Consider this blog post, the end of all blog posts about WoD for awhile. Infact I’ve removed all speculation posts about WoD to clean things up.
I’ve had it for not knowing the why, so I’m all “fuck it. I’ll watch the panels of BlizzCon. I have to know!”
So, I’ve been watching videos from Youtube user ‘Nobbel87’, who has compiled all the data possible from BlizzCon 2013 and has released videos of what happened without you having to be there, and without all the blah blah blah from Blizzard.
But I also watched some videos showing the full panel of Blizzard explaining what WoD was about after the announcement.
1. It’s official that Warlords of Draenor is the next expansion. It is Outland 35 years ago before it was torn asunder. I heard it was only 30 years.
2. What is the purpose of going to Draenor? The official “why” has been released by Blizzard, and here it is…
It will happen between MoP and WoD (after the Siege of Org raid) that Hellscream will be in chains awaiting trial in Pandaria. And before he’s convicted, he escapes into the past. Why? Blizzard says he hates the way the Horde currently is, and goes back in time to stop the orcs from drinking the demon blood to keep them from following the Burning Legion, then prepares them for war by giving them future technology, and then have them invade Azeroth in our time, even more powerful than they first were when the Dark Portal first opened in WarCraft 3. In other words, he wants the Orcs to be the way they should had been, instead of the current Horde races.
So in ways, we’re going back in time.. but at the same time we aren’t going back in time. Garrosh wants to bring this alternate timeline that was 30 years ago, into our Cataclysm-altered time by creating a brand new Dark Portal to take control of the one we currently have.
Of course, you have to stop this! But Garrosh isn’t the end boss in WoD as he was in MoP. He is the “guy behind the guy” as Blizzard says. They also say that Garrosh “had help” to get into the past and hint of the dragon who you were helping with that hourglass.
Apparently that same hourglass will be Garrosh’s undoing.
3. How will we get to Draenor? Here’s the official “how”…
Blizzard said that the Dark Portal will become red and people will feel something’s wrong. There will be a “suicide mission”, similar to the starting questline for the Death Knight (but in my opinion, sounds similar to trying to kill that Elite to gain a foothold in the Molten Front). Garrosh is about to send his Iron Horde into the Dark Portal to invade Azeroth. You, are the only one that can stop him (aren’t you lucky?). Once you do, you will be transported to your faction zone where you must help whoever to secure your home base.
Blizzard says that they will “jump you right into the action”. No questing, just do battle. Interesting.
4. After you complete the suicide mission, the Alliance will be helping Prophet Vellen defend Karabor, the Draenei Holy Temple from the Iron Horde. If you win, Karabor will become your capital city. So possibly no more having to go to Stormwind.
While the Horde side, will have Frostfire Ridge and help Durotan of the Frostwolf Clan battle the Thunderlord Clan.
Overall, the Alliance is the “favored child” in this. 🙂 For the Alliance!!
5. Level Cap has been increased to 100. No new news here.
6. The “Refined Quest System” Blizzard mentioned on their website, they are completely redoing how quests are given. Basically, think of games like Dead Space 3. They will now have a system showing Main Quests, and Side Quests. I really, really want this feature as it will keep things more organized. And the best thing? You don’t have to second guess if there will be freeplay after the main questline. 🙂
7. Flying Mounts allowed in WoD? No. Not until 100, and not until Patch 6.1. Plus you have to do some kind of thing that starts after you hit 100 and finishes off in the patch. It’s too early in development to know what this thing will be.
See this blog post to learn more.
8. Garrisons, and what we currently know about them;
— A Garrison is Blizzard’s answer to Player Housing.
— Other player Garrisons are phased, but you will be able to see yours. Infact it’s built right into the zone as if it was part of the zone.
— You can invite your friends to see your Garrison, even set up a raid so your friends can see it while you’re offline.
— Garrisons can only be built at specific plots all around Draenor. I hope to build mine in Nagrand since I loved that zone in TBC.
— You can move your Garrison to another plot. How easy that’ll be, is questionable.
— The types of buildings you can place, are a Town Hall, Houses, Farms, Stables, and even places for your professions and professions you don’t have.
— Garrisons and the buildings you can place have three tiers. Level 1 being a small plot of land, and Level 3 being a Theramore Isle-sized land.
— Garrisons do have a currency system, and according to some pictures I’ve seen, missions like dungeons have this same currency. Blizzard said it’ll be a mixture of gold and resources.
