Dev Interviews, August 6-7 Hotfixes, Blue Posts, Pet Battle Bonus Event, Legion Art

[Deleted]

On rumors that Sylvanas might be a raid boss: "That's interesting".

I've been waiting for this moment for years. Please, do it.

In fact, I hope someday there will be another hero class: Banshee.

[Ghost1987]

The laziness behind this layers of difficulties of raid is hurting this game like hell. Do they really think adding a new level of difficulty to a raid can be considered as new CONTENT? no and fuck no, they are not helping anyone feeling better but cutting the design budget so they save the money for their own. As WoW gets more shitty and crappy every expansion, the more they cut design budget so you can see the expansion geographic size is getting smaller, the patch content is getting thinner--6.1 totally rubbish. Player-base ends up WoD by only two tiers which is literally a fucking joke even to the most shameless dev. WoW becomes more like bullshit each day because Blizzard doesn't invest into game design, they may put some money on promotion, trailer, in-game store product stuff like that, but THEY DON'T INVEST GAME CONTENT.

So what are we gonna get, some once-done forever-gone dungeons? two tiers of raids? feels exactly the same as WoD, mythic dungeon for catch-up system? same old crap like Tannan Jungle for free loot gears? yeah, that's really refreshing and creative, they probably think we haven't done that enough yet. fuck you time travel 5 times for a coin.

This lame game really needs an operation like different raids for different difficulties, give me a triple-sized geography than WoD so I won't feel like IT ONLY TAKES 5 MINUTES TO WALK FROM FAR EAST TO FAR WEST, 3 tiers of raids at least otherwise PVE serves no purpose.

GIVE ME ALL THOSE INCONVENIENCES BACK IN VANILLA AND BC, because that feels like gaming, what I have now is ordering pizza and clicking facebook game which is even worse than watching a camera whore's streamer.

If you weren't an idiot, you'd notice that the different difficulties serve as a way to filter out players based on their skill lvls and to make a smooth transition to high end raiding with alts. Players that are unfamiliar with the game can learn mechanics on the easier difficulties until they become honed enough to take on the higher difficulties. With mythic being an inflexible raid size of 20 people, many guilds have resigned from mythic raiding due to the large effort in maintaining a high amount of quality players but at least with multiple difficulties, it allows an influx of people to transition to the level of skill lvl required by those guilds. This at least lessens the impact of the inflexible mythic structure.

I like the catch up mechanics because I enjoy playing multiple toons, which keep the game fresh since it puts a different spin on the same content. Back in Vanilla days, you pretty much lvled your first class and then you were stuck with it because having an alt required too much work. This made the game pretty boring since playing one class can only remain entertaining for so long.

Putting the "inconveniences" back in the game is a stupid idea. Inconveniences felt like chores, much like washing dishes, and I don't pay 15 dollars a month to wash dishes. If you feel the need to for inconvenience, let me know because I could use a personal driver to get me around when I go out at night. And to further bolster the inconvenient feeling, you can give me 15 dollars at the end of the night.

- - - Updated - - -

Survival Hunters were very melee focused back in Vanilla (and I thought TBC but maybe just vanilla). This is a return to form for them, bringing back a style that should've been in the game the whole time - just look at Rexxar, one of the biggest Hunter hero characters from WC3, he's a melee hunter.

The whole hunter concept seems like a good idea. I remember hunters being OP back in vanilla since you can kite but then do good dmg even if someone got in melee range. Now, we get full on class/spec identity which is awesome. Right now, there isn't much of a difference in feeling from the 3 hunter specs.

[TheDeeGee]

Damn those new HotS Models, they look AMAZING!

[Quesly]

so...both kinds of hunters have only 2 specs now? because nobody will want to go from being a ranged to a melee

[Deleted]

!
Flying
The team is happy with how flying worked out in Draenor.
You will have to level up and explore the land before you are
able to fly, similar to what is coming in Patch 6.2.1.

The team is happy,only the players no.

Please fire the happy idiots und hire some unhappy and worried developers before they lose others 3-4 milion players.



Anything else then unlock flying direct at lvl max Ding it mean I won't buy this expansion.
I didnt bought WOD after I had played since Beta without pause. And I am too tired with this noflying sht. So tired, that I will skip 100% any expansion where they will keep implementing this noflying nonsense.

