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Season of Discovery Hotfixes - 23 April
Season of Discovery Hotfixes - April 23
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Every Allied Race should be removed... except two
Ion Hazzikostas is back to talk about Battle for Azeroth!
Zandalari Trolls
- The story of BfA details Zandalari Paladins and this arc could lead to Zandalari Paladins. We have to wait and see.
- Zandalari Trolls won't be unlocked at the release of Battle for Azeroth, it is part of the first story arc.
- Zandalari trolls were made slightly taller in the Alpha recently.
Allied Races
- Allied Races will always come out in pairs for now, but in the long run they may not come out for both factions at the same time.
- Mag'har Orcs - Mag'har means uncorrupted, not necessarily the survivors from Outland.
- Class balance on factions is more linked to lore than equality.
- Kul Tiran Humans were mentioned as an Allied Race.
- As new Allied Races are added, more character slots will be added.
- Allied Races will continue to get more customization options if they are lacking compared to other races.
Non Allied Races
- More customization options for non-Allied races are not planned on the near horizon.
- There is no immediate plan to give existing races Heritage Armor like Allied Races, but it is a good idea that could happen in the future.
- Ion mentioned Racial Questlines for unlocking existing race Heritage Armor, but it's just a thought.
Dev Communication
- Data and screenshots help get a point across when communicating with devs.
- Rational feedback is more effective when communicating with devs over emotional feedback.
- Personal feedback is more effective than trying to speak for everyone.
- The platform to use for feedback depends on what the feedback is. (Forums for lists, twitter for pics)
Class Balance
- They don't want to undo class pruning as much as wanting to add unique class abilities.
- The team wants to double down on strengths rather than emphasize weaknesses.
- Class envy is okay as long as it works both ways.
- Adding more abilities every expansion isn't sustainable.
- Giving classes new abilities usually involves giving them something that they need, and after awhile it leads to everyone feeling the same.
- The team wants to do more with gameplay modification through external sources. This is what legendary items were trying to accomplish in Legion.
- In Battle for Azeroth, Azerite Armor modifications are going to fill the new abilities gap.
- Raids and Mythic + Dungeons should both test the strengths and weaknesses of classes.
Itemization
- The team needs to do better at making primary stats stronger than secondary stats in BfA.
- Item level should generally tell you if an item is an upgrade.
- Items that are 20 or 25 item levels higher in Legion were sometimes not an upgrade, which is a bad thing.
- You shouldn't have to run sims to find out of items are an upgrade.
Talents and Abilities
- Some classes don't necessarily need the abilities from their artifact weapons.
- If a talent choice is taken by everyone and mandatory, then it could shift to baseline or change it.
- Legendary abilities that are getting added baseline to classes or as talents will stack with the legendary effect.
- Switching talents between AoE and single target wasn't compelling and just felt like burning a tome.
Artifact Weapons
- When 8.0 launches, the traits on artifact weapons will be disabled. The weapon and relics will stay, but not talents.
- Battle for Azeroth will have traditional weapon drops including war glaives.
PvP
- If CC is too limited, PvP turns into DPS races. It it's too much, it's frustrating.
- The team believes teamwork comes into play when someone is locked down.
- Useful feedback involves certain crowd control chains that can last too long.
- Prestige rewards will still be available and earned from participation in PvP. The team doesn't want to keep adding a ton of rewards, as new players will feel like they can never earn them all. Cosmetic rewards from PvP is something the team wants to continue to build upon.
- Something similar to the World Defense Channel could come back in some way as the faction war concept continues in BfA.
Personal Loot
- Personal Loot is the desired loot rule moving forward.
- Some people have kept using Master Loot to funnel set pieces to specific people, but set pieces are gone in Battle for Azeroth, so Personal Loot only is a good thing. It will help to balance things at the top end of the raid scene and split runs.
Mission Tables in BfA
- A mission table system will be in BfA similar to Legion but less involved.
- The mission table will not be used as a time gate.
- War Resources will be a currency in BfA for the mission table.
Mythic +
- The team is looking at bringing Tyrannical and Fortified down to the base level, with new Affixes at Mythic 10.
- The Mythic+ UI will be improved.
- The UI was based on the previous expansion challenge modes and doesn't make much sense for Mythic+.
- New affixes are being experimented on. The team is not happy with the datamined ones.
Professions
- The team is changing the way the universal profession skill system works. It was always a bit awkward, as the team wanted people to be able to catch up for the latest expansion. Going back to craft useless gear wasn't great.
- There are expansion themed categories for each profession, so you can go back and level those up if you want to craft that old gear.
- The team wants crafted gear to be relevant, but there is nothing to announce on it at the moment.
Alts
- BfA will be similar to Legion in terms of alt-friendliness.
- If you are looking to get varied content from alts, the team has taken a number of steps to deliver that.
- If you are looking for more alts to farm things, that is less of what the team is trying to prioritize.
- There were issues with alts early in Legion, but things are closer to okay now.
- The Heart of Azeroth catch up process for Azerite will work passively in the background, similar to Artifact Knowledge.
Guilds
- Guilds will have all the same features as the new WoW Communities.
- Communities are smaller commitments than guilds. They are meant to organize pugs or for players that aren't in the same guild.
Leveling Experience
- Having two separate continents for Horde and Alliance is not much different than previous expansions.
- There are still neutral areas with quests for both factions.
- A unique trait of BfA is once level cap is reached, these faction specific zones become zones that are utilized by both factions.
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