WOW expansion to revamp old world? News

Graphical update maybe, new engine features? Who knows, might actually do something good.

Some of the leaks regarding lore apparently came from the Goons of SA, so be warned :)

I think they need to do this tbh, the burnout rate is getting higher and questiong from 1-70 is painfully lonley

They said they want to make level 1's feel part of the universe again, re-vamping Azeroth is the only way to do that imho, it's such a chore as it is.

Only thing is, will they make it possible to go from 58-85 in "new" Azeroth? as Outlands and Northrend will be ghost towns by the time this hits.

Sounds pretty cool, I kind of wish I hadn't given up playing a couple of years ago as I've missed out on so much cool stuff. Be awesome to go back to the old low level zones with all new things happening in them. Scarlett Monastery ho!

TBH it is about time WoW returned to their roots... especially when it comes to the word "War" in the title.

what the site also states is the fact Old Races will have new 'old' classes - Dwarf Shamans, Troll Druids, GNOME PRIESTS?

The whole thing would have sounded legit if they didn't put in those blizzare class options - basically all they've done is pull together all the rumoured ideas in the vain hopes a few are right so that they can do a 'YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!' bit..

It's like the Goblin so horde rumour - Whats going to happen to booty bay and all those quest hubs? Wll aliience lose a ton of content? It's highly unlikly - Although with the 'phasing' revamping the old content via that is good - but that will also kill off all 80-90 characters in the old content... lvl 10 bud - 'I'm in IF' lvl 90 bud - 'I'm in NEW IF, i can't get to you'..

I'll be sitting and waiting on blizcon before i go OMG bad/good update

It would be nice if they did this minus the old class updates, but I doubt I'll return to this game Northrend was way to easy
and blizz still listens to the biggest whiners to make it even easier.

Would a new player be forced to buy this expansion to even create a new character? Sounds a bit far fetched to me, the original continents are massive and would take much longer to redo than a new smaller continent. Unless it'll be free, or bundled with the original. And has flying pig mounts.

Keep in mind that the last time they announced an expansion, it took 18 months to actually appear so they would have plenty of time to design this.

All sounds pretty cool.

All I have to say is that I've prayed WAY before AoC comes out for Blizzard to consider a BIG and nicely done graphical upgrade of WoW. I'm currently given up all efforts and hopes for a really pleasant MMO to play since nothing is as cool as WoW's MMO neither AoC's graphics and realism but i don't feel like playing AoC neither all OVER again and again with WoW.

IF it changes the way it looks the least I seriously am considering going back to WoW though :)

They won't update the graphics engine, they'll surely just tweak it if anything.

I've been wanting them to update Azeroth for ages and to bring the horde alliance conflict back to the fore, so this all sounds good to me. The Azeroth zones are some of my favourites (the other thing I wanted was your own boats but maybe next time eh hehe).

destruction of Orgrimmar? that scares me, that place feels like my second home

"Some of the leaks regarding lore apparently came from the Goons of SA, so be warned :)"

Indeed, I'm not trying to be horrid but I'd take anything coming out of SA with a copious handful of salt.

Until it's confirmed, it's all idle speculation.

It's probably a complete fabrication of information, but I'll drool anyway.

If it's not true, I at least hope Blizzard's real announcement is better.

It's like the Goblin so horde rumour - Whats going to happen to booty bay and all those quest hubs

addressed before - there's no reason why they can't be factions. As an alliance character I've had quests from Trolls, Orcs, even Undeads.

as a Troll I've attacked other trolls. As a human I've fought countless humans. It's about the faction not the race.

summary: don't be racist! ;-)

Perfect, all I can say. :)

It all sounds brilliant, but then, Blizz have barely set a foot wrong with wow.
Yet.
( except the silly thing they did with Wintergrasp recently of course ).

Spot on.

The only people who will be upset by this are those that can't play the early levels without a L80 boosting them along.

I just mentioned it in game, and more than one person was up in arms. "Play without boosts??? HOW?" ... and I replied "well, try grouping with ppl your own level, fool".

And there you have it. Genuine new players can't find it much fun to be playing in a world dominated by alts getting boosts. I've tried finding groups with an alt, and it's a total pain. And when you DO find one, some twat always goes and says "hey guys it's ok, guildee comin 2 boost us thru deadmines".

FUCK OFF! I WANT TO PLAY THE FUCKING GAME YOU TWAT.

So yea. Cut off the 80+ at least, cause nobody's gonna want to hang around just so they can boost kids.

Also, it might make it harder for gold farmers to create high lvl players en masse.

Good stuff if you ask me.

Problem is with this idea is that if it is for levels 1-70 then there is no way about it, they are going to segregate there player base

nah, it's easy. Look at everything listed and consider them more carefully:

1. Flying mounts enabled - allows level 70+ to reach parts that others can't;
2. Gilneas/Hyjal/Uldum - these are all easily accessed via portals (in some cases the portals are already there!);
3. Destruction of Orgrimmar etc. - I'm sure they'll use the so-called 'phasing' technology to achieve this, just like in the Death Knight starting area.

Well, I don't see a huge problem with phasing the questline of the destruction (assuming it's not just a cutscene) as a kind of retrospective quest line.

As long as the relevant NPCs are still available in the rubble then I'm sure it would be ok.

It's not like new players don't have a massive patch to download already.

Also, it's not like the DK starting zone is permanently phased and completely inaccessible - it's just quite empty for normal users.

I'm all for this. I was hoping for this kinda thing in the buildup to Wrath. The 'razing of Orgrimmar' should have seen the place smashed to the ground, really shake things up, seems that's exactly what this potential expansion would do. :)

This would be amazing, and imo much better than just adding a new continent. The old world feels so different from the post- BC content at this point, making it relevant again might be the smartest thing they could do.

Wrestling match between Elune and Kael'thas. You read it here first.

Could work.

Apart from the fact that Orgrimmar already looks like an eyesore, its destruction would be interesting. xD

Pretty much exactly what WoW needs. If it were just level 80-90 content then that would just put new players even further from the decent content.

I suppose other things that could be considered instead of extra levels are :-

Increased talent tree?
i.e. Reach lvl 80 and every 500,000 xp points you "earn" opens up and extra talent slot so those talents maxed out to five points can have a 6th ,7th or 8th point added in? This may make for subtle but still tangible changes and growth.

AI driven NPCs to add to teams when you can't get the oh so often all too elusive tank or healer for a group.
(in fact take that a step further and allow you to make up entire teams of NPC with you at the head? ala GW ? works for them and makes harder areas far more accessible to all in GW. Some kind of looting convention/ruling needs to be created for this to work however)

A serious revamp of trade skills. Why is it that the best gear you can make in your trade skills is usually 1 -3 epic items, usually surpassed by running instances? EITHER-Make trade skills produce far more and far for effective items ( considering the cost and work trade skills currently cause ) i.e make those items ENDGAME equivalents or drastically reduce the effort and cost of getting to 450 in any skill. Why can a leatherworkers only make 2/3 of epic chain armour for example?

Secondary skills. Why bother to learn cooking to max only to have the best item you can cook be massively surpassed in the health regen stakes by stuff the innkeeper sells ( the buffs on food are dubious at best). Same goes for all secondary skiils.
Make trade and secondary skills more effective or drop their requirements drastically.

I really like the idea of the apprentice idea in ( I think GW ) in that anyone higher level who teams with you instantly raises you in level to within 5 levels of them, so you can quest together. Of course this stops as soon as you disband. Experience earning during this could be capped at 50% of what you'd normally earn but would still help the apprentice to level and maybe see content they would not normally encounter until much later in the game.