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World of Warcraft - Wrath of the Lich King Officially Announced
An anonymous reader writes "Wrath of the Lich King is official! BlizzCon is in full swing, and celebrants there are already enjoying the Northrend-themed imagery. For a look at what's going on, Joystiq has a liveblog of the opening ceremony up. Games For Windows magazine, meanwhile, will feature WLK its next cover. The post on the 1up site has a number of details on the next expansion, including the introduction of the Death Knight, the first new class since WOW's launch 'World of WarCraft's first Hero Class is a plate-wearing tank/DPS hybrid that works a little something like this: When players hit level 80, they'll be able to embark on a quest (similar in difficulty to the Warlock's epic mount quest, back before the level cap was raised to 70) that unlocks the ability to create a Death Knight character. The Death Knight starts at a high level (somewhere around 60 or 70, though Blizzard isn't certain yet), so you won't have to grind your way back up all over again. It's intended as an alternative, advanced class for end-game use only.'."
an alternative, high-end crack-cocaine for more advanced fiends.
The old EQ Skinner Box model strikes again. Every year or so, release an expansion that completely invalids any progress made in the last expansion. Problem is, it works as a money making venture, so other games follow the same suit rather than attempting to create games where content is for fun rather than for grind.
It's intended as an alternative, advanced class for end-game use only.
I feel a great disturbance in the force. As if millions of casual gamers suddenly cried out in terror, and then were suddenly silenced.
Seriously, though. I hear people on WoW complaining about "the grind" which to me is the best part. I like questing from 1 to 70. I like experiencing the story and still being able to play with friends if I want. If they're going to start only catering to the "end-game" users, maybe my WoW time is coming to an end. Full time job, side consultant jobs, a wife, a kid on the way, and everything else just doesn't leave a lot of room for a raid schedule.
Yes, you can dance to Radiohead.
Blizzard already did a poor job making the current hybrid classes playable. I don't think another one will improve the game.
Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
Reminds me of geocentrism. Works for a while but the exceptions and problems build until it's over complex and unwieldy.
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WTF? So we got new early game and end game content in BC which was great. But where's the love for the mid levellers?
And what's up with an "unlockable" end game class? Too lazy to balance the new class all the way through?
"Secrecy is the Beginning of Tyranny" "No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law" -Robert Heinlein
Again with the focus on End game and a 10 level rise. Not only will it now take months for the average gamer to reach endgame, they'll have to deal with the broken level 70 content as well as the broken level 60 content. I'm sure lots of people who started from scratch will remember the 'fun' of spending 500g leveling craft from 290-300 so you can then craft BC stuff, have class quests which require trying to find people willing to spend 4 hours in an instance with obsolete goods. With people leveling 60-70 post 2nd expansion they'll probably have all the fun of rep grinding as well as the empty instances they need to complete. Blizzard focus on endgame and ignore everything else. WoW is crying out for an anti-DPS class that can take out rogues and mages and have a strong focus on debuffs (spell breakers perhaps) but the devs are too lazy to balance level 1-70 content for a new class. Instead they're going the easy route and making endgame only classes
I would say yes. I don't have a lot of time but find enough to play casually pretty well up to this point. But if you try it, try to play long enough to at least get to level 20 or you won't get a great idea of how fun it is. Cheers!
Yes, you can dance to Radiohead.
Yes, I think anyone can enjoy the game with any amount of time.
Obviously with less time into the game you won't be able to see the large/hard dungeons but you will be able to explore a bunch of the smaller dungeons, which take 1-3hrs to complete. It is easy to jump into pvp queues and pvp for 30 minutes a day and get decent gear.
3...2...1... blech
I used to play wow (lvl 70 warrior, lvl 70 priest) for a couple of years. Guild raided MC & BWL back before TBC dropped so I have seen a good part of the content. I let my subscription lapse a couple months ago because it just wasn't fun and exciting anymore. I was wondering if the new xpack would be interesting enough to get mt to resubscribe. I guess not. Oh well, on to bigger and better things.
So long and thanks for all the epics.
Newspaper reporters - you start gathering news items, become a town crier when not out in the field.
Battlefield surgeons - you go into the arenas not for Honor from killing but Honor from saving lives - and the chance for really neat medical equipment.
Philosophers - look, noone knows what they do anyway, even if one of my Ph.D. friends who discovered most of the Tuberculosis infection mechanisms got a degree in that, so WoW could make almost anything up about this and get away with it.
Bard - songs, stories, travelling to distant lands to get new songs and musical instruments, and so on, hanging out in bars, what more can one ask - also raises morale for parties, so people let you tag along.
