Project Lore

Welcome to day 2 of Project Lore's Blizzcon coverage! Unfortunately, the WoW panels this morning were not featured on the live stream, so we were unable to report on them live. However, here are some of the highlights from the panels: WoW Q&A:

• There will be more class-related hubs like Moonglade in Cataclysm, and it will be "MEGA".
• Phasing, especially with terrain phasing, will be somewhat backwards-sharable so you can help your friends or bring them into your phase.
• Probably still a limit of 10 characters per server in Cataclysm. The number of players with 10 characters on a server is still very small.
• Onyxia's level 60 version will no longer be accessible in patch 3.2.2. However, in Cataclysm, they want a lot of old content to still be accessible.
• Night Elf mages were controversial, but they like the idea of bringing in "fringe groups". It will be cool to be this Highbourne elf from 10,000 years ago.
• Thrall, as a shaman, is doing something new in Cataclysm.
• Hunters and Enhancement Shaman will share little gear in Cataclysm.
• Trolls and Worgen will get unique Druid forms.
• Although Armor Penetration will no longer be on gear, the concept will remain in the game to even out PvP for plate wearers, probably through talents.
• Guilds will be able to "craft heirlooms", for the entire guild, any slot. They will scale with level.
• Old world factions will become more relevant.
• Assassination might get buffed in 3.2.2 (woo-hoo!)
• Same-faction race changes will happen in the future.
• "Frostmourne has a.... unique fate. The encounter is going to be mega. Keep your hats on."
• Blood Elf/Draeni starting areas less affected by the Cataclysm.
• Battlegrounds experience will be tweaked. Alterac Valley XP is really high relatively and too easy to "leech"
• Racials will be revisited.
• New dances and dance studios are being developed actively.
• Northrend will be less impacted by the Cataclysm. Outland will be nigh unaffected, but it will have Archaeology implemented.

WoW Game Systems Panel: Rated Battlegrounds:

• Rated Battlegrounds will award arena points.
• Every week will feature a battleground. It will align with the weekend holiday battleground.
• It works like arena; if you win a battleground, you gain rating and arena points. The number of arena points you can get from rated battlegrounds is related to your rating from the previous week so it doesn't encourage grinding.
• If you lose a a battleground, you do not lose rating. This is to prevent the unlucky loss/group from affecting your rating.
• This system will reward ranks like the old honor system and will have seasons. Titles are awarded at the end of the season based on player ratings.
• Rated battlegrounds will have unique rewards like epic ground mounts and Guild Achievements and Guild Experience out of it.

Tol Barad:

• Tol Barad is an outdoor PvP zone like Wintergrasp and plays similar to Isle of Conquest.
• It will probably be south of Hillsbrad.
• There will be a limit on the number of players in the zone during battles, like Wintergrasp.
• There will be control points and whichever side captures them all first controls the zone for awhile.
• There is an instance that can only be entered when your faction controls Tol Barad
• The controlling faction will have access to additional daily quests. Regardless, both factions will use it as a major daily quest hub.
• There will be Tol Barad marks of honor.

Guild Advancement

• They want players to be in guilds to progress with their friends and other players.
• There will be guild experience that will be gained by doing different tasks and achievements.
• There will be 20 guild levels.
• Examples of ways to gain guild experience is killing a raid boss, fighting in rated battegrounds, arenas, leveling professions, and gaining reputation ranks.
• In order for a guild to get credit for a boss kill, you need 75% of the raid members to be in the guild.
• Every time your guild gains a level, the guild gains some talent points. There are guild talent trees that apply to everyone in the guild.
• Some example of talents include reduced repair costs, mass resurrections after wipes, removal of reagents for raid buffs, et cetera.
• One talent increases the gold drop from monsters, another summons the entire raid.
• Guilds can respec for a price.
• Guild experience is converted into some sort of guild currency. These can be used to buy things like guild battle standards and new "bind to guild" items like heirlooms, mounts, etc.
• If someone leaves the guild, the stuff they got from the guild's achievements gets returned to the guild bank.
• Guild currency can be used to buy replacements for reagents. For example, instead of using standard herbs for flasks, you can buy replacement reagents with guild currency.
• Guild Achievements will be like player achievements. Examples include having a legendary weapon in the guild, having grand masters in every profession, et cetera.
• There will be a "guild news feed" and the Armory will get some RSS support!
• You will be able to browse your guildmate's professions much easier. The guild UI will be completely redone, search-able, and filter-able.
• The extra gold from talents that players loot will go into the guild bank.

Mastery

• Talents will be less about "+x to stats" and more cool things you want to do, like abilities or effects.
• The more points you put into a tree, the more stats you get related to that spec. For example, Rogues will ge tMelee Damage, Hit Chance, and Armor Penetration in the combat tree, while Subtlety will see more Melee Damage, melee Haste, and Energy Regeneration .
• Mastery will be a new itemized stat that will increase the gains that you get from talents. Thus, gear will be useful for more specs and classes more easily.

