Developer Reddit Q&A, Paragon 10 Man, Blue Posts, Pandaren Monk Pet, SWTOR Patch 1.4

Diablo III Blog on Class Changes Coming, PTR Download Button Active On Launcher, Blue Posts, Curse Weekly Roundup

Developer Reddit Q&A
Several WoW developers answered questions on Reddit tonight. A short summary can be found below, but it is well worth it to read the entire thing!

Misc
  • Player model updates are a high priority and will come with new animations.
  • Once you complete the legendary gem quest line, you will be able to purchase more gems as needed.
  • Activision has no effect on the game's direction.
  • Observer modes are still on the todo list, but require development time and technical improvements before they can be done.
  • Proving Grounds are still on the todo list and will hopefully make it into one of the Mists of Pandaria patches.
  • "More developers" is often proposed as a solution to various problems and Blizzard is actively hiring. It is hard to find people that fit within the Blizzard culture and it would be a mistake to hire too many people too quickly.
  • Combat racials will be improved for classes that lack them.

PvE
  • The plan is still for more content to be released faster than before to keep players engaged with relevant content and not bored. They are also committed to reducing the time between the last major content patch and the next expansion.
  • Blizzard is not satisfied with the current status of 25-player raids and are still actively seeking a solution.
  • Raid Finder and scenarios will hopefully one day make it down to lower level content.
  • Upon being asked about another raid like Ulduar: "In fact, our next raid zone after these may be right up your alley...."
  • Ulduar like hardmode toggles will be added as appropriate.

PvP
  • Blizzard would like to make queuing for random bgs better by ensuring some semblance of healer balance between Alliance/Horde.
  • There are a variety of improvements planed for both rated and unrated BGs.

World
  • There are some bugs with cross-realm zones, as well as some tweaks that need to be made.
  • There wasn't time to fix the damage from Deathwing in Stormwind for Mists of Pandaria.
  • Pandaria has the best in-game storytelling there has ever been in an expansion and there will be more Wrathgate level cinematics, some larger events, and a more interactive and involved story without as much phasing.



Paragon Switching to 10 Man Raiding for Mists of Pandaria
Today Paragon announced that they will be moving to 10 man raids for Mists of Pandaria. For the new full roster, see their site.

After Dragon Soul progression many of our players decided to quit the game, some of them were already showing lack of interest during the DS progress raids. In total 34 players took part in DS progress, 14 of which are no longer playing WoW at all. Most of them were longtime core players. On top of that some of our current players can't put in the time anymore as they used to do.

We were able to get some quality recruits to replace the ones whom had quit, but not enough. So far we had recruited 12 players. It has always been hard for us to recruit new players and we pretty much had the same core of 20+ from late Ulduar to Dragon Soul which played a big part in our success.

During the beta it became obvious that the current roster will not cut it in MoP unless we get couple of more quality recruits. So far we haven't been able to get the roster we needed and have decided it's better to continue as a 10man guild from now on than to hope for something miraculous to happen in the upcoming weeks. This also leaves time for our players to find a new guild before MoP if they so desire..



Raid Testing Schedule - September 13
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Raid testing will resume this Thursday, September 13.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Beta Test Realms, regardless of suggested geographical region.

Gara'jal (Mogu'shan Vaults) - 25 Player Heroic
10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST)

Blade Lord Ta'yak (Heart of Fear) - 25 Player Heroic
16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session or cancel it entirely, due to bugs, builds, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Mists of Pandaria Experience to Level
We have definitely been tuning XP in Pandaria, and trying to hit a pace where a character with no rest, no heirlooms, and no guild is leveling comfortably.

There was a significant decrease in the XP required to level from 87-90 applied a couple of weeks ago, and there was a similar adjustment for level 86 prior to that.

Completed Kun-Lai Summit today, they lower the req. XP a few patches back so I was able to ding lvl88 by the Summit quests alone finally. It's still tight though, by doing every single quest in the zone I have dinged a few quests before Shado-Pan area (my last questhub) ends. I completed the zone with no rested XP at all and unguilded.
This is pretty much what we're aiming for. We may still need to make a small tweak here or there.

Do we know the current total XPs required for each level from 85-90? Is this posted somewhere?

Currently
  • 86 13000000
  • 87 15080000
  • 88 18980000
  • 89 22880000
  • 90 27560000

The fact is -- most people are in guilds, or do gathering along the way, or run dungeons, or use heirlooms, or build up some rest. Some people only quest in groups (and are therefore able to kill many more enemies per hour). Some only ever play solo.

