BlizzCon 2017 - World of Warcraft - What's Next

[Stoy]

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

[DeltrusDisc]

Horde...

Burns down...

TELDRASSIL?!

THAT'S MY HOME!

:'(

[Cæli]

Zidormi please!

[Sungamnori]

I hope they give Paladins a 4th Shockadin spec... ranged holy damage caster ^_^, 1h + shield.. and keep Holy as a 2H spec. We'll have 2x 2H and 2x 1H+Shield specs then.

[Bathory]

Defeated the legion. "HEY LET'S KILL EACH OTHER NOW!"

[Archmage Khadgar]

I can't believe how pissed I am about Teldrassil. That was where I started the game, and it's still my favorite zone. Oh lord am I mad.

[Uncle]

It has to be a troll, right?

[Bumbac]

What abount Bloodmyst Isle and Silvermoon?

[Tharkash]

This feels very lackluster... we're fighting basically GODS and now we're supposed to go back to fighting eachother?

[Pendraeg]

They want Kalimdor and we get Eastern Kingdoms? Sold.

[Granyala]

Horde...

Burns down...

TELDRASSIL?!

THAT'S MY HOME!

:'(

Home of my Draenei too. :/
This sucks.

Also faction conflict as a FOCUS? this is terrrible. We just survived the biggest threat and we worked so hard to come together. Not we're back to silly, meaningless squabbling. Weee.

[oldgeezer]

*scratches head*

[MisterSuit]

As a night elf im freakin pissed. Horde CONTROLLED Kalimdor?! Thats OUR land!

This better end with a dead Sylvanas and Varok as Warchief

[TheGrimsey]

Looking past the big hype from the cinematics;

This doesn't make any sense.

[Drewbacca]

Yeah, but why are we fighting each other? Could some sort of influence who no longer fears the Legion who tends to communicate in whispers be to blame?

[TickTickTick]

after what star aegur showed us in nighthold, after what we've seen on argus, especially mac'aree... after the potential wound of silitus.... NO EXTERNAL THREAT? yeah whatever blizz, its only cause you write it like that, but it makes no sense. might as well write off the void completely, so that you can drive whatever stupid narrative you want

[samuraiAce]

Why are the faction fighting each other again? Oh man, that's a huge step back. Also no new feature for the whole game, what is going on? I thought there will be a really cool new threat from the whole Argus/Silithus thing

[Korru]

Screw that huge tree, we have Lordaeron again.

[DeltrusDisc]

Home of my Draenei too. :/
This sucks.

Also faction conflict as a FOCUS? this is terrrible. We just survived the biggest threat and we worked so hard to come together. Not we're back to silly, meaningless squabbling. Weee.

I feel like this is a clever deflection.

Here come the Old Godsssss...

[teidden]

Looking past the big hype from the cinematics;

This doesn't make any sense.

I agree a bit. I understand teh hatred but WTF Blizzard. There has to be more