Author: Heather Newman
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WoW Cataclysm seahorse: How to get this underwater mount
Vashj’ir is a fun zone to level in for World of Warcraft Classic’s Cataclysm expansion, except for one thing—it’s entirely underwater, making you both slow and prone to drowning. Fortunately, an early questline provides you with underwater breathing, the ability to run quickly on the sea floor and a Vashj’ir seahorse mount, faster than any…
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WoW Cataclysm rare hunter pets
World of Warcraft Classic’s upcoming Cataclysm expansion adds attractive new hunter pets to tame, including rare spawns and, in a later patch, those that pose extra challenges to acquire. “When Cataclysm Classic launches [on May 20], all of the special encounter rare pets for hunters introduced during the launch of the original Cataclysm will become…
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WoW Cataclysm transmog: How to change the look of your gear
One of the most exciting parts of the Cataclysm expansion for World of Warcraft Classic is the re-introduction of the transmogrification system. This allows armor and weapons to be transformed visually into any other armor piece or weapon of the same type that the player has learned. WoW transmog is nothing less than a revolutionary…
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‘The concerns about claustrophobia were a major aspect’ of desiging World of Warcraft: The War Within’s underground zones, says director
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When Blizzard first conceived of The War Within, the next World of Warcraft expansion that would literally take players inside the planet of Azeroth, there was one big worry. “The concerns about claustrophobia were a major aspect coming into this, from the very earliest planning,” game director Ion Hazzikostas said in a recent group interview…
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World of Warcraft: The War Within’s art direction leans into Warcraft’s history and a ‘feeling of nostalgia’, says lead artist
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One of the defining themes of The War Within, World of Warcraft’s next expansion, is revisiting the past. Even the visual approach was carefully considered with Warcraft’s long history in mind, lead visual development artist Gabriel Gonzalez said. The War Within, the first expansion in a three-expansion story arc announced last fall at BlizzCon, will…
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I’ve spent hundreds of hours to become one of just 0.13% of Warcraft players who have Dragonflight’s ultra-rare meta achievement, and WoW did it suck
At the end of the last couple of expansions, Blizzard has given World of Warcraft players a meta-achievement to conquer: An achievement made up of hundreds of other achievements, the “I’ve done everything this expansion had to offer” medal of honor. Dragonflight is no different. The A World Awoken achievement dropped as part of the…
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WoW Classic devs on the changes they’ve liked most in Season of Discovery so far: ‘It just sounds like utter chaos, but I’ve just been having a blast’
This week marked the start of phase 3 of World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery, the wild experiment taking place within Warcraft’s original vanilla flavor. WoW Classic Season of Discovery is a bit of an oddball. It includes all-new features that were never in the original 2004 version of the game, and doesn’t allow…
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WoW Classic Season of Discovery devs are aiming for ‘fun,’ not ‘perfect balance’
One of the reasons World of Warcraft Classic’s new Season of Discovery servers can be kooky is that the developers aren’t too worried about balance. Does that new rune make paladins overpowered in the 20-man Gnomeregan raid? Do melee hunters suddenly rule the roost for damage? Do druids with Windfury imbalance PvP? It’s all part…
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How the WoW Classic team decides what to change in the 20-year-old game
When World of Warcraft Classic debuted in 2019, the motto was “#nochanges”: It was to be a pristine picture of the original leveling experience in the landmark MMORPG. It wasn’t long, however, before #somechanges started sneaking in. A few things released out of order here, a few quality of life tweaks over there, and before…
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WoW Classic made the ‘radical change’ to stop testing new content with players to bring back a sense of ‘mystery and discovery’
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Phase 3 launches for Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery today, and players will once again explore a WoW Classic update with no advance community testing. Not having a Public Test Realm (PTR) for Classic means some things will be broken, developers said in a PC Gamer interview—and that’s okay. Not just okay, Blizzard argued, but…