Patch 5.3 Dev Interview, Blue Posts, Blue Tweets, Poll, TCG Art Update

[Deleted]

that Southshore-pic looks awesome...god, how much i miss the old times with SS or TM raids

[Yakuchin]

I must be crazy, I have 32 pets at level 25... and I don't really spend more than an hour doing pet battles each day 8(

[Worgoblin]

If this announced feature is some sort of content scaling system, that would be pretty amazing. Like... what if you could take your lvl 50 toon into any lower level zone or dungeon and have that content scaled to you. That would be incredible.

[Azrile]

"PvP servers don't get any system changes just because they are a PVP server, so getting attacked while in a wild pet battle is just part of the PvP server experience."

That's a horrible thing to say. Really mind numbing. It just opens up more chances to grief someone, not to mention if you're in a pet battle you can't defend yourself. I call bullshit on that - you should be untargetable and immune to damage if you're in a Pet Battle, so long as you've done at least a round of combat (to stop people just running up to a wild pet to escape combat).

I know some PvP 'heroes' will disagree and trott out the usual rubbish responce. But if you attack someone who's fighting and trying to capture a rare pet, you're pretty much griefing them. PvP be damned in this case. Its akin to being attacked while in a dungeon by enemy players, which is something that is impossible for good reason.

There is already a huge damage debuff for a few seconds if you are in a pet battle. If someone attacks you and uses a big cd spell, or an attack that uses a lot of their resource ( energy etc).. then as the pet battler, you have the advantage because they just blew their cd for little damage. I would be willing to bet that most good pvpers(gankers) have already learned that it is better to just wait a minute and gank the person when the pet battle is over.

I am by no means a pvp hero as you say.. but it is the reality of being on a pvp server.

[Darmalus]

If this announced feature is some sort of content scaling system, that would be pretty amazing. Like... what if you could take your lvl 50 toon into any lower level zone or dungeon and have that content scaled to you. That would be incredible.

It would be amazing. I'd love to run low level content with my friend's without effectively soloing the dungeon for them.

[Azrile]

Talk about a way to increase subs, so many people would keep paying monthly for that feature alone. People love playing doll-house, and adding in ways to earn furniture/trophies/landscape etc would have a ton of possibilities. I would imagine that would be feature to be in an expansion rather than a patch, but ya never know...

I agree. Ultima Online had a system called IDOC ( in danger of collapsing).. basically if you did not open your front door in a certain amount of time, it would ultimately reach a point where it would collapse. I think it was about 6 weeks. Anyone could see the ´state´ the house was in. I think there were like 4 stages (new, worn, old, IDOC)... and when a house turned ´IDOC´ it meant it was going to collapse in the next week... This was great for two reasons.. first, housing spots were very limited, so if a house collapsed, it meant someone else could place a house in that spot. Second, when a house collapse, all of the contents would get scattered around the area and people could pick them up. This was an amazing social time in the game. When a castle went IDOC, there would sometimes be a hundred people sitting around waiting for it to fall.

Because housing was so desired, NOBODY with a house would let their accounts lapse... you resubscribed, or your lost your house.

Housing and player run vendors in UO were the most addicting parts to any game I have ever played. I am sure there were people who would get evicted from their real house before allowing their castle to go IDOC.

---------- Post added 2013-06-01 at 08:16 PM ----------

"and there is no way to level an alt on pvp servers anymore because of the implementation of crz
That implies pre CRZ you weren't doing much PvP while leveling up, which isn't really the experience those servers were going for. "

Obviously Durando, You miss the entire point of PvP realms as blizzard clearly has stated it for months and again below what you yourself quoted. Corpse camping someone or a graveyard may be griefing, but anywhere else you are fair game. If you don't want to be fair game, then don't play on a PvP realm. Seriously, saying that being attacked while questing or any other pve type experience on a pvp realm, is like moving to England and complaining about drivers on the wrong side of the road. Or going online with halo and screaming it's not fair when you get shot. You made the choice to be there.

