Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Expansion Details (Brainstorming)

In scanning various WoW sites, I've read a lot of speculation about what the next expansion for World of Warcraft will entail. With Blizzcon this weekend and Blizzard's goal to have an expansion each year, there's a lot of rumors surfacing. I've read that the next expansion will be Northrend, possibly called "Wrath of the Lich King". There's also the possibility from IGN that the next expansion will be "Into the Maelstrom".

Other speculations I've heard is that the cap will be raised to 80. The closest thing I've heard to help substantiate that is that Blizzard has said that a full raid at level 80 will be needed to down Arthas Menethil, who most likely resides in Northrend. IGN's tipster said:
Advancement after level 70 will be through Hero Classes rather than talents. Hero classes will function as subclasses and each existing class will have 3 of these hero classes to choose from. These hero classes will not be limited by talent choices. Players will be able to choose these new subclasses at trainers when ItM (sic) goes live.
It seems there's so many rumors flying around. Who knows what's true? Personally, I kind of doubt the Hero Class thing. The last comments I remember hearing about the Hero Class from a Blue was that the idea was pretty much scrapped. So, I looked it up. (Don't you love BlueTracker?) From a quoted blue post, we get that the Hero class was kind of put on the back burner. But looking at that one... it was more than a year ago. Have I really been reading the WoW Forums for that long? I remember when I saw Nethaera's original post. Oh yeah... I've been addicted for awhile now.

I'd kind of like to see a new class. The last "new" class of giving Horde Paladins and Alliance Shaman, wasn't really new. Yeah, it was cool, but kind of seemed like a cheap way out. There's the rumor of the Death Knight being the new class. I'm not sure how different that would be from some of the other classes, but not sure that it has to be either.

Also, another 10 levels... is that gonna screw up the gear again? Azeroth purples were being traded right and left for Outland greens. At some point, every expansion has to replace gear to allow for additional increased leveling, but is it too soon? I obviously have at least 5 months or so until the next expansion, so it's not like I feel like my raiding is wasted. (On the contrary, I really enjoy the fights and experiences I'm having even if I don't get any epic gear out of it.) Also is 1-80 going to be

I know it's all speculation, but it's kind of fun too. So, what other rumors have you heard about the next expansion? I'm sure we'll find out a thing or two this weekend. At least... I hope we will.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been following the rumors also, and the most substantial one i think is "Wrath of the Lich King". Being that www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath is 403 forbidden, and www.worldofwarcraft.com/anythingelse is 401 not found.

Anonymous said...

Northrend seems like it would be cool . I would like to know how they are going to get around the whole 'Flying mounts on in EK & Kilamdor' thing. I mean what would they do to compensate for flying mounts? Epic Penguins?

I'm down for constantly evolving content, but wow, every year? Really how many guilds are going to be able to get through Black Temple before a new expansion? Will BT become the new Naxx or BWL?

Again the whole gear normalization that occurs with the release of an expansion. I understand the concept but now you know what its like to have spent a lot of time gathering gear from raids, it just kinda sucks that a release is made and all that goes down the drain and those who didn't put in the time are instantly getting better gear than those who put in the time/gold etc to obtain what they had.

DadGuy said...

I think the gear thing will be the same.

Naxx gear is arguably equivalent to 5 man and heroic lvl 70 gear. If we go to 80, BT gear will be equivalent to 5 man lvl 80 gear.

That's my suspicion on how it will work.

Anonymous said...

Here's a link: World Of Raids

The Death Knight as the 'first' "Hero Class" for both factions - starts as a high level . . ., Northrend as large as Azeroth, lvl 70-80 supposedly as difficult as 60-70, new profession "Inscriptionist" or something, lots of details.