Tigole hits the forums

Tigole has been busy on the forums today, and that always tends to bring out interesting tidbits about the future of our favorite game. While it is certainly not earth-shattering, the most interesting thing that he mentions has to do with the future of the PVP battlemasters. In patch 2.4 these guys will be put on a pedestal, literally. Much like the auctioneers in many cities, the battlemasters will be placed on a raised platform that is inaccessible to players in order to keep people from blocking them with their character's model. He also hints that Wrath will see even better improvements. This is certainly a welcome change to remove a minor annoyance that is sometimes imposed upon us by our fellow players.

Other posts hint at the future of guild banks, the title system, and a possible reward for Wrath's Lake Wintergrasp. First of all, he mentions that they're "exploring" the option to allow guild masters to set prices for items in the guild bank. I know in my guild this would be great for the guild leader, since it would probably save him a lot of time in the auction house and also provide an easy solution to those situations where he gets a valuable item and is not sure how to distribute it to the rest of the guild. I imagine that this could be exploited, to an extent, by guild leaders who might suddenly slap a price on everything in the bank rather than allowing free withdrawals, but that would probably fix itself over time as people leave the guild and/or stop donating to the bank.

In another thread, Lexorn wonders if WoW could steal a few cool ideas from some of its competitors. Specifically, he mentions the ubiquitous title system from Lord of the Rings Online, the town capture and defense system from Tabula Rasa, and the tome system from Warhammer (which seems to be an in-game encyclopedia that the player fills in while traversing through the game world). From all these ideas, Tigole only touches on the first. He mentions that they like the title system as it is and will continue to add titles to the game with their current difficult to obtain status. I've loved the titles from other games I've played and would like to see something of the sort added to WoW. If there were a lot of titles, elite ones could still be part of the game and players would know which ones were more difficult to achieve. It doesn't seem like it would detract from the "Scarab Lord" title to have several "Exterminators", rewarded for killing 1,000,000 critters, running around.

Later in that same thread, Tigole responds to another player's post. When Endarken suggests that capturable PVP objectives should grant a server-wide buff in order to feel more epic, Tigole agrees. He hints that just such a reward may be given for holding Lake Wintergrasp, the outdoor PVP zone in Wrath of the Lich King. These types of buffs are always nice, and if it brings more people out to participate in world PVP, I'm all for it.

What do you think about Tigole's comments?

Happy birthday to Outland

One year ago today, we the huddled, shivering masses (well, shivering in many parts of the country, anyway) got our hands on Burning Crusade, the first ever WoW expansion. Blizzard started saying shortly thereafter that they would be attempting to make one expansion per year, but for whatever reason, that has not come to pass: Wrath of the Lich King is not looking particularly close.

Enough, however, of what didn't happen. Let's turn our attention to some things that did happen that fateful day last January:

Several of us here at WoW Insider posted our midnight mall pilgrimage pictures, including Barb in Ithaca, Mark in Chicago, Elizabeth W. in Raleigh, myself in Gainesville, and Paul in frigid Saskatoon

Everyone discovered a brand-new version of Barrens chat

Many realms were iffy

Horde and Alliance had a bit of a cease-fire

We started speculating all over again about what eventually became Wrath

Do you remember your BC launch experience?

Bornakk confirms WotLK gear reset

We've suspected this all along, but now Bornakk has confirmed that yes, when the next expansion comes out, we'll all be turning in our epics for green gear once more. (And via MMO Champion, here's a comic that explains just what you're feeling right now). As he says, the whole point of a subscription MMO is that you need to keep playing to be awesome, and so new, more powerful gear is exactly where Blizzard wants to go.

On the one hand, this is actually a great thing. I just finally brought my Hunter alt through Hellfire Peninsula, and it was terrific to run a few quests and all of a sudden have what used to be raid level gear. And as Bornakk says, another reset in Wrath of the Lich King will accomplish the same thing for new players then (including Death Knights, ahem, so if you're reading between the lines as much as I am, that means that Death Knights will probably start before level 70, because they too apparently will be coming through the 70-71 gear transition). It is great to do the starter quests in a new expansion, and quickly get brought up to speed with some of the best gear in the game.

