Gamescom Interviews
Now that Gamescom is over the last few interviews are popping up with a few interesting details. (via Digitalspy, GameInformer, Allvatar, and JudgeHype)

Patch 4.3+
  • The new 5 man dungeons will help to introduce the Deathwing Raid.
  • The current plan with the Deathwing raid is to have it all available immediately upon release.
  • The Deathwing raid will be smaller than Ulduar with many phases or encounters with Deathwing.
  • Patch 4.4 will bring a world event before the next expansion.
  • The next expansion should be released with a "meaningful difference" in the release timeline compared to previous expansions.

Future Changes and Features
  • Paid Guild Transfers are still in the works.
  • Battle.net account wide achievements are still in the works.
  • Armor dyes are unlikely to be included in the game, but mount customization is a possibility.
  • Class Quests are unlikely to return due to the amount of time it takes to design and implement them.
  • No gold sinks are coming soon because of the large variance in the amount of gold players have.
  • A real money Auction House is not planned for WoW.

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.
  • Cross realm RealID grouping is going to be expanded to cover Battlegrounds as well. Depending on how well that works it could be expanded to raids and rated battlegrounds.
  • There has been a drop in gold farming because phishing and hacking accounts is more profitable.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Transmogrification of Heirlooms
I'd like to provide an update on this statement I made. It turns out that Heirlooms will be eligible targets for Transmogrification. Also (and this applies to all Transmogrified items), trading, mailing, auctioning or depositing an item in a guild bank will remove the Transmogrified art, returning the item in question to its original artwork. So, while you won't have to stare at the same old Heirlooms the whole time you're leveling, you won't be able to send a set of Heirlooms that have been Transmogrified with tier 13 art to your level 10 alt.

[...] Mainhand can only be applied to mainhand, and offhand can only be applied to offhand. This is partially due to the restrictions on certain types of weapon art.

Again, these are our first tentative steps with Transmogrification, and there's room for modifying the rules later on after the system is introduced, and we see how things shake out. Heck, the rules aren't even quite set in stone right now, and might change further before the system is introduced. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrification as a Gold Sink
The gold cost for Transmogrification hasn't been set in stone, but it's likely to be very similar to Reforging, meaning it'd scale with item level (probably the level of the item actually equipped). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrification Options
The gear also still has to have stats aside from armor on it. That means that there are a lot of white or grey items that might not be available initially when Transmogrification goes live.

As an aside, a lot of people have been asking about hiding shoulders, belts, etc. For now, it's looking pretty unlikely that we'll offer the option to hide anything aside from helm and cloak. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Fan Art Update
The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of fan artwork set within the Warcraft universe.




Comics
Dark Legacy Comics #302 and Teh Gladiators #264 + #265 are available!

This article was originally published in forum thread: Gamescom Patch 4.3 Interviews, Blue Posts, Fan Art, Comics started by chaud View original post
Comments 244 Comments
  1. greenn's Avatar
    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.
    lmao. it seriously disgusts me how easy game developers are making games now. jesus fucking christ :| so do like the current generation of 8-12 year olds have downs or something?
  1. mmocd2effbd770's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by greyghost View Post
    Honestly, they need to put in a lot more handholding to help people learn the various nuances of the game.

    For instance, a month ago I started leveling a Mage alt. At about level 40, I encountered a hunter in LFG that was wearing half grey items, a white vendor staff, and rolled need on cloth pieces. He/she/it actually passed on the true hunter items that dropped, including a pair of mail shoulders that the hunter DESPERATELY needed. I won the greed roll for it and I forced it onto the hunter and the whole party waited until he equipped them.... and for the rest of the run, we tried to coach the guy on how to gear himself.

    That kind of thing is a fluke.... it's rare that people would bother take the time to teach someone how to gear themselves. Maybe 99.5 times out of 100 people would've just votekicked that hunter.

    Blizzard desperately needs to put in a class-by-class tutorial for each time you create a new character of a particular class, with an explanation of what kind of gear you want to aim for (with the quests appearing again when you hit level 40). Blizzard also needs to do a pass over the gear available in Outlands to rework dungeon drops and quest rewards to better accommodate for the gearing needs of shaman/druids/cloth DPS.

    Bleh. Like they'd read here.
    That's nice of you and your group... but you do know that it was most likely those "new" players who are at fault for not reading the information provided to them in-game? Not reading the quests, item descriptions, class descriptions, talents, tooltips... Just clicking through the game, following map markers.

    All the info is there, in plain view already - but how can you force people to actually read it?
  1. sharpnova's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by earthwarden View Post
    That's nice of you and your group... but you do know that it was most likely those "new" players who are at fault for not reading the information provided to them in-game? Not reading the quests, item descriptions, class descriptions, talents, tooltips... Just clicking through the game, following map markers.

