Blizzard has finally revealed how Icecrown raid will act at launch.They are going  a ToC-type route. Content will be released over several weeks, below is how the raid will work.

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Quote from: Daelo – Blizzard Lead Encounter Designer (Source)

Icecrown Citadel testing has been progressing very well over the last few weeks, and this has been a huge help to the encounter design team. We want to thank everyone who has logged onto the PTR and tried the encounters there.

As we’re now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, we wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point we can’t give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I’ll update the community so they can plan appropriately.

The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. Progress beyond that point will be prevented for several weeks. Then the Plagueworks will open with Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide becoming available. After another period of time, the Crimson Hall will open and you can then fight the Blood Princes and Blood-Queen Lana’thel. The final Frostwing Halls unlock then occurs after that, making Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa, and the Lich King available. We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace.

There are other elements that gate access along the way. Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. Similarly, players must defeat the Lich King in a 25 player raid before they can attempt a Heroic 25 player encounter. So players must master every normal difficulty encounter in Icecrown Citadel before attempting Heroic difficulty.

The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana’thel, and Sindragosa are defeated. Furthermore, the Heroic difficulty of The Lich King encounter may not be attempted in any week unless the three aforementioned encounters have been defeated in Heroic difficulty that week.

The Ashen Verdict provides reinforcements and material for players to assault Icecrown Citadel, but this support is not endless. Raids will have a limited number of attempts total each week to defeat the four most difficult encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana’thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. As these boss encounters are unlocked, the number of attempts available per week will increase. The initial number of attempts provided for defeating Professor Putricide is only five. When Blood-Queen Lana’thel unlocks, the amount of total attempts remaining will increase to 10. Then when Sindragosa and the Lich King unlock, 15 total attempts will be available to defeat all four bosses. After a raid has exhausted their attempts for the week, the Ashen Verdict must withdraw their support and the four most difficult bosses all despawn and become unavailable for the week. The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty.

There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity).

In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available. This represents the Ashen Verdict growing more powerful and gaining a stronger foothold in Icecrown Citadel. To further help raids, Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream will begin to provide assistance by inspiring the armies attacking Icecrown Citadel. This is represented as an additional zone wide spell effect applied to all players that will increase their hit points, damage dealt, and healing done. This effect will also increase in effectiveness over time. Players may opt out of the spell’s effect if they so wish.

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This move by Blizz is a smart one, to keep content from being cleared to fast. This way even the most top end guilds will have to wait before they can knock the Lich King off his throne. As was the case with the Release of ToC, it gave every guild a chance to build up to the later encounters at the same pace as the Hard-Core Raiders. Leveling out the playing field as it were.

The max counter on the Big-Four and having to beat Arthas on regular to start Hard Modes will make it more fun and offer a new take on raiding. Blizzard is essentially applying their ToC formula to an actual 10-25 man raid, as opposed to ”encounters”. In retrospect it seems that ToC reveals itself to be a test for a new format of end-game encounter.

Another fringe benefit of this type of growth is that it will allow all players the necessary time to pick up the rather rare Emblem of Frost necessary for the Tier-10 gear. I also suspect that this latest tier won’t really be an option if you want to stand a chance against Arthas.

The format used in Icecrown will allow Blizzard more time to develop the next expansion by stretching out this patch over several weeks as well as allowing them the necessary time to fix the bugs they inevitably create when tweaking existing content.

This should keep players busy for a while, at least until a certain Black Dragon performs a global, elemental jail-break. I’m still curious to see just how long this patch will last based on how fast guild are progressing through content.

All in all however it’s always nice to see Blizzard respond to user feedback and continue to cater to their clients.

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As the World Of Warcraft Turns

How History Affects Play In World Of Warcraft Just Like Real Life

When you were three years old, you probably had a stuffed animal that you slept with every single night.  If you’re as old as I am you might have gone through the mind numbing experience of playing retarded games like “Chutes and Ladders.”  You might have done some of the particularly stupid stuff we did (not to mention dangerous) when we would buy several thousand (yes THOUSAND) bottle rockets around the 4th of July to . . . get this, shoot at each other.  Yes, we even went so far as to take PVC pipes and make shoulder mounted rocket launchers to improve our accuracy – sigh.  (And if you do anything of the sort your parents should knock you upside the head and not blame me for giving you a dangerous idea – it was seriously dumb and I hope you’re not).

