New Zone in 11.2, Dev Interviews, WoW China Growth, Mountain Dew Event

Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes - November 14, 2024

WoW Roadmap Update - New Zone in 11.2
Blizzard updated the WoW Roadmap published with the Warcraft Direct yesterday, adding a new zone for Patch 11.2.



Developer Interviews
Blizzard did some interviews to go along with the Warcraft Direct!

Windows Central
Windows Central talked to Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas and Assistant Lead Quest Designer Mark Kelada.

  • Overall, The War Within has been going well
  • The team is looking to smooth out pain points in some dungeons, as well as looking at class balance
  • Players hit Level 8 delves and earn powerful rewards, making it feel like there is no point in doing anything below Mythic 7, which is already fairly hard.
  • Mythic 7 isn't the best point of entry for players, so some are hitting a cliff wall instead of doing earlier Mythic+ tiers
  • The Mythic+ Crest gearing system meets almost all of the team's design goals, except for clarity and intuitiveness
  • The team wants to fix the names and add some tutorialization. It should be logical what to do with Crests.
  • Players of all playstyles should have something to work towards, with ongoing power advancements other than drops.
  • It's important to have them as part of the game's tiered structured, rather than endlessly grinding basic content like with Artifact Power.
  • Players should want to complete higher tier dungeons, but making it clearer on how to get there is something the team wants to fix.
  • The team took a pass at racials that don't even feel like they are worth clicking. Overall they want to keep the power of racials low, just above pure flavor.
  • There are still some race/class combinations that are a little too powerful, but not something the team will touch mid-season.
  • The Alliance vs. Horde conflict is not the primary theme of WoW at this stage
  • The team found that trying to shoehorn conflict into the story felt dissonant for players. It's wasn't realistic and was frustrating to watch the Horde and Alliance snipe at each other while Azeroth is potentially facing apocalyptic destruction.
  • It would've been a horrible injustice to make an expansion underground and miss out on Undermine
  • The team wanted to end the Warcraft Direct on player housing to start conversations and discussions, and listen to what people want to see most from it.


The Daily Star
The Daily Star talked to Executive producer Holly Longdale.

  • The team's vision now, and for the past couple of years is generally to leave no player behind, and that started with The War Within
  • They can do better on the new player experience and that will be a focus going forward.
  • The designers are working on player housing and have made great progress
  • Housing is going to be a journey for the next couple of decades. It's going to stick around and live with us. It's your house, it's your home, so the team is really committed and dedicated to it and has built an entire team around it
  • Players don't want different graphics, they want the game to feel like WoW and appreciate the current style.
  • When asked about the game coming to consoles, Holly said "We have nothing to announce right now, but we're always exploring. We're always looking at opportunities in the future, to provide access to more players"


PC Gamer
PC Gamer talked to game director Ion Hazzikostas and asssistant lead quest designer Mark Kelada.

  • Brann will be able to act as a tank in Season 2.
  • Delves had a couple of tricky bugs with scaling that, until they realized that there were bugs, led to some very wild over-corrections and tuning
  • Giving players that historically didn't have solo content that was challenging some goals to work towards is something the team was excited about.
  • The Undermine mount moves four to five times faster than regular ground mounts.
  • The teams is testing mount mechanics, such as the longer you can hold the drift, the more boost you can get
  • Players can change the turbo/boost, selecting from high efficiency so it uses less meter, do you want it to be high-speed, so you press that button and you're just gone
  • There might be an option for an NPC passenger who can lend a hand
  • There will be timed quests, similar to the skyriding races


NetEase Results - WoW and Hearthstone Growth in China
NetEase reported their quarterly results this week, sharing growth numbers now that Blizzard games are back in China. The two companies took some time to reach an agreement, with Blizzard games returning this summer.

  • World of Warcraft saw a 50% increase in daily active players as compared to levels before the shutdown
  • Hearthstone achieved over 150% growth in daily active players as compared to levels before the shutdown


Avowed launches on Battle.net on February 18
Avowed is an upcoming action role-playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios. It's launching on multiple game stores, including Battle.net. You can read the announcement here.





