Timewalking Reward Costs, Accolade Trinkets and PvP Gearing, Tweets, Wildstar F2P

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Timewalking Reward Costs
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
They already tweeted a pretty stand-pat stance about this. Their claim is it's "meant to take dedication". I'm not expecting any type of change until after BlizzCon at the earliest.
One of the problems with Twitter as a medium is the lack of space for nuance. There are hundreds of mounts in WoW, and they are obtainable by a wide variety of different means. Some are simple to get, and cheaply bought off vendors; some require great feats of skill like Gladiator and current Mythic raid mounts; some require tremendous luck (e.g. the Elegon mount); and some require long-term effort (e.g. the Violet Proto-Drake from A Long Strange Trip, or Darkmoon Faire prizes).

Ultimately they are all cosmetic rewards, and Timewalking is designed to be an evergreen system that we will be expanding over the years. Unlike, say, a Tanaan rep mount that clearly was designed to be earned within the scope of this patch, there will be people doing Timewalking (especially as more dungeons, and more expansions' content get added) throughout the future of WoW, and this represents a long-term goal within that framework.

If you want to rush through dozens of Timewalking dungeons in a short timeframe to be one of the first to get the mount, and you'd find that experience satisfying, then by all means do so. But I certainly wouldn't say that's the intended approach here. The 500-Badge quest turn-in is a once-per-event thing (which we definitely could have made clearer), so if you want to take a more measured pace and just do the Timewalking quest each time the event comes around while you happen to otherwise actively be playing, you can get the mount with just a few total hours spent (though over a longer period of real time). It's up to you. In the meantime, there are other items (notably some great alt catch-up gear) available through the system, and those are much more attainably priced.

Accolade Trinkets and PvP Gearing
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We do not plan to put the random-stat Accolade trinkets on the vendors.

However, we did uncover a bug that was causing them to provide twice the secondary stat bonus than was intended. That bug was corrected in patch 6.2.2.

Frankly (speaking for myself as a player, and not for the development team), I'm not convinced that the Accolade trinkets are all they're cracked up to be.

The Wild Gladiator's Accolade of Dominance provides 403 Intellect and 403 Versatility in PvP combat. The Insignia provides 469 Versatility and a 20-second 1330 Intellect proc. In sustained combat, it tends to proc around every 60 seconds, giving it roughly a 33% uptime for an average benefit of ~440 Intellect.

Combine that with the fact that you have to actually be damaging someone for it to proc (which increases the effective uptime by cutting out sections where you're not hitting anyone) and the increased burst potential by allowing you to use your hardest-hitting abilities while it's active... and I'd argue that for the vast majority of players the proc trinket is easily better.

Granted, you might want a different secondary stat which isn't available on the Insignia. In that case I would argue that the difference between 469 Versatility and, lets say, 403 Mastery would be EXTREMELY minor at best.

I could also see an argument for those who are playing Humans, in which case you'd likely be comparing the Accolades to the Badges (the on-use trinkets) instead of the Insignias. As you can probably imagine, buffing Humans isn't exactly high on our priority list at the moment.

All that said, I won't pretend for a second that I'm the best Arena player, and these are obviously just my personal opinions. I'm just not seeing what makes the Accolade trinkets so incredibly attractive that they're absolutely mandatory to the point that it's worth doing content you don't enjoy for a chance to get hold of one.

I'm not really defending RNG PvP gearing, and I think the actions the development team has taken since 6.2 released speak pretty well to say that the devs aren't happy with the way it worked initially either. And I totally understand why it's frustrating that those actions aren't extending to the Accolade trinkets. All I'm saying is that, if you really don't like Ashran, just don't do it. There are other trinket options, and they're -- at worst -- still pretty good.

EDIT: I should also mention again that I'm really only speaking on behalf of myself and the way I enjoy the game. Just trying to have a conversation here.

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
If you talk about "bad people on the internet", what kind of people do you refer to? Those who are critical? Those who threaten?
Those who cross a line. No one minds critique. (holinka)

Ghostcrawler Tweets
Ghostcrawler still occasionally talks about WoW. Remember that he no longer works for or speaks for Blizzard.
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Hey GC, got any thoughts on Health of the Game vs Player enjoyment? I always feel bad about Cata heroic difficulty caving.
I could write volumes on this. Players respect sticking by your guns to an extent, but at some point it becomes out of touch. (OccupyGStreet)

Developer Communication
Is there substantial data to suggest that dev/player communication results in higher sales and retention?
No, I don't believe so, which is why it is so controversial inside studios, e.g. Valve doesn't seem to value it much. (OccupyGStreet)

miss the dev watercooler that blizz did to keep peeps informed. was concise and it came from one source. was that your idea?
I can't recall. I worked on it a lot with Bashiok and Zarhym. (OccupyGStreet)
Do you remember how many hours of discussion, drafting, revision and review went into each one, on average?
I tend to write very fast, which is why I can do all of this. (OccupyGStreet)
A blog might take 2 hours depending on topic. No idea on editing. (OccupyGStreet)



Poll - What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been
The post covering rewards talked about the What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been achievement and mount, so we decided to see how active players are doing towards obtaining the Violet Proto-Drake. Only 15.8% of players have earned the achievement! Have you completed the achievement yet?



