Update - Clarified a few misquotes apparently, thankfully everything can be blamed on chaud.

Interviews: Warcraft After Cataclysm
Tom Chilton and Greg Street have been making the rounds again with interviews on IGN and Gamasutra.

Patch 4.3
  • If you add up all of the Deathwing encounter stages, it will be the longest fight in the game.
  • Each stage of the fight will take place in a different location and offer some loot.
  • The encounter starts at Wyrmrest Temple, progressing toward the players being on Deathwing's back while he is flying toward The Maelstrom.
  • The new five man encounters will build up to the Deathwing fight, similar to how the Icecrown five man instances built up to the Lich King.
  • To combat the complaints of armor always looking the same, there is a sub-lead who is in charge of guiding the art team to produce new styles not found in the game yet.

After Cataclysm
  • More armor customization could be coming in the future; Transmogrification was a solution that could be finished in time for Patch 4.3.
  • After Patch 4.3, and the world event, the team is going to focus on keeping players entertained and enjoying the game as well as new and potentially returning players.
  • On Mists of Pandaria: "Most of the time when we do anything panda-related it's going to be a comic book or a figurine or something like that."
  • There are more people that played World of Warcraft but no longer play World of Warcraft than currently play World of Warcraft
  • They believe that each spec plays like a separate class, making the game feel as if there are 30 classes.
  • Player created content is still in the back of their minds because of how well it worked in Starcraft II. Developing tools for players would take a lot of work, but the reward would be great as well.


Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Worgen Mounts
These mounts are mainly being added to even up the number of mounts Alliance players can get, compared to Horde players. Mount collectors and those of you interested in going for the mount achievement have been asking for this for a while, and the additional horses will address that issue.

The Worgen's unique racial mount equivalent is the Running Wild skill. That's not going anywhere. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrification: Incomplete tier sets
This is going to be half the fun for a lot of people looking forward to Transmogrification; finding matching sets and combinations that look awesome together

While it's too early to say for sure, it's possible that after this feature launches, there will be a number of items that people request become available to Transmogrify. We're going to monitor this feedback and hopefully be able to build on the feature based on that, however, that's not to say every item people ask for will suddenly appear in the game. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Three Talent Specs
Indeed, as Xarthat said, we're still really keen for players to put a lot of thought and decision into their character's chosen talent specs.

Sure, it would be handy to have more specs lined up to swap in or out when faced with a different situation, but right now we feel that your talent spec(s) should be something you choose, maybe refine over time, and hopefully pwn with. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Diablo III Beta Opt In
It is almost time for Diablo III Beta, Blizzard posted another beta opt in reminder on the official blog and DiabloFans has some additional leaked gameplay to go with the screenshots below.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Interested in signing up for an advance look at Diablo’s coming invasion of Sanctuary? To be eligible to participate in the Diablo III beta test, you need an active Battle.net account with any Blizzard game title attached to it. If you don’t already have an account, it’s easy to create one. Once you’ve set up a Battle.net account, or if you’ve already got one, you can access it by visiting http://us.battle.net/en/ and clicking the Account button on the upper right. Then, to opt into the beta, just click the Games & Codes section of your Account Management page, and then select the Beta Profile Settings option from the drop-down menu. You’ll be prompted to download the System Check beta opt-in application; running it will opt you in to the Diablo III beta. If your system specifications change, you can run the System Check application again to update your information.

While running the System Check application doesn’t guarantee you a place in the Diablo III beta, we wish you luck and hope to see you in Sanctuary.

FAQ:
How are beta test participants selected from the opt-in pool?
Beta testers are chosen according to their system specifications and other factors, including an element of luck. Our goal is to have a good variety of system types to best test compatibility.

Will there be any other ways to get into the beta besides the opt-in?
We’ll very likely be providing beta entry giveaways through various promotions on our sites, as well as through our official fansites. We’ll have information available on these promotions as they approach.

How many players do you plan to invite to the beta test?
The number of players we invite will be based on our testing needs. If during the course of testing we determine we need more players to participate, we’ll invite more.

What game content will be available in the beta?
You’ll be able to try out all five character classes and experience the early stages of Diablo III from the start of the game through the Skeleton King encounter. You’ll be able to interact with new and returning characters in New Tristram and fight the reawakened evils emanating from the cursed Tristram Cathedral.

Will the PvP arenas be available in the beta?
We don’t plan to include the PvP arenas in the beta test.

