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. mmoc9e94235ac9's Avatar
    I can't wait to use my DK starting area blue quality item looks again yes I still have them in bank!
  1. Wromthrax's Avatar
    Damn, was looking forward to WotA raid... Why not 3 raids and 1 5-man, this game is moving so far away from it's title WORLD of... 5 mans, in two years it will be solo player in offline mode. Disappointing.
  1. GunSchot's Avatar
    For me it looks like Blizz has one Addon splitted in two half Addons.Level 85: Only 5 Levels, Outlands and Lich King had 10 Levels. So they bring a second "Addon" which is actually one, to get the Players raise up the other 5 Level.I'm a Jeweler and wonder where the Epic Jewel Gems are. Every other Addon had them. Hm, bring another Addon out which has the Epic Gem Recipes.This is my review for an Addon theory. Bring one Addon splitted in two pieces out to get more Money.
  1. mmoc246771e56b's Avatar
    .... I Just quit wow.
  1. bullseyed's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tarien View Post
    So, 4.3 for December 2011, and next expansion for December 2012, right? Is it just me or does this expansion feel really lack lustre for raids. Started out well enough with BWD and BoT, nose dived into a seven boss raid after 6-7 months of no new content (as one player put it, six new models and a pair of legs), and no doubt another single raid instance with single digit boss fights after another very long wait. Where's all the content? In Vanilla we saw more content from a less experienced Dev team with what I assume was a more limited budget (given that subscribers weren't as numerous). TBC we saw double digit bosses in multiple instances up until the end with SWP. The the decline began in WotLK, first Naxx resurrected (boring), redeemed for a while by Ulduar, then the abortion that was ToC, and finally ICC after a long wait, and it was around for faaaar too long.So many paying customers but so little return...
    You'd think that we'd have more capital to invest, but you'd be assuming they are investing in WoW. After Sunwell, WoW was a dead franchise. They've been using WoW to finance all of their other projects. Where do you think they got the money for Starcraft 2? No one was paying for SC1 anymore. Where do you think the money for Diablo 3 came from? D2? Not likely. Titan is being financed with WoW money and a little bit of SC2 money.They're using minimal financial and human resources for this.
  1. Tic Tacs's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by mvallas View Post
    Here's a new game for everybody to play after this announcement:Bring up the /who tabtype in "Deathwing liar Rogue 85"And count the number of people who are currently in there farming for Tier-2, the blessed of all the Rogue tier sets!
    It's Blackwing Lair brah.
  1. Nos's Avatar
    I really hope the put alot of restrictions on this model-copier dealy. I like seeing new tier. You had better AT LEAST have to have something to cop the model from. if not, why have different colors for heroic armors?

    And It'll just get annoying seeing the insane shit everyone wears... Damn... This is just gonna suck all round.
  1. bullseyed's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Spl4sh3r View Post
    Noes, I want my mail set to look like the ZA Leather set (from BC)!!
    There are some issues with this... For example, my BT/SWP set included a leather helm on my hunter. I won't be able to use it, even though it was BiS at the time.
  1. smokii's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by bullseyed View Post
    I wonder if they realize how retarded this plan is. Half the raiders are only here to finish off Deathwing. The faster they end the expansion the more subscribers they will lose.How many of you are really going to be willing to shell out $60 for a new "expansion" given how badly we've been ripped off in this one.
    i kinda agree that as an endgame player the amount of content that has come my way has been lacklustre at best, but we cant forget that 50% of this expansion was the 1-60 content which apparently set blizzard back quite a long way.

    but, as they've now done the 1-60 rehash and brough flying to azeroth, they can focus 110% of their development time on the next expansion into endgame content, so hopefully all the promises they made us for cata that didn't quite come true, will live up to our expectations for mists of pandaria.

    will have to wait and see, hopefully blizzcon will blow our minds
  1. ZeroEdgeir's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Blackfile View Post
    just an FYI: Rift didn't start that 'wardrobe feature'
    DC Universe Online already had it before Rift did
    Oh, and LOTRO had it long before DCUO was even publicly announced.

