World of Warcraft Is Going Down The Draenor

Apologies for the post title but I just couldn’t resist. With BlizzCon 2013 underway, the announcement has been made about World of Warcraft’s next expansion. Titled Warlords of Draenor, , we get seven new zones on a new planet (Draenor), an increase in the level cap to 100, the ability to start a character at Level 90, player Garrisons and some world PvP options that sound interesting. Not surprisingly there’s no firm release date as yet.

Here’s the announcement trailer:

I’ve been a very irregular player of WoW over the past few months, but nothing gets me back into the game quicker than an expansion, and I have to say I like the look of this one. Here’s what’s got me particularly intrigued:

1. The ability to have your own garrison populated by NPCs picked up via questing could make the game in a big way, assuming there’s decent levels of customisation available. I love how this is a nod to the original Warcraft games and I’m hopeful that this will be a focus of further development. If there can be pet battles, there can be some retro Warcraft scenarios / quests surely?

2. As a player than actually likes levelling, I’m encouraged by the level cap increase that’s twice the increase of Mists of Pandaria. Sure, that doesn’t mean there’s necessarily twice the levelling content, but I’m going to remain optimistic.

3. The new character models and veiled references to graphics engine improvements have me excited as well. No-one is going to argue WoW is anywhere near being a graphically cutting edge game, but ongoing improvements at least stop the gap widening.

Most importantly, we want to hear from you – has the expansion announcement caught your attention? Check out our poll on the right hand side of the page and take part if you can. We’ll also be talking everything Warlords of Draenor on tomorrow night’s podcast.