Top Moments of World of Warcraft in 2010

Another successful year for Blizzard Entertainment is slowly approaching to an end. 2010 was the most distinguished year in Warcraft history.

This article is a flashback of the most remarkable moments in 2010 that changed the fate of the largest subscription MMORPG in history.


Death of Arthas Menethil Arthas Menethil (Lich King) was one of the greatest villains in all Warcraft. He played the major role in Wrath of the Lich King and spread his plague where he could. Lorewise, this was one of the most developed protagonists of whole Warcraft, even Christie Golden wrote the book Rise of the Lich King where the whole life ot the once noble paladin is described from birth until merging with Ner'zhul.

For more detail visit this video: YouTube - WoW: Fall of The Lich King Trailer [HQ]

Arthas was, unquestionably, one of the main reasons for playing Warcraft. March 26, 2010 is the day, when he died on heroic difficulty for the first time ever. The first HC kill goes to the guild Paragon who managed to defeat him.



With the death of the Lich King, the Scourge had no master and they would run rampant across Azeroth, destroying everything in their way. Control over the Scourge must be maintained, therefore only a few seconds after the death of Arthas, Bolvar Fordragon picks up the Helm of Domination and becomes the new Lich Ling as well as Jailer of the Damned freezing himself in a big ice cube telling players to never come again.

One Lockout per week regardless of 10/25 M raid

April 26, 2010. The day, when Blizzard announced that in Cataclysm, all formats (both 10/25M) will share a single lockout as well as loot. (With the exception of more loot being available in 25 mode).

Path of Titans - Great Idea does not make its way into Cataclysm

On June 12, 2010, during a press tour an announcement was made that scrapped the Path of Titans. Many users sought for the reason what was behind the canceling.

The Path of Titans expained thoroughly: Paths of the Titans - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft.

Real ID Implementation

July 6, 2010. In order to reduce the amount of trolls and flamers on the Blizzard forum shocking news have been announced. Instead of player name, his real lame should be displayed. This started a chain of shockwaves, spawning coverage across media outlets such as CNN or New York Times. In the end, Blizzard decided to revert this and heavily influenced by Facebook, change the functionality of the feature.



The Complete Overhaul of Talents, Spells and Glyphs

To make up for the Real ID controversy, Blizzard revealed the planned overhaul of talents from 51 points into 31 points per tree. The main reason why they decided to do so was that there were plenty of useless talents and players had to go through the crappy talents first in order to get to those more interesting ones. Some talents were changed into passive abilities depending on your chosen Specialization.

Wrath of the Lich King releases in China

After numerous tries and bans, China finally got Wrath of the Lich King released. It took a lot of work especially due to the amount of skulls which needed to be removed from the game and other stuff. Oddly enough, some mounts really look terrible, just look at the screenshots and see for yourself.


Right side (EUROPE), Left side (CHINA)

World of Warcraft's 6th Anniversary accompanied by reaching a 12 Million Subscribers Milestone

October 7, 2010 another important date for Warcraft. Blizzard's base of subscribers has grown once more to more than 12 million players WORLDWIDE. Pretty nice since most players were leaving Warcraft due to lack of content, too easy content or whatever reason.

Deathwing's Emergence and The Shattering

Two weeks, shortly before Cataclysm, November 23, to be exact, the patch 4.0.3a went live. It introduced the new class/race combinations and changed Azeroth forever. The Shattering brought also new a new leveling experience from level one up to sixty.

For The official video of The Shattering visit: YouTube - Cataclysm - The World Reborn



The 2010 Warcraft Book

One of the most anticipated books about Warcraft has been released. It's writer is none other than Christie Golden. The book was named The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm. It describes all lore characters and the whole storyline leading to Cataclysm up to Deathwing's emergence.




Launch of the new World of Warcraft Community Site

A few days before the launch of Cataclysm, a new community site has been introduced. The website offered new forums, upgraded armory, blogs and much more. The new site is definitely and I dare say the best site in terms of official community websites for MMORPGs.

 

Cataclysm Becomes Fastest Selling PC Game Ever

After Wrath of the Lich King and thanks to Deathwing changing the world, which brings a little of Vanilla nostalgia, WoW: Cataclysm sells more than 3.3 million copies in its first day of availability.

We have not yet numbers of how Deathwing affected the player base, but it is said that it has written and is soon to reach a new milestone.




Definitely an epic ending of the year there by Blizzard. May year 2011 be even more successful!