Blizzcast episode 7 released
by Eliah Hecht 
Jan 29th 2009 at 5:30PM
- When the development on the original WoW was getting wrapped up, Outland and Northrend were both in the running for the first expansion. They decided the timing was better to do Outland first.
- There were three front runners for the hero class to appear in LK:
- Necromancer, a ranged caster with corpse explode and such. Some of this ended up getting incorporated into Death Knight
- Rune master: "think rogue or monk type character"
- And, of course, Death Knight.
- JAB thinks "the first month has really validated that decision" to go with 10- and 25-man raiding.
- Lessons learned from Burning Crusade:
- Don't funnel everyone into one zone (Hellfire Peninsula)
- Put Arthas in everybody's face - most people in BC didn't get to interact with Illidan much.
- Itemization: the items that drop in heroics are actually good.
- From a conceptual story point of view, LK is divided into three acts, with the Wrath Gate cut scene separating act one from act two. [Where's the break between acts two and three?]
- Ulduar is going to be "absolutely massive."
The second half of the podcast is called "The Story So Far," and in it Metzen talks about what's been going on in Azeroth while we were off in Outland killing space demons. It's not anything you haven't been exposed to if you've played through the expansion, but there is some additional depth and color in his commentary, so it's probably worth going to check it out. He does mention that the question of "how is Yogg-Saron tied to the Scourge or Lich King specifically?" is going to be important in future storylines; I'm betting we'll see more on that in Ulduar (based on dialogue at the Tribunal event in Halls of Stone). The Order of Tirisfal is also strongly hinted as something that the story might get back into "at some future point."
Overall I enjoyed this Blizzcast a lot more than some of the past episodes. It's certainly worth a read or a listen if you've got a few minutes.
[thanks, Chillblain]
Filed under: Podcasting, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
pandagork Jan 29th 2009 5:39PM
I'm going to guess at Tirion's Gambit, seems like a logical place to finish up act two with Icecrown topping it off.
Mac Jan 29th 2009 5:42PM
good no mention of that dumb archdruid!
WoWie Zowie Jan 29th 2009 5:45PM
i like reading your highlights better than listening to their podcast =x
Kryphon Jan 29th 2009 6:01PM
Clearly the separation between acts 2 and 3 is the game-changing, agonizing choice between the Frenzyheart Tribe and the Oracles.
SaintStryfe Jan 29th 2009 6:50PM
Stupid Puppy-men.
Leviathon Jan 29th 2009 6:01PM
Really seems like they hinted to Grim Batol and Neltharion as being the 'secret raid'.
Bosswally Jan 29th 2009 7:24PM
if it is not Grim Batol i would be really surpirised consedering what happens at the end of night of the dragon
ChiperSoft Jan 29th 2009 9:23PM
Ooo, that actually makes a lot of sense, given all the nastiness with the black and blue dragonflights.
I would indeed like to see Grim Batol become a raid (if only to get another flight path in wetlands :P).
CannedBread Jan 29th 2009 9:59PM
Grim Batol is pretty much all red dragons. I'm hoping that they actually have Deathwing show up, attack the cities, and then after a few days, or when he's beaten as a world boss, he heads off to Northrend, trashes Wyrmrest Temple, and heads into one of the other flights' chambers (maybe steals Alextrasza and heads into the red chamber?) this would be a great way to add more content to Northrend and an awesome lore tie-in.
I'm hoping for a class with an even crazier resource mechanic than death knights, I love the concept of a runemaster or a class who specializes in ley-based magic or manipulation of others' spells.
I also want, more than anything, for Bolvar and Saurfang the Younger (may not be feasible, as his soul was stolen) to show up as Death Knights and go on a badass rampage through some Scourge guys.
They also really need to incorporate the other races' leaders/high end characters into the lore more ingame
It would be cool if Magni himself toddled on up to Northrend for Uludar, or if Sylvanas headed on up to back up the Horde forces.
Just some generally cool stuff.
Bosswally Jan 29th 2009 10:57PM
dude you apparentally havent read night of the dragon, the new noval. in there at the end it says Deathwing is held up deep insider Grim Batol and is the one making new twighlight dragons, like the ones you see in OS, and the red dragons got of there, they are not there anymore
Leviathon Jan 30th 2009 6:41AM
The Red Dragons left Grim Batol after many started suddenly dieing. The only thing there now is Neltharion deep inside of the caverns making his new Twilight Dragonflight.
