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World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor

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World of Warcraft:
Warlords of Draenor
Developer(s)Blizzard Entertainment
Activision Blizzard
Publisher(s)Blizzard Entertainment
Designer(s) Tom Chilton
Cory Stockton
Ion Hazzikostas
Brian Holinka
Chadd Nervig
Composer(s)Russell Brower
Neal Acree
Clint Bajakian
Sam Cardon
Craig Stuart Garfinkle
Edo Guidotti
Eimear Noone
SeriesWarcraft
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, OS X
Release
  • NA/EU: November 13, 2014
[1]
Genre(s)Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Mode(s)Online

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, often referred to as Warlords or WoD, is the fifth expansion to the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Mists of Pandaria. It was announced on November 8, 2013 at BlizzCon 2013,[2] The expansion released on Thursday, November 13, 2014 at exactly midnight (PST).[1]

The expansion raised the existing level cap from 90 to 100 and introduced player-built, upgradeable garrisons,[3] as well as upgraded player character models of those races released prior to Cataclysm.[4]

Plot and setting

The expansion is set after the events of Mists of Pandaria and takes place in an alternate universe on the world of Draenor, the original homeworld of the orcs as it appeared in Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, prior to its destruction in the ending of that game and the creation of Outland as featured in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Legendary characters of Warcraft's past, such as Grom Hellscream, Ner'zhul, Gul'dan, and Blackhand, will appear.[5]

At the end of Mists of Pandaria, Garrosh Hellscream is overthrown as Warchief of the Horde by a combined Alliance-Horde force and taken into custody by the Pandaren so that he can stand trial for the atrocities he committed in Pandaria. However, before he can be judged, Garrosh escapes captivity with the aid of a renegade bronze dragon (Kairoz), and travels to an alternate timeline, the orcish homeworld of Draenor prior to the rise of the Horde. Once there, he prevents the orcish clans from drinking the blood of the demon lord Mannoroth, which led to their corruption by the Burning Legion and played a major role in the events of the first three games. The clans unite into an "Iron Horde", using technology Garrosh brought from his reality, beginning a war of conquest on Draenor, and leading to the building of a Dark Portal that would allow them to travel through time and lay siege to the Azeroth of the present era.[6]

In Patch 6.0, a group of adventurers storm into the Gorian Empire's capital of Highmaul, and proceed to challenge and defeat the Iron Horde and their allies. Through the raid, the adventurers kill a Warlord of Draenor, the Warlord of the Shattered Hand Clan, Kargath Bladefist. They then proceed to slay the creations of the Gorian Empire, including the Spellbreakers, who play a large part in the history of the Gorian Empire's rise to power. As well as the Sorcerer King, Imperator Mar'Gok. The Blackrock Clan, led by Blackhand, challenge the Horde and Alliance to assault their domain; the Blackrock Foundry. The adventurers take up the challenge and storm through the forge, destroying important Iron Horde machinery, and establishing a blockade to the Iron Horde's military conquest. The adventurers eventually proceed to Blackhand's rise, and slay him.

Gameplay

The expansion allows players to level up to 100, an increase from the previous cap of 90 in the previous expansion Mists of Pandaria. It also includes 8 new 5 man dungeons and 2 raids.[7] There was also a rebalancing of raid difficult by the addition of a new difficulty called Mythic, which became the hardest version of the raid system, while expanding the flex difficulty to include heroic and normal.[8][9] Players are able to build and upgrade their own garrison, a personal area in which they can recruit non-player characters (or NPC's) to carry out missions to earn them items. The garrison is assembled from the individual buildings like stables or armories, increasing their size and modifying their appearance.[10]

The development team made a number of changes to the player versus player (PvP) aspects of the game. They altered the way that PvP items behave when players fight, reducing crowd control abilities, and added a new PvP-focused island area called Ashran containing various objectives and battles for players to participate in.[11]

Development

For this expansion the development team changed the file format used by the game, moving from the MPQ file format used previously to a new file format called CASC.[12] The game will also contain updated character models with improved textures and a higher polygon count; the developers have said they want to "keep the soul of the original characters" while upgrading them to the quality of the Pandaren race released in the previous expansion, and the Worgen and Goblin races released in Cataclysm.[4] Game performance has been taken into account with this expansion, with the developers saying that there will be no big drop in performance as a result of the models and that there will be no reduction in the amount of visuals on screen during large fights.[13]

