MrGM Patch 10.1 Interview with Ion Hazzikostas

[Stoy]

MrGM Patch 10.1 Interview with Ion Hazzikostas
MrGM is interviewing Ion Hazzikostas on Patch 10.1 - Embers of Neltharion.

• Ion thanks the community for the positive feedback on Dragonflight and giving the game a second chance after the troubles of Shadowlands.
• There is definitely no third Evoker specialization for Patch 10.1, but anything is possible in the future. The PTR houses a lot of unfiltered test content that never makes it into the game.
• The team understands the pain points of not having account-wide reputation, and this is a barrier that they eventually want to break down.
• The team plans to chip away more at cross-faction play restrictions, including eventually adding the ability to do queueable content together.
• The team doesn't want factions to be a barrier to playing with friends, but want to keep the factions intact.
• Having to be in the same community or battle.net friends to send cross-faction guild invites is there to keep the process less confusing, as being randomly invited to guilds of the opposite faction limits you for activities you can do together.
• The team wants to keep expanding on Timewalking to make the vast world more evergreen, with additional Timewalking raids and eventually Timewalking zones.
• The team wants to address some technical issues for Timewalking raids, including allowing raid members to just zone into the old raid instead of a group queue system.
• To address the Timewalking raid issues faster, the team would have to make the raid unavailable in its original difficulty for the week it is Timewalking.
• The team is looking to improve the tech of armor fitting on races, but Dracthyr are not likely going to get any additional transmog options anytime soon.
• The team plans to keep adding small additions to character customization every patch where they can. There is no such thing as too many customization options.
• There is no plan to increase the reagent bank size during Dragonflight, but the team wants to improve banks as a whole in a future expansion, including Guild Banks.
• There are no technical limitations preventing using dungeons prior to Cataclysm in Mythic Plus. However, the team wants to use aesthetically pleasing dungeons while also using dungeons that have worthwhile mechanics.
• Patch 10.1.5 PTR will be up shortly after Patch 10.1.
• The focus right now is on current Dragonriding mounts, but there is no reason other mounts shouldn't be able to do the same.
• The technology for Trader's Tender being account-wide will be used in the future for other currencies that the team wants to be account-wide.
• Skips for older raids is something that the team hears a lot, and they will definitely look in to doing it.
• Battle for Azeroth content will get a pass to make mechanics easier to solo probably for Patch 10.1.5.
• Warfronts were not built for solo queuing in mind, so it might not be easily possible to add.
• Shadowlands Raid Finder Solo queue is also likely in Patch 10.1.5.
• In the future, there might be plans to make Allied Races unlocked in the baseline races from the start while preserving their quest chains for Heritage Armor.

[Mendzia]

RIP in pepperonies 3rd spec believers.

[Ealyssa]

Wait what ? Crossfaction guilds won't be able to play together in queued content ?

How dumb can that be ? We waited years to have that and Blizzard can't help themselves half-assing it... I'm impressed.

[Dakhath]

It was delusional to think that an entire new spec would come at any time other than part of an expansion, at least Ion put it to rest for now.

[Big Thanks]

Wait what ? Crossfaction guilds won't be able to play together in queued content ?

How dumb can that be ? We waited years to have that and Blizzard can't help themselves half-assing it... I'm impressed.

Im with you brother. Fuck That...i want to do random BG with ma Homies.

Edit: Seems like i am wrong and restrictions will be uplifted

[fwc577]

> The team understands the pain points of not having account-wide reputation, and this is a barrier that they eventually want to break down.

What was actually said regarding this? Because there have been a few times where I see a recap like this from an interview and it seems like that wasn't remotely what was said in the interview.

[Stormwolf64]

> The team understands the pain points of not having account-wide reputation, and this is a barrier that they eventually want to break down.

What was actually said regarding this? Because there have been a few times where I see a recap like this from an interview and it seems like that wasn't remotely what was said in the interview.

What i see here though. "blablabla yadayada" it won't happen aaaanytime soon. If at all. He just don't want this to be a thing you quit over. Better to dangle a carrot you'll never get.

[TbouncerT]

Wait what ? Crossfaction guilds won't be able to play together in queued content ?

How dumb can that be ? We waited years to have that and Blizzard can't help themselves half-assing it... I'm impressed.

Found someone with their head in the sand.

[Big Thanks]

Found someone with their head in the sand.

Oh, good to know
Gladly they are working on it and the restriction will be uplifted.

My bad

[RobertMugabe]

Timewalking zones YES

[Big Thanks]

Timewalking zones YES

Any details shared on the interview about timewalking zones? A thread would be nice.

[Randris]

> The team understands the pain points of not having account-wide reputation, and this is a barrier that they eventually want to break down.

