wow Calia Is Not the Leader of the Forsaken, The First Ones, Final Boss of Shadowlands, Sylvanas Motivation and More: Interview Roundup

[Starym 3,800]

 

We have a whole bunch of interview to catch up on, from a group one after the dev update stream, to several streamer interviews, so let's get started on all the most interesting reveals. We have new info on the final boss of the Shadowlands, the Jailer, the First Ones (another new Pantheon similar to the Titans), Syvanas motivations throughout BfA and the rest of her life/unlife, Calia NOT being the leader of the Forsaken, herilooms losing their XP bonus, a new arena and a lot more.

We're only going to be focusing on the highlights, so definitely check out the full interviews if you have the time!

Group Interview with Ion Hazzikostas after the dev update stream:

The final boss of Shadowlands will indeed be the Jailer, and Ion Hazzikostas talked a little about how the expansion design is different in light of that. Shadowlands will be similar to WotLK and Cataclysm in this regard, with one central villain to focus on and build up throughout the patches, culminating in the final confrontation at the end. The Jailer is apparently "a major titan plus plus level antagonist that we are facing" and we'll be finding out more about him and how to beat him throughout the expansion.

Wowhead interview with Steve Danuser:

The First Ones mentioned in Oribos and Bastion are not the Titans, but another Pantheon like the Titans and the Pantheon of Death (aka the leaders of the Covenants). They are historical figures in the Shadowlands and we will find out more about them.

The Shadowlands are the afterlife for all life in the moral realm, not just for Azeroth. These other places also know of Elune, and this ties into the Night Warrior storyline (in Ardenweald), as there have been other Night Warriors from other worlds and this story will tie in with Tyrande's.

We will find out what Sylvanas' motivations truly are and the reasons behind the choices she's made so far. This will happen early into the expansion and is a direct reaction to the community finding her actions poorly motivated in regard to what we the players know. They don't mention redemption specifically, but claim that players might look at her actions differently once they find out her motivations.

Valeera and Calia's positions in the intro experience wasn't purposeful, Valeera's was just a spawning issue, and Calia is there NOT as the leader of the Forsaken, but for reasons related to the pre-patch event, and she's involved in the Shadowlands events more from a personal level than as a leader.

• New transitions from Exile's Reach to BfA and then into Shadowlands for new players, to make the story more coherent.
• There will be some hints and snippets relating to Odyn's storyline, but no solid plans to continue it yet.
   

Lapi interview with Ion Hazzikostas:

The way they plan to balance tanks and healers not needing to respec when doing Torghast is their specific Anima powers that will allow them to progress the same as the DPS specs.

The experience bonus has been removed from heirlooms and will be replaced by something equally beneficial.

• Parts of Torghast can be implemented in future expansions is players are interested enough.
• Covenants should feel almost like a subclass.
• There won't be many more affixes added, as the combinations of existing ones are important so players can plan against them.
   

MrGm interview with Morgan Day:

There will be many options for the weekly chest, from M+, PvP and more, and if none of the items in them are interesting to you, you'll be able to pick a currency instead.

• There are ton of mounts, so many in fact, that they don't know where to put them. Torghast and the Maw will have a solid amount.
• Possible Heigan successor in Castle Nathria raid, boss fight takes place on a dance floor.
• Artifact weapon looks from Legion could be usable by any spec, not just the one related to the item.
• They're still working on separate shoulder transmogs, but it definitely won't make it in to Shadowlands (at least at launch).

Tonton interview with Ion Hazzikostas:

There won't be a PvP power stat, which was datamined a while ago, it was just an experiment. They also won't be adding PvP only stats in general.

Choosing a Covenant should be similar to choosing between mage and hunter classes. Also the Counduits in Soulbinds should add to the customization within a Covenant, so you can change to an AoE or single target spec etc.

There will be a new Arena in bastion!

The pre-patch will be coming a few weeks before Shadowlands launch.

We have a lot of new info from many interviews after the dev update.

[Draketh 86]

9 minutes ago, Starym said:

• Artifact weapon looks from Legion could be usable by any spec, not just the one related to the item.

Yes, finally! Best thing about Shadowlands so far, without any doubts.

