Diablo 3 - Beta Patch 8 - Quest Selection Screens and Unofficial class changes

Post 4.3 Interview with Greg Street (Ghostcrawler)
Blizzard was nice enough to let us talk to Ghostcrawler about his thoughts on Patch 4.3 now that it has been released and what the future has in store. We were even able to sneak in a few Mists of Pandaria questions for you!



Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
In general, how well do you think Patch 4.3 went?
We are pretty happy with it, as it was a huge patch for us. Large patches like this always come with a risk that we will screw something up, but it was a pretty smooth launch for as much content as we had in there.

Are you happy with the difficulty of the Dragon Soul heroic encounters, or do you think the bosses are dying too fast?
We are pretty happy with the current difficulty, the first boss is designed to be pretty easy, and the next tier of hardcore raiders are at the second or third boss, which is pretty much where we want them to be. The top tier guilds are going through it quickly, as they always do, but they make hundreds of attempts on each boss. Everyone is about where they should be right now.

Recently you made it so that casters with shields can no longer roll on offhand items, but in previous tiers those items have been very competitive for those specs. Why was this changed?
That's only in Raid Finder, and we made the change to restrict certain items to certain classes to prevent things like hunters needing on strength swords. We debated the offhand change a lot and we knew that some of the shaman might be unhappy with the fact that we are making them use the shield when they might want to use an offhand, but we also thought the mages, priests, and druids would be upset that the shaman got to roll on the offhand and the shield when they could only roll on the offhand. It could have gone either way and we understand that some players are upset at the way it went. Once players progress to normal mode, they can still use the offhands, so it is only a Raid Finder issue.

You can easily max out Justice and Valor points right now, so do you plan on adding anything like pets, mounts, or vanity gear to provide some use for the points?
We talked about it in the past, but we like the way it works now where players hit the cap quickly by doing whatever content they want. We don't want players to feel like they have to log in every night to earn as many Valor points as possible.

Some guilds are doing up to 20 LFR runs in a week to maximize the amount of gear they can get...
Yeah, fortunately that isn't very widespread. It is hard to discourage, and if they are enjoying it and it doesn't hurt game balance, we are okay with that.

Is LFR going to remain a current raid only tool, or will we be able to use it from Dragon Soul onwards?
Nope, we want to use it from Dragon Soul onwards. We would have loved to turn on LFR for all of the old content in the game, but Raid Finder was actually going to be a Patch 5.0+ feature. Fairly late we thought that it would be great to get into Patch 4.3, but up until the very end it wasn't clear if it would be ready for Patch 4.3. However, we were able to finish it in time with Dragon Soul functionality. If there is time in the future, we would like to go back and get at least some of the older content into it.

Will there be another patch before Mists of Pandaria?
We said that we are not going to do another tier of raiding content and PvP season, but we will do the normal pre expansion launch patch. This would include things like the new talents and the other big mechanics changes coming in the expansion, along with the launch event that deals with the Horde vs Alliance story and the introduction of the new continent. The launch event will be similar in magnitude to what we did for Wrath of the Lich King and Burning Crusade.

Cataclysm brought us guild perks to make raiding easier like Mass Resurrection, Mass Summoning, and lower durability reduction on death. How high do you think the guild level is going to increase to in Mists of Pandaria and what kind of new guild perks do you think we will see?
We aren't going to double the number of guild levels or anything like that. We had to make up for the lack of it in previous expansions this time around. Players can expect a few more levels, nothing like thirty or forty more. We haven't talked much about the perks guilds will receive yet, but they will be similar to the existing perks. One idea was cheaper transmogrification, which could be fun for players.

Has there been any progress made on making items account bound and not server bound since you last commented on it?
We would still love to do it, it isn't a design problem as much as a technical one. We are doing a lot of work to get achievements to be account wide, and it is possible that some of the work we do there will let us do the same thing for items. We can't promise anything though, because it could be the case that the first 90% of the work is really easy, and the last 10% is more difficult. Catching all of the exploits and bugs are part of what makes this something that is hard to do.

Will the under construction parts of the Darkmoon Faire get filled out before Mists of Pandaria, or is this something that won't be done until later?
We have vague plans, along the lines of "Hey, we could add a haunted house here", but nothing solid. I would be surprised if it was expanded upon anytime soon, we might add something for the launch event. This depends on the players' reactions to the current one, if they feel like they are running out of things to do, or if there is a lot of love for certain minigames or parts of the Faire, we might be able to add something else. It is hard to provide enough content so that people never run out of things to do, so we are pacing ourselves with the Faire, expanding on it over time.

