Posts with tag wwi

Arena Junkies picked up an interesting tidbit by comparing two different interviews. Rob Pardo, Blizzard's EVP of Game Design, gave an interview to Onlinewelten in which he talks about the next-gen MMO. That interview isn't exactly news on its own. We knew since Diablo III was announced at the WWI that it probably isn't the new MMO, and Pardo confirms that in the interview. "..Diablo 3 isn't an MMO," Pardo says, "So we have another development team."

But what is that new MMO being developed? Some speculate it could be an entirely new property. Well, Paul Sams, Blizzard's Chief Operating Officer, has an interview with Gamasutra that indicates no new IPs are coming soon. "Are we ever going to release a new [franchise]?" Sams says, "I would absolutely say we will at some point. I just don't know when that day will be quite yet."

Okay, so Blizzard's still working on a MMO, but there's no new IP on the horizon. So, what's the next-gen MMO going to be? World of Warcraft 2? World of Starcraft? And if Diablo 3 isn't considered an MMO, then is there a possibility of a World of Diablo? For me, this just means that my hopes of Tauren Marines aren't yet dead.

Our very own Mark "Turpster" Turpin and Jennie Lees were invited to sit down with Xfire users and chat about their thoughts from the Worldwide Invitational. You can read the entire transcript, but we've encapsulated most of the goodies for you in this post.

Mounts and battlegrounds

Answering a question about water mounts, Jennie said that they don't seem to be in the works. Still, you can get your H2O kicks with the non-player-controllable boats in Lake Wintergrasp. Another questioner asked whether the flying combat mounts will take damage. Some of these combat mounts will have shielding to protect the player from damage, but the mount will take damage instead.

Killing Arthas

Consensus in the chat was that there is a lot of excitement around the idea of being able to kill Arthas, the Lich King, even if it takes up the same progression as Kil'Jaeden currently does in TBC. The hope is that Frostmourne will drop, but the consequences of getting the sword are not yet known. Will it corrupt the player and take away stats? Will players become the new Lich King if they pick it up? We'll have to wait and see.

That's just one of the questions awaiting an answer for us in the post-Wrath world. Another came from a chat question about whether there would be any future for the Warcraft franchise after Arthas is dead. From what our bloggers have heard, there's no standing still for the franchise. Turpster says, "I think a favourite King of mine might be making a return to a Stormy City!"

Hex was announced for Shamans at the WWI and there's a little bit of confusion out there about Hex. That's okay -- Hex is a little confusing. As explained by the dev panel, Hex is meant as a kind of "emergency" crowd control -- used in the same situation you'd see a Hunter throw a Feign Death or Scatter Shot. A brief moment of "Oh, crap!" to defend yourself, and hopefully your tank (or arena team) will snag that sucker off you before you're dead.

To sum up the spell, Hex transforms its target into a critter. It's fast, just short of an Instant -- Hex has a .5 second cast time. Here's where things get a little more confusing, and where some of the "what the..?" starts. According to some sources, the specifics of the spell read "while moving the hexed target cannot attack or cast spells." That means your victim can either walk, or they can fight. They can't do both at once, but they can still act. From Tom Chilton's description of the spell, a mob will likely completely freak out and be erratic. I took that to mean, however, that a player might be a frog -- but it'd still be pumping out damage or heals while ribbiting at you.

In this sense, "Hex" isn't really crowd control -- it's a more a kind of debuff. It forces the subject to be either rooted in place, or unable to cast or attack, but it leaves the choice of which up to your victim. A new spell is still good news for the Shaman class, but it isn't quite the good news we have been hoping to hear.

You'd have expected a little more in-depth Arena discussion from the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. You'd have been wrong, but you'd have expected it. We've covered the new Arena maps, but something from the Question and Answer periods really stuck out for me. What's the future of the Arena going to be like...for crowd control? Should we expect more, less, or about the same? What's going to happen to that naughty little Cyclone?

The answer from Tom Chilton was predictable -- without crowd control in its various forms, Arena matches become little more than DPS races. Crowd control (and its cousin line of sight) helps Arena fights take a little longer, and introduces viable strategies that are based all around controlling the other team. (As opposed to just blowing them to heck.) But the forums are alive - alive! - with complaints about Cyclone, Sap, Sheep, and hell, even Scatter Shot. No sir, folks don't like crowd control. Often, it seems like they'd rather get killed than sheeped.

I think it comes down to a pretty basic thing -- we have fun in these games by controlling our characters. Anything that jeopardizes the control of our characters on either a short-term or a long-term basis is therefore anathema. No one wants to stand there, helpless, while some Rogue performs their billionth stun on you. It seems to me (in my rosy-glassed retrospect) that we heard less complaints about insta-kill POM+Pyro than we do about a 3 second stun.

Your mileage may vary, but I think until Blizzard finds some way around that dichotomy -- CC is good for interesting fights, bad for fun -- we're going to continue to see tumultuous forum fights about the issue. I'm forced to agree with Chilton -- crowd control adds a layer of strategy and depth to the tactics of the Arena. Still, I hope they do something about it.