How long will the beta test last?
We have not determined an exact date for the end of the beta test. We will notify participants when the beta test is nearing completion.

Will the Diablo III Auction House be available in the beta?
We currently plan to test the functionality of the Diablo III gold-based auction house sometime after the initial beta launch.

Will Mac users be able to participate in the beta?
Yes, Mac users will be able to participate in the beta at the same time as Windows users.




Burning Crusade Art Gallery Updated
The Burning Crusade game art gallery has been updated with four new pieces.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 4.3 Interviews, Blue Posts, Diablo III Beta, Art Gallery Update started by chaud View original post
Comments 308 Comments
  1. roboscorcher's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by plosion View Post
    Well to be honest, the time required to put a char up to speed, even at the beginning of cat, just dwarfed in comparison to the months needed for getting something done pre wotlk.

    What happened to your guild was just lack of a strong and inspiring leadership, or a clear focus on what to do and how to accomplish it. Plus I cannot phantom as how close knit you could've been, if some members needed botting in order to farm mats, or others even refused to farm outright. Usually that's not a good symptom of a coesive group, honestly.

    Guilds used to camp entire nights farmzones or istances together, in order to get everyone in "raid ready status", even sacrificing raids.
    Another example may be the fact that some guilds used a taxation method to buy maths for everyone, epic mounts, all sorts of stuff.

    It's called investing time in your team, wow isn't a casual game in the sense that you can just login and play (what's written on the box is somewhat misleading). You are much more engaged than that, without taking time into consideration. (there's gms who login msn from work in otfrt to check on their guild status, people online, what's going on, managing the bank through other people etc).
    I know that people used to grind endlessly for tiny things like mats, because it was fresh and exciting for them. Now, most players have already done mat farming for years, and it's the same thing. It's just not very fun - not nearly as much as raiding. It's brainless too...hence the botting. For my guild, it's just a giant time barrier preventing us from doing the actual fun stuff: raiding. Same with the rep gear grinds.

    The fact is that the game is getting old. Blizz needs to cut down on timesinks if they want veterans to keep playing (when they eventually become causals), because most of us find it boring nowadays. Maybe they already did for 4.1 and 4.2, I wouldn't know because I've been enjoying 'casual' games with my guildies ever since 4.0. I'll be back for 4.3 to see how things are though
  1. Rolly's Avatar
    Why I left. Stupidly fast easy leveling then smash me in the face with a sledgehammer heroics. The progressive dificulty curve was so far out of whack it makes you wonder what the hell Blizzard was doing in alpha,beta and on the ptr. That combined with 80 to 85 being completed so fast was one of the stupidest MMO decisions seen in a long time. Blizzard exec "DURRRR HURRRR let's spend millions of dollars and years of time on content then rush people through it as fast as we can"
  1. isendims's Avatar
    Every new x-pac seems hard because all we remember is steam rolling through old content in the highest Tier sets. Does no one remember Loken when Wrath launched? Or the QQ about HoR? The biggest problem has been the merging of 10 and 25 mans. It killed many 25 man Guilds and spread the talented players among a plethora of 10 mans that have trouble beating the easy Bosses of each Tier. Make 10 mans the easy content with lesser drops and make 25's the harder content. Lose the Hard modes and bring back Ulduar style Hard mechanics.
    This man gets it. One thing I'd like to add, is when any of my toons finishs getting the gear I need from heroic dungeons, I don't want to have to go back there again.
  1. Coldpro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by WoWFlame View Post
    Sucks how Mists of Pandaria might not be an expansion but Deathwing fight is gonna be epic!
    Sounds like fighting the same boss several times to me.

    inb4 Trial of the Crusader 2.0
  1. plosion's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by roboscorcher View Post
    I know that people used to grind endlessly for tiny things like mats, because it was fresh and exciting for them. Now, most players have already done mat farming for years, and it's the same thing. It's just not very fun - not nearly as much as raiding. It's brainless too...hence the botting. For my guild, it's just a giant time barrier preventing us from doing the actual fun stuff: raiding. Same with the rep gear grinds.

    The fact is that the game is getting old. Blizz needs to cut down on timesinks if they want veterans to keep playing (when they eventually become causals), because most of us find it boring nowadays. Maybe they already did for 4.1 and 4.2, I wouldn't know because I've been enjoying 'casual' games with my guildies ever since 4.0. I'll be back for 4.3 to see how things are though
    That's basically what it is, a huge boring time sink, it gets better only if you share "the pain" of it with other people. Wow would be a terrible, shallow, grindy game if it was single player only. The cooperation, the social part, is what makes mmorpgs special, and worth paying in order to play.

