The PVE dungeon panel just ended at WWI, and it looks like the game is getting even more casual… It’s nice to see that Blizzard knows who is keeping their pocketbooks nice and fat. Skimming over the MMO Champion notes, it looks like there are some very nice changes incoming for players on a time budget, as well as some accommodations for players who are a little on the noob side.
Heroic dungeons are being made slightly easier, and devs will not be creating encounters that require specific classes, although presumably there will still be standard archetype requirements. Quests and dungeons will be more intimately tied together, which will be a nice change from TBC not really giving you any motivation to step foot in an instance other than to break up the grind. Looks like some of the RP might be coming back into MMORPG. For people who like to play the game in smaller slices, or have no say in the matter, you’ll be pleased to know that they’ve stated that they think a lot of TBC dungeons were too long, so most WOTLK dungeons will take under an hour to complete. Attunements for Heroic dungeons are also being removed.
For those of you who hate rep grinding as much as I do, feel free to join me in thanking Blizz for the new “Champion” system, which will allow you to wear the tabard of a faction so that you can gain rep with that group whenever you complete a task for another faction. The specifics haven’t been clarified yet, but considering my Rogue has crap rep with pretty much everyone and the only one I’m working on is SSO, I think it would be quite nice to be able to earn a little bit of Skyguard or Cenarion Expedition rep on the side.
Gear competition is going to go up a bit, but to ensure that everyone gets a shot at something, the token system is going to be more widely implemented this expansion. In short, it looks like the devs really want players to experience as much of the content as they can this time around, and are providing plenty of motivation to explore the new Northrend instances. The Stratholme instance in Caverns of Time also sounds cool as hell, utilizing the original voice acting from WC3, and it is fully scripted as well. Let’s hope the PVP panel is this good!
- Stray
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