The values above may get changed a little bit in the next two weeks, but only if it can be demonstrated that they are still too high.
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Brewfest Boss Level and Brewfest Dates
Word is, Coren Direbrew has been working out with bigger kegs and he will indeed be a level 90 dungeon boss and his loot has been adjusted accordingly. Pace was something we considered, so we pushed the actual event by just over a week from when it normally happens (which you should be able to see on your in-game calendars now) to give players a bit more time to reach level 89, the minimum level required to queue for the encounter. Oh, we also added a couple more surprises but you’ll have to wait and see. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Challenge Modes Differences
Challenge modes are more than just a timed run. On a basic level, every single creature in Challenge Mode dungeons is significantly stronger than the Heroic version (typically by a larger proportion than you see going from Normal to Heroic raiding, for what that's worth), and where appropriate, additional enemies or new mechanics are added to make sure that the threat of defeat is always present. For many players, simply successfully completing a challenge run is going to be, well, a challenge. That's why we award excellent Valor gains for doing so. Aiming for Silver, let alone Gold, will be something for experienced players to do once they've mastered the content.

Players who tested the Scarlet Halls challenge mode when that one was open, to name one example, can probably attest that the Armory section of that dungeon is every bit as brutal as anything in Heroic Shattered Halls was in Burning Crusade. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Account Wide Professions
Vanilla was a time of experimentation and 90%+ of the population playing with 1 main. Now it's a chore to level First Aid for alts hence it's difficult to see it seriously in design.
Well, if you look at it like that, why not make levelling and loot account wide too? Shouldn't new characters actually be new? (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Class Quests
I personally loved Anathema’s quest line, it was one of the most fun quests I have ever completed, I suppose that's mostly because of the sense of accomplishment it yielded in the end and also because of its higher than usual difficulty level.
That being said, we will have some really nice Monk quests, but for now, although we would love to do more class quests, we are focusing a bit more on faction specific quests. We have 11 classes, that means we would have to use a ton of resources to implement those quests and we just can’t spare them at this moment.

Storyline and faction-specific quests on the other hand are getting some love; we’re focusing quite a lot on the Alliance VS Horde conflict for Mists of Pandaria, we will use plenty of other ways to help bring that conflict to another level, including for example the usage of scenarios.
We’re really excited about bringing this old and original conflict back into Warcraft again.

Be prepared for some epic legendary quests though as the expansion progresses! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Pandaren Monk Pet Lore?
Yeah, of all the bizarre pets out there to collect, I have to say I think the little Pandaren is one of the least strange ones, lore-wise — I have a tiny Archangel of Justice following me around most of the time!

I'm sure each of them can be explained in some way though. Magical error, inter-dimensional rifts, alchemy accident... (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Pandaren Monk Pet 50% OFF -- This Week Only
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Save big and prepare for Pandaria with a new sidekick. This week only, you can get the World of Warcraft Pandaren Monk companion pet for just $5 (EU - 5€ / 4.5£). That’s 50% off the regular price, making this a great time to round out your pet collection before the imminent arrival of the Pet Battle System.

Hurry, this offer ends September 17, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.



SWTOR Patch 1.4
Patch 1.4 is live on the PTS and the patch notes are here! Darth Hater has some previews of the Dread Guard Armor, Moods System, Elite War Hero Weapons, Terror From Beyond, and New Daily Relics.

Originally Posted by SWTOR
Highlights
  • Terror from Beyond, a new Operation, is now available! Travel to the remote planet of Asation, where the Dread Masters have commandeered an ancient Gree Hypergate in order to unleash untold horrors upon the galaxy. Terror from Beyond features 5 powerful new boss encounters that can be challenged in 8- and 16- player Story or Hard Mode, offering some of the most challenging group content yet!
  • A new set of PvE gear is available! Dread Guard gear is now the most powerful PvE equipment in the galaxy. It can be acquired from deep within Terror from Beyond (Hard Mode).
  • Significant changes have been made to crowd control to address the amount of control a player can be subject to at once. See the Classes and Combat section for details.

Full notes...



This article was originally published in forum thread: Developer Reddit Q&A, Paragon 10 Man, Blue Posts, Pandaren Monk Pet, SWTOR Patch 1.4 started by chaud View original post
Published on 2012-09-12 07:05 AM
74 Comments
Comments 74 Comments
  1. ringpriest's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by chaud View Post

    Developer Reddit Q&A
    [*]Player model updates are a high priority and will come with new animations.
    [*]Activision has no effect on the game's direction.
    [*]The plan is still for more content to be released faster than before to keep players engaged with relevant content and not bored. They are also committed to reducing the time between the last major content patch and the next expansion.
    [*]There wasn't time to fix the damage from Deathwing in Stormwind for Mists of Pandaria.
    I just can't take Blizzard seriously anymore. Maybe they actually believe this stuff internally, or maybe they just put it out knowing it's pure propaganda. Either way, I think they have little to no contact with reality or their playerbase. I was seriously contemplating buying MoP and playing regularly again, but no. I'm not going to pay Blizz while they continue to spout the same unbelieveable BS for another two years.
  1. KCguy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ringpriest View Post
    I just can't take Blizzard seriously anymore. Maybe they actually believe this stuff internally, or maybe they just put it out knowing it's pure propaganda. Either way, I think they have little to no contact with reality or their playerbase. I was seriously contemplating buying MoP and playing regularly again, but no. I'm not going to pay Blizz while they continue to spout the same unbelieveable BS for another two years.
    Well that's your decision I suppose, but WoW is still by far the best and in depth MMO on the market and nothing comes close in terms of everything from dungeons to features. And come Mists the amount of stuff to do will be as much as every previous expansion combined. I really didn't like Cata, but Mists sure looks amazing.
  1. ImpTaimer's Avatar
    Oh no, Paragon did something! *looks at Mayan calendar* It's the end I tell you!

