This November marks the 10-year anniversary of World of Warcraft, and we’re cooking up a few in-game plans to commemorate the occasion. Here’s a quick preview of what’s in store:
Tarren Mill vs. Southshore: The Rematch
If you engaged in PvP early on in WoW, you might have fond memories of—and perhaps a few scars from—the endless tug-of-war between Horde and Alliance players at Tarren Mill and Southshore. To recapture that feeling, we’ll be opening a Team Deathmatch–style Battleground based on that timeless struggle. However, unlike the old days of Tarren Mill vs. Southshore, there will be a clearly defined victor, so you’ll need to work as a team or face crushing defeat.
Molten Core Gets Boosted
Molten Core provided many WoW players with their first taste of WoW raiding. For the anniversary celebration, max-level players will be able to participate in a special 40-player Raid Finder version to relive the experience of hunting down Ragnaros and his minions within his fiery lair. Downing the Firelord will earn you an Achievement and a special Core Hound mount reward (fireproof leg armor not included).
Corgi-licious
Anyone who logs in during the 10-year anniversary event will also be able to claim a feisty, fiery new pet: the Molten Corgi! Just think of the corgi-parade potential when you and your friends summon these wee waddling balls of fire for a walk.
These events and rewards will only be available for a limited time, so make sure to check back with us later for more information on when you can expect to see all of these events and goodies in-game. ‘Til then, we’re looking forward to celebrating 10 epic years with you!
In Warlords of Draenor you can recruit followers for your garrison each zone. You’ll come across a lot during questing, but the zones are so big you might miss them. As we discover the rarer followers we’ll add them to the list as well. To help you keep track of them all we’ve compiled a list of all the rares we’ve been able to find. Remember WoD is still in beta, anything can change. If we missed any feel free to leave a comment with the location and name of the rare mob or event. Click on the map for a full size version.
Number
Follower Name
Image
Comments
1
Roona
2
Shelly Hamby
An eventual quest chain that starts in your garrison will lead to this follower.
The Q2 2014 earnings call took place yesterday and it was announced that WoW is down to 6.8 million subscribers. Although it’s a loss of 800k subscribers keep in mind that 6.8M is still a big number. The lack of new content has doubtfully had a great influence on the subscriber numbers.
In other news, last night CM Lore responded to some of the concerns about a lot of information being shared on twitter and not being posted through other official news channels.
This thread has been a very interesting read so far. I’ve really appreciated the discussion, especially since we’ve been having very similar discussions internally lately, particularly regarding Twitter. Let me shine some light on our thinking to hopefully help you guys understand where we’re coming from:
First off, we’ve definitely made some serious missteps over the past couple of months. Bladespire and Karabor should have been communicated in a clearer and more complete form than Twitter can really allow, as an obvious example. We’re sorry about that, and are doing our best to learn from our mistakes and avoid making them again in the future.
When used properly, however, we think Twitter’s a great platform. It offers developers the ability to respond quickly to simple questions without tearing them away from more involved tasks. It allows community managers to communicate and interact with the community on a much more personal level. As we’ve been embracing Twitter more closely, we’re learning where the line is on “good interaction” vs “bad way to share information.”
I also found some of the comments about transparency interesting. One issue we face constantly is “when is a good time to let players know?” The answer is a lot trickier than it might seem. If we tell everyone about every change we make the minute we decide to make it, many of those changes will never make it past the concept stage, and we create a whole lot of stress for players (let alone ourselves). Furthermore, it can be difficult to understand why a change needs to be made before all of the related pieces are in place.
On the other hand, if we don’t share changes until they’re complete, we miss out on the opportunity to hear concerns from players, and use that feedback to create a better end product. Neither extreme is a good answer, so it’s a matter of finding the right spot in the vast grey area between the two.
I realize I’ve just used a lot of words and didn’t really say much, so I’ll finish up with a couple bullet points:
We think Twitter is a good platform for some things, but recognize that it’s not working well for others.
We recognize that many of you would like to see us participating more actively on the forums. It’s not as simple as “post instead of tweet”, but we’ll do our best.
As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, fansites such as Wowhead do a great job of consolidating and organizing tweets if you’d prefer a “news roundup” format.
