World of Warcraft Raids, Gameplay, Questing, and More
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Raids
  • The Blackrock Foundry will be the second raid available at release. It is the center of the Iron Horde and has 10 bosses in three wings, with a non linear layout.
  • The feel of looking down in BRD or UBRS and seeing more of the area was nice.
  • You will still be able to raid with similar flexibility in boss order as Flex has now.
  • The new Normal will be as difficult as Flex is today.
  • The new Heroic will be as difficult as Normal is today.
  • The new Mythic will be as difficult was Heroic is today.
  • All levels of difficulty except for Mythic will be cross realm on release.
  • Each raid difficulty has its own lockout. They will be loot based lockouts, allowing you to kill the same boss multiple times per week and only get loot once a week.
  • There is no more dynamic difficulty switching in raids. Now you have Mythic trash and Mythic trash loot.
  • Raid Finder will be the only kind of raid you queue for now. Normal (current Flex) will require you to zone in.
  • Loot will scale based on the number of players, giving you a higher chance for another piece of loot the more players you have. This ensures there are no optimal breakpoints that would limit raid size to get more loot.
  • Right now boss abilities still have some breakpoints. Going from 14 to 15 adds a third target for a certain mechanic in SoO right now, but in the future it would have a scaling random chance to have a third target so that there isn't that breakpoint.

Quests
  • Quest chains that are important and have important lore and story will be indicated with an icon.
  • There will be more optional content and less quest hubs that have to be unlocked by another chain first.
  • The dynamic events from Timeless Isle will appear in the world when you are leveling and Level 100. Right now they are mostly soloable rare spawns, but the WoD events will be more complex and not soloable.
  • Treasures will be hidden down paths that quests don't send you down and found frequently. They also will have a small amount of story to go with them.
  • Quests will have a chance to give you rare or epic rewards.
  • The quest UI has been updated to combine the map and quest log and help guide the quest experience better.
  • The map will show you where you left off on the important storyline quests.
  • The world will be more dynamic and less predictable.

Level 100 Content
  • There will be few or no daily quests at level 100!
  • There will be more max level content than ever before.
  • People really liked the Patch 5.1 daily quest story line, as well as the Timeless Isle reward system. These will be combined to create big zones with long progressive story lines that are more free form.
  • There will be some environmental gameplay, similar to Troves. It gives you an opportunity to use your class skills that are normally not used to earn rewards.

Garrisons
  • When you build your Garrison, you will get a few starting buildings.
  • The Town Hall is your main point of interaction and is automatically placed.
  • All profession buildings are in the Small Buildings category. They will allow you to use an engineer follower to run missions to get engineering recipes and items.
  • The pet stable will have a trainer you can fight.
  • Large buildings are something you would expect to see in a WC3 base. Each building has a bonus. For example, the barracks will let you have more followers.
  • Buildings start out small and are upgraded over time.
  • Some upgrades can be purchased, but some are blueprints that you find in the world. They can be faction rewards, quest rewards, random world drops, or found in other ways.
  • Specializations allow you to customize a max level building. They can be changed once each day and may have a cost. You pick from one of three specializations.
  • Some buildings will allow you to assign followers to them. If you find a miner follower, he can work while you are offline collecting ore.
  • Managing your followers will be an important part of garrisons.
  • Fill plots to upgrade your tier. Plots come in multiple sizes.
  • Followers can be sent on Quests, Scenarios, Dungeons, or Raids. Raids may take party of a week and many followers.
  • You put the followers into a party and send them on missions. You get a bonus if you match traits on your followers to the missions.
  • When you send your follower somewhere in your Garrison, you will see the follower there.

Systems
  • World of Warcraft is a game you play with friends. WoD will remove barriers that stop you from playing with friends and encourage you to make new friends.
  • Random matchmaking is going to feel like a last resort.
  • Raid Finder is there to let you see the content and story, almost like a Tourist mode.
  • Group Finder will work cross realm and work for many different types of groups. Finishing Shadowmorune, RBGs, Raids and more!
  • Stacking the Deck will give you bonus Valor for queuing with friends or queuing again with the same random matchmade group. (~10% bonus Valor)

Leveling
  • Leveling doesn't feel as exciting as it used to, so WoD will try to address that.
  • From level 91 to 100 you will get upgrades to your core spells. Some will be slight class changes, some will be passive bonuses, similar to old spell ranks. Some of the boosts will definitely be easy to feel.
  • See the slides for examples of leveling rewards!

