BlizzCon 2009 Part 1

ZOMG.

I have PAGES of notes.

And I just can’t wait until Monday to post this so you get 2 posts in one day!

I’ll try to keep this fairly linear and cohesive, but no promises.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony started with Mike Morhaime, President/CEO/Co-founder of Blizzard. His best quote was in reference to the tickets for BlizzCon 2009,

sold faster than ret paladins can storm the forums after a nerf.

He was followed by Chris Metzen, Senior Vice President of Creative Development, who got some audience participation asking where the Alliance were at and an answering call for the Horde.

With battle cries like that, the Lich King will pee his little frozen panties.

The Diablo 3 class was announced – Monk.

Then came the big announcement about Cataclysm.

Yes, it’s the new expansion.

Yes, everything over at MMO Champ seems to be correct so far. (Haven’t heard anything about the gnomes retaking Gnomergan yet though.)

Yes, it looks freaking amazing.

They showed some concept art shots and it looks like Azeroth is going to get thrashed.

If I had to sum up the changes in one word, it would be lava. But areas that are currently desolate (such as Desolace) are converted to lush sanctuaries. So maybe I should pick alive…

Regardless of whether the zone gets destroyed or reborn, everything looks fresh and revitalized.

If you have favorite places in the game, go get screen shots now because chances are it will not be the same after the expansion.

Good news for those that are interested in attending future BlizzCons – they have realized that the limit has been reached for the current Anaheim venue and there is the possibility of different venues in the future. BlizzCon Las Vegas could be a reality some day in the future.

WoW Preview Panel

Chris Metzen, Tom Chilton, Cory Stockton and Alex Afrasiabi took to the stage for the WoW Preview Panel. They moved from topic to topic smoothly, I’m sorry that my notes don’t capture that.

I found it sort of amusing that the panel tables had Mountain Dew bottles placed prominently in camera view.

There was a rehash of the discussion of lessons learned from the Burning Crusade – Illidan was a great bad guy, but no one really knew who he was by the time you got to him (if you ever got to see him). With Wrath, they put the Lich King in our path continuously in an attempt to give us a “personal reason to kick his ass.” They’ve been pleased with how the new approach is working and plan to continue it with the reintroduction of Deathwing as our main nemesis in Cataclysm.

This is especially important since new players haven’t seen Deathwing before and may not be aware of his past as the earthwarder that was slowly poisoned by the whispers of the Old Gods.

The panel described Deathwing as a nutcase out to subjugate all life on Azeroth. He has been slumbering in the elemental earth plane and erupts (literally) through the crust of Azeroth on the west coast of the Eastern Kingdoms, leaving no part of the world untouched.

There was also a brief reminder that there are more Old Gods out there…

Anyway, Deathwing has grown in power, fueled by the Old Gods and he brings access to the elemental planes to Azeroth. These were the 4 planes created by the Titans to house the elementals and keep them from interfering with the Titans’ designs.

They moved on to the new races, worgen and goblins.

Worgen are being described as the “Wolverine” of the Alliance. I can’t wait to roll one.

I was thinking that they wouldn’t show gear on the worgen form, much like druids in animal forms, but from the shots it looks like gear will show and it looks good.

Interesting quip from the worgen discussion,

are they from somewhere else or somewhen else?

There were 1700+ computers set up at BlizzCon for people to try out demos and sneak peeks of the new games. There were stations set up to test out the new races, but they started at level 6, they’re keeping levels 1 though 5 under wraps until release.

For the goblins, it was more or less confirmed that you would be playing as a member of a specific cartel (the Bilgewater Cartel) and that the Steamwheedle Cartel would remain neutral.

The goblin mount is awesome, they showed a black and white sketch of a roadster-type vehicle.

The emphasis this time around seems to be putting “the war back into Warcraft.”

There was what looked like a screen shot of the gates of Orgrimmar. It looked like it was in the same place, so I don’t think it’s going to be completely destroyed and moved, but the front was being clad in iron, much like the Horde buildings in Northrend.

No more huts of mud and palm fronds, the Horde is gearing up in a very militant way under Garrosh. (There were several mentions to Garrosh being in charge, but nothing so far on how that comes to be.)

