WoW: Warlords of Draenor

Pages

WARLORDS OF DRAENOR (released Nov. 13, 2014)

Official 6.0.2. patch notes via MMO (summarized here for quicker reading)

Comprehensive Wowhead guide to patch 6.0.2, including what's coming (and not) with the Oct. 14 patch. There are links to class changes as well.

Class transition guide courtesy of Icy Veins

Good MMO-Champion list (with links!) to all the 6.0.2 changes.

Garrison guides

The Wowhead guide | Garrison calculator

The Ask Mr. Robot guide (click the magnifying glass to see the daggone thing)

Apexis crystals: How to get Apexis Crystals (and what to do with 'em once you get 'em)

Comprehensive MMO Champion guide to the new stuff (launch day): Here

GWJ Battle tags: Click here for a spreadsheet

6.1 patch notes as of Jan. 24, 2015

I'm hoping this means we get another Outland styled area, something outside Azeroth. I also hope this means we get more Draenei lore.

It's official: Warlords of Draenor.

Here's the cinematic (and scroll down).

New features (listed but no details):

* New world (Draenor)
* Level cap to 100
* New character models (time for a new pc!)
* Player housing (there's a new feature called a garrison; I'm guessing that's what this is)
* "Boost to 90 and play immediately" (iiiiiiinteresting)
* New dungeons, raids, quests, monsters, etc. etc. etc.

We'll know a sh!tton more by tomorrow afternoon.

Let Project 20K commence!

Nice! I'm glad they announced a new expansion, hopefully it will revive some interest.

Wondering how they'll handle Draenor, though, since it was basically destroyed with part of it turned into Outland. Might be some time travel stuff.

Metzen is going back in time to ruin our childhood memories!

Still going to play it.

I don't know how they do it. I lost interest in WoW after I hit max level in Wrath of the Lich King, and yet with every expansion I get sucked back in, if only for a few months. Shortly after, I lose interest again. I never even hit max level in Mists of Pandaria, on any character. But now I see these videos and I want to get straight back into it. Bastards!

I still want Titan to be a thing, but to be something completely different from WoW.

MMO Champ has listed a lot of the new stuff.

A few highlights:

* Yes, player housing is a thing. It sounds like they took the concept of the Halfhill farm and expanded the hell out of it.

* URBS is getting a max-level makeover.

* Bags are getting reworked, too.

* The boost-to-90 feature is one character per account. BLIZZARD WANTS YOU BACK, RALLICK.

* One new lvl 100 talent.

* New world PVP zone that combines features of AV (objectives) and Wintergrasp (but always on). Hmm.

Edit: Found a bunch more stuff here, including an official Blizzard FAQ.

Buried down in the notes are a couple of things:

* You'll get ability bonuses each time you gain a level from 90 to 100

* Blizzard is adding two stats (movement speed and cleave, an AOE damage or heal) and retiring two others (hit and expertise).

I was coming here in hopes this announcement excited other bygone GWJ:A players.

Enix, your comment in the MMO Champ highlights made me do a double-take. Then I laughed. Also, stop tempting me, you evil tempters, you!

Enix wrote:

* Blizzard is adding two stats (movement speed and cleave, an AOE damage or heal) and retiring two others (hit and expertise).

This is the first thing that popped out to me. I mean, holy crap, finally getting rid of hit and expertise...

Although I think I own BC I have not really played since uh.. classic.. and never got around to anything bigger than a 5 man instance.

How hopelessly lost would I be trying to dip my toes back into WoW after all these years? Bearing in mind I only have the time and interest to be a very casual player, maybe 1 day and 1 or 2 evenings a week if that.

krev82 wrote:

How hopelessly lost would I be trying to dip my toes back into WoW after all these years? Bearing in mind I only have the time and interest to be a very casual player, maybe 1 day and 1 or 2 evenings a week if that.

Lost? A bit. More like disoriented.

Hopelessly lost? Probably not. It's still shoot-n-loot, and you still smash a lot of buttons. That'll never change!

There's a lot to do, and it's fun. Round up Rallick and come on back.

Blizzard finally added new pets to Recruit-a-Friend option, so hit me up if you want back in. You can PM me an email addy if you're interested.

dhelor wrote:

This is the first thing that popped out to me. I mean, holy crap, finally getting rid of hit and expertise...

That popped out at me late only because that was way down the list.

The fact that it was way down the list (in a sort of oh-by-the-way way) confirms to me that Blizzard is trying to make (or keep) WoW as a game and not as a master's level math program.

The fact that hit and expertise are going away after 9 years also reaffirms Blizzard's commitment to getting rid of stuff that feels mandatory.

No word on item and stat squish (or if there is, I missed it). It's scary to see fools pull 150K+ in some runs. At this rate we'll be at 1M by the end of WoD.

Rallick wrote:

I don't know how they do it. I lost interest in WoW after I hit max level in Wrath of the Lich King, and yet with every expansion I get sucked back in, if only for a few months. Shortly after, I lose interest again. I never even hit max level in Mists of Pandaria, on any character. But now I see these videos and I want to get straight back into it. Bastards!

They do have an uncanny ability to provoke nostalgia and anticipation at the same time.

I haven't played since Cata due to a combination of life not being mmo-compatible at the time, MoP seeming like more of the same and me losing my tolerance for Australian Latency (tm), but that trailer has set up a direct conflict between the rational parts of my brain and the bits that want to rush out and buy MoP. Nyargh.

More temptation, courtesy of the official Blizzard page.

Click through for the new character models, the actual warlords (hey! look! It's Blackhand himself!) and a map.

