Developer Q&A with Ion Hazzikostas - Battle for Azeroth

[Moggie]

They should take away Warlock summons and Mage portals. People log in, take those to their destination then log off.../boggle

[SirCowdog]

Nobody should have the power to tell you (or me) that you don't deserve anything in this game. The RNG gods, sure, whatever. But, never another player. They're not paying for your sub, your internet connection, or your computer. And they sure as hell shouldn't decide whether or not you're worthy of loot. Can they decide if you're not a contributing member of the raid and replace you? Sure. But that's where it stops.

I strongly, fundamentally disagree. And this is why I brought up the contract example.

If you join a raid group under the agreed upon conditions that you won't get loot until you prove yourself, or join under the conditions that a 3rd party will assign loot based on whatever criteria they determine...then that is your willing choice to do so. You agreed to those terms and must accept the results. If you didn't want that, then you should not agree to those terms in the first place! Don't join a guild or a raid group that requires those conditions.

Now...I grant that this can be abused. The loot council can break the terms agreed upon too easily. Usually to give loot to their friends or themselves. But again, that is a risk you agree to when joining a raid that uses master loot.

The problem here is that Blizzard is trying to tell people that they can't set their own terms and conditions when forming a raid group. That you can't choose to make agreements with a guild or raid group if you want to. They don't want to allow, for example, to let a group of players put the good of the raid before themselves.

And what's worse, they're once again taking the simple solution to this issue rather than coming up with something more complex that would work better for everyone.

Ultimately personal loot for everyone will work. It just won't work as well as it could, and comes at the cost of player agency (which is an ugly trend from Blizzard decisions lately).

[bufferunderrun]

Horde
The Horde being evil is a matter of perspective.
The Horde has many facets to it, with the Forsaken representing different things than the Tauren. There has been an uneasy partnership between these groups for some time. The Horde isn't monolithic.
There are groups are fighting for survival and some resort to desperate measures.
Both sides should be worried about becoming evil.
All the way back to Orcs vs Humans, you may have assumed Humans were the good guys and Orcs were evil, but there was more nuance than that.

When even most Horde players feel like their faction is evil it become a fact not a prospective, Blizzard should really reread what they write because is since thrall age the horde is becoming more and more bonkers; this is also reflecting on Alliance that has been converted to a sort of High King cult.

[Realitytrembles]

This change wasn't made to stop high end split raids. That's something the team wants to do, but that wasn't the point of this change.

Good. Kill high end raiding guilds. With fire. Let the game be for the common player, not a bunch of theorycrafting dbags.

Group and Master Loot puts players at the mercy of others, often in ways that aren't fair.

Indeed.

Trial players in a new guild may not get anything for weeks because that is the guild policy.

And then guilds complain about the difficulty of recruiting.

When you kill a boss, it isn't about if there is something on the corpse that you want, but if someone is going to give you that loot. It disconnects the reward from killing the boss.
You deserve the loot for killing the boss.

Abso-gddmn-lutely right. F loot cliques.

Trading restrictions for loot will work the same as they do now for the most part. If it is lower than the highest item level piece you have ever looted and had soulbound for that slot, you can trade it.

Only part I disagree with. No loot that drops in raids should be tradeable; only in small group content. Also no BoEs from raids; they revert to small group content and open world drops only. Pressure from some GL to trade what personal loot just gave you = gone.

[Pickynerd]

Think I am going to take a long hiatus from mmorpgs and when I come back, I'll try FF14.

WoW isn't my kind of game anymore I suppose.

[Gherothar]

"Has the interests of the whole Horde in mind"

So where in the interests of the whole Horde is picking a fight with the Alliance, an objectively superior force as of the intro to BfA in terms of magic, technology, and numbers, then plague-bombing her own cannon fodder she sends out to defend her literal cesspit of a home when they come knocking back?

HAHAHAHAHA.

Superior magic? We have both Blood Elves and Nightborne, your statement is just dreadfuly wrong, lmao.

Technology? The Horde has pretty much everything the Alliance has? We also have nukes and our chemical tech is way more advanced. The Alliance could probably do those too, sure, but they won't. We will.

The people Sylvanas plagued were already dead, thanks.

