[Speculation] Blizzcon 2019 - World of Warcraft REVAMP!

[Schattenlied]

I would hope for an Kalimdor/EK revamp. It feels silly to me for it to be time locked in Cataclysm only for it to then force the player back in time and then forward in time again, and then back again, etc. It's stupid...

The 1-60 leveling zones, IMO, should be designed in such a way that you don't really know what time period they are going on in, like how the zones from vanilla behaved during the following expansions, they were just sort of ambiguous.

[Wolfrick]

I think they will revamp individual zones as they are used, like they do with warfronts, I can't see them doing a whole continent when it's not needed and are these people who want a revamp prepared to forgo new expansions for another two years while they do it.

hmmm, but why not revamp the entire world and make it scale to max level making it a huge content expansion that would give players many many zones to level up in and choose for them selfs where to level.

[TriHard]

I am pretty sure they're doing a world revamp for all old zones up to cata. All that time they save on the raid sets, etc must go somewhere, the art department is probably working on a lot of stuff and it seems like the perfect time to do an update after "Battle for Azeroth"

We need updated lore on a lot of the places, Legion really set a lot of things in motion. Like what happened with Darkshire forexample, after the rogue artifact questline, considering all the people either got killed or escaped.

[Mojo03]

I think it'll be centered around Northrend. They need a big pull to get people back and the LK is by far the biggest. Not to mention they've started the seeds of the story adding Calia this expac.

Plus there was a lot they didn't do in Wotlk that they wanted to do like nerubians. I've heard more than once from a dev that nerubian stuff was the coolest thing they did that didn't get implemented.

I'd be amazed if it wasn't heavily centered around the LK and Northrend.

[lunethzero]

the only revamp thats gonna happen is when they get all the class talents, put them ina blender and spit them out in random different areas of the spec and then dump a crap ton of world quests on another tiny new area and slap a couple extra boring features that pump out lottery gear. Calling it right now.

[Schmilblick]

Clickbait title.

[Wolfrick]

I would hope for an Kalimdor/EK revamp. It feels silly to me for it to be time locked in Cataclysm only for it to then force the player back in time and then forward in time again, and then back again, etc. It's stupid...

The 1-60 leveling zones, IMO, should be designed in such a way that you don't really know what time period they are going on in, like how the zones from vanilla behaved during the following expansions, they were just sort of ambiguous.

I kinda agree with with this, for new players that has to be confusing like crazy... making the Vanilla zones "evergreen content" and make it so that if people want to they can level in those 2 continents up to max level

[letssee]

REVAMP THE GAME SYSTEMS NOT THE FKING world

[Wolfrick]

I am pretty sure they're doing a world revamp for all old zones up to cata. All that time they save on the raid sets, etc must go somewhere, the art department is probably working on a lot of stuff and it seems like the perfect time to do an update after "Battle for Azeroth"

We need updated lore on a lot of the places, Legion really set a lot of things in motion. Like what happened with Darkshire forexample, after the rogue artifact questline, considering all the people either got killed or escaped.

OMG!!! YES.... i also wonder... Darkshire should be ambandoned... OR maybe stormwind sent down the militia or an army force to defend it, that entire zones have so much potential... love the embient in it

[Trollokdamus]

They
Won't
Revamp
Azeroth
It's
A
Waste
Of
Time

No
It's
Not
Since
World
Quests
Became
A
Thing

[Nymfomania]

Flying in silvermoon please and the alliance equivalent. Flying in ghost-lands, one of my favorite zones in BC.

[Wolfrick]

Flying in silvermoon please and the alliance equivalent. Flying in ghost-lands, one of my favorite zones in BC.

Yeah, I agree 100% we should get the BLood elf lands and the Draenai islands to become part of the world... Ghostlands are also one of mine, when it comes to favore zones

[Velshin]

They
Won't
Revamp
Azeroth
It's
A
Waste
Of
Time

They will but not like the way they did with Cataclysm since it will be a lot of wasted resources and time indeed. However, they will update the old areas with similar fashion how they did with Arathi Highlands, and how they updated the old battlegrounds like warsong and stuff. They will do that step by step.

[Schattenlied]

REVAMP THE GAME SYSTEMS NOT THE FKING world

I guess it's a good thing those two things are handled by different teams then, ain't it? They can do both at the same time, neither one detracts from the other.

[Zarc]

What would be really cool is if instead of the next expansion being a revamp of the old zones, it was something else, so that instead my new and current Warcraft dream could come true, namely:

1) Classic becomes as successful as the modern game!