However, now that this is known, does it mean the gear you earn now is worthless? I don't think so-- while the old endgame was almost all about gear, there are so many epics now and so many ways to get them that the game is much more about how you play rather than the gear you're playing for. Sure, we'll all end up stashing our epics away for a green quest reward from the Borean Tundra, but we'll always have Karazhan and Gruul's, right?

Why there won't be a flood of death knights

Many people are predicting that "everyone" will make a new death knight character when the new expansion is going to come out -- so many that the world will seem full of them. While it is true that everyone may very well try out the first couple levels of the new death knight hero class, it's not true that every server will be overrun with them. Here's why:

The addition of death knights to the game is in many ways like the addition of blood elves and draenei in The Burning Crusade. Many people made new characters just to see the new zones, but many others wanted to level their mains through Outland first. Many of those players who tried out the new races only played up to a certain point and then stopped to go back to their main characters. We never saw a flood of draenei and blood elves outnumbering all other races of Azeroth, and for the same reason we will not see a flood of new death knights. There are different things to do in the expansion, and different people make different choices about which to do first. There may be a contstant stream of new death knights, maybe even a river sometimes, but death knights will just feel like the newest kid in the WoW class, not a plague of locusts infesting the entire town.

There's also a huge difference between trying out a death knight, and choosing one as your new main character. Wherever death knights start out in the world may be a crowded area for a while, but most players won't ever level them out of that starting zone. Unlike the Jedi in Star Wars, death knights are only one of many types of characters in Warcraft. Besides, the death knight play style and thematic mood simply isn't going to appeal to everyone, in the same way that most WoW players today do not play warlocks, notwithstanding the fact that warlocks are undoubtedly a powerful class. Most players prefer to do healing, shapeshifting, stealthing, ranged shots, totems, or any number of other abilities that death knights will never have, and they will stay with their favorite classes and play styles. Some players, like myself, probably just won't like their armor decorated with skulls all the time.

WoW: Wrath of the Lich King

From his early days as an EverQuest commentator to the lofty heights of lead designer on World of Warcraft, Jeff Kaplan's rise to power has been meteoric. In the flesh he's polite, kindly spoken and passionate, often sporting - as most of Blizzard seem to - own-brand shirts with brightly coloured orcs on them.

Our leading authority on sexy elves cornered him recently and demanded details of our imminent journey into Northrend - and Jeff's promises were exciting to say the least...


On Geography...

Jeff Kaplan: When people heard the expansion was going to be set in Northrend, they freaked out, saying 'No, I can't go to a continent that's all snow!' Just visually alone, we've made sure that all the zones are not full of ice. For example, the Howling Fjord is completely green, and it's modelled after the Redwood Forest on the Pacific north-west.

There's another zone called the Borean Tundra that has typical autumn colours, and we're really going out of our way to make sure the zones are visually distinct. Another cool part of Northrend is the big PvP zone. It's about the size of Westfall, and will be all-PvP - in no way, shape or form will we support PvE players in it.

It'll be optional, but it'll be completely non-instanced, have multiple objectives, siege weapons, and destructible buildings.


On Grand Entrances...

Kaplan: We absolutely need to make the entry to Northrend epic. I mean, we originally had the entry to Burning Crusade's Dark Portal as a bunch of cohorts walking around, and people reacted badly. This really hammered home the fact that we needed to raise expectations on entering the expansions.

With the four points of entry (two for each side) we've gone out of our way to make them cool. With the Alliance you go to the Howling Fjord - you come down through the big Fjord walls, and there's big battle going on around you. For the Horde, in Howling Fjord, you enter an area with brand new Forsaken architecture.

Traditionally they have wrecked human buildings, but we've built these awesome new Forsaken buildings, with their own distinct style that comes from the Undercity - that kind of Tim Burton feel. They're landing an invasion for fighting the Alliance, and instantly you can see the battle.

If you go to the other side, to the Borean Tundra, the Alliance comes into a giant Alliance stronghold, with a brand new leader that we're building up - and a massive Alliance steam ship.