Numbers? Maybe.

Raw strength? I'm pretty sure orcs and trolls are stronger than most your races. We also have Tauren, which are stronger than squidfaces and dogs. The magic argument is absolutely in our favor, too, with Blood Elves AND Nightborne. And I'm pretty confident a goblin could choke the life out of a gnome.

We also have zombies, that, as you probably know, aren't exactly easy to kill. AND we can raise your dead into serving us.

The only race you have who are actually competent druids in lore are the Night elves. We have two, soon to be three. Our shaman are way stronger as well. Your paladins win that one, sure. But the odds still favor us. (Sylvanas knows this, and it's the reason your tech and numbers mean shit).

I mean, you wanted to use made-up shit from a fictional universe as logic.

Which, just being clear, is perfectly valid if you want it to be. I'm not going to discuss this any further with you, because you won't change your mind and I won't change mine, but the point is, just because you refuse to see Sylvanas for what she really is because that's how you justify your mindset within the game, doesn't mean its true or that you are not wrong.

You could probably say the same about me, right? It's ok too.

[Deleted]

This kind of thread should have a minimum post count of 500.

Not because people with less can’t be intelligent but because my example is an accurate representation of what 90% of them think is feedback

“Duh game sucksor!! I gief feedback!! Hurr durr!!”

Not that a lot of posters with a much higher post count incredibly enough don’t also do this, at least it’s not as often though.

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Think I am going to take a long hiatus from mmorpgs and when I come back, I'll try FF14.

WoW isn't my kind of game anymore I suppose.

Waaaaaaahahahaaaaaa

You know, when people actually do this, they dont go to a forum and write it there first. They simply stop playing the game

[Quaade]

"If you are a Resto druid healing a dungeon and your tank is almost dead, and you are almost dead, and you have fire under your feet, you need to heal your tank, you need to move out of the fire, Swiftmend is on cooldown. You either use Regrowth on the tank while you stand in fire, or move out of the fire and throw a Rejuv on the tank. Maybe you Wild Charge out of the fire and then heal the tank. If everything is on the GCD, that is a decision you have to make. A skilled player can make the right call based on the situation and encounter. If Wild Charge isn't on the GCD, you can just get out of the fire and heal the tank. This makes the difference between two player's skill more about their reaction time. Should WoW be about reaction time or making the right decision."

This the dumbest argument I've seen in a long time. Having a GCD on emergency skills removes skill, removes choice and make people feel powerless when something bad happens.

[Deleted]

"If you are a Resto druid healing a dungeon and your tank is almost dead, and you are almost dead, and you have fire under your feet, you need to heal your tank, you need to move out of the fire, Swiftmend is on cooldown. You either use Regrowth on the tank while you stand in fire, or move out of the fire and throw a Rejuv on the tank. Maybe you Wild Charge out of the fire and then heal the tank. If everything is on the GCD, that is a decision you have to make. A skilled player can make the right call based on the situation and encounter. If Wild Charge isn't on the GCD, you can just get out of the fire and heal the tank. This makes the difference between two player's skill more about their reaction time. Should WoW be about reaction time or making the right decision."

This the dumbest argument I've seen in a long time. Having a GCD on emergency skills removes skill, removes choice and make people feel powerless when something bad happens.

You literally quoted him yet didn’t understand his perfectly valid argument. That’s actually insane

[Nalera]

"If you are a Resto druid healing a dungeon and your tank is almost dead, and you are almost dead, and you have fire under your feet, you need to heal your tank, you need to move out of the fire, Swiftmend is on cooldown. You either use Regrowth on the tank while you stand in fire, or move out of the fire and throw a Rejuv on the tank. Maybe you Wild Charge out of the fire and then heal the tank. If everything is on the GCD, that is a decision you have to make. A skilled player can make the right call based on the situation and encounter. If Wild Charge isn't on the GCD, you can just get out of the fire and heal the tank. This makes the difference between two player's skill more about their reaction time. Should WoW be about reaction time or making the right decision."

This the dumbest argument I've seen in a long time. Having a GCD on emergency skills removes skill, removes choice and make people feel powerless when something bad happens.

