Blizzcon 2013 live updates

IT HAS COME! In a couple of hours we will start the opening ceremony for the recent Blizzcon event and if you do not have a virtual ticket and can not find any streams, NO FEAR! I will be posting updates as the nights events unfold! Refresh this page for news and gossip from Anaheim! MONK POOWWAA has got your back! 

6:38 pm GMT - Warlords Of Draenor is a go! We just saw the banner on the stream. So there you have it guys, that's your next expansion.. think it was an accident that we saw it. You can see this on MMO champion.

7:06 pm GMT - open footage we saw expressed blizzards Con, looks great! Now we here on the speech from Mike the lead figure head of Blizzard. He mentions about the past 22 years has changed blizzard, the gamers indeed the main focus here. THANK YOU MIKE! He also mentions that this is the 7th Blizzcon. That's a ton!

7:13 pm GMT - A great video on the star craft competition, good luck to all the competitors.

7:14 pm GMT - Diablo is a focus point, explaining the new loot systems and boss mechanics, as well as new end game options.

7:15 pm GMT - After making MOP so successful, he left a huge pause so we also have to wait for that info! we will here about the movie also.

7:19 pm GMT - we saw the advert for heroes of the storm, blizzards answer too dota, Looks great! a very comical commercial.

7:38 pm GMT - We saw a new feature for Android and I phone late January. A new Legendary card will be released  based on blizzards rock band!

7:41 pm GMT - We had a speech on old school world of Warcraft. The fights in Tarren mill the world pvp and such. Great nostalgia there. He mentions AQ events, game design and such... think this will lead to the new expansion!

7:44 pm GMT - THE NEXT CHAPTER! What will happen now?!?! Chris Metzen is about to tell us! bless him for forgetting his lines! He speaks on the past of world of Warcraft, factions and such he also does the horde and alliance cheers! He also talks about the parts other players missed... so were do we go from now... He speaks on the dark portal....

7:50 pm GMT - He speaks on the old heroes new players may not know of, asking who plays which race etc, I mean comon chris we already know the expansion! I want the concrete facts! He also  mentions the alliance super power that dominates Azeroth. He also wants to know what players would do if old heroes came back...

7:55 pm GMT - NEW EXPANSION! PAST AND PRESENT COLLIDE.. from what it looks like, they put Garrosh on trial to be sent back to draenor, stop the orcs from drinking the blood of Manaroth and he seeks his revenge on Azeroth. level 100 will of course be the new level cap, and you can pay to boost a character to level 90 instantly.

8:24 pm GMT - New character models can be viewed at http://us.battle.net/wow/en/warlords-of-draenor/

Check out twitch.tv/wowmonk for our commentary.

8:25 pm GMT - A guild garrison by the looks of it will be implemented.

8:39 pm GMT - Iron horde is something new we can expect, a new faction by the looks of it.

8:46 pm GMT - new zones have been reveled, alot of new work with the frost wolves these zones are called, Forst fire ridge, Spires of Araak, Tanaan Jungle, Talador and more! As I expected we get to see Thralls family.ALSO! Nagrand is back!

8:50 pm GMT - Each zone has a new orc clan leader, durotan, bladefist and more!

8:56pm GMT - new creatures like Genasours and much more! each zone will have a whole new lay out, a great change. and something I cant wait to see.

9 pm GMT - The new event before the expansion goes up, alot like the lich king. Your forced to jump in to the dark portal and stop the iron orc invasion. Our first zone for hordes is frost fire ridge. Which is a volcano/frozen tundra. There is a ton of snow and this will be the hordes active main city.

9:04 pm GMT - The alliance will be starting in the shadowmoon vally. Their main story will be to stop the other orc clans gaining more power. The Shadowmoon valley in the new expansion looks incredible. Its very different that's for sure but so good!

9:09pm GMT - Talador is the whole new zone central that will be a dungeon and also hold the first raid. You get to see what Shatath was before. Unlike its current state, it looks beautiful.

9:11 pm GMT - New character models! They insisted on keeping it original, but that it looks better. Their updating all the animations, facial features, movements etc. We see a video of the orcs, dwarves and gnomes! of course they showed us a gnome dance!

9:15 pm GMT - Tom Chilton speaks on new features. He speaks on Housing. this lets us BUILD A BASE for others to view it, trade resources. You collect followers, send people on missions and customize your base. Here you can place armories, different plots to move, you can pick what zone for it to be in. Also you have an offline mode much like the farm. You also don't get a loading screen. He also mentions what rewards you get from it. You get your epic gear, other professions to work that is of course limited. You can even build a mine in your base and such.

9:19 pm GMT - You can gain bonuses depending on the buildings you build. You can also move your garrison if you don't like were it is. You also gain NPC followers to do quests and you can name them. You can also build monuments to show the achievements.

9:19 pm GMT - You can gain upgrades and can level them up over time to aid your Npcs. It also can be upgraded 3 times. The video looks awesome for this!

9:26 pm GMT - Followers can level, they also can be equipped with gear that increase ilv and such. Your followers also have the same concept as pet battles. They have a rarity feature. You also get specialized missions that can be gained once you buy buildings.

9:30 pm GMT - New and more features! Gregg street speaks on gaining an instant level 90, to catch up with your friends. This is only for one character. It can be an old character or a brand new one.

9:32 pm GMT - Inventory changes! Account wide toys and tabard! Also a new UI for heirlooms! a great feature for my friends!  You also gain a toy box so all your awesome things you found within the game like your character transformation stuff! You can also assign a bag of yours to hold specific items. Also quest items will not be stored in bags! You can ALSO craft straight from your bank.