— It may.. again, may be possible for Garrisons to have more customization in the form of themes. I want to have a dragon-themed Garrison. I’ll gladly pay the gold for it.
— Followers can be renamed. Also, followers have a first and last name and a description.
— To get Followers, there’s three known ways. You’ll get them for free with your Garrison, you can bribe them, or you can do quests for them.
— You can assign followers to quest, do dungeons, and raids. What they bring back, you get. They can even help you gear up! 😀
— Followers have levels and specs just like you do. They start from 90 and get to 100 just like you will.
— Achievements you get in Draenor, you can plant them in your Garrison for your friends to see.
— One of the things you can place is a Dance Studio. Someone asked Blizzard about this as it wasn’t announced, and they tried to cover it up by saying that they don’t pull things on their playerbase.
And now we get to the part of what was not explained, and I wish I was at BlizzCon to ask;
1. Will Garrisons only be available when you reach Level 100? I’m going to assume “yes”. Surprised Blizzard didn’t answer this.
2. What hell will you have to go through to get permission to build a Garrison? I’m sure there will be questing and gold involved.
3. Do your followers have their own aspirations, or are they nothing but your loyal servants (similar to Spore’s Space Stage)?
4. Will the inside of your Garrison be a no-fly zone? I really hope not.
5. Can you name your Garrison, and actually see it pop up when you enter it like a sub zone? Or will it be named “Garrison”?
6. Will it be possible to do a dungeon run with your followers instead of actual people? I’d love to see this.
7. Will you see your followers who you have specified to do quest or whatever, outside your Garrison? And will they use mounts?
8. When moving a Garrison, will it go back to Level 1 and we have to start all over again? Or will it actually be a copy/paste?
9. Can you set your home to your Garrison? I personally don’t see why not. So there is really no point in staying at Sunsong Ranch anymore.
10. Can you get Level 90 alts to see your Garrison, or is it Level 100 only? I’m hearing “you can get 90’s to be in your Garrison”, but not official by Blizzard.
11. Will followers have to be paid for their services to you?
I’ve submitted these questions in Blizzard’s Facebook page in hopes it gets attention by a dev. I tried to post these in the forum and they were ignored.
I’m guessing the reason why these were not answered, is they don’t know yet. It’s too early. But not knowing is driving me up the wall. There’s just so much… “Oh god this is the best thing EVER!! I have to know! Blizzard tell me NOW! D:”
9. The whole thing about gearing up being easier, wasn’t exactly as I’d hoped.. but it isn’t all bad. You’ll still have to farm for gear. What they changed, is you won’t have to get specific sets for gear. Such as for Druids, no more “let me get my Feral gear”. If you respec for Feral, your gear also respecs to support it. However, doesn’t make you anymore powerful.
Overall, I like it as it will allow me to respec to Survival without needing Survival spec gear so I can do raids, and I’m sure veterans definitely hate it as it would make WoW ‘too easy’ for what they went through, and they do have reason to say so.
10. There was talk of someone asking Blizzard to lower gear levels and stats down to encourage old school raiding in the previous expansions.. which will make soloing Level 70 raids impossible. I mean the idea is good, but it’s bad for me and soloers. They say they have thought of it, but haven’t come up with an idea.. with me holding a gun to their heads and saying “Benie wanna solo BT! You fuckers better NOT do anything to ruin that!”
11. The changes they’re making for bags, Quest Items will no longer be added to your inventory! But the whole sorting system worries me, as it could break Bagnon and other inventory addons.
One welcomed change, most stacked items will be increased to 100 instead of 20, similar to how crops from your farm are stacked. This gives you even more bag space!
12. We will meet Thrall’s Parents, but only be on the Horde side.
13. A person asks now that Garrosh has been defeated (not killed) and Vol’jin is now the Warchief for the Horde, will Blizzard reflect these changes in WoD? The answer is no. Why? Because what happens between TBC and MoP will not be changed (as they stated what happens in WoD will not change the present). The entire quest structure and NPCs would have to go over a major overhaul to change everything, and that would be stupid just thinking about it.
Blizzard isn’t going to do that, as it would fuck lore up the ass.
14. The new Player Character models. Someone asked if NPC’s would also be changed as it would look weird only seeing player characters with the new models.
Blizzard says that it would be possible, but it would also tax your hardware, and there might be an ‘opt out’ feature where if you don’t want the new character models, you don’t have to. They add on by saying that people that opt in, won’t see the standard models from players that opted out.
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And there you have it. The official list from Blizzard (of what I care about). This blog post may or may not be updated with any new news I find useful to me.