They're launching an expeditionary force to get to Icecrown and defeat Arthas, but the Horde are coming into the Warsong Fortress, ruled by Garrosh, son of Grom Hellscream (from Warcraft III) - so instantly there's a major Horde character. Not only that, but the Warsong base is absolutely huge and epic.

We've built this giant, epic base specifically for this guy, and the Horde dock in the base when they start. The Horde will have this moment where they are just instantly in awe.


On High Levels...

Kaplan: We feel that we now have an overwhelming majority of players who have played through the content to the end. It's not even about the casual/hardcore thing, it's more about addressing an issue that exists among max-level players.

We felt we could deliver on content towards the end of the game, and that players between level 30 and 40 already have so much to do in the game that they haven't run out of content yet.

These medium-level players are not really hungry for the new features that Wrath of the Lich King brings. It's really about satisfying the players who have reached max level, whether they solo or whether they PvP, whether they raid or role-play.

If they're at max level they're all saying, 'I want more, what are you guys doing for us?'


On the Big Bad...

Kaplan: We're giving all players going into the expansion interaction with Arthas. We were too protective of Illidan [the arch villain in The Burning Crusade] making sure we didn't waste the opportunity, so now you're interacting with him straight away.

You're talking to him, having these moments with him, so you don't have to be a raider to see him. We're also having a Caverns of Time mission - The Culling from Warcraft III - so that you can go back and play alongside Arthas when he was shiny and good, when you're burning Stratholme.

Blizzard expands on Lich King's PvP warfare

Upcoming World of Wacraft expansion (Wrath of the Lich King) will feature a large area dedicated to PvP, Blizzard has revealed.

A "cool part of Northrend is new big PvP zone. It's about the size of Westfall, and will be all-PvP - in no way, shape or form will we support PvE players in it", the developer's Jeff Kaplan has told PC Zone.

He continued, "It'll be optional, but it'll be completely non-instanced, have multiple objectives, siege weapons and destructible buildings".

In the interview, Kaplan went on to promise that WoW adventurers will have their socks blown off when they first enter the new continent of Northrend.

Advertisement:
"We absolutely need to make the entry to Northrend epic", he said. "...we originally had the entry to Burning Crusade's Dark Portal as a bunch of cohorts waling around, and people reacted badly. This really hammered home the fact that we needed to raise expectations on entering the expansions".

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is expected to launch this year, though Blizzard has yet to confirm when.

WotLK is one of Yahoo!'s most anticipated games of 2008

Wrath of the Lich King made Yahoo! Games' list of 10 anticipated games in 2008. It's the only expansion on the list, and it stands proudly alongside other legendary intellectual properties like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Halo, Fallout, and Grand Theft Auto.

It's definitely unusual for an expansion pack to make a list like this; that just goes to show you how extraordinary World of Warcraft is as a cultural phenomenon. Now if only I knew when this blasted expansion might be coming out, I could stop sitting around and fantasizing about playing as a Death Knight. No, wait ... I'd still be doing that anyway.

Jeff Kaplan reveals how to get to Northrend

MMO Champion's got the rest of the details on that PC Zone interview we heard about yesterday-- Jeff Kaplan sat down with the French magazine and gave out some new hints about what we'll see up in Northrend in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

As we heard at BlizzCon, Northrend isn't all a snow-covered wasteland-- there are forests (including one full of Furbolgs) and other terrain types to find up there.

We've also heard this before, but it's worth repeating again: Arthas will play a much bigger part in the day-to-day Northrend than Illidan did-- lots of people, both raiders and casuals, will have a chance to "interact" with him.

Here's something new-- there will be two entry points, and previously we'd assumed that one would be for Horde and another would be for Alliance. But that's not the case-- instead, each of the zones (the Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord) will have an entry point for each faction. So there will actually be four ways into the expansion.

Alliance get to choose a battle in the Howling Fjord or a massive stronghold (complete with a brand new faction leader) and a giant steamship

And Horde either go into the Forsaken's new lands (with new architecture-- we saw it at BlizzCon), or into Garrosh Hellscream's (son of Grom) Warsong Fortress.