In the early 1900’s the big band sound was all the rage – I doubt any of you have a single tune from that era on your Ipod.  In certain ancient civilizations drinking urine was pretty chic.  The early 80’s brought us fondue parties, and we’re all certainly glad cell phones aren’t the size and weight of bricks any longer.  If you’re wondering if there is any point to all of this it’s that each of us experiences life in a completely different way, and each generation moves through the experience along a unique path.  What is cool today is going to fall right into the nerd ditch in just a few minutes.

There are a few of us who have played every game that Blizz has ever made.  Diablo was the first game to really do the online multi-player thing.  That was way back in the day where just about the only internet connections outside of gigantic metropolitan cities was a 28k dial-up (ick).  Needless to say the original B-net was pretty lame for those of us in the rural category.    Beyond that, you could play all the way through the entire game in about 30 hours – even the first time through.  It was fun, but fairly linear, and then you made a sandwich and played Nintendo.

I loved Starcraft, but didn’t get around to Warcraft until the middle of 2006 (after a couple of years of non-stop D2).  I figured if I was going to get into WoW, I needed to go back and play WC, WCII, and WCIII so that I would understand the storyline and all that kind of goop.  You know how much it helped me?  Zilch, Zero, Nada.  I learned next to nothing from playing the three prequels – at least nothing that actually accelerated my play in WoW.  I still get lost in the lore, but who gives a crap if it doesn’t make me a better healer.

And when it comes to playing the game, the very best players are those who play well NOW.  It’s kind of fun to think back about how unbelievably hard Kara was the first week it came out, but does it really make you a better player if your guild is falling apart now and you are still slogging through Ulduar?  You still think you’re leet  just because your old crew pwned Kara?

Pardon another small digression at this point.  You don’t have to listen to me at all.  I’m just a dood writing for a small web site about a game.  But one of my favorite writers ever – Mr. J.R.R. Tolkien had a theory about history and what it really means to any story.  He said (and I quote very loosely here) that:

…if you are going to write about someone walking down a road toward some mountains that the author needed to know who built the road, everyone that ever walked on it and everything that had ever happened in the mountains ahead.  Those little references to past history gave weight and depth to the story even if the reader never comprehends them all….

After his death, Tolkein’s son found this huge chest full of little notepads.  They were full of handwritten stories from Middle Earth that have been published as the “Books of Lost Tales.”  In them, Tolkein tells the full story of middle earth from creation all the way through the Lord of the Ring trilogy in poetry and prose.  Call them his own personal expansion of the Silmarillion.  They are amazing, and by far his best stories were in that back history and not in the last story (that’s just Lawbringer’s serious inner Tolkien geek talking though).

Some of his best tales were those he never intended anyone to read.  All those stories just gave him what he needed to create what is arguably the best fantasy trilogy ever written.  But whether or not YOU know all the history of Middle Earth will have very little impact on your enjoyment of reading LotR for the first time.  I read LotR about 15 times before I discovered the Books of Lost Tales.  And while reading the past history HAS given me more enjoyment of the final story, it hasn’t made me a better reader.

My whole point of this comes from something that most of you should know is one of my pet peves.  It never fails – every time Blizzard changes something about the game – and I mean EVERY SINGLE TIME, some doofus is going to write something that looks almost exactly like this:

Blizzard is just ruining the game for everyone.  Now you can get all this epic gear too easy and I remember how hard it was when I had to use a hammer on my old keyboard in VC just to get this one spell to work and now people get all these better graphics and rogues are stupid the new races suck because goblins have voices that bother me . . . . . .

…ad naseum.  You get the point.  The problem with this is that not a single one of those people actually live their OWN lives that way.  It bothers me because it couldn’t be any less intellectually honest.   It’s untrue, silly and just an excuse to gripe out loud in public and I don’t really like people like that in RL, so it REALLY bugs me when people punk about a game.  Sigh to the nth degree.

If those people really believed the juice they were pouring, they would go back and play all of the same lame games their parents played when they were growing up.  If your ability to enjoy the “WoW” experience is completely dependent on having “experienced” the same thing that people 4 years ago had to experience in the same ways they experienced them – how much MORE true would this be in real life?

But we certainly don’t see people hand spinning thread to make fabric to make their own socks – now do we?  I mean, how can you really appreciate socks if you never had to make your own socks like your great-great grandmother had to do?  You don’t deserve socks, and the fact that you can get better socks these days than ever before at basically any store in the country for super cheap just makes socks worthless and stupid and I hope that socks go out of business because cheap and good socks have completely ruined the footwear industry.