    No but seriously, thank god. 40-mans weren't fun, especially when it came to gearing. 25-mans weren't fun, especially when it came to gearing. All the 10-mans were fun, but gearing still wasn't fun. When they split 10 and 25 gearing was still not fun because 10-man was always behind the curve and 25-man had all the good shit, and it was still difficult to gear unless you did both 10 and 25-man. Cata comes around and makes gearing more of a chore instead of road-block in finishing content, but it's still not fun.

    Gearing is not fun. It's just much much easier now than it ever was in the past. I think the only time gearing was actually "fun" was pre-raid vanilla. "I don't know but it looks cool and has a proc!"

    Negativity aside, thank god for new animations. I'm tired of dealing with Troll weapon hand positioning since the game came out. Fist weapons look just look plain terrible, and many weapons don't behave properly with the animations (especially whirlwind, slam and mutilate/raging blow). Offhand weapons was the worst part. My main praise about WoW is the fluid nature of the game, and when you see crap like this it annoys me on a cellular level. Oh god and the stormstrike animation change, that just killed me. (oops I was suppose to put the negativity aside)
  1. Dravelar's Avatar
    Upon being asked about another raid like Ulduar: "In fact, our next raid zone after these may be right up your alley...."

    What are the chances of blizzard actually keeping that up?
  1. Dengir's Avatar
    Can't wait to see what 1.4 brings for ToR.
  1. mmoc58912c4cac's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dravelar View Post
    Upon being asked about another raid like Ulduar: "In fact, our next raid zone after these may be right up your alley...."

    What are the chances of blizzard actually keeping that up?
    Take with a grain of salt - See 'Vashj'ir raid'.
  1. videotape's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ringpriest View Post
    I just can't take Blizzard seriously anymore. Maybe they actually believe this stuff internally, or maybe they just put it out knowing it's pure propaganda. Either way, I think they have little to no contact with reality or their playerbase. I was seriously contemplating buying MoP and playing regularly again, but no. I'm not going to pay Blizz while they continue to spout the same unbelieveable BS for another two years.
    It's unclear exactly what you are contending here. If it's "all of the above," that seems nonsensical. In fact all of the bullet points you quoted seem perfectly reasonable.
  1. zrankfappa's Avatar
    I find the fact that a guild can get 25 people to play 18 hours a day for months on end, miraculous. I mean seriously ... what kind of person can devote that kind of time to a game? unemployed living in your parents house or on public assistance? retirees? millionaires? even students have to go to school at some point.
  1. good diu bro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by zrankfappa View Post
    I find the fact that a guild can get 25 people to play 18 hours a day for months on end, miraculous. I mean seriously ... what kind of person can devote that kind of time to a game? unemployed living in your parents house or on public assistance? retirees? millionaires? even students have to go to school at some point.
    Part time workers and most self-employed can do that.
  1. mmoc0f233d9eb1's Avatar
    I just can't take Blizzard seriously anymore. Maybe they actually believe this stuff internally, or maybe they just put it out knowing it's pure propaganda. Either way, I think they have little to no contact with reality or their playerbase. I was seriously contemplating buying MoP and playing regularly again, but no. I'm not going to pay Blizz while they continue to spout the same unbelieveable BS for another two years.
    What the hell are you talking about? Do you seek attention by complaining about random stuff?

    I came here to see people's opinions about model updates, but as always, nothing satisfies you and I see only bitching and complaining. Blizzard finally decided to update player models after the community begged them to, now people bitch about that too.

    I advise Blizzard to NOT update models. Even if they are better, the vocal minority still didn't pull out the twig up their ass and they will make sure to complain about their shitty nostalgia.
  1. mmocfc138a9a69's Avatar
    "Activision has no effect on the game's direction."

    April Fools' Day?.
  1. nhbandit's Avatar
    Hahahahahaha! I wonder if we will now hear Paragon say, "10 mans are actually much more difficult and 25 mans are for scrubs."
  1. Nefastus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kaleredar View Post
    The only thing laugh-out-loud worthy here is your post. I can automatically tell that you have not played the beta (or if you did, didn't pay attention,) haven't read anything about the actual lore, and are attempting to lambast the game for things you haven't a single clue about.
    You would do better laughing at yourself in front of a mirror if you didnt know they were made as an aprils fool joke. You probably started during cata anyways, doubt have any clue of anything.
  1. ravenreaverz's Avatar
    Paragon are like the biggest nerds on the planet
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