Warcraft Radio Interview with Ion Hazzikostas

Warcraft Radio Interview with Ion Hazzikostas
Warcraft Radio sat down for an exclusive interview with Ion Hazzikostas about the recent Ny'alotha race to world first. Here is a recap of the interview. Be sure to watch the full video for all of the context and additional information!


  • Race to World First
    • It was really exciting to see a North American guild come out on top for the first time in awhile.
    • The team monitored the race in real time and fixed issues as fast as possible.
    • The Ra-den pre-immunity issue was hotfixed immediately so that immunity class stacking wasn't encouraged on the fight to bypass mechanics. The difference between this and the respawn issue was that Limit hadn't killed Ra-den yet.
    • The mythic race has shed light on bugs in mythic raids a lot faster than in the past.
    • There is a bit of a trade off in that the team wants to keep final boss mythic encounters somewhat exciting and secret which results in them not being tested by a large variety of guilds or situations.
    • Most mythic encounter strategies end up a little different than the team intended.
    • The issue that caused the team to despawn N'Zoth wasn't necessarily a bug, but a workaround that needed tuning so that the damage wasn't healable, forcing players into the portal.
    • The team wants to avoid excessive randomness in encounters that continually cause wipes.
    • The intended mechanic for 25% was a safety mechanism to spawn the gateway at 25% if phase 2 was initially skipped by dpsing the boss down to 25% without going in the portal for phase 2 yet, but the bug was that it was doing it EVEN IF phase 2 was completed.
    • Carapace was a little easier than intended, and in retrospect the damage requirements of phase 1 was too low.
    • In the past, these bugs only affected a small group of people, but now that they are public the team is learning how to improve communication and fix issues.
    • There are no plans to have mythic raids open simultaneously between NA and EU. They don't want the raid opening at bad times or having to delay opening, and most of the race comes down to learning and conquering the fight first.
  • Corruption System
    • Overall the team is happy with how corruption turned out, but there are still tuning issues. They like the choices and trade-offs that it brings to fights.
    • There are multiple tiers of each corruption so that you can wear more pieces of gear with good corruption without having excessive corruption negatives attached.
    • Corruption is an 8.3 system and is NOT the future of WoW.
  • Ny'alotha Encounters
    • The ball mechanic in the Xanesh encounter is the team trying to develop new ideas in raids that haven't been seen before.
    • Ion likes the Wrathion encounter, especially as a first fight, because it creates spectacle while also having some interesting mechanics.
    • Ion also likes the Carapace fight, particularly because he likes the idea of fighting your way into N'Zoth.
    • Sometimes datamined abilities in the encounter don't make the final cut but remain in the files as they iterate on fights even prior to PTR testing.
    • Queen Azshara originally had an extra phase with unique adds that didn't make the final cut.
    • Ion believes N'Zoth lives up to the standards of previous final boss encounters.
  • Future Mythic Encounters
    • The team is working on making sure bugs are solved before the race starts while also improving communication so that they fix these bugs faster when they pop up.
    • Final bosses of raids will likely still not be tested on the PTR for mythic to keep the surprise.
    • The team is happy with the 6 months between raid tiers as it's a good balance to allow people to make it to the end of the raid that have slower progression.
  • Battle for Azeroth Ending
    • There are definitely already hints building up to the future of the story.
    • Ion talks about the disappointment some felt for N'Zoth's end, but at the end of the day we are the heroes of the story and we will always defeat villains and make way for new villains to enter.
    • The team wanted the final cinematic of the expansion to focus on you as the hero and your efforts to build up your Heart of Azeroth being important to victory.
  • Shadowlands
    • There is a lot more to talk about with Shadowlands in the NEAR FUTURE.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Warcraft Radio Interview with Ion Hazzikostas started by Stoy View original post
Published on 2020-02-12 06:56 PM
123 Comments
Comments 123 Comments
  1. Ghostile's Avatar
    ITT people who think devs listen to a handful of idiots crying on forums instead of the population in general.
  1. Kyphael's Avatar
    Battle for Azeroth Ending
    •There are definitely already hints building up to the future of the story.
    •Ion talks about the disappointment some felt for N'Zoth's end, but at the end of the day we are the heroes of the story and we will always defeat villains and make way for new villains to enter.
    •The team wanted the final cinematic of the expansion to focus on you as the hero and your efforts to build up your Heart of Azeroth being important to victory.
    Nice way of saying "WE LAZY!" That goes without saying, but no ending cinematic to an expansion before felt so insignificant and hollow. Artifact Weapons were important to Legion, but its ending cinematic didn't just feature 25 heroes stabbing Argus with legendaries and him dying with no epilogue thereafter.
  1. Pandragon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Megitsune View Post
    I agree with you that there should something that sticks and can be built upon, but I'm very glad it's not corruption because that system is awful.
    As usual it's one of Blizzards "great idea, poor execution" things. Having different ranks and some effects being so freaking powerful is what ruined it. Not to mention the chance of the negative effects just one shotting you. And the fact that the corruptions effects have no cd: During one of our Mythic Wrathion attempts I literally had 8 things from below spawn from all different directions, and one attempt where I had Eye>Slow>Eye>Thing>Eye>thing without cascade.
  1. Onikaroshi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pandragon View Post
    As usual it's one of Blizzards "great idea, poor execution" things. Having different ranks and some effects being so freaking powerful is what ruined it. Not to mention the chance of the negative effects just one shotting you. And the fact that the corruptions effects have no cd: During one of our Mythic Wrathion attempts I literally had 8 things from below spawn from all different directions, and one attempt where I had Eye>Slow>Eye>Thing>Eye>thing without cascade.
    The negative effects are an important aspect though, you're obviously stacking a bunch of corruption. It's a slow nerfing mechanic as you can stack more and more, but you can't put on all your corruption pieces either
  1. Kallisto's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Varitok View Post
    "Ion talks about the disappointment some felt for N'Zoth's end, but at the end of the day we are the heroes of the story and we will always defeat villains and make way for new villains to enter."