Now that Blizz by CRZ is straightening out what PvP servers are supposed to be like, people are having issues about PvP. That's why they are there, to let people who want to kill each other and have a real war, do so.

And there are many ways to level on a pvp server without questing.... dungeons and BGs spring to mind.

---------- Post added 2013-06-01 at 08:23 PM ----------

If this announced feature is some sort of content scaling system, that would be pretty amazing. Like... what if you could take your lvl 50 toon into any lower level zone or dungeon and have that content scaled to you. That would be incredible.

The content will not scale to you, you will scale to the content.

You will be able to go into RFC and your level will drop to 15 and your ilvl will drop to 5 (guessing lol). I am 100% positive this is what the new feature will be.

The questions that remain

1. If you do RFC as a level 15 while you are at level 50, will you get experience towards 51? Probably not
2. Will the gear you get in RFC scale up to your character once you leave the dungeon? Probably not
3. Will there be a queing system, or will you have to enter the dungeon with a premade group? Probably a que

[Somarlane]

I don't like the fact that Heroic Scenarios do not drop any loot (because it goes against the whole loot-treasure-from-mob-you-killed philosophy), but at least I can understand the reasoning. Removing loot from Normal Scenarios? Pardon my language, but what the hell! ლ(ಠ益ಠლ) Why???

Normal Scenarios do not have a timer or bonus objective. It's Normal. So why can't I get loot from them? It was pretty much my only source of cloth for my main, a tailor, because the farm is busy getting me rep from the first tier of the expansion. It was also somewhat decent for looting greens to disenchant - again, for my main. I don't care about VP (I have to run LFR anyway for the yucky legendary quest chain) or gear (again, I have to run LFR anyway). Normal Scenarios are now just another monotonous task that rewards... what? Reputation gain only? That is only a reason to do the first scenario of the day. It doesn't encourage me to run additional scenarios and interact with other players. It doesn't give me anything to talk about in party chat or guild chat.

I just want to know why Blizzard did this. At least then a proper discussion about the need for such a change can take place. For those who are like-minded, please post here (US). I don't know if an EU version exists, but if not feel free to start one.

[Palatinus]

Because housing was so desired, NOBODY with a house would let their accounts lapse... you resubscribed, or your lost your house.

In the case of WoW though, if I never resubscribe to get a house, then I will never have a house to lose. I think that it would only work to stop people already addicted from unsubbing, the feature doesn't really attract old players to play again?

[Taiknee]

I wonder if Hearthstone will give hints towards future stuff in WoW..

[Ogemaniac]

Not all of us can donate 20+ hours of raiding a week bro to handle something like that. Remember I pay to play this game just as you do. For us working professionals who have the expendable income to waste on games like this, keeps blizzards income rolling in, and in turn makes the mothership happy. You do that and release LFR a patch later, you would see a sharp decline in subscriptions. So I award you no points.

I disagree. You would only notice a delay as a casual player right after launch. The gap between the first and second, second and third, etc pairs of raids would be the same as now. But would a delay at the expansion opening hurt casuals? No. In fact, it is the opposite. By far my favorite expansion was TBC, where there was actually a significant period between hitting 70 and the start of raiding. You had to build up heroic, crafted, and rep gear that pretty much formed a full pre-raid tier BEFORE having much of a chance in Kara. That was great fun.

Casuals shouldn't even be ready to enter the first raid, even an easy mode like LFR, for a couple months after the expansion opens. Blizzard should go back to the TBC model in the sense that the first tier of raids should be tuned with the expectation that you have mostly exhausted the heroic/crafted/rep tier, and use this to buy a month or two of time. Part of what made WotLK and Cata feel like the last raid lasted forever was that the FIRST raid didn't last long enough.

