5.2 Dev Interview, Upcoming Dev Q&A - April 25, Bad Robot Pet, Blue Posts, TCG Art

WotB and Archon to Receive Changes, Act IV Density to be Buffed, What's Your Favorite Shrine?, Wizard Arcane Torrent Build

Ask the Devs - 5.3 PTR Edition

Patch 5.2 Dev Interview
One of the interviews we didn't have time to cover in the past is the EPIC Podcast interview with Cory Stockton and Dave Kosak.

  • We may see some of Sylvanas before the end of the expansion, but no promises.
  • Pet battle PvP was designed to remove any fear of PvP, no communication with the other player, no win/loss record, etc.
  • A future patch might start tracking pet battle PvP wins and add a quest to win 10 PvP pet battles every week.
  • Blizzard was surprised by how popular and well received pet battles were. The participation rate is very high.
  • Patch 5.3 adds the first set of Burning Crusade raid boss pet drops, and a future patch will have the second set.
  • Pet gender was added in case it wanted to be used later, but currently the team is happy with the current depth the pet battle system has.
  • When adding tech for Burning Crusade Heroic Dungeons, the team added support for ten versions of a NPC with for varying difficulties, thinking they would never use that many. Mists of Pandaria now uses six!
  • Pet battles added Lesser Charms as a reward in Patch 5.2, and it is possible that we may see more rewards like this in the future, including Valor Points.
  • The new scenario into stories were added so that you can see the lore once, and then enjoy the scenario after that without repeating the lore every time.
  • The Determination buff came from seeing groups wipe once or twice and leaving and then queuing again. This contributed to the problem of entering a raid that was partially completed and made for an unpleasant LFR environment.


Blizzard <3s Bad Robot
We finally have a source for the Bad Robot pet from the Patch 5.3 PTR!




Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
One of the core values we live by here at Blizzard is “Embrace Your Inner Geek.” We play countless games, we collect comics and card games, we love cutting-edge technology and computer hardware, we’re fascinated by science and discovery, and many of us are movie buffs. Movies represent the combined imaginations of talented writers and visionaries, artists and operators, editors and producers, that can culminate in an awesome cinematic experience.

It’s with this motivation that we express our respect for JJ Abrams' Bad Robot Productions.

Coming in a future patch, characters with the Engineering profession will be able to produce this mechanical homage to the company that brought us award-winning television shows like Lost and Fringe, and are continuing the epic Star Trek and forthcoming Star Wars film sagas. Everyone has a chance to get their hands on this pet, allowing them to show off their mutual appreciation for Bad Robot, and the stories they’ve brought to our TVs and movie screens.

We hope everyone enjoys this new pet!

Live WoW Developer Q&A Thursday, April 25
Originally Posted by Blizzard
Good people of Azeroth, lend me your eyes!

We’ll be hosting a live World of Warcraft developer Q&A open to the community on Thursday, April 25 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. PDT. Designers Dave Kosak, Ion Hazzikostas, Brian Holinka, Cory Stockton, and Greg Street will be available to field your questions about Mists of Pandaria gameplay and design, patch 5.2 and beyond. This will be a moderated chat on the Cover it Live platform hosted on the front page of our official site. Community managers Bashiok, Crithto, Daxxarri, Rygarius, and I will be there to filter your submissions for the developers.

We receive thousands of questions each time we host these events, so please be patient with us and bear in mind that we won’t get to every question. You can help by keeping your inquiries concise and focused on one topic per entry. Submissions that are well over 200 characters, or contain multiple questions on an array of topics, are much less likely to receive responses. We want to cover as much ground as possible and appreciate your assistance in helping us to achieve that.

We look forward to chatting with you on Thursday!

About the Panelists

Dave Kosak, Lead Quest Designer
As Blizzard Entertainment's lead quest designer for World of Warcraft, Dave Kosak oversees the development of all quest content for the game and its expansions, as well as contributing to the overall fiction of the game world.

Prior to joining Blizzard Entertainment, Kosak was a co-founder and original creative director of GameSpy.

