PCGamer Ion Interview - Make Dungeon/Raids Satisfying, New Battle.net Launcher

[javierdsv]

I mean, if all the vault items were really relevant to your character then it would be fine. But getting useless stuff after getting nothing for so long it's just not helping.

Haven't they learned people like to be able to "Target" their BIS. Even if it means an excruciating grind?

[MrDaemon]

I dont understand why it is so hard to make people in PvE get gear they wanted.

As it is now lets say you get drop from m+15 key. Its 210 ilvl. In weekly Vault you dont get anything you want. You could just choose some kind of points. Lets say after 2 weeks you can upgrade your m+ item from 210 to 226. You could also upgrade lower items by 16 ilvls. This would fix you not getting loot you wanted since you can farm dungeon where it drops and then upgrade it. You could still get lucky with Vault and take item straight. It wouldn't affect World First Race in any significant degree. And it would keep people subbed because they would need at least 2 weeks to get their item upgraded. Maybe they could give more points if you completed all 10 m+ dungeons.

Everyone would be happy. Not sure why they have to always use retarded decisions to force people play longer.

[chiddie]

My bet on the whole raid and dungeon reward topic is that the anima you get when not getting loot will be increased.

“Hey look the car isn’t moving, we ran out of gasoline.”

“Ok, let me change a tire”.

[Kumorii]

I mean, if all the vault items were really relevant to your character then it would be fine. But getting useless stuff after getting nothing for so long it's just not helping.

Haven't they learned people like to be able to "Target" their BIS. Even if it means an excruciating grind?

If grinding means running a dungeon over and over and over again for efficiency or having to clear raid x times I would probably stop enjoying the game.

People complained about having to farm islands for the same reason.

[Paperfox]

Not sure why they have to always use retarded decisions to force people play longer.

My guess is that this has a better ROI (Return On Investment), ie: costs less and generates the same revenue.

[Fkiolaris]

All they needed to do is have the MoP PvE gearing system (minus the vendors behind vendors behind rep that they had at launch) and the WoD PvP gearing system. There, perfect. You get your badges from any pve activity that you can use to buy or upgrade your gear as you like. On the other hand, pvp gear is the best in pvp only, by virtue of massively diminished stats out of pvp. Additionally all honor and conquest gear was available without rating requirements, meaning that even casuals in BGs had something to look forward to while the pros would get there much faster.

Win win for all, but I guess it gave too much power to players for planning their gear upgrades for Blizzard's taste.

[Cazze]

All they needed to do is have the MoP PvE gearing system (minus the vendors behind vendors behind rep that they had at launch) and the WoD PvP gearing system. There, perfect. You get your badges from any pve activity that you can use to buy or upgrade your gear as you like. On the other hand, pvp gear is the best in pvp only, by virtue of massively diminished stats out of pvp. Additionally all honor and conquest gear was available without rating requirements, meaning that even casuals in BGs had something to look forward to while the pros would get there much faster.

Win win for all, but I guess it gave too much power to players for planning their gear upgrades for Blizzard's taste.

MoP system was the worst system there has ever been in any expansion. PvP gear is still the best in pvp. Before, weapons required rating, not you can get all pieces at 200 or 207 if play a little. How is that bad?

[jk1895]

what's wrong with the ground textures?

[Th3Scourge]

It's almost as if they are too prideful to realise that the valor/badge system was better

[BigAssBoy]

I genuienly miss valor points.

I also miss Valor, wish it was never removed actually.

[LordVargK]

These aren't the PvP vendors most PvPers, both casual and hardcore were looking for though. We wanted a single set of Honor gear and Conquest gear with a PvP stat. Instead we only got the vendors back, but with a starting ilvl and end point that has a gap of 68 ilvl between them. At best the most casual PvP player is forever stuck 26 ilvl behind on most slots, and 33 on the weapon slot.