    All the info is there, in plain view already - but how can you force people to actually read it?
    What good does it do to point out that it's "their fault for not reading."

    That just comes off as elitism. And the point is that they don't acquire the information/skills necessary to enjoy the game. If they don't read it's because reading's boring and it's human nature to skip that stuff and dive into the gameplay. The failing is on the part of the game to not be dive-into-able.

    For some people, I guess, it's not. For these people, more hand holding is necessary.

    Being elitist about the fact that they should read, which for people like that, is probably a fairly complex task, is rude and unnecessary.
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by BondGirl View Post
    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
    Man, ppl really need to show them that heroic modes and 10, 25 aren't diferent content...

    There is no extra content in doing the same thing with 15 extra players... and for sure, no extra content in a boss doing more dmg and with more hp or a extra one-shot spell. We didn't have bosses for only one format (25man or 10man) last expansion.

    Actually, if that means anything, we had "less content" since both legendaries could only be made in 25man. So right now, that means 10man in Cataclysm has "more content" as the staff extra boss for both 10 and 25.

    Every news, things look worse... they've killed the expansion just to get $$ from the next content patches packed as "expansion", sad. Every time they mention something as "not planned", the chances are very good they are actually thinking about introducing it, but need a customer reaction, so they mention it... real money AH incoming...
  1. Azutael's Avatar
    More handholding ? :P Are people today really getting more and more stupid, has to be so - because "in the good old days" people had less handholding, and did just fine. While it can only be good (for entirely new players), I am worried about the future generations if they have trouble with an allready simple game....
    Patch 4.4 will bring a world event before the next expansion. The next expansion should be released with a "meaningful difference" in the release timeline compared to previous expansions.
    Sounds interesting!

    *used PhP code instead of quote text for some reason...
  1. Reparator's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by wartywarlock View Post
    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.
    I can actually see DW appearing while you progress the raid as a good thing. Raids where you have 1 room 1 boss trash inbetween layout feels like you are fighting idiots who cannot coordinate an attack. DW throwing one boss after another at you to get rid of you ... makes sence, so fingers crossed.

    That being said, WoW in my mind stats to look uncomfortably much like a zombie cash cow Blizz is milking as hard as they can. It's not about doing a good game, it's about making more money ... the its business arguments ... sry, but I don't care. Ideas from players are shot down for being too expensive to do, while games with 1/20th of WoW playerbase somehow make them no excuses.

    GW2, TOR and TSW cannot come soon enough.
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by davidwh2 View Post
    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.
    More xpacs instead of free content patches = more $$, simple as that.
  1. Axestorm's Avatar
    "Class Quests are unlikely to return due to the amount of time it takes to design and implement them."Wow... How lazy can you get Blizzard?
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dejohn View Post
    Releasing expansions for the same price with less content doesn't sound very win for anyone but Blizzard. They could keep people playing with content updates rather than expansions that are of less value for the money. Release a legit raid and not some of this BS ToC/Ruby Sanctum nonsense along side a few new heroics and you will keep your subscribers. Releasing a half baked expansion for the same price as a real expansion runs the risk of people just saying "Forget it, im done" and going to play something else. Purchasing the Cata expansion at full retail price has left a bad taste in quite a few people's mouth due to what we are getting out of it in the end. I feel like blizzard should include mouthwash with this next xpac cause its going to be even worse.
    Yeap only Activ...Blizzard thinks that way. Unless they re-think their current bussiness model (regarding $$ costs for xpac + subs), their new "gimme more $$ for less content" will hurt their product badly with the other MMOs comming.

    ---------- Post added 2011-08-23 at 11:57 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Reparator View Post
    I think that this is the state WoW is in right now Blizz is cutting down on expenses to get even more money from WoW and is happy about it, players not so much.
    Less ppl working on it, that happens.

    ---------- Post added 2011-08-23 at 11:59 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by wafs View Post
    i love how they say they are expensive quests to make, yet this is coming from the biggest MMO devs in the world. I've played other MMOs that are way smaller and have time to put class quests in.. and these were MMOs that had 20 classes, not counting the multiple specs they could use. 9 quest lines are really that hard to do? Nope. They proved they could do good when they implimented the Hyjal Dailies, imagine they did that but instead of hyjal dailies, every class got an epic quest chain.
    Guess that when you want to offer class change services, those quests are really a "P.I.T.A"... not to mention that doing all that with less devs than they used to have, probably sucks.
  1. mmoc821be1b508's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Axestorm View Post
    "Class Quests are unlikely to return due to the amount of time it takes to design and implement them."Wow... How lazy can you get Blizzard?
    Class quests sucked back in the days and they still suck now. Please, stop asking for stuff Blizzard removed from the game years before you even started playing (in general). Those things were removed for good reasons.
    Or in your words: "Wow, how dumb can you get?"
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Collected View Post
    "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."lol.. are they serious? Makes me wonder how I ever got to 60 in vanilla. Shesh. I didn't think it could be any easier than it is now. What are they going to do, let you watch the game move your character for the first level before gaining control of it?
    Lol, you're just a super gamer....

