Live Developer Q&A with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas
Ion Hazzikostas is sitting down for another question and answer session on Battle for Azeroth!


  • RNG
    • There are a lot more viable loot acquisitions in the game outside of raiding than in the past.
    • The team is working on tech to make the mythic + cache at the end of the week less random.
    • The team is actively trying to figure out how to lessen moments that feel bad without making everything a vendor.
  • Gear Reset and Catch Up
    • The team has experimented with many different ranges for item level increase between raid tiers and have found the current 15 item levels is the minimum that they can do to make the jump from tier to tier feel relevant.
  • Fun and Enjoyment
    • The team has no incentive to create content that is not fun just to pad subscription numbers.
    • People tend to fixate on the Activitision investor lingo but this is not what the team focuses on when creating content.
    • The team values how engaged the community is and how often they are logging in to do content. They want to create content based on feedback and community response.
    • There are many different play styles and ways people enjoy the game. What works for some people doesn't always work for others.
  • PvP Rewards
    • Conquest rewards are not as high of an item level as raids and other harder content because it is a participation award just for engaging in PvP.
    • Playing at higher levels of PvP offers more relevant rewards comparable to other harder content.
  • Stat Importance
    • Starting in Legion, the ratio of stats on gear shifted more to primary stats as you progress further into the end game.
    • The team doesn't want secondary stats to be perfectly equal for classes so there is some decision making and enjoyment from seeing good stats on gear, but they want the gaps between secondary stat importance to be narrow.
  • Portal Removal Feedback
    • A Caverns of Time portal is being added to the portal hubs in the next update.
    • A UI update in the next update will add pathfinding directions to quests that take place on other continents.
  • Transmog
    • The ability to hide the chest slot will be added in the next update.
    • A long term project is to loosen some restrictions over time so players can have more self expression.
  • Character Customization
    • The team wants to increase customization options such as eye color in the near future.
    • A height option is more complicated and most likely not happening.
  • Allied Races
    • There are no new Allied Races in Rise of Azshara.
    • The team is listening to community feedback for what people want to play and will announce Allied races where it makes sense with the story.
    • There could be the ability to repeat Allied Race quests in the future.
  • Leveling
    • Leveling needs help. 120 is a big number and giving a reward at every level would be overwhelming and impractical.
    • The team has heavily discussed a level squish lately. They want community feedback on if losing levels would feel bad even if they could give more valuable rewards at every level in the leveling process.
  • Classic and Old Design Philosophies
    • The team wants to put the emphasis of community back into WoW.
    • With that said, they also don't want to make people feel like they can't play without other people.
  • Role Playing Servers in Classic
    • There will be a role playing server option in Classic.
  • Guilds and Communities
    • Certain guild features were lost in the transition of integrating communities into the Battle.net platform. The team is working and listening to feedback to bring back what is missed most.
  • Two Sides to Every Tale Achievement
    • The team thought it would be a cool reward for people who saw both narratives. It isn't necessarily starting a trend to play both factions.
  • Gold
    • The team did not like what Warlords and Legion did to the economy and tried to pull back in BfA. They have reintroduced gold rewards after some changes in the beginning of the expansion such as the emissary rewards.
    • The team wants repair and consumable costs to be easily done through normal game play.
    • Selling runs for gold has been going on since the game launched. It is much healthier for it to happen with in game currency over sketchy methods.
    • The team doesn't want the advertising of selling runs to dominate channels and group finder and have taken steps to try and stop it, but there is no way to stop it completely.
  • Demon Hunter Server Restrictions
    • No plans to remove the restrictions in BfA, but most likely in the future as they did with Death Knights.
  • Raid Composition
    • The team is pretty happy with the encounter designs in Battle for Dazar'alor.
    • Ideally there will be some fights that are more friendly to ranged and in turn some that are friendlier to melee.
    • Outliers are usually changed such as Mythrax and Mythic Fetid Devourer.
  • Reputation in Dungeons
    • It is unlikely that reputation will be awarded for just doing dungeons because it is mostly tied to the outdoor content. They don't want chaining dungeons to be the most practical method of obtaining reputation.
    • In the past they had reputation in dungeons because of the limited amount of dailies. With world quests, there are more ways to earn rep now.
  • Thal'kiel and Demonology Warlocks
    • Other Legion artifact personalities could return in the future. Hati was an outlier because it was a beloved companion specific to hunters.
    • Xal'atath was an interesting character and the team wanted to dive into her story more which is why she has returned.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Live Developer Q&A with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas started by Stoy View original post
Comments 259 Comments
  1. letssee's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by General Zanjin View Post
    if they did a level squish i would quit for good.
    Lol why? Isnt it a good thing?
  1. vashe9's Avatar
    we definitely need a level squish, whats the difference between "losing power" with recents stats squish or a plain level squish ? nothing, and it would feel better 130 (?) in next expansion would be too much.

