Developer Q&A - Lead Encounter Designer Morgan Day

Originally Posted by Aliven

Best part of video game, git gud or watch on google. Priceless. And people asks why there is hard to find fresh blood

Because it's meant to be challenging. I mean hell, when did video games stop being about having fun and overcoming obstacles?

People don't need to ask why it's hard to find fresh blood. The answer is because the game is old. People have moved on. The game isn't a juggernaut that can keep 8-10 million players active during the entire year anymore. Folks reach the max level, see the content easily, then move on. Raid content has always been difficult. Finding quality players was only easier because more people played.

This dev is completely lost. Bring people that actually know what are they doing (oh wait, they don't what are they doing anymore)

Originally Posted by FelPlague

what?
"You needed to read abilities quickly"
that is a horrible excuse, you can use the same for
"when you get into a boss fight you need to read the mechanics quickly"
A. you can read ahead of time
B. get into the vehicle and read before combat
C. just read them quickly as you said, why is it acceptable that people need to look up mechanics before a fight, but not vehicle abilities?

While I agree with you in the a vehicle fight would be fun. Flame Leviathan was fun as hell and required coordination just like any normal fight. And the vehicles scaled with gear so that was a plus to farming.

However, the things you brushed off are valid concerns and why vehicles fights are reviled. When you change mid-combat, it gets very clunky even if you know abilities because you do not know how they will perform until you actually use it. Reading vs. doing is something that happens pretty much with everything and especially when you go from performing like normal to something not at all normal (see Amber Shaper). This problem did not exist on Flame Leviathan as you could use the vehicles for trash and right up to the boss. You at least got a feel for them before anything happened.

I think the main problem is people dislike not playing their character and I understand that to some extent. I think maybe a compromise would be adding class specific abilities to the vehicle or something.

Originally Posted by Bubleheart

While I agree with you in the a vehicle fight would be fun. Flame Leviathan was fun as hell and required coordination just like any normal fight. And the vehicles scaled with gear so that was a plus to farming.

However, the things you brushed off are valid concerns and why vehicles fights are reviled. When you change mid-combat, it gets very clunky even if you know abilities because you do not know how they will perform until you actually use it. Reading vs. doing is something that happens pretty much with everything and especially when you go from performing like normal to something not at all normal (see Amber Shaper). This problem did not exist on Flame Leviathan as you could use the vehicles for trash and right up to the boss. You at least got a feel for them before anything happened.

I think the main problem is people dislike not playing their character and I understand that to some extent. I think maybe a compromise would be adding class specific abilities to the vehicle or something.

notice how only 1 of the 3 fights i explained changed mid combat, and you had what 3 abilities in the malygos one?

Originally Posted by Sarevokcz

well, If I was a dick, i would say either get better or use youtube. You will beat the mythic bosses eventually, it just might not be in the current patch. We have killed guldan literally yesterday, but we never saw a reason to complain about stuff, that guilds managed to do months ago, lets be happy those mythic only phases arent available only during cutting edge windows and dont disappear when the tier is over, so you can see it on your own pace

Who is complaining about stuff other guilds do? or even other peoples do in game?

Also, great argument - lets be happy they are dicks because they can as easily be DICKS!

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Originally Posted by Eric The Midget

Because it's meant to be challenging. I mean hell, when did video games stop being about having fun and overcoming obstacles?

People don't need to ask why it's hard to find fresh blood. The answer is because the game is old. People have moved on. The game isn't a juggernaut that can keep 8-10 million players active during the entire year anymore. Folks reach the max level, see the content easily, then move on. Raid content has always been difficult. Finding quality players was only easier because more people played.

Challenging, engaging, overcoming limitations, fun, entertaining. All of this has NOTHING to do with story content being gated for only what? 5% of players to see?

And because game is trying to catter to tryhards. Because actual mythic raiders are feel burnout.

"Working well" he says, as the Mythic raiding community dies out at an alarming pace.

I really want to know what metric he's gauging the success of 20m Mythic on if not participation, because participation has never been lower.

If it is side story who cares, but if it is core story, then it has to be available to anyone who can complete the quests involving that story. Shit if some people like story locked behind content than only few can do, then why not lock core story behind pet battles? Or is that not the right kind of content...

Guys, the whole game was like this at one point. If you want everything hand fed to you go play something else. That mentality is ruining the game. Special phases and story in mythic is what makes it awesome.

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Originally Posted by Hotsforyou

Fixed 20 man Mythic raiding is not working well. Guilds are breaking up all over the place because they cannot compete with the recruitment boss. it's time to go down to a smaller raid size.

We have had the same 22 players for two expansions now. Your leadership and raid atmosphere is the problem.

Raiding has worked well so far this expansion. The team hasn't had to make any huge changes to raiding like they have in previous expansions.

Except the fact that large numbers of players who want to attempt raiding at higher difficulties or in a new raid (I'm talking Heroic here) have been getting groupblocked by ilvl and AotC bullshit since week 2 of EN release. I'm all fine with actual gameplay difficulty stopping people from progressing into higher tiers but when players are stopping others from wanting to try because they demand they have an achievement they can't get unless they do the content they're grouping for or an ilvl that greatly exceeds the content they're grouping for then that's a problem. Group finder should be used for causal raid grouping and fill ins, not be some sort of faux-guild level standard of group recruiting that can be abused by those that have neither of the requirements they demand and still get carried.

Originally Posted by Bjoramier of Lordaeron

Just ignore him dude, he wants easy free shit on tourist mode.

