Gamescom Interviews
Now that Gamescom is over the last few interviews are popping up with a few interesting details. (via Digitalspy, GameInformer, Allvatar, and JudgeHype)

Patch 4.3+
  • The new 5 man dungeons will help to introduce the Deathwing Raid.
  • The current plan with the Deathwing raid is to have it all available immediately upon release.
  • The Deathwing raid will be smaller than Ulduar with many phases or encounters with Deathwing.
  • Patch 4.4 will bring a world event before the next expansion.
  • The next expansion should be released with a "meaningful difference" in the release timeline compared to previous expansions.

Future Changes and Features
  • Paid Guild Transfers are still in the works.
  • Battle.net account wide achievements are still in the works.
  • Armor dyes are unlikely to be included in the game, but mount customization is a possibility.
  • Class Quests are unlikely to return due to the amount of time it takes to design and implement them.
  • No gold sinks are coming soon because of the large variance in the amount of gold players have.
  • A real money Auction House is not planned for WoW.

Other Notes
  • RealID LFD grouping was originally going to be paid because of the similarity to Paid Character Transfers, but they decided it was the right thing for the game to offer it for free.
  • Cross realm RealID grouping is going to be expanded to cover Battlegrounds as well. Depending on how well that works it could be expanded to raids and rated battlegrounds.
  • There has been a drop in gold farming because phishing and hacking accounts is more profitable.
  • New players are still having trouble with the first 30 minutes and five levels of the game, more hand holding is coming for very basic concepts like moving, questing, fighting, and looting.
  • Blizzard did a lot to save time while getting Cataclysm finished, but ended up happy with the final result.
  • The shared 10 and 25 man lockout has had both positive and negative effects, it solved the need to do both every week but removed some extra content that could be done every week. Some changes will be made in the future to make everyone happier with the solution.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Transmogrification of Heirlooms
I'd like to provide an update on this statement I made. It turns out that Heirlooms will be eligible targets for Transmogrification. Also (and this applies to all Transmogrified items), trading, mailing, auctioning or depositing an item in a guild bank will remove the Transmogrified art, returning the item in question to its original artwork. So, while you won't have to stare at the same old Heirlooms the whole time you're leveling, you won't be able to send a set of Heirlooms that have been Transmogrified with tier 13 art to your level 10 alt.

[...] Mainhand can only be applied to mainhand, and offhand can only be applied to offhand. This is partially due to the restrictions on certain types of weapon art.

Again, these are our first tentative steps with Transmogrification, and there's room for modifying the rules later on after the system is introduced, and we see how things shake out. Heck, the rules aren't even quite set in stone right now, and might change further before the system is introduced. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrification as a Gold Sink
The gold cost for Transmogrification hasn't been set in stone, but it's likely to be very similar to Reforging, meaning it'd scale with item level (probably the level of the item actually equipped). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrification Options
The gear also still has to have stats aside from armor on it. That means that there are a lot of white or grey items that might not be available initially when Transmogrification goes live.

As an aside, a lot of people have been asking about hiding shoulders, belts, etc. For now, it's looking pretty unlikely that we'll offer the option to hide anything aside from helm and cloak. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Fan Art Update
The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of fan artwork set within the Warcraft universe.




Comics
Dark Legacy Comics #302 and Teh Gladiators #264 + #265 are available!

This article was originally published in forum thread: Gamescom Patch 4.3 Interviews, Blue Posts, Fan Art, Comics started by chaud View original post
Comments 244 Comments
  1. dirtsheep's Avatar
    Funny comics as always, First!
  1. Eggowaffles's Avatar
    Curious to see what 4.4 is all about.
  1. Resentful's Avatar
    Patch 4.4 will bring a world event before the next expansion.
    Now that's going to be an interesting event, I look forward to this and this DW raid
  1. bohapjut's Avatar
    o its chaud's turn again!
  1. Chronosaga's Avatar
    Smaller than Ulduar hmm... hope they make it as epic.
  1. highdesi's Avatar
    It is very likely that 4.4 will be the nerf patch for the raid in 4.3 just like how 4.3 will be nerf patch for firelands. Instead of releasing big X.0 patch they will release it in pieces, I guess.
  1. Biggiej's Avatar
    "Class Quests are unlikely to return due to the amount of time it takes to design and implement them."

