Hubs no longer Karabor/Bladespire

#1 - June 27, 2014, 7:31 a.m.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/13272747231#1
https://twitter.com/mumper/status/482381728393072641

I'm echoing this thread into the Alpha forums.

Mumper just tweeted that Karabor and Bladespire will no longer be our Draenor capital hubs. Instead, we'll have 'outposts with vendors' on the outskirts of Ashran, the PVP zone, similar to how the Shrines in MoP are arranged across from each other.

This seems... wrong. Karabor is cool, Bladespire is cool. They would both make beautiful new capital cities for our respective factions to bask in and enjoy when we aren't out in the world doing all of the stuff that we'll be able to do in WoD.

PvP zone outposts that just happen to have all the appropriate vendors, AH, and portals all crammed into them in one small location is not cool.

I worry that Blizzard is shooting itself in the foot by missing a great chance to make the first awesome new faction capitals in a very long time.

If Blizzard is worried about having the PvP zone populated and accessible, that's easily solved with portals to the zone, just like how Tol Borad and Wintergrasp both had portals available to the zones, Tol Borad in particular having full-time portals available.

This just seems like a very weird change to me, and while I was able to understand why Blizzard chose to move the garrisons into a fixed location instead of wherever we wanted, this change doesn't make sense to me at all. Is it a matter of not wanting to have capitals in two of the questing zones? A phasing issue? If it's those, is it really worth it to not try to solve whatever technical hurdle there is here, instead of relegating us to 'hubs on the outskirts of Ashran'?

I dunno. Don't like it. Have to see the new hubs I guess, but the idea just doesn't really seem cool in the way more impressive capitals does... I know a lot of Alliance especially who will be absolutely HEARTBROKEN that they won't have Karabor as their capital.

Lore

Community Manager

#57 - June 27, 2014, 9:41 p.m.

Okay, there’s a LOT of misunderstandings and misinformation floating around, so let me try to clarify what I can.

Warlords of Draenor’s story is about the people of Azeroth (namely, the Alliance and the Horde) venturing into an unknown world and building up a force strong enough to take out an enemy stronger than anything they’ve encountered before, on that enemy’s own turf. While there are certainly some alliances to be made along the way, and those are definitely major parts of the story, the core theme is about you and your faction fighting for survival.

So, as development continued, we came to the realization that it just doesn’t make sense for the Horde and Alliance to spend so much energy and resources building up a stronghold on Draenor, only to base their efforts out of someone else’s city. We’re not helping the Draenei or Frostwolves fight off the Iron Horde – they’re helping us. The Alliance and Horde both have major bases of operation on Draenor. That should be where they’re working from.

That, along with the continued development of Garrisons into the overall quest and story flow of the expansion, led us to the decision to develop the Horde and Alliance bases on Ashran into the major faction hubs instead of Bladespire and Karabor. Promoting the world PvP area on Ashran is a nice perk, but it wasn’t a factor in making that decision.

That said, the Temple of Karabor and Bladespire Fortress are still there. We haven’t removed them or anything like that. You won’t be able to use your bank or check your auctions there, but they’re still fully built home cities for the Karabor Draenei and Frostwolf Orcs, respectively. You’ll still be able to explore them in their full glory.

As to the Alliance and Horde staging areas on Ashran, allow me to lay out a few key facts to hopefully allay some concerns:

They’re located on Ashran as a geographical location on the map, but they’re not part of the Ashran world PvP zone. They won’t be subjected to the realm coalescing we’re using to keep Ashran’s PvP area populated, and they won’t flag you for PvP on non-PvP realms.
We’ve also made some major improvements to the way PvP flagging works on non-PvP realms that removes “accidental flagging” from mistargeted abilities or ground effects. Unless you manually flag yourself by typing /pvp, you will simply not be able to attack enemy players, or heal friendly players who have flagged themselves.
They’re populated with guards, and the only land-based entrance is directly through the Ashran world PvP zone (including a major fortress). It’s certainly possible for someone from another faction to attack it, but it’s not any easier to do so than it is to attack the enemy faction’s shrine in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
There will be a fast travel option between the staging areas and your Garrison. You can pop over there quickly, conduct your business, and leave again if you like.

This isn’t a question of whether or not Bladespire and Karabor are cities. They are. It’s just a question of whether the portals to Orgrimmar or Stormwind are there or somewhere else. You’ll still be able to explore them, they’ll still be fully populated, and they’re still going to be every bit as beautiful as they would have been with a Transmog NPC. We’re looking forward to them ourselves!