Well, the beta is finally shut down after almost exactly 5 months of testing (including the alpha). I first got in on June 17th, and at the time the alpha was still limited to Horde characters in the Frostfire Ridge zone only (up to level 92). This was a couple of weeks after the alpha opened up and someone may have noticed my shameless whining about not being in the alpha and helped me get in. Thanks, you-know-who-you-are. 😉
In the past I had participated in the Wrath, Cataclysm, and Mists betas but never to the same degree as I did in Warlords. Typically I’d check out class changes, maybe tame a new hunter pet or two, and that was that. I wasn’t really involved in the community back then, nor had a blog, so that probably explained my lack of interest. This time I felt compelled to get some info out to you guys. I hope I helped. 
I certainly tried to put a lot of effort into beta coverage here.
The end of beta event was pretty fun. It basically involved game masters spawning all sorts of things to kill us repeatedly outside of Stormwind and Ogrimmar — bosses, elites, rares, iron stars, and even hordes of gastropods. I stopped by the PvP server briefly to check out what was happening in Ashran. I couldn’t get into Ashran itself (it was full), but I got a few nice shots from the outskirts. Below you can check out a gallery of the event.
End of Beta Event Gallery
BlizzCon Predictions
Here’s what I’m thinking will happen at BlizzCon 2014:
- If they don’t outright announce a new WoW expansion, they’ll give us some kind of teaser. The rumors are that Warlords will only have 2 raid tiers, so in that case an early announcement might make sense. I originally thought it would be silly to announce before the next one is even out, but if they stay true to their word about shorter expansions it got me thinking that they might do something unexpected.
- I’m not 100% convinced it’s Eye of Azshara specifically, though it’s hard not to get excited while reading this (until you realize the internet is full of trolls). It’s awfully specific though.
- They’ll talk about patches 6.1 and 6.2. Class panel may talk about some more balancing stuff going live for Warlords.
- They’ll announce an HD remake of WarCraft 3 (or maybe the whole trilogy). Same game, but with updated graphics, UI, and modern battle.net integration. Maybe it will even use the Heroes/StarCraft engine if they’ve found an economical way to import the Warcraft campaign into it.
- StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void reveal (not a big surprise) with new trailer
- New Hearthstone expansion
- Heroes of the Storm release date
- There will be an entirely new game announced, but it won’t be a big budget game. It will be more along the lines of Hearthstone.
- No full-fledged trailer for the WarCraft movie. MAYBE a teaser, but since it’s a 2016 movie I am not hopeful of seeing anything substantial. Probably lots of concept art, maybe some set photos or behind-the-scenes footage. Maybe a few props on display in the convention.
The plan is to still have a Hunting Party Podcast this Sunday after BlizzCon, but we’re not sure how many hosts will be there. Darkbrew and myself are likely candidates, but beyond that we’ll have to see since everyone else is at BlizzCon. It may be too early for them after a night of partying!
Warlords Strategy Guide
I can finally publicly announce that I’m the author for the Hunter class section of the official Warlords of Draenor strategy guide. I was approached a while ago and have been working on it in secret ever since 🙂 The hunter support classes were written by other class bloggers (many of them from WoW Insider also).
I’ve seen a preview of it and it turned out quite nice. I’m supposed to have a couple of free copies in the mail. When/if those show up, I’ll probably give them away here on the site.
It’s definitely exciting to see my writing in print for the first time ever. I even got to take some of the screenshots. 🙂
If you wrote the hunter section, I will absolutely get this! Grats on your new writing profession!
Thanks. It was an interesting experience. Maybe if I’m still doing all this I’ll get to do it again for the next expansion.
Awesome! I tried to log into the PVE server for the event, but my computer couldn’t handle it I guess. It was too laggy for anything to even load 🙁
PVE server 1 was destroyed, most of my screenshots are from PVE server 2 (and a few from PVP). I’m not even sure what ended up happening on server 1. I didn’t have a character on server 2, so I had to copy a new one over.
Congrats on the guide! And thanks for all the info you’ve been giving on the Beta. We appreciate it!
Thank you for all your coverage, you kept this hunter engaged and informed enough to play at an heroic and now mythic level. Congratulations on the game guide, it is well deserved (even if you are alliance =P)
grats on the Hunter section!!!
You should do a contest and give out Autographed copies.
That’s really awesome that’s you wrote the hunter class section if the game guide. I’ve read most of your articles and imagine you would have had a lot of fun doing that. Truth be told I’m more excited for the Warcraft 3 announcement than the next possible WoW expansion. But I will always be a hunter class fan.
Very cool man, I might have to pick up the guide now.. just because.
Ahahaha “hunter support classes”. Glad to see Frostheim’s vision lives on.
When I am not being too lazy or too busy, I will have to design myself a t-shirt with the hunter support classes theme.
Thank you for the Beta videos. I really enjoyed the quality!
Looking forward to WoD, great beta coverage and congratz on the Strategy Guide!!!
You’ve been great! Ever since I read you on Scattered Shots on WoW Insider, to following you here!
I agree with all your predictions but two, and wish I had written them up and started a blog to show the world I was right :]
Absolutely I could be wrong, but I have 0 doubt they will not announce any future expansions. 2 raid tiers does seem… strange, I don’t like KNOWING that the next tier is the last, and who it’s going to be and everything. I enjoy the ramp up, the fresh raids, then your mid raid as you tear through it gearing up getting ready for the final tier to come! But if they announce anything beyond 6.x, I will be disappointing and almost adds a “OK to skip me” sticker to WoD. I always KNOW there will be more, but seeing it and official announcements on it kind of kills what they want me to be excited about NOW.
That and a new IP. I hope with Titan finally canceled (and if all that leaked info on Kotaku was true, wasn’t a game I’d want to play), they can put away that nonsense for now. They added 2 games in the past year or so, and with HD remakes of WC coming, if they incorporate battle.net into it, we may see a rise in WC3 custom games again, which in turn means new DotA players, who we can then hope will play Heroes of the Storm and not DotA 2 :]
Congratulations on getting print-style publication! Seeing your name in print is just a great thing.
This is cool; since I’m a fan (Scattered Shots) I just pre-ordered the Kindle version. This should be fun.