Deck Spotlight: Tidesoftime's Modern Control Shaman, Fight Night S5E3 Decklists, S4 Rankings

New Wave of Alpha Invites, Designer Insights: Giving Tyrael Justice

Warlords of Draenor Developer Interviews
There were a few developer interviews at the recent press events, so today we are taking a look at an interview with Alex Afrasiabi from games.on.net.

  • There is no guarantee that all character models will be done by release, but they hope to have most ready.
  • The biggest thing stopping players from coming back is leveling.
  • As the game got older, more and more content was added, which makes it harder for people to catch up when they return.
  • Having to deal with all of the other things that are a part of coming back to the game along with leveling is too much for some people.
  • When you come back to the game and use a boost, your bars are cleared, talents unlearned,
  • The team also looked at significantly increasing experience rates rather than offering a boost, but it didn't feel great and the boost was the better option.

Warlords of Draenor - New Blingtron
It looks like Engineers will be getting a new Blingtron in Warlords of Draenor, but not a new mount.



Official Class Roles Forums Closing (EU)
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hello everyone,

So that player discussions remain concentrated in existing forums where they receive more attention from other players, we have made the decision to retire the following forums. These forums will be deactivated next week:

Damage Dealing
Healing
Tanking

In preparation for their final closure, these forums will remain accessible in Read Only mode, but will be removed permanently on 8 April 2014. If you wish to save any relevant information, please do so before then.

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
Will New Veng buff self heals? Dev team's goal for value of Bonus Armor vs other stats (situational or always good)?
Yes, it'll buff self heals. Bonus Armor is always good, except the extremely rare case where you're taking no physical damage. (Celestalon)
Or the damage bypasses armor.
I think having physical-flagged damage that bypasses armour is a silly design. Just use magic to do it.
Not at all. Bleeds, sonic spells, etc... All totally make sense as non-magic but not reduced by armor. (Celestalon)
OK I'll give you those! But what about things like Malkorok's Blood Rage. It is an obvious physical weapon attack.
Balance. We don't want to hit clothies harder than plate/shield wearers for that. (Celestalon)

haste, that you'd get the 84 damage in exactly 14 seconds, with the partial tick appearing 14.0s after cast (6 DPS).
Yes, duration never changes. You'll get the partial tick at 14sec after cast. DPS won't have breakpoints. (Celestalon)
Are you still planning to give everyone a Pandemic mechanic?
Yes, but 130% duration max, not 150%. (Celestalon)
So if you recast way before the first partial tick, will you end up with "queued" partials?
No, partial ticks are only when the dot falls off before its' next scheduled tick. (Celestalon)

Warlords of Draenor Stats
do you know how current dodge/parry stats on items will be changing in 6.0? Should I stockpile them "just in case"?
They'll be replaced with other useful stats. (Celestalon)

I knew that Cleave got dropped. I thought socket/multistrike/readiness were all rare 'bonus tertiaries' in WoD. Got a source?
No, Multistrike and Readiness are full, legitimate secondary stats, like Haste/Crit/Mastery. Socket is a bonus tertiary. (Celestalon)
still wondering how you're gonna make Multistrike appeal to tanks.
Been working on that recently. Nothing to announce yet, but it'll be spec-specific passives that interact with multistrike. (Celestalon)
so things like grand crusader, revenge, Crimson scourge?
Yeah, that style of ability (though different effects). (Celestalon)

Does everyone have a baseline level of Multistrike / Readiness, like Crit & Mastery, or is it possible to have 0, like Haste?
Zero baseline. (Celestalon)

PvE
How were Large Anima Golems supposed to be used in the Dark Animus encounter, especially on heroic?
To buy you more time on the enrage. But they ended up being too dangerous/disruptive to make it worth the benefit. (WatcherDev)

Could some indication that a spell is armor ignoring physical be added to the DJ? It is occasionally unclear.
It's certainly something we can do a better job of calling out when it comes to tank mechanics. (WatcherDev)

PvP
Will we see any balance changesonce the new PvP Gear shows its full effect ?
Perhaps. At this point we will only be able to do hotfixes which limits our options. (holinka)

