wow Legion Summit Interview Summary!

[Valks 2,375]

Check out our recap of the Legion Summit!

We have a combination of our questions, as well as a transcript of the stream event hosted by Slootbag, Towelliee and SpartySmallwood!

At the Legion summit, all the attendees were given interviews with different pairs of developers. While we were originally planning to release our questions here, we instead passed them over to the wonderful combination of Slootbag (@Slootbag), Towelliee (@towelthetank) and SpartySmallwood (@SpartySmallwood). They hosted a stream as soon as the NDA broke, but fear not if you missed it! We've got a full summary of all the combined questions, as well as a direct link to the VODs.

The full stream video can be seen below:

 

Main Points Summary

Are we aiming for 2 or 3 raid tiers?

• We will be getting three completely separate raid tiers.
• One tier is Emerald Nightmare + Nighthold, another one in 7.2 and another in 7.3.

Will we be getting any new dungeons?

• They are hoping to bring out a new dungeon (at least one) in 7.1.
• There are plans to possibly bring more dungeons in later patches too.
• The first dungeon will go into PTR very shortly after launch, with it being quoted as "mega".

Do we know what the final boss of Legion will be?

• It is "confirmed" that it will not be an orc. 

Are the new damage numbers final? Will we see another stat squish?

• There will be a squish in 8.0.
• They wanted to change things in 7.0, but it's simply too late to do so now.

What will happen to artifact weapons after Legion?

• Don't know yet, but they have some plans.
• They want to see what the players feel are the best options.
• They dislike the way that each level causes you to just throw your weapon away, barely forming any link with it.
• They want us to really form a bond with the artifact, similar to how it worked with people holding on to vanilla tier sets.

What is being done to stop another content drought in Legion?

• The main plan is to have multiple patches, aiming for 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, with smaller updates in between.
• The team liked the way Highmaul was paced at the start of WoD.
• There should have been more time between BRF and HFC.
• The plan currently is to introduce Emerald Nightmare 2.5 weeks after launch.
• Nighthold will be coming in around late January.

Will we be allowed to test Gul'dan Heroic?

• There will be no testing of Gul'dan at all.
• This will work in a similar fashion to how Ra-den did, we can just pray they don't make another mistake with it.

 

Full Notes of the Stream

If you're looking for a full, complete edition of the stream notes, we've got it for you! Check it out in the blue post tag below:

Full Notes from Stream

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We will get 2 or 3 tiers?

• We will be getting THREE raid tiers completely separate. To clarify, one tier is EN+Nighthold, then another one in 7.2 then another one in 7.3. Three separate tiers overall!

So will we get new dungeon's this expansion?

• That is the idea and we will certainly be releasing new dungeons throughout the expansions, can't say which! However the first patch, 7.1 will have 1 new dungeon already and it will go onto the PTR very quickly around when Legion ships, it's intended to come out not too long after legion release, and it will contain a new dungeon and this dungeon will be pretty "mega"

What kind of suit was Watcher wearing?

• Hugo Boss

Are there plans to expand timewalking further, to future expansions or to raids? Molten core style? Maybe winged-raid like flex style in SoO?

• We will not see a Warlords of Draenor timewalking set until at least a couple more expansions from now.
• There are plenty of logistical problems to deal with before timewalking raids.

Why are paladins considered melee healers when the only thing that puts us in melee is our mastery, which Beacon of the Lightbringer takes away anyway?

• Class Fantasy is a main point of this, they want us fighting where it is appropriate but they want to give us lots of choice.
• Talents to change based off encounter, as well as the strength of your healing team.
• Beacon of Virtue should be used on CD to be competitive. LoTM your best heal per GCD.
• Tons of choice was the focus, and then allowing some players to go passive still.

Anymore changes planned for Paladin legendaries?

• Likely no more design changes for paladin legendaries.
• Probably some tuning.

