jay_Wilson_talks_Deckard_Cain_cows_co_op'; The buzz here at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles is all about Diablo 3. When will we have a playable demo? When can we expect a release? Blizzard, of course, isn't willing to commit to a date other than their standard "when it's done" answer: What classes are going to be available? Blizzard's answer: we're not ready to talk about that. Will there be a cow level? Blizzard's answer... well, more on that later. Joystiq had a chance to catch up with Diablo 3's lead designer Jay Wilson (whom you may know from his work on a little game called Dawn of War) and pick his brain about how he got on the Diablo 3 project, what's in store for Battle.net, and the secret cow level.%Gallery-26348%
WWI Arena Tournament Day 1
The Worldwide Invitational Arena Tournament spans both days of the convention. This year's competition consists of a double-elimination, 3v3 format. Top teams from all World of Warcraft regions around the globe have arrived in Paris to show their skills in hopes of winning glory and fabulous prizes. At the beginning of play the field consisted of sixteen teams:
Blizzard's WWI 2008 costume and dance contest
The Murloc costume above only placed second in Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational 2008 costume contest. Interested to see what came in first? Check out WoW Insider's gallery of the costume (and dance!) contest, complete with their own colorful commentary. Gallery: WWI08 Costume and Dance Contest When you get through with that, be sure to check out their major gallery of the WWI event, including some hawt ogre-on-ogre action. Gallery: Worldwide Invitational 2008
Forum post of the day: Live(ish) Feeds
I was kind of surprised when I found out how much of the World Wide Invitational was going to be broadcast live. I was bummed that I couldn't make it to Paris, but I'm grateful for all the coverage we've seen of the event. The production and distribution value of the live feeds have left a lot to be desired. The spotty video has frustrated many viewers. Zoff of EU-Twilight's Hammer took some time to vent about the specific issues with the streaming coverage. He feels that the stage is too large , and the camera angle makes it difficult to see much the event. The intense blue background doesn't help much either. One gripe I've heard over and over that the announcers are loud and annoying, with little grasp of the content they're discussing. Much of the rest of that thread debates the merits of using both English and French at the conference.
Has the splash screen mystery been solved?
So if you've been living under a rock here's the news: Blizzard announced Diablo 3 at the World Wide Invitational's opening address. This has brought much delight to many fans, and closure to the many who believed that the changing splash screen has pointed to this game. During the address the splash screen changed to a flash teaser of the latest in the demonic property. It a pretty exciting announcement, but I'm not convinced that this is the only thing there. The demon in the logo does match up with the eyes and brow of the central character, but the flash does not add to the existing chain of splash screens. This bit of news also fails to explain the interesting icy bit in the lower left hand corner of image 5.5.
WWI '08 Day 1 roundup
We had bloggers onsite for Day 1 at the Worldwide Invitational 2008 in Paris. Elizabeth Harper, Turpster, and Jennie Lees were all in France to provide in-depth coverage with liveblogging, pictures, and videos, and our entire staff was back here in the US to break out the analysis and coverage of the live streams. Here's a roundup of all the posts from Day 1.Liveblogging Opening ceremony Developer's panel Q&A with Developer's Panel Analysis by Class Death Knight Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior Analysis by Topic Diablo 3 Announcement Gear resets High expectations Linux Raid buffs Talent trees Media WoW Insider podcast Gallery: Diablo 3 Gallery: Splash screen speculation Gallery: A first look at the WWI digs Movie: Turpster talks to people waiting in line for WWI Movie: Turpster amok in Paris UPDATE: A round up of our entire weekend of coverage can be found here!%Gallery-26320%
Arcane Brilliance: Gearing your Mage for Karazhan
Welcome to another edition of Arcane Brilliance, where our spell hit is capped out, our damage is through the roof, and our crits are frequent and beefy. We're Mages, after all, and absolute power is what we do. Except against that Rogue last night--the one who seemed to be able to pop Cloak of Shadows every 3 seconds or so and never took full damage from anything even though armor-wise, he only seemed to be sporting some kind of ninja mask and a black jumpsuit of dubious fire-retardant value. No, against that particular Rogue, our absolute power amounted to having three of our spells resisted in a row, followed by us blinking away in abject horror, weeping like a child. That's right: fear Mages. We're powerful sorcerers, channeling the profound and unparalleled might of the arcane...unless you resist our spells, in which case we're just guys in dresses waving sticks. Feel free to jab us with something sharp.Once upon a time, your Mage stumbled blearily out into Azeroth and cast his first Fireball at a kobold or a wolf or something. Then a bunch of other stuff happened, and now you're level 70, and you just bought your flying mount and used it to see how far up you could go before your graphics card stopped rendering the ground. After you screw around a bit, maybe quest out Netherstorm, run Shadow Labyrinth a few times and learn to hate the Blackheart fight, you may find yourself wondering what's next for your green and blue-clad wizard. Perhaps...another color entirely? Wandering aimlessly about Shattrath one day, you notice a fellow spell-slinger clad in a robe you've never seen before. Inspecting her, you are shocked to see the name of the robe is written not in green...or even blue...but purple.Asking where such a treasure might be obtained, you learn a name that will consume your waking thoughts and haunt your dreams: Karazhan.Your guild, you learn, frequents the haunted castle that bears this name, and would be happy to take you along...if you can be of some use to them within its shadowed walls. Your current hodgepodge of mismatched quest rewards and 5-man drops simply won't cut it. You must improve yourself, and quickly. But how? Read on, fellow Mages, and find out.
