New Interview From Gamescom, Wyatt Cheng on the Mystic, Blue Posts

Beta Opt-In Wave For US, Blue Posts, Fireside Chat Reminder

Patch 5.4 - Season 14 Shaman Armor Set
Keep in mind that this is just a preview and the final set may be different!





Patch 5.4 - Kor'kron Juggernaut Mount
The Kor'kron Juggernaut mount is a reward for killing Garrosh on Heroic difficulty.



Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Rated Battlegrounds
you can say: wait? what the difference with Random battlegrounds?
Indeed and that is exactly the issue. Rated BG's have higher rewards than random BG's because of the organisation that is involved in getting the group together and coordinating them for success against another organised group.

Also you are always forced to go on a communication program like teamspeak what not everyone likes to do.
This is one of the parts involved in trying to run an organised group, not all information can be given through chat, especially quick commands for targets and CC. This is not to say it's required, but it's definitely recommended to improve your chances of victory.

So when you hit 90, and want to pvp. you first have to farm all honor gear, witch is a REAL REAL PAIN to do. Because everything 2 shots you and you hit like a wet towel.
The damage received by freshly dinged players is generally the same as those who are fully geared, depending on what you gem and enchant. This is because of the implementation of base resilience to all players. The main difference is the damage or healing you do, but that doesn't mean that you're unable to contribute.

And random BG's is swarmed with bot's. i'm not even start talking about this.
I'll just touch on it quickly and say that we are constantly dealing with the issue of bots and are doing everything we can to lower and remove the impact they have on your experience in World of Warcraft. Also; if bots are something that concerns you in random BG's, then creating a queuing system for rated BG's would also feed this across to the conquest grind as well.

We understand that there are benefits behind having a queue for rated BG's and that there are people that would like to see this implemented, but we also feel that there are more positives than negatives behind keeping it restricted to premade groups only. This is not to say that the discussion is closed, we greatly appreciate any feedback that you have on the subject. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Professions
Made an account just to ask this; Are there any plans to update crafting professions to keep up with the leveling process?
Yes, but no immediate announcements. We agree it's a problem. (Source)

are we definetly going to see the sky golem next patch?
I can never say definitely until the patch ships, because sometimes there are last minute changes. At the moment, it looks good. (Source)

UI / Addons
I wonder, do you use addons for raiding or you're confident about original UI? #notgoingtoabuseyoureanswer
It varies. I'm responsible for UI so I feel an obligation to experience the game sans mods. I like to see why mods are popular too. (Source)
I'd argue (and do, as a game designer and lecturer) that WoW's mods are important - can config UI as people like!
Oh, totally agree. I meant specific mods that gain a lot of popularity. (Source)

Character / Items
Concerned about valor points in 5.4... got 11 90's running out of stuff to buy in 5.3, so what will we spend valor on in 5.4?
Upgrading your best gear. (Source)

ok so dumb question....why is it harder to get justice points than it is to get valor points?
We didn't do at great job of integrating justice points into the MoP reward tapestry. (Source)

Why no mastery at low level? Shouldn't players have more time to get used to stat effects/usefulness?
We find new and low level players have plenty of things to learn. (Source)

Why no siege weapons have no cool procs?
We wanted the heirlooms to be very competitive, which would be tough if there were procs competing with them. (Source)
Procs are cool. We will do them again. The SoO trinkets are pretty cool in the meantime. (Source)

restricting dailies is a terrible idea. Make the REP they give accountwide, not the quests.
What about the concern that if player X does 100 dailies a day, I have to as well to keep up? (Source)
I just don't want to have to unlock the quartermaster 10x over. Is that asking too much?
In vanilla, many of us had 1-2 characters. Now many have 5-10. They don't want to do something 5-10 times, understandably. (Source)
We know some players want to be able to raid on all their alts without having to spend much time gearing them up. (Source)
But if you're trying to level up alts now, I would skip the quatermasters and do Barrens in 5.3 or Timeless Isle in 5.4. (Source)
The issue here, as it always is, is how much commitment should the second (and so on) character require? (Source)
if cataclysm was too alt friendly, I think mop shifted that paradigm slightly too far in the other direction.
We agree with that. Our main goal for MoP was to make sure players always had plenty to do. (Source)
If you have one character, that should work fine for you. If you have five, I can see how it was overwhelming. (Source)
5.4 is pretty alt-friendly though, in the same way the final patch of past expansions were. (Source)
Our goal is to make the second take less than the first, but still not zero. We know that won't make some players happy. (Source)
Which quartermaster is a problem? If you had to do it 5 times in 5.0, then that is a problem, as we've said. (Source)
Blacksmith needs Klaxxi. Tailor/Enchanter August Celestials. LW need Golden Lotus. Thank you for listening.
Does it demean your effort if every player with several 90s had access to all those recipes once they did it on 1 character? (Source)

