Thread: Dev Interviews

Page 1 of 5
1
2
3
... LastLast
  1. #1

    Dev Interviews

    Dev Interviews
    Many other sites have had the opportunity to interview developers already!


    Vanion.eu
    • The team is happy with how flying worked out in Draenor. You will have to level up and explore the land before you are able to fly, similar to what is coming in Patch 6.2.1.
    • The location of the Broken Isles will be revealed in the future.
    • Raids worked out well for the most part in Warlords, but the team has talked about how to make loot better and how to improve personal loot for Legion.
    • The item bonus system (Warforged, sockets, and extra stats) worked out well, so it could be extended to have even more bonuses.
    • You will not loot weapons in Legion.
    • The team has talked about a few ideas for how artifacts will work:
      • Your Artifact will start at epic and then there will be some way for it to become legendary over time.
      • Your Artifact will start as legendary.
      • Your artifact may not have a quality, it could just be its own thing.
      • The goal is for players to have an item that they are working on powering up and it can become a legendary, rewarding players who do all of the expansion's content, similar to Mists of Pandaria and Warlords.
    • There will be no catch up mechanics for Artifact weapons on alts.
    • The team doesn't want it to be too painful if you want to change specs, so there might be some kind of catch up mechanic for getting the Artifact weapon for another spec.
    • The Demon Hunter is going to be a very agile class, so tanks may have lots of Dodge and Parry mechanics for their tanking style.
    • Having some encounters that favor melee and some that favor ranged is not a problem, as long as there isn't a huge gap between the two.
    • How we actually get the Artifact weapons from the characters currently wielding them will be revealed in the future.
    • In order to fight demons, Illidan had to partner with demons. He had to sacrifice many things for great power and so do the Illidari, which is why Demon Hunters look somewhat like Illidan.
    • The team isn't sure how exactly they will incentivize players to keep going back to dungeons yet. Once you started to raid in Draenor, you had no reason to go back to a dungeon, which is not good. Mists of Pandaria was a better model, where you had a reward for doing a dungeon every day.
    • Normal and Heroic dungeons will exist in Legion, but the team isn't sure if they will do Mythic at the start. They haven't decided when they will add Mythic, but they do like it.
    • The team likes challenge modes and wants to try and make them more accessible. They aren't guaranteed to be added to Legion.
    • The team hasn't decided if there will be another talent row or not, as the Artifact weapon will have a decent number of choices for you to make.
    • Eventually you will be able to unlock every trait in the Artifact weapon tree. You may be able to take different paths to unlocking them all though.
    • Survival Hunters will be a melee class with pet going forward.
    • Demonology Warlocks will also be getting some bigger changes, focusing more on their demons.
    • You will be leveling the Artifact weapon throughout the entire expansion.
    • The Conquest system is going away.
    • The goals is to remove PvP gear. There will be PvP ways to obtain gear, but the power in PvP will be about the gear you obtain and the PvP talents that you unlock.
    • The team talked about having the Demon Hunter wear mail, but it didn't fit the class identity. Demon Hunters are agile, so they will be wearing leather.

    Icy Veins
    • Demon Hunters wearing leather isn't a huge problem now that Personal Loot is used in most places.
    • Glavies are a new type of weapon that Demon Hunters use. They are a pair that comes together and fills both slots. In the future, Demon Hunters might dual wield the standard agility weapons. (Currently the class page has different information)
    • Demon Hunters will start somewhere around 95 to 100.
    • The Artifact weapons have Relic slots, which will determine its raw item stats (DPS, ilvl, etc.) and modifiers to the traits you've chosen, so the Artifact's stats will still improve as you defeat bosses.
    • Artifact weapons can be transmoged into other weapons, but not the other way around.
    • Only the raid takes place in the Emerald Nightmare, but it could be expanded on in the future.
    • Karazhan is an important place.
    • Beast Mastery Hunters will fight at range with a pet.
    • Marksmanship Hunters will fight at range with no pet.
    • Demonology Warlocks will be refocused on summoning and controlling demons rather than having Metamorphosis dominate. Other specs will still have access to demons.
    • No stat squish is planned.
    • The professions team for Legion is the largest that Blizzard has ever had for WoW and lots of new things are coming. The team heard the feedback about Warlords professions.
    • Garrisons are staying in Draenor, so you can go back and visit them if you want.
    • Order Halls won't have an auction house or bank.
    • No release date has been set.
    • The cinematic isn't complete just yet.

    Gamona.de
    • The expansion will release next year.
    • Demon Hunter has been considered since Wrath of the Lich King. It finally fit the expansion's story and theme, which is why it can be added now.
    • You will spend less time in your Order Hall than you did in your Garrison. You go back to do quests, work on your artifact, and interact with your champions. You will likely spend a lot of your downtime in Dalaran.
    • The team isn't sure how they will handle Dalaran yet. They could do sanctuary areas again or split it up.

