Legion Developer Q&A - Ion Hazzikostas

[Maximelene]

trash is not content!

Content you don't like is still content.

[Total Crica]

Content you don't like is still content.

they are speaking from a customer point of view "no content" means "no enjoyable content" which translates to "there is no content for me to enjoy"

[Deleted]

Mind boggling crazy comments on balance though. Seriously, WoW balance team has a memory of a gold fish. For 1, they were still balancing up until less than a week before launch, begs the question, did they finish or did they run out of time. Second, they said they were going to continuously actively balance, here they are pretty much saying they wont. They were meant to have the tools to "tweek" skills and specs as required, yet here they say they just want to to major patch changes.

10/10! this is crazy...

[Explicit Teemo Nudes]

Well I don't really see how the non-raid content is any more min/max than it has been in the past outside of mythic+. Yeah mythic+ will require min maxing at higher levels, but if you have the kind of player who's not interested in doing higher difficulty levels of content, then he doesn't need to min max because he's not doing content that requires min maxing. I mean...mythic plus is exactly what more time restricted players asked for and I think it's a great idea for the reasons I said above. I don't see why anyone would dislike mythic+ as a concept (so long as they keep adding dungeons throughout the expansion which is only fair, raiders get a new raid), unless you're the kind of player who just wants high level gear just because it has big numbers on it.



er sorry, could you possibly clarify that for me please? I'm not quite sure where you're coming from here. I don't wanna waste both our times typing out something irrelevant because I've misunderstood your PoV.

And that's the problem.

Even the scrubbiest of scrubs is doing the min/maxing. And I am not talking about top players doing mythic dungeons and raiding.
I'm talking about how people play the game for the rewards, and not the activity that rewards the reward. This is what is destroying the game and this is why people "run out of content" and these players are the players Blizzard needs to stop listening to to be able to make the game great again.

I'm talking about things like finding exploits for the most teeny weeny slightest advantage, skipping as most content as possible without missing out on the rewards, not doing content because the reward isn't enough - not whether they actually enjoy doing that activity or not.

It's too much about chasing rewards just-because, and too little about having a big, mysterious world full of adventures and actually enjoying a MMO as a MMO.

[Varitok]

10/10! this is crazy...

It got to the point that the GM said he was letting the forums "cool down" over the weekend. If that many people are outraged, I don't think it is about bad players or wrong rotations. Something is definintely wrong with locks and I play frost DK which has been dead last in all the DPS meters I've seen. I don't like the "Lets let the classes bake for awhile before we change anything" attitude they have, its fucking ridiculous. I knew this was gonna happen when they implemented Artifacts because they are scared of players getting mad that they "wasted" all the AP on leveling up a specs weapon that got nerfed.

[Cazmosis]

Chaud hate baiting with the trigger words. "Ian Hazzikostas" "Toy Nerfs" "WARLOCKS"....

[Zathrendar]

The warlocks bitching and complaining is really a joke. They've been insanely good for how long? Forever!? They may have had a bout where they weren't top dog in 11 years but they were always in the top 3 of the best DPS classes. Look how many other classes get punched in the balls constantly and left useless and unwanted in groups and raids. WW monks in WoD were pure trash. You needed machine level perfect play for mediocre results. Who wants to play like that?! Elemental Shaman were completely useless in Cata for a while there and really there was ZERO reason to have one when they did half of everyone else's damage. Melee specs were rarely in the top 3 DPS in as long as I can remember back. People complained but never threw a pissy fit because they weren't top DPS. They changed classes for a while til their class regained it's strength again.

This may be hard to grasp for you but people playing now scarcely care about what the class has been like historically. It is up to the developers to ensure that balance NOW is acceptable, not go on people's perceived grievances about how warlocks USED to be powerful. Being top of meters is a relative thing and always changing, but this is not what is being complained about. It's the fact that the class is so terrible, in so many ways.

[Navystylz]

Some players have been on PvP servers for a long time and accustomed to not having to PvP because of faction balance, but now they have to PvP as there are players from other realms of the other factions. This is restoring how PvP servers were intended.

What a fucking joke! More like tanks are immortal raid bosses that no one has any chance of killing without swarming them. But that's not gonna happen, because tons of us has to suck it the fuck up. Having 10:1 being on the fucked end. Getting swarmed. On top of that, EVERYTHING is scaled. So now you're a lone fighter, trying to quest, killing bunch of mobs aggroing you, while 3-4 players are trying to kill you.

No, fuck you blizz. And you're BS replies. And make it even worse by CRZing MORE imbalanced to "populate the world".

[elvor0]

And that's the problem.

Even the scrubbiest of scrubs is doing the min/maxing. And I am not talking about top players doing mythic dungeons and raiding.
I'm talking about how people play the game for the rewards, and not the activity that rewards the reward. This is what is destroying the game and this is why people "run out of content" and these players are the players Blizzard needs to stop listening to to be able to make the game great again.

I'm talking about things like finding exploits for the most teeny weeny slightest advantage, skipping as most content as possible without missing out on the rewards, not doing content because the reward isn't enough - not whether they actually enjoy doing that activity or not.

It's too much about chasing rewards just-because, and too little about having a big, mysterious world full of adventures and actually enjoying a MMO as a MMO.

Ah, I see where you're coming from now. Agreed.

I don't really have much to add beyond saying yeah, I raid because it's fun, not because I want the numbers. The loot is nice and a means to an end, but I do it for the journey. Having fun should be the primary reason anyone should play. I mean I suppose I can't really tell people how they should have fun, but I don't really see why people care so much about the items for the content they enjoy doing. It very does feel like people want them just because, not because they have a reason.

