At least, according to Gamespy.
They have posted a preview shortly after the game being demoed for them by Tom Chilton, World of Warcraft’s Lead Designer. Of course, everyone knows the basics: level cap raised to 70, some new areas, World PVP to be introduced, two new races, and home cities to accompany them. But now the specifics are rolling in.
All new raids will be for 25 or less members. Instances can be chosen normal or as “Elite”, which increased the booty, for group leaders at level 70. All the new dungeons will have wings, ala Scarlet Monastery.
PVP is to be totally revamped. Rank system? Scrapped. Now you use honor points to purchase rewards. For those not interested in PvE, there will be Gladiatorial Arenas for PVP, in which even Horde and alliance members can join the same team. The world will have new zones that have persistent PVP goals. All that can enter the zone can take part in battles for these goals.
Sounds great, as the PVP system as it is now is not working well. Several hours long waits for limited PVP battles was hardly satisfying. As all MMORPGs, they needed to borrow from what worked in the past. And WoW has been the greatest borrower from the start. Not that it’s necessarily bad, I feel they took many things that worked for other MMORPGs and refined them to their own goals. Their new PVP system seems to mimic Dark Age of Camelot, albeit without a third faction. And DAoC has had arguably one of the best PVP systems to date. Their Gladiatorial combat system is obviously a stab at Guild Wars.
It can only get better, as they are definitely targeting the game areas that need work, while throwing in new content to keep things fresh.
