Challenge Mode Recap, Dev Interview, Legion Class Preview Series: Paladin

[chaud]

Legion Class Preview Series

Challenge Mode Recap
Lots of people are excited about the new challenge mode, so we put together a recap of what we know so far. You can also find it on the Legion menu on the front page.

Blizzcon Slides

Changes from Warlords

• Challenge mode dungeons will no longer scale players down to a fixed power level.
• There are no longer Bronze, Silver, and Gold timers, just one timer that is roughly the same as Silver would have been.
• The leaderboards will focus on the highest difficulty level you have cleared, not times.
• There won't be unique cosmetic items this time, but instead different Artifact appearances.

Keystones

• A charged Challenger's Keystone is used to start the Challenge Mode dungeon.
• Keystones come from world quests, with everyone able to obtain one each week. There may be opportunities to get additional ones as a bonus.
• Keystones have a power level that determines the difficulty and reward.
• The higher the power level gets, the more damage the enemies do and the more health the have.
• Higher level keystones will have some additional affixes. For example:
  
  • Enemies enrage at 30% health remaining, doing 100% increased damage.
  • Additional enemies appear in the dungeon.
  • Enemy corpses explode and do damage shortly after death.
  • The party takes constant damage over time in the dungeon.
• Keystone affixes will be the same for the entire region each week, so there is no need to try and find an optimal keystone.
• When you successfully clear the dungeon before the timer expires, your keystone is upgraded to the next level.
• If you fail to clear the dungeon before the timer expires, your keystone is depleted.
• Depleted keystones can still be used to start additional runs, but those runs won't give a loot chest at the end.
• If you do beat the timer on a depleted keystone run, your keystone will be upgraded and empowered again, so you can attempt the next difficulty level for loot.
• For example: 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.

Dungeons and Loot

• The system will start slightly above Heroic Dungeon difficulty.
• The difficulty of challenge mode dungeons should be able to scale endlessly.
• There will be a cap on loot quality being increased from difficulty:
  
  • 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.
• You get a jackpot at the end of the week with loot quality based on your best run, which will be significantly higher than loot from regular runs.
• 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.
• 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.
• Challenge mode dungeons 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.
• Challenge mode dungeons won't be part of the random matchmaking system.
• Guilds, social circles, and group finder will be where you find players.
• Having an unused keystone is a desired commodity, so people will be lining up to use your Keystone on a Sunday.

Blizzcon - Legion Developer Interview
Vanion had the opportunity to speak with J. Allen Brack at Blizzcon.

Content

• The WoW team has never been larger, there are 250 people on the team now.
• The team really wanted to decrease the amount of time between expansions, so in Warlords they went with one major content patch. Not having the breadth of content and different patches like they had in previous years ended up being a mistake and is something they are going to change with Legion.
• Legion should have a cadence of content that makes the game feel like it is changing a little bit more than it has in the past.

Legion Gameplay

• The Broken Isles intro will release 4-6 weeks before Legion.
• The storyline will explain why Ashbringer and Doomhammer end up in the player's hands.
• The Prestige system will reward hardcore PvP players with cosmetic rewards that allow them to show off how hardcore they are about PvP.
• The early Demon Hunter access should let people try it out and decide if that class is for them and if it will be their main.

Legion Class Preview Series: Paladin

Welcome to our World of Warcraft: Legion class preview series. In this entry, we’re exploring the Paladin—to find out what’s in store for a different class, check out the overview.

We continue our early look at class and specialization design with the Paladin. In these blogs, we’ll be exploring class identity, discussing Legion’s new designs, and presenting core combat abilities for each specialization—laying out the foundation upon which talents and Artifacts will build further. With that in mind, let’s delve into what it means to be a Paladin in World of Warcraft.

Paladins have deep roots in Warcraft lore as holy knights, protectors of the people, and dispensers of justice. Where a Holy Priest serves as voice of the Light, preaching to the downtrodden and disillusioned, the Paladin serves as hand of the Light, defending the faithful and enforcing divine law like a righteous hammer.

