Blizzard unveiled the future of World of Warcraft and WoW Classic at BlizzCon 2023, including the next expansions and upcoming updates. The special thing: some of the new features sound as if they would actually be more suitable for Diablo. In the interview, MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus found this assumption confirmed.
What are these features?
This is how the games become more similar: The warbands group your characters and their bank compartments together. That means: you share almost everything, like in the “stash” in every Diablo game so far. Every character has access to the same bank.
In the interview with Morgan Day, I asked the Associate Game Director whether this sharing also applies to gold and materials. The answer: Yes, both the Mats bank and gold are shared. Even currencies should be exchanged more easily.
Instead of having to laboriously search for an NPC and email items, you can exchange most currencies directly via the currency window, at an exchange rate of course. By the way: Soulbound items remain soulbound. From then on, what you can exchange is called “warbound” (and yes, the pun is intended).
In WoW Classic, Blizzard now wants to try out what happens if you give players special abilities for a certain period of time. For example, sorcerers will be able to refuel and magicians will be able to heal. It’s not quite like that in Diablo, but there are also special abilities that can enable purely seasonal builds.
This was my impression after the opening ceremony:
Live from BlizzCon 2023: Screaming fans and unexpected announcements
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For many people, Mythic+ was the first step
WoW and Diablo have been getting closer together for years, at least the players think so. When the Mythic Keystones, or “Myhtic+,” were introduced, there were quick comparisons to the Greater Rifts from Diablo 3.
The features are very similar: you run through a dungeon with affixes that become increasingly difficult depending on the level. Loot is only available at the end. The only difference was that Diablo had more random aspects, whereas in WoW there were optimal routes at some point.
With Diablo 4, the ARPG has even become a little more similar to the World of Warcraft system. There are now real dungeons here that are still randomly created, but at least follow a certain pattern. The affixes are now also tied to keystones.
The announcements about Diablo and World of Warcraft were well received at BlizzCon 2023, and the crowd was particularly loud in the hall. The highlight, at least if I use the persistent ringing in my ears as a yardstick, is the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion saga:
World of Warcraft announces 3 new expansions, reveals the next mega plot