Developer Q&A - Ion Hazzikostas, Hatching of the Hippogryphs

Developer Q&A - Ion Hazzikostas
Game Director Ion Hazzikostas answered questions today!


Upcoming Q&A
  • There will be another Q&A in a couple of weeks, focused on PvP with Holinka. There will be an eSports in 2017 announcement after that.

Artifact Appearances
  • The Balance of Power skins will not be made account wide. They are weapon and character specific cosmetic rewards that reflect your accomplishments on that character. The team is looking at the steps and how much effort is required.
  • Hidden appearances from raid and dungeon bosses now have bad luck protection as of Patch 7.1.5.
  • Artifact appearances are just a cosmetic unlock, so being as alt friendly isn't as important as things that make it harder to play the current content.

Patch 7.1.5
  • Overall that changes to secondary stats were successful.
  • Arcanocrystal is a special case. Trinkets in previous expansions with no primary stats were seen as awful, so the team made it over the item budget. There isn't really any way to fix this without making an item worse for players that already have it. It should fall out of favor as item levels go up with Tomb of Sargeras.

Patch 7.2 Relics
  • After completing the next step of your Order Hall campaign, two more tiers of research are unlocked. Research adds a second trait to all relics.
  • Relics having two traits creates more possibilities for desirable relics. It also brings the worst and best relics closer together.
  • If you are a Ret Paladin and want Avenging Wrath traits, there is only one relic that will give you that. You have to run one dungeon to get that relic. In Patch 7.2, any relic will have the chance to have that trait, so you will have the possibility of getting an exciting relic from any boss.
  • This adds more possibilities and customization to the relic system.
  • The extra trait that rolls on these relics will always be a throughput trait (primary role enhancing traits).
  • The extra trait will always be different, so you can't get two of the same trait.

Legendary Items
  • Tier sets and some trinkets that change effects based on your spec are somewhat of a concession.
  • Some legendary items have a name and fantasy that make them very distinct, so it wouldn't make sense to have them change based on your spec.
  • In raids you might not have someone that can use an item that only works for a specific spec, so items that change based on spec make sense, but legendary items are personal loot, so you will always be able to use what you get.
  • Patch 7.2 makes legendary drop bad luck protection more spec specific.
  • The system looks at how many legendary items you have that would drop for your spec, so if you switch specs the system will know how many legendary items that work for that spec. If you don't have any for that spec, you will have a higher chance to get one.
  • The legendary Enhancement bracer could probably use a buff. The team continues to look at legendary items that are somewhat underpowered or overpowered to bring them back in line.
  • Frost Death Knight helm is on the high end of the power range and is on the team's radar.
  • Resto Druid shoulders are also on the radar.
  • Getting a legendary item that you think is awful is one of the concerns right now, not as much how they are acquired.
  • The legendary items that are most problematic are the ones that feel like they are universally the best.
  • Sephuz is actually pretty good on some fights, so it is in a better place now.
  • The definition of competitive is subject to debate. You might be a few percent behind, but for most specs that is within the margin of error of your play on most fights.
  • Guilds that are benching players because their theoretical sim output is a few percent lower than someone else are probably not making the right choice.
  • The four crafted legendary items are all that is currently planned. The goal was not targeted legendary items, but instead making something exciting for the crafting professions to produce.
  • At the start of the expansion, crafted gear was exciting and useful. Over time that became less of the case, as other options became available.
  • Other professions remain relevant and strong today, so the crafted legendary items should add something that can be crafted and sold.
  • The crafted legendary items should be solid middle of the road legendary items. They shouldn't be the best.
  • As people get more legendary items, they can swap them out situationally.
  • The crafted legendary items don't count against your legendary bad luck protection.

