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This year marks the 11th BlizzCon hosted by Blizzard Entertainment. This conference is the source of major news and announcements from the company, including new games, expansions, and other important content additions and updates.
The Opening Ceremony serves as a teaser for things to come during the Con, with each game typically receiving a "what's next" as well as a "deep dive" with attached Q&A. The deep dive is a more in-depth look at particular upcoming features.
Below is the schedule for upcoming content related to World of Warcraft. Check back at this blog during and after the listed times to find out what was covered, and be sure to check out the remainder of the wiki for updates!
- Note: all times are PST
November 3, 2017 (Friday)
Opening Ceremony
- 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
- World of Warcraft: Classic
- Classic server option for World of Warcraft
- Shadow plushie coming (for those that like plushies)
- New expansion announced: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Inlinegfx/img_link_data.json' not found. World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth
- Kul Tiras
- Zandalar
- Travel to uncharted islands via Island Expeditions
- Warfronts to dominate
- Level cap to 120
- Allied races
What's Next
- 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth
- Have to go through the Battle for Lordaeron similar to Battle on the Broken Shore
- The Horde burn down Teldrassil; not sure if Alliance attack on Lordaeron is the cause or vice versa
- Stage is set for each faction to dominate one half of the world.
- Kul Tiras is for the Alliance; Zandalar is for the Horde - two new continents
- Explore story of Vol'jin
- Kul Tiras
- 3000-year-old human kingdom; most powerful navy on Azeroth
- Ruled by four houses - have to help them with their problems
- Broken up into three main areas
- Tiragarde Sound
- main connection point
- capital of Kul Tiras found - Alliance's main base of operations
- led by Katherine Proudmoore, Jaina's mother
- Kul Tirans are sea monster hunters
- have a problem with pirates - are found within Freehold but have become more bold
- Drustvar
- foerested, mountainous in south
- ruled by House Waycrest, but absent - discover why
- usually supply arms to Kul Tiras
- land is cursed
- Stormsong Valley
- lush and green
- provide ships to Kul Tiras (blessed by priests)
- led by House Stormsong
- ancient dark forces are attacking from the sea; also Quilboars
- Tiragarde Sound
- Zandalar
- 16,000-year-old society
- once land-locked; Sundering made much of land sink into the sea
- mastered the seas
- Navy rivals Kul Tiras
- continent in turmoil - have to help restore order
- three main regions
- Flow
- go to faction-specific zone and level to cap
- scaling zone tech
- max level world opens up - can go to opposite faction territory
- world quests and emissaries continue
- "War Campaign" tied into story, similar to Garrisons and Order Halls
- seek out new allies to recruit for faction
- custom quest content
- unlock ability to make that allied race as a character across account
- Nightborne, Dark Iron dwarves etc. - all have racials and customization
- begin at level 20
- can race change and can level boost
- if level to 110, will unlock Heritage Armor that reflects essence of race
- universal for transmog, no matter armor type
- Horde: Nihtborne, Highmountain Tauren, Zandalari Trolls
- Alliance: Void Elves, Lightforged Dranei, and Dark Iron dwarves
- Leveling improvements
- All zones will now scale across the game
- There are min and max level ranges
- Flexible expansion order
- Min and max level ranges as well
- can go back and forth between expansions
- Applies to dungeons/raids/gear
- Beginning in Patch 7.3.5
- Story
- Magni Bronzebeard reaches out to adventurers to provide the Heart of Azeroth; artifact medallion
- Azerite is a new resource (the "blood" of Azeroth) that helps empower the medallion and armor
- Current artifacts "retired"
- have players explore uncharted islands across the sea
- Horde/Alliance fighting over them
- three-player cooperative gameplay; theme of exploration
- dynamic objectives that change with each visit
- square off against AI faction opponents (Advanced NPCs)
- behave strategically
- try to thwart the players
- can also square off against three other players, if wanted
- the main battle between the factions
- large-scale battles
- 20-player cooperative raid to build up a base and take on entrenched enemy led by powerful commander
- gather resources, build structures, train troops, lead them into battle
- PvP (instanced)
- new arenas in Tiragarde and Zuldazar
- new battleground: Seething Shore
- off coast of Silithus
- lots of azerite
- dynamic control points; never know where they will spawn
- preview with Patch 7.3.5
- PvP (world)
- update coming to reflect current state of the game
- remove PvE/PvP server division
- individual choice to opt in to PvP
- bonus to experience/rep gain
- Dungeons
- 10 dungeons coming
- each faction has separate level-up dungeons (4/4 for factions, then 2 additional max)
- all available at max
- Mythic Keystones stay
- Freehold
- located in Tiragarde Sound
- outlaw hideaway
- Atal'Dazar
- in Zuldazar
- trolls, dinosaurs, undead
- Raids
- Uldir, Halls of Control
- first raid
- 8 bosses
- Titan quarantine facility
- face off against the source of Zandalar's corruption
- Raid to face off against Azshara
Gameplay & Systems
- 4:00 pm - 4:45 pm
Azerite
- Assault from the Legion wounded Azeroth; results in planet "bleeding" azerite
- Incredibly powerful but potential unknown; can be very destructive
- Gnomes and goblins provide maps that pinpoint locations on islands
- Azerite is highly defended, as creatures are inexplicably drawn to it.
