wow Developer Q/A with Ion Hazzikostas Summary: Aug 3

[Stan 5,243]

Game Director Ion Hazzikostas answered your questions about Patch 7.3 and we bring you a summary of the Q/A.

You can watch the VOD here. For more information about Patch 7.3, feel free to check out our Argus hub.

Patch 7.3 Content Gating

• The team learned a lot from Patch 7.2 gating and it wasn't clear what you were supposed to do after the intro
• Gating for 7.3 is as follows
  • Week 1: You can unlock the first two Argus chapters and World Quests
  • Week 2: You can unlock the third and fourth chapter. That's Mac'Aree, new World Quests there and Invasion Points
  • Week 3: You unlock the last chapter and Antoran Wastes, the Seat of the Triumvirate dungeon + the Netherlight Crucible.
• The team wants players to focus on specific things rather than rush through content to unlock the Netherlight Crucible.
• Most 7.3 content is unlocked account-wide e.g. Netherlight Crucible, Seat of Triumvirate Dungeon, Argus Beacons etc.

Artifacts

• The team's exploring options to allow players unlock Artifact appearances doing Legion content in later expansions so they do not feel forced to do it right now. This doesn't include skill challenge appearances, like +15 Mythic Keystone etc.

Artifact Knowledge & Relics & Catching Up

• In Patch 7.3, the third relic slot will be unlocked immediately when you reach level 110.
• There's no need to visit the Broken Shore or complete the scenario to unlock traits.
• All players will start at Artifact Knowledge Level 41 when 7.3 goes live and will gain 1 level / week automatically (no research required).
• Patch 7.3 has items that will bump your follower gear to ilvl 900 immediately.
• The Broken Shore Relinquished vendor is moving to Argus and offers ilvl 910 gear.

Class Balance

• The team's satisfied with the frequency of class changes.
• Cathedral of Eternal Night took too long to fix.
• What the team wants to avoid is players having a feeling that their spec constanly changes.
• When a certain spec is performing slightly better than the other, most of the top players will switch to that spec, making other specs look weak.

Goblin & Worgen Models

• The models are still a priority, but the major focus are new casting animations.

Mythic+

• The team's very satisfied with how 7.2.5 changes turned out. More difficulty keystone runs reward better loot.
• The system helps to keep dungeons relevant throughout an expansion.
• Tier Sets will never be dropping in Mythic+ runs, because they're supposed to be a complement to raiding, not a replacement (even though there are some set items with bonuses).
  • Why would people raid when Mythic+ offered the same rewards?
• There are no plans to introduce Mythic+ for older dungeons.

Raid Finder

• The biggest balance concern is people that only do Raid Finder.
• They tried having all mechanics in an encounter and making them weak, but that didn't go to well so they decided to have fewer that are more impactful.

Netherlight Crucible

• Two relic traits were planned for 7.2, but later they decided it wasn't a good move.
• The traits won't work in Rated Battlegrounds with the exception of Netherlight Fortification.
• The RNG of the Netherlight Crucible gives you more control over traits. Each relic is different so you can abandon a bad trait / relic and pick one that's better.
• You will not be able to get the same trait twice on a single Relic. 

Tomb of Soakgeras

• 7 - 14 days is the ideal time for a world first race.
• When tuning for the last bosses on Mythic difficulty happens, the team keeps the world first race in mind. Those bosses should be hard enough to distinguish guilds from one another.
• The lack of coordination between encounter designers lead to the same solutions to problems - soaking. It's something that shouldn't be an issue in Antorus the Burning Throne. (well say hi to Haywire on the first boss).
• Mythic Kil'jaeden was overtuned, but there were hundreds of hours of internal testing.
• The team went a little too far with healing requirements in the Tomb.

[Tri 138]

  On 8/4/2017 at 12:47 AM, Stan said:

What the team wants to avoid is players having a feeling that their spec constanly changes.

