Hi, I’m Chris Robinson, senior art director of World of Warcraft, and welcome to a special edition of Artcraft focused on environment and zone design. Previously we showed you what it was like to create the Spires of Arak from a purely art-focused perspective, but over the coming days we’ll be releasing a series of articles focused on exterior level design, using Nagrand as a focal point. You’ll be hearing from the team who works with the artists, as well as the quest designers, systems designers, historians, and more to craft and create not only the zones we adventure in, but the visual story that is told about these locations and the creatures and races that inhabit them. For this first article, I’m pleased to introduce Julian Morris, our lead level designer.
Hey everyone, Julian Morris here, lead level designer for the World of Warcraft exterior level design team.
Exterior level design is the process of designing and constructing the zones of World of Warcraft, from Azeroth to Draenor and everything in between. Our team has planned, plotted, and designed the rise and fall of ancient cultures, as well as shaped mountains, forests, seas, lakes, rivers, roads, ruins, and every land feature imaginable. In addition to the land itself, we also design and create cities, towns, and Battlegrounds (with the random exterior dungeon or two in there every now and then, too).
The level design team is a hybrid of both art and design. We work hand in hand with the quest design team to build the environmental stories that support the content that defines Azeroth’s lands, cultures, and conflicts.
We also work every step of the way with all of the art groups on the Warcraft team. Working with the environment art team, we sculpt and paint the landscapes to create the rich, vibrant settings that form the foundation of the world. Within those spaces we work with the dungeon team, designing and constructing the thousands of camps, towns, settlements, and cities that provide the unique architectural beauty that anchors all of our cultures and creatures to the world. These locations in turn provide the scenes and staging for the finely crafted set dressing—the tables, chairs, books, and more—that our prop art team creates.
Level design binds the vision of many groups together, and it takes the passionate effort of all these teams to create an incredibly detailed, hand-crafted experience.
The zones of World of Warcraft are their own main characters that come to life before our very eyes during development. In this series, we’re going to draw back the curtains a bit to show you more on how we approach world-building and how we breathe life into a zone.
Join us again tomorrow as senior level designer Michael (Mac) McInerney gives you a deeper look into the level design of World of Warcraft using Nagrand from Warlords of Draenor.
Patch 6.0.3
A new patch is coming, which will bring along many more bug fixes!
We’re planning to release a patch tomorrow that will bring the live game up-to-date with the version currently being tested on the beta realms. This includes a number of fixes and changes to address issues we’ve identified since the release of 6.0.2, as well as remaining assets and content to prepare for the launch of Warlords of Draenor. As we’ve done in prior expansions, our plan is to not require a launch-day patch, and have a smooth transition to the new expansion in North America at midnight Pacific on November 13.
Your airwaves are about to be invaded by the Iron Horde with our latest Warlords of Draenor commercials. Check them out below, but word to the wise: it’s best to try not to make eye contact.
As we completed our Lords of War video series, Blizzard creative developers sat down to discuss the project and document the process of bringing the epic stories of Draenor’s most savage warlords to light. We hope you enjoy these behind-the-scenes extras:
To watch the entire series again, visit our complete Lords of War page, and learn more about what – and whom – you’re up against in Warlords of Draenor.
A new beasts of the savage lands has been released, this time for Gorgrond! Gorgrond is the first zone you’ll visit after you finish up in Shadowmoon Valley or Frostfire Ridge!
The primal forces that forged the lands of Draenor are still in conflict to this day, and in no other place is this more evident than Gorgrond. A land of contradictions, Gorgrond features barren rocky plains and dense overgrown jungles. Everywhere one looks, there’s evidence of a realm at war with itself and monstrous creatures as dangerous as they are ancient.
The Botani
Slender, deliberate, and calculating, these enigmatic living trees single-mindedly tend to the wilds of Draenor. Wise in the ancient ways, they seek lost artifacts of bygone ages to empower the explosive growth of their territory… often at the expense of Draenor’s other sentient denizens. The botani wage an eternal war against the creatures of stone, and the natives of Gorgrond do their best to survive in the midst of constant conflict between the botani and the goren, gronn, magnaron and others. Since the Iron Horde and the creatures of stone began working together, the botani have become even more aggressive – orcs and draenei both have been disappearing of late into dense botani enclaves.
