New World of Warcraft Addon

[maniac-kun]

A german newssite says at the new testrealm of the 2.1.0 WoW patch is a directory expansion02 and there is a map of Northrend (its the frozen land from the Warcraft3 Addon "The frozen Throne")



And Blizzard is holding a new Blizzcon so i guess they will announce the 2. addon at this event later this year.

source: http://www.krawall.de/web/World_of_W.../id,24534/s,,c
in moonspeak

old map source unknown:

[knoo]

Another fix coming in...

[speedpop]

At first when I heard of it I thought it wouldn't happen because of what they've said in the past. But I think that Blizzard might be a tad worried about the other MMORPGs coming out, people heading to greener pastures and all that... so they're going to release an expansion that will keep them playing WoW.

Perhaps in this one they won't have the Icecrown Citadel accessible for awhile, so you won't be able to take on Arthas.

[Jibber Hack]

Someone let this get out, or did someone get caught with their pants down. It's impossible to keep secrets these days!

[Emobacca]

I canceled my account a couple of weeks ago. Blizzard sure does know how to fondle my balls, damn them for that.

[Defcon]

At first when I heard of it I thought it wouldn't happen because of what they've said in the past. But I think that Blizzard might be a tad worried about the other MMORPGs coming out, people heading to greener pastures and all that... so they're going to release an expansion that will keep them playing WoW. Perhaps in this one they won't have the Icecrown Citadel accessible for awhile, so you won't be able to take on Arthas.

Much like you can't even take on Illidian or whatever his name is yet in Burning Crusade?

[SnakeXs]

No wonder Luke left.

[HomShaBom]

Much like you can't even take on Illidian or whatever his name is yet in Burning Crusade?

That was known even before BC release. Atleast on the official forums and other hardcore sites.

[maniac-kun]

Much like you can't even take on Illidian or whatever his name is yet in Burning Crusade?

in the upcomming patch 2.1.0 you can enter the black temple and fight illidan (if you have t4/5 sets and no life)

[Clouseau]

in the upcomming patch 2.1.0 you can enter the black temple and fight illidan

Yep and it's not like many guilds will be geared and ready to enter the Black Temple yet anyway. There's still more raid content left unconquered. Hyjal comes to mind.

[HocusPocus]

I'm bored to tears with WoW now. Just can't get into the raid crap. I had a good run with the game. I'm looking forward to the DC and Marvel universe MMORPGs from Sony and Microsoft. I've always been a bigger DC than Marvel fan, but the folks making the Marvel MMORPG look to be the superior developer house for a game like that. Who knows. Need something new and Warhammer, LOTR, etc. just ain't it. Tired of the fantasy themed MMORPG game.

[Belfast]

No big surprise there. Northrend was the only other logical choice for expansion at the moment.

[krypt0nian]

I'm bored to tears with WoW now. Just can't get into the raid crap. I had a good run with the game. I'm looking forward to the DC and Marvel universe MMORPGs from Sony and Microsoft. I've always been a bigger DC than Marvel fan, but the folks making the Marvel MMORPG look to be the superior developer house for a game like that. Who knows. Need something new and Warhammer, LOTR, etc. just ain't it. Tired of the fantasy themed MMORPG game.

You took every damn word out of my mouth. Let me know when you jump to DC/Marvel. Hopefully we'll hear more about them soon.

[bengraven]

No big surprise there. Northrend was the only other logical choice for expansion at the moment.

I never played the other Warcrafts and so was looking into the lore today. I was actually thinking "I wonder when they'll add Northrend?"

I'm cool with this, but I hope it's not all frozen.

[VictimOfGrief]

I'm so glad I quit that POS crack-addict game.

[KyanMehwulfe]

Northrend is about what WoW needs (as far as PvE goes) for me to return. A part of me hope it enters beta after their next game though since I rather be certain of testing that.

[Littleberu]

I'm so glad I quit that POS crack-addict game.

It might be a crack addict game, but it's not a POS game.