Mountain Dew In-Game Event on November 15
There will be some kind of Mountain Dew in-game event on November 15th, on the Emerald Dream server, at Caverns of Time. The tweet mentions a chance to win some rewards, but it is unclear what those rewards will be.

This article was originally published in forum thread: New Zone in 11.2, Dev Interviews, WoW China Growth, Mountain Dew Event started by chaud View original post
Published on 2024-11-15 03:38 AM
100 Comments
Comments 100 Comments
  1. Flaks's Avatar
    Nothing to address just how bug riddled not just this expansion but EVERY Blizzard game has been this past year is absurd.

    TWW is very much the buggiest expansion since tBC and continues to set this standard week to week with more and worse bugs.

    And Warcraft III 2.0 is a disgusting update that's broken things for a huge portion of players.

    Hearthstone continues to have significant gamebreaking bugs with crashes on mobile which should be their largest playerbase if they actually put any though to quality control.

    If this is how their games are expected to continue to proceed no amount of content will keep players. Even now, player activity is dwindling below DF levels at the same point in the expansion.
  1. SinR's Avatar
    What is Avowed?

    I haven't heard of it before today
  1. rrayy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Flaks View Post
    Nothing to address just how bug riddled not just this expansion but EVERY Blizzard game has been this past year is absurd.

    TWW is very much the buggiest expansion since tBC and continues to set this standard week to week with more and worse bugs.

    And Warcraft III 2.0 is a disgusting update that's broken things for a huge portion of players.

    Hearthstone continues to have significant gamebreaking bugs with crashes on mobile which should be their largest playerbase if they actually put any though to quality control.

    If this is how their games are expected to continue to proceed no amount of content will keep players. Even now, player activity is dwindling below DF levels at the same point in the expansion.
    Sources: Dude, trust me

    PEople really need to stop this. Making baseless claims doesn't validate your point.
  1. Schwert's Avatar
    "The Alliance vs. Horde conflict is not the primary theme of WoW at this stage"

    "Players don't want different graphics, they want the game to feel like WoW and appreciate the current style."

    So you can be on brand for graphics, but not the story? What a load of crap.
  1. Rageonit's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Flaks View Post
    bug riddled... EVERY Blizzard game... buggiest expansion... disgusting update... significant gamebreaking bugs...
    You're a bit of a drama queen, aren't you.
  1. Biomega's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Schwert View Post
    "The Alliance vs. Horde conflict is not the primary theme of WoW at this stage"

    "Players don't want different graphics, they want the game to feel like WoW and appreciate the current style."

    So you can be on brand for graphics, but not the story? What a load of crap.
    Why is this a load of crap?

    They're giving players what the majority of them want. What players want doesn't have to be consistent. They can absolutely say "we like WoW's original graphics" and also say "we no longer like WoW's original Horde vs. Alliance focus". There is no contradiction in that whatsoever, as these things operate on completely different levels and in completely different ways.

    There's a reason they stopped making the faction conflict a centerpiece: it just doesn't work long-term. An example for why was given in the interview itself, even.
  1. Nymrohd's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rageonit View Post
    You're a bit of a drama queen, aren't you.
    While the position is stated quite extremely, TWW has a ton of bugs. More bugs than I've had to deal with since forever. I have had very few gamebreaking bugs but I haven't encountered so many bugs since WoD launch.
  1. JSoup's Avatar
    >Players don't want different graphics, they want the game to feel like WoW and appreciate the current style.
    A thought, players want both. We can 'have the current style' and also not play a Nintendo 64 game. The upscaled T2 sets are a decent start towards that compromise. Edit: You know exactly what I'm "on about" Mic_128, don't be dense.

    Quote Originally Posted by SinR View Post
    What is Avowed?

    I haven't heard of it before today
    A first-person RPG taking place in the Pillars of Eternity story/world. Basically Skyrim, really. Looks pretty good.
  1. Rageonit's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nymrohd View Post
    While the position is stated quite extremely, TWW has a ton of bugs. More bugs than I've had to deal with since forever. I have had very few gamebreaking bugs but I haven't encountered so many bugs since WoD launch.
    Well they gave us the reasoning, didn't they: they're making deep changes to the game's code. Maybe it has something to do with the upcoming housing system, as they've stated numerous times in the past that the game isn't suitable for it due to the lacking engine.

