The next azeroth choppers episode is up and so is the very enjoyable trailer for Murky, one of the new heroes in Heroes of the Storm!
A surprising new artcraft was just released about cosmetic class accessories! Keep in mind they’re just in a concept phase!
Quote from: Blizzard
Hi, I’m Chris Robinson, senior art director of World of Warcraft, and welcome to a special edition of Artcraft focused on an idea that’s still quite early in the inception phase: class accessories. For a long time now, we’ve felt that our character classes could use some more visual customization options, and we’ve heard you might be thinking the same thing. When I play WoW, I see Hunters pulling arrows from thin air, firing shot after shot with no visible clue as to where that ammo is coming from. I’ve heard Druids speak fondly of mystical objects called Idols, and listened to Shamans talk of Totems. And my Paladin seems to have developed a strange hitch in his gait due to the lack of a Libram at his side.
While some of those items once existed in-game as gear for the now-retired “Relic” slot, you’ve never been able to actually see those items on your character. We’ve been cooking up some concepts for how we might be able to bring that sort of class-specific visual customization back in the form of purely cosmetic class accessories—and while we’re not here to herald their imminent arrival, we thought it would be fun to give you a sneak peek at what we’re conceptualizing from an art perspective, and have our item-design guru Owen Landgren give you some insight into how they might work.
Before we show you the goods, keep in mind these are still way early in the design process, and getting them into the game will likely need to wait until after you’ve faced off against the Iron Horde. But this is something that’s been requested so frequently, we thought you might appreciate knowing we’re working to make it happen (eventually). So without further delay, here are a few concepts for you to take a look at!
As you can see, these concepts are all somewhat Alliance focused, at least for now. We’re thinking we’ll have Horde and Alliance color schemes for accessories whenever it makes sense. And while we’re planning on creating the “obvious” accessories for the classes that once had Relics, we have a lot of ideas for accessories we think would be awesome for all of the classes. Don’t let that stop you from sharing your own ideas with us, though!
Now that you’ve gotten a glimpse at what we’re working on in the art realm, here’s Owen to explain the designers’ early thinking on how these might be worked into the game:
“Back in ye olden days of Cataclysm and earlier, the Relic gear slot provided some classes with an additional item that would impart character stat bonuses. We always thought it would have been cool to show these Relics on your character, but aside from the generic quiver for Hunters wielding a bow, the artists just didn’t have time to do the concept justice. We were also faced with some unique design challenges, including questions about how much additional unique artwork would have been required for each new tier of raid and PvP gear. However, once the Relic slot was retired and the visuals could be divorced from gearing mechanics, the idea of bringing these back as a character customization feature became something we talked about more and more.
Our goal with these class accessories is to offer players a whole new path to customizing the look of their character. While you might decide to wear the same armor as your friend, choosing different accessories allows you to communicate something extra about your character. As a Rogue, are you the swashbuckling buccaneer with daggers on a bandolier and stashed up every sleeve? Or are you the poisoner, carrying bubbling, smoking vials filled with terrible concoctions? Perhaps you’re the shadowy figure that lurks in the dark, replete with darts and throwing stars to fell your enemies from a distance? As you obtain new looks, you’ll be able to mix and match thematically—if a particular Hunter gear set looks better with a longbow and quiver than a blunderbuss and ammo pouch, the option is yours. Mix in Transmogrification, and the visual combinations are nearly endless.
“We envision that class accessories will be rewarded from a variety of accomplishments in World of Warcraft. These could be as simple as attaining a new level, or as monumental as conquering a vicious raid boss. We want each player to have access to multiple accessories, but have some rarer accessories that take more effort to obtain.”
—Owen Landgren, Game Designer
Hey there—Chris again. As we mentioned, these are still just some early ideas and concepts, and we hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse behind the scenes. We know a lot of you are excited about the idea of having new ways to customize the look of your characters, and we look forward to sharing more as we continue to make progress. Thanks for reading!
You can follow Chris Robinson and Owen Landgren, as well as World of Warcraft game director Tom Chilton on Twitter.
