I CAN SEE MY UNDEAD-INFESTED, DERELICT HOUSE FROM UP HERE

An email led me to the NY Times conducting an interview (found in the Sports section of all places) with Blizzard's Tigole "No more EQ suck for me. Now I control the suck" Bitties, discussing casual versus hardcore, everyone's favorite farming event in the form of Ahn'Qiraj, and Naxxramas, the next 40 person raid dungeon that was first seen at Blizzcon.

Two items of interest:

1) It appears the effort to open the Ahn'Qiraj gates will be bolstered by the arrival of NPC delivered materials in a few weeks, regardless of how many your server has turned in. Hint: May as well stop your farming now and sell while the prices are still high.

But we don't want to punish players on realms that aren't cooperating, so in a week or two the resources will start to just come in on their own. So we gave just enough time to let all of the servers show their feathers and strut their stuff; this is the time to see which servers can really put in the effort.

2) Naxxramas will own you. At least until the second try when uber guilds figure the strategy.

Q. What can you tell me about Naxxramas?

A. Naxxramas is going to be the most difficult thing in the game until the expansion pack comes out. It will be the pinnacle, and it's absolutely massive. You'll see this big necropolis floating above Eastern Plaguelands. It's a 40-man raid zone, and it's bigger than the Undercity [one of the main cities in the game]. Things could change, but we're up to something like 18 bosses in there, and they are really cool, too. But it's going to be hard. Really hard. We're hoping to release it in the spring.

Q. Will we need to open Naxxramas with a big farming event like Ahn'Qiraj?

A. No. Naxxramas will just be open. But we do want to do a world event, which we want to call the Scourge Invasion, or hopefully something cooler than that, that would basically be something for everyone who's not going into Naxxramas. So they would see the impact without having to actually go in. [In other words, get ready for undead to pop up in some unlikely places.]

18 bosses, and perhaps even more? Prepare for some downright punishing loot tables, kids.

Comments

[Anon]

ARGH. Fuck raiding!