Dev Interview - Balance in Shadowlands, Beta Add-Ons, AH Dance Party

"A big part of class balance and tuning comes from making you feel like you have really distinct strengths and weaknesses. This is a big part of what makes you feel unique and like you have a place in content."

I'm excited for Shadowlands, but I've been hearing this through many expansions, don't know what to think anymore.

"If there are situations where people are excluded from content due to their choice, this is where they want to make changes."

It's not like this has been mentioned over and over from everyone that covenants will do exactly this what a fucking shitfest

There is a lot of thought that goes into class balance in terms of talents. Sometimes something on a row might not be super popular, but in places where the team designed it to be used, players are using it, and that's awesome. Talents that are just best in all situations might come down to tuning problems.

I think that's the biggest bold faced lie they ever said in an interview, I'm impressed.

Originally Posted by Chromell

"A big part of class balance and tuning comes from making you feel like you have really distinct strengths and weaknesses. This is a big part of what makes you feel unique and like you have a place in content."

I'm excited for Shadowlands, but I've been hearing this through many expansions, don't know what to think anymore.

Sometimes this "place in content" seems to be the bench outside the instance...

Originally Posted by Blizzard

So, going back to the Kyrian if you have left will pose a greater challenge. There might be some tasks that they would ask you to do to go back to them. But once you've done that, you will keep the progress that you've made. Any Renown that you would have or any progress you've made on your Soulbinds, all that stuff should be saved when you go back so that you haven't lost that progress.

A thing that we've taken a lot of consideration on is. If you love alt characters, and you want to check out all the different Covenants on all different characters, we don't want you to feel like you're permanently behind some of your friends. There will be really strong catch-up mechanics that are in place from the beginning.

I think it'll be interesting to see what these "some tasks" are, but taken at face value, this doesn't seem to suggest Covenants will be very "semi-permanent" after all.

Originally Posted by Demeisen

I think it'll be interesting to see what these "some tasks" are, but taken at face value, this doesn't seem to suggest Covenants will be very "semi-permanent" after all.

Probably something that takes about a day, so that you can't switch covenants based on the content you are doing right now. Or it's like Azerite and you have to donate 100.000 gold to appease and be accepted into your old Covenant again

Another interview, another PR pile of BS.
They are pushing forward another hated system that will yet again alienate, frustrate and piss off their players.
The only thing they learn from expansion to expansion is how to shit on the player base just enough to kill positive game experience yet not enough to get rid of the addicts.
Mouse wheel working as intended. Quality and fun are a thing of the past.

If there are situations where people are excluded from content due to their choice, this is where they want to make changes.

Your covenant choice is also integrated into some of the dungeon experiences as well. There are elements of dungeons that you can only interact with as part of a specific covenant.
An example given is the ability for members of the Kyrian covenant to activate automatons in the Necrotic Wake to gain party buffs.

ahahaha ok blizzard... just don't...

Grab a napkin homie, you just got served.

Originally Posted by Djaye

Another interview, another PR pile of BS.
They are pushing forward another hated system that will yet again alienate, frustrate and piss off their players.
The only thing they learn from expansion to expansion is how to shit on the player base just enough to kill positive game experience yet not enough to get rid of the addicts.
Mouse wheel working as intended. Quality and fun are a thing of the past.

Sounds like a u problem here and nothing else.

Your covenant choice is also integrated into some of the dungeon experiences as well. There are elements of dungeons that you can only interact with as part of a specific covenant.

• An example given is the ability for members of the Kyrian covenant to activate automatons in the Necrotic Wake to gain part buffs.

I can already see multiple Necrotic Wake keys in the LFG listed, "NW15 speed run, MUST BE KYRIAN" This is exactly the kind of shit the game needs less of.

Does Blizzard play this fucking game? Holy fucking shit.

Originally Posted by otaXephon

Your covenant choice is also integrated into some of the dungeon experiences as well. There are elements of dungeons that you can only interact with as part of a specific covenant.

• An example given is the ability for members of the Kyrian covenant to activate automatons in the Necrotic Wake to gain part buffs.

I can already see multiple Necrotic Wake keys in the LFG listed, "NW15 speed run, MUST BE KYRIAN" This is exactly the kind of shit the game needs less of.

Does Blizzard play this fucking game? Holy fucking shit.

I’m pretty sure Blizzard gave up caring what WoW players who treat the game as a bigger job than any Blizzard employee have issues with.

Your covenant choice is also integrated into some of the dungeon experiences as well. There are elements of dungeons that you can only interact with as part of a specific covenant.

So they're bringing back the Archaeology buff thing from dungeons in Cata and that one profession puzzle part from Court of Stars which anyone could do but are tying it to covenants so that specific ones only work/offer it in specific dungeons, this isn't going to have a further negative effect at all. /s

Originally Posted by otaXephon

Your covenant choice is also integrated into some of the dungeon experiences as well. There are elements of dungeons that you can only interact with as part of a specific covenant.

