Warlords of Draenor - Developer Interviews, Blue Tweets, DLC #438

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Warlords of Draenor - Developer Interviews
Today we are looking at an interview by Blizzplanet with Kris Zierhut and Steve Burke and by Final Boss with Ion Hazzikostas.

FinalBoss

• This interview is ongoing, so check back later for the completed notes!

Blizzplanet

• Orcs will come through the Dark Portal and take over Blackrock Mountain in the Warlords of Draenor world event.
• The alliance will work with Velen, Akama, and Maraad in Shadowmoon Valley.
• Assaults on your garrison will happen repeatedly, and get harder as time goes on. You will keep upgrading the item level of your followers.
• You will have to make many choices about the buildings in your garrison as you level through the zones.
• After boosting to 90, all of the things in your bags will be mailed to you. The mail has an unlimited duration, so you can sort through those things whenever you want.
• Flexible size raids will allow you to have anywhere from 10 to 30 players in a raid.

Blue Tweets

Classes
Can you please consider the over-simplifying you all are doing to the game. You will lose even more subscribers if you proceed.
A) Threatening sub loss got old a looong time ago. B) Read our reasoning in the patch notes; we're removing complexity, not depth. (Celestalon)
I would have to disagree. DoT Snapshotting was one of the only things that gave DPS depth, or skill for that matter.
We agree, in theory, but not in practice. In practice, an addon did it. That wasn't removed as part of ability pruning anyway. (Celestalon)
Weren't we told over and over again that snapshotting was going away? Was this idea reverted?
No...? (Celestalon)

Is the Gladiator's Resolve talent an experiment that might get expanded to other tank classes eventually? #BloodDPS
Possibly. Not for Warlords, but it is an experiment that we're eager to see the results of, so to speak. (Celestalon)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
My concern is that very few top level death knights take RE. I'll admit I don't have data to back this up however.
It's more than you may think, but still not high. Overall, yes, this row is OK. All get some play, with RE being the least. And... (Celestalon)
...we think that will be improved a bit by having some spare GCDs in your rotation. (Celestalon)

Mage (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
WoD: Without Vengeance and changes to Arcane - Arcane AoE sounds like suicide. Comments?
Tanks will generate about as much threat as they do today under most circumstances; AoEing tanked mobs shouldn't be an issue. (WatcherDev)
And fights like Dark Shamans? This AoE change just screams death to me. :c
Which AoE change in particular do you mean, just so we're clear? (WatcherDev)

Have we seen everything in terms of new abilities/passives/perks (non-talent stuff) for mages?
Well Alpha isn't Release; things may still change. But no more new abilities currently planned. (Celestalon)
I see. Considered giving PoM to Fire so Combustion is more controllable burst like Arcane Power/IV? Or intentional difference?
Intentional difference. Don't want to have SO much of your damage concentrated into that one 10sec period. (Celestalon)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Avengers Shield used to silence all targets struck. Seems it only does the initial target now. Will it go back in WoD?
No plans to, no. It's more power than is needed. (Celestalon)

You mentioned that H-Paladins would keep the 10% haste from SoI. Why opt for haste instead of just lowering cast times baseline?
Haste is more easily understood. We don't normally do faster cast times for specific specs often. Also, haste reduces the GCD too (Celestalon)
Is haste reducing gcd for all class/specs? If so are paladins getting something in place of this perk?
Haste has always reduced the GCD for spells, for everyone. (Celestalon)

PvE
Are we ever going to see 10man only raids like Karazhan and Zul'Aman again?
No current plans for fixed-side 10-player raids -- what is the appeal to you of a raid that allows 10, but not 11, 12, etc? (WatcherDev)

but it would be a lot more useful in LFR? why have it for dungeons and not lfr?
Heroic dungeons in particular will be more challenging than LFR, and one unprepared player can have a greater negative impact. (WatcherDev)

My nhc raid is just plain stuck at 14/14. We are old folks with jobs/kids etc. We will not improve our game much more.
If you can kill Garrosh, you absolutely should be able to do at least the first 8 on the next difficulty up. Have you tried? (WatcherDev)

Please give us bosses tuned around Garrosh NHC that we can progress on. Immerseus HC is too easy, anything beyond too hard.
Are you a 25-player or 10-player group? Fallen Protectors and Norushen should be well within reach if you've killed Garrosh. (WatcherDev)
thx for your reply. we are 25man. we spent some time on norushen, but even with quite aggressive healer/dps ratios...>
Fallen Protectors is probably a better next step on 25H; try making He and Sun transition simultaneously if you haven't been. (WatcherDev)
Thx again, we will try that. I read from your response that there are no zone buffs/debuffs planned for T16. Thx Digerati, too.
Correct, there's no zonewide aura planned. We're keeping an eye on overall progression rates in case targeted nerfs are needed (WatcherDev)

PvP
Disagree, I actually enjoy playing 2v2. Not as much as I did back in TBC, but I still have fun with it...
2v2 is more accessible. Less people to track. Feel like Dampening was important change for that bracket. (holinka)
I haven't played much post-dampening change tbh. But I'm curious, will dampening change in WoD?
We're pretty happy with Dampening. Starting at 5 minutes in 3s is still on the table. (holinka)

Will Rated battlegrounds get spectator mode as well?
Yes (holinka)
Awesome stuff. Although will people use to to cheat to check on rogue ambushes at nodes?
Spectator mode is geared towards people that want to broadcast tournaments. (holinka)

Ever considered doing a BG where the goal is within a certain time limit, most kills win?
you never know (holinka)

