10th Anniversary - return of MC40, Molten Corgi, Core Hound Mount, Southshore BG

[Correction]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/151...craft-8-6-2014

http://i.minus.com/iRzuuDI9q7xn1.jpg

If you engaged in PvP early on in WoW, you might have fond memories of—and perhaps a few scars from—the endless tug-of-war between Horde and Alliance players at Tarren Mill and Southshore. To recapture that feeling, we’ll be opening a Team Deathmatch–style Battleground based on that timeless struggle. However, unlike the old days of Tarren Mill vs. Southshore, there will be a clearly defined victor, so you’ll need to work as a team or face crushing defeat.

http://i.minus.com/iOJZdwhUeNiRB.jpg

Molten Core provided many WoW players with their first taste of WoW raiding. For the anniversary celebration, max-level players will be able to participate in a special 40-player Raid Finder version to relive the experience of hunting down Ragnaros and his minions within his fiery lair. Downing the Firelord will earn you an Achievement and a special Core Hound mount reward (fireproof leg armor not included).

http://i.minus.com/iszRn2P7LKPPX.jpg

Anyone who logs in during the 10-year anniversary event will also be able to claim a feisty, fiery new pet: the Molten Corgi! Just think of the corgi-parade potential when you and your friends summon these wee waddling balls of fire for a walk.

These events and rewards will only be available for a limited time, so make sure to check back with us later for more information on when you can expect to see all of these events and goodies in-game. ‘Til then, we’re looking forward to celebrating 10 epic years with you!

[Correction]

Southshore BG is confirmed to be 100v100, and then there's this

Holinka @holinka · 53m
As players earn honorable kills, they level up through the original honor system. The higher rank you are, the more points you're worth.

It's the old honor system!

[Bweigelt]

So this pretty much confirms WoD release in early Octorber.

[Melena]

So this pretty much confirms WoD release in early Octorber.

For it to be early october, Beta will have to end pretty much no later than Sept. 14th. You need a minimum of 2-3 weeks to master the disks, package, then ship. I'm guessing it will be closer to blizzcon.

[LidenbokValour]

I don't see them doing something like this after launching WoD honestly, Melena pretty much nailed it. This probably means a late Nov release.

[Bweigelt]

Can't be late November because that's when this event will be going on. So it's either going to be a mid to late December release or an early to mid October release. The October release is far more likely though for several reasons, the main one being every single expansion has had the release date announced two months prior to release. Basically the timeline is, the release date is announced 2 months in advance, shortly thereafter (usually the the first Tuesday after the announcement) we will see the PTR pre expansion patch go up. About a month later the Pre-patch is released on Live and then the game is obviously released a month later. They are announcing the release date this time on August 14th. All of this lines up nicely with an October 14th (a Tuesday btw) release date which gives people plenty of time to hit cap for this event. Keep in mind that the actual anniversary isn't till November 22.

[Bilopdop]

I dont PvP much at all, but I did love the Tarren Mill/Southshore days. That is going to be amazing.

[Plow]

I preferred old AV as soon as it came out cuz there was shit to change the tide of battle other than lag spikes, and of course snowfall to fuck your own team with if you're bored.

This could be pretty damn fun if it's optimized well, though.

Also yay for free corgis!


Fuck the molten core thing other than running it once with guild for mount lol. LFR rly? Sure, I'll beta test your scaling of old raids... once.

[Kachiko]

If Southshore was a permanent BG, and anything like the vanilla AV, then I might just have re-subbed after all of these years, especially if it incorporated Wintergrasp elements. For shame, it is not to be.

[Meresgi]

I hope to get into the LFR Molten Core it requires you have Fire Resistance at a certain level.

[aurik]

For it to be early october, Beta will have to end pretty much no later than Sept. 14th. You need a minimum of 2-3 weeks to master the disks, package, then ship. I'm guessing it will be closer to blizzcon.

Doesn't hold true for natively connected games. Box disks basically contain a bunch of assets to save on download required, but you will need a day-0 patch (and in fact, most of that content will be delivered digitally for 6.0 prior to the actual expansion launch date) so they could basically start the gold master process now with an unfinished product if they wanted.

It's probably going to be mid-October.

[Melena]

Doesn't hold true for natively connected games. Box disks basically contain a bunch of assets to save on download required, but you will need a day-0 patch (and in fact, most of that content will be delivered digitally for 6.0 prior to the actual expansion launch date) so they could basically start the gold master process now with an unfinished product if they wanted.