2) Due to the above Blizzard draws the conclusion that the right path for WoW is to lean heavily into the old-school style of the game and simply own the MMORPG niche rather than try to be mainstream

3) Due to the above they decide to make a Warcraft IV in order to set the stage (and please Warcraft RTS fans) for a World of Warcraft "2.0"

4) They launch World of Warcraft 2.0, which in terms of technology would simply be further upgrades and advancements of the game engine just like expansions have been, but also a reset that could allow for them to do more revolutionary things if they need/want to.

But in terms of the in-game world this is where we would get the revamp. Every part of the world would be expanded upon and made much bigger so that we have familiar yet entirely new zones to look forward to for years to come. For X reason the different continents would be cut off from eachother after Warcraft IV, and we as players would begin with access only to Kalimdor which is now 2-3 times bigger at least and covers levels 1 through 60 as it has been shaped by the events of Warcraft IV. Then there could be future expansions covering each of these:
- Pandaria,
- Stormwind,
- Khaz Modan,
- Lordaeron,
- Northrend,
- etc...

Wars shaping the future of all of these regions could even be ongoing in parallel to World of Warcraft 2.0 in Warcraft IV expansions that shapes these regions in interesting ways for us to explore in the MMORPG once we get to it. They'd not make the mistake of adding flying again, ever. They'd keep faithful to the slower pace of leveling from vanilla, the harder environment in terms of not being able to kill more than 1-2 mobs before getting into trouble playing solo. Would forget about quality-of-life features for PvE content like LFG/LFR in order to make this a real MMORPG again where your success depend on social interaction with other players and where friendships form out of neccessity. Allow WoW to not be a game where you can just instantly jump in and play for 20 minutes and then go away, we have so many games for that. Allow it to require investment in time for the player to succeed, that's part of the MMORPG experience!

As I ramble on an oddly specific idea came to me as I think about this fantasy of mine, an idea of how they could better handle gear itemlevel as they roll out new expansions. In the past there is always this weird place in-between expanion levels where the gear becomes so much better than just a few levels ago due to the need to get caught up with raid gear. Well, in leaning hard into an old-school MMORPG style of game, they should make it so that all raids are always max level. Whenever a new expansion comes, the current raids gets scaled up to the new max level, and new raids gets added on top of the old ones in an ever-growing pile of raids you need to overcome in order to reach the top. You will always need to go through the path of those who came before you. No more catch-up mechanics. Of course that also means that for new or returning players, as the years go by, the amount of content you have to sink your teeth into would be ever-growing, adding to the old-school sense of a world without an end. The disparity and diversity between PvE players would increase and the award of being hard-core would become bigger and once again provide a source of aspiration for everybody else. The gear of the old raids would become gear of the new max level of the new expansion and have a max level requirement to them, meaning the raiders who had them can't use them (better farm some gear from the outdoor world before that expansion hits hard-core folks!) until they hit the new max level. Of course once they hit the new max level they will have an advantage to new players, as they will be instantly ready to jump ahead to the raids that are new and added on top of the old raid tiers. Also, just one difficulty level of raids. Especially no tourist-mode.

That'd be a neat revamp.

[druenos]

hmmm, but why not revamp the entire world and make it scale to max level making it a huge content expansion that would give players many many zones to level up in and choose for them selfs where to level.

Because it's nothing new. Revamping the old world would take as much work if not more than a whole expansion, how do you think the player base would react to no new expansion for 4 or 5 years and at the end of it nothing actually new. Even with cataclysm they made some new zones.

[Triceron]

I'd like a revamp of a zone or two, but not the world again. Of anywhere.

If anything, I'd like to see old zones make a bigger splash for future content. Like have a X.1 dungeon take place in a revamped Dustwallow Marsh. I miss the Silithus style revamp that really changed how that zone worked.

[TheRealDavidTwo]

Probably a Kalimdor/EK and Northrend revamp. Although Northrend at the very least just needs a quest revamp.

[Ticj]

With world quests I feel like they could do a EK and Kalimdor revamp justice. It would be really nice to have a reason to be in the old world again.



One thing that made me realize when I was playing the stress test how big the world felt back then, compared to now where all the gameplay is tied to two relatively small continents.

[enigma77]

If I got to choose one I'd say Northrend Revamp. You'd get tons of endgame content zones this way, whereas if they reworked Azeroth again you know that would mean little endgame content as so much time and effort would be spent on reworking low level zones again.

Also a revamped Northrend would probably include Azjol-Nerub as a zone this time, which would be amazing I believe.