    Okay, looking at what KOTR, and GW2 are doing to have your own story implemented and probably some class quest, this is a good way for blizzard to fall behind, saying things like this =/. I guess they are being upfront at least?
  1. Nraktja's Avatar
    Cross realm RealID grouping is going to be expanded to cover Battlegrounds as well. Depending on how well that works it could be expanded to raids and rated battlegrounds.
    I... my stomach aches from excitement now... does that mean someday I will be able to raid & do battlegrounds with my brother again after 3 years? (No, I cannot transfer to his server neither he can transfer to mine, its a lot complicated)
  1. Swizzle's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Biggiej View Post
    "Class Quests are unlikely to return due to the amount of time it takes to design and implement them."

    Okay, looking at what KOTR, and GW2 are doing to have your own story implemented and probably some class quest, this is a good way for blizzard to fall behind, saying things like this =/. I guess they are being upfront at least?
    KoToR isn't a MMO, so I'm going to assume you mean ToR. On that note, we all know how successful both ToR and GW2 are, seeing as how they've already been released to massive acclaim and lasting appeal.
  1. shootyadead's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Chronosaga View Post
    Smaller than Ulduar hmm... hope they make it as epic.
    Wasn't Ulduar like the largest raid in wow though? I mean the place is massive. I remember when it launched it took us 20-30 minutes to get to Flame Leviathan. I can't imagine a raid being bigger, but yeah, hopefully as epic!
  1. Perhilion's Avatar
    WTB accros realm bging yeah!
  1. RunsreyM's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by chaud View Post
    Gamescom Interviews[*]Patch 4.4 will bring a world event before the next expansion.
    Any ideas what type of world event?

    This multi-phased encounter w/DW would be cool to me if it were multi phased throughout the entire raid. As in defeat a pre-DW boss, have DW show up and go through some type of build up (RP w/interaction of some sort) to an obvious epic final showdown with DW.
  1. Klasis's Avatar
    Chaud, what did they mean by "the next expansion should be released with a "meaningful difference" in timeline compared to previous expansions."

    Do they mean from a lore standpoint(as in will it be like 10 years in the future)

    Or are they hinting it coming out early
  1. Swizzle's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shootyadead View Post
    Wasn't Ulduar like the largest raid in wow though? I mean the place is massive. I remember when it launched it took us 20-30 minutes to get to Flame Leviathan. I can't imagine a raid being bigger, but yeah, hopefully as epic!
    I was actually wondering if they meant smaller in terms of actual geographical area or smaller as in less bosses? Anyone have any insight, since I don't feel like finding the interview myself?
  1. Morillus's Avatar
    I hope the World Event is something like AQ, but either way, any World Event is welcome in my book.

    People will find something (anything) to QQ about with this news though. You know, the one's who proudly proclaim how they don't play WoW anymore, yet visit and have 2000 posts on a primarily WoW forum site. Yes, I'm talking about yoooooooouu. *points finger*
  1. Klasis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Swizzle View Post
    I was actually wondering if they meant smaller in terms of actual geographical area or smaller as in less bosses? Anyone have any insight, since I don't feel like finding the interview myself?
    I think less bosses.


    It was 14 bosses in ulduar, counting algalon
  1. Simca's Avatar
    Super excited for realid battlegrounds.
  1. Joels's Avatar
    I hope the 4.4 event won't be anything like the Cataclysm pre-event.. all that hype and it was awful. Also, I wonder what A "meaningful difference" will be..
  1. Klasis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by bethofwow View Post
    "The next expansion should be released with a "meaningful difference" in timeline compared to previous expansions."

    Hmm, I wonder what this could mean
    What I was wondering aswell it could either mean

    In timeline...

    Maybe the will release it sooner?

    Or maybe they mean that the timeline will be different as far as story goes. Like 10 years in the future?
  1. Crembrole's Avatar
    "Class Quests are unlikely to return due to the amount of time it takes to design and implement them." That is such BS. Vanilla had a multitude of class specific quests that were great and tons of other content for everyone. Blizzard, you're still running a game that has millions of subscribers. I know you're shipping your resources elsewhere in preparation for other products but your laziness is evident in the anemic content you shove out with each patch. As are the consequences.

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