Warlords of Draenor was playable at PAX East and entered alpha testing in April 2014.[14][15] Blizzard invited players to enter the beta in June 2014.[16] Players who pre-order the game receive a free level 90 boost for one character. Subsequent boosts may be purchased for $60 each. Blizzard said they made the price high because they did not want to devalue the experience of leveling a character.[17]

With this expansion, Blizzard has once again shown desire to begin creating expansions at a more frequent rate, as often as once per year.[18]

Launch issues

During the launch, players attempting to log in experienced long queue times and issues with latency. Blizzard noted that they had experienced DDoS attacks during the launch day as well as unexpected issues from the high concentrations of players in various locations. Players received five days of subscription time as compensation for the issues.[19][20][21]

Reception

Warlords of Draenor has been met with critical acclaim since its release. It currently holds a rating of 87 on Metacritic.[22]

Sales

Warlords of Draenor sold over 3.3 million copies within the first 24 hours, and subscription numbers increased from 7.4 million[25] to over 10 million.[26]

References

  1. ^ a b "Warlords of Draenor™ Launches 11/13". Blizzard Entertainment. 2014-08-14.
  2. ^ Fahey, Mike (8 November 2013). "Warlords Of Draenor Brings The Original Warcraft Trilogy To WoW". Kotaku. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  3. ^ Stuart, Keith (8 November 2013). "Draenor expansion announced". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  4. ^ a b McWhertor, Michael (November 8, 2013). "See World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor's revamped orcs, dwarves and gnomes". Polygon. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  5. ^ World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor BlizzCon 2013 FAQ - World of Warcraft
  6. ^ Fahey, Mike (8 November 2013). "How World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor Goes Back in Time". Kotaku. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  7. ^ "WoWHead - Warlords of Draenor dungeon overview".
  8. ^ Hafer, T.J. (November 9, 2013). "World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor - Everything there is to know so far". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  9. ^ "MMO Champion, Nov 12".
  10. ^ Farokhmanesh, Megan (November 9, 2013). "World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor Garrisons detailed". Polygon. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  11. ^ Farokhmanesh, Megan (April 23, 2014). "World of Warcraft designers offer 30-minute deep dive into Warlords of Draenor's changes". Joystiq. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  12. ^ Stickney, Anne (April 3, 2014). "Warlords of Draenor Alpha testing begins". Joystiq. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  13. ^ Maiberg, Emanuel (April 17, 2014). "World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor's new character models won't affect performance". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  14. ^ Pitcher, Jenna (April 3, 2014). "World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor enters alpha testing". Polygon. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  15. ^ Sarkar, Samit (March 17, 2014). "Blizzard bringing Diablo 3 PS4, Hearthstone iPad, more to PAX East". Polygon. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  16. ^ Royce, Brianna (June 27, 2014). "Blizzard dispatches Warlords of Draenor closed beta invites". Massively. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  17. ^ Makuch, Eddie (February 25, 2014). "Why World of Warcraft character boosts cost $60". GameSpot. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  18. ^ Carlson, Patrick (November 21, 2013). "Blizzard wants new World of Warcraft expansions every year". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  19. ^ Prescott, Shaun (November 13, 2014). "World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor expansion experiencing launch problems". Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  20. ^ Pitcher, Jenna (November 13, 2014). "WARLORDS OF DRAENOR RECOVERING FROM LAUNCH DAY DDOS ATTACK". Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  21. ^ Brack, J. Allen (November 18, 2014). "Message from J. Allen Brack". Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  22. ^ a b "World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor". Metacritic. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  23. ^ a b Kollar, Philip (November 26, 2014). "World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor Review: An Iron Fist". Polygon. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  24. ^ Sullivan, Lucas (December 2, 2014). "World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor". GamesRadar. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  25. ^ Pitcher, Jenna (October 14, 2014). "World of Warcraft subscribers hit 7.4 million ahead of expansion". IGN. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
  26. ^ Kain, Erik (November 19, 2014). "'World Of Warcraft' Tops 10 Million Subscribers Following 'Warlords Of Draenor' Expansion". Retrieved November 20, 2014.


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