The niche of the plate-wearing holy crusader is well established in Paladin gameplay, with one key exception. Whether Paladins are mitigating enemy attacks, aiding their ailing allies, or delivering punitive justice, it’s in their nature to serve in the thick of the battle. But while Holy Paladins possess the heavy armor and strong defensive ability themes, in practice they spend most of their time behind the frontlines with the more fragile healers. In addition to shoring up the identities of Protection and Retribution Paladins, we’re adjusting Holy Paladin gameplay to bring them closer to the front, where they belong.

Holy
Like priests who serve the Light, holy paladins are devout in their faith. After spending much of their lives in hallowed halls studying divine doctrine, those who pledge themselves to a holy order become beacons of the Light for their allies in conflict, taking up the heavy armor and weaponry of justice. Holding the unwavering belief that any battle waged to eradicate evil in the world is righteous, these paladins stands on the frontlines in service to all others dedicated to the cause. The truth and virtue of the Light imbues these sacred knights with the power to revitalize their comrades. If necessary, they even lay down their own lives to serve as martyr for the greater good.

"The truth and virtue of the Light imbues these sacred knights with the power to revitalize their comrades"

Gameplay
We love the unique identity of the Paladin healer and are modifying the gameplay to better support it. Single-target healing from Beacon of Light remains their marquee ability, but other abilities and talents have been adjusted to encourage Holy Paladins to be near the people they want to heal—including melee characters, when necessary. This is incentivized by Lightbringer, a new Mastery, which increases healing on allies near you. This is further reinforced by the addition of a row of Aura talents that provide a variety of localized beneficial effects, and refinements to some spells, such as Light of Dawn returning to being a cone.

Talents will also provide players with options to incorporate offensive capabilities while healing. When allies are in need, Light of the Martyr allows the Holy Paladin to rapidly heal them by sacrificing personal health. Finally, we’re addressing gameplay restrictions caused by Holy Power—in which players often feel forced to use abilities in specific orders or ratios—by removing it in favor of making Mana the primary resource.

To give you an idea of the Holy Paladin in action, here’s a basic look at their core combat abilities:

• Holy Light
  
  • 2.0% Mana, 40 yd range, 2.5 sec cast
  • A slow but efficient spell, healing a friendly target for a moderate amount.
• Flash of Light
  
  • 4.0% Mana, 40 yd range, 1.5 sec cast
  • A quick but expensive spell, healing a friendly target for a moderate amount.
• Light of the Martyr
  
  • 2.5% Mana, 40 yd range, Instant
  • Sacrifices a moderate amount of your own health to instantly heal an ally for a moderate amount.
  • Cannot be cast on yourself.
• Light of Dawn
  
  • 4.0% Mana, 1.5 sec cast, 12 sec cooldown
  • Unleash a wave of healing energy before you, healing up to 5 injured allies within a 15 yd frontal cone for a moderate amount.
• Holy Shock
  
  • 1.5% Mana, 40 yd range, Instant, 10 sec cooldown
  • Instantly trigger a burst of Light on the target, dealing moderate Holy damage to an enemy, or moderate healing to an ally.
  • Holy Shock has double the normal critical strike chance.
• Infusion of Light
  
  • Passive
  • Your Holy Shock criticals reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light by 1.5 sec or increase the healing of your next Flash of Light by 50%.
• Beacon of Light
  
  • 0.5% Mana, 60 yd range, Instant, 3 sec cooldown
  • Place a Beacon of Light on a friendly target.
  • Your heals on other party or raid members will also heal the Beacon of Light target for up to 50% of the amount healed. Your Flash of Light and Holy Light on the Beacon of Light target will also refund 40% of their Mana cost.
• Mastery: Lightbringer
  
  • Proximity to your target causes your spells to heal for up to 30% (with Mastery from typical gear) more.

Additionally, to provide a glimpse at how some talents may build upon this, here’s one example of a Holy-specific talent:

• Beacon of the Lightbringer
  
  • Passive
  • The maximum bonus from Mastery: Lightbringer is increased by 24%, and it now increases your healing based on the target's proximity to either you or your Beacon of Light, whichever is closer.

Protection
The paladin’s tools of war lay bare their motivations. Clenched in one hand is the weapon, a deadly device for exacting righteous judgment. Locked in the other hand is the shield, a symbolic and literal barrier protecting good from evil. Stalwart and steadfast, these protectors are ardent defenders of the Light and all that it touches, and are rejuvenated by its radiance in return. So dedicated they are to their cause that they consecrate the very ground upon which they battle corruption.

