Blizzard has gone and turned the world of Azeroth upside down as they prepare to remove the once sacred law that, in order to play as a Death Knight, you had to already have a level 55 character. The idea that you could start out as a level 55 was a huge change for World of Warcraft, but now with level 90 boosts available it's "no longer relevant." The requirement lifts in the next patch.
Most of World of Warcraft's races got a visual overhaul in the game's latest expansion, Warlords of Draenor. Players running Blood Elf characters, however, drew the short straw. Fortunately Blizzard is working on an upgrade for elves too, acknowledging that "it’s not ideal to see a mix of older player character models next to newer player character models".
The insanity that is Black Friday is almost ready to plague the United States, simulating if you will the national panic of a zombie apocalypse-style rush for consumer goods. Blizzard has joined the madness. That means there are savings to be had for StarCraft 2, Diablo 3 and of course the big cheese, World of Warcraft. The latter includes all expansions up to Warlords of Draenor, the latest addition.
World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor may have had some problems during its launch, but it's still doing Blizzard no damage in the subscriptions department. As well as already selling over over 3.3 million copies, the expansion has helped WoW reach over 10 million player subscriptions. Not bad for a game released back in 2004.
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor landed a bit like a drunk orc on an ice rink when it dropped last week, so it's not surprising that Blizzard feels it has some making up to do. Step one was announced by executive producer J. Allen Brack on the game's forums yesterday; giving five days of subscription back yo any account active as of the launch on November 14.
Launching a new MMO expansion is rarely a smooth process at the best of times, but Blizzard has had to deal with a wave of DDoS attacks as they release World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor into the wild. Posting on the game's official forums, community manager Micah Whiple writes that the studio is doing its best to fix log-in issues and realm stability after "a distributed denial of service attack, that resulted in increased latency.”
A lot of people have played World of Warcraft. Most of them will have their own stories to tell, of battling dragons, mining for ore and throwing the monitor out of the window after being ganked by a troll shaman for the six thousandth time. Looking For Group is Blizzard's documentary on the WoW phenomenon, still the most-played MMORPG in the world ten years after its release, and it's available to watch for free on Youtube.
Yet more spoilers from the world of legal paperwork as Blizzard Entertainment has trademarked something called "Eye of Azshara" in the mystical land of Benelux, which really isn't a zone in Azeroth, but in Europe instead. Now in lore, Azshara was the highborne elven queen who sort of let Sargeras and the Burning Legion out of their crazy box. Surely then World of Warcraft is already gearing up for its next expansion?
Wargaming today unveiled the third episode in a series of developer diaries for the naval battle game, World of Warships. The new video diary focuses on aircraft carriers and their impactful effect on the battlefield. Watch the World of Warships team explain how these impressive vessels stand out from battleships, cruisers, and destroyers by bringing a unique RTS style gameplay to the fight. Discover the four different types of warplane squadrons (Dive Bombers, Torpedo Bombers, Scouts and Fighter Planes) that can be launched from an aircraft carrier and learn how to turn the course of the battle by using each of them.
Did you just accidentally type out the world 'delete' on your World of Warcraft character? Well not to fear because soon Blizzard will let you circumvent time and space to get them back. There are some limitations with this new power of the gods in our hands, such as only characters over level 50 can be recovered "at any time," while others are time sensitive.
Blizzard has revealed eight of the dungeons you'll be exploring when World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor drops in November. Auchindoun, Bloodmaul Slag Mines, Iron Docks and Skyreach will take you up to level 100, where you'll take on Blackrock Spire, Everbloom, Grimrail Depot and Shadowmoon Burial Grounds.
In part three of its ongoing series looking at World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor's new Garrision feature, Blizzard takes a look at followers. These are the NPC adventurers and craftspeople that populate your holdings, and just like you they can level up and gain new abilities.
World of Warcraft's 'Iron Tide' update rolls out today, preparing the game for the launch of expansion Warlords of Draenor later this year. Iron Tide features a new world event, a raft of changes to the special abilities of each class, and several other important gameplay changes.
There's life in the old dog yet - the number of World of Warcraft subscribers has actually gone up over the last three months, as anticipation for upcoming expansion Warlords of Draenor increases. According to Blizzard the number of subscribers has risen to 7.4 million, up from 6.8 million since the end of the previous quarter.
Blizzard revealed that its global user base for World of Warcraft has reached an enormousness size of 10 million, extending its user base by 1 million since November. Asia has the highest number of subscribers with 5.5 million, whilst North America comes in second place with 2.5 million and Europe gets in last place with 2 million.
Blizzard Entertainment and Vivendi Universal have released the 2.41 patch for World of Warcraft. This 5MB patch is largely a bug fix patch. Download the World of Warcraft 2.41 patch.
The Official World of Warcraft website has a very interesting piece about modern day Blacksmithing, where a small dedicated group of “real life” armor blacksmiths inspired by the World of Warcraft universe were eager to show the community just how skillful they are by creating some great Warcraft armor. There's an interview with a member of the German Workshop Group BattleHeat (the people that created this armor), they talk about the creation of the paladin armor set, the challenges they face and their ideas for the future.
Blizzard has apparently begun alpha testing the major add-on for their online MMO, this will be the second expansion pack to World of Warcraft. It adds a new land, new gear, new quests, and most importantly for WoW fans it will let adventures eventually tackle the Lich King himself, the leader of the Scourge.
Blizzard Entertainment and Vivendi Universal have released the 2.4.1 to 2.4.2 patch for World of Warcraft. This ~15MB patch focuses on gameplay enhancements, but also makes some UI adjustments and, of course, corrects bugs. Download the 2.4.2 patch.
From the latest test server patch notes the first mounts will now be available from level 30 instead of 40. Training in Apprentice Riding will cost 35 gold. This seems to have been met with mixed reactions from the WoW community with many 'traditionalists' angry at the change.