Ion Hazzikostas, Lead Encounter Designer
As lead encounter designer on the World of Warcraft® team, Ion Hazzikostas’s primary responsibility is overseeing the creation of the game’s dungeon and raid content. Hazzikostas joined Blizzard Entertainment in the summer of 2008 as a game designer, and his responsibilities have included raid boss design and implementation, class design and balancing, and maintaining the World of Warcraft achievement system. Prior to arriving at Blizzard, he worked as an attorney at a law firm in Washington, DC.

In his spare time, Hazzikostas enjoys exploring Southern California in search of craft beer. Having grown up in New York City, he is a lifelong Yankees fan.

Brian Holinka, Senior PvP Game Designer
As a senior game designer on Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft® team, Brian Holinka focuses exclusively on continuing to make the World of Warcraft PvP experience enjoyable for all of its players. Holinka works with the systems and content teams to create a balanced competitive environment with exciting rewards and diverse content.

Prior to joining Blizzard Entertainment in 2012, Holinka worked on the multiplayer components of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Homefront, and Frontlines: Fuel of War. Holinka got his start in the game industry moonlighting on the “Desert Combat” mod for Battlefield 1942 while serving as a Captain in the United States Air Force.

Cory Stockton, Lead Content Designer
As Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.'s lead content designer for World of Warcraft®, Cory Stockton is responsible for overseeing the design and implementation of all exterior zones, dungeons, Battlegrounds, Arenas, and cities. He is also involved with many other aspects of the game, such as dungeon scripting and the Pet Battle System.

Stockton started at Blizzard Entertainment in June 2005 as lead dungeon designer before transitioning to his current role. Prior to his arrival, he was a lead designer on the Ratchet & Clank series and also contributed extensively to the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver series.

In his spare time, Stockton plays games extensively, and enjoys collecting classic consoles and games. He holds an associate's degree in computer animation from the Art Institute of Phoenix.

Greg Street, Lead Systems Designer
As the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft®, Greg Street is one of the two lead designers on the team that reports to the Game Director. He leads a team that is in charge of World of Warcraft class, item and tradeskill design. He and his team also design the user interface for the game and handle all of the various combat calculations and number tuning.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Ask the Devs Questions
boring, they seem to have picked the questions (again) that they have easy copy/paste answers ready.
The questions chosen were the ones that were on the topic in question, which was the upcoming PvP changes in patch 5.3. No questions were skipped because of their difficulty in answering. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
[PvE] Why casters never have to worry about going OOM and warriors struggle for rage? Casters spam what they want, no downside
Why do warriors have no cast bars (but one) and mages must stop and cast? Class mechanics work differently. (Source)

What made Rets need a buff? Not that I'm QQing or anything, but my Unholy DK would like some too.
Unholy is doing great right now IMO. Ret was average on some fights, low on others, and didn't have a good fight to shine. (Source)

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
is Solar Beam included in glyph of omens ? official notes says yes, mmo-champ says no.
No, Solar Beam is not in Glyph of Omens because it's off the GCD. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
just want to say stupid move on the hunter changes in 5.3. even more stuns for any spec. not fun when you get perma stunlock
They have to give up Silencing Shot to take the stun. Not sure you'll see that many take that trade. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
15% Sword of Light on live right now to 30% on PTR huge, if you think that's needed why not a hotfix? 5% would be okay to wait
These are just changes we're trying out on the test realm. We need to evaluate data and feedback before 5.3 goes live. (Source)

Hey ! Don't you think Holy paladins in PVP are a little bit underpowered compared to other healers atm?
They were too good last season, but dropped off a lot. Also had good synergy with warriors, which is a factor. (Source)
high % doesn't mean good, shamans / priests are good, work in every comp and that's not "synergy" with every class
There are many ways to measure it: rep, number of viable teams, pure power. Ultimately we concluded they were too strong. (Source)

That's because it actually gives 1 HP on cast while aiding in raid healing. More HP = more EFs = more ST healing.
If you need the HR to actually heal, that's one thing, but it shouldn't be simply a Holy Power delivery mechanism. (Source)
But HR is only transferring 15% to the tank, while DL on the tank gives you 100% and Holy Power. (Source)

