wow Battle for Azeroth Live Developer Q&A Roundup: Mar 15

[Stan 5,240]

Game Director Ion Hazzikostas answered your Battle for Azeroth questions today! Here's a quick summary to guide you through it!

Highlights

• Dark Iron Dwarves, Kul Tiran Humans, Mag'har Orcs and Zandalari Trolls are confirmed Allied Races in Battle for Azeroth.
• It seems Blizzard plans to abandon the Master Loot system altogether in favor of Personal Loot in the upcoming expansion.

Allied Races

• Zandalari Paladins are a possibility in the future.
• Zandalari have been made 10-15% larger in Alpha recently.
• Allied Races will always come in pairs, it comes down to faction balance, but if it makes sense to introduce an Allied Race to a single faction, they may add one regardless of the other.
• Kul Tirans will be an Allied Race in Battle for Azeroth.
• Mag'har means "uncorrupted" in Orcish.
• The team wants to hear about Allied Races lacking customization options.

Artifacts

• Once the pre-expansion patch is live, the Artifact will still be available, but the traits will be burned out.
• Battle for Azeroth will be just as friendly an expansion as Legion. The catch-up system for Azerite will work similar to Artifact Knowledge.

Character Slots

• Blizzard will increase the number of character slots with new Allied Races.

Class Balance

• If there's a class that doesn't bring much, it's a problem that they would like to solve.
• Blizzard stopped adding new abilities to classes beyond MoP. If an ability is supposed to fill in a certain gap, they will add it, but having too many baseline abilities is confusing. Azerite Armor modifiers will work the same way as active abilities / Legendary items in Legion.
• It feels bad having Artifact traits baked into talents. It's a short term sacrifice they're making for the sake of balance. Two years from now, nobody will remember that an ability was provided by an Artifact weapon in Legion.

Customization Options

• Non-Allied Races customization options are in the works, but no immediate time frame on that. The team's currently working on animations for the new Allied Races.
• No immediate plan right now to add Heritage Armor to non-Allied Races, but it's a great idea. The team would need to figure out how to obtain those, because most players have non-Allied Races at max level. The identity of expression should be available for every race though.

Guilds

• Guilds automatically inherit all Community features. Communities are "lighter" versions of guilds and they aren't meant to overshadow them.

Itemization

• Item level will enable clear-cut decisions on upgrades in Battle for Azeroth. The team doesn't want to go back to Legion, where secondary stats were prioritized over item level.

Legendary Items

• Legendary effects that are available to classes as abilities / talents / passives in Battle for Azeroth will stack with Legion Legendary items equipped on your character, providing double the bonus during leveling.

Max Level Experience

• When you hit max level in Legion, there's Suramar. In Battle for Azeroth, you can explore a whole continent of the opposing faction.

Mission Table

• Mission tables are returning in Battle for Azeroth. It's an outlet for War Resources. No gigantic changes are planned there. No more 12 hour missions to unlock content though.

Mythic Dungeons

• The system has worked out well in Legion, no major changes are planned in Battle for Azeroth.
• Tyrannical & Fortified affixes will be moved to level 2 Keystones to avoid awkward power spikes.
• New level 10 affixes will be added soon. The team's experimenting with stuff like Blighted.
• The team wants to improve the in-game Mythic+ UI.

Professions

• Changes to crafting Professions are coming in Battle for Azeroth. The increasing cap of skill points throughout expansions felt awkward and ultimately lead to the removal of skill point requirements.
• Profession items tied to a certain expansions are now separate buckets: e.g. Outland Blacksmithing.
• No skill point are required to start Professions in Battle for Azeroth.

PvP

• Any plans to adjust CC in PvP besides their duration? If CC is too limited, the game turns into DPS races in PvP. Obviously long CC chains are frustrating, but it's a result of being stun locked by multiple players without your team disrupting them. A lot of CC instant casts are involved in this, because there's little to no counter play and the team would like to solve this. Specific feedback is appreciated.
• Prestige rewards in Battle for Azeroth include titles and cosmetic items.
• World defense will return back to RP-PVP realms in the future with the new War System.

Raids

• The use of Master Loot system is limited to organized guilds. Split runs are a very specific niche issue and it seems they would like to get rid of Master Loot entirely.

Submitting Feedback

• Conflicting feedback is seen oftentimes as opposed to constructive; telling Blizzard that something is broken and needs fixing is all but constructive. Feedback should get more personal.

