Maximum Patch 10.1 Interview with Morgan Day

[Lumy]

Maximum Patch 10.1 Interview with Morgan Day
Maximum has interviewed Associate Game Director Morgan Day on Patch 10.1 Embers of Neltharion.

• Patches like Patch 10.0.5 will continue in between major seasonal patches that focus on class updates and evergreen content like Heritage Armor.
• Patch 10.0.7 is an example of another philosophy going forward that introduces catch-up mechanics to prepare returning players for the next season and drop story hints.
• The developers didn't quite hit the mark when creating the Onyx Amulet. The goal was to add something cool for the patch, but nerfing it now would feel really bad to players.
• There probably won't be any nerfs to the Onyx Amulet in Patch 10.1.
• The frequency that the team takes a look at class balance has increased in Dragonflight.
• The way that players interact with the content determines the perception of class balance a lot of the time.
• The team is always open to more suggestions to improve the Great Vault.
• Having some variance in gear acquisition creates excitement, but the team does understand that gear magnitude matters and implements things like the Revival Catalyst to give players more control for items that matter.
• 8 dungeons is the target amount for each Mythic Plus season going forward.
• Changing the amount of dungeons each season would cause issues with the scoring system.
• Default nameplates have been discussed internally as a target for UI updates.
• Higher end UI customization like buff/debuff filtering is still a space carved out for addons.
• There is potential for popular class tier set bonuses to be introduced into the Talent trees if they solve a specific problem or become a huge part of their gameplay.
• Evoker's Living Flame is an example of a tier set bonus that might fight into the Talent Tree.
• The door is not definitely closed on Seasonal Affixes, but there is so many changes in Season 2 that the team wants to see how it plays out without them and not overcorrect too fast.
• There is opportunity to address issues with Parry punishing certain classes more, but the encounter team would like to know based on the fights so they can address it on a boss by boss basis.

[Marlamin]

ok am I the only one curious about the DF concept art wallpaper that's animated? What is this!?

Wallpaper Engine + this wallpaper

[exochaft]

- The frequency that the team takes a look at class balance has increased in Dragonflight.

Yeah, I don't think that's necessarily a good thing. It's been fairly obvious with the sheer amount of class balance adjustment patches in DF that this was the case, but the amount of wild swings that have occurred was a little silly. If a class/spec severely underperforms, I can see the case of adjusting them. However, we've seen it go both way: buffing underperformers while nerfing overperformers. Leaving aside that this ideally should be sorted out for the most part before the content goes live, players constantly worrying that they could be the target of nerfs (deserved or not) at any given time during a patch cycle... well, it's exhausting to say the least.

This feeds into one of my longstanding criticisms with how WoW is currently balancing the game: Blizz is waaaay to focused on hitting that statistical sweet spot on their proverbial spreadsheet to where it starts negatively impacting the player experience, either through the frequency of balancing or the method in which they choose to balance. Best and most ideal time to make class balance adjustments would at the start of an expansion and every major patch, especially when it comes to nerfs. Any more than that could have players constantly worrying that they wasted their time investing in a class/spec while still allowing meta shakeups or severe outliers, especially if you're a progression-minded person.

[Biomega]

Blizz is waaaay to focused on hitting that statistical sweet spot on their proverbial spreadsheet to where it starts negatively impacting the player experience

The problem there is that this is unavoidable. Between 38 specs in 3 roles for solo, M+, raid, and PvP, not to mention various skill brackets and synergistic effects from comp and gear etc., there are too many moving parts to make that "player experience" consistent - meaning you'll always find SOMEONE SOMEWHERE that's an outlier in some way. The only question is where, who, and by how much.

Nobody wants to be the one who's "stuck" and gets to suck for 5 months straight. Frequent balance updates help this more than just saying "it be like that" and putting your hands up till the next pass. Neither is a perfect solution, but one has slightly higher chances of making slightly fewer people slightly less miserable. That's all we can feasibly hope for without more homogenization or more stringent content differentiation (which Blizzard is categorically against).

[GreenJesus]

- The frequency that the team takes a look at class balance has increased in Dragonflight.

Yeah, I don't think that's necessarily a good thing. It's been fairly obvious with the sheer amount of class balance adjustment patches in DF that this was the case, but the amount of wild swings that have occurred was a little silly. If a class/spec severely underperforms, I can see the case of adjusting them. However, we've seen it go both way: buffing underperformers while nerfing overperformers. Leaving aside that this ideally should be sorted out for the most part before the content goes live, players constantly worrying that they could be the target of nerfs (deserved or not) at any given time during a patch cycle... well, it's exhausting to say the least.

