Maximum Interview with Ion Hazzikostas

[Stoy]

Maximum Interview with Ion Hazzikostas
Liquid's Maximum is interviewing Ion Hazzikostas about Dragonflight.

• Season 4 Success
  
  • The team is super happy with how Season 4 has turned out. There was some kinks to work out, but they have been addressed and they now see this as something that can happen towards the end of every expansion.
  • Having a way to address bad RNG is something the team wants to keep in some way going forward.
  • They are not necessarily keeping the same vendor system that they have used in Season 4 as purchasing a BIS item from a vendor when you haven't killed the boss yet on week 3 would diminish the value.
• Raiding and Social Updates
  
  • There is some social value in keeping Mythic lockouts as it encourages people to stick with a team instead of bailing right when something goes wrong.
  • The team wants to make more and more things cross-server. They are moving in the direction of having Mythic raids potentially being cross-realm enabled earlier, but not on day one.
  • Cross-server guilds are potentially on the table.
  • Cross-faction guilds is something the team wants to do before the end of Dragonflight, but there is tricky coding involved that they have to solve.
  • The team is looking to solve faction changes nuking your raid lockout.
• Class Buffs
  
  • "Bring the player not the class" was too extreme. The team wants there to be reasons to seek out a class for a raid, but they also don't want their raid buffs to be too powerful that you feel you need them to succeed.
  • Evoker will bring Bloodlust in Dragonflight.
  • The team is looking to give a battle resurrection to another class in Dragonflight.
  • The Team might pull back on some buffs that they have introduced in the Alpha.
  • The team doesn't want to design encounters that absolutely require certain utility (such as Death Grip), but they also want to add more unique utility to classes that might make encounters a little easier.
• Mythic Plus
  
  • Season 2 will have the other 4 dungeons and 4 other dungeons from prior expansions.
  • The team would like to cycle through all dungeons over the course of an expansion.
  • One of the problems faced by Heroic and Normal guilds right now is the repeatability of Mythic + loot that in on par with those difficulties.
  • The team wants to make gear between Mythic Plus, Raiding, and PvP more unique from one another.
• Dragonriding
  
  • The team wants to preserve the importance of all mounts collected up until Dragonflight.
  • Dragonriding has been well-received and the team wants to look into how to take that forward after the expansion.
• Talent Trees
  
  • Druid and priests - they hear you and will have an update on your talent trees soon.
  • The team would like all feedback to be equal, but life happens and there are certain situations that may hold back communication.
  • The team recognizes that at least communicating that they are listening even if they have nothing to update is something that they can do better.
  • Testing the talent trees in raids and content is what is ahead of the team in the Alpha. They will listen, respond, and iterate on the trees based on feedback and testing.
• Raid Release
  
  • Ion wants to know how the community feels about releasing all difficulties of raids on the same day instead of having Mythic launch a week later.

[SinR]

Nice, now give the Magic Damage and Physical Damage debuff to other classes. Its nice that we have now four classes that can Heroism/Bloodlust and possibly four that can Battle Res, but limiting those two debuffs to two classes seems like "well we need a Monk" and "Well we need a DH"

[Palapop]

Why shouldn't paladins have combat res? They had it back in WC3. They should have it up now as well. Along with Blessing of Might/Wisdom (being str/intel buff unless you want to bring back TRUE blessings)

[ChronoSul]

Nice, now give the Magic Damage and Physical Damage debuff to other classes. Its nice that we have now four classes that can Heroism/Bloodlust and possibly four that can Battle Res, but limiting those two debuffs to two classes seems like "well we need a Monk" and "Well we need a DH"

That would just go against their new philosophy of bringing the class not the player so it wont happen... Brez and Heroism/Lust are in combat utility compared to all the player buffs that are being brought back to achieve the new/old philosophy. Is it dumb yes and thats the direction they want to head

[Hyrja]

Ion asked that last question because of the leaked release date and the discussion raiders had about raiding during christmas a few weeks ago.
I think he kinda confirmed DF release date timeframe here.

[huth]

Why shouldn't paladins have combat res? They had it back in WC3. They should have it up now as well. Along with Blessing of Might/Wisdom (being str/intel buff unless you want to bring back TRUE blessings)

Eh, sure, why not. Could be a new Divine Intervention kind of thing. I'd say they make more sense than Priests since Paladins are inherently more combat oriented and thus would be more likely to have some "get up and help fight NOW" thing.

- - - Updated - - -

That would just go against their new philosophy of bringing the class not the player so it wont happen... Brez and Heroism/Lust are in combat utility compared to all the player buffs that are being brought back to achieve the new/old philosophy. Is it dumb yes and thats the direction they want to head

Did you even read? Their current philosophy is that they need something of a balance between the two.

[MiiiMiii]

Ion: "Bring the player not the class" was too extreme."
Also Ion: "Evoker will bring Bloodlust in Dragonflight."