Artifact Power
  • With Artifact Power, the team wanted to offer a universally desired currency, a way of progressing your character, and providing some choices along the way.
  • Even if you don't get loot from a dungeon, you got something that makes you a little more powerful. This way you never feel like something was a complete waste of time.
  • If this system is working initially, why should it ever stop working. The system initially had an attainable end point originally, so people felt like there was a finish line that they needed to race towards. Once players got there, they no longer get that extra reward of Artifact Power that is useful.
  • The team understands the desire of wanting to feel no obligation to grind and wanting an endpoint.
  • The team doesn't want Artifact Power to be something that you seek out as the only reward. If you are looking to go and farm Artifact Power with no other rewards, tuning wasn't correct.
  • Repeated Mythic+ farming to grind Artifact Power isn't very fun.
  • Patch 7.2 changes how lucrative how different types of content are. A lot of the AP is taken away from end of dungeon chests to reduce the incentive to chain run them.
  • The team is continuing to increase the Artifact Power rewards, including from the weekly chest. If you clear a +20, you might get 2 million AP from your weekly chest at the current AK level.
  • Overall, the team wants to move players away from feeling like they should grind content to get more Artifact Power. They also want to add diminishing returns, so that you eventually get to a point where you feel like it isn't worth the time to get another 0.5% power increase.
  • For the vast majority of players, the current system is working okay, they just take the Artifact Power as it comes.
  • Artifact Power isn't class wide because the system focuses on your individual Artifact. You empower a specific weapon to unlock new choices.
  • It would feel odd to play one spec, switch to another, and have your weapon fully powered.
  • The team is focused on significantly narrowing the gap between the power of weapons for different specs.
  • In Patch 7.2, if you put all of your AP into one weapon, you will only be a few points ahead of someone who was splitting it between two weapons. The reward for focusing on one weapon is a small reward.
  • The final Artifact trait in Patch 7.2 is still being tuned, but you will probably eventually reach that point of diminishing returns where doing something else over farming AP for that trait will make sense.
  • The final trait shouldn't be a mandatory trait, just something to give players to put AP into as they continue to earn it.
  • Artifact Power items acquired with AK 25 or less will not be usable once Patch 7.2 releases and you empower your Artifact and reach AK 26. This was done to prevent you from feeling like you need to farm AP now in preparation for Patch 7.2.
  • Patch 7.2 will add new Artifact Knowledge catch up tomes. If you are at AK 40 you can buy a AK 35 tome.

Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • These set bonuses are not final and are still being tuned.
  • Tier 19 set bonuses were changed significantly over time before they released.
  • The Tier 20 set bonuses were just added to start collecting feedback.
  • Initially someone may just add some kind of set bonus to Tier 20 gear so that there is a set bonus, eventually someone will come back and take a look at it to tune it or change it.
  • The team doesn't want to hold back the Tier 20 set bonus ideas, they would rather get it out to players to start collecting feedback.
  • Tier sets went to six pieces in Legion to allow you to put legendary items on while keeping your set bonus. It is also cool to have a cloak that matches your set.
  • There aren't plans to make the 2pc from different tier sets exclusive right now, but you will have to make a choice between legendary items, the 4pc bonus, and other 2pc set bonus. This allows for an interesting gearing choice, but if it ends up feeling like there is only one correct choice the team may revisit this.

PTR
  • With the way the PTR works, there isn't a lot of filtering on what data is exposed when a new build is pushed out. A designer may just add a placeholder to something, causing it to go out with the next PTR build.
  • Often you will see things that are not right and not finished. Experiments and abandoned designs are in the data.
  • It isn't worth the effort and time it would take to go back and clean up or hide things, that time is better spent making new things.

Trinkets
  • There are existing tank trinkets that are very successful and widely used by tanks. Passive stats and mitigation are most reliable compared to an active ability.
  • The team is still iterating on trinkets that will drop in ToS in Patch 7.2.
  • The team was going to make a pass on tank trinkets, did it, and came to the conclusion that the trinkets aren't undertuned, but most players prefer the stat trinkets and aren't as excited by the active ability trinkets.
  • In the past, active DPS trinkets were used in line with other cooldowns, making them more powerful and requiring a power penalty. Other active trinkets don't work in the same way, especially for tanks, so there doesn't need to be a penalty, it will be a little stronger than the passive option if used correctly.

Traits
  • Group buffing traits are just a flavor thing and an experiment.
  • The team doesn't expect altered group compositions or stacking to take advantage of these.

Mythic Raiding
  • The team wants to shift away from players feeling like there is a finish line for Artifact Power.
  • Being in and running a mythic raiding guild is very hard. It is a drain on your time and emotionally.
  • Guilds have risen and fallen throughout the history of World of Warcraft.
  • Guilds leaving tends to reflect the officers and leaders reaching a point where they can't continue, either due to their situation in life or the changes made to the game. They may just walk away, causing the guild to die without the leadership. The remaining players may spread out and join other guilds that are still doing Mythic raiding.
  • The team isn't saying that everything is fine as it is, there is currently a feeling of a grind that the team is trying to address in Patch 7.2.
  • On some level, the game is not meant to be played 80 hours a week. When M'uru was released and guilds raided for 23 hours over a few days to get their world first, players on the forum asked if there should be attempt limits.
  • There is an ongoing arms race to play more and more for a very small advantage in the race.
  • Players used alt raids to learn fights when attempts were limited.
  • Some guild leaders expected raiders to chain run Maw of Souls all week. This was a problem.
  • The team wants to make a game with lots of goals you can progress to if you want to play a lot once in a while.
  • Lots of hard gating on things isn't great, so the team avoids it on most things. You should be able to join your friend for a dungeon Sunday night and still get some kind of a reward. This also means that you can chain run the dungeon for rewards.
  • Playing endless hours for a small advantage is not sustainable.

