Preach Developer Interview with Ion Hazzikostas - Patch 9.1

[Gaidax]

Yeah, cuz thats exactly how this game works these days - it is all about choice, not feast or famine. Righttt. As if everyone else in the world is choosing to wear a 197 piece of gear with 44 vers over haste or some crap and you are just soO much smarter that you and only you know better. Lmao.

Using your brain is part of skill, too.

Because it's so hard to get pieces at Normal raid level with stats you prefer... clearly insurmountable challenge with all the bajillion fucking options you have at that gear level.

- - - Updated - - -

so they have finally agreed they have been leading the game in the wrong direction since cata...... Maybe Classic has made them see a better game.......
Nice now we need to see the fixes ingame...

Oh look a victim of Ion's lawyer talk. The things he says, he says for many many years and the way he says them makes different people interpret it differently, because 90% of his talk is vague non-committal musings.

KEKW.

[Alroxas]

So go back to mop which had lots of its own systems like challenge mode, scenarios, valor vendor, valor upgrades, and more! yeah way better. and the OG garrison.

Also a lot of rep grinding (depending on your count upwards of 10~11 reps to grind to at least revered if not exalted per toon). Daily quest hubs with daily quest limit.

Currently in SL we have like 5 primary reps (1 for each covenant and Ven'ari). Technically there are a few extra side reps (Avowed, Court of Night, etc).

[Gaidax]

Things those sims don't take into account:

- Different item levels of conduits.

Difference between ilvl 200 conduit and 226 one is hilariously small, you can sim it too.

I remember when I upgraded my top conduit from ilvl 213 to 226 I gained 9 DPS - nice meme.

[Aggressive]

That is literally the fucking point.... people complain about gear... when its not. This is a discussion about gear.

Simcraft does a perfectly fine job when comparing A to B. Not A + b and c to X + y and z.

The point was preach said gear makes you multiple times stronger. It's not "just" gear. Different encounters, rng, skill all play a factor. So the kids crying about gear are just bad.

Interesting.......Who is getting mad now?

[panda040]

Remove conduits, put in actual cosmetic rewards for Torghast, reduce ilvl rewards for M+, and give us real valor points for raids. That's it. That's all you gotta do, Ion.

His comment about borrowed power so far is the only step in the right direction here. How they choose to move away from it and what they'll replace it with is a careful step they'll have to make, however.

I mostly do M+ but im ok with this. I always felt in wow that raiding and high cr arena were meant to be the toughest challenges in the game and as such, have the best rewards available.

[Kaver]

I remember when I upgraded my top conduit from ilvl 213 to 226 I gained 9 DPS - nice meme.

#Metoo xD

Just when we started getting stygia I was wondering if I should upgrade my conduits before getting sockets. I quickly realized that ilvl on conduits means almost nothing.

[kaid]

I would agree doing PVE content a 20% difference is not as gigantic but in PVP its like running into a wall. At equal skill levels that 20 ilevels means not only do you they do 20% more damage to you but are also 20% more durable and probably a third more HP. If you go in as a 2v2 against two people with that level of gap you basically are a punching bag. They almost have a third person worth of power against you.

Its really fun when you are a wind walker with 203 ilevel and around 36000 hp and you come up against an assassin rogue with 50k+hp. Burst is key in arenas and that level of extra durability means what burst you can apply is that much less powerful. My team basically gave up because we kept getting stuck against people like that to the point it just was not fun being punching bags until the rare fight where somebody has comparable gear levels.

We started playing PVP again with our mythic dungeon characters and it was night and day easier to increase our rated value.

[Oneirophobia]

Absolutely nothing about new customization for Allied Races what is this lmao

They've already said a few times there are no plans for more customization for Shadowlands. Maybe in a future expansion, probably years down the road.

Players really like customization, transmog, etc. but it isn't really a metric they can display to shareholders at quarterlies so they don't seem terribly concerned with it. I wouldn't hold your breath.

[kaid]

They've already said a few times there are no plans for more customization for Shadowlands. Maybe in a future expansion, probably years down the road.

Players really like customization, transmog, etc. but it isn't really a metric they can display to shareholders at quarterlies so they don't seem terribly concerned with it. I wouldn't hold your breath.

Also when they are having issues just getting the content pipeline flowing for needed stuff in this weird time extraneous stuff just is not going to make the cut over the meat and bone stuff they need to add.

[Molvonos]

People have literally posted sims showing same exact gear, scaled 20 ilvls higher, is ~20% more dmg.

Then ppl try to counter it by comparing normal logs to mythic raiders? Or even logs from first week when ppl were learning, to now when its on farm? The dude stuck in normal is there for a reason. The guy in mythic is much better. That's the skill. The guy clearing the boss on farm has much more experience and is executing his rotation with more skill compared to the first time he downed it. The fights are also shorter because of the entire raid doing more dps, leading to higher uptime on bloodlust.