[Ramirez]

I'm not a big WC buff, WoW was my first dealing with the franchise, is Northrend an entire snow covered continent like I assume it should be? That would be hawt.

[speedpop]

Yes it is covered in snow.

[Acosta]

I am pretty sure Blizard won´t use Northrend so soon. Arthas is the top of the top they can use for this story arch, they won´t burn that card until they have well prepared the next Warcraft.

There are other options: Esmerald Dream, Maesltrom, taking a space shipe for another planet... I don´t expect Northrend until third or fourth expansion.

[speedpop]

I would've used Emerald Dream, or even a Pirates of Azeroth style with Undermine, Gilneas and Kul Tiras opening up.. maybe even an appearance with the Maelstrom. But right now Blizz seem to have their backs to the wall.

Lots of players are quitting (quite a handful in my old guild have left and now await Warhammer/Conan), the typical "who's quitting?" threads keep popping up on the official forums which are always a joke but it seems to be backed up just because from what I've seen in the game lately. Players quitting over the instance and rep grind, class issues, broken PVP balance, etc etc. It seems to be forcing the company to rethink about what to do to keep those in.

<lore rant>

And I'm not too sure about the whole Arthas shtick. Sure he's supposedly a tough mofo.. Death Knight (Arthas) x Shaman (Ner'zhul aka Lich King) will always be a nasty combo.. but I'm thinking the holy grail would be "the Nightmare" in the Emerald Dream. If it's causing two of the most powerful beings in Azeroth trouble for years because of it, well, who knows.

</end rant>

[Rahxephon91]

I am pretty sure Blizard won´t use Northrend so soon. Arthas is the top of the top they can use for this story arch, they won´t burn that card until they have well prepared the next Warcraft. There are other options: Esmerald Dream, Maesltrom, taking a space shipe for another planet... I don´t expect Northrend until third or fourth expansion.

I thought one of the Blizzard guys said that at level 80 is when players could stand a chance at beating Arthas.

Northrend will most likely be added in the WoW_Expansion_2. This was mentioned at BlizzCon, along with Nazjatar in a panel discussion as something they were dedicated to doing as a future expansion. (wow2.wmv from World of Warcraft.com) Blizzard officially confirmed that players will still be too low-level to fight Arthas at level 70, the new level cap in The Burning Crusade. It has since been mentioned by Drysc on the Official Forums that " . . . Player must be at least level 80 before they can face Arthas". This leads one to presume Northrend will be the NEXT Blizzard Expansion.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Northrend#Expansion

[echoshifting]

I'm pretty sure that's just the map of Northrend from one of the RPG sourcebooks.

You'd think if there was a directory in the 2.1.0 patch labeled 'expansion02,' somebody else would have found and verified this by now.

edit: Yeah it is from a sourcebook. Fake, fake, fake. Northrend is a logical choice but this is either a fake or a red herring.

[Saterium]

At this point WoW needs to ease up on being super hardcore to get anywhere. I had no issues with MC, BWL or even AQ40 at release - Naxx wasn't that bad either although mobs like Loatheb started showing a bit of a disturbing pattern.

Now everything requires flasks, max pots, etc... and it's retarded. I have no problem raiding everyday, I do have a problem with logging on 2 hours before a raid to farm cash for a dozen pots only to have to redo that process the next day.

Tossing Arthas and friends into the mix won't help, if anything it'll probably get worse.

P.S - Yes I know this patch is limiting the use of potions but it remains to be seen how encounters have been tweaked. (As far as I know anyway, I haven't kept up too much with WoW news since closing my account)

./rant

*EDIT* Since it's a fake, my guess is the next expansion will be either the Emerald Dream or Maelstorm (Azshara ftw?)

[Grecco]

I'm bored to tears with WoW now. Just can't get into the raid crap. I had a good run with the game. I'm looking forward to the DC and Marvel universe MMORPGs from Sony and Microsoft. I've always been a bigger DC than Marvel fan, but the folks making the Marvel MMORPG look to be the superior developer house for a game like that. Who knows. Need something new and Warhammer, LOTR, etc. just ain't it. Tired of the fantasy themed MMORPG game.