A couple of the zone names will look familiar. I don't know if Shadowmoon Valley and Nagrand are getting a makeover of some sort, or if there will there be two versions (BC and WoD).

In any case, I have an unnatural love of Nagrand. It is jumbled and unfocused, questwise and lorewise (at least from the Alliance side of things) compared to current zones. But there is something about the place that I just dig.

Unrelated: Blizzard explains the garrisons (aka Cityville) here.

I know I scoffed at the Pet Battles but, 505 unique pets later (and a WarcraftPets site rank in the top 5,100) I'm not going to scoff at the garrisons. No, sir.

Will be interesting to see exactly what they have planned for the story - the Alliance seems fairly straightforward, but I wonder whether the Horde will be siding with them or with the Iron Horde.

Edit: MoP free trial downloading now. Hopefully it'll remind me why I stopped playing.

Enix wrote:

A couple of the zone names will look familiar. I don't know if Shadowmoon Valley and Nagrand are getting a makeover of some sort, or if there will there be two versions (BC and WoD).

There will be two versions. They aren't touching BC at all from the sound of it. Someone lvling from 1, will still go through BC of old.

Couple of new models:
IMAGE(http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2013/november/bconArtOfWoW068.jpg)
IMAGE(http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2013/november/bconArtOfWoW065.jpg)
IMAGE(http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2013/november/bconArtOfWoW057.jpg)
There are more, but I'll refrain from posting pictures of surprisingly good looking dwarven women in their undies.

Can't release Panda expansions in China. Can't release naked dwarf expansion in the US. Game designing is hard
Pretty nice facial animations on the new models though.

Shadout wrote:
Enix wrote:

A couple of the zone names will look familiar. I don't know if Shadowmoon Valley and Nagrand are getting a makeover of some sort, or if there will there be two versions (BC and WoD).

There will be two versions. They aren't touching BC at all from the sound of it. Someone lvling from 1, will still go through BC of old.

I think you're right.

From what I read (and I've read so much it's all running together) is that Draenor is sort of a pre-shattering (as opposed to Shattering, I think) version of Outland. I don't know my lore well enough to know why SMV and Nagrand were around back then and why Netherstorm, Shatt, etc., weren't. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

My impression of this expansion is that it's very orc-ish. I don't much like playing them -- yeah, I know they're central to the whole WoW story, but if I'm going to slum on Horde, I'll go Forsaken.

Now I do like me some orc-killin'. Oh, yeah.

So, not having paid much attention to lore recently, what's the explanation for the seeming-time travelling? Is it the Caverns of Time? That bronze dragonflight?

Shattrath is still there, one of the draenei cities.
Netherstorm is still there as well, just another name, probably since it isnt halfway thrown out into the twisting nether at this point. Blizzard said Netherstorm would be added in a patch rather than at release - likely similar to the end-game questing areas added in Pandaria.

Just saw an interview, where they also said that Zangamarch (loved that zone) is still technically there, just under water. But you can swim down and see the mushrooms growing. Love that kind of small touches.

There really isnt any explanation to the time-travelling other than Blizzard thinking it is cool to revisit the story of their first games. Now that they have nearly killed everyone from Warcraft 3 and beyond. Might as well start over killing everyone again. Sigh.

They did say however, that this expansions storyline would lead directly into the following expansion.
So my guess is that Burning Legion or Titans are pulling the strings with the time-travelling thing.

I wasn't particularly impressed when I first saw the trailer, but the concept is starting to grow on me. I sort of expect they'll use the premise of this expansion to revise all the BC content in a future expansion. It definitely needs it.

ruhk wrote:

I wasn't particularly impressed when I first saw the trailer ...

Same. It seemed like it was a lot of KILL KILL KILL without much point

ruhk wrote:

I sort of expect they'll use the premise of this expansion to revise all the BC content in a future expansion. It definitely needs it.

I thought about this, too, but maybe Blizzard is thinking the new zones in the expansion will serve as the BC zone makeover? In other words, rather than revising the zones like they did with Azeroth in the Cata expansion, they'll just leave the original BC zones alone and make new ones.

It's not as though you'll really have to do the old BC zones. One of the new features lets you skip a toon to 90. Even if you level from scratch, you spend almost no time there. I just revived a 65 toon and spent maybe 2 hours of /play in the BC zones before departing for Howling Fjord (and most of that was flying around picking herbs to level up my flower pickin').

Damnit, I managed to avoid WoW throughout the entirety of Pandaria. This? This looks like it could drag me back...

I will have to see more about this; if it is still more of the same with a couple of new(ish) items like housing then I think not so much.

Damn you Blizzard!

Damn. After years, I finally quit the game, my subscription finally runs out and now, this. I just, I can't I mean, damn.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun Have a good writeup on it. Also, the best worst best pun I've seen in ages right at the end.

Budo wrote:

Damn. After years, I finally quit the game, my subscription finally runs out and now, this. I just, I can't I mean, damn.

You've got a few months more to waffle. I think we're, what, a year away from a real live WoD? Six months at minimum. Anyone seen a release date?

One smart thing Blizzard is doing is giving everyone a one-toon-to-90 boost right out of the box.

The not-so-smart thing (at least for the short-term) is dangling that carrot in front of folks now. There's no incentive to resub now and level a toon to 90.

Except for my inexplicable desire to play WoW again right now. Good thing I'll have to wait until the end of the month to resub, by then the desire might have passed.

I hope they give more details on the time traveling bit. It was rumored that it included down scaling a large gw2 and other mmos. It seems all I do in wow is level alts to 30 or 40 over and over again. This would be a great boon for me and I would enjoy leveling characters to max level much more. It would make me resub and buy mists of pandaria to boot.

Pages