What was actually said regarding this? Because there have been a few times where I see a recap like this from an interview and it seems like that wasn't remotely what was said in the interview.

He said "in the future" they want to work towards legacy reputations being more account wide but "no immediate plans". Also says it's "not a priority in the immediate short term".

So there you go. It's in the plans but no timeline for when.

[FelPlague]

Wait what ? Crossfaction guilds won't be able to play together in queued content ?

How dumb can that be ? We waited years to have that and Blizzard can't help themselves half-assing it... I'm impressed.

It takes time to add all this dude. It is this, or no cross faction guild's.

[Groundwalker]

TLDR:

"We here at Blizzard hear everything that you want in the game, and we here at Blizzard are not going to give you what you want. Keep checking back for me to keep telling you that we are not giving you what you want. Enjoy the grind!" - Ian

[RobertMugabe]

Any details shared on the interview about timewalking zones? A thread would be nice.

They didn't really say much about them in the interview.

But generally what is meant by Timewalking zones when its talked about on the forums is like imagine Chromie Time where an expansion's zones get scaled to your level (or you get scaled down to its level) during the Timewalking event and thus the stuff you do there is as "hard" as it was intended to be when the zone was originally released. The content you do there would then reward you with stuff that is good at the current max level. This way, during a Timewalking event, you could experience that old expansion more fully and its an easy way for them to make all of the old zones sort of relevant again.

- - - Updated - - -

TLDR:

"We here at Blizzard hear everything that you want in the game, and we here at Blizzard are not going to give you what you want. Keep checking back for me to keep telling you that we are not giving you what you want. Enjoy the grind!" - Ian

Classic MMOC user moment right here.

[Kiivar86]

What exactly would a timewalking zone entail? Best I can figure it just means the zone would scale (or rather, you'd scale to it, I suppose). I guess rewards would be equal level to elsewhere.

[Gurbz]

What exactly would a timewalking zone entail? Best I can figure it just means the zone would scale (or rather, you'd scale to it, I suppose). I guess rewards would be equal level to elsewhere.

"Hey guys, remember all those daily/world quests from the past expansions that you used to love doing so much? Now you get to do them again this week for upgraded rewards!!"

[fwc577]

He said "in the future" they want to work towards legacy reputations being more account wide but "no immediate plans". Also says it's "not a priority in the immediate short term".

So there you go. It's in the plans but no timeline for when.

Well that's a positive. Normally it's like, "It's something we've talked about and we aren't sure" and being very noncommital. But then just because he mentioned it someone will start claiming that they said it was coming or some shit.

[Dracullus]

What exactly would a timewalking zone entail? Best I can figure it just means the zone would scale (or rather, you'd scale to it, I suppose). I guess rewards would be equal level to elsewhere.

Option to level there for 60-70 level there would be a start. In general, for future WoW I would want something like this:

- you can auto complete all quests you did on main through toy similar to Scouting ones, that include stuff like intros for endgame patch zones

- Chromie time for final 10 level is available as soon as you complete new continent campaign on first character

- you can repeat every single piece of questing content on any character that completed it, so for example I could dust off some old 60 level alt, enable Chromie time for Pandaria and clear 2-3 Pandaria zones to reach level 70 despite that this character done these quests already.

[Kiivar86]

"Hey guys, remember all those daily/world quests from the past expansions that you used to love doing so much? Now you get to do them again this week for upgraded rewards!!"

That's along the lines of what I was thinking, and I'm one of those guys that liked dailies in MoP.

They didn't really say much about them in the interview.

But generally what is meant by Timewalking zones when its talked about on the forums is like imagine Chromie Time where an expansion's zones get scaled to your level (or you get scaled down to its level) during the Timewalking event and thus the stuff you do there is as "hard" as it was intended to be when the zone was originally released. The content you do there would then reward you with stuff that is good at the current max level. This way, during a Timewalking event, you could experience that old expansion more fully and its an easy way for them to make all of the old zones sort of relevant again.

Somehow missed this and that follows too. Doesn't seem that hype to me personally, but to each their own. Shouldn't be hard to implement, I mean we have scaling tech already.

Option to level there for 60-70 level there would be a start. In general, for future WoW I would want something like this:

- you can auto complete all quests you did on main through toy similar to Scouting ones, that include stuff like intros for endgame patch zones

- Chromie time for final 10 level is available as soon as you complete new continent campaign on first character

- you can repeat every single piece of questing content on any character that completed it, so for example I could dust off some old 60 level alt, enable Chromie time for Pandaria and clear 2-3 Pandaria zones to reach level 70 despite that this character done these quests already.

Fair enough. Zero interest for me but I can see why others would like it.