This feeds into one of my longstanding criticisms with how WoW is currently balancing the game: Blizz is waaaay to focused on hitting that statistical sweet spot on their proverbial spreadsheet to where it starts negatively impacting the player experience, either through the frequency of balancing or the method in which they choose to balance. Best and most ideal time to make class balance adjustments would at the start of an expansion and every major patch, especially when it comes to nerfs. Any more than that could have players constantly worrying that they wasted their time investing in a class/spec while still allowing meta shakeups or severe outliers, especially if you're a progression-minded person.

And then there's holy paladins. Where the entire community recognizes they are underpowered and yet blizzard kept nerfing them every patch. Absolutely hilarious.

[exsanguinate]

Changing the amount of dungeons each season would cause issues with the scoring t.

And this is why I HATE modern wow. Things cant be done because of esports aspects like mythic plus. Everything is build around it, especially class tuning.

[klaps_05]

Lmao where are all the ppl saying annulet will be gone in season 2, it is clear they are trying to create new player-friend power systems designs by allowing you to pre-grind a power system. hope most ppl especially tanks and healers got their gems done, wont be great to do that during a new patch. but then again, the writing was on the wall.

[Nzx]

And this is why I HATE modern wow. Things cant be done because of esports aspects like mythic plus. Everything is build around it, especially class tuning.

What the fuck are you talking about? This has nothing to do with esports and everything to do with dumb hypothetical shit like having CE be for killing Sarkareth for the first two weeks and then adding another two bosses and making everyone else kill them as well for the same achievement.

Imagine, for just a moment, you don't literally live on this forum and you actually log into the game every now and again. Last season, there were 8 dungeons and you needed to hit 1500 for the title, 2000 for the mount, and 2500 for KSH. You get to 2560, get some portals, then you take off for a month because you only play casually. You come back next season. There are 9 dungeons, and when you hit 1500 you don't get any achievement at all. You dig through the list of achievements and discover that now it's 1580 for the title, 2110 for the mount, and 2600 for KSH. You hit these milestones again, play for a bit, do your usual month off. Come back for next season. There's 11 dungeons. You're looking for people to invite to the last +20 you need to time in order to get the portal on the very last day of the season. You have no fucking idea how good the people are who are applying for your group because last time you spent a bunch of time in the game 2600 was KSH, but now there are 11 dungeons and people who have never timed a 20 have 2800 score.

Having a consistent number of dungeons is a good thing. Targets that arbitrarily move between seasons for no reason are a bad thing. Feeling hatred towards an inanimate object because you're terrified of applying any effort is an unhealthy thing.

[Stickiler]

Lmao where are all the ppl saying annulet will be gone in season 2, it is clear they are trying to create new player-friend power systems designs by allowing you to pre-grind a power system. hope most ppl especially tanks and healers got their gems done, wont be great to do that during a new patch. but then again, the writing was on the wall.

We've known the plans for the Annulet since before 10.0.7 came out, which is in terms of power, 10.0 gear < Annulet < Mythic 10.1 gear.

[exsanguinate]

What the fuck are you talking about? This has nothing to do with esports and everything to do with dumb hypothetical shit like having CE be for killing Sarkareth for the first two weeks and then adding another two bosses and making everyone else kill them as well for the same achievement.

Imagine, for just a moment, you don't literally live on this forum and you actually log into the game every now and again. Last season, there were 8 dungeons and you needed to hit 1500 for the title, 2000 for the mount, and 2500 for KSH. You get to 2560, get some portals, then you take off for a month because you only play casually. You come back next season. There are 9 dungeons, and when you hit 1500 you don't get any achievement at all. You dig through the list of achievements and discover that now it's 1580 for the title, 2110 for the mount, and 2600 for KSH. You hit these milestones again, play for a bit, do your usual month off. Come back for next season. There's 11 dungeons. You're looking for people to invite to the last +20 you need to time in order to get the portal on the very last day of the season. You have no fucking idea how good the people are who are applying for your group because last time you spent a bunch of time in the game 2600 was KSH, but now there are 11 dungeons and people who have never timed a 20 have 2800 score.

Having a consistent number of dungeons is a good thing. Targets that arbitrarily move between seasons for no reason are a bad thing. Feeling hatred towards an inanimate object because you're terrified of applying any effort is an unhealthy thing.

Bro wtf are you even talking about? That wasnt my point. You are delusional if you think mythic plus is not the main focus and reason why we have linear gameplay and abnormal class tuning. That whats morgan day even undirectly said in this video. Keep coping.

[Biomega]

And this is why I HATE modern wow. Things cant be done because of esports aspects like mythic plus. Everything is build around it, especially class tuning.

One of the most persistent myths out there.

