I think that is the case.



I like all the UI upgrades. VOIP and hopefully these as well. It will really narrow what UI mods I use to really cosmetic placement of bars etc.

Not much else left.

I would like to see implementation like EQ where you can unlock and move and set the alpha of each element of the UI. Would be great to get rid of all the art and move the bare bars where I want them without portraits and those god awful dragons on the spell bar, as a default ability UI feature. Even the use of the fonts available on your computer and coloring of the different elements would be great.

Basic features like this go a long ways toward uniformity and getting a group together, let alone personal customization happiness.

I am glad to see they are heading in the right direction in that regard.

Think back to the Dev chat that was held on IRC a month or two ago- There was a specific question relating to crushing blows, and the response was something along the lines of "We are going to remove/change them/make the ability to push them off the table for bosses a non issue." They said the intent was to remove the crushing blow part of tank balancing.

I think their ability to turn crushing blows off for specific mobs accomplishes what they had hoped to do. Similar to the parry mechanic I believe they want it in some boss fights (if not most) but they want to be able to disable it for certain for fights.

This will be nice. I would rather it is for all classes. I would also hate to be a new player once all of the hero classes are out and you pretty much just roll a trash class to get to a "real" hero class that is now required. Not to mention having no one to group with at all now that everyone starts at level 60 that has been here for a while.

But I guess all MMOs eventually reach the new player breaking point where it becomes a wasteland for new players to level and interact in.

A larger problem I see is no character advancement. Hero classes were the perfect way to have an alternate type of advancement beyond the current character abilities. Reaching level 80 and then doing a quest to unlock your class hero class and then leveling the hero class to level 20 and becoming a Level 80 Druid/20 Druid of the Claw or a level 80 Paladin/20 Death Knight with the Hero class having a separate talent tree to spend 20 points in would have maintained that progression. I think it will become an abandonment of the current classes eventually as they gain the roles of the traditional trio of tank, dps and healer if not for abilities but rather prestige of making a "Hero Class".

But that happens in all MMOs. Classes become obsolete. They're already content with rogues becoming equal to dps warriors in terms of damage done and becoming a PvP class.

It will be very interesting to see what they actually do in the end.

All in all as a Druid it doesn't effect me, unless my tank spot is taken by them. But as far as actually rolling one, I have no interest. I will do it if it is relatively easy and I am bored. But as a Druid, there is no incentive to my character to do so.

I dont understand, aside from the name, and the fact its a 'Str + Melee' class, its unlikely to be anything like the 'Death Knight' from Warcraft III ?

I mean the things it needs to make it a Death Knight is: heal/damage nuke, self healing from killing an ally (lol), a speed increasing aura with HP5, and animate creeps...

Time will tell if any of those abilities are a reality, the only ones which seem iffy are Death Pact & Death Coil.
Death Pact.... It could be a fixed value 'loss' on a friendly, grouped target and a fixed value gain on self... which scales in efficiency with level/talents. However the griefing potential will be an issue they will strugle to deal with.
Death Coil... well the ability itself is already in the game thanks to conditional macros.. unless they make it like the warlock version sans horror.

Time will tell if the relationship goes beyond the name, however doubtful it may be.

Not seen this mentioned yet, although I'm only half way through this monster thread, but after the Pally is DeathKnightified he seems to be summoning undead in one scene.

Also, it's been said the Vrykul serve the lich king and the best of them are selected to serve as undead...perhaps as deathknights? Maybe the DK quest involves them somehow, like the netherwing involved posing as a dragonmaw?

I am extremely excited just from the quality in art/art direction these zones seem to be receiving. One of my peves with Outlands and the burning crusade is that it is all just too.... clean. Silvermoon is IMMACULATE. The Exodar is glassy, shiney, and pretty. There is nothing wrong with it, i actually love the style and love that the art team was able to pull off the "wow look," while being extremely fresh and unique. Definitely give props.

This Wrath art however is awesome. It feels gritty, it feels mean, it feels dark, and most importantly, it feels like it really has HISTORY. I'm not a RP'er, but i enjoy the games i play to be immersive and engaging. BC had that quality, but to a degree of wonder of why things were there, and what things were. The images of Wrath so far reek of stories and concrete "warcrafty" stuff. Has me really excited

Plus, that new fire texture / effect is pretty nice, given the tech they are using. The burning trees are really convincing, and still extremely stylized.

As for Northred itself, i think the underground Azolnerub (orwhatever its called) should be awesome. War3:FT had some really cool creatures underground there (the c'thulu looking dudes.. the Forgotten or something?), as well as the old-god... which im guessing is still dead from killing it in the game; but i'd like to hope it isn't

Despite being somewhat down about the fact i may not get to clear SSC/TK/Hyjal/BT until level 80... but at the same time if they can produce the same ammount of content added in the Burning Crusade, Wrath will be a sure fire hit.

Plus, i can finally get rid of my (*@##)$(@*$(@)$*) short white hair.

Go go Blizzard money machine.

edit: just saw this in the R&D panel notes on wowinsider that made me smile:

good god i remember those guys being elite, and the absolute HELL the foundary room was. haha

well, its speculation, but given that:

- the leak that says that the DK class has to be unlocked
- the outcry over how tBC made old world content and conquests useless

I would be inclined to believe that the DK would be something that players would have to kill Illidan or Kael to obtain

I'm pretty sure they also said that you won't need to raid to unlock the DKs so I doubt that.

Ahah. No.

Anyways, the WoW Insider's liveblog of the dungeon panel had a couple shots of the original planned lists of WoW / TBC instances... but they were pretty blurry. Anyone have a better picture/summary of what was on there?