    All these answers seem logical, I dont get all the hate

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    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    It is unlikely that reputation will be awarded for just doing dungeons because it is mostly tied to the outdoor content. They don't want chaining dungeons to be the most practical method of obtaining reputation.

    Yeah gotta keep people on that sub hook with emissaries and 75 rep world quests....

    Disgraceful.
    Are you serious ? I was exalted after 2 weeks max and I never "cleaned" the WQ map, NEVER... I dont care about alts at all because rep for alt is useless anyway

    BFA is far from perfect but seriously, the people here... no one in my guild is whining like you and we're enjoying the game, no one is forced to play everyday, most of people play less than me and I dont even play everyday (I skip 1-2 days when we're not raiding to play other games ect)... Granted I'm "only" 6/9 mm and not ultra cutting edge, but none of you are...

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Saphyron View Post
    I don't care about level whether it gets lowered or not. But would like for levelling to go faster cause I hate levelling.

    I care about seeing where the story goes.
    Doing Dungeons.
    Doing Raids.

    Level or ilvl squiz does not affect that in any way shape or form.
    I don't care if I am lvl 10 and fighting a raid boss or level 1000.
    I don't care if I am doing 5000 DPS or 1m DPS as long as its all relative to boss health.

    Same, and I've been playing this game for more than 14 years only for these 3 things

    MY main is still my hunter since Vanilla, I don't have a lot of alts and only 2 120 (my warior from allied race leveled up 1-110 in dungeons and 110-120 in.. TW dungeons, not even 1 quest lol) Yes with TW dungeons it's ultra fast to level up...
  1. Filipse's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ion View Post
    In the past they had reputation in dungeons because of the limited amount of dailies. With world quests, there are more ways to earn rep now.
    YEAH WE SURE DO LOVE OUR 75 REPUTATION PER QUEST NEUTRAL TO EXALTED! *sarcasm*
  1. vashe9's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Filipse View Post
    YEAH WE SURE DO LOVE OUR 75 REPUTATION PER QUEST NEUTRAL TO EXALTED! *sarcasm*
    75 is the base, with WM is +10% (or is it the WQ weekly buff ?) and elite quests reward more... and its not neutral to exalted, its honored -> exalted if you do the quests... Seriously people !!!! Stop saying BS it's annoying. And with invasions is even faster now (+ 5 WQ)

    I'm not WK anything, you're just plain liars. I dont get it, people seems to think vanilla was the best game ever, DO YOU EVEN WINTERSPRING REPUTATION ??? I grinded thousands of furbolgs for WEEKS !!
  1. eduwneso's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Taeldorian View Post
    They answered some good questions imo like the activision shit. I think touching on that is a good thing since people literally never shut up about it. Like it’s all people discuss here.
    Yeah, but look at the answers moking it, that's one of the reasons why they never talk about it or don't want to.

    Quote Originally Posted by Taeldorian View Post
    As for people complaining about them not answering azerite/gear related questions, they already did. We know what’s happening with Azerite Armor in 8.2 and we know what’s happening with the neck as well. Just have to see how that plays out.
    I want 8.2 in the PTR now!! I'm very curious and hyped about it!
  1. Niffo's Avatar
    Only excited to see changes to the transmog system, maybe we can finally transmog legandaries or use enchants on artifact weapons. Inb4 its stupid to see everyone with thunderfury. That argument got debunked in legion when everyone was walking with Assbringer as well. Just give us freedom, it's a MMORPG. Fucking Ion.
  1. Season2mask's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by psyquest View Post
    god damn, people said they only answer easy questions and this is beyond that.