9:34 pm GMT - AN ADVENTURE GUIDE! This is for new patches and content its a path to gear upgrades, its customized for your character individually. Its also a whole new UI to suggest the things you have done recently.

9:37 pm GMT - New talents are early designs and will be likely to change.

9:38 pm GMT - New dungeons and raids. 7 new dungeons and 3 at max level, thats a ton! Also classic heroic BLACK ROCK SPIRE! YESSS!

9:39 pm GMT - Bloodmaul Slag mines, its non liner with 4 bosses and you can do them any way you wish. We also saw a movie and it really does give you a vanilla feel. *cue the lord of the rings music*

9:45 pm GMT - More dungeons we see will be, Blackrock foundry, Arakkoa spires, Iron barracks and more! Now two new raids! Highmaul, Blackrock foundry. Highmaul will be first. Also fierce new world bosses.

9:55 pm GMT - They are also expanding Flex raiding... WHOOHOO! Their also scaling LFR! So if a few people leave the boss damage and other things will scale down.

9:55 pm GMT - Heroic raids will now only be able for 20 players. Its called Mythic.

10 pm GMT - PVP! new ui improvements, a world pvp zone and trial of the gladiator. Ashran is the new world pvp zone that will have faction bases and other hotspots, alot like wintersgrasp.. is does not have a stop and start finish though!  They say its alot like the original AV. GREAT CHANGE! You can take part of the zone when ever you wish, Alot like timeless isle but for pvp.

10:01 pm GMT - Here you can also add and build siege engines and such to fight by your side. It also has a progress bar of your team capturing a zone, much like tbc and such. You also gain Battleground scores so it shows how your doing, so if your a dps it combines kills and such and objective play and gives you a score. In pvp you also gain rewards from doing so. These can be BOE gear, extra honor, gold and also enables you to make money from pvp. You also get a weekly quest to complete and it will gain you a upgrade for an item.

10:05 pm GMT -  Trial of the Gladiator, it has its own ladder, Limited availability to stop exploits and anyone here can join for this, you get the same gear etc so its all based on skill. GREAT! This is only arena.

And that's the features wrap up! The adventure continues soon. Thanks for the readers and stick around on my blog, Grab a brew and read some posts, we get more information in about an hour!

10:35 pm GMT - Here they speak on the heart and soul of world of Warcraft and why we're going Draenor. Why are they taking Garrosh back in time to stop whats going on? Here we find out! Stay tuned!

10:37 pm GMT - The leaders and co designers speak on the new world, they claim it to be savage, primal and called the world of giants. It looks incredible. This feels like how out land should of been, Savage, SAVAGE!

10:41 pm GMT - They speak heavenly on the lore for the warcraft world. I love this section so its hard to speak much on it without missing much! They speak alot on making sure the game is SAVAGE, PRIMAL and EPIC. Chris speaks on the time travel and some point were they implement Garrosh just before the rise of the horde book, which I recommend.

Check out twitch.tv/wowmonk for our commentary. 

10:47 pm GMT - Announced a new hero npc we can follow and quest for, whos dreanei. Here we also see how the old heroes, new players may not know of evolved. They also speak on the alliance, they go one the offensive, causing wars and such! They speak on old heroes alot... and re introduce ones that were over looked in the past.

10:51 pm GMT - THRALL! they speak on thrall, should he get the armor back? His influence in to the new expansion and the whole horde story, it seems the horde will be focuses on finding history. You also hear about the draenei history, NO SPACE SHIPS! their technology was not added then.

11:07 pm GMT - Was the Q & A and god bless the red shirt guy appeared! They peak on old lore, is paladins expected to be mentioned alot next expansion, Garrosh's problems. They also speak on the demons, Gul dans past and alot of story behind him.

11:13 pm GMT - The leaders speak on more lore, making sure there wont be doubles of heroes from the past and present and also made sure that the threat that's coming from the dark portal that's now turning red. Also they touch on this expansion, they get to know how thrall and garrosh knew their parents, what they can learn from them etc. They also speak on Thrall again and how he meets his family and how badarse they were. This could bring back the real Thrall.

11:21 pm GMT - They also mention the female Orcs that come in to the lore,  will they have much of a future? Probably not.

11:27 pm GMT - WE GET TO SEE DREK THAR! We get to see alot of shaman things within the lore. They want to explore shamanism in a different way that would of correlated to their past. Maybe a shaman quest line? We can only hope! Also we hear on garrosh hating against the old horde and we get to see the confusion with him.

11: 33 pm GMT - Q & A is now over!

12:00 am GMT - New character animations revealed for Undead males and female gnomes, Looks incredible, alot of new technology being used here. I may change my Panda shaman to Orc!

12:04 am GMT - We see more finally on dwarf females and orc males! Looks great! the crowed when crazy with the gnome changes as well as the cows of the horde! It all looks great, I like the fact they keep it original, but looking fresh!

12:08 am GMT - They show more on the dwarf animations, the new model looks great. The new engines used that were used on the pandas will be used alot through the new expansions and the new facial changes.

12:13 am GMT - Now they speak on the game environments and what they want to implement. How they go from the mood and lightning of the zones, they also want to get across that there new changes to the character animations will be also added to the environments so trees will move etc.

12:17 am GMT - They show how their texturing comes in to play, they also show how they change different zones and layering for features in the environments.  They just announced new technology with the new zone maps, Cant wait to see that.

That's it for the updates form me guys. I will follow up tomorrows ceremony also, thanks for reading and take care. If you want to know more about me don't hesitate to read through my blog or follow me on twitter: @Vayleneu