Games Convention WoW News

Teza at World of Raids has posted a great summary of all the WoW news released at the Games Convention. For those who were not able to keep up with all the news released, here is all the compiled information.


"Games Convention information report

General

- The art for the expansion will look more like classic Warcraft (gothic fantasy), and less like Outlands art (high fantasy). (4)
- WotLK will have "just as much" 5-man instances as TBC and more 10-main instances due to the popularity of Karazhan. (4)
- The world map is rough and players can expect the map to change and new things on the map will be revealed over time. (Source)
- When asked about class balance, they said they had no plans for any major changes to classes. (4)
- Future hero classes could be Demon Hunter, Arch Mage, and Blademaster. (1)

Leveling

- Current plans are for a pre-expansion change to the experience curve and gain. (Source)
- Levels between 20 and 60 are going to have the experience required per-level reduced, and the experience rewarded by quests is being increased by around 30%. (3)

Heroic Badges

- In addition to the new items added in 2.3 to the heroic badges vendor, Blizzard might add new armor sets to that vendor. (3)

Flying Mount Level

- From a design standpoint, we don’t want people to just fly over continent and skip things when they are leveling up. Instead we want people to explore and experience the environment around them when they first reach the shores of Northrend. You will walk (or ride) from one quest to another as the zones unfold before you instead of just flying over it without batting an eye. At some point though you will definitely be able to fly in Northrend. We are currently thinking around level 78, but haven’t made a final call on this yet. (Source)

Dustwallow Marsh

- A new goblin town with several new quests will be added to Dustwallow Marsh. (3)

PvP

- A new PvP area called Lake Wintergrass ('roughly the size of Westfall') will combine world PvP with the new siege weapons and destructible buildings. The faction that controls this zone may receive an effect that not only applies to the zone, but to the whole continent. (4)

Dungeons

Sunwell Plateau (3)
- Sunwell Plateau will be released before the expansion "Wrath of the Lich King", Tigole said its planned for a patch after Zul'Aman (so it might be 2.4 minimum to get it). Sunwell Plateau is a new instance which can be found in Quel'Thalas (forest region north of the continent of Lordaeron). The instance is divided in 2 parts, one of them is designed for a 25-man raid instance (said to be the most diffcult in WoW, harder than Black temple), the other part is a 5-man instance (Normal and Heroic Modes).

Zul'Aman
- Zul'Aman will be released as soon as voice chat comes off the PTR and will be after the next patch before appearing on the PTRs. (Source)

Nexus (3)
- Tigole talked about a new instance "Nexus" located in Borean Tundra, it should be the first instance you will zone in when entering Northrend by Borean Tundra; this instance will be divided into three wings:
* A 5-man instance for level 70-71 called Ice Caverns
* A level 80 instance
* A 25-man raid instance where you will encounter Malygos (the blue dragon), that instance is located at a rift in the sky

Caverns of Time: Stratholme (1)
- There will be a new Caverns of Time instance: Stratholme, which one will be a level 80 instance 5-man. You will travel to the past before Arthas was corrupted and help him rid the city of demons and burn it down.

Utgarde Keep (3)
- Utgarde Keep which is located in Howling Fjord, will be a winged dungeon with two instances: the first wing is a level 70 instance for players to level up in (we already know about that one) and the second wing for level 80 players is called "Utgarde Pinnacle". Both instances will have Normal and Heroic modes.

Naxxramas (5)
- Tigole confirmed than Naxxramas will be retuned to be 25-man raid instance in Northrend, also he said it will be the first 25 player raid instance in the next expansion. They want as many players as posible to have a chance to see one of the best instances so far. Some encounters will be reworked to adapt them to a 25-man raid.

Professions

Inscription (3)
- The Inscription profession will do more than increases effectiveness of spells and abilities. Tigole said the team working on it wish for Inscription to be more versatile such as increasing more elements like range, duration (for example: Frost Nova having a wider radius).

Woodworking (3)
- Blizzard is considering a Woodworking profession, it will allow Hunters to create their own arrows.

Classes

Death Knight

- Death Knight requirements: According to Tigole, you won't need to be level 80 to unlock the Death Knight, it would rather be between level 55 and 60. Players can then create their Death Knights and have to go through a trial in order to be able to play their Death Knights.

- Death Knight's resourcing system (Runes): Runes are engraved by the Death Knight into his weapon (sword or axe). There will be three different kind of runes: Unholy, Blood and Frost. The Death Knight will obtain various abilities, depending on how the DK combines the runes, the number of runes than you can combine is limited to six (for example: 2 of every rune type or 4 Unholy and 2 Blood runes type), you can change your rune combination to change your playstyle/role (Tank, Dps or PvP combination mixing both with less power). Upon using his abilities, the DK consumes his runes. One DK skill example using runes: a DK skill called "Army of the Dead", which summons Ghouls, requires Blood and Unholy rune types, therefore you would not be able to use this ability with only Frost runes carved into your weapon.

Hunter

- Blizzard is considering a Woodworking profession (hunters will be able to create their own arrows),and a Mortal Strike-like shot that will reduce healing effectiveness on the target of the shot (the purpose of this idea is to increase the desirability of hunters in arena). (3)

Priest

- In the playable Wotlk demo at Games Convention, the priest spell "Pain Suppression" has been changed, the cooldown has been reduced to 1 minute and you can cast it on a friendly target up to a 20yards range. (Source)"