Flying was and must be a standard ability. And NOFLY=NOBUY.

[Davlin]

You will not loot weapons in Legion.

So, Blizzard is foregoing conventional looting mechanics and just eradicating weapons entirely with the exception of this new wacky Artifact system? Great. I'll have ZERO incentive to switch specs and thoroughly enjoy my class because even with "catch up" mechanics, I'm not doing multiple Artifact quest chains for one character. All of this pales in comparison to how terrible this system sounds; it's like a retread of Diablo and an Ultima Online weapon leveling system.

The goals is to remove PvP gear. There will be PvP ways to obtain gear, but the power in PvP will be about the gear you obtain and the PvP talents that you unlock.

As has been mentioned already, this makes absolutely no sense at all. Why do an overhaul of a PvP system that only needed better tuning (i.e. matchmaking)? I thoroughly enjoyed being able to charge through battlegrounds on my way to purchasing a full S2 set.. a set that (for once) doesn't penalize me in PvE for basic farming. Faction imbalance is the problem, not the fundamental design of PvP.

The team is happy with how flying worked out in Draenor. You will have to level up and explore the land before you are able to fly, similar to what is coming in Patch 6.2.1.

Yay! So the 1% will have flying. Sounds good. /endsarcasm

The team still wants to release expansions faster.
Legion will release next year, but no specific date has been set yet.
There isn't a solid patch schedule plan for Legion yet.
The expansion after Legion is already being planned.

This entire section is of major concern to me. This sounds more like amateur developing where meeting deadlines becomes more important than a quality product. Oh wait...

There are a lot of surprises in store for players in Legion and the team doesn't want players to think we are just going back to the same stuff.

Oh, no. I don't think we're going back to the same "stuff". We're getting an entirely new game called "Call of Diablo in Skyrim".

Garrisons are staying in Draenor, so you can go back and visit them if you want.

Gee. So after cramming garrisons down our throat, forcing us to upgrade them and spend significant time in them, implementing insane gold costs that handicap new players and players who aren't gold-capped, only to subsequently nerf the gold instead of scaling it based on each player's net worth, you're going to forego garrisons entirely and waive a wasted investment on these garrisons. Thanks for saying my hard work on eight toons is irrelevant to you!

The subscriber count is more volatile than it used to be because players have gotten older and don't have as much free time anymore. As long as players are happy and enjoy the game, the team doesn't mine extreme peaks and valleys. They just want to ensure you have a great experience and feel like you got your money's worth.

This is just priceless. "Players have gotten older".. evidently they're unaware of the maturity level in this game which isn't just a byproduct of anonymity but actual age. Most of the players who have "gotten older" have moved on and those of us who have remained have done so for a niche product, not the scrap heap of systems they intend to push down our throats in Legion.

[Always]

There will be no catch up mechanics for Artifact weapons on alts.
The team doesn't want it to be too painful if you want to change specs, so there might be some kind of catch up mechanic for getting the Artifact weapon for another spec.

I can't even believe these bullet points are even possible. Hardly anyone I know wants to do the stupid ring quest on more than 1 or 2 characters. It's made leveling alts for raid incredibly troublesome and not fun at all. Last expansion I level'd one of each class to 90. This expansion I can't even be bothered. I get a little wind in my sails and excited to level a new toon and then I remember just how far behind it is in the grand scheme of things when it comes to the ring and that stupid shipyard. And now they aren't going to have a catch up mechanic for alts. Poor form blizzard.

Not to mention my guild is not a hardcore guild. We manage a 20 person Mythic raid team and have fun playing together. It has taken a long time to build the group we have and the community we have. We don't raid long hours and we don't care about rank. We have several people that swing offspec heals and tanks to make sure we don't miss a raid night. And we haven't missed one in a VERY long time. Possible catch up for offspec is ludicrous at best. With no lootable weapons and being forced to use and level a weapon for each spec I hope Blizzard suffers for it. Having to recruit enough specs and people so that we can remain non-hardcore and still see the content in time with these types of decisions is going to be way more trouble than it is worth. Stupid decision if it stands and probably the death of many raid teams that count on offspec/alts.