The Infested
The botani have long cultured unique plantlife in their irrigated ponds or tree dwellings, but far more terrifying is their ability to cultivate flora within a living host. Unwary natives are captured and seeded in an agonizing process that alters their physical makeup and takes complete control over their bodies, turning them into mindless walking saplings. The entire process is poorly understood, but these grisly infested can be seen guarding botani enclaves or shambling ahead of the botani host as gruesome cannon fodder whose corpses eventually seed new terrain.
Genesaur
Genesaur are enormous demigods who date back to the age of colossals, when giants shaped the terrain of Draenor amidst constant warfare. The botani have retained the ability to communicate with these bastions of life, and genesaurs are revered as gods in their culture. Draenei have not yet determined if genesaur are immortal or not; genesaur emerging from botani-tended pools often retain the memories and will of their long-dead forebears. Adventurers fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of these rare beings are cautioned to give genesaur a wide berth. They are deceptively quick given their size and destroying them will take a small army of well-equipped heroes.
Goren
While the gronn and magnaron shape the world through their brute individual strength, the goren are scavenging opportunists who dart unseen between the lumbering feet of their larger cousins. Roughly the size of an Azerothian trogg, goren live in massive colonies that burrow through the earth, gobbling up minerals and leaving twisting caves in their wake. They enjoy devouring crystalline minerals, which are digested and extruded through their skin, giving some goren the benefit of an armored crystalline shell. The bane of both orc and draenei miners, goren sniff out and infest mineral-rich burrows. Adventurers should be wary of the gorens’ ability to shoot crystalline projectiles and swarm around unprepared explorers in rolling packs, as well as their impossibly sharp teeth and acidic spit.
Between the creatures of stone and flora, and the Blackrock Clan looking to expand their domain, Gorgrond is a place you won’t forget easily… assuming you make it out in one piece.
Blizzard also posted a reminder that the horde chopper from azeroth choppers is now available ingame.
With the recent release of Patch 6.0.2, players who logged in to claim their Horde chopper between July 24, 2014 through September 30, 2014 can now get on their bike and ride. The Warlord’s Deathwheel can be found within the Mounts tab(Shift-P in collections) and can be ridden by Horde characters with the appropriate riding skill.
Some time has passed since we last sat down and pow-wowed, and in that time a lot has happened. Since launching Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft™ back in March, we’ve:
Let players’ fingers do the dueling with the arrival of Hearthstone on iPad
Survived the creepy-crawly wings of the floating necropolis of Naxxramas
Added Windows 8 Touch compatibility
Raised a mug in celebration of our 20 million players across the world
We’ve created this infographic to share some less well-known (but still important!) metrics we’ve hit together along the way. Check out just how many Hounds have been Unleashed, the number of minions turned to adorable Sheep, and other interesting statistics.
Throughout the past year, many of you have been asking about the release date for Hearthstone on Android. The team has been hard at work to bring Hearthstone to that platform, and is making great progress. We’re taking things one step at a time and we’ve got our sights set on a release for Android tablets, our next new platform, before the end of the year; we’ve just got a few more mana crystals to polish and some Angry Chickens to chase down.We’re also close to having Hearthstone out to our iPhone and Android phone users, but it’s become clear that we need a little more time to get that version right. While we have a build up and running internally, it needs a bit more work, and we don’t feel like we’ll be ready to share it with you until early next year. It’s very important to us that the phone experience for Hearthstone is just as accessible as the tablet and PC versions. One of the biggest challenges with that is revamping the user interface so it feels intuitive and offers the same quality Hearthstone experience, but this time from the palm of your hand.
Releasing Hearthstone on iPhone and Android phones is something we’re incredibly excited about, but ultimately we’d rather take the extra time to make Hearthstone’s user interface on the phone customized to feel great for the platform, rather than a port that doesn’t taken into account the limitations of a smaller screen.
As always, we can’t thank you enough for making the game what it’s become. From the never-ending Fireside Gatherings you’re hosting around the globe, to the insane victories you’re sharing via videos and streams—and even the tough love we get at times—we’re all constantly blown away by our amazing community.
See you at BlizzCon. We can’t wait to show you what’s to come!
Here you’ll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 6.0.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list as additional hotfixes are applied.
Hotfixes have been listed by the date they’ve been implemented. The hotfixes have also been compiled by category for those wanting a quick summary of all hotfixes that have been applied since Patch 6.0.2.
