Legion Alpha Design Notes, Tank and Healer Tuning, Logging Feature, New Alpha Content

[arthar77]

I read a lot of butthurt over WoD, yet the new expansion hasn't even been released. It's no surprise content surface gradually over time before beta, there is nothing new here. The amount of crap people write these days for the sake of it ...

[McTurbo]

here we go.. fucking with healing yet again.. it cost them so many players in cata.. wonder how many it will cost them this time.. how about instead of punishing healers for someone else's bad play.. you punish bad dps for standing in shit and bad tanking with its own punishment.. no.. you gotta make it harder to heal them when they fail to mitigate...who do you think will bear the brunt of a tank that fails this new method you are expecting to hand out.. ? one guess.. it wont be the tank

[Deleted]

There is an mistake in the artifact calculator. I am, as of yet, not 100% sure how much each additional trait costs. But I am positive that I have set 4 "points" (1 in Light's Wrath, 3 in Confession) so far in PTR and my next trait-point costs 200 AP right now. According to your calculator it should cost 400 AP. That is not true on the current build. You might wanna look into that.

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here we go.. fucking with healing yet again.. it cost them so many players in cata.. wonder how many it will cost them this time.. how about instead of punishing healers for someone else's bad play.. you punish bad dps for standing in shit and bad tanking with its own punishment.. no.. you gotta make it harder to heal them when they fail to mitigate...who do you think will bear the brunt of a tank that fails this new method you are expecting to hand out.. ? one guess.. it wont be the tank

Dude I have no idea what you're talking about. But healing on the current build is really challenging and awesome, hence. I always thought it was a good thing to have something to do as a healer. Here you are.

[Deleted]

I don't understand Blizzard's new obsession with "active mitigation". I much prefer passive avoidance.

Passive avoidance means passive gameplay. Back in WotLK and Cataclysm a tank could fall asleep mid-fight even on heroic raid progression - most encounter-specific mechanics didn't concern you besides "taunt on X stacks" and "pick up adds". Since threat no longer mattered you'd just stand there and lazily press the same buttons on every fight and just hoping your gear holds; and you could rarely play and encounter "better", only hope for better loot drops so that you can get fatter. It was a complete reversal - in dungeons the tank leads while many DPS just tag along, in raiding it was the tank getting a lazy, free ride, while the hardworking ones were actually the DPS (slowing, kiting, interrupting and ensuring smooth phase transitions) and healers (making up for everybody's mistakes) - a reversal that could feel unpleasant.

I understand that some players may enjoy the fantasy of invincibility, but active mitigation provides stuff to actually do, and reasons to watch the screen again. I like it.

[davidcryix]

well, thanks for clarifying the movie release date, i'd forgotten. but with that knowledge, i just don't see the expansion releasing anywhere near the movie.

but anyways...

alpha's are usually a closed door, internal test, that have very specific stability test goals in mind, especially for new features.

beta tests are when you invite members of the community to come and help test things on a larger scale and ensure that the server hardware is capable of running the new features - take garrisons at WoD launch as a prime example of failure to load test properly.

before you question my statement, do some research - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softwa...ase_life_cycle

the fact they are inviting people to test alpha and that mmo-champion is posting alpha updates on it's front page should worry you. it implies that blizz either have such grand plans for the expansion that they are months behind in development, or they're just months behind anyway and as such, the only way to keep the hype train rolling is to attempt to publicise through community websites - aka the curse network, all the exciting things that are happening in ALPHA. not beta. not release. ALPHA.

Warlords of Draenor was designed, and the content release schedule for it, was paced around the idea of yearly expansions - a promise blizzard have been trying and failing spectacularly to keep to for the last 5 or 6 years. there's no more content patches due for WoD and players are pushed through each tier of content so fast you can reach endgame within a couple of weeks, which is not conducive to a MASSIVELY multiplayer online game - in fact, it's shrunken the relevance of anything outside the current expansion into obscurity, which makes for a very short player experience.

whilst there's a world of content out there for any new players (lol) to explore, for anyone else who has already played through that content, the game is no longer worth the price of the subscription.

i imagine sub numbers will spike again once legion is released, then drop off again soon after. player retention is at an all time low. hate to say it, but WoW is entering it's final days, it's not dead and will probably thrive on a low population for a long time (if they handle server populations better), but it's heyday is long gone.

So basically what you are saying is that you are concerned the expansion will take a long time to release. Thanks for clarifying.

The wiki link on the software lifecycle is nice but bordering on irrelevant these days. Blizzard has invited the community into early builds that they heavily iterate on for a few games now. There are large parts of the game that are "beta" quality already and require little to no iteration. Might as well get real people in there and start testing, even if whole systems like transmog, pvp talents, and some specs are not done. It won't change the general map of dalaran or broken isles.

I think a pre-WARCRAFT release is also unlikely (and would be much more pleased with an april-may release) but it's along way in terms of man hours and testing between now and the end of June. I don't think a July/August release is out of the question at this point.

[Nobler]

Just make Vykrul playable, please!

[splatomat]

Looking forward to getting crapped on as a healer in LFD again. Guess I'll have to dig out the old "Sorry, stupid is a disease I can't dispel" macro.

[chillshock]

I hate how they are making every damn class a magic one... even the warrior is forced to go the "fire damage" or "shadow flame" or whatnot route via artifact...

Honestly... there is not ONE class left for those who really don't like magic. Not a single one!

[Parrin]

That bottom armor set for the Vrykul female? Needs a little more protection around the knees...