you said the drainei or whatever was for the horde.. thought id let you know.

i sure hope the out door pvp comes soon, also the BE are broken. I mean really does any other race have those kind of racial skills? its just bs...

Blank thanks for the tip, we finally got the fix up.

socketed items are totally separate from enchantments.

thanks guys!

I really hope all those changes will put fresh air into WoW ...

Thanks for the upate my friend.  But sadly it sounds like more of the same for WoW.   They had nothing to say about PvP except "we will see".  That tune hasn't changed since Beta.  Bad news for those of us wanting more World PvP.

What did the nether drake look like? Did you see it being flown, or hanging out at a hitchin post?

I can't get the thing to play in Wimamp, I jsut get audio no video. Is it beccause it's in .avi format? If so how do I change this?

$10 bucks says they will, patch it within 4 weeks of release.

Overpowered abilities, 2 more races, elves in the horde and daemons in the alliance WTF. Wow they added more content. The game still sux.

Sorry but how biased can the article get? "It seems that Blizzard is starting to move the game into a better direction from the stagnant end game we are all playing now." So you grind an extra 10 levels and then redo the same boring endgame all over again? What a load of bollocks!!! It will always be stagnant because blizzard believe everybody loves 40 man raids and keeps forcing everyone to do them to compete for gear.

The article has shown nothing but the same level of ignorance i've came to expect from this new blizzard... horde class having overpowered pvp talents while the alliance race has pve talents which are next to useless... do they even read the forums from alliance people complaining about pvp? Talk about generalising or what expecting every pvper to go horde.

The pvp news is just more of a load of BS we have also came to expect from blizzard, blah blah blah, we are looking to enhance world pvp blah blah blah.. yeah we frigging heard this in December last year and what new things have we had? Two new 40 man raid instances (like we don't already have enough of them) and a "casual" epic set which is about as casual friendly as the honor system.

For me, the expansion offers two new races (which does sound cool,) flying mounts which will probably take an amazingly stupid amount of time to grind for as i've also come to expect from blizzard and some more wait for it... wait for it... instances WHOOPDEEDOO... well I for one, won't be getting the expansion as it does anything but breath new life in an already stale game and instead, offers more of the same, just at higher levels. Blizzard really have gone down hill since there days of Starcraft and Warcraft 3 and if they had any decency left in them, they would sack that everquest bumming piece of crap for the lead designer... I mean if it wasn't for that instance jerkoff, we would probably have a game where proper warcraft fans could have enjoyed with would have bought out the WAR in Warcraft.. o well, time to wait for warhammer onilne where we can hopefully play the game everyone expected WoW to be.

This was a great Preview!   Lots of good info and details.  Actually answered  a question I have had for a while (Classes For Blood Elves).

Well Done!

There is going to be a torrent of online games. A lot of WoW players are close to collapsing wihn exhaustion and a WoW burnout is just around the corner. When better graphic / better gameplay / bigger MMO's come online, my estimate is late 2006 early 2007, WoW may very well see a huge drop-off of subscribers.

Nonetheless there will be WoW for years to come. I can see like 5-10 servers in the various regions in 2015, which is way in the future. However by then there will be a hell more content than now, most bugs ironed out and a game with a brand familiarity and sentimental fan base big enough to make people swoon. We may see a WoW2, with higher resolution, better gameplay, a bigger world and many original features as soon as, what, 2010?

I am enamored with aspects not usually covered in the game. I'd love to see some development. What if someone big offers 10 million $ to hire a virtual area in the entrance square of, say, the Undercity? Imagine those big doors opening up and beyond is an online store that sells fantasy stuff, WoW memorabilia, clothes? How much would such a virtual environment worth? How much profit would it generate?

Even if there wont be a virtual store in the UC I am bloody curious to learn what is beyond those doors.

That brings me to a new speculation. What if Blizzard created a standard format for new content approval? An editor anyone can use? That would allow people outside the company creating instances, parts of a city or even land areas. If blizzard sets up a screening process, a testing phase, players could generate new content, be reimbursed in a decent manner, and contribute to the growth of the game a whole lot faster than it does now.

Right now Blizzard adds an instance once a month or less and a major upgrade less a year. If they keep that up that'll be 5 continents and maybe 50 instances over the effective (revenue generating) lifetime of WoW. But what if you could create an infrastructure, linked to a good forum-based testing system, for creating such new content? I bet WoW could see as much as 25 new continents and hundreds of original instances before 2010. That is a whole lot steeper playing field for the competition and would make WoW damn more addictive to the regulars.

This could be expanded laterally. Create a ratings system for magic items; Players could be allowed to design items, create the 3D graphics and create the bonuses and qualities. A +25 str bonus would have a distinct, discrete value; Right now as a Rogue I will have to muddle through the aquisition of Shadowcraft... but what if I could opt for maybe 10 player created variants, each with their own unique features?

The same could be done with spells or even character classes or eventually with abilities. Allow programmers to tangle with those aspects and who knows what'll come up. The end quality control would rest with Blizzard, so no worries about sillyness creeping into the game.

I design stuff in Second Life. I can create a texture, add a few primitives and before you know it you have a nice looking T shirt. It's great fun to see people walk around with stuff you created months ago. It gives you a way to contribute which feels extremely rewarding. I bet Blizzard could create such a system, with solid checks and balances, that would allow the game to grow a lot faster, with good looking, theme-compatible content.

What would my first ideas be?

A new class: probably named "soldier", a variant of the warrior. He doesn't focus as much on agro but more on DPS. Plus he gets choice of a load of "pets" which we call henchmen. I could envision a high level Soldier adventuring with an entourage of 2 NPC crossbowmen, a pikeman, a sapper and a team of ballistamen. 6 man? could be done. Each would inflict way less damage than regular 60, but if positioned just right they'd be a bloody effective and fun choice for class.

Instances? Loads. Undersea instances with air pockets. Cave instances with nothing but suspension bridges. An instance in a world tree. Instances on floating islands. An instance composed of two gigantic levitating battle ships. An instance game composed off steering a huge pirate ship up to another vessel, ramming it and then boarding it. The same with 5+ ships like a BG between factions.

Factions? Neutral ofcourse, led by goblins, with ogers and succubi/incubi as player race. They could be designated as enemy by either side (betrayal !)  on the spur of a moment, but could join with either side in instances.

Loads more ideas: email me dagonweb(at)hotmail(dot)com for job offers !