Apply this spurious thinking to virtually anything in any part of your real life and you’ll see just how silly it gets almost instantly.  If the game didn’t change you would have gotten bored out your mind three years ago and be stuck playing LotR or AOC right now because WoW would be a non-entity.  But it doesn’t mean that every new player HAS to play every stinkin’ thing that has ever been important to the game in order to have any fun or be any good at the game like it is right now.  They don’t make high school football players play in leather helmets just to experience the way it was back in the day.

Back in the day was lame compared to right now.  40 man raids were a pain in any piece of anatomy you care to mention.  The game right now is better than it has ever been and the next expansion will make it even better.  I know this is true because if the game wasn’t getting MORE fun then LESS people would play it.  You cannot sell a crummy product for 8 straight years.  Change is necessary and good the vast majority of the time.  Blizz gets griped at 24/7/365 and they use that input to change things that need to be changed and ignore the silly stuff.  If you’re so smart, go form your own company, develop games and see how that goes.

Most games fail because they do not stay fresh.  They keep the same old same old content and people get bored of it in about 2 hours.  WoW is good BECAUSE it has changed so drastically.  It more accurately resembles real life in that way.  Players that are new to the game can see the history they have missed when they ride through  the northern part of Deadwind Pass and wonder “what the heck is down THAT road?” But that certainly doesn’t mean they ever have to do Kara in order to have an appreciation for how good the game is.

When Cataclysm hits, it will be be a little sad for me to see Darkshore destroyed.  I’ve spent so many freakin hours in Auberdine it’s not even funny.  But it will give ME a better appreciation of the new content.  I agree with the goobers that having been through things gives those of us who DID go through them a better overall appreciation of the storyline, but that depth of understanding doesn’t make us better players.

Plus, on the flip side, if the level cap was still 60 and we were all still grinding it out for our T2 – the game would REALLY be dead.  THAT would ruin the game.  Not changing would kill the game.  Moving content forward so that even those of us who have done almost everything still have something to work for is NOT going to kill the game.  And every time the game moves forward, you have to go back and keep some balance so that the new player has some hope of doing the cool stuff at the end.

In all reality the reason Blizz does change the game is for YOU.  Yes, you; the guy standing in the back griping in a solid stream about how Blizz is ruining the game.  If you still had to level up the same old way you always did and do the same old dungeons you’ve always done you would stop paying your monthly fees and actually quit (we could only be so lucky).  Blizzard changes the game to keep the pros and old-timers interested.  Your leveling envy for the new guys who have it easier is just an envy complex and you should grow up and get over it.

You would roll your eyes so far back in your head you would never find them again if teachers these days said the same stupid stuff they used to say to my generation in high school: “you can’t use a calculator because if you never learn to do math on paper you won’t be as good at it.”  Dumbest thing I ever heard.  If we are supposed to NOT advance we would all still be skinning animals for their tallow to make candles just to have some light after the sun went down.

It’s even worse when the argument co-joins two disparate thoughts such as: “Don’t use electricity.  The Romans and the Greeks didn’t have electricity and using it makes you weak and inferior.  Sure, I have electricity NOW, but in pre-BC there was no electricity so you should go back and pedal the generator to drive your computer like I had to in fail-ville back in the day.”

Every generation stands on the backs of the work of the previous generation.  We don’t make kids develop their own languages and letters from scratch like someone had to 7,000 years ago.  We advance by taking what was done before us and then using that knowledge to do things quicker, better and faster than ever before.  But the jealousy of “how easy it is these days” always comes out.  Sure, I had to use a slide rule, but the reason we don’t use them any more is because it would be a waste of time and effort when there are far better methods of solving mathematical problems these days.  Sure, you had to figure out how to lead a 40 man raid on Onyxia, but that doesn’t mean that everyone should have to go back and do it exactly the way you did it.

You blazed a trail.  It was hard work and the next people coming down the road shouldn’t have to cut the same weeds you cut.  The really neat thing about WoW, if you’ll stop and think about it, is that you are becoming part of a fantasy history.  The changes work because the game works better now than it used to and that’s the way things should be.  Gear should get better and some things should get easier as the society as a whole progresses.  You have become part of that progression.  Don’t complain, it’s really cool that someone has enough forethought to sustain a fantasy world that moves enough to not get stale and boring.

