World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is the upcoming seventh expansion set in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Legion. It was announced at BlizzCon 2017 on November 3, 2017. It became available for preorder on January 30, 2018, and it will be released on August 14, 2018.
The expansion will raise the level cap from 110 to 120, introduce the Kul Tiras and Zandalar continents, add dungeons and raids, add warfronts (20-player PvE mode against opposite faction NPCs), add uncharted islands, and introduce four allied races for each the Alliance and the Horde.
Video World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth
Gameplay
The expansion allows players to level up to level 120, an increase from the level cap of 110 in the previous expansion Legion. Initially, there will be ten dungeons included with 8.0 with Mythic Plus versions of the dungeons and the first raid, Uldir, being available soon after the game's release. Following the beginning of preorders and the release of four allied races in January 2018, the number of character slots per server was raised from 12 to 16. The number of available bag slots in the player's backpack, which has been fixed at 16 slots since the game's release in 2004, will also receive an increase if an authenticator is attached to an account.
Changes to gameplay
There will be a stat squish and item squish to lower the numbers used in the game, an example being a legendary item scaled for Antorus: The Burning Throne (the final raid for Legion) being reduced from item level 1000 to 330. Unique buffs will be added back; these buffs are class specific, i.e. mages' Arcane Brilliance, druids' Mark of the Wild, etc. Titanforging--something that allows for an item to be more powerful than normal--is still in the game; however, if the item is one of those affected by the Heart of Azeroth, then that item cannot be titanforged.
Changes will also be made to levelling in content released prior to Warlords of Draenor. The level-scaling tech introduced in Legion will not only be continued in the new continents of Kul Tiras and Zandalar, but will also be applied to content from prior expansions, allowing larger level brackets for lower level zones. Some examples include a zone like Westfall having its level bracket (at 10-15 as of Legion) increased to 10-60, whilst continents such as Outland and Northrend will now share a 60-80 level bracket. The aim of this change is to encourage more player choice whilst levelling and to allow players to experience the full story of a particular zone without overlevelling the relevant quests. Level scaling was made available with Legion's 7.3.5 patch.
There will not be as many class changes in Battle for Azeroth as there were for Legion, with some notable exceptions. "There will be a lot more to share going forward," Ion Hazzikostas says, "but in broad terms, there will be fewer class changes than in Legion. Not all experiments were successful (i.e. Demonology Warlocks). Survival Hunter execution needs work but we're committed to the melee Hunter."
Heart of Azeroth
The Heart of Azeroth is an artifact given to the player character from the world soul via Magni Bronzebeard. It is a necklace that can utilize the power of Azerite, a mineral that comes from the essence of the world soul. Azerite is similar in function to Legion's artifact power, in that it is gathered normally from playing the game and is used to upgrade an artifact; likewise, the Heart is similar in function to Legion's artifact weapons by having the capacity to be constantly upgraded. Unlike artifact weapons, however, the Heart is shared with all of the player's specializations. As more azerite is acquired, the player will be able to upgrade certain pieces of gear.
Allied races
The allied races, who were formerly neutral factions of Azeroth, can be recruited by completing quest chains. Four of these races were unlocked when the expansion became available for preorder in January 2018, and four more will be added after the game's launch.
The Alliance will be able to unlock the void elves (exiled blood elves who can tap into shadow magic, trained by Alleria Windrunner after her experiences on Argus), Lightforged draenei (draenei members of the Army of the Light who fought the Legion on Argus), Dark Iron dwarves (a sub-race of the in-game dwarves of Ironforge), and Kul Tiran humans (larger, more muscular versions of the in-game humans of Stormwind).
The Horde has access to the Nightborne (former night elves from Suramar), the Highmountain tauren (moose-antlered cousins of the in-game tauren of Mulgore), the Zandalari (progenitor of all of the trolls of Azeroth), and the Mag'har orcs (survivors of the Iron Horde from Warlords of Draenor).
When an allied race has been unlocked for a player, new characters from that race will start at level 20. If a player levels an Allied race from 20 to level 110 without using character boosts, they will be rewarded with a unique "Heritage Armor" for transmogrification that reflects the unique lore behind the race but is limited for use to that race. Doing the quests to unlock the allied races will also unlock the races' unique mounts for use by the characters of their faction. The void elves, Lightforged draenei, Highmountain tauren, and Nightborne, as races tied to the storyline for Legion, were made available with the preorder on January 30, 2018. The Dark Iron dwarves and the Mag'har orcs will be made available upon completing the "War Campaign" in Kul Tiras and Zandalar, and the Kul Tiran humans and Zandalari will be made available later in the expansion. Game director Ion Hazzikostas also indicated that additional Allied Races may be available in the future.
Warfronts
Warfronts will be a new form of 20 player PvE content. They will function similarly to battlegrounds but with more focus on base building, capture and control of territory and resource control to focus on Warcraft's RTS roots. The warfronts will not always be active on a regular basis since there will be a build up to each one.
Island expeditions
Similar to the 3-player scenarios in Mists of Pandaria, island expeditions are a new form of 3-player content that will provide dynamic challenges that involve battling against a group of either advanced AI NPCs or players in order to collect island resources.
PvP ruleset
The expansion brings a major change to the PvP ruleset on each realm. Every realm by default will only allow players to attack NPCs in the open world, with players able to toggle to PvP if they wish to be able to attack the other faction. Additional rewards will be given for being in the open world while PvP is enabled.
A new battleground called Seething Shore was previewed in Legion's patch 7.3.5. It is located in Silithus and set after the Antorus raid; it involves players battling to take control of Azerite resources in randomized locations. It was the first battleground added to the game since 2012's Mists of Pandaria.
Roleplaying (RP) servers will not behave the same way as the regular servers. The game director said, "The default behavior for RP servers in Battle for Azeroth will be that PvP flagging people would see other flagged players on that same server. We don't want to split up RP communities."
Art
Warlocks will get new spell effects; all the other classes received new effects in Legion. All male orcs will be able to toggle between the initial hunched posture and standing upright by using a barbershop, but the other races will not be able to toggle between two postures. There will be new druid forms for the allied races, like a Zandalari troll druid will have a raptor-based travel form.
Maps World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth
Plot
Following the events of Legion, the beginnings of a new conflict between the Alliance and Horde see Teldrassil burnt down by the Horde and the Forsaken capital of the Undercity taken by the Alliance, leaving Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms all but under complete control of their respective factions. Battle for Azeroth takes the two factions to the continents of Kul Tiras and Zandalar to recruit new allies in order to turn the tides of war.
Setting
The game is set immediately after the events of Legion. Two continents have been added within the Great Sea between the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor: Kul Tiras, one of the major human kingdoms, and Zandalar, the homeland of Azeroth's trolls. While the Alliance and Horde will initially travel to one continent respectively, both continents will be available to both factions at level 120.
Kul Tiras
The human nation of Kul Tiras will be the primary location for Alliance characters in the expansion. It is divided into three zones: Tiragarde Sound (which houses the Alliance capital of Boralus), Drustvar, and Stormsong Valley.
Zandalar
The troll empire of Zandalar will be the primary location for Horde characters in the expansion. Like Kul Tiras, it is also divided into three zones: Zuldazar (which houses the Horde capital of Dazar'alor), Nazmir, and Vol'dun.
Development
Battle for Azeroth started restricted alpha testing in early February 2018. Beta testing began in late April 2018.
References
External links
- Official website (US)
- Official website (EU)
- World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth on Wowpedia, a Warcraft wiki
Source of article : Wikipedia
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