Reddit AMA with Ion Hazzikostas

[Zantos]

Disappointed so far. Whole lot of nothing being said. Dodging the questions with no answers. Even if its working as intended, he didn't respond to the actual question. Why is there so much down time to them! Right now its 1, maybe 2 hours of killing rares then waiting for a week. If you control it, its more like 2-3 weeks before you are able to actually do anything again.

Hopefully he stops talking nonsense and answers a question for once coming up. I want to see some real answers. Not "its fine" and answers that haven't been said before or don't really pertain to the question.

[Sluvs]

There is an easy fix and that is two warfronts up at a time. One starting Alliance one starting horde. Not sure why they don't just do that. Won't fix them being boring, but nothing will fix that. It is a scenario in the end made for random groups of randos.

Maybe treat them like a raid them? Have a LFR difficulty and a normal difficulty that is harder.

[Destram]

"Yeah sucks you guys feel that warfronts being once a month is shit, it will feel less shit in like half a year though!"

Thanks Ion appreciate it.

[FelPlague]

Difficulty, shorter cycle.

Well when more get added the cycle will be much shorter, as he said the long cycle is for those who cant play literally every day.
also its supposed to be content for everyone, difficulty should be easy.
they have mentioned before that they may add difficulty options in the future if people want it.

[Zoldor]

DKs have 2 movement abilities if they talent into Wraith Walk, and AMS alone is a better PvE survivability ability than the entire defensive tookits of most classes. I dunno what game you've been playing, but in terms of tookit DKs are second only to Rogues, Mages and Hunters when it comes to uniqueness and survivability. Death Grip is also irreplaceable, and impossibly useful both in M+ and in some raid fights, so much that you couldn't even feasibly kill M Aggramar without a Blood DK for the longest time.

Now DPS Shamans, these guys are indeed hurting and need more toys. Their mobility is too conditional, and for a melee spec Enhancement has really dreadful survivability. Resto however. is a valued spec because it brings tons of unique utility to the table.

Grip might be the best ability in the game when it comes to PvE. Endless usage on trash, bosses etc.

[Harbour]

it is not a "blizzard AMA" it is a "Ion AMA"

Oh sorry - quit being Ion's lawyer. He does fine himself.

[Mafic]

DKs have 2 movement abilities if they talent into Wraith Walk, and AMS alone is a better PvE survivability ability than the entire defensive tookits of most classes. I dunno what game you've been playing, but in terms of tookit DKs are second only to Rogues, Mages and Hunters when it comes to uniqueness and survivability. Death Grip is also irreplaceable, and impossibly useful both in M+ and in some raid fights, so much that you couldn't even feasibly kill M Aggramar without a Blood DK for the longest time.

Now DPS Shamans, these guys are indeed hurting and need more toys. Their mobility is too conditional, and for a melee spec Enhancement has really dreadful survivability. Resto however. is a valued spec because it brings tons of unique utility to the table.

WW has many flaws in that it is buggy as hell and why it was made a talent is baffling to me.

AMS is strong true but still not enough compared to other specs which have lets say CloS + better mobility than a DK due to Sprint, Shadowstep/grappling hook, etc.

- - - Updated - - -

Disappointed so far. Whole lot of nothing being said. Dodging the questions with no answers. Even if its working as intended, he didn't respond to the actual question. Why is there so much down time to them! Right now its 1, maybe 2 hours of killing rares then waiting for a week. If you control it, its more like 2-3 weeks before you are able to actually do anything again.

Hopefully he stops talking nonsense and answers a question for once coming up. I want to see some real answers. Not "its fine" and answers that haven't been said before or don't really pertain to the question.

For me warfronts is the big negative right now.

In beta it wasn't time gated this long.

[Sluvs]

Well when more get added the cycle will be much shorter, as he said the long cycle is for those who cant play literally every day.
also its supposed to be content for everyone, difficulty should be easy.
they have mentioned before that they may add difficulty options in the future if people want it.

They should be easy, they should not be trivial.

[bledgor]

Difficulty, shorter cycle.

You do realize when we get the next three, going by what he said they could all be on different cycles? Like horde assaulting Battle for Stormgarde, Supplies for gates of Mulgure, and killing the world boss for Silvermoons defense? Is it perfect? No, but have different cycles will help a lot, I do agree starting with one feels like ass.

[FelPlague]

Disappointed so far. Whole lot of nothing being said. Dodging the questions with no answers. Even if its working as intended, he didn't respond to the actual question. Why is there so much down time to them! Right now its 1, maybe 2 hours of killing rares then waiting for a week. If you control it, its more like 2-3 weeks before you are able to actually do anything again.

