Hazelnutty Interview with Ion Hazzikostas


  • Borrowed Power
    • The team reflected on the borrowed power systems of the past few expansions and admit that giving players power and then taking it away at the end didn't feel good.
    • As they thought of a way to move forward without borrowed power systems, they realized that the only talent system used to fill those gaps by giving you something new every expansion that would not be taken away at the end.
    • The goal of the new talent system is to grow on it in further expansions with more layers and rows.
    • They want the new talent system to be sustainable for at least a few expansions and what to do at that point is an issue to solve then.
  • Reputation and Renown
    • Reputation hasn't changed or evolved much since Vanilla. The path to exalted and rewards were not well structured or visible. Aspects of Renown solved some of these issues, and the team wants to adapt this to end-game structures in Dragonflight. Building Renown will open up more perks with reputations, and it will not necessarily be through structured weekly quests, but more open-ended objectives.
    • Reputation Renown will not unlock more player power except for some gear rewards. It will instead provide cosmetic rewards and perks.
  • Crafting
    • The team doesn't necessarily want gold to be the cost of entry for building a profession like it was in Shadowlands.
    • Specializations will be the main way of finding a niche in a profession to separate yourself from the rest.
    • Not only can you specialize in a certain skill of a profession such as armorsmithing, but specific crafts as well.
    • Hardcore crafters will eventually be able to make everything, but it will take time.
    • Players who don't want to engage with the system will still be able to utilize professions, but the goal isn't to force players to interact with the system.
    • To keep crafted gear relevant, the team wants there to be options equivalent to mythic raiding level, but players will never just be able to go to an auction house and buy sets of gear at max item level. It will involve BOP crafting items or recipes that are obtained from higher level content.
    • Players will be able to use their own BOP crafting items to get gear crafted by other players by utilizing work orders.
  • Legendaries
    • Legendaries as they have existed in Legion and Shadowlands are not going to be in Dragonflight.
    • These types of legendaries were a way to fill the gap left by the removal of talent trees and tier sets.
    • This is not to say that we will never see legendaries again. Thematic items that drop such as Sylvanas's bow will still be added where it makes sense.
  • Dracthyr and Flying
    • Dracthyr will be able to perform the basics of dragon riding in their dragon form from the start. The unlocked abilities earned over time will also have to use their dragon companion, but while in their visage form.
    • Dracthyr can glide and get a little bit of lift in a manner like Demon Hunters, but cannot fly outside of the Dragon Isles in their form.
  • Mounts
    • Dragon Riding is not replacing mounts in Dragon Isles. There will still be plenty of new ones to collect.
    • A feature of Dragon Riding that Ion brought up is learning to instantly port back to a quest hub after completing a quest, much like the whistles of Legion and BFA.
    • The team is implementing methods to address anyone who is prone to motion sickness in the Dragon Riding system.
  • Player Housing
    • The team also wants player housing, but it is a big undertaking to get it right. If it was to be implemented, it would have to span multiple expansions and take a lot of time.
    • Housing will not be coming in Dragonflight.
  • Archeology
    • Archeology needs a fresh coat of paint, but it will not be getting anything new at the launch of Dragonflight.
    • The focus on profession updates is on the main professions currently.
    • The previous iteration of Archeology will not be returning.
  • Pet Battles
    • The team wants to incorporate something different for PvP pet battles, such as setting up a pet blockade and testing it against an opponent.
    • Changes will not be made at launch to the current pet battle systems, however.
  • "Mid-range" Class
    • Mid-range means 25-30 yards, but will also have plenty of normal ranged attacks.
  • Seasonal Mythic Plus Dungeons
    • Ion wants to release some of the talent trees to the community before Alpha.
    • Dragonflight will launch with 8 new dungeons, but only 4 will be available for Mythic Plus at launch. 4 dungeons from previous expansions will also be available for M+ in season 1.
    • The goal is to have 4 Dragonflight dungeons and 4 dungeons from previous expansions available for Mythic Plus every season so that players don't farm the same gear every season.
    • Shadowlands dungeons will not be included in the rotation at the start because they are too recent.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Hazelnutty Dragonflight Interview with Ion Hazzikostas started by Stoy View original post
Comments 119 Comments
  1. Dakhath's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Locruid View Post
    They been saying the same thing about housing for 18 years.
    Face it they just wanna dangle the carrot and keep your sub.
    Nobody is staying subbed for saying they will add housing one day.
  1. OrangeJuice's Avatar
    So what they need to do, is fire the people working there that just now realized borrowed power is a shit design and hire the people who warned them it was a shit idea in Legion. If you're that incompetent that it takes you 3 expansions to learn something so obvious then you're a dunce and gtfo.
  1. Biomega's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Locruid View Post
    They been saying the same thing about housing for 18 years.
    Face it they just wanna dangle the carrot and keep your sub.
    It could be that, but me personally I think it's actually a much bigger technical challenge than people think.