    How about solving the issue with gear in this fucking xpac?
    I'm not exactly happy with how BFA started but could you explain what you perceive to be the issue with gear? Genuinely curious.
  1. eduwneso's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Fleugen View Post
    In both Legion and BFA, the total rep you can earn per day has been MAJORLY reduced. (in 3 dailies in Wrath, MoP, or otherwise, the average rep per day was, at minimum, 750 rep - That was generally in 3-4 quests as opposed to the 10 world quests it would now take to get the same amount.)

    In WoD, there were no dailies for rep. Only rep grinds. As opposed to a limited 750 rep per day in 3 dailies, you had to kill 750 mobs in a specific area for rep, which was much slower.

    Dailies didn't even exist at all until BC, and not as actual daily HUBS until Wrath.

    So no, you can't claim it's been the same since Classic.
    Before 8.1.5 I saw that my reps where not in exalted, the one you need for the allied race, I got around 6k rep in 2 days, granted, had the chest and also an invasion, but that's still more than what you got in MOP.
  1. Sencha's Avatar
    One guy with a wool hat, one guy with a short sleeve shirt.
  1. eduwneso's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Arvandor View Post
    shrine portal is more important as cavern of time.

    no words on 8.2 azerith changes?

    oh oh this is not good for bfa..
    I think they want us first to look it at the PTR, mark my words, there will be another Q&A no long after 8.2 hits PTR
  1. CptEgo's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kaira View Post
    Dude you are white knighting a shitty game from a shitty company the game has fallen from grace it used to be great now it's just shit and its devs are shit face it no one cares about your shilling it.

    I do find it hilarious how the team doesnt make content thats not fun and padding for subscription numbers when thats exactly what it is and why so many people have quit this hot pile of garbage and moved on.
    What a load of bullshit. Please tell me what other MMOS offer even a fraction of what this game does. Or perhaps one of those shitty micro-transaction games is more to your liking.
  1. vashe9's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kaira View Post
    Dude you are white knighting a shitty game from a shitty company the game has fallen from grace it used to be great now it's just shit and its devs are shit face it no one cares about your shilling it.

    I do find it hilarious how the team doesnt make content thats not fun and padding for subscription numbers when thats exactly what it is and why so many people have quit this hot pile of garbage and moved on.
    I'm enjoying current wow... I got bored in wotlk a lot more quickly outside of raids (no mm+, nothing to really farm, just a few boring dailies)... :/

    I still see plenty of players in game but well... believe what you want :/ it's true there are less players than before but blame Apex, Fortnite and other shitty "BR" games that are trendy. And mobas too
  1. paragraphgorilla's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by vashe9 View Post
    75 is the base, with WM is +10% (or is it the WQ weekly buff ?) and elite quests reward more... and its not neutral to exalted, its honored -> exalted if you do the quests... Seriously people !!!! Stop saying BS it's annoying. And with invasions is even faster now (+ 5 WQ)

    I'm not WK anything, you're just plain liars. I dont get it, people seems to think vanilla was the best game ever, DO YOU EVEN WINTERSPRING REPUTATION ??? I grinded thousands of furbolgs for WEEKS !!
    Is that you, LORE?
  1. eduwneso's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gasparde View Post
    Oh, so that's why a single fucking stupid potion requires 20 herbs to make and, depending on server, costs anywhere between 200 and 500 gold. Unless their definition of 'normal gameplay' is 'farming herbs for 6 hours per week' or 'raiding for 1 hour and never using more than 5 pots per week', something isn't fucking adding up.

    It's fucking ridiculous how a single raid night costs at least 10k these days - which is a very generously low number, 20k is probably way closer to reality with 40 300g pots per night, a bunch of flasks, food, repairs and maybe even runes/vantus. Add that up to 3 raids a week and you're looking at 50k+every single week. I fail to see how pathetic 2k gold emissaries twice a week, 5k gold paragon caches every other week and the super awesome 60g worldquests are supposed to cover that, like, at fucking all.