Dash should now correctly remove root effects when used.
Stampeding Roar should now correctly remove root effects when used.
Feral
Rake should no longer incorrectly stun the target if the attack misses while the Druid is stealthed.
Talents
Resolved an issue where Boosted Characters may sometimes be unable to learn Faerie Swarm.
Raids
Siege of Orgrimmar
The Fallen Protectors: Sun Tenderheart’s Calamity ability should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
Throne of Thunder
Resolved an issue where the Feat of Strength achievement “I Thought He Was Supposed to Be Hard?” was being incorrectly awarded to characters that have died during the fight.
Firelands
Beth’tilac: Smoldering Devastation should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
Throne of the Four Winds
Conclave of Wind: Rohash’s Deafening Wind ability should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
Icecrown Citadel
The Lich King: Necrotic Plague should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
The Eye of Eternity
Malygos (Phase 3): Damage dealt while riding a Red Drake now scales with the player’s item level.
Sunwell Plateau
Grand Warlock Alythess: Flame Touched should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
Scenarios
Blood in the Snow: Freezing Circle should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
Battlegrounds and Arenas
Characters that are in-transit on a flight path should now be able to accept a Battleground or Arena queue.
Max Level Garrison Mission Update
The exhaustion penalty is being removed in an upcoming beta build. This means you’ll be able to send your followers on more missions right away after completing an important maximum level mission!
As it happens, exhaustion is going away in an upcoming build. The level 100 missions will feel much more like level 90-99 missions, although with longer mission times and slower repop rates than level-up missions have.
Rewards aren’t changing. In fact, gold went up in some cases and mission times and follower/threat requirements went down in some cases to make the rewards feel more worth it.
For example, level 100 missions of ilvl 600 that reward gold require 2 followers (instead of 3), only take 4 hours to complete (was 8+exhausting), and reward 60 gold (was 50 before).
Over the lifespan of the WoD Beta we’ve covered a lot of what you can expect from the Garrisons. however because there’s so much information to cover here’s a complete guide with just about everything you need to know as well as links to our various videos/guides.
The basics
You get your garrison almost right after you finish the Tenaan Jungle intro event. You get a set of quests that take you through all the waves and motions of the Garrison mechanics. Let’s go over each of those mechanics.
Resources
When going about the daily goings of your garrison you’ll need resources. You can earn these from multiple sources: The garrison resource chest, quests, garrison missions, rare mobs and garrison buildings such as the lumber mill and the trading post. Once you reach maximum level you’ll mainly earn the resources from the garrison chest, garrison missions and garrison buildings.
You’ll use resources for things like building buildings, upgrading them and sending followers on missions.
Plots/Garrison Leveling
When you build up your garrison you can build the garrison buildings in plots. The type of plot determines which buildings you can put on them. There are more buildings per type of plot than there are plots, which means you will have to make a choice as to which buildings you want. This matters because you get perks depending on the buildings you choose (more on that in the buildings section).
You will need to level your garrison up to get more plots. Your garrison starts at tier 1 and you can level it up to a maximum of tier 3. See the below table for the amount of plots per tier.
Tier
Amount of Plots
1
1 small, 1 large
2
2 small, 1 medium, 1 large
3
3 small, 3 medium, 2 large
Tier 2
To level your garrison up to tier 2 you will simply need to have completed both buildings in the plots. You will then get the quest to upgrade your town hall. To do so you have to click on the town hall in the architect interface and click upgrade.
At tier 2 you will also get quests depending on your level to unlock new buildings, these don’t cost extra plots.
To level your garrison up to tier 3 you simply need to be level 100. The upgrade itself will require 5000 gold and 2000 resources.
Buildings
As mentioned before the plots determine which buildings you can build. At garrison tier 3 you can build 3 small, 3 medium and 2 large buildings. Each building has 3 levels and depending on the level you’ll get perks from having those buildings. Check below for all the different buildings and their perks so you can start thinking about which buildings you will want to build first when you get your own garrison. To build and level up your garrison you will need to get blueprints.
Type Blueprint
How to Obtain
Level 1 blueprints
Become available to you when your Garrison reaches Tier 2.
