World of Warcraft expansion revisits Draenor, Orc homeworld

The next expansion to the hugely popular World of Warcraft (WoW) will take players back in time to one of the series’ most iconic locales: the savage, former Orc homeworld, Draenor.

 

Warlords of Draenor was recently announced at Blizzcon 2013, according to Game Industry International, Arcade Sushi and GameSpot.

The expansion will not only have players revisit this old but new world, it will also raise the game’s level cap from 90 to 100, including one free instantaneous boost to level 90 for a single character. Other new features include upgradeable compounds or “Garrisons”, which is the game’s form of player housing; revamped character models for existing key races; as well as additional dungeon, raid and PVP content.

 

 

 

Revisiting a bloodier, darker past in Draenor

 

Before WoW took the world by storm, Warcraft was a groundbreaking series of award-winning real-time strategy games. While many players are aware of Warcraft III thanks to DOTA, many younger fans never had the opportunity to experience the classic stories of genre-defining titles Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, and their respective expansions.

 

Blizzard’s Warlords of Draenor aims to address this problem.

 

“What if those dark days could come again?” asked Blizzard’s Chris Metzen. “To forge a brighter future, sometimes you must confront the ghosts of the past.”

 

Warlords of Draenor will have players visiting old settings and meeting old heroes and villains by introducing time travel to Warcraft’s massive lore. “After the events of Seige of Orgrimmar, Garosh is taken away in chains,” said Metzen, giving further details about the expansion’s backstory. “Suffice to say he will be put on trail, but before the verdict can come down he escapes. Garosh has a new friend with a unique ability to bend time. Garosh goes back, he hates the Horde now with its coalition of trolls. He hates the Horde and everything Thrall stood for.

 

“Garosh’s intent is to redeem the Orcish ideal. He wants the Orcs to be proud again, and not encumbered by all these races. The critical part of his mission is to stop the moment the Orcs drink the blood of Mannorth. They will not be cursed. He will convince them there’s conquering to be done and build an Iron Horde. He will empower them with some of the technology he loves. He’s going to build a portal and lead his horde through it.”

 

The Blizzard team then proceeded to talk about Draenor and the various experiences it will offer the players: “Across Draenor’s savage jungles and battle-scarred plains, Azeroth’s heroes will engage in a mythic conflict involving mystical draenei champions and mighty orc clans, and cross axes with the likes of Grommash Hellscream, Blackhand, and Ner’zhul at the height of their primal power. Players will need to scour this unwelcoming land in search of allies to help build a desperate defense against the Iron Horde’s formidable engine of conquest – or else watch their own world’s bloody, war-torn history repeat itself.”

 

Draenor itself will consist of seven zones, including Nagrand, Shadowmoon Valley, and the Black Temple.

 

“Warlords of Draenor gives players a chance to take a commanding role in one of the Warcraft series’ most crucial conflicts,” stated Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime.

 

Instant leveling: No more grinding for one lucky character

 

To make things easier for those new to WoW and those who haven’t played it in ages, Warlords of Draenor will not only offer an instantaneous boost to level 90 for one existing character of their choice, it will also provide level-appropriate items for that character to help them get started. Draenor will also include an introductory area similar to the one at the start of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

 

“This expansion also includes features that make it easy for anyone to jump right into the action, whether they’ve played WoW at some point in the past or are just setting foot in Azeroth for the first time,” said the Blizzard team.

 

Finally, a play to 'zug-zug'

 

Once a player has picked a spot in one of Draenor’s seven zones, they can then start building a fully customizable compound called a “Garrison”.

 

From a single humble building, Garrisons can grow to support a thriving community of non-playable characters, as well as to include tall, defensive walls and several other buildings, each with a unique purpose of its own.

 

The Garrison is where players can recruit NPC underlings who can do the dirty work for them, such as collecting resources and even completing quests. These followers have their own abilities, stats and experience levels.

 

“The resources you’ll acquire during missions include both existing crafting reagents and Garrison-specific materials,” said Blizzard. “For example, if you assign a follower to a mining mission, you could receive ore, but you might also unearth stone, a new kind of resource used to construct and upgrade buildings.”

 

As for the buildings upgrades, some of them include an inn, which encourages new followers to join your compound; an infirmary that heals your followers more rapidly between quests; and a barracks, which allows more followers to embark on missions simultaneously. Players can visit their friends’ Garrisons, where they can engage in resource trading.

 

Deliciously pretty

 

World of Warcraft has suffered visually over the years. Thankfully, Blizzard has decided to update the graphics engine. For one thing, this means those ugly old 3D character models are getting a major facelift.

 

“We know that many of you already strongly identify with the look of your current character, so we’re dedicating a lot of time and resources to make sure these updates capture each race’s iconic identity and personality,” Blizzard said in a statement regarding the visual overhaul to the said character models. “We’re still in the process of determining which races will be available upon the expansion’s release, but our goal is to update all eight of the original World of Warcraft playable races, along with the Draenei and Blood Elves, over the course of the expansion launch and subsequent content updates.”

 

Back in October 2010, WoW’s playerbase was 12-million-strong. Recently, those numbers saw a staggering decline to 7.6 million. Despite this, WoW remains one of the world’s most beloved MMORPGs.

 

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor is set for release in 2014. — TJD, GMA News