Any chance we could see TB and WG put in as 40v40 BGs so they are full?
More focused on building Ashran. WG and TB had their time to shine. It would take a lot of work to restore them properly. (holinka)

Hard to get conquest losing in flag cap RBGs compared to losing in an AB-style RBG. Intended? Flag cap = so black and white.
It's the nature of CTF. You're comparing a map with a score of 3 to a map with a score of 1600. (holinka)

Warlords of Draenor
Any plans on making Thorim soloable for everyone?
Changed in 6.0: Thorim won't trigger the deathball/reset when his arena is empty. (WatcherDev)
Valithria is soloable, not sure what is wrong.
By, say, a warrior? Probably just going to make her skippable. (WatcherDev)
Yeah, that was a joke (coming from a healer), but great to hear Ulduar/ICC are getting a look - how about Vezax?
What's the concern with Vezax? (WatcherDev)
Yeah, Vezax and the trash leading up to him won't be there. Need to soft reset.
Fixed that also (in 6.0). Thanks. Could happen if you killed one of the Keepers very quickly. (WatcherDev)

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


This article was originally published in forum thread: WoD Dev Interviews, WoD Blingtron, Class Roles Forums Closing, Blue Tweets, TCG Art started by chaud View original post
Comments 114 Comments
  1. mmoc5e6c40f22c's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Arvandor View Post
    this interview show that these profit assholes only defend their prized boost system.. nothing in this statements is true!

    and are you realy believe they bring wod without all the revamp races? the december info was not an accident..
    This, so much this. They're also closing down the EU forums bit by bit, by now we're down to 18~ sub forums, with the US still having 29 and now the Healing/DPS/Tank forums will go, on EU only.

    They're basically cutting costs wherever possible while trying to charge us for anything they can possibly come up with.
  1. Tedstery's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Deleth View Post
    This, so much this. They're also closing down the EU forums bit by bit, by now we're down to 18~ sub forums, with the US still having 29 and now the Healing/DPS/Tank forums will go, on EU only.

    They're basically cutting costs wherever possible while trying to charge us for anything they can possibly come up with.
    Look at you with your tin foil hat. Watch out they're out to get you!
  1. DrMcNinja's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Deleth View Post
    This, so much this. They're also closing down the EU forums bit by bit, by now we're down to 18~ sub forums, with the US still having 29 and now the Healing/DPS/Tank forums will go, on EU only.

    They're basically cutting costs wherever possible while trying to charge us for anything they can possibly come up with.
    Solution: Play on the US
  1. Wayne25uk's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DrMcNinja View Post
    Solution: Play on the US
    I would rather have hogger lick out my eyeballs while patchwerk gives me the reach around than play on a US server,idiot.
  1. Amnix's Avatar
    • The biggest thing stopping players from coming back is leveling.

    They should not destroy the game in the first place, so way they would not have to care about people coming back, since they would not leave.
  1. Pann's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Scorpioz View Post
    If you have left wow then why the comments, and ALL should stop the doomslaying, wow is gonna be around for a LONG time get over it and move on nothing to see here
    Aren't Blizzard and their army of self appointed PR gurus taking every opportunity to remind us that the boost is for returning players to catch up with their friends? And now when someone from the demographic the boost is allegedly aimed at comments on it he is told that as he is no longer a player his opinion holds no value?
  1. quras's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Arvandor View Post
    this interview show that these profit assholes only defend their prized boost system.. nothing in this statements is true!

    and are you realy believe they bring wod without all the revamp races? the december info was not an accident..
    Pretty much this.

    It's like watching a used car salesman. Trying to hype features a car might not even have on release but on top of all that, they think the problem with people not returning is "leveling"

    I don't think I've ever seen as many misguided people in one place as blizzard employees.

    Quote Originally Posted by Pann View Post
    Aren't Blizzard and their army of self appointed PR gurus taking every opportunity to remind us that the boost is for returning players to catch up with their friends? And now when someone from the demographic the boost is allegedly aimed at comments on it he is told that as he is no longer a player his opinion holds no value?
    QFT ^
  1. Siddown's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Deleth View Post
    This, so much this. They're also closing down the EU forums bit by bit, by now we're down to 18~ sub forums, with the US still having 29 and now the Healing/DPS/Tank forums will go, on EU only.