World Quests
  • The team is aware that some world quests have a static reward that doesn't feel worth it, extra gold or AP sometimes being rewarded might help.
  • Some world quests may be more lucrative up front occasionally, rather than randomly giving you an extra reward.
  • The tech isn't there yet, but the team has talked about it and wants to improve it.


Hatching of the Hippogryphs Micro-holiday Live
Hatching of the Hippogryphs is a micro-holiday that allows players to witness the hatching of hippogryphs in Feralas.

  • This event takes place in the Frayfeather Highlands in Feralas.
  • You can stand near an egg for a short while to keep it warm so that it hatches.
  • Once an egg hatches, you have a baby hippogryph on your shoulder for one day.
  • You can kill Lorthalium to obtain a Spectral Feather, which will keep your hippogryph around for five days.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Developer Q&A - Ion Hazzikostas, Hatching of the Hippogryphs started by chaud View original post
Published on 2017-02-23 06:49 PM
140 Comments
Comments 140 Comments
  1. mmocf89c8b0f36's Avatar
    At least the hatching wasn't cancelled.
  1. Murderdoll's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dugraka View Post
    They're trying to save players from themselves because some people can't show restraint in grinding M+ every waking moment and then they complain that they are forced to.
    Its not just players.

    Its guilds as well. Im at 50 odd and every week its a "Hey everyone get your 54 traits". Its become an arbitrary goal and Blizzard continues to implement these goals without realised that players will burn themselves out on them.

    People can blame the playerbase all they like, but end of the day, Blizzard's aim is to retain players by having a long lasting game. In the 12 years of WoW, have players EVER paced this sort of thing and said "Oh you know, its not important, ill get it sooner or later".

    No. Never. Never will.

    Its a very poor design choice, we voiced our concerns in beta - along with other concerns of the system (see classes like Death Knights and how theyre specs have just done a 180).

    Theyve just decided to implement Diablo into WoW and its failed.
  1. Spiren's Avatar
    It would be much better to have endless trait once all other traits are unlocked with the same AP requirement for each rank but with the power gain diminishing for each rank. This way there would be no need to pursuit AP but feel like "more AP? meh, why not..".

    About guilds spending so much time playing - it's their own life, they can decide what to do with their free time, but I think there should be some limit. It would be interesting to gate the raids not with attempts, but with time spent there. What would happen if Blizzard said "you have (let's say) 12 hours (per difficulty?) per weekly raid lock, divide them as you wish"? Now that would be an interesting race. And we all would have some time to do some other things (both in-game and IRL). But Mythic+ dungeons would need some restriction too to prevent pushing them for better gear to have greater chance to kill bosses during the limited time in raids.
  1. mmoc5338364598's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Diggsworth View Post
    I'm confused as to why they're deincentivising mythic+.
    They want to make the game less grindy, so they're making everything time-gated grindy instead?
    No longer can you spend the weekend hammering out mythic + with friends to get ap, now you're better off running one high m+ and then what, logging out until raid?
    from the beginning the point of M+ was "let's give players something they can do as much as they want (kinda) with varying difficulty so they can shoot for the best they can do and try to improve each week!"
    The community found the repeatability of M+ to be the path of less resistance to high AP.
    Now the devs want you to shoot for the completion of a difficult dungeon, not to grind for high amounts of AP.
  1. TEHPALLYTANK's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Polopollo View Post
    I'm confused about:



    What about Priaz & Sephuz? If my warrior prot got both of them, when patch 7.2 will hit, will they be considered "all specs got 2 legendaries each", "no spec got a legendary", or "tank spec got 2 legendaries"? And what about cross spec legendaries, like the Execute ring (For both Arms and Fury, but not for Prot as prot doesn't have execute)?
    You're basically super-fucked if Prydaz and Sephuz are your first two legendaries.


    And seriously: Fuck them for thinking that an endless grind is what the AP system needed. AP being locked to each spec, and each character, is precisely why it should have an end-point. Those of us who play at least two specs are already getting screwed, anyone who plays multiple characters is getting screwed over even harder.

    Making the end-goal completely impossible is just going to make people give up. It is better to have an end-point, than setting the goal to be so impossible that all your effort feels completely worthless.