Making Holy Radiance reset the cooldown of Holy Shock would make everything better.
Concerned that would force Holy Radiance into a single-target rotation. (Source)
Holy Radiance is already best for a single target rotation. HR + HS does more healing than DL + HS.
Which is silly. Daybreak should never be a single target throughput increase. HR alone is weaker than DL, as it should be. (Source)

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Exactly this. Give us something better to do as a filler. How about renew, binding, etc changes?
"Better to cast" sounds like Atonement HPS is beating actual heals. (Source)
Disc healing is underpowered w/o atonement (absorbs /= heal), time for grace to be on priest not the target?!
But absorbs are generally more powerful than heals so it makes sense they aren't as strong point for point. (Source)
If Disc can heal as well as anyone and has absorbs on top of that, why play anything else? (Source)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Why Enhancement and not Elemental? Enhancement damage is insane right now as is, our ENH Sham beats me and we have same ilvl
Overall, Elemental is going better than Enhance, and Elemental is getting a buff through LB cast time. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
I don't understand all of these "animation limitations" for TG and XMog (daggers/fist weapons) - is it really that difficult?
Actually, yes. Animation requires a specific set of skills and talent for a developer, and a lot of work. (Source)
My hunch is many players have a grasp for what modeling and texturing are like, but animation is more of a black box. (Source)

but strength polearms with be back again soon right? RIGHT?!
We'd like to do more Str polearms even if we can't sort out TG (which we hopefully can). (Source)
and as i have countless times tried to suggest every way possible, why not make PvP str Polearms?
There is a PvP Str polearm on the list for 5.4. No promises of course. (Source)

With the addition of the new warrior specialization ability, will we see the similar effect attached to second wind go away?
Yes. Trying Second Wind just as heals to potentially open up the other talent choices since you get the rage no matter what. (Source)

TCG Art Update
Blizzard has updated the Trading Card Game art gallery to feature ten new pieces.


This article was originally published in forum thread: 5.2 Dev Interview, Upcoming Dev Q&A - April 25, Bad Robot Pet, Blue Posts, TCG Art started by chaud View original post
Published on 2013-04-20 05:41 AM
40 Comments
Comments 40 Comments
  1. Redblade's Avatar
    Blizzard was surprised by how popular and well received pet battles were. The participation rate is very high.
    Always found it interesting how Blizzard designs something, attaches reward everyone wants, then proceeds to draw conclusion that it's well received when people participate. And before some one hates on me, I'm sure it's popular, just find the faulty conclusions funny.
  1. Radoznali's Avatar
    Is there actual link to where -"Live WoW Developer Q&A Thursday, April 25" was actually said?
  1. Renwin's Avatar
    Awwwww, that's a cute druid picture. Them cat eyes.
  1. potatoe's Avatar
    Radoznali, April 25th is in the future, so you will have to wait.
  1. Vesker's Avatar
    We MAY see some of Sylvanas before the expansion ends? Didn't Kosak confirm a little while ago that she absolutely would take part in the final MoP raid? It'll kind of suck that this period of time, perhaps the height of violence in the Horde vs Alliance war, will pass without her stepping in to roll some heads. I guess there's not enough time to give everyone their time in the spotlight though and she DID get a lot more attention in Cata.
  1. chaud's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Radoznali View Post
    Is there actual link to where -"Live WoW Developer Q&A Thursday, April 25" was actually said?
    Email to all the fansites.
  1. mmocf0a8756358's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Radoznali View Post
    Is there actual link to where -"Live WoW Developer Q&A Thursday, April 25" was actually said?

