Blizzcon Day 2 - Open Q&A Panel

[Boubouille]

Blizzcon Day 2 - Open Q&A Panel

General

• More character slots might be added but maybe not for Cataclysm.
• You might be able to reorder the characters on your character selection screen at some point.
• There are some ideas for "mentoring" to let people of varied levels play together without powerleveling. Things like downleveling yourself to play with them is a possibility but it might not be for Cataclysm.
• Character visual customization is something they would like to adress, but they don't really know what the right solution is. They have a few ideas in mind and might do something about it soon.
• Oceanic servers will get their own maintenance time at some point.
• Dancing is still in the work and the animation is working on them, there is still some work to do to make it a real feature.

Races

• Race changes will be available shortly after Faction changes. There is no point in not allowing that since you can't really prevent people with multiple accounts to play both side on PvP servers anyway.
• All races will have updated racials with Cataclysm, they should be similar to what the Goblins have. (Increased health/mana potion effects, etc ...)

Guild Leveling System

• The idea behind the guild leveling system is to make people want to be in guilds and make people feel better about being in a guild. The goal is to take that feature and make it the best they can. (Guild Talent Trees, etc ...)
• You will be able to create guild heirlooms with the new guild leveling system, you can buy profession plans and anyone in your guild can wear that item, it will scale with level.

Professions

• Armorsmith and Weaponsmith specialization really felt like the Blacksmith was limited by his choice, that's why it was ignored in Wrath of the Lich King. Ultimately it's better if the player can craft more stuff instead of just being able to craft 2H swords or whatever.
• Herbs and Ore Nodes will be reitemized with the revamp.

Player vs. Player

• XP in Battlegrounds need to be fixed because there is a lot of XP leeching in the 71-80 Brackets. Once it's fixed, it will be improved across the board.

Raids & Dungeons

• You can't get Frostmourne because it would take control of your soul. Frostmourne would be playing your character, not you. The weapon has an unique fate and the encounter is going to be mega.
• There won't be any option to do Onyxia at level 60 anymore after the revamp in 3.2.2.

Cataclysm

• There isn't any plan to prevent ganking in the contested zones of Azeroth, even with flying mounts available here. This is just part of being on a PvP server.
• They can't spoil the Thrall / Garrosh storyline, but with the cataclysm raging everywhere, what do you think the world's mightiest shaman would need to do?
• Northrend and Outland won't really be affected by the Cataclysm but some of the areas will be updated for the expansion. For example, you will be able to level up Archeology in Outland.

Itemization

• The 5 second rule might be removed with the changes made to spirit but there isn't any final decision about that.
• There is no plans to prevent Paladins and Shamans from using cloth, but there were some discussions to limit it somehow.
• Armor Penetration is removed from the gear but not from the game. There are plans to reintroduce it in another way to allow players to kill plate wearers. (Armor Penetration talents, etc ...)
• Spirit is going to be a healer stat only, it won't exist on DPS Gear. Healers need it to regen and other casters don't use it at all. (Other casters will use Intellect for Spell Power)

Classes

• They won't add a new class in Cataclysm, they have to be very careful about adding more classes and do not want tons of them.
• The philosophy about pure DPS classes is still the same, they don't want hybrid to do everything they can do. The elevated hybrid DPS in Wrath of the Lich King is in a "good place" now.

Classes - Pets

• In Patch 3.3, pets will scale of all of your stats and allow buffs from raid encounters to affect them.
• In Patch 3.3, there will be changes to make sure that pets can't be hit by AOEs from bosses but others (PvP) will be able to affect them.
• Pets classes might get a "move to this location" command for their pet, long cooldown abilities that let your pet teleport to you to get out of trouble. This would be good feature since developers can't make pet AI as smart as a player.

Druid

• There isn't any immediate plan to give feral druids a legendary, casters are next on the list.
• Trolls and Worgens Druids will get their own bear, cat, travel, and aquatic forms.

Hunter

• Hunters might be able to choose the talent tree of their pet to let them pick the pet that looks best to them. Zhevra is a possibility for Cataclysm.

Mage

• Night Elves Mages have been added because it sounded pretty cool to have Elves using arcane when they shouldn't be anymore.
• Mage abilities like Molten Armor will be changed to use other stats since mages won't have Spirit anymore.

Rogue

• They want to see rogues use more daggers, they're THE rogue weapon and we don't see enough of them. In Patch 3.2.2 they might add an assassination talent to make daggers more attractive.
• One of the plans for cataclysm is to take a lot of the early subtlety tree and make it passive for the class. The unattractive stuff will be taken out to let you get the cool talents.