[Gurahk]

Ion: "Bring the player not the class" was too extreme."
Also Ion: "Evoker will bring Bloodlust in Dragonflight."

Yes, 3 classes out of 13 will have BL.

[TbouncerT]

Yes, 3 classes out of 13 will have BL.

Shaman, Mage, Hunter, Evoker. So 4 classes + drums (mini hero for all classes)

[paxen]

Ion: "Bring the player not the class" was too extreme."
Also Ion: "Evoker will bring Bloodlust in Dragonflight."

Bloodlust, and also CRes, are a bit different from the rest of the abilities (PWF, battle shout, mystic touch etc etc) - Ion even noted that they're more "general utility" (or something like that).

Shaman, Mage, Hunter, Evoker. So 4 classes + drums (mini hero for all classes)

In SL both Lust and CRes are both brought by 3 classes and 1 profession (engi cres). In DF it will be 4 classes, I'd assume they'd still be accessible as lesser profession abilities as well but haven't checked.

[Niwes]

if they really will bring combat rezz to another class i personally would give it to paladins. and no, i am not playing paladin since 2014 or so. so, here is why:

- ret paladins have a hard time to be taken in m+ grps. CR would help for that.
- especially when rets have to compete with melee slots of Rogues, Monks, Survs or Warriors.
- imo a thing like „resurrect a member in fight“ is literally THE paladin thing.
- paladins always were heavy utility classes, so it fits them very well.
- wether pally tanks nor heals have an absurd over-pressence in raids or dungeons.
- so its more or less the same, as giving it to every other heal or tank. but it helps ret pallys.

the second best bet imo is priest class. since SP struggling the same way, to get a slot in m+ grps, like ret pally. also it fits priest well. and disc was not very representative in SL, so a „every grp needs one“ utility ability could help here too.

if we do it the other way around, lets have a look which classes should NOT get it and why:

- mages bring BL. no need for bringning CR too.
- hunters bring BL. no need for bringning CR too.
- warlock, already has CR.
- Rogues bring already a lot of good utility and damage. only reason here is: Rogue is often considered as „…just for their damage“.
- Warriors „could“ use, but also „… brought for their damage“.
- Monks have their niches already imo.
- DK already has CR
- Druid already has CR
- DH has good CDs and same as Rogue and Warriors. if they fix their AoE, it’s maybe not needed.
- shamans bring BL. no need for bringning CR too.
- evokers bring BL. no need for bringning CR too.
- Pally best bet
- Priest 2nd best bet.

with Rogues, Warriors and DHs i am not sure (maybe just from a m+ point of view). and maayyyyybe monks. but since the previous ones are already very representative, i would prefer pally and priest over them.

so, yes. pally and priest seems the best candidates to me. and it fits their lore.

[Stormdash]

Paladin is the obvious pick for battlerez. OBVIOUS.

[Niwes]

Paladin is the obvious pick for battlerez. OBVIOUS.

yep, agree.

[paxen]

Ion said that they're targeting Paladin for the fourth battle rez, but he couldn't 100% confirm it yet

[Relapses]

In SL both Lust and CRes are both brought by 3 classes and 1 profession (engi cres). In DF it will be 4 classes, I'd assume they'd still be accessible as lesser profession abilities as well but haven't checked.

If they remove Engi res it'll severely limit the M+ meta.

[Niwes]

Ion said that they're targeting Paladin for the fourth battle rez, but he couldn't 100% confirm it yet

yes, i assume it also seems somewhat obvious to Blizz. maybe they check some balancing things and have a look at their data of class/spec representation first. but imo it will end up for paladins, or at least for priests.

[ChronoSul]

Eh, sure, why not. Could be a new Divine Intervention kind of thing. I'd say they make more sense than Priests since Paladins are inherently more combat oriented and thus would be more likely to have some "get up and help fight NOW" thing.

- - - Updated - - -



Did you even read? Their current philosophy is that they need something of a balance between the two.

I did read did u? "Bring the player not the class" was too extreme. The team wants there to be reasons to seek out a class for a raid, but they also don't want their raid buffs to be too powerful that you feel you need them to succeed." Which as it currently stands none of the raid buffs fall under the category of u needing them to succeed. Thats the difference between lust/brezs and any type of buff a class might bring instead.

[Sanguinerd]

Ion wants to know how the community feels about releasing all difficulties of raids on the same day instead of having Mythic launch a week later.

What community are you talking about here Ion? The rather irrelevant world first community or the majority of your playerbase that you repeatedly ignore despite the feedback they give you. Why even bother asking it..

[MasterOfNone]

gonna listen to the community? thats a new one.

[tehBob]

Why not give a CR to a class that cannot rez at all? Like a rogue or a warrior? I feel like that would be better balance rather than giving it to a class that can insta-heal to 100% as well as rez outside of combat.