Everyone has a fighting chance
If you were looking forward to taking part in Warfronts when World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth launches, you may want to temper that hope. According to one of Blizzard’s community managers, Warfronts will not be part of the launch experience. The game’s first warfront, Battle for Stromgard, will arrive in September.
A pair of interesting interviews about World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth have cropped up, one with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas and John Hight about the drama and issues around the expansion pre-event. The other is with former Blizzard developer Chris Metzen on the issue of nerd toxicity.
The final three cinematics for the World of Warcraft pre-expansion event, The War of Thorns, have arrived with today’s North American reset. In one, Jaina Proudmoore arrives at the Battle for Lordaeron and, in the other, Sylvanas Windrunner and Anduin Wrynn (and friends) have a short tete a tete. We’ll let you watch to see how it all plays out.
When the next World of Warcraft expansion was announced, players were told that the only way they would be able to experience the Battle for Azeroth pre-patch content was to purchase Battle for Azeroth. In a new post on the WoW community site, Community Manager “Ythisens” has announced that this is no longer required and that the Siege of Lordaeron will be available to all regardless of whether or not they pre-purchased BfA.
In an interview at ScienceAlert.com, Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi answered several interesting questions about storytelling in World of Warcraft. The interview was conducted prior to the start of the Battle for Azeroth pre-expansion event, War of Thorns, that has, to put it mildly, kicked up a lot of emotions with players. In one forward looking statement, Afrasiabi clearly indicates that the team knew that emotions would be running high, but urges patience with the unfolding of the story.
The centerpiece of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is the Heart of Azeroth necklace that players will receive almost immediately after the expansion launches. They will receive the necklace after assisting Magni Bronzebeard with the healing of Azeroth herself. Players will be able to empower it with Azerite to “awaken” four other armor pieces that can be equipped and that provide (mostly) passive bonuses to player power.
The World of Warcraft community site has been updated with a look ahead at content releases coming to the Battle for Azeroth expansion. The expansion will launch worldwide on August 14th and players can start making plans for the Uldir raid, BfA PvP Season 1 and Mythic Keystone Dungeon Season 1.
Since the launch of the Battle for Azeroth pre-patch content in World of Warcraft, players have been loudly complaining about leveling changes and the length of time it has been taking for players to move from one level to the next. Blizzard’s Ion Hazzikostas has gone on record as saying that, yest, something changed to make leveling much, much slower than before the update, but that the team is having trouble tracking down exactly where the problem lies.
The World of Warcraft in-game calendar has been updated with information about the release of the first Battle for Azeroth raid, Uldir. The calendar shows that the raid will open for Normal and Heroic versions on September 4th (NA – September 5th EU) and that the Mythic and LFR (wing 1 only) versions will open on September 11th. LFR Wing 2 is scheduled for September 25th and LFR Wing 3 will open on October 9th.
The PR campaign for the World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth expansion is ramping up in a big way. We’ve seen the Lucha Libre sponsorship, a burger campaign in New Zealand and now four brilliantly funny television commercials presumably for the US. Each one, Rainy Day, Kid’s Choice, Elevator and Bus, is themed around “It Matters”. Check them out for a great Tuesday chuckle.