Path of the Titans

• Path of the Titans will be how your character progresses when they are at max level.
• The main reward of the Path of the Titans will be the "Ancient Glyph", unrelated to Inscription.
• These paths will have you align with a different Titan cult. These are not class specific.
• Rewards are glyphs, vanity pets, and other such things.

Click to read more ...

12:50: Hello, and welcome to Project Lore's live coverage of the World of Warcraft Dungeons and Raids Panel. I, Amatera, will be hosting today. Currently, we are 10 minutes out from the start of the show. I wonder if they'll concentrate on Cataclysm or if we'll also get some details on what's going on with Icecrown Citadel. 12:57: Let's recall what we know so far. Raids include: Grim Batol, The Firelands (with Ragnaros!), and an unnamed one in Skywall, the realm of the Air Elementals. There are level-up dungeons in Uldum (City of Tol'Vir, Halls of Originations), two instance in the Abyssal Maw (in Vashj'ir), and at least one accompanying both Grim Batol and Skywall. Let's not forget about Blackrock Caverns, or the heroic versions of Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines! 1:00: The panel is now starting. Seems like it will largely be a Q&A session. 1:00: They're going to talk about how they actuall create raids first. Then there will be previews. 1:01: Every dungeon starts with any idea and a story is created around it. They also consider whether or not it would be fun. Then they create the dungeon in 2d to lay out the dungeon map. "Where are people going to go? Where are bosses going to be? What is the flow?" Grim Batol 2D Concept 1:03: They show the 2d version of the Grim Batol dungeon (presumably the 5-man). Also, Icecrown Citadel! There will be at least four floors according to this map. They will cover ICC in this panel. 1:05: Now they're showing the Halls of Origination in Uldum. It will not be a linear dungeon, you will have choices as to how you want to proceed. It will be a huge dungeon, with 7 bosses (emblems ahoy!). 1:05: After the 2d phase, they "block it out" in 3d. This is when they consider scale and whether or not they can fit creatures, bosses, and all of the other neat things that can go in a dungeon within the space. 1:06: After that, it goes to the artists to begin on a template. They're showing a "block out" of the Uldum Dungeon, as well as Icecrown. There is very little detail in the environment at this point. 1:07: Then they move on to Dungeon Interaction, things like doors and elevators, destructible objects, widgets to interact with during boss encounters, etc. They have to work closely with the art team to make everything look cool. 1:08: The art team helps with developing concepts and set pieces. The blacksmith room in Utgarde Keep is the result of this process, for instance. Concept art for ICC, Abyssal Maw are shown. Abyssal Maw 2D Concept 1:09: There will be an elevator in Abyssal Maw that will fill with water and push players up to the next level. 1:11: Encounter design, like most things, starts with brainstorming. "Can we do vehicles on vehicles?" It turns out they could, so they knew they had to do Voltron, which resulted in the awesome Mimiron encounter. 1:13: They try to figure out how they can provide you with a variety of experiences in the same zone, and what makes encounters cool. They use an internal tool called "Wowedit" to handle creature placement, spell creation, etc. They are using Drak'Tharon Keep as an example. 1:14: They're showing how Wowedit can be used to set creature paths. There's a series of dialog boxes used to tune to the new Onyxia encounter. "Looks like the Deep Breath is set to random!" they joke. Hardy-har-har. 1:15: Once all that is done, they playtest internally. The encounter team playtests a lot before anybody else even sees it. Then they send it off to Quality Assurance, and finally the PTR. They assure the audience that they DO listen to all of the feedback from the PTR, even if they can't reply to it. Now to Cataclysm content! 1:17: They want FOUR full raids for launch, including one called Blackwing Descent. Abyssal Maw is first. Blackwing Descent 2D Concept 1:18: There will be a vortex in the center of Vashjir which will actually pull players down into the Abyssal Maw. There, they will find two 5-man dungeons. There will be windows in the dungeon through which you can look out into the ocean. Creatures will swim by, there will be new water effects. 1:20: Abyssal Maw is non-linear. You go to the right or left side. This is a 78-82 dungeon, it will be one of the ones you visit first in the expansion. They show some art of one of the boss rooms. "Imagine where water elementals would live, that's with this looks like." Lots of windows make the dungeon feel open. Next will be a video of Abyssal Maw. 1:21: It was just a teaser. Go watch The Little Mermaid, and you'll have a good idea of the decor. Now Halls of Origination. It is the first of two 5-player dungeons in Uldum. You're inside an ancient temple. WoW's take on Egyptian style (so it's not exact, but inspired by). Also non-linear (I sense a pattern here). Halls of Origination 2D Concept 1:23: "Brann's got to be there, right? What will he find this time?" It looks huge, like Ulduar mixed with the great pyramids. Green, runed energy cables run along the roof. The super weapon is around here somewhere. Now another short teaser. 1:25: On to Blackrock Caverns, old zone, new instance! Blackrock Spire is inspiration, but it is not a copy of it. The story is that this is a second base for Deathwing. There's a giant, underground hole created by Deathwing that links Grim Batol to Blackrock Mountain. Completely new art, loot, and creatures. 1:26: They're showing a 2d layout. This one is actually linear, expected since it's more story-based. They want it to look like things are going on forever in the background, bridges, tall structures, lava floes. Video preview incoming. 1:27: Now we get to look at raids! And maybe a few surprises... first Icecrown Citadel. 