BlizzCon 2009: Worgen Hands-On Preview
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Admin on Thursday, August 27, 2009 - 29 Comments Tags: Lore, blizzcon 2009, expansion, goblins, race, starting area, worgen
Admin on Thursday, August 27, 2009 - 29 Comments Tags: Lore, blizzcon 2009, expansion, goblins, race, starting area, worgen 
iTZKooPA took us through the starting area of the Goblins, who have joined the stinky Horde, where as I will be bringing us back to the, ahem, better faction with the Alliance. I know you've been clamoring for this, so here it is: the hands-on preview of the new Alliance race, the Worgen!
With the announcement of Cataclysm, the Alliance and Horde are once again receiving new races. The Alliance finally get a “beastly” race in the Worgen, which are a group of feral wolf-beasts. Those of us who got to attend BlizzCon 2009 got a chance to get some hands on time with the new race and their starting area and it is quite good!
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) the demo we played started the Worgen off at level 6 (in the Cataclysm panel they told us they didn't want to show us exactly what happens with 1-5 just yet) and if you were at the event this weekend and saw a Worgen Rogue running around named “Projectlore”, well, more than likely it was me (a little more creative than certain other bloggers!).
The demo started us off with your character, in Worgen form, in “The Stocks” with other Humans around your character discussing your fate. Some of the humans seem to think you are lost to your fate as a beast and should be killed, but a doctor runs up with a potion which allows you to be “cured” and appear as a Human again. This allows you to start your questing, and you have the ability to switch from Worgen form to Human form at will (although you are forced into Worgen form while in combat). Worgen also get a “sprint” ability on a three minute cooldown which increases their run speed for a short time. They also have a couple of static racials: Flayer, which increases skinning skill by 15, and Viciousness, which increases damage by 1%.
The quests are designed to get you involved in the Forsaken invasion that is happening in Gilneas. The first couple quests involve finding a package, which upon completion starts a small cut scene showing you the Forsaken ships docked on the shore near Gilneas. You then go and kill them to advance to the next area, which involves Worgen in the basement of a shack where a mother asks for your help with finding her children at the farm nearby, and another asks you to continue to help kill the Forsaken.
There has been a lot of care put into the starting zone, as Blizzard felt that the Death Knight area was really successful in engaging the player and getting the player really involved in their character (and I'm inclined to agree). While we only got a small taste of the opening area for the Worgen, we still witnessed lots of scripted events, phasing, and cut scenes which only get me even more excited for the new expansion. The area is well designed, and if this is any indication of how they're revamping classic WoW, there will be a fewer obnoxious walks to get to different places, which I am perfectly OK with. The whole of Gilneas looks absolutely stunning and I am really excited about what's to come in the later levels of the starting zone. Blizzard uses the weather effects extremely well here, as well, and I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of the zone turns out.
For players wanting a fresh start, there is a nice selection of classes to choose from including: Death Knight, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock and Warrior (only classes they cannot be are Paladins and Shaman). I am really hoping that, similarly to what they did with Wrath, they lock out Goblins and Worgen from being Death Knights at the beginning of the expansion, and maybe allow it later on in the life of the expansion. It would really be a shame if the first 85 worgen didn't even set foot in Gilneas because the brief taste we got at BlizzCon was so polished and well done that I can't wait to do 1-15 again (and I honestly thought I would never say something like that).
I included some screenshots that will hopefully give a bit of perspective of what this great starting zone looks like!
[gallery]
Reader Comments (29)
A few things:
1) The reason you started as a lvl 6 Worgen, is because as lvl 1-5, you are Human and ONLY Human. Those 5 lvls explore how the curse came into Gilneas (Confirmed at BlizzCon)
2) Also. You are confusing the Scourge Invasion with the Forsaken Invasion. Remember, were killing the Lich King, so all of the leftover Mindless Scourge would either die or jon up with the Forsaken.
The Horde wants a port in Lordaeron, and they see Gilneas as a viable option. SO, they send Sylvanas and her Forsaken into Gilneas to raise some hell (Also cinfirmed at BlizzCon)
stinky horde? haven't seen a bath/shower in ironforge,stormwind or darnassus either.
Alliance is better faction? Sadly no....Blizzard may hand the alliance the better racials, races ( dreanei, and worgen) and other random things, but the Horde is where the true awesomness lies.
Heh. Well at least Alliance Patriotism doesnt result in mutiny, civil war, bloody overthrows, blood curses, "ends justyfy the means"...I can keeep going.
Lets just say that in terms of faction comparison, the Horde is a lot more aggressive and straight to the punch.
The Alliance is more tactical, thinks things through. We dont have the greatest of Warriors, but we do have the greatest technology, Paladins, Priests, Majority of Mages, etc...