It's probably going to be mid-October.

Due to Collector's editions and such, it still does. Plus they can not just put any random version on the disk, even with a Day 0 patch. The version that will be on the disks has to be tested to make sure it will patch correctly up to whatever the current version is. I guarantee they will not even begin mastering until they release the pre expansion patch due to this. That is one of the reasons why the pre expansion patch comes out about a month to 6 weeks before the launch of an expansion.

[Aksannyi]

I am so excited for all of these. That Molten Corgi is adorable and from what I saw on the forums, the datamines of the Corehound mount look fucking sick.

I wouldn't cry if MC goes away after the event is over but I do dearly hope that SS v TM sticks around after. I've been dying for a deathmatch style bg for a long time.

[LidenbokValour]

I wouldn't cry if MC goes away after the event is over but I do dearly hope that SS v TM sticks around after. I've been dying for a deathmatch style bg for a long time.

I read a blue tweet the other day saying it won't be staying just because of the resources it would take to maintain and balance a 100v100 BG for WoD.

[aurik]

Due to Collector's editions and such, it still does. Plus they can not just put any random version on the disk, even with a Day 0 patch. The version that will be on the disks has to be tested to make sure it will patch correctly up to whatever the current version is. I guarantee they will not even begin mastering until they release the pre expansion patch due to this. That is one of the reasons why the pre expansion patch comes out about a month to 6 weeks before the launch of an expansion.

Collector's edition materials are probably already produced, printed, and ready to go, just need to put the disk in the box. And no, they can pretty much put anything on the disk because at worst the day 0 patch can just mark all those package files as invalid and redownload everything.

[Kohan]

And no, they can pretty much put anything on the disk because at worst the day 0 patch can just mark all those package files as invalid and redownload everything.

Considering the amount of customer complaints that would cause (and especially in respect to countries where bandwidth does not flow cheaply), that's not really true. If you're a Russian shovelware developer making a crappy game to sell in discount stores, sure. If you're a major developer/publisher and you want to keep costs down, you don't do this on purpose.

[aurik]

Considering the amount of customer complaints that would cause (and especially in respect to countries where bandwidth does not flow cheaply), that's not really true. If you're a Russian shovelware developer making a crappy game to sell in discount stores, sure. If you're a major developer/publisher and you want to keep costs down, you don't do this on purpose.

That's why they won't put random data on the disk and throw it all away, but they certainly could and still have a functional product.

The disk will contain mostly assets that generally won't need to be patched (textures, models, animations, video, audio) and make up the bulk of the data size anyway. Most of those are probably nearly ready, the rest can come in hot in the day-zero patch. With a natively online product you can go gold with a lot of issues outstanding and solve them with a day-zero patch.

[Aksannyi]

I read a blue tweet the other day saying it won't be staying just because of the resources it would take to maintain and balance a 100v100 BG for WoD.

Bah, that sucks. Not like they really try to balance PvP that well anyway honestly. I've been wanting them to put in a deathmatch BG for so long, so I hope the concept returns at some point.

[Melena]

Again no, because that day 0 patch as you call it still has to be tested against what is on the disk. Why do you think they release that major patch about a month before the release. That is what the disk is building off of, and the day 0 patch is then built into what the final combination of those two are. Aurik, you are arguing with someone who was directly involved in testing of games (including multiplayer only games) for a major studio. Yes some things have changed since then, but your time line on how quickly things get manufactured is way off.

[aurik]

Again no, because that day 0 patch as you call it still has to be tested against what is on the disk. Why do you think they release that major patch about a month before the release. That is what the disk is building off of, and the day 0 patch is then built into what the final combination of those two are. Aurik, you are arguing with someone who was directly involved in testing of games (including multiplayer only games) for a major studio. Yes some things have changed since then, but your time line on how quickly things get manufactured is way off.

And you are arguing with someone who has been a programmer in the game industry since 2003, and before that getting a university degree in computer science...I sort of understand how the technology works. They could put random bits on the disk and deliver the entire product digitally if they wanted to. What's on the disk doesn't matter at all for games that require connection to the servers, it's just a convenience to avoid having to download so much.

I'd go into more detail about that kind of tech but I might inadvertently break some of the NDAs I'm under, so I'll refrain.