10-25 player raid, they joke about the 31 bosses again. There will be TWELVE bosses, this is confirmed. 1:30: You'll get to fight Sindragosa and the Lich King, of course. The dungeon will have waypoints like Ulduar. The Frozen Throne itself sits on a spire that you'll be able to see even from the entrance to the raid. On the second floor, you will get on your faction's AIRSHIP and race the other faction to the top. This encounter will have you bombarding the other faction's ship, defeating their invaders, and then taking rocket packs over to their ship to kill their bombardiers. Icecrown Citadel 2D Raid Concept 1:32: There will be THREE 5-man dungeons associated with this raid, a la the Coliseum. ICC video prview. Looks great. Surprisingly not ALL icy blue. There are green, glowing tubes and a red room with rib-shaped sconces. Sindragosa is shown idling in a room (looks like Sapphiron). There will be 8 bosses throughout the 5-man dungeons, and you will have to do the dungeons in order the first time around for story reasons (some faction heroes will show up, like Jaina). 1:34: Now Cataclysm raids. They show a shot of Nefarian's room Vanilla WoW. But there's a new portal now! Which leads to Blackwing's Descent. Since you can fly to this room now, it's easy to get to. Neferian, and perhaps a few other old "friends," will appear in this dungeon, but like Blackrock Caverns, art, loot, etc. will be new. The Firelands 2D Concept 1:36: The Firelands, you take the fight to Ragnaros. It is an outside 10/25-man raid instance, and you will get to fight Rag at his full power. A huge globe of magma and some erupting volcanos are shown in concept art. Onto the Onyxia 5th anniversary raid. Unfortunately, we may have to wait until November, even if it's on the PTR now (guess some of us were wrong about that!). 1:38: There are a few new mechanics to the fight, but it will still "feel" like the old Onyxia fight. Maybe a couple of new skills. "You'll need more DoTs, for sure!" New and updated loot. Tier 2 helms and what not. We've already covered most of this with the dungeon's pre-BlizzCon announcement. 1:39: The Brood of Onyxia mount will be very rare. It's an epic flying mount, of course. They're showing shots of the stats on old loot, and what they look like now. The stats are, as expected, greatly increased. They also have slots. Some of the old loot is splintered into different drops to support new or changes specs since the original encounter was released. A couple weapon drops from Molten Core are also added to the loot table. 1:41: They're showing the Onyxia Whelpling pet. Anyone who logs into the game during the 2-3 week anniversary event will find this in their mailbox. The Whelpling looks cute, she tries to use Deep Breath every once in awhile but fails. Onyxia Whelpling 1:42: A big surprise! Cross-server LFG! Basically the way Battlegrounds work right now, except you will be able to PuG with people on other servers within your Battlegroup. They may do it for raids in the future, but for now it's just 5-man instance. You can flag yourself as a Leader in the new LFG system, and if you do this, you will actually get a reward for completing the dungeon. This will encourage experienced players to help newbies through these dungeons. This feature is tentatively set for 3.3.0. 1:45: The presentation is over with, now Q&A. First question, of course, the "Additional Servers Cannot Be Launched" issue. They are working on it, it's being deployed right now on the rest of them (not right now, but they are doing it server by server... all should be perfect in a month or two). Also, the new LFG system might be able to pull other party members right into the dungeon, without having to summon. 1:46: Will we see any other remade raids? The answer is that Onyxia is a special case, probably won't happen very often. 1:47: Are they going to bring reputation back into raids? There are plans for it, but no real details. It is something they want to do. Next Q: Everything feels like an AoE fest, or are we going to see some chances for single-target DPS to shine in non-boss encounters? 1:48: They do try to add variety in boss fights, but they may still be changing some of the trash. Next Q: Are there any plans to bring back C'Thun or Ahn'Qiraj? A: No current plans for this. They reinforce that although old baddies are brought back, they are entirely new fights. 1:51: Q: Are the nerfs and tune-downs what they wanted Hard modes to be? (I don't totally understand this question.) A: They don't make content to be un-beaten. They're always looking at feedback, they play the game themselves, too. 1:52: Q: Will attunement quest lines come back? The answer is: maybe. It just comes down to what feels right at the time (I imagine this means whether or not the story is important enough to accessing related content). They want everybody to be able to see anything. 1:53: Q: Will we get an Arthas death cinematic? A: Definitely. 100%. He will have a fitting end. Sindragosa in Icecrown Citadel 1:54: Q: How extensive is internal testing? Did anyone internally beat Yogg + 0? How will Coliseum Hard modes compare? A: It's hard for the dev team to do 25-man raids, but they do 10-man. QA usually handles 25-man raids, and they were NOT able to complete Yogg + 0. This is why harder stuff is sometimes rolled out on the PTR to see if high-level raiding guilds can complete the content. 1:56: They're going to try not to be as hard as Yogg + 0, but future content will still be tough. Q: Are there any plans to extend to Nazjatar and see Azshara. A: There may be some related story content, but apparently, Azshara will NOT be a part of this expansion! 1:57: Q: Will we go back to Wyrmrest Temple (for raids like Obsidian Sanctum)? A: Possibly. We'll see. Next Q: Something about bringing back other old raids again (seems to be a repeated question)? They give the same response as before. The Q&A is over, and with it, the Dungeons and Raids panel. Thanks for sticking around with our live feed! Stay tuned to Project Lore for more updates throughout the day!

