Breakfast Topic: What do you expect from this year's BlizzCon?
by Allison Robert 
Oct 21st 2011 at 8:00AM
With a look at the schedule of events on day one, we can reasonably expect to see a preview of the Deathwing encounter (well, more of it), and the most common guess that I've seen so far is that the talent system is going to be overhauled in the run-up to the next expansion. Interestingly, that seems to have been a popular guess even before the BlizzCon schedule was released and all but confirmed that something is afoot. Speaking of expansions, there's the specter of that "World of Warcraft preview" panel this afternoon, and I think we all know what that's going to be about. Sort of.
Pandas? Emerald Dream? Xoroth? Tijuana? Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.
Turn to WoW Insider for all your BlizzCon 2011 news and information. Get ready to kick off the weekend with the WoW Insider Reader Meetup, cohosted by Wowhead and Gamebreaker.tv, and look for our liveblogs of the convention panels, interviews with WoW celebrities -- and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, BlizzCon
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Pan1c42 Oct 21st 2011 8:04AM
Please fix rogue rampup!
Jamie Oct 21st 2011 8:04AM
I'm looking forward to a lot of surprises. But I'm also looking to be a little bit disappointed too. I have no intention of playing Diablo 3 or Starcraft 2 (perhaps I'm crazy). I like my BlizzCons to be almost completely about WoW.
Yep, this year will be a little sad when they try and cram 3 highly popularly games into 2 short days. Seriously! Blizzard! Sunday!! Extend it to Sunday too!!!
It sure will be sweet to finally know what this Mists of Pandaria is all about. The wait will finally be over.
CaptainQuackers Oct 21st 2011 8:04AM
I don't really know, but I REALLY hope it isn't pandas.
Mikkhail Oct 21st 2011 8:06AM
Playable ogres!
... nah ... not really ... but it would be cool to have a two headed ogre mage!
Expecting ... new interfaces ... auction house, vendors, etc ...
And most hopefully ... new character creation!
micamorr Oct 21st 2011 8:19AM
No Pandas, but more demons for next xpansion
Ruikia Oct 21st 2011 8:09AM
Im predicting to see the cinematic that will go in before 'the madness of Deathwing fight' as he explodes and goes into the maelstrom, and maybe a sneak peak of the cinematic ending to that fight. I also really hope this MOP turns out to be fixing what cataclysm left out. More horde and alliance sided quests so people will actually feel like their factions gets something different. More zones to level and quest in, to all the quest lovers, who doesn't love venturing to the zones you didn't level in to check out their stories. Goodness i could go on and on. But most of all if MOP does turnout to be true and all the 'leaks' about the story are also true, i hope Azsharas villian boss model is done to justice, thats all im asking!
Strawder Oct 21st 2011 8:09AM
I predict Pandaren (non-playable). Queen Aszhara as the Big Bad. The Emerald Dream. And the unlocking of Blood Elf and Human Druids. We'll see how right or wrong I am in a few hours.
Jamie Oct 21st 2011 10:12AM
How wrong? Wrong is an absolute state and not subject to degradation!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_1zoX5Ax9U
Elwoods Oct 21st 2011 10:41AM
Like you cant be a little bit pregnant!
Demeternoth Oct 21st 2011 8:09AM
I too think MoP is a GIANT (off hand- just for frills) red herring.
I expect Metzen to tell us that Thrall is a Titan.
MusedMoose Oct 21st 2011 8:09AM
I'm sure most people are expecting the next expansion; I'm right there with them. But considering Cataclysm, I'm hoping the expansion gives us 10 or 15 levels to gain, instead of just 5.
I'm also expecting a major talent revision, though just what it is remains to be seen... Some people have tossed around the idea of no talents at all, or them stopping at 85. I wonder if there won't be some kind of "epic talents" thing, where after a certain level, you start putting talent points into one or more new trees. Though now that I think about it, that wouldn't solve the talent problem. Hrm.
Mortenebra Oct 21st 2011 9:05AM
You know, I like the idea of an "epic talent." There's been all this talk about having a new hero class and the lack of adding hero classes because of balance issues, right? An epic talent could very well be a better implementation of the mastery idea: something that makes that spec for the class *really* stand out and, therefore, almost upgrading the class into a hero version of it... The "ultimate" form.
Let's take hunters for example (these are just ideas I've come up with off the top of my no-breakfast brain, so bear with me... hah, get it?!):
- Beast mastery hunters can become one with their pets, much like a warlock's metamorphosis, and really tear things up for a couple of minutes. Or, give them the stampede ability that others have talked about.
- Marksman hunters are so good at finding their targets that they can, for a set amount of time, continue firing shots-- even those that require a cast time-- while moving without switching aspects as a penalty. I also honestly think sniper training should be an MM thing.
- Survivalist hunters are best at kiting, trapping, and knowing how to survive under the worst circumstances. Give them something like a raid-wide buff to increase stamina or, perhaps, a raid-wide "last stand" sort of a thing.
... I have no idea if this is what you were talking about Moose. This is what sparked in my mind when you said "epic talents." Now... I'm going to get breakfast.
Dennis Oct 21st 2011 11:29AM
For the post 85 talents I can see Blizzard starting a whole new tree. It might even be a universal tree system that's shared by all of the classes. A version of the path of the titans where a player chooses a titan and then picks talents from that path. Of course this will be blown all to hell in about 4 hours.
nataswar Oct 21st 2011 8:12AM
Wondering about expac...if it is MoP, then is it on Azeroth, or did the pandas leave the planet, thereby making it to where we go to another planet (or planets).
Very interested in hearing about opening ceremonies........gogogo!
jealouspirate Oct 21st 2011 8:13AM
I believe in Mists of Pandaria. Playable Pandaren, for both factions. As a general theme, I would say it will be about exploring the island nations of Azeroth. Maybe Azshara will be the big bad. Kul Tiras will have significant involvement, for the Alliance at least.
kulhanek.jeff Oct 21st 2011 8:14AM
I'm really excited today, knowing that by the end of the day we will have a plethora of new information to pour over and speculate about. I wish I had a guess as to what is coming, but frankly I don't have a clue.
It seems like a lot of people are leaning towards no new classes or races, if that's the case then something else big must be coming.
MattKrotzer Oct 21st 2011 9:00AM
I'm with you, man, and we normally disagree on things.
Anticipation is the great uniter.
:)
Phil Oct 21st 2011 9:23AM
@Matt
And assumption is the mother of all... yea nevermind
kulhanek.jeff Oct 21st 2011 9:47AM
We may disagree Matt, but we at least do it in pleasant ways right? Besides we usually disagree on simple stuff like gear and horde v alliance. But hey at least an alliance raider aggreed wtih a horde non-raider just once.
loop_not_defined Oct 21st 2011 9:56AM
YOU'RE BOTH WRONG!
JERK FACES!