Ion Hazzikostas Interview, Class Blog Post Times, Hunter Changes Feedback

[chaud]

Legion Class Preview Series - Hunter and Overview

Class Blog Post Times
Zarhym shared what time of day the class blogs will be released!

Ion Hazzikostas Interview
We had the opportunity to talk to Ion Hazzikostas (Lead Game Designer) at the Blizzcon this year.

Legion Pre-Expansion Patch

• The Broken Shore scenario picks up exactly where the cinematic leaves off.
• There is a massive joint Horde and Alliance assault on the Tomb of Sargeras.
• In the patch before Legion, there will be a demon invasion of our world, with invasions happening all over the world.
• The forces of Azeroth decide that they need to launch a counterattack and cut off the corruption at its source.
• Players will get on ships and arrive at a beach assault that has different stages. The stages are completed by the raid group as a whole, you are destroying Legion fortifications, killing demons, killing their major lieutenants and generals as you fight your way up the hill from the beach to the foot of the Tomb of Sargeras. When you get there, there will be some fateful and eventful things that they don't want to spoil yet, but you do not completely succeed at stopping the Legion invasion. All of this will be playable during the pre-expansion patch.
• The Broken Shore scenario is flexible, scaling anywhere from 1 to 20 players, so when there aren't as many people starting later in the expansion it will wait for a few minutes and then start, maybe with additional NPCs to keep the epic feeling.
• The pre expansion patch is on a similar timeline to previous expansions.
• There will be a pre-release patch coming out a few weeks prior to the Broken Isles becoming accessible, which will include the invasion events.
• Anyone who has pre-purchased Legion will be able to make their Demon Hunter and play through their starting experience during this patch.

Challenge Mode Dungeons

• The difficulty of challenge mode dungeons should be able to scale endlessly, but there will be a cap on how high the loot goes.
• For example, if a Tier 20 challenge mode dungeon is very hard to complete, they may cap the loot potential there, even if there are a couple of groups that can go a little higher. This is somewhat like how current challenge modes have a gold timer that is designed to be attainable by virtually any reasonably balanced group. Players can try for even faster times for prestige or leaderboard ranks, but there aren't any more rewards.
• The goal is to have leaderboards for the new challenge mode dungeons, focused on the highest tier you clear rather than how fast you are doing it.
• If you are a skilled fully Mythic geared player, you will be able to do a very high tier challenge mode dungeon and they want to give you a chance to get loot comparable to that.
• Loot will be in a range of item levels, somewhat like what Mythic dungeons offer in Patch 6.2.3. While there is a chance to get items equal to the best ones from Mythic raids, that is not the default expectation.
• This will complement high end raiders gameplay, not replace it. For players who do Normal difficulty raiding, but actually prefer a smaller group setting, this could replace raiding for them.
• Each player will be able to get one keystone per week. There may be opportunities to get additional ones as a bonus, but one will be the baseline.
• If you fail to beat a timer on a run that you have initiated, your keystone is depleted. The depleted keystone can still be used to start additional runs, but those runs won't give a loot chest at the end.
• If you are trying Level 6 Halls of Valor and just barely fail, you will get a Level 6 quality reward chest for your group at the end of the run, but you now have a depleted Level 6 Halls of Valor keystone. You can try again and if you manage to beat the time, you will upgrade your keystone to a fresh empowered Level 7 keystone that will give you loot.
• The team wants to avoid frustrations such as having a tank disconnect and being done for the week, but they didn't want players to take the same keystone and run the same dungeon over and over for all of the rewards.
• The quality of the loot you get from the weekly jackpot is going to be significantly higher. There is a possibility of getting a lucky upgrade from the regular runs, but at some point your main goal will become the weekly chest.
• There aren't going to be unique challenge mode armor sets, but it is likely that there will be Artifact appearances tied to the challenge mode dungeon system.