    Yes, there have been some nasty bugs in raid encounter etc., but they're being fixed in an acceptable timeframe (usually a week or so). Generally, the game's working fine, people are doing the content they enjoy, minus the odd bug here and there. The guy's making it all dramatic because Blizzard didn't fall to their knees begging for forgiveness, and they should, since he pays them 15$ a month.
  1. Nymrohd's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rageonit View Post
    Well they gave us the reasoning, didn't they: they're making deep changes to the game's code. Maybe it has something to do with the upcoming housing system, as they've stated numerous times in the past that the game isn't suitable for it due to the lacking engine.

    Yes, there have been some nasty bugs in raid encounter etc., but they're being fixed in an acceptable timeframe (usually a week or so). Generally, the game's working fine, people are doing the content they enjoy, minus the odd bug here and there. The guy's making it all dramatic because Blizzard didn't fall to their knees begging for forgiveness, and they should, since he pays them 15$ a month.
    It is just weird how e.g. the reputation tab is bugged every day, my UI keeps needing to be reset and so many public orders just refuse to function. And then there is the bank bug which was one of the worst bugs in the history of WoW imo. The last one was imo inexcusable, the others ones are just annoying. And the number of bugs in class mechanics that most of us probably don't even know and mess up all the tuning are constantly being squashed (tuning does take priority, I get it).
  1. Mic_128's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by JSoup View Post
    >Players don't want different graphics, they want the game to feel like WoW and appreciate the current style.
    A thought, players want both. We can 'have the current style' and also not play a Nintendo 64 game. The upscaled T2 sets are a decent start towards that compromise.
    I'm not sure what you're on about, the models of pretty much everything has drastically improved over the years, while keeping the same general art style. (Unlike WC3 Reforged, where the models look incredibly generic)
  1. Joshuaj's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Schwert View Post
    "The Alliance vs. Horde conflict is not the primary theme of WoW at this stage"

    "Players don't want different graphics, they want the game to feel like WoW and appreciate the current style."

    So you can be on brand for graphics, but not the story? What a load of crap.
    Didn't know the Alliance and Horde conflict was the only conflict in WARcraft

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by JSoup View Post
    >Players don't want different graphics, they want the game to feel like WoW and appreciate the current style.
    A thought, players want both. We can 'have the current style' and also not play a Nintendo 64 game. The upscaled T2 sets are a decent start towards that compromise.



    A first-person RPG taking place in the Pillars of Eternity story/world. Basically Skyrim, really. Looks pretty good.
    That's not what they meant.

    They meant they want to keep with the WoW style and not have to resort in making it look realistic or something like that.
  1. deenman's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by SinR View Post
    What is Avowed?

    I haven't heard of it before today
    A first person rpg that takes some inspiration from elder scrolls games,its made by obisdian,the guys who made fallout new vegas and outer worlds,should be pretty good,we rly are kinda lacking in these games,like the only good one atm is an indie one called fall of avalon thats in EA atm lol
  1. Felfaadaern Darkterror's Avatar
    What I want to see from housing: lots of cool customization, without so much functionality that cities become ghost towns. We don't need banks or AHs. Don't let us mount our Brutosaurs in our living rooms. DO let us get creative so our lairs don't look like everyone else's.
  1. Dracullus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by rrayy View Post
    Sources: Dude, trust me