They don't tune for the RWF or MDI. That's why you see degenerate shit there. If anything, it's the OTHER way round - they adjust the raid to match the class tuning as the WF guilds progress. And then progressively nerf it.

They tune for Johnny Random who does everything an average amount of the time - and that's why some things feel so off, because in order for things to be kinda balanced in EVERYTHING they'll be out of whack SOMEWHERE. It's too many moving parts to all fit perfectly everywhere, so at some point they just say "good enough" and leave it be.

Do they get it wrong at times? Fuck yes they do. In both directions. But it's not because of "esports aspects like mythic plus".

[klaps_05]

We've known the plans for the Annulet since before 10.0.7 came out, which is in terms of power, 10.0 gear < Annulet < Mythic 10.1 gear.

Which so far has not been correct for multiple specs and essentially all tanks and healers as you can easily sim 447/450 gear.

[Nzx]

Bro wtf are you even talking about? That wasnt my point. You are delusional if you think mythic plus is not the main focus and reason why we have linear gameplay and abnormal class tuning. That whats morgan day even undirectly said in this video. Keep coping.

Look at what you quoted saying they can't change the number of dungeons that are available. Then you responded to this saying that won't happen because of "esports", and I called you a moron. M+ isn't linear at all for the vast majority of groups, and the only time class tuning could be "abnormal" would be if they went back to bullshit like Vanilla Warriors being the only tank/melee DPS being worth playing.

I'm probably just going to check out of this conversation now because I've never once seen you engage in good faith on anything Blizzard related, but I'm sure you'll give me a big ol' "gotcha" of a response, so pop off.

[Reive]

They're so stubborn when it comes to gearing. the rng system is not fun.

[Stickiler]

Which so far has not been correct for multiple specs and essentially all tanks and healers as you can easily sim 447/450 gear.

Yeah, but that doesn't suddenly change what their plan for the ring has been. It was never designed as a "borrowed power system you can pre-grind".

[Dracullus]

And this is why I HATE modern wow. Things cant be done because of esports aspects like mythic plus. Everything is build around it, especially class tuning.

For me 8 dungeons/8-10 raid boss/5 month season + shorter bonus season recycling all raids is sweet spot.

Especially now where raiding is less popular game should avoid 11-14 boss raids where extra bosses are just their least interesting ideas. And thx to M+ dungeons are far more relevant and all change every 5 months, so I dont get whats your issue here.

[erifwodahs]

And this is why I HATE modern wow. Things cant be done because of esports aspects like mythic plus. Everything is build around it, especially class tuning.

Amount of dungeons is not reduced tho - if you want, you can do all 9 dungeons from DF in 10.1.5 (including planned mega dungeon) - they are talking purely about m+ - 8 dungeons is a sweet spot.

[Ashana Darkmoon]

- The frequency that the team takes a look at class balance has increased in Dragonflight.

Yeah, I don't think that's necessarily a good thing. It's been fairly obvious with the sheer amount of class balance adjustment patches in DF that this was the case, but the amount of wild swings that have occurred was a little silly. If a class/spec severely underperforms, I can see the case of adjusting them. However, we've seen it go both way: buffing underperformers while nerfing overperformers. Leaving aside that this ideally should be sorted out for the most part before the content goes live, players constantly worrying that they could be the target of nerfs (deserved or not) at any given time during a patch cycle... well, it's exhausting to say the least.

This feeds into one of my longstanding criticisms with how WoW is currently balancing the game: Blizz is waaaay to focused on hitting that statistical sweet spot on their proverbial spreadsheet to where it starts negatively impacting the player experience, either through the frequency of balancing or the method in which they choose to balance. Best and most ideal time to make class balance adjustments would at the start of an expansion and every major patch, especially when it comes to nerfs. Any more than that could have players constantly worrying that they wasted their time investing in a class/spec while still allowing meta shakeups or severe outliers, especially if you're a progression-minded person.

I think this goes into the thing he said about perception being tied to content.

Personally I would much rather have more frequent changes to keep specs competitive so people don't waste time and effort on stuff that isn't viable. Otherwise the meta is even worse

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The developers didn't quite hit the mark when creating the Onyx Amulet. The goal was to add something cool for the patch, but nerfing it now would feel really bad to players.

There probably won't be any nerfs to the Onyx Amulet in Patch 10.1.[/list]

I spend most of my time in PvP and the Onyx Annulet's effectiveness is nerfed by 90% in BGs. Would have been nice to have been viable to use, at least for a while.

[Tiwack]

snip

Yea but sometimes people would also feel forced reroll to fotm which also sucked, when a lot of players would normally pick their class and spec based on the fantasy, rather than let a spreadsheet choose for them. Neither is ideal but I think this is better, they just needa be careful with tuning and obs on outlier items like the bow.