    I think they need to hire a behavioral expert to help them design their reward structures. This is the second expansion in a row where they understand that there is a problem, then proceed to exacerbate the problem instead of actually fixing it.
  1. Niwes's Avatar
    ok. they will not get rid of that shitty L system solely based on luck. sad to hear stupid blizzard killed an otherwise good expansion with their diablo mentality.

    how complicated is it, to get, that in a mmorpg you wanna working long term straight towards a goal, just based on time investment (and maybe ideally skill)? no time gated shit. no luck based shit. i just wanna work for my stuff over a long time and wanna be proud when i finally earned it. thats it.

    finally get what mmorpgs are designed for. this is not diablo nor an action adventure game. you damn idiots at blizz hq.
  1. xlanonym0uslx's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by amplitudelol View Post
    You dont understand. Each of them is unique with and epic questline to get them offering a great lore experience to the players. its not like these items are just dropping out of random boars you kill, right?... The fantasy of wielding these powerful relics is absolutely without a doubt well sold to the players and they feel very attached to how they function based on spec. Especially because you dont randomly get one of these from random places doing random stuff. Dont you feel the sorrow and sadness equipping Lanathel's ring for example? You already picture yourself in Northrend! I remember how i got mine. I was helping out the good spirits in Azsuna and was about to inspect my reward from their quartermaster then out of nothing i found this ring inside! It was strange and never explained how it got inside that box, but what a cool story and fantasy of getting one of the most powerful items in the World of Warcraft. I would really feel bad after knowing the origin of this item that it still can enhance death knights specialized in frost as well. The lore behind these items are so well established and presented to the player that it would feel very odd for gameplay reasons to just change how they work based on your spec. Anyway, never ever has anyone said at Blizz entertainment that gameplay first, this philosophy would be very alien to them.
    lmao dude your example is the extreme fringe case. lore is cool and all but I don't PLAY something to learn about it. books, etc are a much better medium, they don't impede on the actual functionality of the game and fucking ruin it like legendaries do. I could care less about some dumb ring with some random person's name I've never heard of on it, and the vast majority of players aren't knowing to know or care about whoever the hell that is. none of them have a questline, and instead of random boars, it's random chests. most people don't give a fuck how they function based on spec lore-wise, would rather have an enjoyable experience rather than be like "oh that's cool, now I have to suffer with this shit functionality after that small tidbit of mildly-interesting info". but you're probably a troll because none of that makes sense, and so much of it is just blatantly wrong
  1. dudewheresmydk's Avatar
    wut? so... prydaz is counted for all 3 of my specs?

    So, having played so much elemental and (slightly-less) enhancement on my shaman means that I get fucked over by having prydaz (the system recognizes me having 1 legendary for elemental and enhancement)?

    The system is so fucked, I have 2 fucking legendaries in total and I hit lvl 110 in the second week of september. one being resto (which I play the least) and one an class-wide prydaz. fuck you blizzard, you're fucking horse shit
  1. Siglius's Avatar
    If you've been playing since septemeber and only have 2 legendaries you've been doing something VERY wrong.
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Siglius View Post
    If you've been playing since septemeber and only have 2 legendaries you've been doing something VERY wrong.
    Never blame RNG on people. Never.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Guess Blizzard will never get the fact that even WoW being a MMO, and inherently MMOs being endless, even MMOs must have some end points.

    When they keep adding stuff to things that should be over by now (like reps), it really feels bad as you start to see that you'll never finish something in the game even months/years later.

    The same goes for their AP problem (and all the grind in Legion), they don't get it that if there is nothing like a weekly cap for AP, things like that will happen and will burn out the players. Like someone said once, since they keep balancing raids bosses with the extra dmg from 35+ Artifact Traits, BiS Legendaries, Titanforged, etc... in mind, more and more people will feel like going for it. As long as there are tight dps checks that calls for the maximum power you can possible get on a character, this will happen.

    And this happening, things goes bad for everything else in the game since people will start focusing on what gives them the most for less time and stop doing other things in the game (that they would be doing to have fun) like joining queues for pvp, events or whatever.