WildStar Free to Play Launches September 29
The new Free to Play version of the game, WildStar: Reloaded, is coming later this month!

This article was originally published in forum thread: Timewalking Reward Costs, Accolade Trinkets and PvP Gearing, Tweets, Wildstar F2P started by chaud View original post
Published on 2015-09-04 09:52 AM
120 Comments
Comments 120 Comments
  1. Bloodscore's Avatar
    Only 15.8% have gotten the violet drake? Makes me feel a little warm and fuzzy inside since I got mine back in Wrath.
  1. Gatsbybutters's Avatar
    Haha that first sentence. "We purposely picked twitter to communicate with players so we can be as short and vague as possible so we can flip the script on you later. We didn't have a choice in picking the way to talk to you guys, even though we could put announcements and discussions on our website, game, game launcher, or any other social media site. It's mostly twitters fault. Here's a list of other mounts out of context. Anyway, here's wonderwall".
  1. Jasper Kazai's Avatar
    I finished the holiday meta the earliest time it was possible to - Brewfest 2009. Once achievements were put into the game I looked through them and saw immediately that the holiday stuff was something I wanted to do. Actually, the earliest may have possibly been Midsummer 2009, but I can't remember if achievements were introduced at the very end of Brewfest 2008 or after it. Because if it was after it, then it would not have been possible at Midsummer 2009.
  1. mmoc37be4d93d6's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jasper Kazai View Post
    I finished the holiday meta the earliest time it was possible to - Brewfest 2009. Once achievements were put into the game I looked through them and saw immediately that the holiday stuff was something I wanted to do. Actually, the earliest may have possibly been Midsummer 2009, but I can't remember if achievements were introduced at the very end of Brewfest 2008 or after it. Because if it was after it, then it would not have been possible at Midsummer 2009.
    I think it was Brewfest, I think my first achievements clock in at 23rd September 09 which was a month or 2 before Wrath released. I got my Meta Brewfest 2010 because I decided to ignore 09 like a dingus.
  1. Jasper Kazai's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Darzhan View Post
    I think it was Brewfest, I think my first achievements clock in at 23rd September 09 which was a month or 2 before Wrath released. I got my Meta Brewfest 2010 because I decided to ignore 09 like a dingus.
    Nah, achievements hit live on 10/14/08, at least in the US. I remember that very clearly. (That is a month before Wrath launched.) I just checked and Brewfest that year ended on 10/6/08 (according to the in-game calendar). So having the mount by Midsummer was not possible. I could've sworn I remembered Brewfest still going on, but I guess not. I guess what I was thinking is that since Brew of the Year used to be required for the meta, only people who bought that thing during Brewfest 08 could finish in 09. But then it was removed from the meta. (Which is good for me, because I would've missed out.)
  1. Magicmooch's Avatar
    The Timewalking rewards are completely justified, especially since Blizz has a long term deal with these so to speak. I think its nice to have weekend events that are different to kind of have something else to look forward to. I hope they expand on it.

    If Timewalking is going to be a staple in WoW for at least the next expansion than 5000 badges is a fine amount as far as I am concerned.

    I am on board with most people when it comes to "What a Long Strange Trip Its Been" because of the PvP element. I left that part out for years (either by choice or just somehow not playing in May I guess) but its not too bad. I completed the Hard Knocks achieve in an afternoon. Maybe I was lucky, who knows. All it takes is a little bit of effort
  1. Tatakau's Avatar
    At least Blizz finally confirmed (for me anyway) they are fucking idiots.
  1. Gaexion Ramza Beoulve's Avatar
    Hard to earn cosmetic rewards are a reward in and of itself. This is entirely different than flying, racials, pvp etc.
  1. Varaben's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Granyala View Post
    Yup, back in the days of Wrath. Wee free 310% riding.
    So good. I got my 310 flying from the 10 man Tier 7 achievement, which I guess was the only tier whose reward was taken away when the tier was no longer relevant.

    I like the entitlement that players have for rewards like this. Some players insist that all rewards be given to them with no effort and no time invested, yet I would wager these are the same players who complain about a lack of content. Guess what makes content last longer? Making it take longer! That's why Vanilla/TBC content seemed to last forever. Not only were there no catch up mechanics (well, there were in TBC, but not as extreme as today), but everything took AGES to complete.

