That's it for this Developer Chat. If any questions
were answered twice, keep in mind we had two developers independently
working to jump on as many questions as possible.
We'd like to
thank both of our developers for coming, and thank you all for joining
us!
General
Q. Are
there any plans for more weekly quests (not raid but general) for the
weekend only players?
A. I like weekly quests, because
they get you to come back to WoW without making you feel like you have
to log in every single night. Sometimes Ghostcrawler likes to go to the
bar instead.
Q. What happened to the advertised Dance Studio
for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion?
A. It's still on
the list! We always start an expansion with more than we can
realistically do and then shuffle things up and down. WoW is one of
those games you just never finish, which is overall a fun thing about
working on it.
Q. What is the one thing you're the most proud
of in regards to how the Wrath of the Lich King expansion went?
A.Questing in Northrend took on a whole new meaning. I can’t wait for
people to see what we have in store for Cataclysm!
A#2. It
had a really strong theme with the frozen north and you knew from the
beginning that a final showdown with you-know-who was coming at the end.
One of the challenges of Cataclysm is not having that really focused
theme (cold undead) but Cataclysm still has a great story mind you.
Q.
Is there any chance that tabards will eventually get their own tab on
the character screen (a la pets/mounts)?
A. Tabard storage
is something we have been looking into for the last couple weeks.
Hopefully we will be able to get this done for Cataclysm. No promises
though.
Q. Will you give us more bag/bank slots
and make us able to carry more bags at a time if i say please?
A.We will have larger bags in Cataclysm for sure. The real question
is will you buy them from Haris Pilton?
Q. Are there any
plans to implement cross-faction/cross-realm mail(for BoA gear and
such)?
A. We have cross-faction mail for BoA items now;
cross-realm is a work in progress, but we hope to have it done “soon."
Q.
Are we ever going to be able to get Frostmourne?
A. Not
in game, but you can order a real one!
Classes
Q.
Does Blizzard have any plans to give healers "fun" procs and on-use
effects, like DPS have been getting lately?
A. Yes. Healer
procs are trickier to design though to make sure they aren't wasted.
Damage is rarely wasted so it's a bit easier to design.
Death Knight
Q. Two-handed (2H) frost death knights was a
really fun playstyle that died when dual-wielding (DW) was introduced.
Are there any plans to make using two-handed weapons more appealing?
A.We can't make every death knight tree PvP, PvE and tanking viable
and also offer both 2H and DW options for all three of those. We are
currently designing Frost as a DW-only tree.
Druid
Q. Is there any ETA on tree / moonkin form graphical update?
A.Moonkin is hard because Moonkin players are so in love with that
form. It's tough to change it at all. We currently hope to do a new tree
form for Cataclysm, but no promises.
Q. Has there been any
thought of changing Eclipse to charges so that Moonkin dps doesn't
suffer so much from moving?
A. Yes. Expect a major
overhaul in Cataclysm that keeps the same basic idea (alternating from
Arcane to Nature) but in a way that is more core to the class. Like
everything though, there is the risk that we may decide this idea sucks
once we see it in action.
Hunter
Q. The Hunter class has many odd and situational abilities such
as Mongoose Bite and Aspect of the Beast - are there any plans for
changes to these types of abilities?
A. Mongoose Bite is
most likely a goner. Let us weep. We think Aspect of the Beast could
have some cool uses for Beastmaster hunters.
Q. Are hunters
likely to see more stable slots for their pets in the future? With the
current variety of pets, the amount they have right now seems too small.
A.Arm-waving here, but a model I would love to see is dramatically
expanded slots (so you can store all those Spirit Beasts) but have a
smaller number of "active" pets, like 3. You could summon an active pet
from anywhere in the world, when outside of combat. You would swap a pet
from active to the stable at the Stable Masters.
Paladin
Q.
Is there any info you can share on future plans for holy paladins?
A.I hear they need more healing spells.
Priest
Q.
