New Ion interview on class balance, bugs, GCDs, island expeditions and Azerite gear

[Deleted]

we've pretty much gone full circle at this point.

first they streamline Talents because "people go for the cookie cutter build 90% of the time" and that cleared up a lot of headache on the developers side, because there was less to balance around, so they could focus more on other aspects.
and now they're pretty much introducing a similar system of choice, but locked behind a RNG system so bloated there's no longer any sense of goals or accomplishments in terms of itemization.

[dproject]

I don't know why people complain so much about BfA (which happens in every previous expansions). In general, I think BfA is still doing great, it's so much better compared to Draenor or Cataclysm. Even this one is still better than early Legion. I feel Blizzard is doing good job by keep trying new stuffs even though some people might not like it, but in the end it also creates new room for changes and improvements.

[Varitok]

I don't know why people complain so much about BfA (which happens in every previous expansions). In general, I think BfA is still doing great, it's so much better compared to Draenor or Cataclysm. Even this one is still better than early Legion. I feel Blizzard is doing good job by keep trying new stuffs even though some people might not like it, but in the end it also creates new room for changes and improvements.

Welcome to the thread, Ion.

[SirCowdog]

because feels is irrelevent and mechanics and data are what matter, if data says x but people feel y then x is true ALWAYS

Fun is very subjective, and often completely detached and separate from raw data. You could have the most powerful one shot mechanic ever, that only used a single button. The data would tell you it's very successful. But would it be fun? Only for a very limited time.

That's obviously an oversimplified example. But look at Azerite traits: Some are numerically superior to others, but they're all just "does x dmg". So when players say that it's not good, just throwing more traits out there with bigger mumbers of "does x dmg" is clearly not the right solution.

[ZebrasRule]

So you are saying that they care more about the players that keep playing the game, instead of the player that just play the game for 2 month every 2 years?

Yes, and rightfully so; and I say that as one of those players who has unsubbed over the years when the current expansion doesn't appeal (most of Cata, the end of MoP, most of WoD, and now). But I'm always prepared to play it when I enjoy it. If they want to operate on a model where expansions don't merely expand the game but rebuild it, they're going to inevitably sometimes miss the mark for the more fickle player.

[Lei]

I just can't listen to azerite armor craptalk anymore but holy cownipples, this is now real comedy what we have with the devs. The awkward type. Ion is basically mr Bean, what makes it good is that he is seemingly not aware of it. (look at all the downvotes on youtube tho)

Here's an idea: stick to game systems that can be scrapped if don't work out, and don't build the whole f.cking expansion around it?

[In your honor]

As someone that has been playing since release in 2004, this was the tipping point for me. I was in early BFA alpha, and when they announced Beta I was weary but stuck it out, knowing that the expansion was no where near finished but having faith in Blizzard. The GCD change was the first alarm that sounded off, and it only became worse from there as no real development happened.

It is clear to me now that Blizzard has abandoned this game and is only milking it for subs, which makes me very sad. The current dev team is very disappointing and from the Q&A today and the many others they have held since BFA launched I have lost hope. This is not the fun fast paced and rewarding game I've been playing for many years now. It barely feels like WoW anymore.

The worst part is my kid and I had a blast in Legion, leveling up many alts to 110, doing raids and M+'s and completing the Mage Tower for our preferred specs. Now he doesn't even want to log on anymore because it's so boring and I don't see that changing after this Q&A.

I hope that all of you that still enjoy this game continue to get the most out of it.

2x subs cancelled.

[Deleted]

I watched the first 10 minutes of regurgitated, predictable responses and I decided to just wait for a transcript later.

Listening to interviews with Ion is a painful experience. His overwhelming sense of apathy is contagious. I mean just look at the interviewer with him. I feel sorry for the guy.

interviewer is Lore. the guy who said we are dickbags with idiotic ranting. I guess he's ok with his boss rambling and hand talking...

[shadowmatrix]

If it bothers you so much just don’t read it. I have so many idiots blocked on here because I’m simply not interested in their white knighting or whatever other garbage they want to post.

White knighting aka I don't want to listen to anyone else who disagrees with me but rather then simply saying so I must instead use an excuse to make myself feel good.

[Deleted]

And yet another spit in the face of the raiders community.

[Deleted]

Just sharing my perspective.