Level 85 is the new cap.

Leveling from 1 through 60 is being redesigned, AND there will be more end game content than ever before.

7 new zones are being released, in addition to the revamp of original content:

1. Mount Hyjal
2. Uldum
3. Lost Isles (goblin starting area)
4. Gilneas (worgen starting area)
5. Sunken City of Vashj’ir (with a promise that playing underwater will not be annoying)
6. Twilight Highlands (Grim Batol)
7. Deepholme (elemental earth plane)

Much of the classic world, including the quests, art, and items are being redone – they are ditching the quest rewards with agility and spirit on them!

Guild Advancement?

New thing, not a lot of detail… you can advance your guild form level 1 to 20 by doing dailies, raids, and Battlegrounds. Higher levels will give access to abilities; possibly things like cheaper repairs or less durability loss, maybe even being able to do a mass resurrect when you wipe.

New secondary profession – Archaeology!

This is on the same level as fishing/cooking/first aid – although everyone will be taking and leveling this.

There will be nodes that can be tapped and possibly research, leading to discoveries. These can be taken to representatives for different factions that lead into the Path of the Titans.

This will not be an extension to the talent trees (but we will still get a point for each of the new 5 levels), and at level 85 there will be the opportunity to choose a Path of the Titans.

No real information on this yet, but it looks like an extra level of character customization that will not be limited by class – each Titan Path will be available to all classes.

There was also mention of the Mastery System that sounds like a way to buff up talent trees with passive abilities; the more points you put in a talent tree, the more powerful you’ll get in that tree.

With the changing of the world and redesign of the quests, they are taking the opportunity to change how the zones work for leveling. Zones that were previously 20-30, may now be broken into smaller areas with a better flow and may be level 40-43 now – the mobs are leveling as they speak. Quests should lead progressively into appropriate zones.

Specific zone changes:

• Alliance are losing Southshore
• The Barrens is being split in half by a trench of lava and the area surrounding Wailing Caverns will be a tropical area.
• Desolace will no longer be fugly, it will be green and growing.
• Darkshore – Auberdine will be destroyed, the elves move further north and Zoram Strand has been built up from a small fishing village to a full-blown military outpost.
• Stonetalon – the Charred Vale will be the “Even mor” Charred Vale
• Undercity is moving above ground to allow for easier access for flying.

The Sunken City of Vashj’ir will be located on the sea floor and contain the Gateway to the Abyssal Maw – the entrance to the elemental plane of water. There will be 2 dungeons located there.

Game play underwater should behave more like game play on ground. It will be interesting how that works. There will also be underwater mounts – faster than the current turtle.

Deepholm, the earth elemental plane, will be accessed through the scar left from Deathwing’s erruption from the Eastern Kingdoms. It will serve as the central quest hub, complete with portals to the other new zones.

Uldum looks to be south of Un’Goro and West of Tanaris, right about where there are a set of gates guarded by some titan-things now… The zone was previously hidden from view due to a piece of Titan machinery that projected an illusion concealing it from us. The Cataclysm destroyed part of the machinery and revealed the zone.

The zone has an Egyptian influence with a Nile-type river running through it and should contain 2 dungeons meant for leveling up. This is the fabled land of the Titans and may hold a super weapon that the Horde and Alliance both want to get their hands on.

This zone will also be the home of a new non-playable race, the Titan-created Tol’vir, an earthen cat-people.

Mount Hyjal is under siege by Ragnaros, who is intent on burning the regrowing World Tree. Malfurion has awoken from the Emerald Dream and is fighting to defend the World Tree.

There will be a connection to the plane of fire here, the Firelands, where we can confront Ragnaros directly in his home as a raid.

Twilight Highlands will contain Grim Batol and is where Deathwing and his Twilight’s Hammer follwers dwell. From here, he will unleash the members of his new dragonflight – the Twilight Dragonflight.

Grim Batol will contain a dungeon for leveling and one for raiding.

The red dragonflight still has a tenuous hold on the region, but have been pushed back.

There will also be two new port towns, one for the Horde and Alliance.