Let me get this straight:
PvPers have whined for ages that the best loot comes from Raids, they are forced to PvE, omg Blizz, throw PvP a bone, etc etc. And now, when Blizz has finally given PvPers a system that allows them to compete with the best Loot PvE has to offer (if they earn it), you're still whining that you wanted something different?
Like okay, your system would probably cap out at 210, meaning you would be behind PvE players, as always.
In essence you're complaining about not getting the best loot right from the start.

[mbit]

Let me get this straight:
PvPers have whined for ages that the best loot comes from Raids, they are forced to PvE, omg Blizz, throw PvP a bone, etc etc. And now, when Blizz has finally given PvPers a system that allows them to compete with the best Loot PvE has to offer (if they earn it), you're still whining that you wanted something different?
Like okay, your system would probably cap out at 210, meaning you would be behind PvE players, as always.
In essence you're complaining about not getting the best loot right from the start.

Does it make sense to you that the best way to play arena without playing pve is to not play the game for several months so the fixed conquest cap goes high enough to buy full conquest gear? Because until then playing pve for gear is the meta.

[Doffen]

“Hey look the car isn’t moving, we ran out of gasoline.”

“Ok, let me change a tire”.

But the low amount of anima in dungeons and raid is a hot topic. And to increase the amount significantly might be on the block for an incentive to do them and it will be some sort of a no loot reward.

Your analogy is maybe a right one for you(and I like it) but to me that analogy does not work because I think gearing is spot on atm.

Increasing the amount of anima you get is a good contender for what the devs might have in mind. As an example, I don't want valor vendor with gear as good as what you get from raid and m+. As catch up, with few ilvl behind, fine, but nothing more than that. If we do get some sort of vendor however, I bet the currency will be:

Anima

[brigada]

"Ion thinks they can do more to make the experience of running dungeons and raids feel more satisfying when you don't get a specific item you were hoping for."

A SPECIFIC item? Ive done two back-to-back 10/10 HCs without ANY loot at all that's just ridiculous. How about 7x m10's without any loot?

I get that they want to make getting loot feeling more rewarding and epic and what not but this is bs

[Glorious Leader]

But the low amount of anima in dungeons and raid is a hot topic. And to increase the amount significantly might be on the block for an incentive to do them and it will be some sort of a no loot reward.

Your analogy is maybe a right one for you(and I like it) but to me that analogy does not work because I think gearing is spot on atm.

Increasing the amount of anima you get is a good contender for what the devs might have in mind. As an example, I don't want valor vendor with gear as good as what you get from raid and m+. As catch up, with few ilvl behind, fine, but nothing more than that. If we do get some sort of vendor however, I bet the currency will be:

Anima

A vendor with gear as good as you get from raid and m+ is exactly what this game needs.

[LordVargK]

Does it make sense to you that the best way to play arena without playing pve is to not play the game for several months so the fixed conquest cap goes high enough to buy full conquest gear? Because until then playing pve for gear is the meta.

What? That's the same amount of work required. Let's say you need 3 hours to reach a weekly cap. Either you do that every week and get your item every second week, after having played 6 hours of arena or you wait and play at the end of the patch, where you still have to play 6 hours per item, but you can do it in one day. Regardless you will play the same amount of time in the same gear.
If you play early you get additional PvP gear via the weekly chest; something you don't get in your example.
Now, you could supplement that with Mythic raid gear. But that's a slow and tedious process compared to the steady gearing PvP offers right now.
Either way, I have no idea how you get the idea, that you should wait to increase you conquest cap rises. Are you at all familiar with how this cap works?

[Derzorvadur]

"Ion thinks they can do more to make the experience of running dungeons and raids feel more satisfying when you don't get a specific item you were hoping for."

A SPECIFIC item? Ive done two back-to-back 10/10 HCs without ANY loot at all that's just ridiculous. How about 7x m10's without any loot?