[Gray_Matter]

I am sorry but they still don't get it:

1) Flying is a stuff up at the moment. They need to give people incentives to do the content, not force them to do it to get flying.
2) Raiding is not fine at the moment. It's fine for the people who are happy to do the odd LFR and for those that want to go up the chain to mythic. The people who want challenging content that's accessible are not fine.
3) The artifact has just become the new group blocker. Anyone joining the game after the initial release is pretty screwed.
4) Disc Priests have just become the go to healer. If you are battling with enrage timers or anything like that then having a spec that can do 50% damage is irreplaceable.
5) A whole new continent. 75% of which will be out of date by the time you hit level 110. They need to stop that crap. They are effectively forcing people to rush through the zones to get to the end game. What they should be doing is letting people start the end game immediately and then give them reasons to go out and explore the zones. Give them decent rewards for doing it. Rares that have a small chance to drop epics, rewards for map completion. That's their "reason to get out into the world" in between raids.

I was given a 7 day pass. I spent at most 3 hours online. I was bored stiff. I queued for LFR and got into a raid and it was boring as hell. Did a couple of BG's and they hadn't changed one bit since Cata. If you are not doing serious raiding (maybe PVP too as I don't do that) then the game is boring.

p.s. Saying that they don't design the game around subs is an outright lie. Everything they do is about subs. Their releases are timed to boost the sub numbers so the devs have those deadlines. My free trials are timed to coincide with the Q3 numbers, etc.

[kamuimac]

-The team is happy with how flying worked out in Draenor.

clearly they learned nothing from loosing 5+ mln subs in 6 months

-wf/socket/tertiary being random is a huge succes

they must be geting some prime quality drugs from their dealers 24/7 if they make statements like that

-Raids are harder then ever

well that cause your tuning team is clearly retarded - fire them now or suffer bigger losses

- Class halls have no aH or bank

another dead zone which probably wont even make it to live

- survival hunters being melee

haahahah they couldjust remove surv then it woudl have the same effect nobody will play melee if they can be range

overall really disspointed - its gonna be another lackluster expansion just like wod riding on illidan returning-demon hunter-emerald dream hype

thx god i made a good decision of swaping main focus to FF months ago as now even blizzard is ripping of from their old games with grid system (FFX says hello)

there is hope for wow untill most of those devs will be fired.

[Gray_Matter]

So, Blizzard is foregoing conventional looting mechanics and just eradicating weapons entirely with the exception of this new wacky Artifact system? Great. I'll have ZERO incentive to switch specs and thoroughly enjoy my class because even with "catch up" mechanics, I'm not doing multiple Artifact quest chains for one character. All of this pales in comparison to how terrible this system sounds; it's like a retread of Diablo and an Ultima Online weapon leveling system.

They are going to introduce a dual spec for your artifact in 8 to get you to buy that expansion

[blehmeh]

There isn't a solid patch schedule plan for Legion yet.

They might want to get on that, I don't think that's too much to ask for.

[Guyviroth]

It wasn't very clear to me, but the full quote is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7u8...youtu.be&t=755

Which is what makes me confused.

Chilton explicitly explained, with a slide and everything, that the problem with PvP is that the gear disparity between a newbie PvPer and a PvPer who's been at it for a long time will be nearly double, and they want to fix that. But then they haven't changed anything if you just need PvE gear; it will be a case of people coming out of fresh questing gear / heroic dungeon gear against people in raid gear. They've solved nothing.

What they need to do is normalize the ilvl. As soon as you go into a PvP environment (Arena, Battleground, Ashran, Wintergrasp, etc) your ilvl gets scaled to a fixed amount, say... ilvl 800, or however high the end-game dungeon gear is.

[papajohn4]

The team doesn't focus on or make decisions based on what their subscriber count is. They focus on making the best game they can, learn some lessons, and keep moving forward.

Did it crossed their mind that maybe doing it wrong? Because subscription numbers sure are tied with fun and better game...except if they are trying to make the best game for them and a selected few...

[Arvandor]

bless the gods we have..
- Artifact weapons can be transmoged into other weapons, but not the other way around.
- The team doesn't want it to be too painful if you want to change specs, so there might be some kind of catch up mechanic for getting the Artifact weapon for another spec.

catch up is not enough in my opinion.. better we have only one artifact per class with models to chose..

