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BlizzPro had a chance to talk to Technical Director Marco Koegler and Quest Designer Helen Cheng at Blizzcon.
- The goal is to have all of the Vanilla race character models updated for release, but that isn't set in stone.
- There might be some clipping with the new cloak animation, so the team is looking at adding some more physics to the cloak rather than just using pure animations. This isn't ready to show off and uses even more CPU, so it may not be the correct solution.
- After being boosted to 90 you will have a set of gear that is level appropriate, similar to how the level 80 Scroll of Resurrection boost works.
- Time travel is just a means to get players back to Draenor and bring back the classic Warcraft feeling and characters.
- As long as players prevent Garrosh from building the Dark Portal for the Iron Horde to invade, there won't be any permanent changes to the current timeline. This will let the story have some fun elements that involve characters from the present without changing the timeline.
- The current classes are somewhat balanced, so adding a new class would upset that balance.
- There were too many daily quests at the start of Mists of Pandaria, especially after taking into account alts. Warlords will still offer a wide variety of things to do, but it will be more exploring, dynamic events, and story through quests.
- If garrisons end up being per character, there will likely be a way to make garrison leveling and improvements faster on an alt.
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
New Character Models
Will the new player models will also have new melee attack animations as well? The ones for the older races are rather stale.
All animations have to be redone to work with the new models. We are trying not to make them radically different but will improve. (Source)
Remember promising us to update moonkin form since WotlK and saying the glyph won't affect the update? We do.
I try to never promise. This is why. We will do the moonkin at some point, but it is lower priority than the races. (Source)
Garrisons
Please give options in the Garrison that don't require a daily login. Don't want to be forced to login every day.
The plan is for longer missions for those times when you know you won't be logging in frequently. (Source)
Can we please have the followers in our Garrisons not be limited to player races? think Ogres, Tuskarr, etc
Having some non-traditional races would be a lot of fun. (Source)
Will you consider race-based garrison design or just faction-based?
Just faction for now. Dividing things by race meant we would have had far less new art per building. (Source)
garrisons look awesome, But please dont make them mandatory for professions. Garrisons should be optional & fun. Not a grind.
The intent is to make them fun but they are not optional the way pet battles or brawlers guild was. (Source)
Warlords of Draenor Flying
What was wrong with the Wrath model of grounded leveling for main, BoA tome for alts?
If leveling is supposed to be trivial for alts, why not just make them all jump to max level? (Source)
Holy grasping at straws, Batman!
I disagree. It feels like the argument is "questing should be super fast and easy on alts." (Source)
But alts are meant to be played. If you just want more max level dudes, there are better solutions. (Source)
It IS a difference because then there's a lore reason, which is what people are asking for. Inability to mount is more boring.
I don't think many of the pro flight crowd would be swayed with a lore explanation alone. (Source)
Is there a good reason NOT to back up the gameplay decision with a plausible lore explanation and story?
Not at all. If there is a good lore reason, that's better. But lack of good lore should not bad gameplay go through. (Source)
Did you ever think about something like a 10 second cast time for flying mount summons? Or a 30 sec cooldown?
Yeah, we've tried those and also things like slow turning radii, etc. Haven't found a solution we think feels good yet. (Source)
Stand your ground GC. There are those of us who know flying was worst thing to happen to game.
That's not our stance though. Flying feels awesome, is convenient, fast and a great reward. The problem is one of timing. (Source)
Maybe because people want faster, but not instant, Mr. False Dichotomy.
Speeding up XP per quest would make it faster. Flying lets you ignore most of it. Faster is fine. Hollow, less so. (Source)
It seems like you're getting less good at giving reasons and better at excuses.
Imagine we let you fly in dungeons and raids. Do you think they would be as fun as they are today? That's really our reason. (Source)
So, do you also hate the way Rogues play the game? Sneak in, unlock prison cage, sneak away...?
I don't think you can really compare the benefits of stealth to flying. Besides it's a bonus to only 2 classes. (Source)
I understand. Just don't get what you mean by "trivial" then. I always thought flying made questing more fun.