Patch 5.4.8 is coming to the live servers this week and it seems that the double valor point buff and increased quest item droprate buff for the legendary quest chain will not be released with it! Rygarius tweeted that more information will follow on them at a later date! Be sure to cap out your valor points this week if you still can, as we will be getting the 4x item upgrades this week!
@Rhykes_ Only content that’s going live are patch noted. There will be additional information on that at a later date.
— Rygarius (@Rygarius) May 19, 2014
@Sprts121 We’re working on an article with more info on how that’ll work.
— Rygarius (@Rygarius) May 20, 2014
Quote from: Blizzard
World of Warcraft Patch 5.4.8
Updated May 19
Classes
- Druid
- Resolved an issue where Cat Form’s movement speed bonus was stacking incorrectly with Warrior’s version of Stampeding Shout granted via Symbiosis.
- Rogue
- Burst of Speed can now be activated to remove movement-slowing effects even if another movement speed bonus such as Sprint is already present (the speed bonuses will still not stack).
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
- Siege of Orgrimmar
- General Nazgrim
- General Nazgrim no longer calls in an additional wave of forces at 10% health on Raid Finder difficulty.
- Garrosh Hellscream
- Increased berserk timer for Garrosh Hellscream to 25 minutes (up from 18 minutes) on Raid Finder difficulty.
- General Nazgrim
Items
- All upgradable epic quality items introduced in Patch 5.4 (items found in Siege of Orgrimmar and Timeless Isle) are now eligible to be upgraded an additional 2 times for a total increase of 16 item levels.
- Heirloom weapons awarded by Garrosh Hellscream have been increased by 8 item levels to keep them competitive with the additional 2 upgrade levels given to other items.
- Mistweaver Ai on the Timeless Isle next to the Celestial Court now sells a token called Deeds of Valor for 3000 Timeless Coins. When used, Deeds of Valor grants 100 Valor Points to the character, up to the 1000 Valor Point maximum per week.
- For additional details behind this change, please check out the forum thread titled: Gear Changes in Patch 5.4.8.
UI
- UI Add-Ons are no longer able to update a number of CVars while the player is in combat. A complete listing of CVars affected by this change can be found in the forum thread titled: 5.4.8 Changes to CVars While In-Combat.
Achievements
- Going to Need a Bigger Bag is now an account-wide achievement and items obtained by all characters on the account now contribute credit towards completion. This means the achievement can be completed by obtaining all the required items across multiple characters instead of having a single character obtain all the items needed.
Zarhym explained on twitter why the Alpha is taking so long to start.
@Tryvia Because we’re not ready to start inviting the public yet. Doing extra polish on the first few zones & will get a build going soon.
— Zarhym (@CM_Zarhym) May 15, 2014
@Tryvia We had hoped to start inviting people sooner. We knew our internal alpha build would be datamined & wanted to let people know why.
— Zarhym (@CM_Zarhym) May 15, 2014
@Nerador_EU @Tryvia You underestimate how hard it is to announce set dates for tests. Doubt people would agree on preferring radio silence.
— Zarhym (@CM_Zarhym) May 15, 2014
@Borgratz @Tryvia No, but there have been some quest flow revamps and such we wanted to get done before people started really digging in.
— Zarhym (@CM_Zarhym) May 16, 2014
So it seems that the Alpha related blog posts have been mostly to explain what’s going on, to not leave players in the dark when sites like MMO-Champion datamined the information from the Alpha servers.
At the same time the Alpha still hasn’t begun because there’s still work to be done in the zones as the developers weren’t have with how some quest chains were working out. So for now we will just have to continue being patient!
Azeroth Choppers Episode 5 is up!
To help players out in raid progress and not do any nerfs in orgrimmar we’ll be getting some gear changes in patch 5.4.8! Check out the post below:
Quote from: Blizzard
Gear changes are coming! First, in Patch 5.4.8 (which is currently in testing on the PTR), all upgradable epic items introduced to the game in Patch 5.4 will be given the option to upgrade 2 more times for a grand total of 16 item levels. This change will be applied to all items found on the Timeless Isle and in Siege of Orgrimmar. For instance, if you have an item level 553 Greatsword of Pride’s Fall and its Upgrade Level is 2/2 making it item level 561, once the new patch goes live it will display 2/4 and allow you the opportunity to bump it up to item level 569. Whether you’re working on a newly boosted character or progressing through Siege of Orgrimmar, we hope this change will provide you with the extra punch you need to take down your foes.