    Players seem to want to have their cake and eat it too. They want an unlimited amount of content that they can never finish, while simultaneously being rewarded consistently for doing that content. But these two things are mutually exclusive. Either you have a sandbox game where the "content" is player created through events, the economy, etc. or you have a theme park game where you get rewarded for developer-created content, though it is exhaustible. It takes developers months to make content that can be trounced in days. Not only that, but the content has to be balanced, bug-free, fun, new, etc.
  1. Wayne25uk's Avatar
    I got my violet drake back when it came with Master Riding Skill 310% flying to you and me. But i did it naturally over about 2 years i think i didnt rush anything.
  1. Baneleaf's Avatar
    There was a short time during Wrath that Blizz had announced that the long strange trip was going away. I had one event left on my lock and I decided to take the weekend off and do something with my family. Saturday or Sunday they reversed that decision and I missed the event so I had to wait a year to get it. With that I decided to do it on another toon as well so I had it on two before it went account wide.
  1. Apexis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by beanman12345 View Post
    I hate pvp in this game, so i'll never get the achievement since i just don't want to do it. I am okay with that though.
    I have tried a number of year to get the School of Hard Knocks part of Children's Week, but sadly it the only achievement I need for the meta. At this point, I would only be doing it to get the achievement and the mounts since I purchase Master flying on all my characters. I might try again next year, but its not all that important enough to bother with the horrid way people do not work together in a battleground in order to be able to really do it at this point. Far to many me type people that only care about what they get and not giving other and opportunity to carry flags and such.
  1. Lady Tygry's Avatar
    I did it on ten classes (everything but monk) because I was not about to drop 50k for 310 flying. Now that you can no longer earn free flying this way, I seldom buy past 280, if even that sometimes, on new characters.
  1. Acideyeliner's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by tristannarutofan View Post
    I re-downloaded wildstar thinking it was already FTP. I saw it wasnt, but i was really bored with wow that week. I remember how often wow players would put in a ticket and get 1-7 days "just to experience this event before it goes" or "To buy a game token"

    So i sent a ticket asking if i could get 1 or 2 days gametime so i can have time to see if the game works on my computer, and how well it does. Because IF it does i was going to go ahead and buy a month just for the hell of it. I.E i was offering to give them money.

    The reply said that they USED to have a 10 day free trial which isnt available anymore and that they are hoping to go FTP soon.

    Like....why even tell me about a feature that is no longer active?! If you are going to disappoint me dont do it in a way that glaringly speaks of your inability to provide good customer service!
    I was bored of WoW and for nostalgias sake, was gonna play Maplestory again. Found out my account had been stolen in the 10 years I was away from it. No problem, gave all my stuff away beforehand anyway. Opened a ticket, and started a new account in the meantime. Know how long it took for them to respond to that ticket? 7 months. 7 months! To respond to me asking if I could recover my account, that I still had all details of. And they simply said, Sorry, we can't do that. Oi. At least you got a reply, even if it was disappointing. At least they have more than 1 guy doing CS more than one day per month.
  1. Archibalde's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Varaben View Post
    Players seem to want to have their cake and eat it too.
    A bit off-topic, but I never got that expression. What's the point of having a cake if you're not going to eat it?
  1. guardian_titan's Avatar
    I got the violet proto-drake on my feral druid back in WotLK first because she had better RNG when it came to masks during Hallow's End. Got it on my shaman the following year. I almost had it on my paladin the year after that but balked at doing School of Hard Knocks.

    While I hated School of Hard Knocks, I had more issue getting the PvP kills while transformed as a helper gnome achievement. I was a feral druid. This was when transforming resulted in losing your gnome costume. I spent most of my time queueing for Strands of the Ancients and hiding in siege engines while pretending to be a healer until I died and lost my costume, then I went on the offensive until the next game. I couldn't do anything until I died, though, and I refused to actually go resto on her. Besides the fact that I didn't have the gear for her to even go resto, I didn't want to heal on my druid. I already had a resto shaman and holy paladin at the time. Last thing I wanted was to be pigeon holed into healing because I had nearly every healer at max level and so could swap out as needed ... although my shaman was alliance and paladin horde.

    Interesting to see that 15.8% of players have the achievement but those on MMO-Champion say over 50% have gotten it. That certainly shows this forum is biased toward hardcore players and not indicative in the slightest of the player base as a whole.
  1. Eliazer681's Avatar
    In this thread: bitchy people finding new things to bitch about.

    "There aren't any rewards to keep me logging in!"
    "THESE REWARDS TAKE TOO LONG TO GET"

    Fuck you people, seriously. Reading these comment threads as a person with an IQ over 74 literally causes brain bleeding, because you stupid fucking children flipflop on everything.
  1. mmoca3c6678fa5's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Archibalde View Post
    A bit off-topic, but I never got that expression. What's the point of having a cake if you're not going to eat it?
    It means you literally cannot both "have cake" and "eat cake"; once you have eaten it, you no longer have it. It would be better expressed as "You can't eat your cake and still have it."
  1. Rixis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Bloodscore View Post
    Only 15.8% have gotten the violet drake? Makes me feel a little warm and fuzzy inside since I got mine back in Wrath.
    Yeah, checked and mine is dated back to Wrath.
  1. Mazaxist's Avatar
    Timewalking is one of the very few features that is really good for the game. It will live throught every future expansion! and i actually enjoy the challenge. If your tank dies, you might actually die too! mobs hit hard!

    Eventually we all will get all the rewards... im glad its not instant.
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