Blizzcon 2009 wrap-up

As I sit listening to Ozzie go nuts at Blizzcon, I thought I would wrap up what we have had a look at over this weekend.

The big news for us WoW gamers was Cataclysm. It was a bitter sweet announcement for me as very detailed information was leaked onto the net over a week ago. It was like someone told me what all my Christmas presents were in November. I like surprises and the sites that posted the detailed info before the actual announcement, spoiled it for me (that’s why I didn’t link it when it was posted). There’s nothing wrong with leaks but you can leak information without going into as much detail as they did.

Lots of things said at Blizzcon point to an end of year launch for Cataclysm. First, Mike Morhaime (President/CEO Blizzard) said “You will be sick of Goblin rogues by next Blizzcon”, then Ghost crawler said in an interview with direct TV “We will see the new cross server 5 man pugs in the 3.3 patch before Cataclysm.” He then went on to talk about patch 4.1 and 4.2.

So by the sounds of it we will have 1-2 patches max before Cataclysm hits. That would make up 5 to 6 months if we go by the timelines of other patches. My guess is that we will have 3.3 to take us to ice crown, then 3.4 will introduce class changes a month before we get our x-pac, but only time will tell. I just hope Blizzard can live up to their 1 expansion a year they talked about last year.

The changes to guilds and guild tools have stirred a lot of excitement in my guild. I’m the GM of a 60+ account guild with over 100 lvl 80s in it. We pay for all guild repairs and supply very cheap flasks etc. As one of the oldest guilds on our server we have seen a lot of members come and go over the years and the new tools will helps stop or massively reduce the guild hoppers. I have a great group of officers and it’s great to know we are going to be able to reward guild loyalty with tools for levelling, crafting and raiding alike.

As I level new alts, it’s been kinda sad to see once bustling zones turned into ghost towns. For a MMO it just does not have the same feel questing in an empty zone. The move to restructure and then rebuild Azaroth sounds like the prefect move by Blizzard. It will not only ad new content for old players but at the same time provide new and exciting content for new players or even new alts!

A new type of level cap

With this xpac we only get to level to 85 and there has been a lot of “WTF? Only 85?” comments going around the net. The way you need to look at it is that you have level 85+ Path of the Titans skills. It’s just a new spin on the end levels. It’s a way to keep you interested and progressing end game.

I cannot wait to get my hands on Cataclysm and we still haven’t finished WotLK. Driving content at this speed makes it easy to stay interested and excited about a game that is 5 years old, something other MMOs miss the boat on all the time.

We have covered a lot here on Gaming Faces but if you’re looking for more detailed information on a particular class, don’t forget to check out our class news feeds at the top of the site for class specific blogs and news.