Project Lore

I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but it looks like one of the greatest points of contention regarding the recently announced mount changes for 3.2 will continue to upset players of WoW. In comments both on my post here at Project Lore and on the official WoW forums, posters have begrudged the major price dips for mounts because they had to pay so much more when they bought their mounts. Some have gone so far as to suggest (or demand, in some cases) that Blizzard refund their in-game gold. Not surprisingly, blue poster Zarhym has responded to these requests in a couple of different places in the forums. After the complaints started rolling in Wednesday, he said:

"We have no plans of offering in-game gold refunds on item costs to compensate for this content change, as has always been our policy."

Later on,  in an individual thread asking for refunds, he expanded on that point:

"It's truly a great thing that online gaming has expanded to the point where a game can grow and evolve over time with new content. As a gaming company, we can look back with hind sight and make changes to update older content within the context of everything that has come since. Several times over this has led to price adjustments in a number of areas, and we do not reimburse items or money due to changes in content. There are simply too many variables and too many changes each content patch to attempt to compensate anyone who's been negatively affected by a change."

Now this doesn't seem like a hugely unexpected revelation. As he said, I can't think of any other time that Blizzard has made any overarching gold refunds for in-game price adjustments. I'm also not sure that anything has ever decreased in price across-the-board this drastically before, but I can't say for sure. But still, this has been a major point that has players up in arms, and it probably will continue to be controversial. I predict that all the hoopla will die down once patch 3.2 comes out (whenever that is - it may still be awhile), and people start getting cheap-ass mounts for their level 20 alts. Plus, all those other changes that also are planned for 3.2! Personally, I can't wait. One thing I'm still undecided on - what's the verdict for all of you who are on the verge of buying your mount? Do you wait for the patch, however long that may be? Or do you shovel out the cash so you can get the benefit of faster travel now? And if you do, will you QQ about it?

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Blue poster Zarhym on Wednesday night announced some pretty huge mount changes coming up for the next major content patch, 3.2. You'll be able to learn your apprentice, journeyman and expert riding skills all considerably earlier than before and at a reduced cost. As an added bonus, regular flying mounts now will fly at 150% speed, instead of 60%. All of this, Zarhym said, is "to further improve the leveling experience in World of Warcraft." Here's the breakdown of changes to cost and level requirements, according to what Zarhym posted, with my own notes in italics:

• Apprentice Riding (Skill 75)
  • 60% land mount speed
  • Requires level 20 - a whole 10 levels earlier
  • Cost: 4 gold - way down from 35g
  • Mount cost: 1 gold - instead of 10g
  • Mail will be sent to players at level 20 guiding them to the riding trainer

• Journeyman Riding (Skill 150)
  • 100% land mount speed
  • Requires level 40 - OMG 20 levels sooner!
  • Cost: 50 gold - currently 600g
  • Mount cost: 10 gold - down from 100g
  • Mail will be sent to players at level 40 guiding them back to the riding trainer

• Expert Riding (Skill 225)
  • 150% flying mount speed instead of 60%; 60% land mount speed
  • Requires level 60 - Previously level 70
  • Cost: 600 gold (faction discounts now apply) - currently 800g
  • Mount Cost: 50 gold - down from 100g
  • Can now be learned in Honor Hold (Alliance) or Thrallmar (Horde)

• Artisan Riding (Skill 300)
  • 280% flying mount speed; 100% land mount speed
  • Requires level 70
  • Cost: 5,000 gold (faction discounts now apply)
  • Mount Cost: 100 gold - instead of 200g

And, after getting lots of questions from other posters about Cold Weather Flying, Zarhym replied that at least that much will "remain unchanged." It looks to me like these changes will help leveling go quite a bit faster, especially when in many of the wide, open spaces common throughout Azeroth. Not to mention the zones in Outland, too! AND the huge price slashes will mean that it's much less of a hardship for players to pay for mounts, especially for those poor alts. Most people in the forums seem to be pretty ecstatic about the announcement, but there are plenty also who are starting to say that the changes are catered toward the casual player (or that they should have been implemented xx months ago!). But these changes will affect everyone across the board - and in my opinion, it's all for the good. It's not about being lazy when leveling - it's about enjoying the game. And I think for a lot of us, mounts are fun. Zarhym also announced that the casting time for summoning all mounts will go from its current 3 seconds down to 1.5 seconds. Which, to me, equals a greater chance that I'll be able to get my mount out in time after breaking stealth and before getting attacked. And maybe you also can successfully escape any other baddies heading your way before entering combat. I guess that would "improve the leveling experience" in my book. Add this to all the other changes coming for Call of the Crusade, and a new battleground, and I'm just giddy. So what does everyone else think about these upcoming changes? FTW? Or FTL?