"Stalwart and steadfast, these protectors are ardent defenders of the Light"

Gameplay
The Protection Paladin arsenal is already closely aligned with its theme. The primary change is the removal of Holy Power, which didn’t have a lot of depth and mostly amounted to limiting use of only a couple of abilities. Instead, these abilities now have cooldowns to allow for better interaction with other abilities.

We’re also addressing an awkward control issue with Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous. To improve control and depth, instead of two functionally identical (apart from the AoE) abilities, we’ve switched to one that conditionally triggers the AoE while standing in Consecration. Judgment is a good example of an ability that is staying simple—baseline—so as to provide a strong platform for talents and other effects to build upon. For defensive buttons, we’ve replaced Word of Glory with a self-focused spell, Light of the Protector, allowing it to be much more interesting and impactful.

To give you an idea of the Protection Paladin in action, here’s a basic look at their core combat abilities:

• Defensive
  
  • Shield of the Righteous
    
    • Melee Range, Instant, 12 sec recharge, 3 charges
    • Instantly slam the target with your shield, causing huge Holy damage, and reducing damage you take by 25% for 4.5 sec.
  • Light of the Protector
    
    • Instant, 15 sec cooldown
    • Calls down the Light to heal yourself for 50% of your missing health.
  • Redoubt
    
    • Passive
    • Your autoattack critical strikes cause you to gain a charge of Shield of the Righteous or Light of the Protector.
  • Mastery: Divine Bulwark
    
    • Increases the damage reduction of your Shield of the Righteous by 10% (with Mastery from typical gear), and increases your chance to block melee attacks by 20% (with Mastery from typical gear).
    • Also increases your attack power by 20% (with Mastery from typical gear).
• Offensive
  
  • Avenger’s Shield
    
    • 30 yd range, Instant, 15 sec cooldown
    • Hurls your shield at an enemy target, dealing strong Holy damage, interrupting and silencing the target for 3 sec, and then jumping to 2 additional nearby enemies.
    • Also increases the effects of your next Shield of the Righteous or Light of the Protector by 20%.
  • Hammer of the Righteous
    
    • Melee Range, Instant, 3 sec recharge, 2 charges
    • Hammer the current target for moderate Physical damage.
    • If you are standing in your Consecration, Hammer of the Righteous also causes a wave of light that hits all other targets within 8 yds for minor Holy damage.
  • Grand Crusader
    
    • Passive
    • When you avoid a melee attack or use Hammer of the Righteous, you have a 15% chance of refreshing the cooldown on Avenger’s Shield
  • Judgment
    
    • 30 yd range, Instant, 6 sec cooldown
    • Judge an enemy, dealing strong Holy damage.
  • Consecration
    
    • Instant, 9 sec cooldown
    • Consecrates the land beneath you, causing strong Holy damage over 9 sec to enemies who enter the area.

Additionally, to provide a glimpse at how some talents may build upon this, here’s one example of a Protection-specific talent:

• Blessed Hammer
  
  • Instant, 3 sec recharge, 2 charges
  • Throw a divine hammer that spirals outward from the Paladin, dealing moderate Holy damage to enemies it passes through.
  • Replaces Hammer of the Righteous

Retribution
To serve as instrument of the Light is to hold an unshakable faith. Oftentimes the most dedicated paladins become fanatical in their devotion, instruments of retribution against those who dare defy the laws of the divine. These paladins are vengeful guardians of the weak—crusaders judging and punishing the wicked. Their resolute conviction in the divine order of all things assures them that victory is inevitable—but they will fight to the end to ensure that the Light prevails.

"Oftentimes the most dedicated paladins become fanatical in their devotion"

Gameplay
We’re making several tweaks to Retribution to amplify their character. In particular, we’re refocusing most of their core abilities on short-range combat. So many of the Retribution Paladin’s abilities were ranged spells that they started to feel more like a caster than a melee crusader. A new ability, Blade of Justice (along with several new talents) will impact gameplay significantly, bolstering the inherent Retribution themes. Separating them from the other types of Paladins, Retribution Paladins continue to use Holy Power, serving as a strong mechanic for building interesting gameplay.

