Deathwing FTW, and other Blizzcon thoughts
Okay, I am perhaps slightly more coherent than I was earlier. But I'm still all atwitter about the Blizzcon announcements. I watched the live video feed all afternoon, only taking breaks when they covered Diablo and Starcraft stuff. (Nothing against either franchise, but I've never played either one.)
A lot of the rumors that have been bouncing around the internet lately turned out to be true. I had a strong hunch that the playable goblins and worgen would be real, but I really wasn't sure about the dramatic map changes, new class/race combinations and such.
With all the speculation about the Maelstrom and the Emerald Dream, I never imagined we'd get an expansion centered on Deathwing! OMG! Too awesome for words! They said they had learned from past expansions how important it was to have a unifying, overarching villain behind the plot. Poor Illidan got short-changed in TBC and Blizzard realized this was a missed opportunity. It's a bummer that they wised up too late for Illidan to get the star treatment he deserved, but at least Deathwing's getting center stage now. (And melting a hole in the stage due to all the oozing magma, but oh well.) Arthas certainly has his mitts in almost every aspect of WotLK, to the point where fans complained that he was overexposed and thus had lost some of his scariness. You can only face him so many times and have him walk away without hurting you before he starts to be less than intimidating.
I think Deathwing's presence will easily be felt all over the globe, with all the terrain changes. He can maintain a terrifying presence without being physically out there. The imagined-but-not-seen can be ten times scarier than the seen.
Not that what we see of Deathwing now in the concept art isn't scary enough. He looks a bit like Peter Jackson's Balrog, which scared the crap out of me (in a good way.) ;)
Apparently the Twilight's Hammer is now serving him. He's been taking a nice long nap in the Elemental Plane, recovering from the pwning he received at Grim Batol courtesy of the other Aspects. Now he's awake, and like a human tossing off the blankets when getting out of bed, he's tossing off tectonic plates. He is just that badass.
Eat your heart out, Arthas. You're plenty evil, but for sheer power you cannot hope to match the corrupted Aspect.
Everyone was enjoying a nostalgia trip at the thought of revisiting Onyxia at level 80, but little did we know it was actually a hint about the next expansion! Daddy's back, and he won't be happy at how we've treated his kids...
Some other odds and ends I jotted down while watching the Blizzcon video stream...
(Quotes may not be exact, but should be pretty close since I wrote them down seconds after hearing them.]
"No corner of the world [will be] left untouched [by the Cataclysm]. Well, except maybe Westfall. Old Blanchy, y'know, she's 'core." Bwahaha! Go go Blanchy!
With the terrain changes and lava everywhere, Stonetalon Mountains' Charred Vale will now become "the Even More Charred Vale." ROFL!
We'll get to visit a level 85 Heroic Deadmines which will be "VanCleefier than ever before!" LOL!
Ragnaros is back at full strength, having completed the beauty rest that 39 of my friends and I interrupted a few years back.
"We basically banished him back to the Elemental Plane, and he's pissed."
"It was too soon."
XD
And who's back to help us protect the World Tree from Ragnaros? Why, it's Malfurion Stormrage! Woot! Speaking of characters who are totally badass... We finally get to romp around in modern-day Mount Hyjal. The Twilight's Hammer has taken over the newly-terraformed Darkwhisper Gorge. (Dang, now where will I farm Thorium?) But OMG can I finally visit Illidan's prison in-game? *explodes in fangirlish glee*
Grim Batol and environs were basically sheared in half by Deathwing. The Red Dragonflight has a quest hub there, combating the Twilight Dragonflight. Apparently the Obsidian Sanctum was only a setback. ;)
There's a brand-new dungeon called Blackrock Caverns! Squee! Good old Blackrock Mountain, it wouldn't be a Black Dragonflight-related plot arc without it! While Deathwing's main center of operations is Grim Batol, his Twilight's Hammer cultists also have a base there.
On less lore-related topics...