Regardless of whether you are one of those people who have their brains plugged in all the way or whether you are in the slightly disconnected from reality group – when Cataclysm hits you are going to have no choice whatsoever.  The storyline is about to take a giant leap forward, and one of the oldest parts of the story – Deathwing – is going to change the whole World of Warcraft permanently – and for good.  And it IS good that the game is getting a complete overhaul.  It means we can enjoy it for another few years instead of having to move on to something far more lame – something where the story line never changes (console games ftl).  I, for one, will be glad when content progresses to the point where I never have to step foot in the Occulus again.

So I don’t want to hear that kind of stuff any more.  You wouldn’t apply that fail logic to anything else in the world (I know people try but that doesn’t make it less silly), and just because you apply it to WoW doesn’t make it less fail.  If you think the game is ruined then for pete’s sake quit playing right this second and plow a field with a mule and walk to school uphill both ways in the snow so you’ll enjoy life more because you have experienced the same way of playing life that your ancestors did – but watch out for the saber-toothed tigers – I hear they are a little tough in PvP.

60 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Is the Buff to Guilds the End of Guild Alliances?

The news of all the upgrades to Guild systems in the expansion is really exciting; Blizzard has stated they’re trying to make being in a guild more viable and interesting.  It seems like from whatever polls they’ve taken, they’ve gathered that the social aspect of World of Warcraft is something drawing in a large portion of their players, so they’re trying to improve and bank upon that.

So far, here’s a list of the things the Guild Advancement system is slated to have:

• Guild Experience
  Your entire guild will have and experience bar.  Gaining experience for your guild may be possible from things like leveling, gaining reputation, killing bosses, or winning Battlegrounds or Arenas, all on your guilded toons.

• Guild Talent Tree
  As your guild levels, it naturally gains talent points as well.  These talent points can give your guild members a range of very useful abilities, such as reduced durability taken during fights, removal of buff reagents for raid-wide buffs, and even mass resurrection (my inner-raider can’t stop drooling!).
  

  Guild Talent Tree sample, with example talents "Everybody's Friend" which removes reagents for raid-wide buffs and "Penny Pincher" which reduces repair costs by 30%.

• Guild Currency
  Gaining Guild Experience will convert into (somehow) a special kind of currency called Guild Currency.  You’ll be able to use Guild Currency to purchase a vast array of items, from purely cosmetic and fun to very useful.  There’s the possibility it will be able to be used for mounts, standards with your guild’s insignia on it, as well as being used for a guild talent respect.

• Profession Plans
  Profession Plans can also be bought with Guild Currency.  Once a plan is bought, any person of what profession will be able to purchase the plan from their profession’s trainer.  It will also be possible to craft guild heirlooms, which will scale with level just as regular heirlooms do today.  Additionally, an interface is being added so that anyone online can see other online players’ profession levels and patterns (no more spamming, now we can just ask!)

• Achievements
  Just like normal achievements work now, except, naturally, guild-wide.  Achievements for having Grand Masters of every profession and obtaining Legendary items were mentioned.
  

  Guild Achievement examples, showing the "Working as a Team" achievement, where the guild has a Grand Master of each profession.

• News Feed
  Keep everybody up to date on the latest happenings in the guild with the News Feed.  What bosses were killed, what achievements people have earned, what the most recent loot was.
  

  The Guild Professions interface on the left, and General Guild interface on the right, including the experience bar, News Feed, and MOTD.

• Improved Looking for Guild/Recruit Feature
  A new Looking for Guild interface will be included.  This interface will let you better specify who you are and what kind of guild you’re looking for.   Some specifications for the Guild Recruit feature may include the guild’s play style (casual, moderate, or hardcore), common days of activity, class roles needed, and what levels of toons are being accepted.
  

  Looking For Recruit Interface

• Other Guild Invitations to Calendar
  Finally, something many people have been waiting for: the ability to invite another guild to an event on the Calendar.

As you can see from this Guild Advancement system, a lot has been done to make it beneficial to be in a guild.  Plus, besides encouraging people to be in guilds, it also discourages people from guild hopping; the system is put together to actually encourage guild allegiance.  These days it can be much easier for people to just jump around to whatever guild seems to be doing best, get some gear, and go.  There tends to be fewer people willing to stick around and work (I.E. wipe, pay for consumables, practice) for the final goal, be it downing a boss or winning a Battleground.  With this new system, as soon as you leave a guild, all the benefits you’ve received from being a member are wiped.  The game will still be completely playable, but any professions, heirlooms, or other guild doo-dads you’ve collected during your time will be gone.