To give you an idea of the Retribution Paladin in action, here’s a basic look at their core combat abilities:

• Crusader Strike
  
  • Melee Range, Instant, 4.5 sec cooldown
  • An instant strike that causes moderate Physical damage and grants 1 Holy Power
• Blade of Justice
  
  • 12 yd range, Instant, 12 sec cooldown
  • Strikes an enemy with the Blade of Justice, dealing strong Holy damage and generating 2 Holy Power
• Judgment
  
  • 30 yd range, Instant, 12 sec cooldown
  • Judge an enemy, dealing moderate Holy damage and causing the target to take 30% increased damage from your Holy Power generators and consumers for 6 sec.
• Templar’s Verdict
  
  • 3 Holy Power, Melee Range, Instant
  • A powerful weapon strike that deals massive Holy damage.
• Divine Storm
  
  • 3 Holy Power, Instant
  • A whirl of divine energy, dealing strong Holy damage to all enemies within 8 yds.
• Conviction
  
  • Passive
  • Your Crusader Strike and Blade of Justice have a 20% chance to generate 1 additional Holy Power.
• Mastery: Hand of Light
  
  • Your Crusader Strike, Blade of Justice, Divine Storm, and Templar’s Verdict deal 45% (with Mastery from typical gear) additional Holy damage.

Additionally, to provide a glimpse at how some talents may build upon this, here’s one example of a Retribution-specific talent:

• Lothar’s Might
  
  • 30 yd range, Instant, 30 sec cooldown
  • Flings a blade of holy light to the target location. Reactivating will teleport the Paladin to the blade and strike nearby enemies for moderate Holy damage.
  • Replaces Hand of Hindrance.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this early preview of our approach to Paladin class and specialization design in World of Warcraft: Legion. We’ll continue our review tomorrow with a look at Warlocks, Death Knights, and Shaman.

Blue Tweets

PvP
WoW is a huge game full of quests, dungeons, raids, crafting, PvP and more. The game provides great content for a wide variety of people. (holinka)
The expectation is that WoW PvP will be as good as any standalone PvP game. It's a great challenge and I love it! (holinka)
The popularity of our PvP is often compared to standalone PvP games like MOBAs or shooters. This is evidence of a very passionate community. (holinka)

Ultimately, we want you and your friends to come together over your enjoyment of WoW. It's the reason we work so hard to make the game. (holinka)
The truth now, how awesome will Legion be exactly?
We will do all we can to make it as fun as possible but you will be the ones who decide how we did. (holinka)
Surely, what's your personal opinion though if you were to compare legion in it's current form to all the pervious expansions?(PvP)
blech, I don't like judging my own work. Fees weird. (holinka)

Lore
Hello Mr. Kosak, maybe you can answer my question: If Malfurion is the first druid, does that mean Cenarius isn't a druid?
What about green dragons? They're mortal, and Malfurion has been described as the first druid but also the first mortal druid.
Green dragons were immortal until the events of Cataclysm and the unmaking of Deathwing, as I understand it. (DaveKosak)

Misc
At least get the Starburst Flavor poll results up there as well MMO-C!!! Pink takes it by 4%!!! Outrageous! https://t.co/EQWRQzrMuI (holinka)

BlizzCon Grab Bag Giveaway
Didn't go to BlizzCon? No problem! We're giving out some fabulous mystery bags to 5 lucky winners in our BlizzCon Grab-Bag Giveaway, each containing hundreds of dollars of cool Blizzard merchandise, including convention-exclusive items! Head over to our BlizzCon wiki and click on the BlizzCon Grab Bag Giveaway banner to enter.

[Zhere]

I really liked the idea of holy palas being on the frontline. I really dislike the idea of holy palas healing through hugging.

[Buffbringer]

I didn't really like the changes to judgment... it could increase damage for consumers only, not generators
But i'm fine with the rest

[Colmadero]

Lothar’s Might

Paladins FINALLY get a gap closer!

[Rotted]

Fucking yes, this looks like goodbye to exorcism spam is it? That fucking annoying ability at low levels with the insane distance?

