Episode 1 of Blizzard's new podcast, cunningly titled "Blizzcast," went live today. It's in two segments, one hosted by CM Karune and featuring Blizz artist extraordinaire (and, in fact, art director) Samwise Didier, and the second hosted by CM Drysc and featuring Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan. This installment is audio-only, but they promise that future episodes will include video as well. For now you can hear the podcast or read a transcript of it, and check out some Samwise art,
at Blizzard's site. A more extensive overview is forthcoming, but for now, I imagine what you really care about is Jeff Kaplan's hints for the upcoming
patch 2.4:
- The Sunwell raid is tuned for players in T6 gear, but there is no attunement.
- The Sunwell faction, called Shattered Sun Offensive, is a joint effort by Aldor and Scryer to drive the Burning Legion out from the Sunwell Plateau. Jeff calls it "the culmination of the Aldor and Scryer storyline." Many Aldor/Scryer NPCs in Shattrath will be changed to SSO NPCs.
- SW25 gear will be a Tier 7, but the looks will not be class-specific; the example he gives is that the Pally plate and the Warrior plate will be differently-colored versions of the same models -- but you can, apparently, rest assured that the itemization will be better than AQ40.
- The 5-man dungeon will be about as hard as Shadow Labyrinth or Shattered Halls. There are four bosses. On normal mode, the first three drop ilvl 110 blues (normal dungeon blues), but the last boss drops an ilvl 115 epic, on par with a lower-level Karazhan epic. In heroic, the first three bosses drop ilvl 115 epics, and the last boss drops an item on the level of Prince Malchezzar's drops. Buffing the loot like this means it will still be relevant for people that have been playing BC for a while now, and also it gives newcomers a chance to catch up.
As one more bonus, Blizzard is giving away 12 Logitech 5.1 speaker sets and Starcraft II hats to lucky folks who write feedback emails about the podcast to them; details on this are at the
Blizzcast home page. I for one really enjoyed hearing the voices behind some of the avatars I see every day, and of course hearing some new details about 2.4. Keep it up, Blizzcasters!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-10-2008 @ 3:53PM
Buuty said...
Is it that hard to make new armor and weapon models?
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1-10-2008 @ 6:36PM
Shniz said...
It is kind of hard because they have to make sure each armor and weapon fits on every race well, and they have to think up the stats to make sure that it is balanced
1-10-2008 @ 3:56PM
Mystical Parrot said...
the prizes are us only by the looks of things :<
was a nice podcast, not much extra information really but enjoyable listen nonetheless
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1-10-2008 @ 3:56PM
totalbiscuit said...
I'd just like to say that I really enjoyed the first Blizzcast (or as we are now calling it BLIZZCAT). It's only two issues were technical, that of bed-music that was too loud, and vocal panning on the first interview that was too extreme. Aside from that, great job.
I'm very pleased to see that they're getting the idea and not having attunement on Sunwell. I heard disturbing rumours that it was going to require the killing of the Illidari Council. Now players can experience it regardless of their progression and be thrown back by nothing more than their lack of profeciency as a raid and no doubt to some degree, their gear.
Better to let everyone try and fail, than only allow a few in to even have a shot at success.
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1-10-2008 @ 3:56PM
Michael said...
Whats an SSO NPC?
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1-10-2008 @ 4:03PM
Todd said...
Shattered Sun Offensive = SSO
1-10-2008 @ 4:01PM
Todd said...
"...and also it gives newcomers a chance to catch up."
Sure. By the time the masses finally get advanced enough to really take on the Sunwell, the expansion will be out and the Sunwell will be happily forgotten.
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1-10-2008 @ 10:33PM
Azbulldog said...
This reminds me of Naxxramas and now its becoming the new Karazhan of WotLK hmm...
1-11-2008 @ 10:36AM
Todd said...
Perhaps in the NEXT expansion installment the Sunwell will move to x location and become the next next Karazhan. ;)
1-10-2008 @ 4:02PM
Nightravyn said...
Shattered Sun Offensive faction npc
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1-10-2008 @ 4:23PM
George M. said...
The Loot Level needs to increased to be the equal of Gruuls and Magtheridon, level 120-126, otherwise I see lot of DE's and shards on the AH.
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1-10-2008 @ 4:27PM
George M. said...
The Loot Level needs to increased to be the equal of Gruuls and Magtheridon, in Heroic Mode, levels 120-126, otherwise I see lot of DE's and shards on the AH.
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1-10-2008 @ 4:27PM
George M. said...
The Loot Level needs to increased to be the equal of Gruuls and Magtheridon, in Heroic Mode, levels 120-126, otherwise I see lot of DE's and shards on the AH.
Reply
1-10-2008 @ 4:31PM
Max said...
So wait...the loot is going to contain an official tier 7 set or just the same level of improvement of one tier set over another?
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1-10-2008 @ 4:34PM
Eliah Hecht said...
Kaplan's words, from the transcript:
"It will be definitely a tier above Tier 6 so Tier 7 gear, however there’s not class specific sets in terms of armor looks."
I assume a comma ought to be inserted in his first clause, which in turn implies that this is an official T7.
1-10-2008 @ 5:05PM
Suzaku said...
Meh, kinda disappointing. Just restating what's already been stated about 2.4, but I guess the screenshots are nice.
Love the way the questions were phrased. "Is this new stuff just for raiders? (boo)" "Why, no, there's stuff for everyone! (yay)". Reminds me of an infomercial.
The Samwise stuff was more interesting. But, wasn't there supposed to be some new info on Wrath, too? Oh well...
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1-10-2008 @ 5:41PM
Rolin said...
Its good to see all bosses will be dropping items to reflect the increase in difficulty in heroics.
It always bothered me that the bosses, except for the last one, dropped the same stuff you get out of the wimpy instance (gems excluded - they are definitely not 'epic' based on their stats). Add in the time and effort needed on some of the harder instances and they just get ignored since the single epic drop just isn't worth it.
But I do agree with some of the other posts that say the loot level is a little low. If the regular run will get you a Kara level epic, we should at least be seeing some ZA quality gear in the heroics.
I'm looking forward to the dailies more than anything. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to bomb a fel cannon or hit someone with a boot before I go crazy.
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1-10-2008 @ 6:20PM
yofu said...
LFG Heroic Shadow Labrininth.
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1-10-2008 @ 9:30PM
Asmodasis said...
hey do u guys know if the gear from sunwell will be epic or legendary? i really want some legendairies in the game right now
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1-10-2008 @ 9:42PM
Eliah Hecht said...
In general, it will be epic. There might well be one legendary ranged weapon in there, though.