If ppl spent as much time learning rotations and fights, as they do coming up with excuses, they'd be doing more dmg

The funny thing is people dont realize that the difference between normal raiders and mythic raiders isnt raw numbers but mechanics.

I'm not a mythic raider, but I'll use myself for example:

In order for my raid group to down heroic sire, compared to normal, I had to learn the following to maximize my dps as an affliction lock:

Phase 1:

when to use SoC and spread it, using Soul Rot and PS to cleave down adds way faster.

When to pop soulshape right before phase transition to make sure dots were rolling into phase two.

Phase 2:

How to orb walk my instant cast dots around their timers for add deaths and the knock backs

How to maximize MR damage on all the adds after going through portals for a cleaner transition into phase 3

---

Seeing the lack of mechanics in higher keys (I just got ksm, lol) is pretty telling too when not with my usual key froup. You just cant brute force that shit without draining your healers mana.

[Tesshin83]

I really want to empathize with this man but he makes it so hard. Give the players what they want for gods sake

Players dont know what they want and often want things that make them not wanting to play the game.

[splatomat]

"Why do casuals need gear?" has always struck me as such a nonsensical, even moronic question.

They don't, obviously, but that's just a strawman you stack up so you can knock it down and feel triumphant. Here's the big secret/bitter pill: neither do you. For all but the absolute top 1%/upper crust players (the majority of you NOT existing in this subset, sorry), someone somewhere has completed the content you're currently doing with worse gear than you have. It inescapably follows, then, that you don't actually need gear either. And yet, somehow, by the simple virtue of being a Mythic Plusser or a Raider, you believe that you have earned the sole right to pursue better gear. You don't need it. You WANT better gear to make what you WANT to do easier. It's exactly the same with casuals, and I don't know why this plain and basic truth somehow so cleanly and completely escapes the deep minds on this forum.

So then the real question being asked isn't actually about need at all. The real unspoken question is "why do you, a filthy earthcrawler casual, think you deserve better gear?". The question itself has absolutely nothing to do with merit, it has to do with hatred. It's a resentment of casuals; a treatment of them as second-class citizens. Noncasuals somehow simultaneously want to feel superior to casuals whilst also insisting that casuals become more like them (mimicry of their choices serving as validation of their choices). Noncasuals become infected by a lack of imagination - to say nothing of compassion (the patient zero in this case being the developers). Noncasuals cannot imagine a system that is inclusive - that somehow allows all playstyles to continue progressing, even if it comes at different speeds. They can't even imagine a functional, beneficial system where people who tackle easier content have their time rewarded more slowly instead of NOT AT ALL.

I think it's 100% fine for casuals to slowly progress along alternate paths. There's no reason Valor couldn't have been more inclusive, instead of the wretched mess dumped at our doorstep. There's no reason the Vault couldn't have been more inclusive either, including once-a-week rewards for other types of activities. If it takes a casual ten times as long to upgrade, okay, so what? That won't affect anyone else in the slightest. Ever. At all. The only time you'll ever encounter most of these casual players is if you go slumming in LFR, and why would you ever do that given the fact so many of you despise LFR's very existence?

Some of the people in this thread make me imagine a wild-haired man with his face and palms absolutely plastered against a window, screeching incoherently because he's noticing birds finding seeds outside. The birds have nothing to do with you, man. It doesn't actually matter if they find a scrap here and there. Except in this analogy, the birds are helping pay the man's mortgage and help keep him in the house.

[artam]

"Why do casuals need gear?" has always struck me as such a nonsensical, even moronic question.

They don't, obviously, but that's just a strawman you stack up so you can knock it down and feel triumphant. Here's the big secret/bitter pill: neither do you. For all but the absolute top 1%/upper crust players (the majority of you NOT existing in this subset, sorry), someone somewhere has completed the content you're currently doing with worse gear than you have. It inescapably follows, then, that you don't actually need gear either. And yet, somehow, by the simple virtue of being a Mythic Plusser or a Raider, you believe that you have earned the sole right to pursue better gear. You don't need it. You WANT better gear to make what you WANT to do easier. It's exactly the same with casuals, and I don't know why this plain and basic truth somehow so cleanly and completely escapes the deep minds on this forum.