Twitter shorthand to some extent, but you probably fight 4x fewer creatures when you can fly to avoid them. (Source)
It would be nice if flying was a risk vs reward decision. Swarms of Monstrous Kaliri? No fel canons yet tho D:
It would have to be very dangerous to overcome the benefits of flight. Kaliri didn't keep me grounded. (Source)
About no-flying stuff in Warlods, do you guys ever though about gatherers? I cannot imagine myself running for plants on foot
That's one reason why we wouldn't outlaw flying forever. But at one point you did all your gathering on the ground. It can be done. (Source)
Classes
not just that, but even 1 makes healing less fun. Spamming aoe heals is another problem.
Spamming AEs, especially smart heals, does make healing less fun in our minds. (Source)
That sounds pretty awesome to me, honestly. Prot might be sad to lose a dps CD though.
It might be fine for Prot to have an offensive and defensive CD. Depends on the whole package. (Source)
Most important stat? I cant get rid of ENOUGH Spirit as a healer ;P
To be fair, some healer specs (esp. Mistweaver) don't value Spirit enough. We intend to fix for 6.0. (Source)
1 burst cd is enough per spec
I don't know that it would be a hard and fast rule, but if you always macro your CDs together, why have different CDs? (Source)
will changes to vengeance in dreanor protection more viable in trial of gladiator arenas but less annoying without high ap?
Maybe. It's more important to have a fun and balanced trial than to have Gladiator tanks. (Source)
Actually everything we call 'skill' on the game is about responding to a visual/sound stimulus. Just like snapshotting
It's about degrees. A mod can't reliably tell you when to use a speed boost to survive. It can solve when to redot very easily. (Source)
Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
I was curious if you were happy with the Druid split into Feral and Guardian this xpac. Did it live up to your expectations?
Overall yes. It's tricky for us to determine how often a Guardian or even Balance Druid should use cat form. (Source)
Guardian Druid often feels boring compared to other tanks. Are there any plans to address it?
They need stronger active mitigation. (Source)
Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Please bring back the truly rare hunter pets, some of us like camping for them... effort worth the reward.
What was the last truly rare one by your definition? (Source)
Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
While you're talking about healer stuff, when is the really bad priest T90 going away?
We like tier 90 for priests. We can split out healing from DPS / Shadow versions in 6.0 though. (Source)
Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
wasn't root break on intervene intended to give a choice for that tier? Back to safeguard being required.
The value of balanced PvP has to trump the value of every talent being a fun choice. (Source)
You keep using this word "balanced" I don't think it means what you think it means.
"Balance" is when other players can't crush me. When I crush them, it's "skill." (Source)
small war. nerf needed but this is boring. Was nice to have small utility with MSR. Wars very one dimensional and
What would you have liked to see instead that would have solved the problem? (Source)
Disrupting Shout gone (Warriors don't need 2 interrupts), AoE reflect replaces reflect.
To be fair, they would need a new talent to replace Disrupting Shout that presumably is something useful. (Source)
Will the new player models will also have new melee attack animations as well? The ones for the older races are rather stale.
All animations have to be redone to work with the new models. We are trying not to make them radically different but will improve. (Source)
Remember promising us to update moonkin form since WotlK and saying the glyph won't affect the update? We do.
I try to never promise. This is why. We will do the moonkin at some point, but it is lower priority than the races. (Source)
Garrisons
Please give options in the Garrison that don't require a daily login. Don't want to be forced to login every day.
The plan is for longer missions for those times when you know you won't be logging in frequently. (Source)
Can we please have the followers in our Garrisons not be limited to player races? think Ogres, Tuskarr, etc
Having some non-traditional races would be a lot of fun. (Source)
Will you consider race-based garrison design or just faction-based?
Just faction for now. Dividing things by race meant we would have had far less new art per building. (Source)
garrisons look awesome, But please dont make them mandatory for professions. Garrisons should be optional & fun. Not a grind.
The intent is to make them fun but they are not optional the way pet battles or brawlers guild was. (Source)
Warlords of Draenor Flying
What was wrong with the Wrath model of grounded leveling for main, BoA tome for alts?
If leveling is supposed to be trivial for alts, why not just make them all jump to max level? (Source)
Holy grasping at straws, Batman!
I disagree. It feels like the argument is "questing should be super fast and easy on alts." (Source)
But alts are meant to be played. If you just want more max level dudes, there are better solutions. (Source)
It IS a difference because then there's a lore reason, which is what people are asking for. Inability to mount is more boring.
