Update - Added the translation of the original article, thanks to Treeston!

Patch 4.3 - Deathwing, Transmogrifier, Void Storage
Tom Chilton (Kalgan) answered a couple of questions from Gamona.de on Patch 4.3, and we got a bunch of very interesting news out of it. Patch 4.3 will feature:


  • New Raid - The Deathwing raid, making it very likely to be the last patch before the next expansion.
  • 3 new 5-man instances - Including one in the Caverns of Time. (War of the Ancients was mentioned as a cataclysm instance a few years ago, but a lot of things have changed since then, who knows!)
  • The Transmogrifier NPC, which will let you change the appearance of any armor piece on you, while retaining the stats of your current gear. (= T12 stats, but with the Tier 2 look!)
  • Players won't be able to change the appearance of their armor into another armor type or class armor set, and you might have to own the armor before you can use it to swap the appearance of your existing armor.
  • The Void Storage is a new type of bank where players will be able to store their old armors in order to free up space in their regular bank.
  • The Abyssal Maw dungeon is gone for the moment, the storyline wasn't convincing enough/fitting.

If someone feels like adding information or even translating the article completely, post in comments!

Translation of the original article on gamona.de
We're at GamesCon in Cologne, Germany, and just did an interview with Tom Chilton, Lead Game Developer and Chris Robinson, Lead Art Director, in which they revealed a lot of details regarding patch 4.3 - and it seems that the announcement of it being huge was no joke:

Patch 4.3 will bring us the Deathwing raid instance! This means it's likely that we'll be able to fight the Aspect of Death in an epic encounter within this year. The raid that was originally expected for this patch, the "Abyssal Maw", was cut from the schedule because, as Chilton states, the setting and the story were not convincing enough.

Furthermore, 4.3 will also bring three entirely new 5-man instances - Chilton assured us that these won't contain any re-vamped content, but instead be brand new with unique design and models. Chilton also hinted at one of those being within the Caverns of Time, allowing players to experience another great moment of Warcraft Lore first-hand.

The interview also revealed the purpose of the "mystery ethereals" in Stormwind (and likely other cities, too). The "Transmogrifier" NPC will allow players to change the displayed model of equipment to that of another item while keeping the original attributes: Transmogrification is only possible within an armor class - Plate armor can only assume the looks of other Plate armor, for example.
  • Class restrictions apply to Transmogrification - Warriors cannot transmogrify their armor to look like Death Knight tier sets.
  • The developers are considering whether they should only allow using the models of equipment that has already been obtained

The "Void Storage" is a very large bank-esque storage which allows old equipment to be stored, freeing up inventory/bank slots for players. The developers aren't sure yet about the definition of "old equipment". The cost of the storage (and whether there even is one) is another thing that is not yet decided

Another possible feature that was hinted at is the possibility of "void stored" equipment being available to other characters on the account (NOTE: That part might be speculation from Gamona, not cross-server transfers actually confirmed. Hard to tell.)

Overall, it seems that we've got a huge patch ahead of us - a new raid, three brand new instances, Transmogrification and Void Storage.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 4.3 - Deathwing, Transmogrifier, Void Storage started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 493 Comments
  1. Rennadrel's Avatar
    Springtime for Deathwing, and by that I mean the last raid instance is going to be on a massive scale in terms of size, odds are they will have locked progression much like we experienced in Icecrown Citadel and even if the raid comes out in 2 or 3 months, we won't see Deathwing until early next year.
  1. fangless's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by HeavensDemise View Post
    Go back to page 18 and you can see some quotes I posted from the the kotaku article. The final one being the following "This will be the last patch that includes new raid content for The Cataclysm expansion, Chilton said. But there will be another expansion, he added, he's just not ready to talk about it yet.".
    Blizzard releases Ragnaros: "What?! We want to kill Deathwing!"

    Blizzard releases Deathwing: "What?! TOO SOON!"




    ... be quiet.

