Patch 5.2 Dev Interviews
Gamebreaker got yet another chance to interview devs, this time speaking with Ion Hazzikostas and Ghostcrawler. Guildox also had the opportunity to talk to Ion about what to expect in the Throne of Thunder.
Gamebreaker - Dungeons and Raids
- Large raid tiers have worked out well and will likely be continued in the future.
- Tier 14 had a few too many hard DPS checks on Normal difficulty, so in Tier 15 you should beat Normal difficulty by mastering the mechanics, not having a certain amount of DPS.
- The Throne of Thunder ended up linear because of the story being told. Future tiers may have a less linear path, similar to Blackwing Descent.
- Players aren't really interested in Patchwerk style fights, as it turns in to fighting a target dummy with some different visuals.
- Complex mechanics and a very strict DPS check might be too much for a Normal difficulty encounter, as most players can't flawlessly perform their rotations and avoid standing in the fire.
- LFR is supposed to be optional, mostly for players that don't raid with a regular group. The Throne of Thunder LFR gear is slightly better than the normal Tier 14 drops. LFR will have a staggered release schedule, so Normal difficulty raiders shouldn't feel any pressure to do LFR initially.
- Limited attempts is about stressing quality and not quantity of attempts. They were out of place in Normal difficulty Icecrown Citadel and the limit of ten was too low. It isn't expected that guild will have alts raids to try more attempts when working towards the World First kill.
- You have to be in combat with a LFR boss for a while to actually get the stacking buff, so there are measures in place that will discourage wiping to get stacks of the buff.
- There isn't a big concern about people tapping Nalak and then not fully participating in the fight, as this already happens with Sha of Anger. Oondasta is on the Isle of Giants, where there isn't enough player traffic for a player to just encounter a group fighting the boss by chance most likely.
Questing and Scenarios
- Daily quests were supposed to be something to do after you finished raiding or other activities, allowing you to progress your character by going out in the world. Players should have been able to not do daily quests if they were not interested, without hurting their group.
- The Patch 5.2 solo scenarios are used for storytelling, so you won't be able to run them more than once.
- More three player scenarios will be added in future patches.
- Blizzard is still figuring out how scenarios fit in to the game, as they haven't lived up to their full potential yet.
PvP
- Item upgrades returning hasn't been decided upon yet, but it is unlikely that it will come back for PvP gear. It felt good for players to be able to upgrade their blue gear and have a high enough item level to do heroic dungeons or LFR, but it didn't feel good trying to figure out how to spend your Valor Points. Partial refunds or transferring upgrades from one item to another are potential solutions. Item upgrades were helpful in allowing guilds to continue progressing by slowly making the players stronger.
- Reverting the silence and crowd control changes from early in the PTR was done to prevent healers from becoming too strong with the various instant heals they have. This kind of a change might be made in the next expansion.
- There aren't enough rewards for PvP that are not gear.
- The Conquest catch up system wasn't ready for this patch, but it will hopefully be in Patch 5.3.
- Skirmishes are still on the todo list.
Guildox
- Kicking turtles on the Tortos encounter and tracing constellations when fighting the Twin Consorts are two of the more interesting raid mechanics in Throne of Thunder.
- Guilds that aren't done with Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring are likely going to run into difficulty keeping up with the fights much past Council of Elders (the third encounter).
- No fights are designed to need three tanks this time around.
- The Tier 14 progression might have taken longer than you would expect without gating, as the world first kills were often seconds away from being a wipe. The extra weeks allowed players to gear up more than they would have been able to otherwise.
Throne of Thunder Preview
Get ready to down the new bosses by reading the encounter journal and watching guides!
MMO-Champion Forums Moderator Recruitment
Good news everyone! We're recruiting moderators for the forums again! The amount of users and posts keeps increasing and we reached the point where we need some help before the trolls take over and play Whack-a-Mod in the Darkmoon Faire. I know it sounds fun, but I'm going to assume we don't want that.
Please be sure to read the entire post before applying!
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Curse's WildStar PAX East After Party
If you are going to be at PAX East, you are invited to the WildStar PAX East After Party! There will be live music, a premium bar (with 2 drinks on the house), a loot bag, a red carpet style photo opportunity, as well as stations set up where you can try out the WildStar beta!
The best part? It's completely free! All you have to do is RSVP to receive your ticket.
The Daily Blink - Mingling with the Commonfolk
The Daily Blink has a recap of how Battlegrounds with the Blues went.