Dragonblight Preview, blue posts

[Boubouille]

Wrath of the Lich King - Dragonblight
Here dense forests surround a vast arctic wasteland littered with the massive, gleaming bones of perished dragons. In the center of this frozen expanse lies Wyrmrest Keep, a structure believed to be built by the world-shaping titans shortly after Azeroth's creation. Many legends hold that the five great Dragon Aspects were blessed within this fortress and given their charge to watch over the budding world. Perhaps it is for this reason that dragons nearing the end of their lives come to the Dragonblight to enrich the land with their passing.

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Surrounding Wyrmrest Keep are five majestic dragon shrines: red, bronze, green, blue, and black, each blessed with the powers of its respective flight. In recent times the undead Scourge has laid siege to these shrines in an effort to further its attempts at raising terrifying new variations of undead dragons to serve the Lich King.

In an attempt to arrest these invasions, the red Dragon Aspect, Alexstrasza, has begun recruiting heroes to aid in the fight against the Scourge, even as the taunka and tuskarr wage their own desperate battles against the undead. The one-time Scarlet Crusade, now the Scarlet Onslaught, has arrived as well in the hopes of claiming victory in their ongoing campaign against the Lich King and his minions.

Both the Alliance and the Horde have begun establishing a presence in the Dragonblight, taking a particular interest in the barred entrance to Icecrown, Angrathar the Wrath Gate. There both factions have begun gearing up for the siege that will inevitably lead into the lair of the Lich King himself.

The immediate dangers of the Dragonblight are posed not only by the Lich King, however, but also by the blue dragonflight. Determined to manipulate all existing magic to serve his own purposes, the blue Dragon Aspect, Malygos, has ordered his flight to maneuver colossal machines into key positions over magical ley line clusters. Many believe that these dire constructs are intended to realign the paths of magical energy that course beneath the earth. If successful, Malygos's tampering could result in an ecological and magical catastrophe that would threaten not only the stability of Northrend, but ultimately the equilibrium of the entire world.

2.4 Patch soon ?
This post isn't very informative, however the comment made by Hortus is interesting. It looks like it's now too late to fix bugs on PTRs and the remaining bugs will be fixed on Live, could it be the sign of a release in March ?
[blizzquote="Hortus;http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=5285241305&postId=52354799490&sid=1#15 ]It looks like this is specific to OS 10.3.9 it will be resolved for live but you will likely not have access to the PTR.[/blizzquote"]
On the other side, Drysc reminds people that the preloading doesn't really mean anything.
[blizzquote="Drysc;http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=5285241168&postId=52353697644&sid=1#12]No it's not, we always "pre-load" major patches, meaning the majority of the data that's complete (this is generally art assets) are downloaded in advance to help cut down on bandwidth constraints the day the patch actually goes live.[/blizzquote"]


PvP Balance and Shadowpriests
If you really want to be a VERY efficient priest in PvP, maybe you should just respec.
[blizzquote="Drysc;http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=5282311045&postId=52353696188&sid=1#10]I do pretty well in battlegrounds with mine, but if I'm going to want to be viable in higher end competition then I would be well advised to respec. That isn't to say that shadow priests won't one day be more viable than they are now in PvP, or that changes may not come for other specs to help them become more viable. The point is that not every spec for every class should be expected to be as viable as the next for each aspect of the game.[/blizzquote"]


Other blue posts

Changes to inspection in 2.4
This is a new change that didn't make it into the patch notes yet. You can inspect anyone who you can not currently engage in combat with. So players in sanctuary areas such as Shattrath or if you and the other player are both un-flagged for PVP. (Source)

Season 4 won't start with the release of Patch 2.4
This is true, but Season 4 will not begin with the release of patch 2.4. That is guaranteed. (Source)

Bloodlust getting removed near a wall.
Bloodlust still gets removed if you use it when you are too close to a wall and cannot have your body made bigger by the buff. This is not a bug, it is intended functionality to prevent a bug (players getting stuck in geometry when they grow). (Source)

[Azain]

cool screenshots.

[bbr]

Very nice screenshots indeed.

[Daedalon]

To me it looks like its more of the same. You could pretty much just add more quests into the old azeroth now and it would have same effect. Thats how stagnant WoW is becoming. The only thing that is not right is the class and spec balance and that is the ONLY part of MMO that simply has to be right for the game to work.

Says it all really.

Back to AOC general beta now ;D

[Celess]

Then why do we care for your opinion? Stick to AOC.
Northrend looks beautiful, it looks like we're going back to 'Old-skool' WoW that actually has some flavour (compare instances like Stratholme and AQ with Slavepens and TK and you'll know what I mean).

Personally, I'm very excited about Wrath, and the class imbalance? It's not that huge. It needs balancing, but it's not impossible. Balancing classes is difficult in any game, and if you think AOC won't ever be flawed, you're an idiot.

[Okhlopkov]

Removing arenas and battlegrounds from the game would go a long way towards fixing class balance. PvP was a little minigame tacked on the side of an awesome PvE game, and as it stands PvP and its whiners stand to absolutely ruin the game. People on the forums like to say that Warhammer will kill WoW, but in the end it will be the PvP counterstrike kiddies.

[iindigo]

I don't know if anybody else thought this, but to me, the terrain looked much, much sharper in the video - it looks as if Blizzard has upped the overall resolution of the terrain in Northrend by a good deal.

It looks very good, the human town that looks about the size of Hearthglen or maybe bigger excites me too - finally, a non-main city that you can't fit in the palm of your hands!

[Dessimus]

Ahhh, I remember the days when well geared spriests pwned.