Having plot continuity across all difficulties is free easy shit? Da fuck? And watching it on Youtube is better?

Originally Posted by NoobistTV-Metro

Guys, the whole game was like this at one point. If you want everything hand fed to you go play something else. That mentality is ruining the game. Special phases and story in mythic is what makes it awesome.

Um aside from the recent addition of Mythic Difficulty no it hasn't. Yes top level difficulty has always had extra phases and mechanics included to make it more challenging but the plot threads and story has always stuck the same between difficulties at least until WoD. Shit like having Cho'gall show up in the middle of Imperator's fight on one difficulty and having Archimonde in the Twisting Nether doesn't make it inclusive. It just makes the writers job harder now as they go "Well fuck how do we deal with the characters mentioning Cho'gall is dead when 90% of the player base think he escaped calling them fools" or "Do we write Archimonde as dead for real or keep bringing him back?".

"Mythic raiding requiring 20 people is working well." ... I wonder what they are smoking at HQ

if you transcribe the interview please be accurate, ie "The item level rewarded from Nethershard gear won't be changing in Patch 7.2.5.". The dev says he's not 100% on that and that he will have to check with the Item Team. Your notes are misleading and will cause confusion.

Pfff we're recruiting like crazy, spamming trade and forums and general and everything to get people for Myth. It's kinda impossible when the whole server is doing the same thing
For 3 weeks we started Mythic, we pugged between 5 to 10 players each time... we really like the M part of NH since we farm HC, but man it's a killer to get 20 people to know what to do...
Maybe not make it 30 ppl raid, but between 15 and 20 should be better.

Sigh... guess I'll just use the 50K tokens I've been saving for 7.2.5 tonight...

20 man format is NOT working out for the vast majority of players who are artificially locked out of even the preliminary bosses by this raid size requirement coupled with no cross server functionaliy.

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Originally Posted by lmryll

Sigh... guess I'll just use the 50K tokens I've been saving for 7.2.5 tonight...

agreed. next to impossible

If story is locked behind a Mythic requirement, you can usually see videos of it or go back and do it yourself in a later tier.

Rofl... yeah the best time to be immersed in a story is coming back when you're already past that part.

Originally Posted by Bamboozler

20-man strict requirement for top-level raiding isn't working for everyone. Not all guilds can maintain this roster. And I don't care about those special snowflake guilds that have had the same 20 members since Vanilla, congratu-fuck-you-lations, this is the real world, and not every guild works like yours. Sometimes we raid with couples and that couple has a baby, or maybe someone gets a new job and their schedule changes... point is, shit happens, even with veteran raiders. What happens to a guild that's had the same Mythic tank for two years and he just suddenly goes? Do you think that's easy to replace? The role might, but the player isn't.

I stand firm that 20-man Mythic blows, and will continue to keep players who WANT to see the content unable to because it's just not always possible to have a consistent 20-man roster. It's not news that maintaining this sort of roster is burning guilds out. As a co-GM and raid leader of my guild, I offer our recruits the world. We make good progression, we down bosses, and we have fun doing it... people will leave even under perfectly fine conditions. Whatever twat mentioned "oh your leadership must be bad then" has zero clue, and I'd contend he'd never led a guild in his life.

Fix the 20-man restriction, it's holding people back that want to see this content.

Maybe not all guilds are meant to raid mythic?

Originally Posted by Hellshout

Pfff we're recruiting like crazy, spamming trade and forums and general and everything to get people for Myth. It's kinda impossible when the whole server is doing the same thing
For 3 weeks we started Mythic, we pugged between 5 to 10 players each time... we really like the M part of NH since we farm HC, but man it's a killer to get 20 people to know what to do...

If you need as much as 10 people, and your entire server is recruiting, I'm sure there is another guild in the same situation ... so, work together, instead of against each other?

Heck thats the biggest problem, people keep saying they can't get a 20 man roster up because of recruitment issues, but one of the reasons for that is that everyone clings to their guild, and therefor too many guilds are competing for a limited pool of people. If you are in desperate need of people, find another guild with the same problem, and merge.

Any raid size would eventually have that problem. Reduce it to 15, and give it another expansion or so, and the same problem happens again. It would be a temporary band-aid at best. For encounter design the 20 man seems to work quite nicely.

Originally Posted by Siglius

Maybe not all guilds are meant to raid mythic?

If a guild wants to raid mythic - it's meant to.

Originally Posted by Nevcairiel

Heck thats the biggest problem, people keep saying they can't get a 20 man roster up because of recruitment issues, but one of the reasons for that is that everyone clings to their guild, and therefor too many guilds are competing for a limited pool of people. If you are in desperate need of people, find another guild with the same problem, and merge.

If people are having trouble getting the roster it's not their fault, it's the game's fault.

10 man mythic raiding worked perfectly well for players, the only reason we don't have it anymore - is because it was inconvenient for Blizzard. And when they say that 20-man mythics works well, they don't mean well for players...

This game needs more 3 tank fights IMO.

I don't see the problem in regards to a portion of the story being locked behind mythic. Shit, I do normal and maybe some heroic encounters so I'll never see it so what's the problem in watching a youtube video? It's not like they're asking you to spend $20 on a book to figure out what happened when they "throw a switch" as is the case for bridging expansions. It's alt-tabbing out and watching a video but if that's too much of a hassle then no wonder some are making a big deal out of this.

It's not like you have to wait long either and, unless you're a pushing top 5 world, it's certainly a lot sooner than if you're expecting to see it for yourself so it's not like there is some kind of barrier to find out what happened.