    They're basically cutting costs wherever possible while trying to charge us for anything they can possibly come up with.
    I'm not really sure you understand how the interwebs works. Consolidating rarely used forums into a smaller number of more used forums doesn't cut any costs. If anything there is a cost (although it'll probably be negligible in the grand scheme of things) in doing so.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Pann View Post
    Aren't Blizzard and their army of self appointed PR gurus taking every opportunity to remind us that the boost is for returning players to catch up with their friends? And now when someone from the demographic the boost is allegedly aimed at comments on it he is told that as he is no longer a player his opinion holds no value?
    See, the problem is, the vast majority of the "I quit WoW, but I still want to complain" crowd on MMO-Champ have been complaining about everything about WoW long before the boost.

    There are people on these forums who haven't played the game since WotLK yet they still come here every day and complain about it. Just sit and contemplate how insane that is for a second.
  1. Salech's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Siddown View Post
    I'm not really sure you understand how the interwebs works. Consolidating rarely used forums into a smaller number of more used forums doesn't cut any costs. If anything there is a cost (although it'll probably be negligible in the grand scheme of things) in doing so.

    - - - Updated - - -



    See, the problem is, the vast majority of the "I quit WoW, but I still want to complain" crowd on MMO-Champ have been complaining about everything about WoW long before the boost.

    There are people on these forums who haven't played the game since WotLK yet they still come here every day and complain about it. Just sit and contemplate how insane that is for a second.

    It is equally insane to defend everything a company does as well, it goes both ways.
  1. Pann's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Siddown View Post
    See, the problem is, the vast majority of the "I quit WoW, but I still want to complain" crowd on MMO-Champ have been complaining about everything about WoW long before the boost.

    There are people on these forums who haven't played the game since WotLK yet they still come here every day and complain about it. Just sit and contemplate how insane that is for a second.
    They are still part of the demographic this boost is apparently aimed at and the fact they spend their time on MMO-C complaining about everything means that they are a better target for Blizzard than those that have quit and turned back completely on WOW. So why do you feel the need to dismiss and belittle their opinions?

    It is no more insane than expecting someone who has not played WOW since Wrath is going to hand over money for MOP and WOD to play a game they stopped playing over four years ago.
  1. mmoc19ee780deb's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vacashamanica View Post
    Doesn´t care, they are selling this expac with the new characters as a plus, so don´t having them for the release is an illegal move at least in Europe(selling things with misleading adversiting), they are fooling the clients with that publicity!
    It's not illegal as it was clearly stated that not all models will be released at launch but through later patches.

    In that context it's perfectly legal.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Zaydin View Post
    Eh, I'm still of the personal opinion that Blizzard is saying 'Fall 2014' to give themselves wiggle room, because if we do see a September release date or later, that's an entire year with no new content, something Blizzard has stated that they've been wanting to seriously avoid repeating after Wrath, and to a lesser extent, Cataclysm.
    I also think they didn't expect Ghostcrawler leaving, and people forget, he coordinated a lot at the same time, so they could have had a setback.

    Meaning a August release could be September instead. We don't know that, but I really think personally, like you, september is most likely.
  1. Farabee's Avatar
    Honestly, the leveling isn't the horrible part. It's the slow, weekly-locked grind for gear on every character you get to max level. Catch-up mechanisms like Timeless Isle are a good start but leave you far too low to participate in any real raiding.

    I'd rather they go back to the last-patch model of WOTLK and Cata and give you a set of dungeons to grind that give you last tier's normal gear. I took a break during Cata after H-Firelands was on farm, came back halfway through Dragon Soul and was still able to get re-geared and clear heroic long before 5.0 hit thanks to the new instances dropping 378 gear. This time, I'm barely scraping at 543 ilvl and just starting normals through OpenRaid after almost 2 months of gear grind on my main and it doesn't feel like I'm going to take down H-Garrosh any time soon. Having to grind gear out through 4 versions of the same raid doesn't help either.
  1. mmocf89c8b0f36's Avatar
    Not in alpha ;< Predictable.
  1. tehdef's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pann View Post
    They are still part of the demographic this boost is apparently aimed at and the fact they spend their time on MMO-C complaining about everything means that they are a better target for Blizzard than those that have quit and turned back completely on WOW. So why do you feel the need to dismiss and belittle their opinions?