Shaman

• Sacrificying the group utility of mana tide totem to give it a much better regen is a possibility.
• Enhancement Shamans do not use INT anymore and will be given talents to not need it just like Retribution Paladins.
• Enhancement Shamans having to run in and out of melee ranges to redrop totem and sacrifice DPS is a legitimate problem, they don't want enhancement to have to run out like that.

Warlock

• Warlock's survavibility wasn't really good at the start of Wrath of the Lich King, but they're in a pretty good place right now.

Warrior

• Arms lost their iconic ability when Mortal Strike was given to more classes. They need to find a new ability to fill that niche or make Arms' MS the "ultimate" mortal strike.

[Yukimaru]

WTB more Enh shaman info.

[Crystality]

I was really looking forward to some Priest Q&A but I guess that'll have to wait.

[norazz]

nice

[Rjay322]

* Trolls and Worgens Druids will get their own bear, cat, travel, and aquatic forms.

[norazz]

yes that is nice

[Kraftwerk]

Race changes will be available shortly after Faction changes. There is no point in not allowing that since you can't really prevent people with multiple accounts to play both side on PvP servers anyway.

FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU

You will be able to create guild heirlooms with the new guild leveling system, you can buy profession plans and anyone in your guild can wear that item, it will scale with level.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

[Nozuka]

Mage abilities like Molten Armor will be changed to use other stats since mages won't have Spirit anymore.

seriously... why do people ask questions about things like that? there was only one logical answer.

[Antdog]

•Trolls and Worgens Druids will get their own bear, cat, travel, and aquatic forms.

Very nice

[cavalier]

Yay for spirit returning to healer gear. As a priest it's a little vexing to have every cloth drop be pored over by, well, every caster class.

[MushroomBomb]

Blizzcon Day 2 - Open Q&A Panel

General
Mage

• Night Elves Mages have been added because it sounded pretty cool to have Elves using arcane when they shouldn't be anymore.

This has got to be the best explanation for adding anything, ever!

[Nozuka]

"please dont level a worgen or goblin to max level, just wait till we allow you to pay for a change to these races!"

[perera]

seriously... why do people ask questions about things like that? there was only one logical answer.

You think that's bad ?

10:34 "What are you comparing mage dps against and why do you think it's okay now?"

[Ryme]

This has got to be the best explanation for adding anything, ever!

The epitome of lorelol: "cuz it sounded kool!"

[Baaadum]

Wow. Paid Race changes. Way to completely ruin the point of introducing two new classes. Next expansion: paid legendary transfer.

[size=3][b]
Rogue

• One of the plans for cataclysm is to take a lot of the early subtlety tree and make it passive for the class. The unattractive stuff will be taken out to let you get the cool talents.

Wut?? That's ridiculous...

[TheOne]

[blizzquote]General

• You can't get Frostmourne because it would take control of your soul. Frostmourne would be playing your character, not you. The weapon has an unique fate and the encounter is going to be mega.[/quote]
  
  
  

[perera]

@Shadowdream:
I think the unexpected is what drives a good story... If they do it right they can for example imply that the Night Elves are desperate, (they did just lose their cities in Ashenvale and Darkshore...) besides the world being torn asunder and whatnot. Besides, if there are already demons sieging the world, the most obvious downside of arcane magic is lost.

[Hypocratus]

TBH, this whole session is pretty weak of information - and it seems it's not because of Blizzard didn't answer questions, but because people didn't ask anythinh really interesting... Will see what they say in the game system panel, hope there will be more details about talents, path of the titans, mastery, classes plan (I am shocked nobody asked about paladin and whether they are done with class, for instance).

[CaptainArlong]

Ok who was the dimwit that asked if the cataclysm would affect the Outland? Do people who play this game not know the Outland is ANOTHER PLANET?

Paid race change is awesome. I don't want my Tauren characters anymore, I want Forsaken, and I'd rather not level up a freaken Goblin and be 80 levels behind my guild.

[perera]

TBH, this whole session is pretty weak of information - and it seems it's not because of Blizzard didn't answer questions, but because people didn't ask anythinh really interesting... Will see what they say in the game system panel, hope there will be more details about talents, path of the titans, mastery, classes plan (I am shocked nobody asked about paladin and whether they are done with class, for instance).

It's generally that way, but if people made questions that were too probing they would just be REALLY vague (they are good at making games, but they are incredible at being vague when they want). Also, the more interesting panel is going on right now... the systems panel.