My model would be that at launch, only the hard mode would be open for a month or so. Let the best players throw themselves at that hardmode, without the benefit of any easy training modes and the gear that they bring, and make them choose between severely under-geared raiding and grinding out the gear. Release the regular raid after say four weeks, about the time it would take average players to exhaust the heroic/crafted/rep tier. Release the LFR a little later, probably with the X.1 patch, as it should take that long for casual players to clear the heroic/crafted/rep tier.

[Tomana]

There is a simple solution for that - just delay LFR longer. It shouldn't be released until the next patch (ie, 5.0 raid LFR released with 5.1, 5.2 LFR with 5.3, etc). Yes, it is great that everyone can see everything. They don't all need to see it at the same time. In fact, as a player who has ranged from hardcore to very casual, I don't WANT to be able to see end game as a casual almost as soon as all but the most hardcore players.

What you don't understand is
a) most people actually DO want to see the content in the same tier and
b) the most important thing is that delaying LFR for one tier is not economically defensible. Sinking a lot of money and resources into something most people won't experience until after several months is absolutely silly from a business point of view. Especially in a shrinking market where your main aim is to retain subs.

One of my dreams for WoW would be hard mode servers. Yep. EVERYTHING would be hard mode. [...] It would be a world where the men were men and the weak wailed. It would be a blast.

Yeah, it would be a world of students living in their basements. Great plan. WoW is not Lineage and we're not in 2000.
Also, it would be something developed to please a 0.01% (maybe) population. (Great plan)².

[Deleted]

5.4 dance studio

let's make it happen

[Triggered Fridgekin]

The Treasure Room got boring the second or third time around because the only thing which changes are the locations of the large loot chests and even that isn't entirely foolproof either.

They should have five or six variations or somehow incorporate a random area generator to keep it fresh.

[Zulzulen]

With the next raid being the raid on Orgrimmar, Alliance and Horde both working with the Darkspear in the rebellion, Thrall and Chen playing a roll in the events on horde side ((never play alliance so don't know and don't care whats going on over there)), and as another way to reduce LFR/LFD queues... I personally wouldn't be surprised if the new addition in 5.4 would be the introduction of cross faction dungeons and raids.

[Ogemaniac]

[QUOTE=Tomana;21319314]What you don't understand is
a) most people actually DO want to see the content in the same tier and
b) the most important thing is that delaying LFR for one tier is not economically defensible. Sinking a lot of money and resources into something most people won't experience until after several months is absolutely silly from a business point of view. Especially in a shrinking market where your main aim is to retain subs.[QUOTE]

What you don't understand is
a) most people actually DO want to see the content in the same tier and
b) the most important thing is that delaying LFR for one tier is not economically defensible. Sinking a lot of money and resources into something most people won't experience until after several months is absolutely silly from a business point of view. Especially in a shrinking market where your main aim is to retain subs.
Yeah, it would be a world of students living in their basements. Great plan. WoW is not Lineage and we're not in 2000.
Also, it would be something developed to please a 0.01% (maybe) population. (Great plan)².

Let's assume expansions last twenty months (a bit less than the past, but Blizzard is trying to speed things up). Even number patches are new raids, odds are filler, dungeons, etc.

X.0 released month 0
X.1 released month 3
X.2 released month 6 (new raid)
X.3 released month 9
X.4 released month 12 (new raid)
X.5 released month 16
Next expansion month 20

For the current casual player, things work like this

Month 1 - level and gear up
Month 2 - LFR
Month 3 - Twiddle thumbs
Month 4 - Enjoy the new filler
Month 5, 6, 7 - Twiddle
Month 8 - New LFR
...
Month 13 - New LFR
Month 14+ - Twiddle