    Buffed.de
    • The expansion after Legion is already being planned.
    • The subscriber count is more volatile than it used to be because players have gotten older and don't have as much free time anymore. As long as players are happy and enjoy the game, the team doesn't mine extreme peaks and valleys. They just want to ensure you have a great experience and feel like you got your money's worth.

    Gamespot
    • Relics are things you can socket into the artifact and are rewarded from completing major quest lines, dungeons, and raids. This way you still get weapon upgrades from the same sources, but keep the same weapon.
    • The Demon Hunter Artifact glaives can be see in some of the character creation screenshots for Demon Hunters.
    • There are weapons cooler than Benediction and Anathema for Priest Artifact weapons.
    • The Dalaran Sewers were mentioned as being associated with rogues when providing context for an Order Hall question.
    • The Order Halls may have different sections. For example, in the Paladin's Order Hall, the Blood Elf Paladins may be in a different section from The Sunwalkers, as well as the Humans and Dwarves.
    • The fantasy in Draenor was collecting followers to raise an army. In Legion, you are the leader of your class order and you have a smaller number of elite heroes by your side. They should complement and enhance your gameplay rather than compete with you.
    • Survival and Marksmanship have been too similar in the past, which is why they are being changed in Legion.
    • Earning the Artifact has a class and spec specific quest, but it isn't anywhere near the green fire quest in terms of scale and difficulty.
    • Discipline Priests are going to be a much more offensive healer, with another pass on Atonement, making it more interactive. They will still have heals and PW:S, but they will sustain their healing through doing DPS. Closer to 50% damage and 50% healing spec. In the past, when Atonement was popular you would just spam Smite and Holy Fire all fight long and use the smart healing, which wasn't very interactive. This time, you may throw out some single target heals giving players a buff. Next time you Smite, people who have that buff will get your healing, and you will have to refresh the buff periodically. It also solves the absorb heavy nature of Discipline Priests.
    • Holy Priests will still be all about healing.
    • The team has learned some lessons from how Fistweaving works now and will talk about what they are doing to solve the problems with it in the future.
    • For now, Demon Hunters are the only ones who get tattoos.

    MMORPG.com
    • The transmog overhaul should make it easier to use. You should be able to browse through what you have unlocked and what you could unlock for each slot, more like a dressing room than the current system.
    • As far as the listed social improvements go, the team has ideas on how to bring different servers together, different ways to connect to your friends, and on how to match-make friends better. Keep in mind that these are just ideas at this point.
    • On rumors that Sylvanas might be a raid boss: "That's interesting".

    GameStar
    • The team doesn't focus on or make decisions based on what their subscriber count is. They focus on making the best game they can, learn some lessons, and keep moving forward.
    • There isn't a solid patch schedule plan for Legion yet.
    • Patch 6.1 was not named correctly and they could have done better.
    • The team still wants to release expansion faster.
    • Raids today are harder than they have ever been.
    • The team strongly believes that WoW is best played with friends. It is the most fun when you can make connections with other players in game or bring in friends from outside the game and play together.
    • Focusing an expansion on new places and characters, such as Mists of Pandaria is not a mistake. It was a nice break from having one big bad guy, with a focus on exploration and adventure.
    • There are a lot of surprises in store for players in Legion and the team doesn't want players to think we are just going back to the same stuff.
    Last edited by chaud; 2015-08-08 at 04:56 AM.

  2. #2
    Disapointed there is 0 talk on Shamans.

    Most outdated class on the game, Ele and Enh have same (horrible) niche with barely there variables, constantly being outclassed by everyone else...

    But lets rework Warlocks again!

  3. #3
    Patch 6.1 was not named correctly and they could have done better.

    No shit


    maybe they will learn

  4. #4
    The Unstoppable Force Chickat's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Orgrimmar
    Posts
    20,511
    Some decent questions honestly.

  5. #5
    "The goals is to remove PvP gear. There will be PvP ways to obtain gear, but the power in PvP will be about the gear you obtain and the PvP talents that you unlock."

    Makes 0 sense, total contradiction.

  6. #6
    There aren't any patch plans for the next expansion.
    Wait, what?

    Edit: I'm guessing they mean they don't know what the patches are about....wait, what?
    Last edited by Iflash; 2015-08-08 at 04:41 AM.

  7. #7
    Earning the Artifact has a class and spec specific quest, but it isn't anywhere near the green fire quest in terms of scale and difficulty.
    Honestly, this is kind of disappointing. One of the great things about having a quest chain specific to a single spec is that you can tune it FAR more tightly than you can for a quest you want every spec of a class or every spec in the game to complete. While obtaining the artifact itself shouldn't be that hard (it's a major expansion feature, I expect we'll get it easily), a follow up solo quest that is tuned to be very difficult and scales up to your gear level so you can't just outgear it to gain a special skin or title or something along those lines I think would be fantastic.