Im so happy that blizzard is really working on graphical improvements on zones, the increase in draw distance is great. Currently blizzard puts a thick a fog over everything to keep the performance hit down and it makes the game look like shit. The zones look so much more detailed and polished than the current zones.

I will be posting full coverage of all major WoW features (info on raids, class balance, Wrath of the Lich King, etc.) as discussed at BlizzCon in the thread on my guild's forums:

Virtuous

It may not be up-to-date when you visit it, as it's taking us quite some time to get data uploaded. We have otherwise unavailable trailers, etc.

EDIT - I see a lot of all-of-a-sudden traffic. Information is posted, videos and pictures will be up within 24 hours. The hotel we're at has throttled all uploads, so we can't post so much as a thumbnail. Please keep checking back.

For reference, we have:

- pictures of all of the major art and content from the convention floor
- partial coverage of the contests (costume, dance, etc.)
- videos of the WotLK expansion trailer, as well as some of the gag videos (MC version 2.0, by Tigole)
- and more!

We'll try and get gameplay footage during Day 2 (yes, I realize there's some out there, but we'll try and get more. )

Well thats the thing, with the new MMO's coming out which are supposed to own WoW, they are built on higher graphics, so a lot of people are going over because of that. But with Blizzard being able to adapt and make graphics sharper and not have the performance hit, as long as they don't fuck the game play over, WoW should continue to dominate all over games. Now only if their customer service (GM's) were as smart as the player's.

The best part of Friday was when Tigole got on stage at the beginning of R&D panel and said something to the effect of "This isn't where we talk about getting welfare epics from PVP. This panel is for people who get real loot by killing hard bosses."

Overall, Tigole was the best speaker at any of the panels. It's very obvious he knows exactly what concerns the raiding communities have even when he pokes fun at them(like the "Molten Core as made by YOU" clip).

But goddamn, some of the people asking questions were annoying. There's no pre-screening for the Q&A sessions so whoever jumps in line fastest gets to ask their question. It seemed like the people most motivated to get in line quick were the ones who just wanted to vent. Yes, we know Holy Priests and Ret Paladins need help. Blizzard has said as much and already promised buffs. You don't need to waste 10 more minutes of Q&A time beating those dead horses. :/

I am saddened that nobody asked about my beloved Ashbringer.

One of my few wishes for this expansion is the raid cap increased to 30, which I believe would be a better number overall. Thus allowing you to have a wide arrange of specs and specs that aren't typically used in raids at the moment. Not even counting Deathknights into the equation at the moment, as I will reserve judgement for when I get more information concerning them.

Otherwise looks good. Northerend brings us back to what the game should be in my opinion. Less Starcraftish places and more Warcraft feel. Snow zones, the scourge and seemingly (i believe they said) a more engaging and epic experience (Arthas being a threat the entire time you're there).

Them possibly re-visiting Naxx as the entry level raid for the expansion makes me really happy. I assume it will rebalanced for the new raid cap (or a newer one hopefully) and the encounters tweaked with some new abilities etc. It def sets the tone for some pretty awesome content if that will possibly be the first raid instance (especially for those that never witnessed the awesomeness of it).

I guess i'll have to wait to see what hero classes they add, and how quickily the add them. Can hardly wait for a Blademaster as a hero class >.<

They said only one hero class for this expansion correct due to balance? Or will there quite possibly be another one or two added before release? Im also curious as to how they're going to go about adding them. Each content patch adds an additional hero class or something?

I'd have to disagree with you there. 25 man raids is a sensitive, raid balancing juggle. 40 man raids was simply "do we have enough tanks, healers, and DPS online to do this fight?" But when 40 man raids were the norm, group composition wasn't nearly as important, as long as your warriors got windfury and your tanks got imp.

I think it really comes down to having something permanent. Gear isn't permanent, so that doesn't fill that need. Having a title, like High Warlord, fills that need. The Magical Crawdad pet is something that is fairly difficult to get and pretty rare and I think that fills that need. I mean, I know I will get more use out of my magical crawdad than t4 / t5 / t6. That stuff goes obsolete. The crawdad doesn't. So the crawdad has more value. Two xpacs from now when I'm level 90 I'll still probably use my crawdad. Haven't heard anything about what new "permanent" items or concepts are being included this time around.

This is why I considered the Vanquished Tentacle of C'tun a good Dkp investment. I cant mount Onyxia's head on a wall forever but i can pop this trinket any time I choose.

That's down to the vastly increased synergies in TBC. As you say, there was very little to optimise in group terms pre-TBC. Imp, windfury if you were Horde, Dev. aura for tank if you were Alliance, and TSA if you were feeling frisky. That was it. VE was pretty irrelevant, LoTP was never used because by and large ferals didn't raid.

Today's situation is a lot more demanding on the raid leader in terms of group optimisation - but that's a genie that stays out of the bottle. Increasing back to 40 wouldn't change it, since the synergies are here to stay.

Just take a look on the new worldmap



2 new islands in the west of stranglethorn.

There seem to be plans to deal with problems in Alterac Valley of being 40% afk all the time. I wonder how this will actually work. Either an intense amount of GMs will be needed or most likely there will be tricks to work around this system in no time. But let's hope for the best, I would really love this change working.

Overheard at BlizzCon: Changes to the bgs? - WOW Insider


Also someone told about a new Gnomish city with an airstrip. So I hope that these planes, standing in Gnomeregan and many other places will finally take off. But no news on that until now...