Hopefully he stops talking nonsense and answers a question for once coming up. I want to see some real answers. Not "its fine" and answers that haven't been said before or don't really pertain to the question.

he literally said, cause not everyone can log on every day, so the longer duration means people dont miss out on doing them.

i think you forget a massive majority of the player base are casual.

also he said "its fine" literally only for warfronts, which has said will get better when more come out.

[Khaza-R]

Difficulty, shorter cycle.

I get the impression the lockout is balanced around having multiple of them up at a time. Obviously, that doesn't make its implementation any better. Which has been rocky at best. But I think that's the design philosophy behind it.

A lot of BfA to me seems designed around how it would play out in the end and a general lack of foresight of how it would be perceived in the beginning.

[Lewlies]

There is an easy fix and that is two warfronts up at a time. One starting Alliance one starting horde. Not sure why they don't just do that. Won't fix them being boring, but nothing will fix that. It is a scenario in the end made for random groups of randos.

Try reading the whole answer, it will help next time


We also do intend to add additional Warfronts over time, so that these cycles will be interwoven in a way that hopefully makes it feel like there's more to do, more often

[Currently Retired]

The burning hot issue right now is Warfronts, not raid tuning.

I'mma laugh my butt off if he ignores Warfronts. It should have been the second question answered. He's running the clock out with long winded answers about "philosophy" - man, he should have stayed in the law profession. I'd hire him to put a jury who's selected to determine my guilt to sleep in a heartbeat.

Edited to add: Spoke too soon. Wow. They're working as intended, and nothing on the fuckup that benefitted the Horde. They just lost a huge slew of Alliance players, watch.

They would have been better off not saying anything, Ion just dumped jet fuel on the flaming dumpster. This is WoD flying, X 10000.

Good job, Ion. LOL. Damn. Just when I thought you'd learned something...

Warfronts don't have to do anything with the Alliance losing players (and it feels childish to faction change due to that). It was due to the racials (especially BE) since Burning Crusade, which were ignored as a problem. At this stage, it would make the most sense to go to the Horde if you want to raid extensively, it's rather sad.

[Zoldor]

Maybe treat them like a raid them? Have a LFR difficulty and a normal difficulty that is harder.

Isn't that just a raid? Not being obtuse, but that is just a one boss raid that has a lot of trash. Warfronts are meant for a more casual crowd and for people who don't have access to the higher end raid gearing ability. It isn't meant to replace a raid. But doing what you suggest merely makes them a raid.

People are forgetting what Warfronts were meant to target and who the audience really is. Make them PvP they are just a battle ground, make them a raid, they are a micro raid. They are to fall between Raids/High M+ and Island/WQ for gearing and alt catchup. And a one off for those people to see them who do the other content.

[Khaza-R]

You do realize when we get the next three, going by what he said they could all be on different cycles? Like horde assaulting Battle for Stormgarde, Supplies for gates of Mulgure, and killing the world boss for Silvermoons defense? Is it perfect? No, but have different cycles will help a lot, I do agree starting with one feels like ass.

To be fair, we have absolutely no confirmation there will be 3 more other than a script. Please need to be very careful of their expectations with this "leak"

[FelPlague]

Oh sorry - quit being Ion's lawyer. He does fine himself.

So if your teacher says "this quiz will be about math"
then you show up to class and the teacher says "WAIT YOU DIDNT STUDY HISTORY? WOW IDIOT, YOU FAILED!"

[Clozer]

"Yeah sucks you guys feel that warfronts being once a month is shit, it will feel less shit in like half a year though!"

Thanks Ion appreciate it.

Just don't do it then.

For something that is completly new and just a big extra compared to other expansions - you sure are a greedy one.

[Zoldor]

Warfronts don't have to do anything with the Alliance losing players (and it feels childish to faction change due to that). It was due to the racials (especially BE) since Burning Crusade, which were ignored as a problem. At this stage, it would make the most sense to go to the Horde if you want to raid extensively, it's rather sad.

and for years PvP was dominated by Alliance humans. Not saying either was a good thing, but really once people faction changed to one they stayed there.

And honestly Horde is cooler, I mean come on.

[alturic]

An hour and fiften minutes (so far) to answer, what, 5 questions? NONE of which the answers (nor questions) were anything central to the expansion.

[Sluvs]

Well when more get added the cycle will be much shorter, as he said the long cycle is for those who cant play literally every day.
also its supposed to be content for everyone, difficulty should be easy.
they have mentioned before that they may add difficulty options in the future if people want it.

Yeah, i get it, in the future it will be better, but that does not solve the problem now.