    Sadly everyone should ask themselves if it's worth it to go through such boring menial tasks over and over. For some it is, because it's a common, focused effort. For other it just isn't (anymore).

    As I said, it's part of the game, it has already been softnened quite a bit, but it's still there, for a reason. (slow down players, let them play longer, increase the longevity of current content= more people will be paying the next month)
  1. carnifex2005's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Reakash View Post
    Sounds like fighting the same boss several times to me.

    inb4 Trial of the Crusader 2.0
    I loved Trial of the Crusader. Trash is just a waste time.
  1. mmoc064457dc87's Avatar
    Player created content is still in the back of their minds because of how well it worked in Starcraft II. Developing tools for players would take a lot of work, but the reward would be great as well
    Considering how well it worked for addons, I do not doubt it'll yield GREAT results, though I'm still surprised to read it. It's not about Blizzard suddenly being nice or kind to community, but finally doing something that makes some sense :d.
  1. reemi's Avatar
    I hate when everyone know what going to happen before it happen, do something special, stop repeating the same every 3 months
    I hate that everyone have epic and no longer feel epic, at same time I hate having a schedule to be epic
    I hate not having more solo VERY epic content and reward that not everyone can do
    I hate that skill doesnt matter much and gear matter too much
    I hate item level, gear score, etc... So people dont even think and only look those numbers
    I hate that you killed IronForge
    I hate having schedule to play with more that 5 players, remember ubrs 15 and scholo/strat 10
    I hate you don't reward more the world PVP
    I hate the flying mount, I feel like we are Fly hacking in Vanilla
    I hate restarting every expansion
    I hate leveling a profession to max level without having more cool reward
  1. mkultra55's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by plosion View Post
    Yeah, 10 man raids brought all sorts of bad stuff.

    As a result of them, class design was totally changed to welcome homogenization, people became less and less interested in guild related activities (that's the core of the game, socializing, pugs are an abomination belive it or not), forging more greed and selfish individuals. Raid design had to accomodate both versions ( 10/25 man dedicated raids were much better crafted than 25/10 hybrids, deal with it), gear distribution became a mess.
    The needed homogenization of the specs is one of the saddest victims of the move to 10 mans. 25 man Raids were a perfect size for a game that (prior to DK's) had 27 specs. With 10 mans we've had to lose the Buffer, DeBuffer and CC type specs that have been prevalent in all MMO's yet were deemed "not fun" by GC. Anyone who played an Enhance Shaman in BC rolled one to be a support class and found the style incredibly enjoyable.
  1. Ealyssa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by liandroa View Post
    Imagine something like this. You start out at an instanced version of Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight - similar to COT: Durnholde. You have to fight through a bunch of Deathwing's cronies - trash mobs - and then you fight Deathwing with the help of Alexstraza and company. You hurt him, maybe knock off some of his armor plates, and he flies off. Alexstraza says "Heroes, he's heading towards XXXXX. Take these, and I'll send you after him." Chest full of items, and a port to the next location. Next phase, some other major npc helps you battle him in some other location.
    Sadly your version is probably way more plausible than what will end in 4.3
  1. mkultra55's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Reakash View Post
    Sounds like fighting the same boss several times to me.

    inb4 Trial of the Crusader 2.0
    LOL yep. The ultimate cost saving Raid. The all new Blizzard folks. RIP the company that brought us some of the greatest games of all time.
  1. Chudah's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Reakash View Post
    Sounds like fighting the same boss several times to me.

