14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Blizzard working on World of Warcraft continues to bring improvements to the core mechanics of the upcoming Warlords of Draenor, with a big set of changes already made based on the alpha testing, but the company is also ready to talk about the overall philosophy linked to the expansion.
One of the studio’s goals seems to be to convince players to return to older raids in order to explore classic MMO locations and see how they have been modified in positive ways since they were first introduced.
An official blog post says that those who get back to older World of Warcraft content will be able to get more lore details, get access to items that can be transmogrified, find the Battle Pets that are now associated with older bosses, or find mounts.
The developer adds, “Perhaps most importantly, it can be great fun to explore the environments that are featured in older content, or play up the fantasy of being the lone adventurer exploring an enemy’s fortress, facing down hordes of bad guys, and standing against the odds to defeat a great evil. Often music and environments are exclusive to certain Raids, and there’s nothing quite like experiencing the art in its original context.”
Blizzard says that with the current configuration of the MMO, gamers who are level 90 should be able to solo play through all the raids up to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
The studio also offers more details on Karazhan, which “became accessible to intrepid explorers in Burning Crusade patch 2.0.3., way back in 2007 (yes, it’s been that long). Like the flavor text says, to get to Karazhan, you’ll need to get to the Eastern Kingdoms and then travel to Deadwind Pass. Karazhan is festering in the southern reaches of the zone, and unless you have Atiesh, you’ll have to fly or ride to get there, as there aren’t any flight points in the area.”
Blizzard also delivers a lot of info on the items that can be found in the raid and the types of weapons that gamers can secure for their characters.
The team also runs though the types of challenges that gamers will have to deal with in Karazhan and asks the community to talk about how they would improve the experience.
The Warlords of Draenor expansion for World of Warcraft will arrive before the end of the year and an official date will be offered soon.