Warlords of Draenor - Scouting Report
  • Purchasing Warlords of Draenor will give you one free boost to level 90 right away.
  • Blizzard will be testing allowing you to purchase a character upgrade directly.
  • Warlords of Draenor will be available for pre-purchase digitally Soon™.
  • Both Standard and Digital Deluxe editions will be available, along with a physical collector's edition.
  • Purchasing the Digital Deluxe edition will give you a pet and mount right away.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
It’s the New Year, and 2014 is going to be a big one for World of Warcraft. This November marks the game’s 10-year anniversary and the 20-year anniversary of the entire Warcraft series. We’re looking forward to celebrating these milestones with everyone, but in the meantime, we’ve got a few Warlords of Draenor–related updates to share.

Preparing for Battle
At BlizzCon, we laid out our plans to send you into battle against some of the biggest and baddest enemies in Warcraft history. While the Iron Horde gears up for war on Draenor, back here on earth we’re making preparations for the expansion’s upcoming closed beta test. If you’d like to be considered, now’s a great time to make sure you’re opted in to Warcraft betas and that the hardware specs in your Beta Profile are up to date. (Full instructions can be found here.)


Report from the Front Lines
From the outset, players will find themselves hurled into a chaotic conflict with the Iron Horde at a new Dark Portal on Draenor. The situation for Azeroth is grim, and the war effort needs heroes—from new recruits to retired champions to warriors still tending wounds earned at the Siege of Orgrimmar. To get everyone straight to the action, when you buy the expansion, it will come with a boost to level 90 for one character on your WoW account. We’re getting ready to test the functionality for that on the PTR, and we wanted to provide a quick update on how it will work with the upcoming expansion presales.

Warlords of Draenor will be available for pre-purchase digitally Soon™, and we’re once again planning to have standard digital and Digital Deluxe versions (along with a physical Collector’s Edition—more on that at a later date). This time, if you pre-purchase the Digital Deluxe edition you’ll get your exclusive World of Warcraft pet and mount right away, allowing you to bring a little bit of Draenor past into Azeroth present.

In addition, when you pre-purchase either digital version, we’re going to grant you your level-90 boost at the time of pre-purchase. That’s a little different from the plan we laid out at BlizzCon, but based on the feedback, it’s obvious that many of you would like the chance to get acquainted with a new class before heading into the expansion. This will also give more players the opportunity to experience the current end-game content and the events leading up to Garrosh’s exodus to Draenor. Maybe you’ll get your Legendary cloak from Wrathion and level 90–100 Heirloom weapon in the process.


Bolster the Ranks
We’ve also heard feedback from players that they’d be interested in boosting multiple characters to 90, including alts they play with friends on other factions and realms. We’ve been evaluating ways to make that possible without having players go through roundabout methods (such as purchasing multiple boxes and performing multiple character transfers), and in the near future we’ll be testing out a feature that gives you the option to purchase a character upgrade directly. We’ll have more information to share later—including details on our character-upgrade plans for Asian regions where players don’t buy expansion boxes—but you’ll start seeing pieces of the process soon on the PTR, so keep an eye out.

We’re looking forward to the closed beta test, and we’re excited we’re able to give players their character boost immediately upon pre-purchasing—hopefully that will help tide you over while you’re waiting for the epic battle for Draenor to begin. Stay tuned for more information on presales and our beta plans, and we hope you’ll join in and help us test this stuff out when it hits the PTR.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Warlords of Draenor- Scouting Report started by chaud View original post
Comments 292 Comments
  1. mmoca7d06c4104's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by CalamityHeart View Post
    Dude, every level 90 is stronger than every level 1, whether it was boosted or not. However, any given boosted 90 will likely be less powerful that the average level 90 today that has done any raid content (LFR included). I predict the boosted 90 will be made with either 384 greens or 425 blues, something along those lines, gear for the leveling 90, not the raiding 90. If you've done any MoP endgame, it will be harder for the boosted 90 to survive in Draenor than it will be for you. There is no "win" in this "pay-to-win" boost other than the fact that you've skipped a lot of dead time that you would have spent trudging yourself through useless, cut-up, old, irrelevant content. Not much "win".
    Very basic definition of pay to win is that it allow you to buy character power. Leveling give your character more power, so buying levels is P2W. As I said it doesn't effect end-game, but that doesn't change it to some cosmetic upgrade you buy from item shop.
  1. Chrispotter's Avatar
    Hoping for Beta soon . Was expecting it weeks ago ;(
  1. Captainkrabs's Avatar
    You guys complaining about this feature, saying that it is a disaster and will only bring more and more bad players should stop dreaming for a bit.
    Do you really think that levelling is what makes you a good player in the first place ? If so, you really didn't do any levelling recently.
    It doesn't give you any hint of how you should play your character.
    Plus, you can't even imagine how many players go through 1-90 using 2-3 skills and not even caring to check their new skills from time to time.
    And they are right to do so, seeing how easy it is now.
    However, introducing some kind of DK starting zone, kinda "forcing" you to learn how to use your spells, or at least take a look at them, this might be good after all.
    Well at least it won't be worse.
  1. mmoc4271df43de's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by UnifiedDivide View Post
    WoD release would be months away even if we already had the beta at the start of January... >_> If it goes live in August or before, it's faster expansion content too