Raiding

• Raid sizes are staying the same, with Mythic at a fixed 20 player size.
• Cross-realm Mythic raiding unlock time will depend on how long a tier is lasting and where things stand overall for the game.
• By default, Mythic raids will remain closed to cross-realm raiding at release. Part of that is to preserve the server first races, as well as a sense of guild identity.
• The idea of a top guild on a specific server is one of the few server specific things that remains and the team wants to make sure it stays and keeps a sense of prestige. At some point it will make sense to unlock cross-realm raiding.
• The game will have two raid zones at launch and a number of content patches following that.
• The team is talking about moving away from single monolithic raids that are very large and having a tier that has a couple of separate raid zones that complement each other.
• Rather than having one 13 boss raid like Hellfire Citadel, what if there was a 6 boss raid and a 7 boss raid, somewhat like Serpentshrine and Tempest Keep. This would allow for more options, diverse environments, and flexibility.

Questing and Reputations

• There are going to be a wide variety of rewards from the world quests. Some examples include gold, experience, Artifact Power, crafting materials, things that benefit your class order, rare mounts, rare pets, and gear.
• Doing organized raiding will be the most consistent source of high quality gear, followed by dungeons, followed by stuff in the outdoor world.
• The world quests on your map will exist without picking up a quest from the emissaries in your class hall. You should be able to see how much time remains before they are gone. The emissary quests are just there to give you some structure.
• You can do as many of the world quests as you want. At some point you will start clearing out your map and you will have to wait for new ones to appear.
• The quests that offer more attractive rewards aren't going to appear as frequently as the smaller quests. Most players will pick and choose what is most exciting to them and leave the rest alone.
• It shouldn't feel mandatory to clear out all of the world quests. The emissary quests help you to know when you have done enough.
• In Legion, reputation is earned more like it is Tanaan and Mists of Pandaria. The team wants to get away from the more grindy kill reps where you just spend hours in a group AoEing things.
• There may be one or two reputations that require grinding, something like the Timbermaw, but most will not be like that anymore.
• The main way you will earn reputation is the emissary quests. You might get thousands of rep from the emissary quest, but individual world quests might give you 50 or 100, allowing you to work towards them faster if you want to.
• Reputation rewards will be pretty standard, some convenience items, some cosmetic, some power items, while still avoiding the Mists of Pandaria model that required reputation and Valor. The items are likely just going to cost gold and be unlocked by reputations.
• If two different level players attack a mob, it will almost exist in two states. A level 102 player would see a mob as level 102 and the level 106 player will see the mob as level 106. Most of the time when you are leveling you don't worry about actual numbers, just percentages. The mob will do more damage to the level 106 player than the level 102 player, but the percentage of health it takes off of both players will be the same. The goal is for you not to even notice it is there.
• While the leveling zones will scale, you won't be able to join friends in the middle of the main quest line in another zone. The idea is for you to both progress through a zone at the same time, regardless of level.

Artifacts

• The team is pretty far along with all of the Artifacts at this point. They are aware that some players that have a spec that they play that doesn't perfectly match what they want out of their Artifact. Frost Death Knights have asked for a choice between a 2H and a Runeblade. Choice is nice, but it would come at the expense of the identity of the Artifact.
• You will be able to transmog your Artifact to look like something else, but you can't transmog something else to look like your Artifact.
• In terms of transmogging to legendary items, a world where everyone has transmogged to Warglaives or Thunderfury isn't right. Those weapons were designed with an iconic look and to be rare. It is still an open question though.
• Artifact fist weapons are definitely a concern. The team is making sure sheathing works better with them, as well as making them more visible with your combat casting animations.

Misc

• The team knows that droughts in content are the worst thing for players, but their focus is on getting Legion done as soon as possible.
• You won't be able to earn flying in Patch 7.0. The world is being built with flying in mind and players will definitely be able to fly later in Legion. Players can begin working on the flying achievement in 7.0 though.
• It seems likely that another Heirloom upgrade level is coming in Legion, but they aren't sure if they will do it immediately in Patch 7.0.

Legion Hunter Changes Feedback
One of the developers responded to the Hunter changes feedback on Reddit tonight.

