Got some fresh intel for you boys regarding some upcoming content for Blizzard games.
Some internal stuff, first off: >Some of the upper heads are regretting not attending Gamescom this year, as many content updates are lined up to be revealed soon and they feel it was a missed opportunity >From my understanding, we have a new hero for HotS, 8.2.5 patch info, launching Diablo Immortal, general stuff like that. >Current subscriber numbers for WoW (as of last month) are about 4 million, down 23% YTD. >Most subs are in China, as our partner NetEase has them set up on a cheaper sub model a few years ago. They only pay about $11/mo (USD) equivalent, cheaper with the 3-mo option. >Few decisions are actually made regarding China. It's not mentioned in our morning huddles. I can't speak for the top heads, though. >Activision does NOT have a DIRECT role in the development of our games. However, they DO have a say in the budget. We're partners, of course they do. This impacts things like what features get cut for any of our games, which is WAY more often then you think. >Current morale is beginning to tick up, as we get closer to Blizzcon. Many things will be shown, including Diablo 4 (I've seen a bit of it, and it looks fucking great).
Now for what's coming between now and Blizzcon. I only work on WoW, so I have little information as to what the other games have
>Expect a "What's Next" in the next couple of Weeks with, I believe Jeremy Feasel, showing off some details with Patch 8.2.5, with the PTR going live that following week. >Current plan is for 8.2.5 to launch in late September, to avoid the Classic launch in August. >8.2.5 will bring the Goblin/Worgen model updates as well as their Heritage armor. During the quests to achieve them, Worgens will finally claim Gilneas as their capital city, and Goblins will reclaim Undermine. >Undermine will also play host to a new, small hub for both Horde and Alliance, very similar to Mechagon. >Small new town called Pyrix acts as a quest hub. >New dungeon, Kaja'mite Mines, the final boss of which is called Rakalaz, a giant void-lizard thing. >Gilneas will also have some daily quests and stuff, but no dungeon or anything significant. >Dragon Isles will be a new zone, located north of Eastern Kingdoms. >Wrathion will finally make his return, the entire quest line/zone will be learning what he has been up to these past few years.
Leo Hughes
>Also in 8.2.5, you will learn of Sylvanas' whereabouts, and players will track her down. >She traveled to Helheim to meet with Helya. She was not defeated the last time, and we deliberately told players she was still alive through an Island Expedition "quest item" called Ring of the Reefs, but no one does Islands so we figure this will be a surprise for most of you. >Helya grants Sylvanas access to the Shadowlands through a rift in the veil >Players will follow her (unseen) and it will be revealed that the Void/Old Gods are consuming the Shadowlands, swallowing up all the lost souls. >It will also be revealed that Bolvar was the one who told Vol'jin to make Sylvanas Warchief >The reason is that Sylvanas, as Undead, is impervious to being controlled by Old Gods, and Bolvar needs her help to save the Shadowlands, or else all souls that die would fall to the void, in eternal agony - the same agony Sylvanas experienced when she killed herself >No Warfront for 8.2.5 >Also, no new island expeditions >No allied races for this patch, although there will be a new "Azerite-Infused" Goblin that will be shown off in Undermine, they're using the spiffy new models too. We expect players will want them as Allied Races, but we don't plan to (they're baddies). >Vulpera is not being considered as an allied race. >Mecha-Gnomes are, however, and there will be a new Mecha-Gnome companion for Alliance in 8.2.5, which requires exalted rep with them.
