Breakfast Topic: How would you revamp Outland?
by Matt Clerico 
Nov 5th 2011 at 8:00AM
A lot of players remember The Burning Crusade expansion fondly. After a few years of playing the original World of Warcraft, people were really ready for new places to explore, and BC really delivered. Now, however, leveling through Outland now is kind of a jarring experience. After moving up through the revamped old world content that Cataclysm has provided, the level 58-to-68 experience in the remains of Draenor is really showing its age.
Blizzard has expressed interest in revisiting Outland some day to update the content. If it were to do this, what would you like to see? Should the BC zones support a new expansion of high-level content, as opposed to a reworked 60s leveling experience (perhaps through phasing)? Could we see some more Draenei lore and storyline involvement, something really missing from the last two expansions?
What do you think the Outland of the future would look like? Would Zangamarsh swell with water again now that Lady Vashj and her Naga have been defeated? Who would sit in Tempest Keep? What have Akama and the Broken done with the Black Temple in our absence? Do the Naaru still reside in Shattrath City? What stories are there still to tell beyond the Dark Portal?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
DragonFireKai Nov 5th 2011 8:03AM
Turalyon kills all the orcs. The end.
Stonebeard Nov 6th 2011 1:55AM
This.
Sorta...
It would be awesome to go back and find Allerian Point as the dominant Alliance hub and the Mag'Thar place in Nagrand (I don't Horde...) as the dominant hub for the Horde. Shattrath has been razed; the Naaru are missing. Without the Kurenai threat, the ogres of Nagrand join the Horde. The ethereals of Netherstorm have finally defeated the blood elves there but traced their treachery back to Silvermoon and so joined the Alliance.
In a bold move, Blizzard removes the original 58-70 content, working that back into Azeroth and Northrend. Certain "scenarios" become available through Chromie, but Outland is now completely rife with portals, creating 1-20 zones for each of the new races and 90-100 zones in Outland. Then, the next expansion goes to Argus, and we win. The end.
But yes, Turalyon definitely kills the fel orcs. :)
BananaBoulette Nov 5th 2011 8:08AM
Matching gear sets.
'nuff said.
Eric Nov 5th 2011 9:30AM
Srsly. Everyone looks like a carnie clown after level 68.
LynMars Nov 5th 2011 11:04AM
There are lots of matching sets! ...Spread out over multiple dungeons, and some of the best ones in both Normal and Heroic. And several random pieces that make only half-sets or one-off pieces that go with nothing, or with crafted pieces, or random reputation vendors...Oh, and some of the stats and bonuses don't work well for the class anymore as they haven't been updated...
I've gone back and made some nice sets from Outlands, but it's an awful lot of work as everything that matches is so darned scattered. When you're leveling, there's no real opportunity to get a cohesive set, and you have to do a lot of research to find out if there even is a matching armor set for a particularly nice piece.
Making it easier for folks to get nice sets of gear through quests or dungeons, like they do in the newly revamped zones, would be very nice for Outland as well.
Phredreeke Nov 5th 2011 11:27AM
Transmogrification anyone?
Daco Nov 5th 2011 12:32PM
That's what I'm talking about. Bring back Tier Bozo!
Chivvy Nov 5th 2011 7:08PM
I prefer to refer to Outland gear as the PNP set - Pre-Northrend Pimp
brain314 Nov 6th 2011 3:58AM
Blizzard needs to go in and fix gear stats. Agility plate hasn't worked since agility stopped giving dodge, meaning tanks get nothing useful 90% of the time. There are also 95-100% duplicate caster rewards from the same quests due to the streamlining of caster gear.
"Congratulations! you can pick either a 50 INT/24 SPI/101 SpellPower DPS ring, or a 50 INT/24 SPI/101 SpellPower healer ring!"
thawedtheorc Nov 5th 2011 8:13AM
I would love to see Netherstorm covered in the lush vegetation via the domes. Also would like to see what is left of the world pulled together even more.. with new zones.
Sharalatan Nov 5th 2011 8:20AM
Dont use the P word.
I hate phasing, I think its a retarded mechanic for an MMO. All it does is segregate teh playerbase and prevent people playing together. In and MMO!
I'd love to go back to outland, but leave it as is, add more content, not rehash perfectly fine content that is already there.
sharlatan Nov 5th 2011 9:23AM
I get downvoted for suggesting people be allowed to play together in an MMO!
LOL
Bellajtok Nov 5th 2011 10:07AM
Lesson 1: Don't use the word "retarded", or for that matter, any similarly offensive words, because people will be offended.
Lesson 2: Don't say that you "hate" something. People who use the word hate tend to be whiny and obnoxious, without any validation for their stance.
Lesson 3: Don't talk about how you got downvoted. Just move on.
