You’d be surprised how much non-BlizzCon WoW news you miss out on while at BlizzCon. Well that’s what MMO-Champion and WoW Insider are for, right? Well while I catch up on the additional news and see about getting my mods in line for tomorrow’s patch here’s a wrap up of the major news from BlizzCon that I heard.
World of Warcraft
Patch 3.0.2 is currently 1.17GB in size. If you haven’t downloaded that much of it then it is strong suggested that you run the Background Downloader the night before the patch (i.e. tonight). There will be a minor patch one week after patch 3.0.2.
WotLK has gone gold master and is being produced. Final touches done from here on will likely be put out as a minor patch either on release day or one week after release.
Three content patches are planned for WotLK. Dual-spec system and the dance studio will be added in these patches. Guild ratings for raid and PvP standings may also be added.
Patch 3.1: Will include Ulduar raid instance.
Patch 3.2: Will add a new, unknown raid instance.
Patch 3.3: Will add Icecrown Citadel and will resolve the Ashbringer storyline.
Dual-spec system will allow you to switch specs between fights in raids (i.e. death knights can swap from tank to pure DPS) but it won’t work in the middle of an Arena match. They are looking at keybindings, glyphs, and possibly an ItemRack-like system for gear swaps to be included.
Dance studio will not only allow you to add new dances, but it will let you combine dance moves to create a more unique dance. That is, until the guys at Elitist Jerks min/max dancing and then everyone does the same thing.
Most class changes are to facilitate group flexibility, similar to the reasons behind the buff revamps. Again the developers stated they want you to bring the player (cause of friendship or skill), not the class. Questions reguarding paladins, especially of a “buff us” nature, were the most booed. There were almost no death knight questions asked.
Two /silly contest winners had class based jokes:
What class do girls like the most in WoW?
Male Enhancment Shaman
What’s the difference between a Restro Druid and Superman?
Superman has a weakness.
Battlegrounds will see some future overhauls. XP rewards will be added for leveling PvPers, daily quests added, BG and Arena queuing from anywhere, BG rating system with possibly a guild rating system, Strand of the Ancients (new WotLK BG) is being changed from 10 vs 10 to 15 vs 15 and getting double the number of vehicles.
The WoW movie is still being worked on. They do have a draft of the script. Ozzy Osbourne will be doing the next WoW commercial.
Work has begun on the next WoW expansion.
StarCraft II
The single player campaign in SC2 will be a trilogy of games, one for each race. SC2 will feature Jim Raynor and the terrans. Two expansions will be released to continue the story, one with Kerrigan and the zerg and one with the protoss. This will allow for more missions (26 to 30 per game), more meaningful choices for the player, and more cinematics.
Diablo III
Third class revealed: the wizard, young and headstrong, they use magic to both obliterate their enemies and control their environment, including teleport and slowing time.
Skill system is evolving to something more complex. Respecs will be available. You will focus skills on one or two abilities to make them super powerful and your core abilities.
More random drops, most of it remaining unbound to enable the extensive trading network Diablo II had. A new rune system will be included with drops, allowing you to customize skills with new effects. Health globes that drop will heal your entire group when one person picks it up. Wizard can spec to have mana globes also drop. Little to no downtime is the goal of the developers.
Combat is large-scale and epic. The player’s character is ridiculously powerful compared to the world’s normal inhabitants. Monsters will include a range of attacks players can react to. Example given is a very powerful melee attack that builds up, allowing the player to step back. Another was a skeleton shield carrier, who acts as a major health shield for rows of ranged attackers behind them.
Q: “Will there be a secret cow level?”
A: “That’s a secret!”
Blizzard
No plans for a BlizzCon east coast.
Blizzard’s fourth, unknown project is confirmed to be a new MMO in a brand new universe. No details are expected for quite a while. Keep in mind we’ll likely see StarCraft II released next year, Diablo III and the next WoW expansion the year after that, so Blizzard probably won’t be done with their current announced projects until 2011.
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