Raid Release Schedule, Mists of Pandaria on Sale, UK Subscription Price Increase

[chaud]

Update (1:15 PM EST): Added some additional clarifications from Watcher and UK Subscription price changes.

Gamescom Interview - Raid Release Schedule
Our friends over at Vanion had the chance to talk to Tom Chilton again during Gamescom and came away with some interesting details. The highlights of the interview are below.

Raids

• Raids will open roughly two and a half weeks after the expansion releases. This will give players time to level and enjoy some dungeons and other content before they move on to raiding.
• Normal and Heroic will open first, with Mythic and LFR starting to open the following week.
• Blackrock Foundry will open some number of weeks later. (4 weeks for MSV before HoF opened was too short - WatcherDev)
• Grommash is really the final boss! When players get to the Grommash fight, they will see that it is a completely different fight from the Garrosh fight in Siege of Orgrimmar.
• There will be more than just Orcs in the raids. For example, there will be a heavy Legion influence in the raid that has Grommash Hellscream.

Items

• The legendary items (other than the ring) will most likely come from defeating really difficult content.
• Warlords will have more activated trinkets compared to Mists of Pandaria.
• Challenge modes will reward players with transmog weapons for Gold, a mount for Silver, and a title for Bronze. (WatcherDev)
• Challenge modes will have a daily quest that can reward Raid Finder quality loot. This will give players a reason to do Challenge modes while they wait for raids to open. (WatcherDev)

Garrisons

• Depending on what buildings your Garrison has, there will be different relevant content out in the world.
• If you build the Inn, you will have a dungeon daily quest in the Inn, similar to the Wrath of the Lich King dungeon daily quests.
• There are four tiers of Garrison missions for your followers, giving followers increased item levels and access to better missions each tier. Eventually you will have access to a mission that rewards raid quality loot every couple of weeks.

Misc

• Armistice Day is on the Tuesday of the release week, which is why they went with Thursday instead of Tuesday for release this time.
• The team has talked about doing an updated version of Karazhan, but it was created as a 10 player raid. There isn't space for 30 players.

Gamescom Dev Interview
Gamona also had an opportunity to talk to Tom Chilton at Gamescom. The highlights of the interview are below.

• Patch 6.0 is coming roughly a month before the November 13 release date.
• Warlords of Draenor took longer than anticipated to create, by roughly 6 months. Getting the new members of the team up to speed took longer than anticipated and slowed things down. A group is already working on the next expansion though, so hopefully there won't be another long gap next time.
• Moving your Garrison is still something that would be nice to do in a content patch. Players will most likely want the ability to move the garrison after they have had it in the same place for a few months.
• Rather than armor dyes, the team has made multiple color variations of armor sets and provided different ways for players to earn them. A dye system might cause the team to lose a little bit too much control over the way the world looks. Players coming into the game shouldn't see everyone wearing crazy neon colors or something like that.

UK Subscription Price Increase - Secure Your Current Price for Two Years
It looks like UK subscribers have a price increase coming, but players can lock in their price for two years if they keep their subscription active.

• 30 Days - Increased to £9.99 from £8.99.
• 90 Days - Increased to £28.17 from £25.17.
• 180 Days - Increased to £52.14 from £46.14.

We regularly look at our pricing around the world and from time to time we make changes in light of local and regional market conditions. As such, we want to give everyone a heads-up that we will shortly be adjusting the pound sterling subscription price of World of Warcraft.

The new price for recurring subscriptions will be £9.99 for 30 days, £28.17 for 90 days, and £52.14 for 180 days. The suggested retail price of the 60-day prepaid time card will be £20.99.

As a thank you for current World of Warcraft subscribers, we guarantee that players with recurring (auto-renewing) subscriptions at the time of the price change will retain their current price for two years, as long as they remain in the same recurring subscription without interruption. This applies to anyone who is already in, or signs up for, a recurring subscription prior to the price change, which is scheduled to take place at the Warlords of Draenor release. We will reach out to relevant players approximately two months prior to the price change with a reminder.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria – Now Only €9.99!
The new $9.99 price is not reflected in the US Shop just yet, but will likely appear soon.