Warhammer is pllanning alot of cool stuff that you still should consider. The whole realm vs realm and main city sieges sound really awesome

but yeah i sortta echo your words. I quit Dec 16, after a year of heavy End game raiding.

[echoshifting]

My bad, not fake, more info:

http://forums.worldofwar.net/showthread.php?t=393418

[SatelliteOfLove]

I would've used Emerald Dream, or even a Pirates of Azeroth style with Undermine, Gilneas and Kul Tiras opening up.. maybe even an appearance with the Maelstrom. But right now Blizz seem to have their backs to the wall. Lots of players are quitting (quite a handful in my old guild have left and now await Warhammer/Conan), the typical "who's quitting?" threads keep popping up on the official forums which are always a joke but it seems to be backed up just because from what I've seen in the game lately. Players quitting over the instance and rep grind, class issues, broken PVP balance, etc etc. It seems to be forcing the company to rethink about what to do to keep those in. <lore rant> And I'm not too sure about the whole Arthas shtick. Sure he's supposedly a tough mofo.. Death Knight (Arthas) x Shaman (Ner'zhul aka Lich King) will always be a nasty combo.. but I'm thinking the holy grail would be "the Nightmare" in the Emerald Dream. If it's causing two of the most powerful beings in Azeroth trouble for years because of it, well, who knows. </end rant>

Some say it's too little in BC. I say it's too much. Yah, me and half the guild studied up on rep and what is and isn't needed soon right from the get-go. But alot of people either came out of the Dark Portal that January night and FREAKED when all the reputation bars started popping up like some kind of time sink Zangarmarsh which left them exasperated at all the Kara/Maulgar loot that was popping up on guys at the Shattrath City bank next to them. Or you had the people that went "KAEL'THAS MUST DIE NOWNOWNOWNOW. IT'S AVAILABLE FROM RELEASE, IT MUST BE SO.", so they blew thru shit to 70, blew thru everything to Revered, blew thru Karazhan, and blew thru mountainous farming sessions and now they're burnt out.

If true, I'm frankly amazed they even released Tier 4 and Tier 5 level stuff together; despite its piddling increases, you gotta admit it's alot when Tier 1 dungeons were all there was for 8 months til BWL openned its doors for business.

[sugaki]

I'd get back into it, if only it returned to its roots of a casual-friendly game. I freakin hated rep grinding, hated raids. I wanted to PUG 5-mans like LBRS and DM, but nooo... gotta do epic stupid dungeons where you farm junk, pretend to like people you can't stand in the guild so you build up dastardly DKP, etc etc. Yes, casual friendly means not giving the hardcore as much of a challenge, but then again they pass everything in 1/10th the time Blizzard intends anyway.

[Dina]

Good choice, Northrend has a lot more lore and artwork backing it up than the Emerald Dream or Undermine.

Not that I'll be playing it tho. I quit in february and haven't been happier since.

[ToyMachine228]

Yeah while some people say it's too early in the WoW life-cycle to pit us against Arthas, you have to figure that they're going to want to do it while the WoW population is at it's max, and before they release StarCraft 2, because that's going to pull a lot of people away from WoW.

And I'm sure if the encounter does make it into the next expansion it's going to be beyond hard. Just like Kel'Thuzad, and how hard Illidan will be I'm sure. Only the elite guilds are going to get there. Which makes sense, but kind of saddens me at the same time. My server's dead and part of the reason I play WoW is for cool encounters to do with the lore and I'll probably never see the really cool ones that I want to see.

[DonasaurusRex]

No big surprise there. Northrend was the only other logical choice for expansion at the moment.

yeah but i think some people were holding out for the emerald dream or nazjatar

at any rate a games a game, wow has lasted me 2 years off and on kudos blizz, i just dont know if im gonna be there for this one.

[calder]

I dropped my account 2 months ago, and I haven't looked back at all.


Until now.... :(

[Subitai]

Fyi, Arthas isn't top of the WoW bad guy food chain. Sargeras is. When there are rumors of defeating him at full power, the end of WoW is near.


