Welcome back friends!
It's official. Blizzcon will be back in Anaheim this November. It's an exciting time for any Blizzard fan. This past year was as good of an example of that as ever. The announcement of Overwatch was the biggest announcement Blizzard has given us in years. Any given year some IPs are represented more than others. For instance, 2014 had very underwhelming announcements for Warcraft, and especially Diablo. Warcraft got an exclusive movie preview, which is exciting in its own right, but not something that all fans can appreciate since it was only for con-goers. Other than that, we got some patch previews and a couple panels that served primarily as QA. We didn't even get a preview of 6.2 where they finally open up Tanaan Jungle to see what Gul'dan has been up to. Diablo got even less. There was a preview of Season 2 items and tweaks to the rift systems. However, most of what was shown was catered to the full time Diablo 3 player. No new story to explore, no truly new features, and no new incentives for Seasons. Obviously, Blizzard isn't going to have something big to preview for every game every year. They just don't produce content that quickly. Which brings us to the point of the post. Let's try and predict what we will see in November. TOO SOON EXECUTUS! you say? I know, I know. But hell, it's fun and I'm going to do it anyway. I will revisit after Gamescom or something as we get closer.
Starcraft:
Legacy of the Void beta is beginning in the next week or so. Blizzard has said that the beta is going to be longer than usual this time around. For reference, the beta for Heart of the Swarm began on September 4, 2012 and the game released on March 12, 2013. Therefore, if the LotV has a beta longer than 7 months, we may not see a release date announced until Blizzcon. As unfortunate as that would be, it seems possible. Blizzard stated in the LotV beta preview that they are going back to the drawing board with the second Terran unit. The unit will have to be designed, modeled, put into the beta for testing, all of which take time and we all know how Blizzard is with iteration. We shouldn't forget the mess that was the Warhound in Heart of the Swarm's beta period. Even if we do have a release date going into Blizzcon, I don't think we will see much for Starcraft. There will probably be a few new playable missions to give us more of a look in to the story or possibly the campaign only units. That's about it.
Heroes of the Storm:
Heroes feels like it has been out for a year for me. I was lucky enough to get into the tech alpha last year so my view of it is a little skewed. I've unlocked all the heroes and have settled into a rhythm of just buying whatever hero comes out every 6 weeks. Blizzard has said that's the timeframe they want for releasing new heroes, so there is reason to believe we will see 5 or 6 released between now and Blizzcon. Perhaps we will see a new map released by then too. I expect the Heroes panels to preview some characters and maps, which is always fun, but this year I expect the priority to be solidifying the esports side of things. Similar to how Blizzard handled the WCS, I see them setting up a tournament structure for Heroes. Promoting Heroes of the Storm as a competitive esport is essential in bringing people in from other competing MOBAs. I personally hope for some changes in pricing for the game's official release (the game is basically release now with anyone being able to buy in, but calling it a beta lets them change things like this). The price for heroes and mounts is just too high. I have less of a problem with skin prices just because the quality is just that much higher than any other game is offering right now. I'm interested in the process Blizzard will go through with their Heroes announcements. Being a free to play game without semi-regular expansions, it will be important to have a unique way to create hype.
Hearthstone:
We have a years worth of history to work with now for Hearthstone. I expect the schedule to continue as it did for 2014. Adventure mode announced at PAX East and released shortly after, followed by Expansion announced at Blizzcon and released shortly after. There is no shortage of raid and dungeon content in the Warcraft universe to convert to Adventures on a yearly basis. Expansions can be built around nearly any theme, and card games have some benefits that MMOs and RPGs don't. If balancing a card for release ends up more difficult than expected, you can simply put the card on the shelf until the next expansion rolls around and simply rethink the dressing. For example, if the Piloted cycle from Goblins vs. Gnomes wasn't working the way they wanted, they could take 5 months to tweak it and then release it as part of Blackrock Mountain as a Dragon rider cycle. This is a great advantage especially for a card game where regular releases of new cards is so important. We have no idea what to expect for the theme of the expansion announcement at Blizzcon. No one really expected GvG until datamines started popping up. It could be anything, and that's exciting.