    And Blizzard stated so many times that their "player base got better and better..." and now you read that so many of them can't even move their toons foward that they need to do something...

    How exactly those ppl will keep going later...
  1. mmoc0d8e6c2903's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Truthahn View Post
    Class quests sucked back in the days and they still suck now. Please, stop asking for stuff Blizzard removed from the game years before you even started playing (in general). Those things were removed for good reasons.
    Or in your words: "Wow, how dumb can you get?"
    What on earth are you talking about? Back in vanilla ALL QUESTS SUCKED COMPARED TO TODAY. But now look at the DK starter area, that was pretty cool wasn't it?


    Oh 6 year old class quest sucked (apparently you never did the Warlock ones) that means class quests will always suck........this is the dumbest "reasoning" I have heard all week.
  1. Mekh's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Truthahn View Post
    Class quests sucked back in the days and they still suck now. Please, stop asking for stuff Blizzard removed from the game years before you even started playing (in general). Those things were removed for good reasons.
    Or in your words: "Wow, how dumb can you get?"
    What this guy said.

    Yes, it may be fun to have a quest tailored to the specific skills of your class. But as someone else mentioned already: Would you rather have 1 class quest you can do exactly once with one of your toons or ten quests you can do with each of your characters? Okay, the class quest lovers are still going to vote for that one quest, but from an efficiency viewpoint it wouldn't make any sense.
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by spinalc0rd View Post
    You're clearly unable to recognize Sarcasm.

    alot of people say SWTOR or GW2 will trump WoW yet neither game are out to be proven to be anythnig special just like Warhammer killed WoW right? lol.

    Don't get me wrong i'll be trying both SWTOR and GW2(Best looking upcoming MMO Gameplaywise) but i certainly don't see any of them capable of harming WoW whatso ever. Especially SWTOR it just doesnt do anythnig groundbreaking at all.


    OT: Sounds like we will be getting a new expansion in Q2 2012 xD I'm certainly excited and I can't wait for 4.3 to hit PTR so I can play on their whilst I wait for it to go live. I'm pretty much bored of Live servers atm other than doing Arena. I don't do PvE at all.

    (Darkain - YouTube)
    Looks like you do everything on the PTRs... wonder why you get bored with live servers... lol
  1. mmoc0d8e6c2903's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mekh View Post
    What this guy said.

    Yes, it may be fun to have a quest tailored to the specific skills of your class. But as someone else mentioned already: Would you rather have 1 class quest you can do exactly once with one of your toons or ten quests you can do with each of your characters? Okay, the class quest lovers are still going to vote for that one quest, but from an efficiency viewpoint it wouldn't make any sense.
    You heard it here first guys! Blizzard needs to remove legendaries + their chains and also everything that is fun but not efficient because that is the most important thing when playing a game.......being efficient.....
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Katoamaton View Post
    The hand holding is not for you, it does not concern you in any way. Stop complaining about making the game more accessible for new players of the genre. Phew.. Now I have that out of my system.. But seriously though, mount custom? Sounds awesome! I wonder how we can customise them..
    It will concern others when that player joins their randoms (if they get that far with all these problems).
  1. greenn's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by VanishO2 View Post
    Lol, you're just a super gamer....

    And Blizzard stated so many times that their "player base got better and better..." and now you read that so many of them can't even move their toons foward that they need to do something...

    How exactly those ppl will keep going later...


    i guess a "super gamer" means you possess basic logic, or something. which is pretty much 99% of what wow is.
  1. Grimbold21's Avatar
    Am i really the only person that wants some news about class changes or what?
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Swizzle View Post
    For a game maker, they are one in the same. What you're trying to do is determine what definition of "is" they are using. Further, they made the game sooooooooo easy and dumbed down, that only 28 guilds have actually fully cleared all the content.
    Or actually bothered with it... lol

    And if you take into consideration that a lot of players left the game...
  1. wafs's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by spinalc0rd View Post
    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.
    Class change worked very well in FFXI online, you could level all your classes (20 of them) on the one character. If a game is going to introduce something as big as this though they can't introduce it 6 years into the game as it really would be a huge game changer.

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