  8. #8
    The Unstoppable Force Chickat's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Orgrimmar
    Posts
    20,511
    Quote Originally Posted by Secondwind View Post
    Honestly, this is kind of disappointing. One of the great things about having a quest chain specific to a single spec is that you can tune it FAR more tightly than you can for a quest you want every spec of a class or every spec in the game to complete. While obtaining the artifact itself shouldn't be that hard (it's a major expansion feature, I expect we'll get it easily), a follow up solo quest that is tuned to be very difficult and scales up to your gear level so you can't just outgear it to gain a special skin or title or something along those lines I think would be fantastic.
    They cant do that. The only weapon you get for your spec is the artifact, and you get it while leveling. They cant make it hard. Its probably 2-5 easy quests per spec. Still at least a zones worth if not two of quests though.

  9. #9
    Some people couldn't even beat silver proving ground...

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Secondwind View Post
    Honestly, this is kind of disappointing. One of the great things about having a quest chain specific to a single spec is that you can tune it FAR more tightly than you can for a quest you want every spec of a class or every spec in the game to complete. While obtaining the artifact itself shouldn't be that hard (it's a major expansion feature, I expect we'll get it easily), a follow up solo quest that is tuned to be very difficult and scales up to your gear level so you can't just outgear it to gain a special skin or title or something along those lines I think would be fantastic.
    In the same way that Archimonde can get you a super ring it would have been nice to say "Okay, final patch of the expansion, here's a Green Fire style quest that will give you a power up if you can overcome it."
    Quote Originally Posted by Ocyris View Post
    Some people couldn't even beat silver proving ground...
    Well they did tune them horribly. At an ilvl below 600 (before certain procs that require lots of attacks or a high mastery rating before they become consistent), Boomkins actually have guides on how to beat it but Windwalkers and Frost DKs can power through it no problem.

    Hell, Arcane at 598 is legitimately difficult, and I beat the Green Fire quest on an alt who barely saw LFR, but switching to Frost made it a cakewalk.
    Last edited by TheWindWalker; 2015-08-08 at 04:54 AM.
    Soothing Mist:"Healing them for a minor amount every 0.5 sec, until you take any other action."
    Jade Serpent Statue: "The statue will also begin casting Soothing Mist on your target. healing for 50% as much as yours. "
    [What's half of minor?]
    "Statue casts Soothing Mist at a nearby ally for toddler healing."

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Chickat View Post
    They cant do that. The only weapon you get for your spec is the artifact, and you get it while leveling. They cant make it hard. Its probably 2-5 easy quests per spec. Still at least a zones worth if not two of quests though.
    If you read what I actually wrote in the post, I acknowledged that getting the weapon should be easy, and the hard quest would only be for unlocking a special skin or a title.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Ranulf13 View Post
    Disapointed there is 0 talk on Shamans.

    Most outdated class on the game, Ele and Enh have same (horrible) niche with barely there variables, constantly being outclassed by everyone else...

    But lets rework Warlocks again!
    Rogues say hi.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Echo419 View Post
    "The goals is to remove PvP gear. There will be PvP ways to obtain gear, but the power in PvP will be about the gear you obtain and the PvP talents that you unlock."

    Makes 0 sense, total contradiction.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7u8...youtu.be&t=755

  14. #14
    There isn't a solid patch schedule plan for Legion yet.
    Ok, that's better. Although it kinda sounds like they don't want to say that there will only be 1 more tier.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Iflash View Post
    Ok, that's better. Although it kinda sounds like they don't want to say that there will only be 1 more tier.
    Full context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLeo...=youtu.be&t=28

  16. #16
    Bloodsail Admiral
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    1,025
    So I think he's saying PVP and PVE gear will be the same, but the thing that will separate a PVP vet from a raider who's just stepping into a BG is that the PVP vet will have more PVP talents.

  17. #17
    Scarab Lord Lime's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    Over There
    Posts
    4,453
    Thank you chaud for putting this all into 1 thread.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by sykoex View Post
    So I think he's saying PVP and PVE gear will be the same, but the thing that will separate a PVP vet from a raider who's just stepping into a BG is that the PVP vet will have more PVP talents.
    Yes.

    You just get gear, that works the same in both environments.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by chaud View Post
    Oh, it's in english, I saw the title and I thought it was in german. Thanks.

    I stick with what I said before. It sounds like they don't want to say it will be a 2 tier expansion. Although we may get some smaller 5.1/5.3 like patches.

  20. #20
    The Insane Thage's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground
    Posts
    19,105
    Quote Originally Posted by Secondwind View Post
    If you read what I actually wrote in the post, I acknowledged that getting the weapon should be easy, and the hard quest would only be for unlocking a special skin or a title.
    I'd be okay with this. Maybe keep the legendary quality, a Champion of Azeroth-esque title, and the 'upgraded' default skins previewed at Blizzcon as something rewarded from a green fire-esque tough-as-hell quest event.
    Be seeing you guys on Bloodsail Buccaneers NA!



Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •