First, big things:
We have the Warcraft Movie Trailer:
The interesting focus here is on Durotan and Lothar's attempts to make peace. The movie does look very CGI-driven, which I can't say I'm surprised about, but I still think it could be good. We even have baby Thrall (I guess he's still Go'el at this point) getting a Moses-down-the-river moment.
But we also then have the Legion cinematic, months ahead of when we'd be expecting it:
I think this is one of their better cinematics, showing us the rough fight they're in for, but also seeing Varian and Sylvanas kick demon ass together is something I never really thought I'd ever see. I'd love to see Sylvanas get a redemption arc (bump her up from Lawful Evil to Lawful Neutral - we don't need to see her Good,) so I hope this battle doesn't end with her shooting Varian in the back.
The cinematic leads directly into the Broken Shore event, which will be a 40-player scenario that is half Alliance players and half Horde players, all fighting the Legion together. I don't know if this means that we'll truly be grouped up, but I think that would be awesome.
They've touched on the Demon Hunter starting experience, which will start with a cinematic of Illidan sending you to Mardum (no longer Marduun I guess) to find the keystone that kept all the demons imprisoned there. There are a bunch of new demons like Imp Mothers, Jailers and Inquisitors. You'll get your new abilities by killing demons (presumably as part of quests,) which should give you a bit of a learning curve, similar to the way that the DK starting experience gave you a couple talent points for each quest back when Talent Points were a thing.
The full list of Artifact Weapons is now available. Couple notable things: Combat Rogues are now Outlaw Rogues. Demonology gets a floating skull thing to follow them around instead of a weapon, and physical druids (Feral and Guardian) both seem to be dual-wielding theirs (Daggers and Fist Weapons, respectively. Oh my god! There will be a class that uses agility daggers that isn't Rogues!)
We're currently getting tons of shots of the zones and new monsters, like Specters (the male, Night Elf equivalent of Banshees,) Nightmare Dragons, Storm Dragons, new Vrykul guys, updated MOONKIN and SEA-LION druid forms, updated Naga, what could be a corrupted Neptulon or some similar water elemental (but like, seriously corrupted.) We've got Highmountain Tauren, who have more elk or moose-like antlers than horns, Drogbar, new Harpies, MOOSE. The Nightborne seem to be WoW's first real drow-equivalent race, and they seem to be adorned with metallic jewelry/cybernetics. They have a Nightwell instead of a Sunwell. And they seem to have a Wretched-equivalent of emaciated creepazoids. (They're "Nightfallen" and... well, read on.)
BIG NEWS: Four of the leveling zones will scale to your level. You can do them in any order. (So presumably this is Thal'darah, Stormheim, Azsuna, and Highmountain. Not sure about Suramar. There are two other zones, the Broken Shore and Val'dra...something. Sorry, I don't speak Elvish. So that's pretty cool, and should make leveling alts feel a little less like the same thing over and over. There will be some enemies you have to come back to at 110 to handle, but you'll have the zones open to you, with gear that scales up to your level.
There will also be shifting objectives without clear expiration dates. They want people to have unpredictable open-world stuff to do at max level - the idea being a bit like we're the ones going out on the follower missions.
Suramar will be a max-level zone. Essentially "all roads lead to Suramar."
There will be lots of objectives that pop up, not expiring or "failing to roll over" the next day. Emissaries from various factions will show up, and much like the dailies from Hearthstone or Heroes of the Storm, you'll probably get a few saved up emissaries if you don't log in for a few days. In a screenshot, we see two emissaries: a Vrykul shield-maiden representing the Valkira, and a Nightfallen representing... the Nightfallen. So I guess they're not evil! The Nightfallen are Nightborne Elves who have been exiled and are undergoing withdrawal just as the Wretched in Quel'thalas did.
They want there to be the choice and unpredictability of daily assaults but the meaningfulness and story of Mists dailies.
Some of these objectives might be PvP, or gathering objectives if you have those professions, or World Bosses.
Raids:
Two raids to launch with. First is Emerald Nightmare, which starts with a dragon boss, the Pestilence Wyrm (because Warlords had no dragons - not counting that one proto-drake in UBRS - and that was sad.) Cenarius will be boss two, as he has become corrupted (though whether we save him or kill him is kind of a question.) Xavius will be the final boss, and can apparently be "anything" within the Nightmare.
Suramar Palace is where Gul'dan's working with the Nightborne and they have the Eye of Aman'thul (man, what is it with Gul'dan and Titanic Eyes?) It's apparently very bright, unlike the kind of dark places we've raided in the past, which I'm so ok with.
So far, the Emerald Nightmare has a kind of Broken Isles-meets-Netherstorm look, which is good. Lots of floating stuff, which seems appropriate. I imagine the skybox is a stand-in, as it's currently just a sort of standard Outland sky. The Nightmare color scheme is very black-and-red. Most of the Nightmare dragons (though not the Pestilence Wyrm, which totally sounds like a boss from Dark Souls,) the corrupted Cenarius, and Xavius all have those colors going on.
Dungeons:
They're re-purposing Challenge Mode. Now, you'll get Challenger's Keystones (not sure how) and depending on the difficulty of the keystone, you'll need better times. No Bronze/Silver/Gold, just beat the time for your keystone. If you lose, it gets depleted, but you still get loot.
They want to ensure variety and not have the "Mechanar Problem" where people just farm Badges in the easiest dungeon.
Eye of Azshara, Neltharion's Lair, Halls of Valor, Darkheart Thicket, and Violet Hold will be the level-up dungeons, and apparently will scale like the zones, so you can do them in any order. They're all tied to their zones' stories.
Vault of the Wardens, Black Rook Hold, Helheim, Suramar Noble District, and Suramar Catacombs will be 110 dungeons. That's actually more max-level dungeons at launch than we've had since BC, and brings us up to a health 10 launch dungeons, which makes me very happy.
Darkheart Thicket will not be in the Nightmare itself, but will instead be on Azeroth in an area that is being corrupted by the Nightmare.
Halls of Valor has us fighting to prove ourselves to Odyn, a Titanic Watcher, and competing with the God-King of the Vrykul (who looks like he's had some Pit Lord blood - kind of a Vrykul Kilrogg) to get the Aegis of Aggramar (one of the pillars, presumably.)
Helheim is sort of the Grimrail Depot equivalent (whoohoo!) and has us protecting the cargo of a ship sailing through the Vrykul hell, with a confrontation against the Fallen Val'kyr queen, Helya (presumably the Hel equivalent.) HOLY CRAP IT LOOKS AWESOME!
Black Rook Hold is where Lord Ravencrest built an ancient stronghold to defend against the Legion. Didn't seem to work, and now we're confronting Ravencrest. Has a kind of spooky haunted castle vibe and what looks like a Demon Hunter boss somewhere in there.
Challenge Mode will scale up to you, rather than scaling you down. They want a focus on good combat and not just rushing. There will be new "Modifiers" to master. For example, all enemies might enrage and do more damage at lower health.
Challenge Mode is meant to be a genuine alternative to raiding - presumably giving out equivalent gear.
And that's it for the big news and World/Content Overview. I believe the class panel is up tomorrow.
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