While i do know that the base design of artifact weapons can transmoggable i feel some specs like priest, warriors, hunters look .... iffy and not great if there could be a patch and rework some of the design choices then that would be good
Do you mean a patch which changes the art of the base item? Thats very unlikely to happen. (andrewchambers)

I'm a bit sad that all the awesomeness that belonged to demonology warlocks went to Demon Hunters I've played a Demo Lock since forever and all the aspects that made me like this class so much are going to be removed. No longer Metamorphosis and Demonic Leap, etc.

Maybe everything that made me play a Demo Lock was all the Demon Hunter like abilities they possessed. I'm now torn between keeping playing a shadow of my former main demo lock or make a demon hunter my main.
We understand that these changes may cause some hard choices, but hopefully once you get to play it you will find the spec equally enjoyable, just maybe for different reasons. (andrewchambers)

... and yes, Survival has Wing Clip...
But do they have volley that is the true ultimate question!
It may come back as a talent for the other specs, doesnt make sense for survival having a melee weapon. (andrewchambers)
Also instead of arrows, it could be say a ton of javelins. but either way i just want volley again
Thats a pretty hot idea actually, ill sleep on it (andrewchambers)
did you pull any inspiration from diablo 2's Amazon?
Honestly no, there was more than enough awesome in wow to pull from. (andrewchambers)

RAPTOR STRIKE LIVES ON
Funny story, it wasnt called Mongoose Bite originally, until watcher "announced" the melee survival spec at gamescon, then you all asked for it to come back. I couldnt change its name fast enough! (andrewchambers)

I'm really interested to see how you guys are going to manage to make Survival Hunter different. There's a large amount of melee already in the game and it covers a lot of available design space. It sounds like we'll be incredibly bursty like a rogue, but hopefully we'll be a little more survivable (due to mail) yet still hard to lock down (two damage sources plus master's call and movement options).
if we werent able to make it feel unique we wouldnt have pulled the trigger on it. Traps and pets help alot. (andrewchambers)

Is there a reason why Survival's 'Flanking Strike' has the exact same text and effect/cooldown as Beast Mastery 'Kill Command'? I wasn't sure if that was an error or intentional for them to be the same.
Slightly out of date, we are constantly working in this stuff. It will be an attack with you and your pet attacking at the same time. (andrewchambers)

So, rangers in GW2 have an ability with 1h swords, I think it's their 2 skill, where on the first press they leap backwards out of melee range, and on the second press within a few seconds, leap back into melee range and attack the target.
Disengage + Harpoon. (andrewchambers)

thanks for bringing Mongoose Bite back, but is there more to the Survival rotation that building up vast charges of MB ? I know you can't share too much, but some idea would be nice !
Its more split 50/50 between hectic weaving between MB and other skills while trying to proc more charges, and more steady useage of other skills while waiting for MB charges to build up. Its hard to express gameplay in words. (andrewchambers)

these changes are making me consider rolling a hunter alt to check it out, BM sounds right up my alley
Glad to hear it. I also just finished a pass on Dire Beast so that it summons the correct animals for all the old zones too. Exhausting, but Hunters need love too! (andrewchambers)
Whoa wait what? Are you saying Dire beast will not be a random Beast from anywhere in the World, but will be a random Beast from the Exact zone you are in? If that's the case, RP players are going to love this!
Thats correct (andrewchambers)
So, question on Dire Beast. Since it's BM's only chance to regain focus now, are we extra-extra-extra-screwed on fights where our pets simply can't reach a valid target? This happens every now and then (sometimes bugs/glitches, sometimes valid pathing issues like the target flying) and I'm not sure its avoidable in WoW's engine. It's going to really suck if we've got the same limitations as a melee class when these situations arise.
Fair point, may look into a solution that doesnt require Beast to attack, maybe just a focus per second while guardian active kinda deal. (andrewchambers)
Maybe have some kind of pet communication channeling ability where you and your pet communicate and that generates focus? I'm kinda unsure, that seems like quite a predicament.
Personally hate channeled abilities unless its things like Arcane Missiles. Will be sone very active talent options for focus generation to make up for this if you need it. (andrewchambers)
Has this been adjusted so we might not, say, summon an elekk somewhere small and indoors and suddenly not be able to see our target anymore due to giant elekk butt?
Ive scaled everything as best i could, if you see sonething thats too big let us know. (andrewchambers)