Can other classes train and receive demon hunters level of movement capabilities and if so, when?

• No, only demon hunter fantasy has that kind of agility.

Who or what is the final boss of legion?

• 100% not an orc.

Are there plans on introducing more guild support, in terms of leaders, logistics, or recruitment? Any guild functionality changes?

• Lots of discussion, but nothing they can announce as of yet.

What are the Devs most excited about?

• Quest scaling.

What are the plans for developing larger/stronger communities? (IE merging of guild chats, higher guild members in one guild)

• Those are things that are in discussion, but couldn't reveal anything.

What was the art concept behind Suramar?

• It was a night elf driven society, we wanted an initial night elf hit.
• Didn't want only that because it would be monochromatic, but they didn't want to do it overall for the zone.
• Was obvious to them to form a contrast between the city and the corrupted area on the outside, they love the design and color palette they settled on for Suramar.

Animations, any feedback on the updates?

• It was just time to do it, they were getting old and we really wanted to further immerse players into that world.

Content droughts, what's the plan to counter this issue that's becoming the norm for expos?

• We want to make sure they are paced well, not too slow but also not too fast.
• They feel they have a very good patch plan going into Legion, modeled a bit more around MoP but still it's own pacing, with lots of improvements they feel.
• Part of it is correctly anticipating how long it will take for the next expansion.
• That was one of the huge issues that caused the WoD content drought.
• They thought they could make Legion way faster than they actually could.

So what's the deal with the numbers, they are getting big, some players don't care but some don't like these big numbers?

• We are planning on squishing again in 8.0, they wish to have done it in 7.0 especially with HP, but it's a bit late and it's a HUGE undertaking.

Respeccing has been a huge point of discussion. Is this a final design? Have you considered something like you can't respec for X seconds once you've exited combat?

• We've definitely considered tons of different things.
• The question is when are people expected to respec and the further question is what do we define as a unit of gameplay?
• So a BG, that's a unit of gameplay, but what about questing? Every rare? Every hub? For dungeons, every dungeon? Every trash pack?
• In BGs you choose one spec, just like Mythic+.
• They see the personal item as something as easily obtainable as food/flasks that really we have been using for years.
• They think it will be very friendly and intuitive for new players as well.
• Most games (such as D3) you go back to town to swap talents, the idea has been extended to WoW as players would assume that and then have no idea about tomes.
• It's infinitely more versatile, you can change to any spec now, the game remembers your bar settings, interface is simpler, etc.

Will we see any additions of new architecture, given that players love it so much in the new zones?

• If we feel it fits into the themes of the old world, then yes.
• It's not like the Zandalari, where the artwork fit the old zones because the Zandalari were already there.
• Legion races have been living in a bubble, so their presence doesn't exist elsewhere.

Another concern has been player power from gear, the acceleration has been huge. The returning of how secondary stats scale - Are you doing anything to keep raids relevant longer? In the tanking world, it's a completely different experience after a couple of weeks.

• I don't know if it's that big of a problem.
• There are things like increasing the legendary ring.
• Things have gotten super silly with 16 arcane mages and soul capacitor, but it's important that there be power progression.
• We need to give people the power for gear to let them overcome the skill deficit.
• This stuff is important for other people to overcome content that you were able to overcome months later.
• Let's just release content earlier and not let tiers sit there.

For profession Artifacts, will we see the fishing artifact? What about artifacts like mining picks, skinning knives for further profession progression?

• Fishing one will be more of an easter egg.
• Design is for it to be a weapon. 
• It doesn't fit for profession progression path and the design to introduce a mining pick.

Will professions stay relevant all expansion? Especially crafted gear?

• Yes, the goal is to update professions constantly, in both big and small patches, so that they stay relevant throughout the course of the expansion.

What's the plan with professions and the norm? Will there be personal player power from crafting, will it be standard to get some gathering for Bloods of Sargeras then go double crafting?

