PCGamer Interview with Ion Hazzikostas on Patch 8.2

[glowpipe]

They feel that having all traits unlocked on Legion weapons, not having any big choices, and being the same as every other person of your class was a missed opportunity to give players more choice.

Choice. There will never be choice when there are dps meters, Everyone will sim the best setups and everyone will run the same shit.

[Th3Scourge]

There is a LOT riding on the success of 8.2

[Oneirophobia]

I wish Blizzard stopped with the "old expac vs. new expac" mentality.

Stop devaluing everything about old expansions just because they're no longer endgame. It's an entire world, some places should remain relevant.

It's like once they're done with one expac everything good about it gets removed and we move on, it's wearing me out.

This is in response to "we don't want players having their hearthstones in old expansion content", well I should be able to use any old expac's main hub, in fact some should be updated to include portals to NEW expac areas (like a portal to Broken Isles in Pandaria, for example).

Just feels like Blizzard never wants to take the time to backtrack and update old areas with new ideas, it's like every 10 levels after 60 you have to learn some new gimmick about gear or something.

Right? And then they say "the team wants to be more open to implementing permanent RPG additions to the game" as if the world they let fall to a shambled mess of bugs and nonsense isn't THE main, permanent fixture in the game.

[oathy]

for me personally the legion weapons were amazing compared to this current mess.
As we predicted 8.2 is going to be on the level of Jungle in WOD. Basically relaunching BFA

[Watchers]

Time to new exp ala legion,maybe a new cataclism or a WOTLK remake

[Chickat]

This forum is getting to be so toxic.

Great interview.

[Boricha]

you do know many legion legendaries and past teir sets were literally JUST THAT right?
many past teir sets were literally just "x does more damage" or "Y crits more often' or "Z has chance to grant you haste"

that is literally what the game is about

- - - Updated - - -



there was no actual customization in the legion artifacts, that was one of the failings plus you very quickly unlocked all the major traits, like 3 weeks ish, then you just got the infinite trait

Tier sets were boring, yes. I don't know why you're bringing that up with me. The Legion legendaries weren't though, at least from my experience with them. They were frustrating to obtain at times, but once I had all of them I could use ones that fit certain encounters and they directly altered my rotation. Beyond being generic, azerite traits are also heinous to me in that they just flooded me with procs out of my control, far more than I'd ever had before.

[FelPlague]

Tier sets were boring, yes. I don't know why you're bringing that up with me. The Legion legendaries weren't though, at least from my experience with them. They were frustrating to obtain at times, but once I had all of them I could use ones that fit certain encounters and they directly altered my rotation. Beyond being generic, azerite traits are also heinous to me in that they just flooded me with procs out of my control, far more than I'd ever had before.

Summoning a great demon increases damage for awhile
Enemies affected by rain of fire take 10% extra damage from your fire spells
casting a fire spell has a 6% chance to refund a shard
doom deal 5% more per demon you have
agony deals 10% more damage
chaos bolt has a 20% chance to strike a another target
every 30 seconds gain an absorb shield equal to 25% max health for 30 seconds
when you cc a target gain movement speed and haste
each soul shard spent has a chance to increase your damage for 8 seconds
increrase the effects of your netherlight effects
each soul shard spent increases damage of next thalkiel consumption by 3%
reap soul asts 1.5 seconds longer per soul
call dreadstalkers refund 1 shard
each enemy affliction by your unstable affliction increases damage by 4%
While you have rift open, all damagwe increased by 10%
enemies marked by havoc take 15% more damage from you



now the warlock ones that change how spells work functionally or are unique
gain an extra talent
corruption deals extra damage and slows
launch a vortex of destruction that blows up on your targets (trinket)
standing still for awhile gives you foresight, allowing you to move
demonic gateway now casts instantly and you can use it twice before cooldown
each dreadstalker or imp you summon reduces cooldown of greater demon by 2 seconds


oh yes.... all those ones that altered rotation...

[Eleccybubb]

Tier sets were boring, yes. I don't know why you're bringing that up with me. The Legion legendaries weren't though, at least from my experience with them. They were frustrating to obtain at times, but once I had all of them I could use ones that fit certain encounters and they directly altered my rotation. Beyond being generic, azerite traits are also heinous to me in that they just flooded me with procs out of my control, far more than I'd ever had before.

Azerite traits piss me off because I had I admit an unusual piece of bad luck with a high item level one.

It rolled that usual faction trait which is fair. Alliance trait on my Alliance character.

But then it showed a BM and MM trait. And there was no Survival Trait on it. And SV is my main spec.

I'd honestly prefer tier sets back in terms of looks though. Because most of the current armor sets look garbage imo.

And yeah you barely have any control in the Azerite system as you said. You have to hope the armor you need drops or make do with an inferior piece.

[ElDoorO]

but an actual meaningful different game experience from the past few months.