Sargeras > Kil'Jaeden, Archimonde > Arthas-Lich King-Ner'zhul

[f@luS]

Fyi, Arthas isn't top of the WoW bad guy food chain. Sargeras is. When there are rumors of defeating him at full power, the end of WoW is near. Sargeras > Kil'Jaeden/Archimonde > Arthas/Lich King/Ner'zhul

do we know Arthas power after his fusion with the lich king? I remind you that sargeras has been single handled by medivh mother if i remind right.... and i think that archimonde is stronger than kil jaeden.
Yet there is still deathwing , if there is some kind of time travel , DW+the dragon artefact thing is the most powerful beeing in Warcraft world i guess

[ToyMachine228]

do we know Arthas power after his fusion with the lich king? I remind you that sargeras has been single handled by medivh mother if i remind right.... and i think that archimonde is stronger than kil jaeden. Yet there is still deathwing , if there is some kind of time travel , DW+the dragon artefact thing is the most powerful beeing in Warcraft world i guess

According to the book inside Scholomance when Arthas fused with the Lich King he became the most powerful being Azeroth has ever known. That being said there is a lot of other key figures that could follow after the Northrend expansion if it indeed does come next...Deathwing, Sargeras, Kil'Jaeden, among others. I imagine that Kel'Thuzad will return in the Northrend expansion too judging by the quest description when you turn in the Phlactery that dropped off him.

And there's definitely no guarantee that characters like Illidan and Arthas will die when defeated in WoW. Kel'Thuzad is obviously coming back.

And for your info F@luS, Archimonde is dead. He will probably appear in Hyjal however.

[f@luS]

Yeah hes dead but we know we will have some time travel adventures thats why i think that deathwingwith the the artefact (forgot the name , demon/dragon thing), may be the strongest beeing in the warcraft universe.
With time travel there could be so many wars and ennemy in fact we still dont know yet....like Ragnaros brother and sisters and even the other ancient gods...

[SteveO409]

I can't believe Blizzard is doing this too soon.

Illidan and Arthas are the two major celebrity villains in the WC lore. It would be a weird to kill off another major character you have in the franchise. On the other hand most WoW players never played WC's campaign - I guess they're trying to captivate the audience by going straight to another badass. Northrend is also a separate continent like Outland with a size that fits what you would expect of another expansion pack.

[ToyMachine228]

I can't believe Blizzard is doing this too soon.

How much longer do you think Blizzard is going to be able to support WoW's population of 8 million players? If not boredom, then StarCraft 2 or Diablo 3 or maybe even another MMO is going to start tapping into the WoW population. If Blizzard wants to keep the WoW population where it's at it's going to need to keep content cooler, better and more accessible than ever. And this expansion that we're discussing is probably another year away.

[Ether_Snake]

I know a lot of people who quit the game recently. I think this must have been happening on a pretty big scale and Blizzard KNOWS they have to keep on adding to the game.

A while ago I predicted that adding an actual boxed expansion would prevent WoW from growing its userbase much more. What happens is that new comers feel it will take too long before they can start playing with their level 70 buddies, so they won't bother. Then you add to that the people who get sick of the game and it doesn't take long before your userbase starts to shrink as people move on to other MMOs (usually in groups, to keep on playing together).

So I'm not surprised.

[ratcliffja]

What they really need to do is go back and totally rehaul the level 1-60 grind. 60-70 is really fun and blows away just about anything in Azeroth. If you have to level all the way to 80 next year, even fewer people will go all the way from level 1 without getting burned out. I haven't even raided in the expansion yet and I'm starting to get a bit sick of it. If they won't want to put effort into adding better questing in Azeroth, at least make quests give more experience. Also, rep grinding is a terrible way to extend gameplay. I really like a lot of steps they took with the expansion, but more rep grinds and the 1-60 grind really make the game feel tedious rather than fun.

[Rancid Mildew]

Oh my goodness. If that level cap rises to 80 again in less than a year, I'll be very annoyed. I don't think I can handle another exponential rise in exp points. It just gets so boring. I think Blizzard should maybe raise the cap by five and require attunement to enter Northrend or something of that nature.