What does this mean for Guild Alliances?

Now, while I personally am stoked for these changes (as far as I can tell, they’ll bring nothing but fun in for those already in solidly performing guilds), I fear for those that use the Guild Alliance as their primary way to accomplish high-end content.  These days it’s relatively common for 2 or 3 smaller guilds to band together into an alliance to attempt to accomplish higher end content; 2 or 3 guilds that run their own solitary 10 man can easily form a 25 man together.

Often these guilds stay separate because they simply like having their autonomy; often they’re a small group of friends who play together and have no interest in joining another guild with people they don’t know as well.  While the ability to invite more than one guild to your Calendar is a plus for guild alliances, everything else they’re implementing is basically a detriment.  To receive a guild achievement for a boss kill or Battleground, for example, it was stated that 75% of the guild will have to be present.  This means that any guilds that happen to be accomplishing content as an alliance will likely not be able to receive any of these achievements.  Allied guilds will have separate talent trees as well, separate obtained profession plans.  While these issues don’t keep anyone from playing the game, it will certainly keep them from taking part in many of the game’s new features, at least to the extent that other bigger guilds do.

Cataclysm has a lot of wonderful new features coming that are going to make raiding and general game-play easier and more fun for most of us.  It’s understandable that Blizz wants everyone to take advantage of the social aspect of the MMO (whether it’s to make them more money or to actually help us enjoy the game more), I just hope it doesn’t end up strangling smaller guilds and alliances.  So enjoy the new Guild Advancement system, everyone…it has a lot of amazing new features to offer.  But for anyone in a guild alliance, it may be time to start contemplating what to do when Cataclysm hits.

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New Lore from World of Warcraft’s Next Expansion – Cataclysm

The Lost Isles
The preconception that any goblin would sell their best friend for a fistful of gold is not entirely unfounded: many of them probably would and some actually do. The truth is that quite a few goblins combine a shrewd business sense with a certain level of… moral flexibility. For example, after the cataclysm reawakened a volcano on their home island one of the goblins’ trade princes realized that there was good money to be made in offering panicked goblins a ticket to safety on his ship, taking their life savings – and then selling them into slavery. A clever plan, until it (and the ship) fell apart in a naval crossfire between an Alliance fleet and a lone Horde ship. The shipwreck’s survivors washed ashore on the Lost Isles off the coast of Kalimdor, where they discover that the island’s dense jungles harbor many mysteries and more than a few unpleasant surprises.

Gilneas
Gilneas is located on the peninsula south of Silverpine Forest. The human kingdom had supported the Alliance during the Second War, but King Greymane had no qualms about severing all ties to the outside world when it became clear that the Alliance needed Gilneas more than Gilneas needed the Alliance. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, darkness fell on Gilneas after the Greymane Wall’s gates had been closed, and the Worgen curse ravaged the nation. Before long, Gilneans were fighting against Gilneans in a bloody civil war that left the kingdom in tatters. Remarkably, the people of Gilneas have somehow managed to hold on to the last vestiges of their humanity… for now.

Lore

Cataclysm will be a  major step forward in the ongoing story of the Warcraft universe. The return of  Deathwing has changed the world forever, and the major movers and shakers are  forced to make decisions that will profoundly affect the future of their  peoples. Below is a list of some of the most important non-player characters in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Warchief Thrall
Thrall, the Horde’s warchief, is a living symbol of nobility, strength, and unwavering courage. He led the orcs from the internment camps of Lordaeron into a new era of freedom and prosperity, and under his leadership the Horde has established itself as a major force on Azeroth. As a shaman, Thrall has a deep connection with the elements, and their wisdom has proven to be a great boon to the warchief. But although the Horde’s faith in its warchief remains strong, some orcs who relish the tales of orcish ferocity and martial prowess are frustrated with Thrall’s decisions. It remains to be seen whether his recent differences with Garrosh Hellscream are a one-time event or a hint at the shape of things to come.

Garrosh Hellscream
Growing up, Garrosh only knew his father, Grom Hellscream, by the stories that cast him as the one who had doomed his people. But after learning of Grom’s redemption and heroic sacrifice to free the orcs from demonic corruption once and for all, Garrosh embraced his father’s legacy as a fearless warrior and natural leader. At times, Garrosh’s renewed zeal has put him at odds with the Horde’s warchief. Frustrated by Thrall’s decision to scout Northrend instead of mobilizing the Horde right away, Garrosh challenged the warchief to a duel in the Ring of Valor, but an assault by the Lich King’s minions cut their bout short. Garrosh and the warchief still have some unfinished business… and Garrosh’s hot-headed recklessness is fast becoming a concern to those who know the inherent danger in a Hellscream’s fury.

