Blizzard announced the new World of Warcraft expansion – The Warlords of Draenor – on the main stage of the 2013 Blizzcon convention yesterday with a raft of changes to the game that will surely have an impact on the making of gold. So, for those that couldn’t attend I’ll briefly review the up-and-coming expansion and what it means as a gold maker in Azeroth.

So, once more, Friend, the great spectacle that is Blizzcon is upon us and it was with great anticipation that yours truly drew up a virtual chair in front of the great stage and listened to the opening introductions to the next chapter in the World of Warcraft expansion – The Warlord’s of Draenor – from the god-like Chris Metzen.

The Rise of the Horde

The back drop to the new expansion is the world of Draenor. For those of you not familiar with the story of the Rise of the Horde, I would urge you to read the short – but wonderfully crafted – novel by Christi Golden of the same name.

We are familiar with Draenor in the form of Outlands, in the Burning Crusade Expansion. In the Warlords of Draenor expansion the accursed Garrosh escapes after the Siege of Orgrimmar and through nefarious means persuades agents, yet to be named, to transform the Dark Portal so that it connects to a time before the Burning Legion can transform the pristine land of Draenor to the shattered place we now know as Outlands.

With the scene set the Alliance must once more traverse the Dark Portal and take up camp, in the Draenei homeland of Talador; meanwhile Horde take up camp in Frostfire Ridge where Garrosh will build his army of Iron Horde.

Here is a brief summary of the new features of the expansion:

Level cap to 100

7 new zones

Boost to level 90

New character models

Garrisons

Inventory updates

In-game adventure guides

New Raides

New PvP

From a gold making perspective, there are a few items from the list that will almost certainly have an impact on the wow gold economy. Let me deal with the most significant.

New Level Cap

Increasing the level cap always affects the wow gold economy. Chris Metzen joked that they forget to increase in increments of 5! So with 10 new levels players will be looking to gear-up, re-socket and in general spend more gold in the Auction House on either raw material to craft new gear or to simply buy crafted gear already listed. Either way, the economy will be stimulated and for those players that apply the first Goblin principle of Gold Making (supply items that are in demand) they’ll make a good profit – at least in the early days of the expansion.

The downside to this expansion as hinted throughout the discussions is that we are likely to see more epic and rare items of gear dropping as loot and as rewards from quests, similar to that seen on the Timeless Isle. For some reason Blizzard seem to think this was great, but for us gold makers that make our coin from the crafting of gear this is not so great. But as one wise Goblin once said:

‘If it can be listed on the Auction House, then some sucker will buy it!’

Level 90 Boost

Another feature that will almost certainly impact gold making in the new expansion is the Boost to level 90. This is thought to be a one shot option for either a new or existing character. This will be a huge stimulus to the market place as new players flood in, attracted to the top level of content currently in Mists of Pandaria. Again a raft of new players looking to level their professions and to move up ten levels to reach the new content of the Warlords of Draenor will provide demand for existing materials.

Inventory Management

If you have a bank full of inventory, now might be the time to liquidate your stock. There will be many changes to existing inventory and the ability to craft gear directly from the bank! When I heard this I immediately thought of the Remote Auction House and wondered if this would become a feature on this platform? Nothing was mentioned at Blizzcon but it got me to thinking.

Another nice feature coming with inventory changes is sortable bag. Time to start crafting bigger bags for as the Horde say:

‘Da Bigger Da Bags Da Bedda!’

Garrison Feature

Probably the biggest change in the Warlords of Draenor expansion is the Garrison feature. If you play any of the Real Time Strategy games – like Starcraft – then you’ll be familiar with the concept: you build a structure and develop it over time.

This feature in the expansion is likely to become available to players once they reach the level cap of 100. Players choose a plot in-game and then build their Garrison which they expand over time. The nice feature of Garrisons is that they will be able to develop specialisms. For example, build an Inn and it can specialize in Cooking.

Players will be able to expand their Garrisons with additional buildings such as farms, mines. Specialist buildings will also enable players to create items traditionally crafted using professions that already exist in the game. Players will no longer need to level an army of alts to master additional professions. Players will also be able to develop multiple plots – but not enough to cover all the professions. This will be a great game changer to the existing gold making methods and will have a huge impact on the wow gold economy.

Once a Garrison has been established, players will be able to recruit Followers. Followers are NPCs that you can train to gather material for your Garrison professions and to help build and expand your Garrison structures. I’m hoping that the new Garrison building mats will be BoE and not BoP allowing them to be traded on the Auction House. Imagine what effect an army of Followers, specialized in the mining of ore will have on the price of existing items on the Auction House. Think of these as a legal version of in-game bots!

So there you have it. I covered just a few of the main points of the expansion and as we enter the Beta PTR I dare say we will learn more. But we in Azeroth live in exciting times and the coming of the Warlords of Draenor will create exciting changes to the wow gold economy. Be sure to listen to this weeks Journal of Marcus Ty Podcast where I’ll be discussing the the new expansion with my co-host Nev of the blog Auction House Addict.

Marcus

I’ll be writing updates of this review as the features and functions of the new expansion arise. If you want to be updated with the latest news and posts then subscribe to Journal Mailing List below.

