Blizzard has revealed that Starcraft 2: Heart Of The Swarm is likely to miss a 2011 release date.

According to Blizzard’s Chris Sigaty, the second chapter int he SC2 trilogy “probably” won’t be ready until 2012.

Speaking at a Blizzcon Q&A, the studio was cagey on details. It was able to confirm that Heart Of The Swarm take place after the events of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty.

Cheekily, it said that the title would be set less than 100 years after its predecessor, but greater than one hour.

Thanks chaps. That’s very helpful.

The firm also failed to give us a release date for Diablo III – but did reveal that it would have PvP play and a Demon Hunter class.

Blizzard may love its e-sports, but it doesn’t want them in Diablo III.

As demonstrated here at BlizzCon 2010, Blizzard’s games have a very dedicated competitive multiplayer fanbase, whether it’s World of Warcraft‘s arenas or the tournaments for StarCraft and StarCraft II alike. With the recent announcements of PvP arenas in Diablo III, wouldn’t you expect Blizzard – one of the biggest advocates of videogames as a sport – to plan the same in its upcoming hack-and-slash? continue to read »

World of Warcraft Class Q&A Panel

• Hunters are awesome all day with their new Focus resource mechanic. A lot of Hunter players are still what WoW players derisively refer to as “huntards.”
• Shadow Priests are currently really heavy on burst damage, which creates a bit of an imbalance between player-versus-environment (PvE) and player-versus-player (PvP) content. Blizzard plans to address this once they’ve collected more data after Cataclysm launches.
• With Rogue weapon specializations removed, daggers are supreme to other weapons groups, due to superior weapon speed. Blizzard’s OK with this — because Rogues use daggers, fantasy nerds — but they may play with the mechanics down the line.
• Blizzard is fine with the Warrior’s Inner Rage ability staying as a passive, rather than an active, skill.
• The Warlock’s level 85 Demon Soul ability is designed as a nichey skill to provide a bit of burst damage capability.
• The Rogue’s Combat talent tree is relatively weak now, and it’s getting buffed soon. The Rogue’s Mastery skill will soon see a quadruple increase in effectiveness to compensate.
• Hunter weapon scopes will be re-evaluated at some point; Blizzard feels they’re currently pretty boring.
• The Hunter’s minimum attack range creates issues when groups employ strategies that involve stacking up on certain raid bosses. Blizzard acknowledges that the situation is not ideal — but at the same time, Hunters can also do things like shoot while moving.
• Where did the Paladin’s holy power bar come from? Answer: It’s a meaningful resource decision that doesn’t gimp you once the bar’s dry (AKA mana). It’s similar to the thought process behind the Hunter’s new Focus mechanic.
• Blizzard has never considered implementing a class change feature — leveling is pretty easy at this point, and heirloom items help to address the facilitation of alt characters.
• Will racial abilities ever be a bit more normalized? Blizzard says they’re fine; some races are better at PvE, some races are better at PvP. And Blizzard likes it that way.
• No comment on whether murlocs will ever be added as a playable race. We can dream!
• On the subject of Death Knight raid viability, Blizzard feels they’re fine, and very flexible, and can act as a main tank for any raid. Bottom line: Learn to play your class well!

World of Warcraft Open Q&A Panel

• An automated raid party-finder would be pretty tricky to implement, since so much care goes into class composition for endgame content.
• Blizzard is looking into ways to better customize endgame characters and make their appearance more distinct.
• No plans for a guild-merging mechanic. Cataclysm’s guild perks and achievements should make players want to stick with their guild long-term.
• Female-specific Druid forms may be a possibility in the future.
• Blizzard feels Cataclysm will bring avbout a lot more interest in battlegrounds, possibly at the expense of arenas.
• Talent trees will receive more tweaks as Blizzard collects data from Cataclysm players.
• Blizzard wants crowd control to be a bigger deal in Cataclysm’s instanced content. As PvP goes, they’re trying to slow down the encounter speed overall — which should reduce the impact of crowd control as well.
• The lack of a legendary (orange) dagger is due to how few classes could benefit from using it (as Blizzard wants each individual legendary weapon to be desirable to several classes).
• Blizzard’s still committed to balancing classes in arena PvP combat.
• No additional plans for the Mage’s water elemental, but it might be up for consideration in future expansions.
• The Rogue’s Subtlety tree is “supremely difficult” to balance — hence Shadow Dance’s current use to allow safe energy replenishment, rather than employing it as a big damage-enhancer.
• Further use of the Emerald Dream and its associated fiction is a “when” — not an “if.”
• Achievement points still won’t allow you to buy power, people. They’re just fake points — or, as Blizzard puts it, something of a “high score” counter.
• Legendary weapons will be available to both 10- and 25-man raids. Balancing their scaling is a tricky prospect, but Blizzard wants them to stick around far longer than normal items.
• More account-bound items are coming, including a guild mount.
• A storage solution is incoming at some point for festival items and other collectible stuff.
• Some achievements will be removed in Cataclysm, due to geography and faction changes.
• Pandarens may make an appearance in the game at some point — no clear answer yet.
• Additional character slots are not on the horizon.
• Sidekicking systems have been discussed, in order to address friends playing together despite large level disparities. This might be added down the line.
• A tabard tab is in the works.
• New customizable dance animations, via a “dance studio” mechanic, are being worked on.