Blizzcon ’09 Part One

There are over 20,000 people attending Blizzcon 2009 including millions? online too.

I am not attending Blizzcon this year sadly but I’ve been watching it all day thanks to the online-stream service!  For only $40 you get access to 18+ hours of live Blizzcon plus the Grunty murloc marine pet.  Today was the first day of two for Blizzcon and I definitively do not regret buying the online-stream.

There were a lot of cool costumes for the contest and the dance contest is still in progress as I post this.  Some were great but there others just didn’t ‘have it’.

As everyone knows from MMO-Champion or WoWInsider (or in-game Trade Chat), the next expansion is official now: Cataclysm.

Official Video Link

During the Class Discussions panel, the Warlock change for Soul Shards was mentioned. MMO-Champion has a good post on it already:

• Soul Shards are no longer in your bags. The goal is to make them fun, not a hassle.
• Soul Shards will be integrated to the user interface. (Just like Death Knight runes)
• You get three shards per fight, they will regen very quickly out of combat.
• It will be possible to get more for long fights or mistakes through Drain Soul.
• Soul Burn (New Spell) : Cost 1 Shard, 30 sec cooldown, off the GCD. Empowers your next spell, many (not all spells) behave differently when empowered.
• They are only used in combat, summons or demons won’t use your shards.