World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Blizzcon 2017 Opening Ceremony Announcements

BlizzCon 2017 - World of Warcraft - What's Next
A little bit of this content is coming in Patch 7.3.5!

Battle for Lordaeron kicks off Expansion

• Horde burns down Teldrassil
• Alliance attacks Lordaeron
• We will find out who dealt the first blow
• All out war sets up for Horde controlled Kalimdor and Alliance controlled Eastern Kingdom
• No external threat, so war against each other becomes focus

Kul Tiras: Alliance Continent

• Ancient human kingdom
• Powerful nautical empire
• Rules by four houses
• 3 main regions:
  
  • Tiragarde Sound
    
    • Capital of Kul Tiras
    • Led by Katherine Proudmoore, Jaina's mother
    • Monster hunters
    • Trouble with pirates
  • Drustvar
    
    • Ruled by House Waycrest
    • Supply arms (and sausages) to Kul Tiras
    • Land is cursed
    • Playable demo for area on show floor
  • Stormsong Valley
    
    • Ruled by House Stormsong
    • Provide ships to Kul Tiras
    • Sea Priests bless ships sent to sea
    • Dark forces invading
    • and quillboars!

Zandalar: Horde Continent

• Ancient Troll Empire
• Powerful naval force
• Continent in turmoil
• 3 main regions:
  
  • Zuldazar
    
    • Capital of the Zandalari
    • Ruled by King Rastakhan
    • Investigate an uprising
    • Stop blood troll invaders
  • Nazmir
    
    • Before Cataclysm it was a lush forest. After, it became a festering swampland.
    • Blood Trolls thrive here.
    • We enlist the aid of the Loa - Gods to the trolls.
    • Frog mount!
    • Ancient Titan facility, contains the key to destroying all life on Azeroth.
    • Nazmir is playable today!
  • Vol'dun
    
    • Vol'dun - Foreboding desert, used to be a vibrant jungle.
    • Old God minions attacked the jungle, left a desert in their wake.
    • Criminals are exiled to the desert.
    • Help the Vulpera - Fox people race
    • Face off against the Sethrak - humanoid snake race

Main Heroes

• Thrall - Where is he and what is his place in this? We will find out!
• Sylvanas Windrunner
• Anduin Wrynn
• Jaina Proudmoore
• Explore story of Vol'jin

Zone Flow

• 6 zones spanning 2 continents
• Level up in your faction's zones
• The rest of the world opens up at 120
• Epic "War Campaign" arc woven throughout entire questing areas.
• World Quests and Emissaries at 120 utilizing both continents

Allied Races

• Races can't remain neutral anymore
• Custom quest content will lead to recruiting new races into your faction which then become playable on your account.
• Alliance: Void Elves, Lightforged Draenei, Dark Iron Dwarves
• Horde: Nightborne, Highmountain Tauren, Zandalari Trolls
• Quest chains unlock new races, you can't just buy the expansion and use them.
• New racials for the allied races
• Begin at level 20.
• You can race change or boost your Allied Race character
• Level to 110 as an allied race to unlock Heritage Armor to show off your achievement
• 6 Allied races at launch, more planned
• Heritage Armor transmog works for all armor types

Leveling Improvements

• Expanding zone scaling to all zones
• Zones have level ranges with caps
• Flexible expansion order
  
  • Outlands scale from 60 - 80
  • Northrend scales from 60 - 80
• Applies to dungeons and loot as well
• Beginning in 7.3.5!

Heart of Azeroth

• Artifact weapons are getting a proper send off
• Some of the progression in the artifact system was great, some wasn't as great.
• The team is looking to improve on the progression found in the Artifact weapon system.
• Heart of Azeroth: Artifact Quality neck piece, A gift from Azeroth herself to the world's protectors
  
  • No huge trait tree, serves as a power source
  • Azerite levels up the amulet, empowering armor
  • Unlock choice between several abilities per tier in a hierarchy of expanding rings
  • Each piece of armor in 3 different slots will offer an option for customization through different abilities.

Island Expeditions

• Explore uncharted isle across the Great Sea
• Horde and Alliance skirmishing over resources
• 3-player cooperative gameplay, role agnostic
• When you set out to an island, you don't know what you are going to find, even if you have visited that island before.
• Completely varied and dynamic objectives
  
  • You might have some peaceful Trolls on your first visit, but find that an ancient curse has wiped out the population, raising undead that have taken over the island.
• One of the most replayable experiences ever offered in World of Warcraft.
• These NPCs aren't like any NPCs you have ever seen before. They will behave strategically and with tactics, not scripted like a boss encounter.
• Race against advanced AI opponents
• PVP mode also available!