[Irian]

The warlocks bitching and complaining is really a joke. They've been insanely good for how long? Forever!? They may have had a bout where they weren't top dog in 11 years but they were always in the top 3 of the best DPS classes.

Where do people actually get this perception? Warlocks were not in the top 3 for every MoP tier except 5.4, they weren't near the in the first tier of WoD, they weren't at the top 3 in any tier in Cataclysm at all except the one where casters reigned (and even then, if you include mage specs we actually still were not if I recall correctly) and they sure as hell suffered through most of WotLK and as far as I remember didn't even earn a top 3 spot in ICC, which was our best tier.

But even if we were to pretend even for a second that that statement wasn't just pulled out of your ass, what does previous class balance matter in the current scope of game design? Sure warlocks have had times when they're awesome in the past, but even if mages sucked ass right now they'd be perfectly validated in saying "Hey, you fucked up our class and gave our 'fantasy' to three different classes, if you can't fix your mess of a class design then at least make us decent DPS." It doesn't matter who's saying it or how good or not good their class is in the past.

[Fearomatic]

And Warlocks, as a whole, were only bad numbers wise, mostly Affliction. Ret Paladins on the other hand, have a much bigger problem that is related to their mechanics, which according to the majority of our community, is abysmal.

Would you like to stop talking out of your ass for a moment? Warlocks are NOT only bad numbers wise. In fact, Id argue the numbers are potentially there thought it takes A HELL of alot of work to do so. The ISSUE we currently have is the way all three specs feel gameplay wise.

TLDR, you have no idea what you're talking about.

[DrMcNinja]

Would you like to stop talking out of your ass for a moment? Warlocks are NOT only bad numbers wise. In fact, Id argue the numbers are potentially there thought it takes A HELL of alot of work to do so. The ISSUE we currently have is the way all three specs feel gameplay wise.

TLDR, you have no idea what you're talking about.

You're right, I don't. I was speaking out of emotion. But it keeps intriguing me how he only goes into detail for warlocks. Us rets have been giving negative feedback since beta, and we have NEVER gotten a response, or a detailed post like this. We have had glaring gameplay issues since beta, and all we had addressed was mobility because more people than usual were complaining. Why can't he just learn from Jeff Kaplan and only give relevant information, in this format:

"We hear you guys and are currently looking at these classes, we're potentially changing X because of Y"

Now it just feels like he gives one class more attention than the other.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

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.

^^^^This.
/10 characters

[Deleted]

Cry me a river and I'll swim in your tears.

Who actually types things like this?

On topic, some good feedback from Ion there, sounds like they are on top of this expansion in a big way. Can only be good for us.

[Deleted]

First off, sorry for the luck you've had but i guess it cant be helped :/. I just wanna address the pugs and guild ilvl requirments, most mythic pugs need 825-830 (which you are in range of) few need 820 and if you are anything above 840 you will probably be insta accepted, now pugs have always had stupid requirements because they aren't organised and have no comms or such, so better gear helps clear faster. Now about your guild needing 835-840, I can only advice you to leave a guild like that, the whole point of a guild is to help each other progress through content, anything above 805 is acceptable for a guild mythic run, mythics really aren't that hard when you are organised. This is of course assuming you asked to join given that you are lower ilvl and wasn't accepted. If you do sub back again tho, try making the grp yourself or something of the sort, it'll increases your chances of getting into mythics for sure. And about that luck of yours, your luck may be piling up for that legendary ;P

I have the same problem with gear drops. The only heroic itemlevel items I got come from my order hall set and some world quests. In dungeons, I almost never get anything besides artefact power and BoS, while everyone else gets at least one item per run. And in the one case where someone was generous and wanted to give an item to another because he had a better one, I could not use it either, because I already got a 840 level item from a world quest. So, I am stuck between the obliterium forge quest in terms of progressing crafted upgrades, and bad luck in dungeon drops (which is a state for me in WoW for a very long time, I have very bad luck).

[Deleted]

i wanna know why they still let ion costifuckus talk to the public at all. put that snide, snarky, rude, bitch-voiced asshole in the blizzard basement and never let him see a camera or microphone again. everything he says pisses me off. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY ISNT CHRIS METZEN THE PUBLIC RELATIONS FACE OF BLIZZARD??????

Because he thought that SoO with it's pre-event was a fist pumping moment for the alliance and nobody wants any more Orcs (at least for a while).

[Deleted]

The only main issue I have with this entire list is there isn't any scaling with World Quests. I'm 849ilvl on my Outlaw Rogue and I'm literally destroying everything, instantly. I mean I'm pulling like 600k+ on packs with more than 5-6 mobs, solo mobs is a guaranteed 200k+ and they literally just fall on the ground dead. I really enjoy actually using a bit of thought and effort while questing, not just steamrolling content. This is only going to get worse in a weeks time with the release of raids

[ItachiZaku]

Part of the "quest log cap" issue is professions. My main is skinner/leatherworker, so both of those result in probably a dozen or more quests that take you to every zone. Some people feel the need to accept every quest they come across, so when you are told to go to a zone you haven't been to yet, it turns out to provide with even more quests. Adding in things like Ashran quests, and boom, you are at cap.

[quras]

"You want to run into other players"

It really fucking pisses me off when people tell me what I want.

blizzards standard operation procedure.

You don't know fun. Only blizzard knows what fun is.

[siegfrid]

I didn't even know the toys were nerfed. Good thing I'm an Engineer, and a warrior. Bet that Demon Hunter was surprised when they were trying to run from their crimes, haHAA