World of Warcraft – Gameplay and Systems Deep Dive
Azerite
Gnomes and Goblins will give you maps that lead you to islands with Azerite
Will take ships from faction hubs to find Azerite
Denizens of the islands will fight hard to protect Azerite
Gain Azerite from:
Nodes and chests
Creatures and Questgivers
Powerful bosses and more
Island Expeditions
3-player Scenarios
4 different difficulties: Normal, Heroic, Mythic and PVP
Role agnostic (No need for specific role set ups)
15-20 minutes to complete
Low que times
Goal: Obtain Azerite for faction and for yourself
Dynamic Replayability
Interactable environment
Shrines that give unique buffs and debuffs
Puzzles and optimal ways to play through scenarios
Same island will look different and have different challenges every time you que up
Locations of enemies, shrines and intractable items is random as is time of day and look of island
Island Content that is randomly generated:
Creatures
Capture points
Chests and Azerite Nodes
Questgivers
Consumables and Shrines
Start Locations
Caves, Ships...and more!
Faction Champions
The AI you face all have classes based on race
Example: Troll AI - Shadow Hunter, Witch Doctor, Beserker
Example: Worgen AI - Wolf pack that are really good at "sniffing you out"
AI Creatures
Tactical ability usage: will polymorph you and your team while also stealing azerite nodes among other things
Will go after map objectives that you are focusing on
AI makes strategic decisions
AI have personalities
Example: "Sneaky Pete" Rogue could come and sap your healer while you are fighting a boss
Unpredictable
Different Island Locations
Randomized islands mean random locations
Take you to a wide variety of different visual locations
Examples include:
Abandoned Gilnean islands
Un'gol Ruins
Havenswood
Heart of Azeroth
The faction that wins will inherit a dying world
Magni will grant players the Heart of Azeroth artifact, a neck piece gifted from our planet's titan.
Heart is a new take on the artifact system without the linear path
When the Heart gains Azerite it levels up and gains new abilities for three pieces of specified armor and itself.
Gaining azerite will level up your Heart over time and unlock ranks that give the player an assortment of abilities to choose from on ever expanding tiers of rings.
Every time you loot a new item, your Heart's power remains the same. You keep moving forward. It doesn't lose the azerite from the item being upgraded but may present you with different abilities from your previous choices.
The strength of individual azerite abilities is determined by the item level of the piece of armor.
Example: Character Shaman has a Heart of Azeroth power of 20, which unlocks 2 rings on the neck. The 3rd requires level 21. Said shaman can choose 1 ability from the first 2 ring tiers to empower, such as increased ghost wolf speed or more damage reduction on astral shift. When she unlocks the 3rd ring by gaining azerite, she gets to choose between several different abilities in that tier to empower. This tailors your character individually from everyone else. In this example, the shaman gets to chose between survivability or mobility.
Choices will always be individual and new choices are made throughout the entire expansion.
Warfronts
20 player
Alliance vs Horde
All out war
Warcraft RTS fantasy
State of Eastern Kingdoms
Undercity lies in ruins
Eastern Kingdoms is controlled by Alliance
Arathi Highlands is a key holding point.
For the Alliance!
Undercity isn't defensible
Threat of Horde remains
Cut off the north, especially Silvermoon City
For the Horde!
Make a stand
Prevent the alliance from building up
Launching point for Gilneas
First Warfront: Stromgarde
Stromgarde is being visually updated
Establish base of operations by working together with 19 others in your faction
Gather resources: Lumber and iron
Territory gain allows research and to start building bases
Gather resources and work together to focus on constructing one building as fast as possible or spend your resources on buildings you think are more important
Just like RTS game, troops will be recruited from buildings constructed and sent to front lines. You can send some of the raid to help them out there.
Other faction will be trying to take your territory
Fight different enemy commanders
Research new war technology
Battlefield events: random events happen such as a mercenary showing up that can be paid to give special troops.
Social Features
Enhance existing social structures
Make it easier to manage connections and keep communicating
Integrate Battle.net voice into WoW
WoW Communities
Helps players of similar in game interests play together
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
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.
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!
Note: all times are converted to the timezone your computer is currently in.
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.