Honestly all I want is my Cloud Serpent Riding.
We might change the riding requirement to account-wide in 5.4. Feels like it has served its purpose. (Source)

Expansions every year in future? So people who hate leveling should just quit? FYI leveling is awful for some.
It is a problem for sure. We lose a lot of folks who never make it to max level (or even expansion min level). (Source)

Your stated design intent: legendaries useful for a whole expansion. Reality: 5.0-5.1 legs useless in 5.4. Please revise.
I believe that design intent was about weapons. Regardless, your meta gem will still work. (Source)
Having every orange item stick around 5.4 would be too much power difference between haves and have nots. It's huge as it is. (Source)

Misc
i've been wondering like forever...what does "lead systems designer" entail exactly? i can see many overlaps.
We use systems as in contrast to content. Content does levels and quests. Systems does features and combat. (Source)
Encounter designers are part of the systems team, largely because they are so combat focused. (Source)
Overall there is a ton of overlap. A systems designer may help out on pet battles. We all contribute to scenarios. Etc. (Source)

I asked what he does focus on as the lead dev, not what should he.
Spend most of my time making sure other designers aren't blocked, ideas for future content, systems work with programmers. (Source)

Because every blue post seems to be "well I don't think so" or "maybe someday". If you cant answer something don't even bother
Players get upset if you never answer but very few of our answers are going to be "We agree! Change incoming!" Kind of a catch 22. (Source)

Could make the case that WoW has enough cognitive difficulty that mechanical difficulty in leveling would be wasted
I like leveling being challenging personally. The problem is our attempts to make leveling faster also made it easier. (Source

Dark Legacy Comics #405
A special hand drawn edition of DLC has been released!

This article was originally published in forum thread: Shaman Season 14 Set, Kor'kron Juggernaut Mount, Blue Posts, Blue Tweets, DLC #405 started by chaud View original post
Comments 44 Comments
  1. lokithor's Avatar
    I'm gonna have to find a shirt to wear with my Tier set
  1. Mhyroth's Avatar
    OH look ANOTHER ground mount. At least give something we can use OUTSIDE too, not to sit in a town. I remember Blizzard saying " we want players back into the world, not sit in cities".Well I'm not going to ride a ground mount from Tanaris to Orgrimmar. And another re-use of a model which already exists. Seems like they're running out of ideas ? OH WAIT they use ALL their special models for Pet Battles, the most awesome and least time consuming addition to the game... Yep the game is heading the right way.
  1. Aztrazolo's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Bantokar View Post
    You can´t report people for botting
    *Right-click.

    *Report for cheating.
  1. Ganksinatra's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shudder View Post
    "Honestly all I want is my Cloud Serpent Riding.
    We might change the riding requirement to account-wide in 5.4. Feels like it has served its purpose."

    About fucking time they got their head out of their ass on that one. Also I agree if we're having expansions every year they better make level 100 the level cap and no more leveling when expansions come out. It's annoying enough for us already especially with alts but also it's becoming way too overwhelming for new players having to spend a ton of time trying to get where the action is.
    Yup. Those 5 days of leveling sure are a "ton of time". The other 3 days to a week of gearing for the latest tier of raiding is almost like infinity squared.

    You can tell which players are too young to remember Everquest when they think WoW leveling takes "a ton of time".
  1. D9elitex's Avatar
    ahhh awsome shaman set love it
  1. Arkenaw's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aevyn View Post
    OH look ANOTHER ground mount. At least give something we can use OUTSIDE too, not to sit in a town. I remember Blizzard saying " we want players back into the world, not sit in cities".Well I'm not going to ride a ground mount from Tanaris to Orgrimmar. And another re-use of a model which already exists. Seems like they're running out of ideas ? OH WAIT they use ALL their special models for Pet Battles, the most awesome and least time consuming addition to the game... Yep the game is heading the right way.
    Don't worry, you can use it on Flightless Isle until the end of Pandaria and I'm sure there will be more new non-flying zones in the next expansion. Blizzard clearly hates flying.
  1. Shudder's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ganksinatra View Post
    Yup. Those 5 days of leveling sure are a "ton of time". The other 3 days to a week of gearing for the latest tier of raiding is almost like infinity squared.