Click to read more ...

As we head into Day 2 of BlizzCon, why don't we just take a moment and reflect upon everything we learned during Day 1? Electricity filled the air during the Opening Ceremony, as Mike Morhaime and Christ Metzen danced around the announcement of Cataclysm until the very end, yanking the audience along like a wooden duck on wheels. But when it landed, oh boy, did it! Deathwing's ugly mug. Many of MMO-Champion's predictions came true, but sadly few of my own. Hey, I thought there were a lot of good ideas, but many of them were also heavily dependent on Queen Azshara being the main attraction, not Deathwing. As it turns out, he's the one that causes all of the mayhem and destruction, not the Maelstrom (though it is still featured prominently several times during the trailer). So there's still someone, or something, kicking around down there in Nazjatar, but Blizzard is holding those details close to their chest. Moving into the World of Warcraft Preview Panel, we learned all sorts of new details about the features revealed in the trailer. We were given a look at how many current zones transformed, as well as shown previews of what the seven new ones might look like. Perhaps one of the most interesting things to come out of the Preview Panel was the fact that we would be visiting all four of the core Elemental Planes, with the Earthen one, Deepholme, being the primary hub area of the expansion. New game systems such as Guild Leveling, Mastery, Path of the Titans, and the secondary profession of Archaeology were touched upon, but further details on those were left for future panels, such as the Items, Classes, and Professions Panel. And nothing, not even the reveal of the expansion, commanded as many pops and boos from the crowd as that panel did. The world you run around in is exciting and everything, but players really do feel like they own their characters, so when you mess with those, you're always going to get some extreme reactions. The Archaeology Logbook Sure, we learned a little bit more about the nature of the Goblins and Worgen, as well as what's going on with Path of the Titans (using Archaeology to find artifacts around the world, you can turn them in for character progression awards for further customization), but the real meat of the panel was the class changes. Warlocks, for instance, will no longer have to farm Soul Shards. They'll get three at the start of any given fight which can activate Soul Burn, a spell which modifies and boosts the rest of the Warlock's playbook. Hunters are also receiving a major change: no more Mana! Instead, it will be replaced with Focus, a mechanic that functions much like a slower version of the Rogue's Energy (unless you use Steady Shot, which actually makes it regen faster). Shockingly, Blizzard is planning to chuck a good number of existing stats in the game in order to make the core ones look more attractive. Mp5, attack power, spell power, armor penetration,  and defense are completely gone. Their impact will be integrated into other corresponding stats, while others like Block and Haste will be modified to compensate. People might complain that this makes itemization less interesting, but like many aspects of the expansion, it really allows Blizzard to get back to basics and rebuild things from the ground up (hopefully better the second time around!). The night ended with a series of contests intended to champion fan creations. Hosted by comedian Jay Mohr, the highlight was, of course, the Costume Contest. With what seemed like a hundred different Elves (of both the Blood and Night varieties) and at least five versions of Alexstrasza, WoW fans dominated the competition, but in the end, it was a fantastic Diablo III Mistress of Pain costume that took the grand prize. Unfortunately for those of us at home, the live feed only covers a single WarCraft panel today, but it's an important one: Dungeons and Raids. We'll be live-blogging that one, just as we did those yesterday. Fellow blogger iTZKooPA, will be covering some of the others via Twitter, so keep an eye on him. We'll bring you summaries and all the essential news as quickly as we possibly can!

Click to read more ...

Incoming! The short answer is that Boubouille scored.  The data mining machine, who used some other resources for his recent discoveries, received almost a perfect score during yesterday's opening ceremony.  Nearly every World of Warcraft detail that had been disclosed by MMO-Champion.com came true.  Nearly ever one. There's absolutely no way I can take away from the sleuthing that went on to find out Cataclysm's particulars.  Sure, I didn't believe them all at first, but Blizzard confirmed that the company is simply crazy.  Crazy enough to reinvent what MMO gamers, not just World of Warcraft players, will expect in future expansions. Here's what MMO-Champion had spot on:

• Worgen & Goblins - WoW.com independently "confirmed" this before the event ever happened, but it was Boubouille and his mask discovery that sparked the rumors.  The new races' racials definitely sound OP as announced.  However it was later confirmed that all the other races will have their racials revamped.
• Level cap raised to 85 - Seems an arbitrary choice, but Blizzard wants players to focus a bit more on the content leading up to level 85.  Not just the idea of getting there.  Of course that won't stop many people from being level capped week 1.
• Azeroth revamp - The lands as we know them will indeed change drastically.  Barrens is split in two (double the Barrens Chat?!), Grim Batol is now Twilight Highlands and various other lands, coastlines and jungles will radically change.
• Flying everywhere - Yes folks, we will be able to fly everywhere in Cataclysm.  This even includes Wintergrasp.
• Class combinations - Data mining discovered the new possibilities and they've all come true, even Night Elf Mages.  Solving the 2:1 Horde to Alliance druid question is the Worgen's ability to offer a self-standing holy trinity.
• Unfinished original content done - Uldum and Mount Hyjal will both be arriving as part of Cataclysm.  Blizzard stated that Hyjal was never completed because it was impossible to do what they wanted previously.