@moop - you dont need to be rude, DJ is just voicing his own opinion which may or may not be the correct one.
i really want a worgen but to take the skinning racial into effect i really would have to be a druid, rogue or hunter, but as the only one i would want is a druid but would like to spend most of my time in worgen form and not tree or bear forms, for instance i am going to roll a priest therfore making the skinning something useless unless used for making money
I have level 80 characters of both Factions.
What I found:
Horde - Most aggressive, big mouthed and selfish.
Alliance - Less aggressive on the cost of more slacking, kind words.
I agree with DJ in terms of locking the DK class like they did before. Would be a shame to start up with any of the new races at such a high level without even experiencing the back stories for each race (Goblin/Worgen).
A easy way to do it is MAKE force them to do the starting zone then the dk zone so they know the lore problem solved but.... they get a 43 level advantge D:
Wow, I was being sarcastic about the horde, sorry I didn't make that more clear...I have both Horde and Alliance characters and personally I think Horde has more interesting lore (Thrall really intrigues me, so I was really bummed about WarCraft Adventures being cancelled).
@Octaviax Thanks for pointing those things out. I mentioned the 1-5 because we didn't get to play it, and yes they talked about it but I felt there wasn't a need to mention it because this is focused on the hands-on portion. I'll change the whole Forsaken/Scourge thing, that is totally my fault. Again, thanks for pointing that out because I wasn't able to make 100% of the WoW panels.
I personally think that there are many characters on both factions that dont make good decisions.
In my opinion the only two people who know what they are doing is Jaina and Thrall who both have an alligence due to their past.
And this is to Octaviax: The Alliance does have someone who fits in the "bloody overthrow" spot. This person would be Arthas. I do however agree with the Horde being more agressive and straight to the punch, which has not helped in the past. Or maybe in the future! lol
Variann is pretty bloodthirsty.....
@Octaviax: Arthas isnt necessarily dead when the Gilneas wall broke down (unless they said he was at blizzcon, in which case disregard this completely.) . The way they do progression is only loosely based on the lore. Ragnaros is supposed to be a super badass in the lore, but just because he was a lvl 60 boss doesnt make him "weaker" than lvl 70 or lvl 80 bosses, their power is all relative. Same with time, because WoW is a multiplayer game, not every quest or zone is in the same period of time. In cataclysm they cant very well say that Arthas is dead. There would be no replay in the game if they phased it after important characters died.
Not to mention, Illidan goes back to outland after Arthas beats him and transforms into the Lich King. However there is no definate timeline to when the Horde and Aliiance forces go to both Outland and Northrend, so its entirely possible that when we "kill" Arthas, illidan wont even be dead yet according to lore.
Oh yes.
There is also illidan
@Zero: In the trailer for Wrath of the Lich King he says that he have been waiting for 5 years and the first game starts 4 years after the hyjal event so there is a time line but outland would be around middle of start of World of Warcraft and Wrath of the Lich King but that is (from what i know) the only way to lay out the time after Warcraft 3: RoC
As the Cataclysm trailer says: "As the terrible war against the Lich King continues ....
Arthas will be around in one form or another in Cataclysm.
would really love to make a worgen, but sadly they are part of the Alliance, so i guess the only pleasuer i'll get from their addition to the game is getting to kill them in bg's.
I have a question DJTyrant. DId you get to create your character? What I mean is do you get to pick skin tone/hair color. I am very interested in the creatiion of the worgen. Is it more like creating a Tauren? Do you get to be human all the time if you want or is that just for the starting quest? If you get to be human how do you customize that part of yourself?
Silly I know but that is what I am interested in. Thank you!
Redauraro, I would imagine that when you start your Worgen character you customize only the human form of yourself (seeing as the first 5 levels are you as a human) and to edit your Worgen form you would possibly be able to change it at a Barber's, much like a Tauren can with their forms.
@Redaurora
At BlizzCon, when you started a worgen, you customized the worgen form. You could pick the face, hair, hair color, etc. As far as human form, the developers told us that you can use it any time you want outside of combat. In the demo there was no way to customize the human form on character creation. Worgen did have an additional racial called "Two Forms" that you could use to switch back and forth when you weren't in combat. Whenever you entered combat, you were automatically switched to worgen form. This should stay the same all the way to 85 and beyond.
Well thank you for the info. I can't wait to play around with it!!
hahaha you sillys sayin stinky hord your right but haha just sya that the suck you sound like me little brother trying to play but ya the wargon are going to be an ammazing class i can see in the futcher that probly if anouther expanchion will come out that there wil be a breakup of the alliance and them or there will be a spicific enemy of the wargon but ya i like the deathnight but the worgon might beet it
ummmm,no horde iss better, was gnna read this till hegot all favoratist bout the factions f*** this website and F*** all the allys
P.S HORDE IS BETTER
kthanks
u might wnna rethink ur post couse excuse me but U SUCK and a would take down ur toon any day DJ fagg
wow hoodie are you just gona be a fag on every poast?
im shure you have enough haters by now, or were you aming for more
:)
i just dont like alli fanboys