Items from Archaeology have low item levels compared to the new and easy to access gear added in Patch 4.3, Are there any plans to scale or add new Archaeology items that will be relevant to the current content?
We will likely add new items, we didn't want to compete with heirlooms and give alt characters more gear than they could possibly use, allowing them to level without caring at all about loot gained while leveling. We like the idea of artifacts remaining something that you can trade between characters on your account. If you get a healer trinket that you can't use right now because you don't have a healer, it could be something you use one day, rather than solving your healer trinket problems forever.

With the advent of LFR, casual players can see all of the content, while Heroic raids seem to be harder now. Is this type of difficulty something you want to move forward doing?
The advantage of having three difficulty levels is that we can tailor each one to the audience. Before LFR we could target Normal difficulty raids at organized guilds, which left nothing for PuGs to do, or we could target them at PuGs, making them too easy for organized guilds. This would leave normal guilds only Heroic difficulty for a challenging encounter, leaving nothing for the more hardcore guilds to do. The three difficulty levels let us tailor each difficulty so that everyone has something to do.

Are there any plans to promote Voice Chat use?
The Voice Chat we included is not a good feature. We tried, we made some mistakes, and we accept that it isn't something used by a lot of players. It is on the wishlist of things we would eventually like to improve. A big thing it is missing now that we would like to fix is the ability to communicate with people before you get into the game, having to be logged in to use it makes it less useful than something like Ventrilo or Mumble.

Are you planning on adding chat channels for healing, DPS, and tanking in LFR?
We haven't thought about it, but it wouldn't be hard to do. We would just add people to the channel based on their role.

Okay, great. Thank you so much for your time!

Winter Veil Changes
Blizzard has made a few changes to Winter Veil this year, including making You're a Mean One... into a group quest.

He would be difficult to defeat on your own, but anyone in the area is allowed to loot the Stolen Treats after he is dead and free Metzen. Doing so will reward you with a Stolen Present, which can contain a number of things, including previous year's gifts, Lump of Coal, and a Miniature Winter Veil Tree.





EU Celestial Steed and Pandaren Monk 50% Off
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Need to complete your pet collection? Want to travel Azeroth in style? Now is the perfect time, because during this holiday season you can trade up to an epic Celestial Steed mount or get the noble Pandaren Monk companion at half price! Click here to take advantage of this great offer.

But don´t wait too long, because this promotion ends on January 2!

MMO-Champion T-Shirts from J!NX
For a limited time at J!NX, get $10 off when you spend $35 or more on Curse merchandise! Simply use code MILKANDCOOKIES at checkout. There’s still time left to order for the Holidays, but the deal ends on December 18th at midnight, so don’t wait! Please note that this offer can’t be combined with any other offers or discounts.





New Warcraft Fan Art
The World of Warcraft Fan Art Section has been updated with fourteen new pieces of fan artwork.



This article was originally published in forum thread: Interview with Greg Street (Ghostcrawler), Winter Veil, EU Blizzard Sale, Fan Art started by chaud View original post
Comments 127 Comments
  1. Ikkarus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by xSaix View Post
    Why are we getting the 2008+ pets AND the achievement from this holiday? No recolor, no different achievement, nothing unique. Way to punish the older players...
    Same reason that the new players don't get an WoW Anniversary Pet:

    "We had some ideas but would need a lot of work, so..."

    ...
  1. Alixie's Avatar
    Its obvious this fanart was drawn by males, and made for males.
  1. mmoc433ceb40ad's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alixie View Post
    Its obvious this fanart was drawn by males, and made for males.
    Welcome to the world of videogames.
  1. Nanela's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Korgoth View Post
    What a totally useless Q and A! How about next time you throw him a real question like, "Why are you leaving Resto Druids, Arms Warriors, and Enh Shaman completely gimp in pvp for 2 whole seasons while Mages, Locks and Resto Shamans get to continue on being blatantly overpowered?"or maybe, "Why is C Smash still nerfed on Arms warriors in pvp when the spec is doing horribly, and almost every other class gets 100% armor penetration and are bursting for 30-50k a global?"or my favorite, "How many more subscribers have to quit before your untalented biased ass gets fired?"
    MATE i couldnt have agreed so more ! haha she was retarded like "UM LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE UM UM UM" .. learn to interview before you do it.. i mean to her :P
  1. Boubouille's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Korgoth View Post
    What a totally useless Q and A! How about next time you throw him a real question like, "Why are you leaving Resto Druids, Arms Warriors, and Enh Shaman completely gimp in pvp for 2 whole seasons while Mages, Locks and Resto Shamans get to continue on being blatantly overpowered?"or maybe, "Why is C Smash still nerfed on Arms warriors in pvp when the spec is doing horribly, and almost every other class gets 100% armor penetration and are bursting for 30-50k a global?"or my favorite, "How many more subscribers have to quit before your untalented biased ass gets fired?"
    Any class balance question will be "we'll try to fix it with Mists of Pandaria", it's not a bullshit answer, they're just redoing the whole talent system. There is absolutely no question to ask about that, we already know they're working on something new, we already know what it is, we already know the next step is beta testing.

