This morning Blizzard officially announced Warcraft Arclight Rumble, a strategy/tower offense game based on the Warcraft universe coming to Android and iOS devices. This game wasn’t a complete surprise thanks to a few rumors. But up until this morning’s reveal many elements were still unknown. The name, basic gameplay features, and much more were a mystery until now.
And while there is still a good amount of information Blizzard hasn’t mentioned, there’s a lot of details that interested players can get a hold of following today’s announcement. We’ll break down everything there is to know so far about the upcoming title. Basically, this guide will serve as your go-to collective of information about Warcraft Arclight Rumble. Laying out all the important details about Blizzard’s first Warcraft game for mobile devices.
What is Warcraft Arclight Rumble?
As mentioned above, Warcraft Arclight Rumble is a strategy game for mobile devices. It’s set in the Warcraft universe, and is described by Blizzard as a tower offense game. At first glance, this might look like just another Clash Royale clone. But there appears to be far more that Warcraft Arclight Rumble offers than just competitive PvP.
In the game you’ll build armies of familiar Warcraft characters, defend your base, and attempt to take out your opponent’s base to claim victory. That’s the gist of it. Luckily Blizzard seems to have baked a ton of content into the game. And that bodes well for players (like myself), who aren’t as big on PvP tower offense games. In fact, Warcraft Arclight Rumble will feature both PvE and PvP game modes. Which means you’ll have something to dive into even if you’re not a huge fan of competitive gameplay.
With over 65 characters to collect and each character having their own unique skills, there will be tons of ways to build up your strategy to achieve your goal.
When is Warcraft Arclight Rumble Releasing?
Blizzard hasn’t set a launch date yet, but it has said that it wants to get the game into the hands of players this year.
Will there be any gameplay tests?
Yes. In fact, Blizzard is planning to hold some upcoming regional closed beta tests in the near future. It hasn’t said when these tests would begin though. Or what regions would be included. For Diablo Immortal, Blizzard kept the regional tests to Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Southeast Asia. Keep that in mind as Blizzard could be looking to extend the tests to those same regions.
How many game modes will there be?
Blizzard doesn’t say exactly how many game modes there will be in total. But there are multiple modes. Including a single player campaign, PvP battles, co-op play, and more.
Co-op play can include dungeons and raids, too. Allowing those looking for more of a challenge to take on harder content that requires working together with other players. Blizzard also says that there will be varied content to do every single week. With new weekly dungeons, likely new weekly raids and more.
Single player missions will have “bite-sized strategic puzzles to solve” giving just a bit of challenge to solo players. As of now Blizzard has confirmed Conquest, Dungeons, Raids, Co-Op, and PvP modes.
How many characters will there be and who are they?
In Warcraft Arclight Rumble, characters are presented in the form of tabletop miniatures. There are more than 65 different miniatures to collect comprised of both heroes and villains from the Warcraft universe. This also includes leaders like Jaina Proudmoore, Tyrion Fordring, Maiev Shadowsong and others. All of the leaders that have been announced so far are listed below, separated by the five families. Which include the Alliance, the Horde, the Undead, Beasts, and Blackrock.
Chances are Blizzard will add more leaders as time goes on. But the ones below are what players should expect at launch. Complete with brief descriptions of their abilities. Note that ability descriptions are not entirely specific at this time due to limited information.
Alliance Leaders
- Tirion Fordring – Defensive tactics to bolster ranks
- Maiev Shadowsong – Stealth tactics to quietly take out the enemy and/or provide units with stealth for easy movement
- Jaina Proudmoore – Healing and magic tactics to keep units alive and deal massive damage
Horde Leaders
- Grommash Hellscream – Sends out fast attacking troops to overwhelm the battlefield
- Sneed – Siege units grab extra gold
- Cairne Bloodhoof – Uses area of effect stuns to control enemies
Beasts
- Charlga Razorflank – Disables enemy defenses to help beast allies stampede and overwhelm the enemy
- Hogger – Deploys fast-attacking units
Blackrock Leaders
- Rend Blackhand – Flying units become one gold cheaper for faster deployment
- General Drakkisath – Deploys searing elemental magic users to burn opponents to a crisp
Undead Leaders
- Bloodmage Thalnos – Casts spells and grows stronger with every cast
- Baron Rivendare – Summons endless armies of the undead to haunt the battlefield
What are the maps?