Itemization
  • Getting new items should be exciting. Right now it feels like you have to do a lot of work when you get a new item.
  • Hit and Expertise don't feel like a bonus, so they are now gone!
  • Dodge and Parry, gone!
  • Reforging, gone!
  • Enchanting is still around, but fewer items can be enchanted. There will be more enchant choices for those items.
  • The number of items with gem sockets will be gone. Only one gem slot per item. Gems are more powerful. Sockets are a bonus that don't count towards item level budget. No more socket bonuses or meta gems.
  • The stats on armor will now change based on your spec. Plate drops and it will have whatever stats your class needs, no more Intellect plate! No more PvP Priest Healing set and PvP Priest DPS set, just a Priest set.
  • Jewelery, cloak, trinkets, and weapons will be more role focused and might keep stats.
  • Armor will become a good tanking stat again, Spirit will be good for healers.
  • Tertiary stats are bonus stats that can appear on gear that don't count towards the item level budget. Lifesteal, avoidance, sturdiness, movement speed (stacks with other bonuses), cleave, and more.
  • Item squish is in! All of the big jumps from old expansions and raid tiers will be flattened.
  • Your relative power won't change, just the numbers. The speed at which you kill things won't change. You can still solo old content.

Q&A
  • Connected realms will make it possible to find a Mythic group on realms that are currently low population.
  • The transition to 20 player Mythic raiding will be difficult, but it will be good for tuning and the game as a whole.
  • Scaling raids to 30 is a possibility, but isn't planned right now.
  • Scaling player level is being worked on still. When the team comes up with a good way to scale and reward old content there will be more to talk about.
  • Followers do content that is unique to Garrisons, not anything that players can do.
This article was originally published in forum thread: World of Warcraft Raids, Gameplay, Questing, and More started by chaud View original post
Comments 149 Comments
  1. mmoc9aa538fb23's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vargur View Post
    http://media.mmo-champion.com/images...nWoWRAD031.jpg

    I really wanna punch and run over someone now. Did we really need even easier gear setup? And wtf is "Yuck"? SERIOUSLY?
    Are you serious? That's probably one of the best features.
  1. Tarx's Avatar
    I realy like the new stats on gear will be like classic ones in vanila yeah! This expansion will be a mix of classic and outland wow.
  1. twiddler's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vargur View Post
    http://media.mmo-champion.com/images...nWoWRAD031.jpg

    Did we really need even easier gear setup? And wtf is "Yuck"? SERIOUSLY?
    I have to concur. It was always interesting figuring out what gear was best. Slapping on a piece of gear takes away the tediousness, yes, but to some, it was actually fun. Might as well go play Gayllods now.
  1. Bleah's Avatar
    The more of this I read the more I think it is turning into a game I might not want to play anymore. I'm all for streamlining but this is starting to sound like they are going too far.
  1. l33t's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Demontjuh View Post
    dumbing down clearly.
    reforging theory crafting gone.
    mix matching hit/exp/dodge/parry gone
    more enchants but for less items with less types of stats? vanity enchants?
    more epic's going to be handed out like candy.
    Yeah, sure. Get your new item, log off, go to askmrrobot.com, load your character, press "Optimise", go back online and copy/paste whatever it suggest for you.
    Oh, if you're a hardcore minmaxer, you first simcraft your character to get better stat values, than go to amr, put your relative values and press Optimise.
    Oh, what an elite theorycrafting process it was.
    Of course, trying to minmax your class performance by getting items with lifesteal or cleave is dumbing down. For sure.

    Thanks God Blizzard finally destroyed the overloaded drop lists, with 80% of gear going straight to d/e right after 2nd week of farming.


    Quote Originally Posted by Nathiest View Post
    I have no friends I don't like playing with others and I especially don't like being FORCED to play with others.
    Such a logical decision to play Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game genre. It is clearly made for people who don't like playing with people.
  1. mmocfe1b1a5d57's Avatar
    While I agree with some of the stat and upgrading changes (removing hit, EXP, reforging, Valor upgrading) I think they have taken it way too far. It just sounds like you will have no real choices to make when gearing.

    The gear you get changes to your spec which is pretty much going to mean anything with a higher Ilvl is a straight upgrade.

    So far all I'm seeing with WoD is the cosmetic appearance of TBC to appeal to the nostalgia a lot of us have for that era, but with the same terrible decisions that have plagued the game for the last few years hiding underneath. The game will be too casual even for casual players at this rate. Even casual players want a challenge and some choice.
  1. mmoc66856dbe3c's Avatar
    I'm hating the fact they're removing reforging, as that was a nice way to tweak your gear. The main issue people had with it, was that a new item meant your hit/exp got screwed, so you spent a load of gold reforging everything to get everything capped properly. Removing hit/exp makes reforging a whole lot simpler and cheaper so it should be left in. The loss of reforging, reduction in enchants and less gem sockets just removes a lot of the customisation that helps one character stand out from others amongst his or her class.

    Quote Originally Posted by mobusdorphin View Post
    Actually, this doesn't look like an original concept. This looks very similar to what Cryptic does in a lot of their MMOs such as Neverwinter or STO. Basically look at Neverwinter's "crafting" system or the system in STO where you can send crewmembers on missions. It looks like the same concept, just Blizz is adapting it into WoW. Like most of the new changes I've seen since I've started playing this game, I will reserve judgement until I see it in action.
    That was the first thing I thought of when I heard you could get followers and send them on missions, Star Trek Online crew-members. Just with a more fleshed out system behind it.
  1. Glaziola's Avatar
    Thank god this crap is gone. Ive had it with reforging everything when I get ONE piece of gear just to fix expertise/hit. So much gold wasted for nothing.
  1. mmocdb07b3c8e6's Avatar
    Blizzard can't make everybody happy. Some people like theorycrafting and fiddling about with the items and stats.