Unlock the mysteries of the lost continent and discover the dark secrets of Pandaria’s past. Explore ancient kingdoms hidden since before the Sundering, plunder vast treasures from the depths of forgotten vaults, and rise to defend Pandaria from the shadow of a long-buried evil—now for only €9.99 or £7.99. What are you waiting for? Download now from the Battle.net Shop.

[jsz]

inb4 "three weeks til raids open omg raiding was cut from warlords"

[iamthedevil]

Heavy demon influence. Fuck yeh.

[Janysa]

"heavy Legion influence"

YesyesyesyesyesyesYEEEEEEEEESSSS

[MonsieuRoberts]

I like waiting 2 weeks to raid, gives me time to level alts,complete quests, find stuff (ala Lost and Found in MoP) and just not freak out about playing everything as fast as possible before progression starts.

[Necrotica]

More concerned with how soon they'll be adding new content now, not in 3+ months from now. If they don't do something really soon, they're going to find a lot of people taking breaks till Nov.

[Infamous217]

Heck yes kara re done

[Abstieg]

"heavy Legion influence"

YesyesyesyesyesyesYEEEEEEEEESSSS

And yet Grom is still the final raid boss. Even if he's horribly demonically corrupted, it's still a Hellscream.

[Collected]

More concerned with how soon they'll be adding new content now, not in 3+ months from now. If they don't do something really soon, they're going to find a lot of people taking breaks till Nov.

They won't mind that happening. They've always said there are drop offs at the end of every expansion. It's a good time to take a break.

[Hollowness]

"heavy Legion influence"

YesyesyesyesyesyesYEEEEEEEEESSSS

Another Corrupted Orcs.. Yeah... *Sarcasm*

[Triggered Fridgekin]

So much for the awesome introduction that now means shit. It may as well have been Mannoroth's blood that he drank at the start if this is going to be the end game of it all.

Wasted. Wasted. Wasted.

[Wishblade]

Well, gonna love some demons all over the place in the final raid.

[Retro89]

So we have defeated a Orc that has turned purple (Garrosh) and in WoD we will fight a Orc that will turn green (Grom)

Go go Power Orc Rangers!

[Dead_MAX]

Heck yes kara re done

I belive they just said there won't be Kara re-done...since its a 10man raid and the new system is 10-30.

[Aelric70]

So much for the awesome introduction that now means shit. It may as well have been Mannoroth's blood that he drank at the start if this is going to be the end game of it all.

Wasted. Wasted. Wasted.

Final boss of first raid tier leaves a lot of room for story dev over the remaining 3-4 tiers.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

I really hope they don't touch Karazhan because they'll likely turn it in to either a five man and destroy the original 10 man version much like ZG and ZA.

[Dead_MAX]

Another Corrupted Orcs.. Yeah... *Sarcasm*

It would be fun, if we were to team up with Iron Horde against Legion and in the last fight Grom would eventually help us... (and in the epic cinematic he dies while delivering a killing blow to....Kil'jaden? Archimonde should be dead or banished imo. (*SPOILER IN NAGRAND ALERT*)

[Deleted]

Blizzcon:
Orc won't be a final boss for sure.
gamescom:
Grommash is a final boss

-.-

[knight of thorns]

He said "there will be a heavy Legion influence in the raid that has Grommash Helmlscream.", not "there will be Legion corrupting Grommash Hellscream." We don't know what role the Legion will play, and how the story will go into the final raid. So it is not a good time to jump into conclusions.

- - - Updated - - -

Blizzcon:
Orc won't be a final boss for sure.
gamescom:
Grommash is a final boss

As far as I remember, they said "The final boss won't be just an orc." With the Legion's presence, who can tell what will happen in that raid?

[TheValkyrie]

Grommash probably going to get corrupted or mind controlled by the Legion.