    WoW's engine is an ancient piece of crap. To have massively personalized, persistent instanced content is way way WAY more complicated than the Lego model of garrisons ever was, and would probably require so many technical upgrades and changes they're dragging their feet with it straight into WoW2.

    I mean even in its current state the game is not equipped to deal with a lot of stuff going on, you get 30 people together fighting something and half the server racks blow a fuse just maintaining 5fps. This hamsterwheel rig of an engine just isn't going to be able to cope with a lot of the stuff people would like to see in housing.

    The last thing anyone wants - not players, not Blizzard - is housing done badly and barebones, with everything just twenty different reconfigurations of the same IKEA catalog. That's the garrison model, and it'd be a catastrophe if housing was that.
  1. Ghanir's Avatar
    Considering the state WoW is in, both ingame and its reputation, it does make sense for them to focus more heavily on repairing their connection with the players and to deliver an okay (or better) expansion in form of gameplay and content.
    That is not to say Player Housing is not content, just that this feature alone could be so big that in order to get it right it requires way more work than what was allowed for in tandem with the rest of the Dragonflight expansion.

    I for one do think that a feature like this, a feature that should span and expand across several expansions/be a core feature for the rest of the games lifespan, should get the time it requires in order to get it right.
    I only pray it doesn't take too long.
  1. Molvonos's Avatar
    If Blizz had integrated Player Housing from the get go, like they'd originally said (Maaan that takes me back), then it wouldn't be so much a technical hurdle as they're making it out to be.

    Everquest 2 and WoW came out at roughly the same time and EQ2 had player housing to a pretty fine degree, though it was predominantly indoors unless you had a guild hall (iirc). Now though, after so many years (and I do not believe Garrisons ever was intended to be a replacement for player housing, as they filled two very different niches). That being said, I believe them when they say it's difficult, because they have to work from the ground up, figure out where the player housing is going to be (honestly, should be all the faction cities and not just Org/SW), how to differentiate them, what's going to go into them (furniture, etc), will said items be drops/crafted/both/neither, etc etc etc.

    There's an assload of stuff that goes into it and most games that have player housing, had it from the start (EQ2, New World, Wildstar, FF, Archeage, to name a few).
  1. Ealyssa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Locruid View Post
    Face it they just wanna dangle the carrot and keep your sub.
    Except literally nobody stay subbed for the potential housing they clearly state won't come in the expansion...

    Hating just for the hate is fun I guess. Sad.
  1. Aurora's Avatar
    WoW has become such an anti-social game in recent times I'm not sure I'd even want player housing anymore. Like, who am I supposed to invite to enjoy it? Even with guildees communication happens on discord rather than in the game. There's no realm culture anymore, it's just all random players you meet in queues and shards that you'll never see again.
  1. Icelin's Avatar
    They did a good job.

    Surprised Hazel didn't call out pet dungeons or lack of achievements. Ion seemed to focus on professions longer than I anticipated. Maybe the team realized people were not utilizing that feature much anymore in SLs.

    I am not entirely sure why they are so hung up on Mythic keys. Nice to hear they are in the process of scaling back more old content, but I wish I had the chance to participate in it. Have some actual rewards like timewalking vendors, possible housing rewards etc (I still been hoping a Classic timewalking will be put in) not just item lvl.
  1. Xorzor's Avatar
    The team reflected on the borrowed power systems of the past few expansions and admit that giving players power and then taking it away at the end didn't feel good.