WWI '08 Panel: Gear Resets
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. And if current information holds, you'll be looking like one of his elves when you hit Northrend. Say goodbye to your cool-looking level 70 purple gear and say hello to starting over with greens. It'll be like reliving your junior high photo day -- or worse. Answering a specific question about the topic of ugly, mismatched armor during the WWI Q&A session today, the developer panel gave a cheeky answer: We ended up having a little clown action, ok, a lot of clown action in TBC. We aren't going to eliminate it, but we are going to improve it. You won't be happy 100%, but we could just solve it by making everything gray.I think this answer is perfectly reasonable. After all, it gives you an incentive to keep going for better gear: embarrassment. However, on the positive side, Blizzard will offer more armor customization in Wrath. For example, they will make Raiding sets look different from PvP sets. For me, this means if I spy someone wearing a clear-cut PvP getup, I'm going to get the heck outta Dodge lickety split.
WWI '08 Panel: Rogues
The big news from WWI so far for rogues is focused around two things: picking up a little AE damage and getting more use out of Sap. Both hints came from Tom Chilton during this morning's WWI dev panel, when he spoke to a large swath of class changes and balance issues.The inspiration for the new area effect damage ability comes from Warcraft's Wardens -- Fan of Knives. As part of Blizzard's attempt to bring the lore and history of the game forward, they look to previous abilities and lore to inform current changes. Fan of Knives seemed like a natural ability to help give rogues a little extra AE damage. While Chilton cautions us not to expect Rogues to become the kings of AE damage...this will may be a welcome addition to our bags of tricks. It could certainly help in a pinch, but we'll have to see how it's going to meld with crowd control powers. Where Rogues should feel some relief is the additional consideration given to Sap. Chilton's looking for Sap to play a greater role in crowd control strategies, and having it apply to more mobs. To paraphrase, Sap's going to apply to anything with a skull, and a brain to then rattle around inside of it. We may see ourselves sapping dogs, cats, bears, and. . .well anything with a brain inside a skull. So maybe not oozes quite yet - we're just going to have to satisfy ourselves with killing those.I think a lot of the Rogue information we're curious about will actually come up during tomorrow's PvP section, since it's the Rogue's Arena capabilities that's seen so much forum action lately. Like Mages, we just haven't gotten the same amount of screen time as Death Knights or Shamans. Still, here's hoping we see more soon.
WWI '08 Panel: Mage
Well. At first, it didn't seem to me like Tom Chilton had as much news for Mages at the first WWI dev panel as he did for other classes, but one of the Q&A dialogues did reveal a nice vision for our future.The most common news being reported, of course, is the new "bolt" spell -- the Frostfire bolt. This is a direct damage nuke that's a mix of "fire" and "ice" damage types, and will help circumvent the resistances of certain bosses who have an affinity for an element. Eh. I mean, that's great and all, but it doesn't really speak to any retooling or massive re-vamp at the ways Mages need help.However, during the Q&A, one of the audience members was a lot more pointed. Now that everyone seems to have their own spammable crowd control, he askes, what's being done to bring Mages back to a more unique role?The answer was awesome. Simply put, if everyone's doing crowd control, then Mages are going to be buffed in their hallmark: raw, unadulterated damage. Especially since Seed of Corruption shines against our AE damage ability, Chilton says we should expect to see our overall damage output increased.Does this mean Mages will become the epitome of WoW DPS? Mm, I'm not holding my breath - but at least in terms of putting us back in a vital, noticeable role, the future looks hopeful. Stay tuned as we continue to cover the WWI event, and try and bring the best (and worst) news available.