    Probably the worst takeaway from this interview. It completely ruins any potential storylines and various potential endings in favour of Scooby Doo level monster of the week expansions where us meddling kids always win 100% of the time. So disappointed with that.
    So every expansion?
  1. Pandragon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Onikaroshi View Post
    The negative effects are an important aspect though, you're obviously stacking a bunch of corruption. It's a slow nerfing mechanic as you can stack more and more, but you can't put on all your corruption pieces either
    I have 45 corruption. Corruption increases the range and damage of them, but not the spawn rate. That's a base value with no cd. Some fights I rarely see any of it, some fights I just get chain hit by it.
  1. twothe's Avatar
    The problem is not the length of the cinematic. The problem is that it would have taken me like 5 minutes to come up with a way better ending than this.

    Blizzard is forgetting more and more how to be good game company.
  1. Awsyme's Avatar
    Whenever Ion speaks its like a corporate lawyer whispering platitudes into the camera. That bit about the cinematic... "We meant it to be focused on you!' - Sure... which doesn't explain how cheap the actual 20 odd seconds showing N'Zoth destroyed was. All they did was apply a physics shatter effect to a tower and a glow shader to some of the other structures. That's a terrible ending to an expansion.
  1. Kyphael's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by twothe View Post
    The problem is not the length of the cinematic. The problem is that it would have taken me like 5 minutes to come up with a way better ending than this.

    Blizzard is forgetting more and more how to be good game company.
    Me too, watch.

    Alliance

    Anduin: It's... over.
    Alleria: But there is still the matter of Sylvanas.
    Anduin: In due time Alleria, but we must rest for now, we've earned this victory. [Insert generic complimentary line to hero player here; "we couldn't have done it without you."]
    Wrathion, having avenged his father's corruptor, transforms into a black drake and flies away into the sunset.