As a side note, I think Blizzard could do much better if they turned Warcraft lore into books designed for normal people.

[ToyMachine228]

Oh my goodness. If that level cap rises to 80 again in less than a year, I'll be very annoyed.

Well 1-60 does suck. But 60-70 was quite enjoyable. Mostly because the questing all had a common theme...Outland, Burning Legion, Illidan, etc. And questing in Northrend would be very cool as well. Themed after the Scourge, Arthas etc.

[Prime crotch]

Blizz already took a great risk with the first expansion, a lot people quit before it hit and Blizz will now, or at least try, make a new expansion each year to keep people busy.

[maniac-kun]

blizzard should offer new players an option to pay like 30$ and they get lvl 60.. i actually quittet the game because leveling from 1-60 is damn boring and i never had a char over 55.. blizzard keeps ignoring the casual gamer.. i hope diablo 3 is at least fun to level
leveling in wow takes to long and the quests are all the same

[speedpop]

Oh my goodness. If that level cap rises to 80 again in less than a year, I'll be very annoyed. I don't think I can handle another exponential rise in exp points. It just gets so boring. I think Blizzard should maybe raise the cap by five and require attunement to enter Northrend or something of that nature.

The game does not need more attunements or rep grinds. Granted it's an easy way to keep the hardcore happy that they are filling up their weekly progress bar and feel like they are achieveing something, but attunements are so god damn stupid that it's one of the reasons why people are quitting the game in the first place.

[joesmokey]

I think where Blizzard failed with the expansion is with the choice to redesign the gear with new formulas. While not a bad idea if implemented correctly, the way they did it was that basically the new "upgrades" of your gear was just getting back the stats of what you used to have (talking about the best naxx had to offer), and that's where people (like myself) mainly got burned out from.

[John_B]

You guys need to chill a bit. Yes, of course there is a new expansion in the works, but we won't see that released for quite a while. There is a new huge content patch about to be released, and much more content in the future. Also they probably have plans for arena to last more than one or two seasons.

[ToyMachine228]

You guys need to chill a bit. Yes, of course there is a new expansion in the works, but we won't see that released for quite a while. There is a new huge content patch about to be released, and much more content in the future. Also they probably have plans for arena to last more than one or two seasons.

Yeah definitely dude. I mean the ELITE guilds are just clearing SSC. Like two of them. They'll get nerfed eventually, we'll all get in there. After that there's still The Eye, Hyjal, Black Temple, and if they decide to add that Zul'Aman place. They're adding a new Arena next patch. They're adding new quest zones. And if this Northend expansion is real we're probably looking at at least another year from now.

So chill, enjoy Burning Crusade content and wait for BlizzCon.

[FLEABttn]

I think where Blizzard failed with the expansion is with the choice to redesign the gear with new formulas. While not a bad idea if implemented correctly, the way they did it was that basically the new "upgrades" of your gear was just getting back the stats of what you used to have (talking about the best naxx had to offer), and that's where people (like myself) mainly got burned out from.

Decay of stats wasn't implimented with the gear new gear formulas. Most stats had a natural "decay" with each level in regular WoW (i.e. while at level 60, it was 28 agi per crit with rogues, at level 30 it was far less).

[joesmokey]

Decay of stats wasn't implimented with the gear new gear formulas. Most stats had a natural "decay" with each level in regular WoW (i.e. while at level 60, it was 28 agi per crit with rogues, at level 30 it was far less).

That's not necessarily what I'm talking about (the level decay). The new pieces of gear at 70 that are supposed to give you the stats back from the decay, were still nothing really compared to the old stats that you had at 60. A lot of the pieces from, say Karazhan, were mainly sidegrades from Naxx gear, making most of the dungeon worthless except for the weapons.

Compared to Naxx and the level of gear you got out of the dungeon, the risk vs. reward just isn't really worth it right now in TBC. Just look at the drops from A'tal.

Anyway, enough thread derailment :).