What I am suggesting is that the LFR's be moved back by a couple months, moving some of that "14+" twiddling to before your first raid. What would you do during this time? The same stuff you did back in TBC before you entered Karazhan - gear up with dungeons (regular, then heroic), crafted gear (slow after first because purples were rare, thus resulting in low supply of materials), and rep gear (first revered gear, then later exhalted). The first tier raids should be tuned such that they assume you have this gear, which should be a significant step up from anything coming before, including gear from the last expansion. I'd also slide the regular raids back a few weeks in order for the middle-of-the-pack players to also enjoy this stretch of the game a little more rather than rushing straight into the raid. For the hardcores, the heroic mode would be open from day one (though possibly gated). However, since they would arrive under-geared, they would have to find a balance between obtaining the heroic/crafted/rep gear and raiding raids that they are very undergeared for. Note that this would allow Blizzard to make the heroics a little less hard while maintaining the challenge for the best of the best, and thus make them more accessible to average players.

I think Blizzard made a huge mistake in the last three expansions in making the time from dinging max level to entering the first raid too short, pretty much neutering the heroic/crafted/rep tier that both lasted forever in TBC but was a ton of fun and offered a lot of play value. If the loss of this tier somehow magically resulted in more raids faster, that might be ok. But the actual result is just more twiddling, particular after the final raid of the expansion. In TBC, I was in BT and still wanting a few peices of heroic gear for my offspecs, and didn't down Mag for at least six months after the expansion opened. It WotLK, in contrast, I had three Naxx purples the night I dinged 80, and cleared it within another week or two....and we were a pretty casual guild. Thus, we got bored and stuck with a lot of twiddling and member attrition.

[Schintus]

The winner of the Armored Bloodwing - what'up, MMO Champion?

[Senzafire]

The winner of the Armored Bloodwing - what'up, MMO Champion?

That's what I'm curious about :O

[Nuvuk]

If its suppose to finally be the dance studios they better be careful hyping it up. I have a feeling what ever feature they are talking about will fall short, since transmogrification(and everything in the same room with this feature), pet battles, flying in Azaroth and the Barbershop are my top favorite features right now.

[Tomana]

For the current casual player, things work like this

Month 1 - level and gear up
Month 2 - LFR
Month 3 - Twiddle thumbs
Month 4 - Enjoy the new filler
Month 5, 6, 7 - Twiddle
Month 8 - New LFR
...
Month 13 - New LFR
Month 14+ - Twiddle

You don't gear up in LFR in 1 month for starters. 5.2 was released on march 5, and I didn't get a full set of 502 LFR/522 items until quite recently. And some people I know are not even there yet.

What I am suggesting is that the LFR's be moved back by a couple months, moving some of that "14+" twiddling to before your first raid.

There is no twiddling. If anything, drop rates may be a bit on the lower side.

I'd also slide the regular raids back a few weeks in order for the middle-of-the-pack players to also enjoy this stretch of the game a little more rather than rushing straight into the raid.

If anything, a lot of people say normal ToT is overtuned, so delaying it even further with a gear wall may not be the best thing for the game.

I think Blizzard made a huge mistake in the last three expansions in making the time from dinging max level to entering the first raid too short, pretty much neutering the heroic/crafted/rep tier that both lasted forever in TBC but was a ton of fun and offered a lot of play value.

It offered nothing but pain. I went to Kara without even doing a single heroic instance because my guild need a healer. It was a rough time, but the reward from Kara were ultimately better.

In WotLK, in contrast, I had three Naxx purples the night I dinged 80, and cleared it within another week or two....and we were a pretty casual guild. Thus, we got bored and stuck with a lot of twiddling and member attrition.

The problem with Naxx tier was the lack of hard modes. Blizzard made a switch to the casual Naxx level, but "forgot" to include hard modes. And the meta-achieves were not enough. So yes, it led to member attrition, I completely agree. It wasn't until Ulduar that the situation changed.

[Zulzulen]

Ahhh another thing I forgot that makes me think the new thing may be cross faction is the exchange between the kirin tor and sun reavers at the end of the isle chain along with the talk between xuan , anduin, drezco, and Teran in Xuan's temple. There seems to be a lot of talk about peace and that will really change how the game is played like Blizz said it would.