    Ghostcrawler was nice enough to give us time for a post 4.3 interview and that's what we did, a post 4.3 interview. I'd be happy to get a Mists of Pandaria interview but this isn't the point and realistically it wouldn't be that interesting either since we got so much info from the Blizzcon.

    If you really wonder why we won't go to a developer and ask him "SO HUH, YEAH, I KNOW YOU HATE ME AND WANT ME TO BE SAD FOR 2 SEASONS, WHY???" I think you might want to try thinking about it again. Blizzard doesn't have a plan to steal your candies and make you sad. Really.
  1. good diu bro's Avatar
    Looks like they are going to dodge the "reuse model for boss while having "resources" for new models on pet/mounts" question and the rage directed on Thrallcraftism.
    But kudos to mmo-champion for getting yet another interview with blizz staff.

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

    Will there be another patch before Mists of Pandaria?
    We said that we are not going to do another tier of raiding content and PvP season, but we will do the normal pre expansion launch patch. This would include things like the new talents and the other big mechanics changes coming in the expansion, along with the launch event that deals with the Horde vs Alliance story and the introduction of the new continent. The launch event will be similar in magnitude to what we did for Wrath of the Lich King and Burning Crusade.
    Not necessarily to be another tier/season, but filer contents are always nice to have.
    Maybe another Halion like WotLK?
    Edit: Lich King was add in 3.3.2, Halion was add in 3.3.5 (around 3 months after LK), pre cata was in 4.0.1 (another 2-3 months after halion?)

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

    With the advent of LFR, casual players can see all of the content, while Heroic raids seem to be harder now. Is this type of difficulty something you want to move forward doing?
    The advantage of having three difficulty levels is that we can tailor each one to the audience. Before LFR we could target Normal difficulty raids at organized guilds, which left nothing for PuGs to do, or we could target them at PuGs, making them too easy for organized guilds. This would leave normal guilds only Heroic difficulty for a challenging encounter, leaving nothing for the more hardcore guilds to do. The three difficulty levels let us tailor each difficulty so that everyone has something to do.
    If compared to 4.0and 4.2 or perhaps with the Lich King, the progression of normal mode is a bit under-tuned in this tier.
    With LFR, maybe they can cater the casuals by giving them a bit more ego for showing their "deathwing end" title.


    Quote Originally Posted by Alixie View Post
    Its obvious this fanart was drawn by males, and made for males.
    Hold on, are you talking about the kung-fu spewing pandas?
  1. mmoc7805351bd4's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by good diu bro View Post
    Not necessarily to be another tier/season, but filer contents are always nice to have.
    Maybe another Halion like WotLK?
    Well, at least this finally rules out a patch 4.4.
    There simply is no content coming to warrant labeling such a filler patch as a major patch.
    4.3.5 at the most. Although I think we'll go straight from 4.3.2 to 5.0.1.
    The expansion sounds to be a lot closer than I first expected.
  1. Pud'n's Avatar
    Not one comment about Bibi being the woman interviewer from the video (Which she totally is!!!)? Tsk tsk tsk......
  1. mmoc6084e41e4b's Avatar
    Fucking amazing artwork again
  1. Chaoslux's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by good diu bro View Post
    If compared to 4.0and 4.2 or perhaps with the Lich King, the progression of normal mode is a bit under-tuned in this tier.
    With LFR, maybe they can cater the casuals by giving them a bit more ego for showing their "deathwing end" title.
    I dont think progression through 4.3 was easier than 4.2, i think it has to do with them really nerfing Firelands two months early, lots of people got access to heroic gear they never had before. So, of course their progression through normal mode 4.3 would be hastened.
  1. molster's Avatar
    -giggle- A good interview, there's always got to be something wrong with everything for at least a few people.
  1. Quenios's Avatar
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    The top tier guilds are going through it quickly, as they always do, but they make hundreds of attempts on each boss. Everyone is about where they should be right now.
    Don't think we have spent 100 attempts on Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj, Hagara and Ultraxion all on heroic combined LOL
  1. mmocb0d6912b72's Avatar
    awesome fan art,the one with that night elf female is PERFECT!