Warfronts

• Large scale conflict on the homefront
• Fantasy anchored in Warcraft 3, RTS roots
• 20 player cooperative faction raid vs NPC armies
• Build structures, research upgrades, lead troops into battle

PVP Updates

• New Arenas in Tiragarde and Zuldazar
• New Battleground: Seething Shore
  
  • Horde and Alliance descend upon Silithus
  • Fight over Azerite bubbling to the surface
  • Dynamic control point gameplay
• Battleground coming in 7.3.5
• New PvP brawls coming

World PVP

• World PvP ruleset hasn't really changed since 2005.
• There are two main audiences: Players on PvP servers because that is where they ended up that don't really want to be there. There are also players that love world PvP and want more of it.
• The PvP vs PvE server division is going away, replaced by an individual toggle. You can choose if you want to opt in to PvP or not when you are in town. Players that feel trapped on PvP servers have a way out. This opens up the game to changing and improving the world PvP ruleset.
• New content like bounty hunting or assassination quests will become an option.
• There will be bonuses to experience, reputation and other things when you are questing with PvP mode enabled to offset the inefficiency.
• Building a foundation to make World PvP great again.

Dungeons

• 10 Dungeons at launch
• Each faction has separate level-up dungeons
• All dungeons available to both sides at 120
• Group finder improvements to make finding mythic+ groups easier.
• Atal'Dazar - Located in Zuldazar. Golden tomb of Zandalari Kings. Undead dinosaurs.
• Freehold - Located in Tiragarde Sound. Sprawling cliff side outlaw hideaway
• Other Dungeons
  
  • Tol Dagor
  • Waycrest Manor
  • Shrine of the Storm
  • Siege of Boralus
  • Temple of Sethraliss
  • The Underrot
  • Kings' Rest
  • Kezan

Raids

• Uldir, Halls of Control
  
  • 8 bosses
  • Titan quarantine facility
  • Face off against the source of Zandalar's corruption
  • Emerald Nightmare of the expansion
• Before Battle for Azeroth is over, we will be facing against Azshara

BlizzCon 2017 - The Opening Ceremony has Started!



Update 12:10 PM AM PDT: Intro cinematic for World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is being shown!
Update 12:05 PM AM PDT: World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is the next expansion. New features include Kul' tiras continent, Zandalar continent, level cap 120, new dungeons and raids, plunder uncharted islands, dominate warfronts, and allied races.
Update 12:04 PM AM PDT: Shadow the Fox plush announced for charity.
Update 12:03 PM AM PDT: World of Warcraft: Classic (classic server options) announced!
Update 11:59 AM PDT: J Allen Brack has taken the stage for World of Warcraft.
Update 11:51 AM PDT: Darin De Paul (voice of Reinhardt) introduces Reinhardt cinematic.
Update 11:46 AM PDT: New Overwatch hero: Moira a support hero! She is playable on show floor.
Update 11:44 AM PDT: New Overwatch map: Blizzard World, a Blizzard theme park.
Update 11:41 AM PDT: Jeff Kaplan is taking the stage for Overwatch.
Update 11:38 AM PDT: New Hearthstone single player mode: Dungeon Run is about defeating bosses and collecting loot. Earn new cards for deck but if you lose your deck gets thrown away and you start over. It's completely free.
Update 11:37 AM PDT: Legendary weapons are now cards for all classes in Hearthstone.
Update 11:36 AM PDT: Everyone who logs into Hearthstone gets the Marin the Fox card for free starting Monday. If you are at Blizzcon or have the virtual ticket, you get a golden copy.
Update 11:31 AM PDT: Kobolds and Catacombs is the new Hearthstone expansion.
Update 11:24 AM PDT: Performance based matchmaking, voice chat, new camera, laning improvements, stealth rework and evolved battleground mechanics all coming to Heroes.
Update 11:20 AM PDT: Heroes of the Storm Cinematic showcases new heroes: Hanzo and Alexstraza!
Update 11:19 AM PDT: Kaeo Milker has taken the stage for Heroes of the Storm.
Update 11:15 AM PDT: Starcraft 2 is now free to play on November 14th!
Update 11:11 AM PDT: Recap video is showing the many Esports tournaments that have led to Blizzcon.
Update 11:07 AM PDT: Announcements for games will happen on multiple stages during the opening ceremony.
Update 11:04 AM PDT: Mike Morhaime is taking the stage.
Update 11:02 AM PDT: Opening video shows the passion and experiences of the Blizzard community.

New Potential WoW Trademark Filed in New Zealand

Blizzcon Opening Ceremony in 1 Hour
Hold on to your hats and join us in the chat for the biggest Blizzcon viewing party! Keep checking back to explore the new content as we update live during the panels!

New Potential WoW Trademark Filed in New Zealand
A potential trademark for the title Battle for Azeroth was discovered in New Zealand by users in the speculation thread.

In addition, whenever you type in a random url under the worldofwarcraft.com domain, you will be redirected to the url without any hyphens.
(Example: worldofwarcraft.com/corgisunleashed redirects to worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/corgisunleashed)

However, when typing in worldofwarcraft.com/battleforazeroth, you are redirected to a page in which hyphens are automatically added to the name: worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/battle-for-azeroth.