Level 2 Small building blueprints
Reach level 96 or complete the Talador zone
Level 2 Medium building blueprints
Reach level 98 or complete the Spires of Arak zone
Level 2 Large building blueprints
Reach level 100 or complete the Nagrand zone
Level 3 blueprints
Become available as you complete certain achievements across Draenor
Level 3 blueprints are account-wide. Once you unlock one on a character, it’s available to all characters on your account.
Large
Barracks
Perks
Level
Perk
Comment
1
Unlocks patrol missions. Patrol missions have higher than normal follower experience rewards.
2
Allows a follower with the bodyguard trait to accompany you as a guardian in Draenor zones.
3
Increases your follower limit by 5 and grants access to racial guards and banners.
Doubles the chance for your quest rewards to get a rare or epic Bonus Upgrade, and increases the potency of the upgrade.
Allows the collection of armor scraps from the orc clans of Draenor for armor transmogrification use.
2
Opens up work orders for follower weapons and armor in exchange for garrison resources. Also, new armor transmogrification items unlock.
3
Grants 1 of your 3 seals of tempered fate (raid bonus loot roll) at no cost each week.
Gnomish Gearworks
Perks
Level
Perk
Comment
1
Unlocks a personal engineer that creates a powerful invention each day. Exceptional work!
2
Your engineer gains access to five new and amazing devices.
3
Allows the creation of a siege vehicle once per day. Drive it to victory in Draenor! (Can be used in Ashran)
Mage Tower
Perks
Level
Perk
Comment
1
Allows the collection of ogre waystones from Ogres on Draenor.
These waystones can be used to power an Ogre Waygate of your choice on Draenor. Also occasionaly triggers Runes of Power during combat.
2
Unlocks access to a second Ogre Waygate for a total of 2.
3
Unlocks access to a third Ogre Waygate for a total of 3.
Stables
Perks
Level
Perk
Comment
1
Enables the capture and training of special mounts on Draenor.
Also allows you remain mounted while interacting with objects in outdoor Draenor zones.
Allows you to mark large trees for even more Timber.
Trading Post
Perks
Level
Perk
Comment
1
A merchant shows up each day selling trade goods. Also allows the trade of crafting reagents for garrison resources.
2
Grants access to the Sha’tari Defense or Laughing Skull factions. Also unlocks the ability to acquire parts from around Draenor to build an auctioneer.
3
Increases reputation gain in Draenor by 20%.
Barn
Perks
Level
Perk
Comment
1
Allows you to capture clefthoof, elekk, wolves and talbuk for leather and fur. used for leatherworking and tailoring recipes.
2
Allows you to capture boars and riverbeasts for rare meats used to create the most powerful food.
Expected to use for raiding food.
3
Allows you to capture elite beasts to harvest for savage blood, used in all epic crafted armor and weapons.
Required for crafting the best armor and weapons.
Gladiator's Sanctum
Perks
Level
Perk
Comment
1
Increases your out-of-combat regeneration in outdoor Draenor zones and allows the collection of broken bones from defeated enemy players (used for Conqueror’s Tribute).
2
Enables safe fall and underwater breathing in outdoor Draenor zones. Also enables the Nemesis quest series for defeating enemy players of specific races.
3
While below 35% life, all damage taken is reduced by 50% in outdoor Draenor zones. Grants access to the Highmaul Coliseum gladiator tournament.
Each day, a visitor offering a dungeon quest with generous rewards will spend the day at your inn.
2
Recruits random followers each week. You can specify traits and abilities you’re especially interested in.
3
Unlocks the particularly lucrative treasure hunter missions.
Small
Profession Buildings
Perks
Level
Perk
Comment
1
Allows the production of profession items. Enchanter’s study allows disenchanting of items.
2
Allows followers with profession trait to work here, granting a unique bonus. Also allows up to 14 work orders at a time.
3
Allows up to 21 work orders at a time.
Salvage Yard
Perks
Level
Perk
Comment
1
Allows Salvage to be occasionally recovered from missions
2
Increases your chance at recovering Salvage from missions. In addition, you may now discover follower items in Salvage
3
Greatly increases your chance at recovering Salvage from missions. In addition, you may now discover player items in Salvage.
Storehouse
Perks
Level
Perk
Comment
1
Enables access to your personal bank and increases the total number of active work orders for all buildings by 5.
2
Enables access to your guild bank.
