Game designers Luis Barriga and Craig Amai sat down with us to discuss upcoming changes to Darkshore’s landscape, the fate of Auberdine, and the challenges of redesigning an old-world zone from the ground up in this World of Warcraft: Cataclysm content preview.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (or Cata for short) is the upcoming third expansion for World of Warcraft and was officially announced on August 21, 2009 at BlizzCon 2009. The majority of the expansion content takes place in drastically reforged Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms.
It is to include the playable races of the worgen for the Alliance and the goblins for the Horde. Flying mounts will finally be usable in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. Deathwing will make his return into Azeroth from Deepholm, causing a new Sundering.
From the official site:
An ancient evil lies dormant within Deepholm, the domain of earth in the Elemental Plane.
Hidden away in a secluded sanctuary, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has waited, recovering from the wounds of his last battle against Azeroth and biding his time until he can reforge the world in molten fire.
Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to Azeroth, and his eruption from Deepholm will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents. As the Horde and Alliance race to the epicenter of the cataclysm, the kingdoms of Azeroth will witness seismic shifts in power, the kindling of a war of the elements, and the emergence of unlikely heroes who will rise up to protect their scarred and broken world from utter devastation.
Zul’jin (aka Zuljin) is a warlord of the Amani forest trolls and has been chieftain of the Amani tribe since before the Second War. Zul’jin and the Amani tribe were allied with the orcish Horde for the duration of the Second War, but Zul’jin himself was captured near its end by the Alliance. Upon gaining his freedom he went into hiding to rebuild his army and plan an attack on the remnants of the high elves, now known as blood elves, only to find them allied with the Horde.
The Blood Prince Council is a group of 3 of the strongest members of the San’layn, brought back by the Lich King to serve him once again.
Valanar, along with his brother Keleseth and Prince Taldaram from Ahn’kahet, have returned in Icecrown Citadel as members of the Blood Prince Council. The three princes were raised in undeath by the Lich King to avenge themselves upon their slayers and to act as bodyguards for Blood-Queen Lana’thel, the blood-queen of the San’layn. His line “Naxxanar was merely a setback!” is a tribute to the oft-paraphrased line delivered by Kael’thas in Magister’s Terrace.
Eydis Darkbane is one of the Twin Val’kyr, high lieutenants of the Lich King, captured by the Argent Crusade. She and Fjola serve as the fourth encounter in the Trial of the Crusader.
The Val’kyr Twins is a very straight-forward fight if you can follow a couple of (sometimes confusing) directions.
You should start the fight by positioning the Twins next to the portals they are close to. This will allow you to switch “polarities” quickly when needed. Your raid, split in half, will need to be of color opposite of the Twin that half is closer to. So Fjola will have people with Dark Essence around her, and Eydis – with Light. After this initial preparation, you are set for the majority of the fight.
The twist comes when it is time for the Val’kyr to execute a special ability – Twin Pact+Shield combo, or a Vortex. The first option is essentially a 20% heal, unless you break the shield and interrupt it; the second one is ~20k raid-wide damage, unless you have the right essence. The trick is to know when to react, and how to react. During a Pact+Shield combo, all the DPS will need to be of the color opposite of the Val’kyr that’s casting – and they will, of course, need to switch and DPS her. So if the other Val’kyr (i.e. the one you are not DPSing normally) casts Pact+Shield, and you are DPS, you need to switch essence (by clicking the portal next to your Val’kyr) and switch to the other one. Don’t forget to interrupt, and don’t forget to switch color again as you go back to your normal Val’kyr.
Fjola Lightbane is one of the Twin Val’kyr, high lieutenants of the Lich King, captured by the Argent Crusade. She and Eydis serve as the fourth encounter in the Trial of the Crusader.
The Val’kyr Twins is a very straight-forward fight if you can follow a couple of (sometimes confusing) directions.
You should start the fight by positioning the Twins next to the portals they are close to. This will allow you to switch “polarities” quickly when needed. Your raid, split in half, will need to be of color opposite of the Twin that half is closer to. So Fjola will have people with Dark Essence around her, and Eydis – with Light. After this initial preparation, you are set for the majority of the fight.
The twist comes when it is time for the Val’kyr to execute a special ability – Twin Pact + Shield combo, or a Vortex. The first option is essentially a 20% heal, unless you break the shield and interrupt it; the second one is ~20k raid-wide damage, unless you have the right essence. The trick is to know when to react, and how to react. During a Pact+Shield combo, all the DPS will need to be of the color opposite of the Val’kyr that’s casting – and they will, of course, need to switch and DPS her. So if the other Val’kyr (i.e. the one you are not DPSing normally) casts Pact+Shield, and you are DPS, you need to switch essence (by clicking the portal next to your Val’kyr) and switch to the other one. Don’t forget to interrupt, and don’t forget to switch color again as you go back to your normal Val’kyr.
Malygos, the Spell-Weaver, is the Aspect of the Blue Dragonflight. He’s located within The Eye of Eternity in The Nexus, situated within Borean Tundra.
The fight against Malygos consists of three phases. Phase 1 is only slightly more than a tank ‘n’ spank fight. The tank needs to have Malygos faced away from the raid to avoid the others being damaged by Arcane Breath. Throughout the phase, Power Sparks spawn off star light at the edges of the room and attempt to slowly approach Malygos. The best thing is killing them in a 5-10 yards distance to Malygos, so melee and ranged DPS get advantage of the damage increasing buff which otherwise would have been granted to the boss, stackingly increasing his damage. Crowd Control is an awesome tool. At least 20k health is needed to survive the vortices cast throughout the fight. Players will only be able to cast instant spells and suffer periodical damage. While in a vortex, players spin around the transform, being slowly dragged to it and fall.
support@wowction.com - 13218 SW 131 St. - Miami, Fl. 33186