Blizzcon 2013

I bought the Virtual ticket for Amanda, so she could get the Murkalot pet.

So far its still in opening ceremony, the Hearthstone card that is being given to attendees and VT holders, is the Elite Tauren Chieftain.   Open Beta will be next month (or January, in Blizz speak)

Heroes of the Storm

Warlords of Draenor is the next expansion set for World of Warcraft

• New World: Draenor
• Level cap raised to 100
• Boost to 90 and play immediately
• New character models
• Build and upgrade your garrison
• New dungeons and raids
• New monsters
• New World PvP zone

The Dark days of Warcraft are returning, and it will be the Alliances finest hour.

Draenor

• Home of the Orcs before it was shattered into present day Outland
• Heart of Draenei civilization
• Brutal, primal world of giants
• 7 new zones

They are giving us a launch event finally. Basically a suicide mission into the dark portal to get a foothold into Draenor. For the Horde, the first zone you go to is Frostfire ridge, which is snowy mountain area with active volcanoes.

Draenor Map

This will be the world map for Draenor. The island to the south is home to the Ogre Empire. The island to the northeast will be released in one of the later patches, its the area that we know of now as Netherstorm.

New Character models

More will come, but those were the only 3 they had available.

Garrisons

People have been asking for years for Blizzard to give us some form of player housing, and in Warlords, we have that in the way of Garrisons. Garrisons allows you to, over 3 tiers, build a base of operations in whatever zone you want to. This will NOT be phased like the farm in Valley was, but we can invite friends to come and see, as well as us going to see their Garrison as well.

An inside view of The Barracks that you can put into your GarrisonOutside view of The BarracksAs we are adventuring through Draenor, we will come across people who want to help us out with our Garrisons and (for lack of better words) be our followers. We can send them on missions (quests/dungeons/raids, each taking a different amount of time to complete), we can give them gear to change their stats, and help them survive more. They can also be used to collect materials for crafting.The Follower UII’ve been wanting housing for a long time, so I am really stoked about this. Garrison placement UI, lets you choose what buildings you want, and where you want to put them.The sample building they gave us.Each building has 3 levels, that you can upgrade over 3 Tiers

New Monsters

Subjugated GronnChimaeraGenosaurOgreSabreon

Looks like we are getting the item squish that has been rumored. Honestly, I won’t care about a squish, AS LONG as I can still solo the shit that I solo now. No report yet as of who will be the final boss of the expansion, all that is known is that Garrosh is NOT it, he only gets the ball rolling. I’m leaning towards Mannoroth. He probably comes back upset that Gul’dan and his crew were the only ones to actually drink his blood and what not.

Warcraft Movie

• Duncan Jones, Director, has played all of the Warcraft games, including Lost Viking, and he has multiple level 90s
• The guy who will be in charge of special effects, plays, and has a level 90 mage (Alliance)
• The original script was very Aliiance focused, so he took that, and in turn, turned it into something that was more balanced, and focused on both sides
• While working on Golden Compass, the special effects supervisor (see point 2) would get up at 2am to raid with his guild, which was located in the US
• The story will be Orcs vs Humans. Lothar vs Durotan
• The movie will be PG-13, but lately, movies are getting away with a lot more than they could 10 years ago

I’m a Wrath baby (I cam in when the last wing of ICC was released). I was excited when cataclysm got released, and, like everyone else, I was let down by the lack of content. Mists of Pandaria changed all that though, with all the extra content they added at end game. I didn’t mind the Pet Battles, and I enjoyed having my own farm (more Harvest Moon and Farmville, it came first). I really enjoyed my playing time during MoP, and, for the most part, enjoyed it all (even if they went a little overboard with the dailies, but hey, that gave me stuff to do that I didn’t have during the previous expansion, when all their was at max level was raiding).

Warlords of Draenor seems to be taking the successful things that MoP had, and they seem to be expanding on them. As soon as a farm was announced, I figured that either the following expansion or the one after that would have some sort of player housing with it. Garrison’s are just that..player housing on steroids, and I couldn’t be happier. It reminds of the downloadable wii game from Square-Enix, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King.

Another thing that I am glad they are adding in are dynamic events. Now, instead of leveling, moving to the next zone, and never going back to a zone (other than for crafting supplies), you can go back and take part in random events throughout the zone, keeping the zone feeling fresh and active, instead of stagnant and dead. The world PvP map they are adding is interesting as well. No start/finish, just changing objectives giving you new tasks to do (seems like someone on the blizz team played a little WvW in Gw2)

Overall, I’m glad to see that they are taking the game forward, and really hoping for Beta to start next month, with a release between April and June.