Gamescom Patch 4.3 Interviews, Blue Posts, Fan Art, Comics

So, less bosses and more than one of them will be Deathwing? Am I the only one who sees how this is going to go down with the community? I honestly don't understand why they keep deviating from the Ulduar model, it's clearly a fan favourite and yet they keep doing things and deviating from it. Part of the reason Ulduar was so epic was the sheer size of it - It felt like you were in way over your head and that was awesome, because when you killed bosses you got MORE satisfaction because of it.

Originally Posted by Scratches

And apparently you forget that WoW, when it was released, didn't do anything groundbreaking either. The only noteworthy differences it had, compared to its then-competitors, were more quests (almost exponentially so) and no loading screens between zones (e.g., Elwynn <--> Redridge) -- that's it. So, saying you think future MMOs like SWTOR will provide no meaningful competition, when the very game you're championing had virtually the same pre-launch reception, is a bit hypocritical, to say the least.

On topic: The fact that they keep referring to the next raid as the "Deathwing Raid" kind of has me a bit worried (superficially speaking). Besides "smaller than Ulduar," (aside from just mentioning Ulduar (*gasp!* He said Ulduar! *Swoon*), what exactly is the point in saying this? every raid in the game is smaller than Ulduar... ), they describe it as having multiple phases/encounters with Deathwing, and this makes me think that... say if it has 6 boss fights/encounters, 5 of them will be Deathwing... in different forms (on his tail, on his back, on his nose, on his chin, inside his mouth), and the 6th one will be at the very beginning, where he - in human form (gotta use that model somewhere other than in the Badlands, right?) - commands his dog Sparky the Smoldering Chihuahua to attack you.
Hell, maybe they can make Sparky roam around the front gates to both Orgrimmar and Stormwind (in both places at the same time!), and whenever someone attacks him, all level 85 players in the attacking player's group/raid are whisked away to some meta elemental plane in the sky (yet under water (but not in water), above the ground, and on fire, all at the same time), and BAM, there's the setting for Deathwing's Raid... (can you hear my eyes rolling yet? lol)

Wait, doesn't Deathwing die in the latest book, Twilight of the Aspects, anyway? Why the raid? It's been tradition that whatever happens in the books doesn't happen in-game... o.O

Anyway, 4.3 is at least 6 months away, I'd guess (they're still working in the planning stages of Mogging and Void Storage, for example), so they have ample time to rethink their raid plan. Besides, I'm more excited for 4.4 anyway, and for this failed venture of an expansion to be done with. Bring on the Pandaren!

Instead of dancing around with the quoth tags,I'm gonna make a list.
Fucking this! When wow was released it had 2 raids, no pvp, no teamspeak, half the map was blank and auction houses were not linked. Oh no achievements, and glyphs either. guilds were also just chat channels. And in case you forgot, vanilla had no definite storyline. If viewed that way, SWTOR is allready waay cooler than wow.
Bout the raid: I would really like to kill Gallywix(him working with deathwing would explain much) have an encounter like gunship battle(where Garrosh cleaves Varian in half) and IMHO leaving the Twilight Father(who is not the Twilight Prophet we don't know anything about) in Stormwind would be a baaad move. BUT yeah it looks like all the bosses will be Deathwing. Encounter one: Human form. Encounter two: Dragon form. Encounter three: Following flying deathwing with gunship. Encounter four: riding on deathwing while he flies to places with Twilight hammer archer and casters who are shooting us. Encounter five: dragon form land fight again.

No, Deathwing survives. Arygos dies, and so does Krasus(heheheee fuck you Knaaak, your pet is dust). However they still show an aspect voting that is totally inconsistent with the game. They also tell us that Thrall is some prophecied killer of Deathwing(while he scews up a ritual where Bilgwater Goblins are őerforming well) So killing Deathwing will not be the redeeming moment for Varian, Moira, Genn, Garrosh, Gallywix, Lor'Themar, Sylvanas.