Noah Thompson
Now, what's coming at Blizzcon for WoW >8.3 will be showcased, followed by the next expansion reveal. >8.3 will be Nyalotha. >The final boss of the expansion is BOTH Azshara and N'zoth (at least the shadowy tentacle bits). >The Void was consuming souls in the Shadowlands to "power up" N'zoth, so to speak. >The final raid will result in Azshara's permanent death, deep within Nyalotha itself, which is where her soul will be absorbed by N'zoth. This is the only reason N'zoth brought her back to life, was so she can die in her "proper" place - Nyalotha. >"Her third death" refers to Azshara herself. 8.2, The Rise of Azshara, was actually speaking of her "resurrection" at the end of the raid >8.3 is called, at the moment, "All Eyes Opened" (yes, I agree, it's stupid) >8.3 raid will also feature Il'gynoth, but no longer as a tree eye ball. Now he's a grotesque, twisted monstrosity the size of the Stormwind Cathedal. >Xal'atath will make a few appearances, she will "pretend" to aid the players before backstabbing them.
Nathaniel Bennett
Next expansion: >Currently called "The Black Empire", although there has been some discussion on calling it "The Void Empire" (I hope for the first, personally) >All of the Old Gods are released from their prison as a result of N'zoth harnessing enough power. >N'zoth being the weakest Old God is a lie. He is the most powerful, and most cunning. He will not be the final boss of The Black Empire, but rather he is being saved for the expansion after. >The Black Empire expansion will squish the current levels down to 60, with the new cap being 70. >Mount riding skill will be adjusted slightly. Riding will still be available at level 20, with epic at 30, and flying at 40. >Zones will be redone. Mostly new textures, models, and overall "HD", like Arathi Basin was done. However, the quests will largely be redone to have a singular story line. >Old Zones will be fully scaleable from 1-60 now. >New level cap will be 70. >New zones scale from 60-70. >Death Knights start at level 18 now, finishing their starting zone at 20 (for mounts).
Blake Rogers
>Old expansions will basically be Timewalking expansions. For example, a bronze dragon (in SW or Org) will ask if you wish to relive events of the downfall of Illidan, starting at level 20. This is how you play through BC content now. >WotLK content is similar, a bronze dragon will ask if you want to relive the events of the downfall of the Lich King. Also level 20. >The same goes for MoP, WoD, Legion, and BfA. Cata zones will not be touched in the remake, so you can experience them whenever. >The Black Empire will rise in several zones, particularly in what we call "dead zones", which are small mountainous areas between zones that were left untouched in the Cata revamp. >Zones will be healed of the destruction left by the Cataclysm, but thanks to new tech, we can break zones with phasing and have it healed as the expansion progresses. This is how you "push back" against the Empire. >Talent trees are making a come back, a new "infinite" style talent tree, which allows Paragon style progression. Small, incremental power gains, such as a talent that increases crit chance by 1% per point, "soft-capping" at 5%, but allowing further points to be dropped in for 0.1% gain, up to a hard cap of roughly 10%. >Current talent tree will remain, but drastically changed. Most talents will be changed to "active" abilities instead of passive (passives go in the new tree). This allows you to utilize your current tree to change depending on your content preference, and the new talent tree as an all-around class tree (as points in the new tree will remain no matter what spec you choose).
Carter Cox
I don't believe this for a second because >leaks on Yea Forums and especially >Vulpera is not being considered as an allied race.
What's the next Overwatch hero gonna be? Tell us anything about them. I feel like the HOTS staff (what few remain) are the only people who give a shit about what they do in Blizzard. Makes sense they were the ones to get shuttered.
Cameron Miller
You are so full of shit you might as well not bother with dumping the rest
Zachary Ortiz
>one person makes a shitty fake leak way too early >suddenly everyone starts posting fake leaks everyday
You guys realize both legit Legion and BfA leaks didn't happen till the last content patch was already out. Why are people jumping out of the wood work to shill their wishlists in a LARP so fucking early?
Brayden Wood
You should probably pay attention to the fucking fuckups Blizz did back during BfA launch. Nazjatar and Mechagon were already being drafted and hap mapfiles back in the strings of the beta, along with Plunder Isleand Ny'alotha. We already know Plunder Isle is the next Mechagon. No Dragon Isle, no Undermine. Fucking retard.
