Wrath of the Lich King details from 1UP
#1
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3161725

Most significant are the details about the Death Knight:
Quote:New Hero Class: Death Knight
World of WarCraft's first Hero Class is a plate-wearing tank/DPS hybrid that works a little something like this: When players hit level 80, they'll be able to embark on a quest (similar in difficulty to the Warlock's epic mount quest, back before the level cap was raised to 70) that unlocks the ability to create a Death Knight character. The Death Knight starts at a high level (somewhere around 60 or 70, though Blizzard isn't certain yet), so you won't have to grind your way back up all over again. It's intended as an alternative, advanced class for end-game use only.

Rather than using rage, energy, or mana, Death Knights have a special "rune sword" displayed beneath their health bar, onto which the player can etch six different runes (choose between Frost, Blood, and Unholy). Different abilities require different mixes of runes, and using abilities consumes the requisite runes until a cooldown timer causes them to be available again. Stuff like talents, spells, and other specifics are still being finalized. So are key questions like what races can be a Death Knight (start a Gnome petition now) and whether unlocking the Hero Class on one server means you can create a Death Knight on any server.

I, for one, welcome our new gnomish death knight overlords.
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#2
Quote:I, for one, welcome our new gnomish death knight overlords.
RAWRRR! Phear me!

I'm betting that they still will not add character slots to a server roster and those of us with a full list will continue to be screwed by an arbitrary limit.:angry:
Lochnar[ITB]
Freshman Diablo

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"I reject your reality and substitute my own."
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#3
Do you really need more then one of a particular class on a given server? Hopefully between the upcoming guild banks, and a chance to rework inventory with the xpac, the need for bank alts will be eliminated.
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#4
Quote:Do you really need more then one of a particular class on a given server?
yes
Lochnar[ITB]
Freshman Diablo

[Image: jsoho8.png][Image: 10gmtrs.png]

"I reject your reality and substitute my own."
"You don't know how strong you can be until strong is the only option."
"Think deeply, speak gently, love much, laugh loudly, give freely, be kind."
"Talk, Laugh, Love."
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#5
WowInsider also has a blog with a ton of info.

As a Priest lover, I got a kick out of their powerpoint slide that called Lightwell "LOLWell." Other nuggets:

Quote:Q: Thank you for addressing pitfalls. Holy Priests in PVE. Nihilum and Death and Taxes don't bring holy priests to raids. changes?
A: They will make changes to lightwell and circle of healing. Must be afraid of overcompensating. A lot of holy priests shifted over to shadow priest. Not just an issue with holy priests -- also because shadow is more compelling and pallies shine in healing efficiency. (Q wants the changes so his girlfriend will keep playing).

Q: FEAR WARD
A: Aggro. Gotta go. But we are expecting to spread it around in the expansion.

-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.
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#6
Hmmm, my question is, after you unlock the class are you able to roll it on any server you want? Or just on the one that has the 80 with the quest done.
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#7
Quote:yes

Then that's your choice. Don't complain that you can't make a new Death Knight because you want to have three of every class on the same server;)
ArrayPaladins were not meant to sit in the back of the raid staring at health bars all day, spamming heals and listening to eight different classes whine about buffs.[/quote]
The original Heavy Metal Cow™. USDA inspected, FDA approved.
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#8
Quote:Hmmm, my question is, after you unlock the class are you able to roll it on any server you want? Or just on the one that has the 80 with the quest done.

Quote:Stuff like talents, spells, and other specifics are still being finalized. So are key questions like what races can be a Death Knight (start a Gnome petition now) and whether unlocking the Hero Class on one server means you can create a Death Knight on any server.

Pretty sure that means that they haven't worked it out yet.
ArrayPaladins were not meant to sit in the back of the raid staring at health bars all day, spamming heals and listening to eight different classes whine about buffs.[/quote]
The original Heavy Metal Cow™. USDA inspected, FDA approved.
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#9
Quote:Then that's your choice. Don't complain that you can't make a new Death Knight because you want to have three of every class on the same server;)
Three of every class - 27 slots - yes, please! Since an account can only play one toon at a time, the number of slots is almost completely arbitrary. The only thing that comes close to a reason for the number is to limit bank alts. But if someone chooses to have a fleet of them, so what? They take up too much disk space? Don't make me laugh, it's dirt cheap these days. Blizzard could buy more space than anyone could ever fill with a couple million from under the sofa cushions in their executive break room.
Lochnar[ITB]
Freshman Diablo

[Image: jsoho8.png][Image: 10gmtrs.png]

"I reject your reality and substitute my own."
"You don't know how strong you can be until strong is the only option."
"Think deeply, speak gently, love much, laugh loudly, give freely, be kind."
"Talk, Laugh, Love."
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#10
Quote:They take up too much disk space? Don't make me laugh, it's dirt cheap these days.