    Took them long enough. If this talent revamp is their new power system, then they should stick with it throughout the future of the game. We HATE borrowed power!!
  1. Eurhetemec's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kiwijello View Post
    People who try to psych people online are the people who look like they have no idea what psychology is?
    This isn't psychology, it's just what happens. It's really reliable. It's like people who quit the game whilst making a giant song and dance about it always come back, but those people who just vanish and never even told anyone they quit tend to stay gone.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Icecat View Post
    I think FFXIV's housing is like perfectly where "the bar" is at. It could be a lot deeper, but there are a ton of assets, and you can easily visit other people's houses. It's also fairly stable. That stuff is like the absolute bare minimum for housing, but most devs can't even manage that.
    So if that's "the bar", someone must have done better?

    Either that, or actually it's currently the apex, not the bar, and you're understating that fact.
  1. Eapoe's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Locruid View Post
    They been saying the same thing about housing for 18 years.
    Face it they just wanna dangle the carrot and keep your sub.
    You realize they could have been working on housing all this time, trying to tweak it. I’m not saying they have, but people that are stating things similar to you are acting like they’ve never even touched player housing, when it’s just as possible they’ve been trying to find a good way to implement it since Legion.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Xorzor View Post
    The team reflected on the borrowed power systems of the past few expansions and admit that giving players power and then taking it away at the end didn't feel good.

    Took them long enough. If this talent revamp is their new power system, then they should stick with it throughout the future of the game. We HATE borrowed power!!
    Did you even listen to, or read the transcript, or the interview?
  1. bruxx's Avatar
    I'm hoping that Ion was joking about being forced into visage when riding mounts. Worgen already get to ride wolves and we're all alive.
  1. Niwes's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rustykeyboard View Post
    thats not how developing components in an application worksXD
    lol, yeah. not really. but i am not sure if some ppl realizes how all that stuff works or not works, when not working in such jobs (i.e. sw development) or companies.

    btw: your name sounds like you are a Rust developer.
  1. Loveliest's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eurhetemec View Post
    I mean, has anyone ever got it right? FFXIV definitely does not, impressive as it is.

    DAoC was kind of close, maybe. Certainly closest to what I'd want to see from Blizzard.
    Wildstar did. And Rift was ok.
  1. SinR's Avatar
    And Archaeology ignored again.

    May as well just roll it into Mining or something at this point
  1. Culex's Avatar
    I really hate this guy.
  1. Kithelle's Avatar
    Well it's not perfect...but at least they're getting rid of some bad stuff so it's a start. I just hope the talent system isn't like classic where most tiles just boost this or that ability by a small percentage
  1. Biomega's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by bruxx View Post
    I'm hoping that Ion was joking about being forced into visage when riding mounts. Worgen already get to ride wolves and we're all alive.
    Probably lazy solution to the problem of tails and wings clipping through mount models.
  1. B01L's Avatar
    Regarding Professions...

    Might make me switch to Leatherworking & Skinning, so I can make my own armor (Outlaw Rogue)...

    Although I really, Really, REALLY wish Blizz would roll the appropriate Gathering prof into the assorted Crafting profs; this way I could go Leatherworking (with integrated Skinning) and Alchemy (with integrated Herbalism); alongside Cooking & Fishing, this would allow me to craft my own armor, make my own assorted potions & such, and prepare my own buff foods...!

    Regarding Legendaries...

    The Sylvanas's bow comment makes me hope for new Class Legendaries; but what would also be cool is if Blizz would make some quest chains to allow those with old Legendaries (such as my Fangs of the Father Rogue Legendary Daggers) to update/upgrade them for use in current/future content...
  1. kieraTM's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Locruid View Post
    The team also wants player housing, but it is a big undertaking to get it right. If it was to be implemented, it would have to span multiple expansions and take a lot of time.

    They been saying this BS for 18 years now.

    Face it, housing is never coming. Not to me tion the "several expansion."
    We an expansion roughly every 2 years so several to me means 3+ which means a min of 6 years.........just face it they just want to keep throwing that carrot out there so you hopefuls keep subbed.
    SW:tOR has done it right. Several different houses, some faction specific, with decorations that drop from all aspects of game content. Can also be purchase on AH and the game market. Dedicated websites to show off your decorate houses, along with guild competitions, guild houses/ships, etc. It's mental that WoW hasn't implemented this. It is also the one feature of a new expansion that would bring me back after quitting in BfA

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