3
Enables access to an Ethereal Trader for Void Storage and Transmogrification and increases the total number of active work orders for all buildings by 15
The Salvage Yard
The salvage yard is the only building for which you will need to earn the level 1 blueprints in a seperate way. You will need to finish the goblin chain quests to the east/southeast in Spires of Arak at lvl 98. Together with the work orders from the Dwarven Bunker, the salvage yard is your main source of follower gear upgrades. But not only that, you can get legitimate item upgrades as well as character creation screen transmogrification sets. Check out some of the possible items below (note the dkp values are from a custom addon)!
The non full set upgrades are now either +3, +6 or +9 item levels.
Followers
As you adventure through Draenor you’ll get the chance to build up your own private army. You can earn these followers through exploring, questing, achievements and dungeons. You can send these followers on missions to earn follower experience, gold and other tidbits. There’s a few things you need to know about these followers.
You can have up to a maximum of 20 active followers (25 with lvl 3 barracks)
Once you have more than the maximum amount active you cannot send followers on missions until you put followers on inactive (right click follower to do so) until you have the maximum amount of active followers again.
Followers can be leveled up to lvl 100
Followers have uncommon (green), rare (blue) or epic (purple) quality. These determine the amount of abilities and traits the follower has.
Abilities and traits counter mission dangers or give your followers buffs during missions to increase the chance of succesful missions. They can also have profession traits, in which case you can assign them to the appropriate profession building via the architect interface.
Once a follower is level 100 they can continue to gain experience until they are of epic quality.
Once a follower is level 100 they will have an item level, starting at 600. You can upgrade their gear, which will be needed for harder missions.
For an overview of all the followers we’ve found check out these guides.
Missions
Missions are your way to keep your followers busy. Once you have your very first follower you will be sending them on a mission right away. Missions have many rewards, from gold to experience to follwer item upgrades there’s plenty of reasons to keep sending your followers on new missions. You can choose which follower you send on which mission in the mission interface by dragging them to the open follower slots.
The list of missions you get can grow for a bit, so if you can’t log on for a day there’s no harm done, you’ll still be able to send your followers on plenty of missions without falling behind in leveling them up! Missions at maximum level have 4 tiers, corresponding with follower item level. There are even raid missions, Kalgan explained them a while back:
Once you have followers at ilvl 615, the second tier of level 100 missions unlocks, at 630 the third tier unlocks (includes missions with ilvl 645 gear for your character), and when you have followers at ilvl 645 the fourth tier unlocks.
The fourth tier is special in that they show up rarely, but they’re raid missions for your followers that reward your character with raid quality loot of a tier higher than you’re currently running. If you’re doing LFR, you’ll get normal quality raid loot, if you’re running normal raids you’ll get heroic quality loot, and heroic raiders will get mythic quality loot. Mythic raiders will get mythic loot and 1k gold.
These missions show up rarely enough that you won’t be able to deck out your character in these items before the next raid zone shows up, but having a handful of them will give you a nice edge.
(Note: DKP Value in item is from a custom addon)
Monuments
In your garrison you will be able to put up monuments that commemorate the feats you’ve achieved in draenor. There are currently 6 monuments to earn and 3 slots in a tier 3 garrison to place them in. You can earn them in the following ways:
Get 5000 honorable kills in Draenor
Craft 50 epic items with an item level of at least 600
Complete mythic raiding achievements
Win 2000 pet battles in Draenor
Collect 100000 Apexis Crystals
Complete a likely legendary ring achievement
The monuments are purely cosmetic and allow you to customize your garrison a bit.
Invasions
You will be able to take part in invasion events. In these your garrison is under attack and you’ll need to defend it from various invaders. The fun part of these is that your followers will fight alongside you and that you’ll be able to earn points and try and earn rewards with these!
Outposts
In each zone other than your garrison zone you’ll get to build a garrison outpost. At each outpost you’ll have be able to build 1 building, with the choice from 2. Once you’ve built it you will have access to a garrison ability in that zone. Check out the table below for the overview.
Garrisons are a big part of WoD (but optional for the most part), and this guide certainly shows it. There are many aspects to it and it might seem like much, but once you play with it yourself and start building your garrison it is actually quite easy to deal with. If you’re a collector you’ll enjoy going around Draenor to collect the followers and build up your own private army!