[Aestian]

For those of you complaining about flying not being a thing in the new zones until max level... Did half of you never play WoW before Cataclysm?
This isn't a new thing. In fact, Cataclysm was pretty much the first and only expansion that gave you flying immediately at level 80 that you used to zip and zoom around zones from 80 to 85.
And oh how people complained up a storm about that. How unengaging it made the world.
So in Mists it went back to having to level all the way to max level, and then you had to go spend a good chunk of money to learn flying.
(gold sinks are not a new thing.) But the whole not being able to get 'x flying' until max level started in BC. And the mounts and the flying were a huge gold sink.
Never mind it was hard as hell to get gold back then.

Then there was Wrath of the Lich King. Does anyone remember having to save up that 5k gold just so they could fly in Northrend? I know I do.

I get people not enjoying the idea of having to do meta-achievements to fill one ultimate meta-achievement.
But honestly, if you couldn't be assed to do the one for WoD then I don't know what to tell you. I don't have a lot of free time. And the moments that I do, I don't spend it all day on WoW.
I still managed to get the meta-achievements in a decent amount of time. I skipped lots of days of doing dailies to get the tanaan rep and everything.
I only gave 1.5 to 2.5 hours to Tanaan when I did do the dailies (which is about how much time it takes to do them anyway. so. lol).

-Raids are harder then ever

well that cause your tuning team is clearly retarded - fire them now or suffer bigger losses

It's funny. I keep hearing people complain that WoW is too easy, so Blizzard keeps making hard content for them...
And then other players complain about how it's too hard and Blizzard is stupid for making content harder.
That being said, Raids technically aren't supposed to be piss easy. Perhaps we should check the pulse on full time raiders and see if they wanted raids to be harder.

- survival hunters being melee

haahahah they couldjust remove surv then it woudl have the same effect nobody will play melee if they can be range

From what I've heard... Survival hunters were mainly melee in Vanilla. So this is going back to the spec's roots if that is true.
Never mind that all hunters used to have melee attacks and could have both a bow and melee weapons equipped, and would switch out depending on whether an enemy was far away or an enemy had come into melee range.

Are you implying though, that no one plays feral druids when they can be Balance druids then? Because that's another class that can both have melee fighters and ranged fighters...
And I see plenty of people playing both depending on what they like to play. lol

[Deleted]

There are weapons cooler than Benediction and Anathema for Priest Artifact weapons

THAT IS A BLASPHEMY

[Aestian]

bless the gods we have..
- Artifact weapons can be transmoged into other weapons, but not the other way around.
- The team doesn't want it to be too painful if you want to change specs, so there might be some kind of catch up mechanic for getting the Artifact weapon for another spec.

catch up is not enough in my opinion.. better we have only one artifact per class with models to chose..

That wouldn't work for some classes though.
Especially not with hunters now. :| Survivalism being melee now means them having a bow is downright asinine.
And it wouldn't make sense to have the two ranged hunter specs having a spear. Haha

Let alone some of the other classes.
We're forgetting that many of these classes have different play styles between specs.

[Thrackerzod]

In Legion, you are the leader of your class order

Not that again. I don't want to be a leader or the most special person in Azeroth. I just want to be an adventurer again.

[Deleted]

All I hear here is whining. I enjoy what they present here, for one! The flying concept fo example is great because it gives you a challenge, a carrot on a stick to go for to be able to unlock flying on all your characters instead of having to pay 5k gold each which is horrible. Being able to fly should be for those who give atleast a little bit of effort.

The PvP system sounds great to me as long as raiders can't come in with Mythic gear and roflstomp everyone, it should be that ilvl is balanced out in PvP so those with talents excel beyond others even that not by a lot.

Love that they are putting more focus on the professions.

Survival hunters being melee is really an interesting concept. If they are to balance out raid fights to the point where melee has the upper hand in around 50% of fights that's fine. It could also be an interesting concept for other areas than raiding (BECAUSE THE WOW DOESN'T REVOLVE COMPLETELY AROUND RAIDERS EVEN IF YOU THINK SO... atleast it isn't meant to be.) I for one would love to try being a melee hunter like Rexxar often is swinging his axes.

Finally I am excited for these surprises they seem to have in store.

[Duster505]

The item bonus system (Warforged, sockets, and extra stats) worked out well, so it could be extended to have even more bonuses.

All I need to hear from the devs. Not playing next expansion. This is something I do not like to see in my mmoRPG game.