Legion - Mythic Dungeons, Order Hall Followers, Blue Posts, Tweets, Vengeance Preview

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Legion - Mythic Dungeons
In Legion Mythic dungeons will scale in difficulty and rewards, making them relevant throughout the expansion. Most of what we know has been covered in the blue posts, but to recap:

• Each level of difficulty increases the health and damage done by enemies in the dungeon by a percentage.
  
  • Level 1 (8%) and Level 2 (17%) Mythic Dungeons have no affixes.
  • Level 3 (26%) to Level 5 Mythic Dungeons have one affix, selected from Tyrannical, Bolstering, Raging, and Teeming.
  • Level 6 (59%), Level 7 (71%), Level 8 (85%) and higher have two affixes, selecting from the previous four and adding Necrotic, Volcanic, Skittish, and Decay.
  • This blue post has the full list of valid affix combinations.
• There is a 45 minute timer that you must beat to advance to a higher level, but not to get loot.
• When keystones upgrade, a new dungeon is selected at random.
• The Mythic+ dungeons are only limited by keystone availability, not a weekly loot lockout.
• Players are suggesting new affixes on the forum.

• Decay - All players lose 1% of their max health every 2 sec while the challenge is active.
• Skittish - Enemies pay far less attention to threat generated by tanks.
• Volcanic - While in combat, enemies periodically cause gouts of flame to erupt beneath the feet of distant players.
• Necrotic - All enemies' melee attacks apply a stacking blight that inflicts damage over time and reduces healing received.
• Teeming - Additional non-boss enemies are present throughout the dungeon.
• Raging - Non-boss enemies enrage at 30% health remaining, dealing 100% increased damage until defeated.
• Bolstering - When any non-boss enemy dies, its death cry empowers nearby allies, increasing their maximum health and damage by 20%.
• Tyrannical - Boss enemies have 50% more health and inflict up to 30% increased damage.

Patch 6.2.4 Hotfixes - April 11

Raids and Dungeons
Legacy

• Terrace of Endless Spring
  
  • Fixed an issue where defeating Protectors of the Endless may cause players to not receive loot if Protector Kaolan is defeated last.

Order Hall Follower System

I completely understand the concerns. What you're currently seeing in Alpha are bits and pieces of a system that is still coming together, untuned and often even inconsistent between classes, without additional context. And as a result, there's also a fair bit of misinformation floating around (for example, the cap on active champions/followers is 6, not 20). We haven't published a full explanation of the system, because we're still working out a few of the details - that's the nature of Alpha. And of course in the absence of information, seeing an interface that looks a lot like a reskinned version of what you're used to in Draenor garrisons (followers -> champions, garrison resources -> order resources, etc.), it's easy to assume that this is just a continuation of the old system.

I'd like to at least shed light on some of our goals and philosophies, and the core ways in which Class Order missions in Legion are going to be very different from garrison missions in Warlords. The mission system in Warlords was conceived as a core part of the garrison experience, and a self-contained progression that offered rewards that competed with other traditional content.

We approached Legion unsure whether there would even be any continuation of mission gameplay at all. We focused instead on the artifact and class order systems, creating traditional content to provide the experience of forming a band of the greatest champions of your class to combat the Legion, with an eye towards class identity and replayability. We want your journey through the Broken Isles to feel meaningfully different in at least a few key ways depending on whether you are a mage, a warrior, a demon hunter, etc.

Once we had the backbone of our order systems in place - a campaign quest arc wherein you recruit champions to aid your cause, and an order hall tech tree where you research upgrades - we saw what seemed like a good fit for a version of the old mission gameplay to provide another outlet for leading the champions you've gathered, and spending the order resources you've earned out in the world. But it is far more limited in scope, and designed to be a much smaller piece of Legion than missions were in Warlords - it's serving a larger system, rather than trying to stand alone as a system in and of itself.

There are fewer followers (champions), fewer and less frequent missions; but more importantly, the system is more closely tied to the game world itself. Order resources come from playing the game normally, and will come primarily from doing World Quests at max level. If you get a "raid mission," it won't give you a piece of raid loot directly; it will give you a quest to kill a specific boss in that zone, in exchange for a bonus piece of loot. In general, from the ground up, missions in Legion are not intended to be an alternate progression path, or a self-contained activity. We don't think of them as "content." But they are a useful additional outlet to complement core traditional content, such as dungeons, outdoor questing, and raids.