I get that they want to make getting loot feeling more rewarding and epic and what not but this is bs

Yeah, aside from the balancing issues this is the biggest for me. I get they want gear to be more meaningful and scarce overall but especially for those trying to do 4 to 10 level 14+ dungeons for the vault, putting that much time/effort into doing those and not seeing a single piece of gear AND not having some sort of fail-safe system in place to at least make it worthwhile is ridiculous.

Even outside of the extremes for top end mythic raiders, if I and a group of friends all need gear and decide to appropriate levels of m+ we could go dozens of clears without hardly any upgrades because the likelihood of us not even being able to trade loot that isn't as good or barely an upgrade to help out.

[mbit]

What? That's the same amount of work required. Let's say you need 3 hours to reach a weekly cap. Either you do that every week and get your item every second week, after having played 6 hours of arena or you wait and play at the end of the patch, where you still have to play 6 hours per item, but you can do it in one day. Regardless you will play the same amount of time in the same gear.
If you play early you get additional PvP gear via the weekly chest; something you don't get in your example.
Now, you could supplement that with Mythic raid gear. But that's a slow and tedious process compared to the steady gearing PvP offers right now.
Either way, I have no idea how you get the idea, that you should wait to increase you conquest cap rises. Are you at all familiar with how this cap works?

I never mentioned work to get full gear. I wrote about being unable to get full conquest gear due to the conquest cap being fixed only increasing by each week.
Im running pve gear myself right now because HC pug is easy enough to get, comes with versa and is way ahead of 197 honor gear. Not to mention the dps trinkets from shriek&denatrius carrying double dps in 2s. Alternatively anyone who doesn't want to play handicapped vs pve people could just wait til the conquest cap grows large enough to grind full gear in a week. It would be more work skipping weekly chests but you wouldn't have to play handicapped for months vs pve players and chest rng isnt reliable to get a full set anyway.

[MrDaemon]

My guess is that this has a better ROI (Return On Investment), ie: costs less and generates the same revenue.

But changing few things doesnt cost them anything and you would still be subbed if you knew you can get your desired item every other week. You can time gate content in a way where it still makes people happy at the end. I wouldnt even mind if you could get your item in 3 week intervals. That would be best from their point of view for people to get sub. And you would still need to run dungeons to get item which you could upgrade later. So you make m+ players happy because there is a reason to run higher keys. You could even make it that every week you can upgrade item by certain item level like 5 or 6. This way even casual players could get good items. It would take them longer, they would have to sub more.

Currently there is not even point in going +15 unless you go for achievement or just wwant to push raider IO because gear there is garbage. If that gear was upgradable then it would be awesome.

Dropping less loot was genious way to keep raiders in the raid longer because if your average ilvl is lower then it takes longer to progress. I dont even mind this if you could target specific items.

[LordVargK]

I never mentioned work to get full gear. I wrote about being unable to get full conquest gear due to the conquest cap being fixed only increasing by each week.
Im running pve gear myself right now because HC pug is easy enough to get, comes with versa and is way ahead of 197 honor gear. Not to mention the dps trinkets from shriek&denatrius carrying double dps in 2s. Alternatively anyone who doesn't want to play handicapped vs pve people could just wait til the conquest cap grows large enough to grind full gear in a week. It would be more work skipping weekly chests but you wouldn't have to play handicapped for months vs pve players and chest rng isnt reliable to get a full set anyway.

Okay, maybe you got lucky in HC, but that isn't the norm at all. Many raiders view PvP gearing as more effective than getting their gear from raids right now, since you get one Conquest piece every two weeks, which you can target exactly as you like. And with sufficient rank you can immediatly upgrade that piece up to mythic.
Sure, if it's easier for you to run HC, because you are struggling in PvP without outgearing your opponent then your point stands. But to be able to target mythic level item rewards is pretty huge.
Ontop of that you can get mythic level gear from the great vault each week, based on your rank.

PvE players don't get much more loot than you. Just look at the amount of complaints right now; often they get one HC piece a week and the loot from the vault.