Patch 6.2 Class Representation, Tweets, Wildstar Cosmic Tiers, WoWCraft #24

[chaud]

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Armory Stats - Patch 6.2 Class Representation
It is time to look at Class Representation once again, before everyone becomes a Demon Hunter in Legion! This time we are only including characters that have been active since June 1, 2015. We last looked at this data during Patch 6.1, but did not only include recently active characters then, so the data isn't directly comparable.

This sample includes 5.9 million characters for all item levels, 3.4 million for 655+, 2.4 million for 665+, 1.7 million for 675+, 677k for 690+, 205k for 700+, and 51k for 710+. Keep in mind that the higher the item level, the smaller the sample size, which means a less than perfect reflection of the actual class balance at that item level range.

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Ghostcrawler Tweets
Ghostcrawler still occasionally talks about WoW and game design. Remember that he no longer works for or speaks for Blizzard.

Player Feedback
What is your process at Riot for reviewing feedback? Sometimes I feel we can't get rito attention without a huge post on reddit with a bunch of stupid memes, but every once in a while, someone will post a real discussion to no avail. It is frustrating that we feel like our feedback never matters.
There isn't a formalized process because as you can imagine the discussion itself is nuanced. We need to evaluate sentiment in all regions, evaluate potential changes against work already in flight, and try and understand if we are hearing from a vocal minority or someone being the spokesperson for a whole bunch of players.

We don't think the long red post on Reddit really scales well. We are trying to figure out some other options to get our feedback to your feedback out there. A suggestion we hear a lot is some kind of regular state of the game blog.

I have been talking to players on social media for nearly two decades now and I have experienced this sentiment a lot: that you guys don't feel heard. It's a challenging problem to solve in the absence of an announcement from us that says "we are making the change you suggested in the next patch." To be clear, sometimes that is going to happen. But there are many reasons that may not happen. If you're asking for a new feature and we are going to announce that feature in a big way in a few weeks, we aren't going to answer on social media and you may feel ignored. As I said we are exploring options for how to make sure you guys understand better what it is we value. We have gotten that message loud and clear.

Game Design
now i know you don't work for blizzard anymore but can you explain why they seem so threatened by new mmos or expansions for current mmos releasing?
I'm not sure if you are refering to a specific incident or something, but when I was there, there wasn't an excessive focus on what competitors did. It's actually pretty challenging in the game industry, and especially in the MMO space, to tactically respond to competitors. If they announce a new feature, you're probably 4 months away from being able to ship a competiting feature. If they want to launch on a certain day, you have very limited ability to pivot, because you probably locked into your own launch day 6 months ago.

So you are saying that Blizzard and Valve are reckless for implementing features that LoL doesn't have like voice chat?
I'm not qualified to talk about how Valve makes decisions. I would just be guessing. Blizzard is generally a very deliberate, almost cautious decision-maker, or at least they were two years ago. I would point to their voice chat as a rare misstep though (they would be the first to acknowledge that it isn't very good compared to third party alternatives, and isn't frequently used) so maybe that's not the strongest example to make your point.

This also doesn't mean adding voice is always a reckless idea. I just mean you need to be really careful about how you roll out some features that risk having more problems than benefits.

Misc
Do you feel like you're currently making the exact same design mistakes that you previously made at Blizzard? Specifically regarding caring more about new players than old?
Almost everything we do on League is for existing players. In fact, our new player experience is in pretty desperate need of being updated. We will get to it someday.

On WoW we did focus more on new players. They are just different companies with different priorities. I try to align my priorities to the company I'm at. But I will point out that I annoyed some players by focusing on more challenging dungeons on WoW.

How does it feel to have completely screwed up WoW, only to get hired at Riot and do the same thing again?
In both cases, I'm just one person on a large team. I have no problem if you want to hold me accountable for design decisions you don't like on either game, but it's pretty unfair to hundreds of people at Blizzard and Riot to imagine that any one person could steer the direction of either game so dramatically.

Wildstar - Cosmic Tiers
The Wildstar team announced the system that will unlock game features and cosmetic rewards once the game goes free to play. Players will unlock tiers by purchasing things in the in-game store. The more they spend, the more tiers will be unlocked. Players that don't want to spend any money on the game can still unlock things by using C.R.E.D.D. (Wildstar equivalent of the WoW Token).