I dreamed that black arrow was going to debuff targets and if they died with the debuff they came back as skeleton, just like in WC3.
I think youre going to like what you see. (andrewchambers)

Will Survival be getting an interrupt?
Of course.
I assume it will be a short cooldown one like most other melee, and not 20+ seconds like most ranged interrupts.
Yea, more like Pummel. (andrewchambers)

Is Barrage still sticking around or is it rip?
Sticking around, but will be more AOE focused like it looks (andrewchambers)

Does the MM mastery still have the condition of standing still or is it just a passive bonus now?
No more standing still requirement. Trade off though is you have to stand still while casting aimed shot. Fits the fantasy better. (andrewchambers)
Will there be a talent choice to opt out of that? I don't like cast times and having to stand still. Since MM seems to be supposed to be the spec for the fans of the old SV spec I think there should also be an option to include the mobile feeling of it.
Probably, think lock and load combined with aimed shot. (andrewchambers)

Please tell me that with Survival getting Wing Clip back that one of the talent options will be something like the old Improved Wing Clip or maybe a more reliable version of the old Counterattack. Those were abilities that really felt great in the old 0/21/30 PVP spec back in Vanilla when I got Grand Marshal. Also, hunters have very low armor and dodge (and no parry) compared to vanilla, will that improve at least for Survival if they are going to be in melee now?
We arent really at that tuning point yet but will get there. Improved WC was cool, ill see if the pvp guys would be interested. (andrewchambers)

With some of these old abilities coming back, any chance for Eyes of the Beast? The one that the hunter channeled to control their pet and use its abilities for ~1 minute?
I can look into it, from an engineering standpoint it was a total mess and really broken. If we can re-engineer it safely then maybe, but no promises. (andrewchambers)

Love it - any word on MM utility without a pet like Roar or Master's call? Passive heals etc. has this been figured out or still in the works?
Snares are an integral part of your rotation now. If survivability in the wild is an issue we will address it, but i want you to feel very high risk/high reward. (andrewchambers)
Awesome! Also please tell me the purple shots Sylvanas was shooting in the cinematic is the new arcane shot??! Would be so cool to have better visuals on the shots themselves. Thanks for hanging out and answering questions.
Sounds pretty cool, ill ask our VFX guy. (andrewchambers)

In the BM changes, there's a note saying that "summoning a beast reduces the cooldown of Bestial Wrath by 15 seconds." With Dire Beast having a 10 second cooldown, it seems like you'd be able to Bestial Wrath up indefinitely. Is this intended or will Bestial Wrath be given a longer cooldown/lower duration to compensate for that? (andrewchambers)
BW should feel like its up more aften but not indefinitly. All just tuning points for us to work on now we have the foundations solid.
Is the frenzy / focus fire (and go for the throat/invigoration) dynamic gone for Beast Mastery as well?
Yes. Didnt like how it felt to interact with the pet in this arbitrary fashion. (andrewchambers)

Hunter defenses have always been based around not getting hit- as a melee class thats not gonna be a viable option. What sort of defences utilities are we gonna see to offset that?
If survivability during combat is an issue we will resolve it with some form of passive. Unsure if thats actually necessary yet, they have a lot of cc and pet based mitigation. (andrewchambers)

I have a question. Or concern, I suppose, about BM Hunter. I know that the fantasy is all about beasts and controlling them (and also that the preview was just to give us an idea of concept) but I feel a bit worried that Cobra Shot was the only ability I saw that actually makes use of the gun. I'll still have an assortment of meaningful attacks with my gun that aren't auto attack, right? I like focusing on pets but I don't want Blizzard to overdue it and make the spec about nothing but pets + cobra shot and the badass hero with the gun be incidental while the pets get the whole spotlight. Beastmastery is about teamwork.
This is only the core spells, and talents will build on it. (andrewchambers)

