New Character Model Previews, Blue Tweets, Dev Interview Sunday

[chaud]

Double Exp and Double Goblin Buffs, Clarsen's Monk Guide, DH BiS Guide

BlizzCon 2014 America Regionals Deck Lists

Skin Spotlight: Master Tyrande, Town Hall: Heroes #34 - The Return of the Alpha

Warlords of Draenor - New Character Models
We are finishing up our new character model previews with Gnome, Night Elf, Tauren, Troll, and Draenei. We looked at the other races yesterday. Blood Elves are coming in a future patch.

Gnome Male

Gnome Female
The happy Gnome Female from Blizzcon is gone now.

Night Elf Male

Night Elf Female

Tauren Male

Tauren Female

Troll Male

Troll Female

Draenei Male

Draenei Female

Blue Tweets

Classes
Mage (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
was giving prismatic crystal a GCD intended?
Yes, and its duration increased to compensate (and then some). (Celestalon)

Monk (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Are windwalker monks really supposed to have 30+ keybinds in warlords? I just counted the skills and the prunning did nothing to us
They had the lowest number of active buttons in the game. (holinka)

PvE
Are the normal 5-mans in the beta supposed to be incredibly difficult to do in heroic raid gear, or is it just me?
Your gear is being scaled to the bare minimum for the zone. Which dungeon(s) did you find to be too challenging? (WatcherDev)

Are the insanely long loot tables for dungeon bosses intended ?
Personal loot in dungeons means every boss needs to have at least something for every spec. (WatcherDev)

PvP
Why don't you guys make a PvP talent tree to a whole different one from PvE separated, so they don't interfere for more balance?
We already do so many thing to tune the game separately. A second talent tree sounds like a complexity nightmare. (holinka)

Reputation / Questing
Does WoD have hidden/alternative quests that reveal themselves after having a convo between an npc?
Quests are there to guide you, so we don't generally hide them. WoD has more "discover-able" content than any expac, though. (_DonAdams)

Does WoD give players choices that alter (at least slightly) the story while questing? Makes people pay attention to the story.
The building you choose to construct at your garrison outpost in each zone can lead to different quests in some cases. (_DonAdams)

Do WoD have optional (or interactions) that are morally driven rather than reward driven? (Saving a person in a fire for nothing)
We tend to create interactions that have a mechanical purpose (objective credit, buff) or add flavor. (_DonAdams)
If you save a person from a fire, we feel like we should reward you for that, in addition to you feeling morally good about it. (_DonAdams)

Is there any open-world non-raid reason to group in WoD? Do you think there should be? Is that supported gameplay?
We have some group quests while leveling up, and several of the max-level outdoor areas are group content. (WatcherDev)

In Diablo 2 there are random shrines that spawn to add flavor to the gameplay. I always wondered why WoW doesn't have this...
Timeless Isle had these! (Muffinus)
Will we see any random shrines like these in Warlords?
There are tons of useful buff items scattered around Draenor/endgame POIs, not shrines this round, different/new stuff (Muffinus)

Garrisons
Is the barn supposed to make cooking obsolete or is this an oversight? Garrisons shouldn't be more important than the characters.
Your shipments are limited, and not everyone will have the barn, how many feasts does your raid need? (Muffinus)

Any chance we can Have prisoners of enemy factions in our garrison? i'd love to have gnome slaves and goblin overseers please
This was going to be a feature of the barracks jail at one point, maybe we'll revisit it in the future with some fun questgivers (Muffinus)

some of us would rather have a "collect them all" than "research which follower comes from where in advance"
You can see them in your follower list (uncollected followers show up as grey but searchable), but yes that is a concern. (Muffinus)

What if we want to collect those other followers though!
Considering ways to allow you to gain them in the future. (Muffinus)

Hazzikostas & Holinka Live Sunday, 10/12

This Sunday, October 12 at 9:00 a.m. PDT, lead game designer Ion Hazzikostas and senior game designer Brian Holinka will be joining the Convert to Raid show panel live to discuss all things Warlords of Draenor. You can tune in via Convert to Raid's website or on GamebreakerTV's Twitch channel. My colleagues and I will be hanging out in Twitch chat during the show to mingle with you all too.