• There will be no personal player power from professions, rather specialized things that crafters can make for people.
• So that JC only gem on BETA is actually meant to be BoE.
• As for what professions people will choose, there's no expectation, just depends on your needs!
• Profs will be getting some revisits in the coming beta weeks.
• We need to look at all the professions.
• We want you to be a craft person because you like that profession and want to add to the economy, not to be more powerful or better than everyone else.
• Not intended that some are BoP.
• There are no intentions of changing Blood of Sargeras back to BoE and will stay BoP at the release of #Legion.
• Professions will be normalized and Jewelcrafters will NOT get exclusive access to combat perk in Legion.
• Quest rewards from zones Pre Cataclysm will be included within the grandfathered #Transmogs in Legion.
• Professions will stay relevant in terms of gear & get new gear to craft as each new tier is released in Legion.
• Profession materials meant to be far more scarce in Legion compared to #Warlords and how they are abundant currently.
• You are not intended to be self sufficient with all of your mats and alts.

What are the plans for extending the life of world quests for raiders and those who have fully unlocked their artifact?

• World quests will be relevant throughout the expansion, artifact resources, order resources.
• They plan to constantly add new content into world quests throughout the expansion.
• It will be always be additions, not aiming to remove any of the existing ones as they go.

Will world quests be added to old content as well?

• World Quests are not planned to go back before Legion, but will keep coming back as a system in future expansions likely.

Is there any concern that Ancient Mana will just turn into Apexis v2 and become obsolete right away?

• That was a mistake with how apexis was implemented.
• We have a lot of plans to keep Ancient Mana viable for a long time in the expansion.

How will we be gaining Artifact Power and leveling artifacts for the off-specs?

• The general population is expected to just use AP items as they get it and that is the intended way.
• Min/max players will always look for ways to cheat or gain that edge such as try and save AP or hoard it.
• They are really looking to try and not make hoarding AP a thing, and are constantly monitoring how players are doing that, so they can design against it.

What's the expected ETA on artifact filling out for a top raider vs. say a casual player?

• Tough to answer because it changes over time.
• It will be faster to level artifact, even if you've never done one.
• There will be mechanics for faster artifact progression for offspecs AND alts, but ALSO just generally over time.
• So that people that come into the expansion late will have an easier time.
• There's mechanics where over time it just gets faster.

Will there be more artifact transmogs added in the game?

• Yes, some are already hidden, but also new ones will be added.
• Furthermore, they definitely want to look more into adding more exclusive options for the transmogs in the future.
• Mythic kills of last bosses, Gladiator, etc, because right now they are pretty easily obtained by everyone.
• There have already been a number designed so that they have back-ups when they need them.

What's up with relics, why delete them like gems instead of use them as swaps like glyphs would? Will we be seeing more interesting Relic effects than just +1 to a minor trait?

• We don't want relics to become a boring just store them and swap them in and out based on fights, especially with the somewhat tame bonuses they give (+1 minor trait).
• Right now ilvl on them is king.
• The minor trait effect may be very much further developed, but they first want to see a bit how Relics play out.

Any legendaries planned outside of the world drop ones?

• There are no other legendaries planned for Legion outside of the new system.
• No raiding only, or expansion-wide questline, planned as of now.

What is the basis for the artifact skins and how do you decide on what is appropriate for each class?

• Always try to make sure there is a combination of different factors to provide a unique look for each.
• They try not to have non-evolving themes, such as a simple skin that relates directly to a raid (Nightmare skin for Emerald Nightmare, for example), since the weapons themselves are class-associated first and foremost.
• They will always feature the class and spec specific look in order to maintain a level of class fantasy.

What will happen to artifacts after Legion?

• They don't know yet.
• They really want to work with the players to find a solution.
• They have multiple ideas and basically want the players to pick the best one.
• They don't like the feeling of throwing away a brand new weapon after one level.
• They want players to forge relationships with their weapons, as we did in Vanilla.

