Seeing how I’ve been busy on the MRT, I missed this and BlizzCon 2013(which was the 7th of November). So thankfully on the launcher screen, there’s a video showing the next Expansion.
At first, I thought this EP was an utter shit attempt of Blizzard trying to think of ideas just to keep the game alive. But Wowhead explains the expansion a lot more clearly than Blizzard does.
First off, let’s talk about WoW’s teaser video they show for every EP. You see feral orcs preparing for battle. It doesn’t really explain why they are, or even how this plays into the current lore of WoW. My guess, they’re trying to do what the game has always been about; Orcs vs Humans. What makes WoW, World of Warcraft.
Yet again, they never explain the reason why we have to fight this “Iron Horde”. A good reason, could be the fact the Dragon Soul really weakened the Bronze Dragonflight to the point it caused a disturbance in time, that opened a portal to cause the Iron Horde to invade Azeroth. Or, the Infinite Dragonflight did the portal.
Either way, this EP seems to be situated with going back in time. And where there’s time, you know the bronze dragons are behind it.
So anyway, here’s what I’ve learned from the Wowhead side of this EP;
– Questing continues by visiting Draenor, the Orc Homeworld, which is Outland 30 years ago before it was named or even shaped like it is now. All of the zones are different from what they are. And you can even see the Arakkota Homeworld (when they had wings). And best of all… Zangarmarsh is GONE! 😀
– Due to the above, the player level cap will be increased to 100. Yes, triple level chars for the first time in WoW history. This should hopefully make soloing Cata-level non-heroic dungeons possible.
– All Player Character races are being reskinned with new animations and textures to actually make them look more lifelike. So instead of looking like Barbie dolls, they’ll actually look more realistic.
– You can make a single character instantly level up to 90, but I’m reading that you “get to have one free upgrade”. When you do, you’ll get Level 90 gear and do a new quest involving the EP (mainly for newbies).
– New quests, of course. Blizzard calls it a “refined quest system”. Interesting.
– Build a Garrison. From what I read, is Blizzard’s answer for player housing. Sounds very interesting. Also read that you’ll be able to invite your friends into your Garrison via Party.
Blizzard must had heard me talking to myself in the farm, about wanting just this feature to happen. The unfortunate thing is Garrisons won’t be phased.
Also read that you can hire followers to quest for you, instead of the other way around. Now that, I like.
– Gearing up will be improved. I’m reading “Your armor will automatically change stats based on your spec”. Now this has my attention.
– Bags get an upgrade. You no longer have to have Quest Items in your inventory, and the cute toys that some NPC’s give you for completing a quest get their own little space. That’s more space in your bags. Nice!
– Reforging and some other gear stats are being removed. Hmmmmm.
– The current Outland portal will be moved to the Caverns of Time. Blizzard admits “the timeline is broken” with Cata being the present, then you go back in time to Outland, a bit further in Northrend (when the Dragon Aspects were still alive), then back in current time.
Pretty sure Blizzard will have a warp linking directly to the CoT for Level 58+ players.
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As I said, I at first thought this EP was a waste. Now, not so much. Now, I actually want it. And the thing that your gear will auto-change stats based on your spec… ohh god. If I’m reading this right, my cries in the night and depression of never being strong enough to do what I want to do… could be finally put to rest.
If I am reading that right, no longer will you be judged of your gear, but your skills of being that class. Though I can just hear veterans going “GAH BLIZZ U MAKING IT 2 EASY!!”
But will that make gear currency, obsolete? We’ll have to see. And what about Heroic gear, and Dungeon, and PvP gear?
Also, Wowhead shows the new Level 100 Talent Tier. And for Hunters, it looks quite interesting. All three look quite beneficial to me.
First is called a “Bota Shot” which replaces Arcane Shot. Second, “Snipe” which replaces Steady Shot and Cobra Shot, and the third, is related to your pet. It’s called “With or Without You”.
This one is a two parter. Both of them are Passive so you don’t have to click on them.
For Beast Mastery, it’s called “Versatility” which OPs your pet by giving them nearly all pet talents and boosts their damage to 70%.
For Marksman and Survival, if you don’t have a pet, boots your damage by 30%.
Blizzard also has two more tricks up their sleeves. One is a new paid mount for a good cause (the Make-A-Wish Foundation), and the other, making the earlier versions of WarCraft work on current computers. The second one sort of has my interest, as playing it will definitely help me understand Warcraft’s lore.
No known release date of said EP. I imagine, sometime in 2014. MoP was released almost a year after it was announced, even though we knew it was coming even before it was announced. This… well.. the fact I’ve been on the MRT and not in WoW, I really don’t know if it has been known or not.
But anyway, perhaps the same will come to WoD.
That Dev Q&A video. They say there will be no more patches as it would delay the EP. They got their entire team working on WoD.