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What, No Official Trailer? Wow, Blizzard's holiday announcement was certainly unexpected.  The company began discussing the intimate details of Patch v3.2 starting with its official title, Call of the Crusade.  Previously, we were enlightened to some of CotC's updates thanks to various forum revelations, like the new battleground and Argent Tournament updates.  Now we have some additional juicy details to salivate over. As the title suggests, Patch v3.2 will bring us one step closer to the upcoming battle with Arthas.  In preparation, the Argent Crusade will drastically expand their operations in the area thanks to all the resources we have happily donated.  Those of you who are, like me, a bit bored of the Argent Tournament will be happy to know that the Crusade will unleash a collection of "new dailies, rewards, and more" in an attempt to lure us into the soon-to-be-erected coliseum.  The Crusade's new digs is no joke, it'll contain not only a 5-player challenges, but 10- and 25-player ones as well.  It is unknown what these tasks will be, PvP, PvE or some combination thereof. For the PvPers out there, not me, you've got two things coming your way.  Amazingly, the start of Season 7 at the outset of Patch v3.2 probably isn't the most exciting bit of news.  Nope, that would belong to the Isle of Conquest announcement, a new "large-scale siege Battleground."  According to Zarhym, the Isle will be a battle over resources that plays out in the style of “Wintergrasp combined with Alterac Valley.“   I absolutely loved the age old Alterac Valley - not the original, original incarnation, but the tweaked vanilla WoW version - and combining it with the best aspects of open world PvP makes this rogue sharpen his pokers and "practice my stabbing". Best of all, it appears that Blizzard has gotten ahold of their patch development cycles, because this patch is expected in a more timely manner.  When chastised by a player who didn't expect the patch before the end of the year the disembodied skull of Zarhym stated that his "presumed time lines are way too inflated? :)"  Of course he could have been referring to when we will see Icecrown Citadel...that wouldn't be bad either. New solo content, check.  New PvP content, check.  New PvE content - probably part of the Coliseum updates - check.  So ladies and gentlemen, let the thoughts, impressions, QQing and sequels of excitement begin!

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Kotaku just came to the realization via Official Blue Post (tm) that one of Blizzard's projects, their unnamed next-gen MMO, is an entirely new franchise, which means it's not Starcraft, it's not Warcraft, it's not Diablo, it's not Lost Vikings, it's not Rock n' Roll Racing, and most disappointingly it's not Battle Chess. Zarhym says, in response to a poster wondering why Blizzard hasn't started advertising for their new MMO:

We have nothing to advertise for the new MMO because it's a shell of a game thus far. We've already stated it'll be a brand new franchise, which means the lore, art, and game play are being developed entirely from scratch. It's an overwhelming process, but a process through which we excel. Our track record supports this.

So, they're working on all new stuff. They have two fantasy titles releasing along with a Sci-Fi future title, so what's next? Where will their new MMO end up being set? The wild west? An apocalyptic future? A realistic contemporary world? Ancient Egypt? A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? Canada? I'm thinking none of the above, because Blizzard has a way of surprising us all. Nevertheless, it may end up being a battle between two Blizzard MMOs at the top, with some players unable to tear themselves away from WoW, but many making the transition to their new property. What do you think? Are you getting tired of the Fantasy MMO? Are you looking forward to Blizzard's new title? Where do you want to see it set, and what do you want it to include? How many question marks fit in one post?

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I always wondered about how Blizzard would handle armor designs as new content as released. As players are able to get more and more powerful and fight progressively nefarious enemies, how could armor sets get progressively more epic to reflect the power of the wielders? Thrall is beginning to look less and less cool comparatively. I thought tier 2's Bloodfang was far cooler than anything until tier 5 for rogues. The Burning Crusade armor sets had quite a few very bizarre armor sets as Blizzard designer's were reaching to try to make things as epic as possible. They definitely had the theme of Burning Crusade, drawing on the ideas of "lasers! pew pew" used in the nether-themed places and Draenei. The mighty morphing pally rangers will never be forgotten! The Wrath sets definitely have a distinctive look as well. The tier 7 sets are nigh direct copies of tier 3 since tier 3 was obtained in Naxxramas, which was revamped and moved to Northrend, but the non-tier pieces have had a very satisfying Nordic look that was a little shocking coming from the highly colored and crazy Burning Crusade world. Tier 8 continues this trend, with the items being highly influenced by the Titan architecture and carrying a very "new" look. Some players complained that the new PvP sets were too bland. Blue poster Zarhym told players:

The look of the sets will improve as the seasons continue. If we started the first sets of PvP gear with asteroids orbiting the shoulders, in a couple seasons you'd be wearing Thrall on your head... Under the current design philosophy, the idea is that in PvE you're killing very rare and challenging creatures of Azeroth, while in PvP you're receiving gear from the crafters (so to speak) of your faction to get you battle-ready. Chances are you're going to be given the gear that'll get the job done rather than the gear that has to be constructed entirely out of the nipples of a 7,000 year-old dragon.

I personally like this idea. It used to be that my PvP sets would be a mish-mash of pieces from various sets and didn't look very cool. Now, it blends together much more nicely. You can check out all the new armor sets for both PvP and PvE gear on MMO champion. Additionally, you can read more about the Frost Wyrm mount reward in season 5 and more discussion on PvP rewards. Check out the first part of our gallery comparing the tier 8 and tier 7 sets along with all the Wrath Gladiator sets. Today, we feature the classes of the "Lost Vanquisher": Rogue, Death Knight, and Mage. Druid's sets are not done yet, so they will be featured later. Thanks to MMO Champion for the renderings of the sets from the PTR. Note that the unreleased armor sets are still subject to change. Rogue Mage Death Knight The Death Knight's "Valorous Darkruned Battlegear" appears to be the same as Darion Mograine's armor. Very cool! Rogue's PvP sets are boring. They look like a themed grey set. I've got to say, the tier pieces look great though. Mage's tier 7 looks more like druid gear with the moose horns, but the tier 8 looks decent. What do you guys think? Is the current philosophy of PvP gear's look good, and are the PvE tier sets maintaining a good look?

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