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This has been an exciting week for World of Warcraft news and rumors. Blizzard has been hosting two major events Blizzcon and the World Wide Invitational. These events are a hotbed of information about WoW and other Blizzard Entertainment games. Here at WoW Insider we work hard to keep you on top of all of the latest developments in our beloved game. I'm sure you were aware, but this past weekend saw Blizzard's World Wide Invitational in Paris, France. Let's take a look at the kinds of information that we receive.

We did not get the piece of information that I was most hoping for: A release date for Wrath of the Lich King. Not even a beta date. Now there are a number of websites that have pre-order dates for Wrath, but none of them can be trusted as an actual estimation. We will get our new expansion "when it's ready." Blizzard is the only trustworthy source of this information. We will get that bit of information out as soon as it's available from the source.

To coincide with the earlier good news about factions (which is, apparently, bad news to some) we have a little more good news regarding reputation. As I am sure some people (Engineers) are painfully aware, representation was... uh, lacking for certain tradeskills in TBC factions.

I actually enjoy grinding reputation simply because it gives me something simple and straightforward to do when I want to do something.... well, simple and straightforward. As much as I don't mind doing it, there still needs to be a sense of reward from it besides moving that little bar on the bottom of my screen upwards. I didn't grind out Kurenai simply because it wasn't rewarding. I got a Talbuk easier via Halaani PvP. I was lucky (or unlucky, depending on your view) as an enchanter, though. Our representation on faction vendors was quite high, and that only improved as The Burning Crusade progressed and the old AQ40 enchants made a comeback. I felt bad for my Engineering buddies that didn't really have much motivation to earn rep with anybody at all due to a complete lack of rewards.

The good news is that at the WWI's Raids and Dungeons panel, it was mentioned that a goal of theirs to be sure more tradeskills will be rewarded via factions, spread the love further, and just plain have more recipes. Again, as an Enchanter I had more than enough recipes to grind out all over Outland, but other tradeskills didn't quite receive that much love. It'll be nice to see my friends feel rewarded for their work in Wrath like I did throughout the leveling and gearing process in The Burning Crusade.

PvP in its purest form is a beautiful thing. Amanda Dean, always obsessed with the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat brings you news you can use in the Arena.

Hailing from Korea, Council of Mages was victorious in this year's World Wide Invitational 3v3 tournament. Second place went to Improved Clicks of Spain. The winners took home a check worth $36,000 for their victory and made an excellent showing throughout the tournament. Improved Clicks cashed in at $18,000, and third place finishers SK-US was awarded $9,000. The final standings for were:

1. Council of Mages
2. Improved Clicks
3. SK Gaming
4. Millenium Dream
5-6. Kill EA
5-6. Made in Taiwan
7-8. SK Gaming
7-8. Pandemic Blue
9-12. aAa nawaK
9-12. Elite
9-12. MoB Gaming
9-12. Pandemic Black
13-16. Sapped Cows cant say moo
13-16. Team EG
13-16. fnatic
13-16. Nihilum.Mousesports

If you've played a Feral Druid to 70, especially in the early days of The Burning Crusade, you probably remember grinding out Exalted with the Cenarion Expedition for your Earthwarden. Personally, my pet faction was Lower City. As a Shadow Priest, I drooled heavily all over the Gavel of Unearthed Secrets. I had hit level 70 before Karazhan raids were commonplace on my server, so I found myself in Shadow Labyrinth at every opportunity. Say what you will about the irritation of running Steamvault constantly, I think Shadow Labyrinth is just a little more frustrating. Admittedly, if I had waited a few weeks, I probably could've gotten a Nathrezim Mindblade pretty easily when Karazhan runs picked up, but what can you do?

To help avoid this irritation, Wrath of the Lich King will be introducing something currently called 'championing.'

In an amazing example of the nonlinearity I mentioned yesterday (and was discussed at the Raids and Dungeons panel at the WWI), we've been given a sneak preview of the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King dungeon, The Oculus. The Oculus is a wing of the Blue Dragon-centric branch of dungeons, The Nexus.

The Oculus itself is not quite an indoors dungeon, not quite an outdoors dungeon. It is actually a series of tiered, floating rings, which you can see in the picture to the right. Which means you need a way to get between the rings, right? Right! How will we do that? Partway into the dungeon, you acquire a drake that allows you to fly within the Oculus! These drakes come in a few different flavors: DPS, Tanking, and Healing. You're allowed to pick and choose between them, too! Give your healer a break, and let them fly around on the DPS drake! They'll need to start healing again as soon as they're on the ground, so it'll only be a brief reprieve.

The dungeon will be, as I mentioned, nonlinear. All of the bosses will likely need to be killed before the dungeon is 'complete' but you're allowed to pick and choose which order you want to do them in. The simple idea of actually having a choice in that is exciting to me, especially after The Burning Crusade's linear, railroad dungeons. This drake mechanic also makes me curious about what other new features we'll run into in dungeons. Will we see siege vehicles in 5 man instances, like we're seeing in Lake Wintergrasp and the new battleground? What other challenges could be waiting for us, besides Stratholme-esque timed runs?