    yoeah fast datadisk release but siege of orgrimar it will be 10 months up, its like dragon soul 3/4 year one content without any new updates
  1. Ryme's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by UnifiedDivide View Post
    Getting a toon boosted to 90 is not P2W. What the hell do you win?
    Your time investment back, I put a huge value on that, so do others - it's why it's always lucrative and used in F2P games.
  1. mmoc4271df43de's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ryme View Post
    Your time investment back, I put a huge value on that, so do others - it's why it's always lucrative and used in F2P games.
    i dont see any benefit on one character instant 90, with RAF you have 90 in one day too, btw i have 12x90 more like half year without any problems
  1. Strafer's Avatar
    My Shaman nods in approval.
  1. Sunblaze's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by tangers58 View Post
    Sigh... sounds like WoD is going to be strictly pay to win.
    That's true, if i dont pay i wont have lvl 90.. oh wait. i already have a lvl 90.

    Oh wait, buying the game already gives you another 90.

    And im probably the only person in the world who currently has ONE lvl 90.
  1. Tyriama's Avatar
    After reaching level 90 on my 12th char, I don't really see the issue with getting a onetime instant 90.

    If you RAF, then sure. Leveling is quick. But if you don't use RAF, leveling is slow and tedious, and you might just want that extra alt to farm herbs for your main, etc.
    It's not gamebreaking.
    It's not "Pay to win", as you're not getting level 100. It's 90. It puts you next to the others.
    It's beneficial for the people who don't have time to level alts.
  1. Sonnillon's Avatar
    I love the 1 level 90 you get when you purchase the expansion. It's a great chance to try out opposite faction and see how the new expansion looks on the other side, not spend hours leveling something up to 90 (even with leveling boosts it'll take a while probably). I can probably guess that for some of you it is not appealing, but I find it something to look forward to. Specially that I have never played alliance side ^^.

    Unfortunately with my luck I won't be seeing any beta invites ever, I do wish for a rough release date though... Need to set my vacation before the end of this month x_x
  1. nicetom4ya's Avatar
    archeage waiting for us!
  1. monkeywizard's Avatar
    Thoughts & Hopes

    1) Hopefully if you pre-order a boxed CE (like from Gamestop or something) It'll have a code on the receipt that you can give to Blizz for your free 90.

    2) Buying a free 90 I think is good. I've got a handful of 90's and want more and I am bored of leveling (especially through BC & Wrath content) but want to try other classes. I think they should be more than a mount ($25) but less than $50. I'm thinking $35 is a decent price. I'm paying for the time it would take me to level.

    3) I hope they do the closed Beta for WOW differently than they did for Hearthstone. By this I mean don't give it to all of the Twitch, Podcasters & such and then a number of "normal" people, and slowly hand out more betas to the "normal" folks. I stopped listening to podcasts because they became so much about Hearthstone (a game I wasn't able to play at the time) that I just stopped listening.

    I'll probably get either a Priest or a Pally with my free 90. Something that can do multiple roles (probably heal + dps). With the new gearing system, not having to collect 2 sets is a great bonus, and I've already got DK, Monk, Druid, and am working on Shammy (also have rogue, mage & hunter).
  1. Igzorn's Avatar
    why i have the feeling taht beta is right around corner .
  1. Toiran's Avatar
    I can't believe this community sometimes.

    It's just like an angry mob of zombies lacking any sort of logic or reasoning spurting out hatred where ever they go like a swarm of locusts.

    It's doomsday nearly every week for WoW according to those people, or they seem to hope it will be.

    Do people forget this is a game? To have fun? WoW isn't your first born child.
  1. mmoc788bbee8c8's Avatar
    I honestly don't know how I feel about buying additional level 90 characters. I know that I'm not going to use it as I have most classes at high level but people saying that you learn your class while leveling don't know what they are saying. I'm leveling a hunter now on my friend's realm and I'm in Northrend. Every single mob is dead after two arcane shots. How does that teach me how to play hunter if I don't even have to use other spells? It was the same when I was leveling my rogue. Everything dies after one ambush.
  1. CaptainArlong's Avatar
    It's always funny how people hate on ideas like this by saying it doesn't give people time to learn their class. This is World of Warcraft, it is nowhere near being a hard game to learn. If you can't learn a class in an hour, something is wrong.

    It's always the people that believe they should be special, and since they put time into leveling up a character, others should have to as well. Deal with the fact that life isn't fair. How anyone can make it past the age of 15 and have not learned that lesson, I don't understand, well, unless you're completely spoiled and have never had to work a day in your life, and have been given everything you've ever desired. Somehow I don't think that kind of person plays WoW as they're probably flying around the world on their rocket hoverboard.
  1. Korru's Avatar
    Oh good looks like the expansion's coming out on July...
  1. Yarathir's Avatar
    I just read the 'buy level 90' bit, and I was like. "Oh.. Ouch. This is not going to go well."


    It personally wouldn't affect me, but I can understand that some people have different thoughts about it. Furthermore, this is yet another step in 'paying for stuff'. That slippery slope argument people keep using? Blizzard is starting to justify it more and more, imo.
  1. mmoc813c9e8448's Avatar
    no do not do it blizz plz
  1. Arvandor's Avatar
    dont forget the nightmares when you play with those pay to win buddies in a fresh 90-100 dungeon..

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