Cooper Davis
>>It will also be revealed that Bolvar was the one who told Vol'jin to make Sylvanas Warchief
Then why do you go to Bolvar and he tells you he didn't? Do you even play the game before making fake leaks?
James Howard
>>Vulpera is not being considered as an allied race.
Brewfest icon, cinematic reference in the cinematic files and the new race specific mount positions just added in 8.2 literally say otherwise.
Do your homework before you make a fake leak.
Henry Jones
.3 will be showcased, followed by the next expansion reveal.
No. Literally has never happened in the history of WoW and literally never will happen.
Juan Hall
As for other games, I don't work on them so I have very limited knowledge. Some things I do know though:
>HotS new hero will release in August, it's a Starcraft 2 hero but I don't remember their name. I think it was a protoss though. >Diablo Immortal will be released in October >Warcraft 3 Reforged Beta will begin next month >Nothing really new on the Hearthstone front, they're gearing up for Blizzcon though. >The Overwatch team is working on their new game, it will be shown at Blizzcon. No new hero in the works atm, afaik.
Many files get pushed into beta builds that don't actually make it into the game. Barrens Warfront was just a test map that was in the alpha or beta, I believe, but we never continued with it as a map because the zone was too "tight", if you will. Plunder Isle was considered for an Island Expedition, but we don't have any plans to do any more island expeditions. No one does them. Literally no one. The reason Bolvar lies is because he doesn't want anyone fucking up his plans. This is specifically why I stated Vulpera won't be a race. Strings don't actually mean anything, and some of our guys put stuff in just to fuck with people. They love fucking with dataminers.
Xavier Anderson
Expacs placeholder name is just the new continent (BC's was "Outland", Wrath's was "Northerend", etc. Only exceptions were Cataclysm, Legion and "Battle") They literally don't come up with the title till closely before release.
It's also not going to be Black Empire/Voidshit.
Lincoln Baker
There's way more than strings for Vulpera, which you would know if you were an actual dev.
Also Barrens Warfront was only found in the strings, actual map files for Nazjatar, Nyalotha, Mechagon and Plunder Isle were there.
Camden Nelson
>No new hero in the works atm, afaik. You retard. You absolute fucking buffoon. I was waiting for you to fuck up even further. youtube.com/watch?v=HXG-c8joi4c Skip to 1:37. This was released 4 days ago. You fucking idiot.
James Reed
Honestly? All things considered, not too bad if this leak is true, unfortunately it won't be because we've had threads like this like 6 different fucking times in the past month
Carson Cooper
>No one does them. Literally no one. Weird there's been a massive spike in Expeditions since the changes in 8.2 and they just said in the last watercooler vid they have more planned, yet you're acting like no one plays them and they're basically being scrapped.
Bentley Bell
You do realize none of the real expac leaks are ever this in-depth or wide in coverage? It's very brief recollection of some specific keypoints.
Dominic Nelson
>leaks on Yea Forums happen relatively frequently
Christopher Walker
No negativity in the dojo!!!
Leo Campbell
you know what happens more frequently, by a thousandfold? fake fucking leaks, all the fucking time, every fucking day
>Small, incremental power gains, such as a talent that increases crit chance by 1% per point, "soft-capping" at 5%, but allowing further points to be dropped in for 0.1% gain, up to a hard cap of roughly 10%. That sounds fucking horrible
Jason Cruz
There is no "new continent", other than Azeroth itself. As with Cata, the placeholder is either Black Empire or Void Empire. Still might change. They don't want it to be too close to "TBC" (ie TBE), which is why they are considering TVE. Oh, that's neat. Well, like I said, "afaik", Overwatch is not my department and I don't have any friends from there who can fill me in on anything. I don't wanna give away which specific team I'm on, but I can tell you there definitely aren't any new islands we've worked on. We do have a couple we finished early EARLY on though, which certainly can be used, but need updating with the new scripts.