The all-new Blackrock Caverns will take the place of the current Blackrock Spire and serves as a secondary base/experimental lab for Twilight’s Hammer. This should contain a leveling-up dungeon.

Skywall, air elemental plane (?) will have a level up dungeon and raid.

Especially exciting: Heroic versions (level 85) of Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep! Waiting for Heroic Ragefire!

Regarding PvP, the new zone will be Tol Barad, an island of the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms that will act as a combination of Wintergrasp and the Isle of Quel’Danas. It will be a daily quest hub with battles to take control of a prison on the island. Controlling the prison gives access to a dungeon and bonus (and profitable) dailies.

The plan is for 3 new Battlegrounds, including the Battle for Gilneas.

Rated Battlegrounds should be introduced with the same gear rewards as arena.

Speaking of arena, new arena maps are planned.

Random Interviews

Frank Pearce, senior vice president – admits there are no current plans to introduce extra character slots per realm, but says he’ll take it back for discussion.

Cory Stockton, lead level design, had a lot of good stuff to say -

Purchasing the expansion gets you the ability to play to level 85 and access to the new races. The changes to the world HAPPEN FOR EVERYONE. Yes, the old content will be gone.

No hero class this time around, but they are thinking about it for the future.

Sadly, there was a hint that we may not be able to fly in Azeroth until level 85. Damn the developers and their carrots.

He said that even though there will only be 5 new levels, he says that the scale of leveling will feel similar to the 10 levels before. The new zones are larger than the zones in Northrend. We will gain 3 new class abilities/skills as we level to 85.

The Archaeology profession will unlock new glyph slots and he mentions that solving the artifacts may have a mini game component.

He also mentioned that they are looking into not just the already announced faction transfer, but possibly allowing players to switch races within the same faction.

Rob Pardo, executive vice president of game design – the new Battle.net will allow us to talk to friends across game and across faction.

Achievements will be stored by account, not per character.

Class, Items, and Professions Panel

Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street (“that asshole that nerfed my class”), Travis Day, and Jon LeCraft braved the stage to discuss what’s up and coming on a couple topics.

The new races get a shit ton of racials!

Goblins: Rocket Jump, Rocket Barrage, Time is Money, some discount thing, Pack Hobgoblin, an alchemy buff.

Worgen: Darkflight, Viciousness, Aberration, Flayer… they really went though all this too fast for me to write.

But, in the Q&A they did talk about expanding the racials of the current races to match the level being released with the new ones.

Specifically about worgens, the worgen form will be cosmetic. Outside of combat you can chose to be in either form, entering combat will automatically switch you to the worgen form.

Goblins can be any class except paladin and druid and worgens can be anything other than paladin and shaman. This blows my theory of allowing warlock rules out druid. Damn.

Warlock changes:

• Soul shards will not be an inventory item anymore. They will become part of your UI (the example showed them as a buff under the character portrait, sort of like runes on a DK).
• The idea is that you will get 3 shards per combat (with the possibility of gaining more mid-combat for long fights) that will be used as a cooldown to buff your following spells.
• Soul shards will be consumed using a spell currently known as Soul Burn, which will be off the GCD. Activating Soul Burn will do something to make you next spells amplified or different, reducing cast time, causing auto-crits, etc. They are still working out some of the ideas.

Hunter changes:

• No more mana!
• Mana is being replaced by focus, removing the need for Intellect on hunter gear and Aspect of the Viper.
• Focus regeneration will be continuous, much like a rogue’s energy. An ability like Steady Shot will probably be used to speed up the regen.
• Switching from mana to focus means that they will be able to remove many cooldowns from hunter abilities – focus is a limited resource like energy so will naturally limit spamming of abilities.
• Ammunition will be an item, not a consumable, but they have not worked out exactly how a hunter will get better ammo.

In terms of itemization they are focusing on streamlining the itemization on gear, getting rid of confusing stats, and making the remaining stats more understandable.