There's really only one thing I can say Boubouille missed the mark on, and that's the main protagonist of the third expansion.  Deathwing is, without a shadow of a doubt, the bad guy in Cataclysm.  He's the force that lays waste to the lands as we know them.  Not an erupting Maelstrom as so many speculated.  QueenAzshara and her Naga buddies are definitely around, they have a new island to themselves just south of the Maelstrom, but they'll be a distraction compared to The Earth Warderer. "That is their (Goblin) mount" We've also got some additional details that no one guessed.

• New Secondary Profession - Archaeology (a word that will be often misspelled) will be added to WoW.  It'll be the first secondary profession that plays like a gathering profession.  No, fishing doesn't count.  After collecting from nodes of ruins and such, players will be able to discover rewards.  The mechanic to discovery hasn't been disclosed, but the possibility of a mini-game (Bejewled?!) was mentioned.  We will be able to track ruin nodes, and other gathering nodes at the same time.
• Mastery system - A new mode of progression.  The Mastery system is going to work alongside Talents to offer additional character customization, and it won't be class restricted.  This means a Priest can pick up the same Mastery skills (or whatever they are to be called) as a Rogue.  We are going to find out more details during the WoW Game Systems panel at 10:30 PST.  I'll be covering it via Twitter, and I expect it to be live blogged here as well.
• Heroic Deadmines & Shadowfang Keep - We heard dungeon revamps were coming, and now it's official.  These particular dungeons will use the same art and models.  To spice things up these assets will be mixed with new encounters and fights.  We'll hear more at today's Raids & Dungeons panel, which I'll be covering as well.
• Ragnaros - He's indeed back, "bigger and more pissed."  How much bigger can the developers possibly make the Lord of the Fire Elementals?
• So much more - Changes to fishing, Blackrock Spire is back, new PvP zone, rated BGs and the Alliance loses Southshore!

Consider me excited.  What do you think?  Good, bad, lore buster?  Anything that truly shocked you? For the StarCraft II players out there; I'll be sitting down for a StarCraft II interview later today. @iTZKooPA with your questions.  I'll select the best ones and work them into my own queries.

Click to read more ...

The first day of BlizzCon, as you have seen from numerous news coming out here at Project Lore, was an amazing time with a cataclysm of news (ba-dump-shh). Some of you may also be living it up at the convention, some are undoubtedly watching the organized chaos unfold from pay per view at home, and others of you surely have been refreshing your browsers as news comes out for you to soak up. So what about the other, fan-centered aspects of BlizzCon, beyond the news? Yes, I'm talking about contests. Costumes, sound-a-likes, dances, fan-art, songs and videos - all were showcased at the close of BlizzCon day 1. And although all the news has got my heart pumping in anticipation, I think the contests have been my favorite part so far. It's the first BlizzCon I've attended, or really even followed that closely. As iTZKooPA's photos showed, the halls are packed with a whopping 26,000 in attendance. And I don't want to play down the sheer amount of fun that being here has been so far, but the experience has been overwhelming at times. I found myself in a sea of other spectators, frequently lost and sore from carrying a ton of swag around because I didn't want to take the long hike back to the car. Not to mention the somewhat staggering nature of LA alone, for us non-locals. The contest was a time to sit back and marvel at the lengths some fans will go to show their dedication. Jay Mohr led the competitions with constant, expertly delivered comic relief (which is apparent by my constant laughter in the videos). As with previous years, we saw a hodge-podge of the good, the bad and the ugly. Costume-wise, I was smitten with interpretations of Queen Alexstrasza, several succubi and Lady Sylvanas Windrunner. And somewhat frightened, but very impressed by the overall winner who donned an unbelievably intricate Diablo Mistress of Pain costume. Amazing. Then dancing and sound-a-likes ensued, and many impressed. My faves: a blue, costume-wearing troll female shaking her thang for the audience, a band of "ninjas" doing the infamous Napoleon Dynamite dance and a seemingly husky man who surprised everyone with his tap-dancing prowess that translated perfectly to the dwarf female's moves, and won him first place in the process. The sound-alikes also were interesting for the most part, but the panel ran long. Each contestant had 30 seconds to mimic something heard in-game. Many chose speeches that bosses give when they attack or die. Some chose side effects or emotes. And we heard a whole group of Orc peons at "work, work." Between performances, Blizzard lit up their big screens with images of  the winning fan-art, and videos, and turned up the volume for excerpts from the winning original songs. I must say, I nearly fell out of my seat laughing at one video about a human man begging the moon not to get full because his wife is a Worgen and would rip his guts out. And again at an epic video about a player whose alt gets ganked over and over again. Finally, he gets his main and is ready to kick ass as he heads to confront the ganker. Then, a rogue unstealths and the pair team up to kill him again anyway. Loved it. Anyhow, who else here gets revved up by fan contests? How'd you feel about the costume winners? I'm curious how many of you would be brave enough to strip down and dance in front of tens of thousands of people watching (many with video cams) ? Personally, I've been known to enjoy costuming from time to time. But hell if I'd ever do a dance on stage! ...Now get pumped for Day 2!