VOD

[Dejo93 1,023]

Wonder if we'll :

A) make the new KT humans shamans (makes sense, give them anchor totems)

B) have a playable Mogu race for the Alliance since the Horde gets Vulpera

[Syktris 36]

3 hours ago, Stan said:

Tyrannical & Fortified affixes will be moved to level 2 Keystones to avoid awkward power spikes.

I don't know how I feel about this.

3 hours ago, Stan said:

New level 10 affixes will be added soon. The team's experimenting with stuff like Blighted.

I would like new affixes, yes, but please don't continue with this Blighted idea, it is terrible. 

3 hours ago, Stan said:

The use of Master Loot system is limited to organized guilds. Split runs are a very specific niche issue and it seems they would like to get rid of Master Loot entirely.

I hate ML system, I feel that we take so much time to equip using this, but I feel that this change could cause a major drama with some guilds and raiders that use it. 

3 hours ago, Stan said:

It feels bad having Artifact traits baked into talents. It's a short term sacrifice they're making for the sake of balance. Two years from now, nobody will remember that an ability was provided by an Artifact weapon in Legion.

True and False, it would be bad to have artifact traits become talents, yes, but it would be nice to have them as baseline passive habilities. And I still remember everything the devs took away from me :p 

3 hours ago, Stan said:

Mission tables are returning in Battle for Azeroth.

Just STOP. 

[Drachar 45]

Getting rid of Master Loot is gonna make a lot of raiding guilds unhappy. Then again, some do think the Personal Loot system is sufficient.

And must say, really not a fan the idea of Garrison MK3. Sure, Order Halls was a huge improvement, but it is still the problem with missions rewarding such huge chunks of gold you feel like missing out if you don't run them on all your alts.

[Weleri 0]

So apparently people can't read... it says ML is staying for guilds, so why would a guild be upset about pug groups going personal loot?

[Yridaa 490]

8 minutes ago, Weleri said:

So apparently people can't read... it says ML is staying for guilds, so why would a guild be upset about pug groups going personal loot?

 

5 hours ago, Stan said:

Raids

• The use of Master Loot system is limited to organized guilds. Split runs are a very specific niche issue and it seems they would like to get rid of Master Loot entirely.

Indeed, apparently people can't.

[Syktris 36]

10 minutes ago, Weleri said:

So apparently people can't read... it says ML is staying for guilds, so why would a guild be upset about pug groups going personal loot?

Because of this:

5 hours ago, Stan said:

Split runs are a very specific niche issue and it seems they would like to get rid of Master Loot entirely.

 

[jinsu2301 273]

2 hours ago, Drachar said:

Getting rid of Master Loot is gonna make a lot of raiding guilds unhappy. Then again, some do think the Personal Loot system is sufficient.

There are situations where PL works and some where it doesn't. Tier items were a massive headache for us this expansion. Someone gets a tier item they don't need, but someone else does? Well, tough luck, can't trade because it's a 5ilvl upgrade or they didn't have a tier piece in that slot yet. Got to the point where I recieved my whole 6p set twice over while my resto buddy was still trying to get his 4p.

I'd hate to see ML go unless they remove all of those stupid trade restrictions. Even then, it's more fun to check the boss for loot and see someone win a desired item with a roll, than for stuff to just silently appear in everyone's bags.

Edited March 16, 2018 by jinsu2301

[Brutalis 165]

4 hours ago, Syktris said:

Just STOP. 

Mission tables are an insentive to get you to use the mobile app, to do all that stuff via mobile on the fly when you aren't or can't be in game. Why would they stop when they can gather people's metadata and sell it on to companies for fat profit, for free?

Edited March 16, 2018 by Brutalis

[Glifford 0]

I like the mission tables.  Sometimes with my work schedule I can't play for extended periods of time, and this allows me to accomplish at least something in a short period of time.

I hope they improve on Professions in BFA over what was done in Legion.  In particular, for both low level toons as well as max level toons, crafted items need substantial upgrades.  And if there are going to be quest lines that lead to recipes that require going to different parts of the new area, then the items created by these recipes need to be improved by a lot.  Level 110-119 gear does not last long, and to make crafted items worth while for these levels they need to be nice upgrades to what the player gets just from questing.  Another expansion of mining and herbing and selling herbs to the AH to make lots of gold would be disheartening.

I hope the BFA counterpart to Suramar ("you can explore a whole continent of the opposing faction.")  is not going to be essentially forced PvP.  From what I've read about the lore of BFA, the quest chains getting people from level 110 to 120 will include basically atrocities perpetuated by each faction against the other, presumably with the idea of getting Horde and Alliance people to truly hate each other.  Running around a Suramar type area getting ganked by people who are trying to avenge the level 110-120 story line is not my idea of fun at all.