King Varian Wrynn
The king of Stormwind, recently returned to claim his rightful place, has little love for the Horde. His reasons are many: when Varian was a young boy, he saw his father murdered by the half-orc Garona; the orcs’ warchief, Orgrim Doomhammer, slew the valorous Anduin Lothar, who had delivered Varian safely to Lordaeron after the fall of Stormwind; Varian was later enslaved by the orcish gladiator trainer Rehgar Earthfury; and at the Wrath Gate, many brave Alliance soldiers died at the hands of the Forsaken’s Royal Apothecary Society. Varian, who had always been wary of the orcs, discovered that the Royal Apothecary Society had been developing the new plague for years. The events that transpired during the battle for the Undercity convinced the human king that the Horde has been left unchecked for too long: the time has come to make things right.

King Genn Greymane
The people of the Alliance remember the king of Gilneas as a proud, strong-willed, cunning, and arrogant man. He and his armies stood by the Alliance during the Second War, but in the aftermath it became clear to Genn Greymane that the Alliance needed Gilneas more than Gilneas needed the Alliance. He ordered that the Greymane Wall be closed to all outsiders, effectively sealing off his kingdom from the outside world and its conflicts. But fate, it seems, was intent on teaching the king a lesson in humility: although the wall succeeded in isolating Gilneas from the rest of the world, it also served to damn the kingdom’s people forever. As the Worgen curse swept the nation and early attempts at containment failed, Greymane found himself fighting a battle for his people’s very humanity.

Queen Azshara
Strong-willed, manipulative, and incomparably beautiful, Azshara possessed far more magical talent than almost any other night elf in her time. Ten thousand years ago, she and the other Highborne brought Azeroth dangerously close to complete destruction when their meddling with arcane magic caught the attention of the Great Enemy, Sargeras. Corrupted by the influence of the fallen titan, Azshara set in motion a plan to bring the Burning Legion to Azeroth, a plan that caused the War of the Ancients and the Great Sundering of Azeroth. Beautiful, cruel Azshara was swallowed by the seas, never to be seen again… or so it was believed. The Naga revere Azshara as a demigod, one who is still very much alive. How she could have survived the Sundering, and at what cost, remain mysteries that not many would dare to probe.

Deathwing
Few have fallen as far from grace as ancient Neltharion has. As one of the five Dragon Aspects chosen by the titans, he was given dominion over the earth and the deep places of the world. He embodied the strength of Azeroth and served as the greatest supporter of the Dragon Queen, Alexstrasza. But mighty, kind-hearted, and wise as he was, even Neltharion was not beyond the reach of dark forces sleeping beneath the surface of Azeroth. Over time, sinister whispers sank their claws into the dragon’s thoughts, seeding Neltharion’s mind with madness. He betrayed the other Aspects, and when he turned against his brethren and let corruption take complete control, he ceased being Neltharion the Earth-Warder and became Deathwing the Destroyer. Eventually, he was defeated by the combined might of the other Aspects—defeated, but not destroyed. Hidden from the world, he has been licking his wounds and nourishing his burning hatred. His return will change the face of Azeroth forever.

(Source: WoWWiki)

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More News From Blizzcon About Cataclysm Expansion

Now there is way too much to cover to be sure.  Information about Cataclysm is simply dwarfing everything at Blizzcon so far.  We are in the process of coming up with a better way of presenting information that is class specific without repeating ourselves and without just regurgitating every single blue post in its entirety.  In reality the folks at Blizz announce things a little schizophrenically.  So there is no real rhyme or reason to the press releases we’re getting.  But we’re sorting it all into more usable segments.  Plus, the folks at Blizz don’t worry too much about spelling and grammar in their posts.  We know it’s a little odd to correct a quote, but we just couldn’t stand it, so we cleaned up the worst bits.

Here is all of the general news that doesn’t fit cleanly into a category like”Hunter” for instance.  We’ve collected these bits out of four different blue posts – enjoy!

• Level cap will be 85 because developers wanted to focus on the right things: redoing Azeroth and providing more end-game content.