Brayden Davis
>He Still no Junkertown Queen hero then
Cooper Gutierrez
>Current subscriber numbers for WoW (as of last month) are about 4 million, down 23% YTD
Props for at least going with a more realistic number for your fake leak instead of being like "bro they have 10 subscribers" like most of these.
Brody Reed
We'll never have completely accurate numbers as long as asians pay by the minute to play
Colton Powell
i have a hard time believing theres no allied race added in 8.2.5 or 8.3 considering we had none so far in 8.2
vulpera and mechagnomes are most likely, with mogu or ogres for the Horde so they finally get an actual monstrous AA
>CTRL+F "Chess" >Nothing Blizzard always fashionably late to whatever the current trend is, as usual.
It's sad too because HotS repurposed into Auto Chess would annihilate the other games in the genre right now on brand recognition alone.
Jonathan Reyes
>mogu or ogres for the Horde so they finally get an actual monstrous AA Easily my most wanted races, but you and I both know the ogres will never get in, ESPECIALLY the mogu. Those motherfuckers are evil, I don't think there's been a single instance of a friendly mogu.
Juan Kelly
>would annihilate the other games in the genre right now on brand recognition alone. it didnt happen with MOBAs or Overwatch though did it?
Ethan Morris
Overwatch was a new IP and HotS was way too late
If they were on-time with an Auto Chess entry and just used HotS assets for pieces they'd be the biggest game in the genre.
Ian Powell
We've had Ogres on the shelves for a long time. Originally wanted to add them in WoD, but it didn't fit right with the lore (yes, I get the irony). They will come eventually, when it feels right.
Naga were also on the shelves since.. Vanilla I think?
Hudson Turner
> Those motherfuckers are evil, I don't think there's been a single instance of a friendly mogu.
the island expeditions have reintroduced a lot of races with quests that basically set them up as Allied Races
>Mantid have a new queen, fuck knows what she will do Maybe the new empress will be benevolent / brainwashed by yulon / becomes the bug celestial and make the rest of the Mantid interested in aiding Pandaria instead of being a literal locust swarm
>Mogu necropoli have suddenly appeared in previously secret enclaves, thus causing tem to return, whoaaa!!!
this just sounds like the necrons from warhammer, whats stopping Blizzard for making up a neutral group? the shan-xiun dynasty of mogu have festered in their catacombs for millennia, reduced to dormancy because their king is petrified into inaction but his extreme will imposes the same status quo upon the rest some zandalari ship finds the place, fucks up and get ousted, ask the Horde Champion to help we arrive there, beat the fuck out of the king and convince the rest of the mogu to join the horde or face annihilation because the shan-xiun code of honor dictates that whoever fucks up the king becomes their new ruler the mogu join the horde against their will because they arent retarded automatons like the rest of their kind
why is this impossible when we have shit like Void Elves and Draenei?
Leo Mitchell
the problem has always been fitting armour on them, when no gives a shit
ok the mantid one sounds like theyll be cunts again, but idk, blizzard has done 180s before and maybe the pandaren are just braindamaged and think the mantid are up to no good when in fact they are using azerite to help pandaria or w/e
Ethan Richardson
they have the same model as draenei with the exception of their feet
an exception they can like work around when they could put armor on the abomination thats the KT male rigs
Robert Torres
>>The final raid will result in Azshara's permanent death, deep within Nyalotha itself, which is where her soul will be absorbed by N'zoth. This is the only reason N'zoth brought her back to life, was so she can die in her "proper" place - Nyalotha. >>"Her third death" refers to Azshara herself. 8.2, The Rise of Azshara, was actually speaking of her "resurrection" at the end of the raid This is absolutely gay and waste of mommy Azshara. Fuck blizzshit.
