Legion Developer Q&A - Ion Hazzikostas

[Gadzooks]

Gotta give credit for Ion finally giving a Q&A where he doesn't start a wildfire of protest on the forums. Maybe he can learn. Granted, he didn't mention flying at all, lol.

I honestly think class design should be decoupled at this point from the expansion/patch schedule, and just worked on by a team all the time. "Balance" the way they work now is a total unicorn. They spent a long time on classes in Legion, and I think it's showing it was just too much to handle in that time period. Classes should evolve when ready, not by artifcial gates like an expansion or patch. Yet again, there was a massive mountain of feedback from players, and yet again, the devs are unsure what to do. I don't know what the problem is. Is it how they work internally? Is their "design by committee" method keeping them back?

I understand what they were attempting with this revamp - it's like classes were a painting, and by the end of WOD that painting was so overpainted and changed so often it was muddy and unsalvageable, so this time they scraped the paint off and started over. But they had too many paintings to do, in too short a time. And they seem to be very reluctant to go too far, they're being very minimalist now.

Or, they should just throw their hands up in the air, say "Look, classes are hard. There will never be "balance". Abilities will change when we change them. Just go play the damn game." and be done with the hand wringing and over-thinking of it all.

[Smeller]

So no comment on engineering 815 craftables being gated behind content that devaluates the item completely.

[HordeFanboy]

warlocks rekt

[Fayenoor]

Ok, so Nighthold is 7.2 ? Which means no major Tier raids before 7.2. That's interesting. Emerald Nightmare till March?

[Myzou]

Tier set from Tomb of Sargeras? Isn't that confirmation Tomb is a future raid?

[Shedeo]

Ok, so Nighthold is 7.2 ? Which means no major Tier raids before 7.2. That's interesting. Emerald Nightmare till March?

Nighthold is supposed to release early in 2017. It's part of the 7.0.3 content, it just isn't unlocked yet, similar to Blackrock Foundry in WoD (except hopefully handled better). If they are sticking to the Mists content release as a guideline, then I suspect that the 7.2 content will be something that adds to the story, but potentially in a way we were both expecting and not expecting- similar to Throne of Thunder or Ulduar. Meaning, not necessarily Legion-centric (although this could be filled by the Stormheim miniraid in 7.1, who knows).

[Deleted]

Gotta give credit for Ion finally giving a Q&A where he doesn't start a wildfire of protest on the forums. Maybe he can learn. Granted, he didn't mention flying at all, lol.

I honestly think class design should be decoupled at this point from the expansion/patch schedule, and just worked on by a team all the time. "Balance" the way they work now is a total unicorn. They spent a long time on classes in Legion, and I think it's showing it was just too much to handle in that time period. Classes should evolve when ready, not by artifcial gates like an expansion or patch. Yet again, there was a massive mountain of feedback from players, and yet again, the devs are unsure what to do. I don't know what the problem is. Is it how they work internally? Is their "design by committee" method keeping them back?

I understand what they were attempting with this revamp - it's like classes were a painting, and by the end of WOD that painting was so overpainted and changed so often it was muddy and unsalvageable, so this time they scraped the paint off and started over. But they had too many paintings to do, in too short a time. And they seem to be very reluctant to go too far, they're being very minimalist now.

Or, they should just throw their hands up in the air, say "Look, classes are hard. There will never be "balance". Abilities will change when we change them. Just go play the damn game." and be done with the hand wringing and over-thinking of it all.

short time? You mean YEARS?

and why should they abandon class balance when they literally fixed it with PvE and PvP division? Its not that its hard, there are companies out there with far more complex stuff to balance out and do it just fine by fine-tuning regularly. Its blizzards own decision not to fine-tune, they are used to "good-ol-days" when any change made huge impact on everything so they invented extremely rare but also extremely powerful nerfhammer. They just forgot that times change. They always did it in WoW and they keep doing that in hearthstone as well. One problematic card? Okay, wait about 6-12 months and then nerf it to the ground, making it totally unplayable.

