Developer Q&A with Ion Hazzikostas - Battle for Azeroth
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.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Developer Q&A with Ion Hazzikostas - Battle for Azeroth started by chaud View original post
Comments 196 Comments
  1. Tamurello's Avatar
    You shouldn't have to run sims to find out of items are an upgrade.

    Yeah this is ridiculous btw, I get a piece of gear and I need to run 3 sims and install an addon to find out whether its better than what I got
  1. Qnubi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Onikaroshi View Post
    If it's as intrusive as 7.3, it'll be no big deal, you didn't actually have to do anything with them in 7.3 if you didn't want to.
    It's undermining rewards where you actually have to play the game. Tell me, how rewarding does a World Quest feel that yields 100-200g when you can get 2,5k+ for clicking 3 times. In terms of gold rewards mission tables are the greatest income, which is WRONG! It should be the other way around, mission tables should yield 100-200g top and the harder World Quest that require groups should yield 2k+. Reputation are another spot where mission tables wins easily, you can get 2k reputation for a few simple clicks. Bad, fucking, design.
  1. mmoc18e6a734ba's Avatar
    Adding more abilities every expansion isn't sustainable.
    Then don't make new expansions and don't increase the level cap. There aren't any point increasing the cap if you aren't going to add new abilities. When I read these sort of things I die in the inside and wonder where the actual game designers have gone at blizzard...
  1. kaintk's Avatar
    You shouldn't have to run sims to find out of items are an upgrade.

    let us all laugh to that

    listen blizzard, yeah i'm talking to you directly, stop putting all those different relics, all those different subs stats if you want us to stop sims your game

    the only time we will stop sims new items is when each item dropped will have the same kind of stats and in equal strenght, even if the game had items : [main stats +cc +haste + mastery] we would sims it too unless you make all the sub stats on the same level like : +500critical +500 haste + 500 mastery
  1. Azmoden's Avatar
    You know this game is very thin on content when the only thing they can talk about from a new expansion is new races, which isn't even content...
  1. Sarsoman's Avatar
    As a Demo warlock, a 960 crit/mastery w/ socket neck wasn't an upgrade over my 900 pure haste crafted neck. That's when you know things are a bit wonky.
  1. JohnnyMccrum's Avatar
    Yet another useless, unproductive and damaging Q&A.
  1. riptal's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Azmoden View Post
    You know this game is very thin on content when the only thing they can talk about from a new expansion is new races, which isn't even content...
    If you look at people's questions, alot only care about allied races... SO I guess Blizz is only answering what people want... I'm sad! Hope Blizz dont put all energy and ressources just on that!
  1. Daevied's Avatar
    Zandalari Trolls won't be unlocked at the release of Battle for Azeroth, it is part of the first story arc.

    Wait, what?!. So i wont be able to lvl my zandalari troll the first day of BFA and i will have to wait for some weeks for a quest chain like suramar? I hope i am misunderstanding this and they are talking about only the intro quests of BFA as in no gated at all..
  1. Vertigo X's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by riptal View Post
    If you look at people's questions, alot only care about allied races... SO I guess Blizz is only answering what people want... I'm sad! Hope Blizz dont put all energy and ressources just on that!
    Those are different departments and not mutually exclusive.
  1. riptal's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vertigo X View Post
    Those are different departments and not mutually exclusive.
    I dont mind. Blizzard is a business and will always go with what majority of people want. To sell a product you give what people are asking for and give up on what people doesnt talk about.
  1. mmoc18e6a734ba's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by riptal View Post
    If you look at people's questions, alot only care about allied races... SO I guess Blizz is only answering what people want... I'm sad! Hope Blizz dont put all energy and ressources just on that!
    You have to keep in mind that it is blizzard who choose the questions they answer to. As such it is very easy to manipulate a Q&A in order to say exactly what you want to and no more. If 10 players ask for information on the new raids and 1 on the new races, Blizzard can answer the question regarding the new races.
  1. riptal's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Stanelis View Post
    You have to keep in mind that it is blizzard who choose the questions they answer to. As such it is very easy to manipulate a Q&A in order to say exactly what you want to and no more. If 10 players ask for information on the new raids and 1 on the new races, Blizzard can answer the question regarding the new races.
    Yeah that's true! But have you seen the list of questions? I must say that probably 80% was about the races... Like nobody care about the content at all!
  1. Kendros's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Daevied View Post
    Zandalari Trolls won't be unlocked at the release of Battle for Azeroth, it is part of the first story arc.

    Wait, what?!. So i wont be able to lvl my zandalari troll the first day of BFA and i will have to wait for some weeks for a quest chain like suramar? I hope i am misunderstanding this and they are talking about only the intro quests of BFA as in no gated at all..
    Most likely youll have to finish the first quest chain in zandalar to unlock them
  1. Fritters154's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Azmoden View Post
    You know this game is very thin on content when the only thing they can talk about from a new expansion is new races, which isn't even content...
    Just look through the forums on this website, the official website, or any other fan site. Players care far more about the allied races than other content right now.
  1. pitfireX's Avatar
    The mission table will not be used as a time gate.

    As long as this shit isn't mandatory or in the middle of quest lines, then by all means. The second I have to stop progression for 24 hours and lose my free time that I set aside, then its garbage.
  1. IIamaKing's Avatar
    You shouldn't have to run sims to find out of items are an upgrade.
    They say this like every xpac....do we really think they will get it right this time?
  1. riptal's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Fritters154 View Post
    Just look through the forums on this website, the official website, or any other fan site. Players care far more about the allied races than other content right now.
    It worries me A LOT!
  1. Akello45's Avatar
    Yet another Q&A where they don't address the imbalance in racials between horde vs alliance in regards to pvp & mythic+. If they are going to make mythic+ competitive, they need to balance out these racials. Currently there's every reason in the world to switch to horde if you want to be really competitive, and zero reason to run as alliance.

    On a similar note, classes with huge utilitiy like heroism & battle rez have a massive advantage over those without in mythic +. This also needs to be addressed. There's a reason most of the top teams in mythic+ competitive runs are using a lock, 1-2 druids, hunter, and self healing tanks like blood dks, dh, and bears. This needs to be addressed. I love the mythic+ system, and it's a lot of fun. But I feel unfairly penalized for playing something like a alliance ret pally with no AOE CC/brez/hero etc. At least if i was a blood elf i would have an aoe silence...
  1. Frolk's Avatar
    [QUOTE=kamuimac;49065997]lol they should

    blizzard is moving in right direction - ML was bringing to much toxicity to game if toxic people will leave because of it - even better

    - - - Updated - - -

    How the fuck is ML bringing toxicity to the game?

    By "toxicity" u mean disagreement with lootcouncils

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