Are Legendaries just going to be disabled again on a per tier basis for the first part of raiding?

• Uh oh, Surprise!
• Legendaries are actually now planned to be part of raiding at all times, which item slot limits.
• They will continue to be capped at one, and more unlocked later.
• They view (and aim) for the relative power of Legendaries to be not so crazy that a player with (for example) the luck to get a warforgred trinket and legs will gain a big player power boost from that.
• Legendaries won't so excessive over that warforged example for player power.
• The design intent is this is an MMO where you should be happy and have fun using the awesome items you get.
• It starts to get really tedious when they keep smacking restrictions on gear for varying modes (idea extends to Mythic+ as well).
• They will NOT be usable in PvP though.
• There are algorithms in place to ensure you don't have a really terrible bad streak with legendaries.
• It should be nearly impossible to get a duplicate legendary.
• A system in the future where you break down legendaries to make a new one is something they've considered.
• Starting conservatively and then build more legendaries throughout the expansion.

Artifact power investment for classes with multiple DPS specialisations - how do you plan to prevent players needing to completely change their specialisation due to nerfs and buffs, then lose all of your artifact progress?

• Put an extra bonus on them to be super careful with class balance and major class changes.
• To use a scenario like the one that you describe, with fire mages, oops we goofed, it turns out they're 15% ahead of other mage specs in other cases.
• Okay, that's a problem, we should do something about that.
• Recognising that people have made a significant investment with their artifact power in their weapon that they can't easily shift around.
• We wouldn't want to turn around and make fire suddenly the worst spec.
• We'd probably make some adjustments but instead of take them down by 15% take them down by 10% so they're still better than the others.
• So if you could go back in time you'd probably still make the same choice with your artifact power, but it's less disruptive to the overall balance.

Paragon system - putting your artifact power into any other artifact tree will feel like a waste. Is there going to be a gating system?

• The cost between points are going to be expensive. 
• The amount in between two points higher up will be the same as several points in other weapons.
• You make the decision for 1% in one weapon and give up the 5% in another weapon.

What happens once players reach the highest item level of rewards from Mythic +? Are there cosmetic rewards?

• No.
• Legendaries are intended as the long-lasting rewards of Mythic +.
• They do not expect people to collect all of them and have no plans to add other rewards.
• It is still a very long process, but they don't see any reason to add high-end cosmetics just yet.

Any concern about Mythic raiders dominating the Mythic+ scene due to their generally superior gear?

• The more gameplay you participate in, the more advantage you'll have.
• If you want to be among the best, you have to be versatile, but there will still be competitive gear from mythic+ on it's own.,
• There's always options to disable things, but that approaches the old structure and in an RPG they want the rewards you earn to work in as many places as possible.
• They hated the fact that in current CMs you feel super nerfed when you go back and get scaled down.
• The option of just giving raid tier and trinkets as rewards from mythic+ is unappealing as they want to have exclusive power rewards for raiding as well based on the difficulty and organization present.

Melee vs Ranged - So many situations where melee is undesirable, and now melee is even more saturated?

• They are super conscious about making melee unfriendly encounters, they are trying very hard to avoid it but sometimes it will happen.
• They think a lot of players just have a desired playstyle, ranged or melee, and as a result of that melee will just be divided among more options. 
• They don't feel a ton of ranged loving players will just mass move over to melee or vice versa.
• Composition balance will likely not change much they expect.

What's the deal with hitting 110 and skipping normal dungeons right away? The world quest ilvls already skip them.

• We're making WQ rewards start a bit lower now to make sure normal dungeons aren't skipped over. But yes for a lot of people hurrying to gear and being more experienced, it's totally planned and expected they will quickly skip over normal.

Tanks - how have we developed the role of the inactive tank and having them do something meaningful at all times, so you aren't caught in boring times where you are just acting as an honorary DPS every 30s for 30s.