[Dareos]

Back to AOC general beta now ;D

Have fun there and please don't come back

[bbr]

Removing arenas and battlegrounds from the game would go a long way towards fixing class balance. PvP was a little minigame tacked on the side of an awesome PvE game, and as it stands PvP and its whiners stand to absolutely ruin the game. People on the forums like to say that Warhammer will kill WoW, but in the end it will be the PvP counterstrike kiddies.

Changing the impact that arena gear has on pve would go a long way.
Currently melee is almost forced to do arena, because the weapons are simply better than anything in pve.

[bolla]

I don't know if anybody else thought this, but to me, the terrain looked much, much sharper in the video - it looks as if Blizzard has upped the overall resolution of the terrain in Northrend by a good deal.

It looks very good, the human town that looks about the size of Hearthglen or maybe bigger excites me too - finally, a non-main city that you can't fit in the palm of your hands!

Agreed! I loved the look of the ice on the cliffs. If only they could do actual reflections. While I know that WotLK won't be the graphical overhaul I think at least a few people are looking for, the minor updates - like the "shininess" of the ice, the more realistic fire, etc. - will breathe a little more life into the game, and provide that same "wow" effect that at the majority of people got when they first stepped through the Dark Portal.

[Terses]

Changing the impact that arena gear has on pve would go a long way.
Currently melee is almost forced to do arena, because the weapons are simply better than anything in pve.

IMHO give people two equipment tabs, one for PvP one for PvE.

the reason they wouldn't do this is because then blizzard would have to put in a bunch of new pvp gear for 1~50, but imho keeping PvP rewards restricted to PvP and PvE rewards restricted to PvE would be best.

What about world PvP? Leave it restricted to PvE gear, its more fun that way ;D

[Balbaroy]

Removing arenas and battlegrounds from the game would go a long way towards fixing class balance. PvP was a little minigame tacked on the side of an awesome PvE game, and as it stands PvP and its whiners stand to absolutely ruin the game. People on the forums like to say that Warhammer will kill WoW, but in the end it will be the PvP counterstrike kiddies.

Listen to this guy blizz, who cares if you lose millions of subscribers including myself

[woohaa]

Removing arenas and battlegrounds from the game would go a long way towards fixing class balance. PvP was a little minigame tacked on the side of an awesome PvE game, and as it stands PvP and its whiners stand to absolutely ruin the game. People on the forums like to say that Warhammer will kill WoW, but in the end it will be the PvP counterstrike kiddies.

probably more then half the wow population plays this game for pvp. if they completely took out pvp this game would be rather boring imo. even on the pve server's people still pvp'd like crazy in area's like hillsbrad before they introduced bg's. for people like me with bad play times (11pm pst) raiding with a large guild is near impossible and pvp is the one thing i can still do in the game. you do have a point in the fact that people would stop crying about class balance but in the same aspect....what's the point of making a game with 2 different factions if your not gonna fight one another? mez well go play LOTR online. hardcore raiders are just sad at the fact they don't own everyone like they used to pre-bc.

[Psykhe]

Changing the impact that arena gear has on pve would go a long way.
Currently melee is almost forced to do arena, because the weapons are simply better than anything in pve.

That. IMO they should give arena weapons a *good* deal less dps than PvE weapons (i.e. give the season 1 one hand weapons 60-70 dps instead of 90 dps) and add a "your attacks ignore xx resilence" on them to compensate.

E vola, a PvP weapon which is great for PvP but subpar for PvE.

[Dakotadork]

hardcore raiders are just sad at the fact they don't own everyone like they used to pre-bc.

Or we're tired of our pve abilities being nerfed cuz of pvp

[bbr]

That. IMO they should give arena weapons a *good* deal less dps than PvE weapons (i.e. give the season 1 one hand weapons 60-70 dps instead of 90 dps) and add a "your attacks ignore xx resilence" on them to compensate.

E vola, a PvP weapon which is great for PvP but subpar for PvE.

Or like they have done for several caster weapons.
Reduce the DPS in favour of extra stats.

Such as : Stamina, resilience, resilience penetration, armor.

Also, PvP gear should have mostly blue sockets preferably.
The gear needs more points wasted on Stamina, and the active ilvl should be on par, or 2-3 ilvls below raids. by making the ilvl of Arena gear 5-8 higher than raids, you encourage pve players to stop raiding and just do arena to get gear.

[autopsy]

Both the Alliance and the Horde have begun establishing a presence in the Dragonblight, taking a particular interest in the barred entrance to Icecrown, Angrathar the Wrath Gate. There both factions have begun gearing up for the siege that will inevitably lead into the lair of the Lich King himself.

Will this be like another AQ type event?

[Myzrael]

I do pretty well in battlegrounds with mine, but if I'm going to want to be viable in higher end competition then I would be well advised to respec. That isn't to say that shadow priests won't one day be more viable than they are now in PvP, or that changes may not come for other specs to help them become more viable. The point is that not every spec for every class should be expected to be as viable as the next for each aspect of the game.

Tell that to those who made their shadow priests before TBC, cause they certainly didn't make their chars to be pve mana batteries, or be forced to change play style (heal) to be effective in pvp.
Whats next, give rogues heal and make mages tanks?

[Deleted]

Or like they have done for several caster weapons.
Reduce the DPS in favour of extra stats.

Such as : Stamina, resilience, resilience penetration, armor.

Also, PvP gear should have mostly blue sockets preferably.
The gear needs more points wasted on Stamina, and the active ilvl should be on par, or 2-3 ilvls below raids. by making the ilvl of Arena gear 5-8 higher than raids, you encourage pve players to stop raiding and just do arena to get gear.

i like the way you think

now, no. i like the way everybody on pg2 thinks