We'll have more details to share in the future, but hopefully this helps clarify some of our broader goals and provides some context to what you may be seeing in game.

Blue Posts

Raid Testing Issues
Obviously we've been experiencing significant technical issues. We've been trying to diagnose them, but they're beyond the scope of anything that can be addressed in the short-term (infrastructure/back-end issues, as opposed to just a simple code bug that can be fixed). As such, we're canceling today's tests. They'll be rescheduled.

I realize it's frustrating to carve time out of your schedule and then be unable to actually play. If there were anything we could do to prevent this, we would, but an alpha/beta environment is inherently less stable and polished because of how things are changing constantly, both in obvious player-facing ways but also in terms of behind-the-scenes tech. I apologize, but I honestly can't say that it won't happen again - it might. The disclaimers that accompany each raid testing announcement aren't just empty words. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

FEEDBACK: Mythic/Mythic+ Dungeons
Thanks for the great feedback so far, and lots of useful data. I haven't heard much about the Volcanic affix - any thoughts on how that one played out when it was active?

In the next build, Necrotic should stack a bit more slowly, but now also reduces absorbs taken as well as heals. Decay seems like it's probably more of a nuisance than an engaging challenge right now, yes? We're still thinking through possible changes with that one. Otherwise, the other affixes seem to have played out largely as envisioned, in terms of modifying gameplay.

We're keeping an eye on melee-unfriendliness concerns. We specifically avoided making any affixes that felt particularly punitive to melee players; it may be an issue with some specific Halls of Valor mechanics. It's fine if some bosses, or even some dungeons, are less favorable for certain specs or classes; it's not acceptable if the same specs are at a disadvantage in most or all of them, though.

Not much is likely to change in the next alpha build, but the next steps after that will be porting this system to the other 8 dungeons (Violet Hold will not be part of the keystone system - wave events and timers don't really play well together in a satisfying way). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets

In future def only queueing for w/e role the satchel is up for, and will return feedback. Thanks so much for looking into this.
Just to follow up, this report helped us improve the queue logic a bit. The situation you encountered shouldn't reoccur. Thanks! (WatcherDev)

So, not trying to rile anything up, just curious did Adventure Mode get cut? or is it WIP?
That's World Quests. (Muffinus)
Ah, will we getting more information regarding what it entails in the coming future? End-Game questing? thanks for responses.
Yes, soon! (Muffinus)

Final Boss - Vengeance Demon Hunter Spec Preview
Final Boss is back with another spec preview!

[Beet]

Has there ever been a time in wows history where we've gotten such few updates to a beta? It feels like we are just seeing so little changed over the course of the last few months. I mean we're in April now and it feels like we're gonna be lucky to get Legion out by September.

[ImpTaimer]

It's alpha. Alpha testing is not for content. That's beta. When Blizzard says its Beta they'll close the Alpha forums on the official website.

Alpha exists to test core game code/mechanics. Beta exists to iron out content/bugs.

You're not going to see sweeping class changes in Alpha unless they're testing out code or a mechanic to see if it's worth leaving in the code for later use.

[kamuimac]

and this is why alpha should be f... closed and down to only f&f so all crying youtubers/streams who want to get 5 second fame on bashing blizzard for everything be gagged untill blizzard tells them ok this is ocmpleted show it to playerbase in beta.

[pixelated senpai]

It's alpha. Alpha testing is not for content. That's beta. When Blizzard says its Beta they'll close the Alpha forums on the official website.

Alpha exists to test core game code/mechanics. Beta exists to iron out content/bugs.

You're not going to see sweeping class changes in Alpha unless they're testing out code or a mechanic to see if it's worth leaving in the code for later use.

Well thats just not true, sweeping class changes happen almost every other patch update. Whether it be a talent switch or revamp of a spell.

[Znarkharka]

It's alpha. Alpha testing is not for content. That's beta. When Blizzard says its Beta they'll close the Alpha forums on the official website.

Alpha exists to test core game code/mechanics. Beta exists to iron out content/bugs.

You're not going to see sweeping class changes in Alpha unless they're testing out code or a mechanic to see if it's worth leaving in the code for later use.

