wow Patch 8.2 Content Preview: Forbes

[Stan 5,240]

Forbes also published an article on Patch 8.2 right after the official content update presentation and here are the highlights. We learn about boss difficulty within Crucible of Storms, flying implications for War Mode, and more!

Check out the full article here. Don't forget to check out the content preview from Taliesin and Evitel as well or the official content preview for more information about Rise of Azshara.

Forbes Content Preview Highlights

Advanced AI

• There's a fixed set of rules and expectations that you have about mob behavior, and they want to disappoint players, so they're very careful abouty implementing Advanced AI outside of Islands and the Arathi Brawl.
• They don't want mobs to suddenly strafe, jump, and come after you.
• A Warsong Brawl with Advanced AI may be added in the future.

Azerite Armor

• New Nazjatar/Mechagon-themed Azerite powers are coming in Rise of Azshara. The cool thing is you will be able to choose traits immediately.

Crucible of Storms Raid

• Crucible of Storms begins to set the stage for what's going on beneath the waves,
• With just two bosses, the first one is equal to Rastakhan or Mekkatorque and the the last one to Jaina in terms of difficulty.

Faction Balance

• They're actively discussing faction imbalance in raids and PvP, but they don't have any solution to announce right now.
• It's hard to come up with a solution really. Softer incentives or ways to make the less numerous side feel encouraged without punishing the other side is something they don't want.
• At the end of the day, World of Warcraft is about Alliance versus Horde and it's ultimately up to the player to decided which side they want to be on.

Flying

• Pathfinder, Part Two in Rise of Azshara is similar in structure to Legion's Broken Isles Pathfinder, Part Two. There's going to be a reputation requirement, achievements, and outdoor content in the new zones. Ion says it's going to take approximately a few weeks to unlock flying when the patch goes live.
• The biggest concerns are implications for War Mode. Even though there are toys that will let you dismount or restrict flying. They are probably going to come up with certain restrictions related to War Mode combat and flying. They don't want you to trivially escape or hunt people who have no way of fighting back.

Mythic+

• They want to improve the feeling of pulling from the giant pool of items in the Mythic+ weekly chest, so that you don't receive the same item each week, but the whole Mythic+ system needs to be balanced against raiding, and there will be moments, where you expect a Helm to drop, but won't see it for six weeks in a raid. With Titan Residuum, you are guaranteed to receive three Azerite pieces of your choice, so effectively, you have control over the Azerite gear you get and there needs to be some RNG element to make up for that.

War Mode

• When you have War Mode on and come across a player of the opposing faction, you also know they have it on voluntarily, which wasn't the case for PvP servers back then.  On those servers, it was a routine to see someone of the other faction alongside you, let them do their thing and they let you do yours without fighting.
• Participation overall has remained healthy. The total number of people in War Mode is higher than it used to be, so they're happy with the system.

[PatrickHenry 293]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

On those servers, it was a routine to see someone of the other faction alongside you, let them do their thing and they let you do yours without fighting.

I personally think War Mode is far and away better than PVP Server model.  In large part because of this one thing right here.  You have it on for a reason.  

...just so happens if your reason is just 'getting extra rewards' you might have a bad time.  :)

[jinsu2301 273]

3 hours ago, Stan said:

and they want to disappoint players,

I know that's a typo...

 

but it still hurts.

[Xaethron 36]

3 hours ago, Stan said:

With Titan Residuum, you are guaranteed to receive three Azerite pieces of your choice, so effectively, you have control over the Azerite gear you get and there needs to be some RNG element to make up for that.

Of my choice? How? Doing only a weekly +10 it takes about 10 weeks to get a 415 i specifically want. Doing a +18 it takes about 7. There just isnt any incentive to save up for that long. 

[jinsu2301 273]

On 4/12/2019 at 8:32 PM, Xaethron said:

Of my choice? How?

I think that is meant in terms of which slot and itemlevel you want to get. 

"That already is more direct control over acquisition than a player who just does raiding has. You might kill a boss that drops your Azerite helm that you want in Battle of Dazar'alor for six weeks straight and never see that Helm. Whereas in the Mythic Plus system you can guarantee that you will get a 415 Helm, or a 400 Helm, whatever the appropriate tier is.

So we want to make improvements, we want to lessen the feeling of negative stinging RNG. But at the same time we're also trying to balance these play styles against each other, and that makes it trickier than just, okay, make the system more generous objectively."

There have been items I wanted to get out of raids that took me 15+ kills. That's week after week of crossing my fingers and hoping. I'd say 10 weeks of waiting for a guaranteed best in slot item isn't anything to whine about, especially if the acquisition method is significantly easier.