So far Blizzard hasn’t announced all of the maps that will be available. There will be over 70 maps to play in the single player campaign and more. Including Gurubashi Arena, Un’Goro, and others. Various maps will be available across The Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, so don’t be surprised to see maps based on Orgimmar, the Under City, Stormwind and other high-profile zones. Once more information about maps is available we’ll have it listed here.
Does Warcraft Arclight Rumble have any social features?
Blizzard has designed Warcraft Arclight Rumble to include quite a few different social features and benefits. You can play co-op missions with friends, but you can also create and join guilds to gain a number of benefits. Such as taking on raids and earning progress towards weekly and daily rewards.
You can also chat with your guild friends in-game if you feel like taking a breather and just having a conversation. With guilds in play, expect large-scale challenges and battles between guilds for even more ways to enjoy all the chaos.
What is gameplay progression like?
As you progress through the game you’ll encounter tougher and tougher battles and even tougher challenges. Whether you win battles or lose, you’ll gain a certain amount of XP so your characters can all level up. This will not only make each of your army units stronger, but they’ll also gain more health and their abilities will become stronger too.
Augment your strategy with character talents
Leveling up characters also unlocks talents. Like Maiev Shadowsong’s Cloak Of Shadows, which causes her to cast smoke bomb to stealth all surrounding allied units, allowing them move undetected around the map. Another talent is the S.A.F.E. Pilot’s Comin’ In Hot!, which ignites the battlefield with a barrage of deployed rockets to damage enemies in the nearby area.
If you play with the Warsong Raider, you can use talents like Saboteur. This talent will cripple towers that you attack which reduces the tower’s damage dealt by 50% for 3 seconds. There’s also Single-Minded Fury which turns the Warsong Raider into a siege unit to ignore enemy units.
As you can see, there’s going to be a lot of variety here in how you can win. So mix and match you units and try out different talents to see what works best for you.
Tips to help with a strategic win
With so many different playable heroes and villains, there’s going to be a lot of different strategies for you to employ that can help you achieve victory. But there are a few main objectives you’ll want to focus on.
Defend your base
When you launch the battle, you’ll start by deploying units from your base. If the enemy destroys your base it’s game over. So don’t let them destroy your base. Beyond that, there are other strategic points and elements to pay attention to.
Control the meeting stones
These are strategic points of control on the map. Whoever controls the meeting stone can deploy units from that point. These appear to be located in the middle of the map, so they make for a great starting point for future deployed units as you’ll be closer to the boss and the enemy base. It doesn’t necessarily have to be your first objective to control the meeting stones. But they should be high up on your list.
Capture the guard towers
The guard towers are like that extra little bit of oomph that can help turn the tide of battle. Capture these, and you’ll “have a forward position on the map to assault the boss directly.”
Gather “shinies”
Throughout the map you may notice valuable points of interest like gold nodes and treasure chests. You’ll want to place at least some focus on gathering these nodes as they can reward you with more gold and useful items. Gold of course is the main in-game currency used to buy and deploy more units. So it’s better for you to have these than the enemy.
Synergize your units
Each set of units has their own strengths and weaknesses. So it would benefit you to get to know the units you’re thinking of taking with you into battle. For example, flying units are strong against melee units. Siege units do more damage to guard towers. Ranged units do more damage to flying units. And magic units are strong against infantry. Familiarize yourself with these details and you just might have an easier time in the battle.
Check out the trailers
Blizzard has put out a few trailers worth a watch, including a dev insight video that explains an overview of the game. There’s also a cinematic and a gameplay reveal trailer. You can watch all of those below.
Pre-register for the game
Pre-registration for the game is live right now for Android devices through Google Play. You can pre-register for the game through battle.net here. Or head straight to Google Play through the button below.
2023-01-18 15:07:29