Things you need to know about World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor

Blizzard has released the new expansion for their game World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor. The long-running massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) saw its fifth expansion launch last week.In the first 24 hours after launch, the expansion sold over 3.3 million copies through to customers. At $49.99 for the Standard and Digital copies (and higher price tiers above that) we’re talking about serious sales, comparable to a full PC release. Here’s whats in the new:

#1 Characters can finally hit three digits

Characters can finally hit three digits

Finally you can reach the three digit levels. Characters in Draenor will be able to leap from 90 to 100 at last, can also correspond to the special abilities and also acess the to the world of Draenor .

One character can leap to level 90 immediately

For the seasoned players it’s a good news that you can boost one character straight to level 90. But for the first timers who are playing the game it’ll be like writing poetry without knopwing the alphabets.

#2 The storys actually kind of interesting

As Azeroth’s heroes explore the savage world of Draenor, they’ll build and manage a mighty Garrison, a customizable stronghold that grows with them on their journeyreach new heights of power and unlock bonuses on their way to the new level cap of 100; fight the opposing faction for control of Ashran, a huge and dynamic PvP zone; and take on a wide array of Dungeons, Raids, Battlegrounds, Challenge Modes, and more.

Here’s what Blizzard said:

It is the era of an Old Horde, forged with steel rather than fel blood. A union of great orc clans, the Iron Horde, tramples the planet Draenor beneath terrifying war machines. Azeroth falls next. Worlds uncounted will follow.

You must mount a desperate charge on Draenor – savage home of orcs and adopted bastion of stoic draenei – at this pivotal moment. Your allies are legends from across time; your fortress a foothold in an alien land. Lead the armies of one world against another…before the future itself is unmade.

#3 Its the biggest graphical overhaul in years

The two things Blizzard has kept in mind during the art-design of WOW IS:

1) It’s a PC game and so scales to whatever native display and resolution you like

2) It employs a Disney-like cartoon aesthetic that transcends the notion that visual progression is some sort of linear march toward photorealistic fidelity (whatever that even means in the context of imagined worlds anyway).

It has a more pliable quest system

Blizzard describes Draenor‘s new quest system as “refined” and “flexible,” and in a crucial reward-related sea change, the company notes that “any quest can randomly award bonus rare or epic items.”

#4 You can carve out your own fortress-space

Blizzard’s adding fixed-world-point garrisons this time: customizable home bases that include addable substructures like alchemy labs, salvage yards, tanneries and more. There’s even a meta layer that’ll let you set up trade routes or recruit followers, you can then deploy to go dungeon-spelunking, run errands and craft items in your stead, whether you’re on or offline.

#5 The new map looks huge

Blizzard says that “land of magma and metal, stone and steam”. With seven areas and one PvP to explore, Draenor seems quiet enormous.

City-forges wrap her twin moons in smog, and wheels deform the earth. Vicious saberon, winged arakkoa, spike-skinned gronn, and more unusual creatures rule the edges of the world, feasting on anything they kill.

Enigmatic draenei refugees have built a coastal foothold into a glimmering state replete with the libraries and worship-halls of their timeless civilization. Meanwhile, the Iron Horde’s slaves labor on engines of war pointed at the draenei and worlds beyond.

#6 Its not the last expansion

Many people thought Draenor might be World of Warcraft‘s last part, they are wrong. It’s WOW’s 10th anniversary and the subscriptions have dropped in recent years, but Blizzard claimed that the subscriptions are up from a post-peak low of 6.8 million to 7.4 million worldwide.

This is what the lead designer Ion Hazzikostas ahd to say, “I definitely can’t tell you what our 20th anniversary is going to be. I can tell you there is definitely going to be one, and we’re definitely planning into the future, talking about what the next expansion is going to be, and what the one after that is going to be.”