BlizzCon 2013: ‘Warriors of Draenor’ In-Depth Details From The Floor!

Blizzard Entertainment announced today their newest expansion for their MMO phenom, World of Warcraft. The expansion, title Warlords of Draenor, takes adventures back to the Outlands. Literally…players will follow Garrosh Hellscream, escaping from his war crime trial being held after the Siege of Orgrimmar, as Garrosh goes back in time to the Outlands of Grommash Hellscream, Blackhand, and Ner’zhul.

A sketch of the Nagrand from the Warlords of Draenor expansion. Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
A sketch of the Nagrand from the Warlords of Draenor expansion.
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

New Level Cap, Insta-Level…and oh, A House

Warlords of Draenor will feature a new level cap–100–and will also allow a player to instantly level one toon to 90 (either a currently played toon or a brand new one rolled at 12:01 a.m. the day the expansion comes out), complete with level appropriate gear. In addition, Blizzard has also retooled current classes, updating their basic look while maintaining their essential, uh, Orcness. Or Night Elf-ness. Goblin-ness?  Anyway, slightly new looks so that everybody’s basically better looking.

Blizzard is finally giving its players a real home: Warlords of Draenor introduces Garrisons–strongholds built by the player (with some customizing available) in the zone of their choice. Once your stronghold is finished, players can begin to collect NPC followers who can perform various tasks–including gathering and questing for the player. It’s like the Sims, only nobody showers.

In addition to new dungeons and raids, including a retooling of the Flex raid and a new Mythic raid at a fixed 20-player raid size, there are also some changes coming to bags and inventory (heirloom and toy collections! sortable bags! crafting straight from the bank) and PvP, including a new world PvP zone with bonus random rewards, items and honor points, including BoE reward gear and a weekly quest to allow players to upgrade an item.

More details on everything that’s new later, as well as our opinion of the actual gameplay. For now, here’s a video of the new (but chronological older…)/old (i.e. Burning Crusade) Outlands to whet your appetite.