    It is no more insane than expecting someone who has not played WOW since Wrath is going to hand over money for MOP and WOD to play a game they stopped playing over four years ago.
    Uh, what opinions? "WoW is gay. Boosts are gay" is not an opinion. It's a trolling attempt. The people who are criticizing aren't offering real problems. They are offering subjectivity at every opportunity. They are being petty, childish, and really not thinking through their perceived grievances with the system, other than not agreeing with it. I don't take people who act this way seriously, and I will gleefully disregard their opinions unless it's followed up with a well thought out and thorough response as to why they disagree with something someone has done, and hopefully includes and alternative design. I was always taught to never complain about something, unless I came up with 3 alternative solutions.

    On the other hand, Blizzard is attempting to provide real factual evidence as to why they went with boosts. Somebody who hasn't played since TBC can get right back into the game at level 90, and not have to fight with level 20 levels through content that is disjointed, and honestly, goes way fast. Giving them a free 90 before an expansion is a pretty good deal, and it defeats a lot of the problems that exist for people coming back to the game.

    Worst part is, most of the things you see about it are detractors. You don't see people who have used the feature to reconnect with their friends talking about it, because they are in game having fun. Furthermore, more people go to forums to bitch about things, rather than commend them. You should know this, because you post on a forum. MMO champ and the Official forums are full of negativity and toxicity. People mad about the most inane things, that shouldn't even cause a problem.

    As a WoW player, I don't care about the boosts. If it gets more people back into the game play, that's a good thing. The only thing I'm upset with is Blizzards execution of the pricing scheme. In this case, I think that the upfront investment is also a major barrier in returning to the game. Currently they are making you buy MoP, and WoD + 15$ sub to get back into the game. Effectively, you're looking at 20 + 50 + 15 in the US. 85$ to play a game for 1 month? No, not really. In fact, that's 25$ more than infamous second son, and I get to play it longer than a month. The cost barrier to entry, is my personal biggest issue with the game.

    If I was Blizzard, I would bundle the entire system as 1. If you buy Warlords of Draenor, you get everything. Vanilla, TBC, WotLK, Cata, MoP, WoD, all for 50$. If you are a new player, you get 1 month free. In addition, if your account has been inactive for more than 12 months straight, you get 1 free month. They would also still get the level 90 boost for anyone that purchases it. Point is, even if they only come back for a month, you get 50$ out of them. You'll get new players wanting to try out WoW, and you'll also get returning players who see a lower cost of entry. I don't know who is leading up the team at Blizzard, but I would definitely like to have a word with them. Lowering the cost of entry is going likely to bring more profits, not less.
  1. Enan1981's Avatar
    LoL such a cop out excuse to discredit leveling now and the actual work they did to help leveling quicker. Kind of like when they first announced the authenticator, wasnt selling much, then boom, a lot of accounts suddenly were getting hacked... Sad to admit the reason I love the game is the history ive gone through it and the massive list of friends ive made throughout.
  1. Siddown's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pann View Post
    They are still part of the demographic this boost is apparently aimed at and the fact they spend their time on MMO-C complaining about everything means that they are a better target for Blizzard than those that have quit and turned back completely on WOW. So why do you feel the need to dismiss and belittle their opinions?
    Yes, but they are an incredibly small part of the demographic, and therefore their opinion shouldn't be taken out of proportion. What makes it harder to listen to them is that the lion's share of those same people get angry about everything in the game.

    It is no more insane than expecting someone who has not played WOW since Wrath is going to hand over money for MOP and WOD to play a game they stopped playing over four years ago.
    You are making a statement when it should be a question. Because I don't know the answer, neither do you. Personally, I know a few people who haven't played in years who say they are going to come back, where I imagine that someone who has been complaining for three plus years how Blizzard sucks and how they are just money grubbing a-holes will never come back. So based on my tiny sample, I'd say the boost is a good thing, but in reality that doesn't prove anything.