• A new guild advancement system  will let you earn guild perks and level a guild through 20 levels with points to spend in a talent tree. You will access abilities such as cheaper repairs, less durability loss on wipes, or mass resurrection.

• Phasing can now add and remove terrain based on your progress. Coasts will be progressively more flooded depending on how far you are in a storyline for example.

So who are we trying to kill anyway?

• Deathwing, the leader of the Black Dragonflight, will be the main villain of the expansion.

• Deathwing heard the whispers of the Old Gods after the arrival of the Burning Legion.  He eventually grew very powerful and also became very, very crazy.

• His plan was to catch the Alliance and Horde unaware with something so massive that it would bring up the Elemental Planes.

• The Elemental Planes were created by titans to contain the elementals.  They weren’t happy with this decision and some of them, like Ragnaros, got really angry.

Old World

• We all left a little part of ourselves in Northrend and the old world will be much darker than it was to make heroism and brotherhood more meaningful – like Warcraft should be.

• Every zone will be revamped with new quests, items, and art. The old world will be a brand new experience and you won’t have to deal with the annoying agility/spirit quest rewards anymore.

• Azeroth is now flyable. Pretty much all the zones [sic] will be changed to some extent.  Some of them, like Elwynn Forest, won’t change too much; but others, like The Barrens, will be sundered in two by Deathwing.

• The Wailing Caverns are now a lush and verdant Area.

• Desolace now has a lot more water and a lot of plants can be seen in the screenshots.

• The Horde finally conquered Southshore.

• Auberdine was destroyed and the night elves have set up a new camp north of it. Garrosh wants to expand the horde and has built a fortified camp at the south of the zone.

• Stonetalon has been cleaned by the Goblins.  Azshara will be the new Goblin zone, and they are using quarries in the mountains of Azshara to build their town.

• Apparently Orgrimmar will be rebuilt and reinforced with steel.  It now looks a lot like Garrosh strongholds.

• Undercity has been redesigned to be flyable.  It now looks much more impressive from the outside.

New Zones

7 new zones will be added : Twilight Highlands, Mount Hyjal, Deepholm, Uldum, Gilneas, The Lost Isles, Sunken City of Vash’jir.

Starting Areas

The Worgens and Goblins starting zones levels go from 1 to 15.

Vasj’ir

Sunken City of Vashj’ir will be an underwater zone and was the home city of Lady Vashj before the original sundering.  This is a gateway to the Abyssal Maw. Going through the Abyssal Maw will take you to the Elemental Plane of Water.  Even though the zone will be underwater you will be walking on the sea floor here.  New underwater mounts will be available and should have the same speed as normal flying mounts.

Deepholm

• Deepholm will be the new hub of the expansion and you will have portals here to let you teleport to Hyjal, Uldum, etc.   The Twilight’s Hammer now serves Deathwing and have brought him back to full health in the Temple of Earth at the center of the map.

• Deepholm isn’t really connected to Azeroth, the connection is where Deathwing emerged from the ground.

Uldum

Uldum will have at least two dungeons and is heavily inspired from [sic]  Egypt. The sea at the west of Tanaris was just an illusion created by the Titans and Uldum is actually a brand new zone. It is rumored to hold a super weapon. Uldum is also the home of the Tolvir, a race of stone-like cats created by the titans.

Plane of Fire

Ragnaros used the cataclysm to come back from the Plane of Fire where we sent him and is now besieging the World Tree in Mount Hyjal to burn it down. Malfurion is back from the Emerald Dream. The whole zone (Hyjal) will make extensive use of phasing.

Twilight Highlands

The Twilight Highlands will feature Grim Batol.  Deathwing literally broke open Grim Batol as he emerged from the ground. This is the new Twilight’s Hammer base in Azeroth and both Horde and Alliance will have a new port town with boats here. The Red Dragonflight is still here but has been pushed back to the west of the zone near the Wetlands.

Dungeons & Raids

• The Firelands will be a new raid dungeon.  It will let you go to the Elemental Plane of fire and visit Sulfuron’s Keep, Ragnaros will be there and he’s really pissed.

• Uldum will feature two new dungeons, the Lost City of Tol’vir and the Halls of Origination (a titan city).

• Grim Batol will have a level-up dungeon and a raid instance.

• Skywall (Air Elemental Plane) will have a level-up dungeon and a raid instance.

• The Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep will be back with brand new level 85 heroic versions.