Will there be any upcoming changes to shadow priest anytime soon?
A.We're pretty happy with them currently in Icecrown and PvP. Long
term they have some things we want to address, such as having long
ramp-up time even on easy mobs when leveling or handling large groups.
They also get really punished from school lockout.
Warlock
Q.
Are there any updates on the changes for Warlock soul shard mechanics?
A.We've implemented much of what we've discussed at Blizzcon: shards
are a UI element instead of an item. You use them frequently, but for
great effect. They are all for damage. Summoning and pets just cost
mana. I think you'll finally like shards.
Raids & Dungeons
Q. Is the
Valithria Dreamwalker encounter a deliberate move towards making WoW
more “fun & interesting” for healers? Will we see more encounters
like this?
A. We want to make healing more fun, yes. Part
of that is letting healers use their whole repetoire instead of just
their best spells. Part of it is trying to get healers to look at the
battlefield a little more and unit frames a little less, that of course
means a little more time in between spamming heals so you can do stuff
like that.
Q. What have you learned from this expansion’s
emblem system?
A. Having that many different kind of
emblems is overwhelming. In hindsight, we wish we had done maybe 2
emblems: the current tier and the previous tier (Frost and Triumph at
the moment). They also felt a tad too grindy when 3.3 first came out
before all of the sources of emblems were available.
Q. With
Illidan you removed attunement to give players more accessibility to the
instance, so why have you limited pre-Ulduar geared players from using
the Dungeon Finder to enter the new 5-player dungeons that were released
in patch 3.3?
A. We feel like players using Dungeon
Finder need some reasonable guarantee that the other players they get
grouped with are going to be able to pull their weight. We don't yet
have a robust system for tracking that other than gear. Gear obviously
has its problems though, so we'll be looking at smarter ways to do it in
the future.
A#2. Gear requirements are a way for us to
help players have an experience that is more in line with their skill
level. We would much rather you not be able to get into the instance
than to have you get in there with a group and find out that you can’t
even tank the first boss. Gear requirements are not locked in stone
either -- we are updating these as we see fit.
Q. You talk a
lot about changing how we heal tanks, but will aggro ever come back as a
challenging part of the game?
A. Not sure. This is
something we discuss a lot. I even had a meeting on it this week! On the
one hand, some tanks really felt like the way to distinguish themselves
was to generate maximum threat per second. On the other hand, threat is
a pretty invisibile part of the game (it's limited to the UI at best),
and I know when I tank that I always feel pretty emasculated when
someone actually pulls off of me. It's challenging, but is it really
fun? This is the kind of thing we'd love to get more feedback on.
Please
include your feedback on large banners to be shown in the background
during the Olympics. Failing that, the forums would work too.
Q.
How do you feel about the limited attempts mechanic that has been use
in Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel?
A. We're
not crazy about how they worked out. They were designed in essence to
save players from themselves. In the past, some people would make 400+
attempts on new bosses. That's not healthy and at some point you're not
measuring skill but tenacity. Yet, that's not what happened. Guilds just
made alts to get around the limitations, and things like disconnects
and accidents make losing an attempt really frustrating. We like gating
because if nothing else it lets the community focus on more than just
the final boss in the zone. If we do limited attempts again it would
probably be limited to optional bosses like Algalon.
Q. Are
there any plans to allow cross-realm raiding?
A. If we can
solve the problems with it, we might give it a try. One of the problems
is getting the group back together, especially on the longer instances.
Loot drama and stuff like that is always a problem. There is also the
ongoing concern about the concept of your realm having less of a sense
of community.
Q. Do you consider Algalon a successful raid
encounter, and will we see more hardmode-only bosses in the future?
A.We were actually really happy with the way that Algalon played out.
We designed him with a very specific sort of raider in mind and those
that got a chance to fight him really enjoyed the fight. Encounters like
Algalon will not be in every raid zone, but we would like to do
something like this again for sure.
