World of Warcraft cultist ritual is teasing some future content

World of Warcraft has had its share of strange Easter eggs over the years. However, as of a few months ago, stranger things have started to happen on the Broken Shore, one of Legion’s end game zones. A group of cultists is counting down to something, possibly the loss of our artifact weapons.
                                                 

Players who you make their way toward the center of the Broken Shore will come across a small band of Xorothian Cultists, worshipers of the gigantic demon army, the Burning Legion, who come from the planet Xoroth. These four strange NPCs are channeling a spell called Fel Channeling. NPCs channeling a random spell isn’t completely out of the ordinary. However, the time remaining on their ritual is.

If you look closely, the Cultists have another 517 hours of channeling before they finish their cast. (This screenshot was taken earlier this week.) That means in about three weeks, Fel Channeling will be finished. Will this actually do anything? Probably not, if history is any indication. However, it may signal the coming of a small patch.

Players have been speculating in the comment section of WoWhead since the site first reported this new channel. While there are plenty of suggestions as to what this countdown could be signaling, the most obvious event would be the quest that causes players to lose their artifact weapon.

The all-powerful, historic weapons introduced in Legion will not be coming along for the next expansion. Thanks to some datamining, we know the scenario where something happens to our weapons, rendering them useless by the time Battle for Azeroth comes around this fall.

Leveling In World Of Warcraft Is Fun Again

Before this week’s 7.3.5 update hit, leveling a freshly-made character in World of Warcraft as an experienced player was little more than a chore to do before getting to the good high-level stuff. With the introduction of level-scaling and changes to experience point requirements and monster health, leveling up is now a more enjoyable experience.
                                               

Prior to update 7.3.5 it was far too easy to level up a new character. The experience needed to advance from one level to the next was too low, resulting in players out-leveling the story quests in each zone, moving on before getting the full experience. With low monster health and high player power (especially when players were outfitted in ridiculously powerful heirloom gear), creatures dropped like flies. Combined with easy experience gained by joining parties in the dungeon finder, the first 60 levels in the game flew by.

That’s no longer the case. I started a level one gnome warrior named Jerboa on Tuesday afternoon. With the hours I’ve put in since, she should easily be at least level 40 by now. But there she is, level 22 and loving it.

A good part of the reason it’s taking me so long is the new level-scaling system. Now that zones and their quests scale with the players level, I’m spending more time questing and less time hopping into random dungeons. And with the experience point requirements to level increased for levels 1 to 60, the random dungeons aren’t nearly the level-fests they once were, making questing a much more attractive prospect.

Another fun effect of level-scaling is that every enemy aggros now. No longer will gaining a few more experience levels render lower level creatures in a zone near-passive. There are no lower level creatures.

'World of Warcraft' Christmas update

One of the longest-running massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), "World of Warcraft" (WoW), has had many real-life events affecting both the atmosphere and gameplay. With the holiday season starting, fans of the franchise will be glad to note that "WoW"'s Christmas update is already here.
                                           

The biggest highlight of the patch is the "Feast of Winter Veil," which is basically their own reason for all the Christmas decorations that can be seen almost everywhere in the game. The whole of Azeroth will be turned into the snowy environment that might be familiar to players who have seen past iterations of the game's Christmas celebrations.

The event is set to last from Dec. 16 until Jan. 3 of next year, and there will be giant snowballs that players can see in Ironforge, Ogrimmar, and Dalaran. To also celebrate the coming of the new year, there will be in-game fireworks for everyone, meaning in every race in each of their capitals. Since "WoW" has players from all over the globe, the fireworks will happen every hour for the whole night.

Of course, as with most of the previous Christmas updates the game has had, the Abominable Greench will be coming back. For those who are not familiar with it, players will get to earn rewards from him as long as you get to defeat him, which is not much of a hard task.

A new loot, the "Finely-Tailored Red Holiday Hat" can also be obtained through Legion dungeons and raids. There are also a lot of other side quests that players can take part in. Players can rescue a stolen reindeer and even bake gingerbread cookies.

For this event, there are a total of 11 achievements. When all of them are achieved, players gain a new title "Merrymaker. How's that for decking the halls?"

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth

It’s been 2 years since the announcement of World of Warcraft’s 6th expansion Legion, so it is about time they announce the next one. Battle of Azeroth, their 7th expansion, extends the story further, adding new features, a higher level cap of 120, and of course more areas to play in Azeroth.
                                             

The staple of every expansion is an increased level cap, new continents to explore and either new races to play or new classes to try out, well, every expansion except Warlords of Draenor that is. But, thankfully, Blizzard is keeping to its tried and tested formula with Battle of Azeroth, with the Horde returning to the forgotten continent of Zandalar, and the Alliance retaking their place on Kul Tiras, two continents which are mere spitting distances away from each other on the Azerothian map. Often as the game moves into new areas, new races are added to the roster, and with the move into the Battle of Azeroth, there will be not just one race addition, but a total of 3 new races will added to each faction. However, unlike previous race additions, which were available to play as soon as you logged in, these races will have to be unlocked, or rather won over, through quest lines, which will unlock them account wide when complete. Once unlocked, you’ll be able to create a new level 20 character in that race. This system seems quite intuitive for the story it’s trying to tell, as it makes sense that you must win over your allies before you can play as one.

Along with usual additions of new dungeons and raids, to progress some of the larger story elements of World of Warcraft, there’s also a new endgame addition from the previous Warcraft trilogy. Warfronts, another PvE feature, will incorporate some of the real time strategy modes of Warcraft, and allow up to 20 players to work together; to build their resources and stage an offensive against an army of enemy NPCs at a warfront location. A location such as Stromgarde, which is the main port of Arathi Highlands, and a hub into the Eastern Kingdom. Supported by one of many commanders, you’ll have to create many different strategies for each of the warfronts, which will feature as part of the actual battle for Azeroth.

Primordian’s weird and alien world was created by a World of Warcraft art lead

Jason Morris had been working at Blizzard for 10 years as an art lead on games like World of Warcraft and Titan before the sci-fi MMO was cancelled. But the moment he got his hands on a VR headset he knew that was what he had to work on, even if it meant starting from scratch and doing everything slowly by founding his own company, Stonepunk Studios.
                                               

Primordian is the result of that; a VR FPS set on an alien world at the center of the universe. It’s very much a world of two halves, as one side is constantly shrouded in darkness, while the other enjoys infinite daylight. This has given rise to two distinct cultures who typically keep to their own half of the planet, but a solar eclipse is coming, inspiring those stuck on the dark side to launch an invasion. Players will be one of those invaders.

Aside from the music, Morris is doing everything himself. “I love every aspect of the process of putting games together,” he says enthusiastically. His experiences, working with engineers, designers, and producers at Blizzard have given him some insights, but there’s also been a lot of trial and error, and a great many YouTube tutorials.

The key to creating that immersive, intuitive feel is the world itself. Everything trickles down from there. “I was trying to think about the world as a whole, and one of the great things I learned from working at Blizzard was thinking about the world as a character, the biggest character.” Weapons — the main way players will interact with the game — are the most obvious example of how the world impacts the rest of the experience.