As they did in WoD, nerfed demo locks to the ground and openly said "Fuck off, we dont want you to play demo only." Is that fine? At that time yeah, now when they can tune PvE and PvP separately? Hell no. When shit is standardized in PvP I see no reason to wait with PvP template fixes and there are huge problems (from tanks being useless in BGs to healers dying in seconds to stunlocks', this is rly not going to change with better gear or whatever. Also if a certain spec just sucks balls in dungeons and nobody wants to take it its unlikely that will change on its own as well

[BannedForViews]

What you are apparently too stupid to understand is that small frequent changes is a lot better than infrequent sweeping changes. It allows you to dial it in rather than guessing and hoping.

[ElDoorO]

Because there isn't one way a class is "suppose" to be played. The right way according to everyone here is just what does "max dps" and that only matters to people who raid which is the minority of players. The average player only cares about if stuff dies while they are questing that's it. If hitting one button over and over kills it they will do that.

I'm doing to have to disagree with you. Brewmasters are an excellent example of a very binary way to play. You are either super squishy or somewhat competitive. Brewmasters aren't an in ideal place right now but I think they get the point across. Demo warlocks -- if you aren't buffing your pets every time then you are missing out on dps (which is kind of the point of being a dps, yes?).

If you use Essence Font as a monk as your primary heal -- you're Going To Have A Bad Time (TM).

If you don't use Fel Rush and Vengeful retreat as a DH simply because you don't those -- you're not going to be competitive.

So yes, there absolutely is a way a class is supposed to be played -- and in some cases the basics aren't intuitive and in fewer cases the ideal way is not intuitive.

I had all 13 classes at max level before Legion hit. I play on having all 13 before Legion is over, most likely.

I can assure you -- every class and spec has a way it's "supposed" to be played.

What study are you using to cite what the "average" person is? I'd also guess what in your undefined "average" -- that same person probably would like to not spend 10 minutes on a mob when it cam be killed in one. They'll get frustrated rather quickly.

My guess is most people will grep over the talents quickly and pick what feels like the "right" choice or what's easier. Sometimes the "right" choice is hard to know because they aren't going to sit down and do the math.

But, ok, I'll give you an inch. Let's assume the "average" (whatever your undefined meaning is) player just wants to quest and win through questing. The devs are doing them a disservice by not making things intuitive --or-- not showing them how it's ideally supposed to be done.

Further, if that person is in a dungeon and decides to try their hand at tanking -- the difference between, say, Brewmaster and Vengeance is huge.

[Deleted]

Maybe they should design their game in such a way that traversing the environment isn't an obnoxious inconvenience. Then the players wouldn't be forced to resort to such useful items for such simple things as getting off a mountain.

if traveling is a huge issue to you, maybe an MMO is not a game you should play.

[Fang7986]

I'm doing to have to disagree with you. Brewmasters are an excellent example of a very binary way to play. You are either super squishy or somewhat competitive. Brewmasters aren't an in ideal place right now but I think they get the point across. Demo warlocks -- if you aren't buffing your pets every time then you are missing out on dps (which is kind of the point of being a dps, yes?).

If you use Essence Font as a monk as your primary heal -- you're Going To Have A Bad Time (TM).

If you don't use Fel Rush and Vengeful retreat as a DH simply because you don't those -- you're not going to be competitive.

So yes, there absolutely is a way a class is supposed to be played -- and in some cases the basics aren't intuitive and in fewer cases the ideal way is not intuitive.

I had all 13 classes at max level before Legion hit. I play on having all 13 before Legion is over, most likely.

I can assure you -- every class and spec has a way it's "supposed" to be played.

What study are you using to cite what the "average" person is? I'd also guess what in your undefined "average" -- that same person probably would like to not spend 10 minutes on a mob when it cam be killed in one. They'll get frustrated rather quickly.

My guess is most people will grep over the talents quickly and pick what feels like the "right" choice or what's easier. Sometimes the "right" choice is hard to know because they aren't going to sit down and do the math.