    PEople really need to stop this. Making baseless claims doesn't validate your point.
    As usual with MMO-Champs, dude bring reasonable complain (TWW has not acceptable amount of bugs and improving QA should be priority now) and turn it into wacky post that no sane person can agree with (most bugs SINCE TBC - AND GROWING EVERY WEEK xD). That's why I always say crybabies are as harmful to the game as blind fanboys.
  1. Nkara's Avatar
    "Overall, The War Within has been going well"
    Hahaha... TWW is the most messy launch ever!
    Delves being branded as solo-content but in the beginning was much easier in a group, it took several weeks to tune it so it feels okay.
    AH lag so bad that some people couldn't see their listings for up to 24 hours and it was near impossible to buy anything.
    And not to speak of the biggest scandal of them all: Wiping guild banks and old, loyal players losing 20 years of collecting and Blizzard forcing community sites and streamers to not speak of it, to try cover it up as a data loss of that magnitude is unacceptable. Sadly it worked, they didn't care about losing those players, it was still cheaper than having devs work on trying to fix it.
    So incredibly many bugs - perhaps now, after 3 months it's going okay but seriously it's been beta until then.
  1. Lolites's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nkara View Post
    Hahaha... TWW is the most messy launch ever!
    first of all you are wrong, if tww was the most messy launch for you i just assume you havent played during many launches, WoD had literaly bug past which you couldnt get, barring you access to 90% of the game for days...

    second, they did not comment on launch, at all...

    as for bugs i guess im extremely lucky, bcs apart from the AH issue - which was massive ofc - i encountered pretty much zero...
  1. Shigma's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nymrohd View Post
    While the position is stated quite extremely, TWW has a ton of bugs. More bugs than I've had to deal with since forever. I have had very few gamebreaking bugs but I haven't encountered so many bugs since WoD launch.
    Well, maybe it sounded a bit dramatic, but he is right.

    I mean, Warcraft 3 """""2.0""""" is a bugfest and introduced some rushed low quality """HD""" textures worse than any fan-made HD texture pack mod (AI scaling artifacts, Arthas with a black face, wtf), they also fixed some stuff and break other. Some changes made QoL better, others worsened it.
    WoW TWW is buggy as hell too, noone can deny this.
    Diablo 4 is full of bugs right now and in a shameless state where the new class (to sell the xpack) is leaps and bounds above any other class and this has been running for months. Just look at any tier liest. And apparently Hearthstone has some bugs too. I don't play any more Blizzard games atm so i can't speak about others.

    So... well, something is going on clearly. We all noted they got rid of the QA team.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Shigma View Post
    Well, maybe it sounded a bit dramatic, but he is right.

    I mean, Warcraft 3 """""2.0""""" is a bugfest and introduced some rushed low quality """HD""" textures worse than any fan-made HD texture pack mod (AI scaling artifacts, Arthas with a black face, wtf), they also fixed some stuff and break other. Some changes made QoL better, others worsenes it.
    WoW TWW is buggy as hell too, noone can deny this.
    Diablo 4 is full of bugs right now and in a shameless state where the new class (to sell the xpack) is leaps and bounds above any other class and this has been running for months. Just look at any tier liest. And apparently Hearthstone has some bugs too. I don't play any more Blizzard games atm so i can't speak about others.

    So... well, something is going on clearly. We all noted they got rid of the QA team.
    Well, even if it is different, and doesn't have nearly the same impact, since the anniversary update, you can't access shadowlands content with any character that didn't do the introductory quests before the update at max level. The introduction quest to Oribos is gone at max level and has been reported a thousand times and they said they might fix this on 11.0.7. How is that ok anyway... And you can't be "extremely lucky" with this one, because this affects everyone under those conditions.

    Also, what he mentioned about the guild banks being gone is huge, and idk why people pretend it is not. How was this just forgotten just like that?

    Even if launch was smooth i can't remember so many bugs since WoD. And now some take too long to get fixed (Unless it benefits the player, then they do it instantly).
  1. Syegfryed's Avatar
    The team found that trying to shoehorn conflict into the story felt dissonant for players.
    Thats because your are fucking bad at it, "team", you dont know how to write it, you shoehorn shit, so it feels that way.

    It's wasn't realistic and was frustrating to watch the Horde and Alliance snipe at each other while Azeroth is potentially facing apocalyptic destruction.
    It is realistic, if you do it right, but that require good writters, something they dont have it
  1. Rageonit's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Syegfryed View Post
    Thats because your are fucking bad at it, "team", you dont know how to write it, you shoehorn shit, so it feels that way.



    It is realistic, if you do it right, but that require good writters, something they dont have it
    Wow, so edgy. You tell them!
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