Very exciting. Hearing about four entry points instead of two definitely makes me think that we will be able to avoid the whole Hellfire Peninsula lag problem that plagued BC's release. Keep the WotLK info coming, Blizzard!

PvP Warfare in WotLK

Despite Bornakk saying earlier that there would be no more news about the upcoming expansion released in the near future, Jeff Kaplan has spoken to magazine PC Zone in an article today, about the PvP warfare and other aspects of Northrend planned in Wrath.

Most of it we already know, but here's some of what he said:

...cool part of Northrend is new big PvP zone. It's about the size of Westfall,
and will be all-PvP - in no way, shape or form will we support PvE players in
it... It'll be optional, but it'll be completely non-instanced, have multiple
objectives, siege weapons and destructible buildings...

He also went on to say that Blizzard intend to blow the minds of players as they set foot on Northrend for the first time:

We absolutely need to make the entry to Northrend epic...
...we originally
had the entry to Burning Crusade's Dark Portal as a bunch of cohorts waling
around, and people reacted badly. This really hammered home the fact that we
needed to raise expectations on entering the expansions

PC Zone has Wrath PvP teaser info

PC Zone magazine has an interview with WoW Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan. In it Kaplan reveals details about Wrath of the Lich King PvP warfare as well as the epic feel players will experience when first entering Northrend. Sounds great, huh?

Unfortunately, you have to buy the magazine today to get the entire interview. They have only released a snippet of it online to send us into a frenzy of anticipation. What we learn from this sneak peek is that the Northrend PvP zone, Lake Wintergrasp, will be about the size of Westfall and will be all PvP. No PvE objectives in it at all. It will also be a static zone, not instanced. He also mentions that it will have destructible buildings and siege weapons, which we knew from his Leipzig interviews. Not much new there other than the size comparison to Westfall.

Kaplan also talked about learning from the Hellfire Peninsula experience. This entry point into the first expansion wasn't epic enough. The design team wants to raise the bar for Northrend. We know from earlier interviews that entry into the expansion will be split. The Alliance will grab their sword and the Horde will get their own damn battlecry and both head into either Howling Fjord or Borean Tundra. How Blizzard is going to raise the bar is still a mystery.

Argh! More infoz, please! If anyone gets their hands on the magazine, send us a tip with details. We'll happily give you credit.

Death Knight - Mainly Tank Class?

Blizzard poster Tyren, who appeared to be holding the fort all on his lonesome over New Years, has hinted that Death Knights will focus more on tanking than was originally thought.

In a post made earlier, he goes into some detail about Blizzard's aim for the Death Knight class:

The death knight will be a tank/dps class. Currently there is an
under-representation of tank classes, so the decision was made add a tank class
to balance the class representation. A great quote that the dev team mentions is
that the Death Knight is "epic but equal," meaning the experience is meant to be
epic, but the death knight will be the equal of other classes. Otherwise there
would be an over-representation of tanks and not enough healers and dps in the
world.

A world full of Death Knights

This little informal survey by Ralloszek over on the WotLK forums raises a pretty good question: is anyone not planning on making a Death Knight when the next expansion hits? We're going to end up with a world full of pale people in black armor wielding gigantic frostblades-- maybe Blizzard should call it "World full of Lich Kings."

It's pretty easy to see that not everyone will switch their main (I don't ever foresee leaving my main, although I do plan to level a Death Knight as an alt), but even if people just roll them to check it out, it reminds me a lot of the Star Wars Galaxies "new game enhancements" where they made Jedi a playable class. If you can roll a Jedi as a class, why would you roll anything else?

Of course, we could give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt here-- they haven't revealed much at all about the game's first Hero Class, so maybe it'll be so hard to get one that they really will be very rare, or they'll only be allowed in certain areas (so you won't see a pack of Death Knights swarming around the mailbox in Stormwind). We already know that they'll start at a higher level, so the good news is that you won't see Elwynn Forest flooded with a bunch of level 1 Death Knights. But as for other ways to keep what is supposed to be a special class special, we'll have to see what Blizzard comes up with.