    It's getting close to impossible to sustain raid nights without offering sellruns. They should've reduced the cost of pots by like 75% 6 months ago - they should've never got rid of fucking prolonged power potions in the first place. But I totally get it, giving people 2k gold every once in a while totally makes up for pots requiring 20 motherfucking herbs, totally sustainable through normal gameplay.
    I feel you, I want to use potions but it's expensive as fuck, I'm losing some DPS but for now only food and elixirs. Legion was perfect for the Pre-pots, easy to make and used by every class, if it's to cheap maybe put in a little more to the system of legion, but it was very good for raiding.
  1. cuafpr's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ielenia View Post
    "Character levels" is not something that exists in the lore. The lore would be completely unchanged, level squish or no level squish.

    Did/do you think the "item level squish" also needed a "lore explanation"?
    while "levels" might not exist the power gained in leveling does... taking my 120 down to a 20 is just wrong imo. And yes I was/am against the stats squishes and world scaling.

    IMO they missed the best chance to do a squish and explain with legion to -> BFA ... maybe they can do it again BFA -> next expac and some sort of story behind it but i doubt it, and figure they will just do it :/
  1. nyc81991's Avatar
    "The team has heavily discussed a level squish lately. They want community feedback on if losing levels would feel bad even if they could give more valuable rewards at every level in the leveling process."
    If they do a "level squish" I'm done with WoW...
  1. Alkizon's Avatar
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    RNG
    There are a lot more viable loot acquisitions in the game outside of raiding than in the past.
    The team is working on tech to make the mythic + cache at the end of the week less random.
    The team is actively trying to figure out how to lessen moments that feel bad without making everything a vendor.
    We noticed, but just who asked you to do it? Never "more" means better, it should be "enough", but not more, well since this boundary has been crossed long ago, so... draw conclusions. "Less random" doesn't mean "not random", so nothing changes here too. "Without making everything a vendor" - using determinant loot table without dungeons have some kind of "old world drop", scaling to spec/lvl/ilvl and t/w-forge $hit, like it always was before. Say no to loot-boxes! What? I begin to suspect that friends' conclusions about game tokens aren't just a logical warm-up/brain's training, but very much fair statements.
    ~
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Gear Reset and Catch Up
    The team has experimented with many different ranges for item level increase between raid tiers and have found the current 15 item levels is the minimum that they can do to make the jump from tier to tier feel relevant.
    It’s just that team is stubborn to impossible level and doesn't want to use mechanism that allowed it to be avoided in the past (again without scaling to everything, t/wf, millions of difficulties etc.), which means, that team, as a group of devs, is worthless.
    ~
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Fun and Enjoyment
    The team has no incentive to create content that is not fun just to pad subscription numbers.
    People tend to fixate on the Activitision investor lingo but this is not what the team focuses on when creating content.
    The team values how engaged the community is and how often they are logging in to do content. They want to create content based on feedback and community response.
    There are many different play styles and ways people enjoy the game. What works for some people doesn't always work for others.
    "Has no initiative", but continue with doing it, you should learn to finish The rest of what has been said is so... I don’t even know how to call it, may be - “useless”, since those who have long ceased to believe in sincerity of these your words will only laugh, and rest will pass by without even noticing (by the way, the last one is an artificial problem, contrived, organized by devs themselves, this doesn't justify any your actions at all, we remembered it only yesterday and here you are, this fake childish naive innocence again nonono)
    ~
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    PvP Rewards
    As mentioned before: without proper characteristics, currency and venders (= having goal and choice), not to mention correct base class design, all this is useless air shaking.
    ~
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Stat Importance
    Starting in Legion, the ratio of stats on gear shifted more to primary stats as you progress further into the end game.
    The team doesn't want secondary stats to be perfectly equal for classes so there is some decision making and enjoyment from seeing good stats on gear, but they want the gaps between secondary stat importance to be narrow.
    Well, does only in Legion? It's interesting that last time (again) same as now it remains to be obvious mistake. You're simply accelerating faster and faster theme under second quote. Look carefully, don't break to death with such "statements".
    ~
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Portal Removal Feedback | Transmog | Character Customization | Allied Races | Leveling ... Gold
    bla-bla-bla, doesn't matter, since models stays same $hit without customization allowing them resemble original ones - doesn't make any help for me, again useless stuff, you don't know anything about leveling since your system doesn't provide useful stuff associated with it = so doesn't even have any sense to ponder in everything being said, and your attitude to gold is already in a sense revealed by the last link under first quote.
    ~
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Reputation in Dungeons
    It is unlikely that reputation will be awarded for just doing dungeons because it is mostly tied to the outdoor content. They don't want chaining dungeons to be the most practical method of obtaining reputation.
    In the past they had reputation in dungeons because of the limited amount of dailies. With world quests, there are more ways to earn rep now.
    So can you add "tokens" to reputations for endless deliver without restrictions on farm place (wherever it drops out)? (Ie, as it was normaly done always before dominance "monetization" over design) But no, of course not, there always should be time gate now!
  1. Kaver's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by njams View Post
    Only excited to see changes to the transmog system, maybe we can finally transmog legandaries or use enchants on artifact weapons. Inb4 its stupid to see everyone with thunderfury. That argument got debunked in legion when everyone was walking with Assbringer as well. Just give us freedom, it's a MMORPG. Fucking Ion.
    Only outlaw rogues can tmog Thunderfury
  1. vashe9's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    Aye. 82 or w/e rep per world quest even with WM on is crap.

