It’s been six weeks since Blizzard ran the World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor beta, and things must have gone smoothly because an official release date for the expansion has now been confirmed. You’ll be able to play Warlords of Draenor on November 13. For players who have stopped subscribing to the MMO, there’s a decent amount of new content and functionality to tempt you back.
So what’s new?
The level cap is being raised from 90 to 100 and players will have a number of new dungeons and raids to take part in. Raids are also getting harder due to the introduction of a difficulty tier called Mythic. The player-vs-player system has also been overhauled, and in particular the way items behave will be quite different to what has been experienced before. And you’ll get to experience them on a dedicated new PvP island called Ashran.
Away from battle, players will have the option of creating a garrison, which is a personal area of the world consisting of a range of buildings to call your own. The garrison can be upgraded and expanded with new buildings, but more interestingly you can get NPC characters to do missions on your behalf and earn items.
Overall the game is going to look better due to Blizzard taking the time to upgrade all player character models for races released before Cataclysm. However, what Blizzard is most excited about is the introduction of a brand new file format called Content Addressable Storage Container (CASC). CASC replaces Mo’PaQ (MPQ). Players should be glad about this switch as it meansWorld of Warcraft can find assets more quickly, meaning loading times are going to be cut and patching will happen noticeably faster.