    I'm happy as hell that this shit is being streamlined. I like raiding and doing quests, not screwing around with numbers.
  1. MoFalcon's Avatar
    Item Squish.......How I love thee.....

    when we raided MC in Vanilla, our tank had 12k HP and we thought he was a BEAST!!!!!

    About time. Very excited about it all. Keep it coming!!!
  1. Blur4stuff's Avatar
    these item changes are fantastic

    can't wait
  1. Achaman's Avatar
    Itemization

    Getting new items should be exciting. Right now it feels like you have to do a lot of work when you get a new item.
    Hit and Expertise don't feel like a bonus, so they are now gone!
    Dodge and Parry, gone!
    Reforging, gone!
    Enchanting is still around, but fewer items can be enchanted. There will be more enchant choices for those items.
    The number of items with gem sockets will be gone. Only one gem slot per item. Gems are more powerful. Sockets are a bonus that don't count towards item level budget. No more socket bonuses or meta gems.
    The stats on armor will now change based on your spec. Plate drops and it will have whatever stats your class needs, no more Intellect plate! No more PvP Priest Healing set and PvP Priest DPS set, just a Priest set.
    Jewelery, cloak, trinkets, and weapons will be more role focused and might keep stats.
    Armor will become a good tanking stat again, Spirit will be good for healers.
    Tertiary stats are bonus stats that can appear on gear that don't count towards the item level budget. Lifesteal, avoidance, sturdiness, movement speed (stacks with other bonuses), cleave, and more.
    Item squish is in! All of the big jumps from old expansions and raid tiers will be flattened.
    Your relative power won't change, just the numbers. The speed at which you kill things won't change. You can still solo old content.

    best part of the expansion

    though i do wonder about how it will affect the jc/scribe professions
  1. mmocdb07b3c8e6's Avatar
    I think the decision to not add a new class is probably a good one. Balancing the current classes and specs is already fucking impossible, so why just add to the pile?

    I'm surprised that they haven't added a new race though:s
  1. Kawlisse's Avatar
    Ha man !!! why do every time I say screw you blizz they find a way to get me excited again!!! cant wait to see health mana and damage output nerfed. about some damn time !!!
  1. Mogai's Avatar
    do note that its still pre beta if alot of people are against stuff, blizzard will prbably remove some changes
  1. Tanidor's Avatar
    Thanks for the reply all
    Good to hear that Garrisons can include our Guild Members inside!
  1. RumlyD's Avatar
    The sky is falling....

    Seriously, though, all those changes sound awesome to me. Getting an upgrade has increasingly become more of a chore over the course of the expansions, whereas in classic, you got the drop you were looking forward to for ages and the most you had to worry about was an enchant. Then came, gems, it started to get crazy with reforging and upgrades. The thing you have to remember is that the stuff they are taking away, was originally implemented as a shiny new feature to one xpac or another, a new way to increase character power. But you can really only keep doing that so many times before it starts to become trivial and meaningless. What is being sold to you now, as shiny new feature, is the removal of all that and a reversion to a simpler time (with some modern tweaks and improvements). Bringing stats back to basics alongside an item squish feels right.

    I think it's going to be fun getting that item with a nice amount of cleave on it and seeing how it affects your character in a meaningful way, rather than it just adding a bit of a numbers boost. With this system there are probably still going to be 'ideal' item combinations, but it feels like it might be less restrictive and more of a flavour thing over all.
  1. mmoc38bf09aa51's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Achaman View Post
    Itemization

    Hit and Expertise don't feel like a bonus, so they are now gone!
    Dodge and Parry, gone!



    though i do wonder about how it will affect the jc/scribe professions


    well, most of the depth of the game will be lost with this... def cap was gone long ago, now they will make it more simple with this changes
    all morons will hit everything and will not get hit at all

    good job blizzard...... not
  1. Axxon's Avatar
    It sounds like people need to try the changes before making any sort of real judgment on it.
    "Don't judge a book by it's cover."
  1. mmocf6c7814ba8's Avatar
    What is THIS?!? Seriously? Why will become this game more easier? For the skilless LFR heroes who can't learn a character? Who crying for Vanilla and BC, go and freez a character at lvl 60 or 70. It is possible at the Experience Eliminator. BUT I love my HP, I love my DPS, I love these stats and reforging, I love this gamestile since Cataclysm. The Mythic difficulty is ok BUT 20 man ONLY? C'mon... This game will turn bullshit and I won't pay for shit... Please Blizz don't do this with us!

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