You need to re-read his example if you think it removes choice. In a world with no gcd you can wild charge and heal at the same time which means you can do both option A(heal) and option B(move) at the same time. It only makes you feel powerless if you don't know how to plan ahead. In a world with gcd you need to make a decision one at a time, should I do A, B or C which is the right order?

[Deleted]

Hmm, I'm having hard time finding my 21 Tiers of Demon Hunter armor. Will keep looking for those 'Pit Lord' and 'Dreadlord' inspired 21 Tiers.

Weird, I can only find 3 and one of them is far from Demon Hunterish. I guess I just have to wear that generic questing gear ... oh oh ho I mean "Uldir raid tier", which doesn't look anything like the generic "Trial of Valor look". No sir!

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Ion needs to go. Clearly he is burnt out. All of his ideas he has pushed forward in BfA like no more class armor sets and GCD changes and just Battle For Azeroth itself proves he's burnt out and needs to retire.

I LOVED the guy, he was my favorite Blizz Lead since he joined, but the whole GCD thing and removing Armors is just mind boggling ...

[Deleted]

Hmm, I'm having hard time finding my 21 Tiers of Demon Hunter armor. Will keep looking for those 'Pit Lord' and 'Dreadlord' inspired 21 Tiers.

Weird, I can only find 3 and one of them is far from Demon Hunterish. I guess I just have to wear that generic questing gear ... oh oh ho I mean "Uldir raid tier", which doesn't look anything like the generic "Trial of Valor look". No sir!

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I LOVED the guy, he was my favorite Blizz Lead since he joined, but the whole GCD thing and removing Armors is just mind boggling ...

Think he did an excellent job of defending the gcd thing. Feel free to argument against it. You know. Instead of just “it’s bad mkay?”

[Cavox]

The team needed to pull back some quality of life improvements for the long term health of the game.

REMOVE LFR THEN FFS

To be honest I don't mind the GCD change and I think overall longterm health of the game > everything.

BTW it's funny how Ion turned on a dime after legendaries which everyone said was bad for the game.

[Pickynerd]

This kind of thread should have a minimum post count of 500.

Not because people with less can’t be intelligent but because my example is an accurate representation of what 90% of them think is feedback

“Duh game sucksor!! I gief feedback!! Hurr durr!!”

Not that a lot of posters with a much higher post count incredibly enough don’t also do this, at least it’s not as often though.

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Waaaaaaahahahaaaaaa

You know, when people actually do this, they dont go to a forum and write it there first. They simply stop playing the game

Where do they go first? I came here, read the news, and posted. I didn't know I had to be subscribed to World of Warcraft to have opinions on mmo-c.

[Quaade]

"The Horde being evil is a matter of perspective."

I guess accepting a leader who "friendly" fires on her own troops and resses them as mindless undead to serve her will, is now considered good due to moral relativism.

This makes Horde objevtively seem like giant hypocrites retroactively with with their "lok'tat oghar" cry. Guess they want Horde to be like Evangelicals are in the US.

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You need to re-read his example if you think it removes choice. In a world with no gcd you can wild charge and heal at the same time which means you can do both option A(heal) and option B(move) at the same time. It only makes you feel powerless if you don't know how to plan ahead. In a world with gcd you need to make a decision one at a time, should I do A, B or C which is the right order?

I read it, it does remove choice, the only real choice is "letting the tank die and get out of the fire" this usually leads to a TPK, without the change it's "save the tank and get out of the fire" or the previous one, thus a choice has been removed, effectively removing one. Also when it comes to encounter design, this can never happen, nothing can ever be unpredictable again due to the GCD or we're back at at RoS situation.

This in turn removes choices from the developers since all encounters have to be basically tank and spank with any Sudden Death move telegraphed a mile away.

[Deleted]

Where do they go first? I came here, read the news, and posted. I didn't know I had to be subscribed to World of Warcraft to have opinions on mmo-c.

You dont. I just find it pathetic when people take the kindergarden approach to this game.

"WAAAH I DONT LIKE THIS, I'M NEVER COMING BACK. THIS OTHER GAME IS MUCH BETTER"

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"The Horde being evil is a matter of perspective."