Click to read more ...

While focused primarily on its integration with StarCraft 2, the Battle.net panel revealed a number of service-based features that will also impact how we interact with our friends inside and outside of World of Warcraft. One of the key concepts of the new Battle.net is a universal account (called the Battle.net Real ID). If you've already merged your WoW account with the service, then you already have one of these, but you might be asking yourself what sort of advantages are offered by doing so. Currently, you can expect increased account security, as well as the ability to register your Blizzard games and download them at will from the internet, but the panel today revealed new aspects of Battle.net that will no doubt make the concept even more appealing. Having a Real ID (something that will likely become mandatory very soon) will allow you to chat with your friends cross- realm and cross-game. That's right, if your friends play on a different server or are even playing a completely different game, you will still be able to talk to them no matter what they are doing. Due to this new feature, you'll have to accept and send friend invites (a la Facebook) so that completely random people aren't sending you nasty messages. But it shows just how far ahead Blizzard is thinking. They know that when StarCraft 2 or Diablo III comes out, a lot of your WoW friends  might stop logging on for awhile. But through the cross-game chat system and "broadcast" feature, you can still ask them to fill in raid spots or ask who on your list might want to run some heroics. As WoW chat functions somewhat differently from those in other Blizzard games, it's not yet clear how certain restrictions will be handled, such as those relating to faction choice. Sadly, you likely won't be able to engage in Guild Chat just anywhere, although there are reports that there might be an iPhone app in the works allowing you to do just that. It also seems as though the achievement system will be consolidated under the new account structure. When you earn an achievement on one character, you've essentially earned it for all of your characters. No longer do you have to worry about trudging around Azeroth when you create an alt just to earn those pesky exploration achievements again. Once again, as the panel was focused primarily on StarCraft 2, it's unclear whether or not every new Battle.net feature will find its way into WarCraft, nor was a release date for the new service given. Launching with StarCraft, we may see its implementation before Cataclysm hits store shelves.

Click to read more ...