    If the AP farm had a weekly cap that you could reasonable reach, things would be way lighter now (and Blizzard would be well aware where the world is in their artifact level and work their encounter balance better). And then if you feel like that you want to farm more, switch specs and start getting it on another artifact. Even people playing on alts wouldn't feel bad that all that AP should be going for their main character/artifact instead.
  1. Unholyground's Avatar
    Honestly if they wanted to make world quests more appealing they should all give you either Hall Resources or AK as an addition.
  1. FROSTYRUNE's Avatar
    With BM hunters our 2nd/3rd legendary which is a strong combo Belt/Ring will allow us to have 2 set tier 19 4 set tier20, we dont have to choose to not use legendaries...hahahahahaha
  1. Halstinavos's Avatar
    So if you have Prydaz and Sephuz (or any other multi spec legendary), forget about trying to get legendaries for another spec. You get punished even more now, because you don't get the extra spec specific drop chance at all. Sweet. I'm sure I'll just get to sit and watch people with BIS legendaries switch loot spec and get BIS legendaries for their off-spec as well. Talk about demoralizing.
  1. prwraith's Avatar
    This reads as a perfect example of why wow is dying. Blizzard is clueless.
  1. kaintk's Avatar
    and again they dont want to listen to peoples, we just want to have a fucking token legendaries system that will repair everything
  1. Dug's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Murderdoll View Post
    People can blame the playerbase all they like, but end of the day, Blizzard's aim is to retain players by having a long lasting game. In the 12 years of WoW, have players EVER paced this sort of thing and said "Oh you know, its not important, ill get it sooner or later".

    No. Never. Never will.
    Yes. Yes they have. Blizzard has the actual data to back up their statements. They can see everything the players are doing and look at trends and where players are putting the most time and effort. It's also just common sense. The majority of players are not endlessly grinding for 54. I certainly am not. But I'm also not a Mythic raider. I'm not even a Heroic raider at the moment. Even if I was if my guild demanded me to run 50 M+ every week I'd refuse and find someone else to play with.

    That isn't to say the AP system isn't a flawed one because it very much is but players should hold themselves accountable for their actions and raiding "standards".
  1. MarkTheMadMad's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Prfct View Post
    'Playing endless hours for a small advantage is not sustainable. '... but this is exactly the kinda shit they're going to do with AP farming on 7.2... what the fuck are they thinking about?
    The winging and moaning about grind in this thread is unbelievable. I'd say about 80% of you don't even know what proper grind is. Try grinding AAXP in Everquest, or farming Hecks in Elysium in pre AI Anarchy online, or even the legendary quest chain in LOTRO. Only when you try these will you be happy with your themepark WoW
  1. Dvaldin's Avatar
    Legendaries are cool, and the randomness of them doesn't bother me like it apparently does others. It's a big deal when I get one, but it's not a big deal if I don't. I do think it could have been cooler to obtain them via some extraordinary questlines like some of the artifact weapon ones. That also might've been a hassle though. I think any solution they come up with will have naysayers.

    If what he says about AP working for the "vast majority of players" is correct, changing it after six months of having it the way it is has a pretty freaking big chance of backfiring. I like the way AP works now. I don't really feel the need to grind it like others so, but sometimes I might for a little bit. It seems like some of 7.2's changes are for the 0.5 percent playerbase and to push people into raiding more. Can't really judge until it arrives.

    All in all, I'm having a good time in WoW...but the answers in the Q&A are somewhat troubling.
  1. ALF20's Avatar
    Some legendary items have a name and fantasy that make them very distinct, so it wouldn't make sense to have them change based on your spec.

    c'mon, this is not hard to work around this
    Just change its name and whole tooltip/stats in the same time. Legendaries are locking us into specs
  1. Diggsworth's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aigis View Post
    from the beginning the point of M+ was "let's give players something they can do as much as they want (kinda) with varying difficulty so they can shoot for the best they can do and try to improve each week!"
    The community found the repeatability of M+ to be the path of less resistance to high AP.
    Now the devs want you to shoot for the completion of a difficult dungeon, not to grind for high amounts of AP.
    Which is what you do now, only after completing your +15/+17, instead of doing more, and getting rewards you're faced with two choices:
    1) Grind up a low level keystone and receive very little as a reward until you get to another high level stone
    2) Stop
    And then this doesn't even consider people who aren't able to get their own groups due to whatever.
    The subset of of players who currently complete m+ by having people carry them through their stone are going to be now put in a position where the groups who would normally carry them are unwilling to.
    Hell, once my groups completed our 15+ for the week, we usually carry players through stones, and it isn't even a waste of time since we still receive a chunk of AP, but after the changes, why bother?
    What's the point of grouping to level a +1-8 stone if you can't even be assured that you'll be in a good group to do the stone when it gets to a highe rlevel?
    Who's to say that you don't form the group, get through to +whatever, and then realize the stoneholder is a hyper carry?
    What does this new system mean for new players? Alts?
    Again, we can't know for usre until final adjustments are made, but currently the future doesn't look so hot.
    I'm willing to hope it gets better though/
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