Eight Days of Free Loot…
The long awaited WoW expansion is just around the corner, as is the next WoW TCG expansion, so to celebrate and keep this party rolling…I've decided to give away some funtastic loot starting this week.
War of the Ancients Loot Preview: Feldrake Mount
The next WoW TCG expansion, Timewalkers: War of the Ancients, is set to release in just over a week – on Tuesday, October 2nd.
As with all recent expansions to the WoW TCG, War of the Ancients will contain 3 new loot items – including an epic flying mount. The epic flyer contained in War of the Ancients is the Feldrake.
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WoW TCG War of the Ancients Loot Preview
Cryptozoic recently announced that the next expansion to the WoW TCG – Timewalkers: War of the Ancients – will be released on October 2nd. War of the Ancients is the first series in the 3-part Timewalkers block.
Here's a sneak preview of the loot that will be available in the upcoming expansion…
Feldrake
The ultra rare mount loot contained in War of the Ancients is the Feldrake. This is going to be a flying mount (obviously), requiring level 20 to use.
As with all of the WoW TCG mount loot from the past few years, the Feldrake will be a tough pull – with a rarity of 1 in 242 packs.
Here's an early look at the Feldrake model, courtesy of those fine data-mining folks over at MMO Champion…
Feldrake
This is a pretty cool looking mount – using the standard Drake model, but with an eerie fel green glow & tattered wings. This mount looks like it would be well suited for Warlocks. 🙂
Demon Hunter's Aspect
This loot disguises the user as a Demon Hunter for 5 minutes, with a 30 minute cooldown on the item. No actual screenshots of the effect have been made available – data-mined or otherwise – but it's likely to look something like this…
Demon Hunter's Aspect
As you can see, the effect will cause the user to look like one of the Demon Hunters present around the Black Temple in Shadowmoon Valley. It's unknown whether the model will be that of a Blood Elf or Night Elf (pictured here), but either way, it's probably going to be a pretty badass effect.
Demon Hunter's Aspect will be a rare loot item – found in approximately 1 out of 121 packs.
Eye of the Legion
The Eye of the Legion is this expansion's super common pet loot item. It will be found in approximately 1 out of 11 packs.
The Eye of the Legion is a spitting image of the Warlock's Eye of Kilrogg spell. See for yourself…
Eye of the Legion
Well, there you go…that's a sneak preview of the exciting new loot that will be arriving in the next expansion – in just a few short weeks.
War of the Ancients Release Date: October, 2012
The next trio of WoW TCG loot will arrive in October of this year when the War of the Ancients expansion is released. An exact date has not been set yet.
Update: 09/10/12 — Timewalkers: War of the Ancients will officially release on October 2nd.
The mount loot is going to be the Feldrake. Based on its name you can conclude that it's a flying dragon mount. It is of course the ultra rare loot in this expansion – with approximate odds of 1 in 242 packs.
The novelty loot item in War of the Ancients is the Demon Hunter's Aspect. This loot item transforms its user into a Demon Hunter for 5 minutes, with a 30 minute cooldown.
The pet loot is the Eye of the Legion, which looks like the Warlock's Eye of Kilrogg spell.
WoW TCG Tomb of the Forgotten Release Date is in June
This post originally had June 19th as the predicted release date for Tomb of the Forgotten, but it is in fact June 12th.
Tomb of the Forgotten Loot
Here's a recap of the three loot card items that will be included in the upcoming expansion…
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Mists of Pandaria Pet Battle Updates
Blizzard held a press event yesterday, sharing all sorts of juicy updates about what's to come in Mists of Pandaria. Among the deluge of news…some insight into how the Pet Battle System is shaping up.
Here are a few key updates regarding the pet battle system…
- Player involvement in pet battles is planned to be totally anonymous. Player names will not be shown, and in addition, there will be no chat – or interaction of any kind – between players.
- PvP Pet Battle losses will not be recorded – only the wins will be tracked. The intention is for PvP pet battles to feel fun and casual.
- When you challenge another player while out in the world, your interface will transition to the Pet Battle UI. When the pet battle is over, the UI will return to the normal gameplay view.
- When entering a PvP Pet Battle, players will see each other's characters across from one another, along with the player's pets lined up in front of them.
- PvP Pet Battles will feel like an NPC encounter, except in this case, the NPC will seem much more intelligent and less predictable.
- Pets will be swappable during battles – even while in the thick of it. Players will be able to tag in a new pet in the middle of a fight, with the pet even running up to the enemy pet to attack!
- There will be an estimated 100 Wild Pets scattered about Azeroth.
- Battle Pets can all be named.
- Battle Pets will be usable account-wide – across all characters.
- Pets will require leveling, and will possess stats such as: health, attack, defense and movement speed.
- Pets will have a talent system consisting of a maximum of six abilities, of which the pet can have three. These abilities may be re-talented, but only when not in battle. Pets unlock new abilities as they level.
So there ya go… the Pet Battle system is deep in development and seems to be shaping up pretty nicely, although I'm not entirely sure I like the idea of the system only tracking wins. I think for the pet battles to really catch on and become a popular WoW mini-game – there will need to be a slightly more competitive atmosphere to it.
I think a little less anonymity would be a welcome change, but I can see keeping player dialogue out of it. In my opinion, there's little at stake in this, so why not let players enjoy being a bit more casually competitive with it? As long as the trash-talking is kept out of it, why not let the top “pet battlers” attain some glory..?!
If you lose a bunch…who cares? However, if you end up being a top pet battle strategist, it'd be nice to make a name for yourself in certain circles. 😉
What do you think?
Cory Stockton on Pet Battles in Mists of Pandaria
Yesterday, at Blizzard's press event, WoWHead had a chance to discuss a some Mists of Pandaria with Blizzard's Cory Stockton. During the interview he touched on the development of the Pet Battle system. The information he shared was not much different than what he announced at BlizzCon last year, but from what he said, it sounds like the developers are taking the creation of this new mini-game very seriously.
Cory Stockton on Pet Battles in Mists of Pandaria
Q: One last question. Watching Arthas fight Illidan today for pet battles was awesome–but the battle itself seemed kind of short. What's still in development for pet battles? Also, at BlizzCon, you were talking about complex ways to get pets–some only spawning in cities, some in the rain? Is that still in the works?
Quote from Cory Stockton
All of those things are still planned. What you saw today is what the actual battle will look like and working in game. But we're currently totally in development on the abilities and how everything works in the back and forth. We just got the game up and running in real time, but what you're not seeing is all the gameplay. We've actually been playing a paper version–we cut it out and that's how we've been tuning it for things to be in the game.
As far as depth goes, it's a pretty deep game if you really want to get into it. There's different abilities you can pick and stats–those stats can be random when you catch the pets.
Will TCG and Blizzard store pets also work?
Absolutely. We plan to have the majority of pets work, almost all of them.
As far as your questions about PvE, all your details are making it in. There's a number of pets you'll just find in the world, but some will only spawn when it's raining, or the winter time, for example. I just put one in the other day that only spawns between 9 pm and midnight–during that time he pops every 15 min. It's a really limited period, and you can imagine people in town talking about it when it spawns.
Pet battles are something we look at as totally optional content that's also really deep if you want to get into it.
From the sound of things, it seems Blizzard is trying to do something really special with the new Pet Battle system. I'm anxious to see a game play video.
By the way… who won? Arthas or Illidan? 😉