Island Expeditions
- Role "agnostic" - can bring any combination of classes
- Intending to take 15 - 20 minutes
- Goal is to obtain azerite for your faction
- found in nodes and chests
- drops, quest rewards
- drops from powerful bosses
- rare mobs can be worth a large amount of azerite
- Some islands have shrines that provide buffs, but at a price - buffs and debuffs cannot be removed and must naturally expire; some are cursed that have a larger debuff then buff
- Some can contain portals that lead to bosses
- Every island has at least four start locations
- Has four different difficulty settings, even up to PvP
Heart of Azeroth
- Focal point of progression
- Absorbs azerite power when in proximity, becoming stronger; to item to click in order to absorb - happens automatically
- Awakens abilities in other armor
- Abilities are tied to the item it is unlocked on
- The strength of the power is tied to the ilevel of the item it is tied to
- Power choices are meant to be on par with one another for a given tier ("ring")
Warfronts
- Gather resources
- Can contribute your own resources to whichever building you deem most appropriate; can be different from the other players
- Take territory to unlock new buildings, etc.
- Tech tree is taken from RTS as much as possible
- Encounter different enemy commanders with each battle
- Can research new tech outside of Warfront and bring them in
- Battlefield events, such as special vendors, can happen
- Undercity is in ruins
- Alliance have control
- Arathi Highlands is the key to control; here Horde stand against Alliance
- warfront is Stromgarde - Alliance try to reclaim
Social features
- Battle.net voice integration into Warcraft
- uses party and raid UI
- usable across games
- WoW Communities
- Character-specific, cross-server
- Can be in multiple communities at once
- Has a roster, simple role management, integrated into Quick Join
- integrated with Voice
- auto-maintained calendar invites
- text chat history
- last three will also be for Guilds
November 4, 2017 (Saturday)
Q&A
- 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
- Classes: will largely be tied to race's culture and heritage; will err on side of letting players play as many as possible
- Highmountain Tauren: Druids, Hunters, Monks, Shaman, Warriors
- Lightforged Draenei: Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priests, Warriors
- Nightborne: Hunters, Mages, Monks, Priests, Rogues, Warlocks, Warriors
- Void elves: Hunters, Mages, Monks, Priests, Rogues, Warlocks, Warriors
- Other races TBD
- Gear: if two items from the same slot have similar item level, the player will not lose any unlocked tiers; they'll simply carry over to the new item
- Backpack
- If you have Authenticator attached to account, default backpack size will increase
- Character creation
- Now that allied races is out, will focus on character creation system overhaul
- Some changes already coming in the Barbershop (upright orcs discussed)
- Currently working on Goblin and Worgen model updates
- Character slots
- Six additional slots added per server
- Flying
- Will unlock about the same as [[World of Warcraft: Legion|Legion]
- Friends list
- Need recognized that it needs to increase; problem is between games but want it to happen
- Heritage armor
- Transmog to other races besides Allied races?: nope
- Will explore how past events have affected her - NOT evil
- PvP toggling
- Choice is made in a major city - committed when going into the world
- Cannot toggle while in the world
- Will only see players who are also toggled
- With battles raging: will not change for players
- Time flows "by level", so changes will take effect when characters reach a certain level
- Other zones may also change based on expansion content, such as Arathi
- Yes, another squish for the same reason with the same effect as in the past
- Also squishing item levels to be more consistent between expansions
- Timewalking events
- Time between desired events: some consolidation necessary
- Void elves
- Shift forms: players will be able to shift between void form and normal elf form; currently will shift in combat
- Warcraft Communities
- Cross-faction chat: still character-based, so no cross-faction chat - do it at battle.net level instead
- Trading between players: not currently
- Warfronts
- Availability: will build up to, have it, then diminish
- Rewards: similar in theory to Timewalking, etc.; probably strictly PvE, but some might be shared with PvP
- World of Warcraft: Classic
- Fix old bugs, exploits: will try to recreate experience as-remembered; things that led to crashes, etc. will obviously be fixed
- What's the "right" version of Classic?
- Zone scaling
- Mobs will still drop what they did before (silk, etc.) and items, but now scaled
- Gold will scale
Gladiator's Summit
WoW esports Gladiator’s Summit Episode One
WoW esports Gladiator’s Summit Episode Two
WoW esports Gladiator's Summit Episode 3
WoW esports Gladiator's Summit Episode 4
WoW esports Gladiator's Summit Episode 5