WowCraft #24 - ShipRekt
WoWCraft takes a look at Shipyards in this episode.

[Wishblade]

Praise the lone bottom "a"!

[siccora]

would be interesting if you can show the specc and not the class. of course shaman because resto. but how much eles are out there 710++?

[chaud]

would be interesting if you can show the specc and not the class. of course shaman because resto. but how much eles are out there 710++?

There isn't any way to tell what spec is a character's primary spec.

[Hottage]

There isn't any way to tell what spec is a character's primary spec.

Currently active spec? Not perfect but pretty close for this purpose?

[Skulltaker]

Why are there so many hunters...? I reall don't get what people see in that class, other than it being easy.

[Jarlathe]

Seriously? Who gives a shit what ghostcrawler has to say anymore. He's LoL's problem now, please leave him there.

[outflow]

So my conclusion from this is that Hunter is clearly the best class.

[klepp0906]

GC why don't you just tell the kids to go back to call of duty? Catering and dialogue with ignorant pre teens, neckbeards, and mouth breathers is what led wow down the path to the miserable excuse for an mmorpg that it is today.

[Wheezing]

Why are there so many hunters...? I reall don't get what people see in that class, other than it being easy.

Maybe because people find it fun?

[ttak82]

Right now, hunters have very high dps for low complexity, lots of utility, great mobility, and 0 competition for their weapon (more for trinkets/gear, but still not as much as cloth/leather/plate). They don't have to swap specs to fulfill niche rolls on specific fights (unlike rogues, arguably locks, etc). They aren't locked into a specific playstyle (Monks).

There's a lot of reasons, really. Encounter design. Solo or raid-friendly play.

I think the utility + mobility + ranged component gives high fun factor. Plus the class works well in both PvP and PvE. Another reason for many hunters is simply the cosmetic aspect (pun intended) - Lots of different pet options as opposed to Locks, UH dks or frost mages.

Personal opinion here, but raiding on a hunter can be a chore if everyone asks you for bitch duty.

[Darksoldierr]

Why are there so many hunters...? I reall don't get what people see in that class, other than it being easy.

Very easy to farm it and insanely strong in pvp

[Airwaves]

Woah. Rogue isn't the least played.

[skychilde]

I know the priest color is white, but I literally cannot see the bars on the first graph.

[Charo]

This is why my hunter can never get into pugs! 710+ ilevel and declined every where, my friends get into raids on THEIR ALTS at around 695 no issues. Damn it. Glad I finally bonus rolled that Mirror of the Blademaster trinket in the main raid.

[Rawrajishxc]

There isn't any way to tell what spec is a character's primary spec.

Pretty sure they can..lol

[Baneleaf]

That class representation seems about right. My raid runs 4-5 hunters who all are in the top 7 on dps. All the while we keep hearing about mechanics while the rest of the ranged are trying to hard cast spells and the healers are trying to save lives and we see 5 hunters jumping back and forth doing their entire rotation. Seems legit

[kamuimac]

Maybe because people find it fun?

bs - extremly high mobility combined with super easy rotation and absurdly high dps makes hunters class to reroll this tier nothing else. shows how fucked up class tuning is atm nothing else'

also poor monks what did blizzard do to you

[Notter]

bs - extremly high mobility combined with super easy rotation and absurdly high dps makes hunters class to reroll this tier nothing else. shows how fucked up class tuning is atm nothing else'

also poor monks what did blizzard do to you

I would like to hear your thoughts about what i wrote in this thread (monk forum)
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post35781445

Anyway, as it's clearly shown, monks are the least played.
That's what happens when you make a class that requires almost perfect play JUST to be around the same dps as other more simple classes.
And also don't even give them any raid utility.

Calimonk said in FnialBoss stream, she thinks blizz made the class bad ON PURPOSE, because they are gonna revamp the class in a major way.

[Wheezing]

bs - extremly high mobility combined with super easy rotation and absurdly high dps makes hunters class to reroll this tier nothing else. shows how fucked up class tuning is atm nothing else'

also poor monks what did blizzard do to you

Because hunters have only been the most played class this tier and are not always one of the most played right? People find them fun, get over it. I have played my hunter since I started in BC because to me having a pet and a bow is the most fun playstyle and it is for plenty others.