• An example given is the ability for members of the Kyrian covenant to activate automatons in the Necrotic Wake to gain part buffs.

I can already see multiple Necrotic Wake keys in the LFG listed, "NW15 speed run, MUST BE KYRIAN" This is exactly the kind of shit the game needs less of.

Does Blizzard play this fucking game? Holy fucking shit.

Yeah they do. The part where they don't go by a small minority on a wow-forum, but what people think is fun in game instead. Some times it's funny that you are so forgiving on expansion you like, like BfA, but others gets the hammer for one thing being not of your liking.

They had buffs in Court of Stars by profession, a dungeon liked by many. I made lots of groups there, and joined many(I think I did CoS m+ around 400 times in Legion all together) and no groups asked for specific profession. It's the same as Tol Dagor too. To get keys to open door. But most players that play this game just don't give a fuck so they invite by class and ilvl instead(because that matters for some reason for so many players in BfA LOL)

Originally Posted by otaXephon

Your covenant choice is also integrated into some of the dungeon experiences as well. There are elements of dungeons that you can only interact with as part of a specific covenant.

• An example given is the ability for members of the Kyrian covenant to activate automatons in the Necrotic Wake to gain part buffs.

I can already see multiple Necrotic Wake keys in the LFG listed, "NW15 speed run, MUST BE KYRIAN" This is exactly the kind of shit the game needs less of.

Does Blizzard play this fucking game? Holy fucking shit.

Go play classic, you see exactly the same thing when people are pugging any content. This is a people problem not a programmer problem and it is actually tribe mentality of the digital age. I just would not do content with people like that, and the less people who answer ads like that the less people will request it which means people will care less about your choices.

I really Hope they don’t cave on the covenants Having actual rpg stuff like dungeon buffs based on your choices sounds great.

Originally Posted by Doffen

Yeah they do. The part where they don't go by a small minority on a wow-forum, but what people think is fun in game instead. Some times it's funny that you are so forgiving on expansion you like, like BfA, but others gets the hammer for one thing being not of your liking.

They had buffs in Court of Stars by profession, a dungeon liked by many. I made lots of groups there, and joined many(I think I did CoS m+ around 400 times in Legion all together) and no groups asked for specific profession. It's the same as Tol Dagor too. To get keys to open door. But most players that play this game just don't give a fuck so they invite by class and ilvl instead(because that matters for some reason for so many players in BfA LOL)

I find a special amount of irony in Ion doing an interview last Friday with Preach where he says that he doesn't want PuG leaders to make determinations about players based on their Covenant choices then the very next dev interview we get has them outlining a Covenant interaction with a dungeon that will absolutely make PuG leaders want players of a certain Covenant over another.

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Originally Posted by Unholyground

Go play classic, you see exactly the same thing when people are pugging any content. This is a people problem not a programmer problem and it is actually tribe mentality of the digital age. I just would not do content with people like that, and the less people who answer ads like that the less people will request it which means people will care less about your choices.

So the solution is to beat the behavior out of the playerbase until they don't do it anymore? Eh. I don't think that's the correct approach.

Originally Posted by otaXephon

I find a special amount of irony in Ion doing an interview last Friday with Preach where he says that he doesn't want PuG leaders to make determinations about players based on their Covenant choices then the very next dev interview we get has them outlining a Covenant interaction with a dungeon that will absolutely make PuG leaders want players of a certain Covenant over another.

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So the solution is to beat the behavior out of the playerbase until they don't do it anymore? Eh. I don't think that's the correct approach.

As with Court of Stars, the likely way to prevent exclusion here is by making the interactions spawn randomly, so you aren't ever sure before you insert your keystone whether a bonus interaction will spawn for a particular covenant.

Originally Posted by otaXephon

I find a special amount of irony in Ion doing an interview last Friday with Preach where he says that he doesn't want PuG leaders to make determinations about players based on their Covenant choices then the very next dev interview we get has them outlining a Covenant interaction with a dungeon that will absolutely make PuG leaders want players of a certain Covenant over another.

Well I agree with blizzard being silly about stuff like this. Me and a guildie have good laughs with Ion's statements about many things, and it end up being totally wrong :P

Let loot be loot (then say they will add 2set bonuses to items in dungeons or similar stuff like they said few days ago) Haha!

Originally Posted by otaXephon

So the solution is to beat the behavior out of the playerbase until they don't do it anymore? Eh. I don't think that's the correct approach.

There really isn’t a correct approach people are going to complain if you do any thing to try and make a change to how they act and if you don’t put any thing Nothing will change.

They pretty much have to stick to there guns and hope players will get over it with time or just give up on there own design ideals.