World Of Warcraft: Curse Interviews Tigole at Leipzig!

Curse Gaming, one of the bigger European WoW news sites, managed to snag a full 25 minute video interview with Jeff 'Tigole' Kaplan, lead designer for World of Warcraft. He details a variety of changes that will be coming up in the new Wrath of the Lick King expansion.

The video itself can be found here.

While Tigole does a good job noting that most things he discusses are not set in stone, sometimes I might not capture this, so remember that WotLK is still very early in development, so many of the things he talks about may (and most likely will) undergo changes.

Death Knight
- Multiple per server, one unlock allows for cross-server death knights
- Death Knight experience more personal
- Opening event the real unlocking event in terms of difficulty?
- Death Knight potentially available at 55-60 and perhaps open without any outside event.

Dungeons
- Utgarde Keep to have 2 wings, one level 70 5 man and one level 80 called Utgarde Pinnacle which will rest atop the dungeon. Both will have heroic modes.
- Borean Tundra dungeon hub - 'The Nexus' which will have three instances
- Ice Caverns level 70-71 5man
- Level 80 instance will involve fighting up big magical rings. High concept (like black morass?)
- 25man in a rift in the sky above the rings that will feature Malygos, a blue dragonflight dragon. Intended to be a short Onyxia-like raid perhaps with a sub-boss like High King Maulgar
- Malygos, concerned with magic, allows for some "crazy" stuff.

Starting Locations
- Both starting level 70 areas have 5 man dungeons
- Alliance and Horde can start in either Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord
- Horde fly into Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra, Alliance into the tentatively named "Justice Hold"
- Either side will have bases for both sides, complete with "epic entrance" moment. 4 ways to enter Northrend, 2 for each faction.

PVP
- Re-evaluation of lower level honor gear
- Gear gap increasing over time for new level 70s as even lower rating teams can still accrue gear with time
- Gear catchup in expansions solves this disparity
- Considering adding a healing debuff similar to mortal strike to hunters, increasing the usage of hunters in arenas

Badge System
- Allows for differing specs to get new gear
- Badge system rewards players who may not even get drops
- Patch 2.3 (Zul'Aman) will beef out heroic badge rewards, with some being more powerful than current rewards
- No tiered items in 2.3 heroics, but perhaps in WotLK

Lake Wintergrasp
- Next evolution of Halaa in Nagrand?
- Objectives will be varied and spread out, different than Halaa, which revolves around a single flag
- Siege weapons will be integral
- Undecided on race-specific siege weapons, but the majority will be Warcraft 3 holdovers
- Obtaining siege weapons will be an objective and players will not own them

Inscription
- Poor choice for the profession- inscribe fireball for more damage. This would force players to take it to stay competative
- Interesting choice would be to increase raidus on frost nova or increase the root duration
- Melee abilities should be able to be inscribed

Hairstyles / Dances
- Visit barbershop NPC to browse hairstyles, hair color, and facial hair
- Tattoos and jewelry perhaps integrated into NPC

Whatever happened to that inn that got burnt down anyways?

Talents
- No info on sanctified crusader replacement, still in development
- Respecing gives talents more weight
- Solo grinding for hardcore raid specs have viability issues
- Attempting to solve these problems through itemization (added spell damage for healers, etc.)

Guild Banks
- Guild master has control over bank but can give permission to other players to control other bits of the bank
- People can donate and withdrawal from certain areas with permission
- Guild banks will be logged on a website, perhaps similar to the Armory currently
- Built in mass mail included in a future patch, but not integrated into guild bank system

Mid-level Content
- Changing leveling curve from 20-60 by reducing the amount of XP needed to advance and increasing XP from quests and certain dungeons.
- Dustwallow Marsh revamp with 2.3- adding a goblin town and more quests to Theramore and Brackenwall Village
- This will help with the common 35-45 leveling hump
- Revamping elite quests, such as Stromgarde and Alterac Mountain ogres, potentially making them non-elite
- Helps to get newer players into newer content quicker

Professions
- Rethinking philosophy with professions, specifically Engineering and specializations
- Woodworking an oft considered profession, but not expected in WotLK