Handholding? oh god, wasn't Zuni and Darnell enough?! And even as a very late arrival(emphais on late) I stil lthink it's stupid that we lost class quest. The journey up the mountain to talk to the earth, and later fire sprit was thousand times more epic than clearing ragefire chasm, or the allways terrible wailing caverns.

Originally Posted by Scratches

And apparently you forget that WoW, when it was released, didn't do anything groundbreaking either. The only noteworthy differences it had, compared to its then-competitors, were more quests (almost exponentially so) and no loading screens between zones (e.g., Elwynn <--> Redridge) -- that's it. So, saying you think future MMOs like SWTOR will provide no meaningful competition, when the very game you're championing had virtually the same pre-launch reception, is a bit hypocritical, to say the least.

Well when I spoke of Groundbreaking, I was referring to the fact that SWTOR compared to Guild Wars 2 is not anythnig ground breaking when it comes to the upcoming MMO. To me GW2 looks like the first real Next Gen MMO. Where as SWTOR looks like WoW in the Star Wars Universe. Which isn't a bad thing in my opinion cause I'd like that. But GW2 is looknig to do things so different Gameplay wise and combat wise to the regular MMO's.

Originally Posted by Every Pwny

Everyone seems to be missing the best thing about today's post, which is that nelf fanart. If they looked that cool all my characters would be nelfs.

Night Elves need more facial options, they are very limited as it is.

---------- Post added 2011-08-23 at 06:12 AM ----------

Originally Posted by ZRebellion

why does blizzard want to keep people without gaming experience playing wow? if you cant handle the starting zone..lol...you're going to quit the game anyway at laters levels.Why?its obvious.

Because they are less likely to bitch and moan? The might meander for months in the lower levels all the while paying their dues and consuming content that is paid for.

looking forward to next expansion,with 5 ''zones'' Northrend and Outland could use a serious xp nerf

Originally Posted by Zeelot

"The next expansion should be released with a "meaningful difference" in the release timeline compared to previous expansions."

This really has my interest, I guess we'll find out what it means eventually. I wonder if it means since Cata will end when all these new MMO's are coming out, they'll bring out the next expansion right away. Can't wait for that!

It's as clear a statement as you'll get that the leaked Product Slate is indeed authentic and still valid, and a Q2 2012 release of Mists of Pandaria is planned.

This means that we will have 4.3 out around Blizzcon, beta of next expansion in December, 4.4 with the pre-Pandaria event in february/march and next expansion hitting the stores in late May 2012.

Originally Posted by chaud

Future Changes and Features

• Paid Guild Transfers are still in the works.
• Class Quests are unlikely to return due to the amount of time it takes to design and implement them.

I wonder what restrictions there will be on the paid transfers or will this just be an even faster uncontrolled way to kill realms (both source and destination).

More homogenization. Among my fav quests from yester-year were the aquatic form quests and the benediction priest quest. Did they ever put in a cat form quest or travel form quest? I don't recall.

Originally Posted by chaud

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.
• 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.

On point one, the cynics are vindicated, the groupies silenced. On the second, it's for people that haven't played games before. The last, it's obvious. The interim patch 4.0.1 was horribly buggy as was the horribly buggy world event. They were obviously set for a pre-Christmas launch and nothing was going to change the minds of the bean counters.

It reeks of them trying to get this cata expansion over and done with a.s.a.p. Like they are trying to line up another expansion in time to help them fight off SWTOR & GW2.

Originally Posted by theniffrig

It reeks of them trying to get this cata expansion over and done with a.s.a.p. Like they are trying to line up another expansion in time to help them fight off SWTOR & GW2.

It's only Smart business to be ready to Compete with your competition. Gaming is still a Business industry never forget that. Just cause you sit home paly the games at your leisure doesn't mean the industry isn't a Business and will compete and fight for Customers & your money like any other business.

i'm happy if SWTOR and GW2 keeps WoW on their toes its BETTER for us as the Customers! More Content more Value for money! its a WIN WIN situation =)

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.

