(EDIT: MMO-Champion has put this leak on their front page. So at the very least, this leak is getting a lot of traction.)
With only six days to go until Blizzcon, speculation is running at top gear regarding WoW's next expansion.
Most recently, I saw a post on MMO-Champion that depicts what appears to be a shot from a cinematic-quality cutscene (like the intro cinematics for each expansion or the various Saurfang "Old Soldier" ones) in which the Lich King - in new armor except for the helmet - stands before what appears to be the Frozen Throne with a big maul. It appears to be some sort of ad for a print of that still from the cinematic and t-shirts for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.
Is it fake? It could very well be. But it's the most impressive-looking "leak" I've seen so far for 9.0. Naturally, it also ties very directly into most of the theories about what's coming next - which on one hand could be the product of people coming up with leaks based on what the community is expecting, or it could just be, you know, that we're expecting things because Blizzard has done a good job of foreshadowing.
The thing that impresses me most is the quality of the cinematic still - the design of Bolvar's armor and weapon look, to me at least, like something that would require more than just a quick photoshop job. That is, of course, assuming this isn't taken from some other game.
One note that people have made is that in the image, Bolvar's eyes are blue while his chest and accents on his weapon glow with his characteristic red/orange fire. Since his crowning at the end of ICC, Lich King 3.0 has had that same red/orange glow to his eyes. That being said, some are speculating that his eyes turning blue might mean something - maybe Bolvar is finally gone and the Lich King is all that truly remains?
The logo for the expansion looks very cool - it's white with a black border that has a kind of skeletal and fire motif. Again, its quality is impressive if it's a fake.
WeakAuras, the very useful addon, posted a tweet that seems to be an ad for the expansion, which talks about entering the Shadowlands and exploring a land called Bastion and meeting the "Noble Kyrian," which... no idea what they could be. There's what appears to be concept art depicting a beautiful fairy-tale castle somewhat in the aesthetic of the Nighthold.
So... what do we think?
As with any leak, we have to take this with a massive grain of salt.
That being said, this, to me, looks way more realistic than anything else I've seen so far. And we're getting close enough to Blizzcon that stuff like ads and other assets need to be disseminated to a larger group of people, which makes leaks far easier to come out.
I'll confess that any expansion that puts Bolvar the Lich King center-stage is probably one I'm going to be very excited for, though whether he'll play the role of the big bad or the big good is an interesting question. It also really makes me think about those fiery Death Knight sword models and rumors of a fourth spec. (I think I also saw references to the four types of death knight with the four horsemen, which would fit pretty well.)
So the big caveat is that I've got massive confirmation bias here because this, my friends, is what I really want the next expansion to be. It could easily turn out that someone just clipped together some cinematic-quality images to make that art still and photoshopped-together the expansion logo.
But seriously, if this is the big death-magic, undead-focused expansion, I might actually get the collector's edition this time (kind of wish I'd gotten it for Legion, frankly.) Because Scourge WoW is my favorite WoW.
No comments:
Post a Comment