WoW: Warlords of Draenor - What You Need to Know Part 1

Since Blizzard announced the new WoW expansion, Warlords of Draenor, we have been inundated with a mass of information about it; so much so that it's rather hard to keep track of it all. Here's the place to be for all your expansion questions!

The thing to note about Warlords of Draenor is that it is seriously changing World of Warcraft and many of the features. It looks like Blizzard have really looked at some player feedback over the course of its inception and development, and tried to implement as many game changing features as possible, keeping fans happy, and hopefully bringing more back to WoW.

So here are the basic facts:

1. The level cap will be raised to 100
2. Level 90 Boost
3. Garrisons
4. Followers
5. There will be brand new character models
6. New world - Draenor
7. Epic wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey plot
8. Orc Clans
9. World PvP Zone
10. Serious Inventory clean up
11. New 'Collections'

The easiest thing to do is address these points one by one.

1: Level Cap raised to 100.

This is fairly self explanatory, there will be 10 levels added on to the current level cap, for you to master in the new world. That's double the last two expansion packs, so hopefully a lot more questing content can be squeezed in before hitting max level.

2: Level 90 Boost

This boost is for one character when you buy Warlords of Draenor, and can either be an existing character or you can create a new one and jump straight into the new action. The decision to include this is definitely a bonus to new and especially ex-WoW players. Perhaps you only played until Wrath of the Lich King, and want to come back and try the new expansion, but don't want to have to level through Cataclysm and Pandaria before you can join your friends in Draenor. Well, problem solved.

3: Garrisons

Ever wanted your own home in Azeroth? A place to call your own; to customise and decorate as you see fit? Well, welcome to Garrisons - it's all this and more. This new feature lets you have, not just your own home, but your own mini-town for yourself! Even better you can build it in whatever zone takes your fancy! Your Garrison can be levelled up, gaining improvements as you go, with places like shops, profession buildings, and so much more. You can even show off your defeated foes heads in your Town Hall! These buildings come with their own benefits; for example, have a mine in your Garrison and you'll be able to get hold of your own private mineral source. You can even get someone else to mine it for you. Check out our Garrison gallery here.

4: Followers

Your Garrison comes equipped with your very own troupe of loyal (and nameable) followers. These followers can do all sorts of things at your bidding. You can send them on quests, dungeons and even raids, and then after they've completed these things (which they can do while you're offline) you can come back to some shiny rewards, including some sweet epic loot.  

5: Brand New Character Models

That's right, after nearly nine years of the same cartoony characters that we know and love, they are finally getting a well deserved groom and update! Not only will their appearance be brought into the 21st Century, they are getting proper facial animations too. That means you can make your toon actually smile - or scowl, if that's more your thing. Of the three races, Orc, Dwarf, and Gnome, that have been revealed so far, the difference between the new and old is most definitely noticeable, and you can check them all out in our character models gallery here.

6: New World - Draenor

Draenor is special, because once players reach its mystic shores, the majority of them will have been there before... but in the future. Yep, due to the plot, which will be explained next, the new world of Draenor, the home of Orcs and Draenei (the latter having fled their previous home) is actually what we currently know as Outland, only in the past. With seven new zones to explore, you'll see some familiar ones, and others you'll notice the drastic change from the modern day equivalent. Each zone has distinguishing features to help make it memorable and to stand out from the rest, a smorgasbord of potential hidey holes for wannabe explorers to delve into.

In Draenor there will be two capitals, rather than just the neutral Shattrath zone in Outland. The Alliance hub will be the eternal night set city of Karabor (currently the Black Temple) in Shadowmoon Valley, and the Horde's counterpart will be Bladespire Citadel in Frostfire Ridge. There are also several islands located off the shores of Draenor which will make up some of the patches intended for the expansion. If you'd like to have a look at some of the new zones, you can do so in our zones gallery here.

7: Epic Time Travelling Plot

In probably the most exciting plot to grace Azeroth in a very long time, players will actually get the chance to travel through time and battle with some of the most legendary heroes of all time. Due to Garrosh Hellscream escaping his trial, certain events unfold, and along with the help of a friend who can bend time, he travels to the past, to Old Draenor specifically,  in order to unite the Orc Clans living there, to form the Iron Horde who plan to invade and conquer Azeroth. 

With the aid of Thrall, we in turn will have the chance to travel through a changed (red) Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands on a suicide mission to stop Garrosh from achieving his evil, evil goal. It will be interesting to see whether the Horde and Alliance will themselves put aside their differences and work together to extinguish Garrosh's plans once and for all.

8: Orc Clans

There are several Orc Clans inhabiting Draenor, and we will get to meet all of them. The clans and their respective chieftains and locations are as follows:

• Frostwolf Clan - Cheiftain: Durotan, Location: Frostfire Ridge
• Shadowmoon Clan - Chieftain: Ner'zhul, Location: Shadowmoon Valley
• Shattered Hand Clan - Cheiftain: Kargath Bladefist, Location: Spires of Arak
• Blackrock Clan - Chieftain: Blackhand, Location: Gorgrond
• Warsong Clan - Chieftain: Grommash Hellscream, Location: Nagrand
• Bleeding Hollow Clan - Chieftain: Kilrogg Deadeye, Location: Tanaan Peninsula
• Stormreaver Clan - Chieftain: Gul'dan, Location Shadowmoon Valley

For a little more information on the chieftains and their agendas, you can check out our chieftains gallery here.

9: World PvP Zone

On a little island called Ashran off the coast of the Tanaan Jungle, will be a 24 hour, non-stop, sandbox PvP event. This sort of PvP content has never before been seen in World of Warcraft and promises to be absolutely epic. There will be lots of different objectives and quests to get involved in, think more early Alterac Valley than anything else out there currently.

10: Inventory Improvements

Bags in WoW have always been somewhat of a sore subject for players. Especially if you're a little bit of a hoarder. From quest items to crafting materials, from gear to gift-wrap; there's always something to organise, and more often than not, trying to find items can be a real pain in the bum, even with the search feature. Running out of space in your increasingly expanding bags is a constant problem, and a real pain in the ass.

Well it looks like several steps have been taken to improve this one. Firstly, adding to the search feature will be the option to categorise your items, take the stress and arduousness out of manually reorganising everything, so you can assign specific items to specific bags. Secondly, quest items will no longer be stored in bags (hooray!) so that will free up a nice amount of space. Thirdly, you will be able to craft... wait for it... straight from your bank! No more flying to and fro, grabbing bits and bobs trying to get what you need and realising you forgot something and having to make the trip all over again. Although it is a small thing, it will make a huge difference to any player who has invested many an hour into their chosen professions. Nice one Blizzard.

11: New 'Collections'

If you're a collector of pets, mounts, or both, then you'll be pleased to hear that there will be even more things for you to collect with the addition of Warlords of Draenor. The two definite categories being added are 'Toys' and 'Heirlooms', with 'Tabards' being considered as a possibility. Not only does this mean you can search around for any of the pieces you are missing, but because they are stored in your collections tab, they won't be needing any bag space! It gets even better though, because the real beauty of this scheme is that, like pets and mounts, these things will become truly account bound and accessible on any character on any realm! Brilliant.

 

That's the end of Part One folks, keep an eye out for Part Two!