    Q+A is always pointless cos they only answer the questions from complete idiots in wow like the PTR ones on the front page pointless questions with stupid answers, dnt really give a crap about Q+A to me its more like QQ + A from the lil 8 yr whiners
  1. Darmalus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Redblade View Post
    Always found it interesting how Blizzard designs something, attaches reward everyone wants, then proceeds to draw conclusion that it's well received when people participate. And before some one hates on me, I'm sure it's popular, just find the faulty conclusions funny.
    Funny, I don't know a single person who plays Pet Battles that wasn't hopelessly addicted from 5.0. I think you just want something to hate.
  1. nekobaka's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Redblade View Post
    Always found it interesting how Blizzard designs something, attaches reward everyone wants, then proceeds to draw conclusion that it's well received when people participate. And before some one hates on me, I'm sure it's popular, just find the faulty conclusions funny.
    Blizzard does the same thing with questions about how happy players are with LFR and Blizzard says it is a popular feature as if popularity equals enjoyment. On the other side when Blizzard places low expectations on participation on something and then later says that it got more participation then expected and say that it is successful.
  1. Sarevokcz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Darmalus View Post
    Funny, I don't know a single person who plays Pet Battles that wasn't hopelessly addicted from 5.0. I think you just want something to hate.
    Funny, I know several people just from my guild who started doing pet battles since they added lesser charms, simply because they hate pet battles less than dailys.

    And Im one of those "addicts," closing in on the 5k battles achiev.
  1. Redblade's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Darmalus View Post
    Funny, I don't know a single person who plays Pet Battles that wasn't hopelessly addicted from 5.0. I think you just want something to hate.
    What was confusing with 'I'm sure it's popular'?
  1. Ferrouswheel's Avatar
    It's successful, get over it. Challenge modes on the other hand weren't.

    I'll be EXTREMELY disappointed if after we down Garrosh and he's doing his last words rp, Sylvanas doesn't walk up and stab him in the face and say, "Don't call me a bitch.".
  1. mmoc59b5827c7e's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ferrouswheel View Post
    It's successful, get over it. Challenge modes on the other hand weren't.

    I'll be EXTREMELY disappointed if after we down Garrosh and he's doing his last words rp, Sylvanas doesn't walk up and stab him in the face and say, "Don't call me a bitch.".
    It is succesful because there's anything else to do besides pet battles at some point, and every type of player is going to try out pet battles atleast once. 5.2 content (outside of the raid) lasted a whooping 1 week for me to get tired of.
  1. Aspects's Avatar
    It'd be a massive lost opportunity if they don't have sylvanas doing stuff during seige.
  1. Dispersed's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aspects View Post
    It'd be a massive lost opportunity if they don't have sylvanas doing stuff during seige.
    My thoughts exactly, it wouldnt be a proper horde rebellion without Sylvanas getting some revenge for Garrosh calling her a bitch.
  1. Tarx's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Darmalus View Post
    Funny, I don't know a single person who plays Pet Battles that wasn't hopelessly addicted from 5.0. I think you just want something to hate.
    agree with you dude you got right
  1. mmoc97343e7e90's Avatar
    Aww the little bad robot looks awesome... it looks to have the goblin female animations? i hope it can dance too
  1. Moushiel's Avatar
    this has been bugging me for a while... every time you link some new TCG Art Update, the url you give is wrong. For example in this case Trading Card Game art gallery points to /wow/en/media/artwork/trading-card-game/series5#/1 and it should be series7. Also the last few sets of images from the Hunt for Illidan series were all pointed to the same series5 url which is a completely different set, when it should have been series6. I know on battle.net these last 2 series don't appear in the dropdown menu links, but you can find them on /wow/en/media/artwork/trading-card-game/
    So if it's not too much to ask, please check and correct these links in the future, thank you
  1. chaud's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Moushiel View Post
    this has been bugging me for a while... every time you link some new TCG Art Update, the url you give is wrong. For example in this case Trading Card Game art gallery points to /wow/en/media/artwork/trading-card-game/series5#/1 and it should be series7. Also the last few sets of images from the Hunt for Illidan series were all pointed to the same series5 url which is a completely different set, when it should have been series6. I know on battle.net these last 2 series don't appear in the dropdown menu links, but you can find them on /wow/en/media/artwork/trading-card-game/
    So if it's not too much to ask, please check and correct these links in the future, thank you
    I am lazy, so this should fix it at the source!

    <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/m_chaud">m_chaud</a> Thanks. I'll let our web team know. </p>&mdash; Zarhym (@CM_Zarhym) <a href="https://twitter.com/CM_Zarhym/status/326896918770888705">April 24, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
  1. Moushiel's Avatar
    Doesn't matter to me, they are fixed in the new post so yay and thank you
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