Does Survival have a way to build focus? from what we've been told so far there doesn't appear to be a focus builder.
No, but while using MB youre pooling focus. If this is an issue we may make RS a builder, either baseline or talented, but so far it works well. (andrewchambers)

Not to undermine all your hard work, but... any chance we could get a glyph for dire beast to summon a pet from our stables? As beast mastery, I almost always have a spirit beast out. It would be cool to see some of the non-spirit beasts I have from time to time since they never get much use.
Theres tech required for this but its already in the works, likely built into a talent. (andrewchambers)

You answering all these extra questions has really put some extra faith into the Blizz machine. I won't lie, I've been pessimistic for a while about you guys. But even if I'm not thrilled about changes when it comes to one of my preferred classes, it's nice to get some actual communication from you guys. Please keep it up!
I cant promise that we can be this reactive all the time, all these changes take up most of our efforts, but we really want to ensure you are all heard. I lurk here daily. (andrewchambers)

[Jabberie]

Any VT or just a chat?

[twackycats]

Interesting info on challenge modes. I wonder if we'll be able to increase a keystone by more than 1 level at a time. It would be pretty exhausting to run the same dungeon 20 times in a week.

[Frumpy Frumpy Frak]

In terms of transmogging to legendary items, a world where everyone has transmogged to Warglaives or Thunderfury isn't right

And why is everyone using Ashbringer okay?

[lokithor]

Interesting info on challenge modes. I wonder if we'll be able to increase a keystone by more than 1 level at a time. It would be pretty exhausting to run the same dungeon 20 times in a week.

If anything like D3, it will go off your time, the faster you are the more it will go up.

[chaud]

And why is everyone using Ashbringer okay?

They have repeatedly answered this question. Multiple models and multiple colors makes it less "everyone has the exact same Ashrbringer". Most of the weapons are previously unknown as well.

[Emeraldon]

"In terms of transmogging to legendary items, a world where everyone has transmogged to Warglaives or Thunderfury isn't right. Those weapons were designed with an iconic look and to be rare. It is still an open question though."

This is probably the worst (ABSOLUTE FUCKING WORST) argument they can make where EVERY single retpaladin will get Ashbringer, EVERY SINGLE FROST MAGE will get the staff of the First Guradian etc. It is so absolutely fucking flawed I can't even understand why they still make that argument.

EVERY rogue will have Garona's daggers or the swords or whatever.. Not EVERY rogue will have warglaives OR will transmog them if they were available. What a stupid fucking thing to say.

[Smeller]

Why can't they just make legendaries unobtainable once a new expansion starts? That way you can still show off that you got a legendary and they are rare.

[Frumpy Frumpy Frak]

They have repeatedly answered this question. Multiple models and multiple colors makes it less "everyone has the exact same Ashrbringer". Most of the weapons are previously unknown as well.

They can give it all the reskins they want, I still don't feel that justifies giving the blade that defeated the Lich King to anyone who levels a paladin for absolutely no effort.

[Anonymous1987]

Not sure if they mean 5 AM Monday, 11 AM Tuesday, 5 PM Wednesday, and 5 AM again on Thursday or if it's just completely random. I guess we'll see in a few hours. Really excited though, those hunter changes seemed great!

[Tomana]

Not sure if they mean 5 AM Monday, 11 AM Tuesday, 5 PM Wednesday, and 5 AM again on Thursday or if it's just completely random. I guess we'll see in a few hours. Really excited though, those hunter changes seemed great!

I think it's 5AM/11AM/5PM of the same day, as we'll have 3 preview per day until Thursday.

[Anonymous1987]

I think it's 5AM/11AM/5PM of the same day, as we'll have 3 preview per day until Thursday.

Ah, that does make more sense. Thanks for clearing it up.

[Jahaga]

"We know that content droughts are the worst for players, but our focus is on X expansion and getting it done" ~Blizzard Devs since Dragon Soul

Blizzard sounds like a broken record and quite frankly, this crap is getting old. They fail to close the gap between the end of an expansion and the start of the next expansion time and time again. They've been stating they want to close this gap since Dragon Soul and they've failed each time and only made these gaps longer! What the hell is going on? Why aren't these things being planned out better? Blizzard lost it. I mean, WoD had the least content out of every expansion... and it cost $10 more! That's disgusting! They knew that they had very little content planned for WoD that they tried to stretch out the raid content by locking Blackrock Foundry at launch.