    inb4 Trial of the Crusader 2.0
    Now that I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard comprises Deathwing's raid almost entirely of fighting him. From the sounds of it, there will be several "phases" of the fight with each one dropping loot, and the fight taking place over familiar places. If they're expecting to release 4.3 before the year end, an easy way to cut development time and money is to use the same model over and over and recycle old environments as the backdrop to your raid.
  1. 4liv3's Avatar
    About that "multiple stage fight". Anyone remember the nightmare you have in Twilight Highlands when you are inside the Mouth of Madness? You know, you're standing next to Thrall and all the friendly npc's gets killed by DW while Thrall get's all mad at you for just standing there? If the fight culminates at the Maelstrom I bet my left pinky it's going to be something like that, only the raid will be split between those 3-4 "pillars/cliffs", helping the NPC's and killing of DW.
  1. Lebeau's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Stingray View Post
    I know very few people who quit because anything was too hard. I know a considerable number of people who quit because they felt like they were working their ass off for something that casuals and bads could easily just clear in normal mode...so why bother?
    This was my experience as well. I lost so many friends and guildmates due to the entire process feeling pointless. Hell, I'm even starting to feel that way.
  1. Lilfrier's Avatar
    I'd say I disagree that there are 30 different classes due to play style. I can safely say that Marks and Survival Hunters are VERY similar in play, except SV is SLIGHTLY more mobile since it doesn't have Aimed Shot anywhere in its rotation, but since many go to Arcane as a Focus dump after Careful Aim, that essentially goes away for 90% of the fight and the only differences are Steady/Cobra (same thing, just nature vs. physical damage), Chimera/Explosive (same shot, just different damage yet again...though ES has a DoT, it's pretty much a random one, not a real caster-like DoT), and that SV has Black Arrow.In terms of mechanics, it's almost identical. BM is a whole different play style than the 2, but MM and SV really don't vary enough in play style to call them almost like different classes. Anyone capable of raiding can switch from SV to MM or vice versa without playing the other before and not struggle.
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by errosync View Post
    Then you didn't play Wrath at all; like, you literally bought the box/digital copy, installed it and then never signed on. The ONLY good thing that came out of Wrath was Ulduar, that's it. The content was too easy (yes, even the Heroic mode content), the balance was rocky, and to even maintain the bottom level of performance, you had to put in inordinate amount of hours into the game because the content was so easy and the system was so streamlined. Tons of people keep trying to polish Wrath up and make it sound like it was fun-party-times, but polishing a flaming turd doesn't stop it from being a flaming turd.
    Actually, I played WotLK. All of it. It must boggle your mind to see that -- OMG -- there are people that actually liked WotLK and consider it their favorite. I get that you don't like WotLK, but don't you be trying to basically say to those you disagree with, "no you don't know what you're talking about but i do and this is how it is".
  1. Khalkaroth's Avatar
    Transmogrification: Incomplete tier sets
    This is going to be half the fun for a lot of people looking forward to Transmogrification; finding matching sets and combinations that look awesome together

    While it's too early to say for sure, it's possible that after this feature launches, there will be a number of items that people request become available to Transmogrify. We're going to monitor this feedback and hopefully be able to build on the feature based on that, however, that's not to say every item people ask for will suddenly appear in the game. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums
    I sure hope they change their minds with this. EVERY one of those removed items should be re-obtainable in some way unless they are exactly the same model than an aleadry available item, glow included. I mean, at least 1 person will want it anyway.

    The sword Typhoon, which dropped from some world dragon, is the only one with this model with a blue glow. Harbinger of Doom, which was obtainable from old ZG I think, is a Blade of Dormant memories with a green glow. That's just a few examples: you people think that the guy who want a certain model shouldn't earn for the sole fact that most of the masses didn't asked for it?
  1. Takuoro's Avatar
    "Clarified a few misquotes apparently, thankfully everything can be blamed on chaud." So the "players leaving" thing was a mistake? A shame, because that's what this game needs, everything is so streamlined, so easy, sit in a city for hours and do everything from there, no sense of adventure or challange, no world events like An Quiraj or the Dragons of Nigthmare, do the raids and dungeons with a group of faceless people that never talks and you don't know. This gets boring, they should start focusing on the people that joined the game first and that made it grow, the people that made Blizzard popular, not 40 year old moms that want to waste their free time and complain about every single detail and how it should be easier, if people don't have the time to play a game as time consuming as this one, they shouldn't play.
  1. Seramore's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Neurodrill View Post
    Yeah. Diablo was totally awesome >clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclic kclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclic kclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick(potion)clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickc lickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickc lickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickc lickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickc lickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickc lickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickc lickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick(potion)clickclickclickclickclickclickcli ckclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickcli ckclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickcli ckclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickcli ckclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickcli ckclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickcli ckclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick(potion)clickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclick< /win Diablo.
    Yeah. World of Warcraft is pretty awesome too.

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  1. Starwood's Avatar
    Deathing Raid sounds like fun.

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