I'd be more worried about the extra rows in the databases than the server space. Not from a space perspective so much as a speed perspective. WoW can handle what it does, but from past events we've seen it can't handle much more.
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#11
Quote:I'd be more worried about the extra rows in the databases than the server space. Not from a space perspective so much as a speed perspective. WoW can handle what it does, but from past events we've seen it can't handle much more.
Oh, come on. The game programmers would have to be complete idiots if they keep all the toons on all the accounts live in the active game database so it should have zero affect on game performance. And, the database programmers should be fired if the account query database isn't robust enough to handle an order of magnitude more entries than were perceived to possibly populate a server. Even if it was all designed to be as fragile as that, it was still a poor choice made at design time. Any knowledge of gamers should have said that, given the number of classes, alliance -vs- horde, and some specs playing almost like different classes, there would be gamers that want them all and were willing to put in the time to build them. It was easily foreseeable that 10 would be a roadblock for many players. It still plays out that it was an arbitrary choice and they won't change it because they don't hear enough people yelling about it.
Lochnar[ITB]
Freshman Diablo

[Image: jsoho8.png][Image: 10gmtrs.png]

"I reject your reality and substitute my own."
"You don't know how strong you can be until strong is the only option."
"Think deeply, speak gently, love much, laugh loudly, give freely, be kind."
"Talk, Laugh, Love."
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#12
Well, really, what's the issue, seriously? Pretty much every MMO, subscription or not, has a hard limit of characters any one account. Guild Wars has a pretty flexible limit, but it's initially low. City of Heroes/Villains has a limit of about... Five or six toons (I can't remember) per game, per server (And there's about four servers whatever region you're in). EVE Online has a limit of three characters, I believe, and only one server.

Fifty characters with a ten-per-server cap is pretty generous, considering.
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#13
Quote:Fifty characters with a ten-per-server cap is pretty generous, considering.

If it's a question of storage, I say keep the total number of characters available the same but allow more per server. Is it really that much of an issue to allow more than ten characters on a server?
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#14
Quote:If it's a question of storage, I say keep the total number of characters available the same but allow more per server. Is it really that much of an issue to allow more than ten characters on a server?

Apparently it is, otherwise they wouldn't have such a cap in the first place.
ArrayPaladins were not meant to sit in the back of the raid staring at health bars all day, spamming heals and listening to eight different classes whine about buffs.[/quote]
The original Heavy Metal Cow™. USDA inspected, FDA approved.
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#15
Quote:Well, really, what's the issue, seriously? Pretty much every MMO, subscription or not, has a hard limit of characters any one account. Guild Wars has a pretty flexible limit, but it's initially low. City of Heroes/Villains has a limit of about... Five or six toons (I can't remember) per game, per server (And there's about four servers whatever region you're in). EVE Online has a limit of three characters, I believe, and only one server.

Fifty characters with a ten-per-server cap is pretty generous, considering.

Eh, I disagree with your methodology, NiteFox. Blizzard needs to do what should be done for the success of WoW, not just what has been done in other games. For example: Many other MMOs allow instant teleportation of any character; WoW carefully balances it to keep the world 'big'.

Back to the question at hand, think about it this way: They're adding not just one class, but a class with an explicit promise of many more to follow. They really need a new set of "Hero Spaces,", which should be limited to the current types of hero classes. That fits with the philosophy of hero classes being a net gain and not a loss.
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#16
Quote:Apparently it is, otherwise they wouldn't have such a cap in the first place.

Well they said the same thing about the limit of 20 quests per character, that it would place a strain on the servers to increase that limit. And now we have 25-quest logs. Same with the debuff limit.

I am sure there are technical issues to be considered, but I think it's clear that they could give us more characters if they wanted. And since they are adding new classes it would be nice. Time will tell!
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#17
Quote:Well they said the same thing about the limit of 20 quests per character, that it would place a strain on the servers to increase that limit. And now we have 25-quest logs. Same with the debuff limit.

I am sure there are technical issues to be considered, but I think it's clear that they could give us more characters if they wanted. And since they are adding new classes it would be nice. Time will tell!

Adding 5 pointers to an object is a lot easier on space than adding a new object that can have hundreds of pointers.
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#18
Sorry, Lochnar :(

from http://www.blue.cardplace.com/newcache/us/711970495.htm

Quote:
The new hero class will take a character slot. We have no plans to add more character slots. So, much like with the addition of Draenei and Blood Elves, my suggestion would be strategic deletion if you want to add the new Death Knight to your repertoire.
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#19
Quote:Sorry, Lochnar :(

from http://www.blue.cardplace.com/newcache/us/711970495.htm
I had no doubt that it would not change and my opinion of their stance is known so, oh well - I'm not ready to kick the habit yet (although you are helping to wean me, Blizzard :angry::angry::angry:).
Lochnar[ITB]
Freshman Diablo

[Image: jsoho8.png][Image: 10gmtrs.png]

"I reject your reality and substitute my own."
"You don't know how strong you can be until strong is the only option."
"Think deeply, speak gently, love much, laugh loudly, give freely, be kind."
"Talk, Laugh, Love."
Reply
#20
Quote:I had no doubt that it would not change and my opinion of their stance is known so, oh well - I'm not ready to kick the habit yet (although you are helping to wean me, Blizzard :angry::angry::angry:).

Spotted this today for you, Loch:

Quote:Jeff did state that they may be unlocked for the entire account, and it's been mentioned that additional slots could possibly open up. It's just too early to say, most of these types of details are still in the early planning stages. Once we begin actually implementing them and locking them down to some degree of certainty we'll be be able to say "Yes, this is how it is" ... and then probably change it three weeks later.

Heh, y'know, it's in development, things are going to change or be shifted around. I wouldn't start clearing out space just yet.

from:
http://www.blue.cardplace.com/newcache/u...545297.htm
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