    I think you're problem is you are equating a few dozen, avid angry posters on a private website with millions of people who have quit the game over the past few years. The people they are trying to get back to the game don't come to a place like this.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Salech View Post
    It is equally insane to defend everything a company does as well, it goes both ways.
    100% agree, I think Blizzard has done plenty of bad things game wise and have said so before. But come on now, I think we all know there is a difference. Just a few posts above someone accused Blizzard of hacking accounts to sell Authenticators, that's a whole different level of angry.
  1. Pann's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Siddown View Post
    Yes, but they are an incredibly small part of the demographic, and therefore their opinion shouldn't be taken out of proportion. What makes it harder to listen to them is that the lion's share of those same people get angry about everything in the game.
    I did not say that their opinion should be taken out of proportion however their opinion is equally as valid as yours or mine. So what if they are angry about everything in the game? Surely this is their problem? By replying and attempting to dismiss or belittle their opinion you are as bad if not worse than them.

    Quote Originally Posted by Siddown View Post
    You are making a statement when it should be a question. Because I don't know the answer, neither do you. Personally, I know a few people who haven't played in years who say they are going to come back, where I imagine that someone who has been complaining for three plus years how Blizzard sucks and how they are just money grubbing a-holes will never come back. So based on my tiny sample, I'd say the boost is a good thing, but in reality that doesn't prove anything.

    I think you're problem is you are equating a few dozen, avid angry posters on a private website with millions of people who have quit the game over the past few years. The people they are trying to get back to the game don't come to a place like this.
    No I am not. It is insane to expect that people who quit the game several years ago and have, to date, shown no inclination to return are going to be interested in returning to the game and interested enough to pay the box prices of MOP and WOD as well as a monthly sub fee just because they can skip part of the game.
  1. Keleri's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vacashamanica View Post
    The game will be released in december and not even with all new models? WTF blizzard! you are fooling everyone then with your "new models at game release " campaing publicity! what a shame . Blizzard is now full of liars and lazy fucks!
    I'm okay with them taking as much time as it takes* to get the models out, the ones we've seen look fantastic and I want that quality for ALL the remaining models. I remember the female worgen fiasco and I'm still worried about my female taurens.

    *I do think that they must have some kind of broke-ass bottlenecked review procedure that it's taking them this long to get the work done. Single artists on deviantart can make amazing fully functional TF2 fan models in their spare time faster than Blizz can put out these new models.
  1. Siddown's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pann View Post
    I did not say that their opinion should be taken out of proportion however their opinion is equally as valid as yours or mine. So what if they are angry about everything in the game? Surely this is their problem? By replying and attempting to dismiss or belittle their opinion you are as bad if not worse than them.
    I'm worse than the guy who said blizzard hacked their own game to boost authenticator sales?

    No I am not. It is insane to expect that people who quit the game several years ago and have, to date, shown no inclination to return are going to be interested in returning to the game and interested enough to pay the box prices of MOP and WOD as well as a monthly sub fee just because they can skip part of the game.
    It may be insane, but I'm sure they did a bit more research about this issue than you. At the moment you are just expressing a view point based solely your own opinion. I have no illusions that Blizzard is a company that is trying to make money, and maybe their research is incorrect, but if they believe that it will help bring people back to the game (to increase long term profits), they have every right to try it.

    If it fails, it fails.
  1. jellmoo's Avatar
    I gotta be honest... Not having the character models ready at launch would be pretty terrible. One of the worst things a company can do when it comes to trust amongst the customer base is over promising and under delivering. This sets a pretty bad precedent in that regard. New character models are quite literally the second thing mentioned on the product page. Just behind the exploration of Draenor, but ahead of things like the level 90 boost and Garrisons. To call the new models one of the largest selling points would be putting it mildly.

    Also, with the increase in expansion cost, there exists a certain expectation that Blizzard should be delivering an outstanding product. And maybe they will. I certainly hope so. But warnings like this one don't give a lot of hope. Will we have a situation where, say, every race has been updated except for Trolls? And then they have to wait for the first content update to expect their model upgrade? Luck of the draw on whether or not your character will have an expected feature at product launch isn't good execution. If a promised feature as important as this one isn't ready at launch, honestly that's just representative of poor product planning, which is something that a company like Blizzard should never have as an issue.

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