Q. Will we be seeing more
Caverns of Time in Cataclysm? War of the Ancients, maybe?
A. We
will definitely see another trip to the Caverns of Time during
Cataclsym. You are going to have to ask Chromie for more details though.
=)
Q. What happened to the zone-wide buff in Icecrown
Citadel? Did you trash that idea or is it coming in the near future
before Cataclysm?
A. This is still in the works, we just
are not ready for it quite yet. The buff will scale up over time as
well. This is also answered in more detail in BlizzCast episode 13:
http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/blizzcast/archive/episode13.html?rhtml=y
Q.
What did Yogg-Saron have to do with the Lich King? It seemed like a
strange tangent to make in the middle of the expansion?
A. Did
you do the quests in Icecrown? Quick answer: the existence of an Old
God in Icecrown had a lot to do with the ability for mortals to become
corrupted.
Q. Will the dungeon finder get upgraded to
possibly track or detect players who abuse the kick system and/or
ninjaing?
A. We are toying around with this idea. It's
hard to let you use it when needed without letting others abuse it.
Q.
Why have we not seen World Bosses in this expansion?
A. They
just have problems. It's always a race to get to them, which tends to
favor larger groups who are online often, and it's hard to discourage or
even prevent players outside the raid from helping or screwing things
up.
A#2. World bosses are something that we have been
talking about more as of late. We really like the concept, but there are
certain design problems we would like to address before we bring them
back. Stay tuned.
Q. With the advent of Heroic Shadowfang
Keep and Heroic Deadmines, is there any likelihood of other older
instances made Heroic?
A. Yes. We are hoping to do more
than just these two, but it just comes down to time. We are focusing on
getting the new Cataclysm dungeons done first and then we can look into
doing more old-world Heroics.
Q. If you could go back and redo
or remove some feature that were added with WoTLK, what would it be and
why?
A. I think the emblem system could be less clunky.
Limited
Attempts didn't really work out.
We always had some tension about
what 10 player heroic should really be.
I'm only talking new features
here. There were plenty of other things I'd change about this expansion
in hindsight. We're pretty critical of our own design.
Cataclysm
Q. Will existing races have
their starting areas reworked to provide a more "epic" experience
similar to the Goblin/Worgen starts?
A. Not quite at the
Goblin / Worgen level, but we are looking at all the original start
zones, especially for two races who feel a little disenfranchised at the
moment.
A#2. We have big plans in store for both the
trolls and the gnomes in regards to their starting experience but you
probably already know that.
We are also planning to spice up the starting zones
for all of the other races as well. You can expect gameplay changes to
the actual zones, as well as improved quest flows and all new items to
match.
Q. The 3.3.3 PTR included some unreleased 'event'
details (no spoilers). Should we expect to see that event in the
lifetime of 3.3.3?
A. Something leaked in the patch? That
never happens! The plan is for these events to go live sometime before
Cataclysm ships. We don’t have an exact time yet, but we would like
players to have a good month or two to play through these events to help
build the back story for what is going to happen in Cataclysm.
Q.
Regarding Cataclysm, can you reveal any of the 'major changes' in
Blasted Lands and how this will affect the lore?
A. I love
the fact that one of our first questions is in regards to the Blasted
Lands! We have big plans in store for this zone in Cataclysm. We will be
revamping the entire flow of the zone so you can expect an entirely new
experience here. Some of the big changes include an opening to the
coastline for a new play area, as well as a large new worgen area in The
Tainted Scar.
Q. In Cataclysm, do you plan on releasing two
raid instances at a time (like Serpentshrine Cavern/Tempest Keep), or
are we only getting one at a time (i.e. Naxxramas followed by Ulduar)?
A.We like the idea of having more smaller raids rather than one large
one. In other words, we will have more than one at Cataclysm launch.
Q.
When will we get new info and updates on Cataclysm?
A. We
have an article on the stat changes that should be going up really
soon. You'll see more over time as we get closer to launching this next
expansion.