WTF. If I wanted to play a different MMO, I would buy a new MMO and play it.
Ion and his team have a seriously bad disease of Idle Hands (TM).
This is why they always end up with terrible expansion, like BFA, that ultimately get followed up with a good expansion.

You don't need to have a "new experience". There's a reason most of the playable time is spent doing instanced stuff and not actual questing.

[Toby451]

Tier sets were boring, yes. I don't know why you're bringing that up with me. The Legion legendaries weren't though, at least from my experience with them. They were frustrating to obtain at times, but once I had all of them I could use ones that fit certain encounters and they directly altered my rotation. Beyond being generic, azerite traits are also heinous to me in that they just flooded me with procs out of my control, far more than I'd ever had before.

Meanwhile as a healer in Legion, you used Prydaz and Velen's for basically everything. One passive and the other a boring clicky that makes you do more healing once every 90ish seconds.


Azerite traits in BfA are infinitely more interesting to me.

[Eleccybubb]

Meanwhile as a healer in Legion, you used Prydaz and Velen's for basically everything. One passive and the other a boring clicky that makes you do more healing once every 90ish seconds.


Azerite traits in BfA are infinitely more interesting to me.

Uh no.

Certain specs most certainly had viable if not better ones outside of those. Especially Resto Shaman. Praetorians Tidecallers were wicked strong for the most part. Not to mention Roots was also another amazing one.

And I know for a fact that a few other healers utilised more than that.

[Kendros]

Meanwhile as a healer in Legion, you used Prydaz and Velen's for basically everything. One passive and the other a boring clicky that makes you do more healing once every 90ish seconds.


Azerite traits in BfA are infinitely more interesting to me.

Dont forget your class not being viable unil you get that one specific legendary, anyone that thinks leggys were good never stepped out of lfr.

[Roujeaux]

"The team has to find a middle ground between many different play styles."

I sincerely hope this applies to class design more than anything. I for one have already grown tired of the wild pendulum swings of unpopular class mechanics decisions from developers who readily demonstrate they are only interested in the classes they want, and not what most players want also.

[Raysz]

"The team has learned"

No, we've been hearing this for 3 expansions. Clearly the team is full of fucking idiots and never learns anything, or doesn't care.

They have been learning since Vanilla and are learning as we speak. Learning is part of life, you'll keep doing it till you die.
And they may have learned that people like you like certain stuff and that other people like other stuff. Learning doesn't equal 'listening to a small percentage of the player base' it's a constant process of balancing different playstyles and interests.

So, learning opportunity for you here, stop being such an entitled little (bad word) and learn that life doesn't revolve around you.

[ChairmanKaga]

They should have NEVER added flying mounts. Period. You do not understand the DISSERVICE the flying mount does.

This game went from Exploring a world, to Flying point a-b thru a skybox.

I disagree only in that in BC after you can fly you can reach areas of Outland previously inaccessible while leveling on the ground. (this may have been true with Wrath but I can't recall a firm example). If they built areas in the modern game in the same way flight would be less about only being a time saver.

[ashblond]

quitting the game because of flying. so fucking riduculous.

A lot of players quit wow because of the no flying in BFA.

[Korru]

I disagree only in that in BC after you can fly you can reach areas of Outland previously inaccessible while leveling on the ground. (this may have been true with Wrath but I can't recall a firm example). If they built areas in the modern game in the same way flight would be less about only being a time saver.

You got flying early in Wrath to quest around in Storm Peaks/Icecrown.

[Boricha]

oh yes.... all those ones that altered rotation...

I had a helm that made Dragon's Breath part of the main rotation and gave it range
A belt that made scorch an execute
Another belt that made Blizzard a burst ability and worth using ST
A ring that let me TW twice in one fight
Hands that let me combust more often, so I had to think more about pooling fireblasts.
Wrists that made Pyro worth hardcasting on proc
A chest that made blink give a shield, so I wanted to use it more strategically

Now Legion wasn't my favorite era of design or anything, but I certainly had more to think about than with azerite traits.


I haven't played Lock since MoP, but I would guess "Enemies affected by rain of fire take 10% extra damage from your fire spells," and "While you have rift open, all damage increased by 10%" means lining up cds with those windows.
"doom deal 5% more per demon you have" would mean making sure you max your demons before your next doom.
"when you cc a target gain movement speed and haste" would mean abusing add fights to get up time on the buff.
"call dreadstalkers refund 1 shard" you can spend shards more efficiently, which may or may not give more to think about.
"each enemy affliction by your unstable affliction increases damage by 4%" just sounds like something to teach bad players that maintaining dots on multitarget is important, but it could make you want to spend shards more aggressively rather than pooling for big UA dumps.

It doesn't sound like locks had as interesting legos as mages, but I'd still say they require more thinking than "you have a chance to shoot a waterball for 3000 damage."

[ChairmanKaga]

You got flying early in Wrath to quest around in Storm Peaks/Icecrown.

Didn't you just buy it when you hit 80? So long ago now I can't recall.