I'm very casual, it took me month to reach 120. I do not have the ability to commit to any serious content as in mythics, raids or anything above solo content and LFR basically. The reason is I work a lot inculding night shifts, and have 2 small children.

I didn't much enjoy the leveling experience. It is very formulaic and the same thing repeats over and over. Similar questhubs, similar style quest flow and design in every part of every zone with very few if any quests memorable. Dinging with no new abilities, no talents, nothing to look forward to AND scaling mobs is so utterly pointless I don't know how it's acceptable game design at this point.

The storyline with ALWAYS being the hero and champion x 1000 is so boring and tedious to me. I miss the days of being a soldier, one of many, trying to make a little difference in a big world. This hero tedium that they shove down your throat over and over again is so tired and overdone. I'm tired of alternating between running with the most powerful characters in the lore and being their equal, and gatheting bear arses for Mr Beararsecollector. It's immersion breaking and bad design.

At max level I have had tons to do with my limited time. Finishing up quests and storylines, unlocking warfronts and world quests and slowly gearing up. As a casual I can't complain about the content.

Island expeditions are decent, but I've only done a few. Don't know how many more I'll do though. The dungeons have been good. LFR is LFR. World quests are boring/decent depending on my mood. I really couldn't care less about the Azerite and heart of azeroth system so I'm not going to complain about it, I don't try to get azerite and don't know what level my necklace even is. The system seems superfluous though. Other than that I farm old content and do pet battles which I both enjoy.

Overall it seems to me their game design is based around time-gating and keeping people playing with perpetual, repeatable content for incrimental, insignificant power gains. It's just a lazy and lame way to design your game and content to me personally. I've been listening to a lot of the podcasts and other classic content, where several vanilla designers have been interviewed. Stark contrast to the game design of vanilla, where they actually wanted to make an immersive RPG game with content that made you emotionally tied to the world and your characters. Vanilla had it's issues too, of course, but such a radical shift in design from the first era of WoW is saddening to me.

TLDR: Game design and philosophy has gone down the pooper, but there's still tons of good to decent content for ultra casuals (like me). I wish they would have the same game philosophy as classic personally with the added content and casual friendlyness of modern WoW.

[dproject]

Well, this happens in every expansion. People are always complaining about how shitty the current expansion is. Those who really enjoy the game usually don't spend too much of their time lurking in this forum, rather than doing the interesting stuffs inside the game.
For me, this expansion is rated above Draenor, MoP, Cata, and even Legion. GJ Blizzard for making WoW great again!

[Re4leader1]

"Tier sets didn't make any sense why would you want multiple pieces of the same set. So we fixed it and are making it so you have to have 20 sets and farms the same shit over and over for the right traits. Why isn't the player base happy I dont understand better go into lawyer mode and talk a bunch of BS so we can get to the next thing.

[segara82]

- snip -

Good post.
But you forgot to mention that the professions are classes as well, with their own ablities, storylines, and such. And you have no limit except your own time and energy as how many jobs you take on.
Wait for the next sale, buy a copy and try the first month. You should find it very liberating after all the gating and constricting that Blizzard did.

[Deleted]

How can you rate this expansion over MoP and Legion? This expansion is Legion 0.5 at best and MoP was just far superior to this trainwreck.

Maybe you should start compairing it with 7.0 and not 7.3.5.

[Deleted]

They have NO clue what they are doing, best thing to do now is to hire asmon and some old legends and try make it good again. Just enjoy the trainwreck until classic comes out, but with blizzard being like it is right now they will fuck that up to aswell.

[Mafic]

They think they can go on cruise control like Legion without fixing anything. How cute.

[Mazinger-Z]

Legion 7.0 was still better than this disaster.

Fewer bugs, classes with synergistic depth, a decent end-game storyline (Suramar), fresh content mechanics (World Quests).

Profession quests. Class-specific quests.

Legion had polish. You could tell it wasn't rushed.

Hell, we even had a better pre-patch event. Not high on emotional content, but multi-facted. I did it on several alts to level.

[Marrilaife]

Legion 7.0 was still better than this disaster.

7.0 was pretty awful with legendaries massively imbalanced, yet massively gated, still I think I've seen less unviable classes back in Emerald Nightmare than I see now. Yes, the class balance was pretty horrid back then (dks and shamans total garbo), but atm you have half the dps classes excluded from any real m+ or raiding (or when not excluded, being carried in it, due to how bad class design is).

[Deleted]

Speak so much while saying so little as usual.