• This has been a huge goal, and there is still room for improvement.
• A lot of fights have this dealt with through adds, multiple bosses etc.
• They want to be able to make single tank fights but you can still bring 2 tanks so the other tank can help somehow.
• The goal is to do tanky things at all times when offtanking.
• They are not there yet, but they want to stop always relying on the encounter design team to come up with something for tanks to do on some of the more standard tank fights, and perhaps tackle it at the class design level.
• Loose example of how disc priests are currently, extending that idea to tanks being able to support.
• For example, paladins can actually go into a decent offhealing build to help with some healing.

For attunements, like CoS and Arcway, are we going to see more of that in the future, such as raids again?

• Yes, we will be dipping our toes a bit again, but not as HAM as we used to do back in the day.
• We do already plan to have one for that dungeon coming out in 7.1.

Will there be in game support for leaderboards for Mythic+?

• Similar to what there is now in live, most global stuff we expect things like wowprogress will track.

What's the goal for the mythic+ gear capping in a tier, how high will it go?

• The rough estimate right now is in the range of Heroic raiding gear +5 ilvl, however the big chest that you get once a week based on your highest dungeon completed can be up to a mythic raiding level piece of gear, that's the big jackpot.

We've had lots of concerns with content droughts and pacing, so what is the plan for pacing?

• Plan is to have multiple matches, expect 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, but also small patches in between.
• For launch, the team, liked the pacing and relative release of Highmaul, but thought there should have been more time between Highmaul and BRF. 
• Emerald Nightmare to start, likely available 2.5 weeks after launch.
• Nighthold around late January.

When is the next raid testing, what's the plan?

• Raid testing will begin again very soon.
• Plan is to bang out the remaining Mythic EN bosses, retest Xavius heroic, do NH bosses on mythic, and along the way open up some weekends with LFR/Normal as usual?

What about Gul'dan heroic?

• We won't be testing or seeing Gul'dan at all until live! Dun dun dunnnn

That didn't work out so well with Ra-den though?

• We've come a very long way since then!

So, what do you think? There was a huge amount of information that was clarified, with questions being taken from the viewers of all three streamers, as well as our Twitter.

 

[Ferwyn 0]

I only wanted one question answered...will Paladins retaliate against the DK's for what they did to Light's Hope Chapel. A little bit of class rivalry will be fantastic to see :-D 

[Faadre 0]

• You are not intended to be self sufficient with all of your mats and alts.

really? can someone point to this in the video? seems like it would not be fun.

[Valks 2,375]

15 hours ago, Ferwyn said:

I only wanted one question answered...will Paladins retaliate against the DK's for what they did to Light's Hope Chapel. A little bit of class rivalry will be fantastic to see :-D 

I feel like stuff similar to this could really create some awesome world-pvp style scenarios. A mixture of PvE and PvP in a huge scenario where certain classes team up with others to avenge previous wrongdoings.

11 hours ago, Faadre said:

• You are not intended to be self sufficient with all of your mats and alts.

really? can someone point to this in the video? seems like it would not be fun.

They discuss this around the 26-minute mark, in the professions section. The main comparison that has to be made is with Warlords of Draenor. By leveling alts, you could just sit there in your garrison and have every material for every profession without ever leaving the garrison. You could exist completely without other players. This won't be the same, at all, in Legion.

[Weltenfeind 40]

I'm honestly still kind of confused how the artifact system will work when in off-spec.

[Valks 2,375]

18 hours ago, Weltenfeind said:

I'm honestly still kind of confused how the artifact system will work when in off-spec.

There will be measures in place that allow you to earn artifact power much faster, so you can catch up over time. It looks like you'll still need to pick a "main" spec though.

[demonardvark 556]

3 raid tiers = good

alleged better pacing and more patches = good

non orc final boss = cute, not giving final boss out so you can change your mind at any point without backlash, Blizzard is learning.