• Blackrock Caverns will be a new level-up dungeon located in Blackrock Spire. This is an entirely new dungeon, new art, new creatures, new everything.

Player vs. Player

• Battle of Gilneas will be a new battleground where the objective is to control the city by controlling as many districts as possible.

• Tol’barad will be a new PvP zone and will also be the most important daily quest hub. Just like Wintergrasp, a battle will happen every few hours and the winning side will get access to the Tol’barad Prison and extra daily quests (the really profitable ones).

• Rated battlegrounds will be added to the game and should get you the same rewards as Arenas.

• New arena maps will be added.

Guild Leveling System

• The idea behind the guild leveling system is to make people want to be in guilds and make people feel better about being in a guild. The goal is to take that feature and make it the best they can. (Guild Talent Trees, etc …)

• You will be able to create guild heirlooms with the new guild leveling system, you can buy profession plans and anyone in your guild can wear that item, it will scale with level.

Raids & Dungeons

• You can’t get Frostmourne because it would take control of your soul. Frostmourne would be playing your character, not you. The weapon has an unique fate and the encounter is going to be mega.

• There won’t be any option to do Onyxia at level 60 anymore after the revamp in 3.2.2.

Cataclysm

• There isn’t any plan to prevent ganking in the contested zones of Azeroth, even with flying mounts available here. This is just part of being on a PvP server.

• They can’t spoil the Thrall / Garrosh storyline, but with the cataclysm raging everywhere, what do you think the world’s mightiest shaman would need to do?

• Northrend and Outland won’t really be affected by the Cataclysm but some of the areas will be updated for the expansion. For example, you will be able to level up Archeology in Outland.

• XP in Battlegrounds need to be fixed because there is a lot of XP leeching in the 71-80 Brackets. Once it’s fixed, it will be improved across the board.

• Multi-passenger flying mounts could be added in the future. They might also allow crafters to craft 310% flying mounts if they already completed an achievement rewarding one.

• Every healer class can now dispell magic, the niches will other debuffs.

• Engineers might be able to craft bows in the future.

• If you already own a 310% mount, you might be able to boost the speed of all your 280% mount to 310% just to let you use the one that you prefer.

• Casters will finally get a Legendary item in one of the first raids of the expansion.

• Cataclysm will change the ways abilities are learned. Abilities ranks are gone and ability will just scale progressively with levels instead.

• Most of the Talent Trees will be changed dramatically, a lot of the passive bonuses will be removed and talent trees should be more fun. (No more “Hurray! Level up! I just got 1% more hit!)

• You will never be able to cleanse the Corrupted Ashbringer.

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Part 1 Of Our Coverage Of The New WoW Expansion: Cataclysm

All of the information regarding the upcoming expansion to WoW is going to blow your socks off.  It’s so good that WoW is going to be like a whole new game, and that’s and understatement of the highest order.  When Cataclysm comes out, your whole WoW experience will be rejuvenated.  So many things are changing it’s a little tough to know where to start, but we drew from a hat and came up with something.

The new races look even better than we expected.  For the Alliance there are the Worgen.  The mysteries locked behind the Greymane wall in southern Silverpine are revealed as the great gate is torn down to reveal the human kingdom of Gilneas – but the humans are not merely human any more.  This new starting zone will run from level 1 to 15 and the graphics are fantastic.

For the Horde (sorry about that) we get the goblins of Khazan who have been shipwrecked on the Lost Islands between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.  The zone looks an awful lot like Stranglethorn Vale, but you’ll get a big dose of the new water rendering all around the islands – and it is truly awesome.

So while we’re on the subject of the new races you should also know that every race in the game will get new class combinations.  There are some odd entries in the list – to be sure.  Dwarf Druid anyone?  How about a Tauren Paladin?  Combine all of that with the upcoming faction change service and there’s a pretty good likelihood that you might consider changing at least one of your alts to the other faction just to grab one of the new races without having to go from 1-85 (that’s right, the level cap is being raised – but more on that another time), although we recommend you not take shortcuts since Cataclysm will change almost everything about the entire world.

Here is the complete race/class matrix for your viewing pleasure:

When you find out just how much the entire game is going to change there is a good bet you’ll want to start all over from the very beginning and go from 1-85 on one of the new races.  The whole game is getting an overhaul from the ground up and nothing will be like it was pre-BC.  And that’s what we’ll talk about tomorrow.  Until then, just know that Cataclysm is certainly going to Dominate!

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