Believable: >Some of the upper heads are regretting not attending Gamescom this year, as many content updates are lined up to be revealed soon and they feel it was a missed opportunity >Expect a "What's Next" in the next couple of Weeks with, I believe Jeremy Feasel, showing off some details with Patch 8.2.5, with the PTR going live that following week. >8.2.5 will bring the Goblin/Worgen model updates as well as their Heritage armor. During the quests to achieve them, Worgens will finally claim Gilneas as their capital city, and Goblins will reclaim Undermine.
Not believable: >Undermine will also play host to a new, small hub for both Horde and Alliance, very similar to Mechagon. >Small new town called Pyrix acts as a quest hub. >New dungeon, Kaja'mite Mines, the final boss of which is called Rakalaz, a giant void-lizard thing. >Gilneas will also have some daily quests and stuff, but no dungeon or anything significant. >Dragon Isles will be a new zone, located north of Eastern Kingdoms. >Wrathion will finally make his return, the entire quest line/zone will be learning what he has been up to these past few years. All of that in a small X.X.5 patch? Fuck you.
The idea about the Shadowlands and the Void being tied together is neat, tho.
I won't even comment on the 9.0 "leak" because it's so stupid
Daniel Robinson
I want a Night Elf wife
Nathan Smith
Holy fuck, thanks for pointing this out. Had absolutely no idea about this
Aiden Ward
Don't you have better things to do than make up fake shit?
Carson Phillips
This sounds more like a wish-list desu
Oliver Gutierrez
>wife I got that wife pussy I got that wife pussy I got that wife pussy I got that pussy on lock
I got that wife pussy on lock, 24-7 Whenever she lets me, I’m in same-pussy heaven And the best part about it Is no one else can have it And also I can’t have it Unless she says I can I see a girl on the street And I can’t, so I won’t See my wife at home and I would But she hates my guts
Wife pussy I got that wife pussy I got that wife pussy I got that pussy on lock
Jordan Jones
>Helya grants Sylvanas access to the Shadowlands through a rift in the veil >>Players will follow her (unseen) and it will be revealed that the Void/Old Gods are consuming the Shadowlands, swallowing up all the lost souls. >>It will also be revealed that Bolvar was the one who told Vol'jin to make Sylvanas Warchief >>The reason is that Sylvanas, as Undead, is impervious to being controlled by Old Gods, and Bolvar needs her help to save the Shadowlands, or else all souls that die would fall to the void, in eternal agony - the same agony Sylvanas experienced when she killed herself As expected for whoever for read the broacast texts during the alpha
The amount of loose ends they've introduced and just dropped is astounding, even just in BfA alone and ignoring shit like Sylvanas' deal with Helya last expansion.
Andrew Davis
>The reason is that Sylvanas, as Undead, is impervious to being controlled by Old Gods
>Current subscriber numbers for WoW (as of last month) are about 4 million
Fake
Aaron Bailey
yes nigger, a comic character same way the other metric ton of comic characters are in the game
Ayden Brooks
>>The Black Empire expansion will squish the current levels down to 60, with the new cap being 70. Super based is true.
Kayden Foster
No, that sounds like way too much work. Also people don't like expansions that "just" revamp the existing world.
I dont believe you
Andrew Rodriguez
>What's the next Overwatch hero gonna be? Gay and black
Isaac Cox
>>Current subscriber numbers for WoW (as of last month) are about 4 million, down 23% YTD. Not even remotely close, LARPer.
Samuel Clark
the nigger 007 was leaked on Yea Forums
Lincoln Wright
What about starcraft?
Luke Wood
Describe Diablo 4 if you've really seen it
Logan Nguyen
>>Zones will be redone. Mostly new textures, models, and overall "HD", like Arathi Basin was done. However, the quests will largely be redone to have a singular story line.
Does this mean Orgrimmar will finally be redesigned and all that awful metal shit that Garrosh put up will be torn down and will be replaced with traditional Orcish buildings and architecture?
Noah Barnes
Imagine spending the time writing all this bullshit for attention on a chinese gold farming site.