WoD was such a terrible expansion that I can't see myself returning for Legion, the expansion I've been waiting for since BC/WotLK. I'm sorry, but at this point I'm done. WoW is just a shadow of its former self. There's a reason why subs have only declined after each expansion (after the end of WotLK) and why WoW sits at a subscriber count they didn't have since the beginning of Vanilla. It's just not delivering content as good as they did for Vanilla, BC and WotLK.

[Zyky]

I'm very against the new Challenge Modes, don't misinterpret my feelings I love the idea of giving people who prefer 5 mans something to do outside of forcing them to raid, I'm against the idea that they're practically mandatory for any serious raiding guild, but there has to be a line, like loot once per week like current Mythic Dungeons, and no refreshing the keystone for new loot when you break a time. Upgrade the keystone, but make it so that keystone is the level for the following weeks keystone. Multiple "loot chests" per week is making it so we, as raiders, are forced to bash our heads on new Challenge Modes for hours outside of raid to make sure we're optimal for progression.

[Deleted]

I'm very against the new Challenge Modes, don't misinterpret my feelings I love the idea of giving people who prefer 5 mans something to do outside of forcing them to raid, I'm against the idea that they're practically mandatory for any serious raiding guild, but there has to be a line, like loot once per week like current Mythic Dungeons, and no refreshing the keystone for new loot when you break a time. Upgrade the keystone, but make it so that keystone is the level for the following weeks keystone. Multiple "loot chests" per week is making it so we, as raiders, are forced to bash our heads on new Challenge Modes for hours outside of raid to make sure we're optimal for progression.

You would have hated vanilla where doing things other than raiding to actually raid really -was- mandatory. I'll never understand people who have an issue with more options for end-game play.

[kneeo]

"Reputations will be more like they are in Tanaan or in Mists, less grindy."

Yeeaaaah but I fucking hate dailies so I'll take the grindy ones instead, thanks.

[papajohn4]

I'm very against the new Challenge Modes, don't misinterpret my feelings I love the idea of giving people who prefer 5 mans something to do outside of forcing them to raid, I'm against the idea that they're practically mandatory for any serious raiding guild, but there has to be a line, like loot once per week like current Mythic Dungeons, and no refreshing the keystone for new loot when you break a time. Upgrade the keystone, but make it so that keystone is the level for the following weeks keystone. Multiple "loot chests" per week is making it so we, as raiders, are forced to bash our heads on new Challenge Modes for hours outside of raid to make sure we're optimal for progression.

So what? If you are serious raider you must do all things required for serious raiding... I dont understand this attitude...

Because serious raiders want only doing raiding, the whole game should be unrewarding for the rest of players?

Back thennserious raiders, not only had to do dungeons but also farm for gold and consumables...

[Sabrescene]

You would have hated vanilla where doing things other than raiding to actually raid really -was- mandatory. I'll never understand people who have an issue with more options for end-game play.

If something is required, it's not really an option, it's a requirement.

[Deleted]

If something is required, it's not really an option, it's a requirement.

Are you telling me you're unable to enter the raid portal without 'slamming your head against a few CMs beforehand'? does it give you an error message saying you're unable to enter because you haven't met your weekly CM quota? No? Then it's not a requirement.

Oh and because I know this is coming, if your guild 'forces' you to do these things then that's a requirement imposed by the players, not the game. And if it's such a big deal I suggest you look for a guild that doesn't demand it to be done (there's going to be many, just like there's many who don't require you to run LFR before you start normal).

[seemsdead]

In terms of transmogging to legendary items, a world where everyone has transmogged to Warglaives or Thunderfury isn't right. Those weapons were designed with an iconic look and to be rare. It is still an open question though.

This will be a huge deciding factor whether I'll play Legion or not. No Warglaives transmog then no deal.