We'd love to have you tune in!

After live airing, rebroadcasts of the show will be available in MP3 and VOD formats at converttoraid.com.

[Deleted]

Wait. Dungeons have personal loot now?

[holaadios]

Wait. Dungeons have personal loot now?

Dungeons are the new LFR?

[thursdayish]

They ruined the female Draenei. Look at those faces! Absolutely hideous. I am so pissed that I'm going to have to face change all my Draenei to the one semi-okay face on there.

[Karnadas]

Wait. Dungeons have personal loot now?

Yes, what a time to be alive.

[chaud]

Is this an official info that these new models are final or is it just mmo-c's summary for current moment?

These are the models going live Tuesday unless anything changes.

[Deleted]

R.I.P Night Elves.

What have they done to you.

[Deleted]

Well done, Blizzard. You've ruined the Night Elf Male which I've played since 2006. I know there is an option to stick with the original models, but it's the principle of it... They don't care about Night Elves. They look ridiculously childish.

[Ghosting]

The only faces I'm even getting a hint of individuality from are the Gnomes, and a little bit from the female Trolls. All the rest look like the same character just making different facial expressions. Except of course the female Draenei, that just looks like she's trying to read a different row of an eye chart in each picture.

[Deleted]

The Night Elf Male has been turned into a round-faced, childish pixie character with plastic toy hair. Well done, Blizzard. Well done.

[BarosanuNr1]

Subjectivity aside, is there any reason for which the draenei male facial style #5 (lower left) got changed on the new models?

I made the same character in the beta and something looked weird, couldn't tell what, but now i see it - the old double moustache (if it makes sense to call it that...) got changed to a single one. It's a pretty big change imho, with no way to compensate by switching to another.

Edit: It's funny how last year people complained that the gnome female face was too happy, and now they are all angry :P

[absorbb]

R.I.P Night Elves.

What have they done to you.

Actually, they have done nothing. I mean NE is worst remodeling, because they looks like they haven't changed at all. Still lowres. Especially ears - compare with gnome's ones.

[ripped]

WOW these new models are HORRIBLE. They spent all this time on this? Really? So the new expansion brings garrisons (LOL) and new player models that look terrible. And people thought MOP was bad..lol

[Austilias]

Glad they made the Night Elf Male run animation less 'bouncy', when compared to a video from the beta I saw some time ago. Still a little too light-hearted for my liking, but overall not bad. The Draenei Male posture is a little strange, but it's nice that the Female faces are no longer copy/pastes of the Blood Elf Female ones.

Troll Females are also surprisingly pretty now.

[Deleted]

Actually, they have done nothing. I mean NE is worst remodeling, because they looks like they haven't changed at all. Still lowres. Especially ears - compare with gnome's ones.

You can't be serious. The old Night Elf model is completely different from the new. They look less mature, grizzled, feral and less muscular. They are supposed to be feral Night Elves of the forests and Blizzard have turned them into a joke. The new models have rounder features, wide eyes, plastic facial hair... The list goes on.

They now look like... Dobby the house elf. Unbelievable.

[Deleted]

Night Elf female...such disappointment. Why buffed muscles? Why???

[Deleted]

Actually, they have done nothing. I mean NE is worst remodeling, because they looks like they haven't changed at all. Still lowres. Especially ears - compare with gnome's ones.

You must be blind, because the entire essence of the old Night Elf is lost in the new model.

[Deleted]

Did any one notice the new male gnome model blinking? The old one did, alot. I only watched a couple of minutes of it for the general feel but not a single blink that I noticed.

[Deleted]

I don't know if I like what they have done to their faces. It's just so.. Strange looking :c
Feels like they were desperate to add animations now it just looks messy and kind of scary

[Chryzaor]

They ruined the female Draenei. Look at those faces! Absolutely hideous. I am so pissed that I'm going to have to face change all my Draenei to the one semi-okay face on there.

You can still use the old models, they're not gone. It's just an option.