The panel is onstage. 5:02: Goblin racials: Rocket Belt, Rocket Turret creator (on a shared cooldown), bank anywhere, 1% haste, +15 alchemy and increased effect from potions. Best discounts regardless of reputation. 5:03: Worgen Racials: +15 Skinning, no knife required, 15% less time on curses and disease. Worgen form is cosmetic only, can shift at will. Can stay as human if you want. 5:05: Announcing the class changes we already knew from the leak. Ghostcrawler comments the NE mages are the "return of the Highbourne", and the dwarves learned shamanism from Draeni. 5:06: Warlocks: Soul shard are no longer placed in bags. They are only used in combat and are integrated into the UI like DK runes. You now get 3 per fight and regenerate after combat, maybe automatically or maybe after using a spell. You can get more on long fights, perhaps with an Evocation like spell 5:08: The only spell that costs chards is Soul Burn, which is not on the GCD and gives you a buff that changes your spells. Eg, might make Searing Pain crit 3 times in a row, instant summon a demon, instant Soulfire (OMG), instant fear (OMG), longer horror on Death Coil. 5:09: Hunters: NO LONGER USE MANA. Use Focus, no longer care about intellect (GC said hunters are dumb). Regens automatically like energy. Steady Shot regens focus as well. Cap of 100 focus, regens at like 6 focus/sec and 15 with steady shot. Ammo will be an item, cooldowns on abilities will largely be removed to play more like rogues. 5:11: Itemization: Make stats easier to understand and more unified. MP5 is now gone, replaced with spirit. Spirit is now precisely mana regen. Mages and Warlocks will not use spirit. Spell Power is gone. Intellect is essientally spell power now, Hunters and Enhancement shaman don't care about it anymore. Attack Power is gone. For Rogues and Hunters, its agility, saving our gear from plate wearers. Defense is gone. Anti-crit for tanks is from talents Armor Penetration is gone. Too confusing and replaced with Mastery. Whatever you like to do, Mastery makes you better at it. 5:15 Haste = "Push more buttons". Increases the rate you get rage, runes, focus, energy. Block value goes away, block now mitigates all incoming damage. Stamina is GONE. Just kidding. There is lots more stamina on more things. Now stop complaining about dying on Thorum. 5:17 Next legendary: Shadowmourne: 2H axe! 5:18: Professions: Archaeology collects artifacts out of the world. Makes you more powerful somehow using Path of the Titans. Unique rewards, like titles, teleports to dungeons because you explored it so much, etc. Goes into a journal, quest log type thing. Reforging: Customize your gear for cheap. Done by Blackmsiths, leatherworkers, tailors, jewelcrafters, engineers. Reduces one stat for another. 5:23: Professions: Multigains: Rare and hard to make items can give you multiple skill levels. Want Gathering perks to be more compelling, useful to everyone. 5:24: Engineering: At some times its awesome, sometimes it sucks. They want it to be like what they did in patch 3.2 like teleporters, convenience like repair bots, etc. Big changes coming to Fishing, make it more fun. 5:25: Q&A starting. No Ret Pally questions allowed. Question: "Redone racials?" Yes. Want them to be cool. Tradeskills are going up by another 75 points. New title like Grand Master is "Illustrious". Q: Why Goblin and Worgen DKs? A: It sounded fun, might change. Q: Legendaries. Why no caster ones since Atiesh A: Sorry. Q: Talent builds are specific, eg Frost mages are PvP/leveling. Is this going to change? A: They are getting rid of ability ranks. It now scales with character level. Q: ?? A: Talent trees are getting redone, especially Hunter to support the new Focus model. Q: Elemental Shamans. Whats happening? A: Long term, totems are more cool, something happens when you put them down. Don't want all PvP casts instant cast to increase mobility. Q: Reforging. A: There will be some limits on how much you can change stats, probably. Works on anyone's gear (BoE essentially) 8:32: Q: Professions. Only two? A: Yes. They want it to be a hard choice. Multi-tracking will happen for gathering, gathering will be cooling Q: I'm a druid, dual specs are cool. Tri-spec? Statement: make backpacks bigger. A: Dual-spec is staying as two specs only. Backpacks may change, hush hush. Q: Corrupted Ashbringer changing? A: No. Q: Warriors and Attack power? A: Trying to consolidate gear. Attack power might still show up on like rings or necks. Q: Do mages get more raid utility? Just table-makers. A: Probably. Frost will be better in PvE later, has replenishment. Ghostcrawler wants a pony. 5:36 Q: What's up with ammo? A: Maybe you get it from vendor badges, or there are different types you carry like fire, armor penetration, etc. Q: Something weird is happening with a guy in a mask. Q: Resto shaman. You want them to be more raid or tank healers. A: They want Shamans to be one of the best AE healers, but also tank heal. Q: Spell Power Plate in leveling Blacksmithing? A: Do you level as a Holy Paladin, n00b? Q: Homogenized stat format didn't work with classes like holy pallies and elemental shamans. Are they going to get more homogenized. A: No. No solution. Do you want pallies to heal with strength and hit? Q: MP5, spirit, resto shaman, is this going to be strange? A: No, spirit will be the unified mana regeneration stat. Q: Profession mounts, any 310% ones, and any multipassenger flying mounts? A: Maybe multipassenger, probably not on professions unless you already have some sort of achievement that gave you a 310% mount. Q: Lots of classes get hit from talents, some don't. /cry A: Hit through talents sucks, it screws up itemization and isn't cool or fun. Probably will go away. 5:44 Q: Professions: Blacksmiths can't repair, Tailor's can't repair their own gear, etc. Whats going on with durability? A: Durability is a good mechanic, for the economy. Repairing own armor is covered by repair bots; reforging gives the other professions an extra thing to do. Q: Resto Shamans/Resto Druids: Why do they not have a magic dispel? A: Probably give all healers dispel magic. Poison, curse, disease will be more class specific. Q: Dwarves and treasure finding. Where is the treasure in the world? A: They found it all. Archaeology. LOOK OVER THERE! To be honest, it just wasn't cool and were farmer bait. Is going to be reworked and cooler, like chest giving you XP or other things. It will be significant to find a chest, like a rare spawn. Q: Can you scale 280% mounts to 310% if we have a 310% mount already? A: Maybe. They understand the problem. 5:49 Q: Shadow Priests and haste. Its useless. A: They want it to be better for everyone. Something might happen with their spells. 5 minutes left for Q&A. Q: Staves, bows, crossbows. Are there going to be craftable? A: Maybe woodcrafting in the future. Not enough for a whole tradeskill, may go to engineering for bows/crossbows, but probably not. Maybe found in Archaeology relics. Q: Feral Druid rotation is nuts. Change in system? A: No. People like it. Might change UI to make it easier to play, relies too heavily on mods. Or you can get a mangle-bot. Q: Dead characters spelling out spam websites. Fix coming? A: They don't condone it, don't know how to stop it yet. 5:53: Q: When are you giving mortal strike to everyone? A: Good defense and healing should not get mortal strike effects. Its up in the air, not everyone will get it. Q: With gear and stat changes, what happens with pally blessings? A: They will change accordingly. Talents that improve buffs are going to be gone. End of panels day 1! Whew!

Click to read more ...