Stats will be simplified greatly, with stats like Mana/5, Attack Power, Defense and Spellpower being wrapped into other stats or talents. I think this is a fantastic change because I'm not one of those people who enjoy poring over spreadsheets to min/max my character's attributes. Things like Armor Penetration, Parry, Defense, Dodge, Agility...what does what, for what classes? It's really confusing, especially if you play more than one class/spec.
Warlocks no longer have to give up major inventory space for soul shards! Hallelujah! Instead they'll be converted to a system similar to Death Knight's runes. Yay!!!
Hunters won't have mana anymore but will operate with "focus" instead, like their pets do now. *gasp!* That's a huge change. It seems to me it'll make hunters even more idiot-proof to play. Send pet in, auto shot, win, now without even needing to drink! 0_o I know, I know, there's a lot more that goes into playing a hunter well, but the basic, casual, solo PVE approach is realllllly simple.
No more spell ranks to learn. Your spells will scale up automatically each time you level. That's a nice change, too.
As for the new races, I think they'll both be great. Goblins don't excite me that much but the females are kind of cute, in a strange way--especially the ones with pigtails. They're like the bastard children of a forest troll and a gnome. Or something. Anyway, they start in a series of gorgeous tropical islands so that's going to be a treat. (Speaking of which, I hope the Cataclysm doesn't screw up Stranglethorn too much...I love that place!) :\
I'm more excited about the worgen. I'm going to try hard to ignore the furry bashers and Twilight fangirls/fanboys who will no doubt flock to Gilneas, because without taking all that wangst into account they really are cool. I should make a worgen rogue that goes for engineering and Bloodsail rep, to get that Don Karnage thing going on. Bwahaha!
I'll roll at least one of each race just to experience the new starting zones. I'm really not sure what classes I'll pick or what servers I'll put them on. Still plenty of time to think about that, I guess. 0_o
It will be rather bittersweet to see the original map disappear forever and be replaced by the new, ravaged landscape. Azeroth has been like home for nearly five years now, after all. I know just about every nook and cranny of the map. Sometimes I amaze myself how much of this fictional geography I have memorized. 0_o Now things will be changed, some in a minor way and others in a dramatic way. It'll take some getting used to, and I'll miss the old world, but at the same time it's really exciting to have so much new stuff coming down the pipe, especially courtesy of my favorite batshit crazy, lava-dripping, megalomaniacal dragon.
A lot of the rumors that have been bouncing around the internet lately turned out to be true. I had a strong hunch that the playable goblins and worgen would be real, but I really wasn't sure about the dramatic map changes, new class/race combinations and such.
With all the speculation about the Maelstrom and the Emerald Dream, I never imagined we'd get an expansion centered on Deathwing! OMG! Too awesome for words! They said they had learned from past expansions how important it was to have a unifying, overarching villain behind the plot. Poor Illidan got short-changed in TBC and Blizzard realized this was a missed opportunity. It's a bummer that they wised up too late for Illidan to get the star treatment he deserved, but at least Deathwing's getting center stage now. (And melting a hole in the stage due to all the oozing magma, but oh well.) Arthas certainly has his mitts in almost every aspect of WotLK, to the point where fans complained that he was overexposed and thus had lost some of his scariness. You can only face him so many times and have him walk away without hurting you before he starts to be less than intimidating.
I think Deathwing's presence will easily be felt all over the globe, with all the terrain changes. He can maintain a terrifying presence without being physically out there. The imagined-but-not-seen can be ten times scarier than the seen.
Not that what we see of Deathwing now in the concept art isn't scary enough. He looks a bit like Peter Jackson's Balrog, which scared the crap out of me (in a good way.) ;)
Apparently the Twilight's Hammer is now serving him. He's been taking a nice long nap in the Elemental Plane, recovering from the pwning he received at Grim Batol courtesy of the other Aspects. Now he's awake, and like a human tossing off the blankets when getting out of bed, he's tossing off tectonic plates. He is just that badass.
Eat your heart out, Arthas. You're plenty evil, but for sheer power you cannot hope to match the corrupted Aspect.
Everyone was enjoying a nostalgia trip at the thought of revisiting Onyxia at level 80, but little did we know it was actually a hint about the next expansion! Daddy's back, and he won't be happy at how we've treated his kids...