    You can tell which players are too young to remember Everquest when they think WoW leveling takes "a ton of time".
    I guess you missed the part where I said NEW PLAYERS. It doesn't take new players 5 days to level. Even the devs have acknowledged it's becoming a little overwhelming for new players. Soon 100 levels, the main game and 5 expansions, that's verging on ridiculous. I can level a toon in a few days, my first max level character took me months. I wasn't playing as much, didn't know the fastest way to do quests, didn't go near dungeons, kept making new toons to try out new classes and getting distracted. I'm not a young player cubby, I was playing atari when you were a sparkle in your daddy's eye.
  1. cwowtbang's Avatar
    The gear looks similar to the shaman cosmetic set. I would have thought they would go a little outside the box with it. Who am I to say.
  1. Buu's Avatar
    So... what's the chance of Donald's card REALLY reaching Hearthstone?
  1. mmocd3c303b7a4's Avatar
    "So when you hit 90, and want to pvp. you first have to farm all honor gear, witch is a REAL REAL PAIN to do. Because everything 2 shots you and you hit like a wet towel.
    The damage received by freshly dinged players is generally the same as those who are fully geared, depending on what you gem and enchant. This is because of the implementation of base resilience to all players. The main difference is the damage or healing you do, but that doesn't mean that you're unable to contribute."


    lol blizz
  1. petre's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by d0oms View Post

    lol blizz
    Indeed. What they fail to account for is that the amount of damage you take when your opponent is forced to weave in defensive abilities is MUCH less than when they can just spam an attack rotation.
  1. Darksoldierr's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ganksinatra View Post
    Yup. Those 5 days of leveling sure are a "ton of time". The other 3 days to a week of gearing for the latest tier of raiding is almost like infinity squared.

    You can tell which players are too young to remember Everquest when they think WoW leveling takes "a ton of time".
    Indeed, i do that all the time, write in something like "Bot" or botting, etc and hope for the best.
  1. Prokne's Avatar
    Is it me or do the PvP sets look like they fit better with the raid theme than the PvE sets? I think Blizz mixed them up.
  1. Buu's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Prokne View Post
    Is it me or do the PvP sets look like they fit better with the raid theme than the PvE sets? I think Blizz mixed them up.
    Still an improvement compared to Cataclysm.
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    Definitely wouldn't want that purple variant. I would like that white-green version, but as it's in all likelihood the one from Normal, I guess the dark gray-green set will have to suffice.
  1. Kataroku's Avatar
    Sweet nips bro.
  1. Heavywavez's Avatar
    wtf with blizzard, the tier is fucking horrible, and a wolf helm really?? seem's there is not a wolf helm in the game...
  1. tru's Avatar
    looks like warlock armor.... minus the o so class specific helm....

    - - - Updated - - -

    the majority of the tier this xpac has been horrible dont know why anyone thought it would be any different this next patch. these are the guys that talked about character models for years and officially stated they are 25% done. They do not care anymore they only want $its not about the game anymore its about how much revenue can they suck from you.
  1. Spammeister's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Buu View Post
    So... what's the chance of Donald's card REALLY reaching Hearthstone?
    150%, actually there will probably be worse "cards" than that. At least that's a LoLcard.
  1. Somebody's Avatar
    Could make the case that WoW has enough cognitive difficulty that mechanical difficulty in leveling would be wasted
    I like leveling being challenging personally. The problem is our attempts to make leveling faster also made it easier.
    There are enough leveling zones, now, that they could design half of the zones to be challenging and half to be easy. I honestly think that would make things better, granted it would cut into new content (cataclysm revamp again). Once a player makes it out of the starting zone, they can opt to take the hero's path towards the highest level or to take the normal path towards the highest level. Hero's path would be challenging and possibly designed around players with a full set of heirlooms, which would make the leveling rate in each zone the same as the normal path's zones (by this I mean a normal path would take a player from say 12 to 20 whereas the hero's path zone would take a player from 12 to ~26 with the end quests being level appropriate still).

    I think this idea is worth expanding, especially when (and if) they decide to revamp BC zones.

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