Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Predicting the Patch Cycle

Having finished leveling up through the Warlords of Draenor beta, I've now done a pretty grand tour of the new continent/planet/universe, with a few unfinished quest chains, yes, and I never really finished the Frostfire Ridge experience, but a pretty good sense of the world as it stands.

The Iron Horde has a presence in every zone, even if it's fleeting (which really only describes Spires of Arak.) It's very clear that the Iron Horde is the Illidari/Scourge/Twilight's Hammer/Sha of the expansion - the headliner that will make its presence felt throughout the expansion with few exceptions. While I had wondered before seeing the Beta whether the Iron Horde might, like the Illidari, prove to be something of a red herring, at this point it seems very likely that it will be where we face the final boss.

I still think it's possible that Grommash will not be that boss, though. I'm not saying he won't, mind you, and actually I think it's more likely than not that he will be, but there's still the big question of just what role Gul'dan will be playing. However, (and here's the thing to look up should I want to see myself seeming foolish in the future,) I think it's basically one or the other. The final boss will be an Orc whose name begins with a G and has not been the boss of a previous expansion.

Farahlon:

There are two zones we know will have to open up at some point in the patches. I predict that the first to do so will be Farahlon. Farahlon is what became Netherstorm, and if the Image of Archmage Vargoth is to be believed, it once looked not unlike Westfall. I'm not going to hold Blizzard to that (the purple stone there is too tempting an aesthetic to ignore.)

I'm thinking Farahlon will either be 6.1 or 6.2. The question, then, is what will be there? We really don't hear anything about Farahlon during the leveling process. In BC, Farahlon was home to the Naaru-built Manaforges, which were used to power the dimension-traveling fortress-vessel Tempest Keep. However, there's no guarantee that any of that stuff was there before Draenor turned into Outland. The Blood Elves (other than the Horde-friendly ones) would obviously not be there, as in that universe they're presumably still High Elves who have never heard of Draenor.

There could very well be Shadow Council and Burning Legion forces at work there. Both have had a presence in Draenor (primarily in Talador, but also in other places.) There may not yet be Forge Camps like in Outland, but particularly if the Shadow Council winds up being the middle raid tier, this would be a decent place to put them (though I'm kind of hoping they remain a threat to the end of the expansion.)

I'm hoping that Kairoz and the Infinite Dragonflight are the ones we find there. While I don't hold all that much hope that the Infinites will be key players in Warlords (and perhaps that would be for the best, as I really, really, really want there to be an Infinite-centric expansion some day,) Kairoz is still clearly tied to this world. Then again, Wrathion was also helping Kairoz, so we ought to deal with him (that said, I really hope they never make Wrathion a full-out villain, as I prefer to have a morally-grey sometime-ally.)

Tanaan Jungle:

Tanaan Jungle is 100% certain to be opening up at some point, but I really have to think it'll be the final raid tier that comes with it, or perhaps we'll open the zone up in the patch preceding the one with the raid. 5.1 was super-popular (though I think we all forget that 5.3 was kind of dull,) and so I think Blizzard will likely stick to the raid-tier-every-other-patch strategy.

There's almost certainly going to be some other areas that open up. We could also see some of the current zones transformed, as Krasarang Wilds were in 5.1.

I expect we'll see further additions to garrisons as the expansion rolls on, hopefully adding in more cosmetic customization.

Blizzard seems to be considering disabling flight for the entire expansion, but they are also not ruling out the reintroduction of flying. I've shared my thoughts on this many times. Now that I've seen the zones, I think flight would have to be a max-level skill. These are zones that are designed to be quested through while grounded. You really need to design a zone around flight for it to be fun to fly there, like Icecrown or Storm Peaks, and these are not like that. I would have loved to see a Spires of Arak designed around flying - sending us up to assault the arial bases of the Adherents, but what's done is done, and I think that flight would cheapen the leveling experience in the way Blizzard worried about with these particular zones.

Still, I think that as time goes on, I'm just going to want the opportunity to fly around this place, so hopefully that will come in 6.1 or so. I'd love if they designed Farahlon or Tanaan around flight, but I think it's more likely that we're just going to get grounded in those zones like in the Isle of Thunder or the Timeless Isle.

Ogre Continent:

There's some speculation that the area to the south of the Draenor continent we all know and love is another land. While Highmaul might be the capital of the Ogre Empire, I vaguely recall the developers discussing the Ogres in these zones as being the last vestige of a far larger Ogre Empire. I really have no idea what they're going to do with that little stretch of land, if indeed that's what we're actually looking at.

Stuff in Azeroth:

Mists of Pandaria really required us to go back to the old world, given how it all ended up leading us to the Siege of Orgrimmar, and Cataclysm was explicitly set in the Old World (and then the final raid was mostly set in Icecrown... but the portal there was in Kalimdor!) The Iron Horde has invaded Azeroth (that's why we're there, remember!) which is actually a bit of a tactical blunder, given the resistance they're facing from the Draenei. We're going to be dealing with the Dragonmaw and our universe's Blackrock Clan in Upper Blackrock Spire (so long, Zaela,) but perhaps there's a greater presence to be felt there? How far into Azeroth does the Iron Horde reach?

I also think it's possible that we'll see some hints at the next expansion in this one, which could be a real wildcard. We could find a resurgence of the Naga, or the Infinite Dragonflight (hint hint!) or the Burning Legion, or the Scourge (covers mouth, pretends he didn't say that,) but hopefully in a really vague and tangential way.

Draenor's absolutely important to Warcraft lore, and I certainly don't think we're missing out on the "main story stuff" the way some feared when we first got to Pandaria (only to find that Pandaria was full of Titan/Old God lore.) But it seems almost a perfect guarantee that whatever comes after is going to happen in Azeroth.

My hope for Warlords is that they pace themselves. It was very cool to get the patches in such quick succession for Mists, but the end result was that we've been (and will continue to) wait for Warlords longer than we've ever waited for an expansion to come out after the final patch. I'd much rather have us spend a little more time on the initial raid tiers than go for over a year on the final one.

While I know that they want to release expansions quicker - even shooting for once a year, as they once said - I think it's pretty solidly established that it takes about two years to make a WoW expansion. If you plan around that with plenty of well-paced patch content, it won't be so bad.

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