Some other odds and ends I jotted down while watching the Blizzcon video stream...
(Quotes may not be exact, but should be pretty close since I wrote them down seconds after hearing them.]
"No corner of the world [will be] left untouched [by the Cataclysm]. Well, except maybe Westfall. Old Blanchy, y'know, she's 'core." Bwahaha! Go go Blanchy!
With the terrain changes and lava everywhere, Stonetalon Mountains' Charred Vale will now become "the Even More Charred Vale." ROFL!
We'll get to visit a level 85 Heroic Deadmines which will be "VanCleefier than ever before!" LOL!
Ragnaros is back at full strength, having completed the beauty rest that 39 of my friends and I interrupted a few years back.
"We basically banished him back to the Elemental Plane, and he's pissed."
"It was too soon."
XD
And who's back to help us protect the World Tree from Ragnaros? Why, it's Malfurion Stormrage! Woot! Speaking of characters who are totally badass... We finally get to romp around in modern-day Mount Hyjal. The Twilight's Hammer has taken over the newly-terraformed Darkwhisper Gorge. (Dang, now where will I farm Thorium?) But OMG can I finally visit Illidan's prison in-game? *explodes in fangirlish glee*
Grim Batol and environs were basically sheared in half by Deathwing. The Red Dragonflight has a quest hub there, combating the Twilight Dragonflight. Apparently the Obsidian Sanctum was only a setback. ;)
There's a brand-new dungeon called Blackrock Caverns! Squee! Good old Blackrock Mountain, it wouldn't be a Black Dragonflight-related plot arc without it! While Deathwing's main center of operations is Grim Batol, his Twilight's Hammer cultists also have a base there.
On less lore-related topics...
Stats will be simplified greatly, with stats like Mana/5, Attack Power, Defense and Spellpower being wrapped into other stats or talents. I think this is a fantastic change because I'm not one of those people who enjoy poring over spreadsheets to min/max my character's attributes. Things like Armor Penetration, Parry, Defense, Dodge, Agility...what does what, for what classes? It's really confusing, especially if you play more than one class/spec.
Warlocks no longer have to give up major inventory space for soul shards! Hallelujah! Instead they'll be converted to a system similar to Death Knight's runes. Yay!!!
Hunters won't have mana anymore but will operate with "focus" instead, like their pets do now. *gasp!* That's a huge change. It seems to me it'll make hunters even more idiot-proof to play. Send pet in, auto shot, win, now without even needing to drink! 0_o I know, I know, there's a lot more that goes into playing a hunter well, but the basic, casual, solo PVE approach is realllllly simple.
No more spell ranks to learn. Your spells will scale up automatically each time you level. That's a nice change, too.
As for the new races, I think they'll both be great. Goblins don't excite me that much but the females are kind of cute, in a strange way--especially the ones with pigtails. They're like the bastard children of a forest troll and a gnome. Or something. Anyway, they start in a series of gorgeous tropical islands so that's going to be a treat. (Speaking of which, I hope the Cataclysm doesn't screw up Stranglethorn too much...I love that place!) :\
I'm more excited about the worgen. I'm going to try hard to ignore the furry bashers and Twilight fangirls/fanboys who will no doubt flock to Gilneas, because without taking all that wangst into account they really are cool. I should make a worgen rogue that goes for engineering and Bloodsail rep, to get that Don Karnage thing going on. Bwahaha!
I'll roll at least one of each race just to experience the new starting zones. I'm really not sure what classes I'll pick or what servers I'll put them on. Still plenty of time to think about that, I guess. 0_o
It will be rather bittersweet to see the original map disappear forever and be replaced by the new, ravaged landscape. Azeroth has been like home for nearly five years now, after all. I know just about every nook and cranny of the map. Sometimes I amaze myself how much of this fictional geography I have memorized. 0_o Now things will be changed, some in a minor way and others in a dramatic way. It'll take some getting used to, and I'll miss the old world, but at the same time it's really exciting to have so much new stuff coming down the pipe, especially courtesy of my favorite batshit crazy, lava-dripping, megalomaniacal dragon.