But, ok, I'll give you an inch. Let's assume the "average" (whatever your undefined meaning is) player just wants to quest and win through questing. The devs are doing them a disservice by not making things intuitive --or-- not showing them how it's ideally supposed to be done.

Further, if that person is in a dungeon and decides to try their hand at tanking -- the difference between, say, Brewmaster and Vengeance is huge.

again you assume there is a "right" way to play which there shouldn't be the only thing that matters is if the mob you are attacking dies that is it, it doesn't matter what abilities or order of abilities you use to accomplish that

[ElDoorO]

if traveling is a huge issue to you, maybe an MMO is not a game you should play.

I know, they'd never implement something is weird as flying.

- - - Updated - - -

again you assume there is a "right" way to play which there shouldn't be the only thing that matters is if the mob you are attacking dies that is it, it doesn't matter what abilities or order of abilities you use to accomplish that

No you're being ridiculous and dense on purpose. I enumerated why that's not the case.

[Ottius]

Could these Q&A's be any quite-er?..

[Deleted]

Remember warlocks, it's not blizzards fault you are the worst dps class in the game.

[Logwyn]

You can only have 5 champions active at a time.

Ah. Well that does suck then..... Whats the point? Blizzard is terds....

[Ealyssa]

Ok, so Nighthold is 7.2 ? Which means no major Tier raids before 7.2. That's interesting. Emerald Nightmare till March?

Nighthold is 7.0 content. Just with a late release. 7.1 will be after the first tier set.

[Ifeanychukwu]

Holy shit some of you people are so fucking negative... and over toys? Get the fuck over it. I loved the kite but come the fuck on, it's a goddamn toy not a core mechanic of the game. Then the people talking about pacing and burnout when there's someone who already has 3 level 110s geared up to 825 and the expansion hasn't even been out for two weeks yet! Some of you should really just stop playing the game, it's obvious you don't enjoy it anymore. Half of the time I think people are just making shit up to justify their complaints... saying nobody will take certain classes or people sub 835 ilvl when I started pugging mythics at 824 ilvl.

I haven't enjoyed this game as much as I am right now since Wrath, and Legion so far is shaping up to be better than that even. I'm loving these Q&A's too, Ion seems like a really cool dude and it's clear he cares about the game. Almost everything that was discussed in the Q&A is from topics I've seen on this very forum. I have really high hopes for this expansion and I'll maintain that mindset until it's no longer true at which point I'll play something else until there's more content that I want to see.

[Deleted]

^ What this guy said... It's a toy. A TOY for crying out loud. That people bitch about the gems I can understand in a way (yet don't care) but a toy? Really?! I LOVE the design the world has, sure some places are horrible to get around at ( I am looking at you High mountain........ ) but its fine. I am glad we can enjoy how wonderful the world looks.

[Rafalga]

The only thing I have an issue with about reputation vendors is the gear is gated behind massive time gates...weeks, months even. By the time you get to exalted or revered you'll already outgear whatever rewards they offer which kind of blows

this. i already outgeared the rep rewards by a mile and game is out for like 10 days

[kamuimac]

The only thing I have an issue with about reputation vendors is the gear is gated behind massive time gates...weeks, months even. By the time you get to exalted or revered you'll already outgear whatever rewards they offer which kind of blows

that because of 1 reason - mythic crybabies - if it wasnt for that crowd we would have mythic + dungeons already on launch , rep vendors would have gear equal to hc raiding just like they did in past , world bosses would be out , proffesions wouldnt be pointless - but because of mythic crybabies eveyrthing has some artificial cellign of 850 itlv for 3 weeks for no reason whatsoever

once again everythign in game is a mere shadow to raiding - yes there is a ton of stuff but it all rewards shit rewards because blizzard knwo that next to nobody want to do raids. and htey have to herd people there somehow

- - - Updated - - -

Nighthold is 7.0 content. Just with a late release. 7.1 will be after the first tier set.

yes yes we know its 7.0 content - so what that when it will release it will have 7.2 notation - but f... reason lets mindlessly repeat it for next half of year untill it comes as 7.2