Overwatch:
At PAX East we were told that the closed beta would begin "Fall 2015". I'm hoping that we don't have to wait until Blizzcon to find out the exact date, but that is a possibility. If the beta is going on at the time of Blizzcon I would expect a show match event similar to Heroes of the Storm in 2014. With the game entering beta in the fall, we still have a long time until we have a release date or anything along those lines. What I think we will see is more information on Blizzard's story plans and supplemental content outside of the game. It's curious to me that Christie Golden doesn't have any Warcraft novels announced for 2015. Christie has been a huge part of the out-of-game lore for Warcraft, and I find it hard to believe that they don't have her working on something. I'm not predicting any kind of Overwatch novel, but it's something to keep in the back of your mind. Outside of that, we will probably see a hero or two as well as a map. I think we will see some kind of video detailing some story aspects at an Overwatch panel, but who knows exactly what it will be. At this point, any Overwatch news is exciting.
Diablo:
2015 will be the year we get some really Diablo news. I think we will see an expansion announcement in 2015. However, if history holds true we may see it at Gamescom rather than Blizzcon. Reaper of Souls was announced there so they may continue that trend. Either way, we won't have a release date at Gamescom so Blizzcon will be where we get the real meat. The story left off in Reaper of Souls with Tyreal nervous of the power of the Nephalem and the choice they have to fight alongside good or evil however they see fit. I'm sure there will be some kind of confrontation with Imperius since that guy has been being a dick to us for 2 games. We may get some information on where Ithereal went after the worldstone was destroyed. Then there is actual gameplay changes. Act 6 will come in of course. We will probably need to level to 80 if we expect to follow the pattern set in Reaper. A new class is likely, unfortunately there are a couple of issues with that. The most popular predictions are Assassin, Druid, and Necromancer. However, much of the Necromancer kit was rolled into the Witch Doctor, and the same is true of the Assassin to the Demon Hunter. Druid is most likely to me. How they build the kit I'm not exactly sure, but there are some signs in the story mode dialogue of the Horadrim heading to the Skovos Isles and that is the perfect setting to introduce a Druid class. I'm sure the kit will consist of some shapeshifting and party buffs and healing affects similar to the Monk mantras but after that I'm not sure. We also don't know what kind of primary stat a new class would focus on. The Crusader was an easy prediction because we only had one strength class at the time. Now we have two classes for each of Intellect, Dexterity, and Strength. An interesting way to go would be to have a Druid gain added benefit for Vitality. Who doesn't want something to do with the thousands of Amethyst in their stash. On a bit of a side note, I am anxious to see if the Diablo 3 team can come up with some way to get all of the Lesser and Greater Evils into the game some how. Even if all it is is another uber boss set up similar to the Hellfire crafting process. What Diablo player doesn't want to see a shiny new version of Mephisto!?
World of Warcraft:
We're getting an expansion announcement kids. I know, I'm really stepping out on a limb with that one. A lot of Warlords of Draenor has yet to play out, and we still don't know exactly what role the Burning Legion is playing. But we pretty much know that's what's coming next. The real question is how is it coming. It will all depend on how the last couple patches of Warlords pan out. We could remain in Draenor to keep the Legion from getting to our Azeroth. They may get there despite our best efforts before the next expansion. Maybe we go to Argus to enlist the Draenei's help in defending our planet. Or we could get thrown a curveball. Outside of the theme of the expansion is the question of new race or class. Warcraft has generally introduced one or the other in an expansion with the exception of Mists and Warlords. We saw both in Mists and neither in Warlords. I think we will get one or the other in our next expansion. If I had to venture a guess it would be for a new class. 12 classes just feels like a good number. If the expansion is indeed Legion focused, Demon Hunter makes sense as a class. Metzen has hinted in Blizzcons past at a desire to bring Illidan back into the fold somehow and that would be an absolutely awesome way to do it. There are some other options but none of them seem to fit quite as well. It's similar to how the Death Knight was the perfect class to introduce for the expansion where we take on the Lich King. An interesting side note is if we get a release date. Blizzard has been on record for quite a while that they want to roll out expansions quicker and it's getting to the point where they need to put up or shut up. If we get another 9 month last patch of this expansion people are going to get very frustrated and that could be a problem when the Warcraft subscription model is very much the lifeblood of their other games. I would also expect to see an official trailer for the Warcraft movie. We will be about 6 months away from the current release date so the press machine will be in full force.
I will revisit some of this stuff as we get closer to Blizzcon and after we see what some of the other conventions tell us. Thanks again for reading.
Until next time, Chris
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