Second, we are also adding a new token called Deeds of Valor which will cost 3000 Timeless Coins, and can be used to grant your character 100 Valor Points. Players who wish to purchase the new token can do so by visiting Mistweaver Ai on the Timeless Isle next to the Celestial Court. Keep in mind, these tokens won’t allow you to go above the current weekly cap on Valor, but they do provide you an extra option to gain the points you may need so you can upgrade your gear.
We will be bumping up the ilvl of all Garrosh Heirlooms by +8 in 5.4.8, since they are not upgradeable with Valor. The intent of the 5.4.8 VP upgrade change is to let people continue to progress, and we don’t want those who are using one of the Garrosh BoA weapons as their primary weapon to feel like they need to go get a brand new weapon due to this change.
Blizzard also posted a new mount image on twitter last night. It looks like it will be a mount in draenor, and it looks a bit like a ravager!
Savage. #Warlords pic.twitter.com/vGUow21sKv
— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) May 14, 2014
It’s been a while since the last character model preview! Blizzard has just released the character model preview for the female nightelf.
Quote from: Blizzard
Hello, and welcome to Artcraft! I’m Chris Robinson, senior art director on World of Warcraft, and in today’s edition we’re going to give you a first look at the new female Night Elf model. As you probably know, we’re in the process of updating all of the original character models, along with the Draenei and Blood Elf, to improve their texture, polygon, and animation fidelity. Let’s get this going with some comments from Tyson Murphy, our lead character artist.
Hi all—I’m Tyson, and on behalf of everyone on the art team, we’re excited to be able to give you a first look at our in-progress female Night Elf model.
This is a good opportunity to talk about the iterative process we go through with all of the art we create, especially with the updated player models. We don’t call anything truly “complete” until it’s in the game and fulfilling all of our (and your!) expectations. This means that when it comes to concept art, modeling, texturing, rigging, and animation, everything is always up for debate and change, and we’re rethinking and revising continuously. Creating these updated models is a huge team effort, and we’re constantly considering feedback and suggestions on what we can do better. We’ve committed ourselves to this process, and the female Night Elf provided a unique opportunity to put it into practice.
The female Night Elf was actually one of the first models we started, but as we began to develop our other character models, we also wound up refining the overall look we were going for with the models and our processes for creating them. Ultimately, we felt that in order to do the female Night Elf justice, we needed to revisit her model with fresh eyes and continue iterating based on what we’d learned from working on the other models. The Night Elves have such a distinct but subtle character, and we spent a lot of effort in trying to help that come through.
As with all of the updated character models, our goal is to keep everything the original model accomplished intact, while using the additional fidelity to realize characteristics that we weren’t able to fully represent with the lower polygon counts and texture resolutions. Overall, we’ve made her new model a little more defined, made some of her proportions a bit more realistic, and added a bit more muscle tone. We wanted to visually communicate that she is a fully capable warrior huntress, and small details like muscle definition help highlight that. We also put additional focus on her hands and fingernails, giving a very slight point to her nails to provide just a hint of a more feral nature.
Last but not least, the all-important Night Elf ears. In the original model, these were quite literally separate pieces of geometry effectively tacked onto the head of the Night Elf. In the new models, we’ve taken care to fully integrate the ears into the geometry, which leads to a far more natural and high-quality look.
I’ve asked Tamara Bakhlycheva, who also worked on the female Night Elf model, to add a few closing thoughts.
Hi all, I’m Tamara from the World of Warcraft art team. Being able to work on the female Night Elf has been a great experience, and the team has put a lot of effort into preserving the iconic Night Elf look—beautiful, wild, and dangerous. I hope you’ll enjoy playing your new Night Elf as much as we’ve enjoyed creating her.
Chris here again; thanks for reading, and we look forward to sharing more about the ongoing process of bringing the art of Warlords of Draenor—and beyond—to life. Thanks!