    Horde
    Thrall: You've done it, hero, the world is in your debt... now, we must turn to re-building The Horde. It will not be easy, but no path for The Horde ever has been.
    Lor'themar nods.
    Baine opens his mouth to speak.
    Baine: I--

    END.
  1. david0925's Avatar
    I usually shit on 8.3 but Corruption gear is actually something that is very promising, if they properly executed it. I like the idea that every piece of gear can potentially be that BIS trinket (assuming IS/EV/TD etc are "trinkets"). The Corruption mechanism also ensure that there is a theoretical soft cap on how much you can wear, even if you get super lucky.

    The execution, on the other hand, is very bad
    -Multiple ranks: this isn't necessary, or should be customizable
    -Large power discrepancy, as well as combining utility and throughput into direct competition: This is the two biggest mistakes for Legion Legendaries, which most people, including myself, liked. It is fun being powerful and customizing is fun, but choosing between Prydaz and your best throughput legendary isn't.
    -Cleansing system: this should 100% be a quarantine instead of a full cleanse. It is terrible to remove corruption from a piece of gear because you can't use it yet due to corruption resistance. If you are cleansing something because it has a bad corruption affix, that's a balancing issue.

    So I would give them points for Corrupted gear itself, but take away all the points and then more for the execution. Knowing them, however, the poor execution is probably intentional to drag on the grinding.
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
    • The team wanted the final cinematic of the expansion to focus on you as the hero and your efforts to build up your Heart of Azeroth being important to victory.

    I never felt more disconnected than I have with Battle for Azeroth. And being jerked out of the moment with the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King ripoff — yes, RIPOFF — only made the experience worse. (And what's hilarious is that the placeholder music for the scene was infinitely better in the early version they accidentally left in the files.)
  1. Cinamonjackz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pandragon View Post
    I have 45 corruption. Corruption increases the range and damage of them, but not the spawn rate. That's a base value with no cd. Some fights I rarely see any of it, some fights I just get chain hit by it.
    considering I'm playing with 50 corruption and have never had 8 things from below spawn on me at once I'm calling BS on your previous statement!
  1. MakeMeLaugh's Avatar
    Ion believes N'Zoth lives up to the standards of previous final boss encounters.
    Ion talks about the disappointment some felt for N'Zoth's end, but at the end of the day we are the heroes of the story and we will always defeat villains and make way for new villains to enter.
    The team wanted the final cinematic of the expansion to focus on you as the hero and your efforts to build up your Heart of Azeroth being important to victory.
    HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA. Hilarious stuff right there.
  1. Sithalos's Avatar
    Wait, people still take Ion seriously?

    ..Oh. Okay then..
  1. Onikaroshi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pandragon View Post
    I have 45 corruption. Corruption increases the range and damage of them, but not the spawn rate. That's a base value with no cd. Some fights I rarely see any of it, some fights I just get chain hit by it.
    That means you have 90 corruption, that's a decent amount, it's a tradeoff for the power the corruption gives you.

    That said... the most things i've ever seen is 2 at once, that must have been interesting to see.
  1. Ashenhoof's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Laqweeta View Post
    God I hate that piece of fucking shit.
    Well, you also don't seem like a likable person yourself.
  1. Laqweeta's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ashenhoof View Post
    Well, you also don't seem like a likable person yourself.
    Well I'm not pissing all 50 players of wow off though
  1. agentsi's Avatar
    I really don't see why people hate Ion so much. He seems like a pretty reasonable and fair guy. Is it because he isn't doing what they want to WoW? Like, are people so blind to think that their version of wow in their head is better than what an entire team can come up with?
  1. Pandragon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Cinamonjackz View Post
    considering I'm playing with 50 corruption and have never had 8 things from below spawn on me at once I'm calling BS on your previous statement!
    You just completely ignored the part where I said during one attempt didn't you. Its called RNG. I've seen 8 things at once one time, not repeatedly.

    Quote Originally Posted by Onikaroshi View Post
    That means you have 90 corruption, that's a decent amount, it's a tradeoff for the power the corruption gives you.

    That said... the most things i've ever seen is 2 at once, that must have been interesting to see.
    The corruption negated by the resistance doesn't count towards the negative effects.
  1. Accendor's Avatar
    How detached from your player base can you be? Seriously, I never really got the hate for Ion and I still do not hate him, but wtf man, this is just so disconnected from reality.
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