Monday, September 7, 2015

What to Expect at Blizzcon 2015

We're now two months away from 2015's Blizzcon. This is the Blizzard-only convention where they tend to make their biggest announcements, but also, because it's only Blizzard's show, they get to go into nitty-gritty stuff that wouldn't really fly at a regular convention, like having an entire panel dedicated to professions or something like that.

Blizzard has been pushing a lot of game-synergy, with rewards in one game earned by playing another - and it's been a pretty effective strategy. Heroes of the Storm is basically the embodiment of this philosophy, especially with all the goodies you get in-game for playing their other games (I have a Dire Wolf mount and Malthael's Charger in HotS because of what I've done in WoW and Diablo III.)

So, franchise by franchise, what might we see?

Diablo III:

It might be time to introduce a new expansion. Diablo III was massively improved by the Reaper of Souls expansion, and they've further iterated on the game to make various forms of gameplay more rewarding. Still, many of the old locales, and even the areas from Act V have perhaps started to get old. We've dealt with most of the remaining problems, of course (it was so, so satisfying to kill Adria after what she did to Leah,) but new ones have arisen (like the fact that Malthael freed the souls of the seven evils during our fight against him.

Adding a new class would also be fun, as usual. To be fair, the existing ones do cover a pretty satisfying gamut of RPG archetypes, though perhaps some kind of nature-themed class could work.

It'd also be nice to find some way to salvage Leah's soul. Pretty much the most innocent and likable person to be transformed into the embodiment of evil. I actually wonder if they might end Diablo III with one of the series' classic dark endings, having us fall to corruption in order to save Leah. Though I'd rather see the rebirth of the Nephalem have a much larger impact on the Diablo universe than just sweeping our heroes under the rug as monsters.

Starcraft II:

Legacy of the Void is being tested, I believe, so I suspect we won't really find out much earth-shattering news about that. It remains to be seen what they're going to do with the Starcraft franchise once Legacy of the Void completes the Starcraft II trilogy. Future expansions will have to exist outside of the obvious Terran-Zerg-Protoss trifecta. Perhaps there will be an expansion with smaller campaigns for each faction. Still, I doubt we'll hear about it any time soon.

Hearthstone:

They just released a new expansion, but these seem to be quick to make, so we might even hear about another one coming up. Alternatively, they could release another solo adventure.

Heroes of the Storm:

With the Eternal Conflict event ending tomorrow (no treasure goblin portrait for me, though I think the mount will still be purchasable through October,) they might be gearing up for a new themed event. I think a Starcraft event with new maps would be great - so far all the maps are fantasy-themed (well, Luxoria Sun Temple might have a steampunky feel to it) so it would be cool to have some high-tech forts and minions to blast.

New heroes have been released on a pretty regular basis (we're getting Rexxar tomorrow,) so I expect this will just continue. Still, if there's a special event, we might see more from a particular franchise (I believe Johanna, the Butcher, Leoric, and Kharazim were all in a row and meant to be part of the Eternal Conflict event.)

Overwatch:

I don't really know what to expect, but I think they might start talking about a Beta for the game. And perhaps some new characters.

World of Warcraft:

The Gamescom Legion announcement was, I think, to reassure us that there was something cool coming next for WoW. Still, while we did get the major points - Burning Legion, Broken Isles, Demon Hunters, Illidan, Class Halls, Artifact Weapons - the announcement didn't really go into fine details about what they were working on for the expansion (though in fairness, we got way more than what I expected. I really thought we'd get at most a "this is the title, this is where it will be, this is the new race/class.")

We know that big changes are coming for a lot of existing classes and specs - Survival's going to be a melee spec, Shadow Priests are getting "Insanity" as a resource, etc. Still, at the moment, we just know that they are getting changes, not how those changes are going to work. Some of that we'll probably still not get fully until the Beta is up (and even then, things will be subject to change. For a time, Shuffle was a Brewmaster ability that you'd channel and be unable to do anything else while it was going,) but some of the really huge changes, as well as some of the details on the mechanics of the Demon Hunter class, will be clarified.

And if Blizzard is really on top of their game, they'll announce the start of the Legion beta. Preferably followed by "this coming Tuesday!"

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