 

[KLoaf11 2]

2 hours ago, jinsu2301 said:

There are situations where PL works and some where it doesn't. Tier items were a massive headache for us this expansion. Someone gets a tier item they don't need, but someone else does? Well, tough luck, can't trade because it's a 5ilvl upgrade or they didn't have a tier piece in that slot yet. Got to the point where I recieved my whole 6p set twice over while my resto buddy was still trying to get his 4p.

I'd hate to see ML go unless they remove all of those stupid trade restrictions. Even then, it's more fun to check the boss for loot and see someone win a desired item with a roll, than for stuff to just silently appear in everyone's bags.

They did? It is no longer restricted. Also tier is no more so the tokens for specific classes is probably no more too. In ML they probably will just get the same loot as PL which will just be azerite for that armor class. I agree if they re-implement the ilvl restriction there might be an issue. But outside of that it technically shouldn't matter. You might have guilds that are like give up that item to so and so they are better. And if you are going for world/realm first then you probably will be willing to. If your not you probably shouldn't. Other than that there should be no issue. PL also technically drops more loot per person.

[Perak 25]

Looks like ML will be avaible for groups, where majority(or all) of players are from same guild. Same as guild raid achievemens. But it will be more difficult than just remove it. With tier set bonus and titanforge removal it should not have that big of inpact on progres, but who knows...

[krapmyself 60]

Many of these changes look great. Feelin' the hype!

[Ventus165 0]

Just give the Alliance Vrykul give them a broken Racial and everything will be fine.

[jinsu2301 273]

11 hours ago, KLoaf11 said:

But outside of that it technically shouldn't matter. You might have guilds that are like give up that item to so and so they are better. And if you are going for world/realm first then you probably will be willing to. If your not you probably shouldn't. Other than that there should be no issue.

As long as there are more than two secondary stats, it will always matter who gets what piece of gear. And my guild always traded and switched gear around to whoever needs it the most, not because of guild policy, but because that's just what you do. If a piece drops that's a very minor upgrade for you (or no upgrade at all because 2nd stats), but a huge upgrade for a friend, then you should be able to trade. And while you do get technically more loot through PL, you get a much better and fairer loot distribution through ML and whatever system you then enforce, be it rolls, dkp or something else.

Like I said, I won't be too miffed about ML going IF they can fix all the issues we have right now, like trade restrictions and too powerful or worthless secondary stats.

Edited March 16, 2018 by jinsu2301

[KLoaf11 2]

10 hours ago, jinsu2301 said:

As long as there are more than two secondary stats, it will always matter who gets what piece of gear. And my guild always traded and switched gear around to whoever needs it the most, not because of guild policy, but because that's just what you do. If a piece drops that's a very minor upgrade for you (or no upgrade at all because 2nd stats), but a huge upgrade for a friend, then you should be able to trade. And while you do get technically more loot through PL, you get a much better and fairer loot distribution through ML and whatever system you then enforce, be it rolls, dkp or something else.

Like I said, I won't be too miffed about ML going IF they can fix all the issues we have right now, like trade restrictions and too powerful or worthless secondary stats.

Ignored my whole post? There is no longer a trade restriction now.

[ChaosDecides 30]

Missions tables are practically a get rich cheat code if you have enough alts.

[Glifford 0]

On 3/18/2018 at 4:23 AM, ChaosDecides said:

Missions tables are practically a get rich cheat code if you have enough alts.

I have made a fair amount of gold from mission tables.  I've made substantially more selling stuff to the AH.  I don't consider either of them cheating.  I hope they keep both the AH and mission tables in the game moving forward.  I would also like them to at least partially revert the original Draenor mission tables to providing some useful rewards - gold, profession mats, etc.  Both the AH and mission tables are nice additions to the game.  And I disagree that either of them are cheating.

[ChaosDecides 30]

12 hours ago, Glifford said:

I have made a fair amount of gold from mission tables.  I've made substantially more selling stuff to the AH.  I don't consider either of them cheating.  I hope they keep both the AH and mission tables in the game moving forward.  I would also like them to at least partially revert the original Draenor mission tables to providing some useful rewards - gold, profession mats, etc.  Both the AH and mission tables are nice additions to the game.  And I disagree that either of them are cheating.

I've passed the 6 million gold mark (after having already purchased probably 1 million plus gold worth of faction mounts, toys, etc.) and the majority of it has come from the gold missions.

I was making a comparison to a cheat code, given how it makes things extremely easy. Not that it is literally cheating.