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Ghostcrawler and 3.3
WoW patch 3.3 chat with Ghostcrawler.
Written by Chris Joyce, 18 November 2009
Recently we had an exclusive chat with Greg 'Ghostcrawler' Street (GS), where we discussed the upcoming 3.3 patch to World of Warcraft, and what WoW fans have to look forward to.
Patch 3.3 will bring Wrath of the Lich King to a close, leading us into Cataclysm, Blizzard's third expansion pack. Introducing the Icecrown Citadel, the end of the Lich King's reign, and a whole host of new features, 3.3 looks set to be huge.
The first two parts of the interview are up on the site now, with the final part to follow soon so, being a WoW nut myself I thought I would add my thoughts here.
The main focus in 3.3 is, of course, the Icecrown Citadel 10/25 man raid featuring the epic finale with Arthas - but it's not just the end-game raiders that get to face off with the Lich King.
"?we wanted players who weren't able to go into the raid to still have a showdown with the Lich King. It's just that, in the case of the five-player dungeon, they're not there to kill him, they're there to basically try to strike a blow in other ways that you'll learn as you're running through the dungeon. You're not actually killing him in the five man but you are trying to do something really important for the Horde and the Alliance."
For me, this is very welcome news. These days I rarely have the time to experience end game raiding, so often feel like I am missing out. Now, even casual players will feel like they can take part in the end of Wrath, in some way.
The five-player dungeon will feature three wings; each with a number of bosses to tackle, and this is something I am looking forward to. I have always been a fan of the dungeons with multiple sections, going back to Scarlet Monastery and Dire Maul.
In addition to the Icecrown content, 3.3 brings with it many more new features and changes.
One of the main changes is the Looking for Group (LFG) tool, which has received a complete revamp and introduces cross-server instances.
Similar to the cross-server battlegrounds, this will allow players to queue for a dungeon and the LFG system will match them with players from other servers.
Many a night has been wasted trying to complete a group for a run somewhere, calling out endlessly for a tank, or a healer - this should now, hopefully, be a thing of the past.
MMOZine Issue 34
For our latest World of Warcraft coverage, click here to download MMOZine Issue 34 for free."It's going to change the way people play WoW, players don't quite appreciate yet how big this tool is. For example, we've been averaging being able to find groups for people in under a minute. People who are looking for groups, particularly for Wrath dungeons, should be able to find them very quickly."
To accompany the LFG tool there will be new achievements, a 'Perky Pug' pet reward, and the chance to earn additional emblems by joining the queue for a random dungeon.
Patch 3.3 will also see the introduction of a new feature - the quest map.
"Over the years we've kind of decided that the big directions we provide for quests just aren't cutting it anymore, we could be a lot more explicit by showing the location on the map that we want you to go to in order to complete the quest."
This may be a welcome feature for some, whereas others may see this as 'catering for the casuals', although, in my opinion, this is not necessarily a bad thing. If this helps more players to experience the content it can only be a good thing.
One of my favourite moments of Lich King was the Wrathgate quest line, leading up to the fantastic cutscene, to then emerge afterward to a completely changed landscape and the sounds of screams. All through the rest of the leveling process I waited for another, but sadly that was all.
GS has now confirmed that we have more moments like this to come in 3.3.
"?we've definitely got some really epic cutscenes planned. I don't want to give anything away or spoil it but we're going to do more than just a final end scene. We've got stuff along the way too."
This patch, with all it has to offer, could well be one of the biggest, and most exciting, we have seen in WoW, but where is it all leading?
Towards the end of The Burning Crusade we saw the Scourge invasion throughout the world, moving the story on and setting the scene for Wrath. With such huge changes planned for Azeroth, I can't even begin to imagine what kind of world event we will experience before Cataclysm.
"?players will start seeing changes in the world before the Cataclysm box goes up on the shelf. It's a pretty big event, the sundering of the continents, you know? It's not going to come out of nowhere. There will be a little bit leading up to it..."
At this moment there is no release date for patch 3.3, but testing is already well under way, but in the meantime we get to celebrate WoW's 5th anniversary on 23rd November, and you can check back here soon for the third, and final, part of our exclusive interview with Greg 'Ghostcrawler' Street.
World of Warcraft coverage available in MMOZine Issue 34 - click here to download it for free!
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