Even tho this sounds pretty interesting, but what should be changed? Either you can go both sizes or you can't. Im pretty interested to see what they cast out of their heads

Sweet! Battle.net account achievements about time! And i wounder what will the 4.4 world event will it be...

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.

You can't help people that are either too dumb or too unwilling to read. However what you should add is: "What stats and Gear does my class need?" and "How does my basic rotation/prio-system work"

Originally Posted by ZRebellion

looking forward to next expansion,with 5 ''zones'' Northrend and Outland could use a serious xp nerf

didnt outland get a exp nerf when cata came out but i do agree with northrend needing 1

Why do you even bother posting up the tripe known as "Teh Gladiators?" It is literally the worst web comic I have ever read in my life. Now, originally I was thinking that maybe it was just me who wasn't feeling it, but reading over the comments every time one of these pieces of shit *excuse me* "comics" are posted, I have yet to see a single positive comment about any of the strips outside of their own web page.

It doesn't know if it wants to be funny or dramatic, but fails miserably at both. The author clearly has no idea what he's doing and most likely has no social skills in real life if his writing talent is any indication (the art is decent, however). Compared to the other comics that are featured such as Dark Legacy Comics and Daily Blink, you know what seperates those from TG? They know what they're going for (humor) and they do it extremely well. Please, for the love of God, stop posting Teh Gladiators.

Ngh. How disappointing - I was hoping that the 5-man dungeons would be linked to something other than Deathwing. I suppose they have potential to be interesting if they're done in a similar style to the Icecrown Citadel dungeons, though.

Originally Posted by spinalc0rd

Paid Race/Faction/Server change is understandable and im sure most have used the service due to their own reasons. But Class change is just ridiculous. And should never be included in any game let alone WoW.

i agree. there is no reason to ever have a paid class change. i can never forsee this happening.

in regards to some of the other comments. it seems to me i remember blizz saying before that they wanted to release content faster, especially x pacs. maybe they are trying to get to the "end of the game" maybe they arent, its hard to say. the one thing ive learned is no matter what they do there are going to be people who hate every change and say its a game killer, i mean i dont even know how many more times that dead horse can be beat.

its been stated over and over again, blizzard is a buisness, and are going to try and make money, its stime and also for the most part they still have the right to say they have one of the more quality games out there compared to most of the garbage thats been released on xbox/ps3/wii 95% of those games arent worth 50 cents to me. so i say just let them do their thing, if you like it great if you dont then move on to something else.

If new players are finding moving, looting, and fighting difficult, is there truly no hope left for intelligent people? Hurp durp, I wonder if these four arrow keys pointing in four different directions will make me move. Maybe if I click on things with my mouse actions will occur. Naaaaaaaaah! That sounds too hard and complex.

Well those are some pretty great news. Looking forward to it.

Originally Posted by spinalc0rd

It's only Smart business to be ready to Compete with your competition. Gaming is still a Business industry never forget that. Just cause you sit home paly the games at your leisure doesn't mean the industry isn't a Business and will compete and fight for Customers & your money like any other business.

i'm happy if SWTOR and GW2 keeps WoW on their toes its BETTER for us as the Customers! More Content more Value for money! its a WIN WIN situation =)

Releasing expansions for the same price with less content doesn't sound very win for anyone but Blizzard. They could keep people playing with content updates rather than expansions that are of less value for the money. Release a legit raid and not some of this BS ToC/Ruby Sanctum nonsense along side a few new heroics and you will keep your subscribers. Releasing a half baked expansion for the same price as a real expansion runs the risk of people just saying "Forget it, im done" and going to play something else. Purchasing the Cata expansion at full retail price has left a bad taste in quite a few people's mouth due to what we are getting out of it in the end. I feel like blizzard should include mouthwash with this next xpac cause its going to be even worse.

Gotta admit, as much as I have been enjoying Cata, I feel a bit conned out of half an expansion. Fighting DW 5 times in a raid is a LOT less epic than 5 different bosses. How many diffrent moves can DW do, and why doesn't he just do all of them in one fight, seems far too contrived to me.