So then the real question being asked isn't actually about need at all. The real unspoken question is "why do you, a filthy earthcrawler casual, think you deserve better gear?". The question itself has absolutely nothing to do with merit, it has to do with hatred. It's a resentment of casuals; a treatment of them as second-class citizens. Noncasuals somehow simultaneously want to feel superior to casuals whilst also insisting that casuals become more like them (mimicry of their choices serving as validation of their choices). Noncasuals become infected by a lack of imagination - to say nothing of compassion (the patient zero in this case being the developers). Noncasuals cannot imagine a system that is inclusive - that somehow allows all playstyles to continue progressing, even if it comes at different speeds. They can't even imagine a functional, beneficial system where people who tackle easier content have their time rewarded more slowly instead of NOT AT ALL.

I think it's 100% fine for casuals to slowly progress along alternate paths. There's no reason Valor couldn't have been more inclusive, instead of the wretched mess dumped at our doorstep. There's no reason the Vault couldn't have been more inclusive either, including once-a-week rewards for other types of activities. If it takes a casual ten times as long to upgrade, okay, so what? That won't affect anyone else in the slightest. Ever. At all. The only time you'll ever encounter most of these casual players is if you go slumming in LFR, and why would you ever do that given the fact so many of you despise LFR's very existence?

Some of the people in this thread make me imagine a wild-haired man with his face and palms absolutely plastered against a window, screeching incoherently because he's noticing birds finding seeds outside. The birds have nothing to do with you, man. It doesn't actually matter if they find a scrap here and there. Except in this analogy, the birds are helping pay the man's mortgage and help keep him in the house.

Great post splatomat. I bow to you.

[Fiacla]

I don't know what's worse, the fact that Blizzard wasted time giving Preach the time of day, or Preach's new horrendous fake hair . Grow old with dignity dude.

[Syegfryed]

i wonder why is always that image of Smug ion in the thumbnails and in the foruns.

[Feral Druid ist Op]

warcraftlogs, Sludgefist heroic, boomkins.

200-202 ilvl: 4192 DPS 75%, 4956 DPS 95%, 5665 DPS 99%.
209-211 ilvl: 5041 DPS 75% (+20%), 5916 DPS 95% (+19%), 6421 DPS 99% (+13%)
221-223 ilvl: 6909 DPS 75% (+37%), 7802 DPS 95% (+31%), 8319 DPS 99% (+29%)
227-229 ilvl: 8407 DPS 75% (+21%), 9149 DPS 95% (+17%), 10101 DPS 99% (+21%)

1 ilvl does NOT equal to 1% performance. It seems that Ion has no idea about his own game.

its only you who has 0 idea judging by this post i knwo oyu never progress raided and how what raid execution + kill times are you could be the best boomkin in the world and only have 90% parses cuz half of your raid is dogshit and your kill takes 50% longer than in a normal guild.

PS: SF Logs KEKW /facepalm

[Azerate]

I don't know what's worse, the fact that Blizzard wasted time giving Preach the time of day, or Preach's new horrendous fake hair . Grow old with dignity dude.

It's not fake, he had a transplant procedure

On another note, I love how Ion shuts down all the common idiotic arguments against systems in wow, and the trolls don't even know what to reply anymore. They can just throw insults and cry

[Feral Druid ist Op]

The sims are not an accurate representation of ingame performance, they are bad. And a 5 minute simulation of a boss from 2006 with no modern parallels using slightly wonky sim models is not a representation of class performance in a game when you're having an argument about how gear affects class performance in a game.

I hope you knoe that you can alter sims with custom strings and litrally recreate a mythic raid boss right (with add spawns and downtimes)? if not you know it now, no normal M raider would sim Patchwerk unless WR 2k trash.

[Tarba]

... was he implying that 20% power difference is low ? That's plain retarded.

[JessicaJones]

its only you who has 0 idea judging by this post i knwo oyu never progress raided and how what raid execution + kill times are you could be the best boomkin in the world and only have 90% parses cuz half of your raid is dogshit and your kill takes 50% longer than in a normal guild.

PS: SF Logs KEKW /facepalm

you can't take those numbers at face value but they do show that 1 ilevel is not 1%.

Its also the first patch of the expansion so theres gonna be huge power gains across this tier alone and next tier when another system comes in.

There is definitely a skill issue over gear issue.

No one wants to play their spec optimally or even listen to someone saying theyre bad even if it is worded in a horrendous way.

The skill v gear thing needs to be revisited next patch once our characters are more established - individual class tuning should happen regardless.

Because of the stat squish, buttons are more impactful and thus the lack of pressing said buttons results in poorer performance. I dont think any1 has any issue with any player having the ability to get to essentially max item level via weekly chest and some raid/mythics. If there was another drop per boss in the raid that would solve some issues, the item level increases attached to arena rating cause a huge problem because stamina and survivability play a huge part as opposed to just damage output. That really does need to be looked at and scaling is not the answer unless it is explain in DETAIL with total transparency so the player base knows how it works.