I guess accepting a leader who "friendly" fires on her own troops and resses them as mindless undead to serve her will, is now considered good due to moral relativism.

This makes Horde objevtively seem like giant hypocrites retroactively with with their "lok'tat oghar" cry. Guess they want Horde to be like Evangelicals are in the US.

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I read it, it does remove choice, the only real choice is "letting the tank die and get out of the fire" this usually leads to a TPK, without the change it's "save the tank and get out of the fire" or the previous one, thus a choice has been removed, effectively removing one. Also when it comes to encounter design, this can never happen, nothing can ever be unpredictable again due to the GCD or we're back at at RoS situation.

This in turn removes choices from the developers since all encounters have to be basically tank and spank with any Sudden Death move telegraphed a mile away.

You need to read it again then. Before the change there was no choice. Just press your off the global movement at the same time as healing the tank. Thats not a choice thats simply a matter of being decent/good or bad. Now you have to make an actually choice in a situation where whats right and wrong are much closer to eachother meaning you have to draw from experience instead of just twitch reaction. That was his whole point and its a good one.

[Quaade]

You literally quoted him yet didn’t understand his perfectly valid argument. That’s actually insane

No, I quoted him and I can see his point I can also see the endpoint. This is the benefit of seeing the whole picture compared to seeing the next step. You clearly see the next step in which this is a good change. I see the whole poicture at once in which this is an immensely bad choice.

Right now you disagree with me, which I've come to expect people to do, once you see the end results you'll agree with me. It might be six months down the road however you'll reach the same conclusiob at some point, at which your ego will conveniently forget me since "I told you so" fits badly into the selfassertive and proactive narrative.

[Pickynerd]

You dont. I just find it pathetic when people take the kindergarden approach to this game.

"WAAAH I DONT LIKE THIS, I'M NEVER COMING BACK. THIS OTHER GAME IS MUCH BETTER"

Except that isn't what I said at all, that is only your white knight version of me saying "I need a break from mmorp's, and I think I should try something new when I come back"

I don't like the direction WoW has been going, and I don't like most of the changes, but I guess I should just keep playing the game right, keep saying how awesome it is even when I don't think it is?

[Quaade]

You dont. I just find it pathetic when people take the kindergarden approach to this game.

"WAAAH I DONT LIKE THIS, I'M NEVER COMING BACK. THIS OTHER GAME IS MUCH BETTER"

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You need to read it again then. Before the change there was no choice. Just press your off the global movement at the same time as healing the tank. Thats not a choice thats simply a matter of being decent/good or bad. Now you have to make an actually choice in a situation where whats right and wrong are much closer to eachother meaning you have to draw from experience instead of just twitch reaction. That was his whole point and its a good one.

There was a choice before, you dislike one of them so you ignore it, let's the tank die and get out of the fire or save the tank and get out of the fire. With this change you can only hope that the tank has a free GCD to save themselves while you get out of the fire and otherwise do nothing. I'm a Prot Warrior and in most cases I have no GCD available.

Bla bla bla "for the overall health" sure it sounds like a good argument, in reality people will get frustrated over their own powerlesness if they have played WoW for long, new players are unable to tell the difference, they'll just feel bad for being unable to do anything.

[Mezmaron]

This is actually exactly what they are doing. If you arent able to think about the health of the game over your own interests then you should leave for sure. His example of have group will travel was a very appropriate one. Glad it was said.

This is the future of the game. They are making changes for the game, not for the players. You had that for 10 years, and look at the mess the game was in before legion.

I have to say I got a bitter laugh out of the have group will travel example he gave as if it was some positive change to the game when all it did was create a longer time sink to do something fun in the game. Mind you, between summon stones and warlock summon stones, you achieve the exact same thing except it takes a bit longer longer. So basically making 2-3 people get to a raid entrance instead of just 1 has somehow greatly improved the health of the game? He must think we're idiots.

So yeah it was a GREAT example of them trying to sell something as an improvement to health of the game when in reality it was just a way to make the game less fun via pointless, annoying time sink. I'm not really speaking to any of these other changes (except the no blacklist change is very awful, my blacklisting had absolutely zero to do with large vs small bgs.), but I saw Ion said that and had to call him on that total bs.