    And to those posting that the item is destroyed in the process: That would just defeat the entire purpose of the Void Storage system.

    Void Storage = Equipment Bank, so you can store all your gear FOR making your current stuff look like old stuff.

    So happy I held onto my Paladin's Tier 2... Awesomeness shall rise again!
  1. Puremallace's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by mvallas View Post
    Here's a new game for everybody to play after this announcement:Bring up the /who tabtype in "Deathwing liar Rogue 85"And count the number of people who are currently in there farming for Tier-2, the blessed of all the Rogue tier sets!
    Easiest Aion exploit was skin the tier 2 piece onto a white tradable item, then sell it for some god awful amount of kinah <----HOPE THEY FIXXXXXX THAT ONE!!!

    You pts testers better bring this crap up or it will have MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR MAJORRRRRRRRRRRRR implications
  1. nietoavi's Avatar
    CoT War of ancients is a 5 man Dun? =( i think that WotA's fight is very important to 5 man dungeon..... why not raid?
  1. bullseyed's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by seru View Post
    omgomgomgomg evil t5 warlock muahahaha, shark warriorz and shiny t3 druidz yummmmmmedit: also next exp planned 03/06 of 2012 as on leaked schedule, no surprises
    The surprise is that they told us Cata would have 4 month cycles instead of 6 month cycles so we'd get the same content in less time. They lied to us, as usual.
  1. Feerles's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ahrima View Post
    Wow, copying Guild Wars 2 before it even releases! Niiiice.
    How is that? If u are talking about the transmogrifier thing then u are a moron. Aion,EQ, EQ2, and several other games have had this feature for years soooo yea ur an idiot.
  1. Skullchukka's Avatar
    I wonder if Transmogrifier will be limited to tier sets only, or any armor piece as long as they are related (Plate=plate).Damnit, I deleted my paladin with all of her items including full tier 1, 2,4,5,6. And to add every possible plate drop from 60-70 content that I thought it looked cool. I ended up having a bank with 22 slotters all slots full of item crap, and I gave up on my toon since I thought blizzard would never implement such feature. Now I'm sad
  1. mmoc7a52a34749's Avatar
    No one else slightly annoyed that it looks like we paid for an expansion that essentially only provided two tier updates - the zanzibar crap was not a whole patch -,- (yes i said zanzibar)This is really poor to be honest.I love this game, all future content, lore etc but i can't help but feel a little ripped off (promises of abyssal maw etc) and that we have been given half an expansion worth of content.I know Blizzard wnated to release stuff quicker but thought that meant patches and expansions that flow better rather than the long drag from icc to cata or rushed content BT to Sunwell.Didn't realise this simply meant paying £30 everyear year and a half for new updates rather than every 2-3 years - don't get me wrong it's peanuts (£30) but felt like i was paying for more.Oh well subs down but sales figures up i guess for activision inc!
  1. bullseyed's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by reve View Post
    I really get mixed feelings.- the appearance is awesome but in PvP one will be fucked... - 4.3 being Deathwing so the patch comes out like nov/dec 2011 and next expansion a year after? It better have 40 bosses... - New 5mans - awesome. Those in ICC were great too. However I hope they add normal/heroic version and the HC one is really tuned for like 375+ people.
    I dunno about 40 bosses, but the next expansion better be free as compensation for ripping us off.
  1. pyrostorm9001's Avatar
    seems to be a horribly short xpac. not impressed
  1. Seriousdoom's Avatar
    cant wait to wear T5 again!!!!!
  1. mmoc73e1e9fe53's Avatar
    i made a little song for this, > MY CPU CANT WAAAAIIIIT >FOR TEN THUNDERFURYS IN MY RAAAIIID u like?

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