Fantasy News and Views 4

Blizzcon is over and lots of news came out with it. SO I am going to try to cover everything that I can. On to the blog....

World of Warcraft
     New expansion has been announced. Warlords of Draenor. And if you will recall, I said this was the expansion name last week. I also said that Garrosh was going to escape and bring back Fel Orcs to take down the Horde. Man, was I ever close. Garrosh escapes, goes back intime to keep the orcs from being corrupted and becoming Fel Orcs, and then organizing them to take out the Horde. Garrosh's calls his Horde the Iron Horde. So it's Iron Horde versus Horde. This story is still very Horde-centric and disappoints me. But the possibility of Draenai lore is a plus.
      I also have stated that they would heal Outlands and remake Draenor. Well, instead, they are doing the alternate timeline thing and taking use back to a Draenor that will never get destroyed. This avoids the redoing of the Outlands for leveling and gives us a way to expand regions in the future. All in all, I think this was a slick move.
     Once the expansion hits, you will get to make one character per account an instant Level 90. This is to get new players and returning players to catch up to the current expansion and reach towards the new max level. I like this in theory, but will see how it does in practice.
    Max level will be Level 100. I figured that was going to happen. But there will be no new powers as you level and a new talent at level 100. As you level you will get buffs to your abilities though. I think this is a good plan just to combat button bloat.
     All of the old races are getting updated Character Models. This has been sorely need for some time now. Though I don't like the idea that they are going to change all of the game sounds. There have been people that say the gunne sounds are bad. I like them. I transmog my weapon on Airholen to gunnes because I like the sounds and the animations that go with it. But this will be a positive change more than negative.
     No new races and classes. Fine with me. They need to make what they have now balanced well before they add to the mix. And I would rather they make all the classes a hybrid class than just some of them being just Pure DPS.
     Numbers Squish is happening. All Items are getting thier numbers massively reduced. Not only that, but Hit, Expertise, Dodge and Parry are being removed from Stats. And your Armour will automatically switch it's stats to meet your spec needs. I am worried that this maybe oversimpliflying things, but lets wait and see.
      Reforging is gone. Enchanments won't be applicable to all gear. Gems are getting limited to a max of one. Gems are getting buffed, but meta gems are getting removed. And no socket bonus'. This is in reaction to the Numbers Squish, but gold investment to level everything will get reduced severely. And I think that Jewelcrafters and Enchanters are going to get short changed on the money making end of this. I am leery of this change in general, though I don't mind the reforging going away.
      Garrisons, supposedly WOW's answer to player housing. It seems to me to be inline with how Star Trek Online does Duty Officers and Ships. Garrisons will have buildings that you will build and level up and that give you things. You also will get henchment that you can send of to compltete quest, carry out mission or do work in the garrison. Basically, you will be in charge of a fortress and the command the personel with in it. Which also means you have to do things to recruit them as well as occasionally have to go out and rescue them too. I think that this has the potential of being the coolest thing ever.
     Raiding gets a revamp. There will be LFR with Flex mechanics, Normal with Flex mechanics, Heroic with Flex Mechanics and Mythic (20 man only). They are renameing things. SO basically we get LFR, Normal (Old FLex), Heroic (Old Normal) and Mythic (Old Heroic). I think the changes are good and in the long run will make design the Raids easier. And allows Guilds of any size to build raid teams and not leave people behind. Mythic will be the only level that will have some people grumbling because all those 25 man teams will have to reduce to 20 man. This going to cause some Hard Core teams split or develope bad blood amongst it teams members as they get left out. It will be interesting to see how the Hard Core teams deal with this.

     Well, this blog is very long. But a lot of things happened at Blizzcon. And I didn't cover it all. I will save the rest for futrther posts because I want to learn more before I really comment on it. Enjoy and Have Fun!