I don't think many of the pro flight crowd would be swayed with a lore explanation alone. (Source)
Is there a good reason NOT to back up the gameplay decision with a plausible lore explanation and story?
Not at all. If there is a good lore reason, that's better. But lack of good lore should not bad gameplay go through. (Source)
Did you ever think about something like a 10 second cast time for flying mount summons? Or a 30 sec cooldown?
Yeah, we've tried those and also things like slow turning radii, etc. Haven't found a solution we think feels good yet. (Source)
Stand your ground GC. There are those of us who know flying was worst thing to happen to game.
That's not our stance though. Flying feels awesome, is convenient, fast and a great reward. The problem is one of timing. (Source)
Maybe because people want faster, but not instant, Mr. False Dichotomy.
Speeding up XP per quest would make it faster. Flying lets you ignore most of it. Faster is fine. Hollow, less so. (Source)
It seems like you're getting less good at giving reasons and better at excuses.
Imagine we let you fly in dungeons and raids. Do you think they would be as fun as they are today? That's really our reason. (Source)
So, do you also hate the way Rogues play the game? Sneak in, unlock prison cage, sneak away...?
I don't think you can really compare the benefits of stealth to flying. Besides it's a bonus to only 2 classes. (Source)
I understand. Just don't get what you mean by "trivial" then. I always thought flying made questing more fun.
Twitter shorthand to some extent, but you probably fight 4x fewer creatures when you can fly to avoid them. (Source)
It would be nice if flying was a risk vs reward decision. Swarms of Monstrous Kaliri? No fel canons yet tho D:
It would have to be very dangerous to overcome the benefits of flight. Kaliri didn't keep me grounded. (Source)
About no-flying stuff in Warlods, do you guys ever though about gatherers? I cannot imagine myself running for plants on foot
That's one reason why we wouldn't outlaw flying forever. But at one point you did all your gathering on the ground. It can be done. (Source)
Classes
not just that, but even 1 makes healing less fun. Spamming aoe heals is another problem.
Spamming AEs, especially smart heals, does make healing less fun in our minds. (Source)
That sounds pretty awesome to me, honestly. Prot might be sad to lose a dps CD though.
It might be fine for Prot to have an offensive and defensive CD. Depends on the whole package. (Source)
Most important stat? I cant get rid of ENOUGH Spirit as a healer ;P
To be fair, some healer specs (esp. Mistweaver) don't value Spirit enough. We intend to fix for 6.0. (Source)
1 burst cd is enough per spec
I don't know that it would be a hard and fast rule, but if you always macro your CDs together, why have different CDs? (Source)
will changes to vengeance in dreanor protection more viable in trial of gladiator arenas but less annoying without high ap?
Maybe. It's more important to have a fun and balanced trial than to have Gladiator tanks. (Source)
Actually everything we call 'skill' on the game is about responding to a visual/sound stimulus. Just like snapshotting
It's about degrees. A mod can't reliably tell you when to use a speed boost to survive. It can solve when to redot very easily. (Source)
Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)I was curious if you were happy with the Druid split into Feral and Guardian this xpac. Did it live up to your expectations?
Overall yes. It's tricky for us to determine how often a Guardian or even Balance Druid should use cat form. (Source)
Guardian Druid often feels boring compared to other tanks. Are there any plans to address it?
They need stronger active mitigation. (Source)
Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Please bring back the truly rare hunter pets, some of us like camping for them... effort worth the reward.
What was the last truly rare one by your definition? (Source)
Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)While you're talking about healer stuff, when is the really bad priest T90 going away?
We like tier 90 for priests. We can split out healing from DPS / Shadow versions in 6.0 though. (Source)
Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)wasn't root break on intervene intended to give a choice for that tier? Back to safeguard being required.
The value of balanced PvP has to trump the value of every talent being a fun choice. (Source)
You keep using this word "balanced" I don't think it means what you think it means.
"Balance" is when other players can't crush me. When I crush them, it's "skill." (Source)
small war. nerf needed but this is boring. Was nice to have small utility with MSR. Wars very one dimensional and
What would you have liked to see instead that would have solved the problem? (Source)
Disrupting Shout gone (Warriors don't need 2 interrupts), AoE reflect replaces reflect.
To be fair, they would need a new talent to replace Disrupting Shout that presumably is something useful. (Source)
Blizzard Art Update
Blizzard has added more pieces to the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Art gallery.
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