• MP5 – Gone! Replaced with Spirit.
• Spirit – universal mana regen and all healers will get a form of Meditation for regen in combat; no spirit on mage or warlock gear (which makes me wonder how the hell I’m going ot regen in combat…)
• Spellpower – Gone!
• Intellect – Will feed into your spellpower as well as your mana pool.
• Attack Power – Gone! Off of gear anyhow. Or at least off of armor, may still be present on rings and trinkets.
• Agility – Will feed into attack power for rogues, druids, etc.
• Defense – Gone! Tanking talents will give you what you need, no more juggling around the defense cap.
• Armor Penetration – Gone! It seems like half my guild is currently in love with armor pen, hate to break this to ya guys… will be replaced with Mastery – which they didn’t talk about.
• Haste – Works very well for casters, but will now increase the rate rage/focus/runes/energy are regained.
• Block Value – Gone! Block will work more like dodge.
• Stamina – No more plate HP envy! With less of the other stats being removed, there’s more room for stamina for everyone!

New legendary item: Shadowmourne – 2 handed axe (no, you don’t get Frostmourne), and a promise of a caster legendary.

Archaeology Profession:

• May give access to vanity pets and titles as well as unique recipes for other professions.
• Archaeology will make use of a journal to track items found – they won’t eat up bag space.
• This will be a gathering-type profession but you will be able to track this and your other gathering professions on the mini map at the same time.

Addition to crafting professions: Reforging!

• Blacksmiths, Leatherworkers, Tailors, Engineers, and Jewelcrafters will be able to take an item and adjust the stats on it, trading half of a stat for a more desirable one. Talk about customization!

Speaking of professions, how about mulit-gains from creating something? You could get 5 points by making 5 green bracers… or you can make a blue breastplate for 5 points. Neat stuff.

Engineering will continue down the path of more convenience, not much information.

There will be changes with fishing to make it more fun, but they can’t say what yet…

During the Q&A the following came up:

Yes, professions will go up 75 points and the new rank will be called Illustrious.

Worgen and goblin currently have access to DKs, but that is subject to change.

They are getting rid of ranks of abilities! You learn fireball and it just gets better as you level. No more downranking. I’m really curious to see how this plays out with mage food. Will I not be able to make food for players below my level?

Talent trees will be pruned. You can probably count on talents that improve buffs to get cut (improved mark of the wild, improved auras, etc.) Maybe even hit talents being removed…

In regards to expanding on dual-spec, they did not rule out the possibility of additional specs, but didn’t make it sound like it was happening any time soon. I want tri-spec.

There was a hint that the 16-slot backpack may be looked at as part of the revamp.

Multi-passenger flying mounts are a possibility.

Contests:

Costume

In my opinion, the best costume was the summoning stone.

For all the hype about the costume contest, I’ll admit, I was a little disappointed.

Apparently tennis shoes are part of the tier 8 priest and warlock garb. Who knew?

The stream decided to buffer hardcore in the middle of the contest so I’m sure I missed a bunch.

A word of advice to people that design their own costumes for this sort of thing: Learn to move in your costume. Don’t just make it and wear it the one time, wear it around the house for a while.

Oh, and look into a little sewing trick called a “gore” it will get you more room to move your legs (and be able to walk naturally) without adding to the visible fullness of the garment. No one faceplanted but it sure looked like we had a couple close calls.

The highlight had to have been the inability of Jay Mohr to read the writing of the finalists on his index card.

Sound-alike

A few Kael’Thas, a murloc or 2, a guy tripping on the stage, a crap load of orc peons, a guy from Clayton CA (where I went to high school – no, I don’t know him).

Then into the dances…

The usual /waggle, people forgetting the moves, a guy doing the female troll dance, an entire quartet of male blood elves with additional choreography, a woman in a banana suit that stripped to her swimsuit, a bunch of human males with varying levels of rthym and being clothed (eek), a female troll with bellydancing skills, the whitest orc male ever seen (with some leet Hammertime skills), a guy that can actually do the Riverdance thing (I think he was really wearing dancing shoes), they couldn’t get the rights to the Michael Jackson song for the night elf males… and then the stream ended in the middle of some performances.

Interesting observation: the costume contest seemed to be mostly women, but the sound alike and dance contest were dominated by the guys.

And so ended day 1 of BlizzCon 2009!

Now I can finally go eat and take a piss.