It's a New World

It's a New World

Blizzard recently announced the next expansion pack for World of Warcraft. It's called Warlords of Draenor. Draenor is an alien world that was blown to bits. A piece of that world called Outland came into the sphere of Azeroth and the horde and alliance descended on it during that expansion. With the new expansion, the Draenor are back. The horde and alliance travel back in time thirty years to the planet Draenor - not just the Outland bit, but the whole world as it was before it was destroyed.

Frankly, when I initially read about it, I wasn't very interested. I figured they did it because they couldn't find room on the Azeroth map for another continent or island. I figured that the world of Azeroth had grown so boringly familiar they had to give us a brand new world to play in, even if that world exists thirty years in the past. Players keen on lore would love the fact that some favorite heroes and villains were back, alive and well, in that past. I don't usually follow that, so it wasn't a big draw, either.

The big news that a great many players have wanted for years is the ability to build and maintain our own place of residence. Instead of hearthing to a central location - ie, an Inn - players will be able to create what is called a Garrison - our own, personal inn, so to speak. If the management of a Garrison is fun and interesting, I might like this. If it is a gold sink and a time sink then I guess I'll be living on the rundown side of town. I'm not sure, though, whether lower level toons will be able to go to a garrison or if they will still be stuck at the inn. I'm willing to wait and see. I'd say that playing the expansion pretty much requires a player to re-base from a traditional base like Orgrimmar to Draenor once they reach level 90. Org and Stormwind may become ghost towns.

Deeper into the weeds, things started to get a little more interesting. This information is coming from the Wowhead site, which seems to have the most complete and easiest to understand information.

Quick Facts:
The new level cap is 100 (prior cap was 90).
Buying the expansion grants one character a "boost" directly to level 90, even if the character is only level 1. I will have to decide whether to boost JB and/or Philly from 85 to 90, or boost a lower level character who has farther to go. I will likely make that decision based on profession needs and other things that would support my mains, Wild and Fist.

Gear Facts:
The "squish" is on. All gear stats will see a compression of the numbers. I compared Fist's ring (i476, +410 haste) with a sample ring in the expansion (i489, +16 haste). Gear stats are going to look very strange for awhile, but I think players will adjust pretty quickly.

Primary stats will automatically change based on spec. For example, when Fist is in Windweaver spec the primary stat on her gear will be agility. When she switches to mistweaver, her primary stat automatically changes to intelligence without having to change gear. That one change immediately halves the number of pieces of gear we have to earn and carry around. Rings and necklaces are the exception. Secondary stats don't change, but then a lot of the secondary stats have been done away with: Hit, Expertise, Dodge, and Parry are all gone, and unmourned I must say. Reforging has also gone bye bye.

The next change to itemization really has me shaking my head. After simplifying the primary stats and eliminating most of the secondary stats, Blizz then adds back new complications by creating a third level of itemization - Tertiary  Stats. And there's a BUNCH of them! Like Sturdiness (no durability loss), Movement Speed (will stack), Lifesteal (% of damage converted to health), Avoidance (Absorb % of AE damage), and Cleave (Increased AE damage). I'd give the whole thing a big Sigh, but maybe the learning curve won't be too steep, and we'll all be trying to figure things out together.

Hoarders (it's all about bag space):
As an unrepentant pack rat, Happy and his ilk are drooling over the prospects of increased capacity and more ways to store things without costing a bag space.

Things that no longer take up bag space: (1) quest items! How many times have I lost a quest because I needed bag space and dumped the quest items clogging my bag. (2) Heirloom and vanity items now get their own page like pets and mounts have now. Not only do they not take up bag space, they are all account bound and can be used by any character, and I assume multiple characters can use the same heirlooms at the same time! (3) Not firm, yet, but they are looking to use the same page format for tabards and transmog gear.

A modest upgrade to actual bags is the ability to designate bags by category so that items will be automatically sorted into the correct bags. I see lots of issues with this, like how that will/won't work with specialized bags.

Can I Find a Raid, Please!
There are only two kinds of raids: Flex raids and Mythic raids. Flex raids replace 10/25 man normal and heroic raids. The Mythic raid (note, singular) is twenty person only (no flex) and will be for "cutting-edge progression" raids. Ten man and twenty-five man raiding is Kaput. My suspicion is that flex raids will quickly become the Looking For Raid (LFR) option of plowing through content with strangers in a hurry. I have to wonder how many guilds will go to the trouble to put guild flex raids together when the LFR is just so handy and less troublesome? And if a guild can't muster a truly progression minded raid, the guild won't likely even attempt a Mythic raid. Wild is again feeling pretty left out. Blizz claims not to like the LFR and is offering incentives such as valor point boosts for raiding with friends and additional ways to form groups for all kinds of content. I'll have to wait and see how that works out, though it does seem to take away from the guild model. Are guilds going to become extinct? In my opinion I believe that Blizz intends to phase out guilds all together. Why have a guild when you can have a friends list?

Questing and the New Zones
As expected, we will all be back to ground mounts in Draenor not only for the original expansion but into patch 6.1, regardless of how fast you get to level 100. Pack your flying mounts away. Questing will be less station to station and more random, follow your own path kind of thing. Leveling also has a few new goodies to work toward, with ability buffs as you level and occasional rare/epic drops when completing quests. There are ten, completely new zones to explore, some with familiar titles and some not.

Stuff I Don't Care About:
There's a new PvP Zone where those with that appetite can go kill each other over and over in a Timeless Isle like environment that's sort of like a never-ending Alterac Valley. If you don't know AV, turn in your Pvp gear and slink away in shame. Battlegrounds are spiffied up, too, though it doesn't look like there are any new ones.

Oh yea, there's some new Lore to explore. Having read with interest Sis's and Lao's efforts along these lines, Wild may be more interested in what happens with the likes of Garrosh and Thrall, and newcomers of Draenai lore like Y'rel. I don't know who Aggra is, but apparently neither she or any other women heroes are making the trip back in time. A pity.

No, there is no date as to when the expansion will be released. And that's a Wrap.

PS - Saw "Ender's Game" yesterday. I loved it!