    ---------- Post added 2011-08-17 at 11:18 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by KelvenaLock View Post
    HAHA. "We were listening." Yeah, we've been asking for the ability to alter our gear's appearance for the last SIX years. Took you THAT long to listen?
    I've been playing since day one, I've never heard an actual player in the game ask for such a feature.
  1. Harpocrates's Avatar
    if cata expac is something to look at for how the game will be in the future, then i must say it is looking grim
  1. Noomz's Avatar
    And now, collecting sets of gear from old instances will be completely obsolete and another reason to play the game disappears completely and WoW dies a little more.
  1. Glaziola's Avatar
    http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/1...smogrification
    Blue post about the Transmogrification.
  1. Pappahealar's Avatar
    So Cataclysm is basically only three tiers of raids? Starting tier, Firelands and Deathwing? 5 Raids total. Somehow it feels insanely short or is that just me? Burning Crusade had 9 raids and Wrath had 8 raids. Even if Cata gets one of those "filler raids" it will only be 6 raids total, 2/3 of the last two expansions. Burning Crusade had 52 bosses. Wrath had 50 bosses. So far Cataclysm has had only 20 bosses. And I would guess that 4.3 raid includes around 12 bosses, perhaps even 15. Then Cataclysm is still lacking 15 bosses compared to the other expansions. And I doubt that Blizzard will make another Sunwell Plateue with around 12 bosses after they have done the Deathwing raid. Or will they perhaps really do a N'zoth raid to push the story into Mists of Pandaria?However in my opinion Cataclysm feels very short and not very new as an expansion compared to what Wrath and BC did. Is this what Blizzard means about packing out smaller patches but faster? To decrease the life span of a expansion so the customers may pay money more often for the next one? Here's hoping for that N'zoth raid.
  1. bullseyed's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dasn View Post
    i'm gonna laugh at you all when and entire tier with N'Zoth is confirmed after Deathwing
    If theyre scrapping the war of the ancients, why would N'Zoth still be in game? The follow up to Vashjir was supposed to help us discover Ny'alotha. We'd then do the War of the Ancients to discover who N'Zoth is and what he did to Deathwing. Then we'd either kill them both in the final tier, or kill N'Zoth or free Deathwing's mind.
  1. Capsx's Avatar
    When I saw this I actually took my cursor to the bottom right corner of my screen, clicked on the time and made sure it wasn't April 1st.
  1. bullseyed's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Teru View Post
    Only 3 tiers in Cata? This seems too soon to be hearing about the end tier.NO OLD GOD BOSSES? WTF BLIZZ?!
    No old god, no trolls... distracted by avatar.
  1. fangless's Avatar
    Ice Crown Citadel was released just about a year after Wrath was out. With testing and whatnot, 4.3 should be around the same. The only difference, maybe we won't have to run Deathwing's tier for 30-40 weeks after release before 4.4 or another expansion -_-
  1. Loonytune's Avatar
    Can some of you complain more? It seems that's all some of you do. The fact that they finally added in the ability to change the look of our armor is really nice. Especially since they said they wouldn't do it before. People asked and asked and Blizz finally listened. We don't like something, people complain...Blizz changes that something, people still complain. Bunch of entitled (insert expletive here). Wooo, here comes sexy tier 3 on my warrior.
  1. bigbaddan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Noomz View Post
    And now, collecting sets of gear from old instances will be completely obsolete and another reason to play the game disappears completely and WoW dies a little more.
    You'll still need to farm the old item to transmogrify your current item.
  1. hx9's Avatar
    Not gonna lie... the Transmogropher is disappointing. Makes me wish I didn't throw out my DK newbie gear and other items...
  1. Judge Malthred's Avatar
    Void Bank sounds really good, will certainly free up a LOT of my bank space, curious how they will identify "old gear" my guess is there will be an item level restriction on it.

    Transmogrifying was almost awesome, but I am left with a bitter taste in my mouth. While the set I want to transmogrify is almost all plate, the helm is the priest T6 look-a-like hood from Black Temple. If not that one, I would have wanted to wear my Cursed vision of Sargeras, alas it is not the correct armor type either. And finally, and most disappointing, weapons. I love the Grand Marshal's Claymore more than any other weapon in the game. And while I currently have a sword equipped, swords are rarely the best 2h weapon per tier. If ranged weapons do not follow this restriction, neither should melee weapons. Not crossing 1h-2h is totally agreeable/logical - but I want to see that sword on my back at all times.

    At least I have my Judgement set and Hand of Ragnaros to fall back on, but I imagine there will be a legion of paladins that look just like it... and wasn't the point of Transmogrifying to allow you to make your own unique look?

    I want a little more flexibility.

    edit Wonder if Heirlooms will be Transmogrifiable...
  1. kaulder's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pappahealar View Post
    So Cataclysm is basically only three tiers of raids? Starting tier, Firelands and Deathwing? 5 Raids total. Somehow it feels insanely short or is that just me? Burning Crusade had 9 raids and Wrath had 8 raids. Even if Cata gets one of those "filler raids" it will only be 6 raids total, 2/3 of the last two expansions. Burning Crusade had 52 bosses. Wrath had 50 bosses. So far Cataclysm has had only 20 bosses. And I would guess that 4.3 raid includes around 12 bosses, perhaps even 15. Then Cataclysm is still lacking 15 bosses compared to the other expansions. And I doubt that Blizzard will make another Sunwell Plateue with around 12 bosses after they have done the Deathwing raid. Or will they perhaps really do a N'zoth raid to push the story into Mists of Pandaria?However in my opinion Cataclysm feels very short and not very new as an expansion compared to what Wrath and BC did. Is this what Blizzard means about packing out smaller patches but faster? To decrease the life span of a expansion so the customers may pay money more often for the next one? Here's hoping for that N'zoth raid.
    Well they said several times they wanted to push out faster expansions....so now they have done that...?
  1. Grizzly Willy's Avatar
    So when they said we're getting a big patch, they meant it. Hopefully I'll be able to play again when it comes out.

    Quote Originally Posted by hx9 View Post
    Not gonna lie... the Transmogropher is disappointing. Makes me wish I didn't throw out my DK newbie gear and other items...
    There are items that look the same to the Death Knight starter gear (the armor after completing all of the quests, not necessarily the gear you start with). For example, here's one of the helms from Naxxramas.
  1. Blockbuster's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vasz View Post
    Rushed content, are you kidding me? We have had 1 new raid (with only seven bosses) since December last year. RIFT has had 5 so far, and they have 1/10 of the subs/income. And now they are scrapping The Abyssal Maw dungeon.

    It's like they promised us diamonds and give us a hand full of horse shit.
    They never promise anything. And they don't have to. If you aren't happy with the product you are paying for, you should look for an alternative.
  1. garion55's Avatar
    if the next expansion is only 5 levels again that will be the end for me. but if ghostcrawler is still lead dev when the next expansion hits, ill probably quit playing regardless.
  1. Kiro's Avatar
    Hahaha.So after they start bleeding customers is when they start listening to what people want? You didn't care about us before blizzard, but you do now all of the sudden when our money leaves? Nice try, and no thank you. Plus, 3 raids this xpac? No thank you. Limited content at a snails pace? No thank you. I wonder what they plan to do when SWTOR releases and they take a massive-crushing blow to their remaining userbase? I guess I'll just have to look back to what else people have been begging for the last 4 years.
  1. xindykawai's Avatar
    i frankly hope for the transmogrifer that doesnt only go for the tier.... i can see a lot of crafted item that i want to use as my main one!!

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