[Davinrarre]

Lothar’s Might
30 yd range, Instant, 30 sec cooldown
Flings a blade of holy light to the target location. Reactivating will teleport the Paladin to the blade and strike nearby enemies for moderate Holy damage.
Replaces Hand of Hindrance.

What the hell is Hand of Hindrance

[chikan]

at last some paladin love !

love the Protection changes ! Diablo Crusader going Live in wow wooot !

[Niku]

Still have to keep holy power as retri? And their aoe is probably going to keep being rng based? I think I will find another main for legion.

[Toijin]

omg the prot pally changes are amazing! ive now found my primary alt

[Verris]

"Light of the Protector
Instant, 15 sec cooldown
Calls down the Light to heal yourself for 50% of your missing health."
If this makes it to live, I have a hard time understanding why tanks will even need any healing. 50% of their missing health on a 15 secs cooldown is way too much. 10-15% would make sense, but this is overboard, which either tells us the numbers were made massive\ and will be lowered during tuning, or damage is going to spike really hard during boss fights. If the latter is the case, then blizz is gonna have a very hard time convincing players to tank.

[Thrackerzod]

What the hell is Hand of Hindrance

Another new spell I suppose. From the sounds of it I'm guessing it slows enemies.

[force18]

I am going to be the one to say it

This is what we got and are getting with 250 dedicated people on the team now, I hope 200 of them were not the janitors

[Borgia]

"Light of the Protector
Instant, 15 sec cooldown
Calls down the Light to heal yourself for 50% of your missing health."
If this makes it to live, I have a hard time understanding why tanks will even need any healing. 50% of their missing health on a 15 secs cooldown is way too much. 10-15% would make sense, but this is overboard, which either tells us the numbers were made massive\ and will be lowered during tuning, or damage is going to spike really hard during boss fights. If the latter is the case, then blizz is gonna have a very hard time convincing players to tank.

It just heals you for half the current missing hp. it would take u to be at 1 hp to heal u to half of your hp.

[Apoc2k]

Protection seems very nice, not loving Holy new proximity based healing. I don't even like it for pve but just imagine how worse that's going to work in pvp.

[Fritters154]

Okay, with an actual description of the new CMs will work I am feeling much better about them. Looks like a good way to make dungeons more relavent and keep them that way throughout the expansion. Although they will still probably have an "ideal" set up being that they use such a small group.

[Verris]

It just heals you for half the current missing hp. it would take u to be at 1 hp to heal u to half of your hp.

Sure, but tanks will usually pop it at 40%, which will give em 30% of their total HP, and this is on a 15 sec CD, with the CD getting reset on auto attack crits, and not to mention that avenger's shield makes the heal 20% stronger, so more like 36% of their total HP.
I think the numbers (even the percentages) don't mean much now, but to start off with 50% is to completely misestimate what it will actually be if one was to balance the thing.
I'm just hoping we wont be going to a healing system where the raid dips to 20% and can be topped off again in 1-2 secs like thok in SoO, there is very little fun when healing in a system like that.

[Deleted]

"Light of the Protector
Instant, 15 sec cooldown
Calls down the Light to heal yourself for 50% of your missing health."
If this makes it to live, I have a hard time understanding why tanks will even need any healing. 50% of their missing health on a 15 secs cooldown is way too much. 10-15% would make sense, but this is overboard, which either tells us the numbers were made massive\ and will be lowered during tuning, or damage is going to spike really hard during boss fights. If the latter is the case, then blizz is gonna have a very hard time convincing players to tank.

>Missing< health

[Gallahadd]

For fuck sake Blizz...

I was OUT! I was CLEAR!! I haven't played since the WoD beta, I was HAPPY not playing...

Now you have to drop these new challenge modes on me, which are basically Rifts from D3, crossed with the best aspects of PoE's map system.

The the final nail in my "I quit WoW" coffin... The Protection Paladin info... I was so happy being a Brewmaster that had quit WoW... Looks like my old Vanilla>Cata Paladin is getting a scroll...

[Nathiest]

Sounds like Ret will almost always have 3hp up I like that. Lothar’s Might sounds gimmicky do not like.

[Coldfire989]

We welcome jay Wilson and the RNG, Keystones, RNG abilities and all the other borrowed from D3 things our new lord and savior brings with him.