CannedBread Jan 30th 2009 8:44AM
I haven't read Night of the Dragon, so I'm not quite up to date, nonetheless, it would still be cool to have a bunch of evil dragons attack the cities/attack wyrmrest temple.
BigBiker05 Jan 29th 2009 8:19PM
I'm actually sad there was no mention of Star-craft or Diablo in this blizzcast. Guess as both are being polished they don't want to give anything out.
Tuhljin Jan 29th 2009 11:46PM
"Where's the break between acts two and three?"
Not sure if you're just wondering when we'll see it and what form it'll take, or you didn't catch the implications of this (as I see them, anyway):
Kaplan: "... so obviously, you are probably wondering well what are other two acts and that’s what the patches are all about."
I read that as "We're still in Act Two." Patches will continue the story.
Thander Jan 29th 2009 11:50PM
Me too. I think the height of Act 2 will be Ulduar. Act 3 will start when Icecrown is added. They may even add a quest hub with another cinematic to fully show the player they are entering the next act.
Eversor Jan 30th 2009 9:17AM
I'll go out there and wildly guess that Lich King and Yogg-Saron have struck a deal. Lich King gets power, and Yogg-Saron a physical body... which would have a beautfiul and horrifically magnificent transformation into the avatar of the Beast of a Thousand Maws.
Really, why not? Lich King already has the Faceless Ones roaming under his Citadel, and ironically, his own heart lies there, in a pool. Then, the whole Scourge wearing saronite armor. Next, the Iron Dwarves, minions of Loken completely ignoring the frost vrykul women that are loyal to Lich King, the former doing exactly the same (of course, Thorim and his followers can be pointed at this as simply distracting both sides, but I like to present the worse case scenario).
Really, why would a massive Old God allow some puny upstart, created by a general of a fallen titan's legion, let roam freely above the God's ground, dig out his own blood and use it to construct a massive citadel and arm his forces? Surely Yogg-Saron has schemed this. With the Dragonflights distracted (hinted by Metzen himself) by -something-. I again shall assume it's Yogg-Saron, how hard would it be for him to corrupt the Aspect of Earth, with his tendrils going deep within the ground? Or pushing the hand of the Aspect of Magic, with the arcane flowing, yes, trough the ley lines in the ground? Then, harness the power into a focusing point, the Nexus and being ready to unleash it, during so distracting the Aspect of Life, one who could be able to actually defeat the Lich King, were her hands free. The Emerald Dream, being corrupted by something... heck, why not our good ol' Yogg-Saron again? Yet another aspect is distracted, and advice from Ysera is denied. Then, we finish up with Nozdormu flickering trough time-space continuum. Now, here we have bit more possibilities - since theoretically, Nozdormu can change the flow of the time... heck, maybe he even IS trying to prevent his fellow Dragonflights to conflict with eachother, point them at the real threat... but unable to compete with the power of the massive Old God, who is pulling strings everywhere.
Then, the Infinite Dragonflight pops in my mind. It is speculated that Nozdormu is behind it. Could it be possible that it is his move of despair, trying to save Azeroth? By changing the key events of the past, he may be putting the present Azeroth in great danger, but possibly sees such turn of events better than allow it to go it's course and be overwhelmed by the Old God. The Dark Portal... preventing Ner'zul to ever step foot on Azeroth... Escape of Thrall does make me heavily wonder what could be the intent behind changing that event, since it would only lead for Kalimdor to be decimated by Archimonde. And, of course, preventing Culling of Stratholme would be yet another attempt to keep Arthas away from Northrend. Ultimately, the first and last lead to the merge of Arthas and Ner'zul into the Lich King we know today, and why would that be prevented, if not to avoid the ultimate destruction caused by the Old Gods? After all, Nozdormu has seen his death. So... perhaps he is trying to prevent such turn of events to save his own skin? And by powering the Infinites, he is weakening himself, by making it seem that he fights them?
So... the final boss shall really be the Lich King. But will it be the same Lich King as we see him now? My wall of text seems to think otherwise...
TL;DR: Old Gods are behind it all. "You are the pawn of forces unseen."