Expand  

[SkeeterG 0]

  On 8/4/2017 at 12:47 AM, Stan said:

What the team wants to avoid is players having a feeling that their spec constanly changes.

Expand  

They're joking, right? 

If that's what they're trying to avoid, they're doing a horrendous job at it.

Edited August 8, 2017 by SkeeterG

[InfernoRFU 125]

  On 8/4/2017 at 12:47 AM, Stan said:

Artifacts

• The team's exploring options to allow players unlock Artifact appearances doing Legion content in later expansions so they do not feel forced to do it right now. This doesn't include skill challenge appearances, like +15 Mythic Keystone etc.

Expand  

Dear god please cover balance of power, my poor scrub self is never getting that otherwise.

[Yridaa 490]

  On 8/4/2017 at 12:47 AM, Stan said:

• Mythic Kil'jaeden was overtuned, but there were hundreds of hours of internal testing.

Expand  

Bullshit. I don't think they ever came close to bringing him to even 70% without an immunity soak team. And if it really is true, then I blame sheer incompetence for thinking it is reasonably scaled on difficulty.

  On 8/4/2017 at 12:47 AM, Stan said:

• The team's very satisfied with how 7.2.5 changes turned out. More difficulty keystone runs reward better loot.
• The system helps to keep dungeons relevant throughout an expansion.

Expand  

Trump: "Wrong.". It was relevant for a long time, admittedly. This was because there were no sets for a long time and high M+ Dungeon gear competed with even Mythic raid gear. But now the very best M+ Dungeon gear isn't even heroic raid level, and even if they were, you'd be likely to have a conflict because of set items. It worked really great for a long time, but now it is not relevant anymore.

  On 8/4/2017 at 12:47 AM, Stan said:

• The team's satisfied with the frequency of class changes.

Expand  

Why am I not surprised?

  On 8/4/2017 at 12:47 AM, Stan said:

• When a certain spec is performing slightly better than the other, most of the top players will switch to that spec, making other specs look weak.

Expand  

Oh don't worry, when a certain spec is performing 30-50% better than the other, all players will switch to that spec. It doesn't take a mathematician to realize that it makes other specs look weak. From a mathematical standpoint, it is not an opinion but a fact. Ergo, you shouldn't try to de-emphasize the problem by using the word "look".

  On 8/4/2017 at 12:47 AM, Stan said:

• The models are still a priority, but the major focus are new casting animations.

Expand  

See you in 2 years.

  On 8/4/2017 at 12:47 AM, Stan said:

• The biggest balance concern is people that only do Raid Finder.

Expand  

If that is your balance concern then there is a larger concern; Why are people only doing Raid Finder, and how large is that player-base?

  On 8/4/2017 at 12:47 AM, Stan said:

Tier Sets will never be dropping in Mythic+ runs, because they're supposed to be a complement to raiding, not a replacement (even though there are some set items with bonuses).

• Why would people raid when Mythic+ offered the same rewards?

Expand  

Why are you even asking that question? Honestly. We had EN and ToT, neither of those gave sets. Ergo, Mythic+ offered the same rewards.

You are claiming right here and there that no one raided EN or ToT.

 

 

 

Why does this Dev talk disappoint me so much?!

 

 

Edit:

  On 8/4/2017 at 12:47 AM, Stan said:

The lack of coordination between encounter designers lead to the same solutions to problems - soaking.

Expand  

This is why you have a lead designer where things like these are either approved or denied. Don't push the responsibility down and just suck it up that you failed. Every quest ever made for WoW had to pass through Chris Metzen's personal QA until he quit his job for example, that was pure dedication and he was ultimately responsible and he took it like a champ.

 

Shame on you Ion.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Yridaa

[Valks 2,377]

  On 8/4/2017 at 12:21 PM, Sawzorthn said:

Dear god please cover balance of power, my poor scrub self is never getting that otherwise.

Expand  

I believe in you, Sawz!