FAZ 62 – “Instant Classic”

by | Nov 10, 2018 | For Azeroth | 0 comments

This week Manny and Joce are joined by Josh from Countdown to Classic to talk about all the information we received about World of Warcraft: Classic at BlizzCon. Manny and Joce then take a look at what’s next for World of Warcraft from 8.1 to 8.2.5.

WoW Classic

  • Summary
    • Keeping social systems a close to Vanilla as possible
      • No Dungeon/Group Finder, No Cross-realm Grouping, No Flying, No Achievements, No unified AHs (go to the goblins), no Instant Mail
    • Balance
      • Keeping things like energy regen and debuff limits to create an authentic game balance
      • UI improvements that don’t impact gameplay i.e. shift-right click on mail to move it to your bags are staying, as is loot trading to free up CS time
      • Will have to buy class abilities, classes will have old systems restored like ammo and pet maintenance for hunters, target switching combo points for rogues, etc
      • Weapon and defence skills are back as well
    • Full support of the WoW development team, not a side project
    • Not promising it will be perfect, but they run side by side comparisons all the time to try to get things as close as possible
  • Addons
    • Were much more powerful in Vanilla
    • Due to community sophistication, you could basically automate all your gameplay
    • They do want the Addons you would expect to see in Vanilla to function, but are trying to balance automation of class play and of social because they don’t want addons to put back in what they’ve decided to remove (i.e. group finder)
  • Content Release Plan
    • Staged content unlocks on the 1.12 engine
    • Stage 1: MC, Onyxia, Dire Maul, Kazzak, Azuregos (March 2005 content), no PvP rewards
    • Stage 2: Blackwing Lair, BGs and PvP rewards, Zul’Gurub (July 2005)
    • Stage 3: AQ, Tier 0.5, Silithus (Gates of AQ), Green Dragons (January 2006)
    • Stage 4: Naxx, Scourge Invasion (June 2006)
    • No set release time, will work with the community to find the correct pacing
    • If they’ve forgotten anything, tell them
    • Coming Summer 2019 with your modern WoW Subscription  
  • From the Q & A
    • They will not tie Classic into WoW, because they want you to play Classic for Classic, not as another WoW grind
    • Will it have expansions? Will do what’s right for the community and the game, they’re open to it but want to see how the launch of vanilla goes
    • Sharding will occur, only as a way to handle launch, but will be removed as server populations stabilize and move away from starting zones/capital cities. There will be no CRZ or Phasing in Classic

What’s Next

  • 8.1
    • Darkshore update
    • Assaults
    • New Islands
      • The way they’re spawned
      • Two new islands
      • Changes to rewards and pacing
    • Raid
    • War Campaign
    • Heritage armor
    • System Improvements
      • Azerite Armor (Tripling number of traits per spec on each piece)
      • Dubloon Vendor
      • Emissary Rewards being looked at
      • Rep unlocks account wide
      • Warfronts moving to daily requirements
      • PvP and Warmode
        • Underrepresented faction may get more rewards for staying in Warmode
    • Coming December 11-13 (no raiding over the holidays)
    • Cinematic “Lost Honor” – Saurfang and Anduin bro down, Sylvanas is right
    • Cinematic “Terror of Darkshore” – Night Elves are back “The Horde who Know”
  • 8.1.5 (this guy was a really good presenter)
    • Zandalari & Kul Tiran become available (thought this was 8.1, we can go through this quickly, we were right about almost all the racials)
    • Zandalari
      • Druid, Hunter, Mage, Monk, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior, Paladin (So only missing DKs and DHs)
      • Regen – Manny was right, concentrate to heal over time
      • Embrace the Loa, pray to gain favor
      • Gold – loot more from monsters
      • Pterrordax Swoop – call to glide (we were both wrong here, thought it would be a damaging ability)
    • Kul Tiran
      • Sylvanas’s Horde
      • Hunter, Mage, Warrior, Priest, Rogue, Monk, Druid, Shaman
      • Haymaker – stun and knock back
      • Brush it off – increased vers and regen
      • Jack of all Trades – Increases skill in trade skills
      • Child of the Sea – hold your breath longer, swim faster (this is the only one we got wrong I think)
      • Ancient Mariner – Frost and Nature resist
    • Darkmoon Faire
      • New Roller Coaster
    • Updates to Children’s Week for Kul Tiran and Zandalari orphans
    • More micro holidays (these are still dumb)
    • WoD Timewalking
        • Auchindoun
        • Slag Mines
        • Shadowmoon Burial Grounds
        • Skyreach
        • Iron Docks
        • Everbloom
        • 2 mounts to earn
    • Portal Rooms in Orgrimmar and Stormwind with room to grow
    • Profession Quests for Blacksmithing, Alchemy, Inscription, Engineering, Enchanting, Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking, Tailoring, each with a unique reward that requires level 1 in the profession to be used
      • One on use and one persistent effect each
        • Jewelcrafters can extract gems from armor
        • Blacksmiths can instantly repair one piece of gear, and have a chance to craft indestructible armor
        • Alchemy can transmute their object into something else for an hour, and enables cauldrons on Kul Tiras and Zandalar
        • Inscription can siphon blood from the dead to heal, as well as write Blood Contracts
    • Brawler’s Guild
        • Coming back with new bosses and revised progression
        • New quest line
        • Bruce the mount, new transmog set
    • PvP remastered (Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin)
        • Terrain geometry will stay exactly the same to preserve balance and feel, but the BGs are getting full visual updates
        • Warsong updates in particular were breathtaking
        • Players can fight against AI Bots in a new brawl
  • 8.2.5
      • New character models for goblins and worgens
  • 8.2 “Rise of Azshara”
    • Naga are coming in our moment of weakness
    • Both the Alliance and Horde set sail to look for the Naga
    • Find a crack in the ocean, and a new/old land, Nazjatar
    • Nazjatar
        • Underwater but not underwater
        • Focusing on replayable outdoor content (think Auchindoun’s outdoor towers, Timeless Isle, Isle of Thunder, Molten Front, etc), want us to have new things to see every day
        • New enemies and rewards
          • Seahorse and crab mounts
          • Naga weapons and armor
          • Baby Naga battle pet!
    • Raid is Azshara’s Eternal Palace

 

      • 8 bosses
      • Underwater boss
      • Ending with Queen Azshara
    • Goblin and Gnome Adventure
      • Second new landmass, Mechagon
      • Ancient lost city of the gnomes
      • Fighting death robots
        • Many new robot enemies
      • Friends with the Junker Gnomes
        • There’s a vault to break into to upper society
        • Location of King Mechagon
        • The more robot parts you have, the higher you are in society
      • Outdoor questing leading to a megadungeon
        • Think Karazan, mythic only
        • 8 bosses
        • Pets, mounts, items, higher ilvl rewards
    • Continuing the story
      • Sylvanas has Xal’atath!
      • Magni is back
      • 2 more heritage armor
        • Tauren and gnomes
    • Island Expeditions
      • New locations, Crestfall (Warcraft 2 map), Snowblossom (Pandaran)
    • Warfront
      • New one coming
      • Higher difficulty, 10+ players
      • Better rewards, need to defend
    • New Arena for PvP
    • Flying is coming
      • Bee, gryphon, mechanical parrots
    • Happy with the cadence of content
  • 8.3 also confirmed, with N’Zoth fish

Podcast (faz-pod): Download (Duration: 3:06:42 — 149.6MB)

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