[BlakeArmentrout 29]

46 minutes ago, Starym said:

The experience bonus has been removed from heirlooms and will be replaced by something equally beneficial

Also without a doubt the worst thing about shadowlands so far, this was their whole purpose, what a waste of gold,

[Starym 3,800]

1 hour ago, BlakeArmentrout said:

Also without a doubt the worst thing about shadowlands so far, this was their whole purpose, what a waste of gold,

Maybe they add something cool instead that's as worth it. Maaaaybe.

[Hentryk 15]

I thought something like old set bonuses might be added to heirlooms to replace xp bonus..

 

[Ariecho 15]

I wish there was actually a way to make ANY XP bonus optional, not necessarily the one on heirlooms, but the one granted to us nowadays (Winds of Wisdom). 

One of my alts went from level 90 to level 100 in a little less than 4 hours, making the entire garrison experience totally useless.  

[BlakeArmentrout 29]

2 hours ago, Starym said:

Maybe they add something cool instead that's as worth it. Maaaaybe.

nothing they give in return will be worth the millions of gold and years of my life spent collecting and upgrading them all only for them to be turned into useless *filtered*, imagine how you would feel if they suddenly took away all your mounts and battle pets, or achievements you earned and gave you instead a nice shiny wooden nickle.

[Starym 3,800]

55 minutes ago, BlakeArmentrout said:

nothing they give in return will be worth the millions of gold and years of my life spent collecting and upgrading them all only for them to be turned into useless *filtered*, imagine how you would feel if they suddenly took away all your mounts and battle pets, or achievements you earned and gave you instead a nice shiny wooden nickle.

Millions? I mean I have most of the available heirlooms as well and I'm not too upset by this, are we talking about different things maybe? Especially considering how short the Shadowlands leveling time is I feel the XP bonus was extremely diminished in value already, so whatever they put on there might be worth more by default.

[Starym 3,800]

3 hours ago, Hentryk said:

I thought something like old set bonuses might be added to heirlooms to replace xp bonus..

 

Nah the old set bonuses will be on the new legendaries (not all of em but yea). I think they might go for extreme rep gains with old factions.

[Starym 3,800]

1 hour ago, Ariecho said:

I wish there was actually a way to make ANY XP bonus optional, not necessarily the one on heirlooms, but the one granted to us nowadays (Winds of Wisdom). 

One of my alts went from level 90 to level 100 in a little less than 4 hours, making the entire garrison experience totally useless.  

Well technically you do have that, although kinda in a weird way - you can lock your level to whatever you like when you see the XP is getting too fast and then resume it when yer done with the expansion/garrison/whatever content.

[Aernath 173]

Great wrap-up and summary, special thanks to Starym! ^^

[Calysia 229]

4 hours ago, BlakeArmentrout said:

Also without a doubt the worst thing about shadowlands so far, this was their whole purpose, what a waste of gold,

I'm pretty sure you got your money's worth and I agree with the removal. If it takes all of 6 or 7 hours to level from 1 to 50 there is no longer any need for an XP bonus.

[Ariecho 15]

1 hour ago, Starym said:

Well technically you do have that, although kinda in a weird way - you can lock your level to whatever you like when you see the XP is getting too fast and then resume it when yer done with the expansion/garrison/whatever content.

Yes, I know (and thank you), but I'd still like to have a "normal" progression.

[Starym 3,800]

1 hour ago, Aernath said:

Great wrap-up and summary, special thanks to Starym! ^^

Thanks. At some point I had to stop cos the interviews weren't gonna ever stop. Making a second batch now ?

[Kholdjin 10]

21 hours ago, Starym said:

Maybe they add something cool instead that's as worth it. Maaaaybe.

Maaaaybe soon (tm) we will find out...

[Ragingbull 1]

On 7/9/2020 at 11:12 AM, Starym said:

herilooms losing their XP bonus

isnt this the point of them though? ive spent 100s of thousands of gold just for the exp boost on these and poof gone wtf?