I’d also like to see more general design commentaries like the post on dps warriors earlier in the alpha/beta process.
Agreed, and more are coming. The dev team is just crunching pretty hard right now to get the expansion ready to go, which doesn’t leave a lot of extra time for commentary. Once they’re to a point where they can come up for air, we’ll work on getting some more design insight blogs together.
As far as it not being as simple as “post instead of tweet”, why is that? Does it really take you longer to bring up the forums and type the same thing you’d put on twitter into the forums instead?
Yes, actually. Reading a tweet takes less than a second, and replying to it often doesn’t take much more time than that. A designer with a pile of tasks to get through for the day can easily sneak a glance at Twitter here and there, while waiting for a zone to load or some code to compile or what have you.
Reading a forum post, however, can be a much more involved task, especially if the discussion takes off. Quite often, designers (or community managers), upon noticing a particularly interesting thread, will make a note to come back to it later when they have time to give it their full attention. In fact, I’ve actually had to step away from my desk 3 or 4 times just in the course of writing this response.
That’s not really an excuse for us to not spend time talking with players on the forums, I’m just explaining why it’s not as simple as “use the forums instead of Twitter”, especially for a designer hard at work on the expansion. They’re just very different mediums, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.
Blizzard also released a trailer for Stitches in Heroes of the Storm.
Beginning Friday, August 8 at 10:00 a.m. PDT, through Monday, August 11 at 9:00 a.m. PDT, we’ll be applying the Heart of the Valorous buff which will increase the rate of Valor Point gains an additional 100%. Don’t wait to get in on the action!
MMO-Champion datamined a new map which is titled Southshore vs Tarren Mill. We should be getting information on it very soon according to pvp dev Holinka!
.@DeicideUH More to say about that map soon,…very soon.
Our latest zone preview takes us into the expansive hills and rocky outcroppings of Nagrand, a verdant land located west of Talador and south of Frostfire Ridge. Here, great beasts cause the ground to quake beneath their feet, and the wolf riders of the Warsong—the legendary orc clan led by Grommash Hellscream himself—are always on the prowl. But they’re not the only ones who make this verdant land their home. We sat down with Senior Game Designer Eric Maloof and Associate Game Designer Kurt Sparkuhl to learn more.
(Check back later for music: Coming soon!)
Q. How is the Nagrand of Draenor different from the Nagrand people know from Outland? What’s the story in this zone? Eric Maloof:I think players will find that the Nagrand of Draenor isn’t really all that different in spirit from the Nagrand of Outland. There are some obvious physical differences—for example, the floating islands aren’t there anymore—but you’ll easily be able to see where those floating islands came from. We very much wanted to respect what people really enjoyed about their experience in Nagrand in The Burning Crusade and capture that, while still providing a twist to what you’ll experience there.
You’ll be led to Nagrand by a quest you’ll receive in your Garrison that involves sending new supplies to the front. The Alliance and the Horde—not working together, of course—are trying to establish a toehold in the zone in order to take on the Warsong clan. The Warsong clan has had problems with the ogres in the past, but they’re really the top power here.
The Alliance will be working alongside characters such as Vindicator Yrel and Rangari D’kaan, Thaelin, and Hansel as they progress through the storyline. The Horde will be working alongside Thrall, Durotan, Draka, and Drek’thar—even Aggra will show up and surprise Thrall.
Kurt Sparkuhl: Players will also have the opportunity to return to the Throne of Elements. Without spoiling too much, the elemental balance has been disrupted, and the elementals upon the plateau have become unstable. It will be up to players to unravel the mystery behind the disturbance before it’s too late.
The zone is just filled to the brim with story.
One of the things that sets Nagrand apart from any other zone is the amount of character-focused stories you’ll encounter. The zone is just filled to the brim with story. There’s the main story and what’s going on in the Throne of Elements, but we’ve added in a lot of additional Easter eggs and tons of cameos and backstory on old favorites, so keep an eye out as you go through the zone. You’ll also meet a new faction here.