Blizzard announces major World of Warcraft class changes at WWI
Massively's sister site WoW Insider is currently hard at work at the Worldwide Invitational, Blizzard's big to-do in France. They were onhand this morning for the big announcement, and though it's not really Massive we have to admit we're still pretty excited for Diablo 3. But you're here for MMO news, which the WI team has for you in spades. Representatives from Blizzard offered up a heaping helping of Wrath of the Lich King information, with some great info for just about every class. You're going to want to head to WoW Insider for the full monty, but here are a few highlights: Fury Warriors will be dual-weilding 2H weapons. Rogues will get a new AoE. Priests will get a new crowd control spell. Shaman totems will now affect an entire raid. Hunters (as if they weren't cool enough) are going to see pets having talent trees of their own. A complete revamp of the pet system. Make sure to keep your eyes on WoW Insider all weekend for more Blizz-related news. Gallery: Worldwide Invitational 2008
WWI '08 Panel: Druid (UPDATED)
While there isn't quite as much shocking news for those of us in the furry set as there was for our totem-spouting Earth brothers, there's still enough information to get us excited about our futures in Wrath of the Lich King.I have to admit that I was a little surprised to hear Tom Chilton say in the first WWI dev panel that Blizzard isn't planning any Cyclone changes. When an audience member asked if there would be any alterations for Cyclone, Chilton answered in a pretty clear, unambiguous manner: Nope. But he did give us some explanation for it.
WWI streaming reliability disappoints
It's not like we've been awake since the wee hours waiting for a big announcement or anything. And it's certainly not like there was a huge dev panel with Tom Chilton, whose every word we hung on about class changes. But as your intrepid WoW Insider staff huddles around the news room viewers to get you the latest information from the 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, we're encountering the same problem as everyone else. The streaming live feed offered by Octoshape and Blizzard is kind of letting us down.I suppose some of the technical difficulties are unavoidable. I have to assume the technology is pretty complicated. But the problems range from audio and video randomly cutting out, to Octoshape's viewing slots being filled by too many users. This is a little surprising, since Octoshape had good performance for Blizzcon and even GotFrag. Just as frustrating, the Octoshape web site doesn't have any information about what was going wrong.On the other hand, since Tom Chilton stepped off stage, the stream has been a lot more reliable. They've either fixed the problems, or the number of viewers has stepped down since the WoW discussion has ended. Here's hoping the better performance lasts.
Diablo 3 shipping simultaneously on Mac
The Diablo 3 FAQ is being hammered at the moment (we couldn't imagine why), but just in case you were worried, Blizzard assures us that the game will work on Apple computers. So sayeth the website: "As with all of Blizzard Entertainment's recent releases, Diablo 3 will ship for both Windows and Mac simultaneously." As for whether your Mac will be able to run the game, that's an as-of-yet unanswered query.%Gallery-26348%
News from the WWI '08 WoW Dev panel
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_Class_changes_announced_at_Worldwide_Invitational'; At WWI, the WoW Dev Panel is underway, and spending a little while talking about the Death Knight class, and other class changes coming in the expansion. As the panel continues, we'll update this post with more information as we get it live from Paris.Update: Tons (tons!) of new official Wrath information after the break. Don't miss!Update: It's over, but we'll be talking about this stuff for a while. Titan's Grip is confirmed -- two-handed dual wielding for Fury Warriors. Hunter pet skill points are out, and pets are getting their own Talent trees. Shaman CC is official, Ret Pallys are getting new itemization, and Rogues are going to be able to sap a lot more. It's all after the break, more analysis coming up soon. %Gallery-26320%
Liveblogging the Worldwide Invitational opening ceremony
We're here at the Blizzard's 2008 Worldwide invitational in Paris, waiting impatiently for the opening ceremonies to begin so we can finally quash the endless speculation about Blizzard's splash screen. We'll be reporting to you live as the ceremony continues, so read on!%Gallery-26320%
Turpster at the World Wide Invitational: Meet and greet in the queue
Click To Play People are lining up out the door, down the street and around the corner at the Porte de Versailles Exposition Center in Paris, France. Our beloved Turpster visited with several of the Blizzard fans waiting in line to get into the convention in time for the opening event. This video captures the excitement in the air as WoW players and other Blizzard fans from around Europe and the United States gather in anticipation. The fans in attendance are making their own predictions for Blizzard's big announcement. Diablo 3? Lost Vikings? Wrath? All of the above? Stay tuned, Turpster and the rest of the WoW Insider staff are devoted to keeping you posted on the latest breaking news.
Splash Screen changes: Worldwide Invitational edition
With mere hours to go before the Worldwide Invitational, the splash screen has changed. This time the file, named Ice5andahalf.jpg, shows the 5 runes even brighter, and adds a 6th rune - a winking smiley face. You think Blizzard's having fun with this yet? It's also worth noting that the lines around the glowing eyes are much more pronounced now - as are the eyes themselves, which now look a lot like twin stars. But are we seeing the lines of Arthas' helmet, the lines on Diablo's face, or the lines on a Protoss Templar's face? I'm not sure we'll know for sure until WWI's big announcement now, although I'm rooting for Diablo. Then again, is that the spire of Icecrown Glacier I see down there in the lower right of the night sky? It's likely that we're hours away from a big announcement at the Worldwide Invitational, and ice6.jpg will appear then, and we'll know exactly what is up with all this wacky stuff. With any luck, we'll also hear about just how much thought Blizzard put into this whole splash screen deal. Were they really expecting all this hubub? %Gallery-25975%