Archaeology is, in fact, not a primary profession, but a secondary skill, like fishing, first aid, and cooking. All characters can learn it, and use it to advance down the "Path of the Titans", which is a new type of character progression, like talent trees. There are nodes in the world that players gather from in order to write "Archaeology Notes". Once you gather enough of certain types of these, you can use them to perform "research", which allows them to choose different "paths" to go down. These paths are not class-specific, so players of the same class can theoretically go down the same path. The research is described as a "mini-game" that allows you to pick from different paths. The rewards include more glyph slots, profession plans, and more. These paths are designed to be an additional way to progress your character after you reach level 85. It's unclear how this is related to the physical Path of the Titans in Northrend. Mastery is a concept that borrows heavily from Warhammer. Players will gain 5 new talent points to spend as they level from 80 to 85, but there will not be 5 new talents added to each tree. You will invest these into existing talents, which will likely be reworked going into Cataclysm. However, with the advent of Mastery, players who invest heavily into one tree will gain special abilities, regardless of where they are placed in the trees. Blizzard hopes this adds to character customization and adds flexibility to the trees. For example, if you are a Shaman and you have 51 points in Restoration, you might get a bunch of bonuses to your healing. However, if you go back and put 55 points in Restoration, you might get a large buff to your healing. This could include visual effects, buffs to your stats, or other benefits. A lot of mystery still surrounds this feature, so we will see how it unfolds. Professions will likely gain more levels. While traditionally 75 skill points correspond to 10 levels, we still might see an additional 75 skill points.

Click to read more ...

The newest addition to the Alliance is indeed the Worgen. The kingdom of Gilneas assisted the Alliance during the Second War. However, going into the Third War, Gilneas realized that there was little the Alliance to provide to them, and they were just fine governing themselves behind the impenetrable Greymane Wall. The curse of the Worgen began to spread, perhaps because of the Scythe of Elune. Regardless, Archmage Arugal of Dalaran became fascinated with these creatures and retreated into Shadowfang Keep to study them. They were great weapons for him in fighting back the Scourge during the Third War. The curse of the Worgen, however, is infectious, and it quickly spread and reached the nearby kingdom of Gilneas. The Gilneans, being confined to their kingdom, quickly fell to the curse. Civil war broke out, and their kingdom became ravaged. The Gilneans have managed to control their curse somewhat and seem to able to transform between Worgen and Human forms. The Cataclysm has been disastrous to them, and the Greymane Wall has been destroyed. Gilneas shares a border only with Silverpine Forest, which controlled by the Forsaken. The Forsaken push southward into their kingdom, and the night elves came to their rescue, perhaps with a sense of responsibly regarding the Scythe of Elune. Now, the Worgen fight along side the Alliance. The exact story behind the Scythe and the Worgen's origins remain unclear, but I'm sure the story behind the Worgen's origins will slowly be uncovered. The worgen racials include +1% damage, 70% run speed for 10 seconds, duration of curses and diseases reduced by 15%, and skinning skill increased by 15. They also don't need a skinning knife! Worgen can play as Death Knights (likely starting in Ebon Hold, and likely the coolest thing ever to grace WoW), Druids, Hunters, Mages, Priests, Rogues, Warlocks, and Warriors.

Click to read more ...

The Goblins of Kezan are the newest addition to the Horde. The Steamwheedle Cartel remains neutral, but this specific faction of goblins have joined the Horde out of necessity. Their homeland has heavily affected by the Cataclysm, and Mount Kajaro has become a dangerous volcano. The Goblins were originally enslaved by trolls to mine from the mountain of Kajaro in Kezan for the powerful kaja'mite ore that the trolls used in their rituals. The effects of the ore caused the goblins to grow cunning and develop skills in engineering and alchemy, and they overthrew the trolls and claimed the mines of Kajaro as their capital, the Undermine. The goblins' cunning quickly taught them that a profit could be made from their skills, and Trade Princes arose as the ruling caste of the goblins. They reached out to the Horde during the second war and served them at a high price with their technology. After the Horde lost the second war, the goblins realized they would be able to profit greatly by serving both sides during war, and did so during the third war. Kezan became a busy port. However, the recent Cataclysm turned their island into a dangerous volcano, and they fled. The trade princes found it profitable to evacuate the panicked goblins, and many goblins lost their entire life savings to save their own lives. Many were sold into slavery to get the money to evacuate, and the trade princes flourished. That is, until, they got caught in the Horde/Alliance crossfire. After a goblin fleet with a group of goblins called the Bilgewater was destroyed during a dogfight between Alliance and Horde ships, they washed up on the dangerous Lost Isles. They return to the Horde, as they find themselves at odds with the Alliance and easily rekindle old relations. Goblins can play as Death Knights (probably starting in Ebon Hold like the others), hunters, mages, priest, rogues, shaman, warlocks, and warriors. Goblin's faction mount will be a roadster-like car. It looks like a go-kart. One of their racials is a rocket-belt that allows goblins to thrust forward, like Blink or a forward disengage. Goblins start out in the Lost Isles and level to 15 there. They then move into Azshara, which is now a low level zone. The goblins have excavated the cliffs and claimed it for their own, building a town in the cliffs. They have also completely ravaged the Stonetalon Mountains.

Click to read more ...