Q. How would you describe the zone’s ambience? What’s it like? Kurt Sparkuhl:It feels like old Nagrand. Out of all the zones, it’s the one that’s supposed to feel the most familiar. When Draenor became Outland, Nagrand was probably the area affected least by the world breaking apart. Now you’ll see all these big canyons and rocky outcroppings all over the zone, implying that after the big explosion happened and Draenor turned into Outland, those floating islands were kind of what was left of those big ridges. There was a conscious effort to make it feel familiar to some extent, while still creating something new.
Eric Maloof: You’ll encounter a lot of new points of interest in this version of Nagrand. There are some things that are no longer there, too—Halaa and Garadar, for example, don’t exist. These were created after Outland became what it did. Highmaul takes up a large portion of the zone, and it houses a Raid instance as well. It’s massive.
Q.Which locations would you say are some of your favorites, and why? Eric Maloof: This one’s tough. There are so many good places to choose from. I’m definitely partial to Lok-Rath. It’s located outside the main Warsong base and is the Warsong clan’s main presence in the zone. I like the story of what’s happening there and the dynamic change in the questing once you get there. Plus, it’s a beautiful Warsong location.
I also really like the Spirit Woods. In Outland, you had the Spirit Fields. In Warlords of Draenor, the Spirit Woods are what surround Oshu’gun. You get to learn more about the forces that dwell there and what they’re doing—we explain that a bit as you’re taking care of business.
…we get to see more of the backstory of the Burning Blade clan…
Kurt Sparkuhl:I think the two I like the most are Hallvalor and the Ring of Trials. Hallvalor—which became the ogre-inhabited Burning Blade Ruins in Outland—is super cool; we get to see more of the backstory of the Burning Blade clan, which we haven’t gotten to show before. We get to see how their clan operates and some of their traditions. There are some familiar faces—at least one in particular— that you’re going to get a lot of backstory on.
The great thing about the Ring of Trials is that players get to see it a bit earlier on in its existence and learn more about why it’s there and what its purpose is. It’s been built up as a sort of neutral hub, and players will be able to interact with all sorts of NPCs from all over Azeroth and Draenor—it’s pretty cool, but I don’t want to spoil too much.
Q. What outposts will players be able to build in Nagrand, and how do they impact the Garrison? Eric Maloof: The Alliance and the Horde get the choice of two different buildings. You’ll get access to this decision early on, though your blueprints are waylaid by the Warsong at the start, so you’re going to need to recover those first. You’ll be able to build either a Corral or a Tankworks for your Garrison.
For the Corral, you’ll get either a Talbuk on the Alliance or Frostwolf on the Horde, which you can ride all the time while you’re in Nagrand—this is where mounted combat comes into play. If you build the Tankworks, the Alliance gets a Siege Engine and the Horde gets a Demolisher.
There’s plenty to see and explore in Nagrand—though we wouldn’t recommend idling too long on the road when the Warsong Outriders are making their rounds.
In Warlords of Draenor there are many rares in each zone, a lot of them are to kill while leveling to diversify the leveling experience. It’s a combined and improved version of leveling and the timeless isle. To help you keep track of them all we’ve compiled a list of all the rares we’ve been able to find. Remember WoD is still in beta, anything can change. If we missed any feel free to leave a comment with the location and name of the rare mob or event. Click on the map for a full size version.
Number
Rare Name
Image
Comments
1
Gorum
2
Amaukwa
He flies around in the sky so you might not find him right away.
3
Ku’targ the Voidseer
4
Killmaw
5
Podling Leafmender
6
Mad “King” Sporeon
7
Rai’vosh
8
Ba’ruun
9
Crystal Event
Should result in acquiring follower Artificer Romuul
You’ve made it out of the Plague Quarter with your health intact – now prepare yourself for new cards, new bosses and more fun with Curse of Naxxramas: The Military Quarter!
The Military Quarter will open at the following times per region:
Americas: Tuesday, August 5th at 11:59 PM PDT Europe: Tuesday, August 5th at 11:59 PM CEST Korea/Taiwan: Wednesday , August 6th at 12:59 AM KST / Tuesday, August 5th 11:59 PM CST China: Tuesday, August 5th at 11:59 PM CST
(Americas Region) The cards that players can acquire in The Military Quarter will be featured on the official Hearthstone blog here once The Military Quarter is live in the Americas region.
Good luck and have fun acquiring new cards for your Hearthstone collection!