Dez Nov 5th 2011 11:37AM
Erm, you do realise phasing wasn't introduced until Wrath of the Lich King, right? So Outland has practically no phasing, apart from a couple of quests that take you to another dimension, which doesn't really count as proper phasing really.
Brett Porter Nov 5th 2011 2:02PM
You also missed the point the OP was trying to make: phase the high level and leveling areas from each other. So for example, the level 90-95 characters would be in one phase, and the levels 58-68 would be in another.
Comprehension!
Dimmak Nov 5th 2011 2:16PM
Phasing is one of the most amazing technology advancements that came along in MMOs. I would love if they phased the entirety of older zones when you moved onto the next expansion with a caveat... You need a switch to allow you to move to another person's phase.
For example, I am trying to complete a quest and my level 85 friends come to help me, they set me as the party leader, everyone in my party goes to the same phase and interacts at the same "timeline" as I do. Set someone else to leader and you move to their phase/timeline.
We can blame Chromie on anything that's Chromie-like.
ecwfrk Nov 5th 2011 10:45PM
I wouldn't change much. Some of the quests could use a bit of updating so they flow a bit better. And I'd adjust a few of the ones that are lore jumps that contradict events you learned about earlier in Azeroth. But for the most part Outland isn't that bad. I'd update the Ogri'la and Skettis stuff so they're not so grindy anymore. Oh, and I'd definitely up the spawns of herbs and ore to match Azeroth. But it's Outland,
The only other thing I'd like to see if is part of an overall game thing and not specific to Outland. I'd like to see all the old level 70, 80 and 85 Heroics "removed" and rebalanced (via simple stat revamps) with each expansion to endgame levels and added as a separate "classic" tier (like ZA/ZG) of Heroics.
Like ZA/ZG they'd have a higher iLevel requirement so people would run the current storyline dungeons first for gear and would only move to the Classic tier once they are just grinding Heroics for Points, orbs and shards.
Classic tier dungeons would have a generic loot table that's shared across all dungeons in the tier and current dungeons would still be a part of the pool (with their regular loot tables) so people still running the current dungeons for gear wouldn't see their queue times stretch.
That way, instead of being stuck running the same 6-12 current Heroics over and over there'd be well over 60 dungeons in the pool which would help prevent content burnout a bit and all that old content would still have some relevance and not go completely wasted once the Xpac comes out. They could also extend it to the Raid Finder and keep old raid content relevant as well.
Sharlatan Nov 6th 2011 8:40AM
phasingis retarded, and here is why:
1. You cant help other players out if you want to as you are in different phases.
2. Any semabalance of world pvp (such as it is) is further destroyed by people being different phases.
3. Bliz mess it up. ICC summon stone anyone? Oh wait, half the raid are in differnt phases an so cant summon each other...
4. If you phase a whole zone you force a single levelling path. As you have to reach a point to initiate teh phasing, at which point all old content is phased out for new content. So everyone has to do up to a certain point in that zone,....seen anyone level an alt in Vasj lately? nope they all do hyjal for the molten front.
I do understand the OPs point, I just think its not workable. Phasing is Bliz attempt at dynamic content, it does not work. Its fine from a storey perspective, but this is supposed to be an MMO not a storey driven single player game. By phasing zones you force single path scripted questing, which was a major flaw in cata.
I love outland, I want to go back, but I want new content, not badly phased garbage like cata was.
Paul Nov 5th 2011 8:20AM
I wouldn't try to tell a new overarching story for the 60-70 experience. It would be the same pre-wrath story, but with mechanics used to tell it in a more compelling way.
Outland is a story for the original races/classes + Draenei and Blood Elves. There's no real need to make it fit for DKs or any of the new races. Their playthrough the zones can simply be explained as a stories being told to them whilst at an inn, talking to a veteran of those old days.
Abbadon Nov 5th 2011 8:21AM
1st off, make Ethereals a playable race for both factions (like the Pandaren) starting at lv 55 with a new and unique starting zone. At level 58, they'd be ready to venture forth into Hellfire Peninsula.
Then Blizz should peruse all their data and determine which quests are the least completed per zone. Weed out a lot of quests and tweak the progression to have quests move you into other zones at an accelerated pace. This should take into consideration heirlooms, the guild XP bonus as well as rested XP. Make it a fast paced experience, but one that still allows the player to see every zone.
Lastly, either turn off dungeon XP or beat it down with the nerf bat! On the one hand, the LFD system is an awesome tool while leveling - great XP and good gear upgrades. However, I view the LFD as the #1 content killer. In Wrath, I had 2 (and almost a 3rd) Northrend Loremasters. In Cata, my main still has't finished a couple zones, and my alts have barely even touched any quests besides Deepholm (for their shoulder enchants). I've seen it said that Blizz hates developing content that no one sees (usually referring to end game raids)... Well then, they should nerf the LFD system so players are forced to quest and see the zones and questlines they've created.