Problem is that people forget that it works like that, they watch streams on twitch, they read comments on sites and forums and they assume that what they're seeing is the final product... specially if you're like 99% of the people that write the most absurd comments on everything, they're not playing the alpha, they have no idea what's really going on

[Terminal Lance]

If I can make a suggestion.
MadSeasonShow in youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOv...tCTeXKdiuMG8eg) makes exceptional Legion videos covering individual specs which are linear, thorough, and overall just enjoyable to watch. The only downside is that he only has a few spec guides covered so far and takes about 7-10 days to release a new one. Maybe once he has more videos out, replace Final Boss' videos with MSS? I used to enjoy them but now it's mostly rambling and half the time he doesn't seem to know what he's talking about (just my opinion). Thanks.

[OmniSkribe]

Finally we are getting Diablo MMO game. Quite happy that Blizz adding level difficulties to content.

[Grimalkin of Old]

Well excuse me for not trusting Blizzard's words anymore.

[Adi91]

Am I the only one who hates the idea of this Diablo-kind Mythic+?

[americandavey]

Am I the only one who hates the idea of this Diablo-kind Mythic+?

See this is what confuses the crap out of Blizzard. "Dungeons are too easy. Heroics are too easy. Mythic Dungeons is a joke! Challenge Modes are not really challenging!"

So they put in a system to make dungeons harder each time you complete them, not a set difficulty level. "I hate this!"

[Deleted]

and this is why alpha should be f... closed and down to only f&f so all crying youtubers/streams who want to get 5 second fame on bashing blizzard for everything be gagged untill blizzard tells them ok this is ocmpleted show it to playerbase in beta.

actually what people have in mind when talking about "lack of content" or "not many updates" is: there is nothing new added, there isnt much left to add from what was announced, and stuff currently in is...well..."meh"

not much to expect from 7.1 or 7.2 (almost nobody expects more than 2 patches, even 7.1 will be marked as "delayed tier raid we tested in alpha/beta", this is so funny)

we saw how quickly 8-9 dungeons can become boring, no more dungeons announced so far, once you are done with your artifacts (aka finished building up your garrison) i honestly dont see much to do, crafting is still a joke (even though its "back" you still get better loot from raids and progression system is just stretched out current system), did i forget anything? No new battleground, who cares about "add random pillars"-arena?...

[Deleted]

See this is what confuses the crap out of Blizzard. "Dungeons are too easy. Heroics are too easy. Mythic Dungeons is a joke! Challenge Modes are not really challenging!"

So they put in a system to make dungeons harder each time you complete them, not a set difficulty level. "I hate this!"

Not sure why anyone would hate this kind of content, it's not perfect, nothing is. but a group of 5 people will always have something that fits their groups skill this way. will never understand how you can "hate" something that serves everyone in an equal way without having to do with preference.

[gamer73]

I am realy liking what i read about LEGION....it seems like they will be big on scaling content. THAT i love I cant wait to play Legion. when is it out? November this year? On the 2 year mark since warlords?

[thilicen]

Am I the only one who hates the idea of this Diablo-kind Mythic+?

How can you hate it, really? It adds to an already existing feature, Mythic will still be hard but those who want now have the option to make it harder. I just don't get how that is someting to hate.

Also thank God for that clarification, even though they already did at Blizzcon, maybe people can now finally put that Order halls = Garrisons bullshit to rest. Yeah, right..

[Adi91]

How can you hate it, really? It adds to an already existing feature, Mythic will still be hard but those who want now have the option to make it harder. I just don't get how that is someting to hate.

Also thank God for that clarification, even though they already did at Blizzcon, maybe people can now finally put that Order halls = Garrisons bullshit to rest. Yeah, right..

Yeah but the main problem with the content wasn't that it was not hard/challanging enough.

In my opinion the problem is that you haven't got any new dungeons. If I want to play the same content harder and harder I'd buy Diablo. But I don't want, so...

[thilicen]

Yeah but the main problem with the content wasn't that it was not hard/challanging enough.

In my opinion the problem is that you haven't got any new dungeons. If I want to play the same content harder and harder I'd buy Diablo. But I don't want, so...

10 new dungeons at launch isn't enough then? Think there was talk of a karazhan 5-man hub, but I can't confirm nor encourage people to take that as anything but a rumor.

[gamer73]

IMO dungeons are the most fun feature that wow ever had I am extremly happy they are focusing on those in LEGION

[furydeath]

good thing the hot fix doesn't apply to mages since we have no heals and there for can't solo MOP raids yet. You know till we can "avoid the damage" as blizzards says.

[gamer73]

I'm sooo fucking stoked for what new hunter animation blood elf get....PLEASE get rid of the wierd "have the feets 6 meters apart posture..."