Blizzcon 2017 Recap

[Haggle]

Blizzcon 2017 Recap

Lots of new info this year! Be sure to read each post, watch videos, and stay tuned for more information as we get it.

Opening Ceremony

• Battle for Azeroth is the next World of Warcraft expansion.
• World of Warcraft: Classic servers announced.
• Overwatch is getting a new map called Blizzardworld and a new support hero, Moira.
• New Overwatch Cinematic: Honor and Glory.
• Hearthstone expansion called Kobolds and Catacombs and new single player mode called Dungeon Run.
• Heroes of the Storm is getting two new heroes and a bunch of new features.
• New Heroes of the Storm Cinematic: Dragons of the Nexus
• Starcraft 2 is going free to play.

World of Warcraft

• Battle for Azeroth Features Trailer
• Battle for Azeroth Cinematic was released!
• World of Warcraft: Classic Trailer
• World of Warcraft - What's Next Panel Recap
  
  
  • Battle for Lordaeron kicks off expansion. Teldrassil is burned down by Horde.
  • New Alliance Continent: Kul Tiras
  • New Horde Continent: Zandalar
  • Epic "War Campaign" will tell the story and bring you to the other faction's continent at max level
  • World quests and emissaries are here to stay.
  • Zone scaling in the old world. Expansions now have level ranges that cap.
  • Heart of Azeroth is a new artifact neck that uses Azerite to power up itself and three armor slots.
  • Island Expeditions: 3-player scenarios
  • Warfronts: 20 main faction raids inspired by Warcraft RTS roots
  • Removal of PVP/PVE server rulesets. Personal choice toggle now.
  • 10 dungeons at launch
  • Ul'dir is the first raid.
  • Azshara is part of the story
• Gameplay and Systems Deep Dive Panel Recap
  
  
  • Gain Azerite from playing the game
  • Island Expeditions are role agnostic and have dynamic replayability
  • New AI behaves unpredictably and makes strategic decisions
  • First Warfront is Stromgarde
  • WoW Communities are new social groups that help players of similar interests play together
• Battle for Azeroth - Allied Races
  
  
  • Unlock 6 new race options via quest chains to fight for your faction
  • Alliance: Void Elves, Lightforged Draenei, Dark Iron Dwarves
  • Horde: Highmountain Tauren, Nightborne, Zandalari Trolls
  • More coming after launch
• Designcraft: Building Blocks of Level Design Panel Recap
  
  
  • Panel detailed the process of creating a zone in World of Warcraft
• Art of World of Warcraft Panel Recap
  
  
  • New spell effects for Warlocks are on the way
  • Upright standing orcs are coming as well. Toggle between hunched and upright in the Barber Shop
  • New druid forms for Allied Races capable of being druids
• Live Q & A with the Developers
  
  
  • Stat squish and item squish
  • Unique raid buffs are back and are class specific
  • Titanforging will continue, however, slots affected by the Heart of Azeroth can't warforge/titanforge.
  • More character customization options coming in expansion.
  • Jaina is not a villain, just flawed
  • Void Elves will switch into a void form in combat and have a more normal form when desired.
  • Timewalking will be expanded
  • Flying will unlock similar to Legion
  • The Legion legendary system is gone in Battle for Azeroth
  • Starting bag will increase in size if you have an authenticator attached to your account
  • Worgen/Goblin updates are on the way, but not for 8.0
  • Players get 6 new character slots per realm.
• Boss Design Workshop Panel Recap
  
  
  • Watch the boss design team discuss mechanics of one of the new bosses in Battle for Azeroth
• Shadow the Fox Plush announced for charity

Overwatch

• BlizzardWorld Map First Look Trailer
• New Support Hero: Moira
  
  
  • Moira First Look Trailer
  • Biotic Grasp: Primary fire is Regeneration, which is a healing throughput. Controlled by a meter. Secondary fire is Decay, which does damage and fills the meter back up. Small amount of Leech
  • Fade (Shift): A small dash, making her invisible, which also grants movement speed
  • Biotic Orb (E): Pulls out two orbs, then the healing one can be activated by Primary fire, or damage orb by Secondary fire. This orb does AOE healing, bounces around, slows down when it is close to a friendly target
  • Coalescence (Q): Long range frontal beam that heals allies and damages enemies affected by it. This ultimate pierces barriers
• Reinhardt Origin Story Cinematic: Honor and Glory
• Overwatch - What's Next Panel Recap
  
  
  • BlizzardWorld Map is a hybrid assault/payload map.
    
    
    • Coming to PTR soon and going live early next year
  • New skins coming soon in base lootboxes
    
    
    • Immortal Orisa
    • Magni Bronzebeard Torbjorn
    • Nova Widowmaker
    • Blackhand Doomfist
    • Barbarian Zarya
    • Butcher Roadhog
    • Crusader Reinhardt
    • Ecopoint Mei
• Junkertown: The Plan - Creating a New Kind of Overwatch Animation Panel Recap
  
  
  • Cinematic team discusses what it takes to bring the Junkertown Cinematic to life.
• Overwatch: Archives Panel Recap
  
  
  • Overwatch team discusses the behind the scenes making of Overwatch
• Voices of Blizzard - United Nations of Overwatch Panel Recap
  
  
  • Overwatch voice actors interviewed on their characters

Hearthstone

• Kobolds and Catacombs Trailer was released.
• Dungeon Run is a new single player mode
  
  
  • Defeat bosses and collect loot.
  • Earn new cards for deck as you progress, but if you lose your deck gets thrown away and you start over.
  • It's completely free.
• Marin the Fox card is available for everyone who logs into the game starting Monday.
  
  
  • You will receieve a golden version of Marin the Fox if you attended Blizzcon or have the virtual ticket
• Developer Interview with Mike Donais and Jomaro Kindred
• Hearthstone's Arena to Soon Receive Cool New Exclusive Cards, Temporarily
• Hearthstone Live Q&A Recap

Heroes of the Storm

• Dragons of the Nexus Cinematic was released.
• Highlights Trailer shows off what is to come.
• Alexstraza and Hanzo are the two new heroes coming to the Nexus.
• Heroes of the Storm What's Next Panel Recap
  
  
  • Target frame is being added to game.
  • Heroes in Hiding: New way of showing heroes inside vehicles, Stitches Gorge, Zagara Maw, etc.
  • Blizzard voice chat is being added to game client.
  • Performance-based matchmaking is coming.
  • Camera improvements
  • Team is making stealth more manageable
  • The standalone tower in towns is being removed.
  • Certain map objectives will be pushed back to allow for longer laning phases.
• Heroes of the Storm: Deep Dive Panel Recap
  
  
  • Alexstraza is a support hero.
  • Team wanted Alexstraza's dragon form to feel massive.
  • Alexstraza heals teammates and can rain fire down from above as a dragon.
  • Hanzo is an assassin hero.
  • Hanzo has a higher attack range but his attacks are slower.

Diablo III

• No announcements at Blizzcon

BlizzCon Costume Contest Winners

Lots of great costumes this year, including the four winners below.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/714 ... 2017-Recap