Things like this that casual gamers could play and feel they are progressing no matter what else goes on.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
So stop giving them your cash. I recently quit because the game had changed from entertainment to merely being a way to occupy my time. But, as long as people keep paying them, there's no incentive for them to change.
A lot of posters seem to miss what I feel was the true saving grace of WoW, heroic mode dungeons. It's no secret that once you hit 70 and gear up, if you aren't a blubbering moron WoW becomes obvious for how simple it is. If you have been gaming for years, the only challenge you might find is rolling with a crappy group or some pvp encounters. Before BC you could be a *really* good WoW player but unless you raided you were essentially shut out from some of the best gear and by proxy were at a disadvantage in pvp (unless you were willing to grind insane amounts of time).
Heroic content, get this, can actually be quite hard. The concept at first seems flawed. "Oh boy monsters that can one shot people and are higher level, woopity." But the reality is that it forces each member of a 5 man group to be competent and for many of the more difficult encounters actually skilled. Because of the difficulty a 5 man player, non-raider, who only plays a few hours a week can actually attain gear on par with people who do raid days a week. Is this fair? In my opinion it is, the challenge of most raid content is learning the encounter and the logistics involved. The challenge in heroic 5 man content is each player making very few mistakes over the course of an entire run and playing their class and talent spec extremely well.
Heroics aren't all perfect but as a first go they show a real understanding on Blizzard's part that players can be rewarded for skill and not just grinding/time invested. One of the biggest flaws is the rep requirements for running them, while normal questing will get you close on a few of them, some do require you to go out of your way to achieve. In addition it is possible to "wipe" your way through content if your group sucks, it takes forever and costs a fortune in repairs, but it is possible.
I've raided in WoW and found it to be lacking, learning an encounter is fun and the first few kills are thrilling, but the time investment is quite insane. The same thrill comes to me from a really good heroic run, say one where everyone is top notch and you blow through a place with no deaths at a blistering pace.
WoW isn't perfect, but it is a hell of a lot better since BC. If the same level of improvement comes with the next expansion it will be very hard for anything other than "tiredness of the story/world/lore" to unseat them as #1 in America.
--- I do not moderate.
I remember all the cool dungeons, the paced Strat UD, the sprawling and details BRD, the interesting and varied UBRS, the cool ZG and not to mention Scholo, AQ20, AQ40, BWL and Naxx.
Then came the BC expansion just as I was about to at least finish these dungeons and everyone ran onto the new higher level green BC gear and I could not get people to run these old instances anymore (and who could blame them... it was too easy and the items were lame for BC players)
All of these instances were basically rendered useless... there is no point in them other than a brief popping into them during the brief 59-61 period.
I am a late-game content player, but I still love the grind and questing... the grind and questing has not been affected by this and is still fun.
Now comes a new expansion which is basically going to render all these lvl 70 dungeons useless JUST as we (our guild) barely finished Kara. Not even started on any of the serious dungeons because we were not ready.
So now I must pay because they are *replacing* a lot of content with new content? (Sure they do add a little as well...) It does not seem fair. And not paying and staying at lvl 70 until I can finish Kara lvl 70 is not an option because there will be no-one else to play along with.
Yea, perhaps it's time to have a look at Lord of the Rings Online... or go back to playing Diablo II.
Hehe...
- In-game voice chat.
- A new raid zone.
- New daily quests: dungeon, battleground, and cooking.
Announced expansion features:- Level cap increased to 80.
- The new continent of Northrend.
- Capital city will be Dalaran.
- Two points of entry, allowing for two different leveling experiences.
- WoW's first Hero Class: the Death Knight
- Plate-wearing tank/DPS hybrid.
- Can tank with two-handed weapon or dual-wielding. No shield required.
- Uses a mix of spells and abilities.
- Will use a new Rune-based resource system. Your weapon can be imbued with 6 runes in any combination of Blood, Frost, and Unholy. These runes are used for casting spells and will recharge over time.
- Unlocked via a quest chain available at level 80.
- Death Knights will start at a fairly high level, at least 55-60.
- Possibility of additional Hero Classes added in the future.
- New PvP content:
- Siege weapons and destructible buildings.
- A new 15v15 battleground that includes the siege weapons.
- A new arena map.
- A new arena season.
- An outdoor world PvP zone for all servers. PvE servers will now have a contested territory.
- Zul'Aman will be an upgrade to Karazhan.
- A new profession: Inscriptions, which will allow players to modify/augment their existing spells and abilities. Example given: adding a Knockback effect to a Mage's Fireball.
- Talent trees extended to include 51-point talents.
- Faster leveling from 1-60.
- New Caverns of Time instance.
- New flying mount options, with current mounts usable in Northrend.
- More daily quests.
Someone posted a 6-part video series covering the panel on YouTube, which is where I got this information: