It's absolutely mind blowing how much stuff they packed in to show us, and I'm mega excited for the next expansion, it couldn't come quick enough in my opinion!
So where to start? Warlords of Draenor anyone!?! I was thinking about what they could actually do as a new idea to ride with the next expansion and personally couldn't think of anything, but thankfully blizzard have and there is a lot of awesome stuff incoming.
Draenor Continent:
As to be expected a new continent will be available, Draenor, home to the Draenei and the old Orc clans and a few other lesser clans including the Ogres and Arrakoa. Its great that the Ogres and Arrakoa are still there, and we'll be able to see where they started out and compare to how they are currently on Outland. Chris Metzen began with setting the scene of the expansion starting story, set right after Siege of Orgrimmar, when Garrosh is taken away and kept in chains awaiting trial, he escapes of course! Chris continued to explain that Garrosh has a 'new friend' who can bend time and enables him to go back to the old days of Draenor, to change the way things are in the present with concerns to the Horde and how its presently set up with 'lesser races' according to Garrosh.
We were told that Shadowmoon Valley will be the new Alliance city hub, we are actually going to be in Karabor aka Black Temple. I'm really excited about this, especially since we know how wrecked and horrific it will turn out to be in real time. The Horde will be located in Frostfire Ridge, and be up there with the Frostwolf clan and follow that story with the struggle between them and the Ogre clan. I will have to play both Horde and Alliance for sure in the next expansion, they both sound too good to miss out on.
During the Warlords of Draenor panel, they showed some concept art for the zones Frostfire Ridge, Shadowmoon Valley, Gorgrond and Talador. There is also concept art for Spires of Arrak, Tanaan Jungle and Nagrand out there on the web, so I'll post those also.
You think of Outland Shadowmoon Valley as being that hell pit in the south east which is very dark and green, but Draenor Shadowmoon Valley is very very different. There are trees for gods sake! Actual living trees and grass. It looks so beautiful, and the designers explained that they loved the concept art showing it being night time, that the zone will permanently be set at night. So pleased the Alliance got this zone!
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| Shadowmoon Valley concept art |
Frostfire Ridge looks amazing too, and very 'Horde' like, if you get what I mean, a brutal and harsh looking environment compared to Shadowmoon.I love the mix of snow with active volcanoes and the jagged scenery, including a MEGA sized skeleton of a Gronn I'm assuming. Looking so cool. The Horde with the Frostwolf clan essentially need to kick out the Ogres of the Thunderlord Clan, from Bladespire Fortress so that can become the Horde capital city.
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| Frostfire Ridge concept art |
Gorgrond looks very interesting. It's desert looking and has these steam vents all over, that play a massive part with the Blackrock clan and the foundries they have there for building war machines.
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| Gorgrond concept art |
Talador is the area that Shattrath and Auchidoun currently is in real time Outland. It was explained that Auchidoun is what Valhalla is in Norse Mythology, which completely matches with all the quests there from TBC with the Draenei spirits and we'll get to see it since its one of the dungeons. Shattrath was shown in the concept art shown below, looking amazing and it was noted that the river next to it was the Zangar Sea, hence where Zangarmarsh comes into it for Outland.
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| Shattrath concept art |
These following shots weren't included in the Warlords of Draenor discussion panel, but I found these and thought it would be a good time to post shots from Nagrand, Spires of Arrak and Tanaan Jungle.
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| Nagrand concept art |
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| Tanaan Jungle concept art |
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| Spires of Arrak concept art |
I loved the zones look on Outland, so Draenor is not coming up short in the slightest.
If all of that wasn't enough, Cory Stockton then went on to show us a sneak peek of the new character models, showing Male Dwarf, Male Orc and Male Gnome. It's embarassing to see the new models up against the old when you see them for the first time side by side. I'm going to cover the new models in another post, as the art panel shows more of them and goes into a lot more depth.
Other great news included;
Concept art of some of the monsters around WoD
Upcoming dungeons and raids; 4 dungeons will be used for levelling up, 3 are exclusive to max level characters and they are introducing heroic UBRS! This fits perfectly with the fact the Blackrock clan are involved again in the story - Love this!
The Garrison base feature: Can't wait for this, all the upgrades you can do to actually boost your character too. Good stuff.
The new collections tab: This is to include heirlooms and vanity items much like the pet and mount tab where they are all in one place and account wide. This also may include tabards, this would be a great feature, they take up so much room!
New ways to sort your bags: To specifically have and item, for example, herbs go in a certain bag etc. Quest items no longer sit in your bags, they are access able via the quest log - FINALLY!
Crafting directly from the bank: Won't have to mail items between characters and they are increasing the stack size for items. Yippee!
Adventure Guide: Helps the player by showing whats available for that character, whether its what raids are suitable for your ilvl, if a new patch has come out it highlights whats new and where you can go to experience the new content. A really nice touch in my opinion, I would say I'm a veteran WoW player, but sometimes I sit and wonder about what to do next.
I really want to explore some of these new features in a post of their own, this post is absolutely huge already so stay tuned for more Blizzcon recaps coming soon.
Kaitz~
Sources:
Blizzcon Virtual Ticket
Blizzplanet.com
youtube.com/user/Paiid
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