    -the almost naked one, I like her stand and pic quality very much!
  1. Shoot-'s Avatar
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    The top tier guilds are going through it quickly, as they always do, but they make hundreds of attempts on each boss. Everyone is about where they should be right now.

    ...This is in no way shape or form accurate at all. Hundreds of attempts on each boss? Maybe Spine/Madness HC eventually, but yeah, way off.
  1. Mort459's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Boubouille View Post
    Any class balance question will be "we'll try to fix it with Mists of Pandaria", it's not a bullshit answer, they're just redoing the whole talent system. There is absolutely no question to ask about that, we already know they're working on something new, we already know what it is, we already know the next step is beta testing.

    *snip*

    If you really wonder why we won't go to a developer and ask him "SO HUH, YEAH, I KNOW YOU HATE ME AND WANT ME TO BE SAD FOR 2 SEASONS, WHY???" I think you might want to try thinking about it again. Blizzard doesn't have a plan to steal your candies and make you sad. Really.
    Always wonderful when you have the time to drop in and provide a logical answer. Such a shame people are blind and self-important enough to not see the truth in it.

    Most people won't be happy unless Greg Street answers their phone calls personally, apologizes for every imaginary insult or mistake he's ever made, makes their class the most powerful in the game, takes their dog for a walk, and gives them a handjob.

    The interview was exactly what it was advertised to be. You're expecting hard-hitting critical journalism in what was clearly a throw-away interview that he was being nice about doing in the first place? Jeez, people be crazy.
  1. LemonBabby's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mort459 View Post
    Always wonderful when you have the time to drop in and provide a logical answer. Such a shame people are blind and self-important enough to not see the truth in it.

    Most people won't be happy unless Greg Street answers their phone calls personally, apologizes for every imaginary insult or mistake he's ever made, makes their class the most powerful in the game, takes their dog for a walk, and gives them a handjob.

    The interview was exactly what it was advertised to be. You're expecting hard-hitting critical journalism in what was clearly a throw-away interview that he was being nice about doing in the first place? Jeez, people be crazy.
    That's exactly what I was thinking.
  1. Myrkur's Avatar
    Wow! The content of the interview was very good and informative. The interviewer however threw it off. She sounded like a robot that didn't really care at all about the questions, and was just blasting through them. She sounded afraid of Greg and just wanted to hang up the phone the entire time. And then once all her questions were asked she immediately ends the interview with "Welp, you answered all my questions. Thanks, bye!!" There was so much more potential for that interview, he sounded like he wanted to talk a lot about his ideas and philosophy on where the game is headed but was never given the chance to continue talking.My advice is to get a couple of drinks in her before she does another interview. Have her do a shit ton of interviews to get more comfortable doing something like that. Her social anxiety was pouring through my computers speakers and it actually made me feel uncomfortable for her. Just relax a little! Greg Street is just a guy, not some vindictive god that will delete your characters or Wi flag your account. As much as people hate on him, he's actually pretty personable and someone you can have a great conversation with.
  1. gutnbrg's Avatar
    why is trhis chick like completely blowing GC after every answer he gives, like "lol yea ur totally right. lol i totally agree with what ur saying, gargle gargle gargle ur bawls" also whats with the gold selling pop up that appears on the video??
  1. Biggiej's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alixie View Post
    Its obvious this fanart was drawn by males, and made for males.
    Because females never do any explicit art, of females and males right?
  1. Stormcall's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by xSaix View Post
    Why are we getting the 2008+ pets AND the achievement from this holiday? No recolor, no different achievement, nothing unique. Way to punish the older players...
    The Lump of Coal pet and the Christmas Tree dagger aren't new for you? Mind filling the rest of us in on how you got them prior years?

    If you don't collect pets and aren't a rogue these won't mean much but they are new, at least.

    And seriously, is there a reason ALL the holiday weapons are rogue weapons? NOBODY but rogues use agility daggers, which we get for Christmas and Brewfest, nobody but rogues use agility swords(with expertise, so even hunters won't want them) which we got for Halloween, only the Brewfest mace is of use for anyone other than rogues(it's not bad for enhance shamans), though rogues still use them as well. For one holiday could we maybe get a staff, or a str weapon or something?

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