World of Warcraft: Icecrown's Gunship Battle

World of Warcraft devs are giving readers an inside look at the creation of the Icecrown Citadel's gunship battle in what they call "one of Icecrown Citadel's most frantic and epic raid encounters." Keep reading!

Creating the gunship battle in Icecrown Citadel was a unique and exciting challenge for the World of Warcraft team. For quite some time, we've heard requests from players who wished to see ship-to-ship combat realized in the game. Since Icecrown Glacier doesn't have much in the way of flowing water, we opted to use the gunships, which were already a major fixture of the Icecrown zone, to bring that idea to life. In the battle, players take on the role of the combat crew for their faction's ship: either the Skybreaker on the Alliance side, helmed by Muradin Bronzebeard, or Orgrim's Hammer on the Horde side, helmed by High Overlord Saurfang. With their own weapons, the ships' guns, and a strong, coordinated plan of attack, raiders struggle to knock the enemy faction's gunship out of the sky and ascend to the peak of Icecrown Citadel.

When we began work on the gunship battle, we knew that we wanted the idea of "controlled chaos" to be central to every second of the fight between the Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer. Rather than making the encounter a traditional single-target "wear down" or "tank 'n' spank" battle, we took steps to make sure that the heroes who serve as their ship's combat crew would be constantly engaged -- moving, fighting, and dealing with a high volume of visual and spatial inputs.

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