Professions
I'm a little worried about Engineering in WoD after interview. I'd love more info on this!
What in particular worries you about it? (WatcherDev)
it sounds like they're turning into enchants anyone can use, and are interchangeable with potions? I like that its unique to eng
Engineering will keep some personal toys and fun stuff. The main thing that's changing is just Nitro Boost. (WatcherDev)
so in effect, everyone gets a speed boost every 3 mins? not saying it's a bad thing, but will have an impact on button bloat.
The thought is to actually have that particular effect be on the potion cooldown. Intravenous Swiftness Potion, basically. (WatcherDev)

You think sharing with Synapse Springs would be more fitting? Both 'lore'-wise and to be dps forgiving. 3 mins is a long time
Synapse Springs are gone, as part of the general disarmament of passive/rotational DPS perks from professions. (WatcherDev)

Garrisons
Will MoP farming be coming in WoD somehow? I enjoy farming and don't want to see it die in Wod.
Your Draenor garrison has a farm plot, though your friends from Sunsong Ranch will remain there. (WatcherDev)

Dark Legacy Comics #438
DLC #438 has been released.

[Zoaric]

"Orcs will come through the Dark Portal and take over Blackrock Mountain in the Warlords of Draenor world event.

Good to have confirmation that that's how it's going down.

[mikencarly]

Wod is shit!

Infracted

[furydeath]

Wod is shit!

Just like MoP? and Cata? and WOTLK? ...don't think anyone said that about TBC tho.

[Deleted]

fuck wod kappa

Infracted

[Caribald]

Flex sizes 10-30 now? I hadn't thought of the possibility of the raid size cap being increased. I might be silly, but why not go all the way to 40 then? Some people might enjoy being that many people in a raid again

[Aenwyrm]

It's funny. The same people that bitch and moan about the xpac are the same ones that end up buying it in secret 3 weeks after it comes out.

[Scarletlion]

It feels like Blizzard is ignoring players' concerns about game design and removing abilities. Those blue posts just prove it. Answers are not satisfying and not really answering the question completely. They should listen community instead of dictating their own plans. They will really lose subs if they oversimplificate the gameplay by removing abilities. It's not threatening, it's reality. I hope they re-consider what they've planned to do. As a hunter player i wasn't happy with the removal of readiness and i am not happy with the current changes in Alpha. Especially, with the rapid fire, i still don't understand why they remove it and why that is necessary.

[Durandro]

Just like MoP? and Cata? and WOTLK? ...don't think anyone said that about TBC tho.

They did. A lot.

- - - Updated - - -

It feels like Blizzard is ignoring players' concerns about game design and removing abilities.

No. They are responding to it. Just because they aren't rolling over and changing everything in responce to whining doesn't mean they aren't listening.

[Deleted]

I think most people dont give 2 shits about WoD, the way they left the game with SoO and lack of Beta or any real information for that matter since the game was announced back at Blizzcon is a disgrace.

[mileskg21]

Hypestar master race

[Deleted]

So... why are there attacks on your garrison? What will be the consequence if you loose a battle? What will be the point of defending it? O.e

[Arkthus]

i'm not really ok with the garrisons being attacked... If I d'ont want to play with my garrison for a few days, I will find it destroyed and have to do averything all over again ?
We are not all hardcore players and can't necessarily log in every day....

[Dontrike]

i'm not really ok with the garrisons being attacked... If I d'ont want to play with my garrison for a few days, I will find it destroyed and have to do averything all over again ?
We are not all hardcore players and can't necessarily log in every day....

I am sure that the garrison won't be a Tomagatchi that you have to worry about so often. It will probably only be attacked while you are logged on.

Of course I could easily be wrong there.

[Aelric70]

i'm not really ok with the garrisons being attacked... If I d'ont want to play with my garrison for a few days, I will find it destroyed and have to do averything all over again ?
We are not all hardcore players and can't necessarily log in every day....

Its a helluva leap to get from garrisons will be attacked to having to rebuild the whole thing if you skip a few days. Someone needs to up their anxiety meds

[CasCrow]

WoD is gonna be great! We gonna lose the whiners and buzzkills for a few weeks and then they'll be back to moan in-game about flight.
#IgnoreIsYourFriend

[Spotnick]

Is it a requirement to be good at interviews when you work at Blizzard?

Seriously, I'm always impressed with Celestalon and Watcher in their interviews... don't know many developers who could speak like that in public lol.

[sourmonkey]

Personally I would love to see less garrisons more actual game . Too many people complained about no housing etc... I rather have less time constraints such as dailies and daily upkeep on garrisons to make them functional . I rather level my toons enjoy the lore of the events and went it comes time for end game I rather focus on that then tending to a building .

Them saying they don't want us to feel like we have to log in daily and then say your garrison will require constant upkeep is contradictive of itself .

[Azrile]

i'm not really ok with the garrisons being attacked... If I d'ont want to play with my garrison for a few days, I will find it destroyed and have to do averything all over again ?
We are not all hardcore players and can't necessarily log in every day....

Not the way it works at all. You get an announcement that troops are forming to attack your garrison. Then, whenever you go back to the Garrision, you actually trigger the attack when you are ready. The actual mechanism will be a solo scenario where your followers will be in the garrison to help you defend against the invasion. The more you level your followers and the better gear they have, the more they can help you during the scenario.

Or in other words, think of it this way. It is a solo scenerio that you can only queue for every few days when the game tells you it is available for you.

There is no negative things that happens, but you do get rewards when you finish the scenario.

[Zka]

they oversimplificate the gameplay by removing abilities.

They make sure you don't run out of hotkeys. They can't ever just keep adding new skills without retiring old ones. Seriously, how is that oversimplification? Did you even try to consider any rational viewpoint except "oh, there is change, let's whine"?