Happy Monday morning everyone! If you're a fan of World of Warcraft, chances are you heard about the big old shindig Blizzard threw in Paris this week. If you didn't a chance to get to Paris this year or catch any of the news over the weekend, you'll want to keep reading. We had a crack team on the convention floor, and more of us watching the live feeds all weekend, all working hard to deliver up to date reports and analysis. What that means for you is that this is the perfect place to catch up on all the WoW news from Paris. This handy list will direct you to exactly where you want to go to get the information you need.

Liveblogs and other event reporting:

• Opening Ceremony liveblog: If you haven't heard yet, there was a pretty big announcement at this one.
• Developer's Class Panel: There's a little something for every class in here. Find out what's coming for your favorite character!
• Q&A Grab Bag Panel: See what WWI attendees had on their minds, and how the developers answered.
• Dungeons and raids panel: See what's next in the Caverns of Time, Ulduar, and more. Don't forget to check out parts two, three, and four for the whole scoop.
• PvP panel: Find out about Lake Winterspring, siege engines, Arenas, Battlegrounds, and pretty much everything except class balance. Includes pictures! Be sure to check parts two, three, and four as well.
• Arena Tournament, day 1: Amanda Dean breaks down the results.
• Notes from the costume contest: See how creative your fellow fans are -- includes pictures!
• The goodie bag: Even in real life, we like our epic loot. Let us show you the swag.

Of course, if the flood of liveblog information makes your head spin, no worries, we have analysis on every angle and every little tidbit discussed during the Invitational. Check them out after the break.

Another interesting thing to note from the Dungeons and Raids panel of the WWI earlier today is the topic of Heroic attunements. We've known for some time that Blizzard has wanted to move away from reputation requirements for Heroic keys, and we saw an example of that in Magisters' Terrace. This was reinforced early on in the panel when Cory Stockton stated that there will be no faction and reputation requirements whatsoever for any of the Heroics.

This doesn't particularly surprise me, because Heroic keys at Honored is little more than a formality and way to waste a little gold. You hit Honored with most places just through leveling up, so by the time you're top level you can probably already go into those Heroics. Requiring Honored might as well be no requirement at all.

However, the possibility of a Magisters' Terrace style attunement was something I assumed they would do. Run the Normal at least once before the Heroic, or by completing some other type of task successfully. That, too, was shot down later in the Q&A. A question about attunements was answered with the fact that none of the Dungeons or Heroics will have any attunement at all, and neither will the first raid zone, Naxxramas. I don't mind this too much, it leaves it up to the player to judge whether they're ready for Heroics or not. I still would have liked to have seen some attunement quests for Heroics, because I think the added flavor or added challenges those quests could provide would add some depth to things. It seems we're not getting those, and I'll cope with it I'm sure, it just feels like a lost opportunity.

To me, one of the most exciting parts of this morning's Dungeons and Raids panel at the WWI is the fact that they're going to add more nonlinear elements to five man dungeons. Thank Uther! As far as time it takes to complete dungeons, The Burning Crusade was a massive improvement, but I couldn't help but feel something major was lost when they all amounted to pull-drink-pull with solid hallways guiding you straight forward. I really started to miss places like Blackrock Depths.

The Caverns of Time was a gloriously refreshing change from that, and I'm glad they took something out of that poll they did awhile back. The previews of The Occulus and Caverns of Time: Stratholme were fantastic, and that nonlinearity is one of the best parts, easily. Even though you will probably have killed all of the same bosses in the end that you would have if the dungeon were linear, just in a different order, having choices available and environments that aren't simply enclosed hallways that go in one direction really brings a place to life. It's hard to believe that the Botanica is just one really long constant hallway, for example.

Here's hoping that these elements extend beyond Old Stratholme and The Occulus, and Wrath will bring dungeons back to life.

Day 1 of the World Wide Invitational has been filled with exciting news for WoW players, and well as some fascinating displays of entertainment. Blizzard hosted panel discussions with information about changes for each of the classes in Wrath of the Lich King. In case you've missed it, here's the good news for each of the classes:

• Death Knight
• Druid
• Hunter
• Mage
• Paladin
• Priest
• Rogue
• Shaman
• Warlock
• Warrior

I'd like to know what everyone thinks about these changes. It looks to me like some classes are making out better than others. I, for one, am nearly giddy.

Here at WoW Insider, we pride ourselves on bringing you the latest, greatest news about the World of Warcraft we all know and love. (You haven't all gone off to play Diablo, have you?) What this means is that we crawled out of bed at what our watch says was three in the morning, even though by local Paris time it was already mid-morning under a sunny sky. We've fought our ways through crowds at the Worldwide Invitational to bring you a front-row seat to today's PvP panel, starting shortly. For the latest updates on the game's PvP system -- right from the developers! -- keep reading for live updates from the panel.