[BlakeArmentrout 29]

On 7/9/2020 at 7:15 PM, Starym said:

Millions? I mean I have most of the available heirlooms as well and I'm not too upset by this, are we talking about different things maybe? Especially considering how short the Shadowlands leveling time is I feel the XP bonus was extremely diminished in value already, so whatever they put on there might be worth more by default.

ok ok maybe not millions lol but I still feel like i put a ton of effort into somthing that I dont even get to keep just saying

[BlakeArmentrout 29]

On 7/9/2020 at 7:58 PM, Calysia said:

I'm pretty sure you got your money's worth and I agree with the removal. If it takes all of 6 or 7 hours to level from 1 to 50 there is no longer any need for an XP bonus.

I highly doubt it is going to take 7 hours to gain 50 levels lol and the point was never about "needing" the exp bonus it was about giving long time players the option to skip through the content they have played 50 times before and get to the end game stuff faster, even with the 100% increase we have now it still takes like 7-8 days if you play non stop, let me be frank here its not so much about the exp bonus being needed its the principle of the fact i we poured a lot into something that is being taken from us, why not make the exp bonus optional toggle? or make it only active once you reach lvl 50, because what people are failing to realize is the faster leveling is ONLY going to apply to the older content, once you hit lvl 50 it will slow down to a crawl for the last 10 levels for the new stuff, so the heirlooms will be more missed during that dirge. Maybe I am just salt because I spent a huge portion of my gold upgrading them all to 120 for future alts in Shadowlands mere weeks before they announced the level squish, and now removal, had I known i would not have bothered and waved goodbye to a most treasured tool. i supposed this means there removing the heirloom tab all together then because why have a tab to make infinitely generated crap gear that does nothing?

Edited July 12, 2020 by BlakeArmentrout

[Calysia 229]

On 7/12/2020 at 5:17 PM, BlakeArmentrout said:

I highly doubt it is going to take 7 hours to gain 50 levels lol ...

The removal of bonus XP on heirlooms has hit the beta and DesMephisto has promptly tested out what that means for the 1-50 (current 1-120) leveling speed. Previously he managed to get to the max pre-Shadowlands content level in 4 hours and 10 minutes (he actually improved on the time from the article linked later on), with all heirlooms, and now he's done it in 6 hours and 10 minutes without any...

Source: 

 

[BlakeArmentrout 29]

3 hours ago, Calysia said:

The removal of bonus XP on heirlooms has hit the beta and DesMephisto has promptly tested out what that means for the 1-50 (current 1-120) leveling speed. Previously he managed to get to the max pre-Shadowlands content level in 4 hours and 10 minutes (he actually improved on the time from the article linked later on), with all heirlooms, and now he's done it in 6 hours and 10 minutes without any...

Source: 

Hmm based on this info I guess I will just do my Leveling in Warlords area and pick up treasures for exp, assuming that is still going to be a thing, because you could lvl 100-110 in about an hour doing that so doing it with this new system would probably let you do 1-50 in about the same amount of time.To be honest if there making it this fast to level then why not just start you at 50 and let you jump straight into Shadowlands content lol i mean ever since they started world scaling the enemies leveling has seemed rather pointless anyway, why grind levels to get stronger when everything around you is always on par or higher then you at all times? takes away any feeling of progression imo

 

[Starym 3,800]

19 hours ago, BlakeArmentrout said:

 

I think the idea is t have players experience 1 expansion per 1-50. But yea these probably aren't the final numbers for xp values.

[BlakeArmentrout 29]

4 hours ago, Starym said:

I think the idea is t have players experience 1 expansion per 1-50. But yea these probably aren't the final numbers for xp values.

yeah I already knew that going 1-50 would only take 1 expansions worth of content to achieve, they all but said that in the presentation, what my gripe is about is that leveling up at all is pointless with world scaling keeping everything equal, instead of level squishing they should just remove the leveling process all together and pop you out at max level with all your skills from the gate and let people play the old content when and how they want, yeah yeah I know this sounds stupid and I don't really mean it I guess, just want a way for veterans of the game that have seen the game and experienced all the content normally at least once to go through quicker with out full on skipping it all together making it seem worthless, I feel new players should have to level at least 1 toon to lvl cap normally through all expansions just so they can enjoy the game in its glory before skipping 90% of it in an afternoon and going straight into Shadowlands with no context as to what it is and how we got here. Am i wrong for wanting people to love love the game as I have with out all the boring grinding I hated?