    Having 250 a day from a dungeon or w/e like in Mists would help. But again they gotta keep people on the sub hook for those allied races.

    But yeah seems majority of WoW players have moved to FF14, ESO or just quit the genre altogether.

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    - - - Updated - - -

    Quite possibly is an understatement mate. It IS one of the best MMOs on the market right now and hell I'd say MMORPG of the decade.

    Shame you've given up on the genre though mate. There are still amazing games out there with great communities, dev teams that listen and games that don't try to pad their sub/player numbers with timegated/rng metrics.
    LOL So for you FF14 has more subs than wow ? What are you smoking, I want the same. But ffs, most people who've played at least 1 month after release are exalted in every BFA faction reputation (yes people who want BOTH factions exalted would need to play more...)

    No one and I say NO ONE has a sub to only get exalted to play allied races. AR are just reskin of existing races it's a "nice" bonus but its no way something that keeps you playing... If not then you're just ultra casual even more casual than the average casual player...

    I've played FF14 for a few months and all the grindy things are WORSE, the WQ are even more boring than wow WQ, and you can even do dungeons with bots instead of players...

    I still fail to understand what you "loose" wwith a simple level squish. Content from older expansions always becomes obsolete, thats how wow has always been. If you don't like it then why did you still play this game after BC ? BC "destoyed" vanilla content.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by eduwneso View Post
    I feel you, I want to use potions but it's expensive as fuck, I'm losing some DPS but for now only food and elixirs. Legion was perfect for the Pre-pots, easy to make and used by every class, if it's to cheap maybe put in a little more to the system of legion, but it was very good for raiding.
    Its 20 plants per potions but you get at least 5 plants per spawn... it doesnt change almost anything, I farm 2h/week of 3 raiding nights and I prepot + use a pot every single pull/wipe... Are you even playing this game ?! With alchemist procs and "super procs" with the new item, I got 85+ potions from 35 pots material I farmed in less than 1 hours... b*tch please

    Omg mmo-c forums are worse than ever...
  1. rogoth's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by vashe9 View Post
    LOL So for you FF14 has more subs than wow ? What are you smoking, I want the same. But ffs, most people who've played at least 1 month after release are exalted in every BFA faction reputation (yes people who want BOTH factions exalted would need to play more...)

    No one and I say NO ONE has a sub to only get exalted to play allied races. AR are just reskin of existing races it's a "nice" bonus but its no way something that keeps you playing... If not then you're just ultra casual even more casual than the average casual player...

    I've played FF14 for a few months and all the grindy things are WORSE, the WQ are even more boring than wow WQ, and you can even do dungeons with bots instead of players...

    I still fail to understand what you "loose" wwith a simple level squish. Content from older expansions always becomes obsolete, thats how wow has always been. If you don't like it then why did you still play this game after BC ? BC "destoyed" vanilla content.
    i have played since expansion launch and have still yet to hit exhalted with the tortollans, wanna know why, i despise most of their WQ's, the only ones i can stand are the match game and make loh go, which are rare to show up.

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