Q. With the new gear stats system in cataclysm,
will you go back and redo all the old gear, or will it only affect new
gear?
A. Yes, we redid all the old gear.
Q.
Should players be concerned about what gear they pickup in this
expansion, because of the gear overhaul that is coming?
A. I
wouldn't stress over it. You'll probably replace that gear pretty
quickly. Since we have 5 levels, we don't really want players getting
all the way to 85 without having upgraded at all.
Q. Will any
of the new race/class combos be available before Cataclysm is released?
A.No.
Q. With the Lich King defeated, in Cataclysm, will
the Plaguelands be green and beautiful again?
A. Western
Plaguelands will finally be free of the plague in Cataclysm. It’s hard
for the Scourge to survive without their beloved Lich King. I guess this
means we need to rename the zone?
Q. Why did the Night Elves
bring the Worgen into the Alliance, and were described as "old allies"?
A.The men and women of Gilneas were the "old allies."
Q.
I'd like to see a new Isle of Quel'Danas-like daily quest hub in
Cataclsym. One place, no travelling quick gold daily (: please?
A.We are planning to do exactly this for Tol Barad. When the battle
is not taking place, players will be able to use the island as a daily
quest hub. This will of course be very fun on PVP servers. =)
Q.
Will we get some info about the other zones revamped in Cataclysm, like
Stranglethorn Vale or Tanaris?
A. Yes, we are hoping to
do a few specific web features on a few of the old world zones and
exactly what is changing with them. Stranglethorn Vale is seeing a large
amount of changes so it is a great candidate for this.
A#2. A.
Some Tanaris goblins wisely invested in desert real estate and reaped
the benefits when it became beach-front property.
Q. Why we
have never seen a female worgen model? I Want to see a beautiful one
from you. ^^
A. The female model looks great! Hopefully we
will get some screenshots of her up soon.
Q. Due to
Silverpine's (and thus the worgen's) proximity to Undercity, will we be
seeing the Forsaken move?
A. The Undercity will still be
home to the Forsaken. In fact, since Azeroth is now flyable, we went
back and rebuilt the entire surface area of Lordaeron. We should get
some screenshots of this up. It looks amazing!
Q. They
improved how water looks... seems only logical they'll let us near the
shores more often because of that =)
A. We are opening up
as many places as we can to the water in Cataclysm. A few examples would
be Blasted Lands, Stonetalon and Shimmering Flats. Heck, Shimmering
Flats is a lake now!
Q. Will there be any type of water mount,
like, submarines?
A. We actually have two brand new subs
that we made for Cataclysm. These submarines will be used as transports.
We have one for gnomes and one for goblins. The subs are huge too! Both
are about the size of the Gunships from Icecrown. :)
Player vs. Player
Q.
There's no cap on Emblems, but there is on honor. Any plans to remove
or raise the honor cap?
A. To be honest, we're more
likely to cap emblems. We like the gameplay where you're motivated to
periodically check in with WoW. We don't like feeling like you have to
log in every single day without fail (cough Frost emblems) and we don't
like the grind your face off in order to maximize return (old BG Honor).
Q. Could you add a resilience enchant for professions like
enchanting, inscription, etc.? Right now only Jewelcrafting and
Blacksmithing can get this PvP benefit.
A. Yeah, we'd like
to do more of this. Enchanting makes sense.
Q. What have you
learned from the inclusion of Wintergrasp in Wrath of the Lich King?
A.We learned a lot from Wintergrasp. I think our biggest takeaway is
that we do not want to create such a technical strain on the servers
like that ever again. We are pretty happy with the way that the gameplay
worked out overall and are looking to grow and improve upon it with Tol
Barad in Cataclysm. Tol Barad is going to have similarities to
Wintergrasp, but the gameplay will be very different. We are still
working out the details, but one thing I can say is that we want to
reduce the overall amount of vehicle combat and get players back into
the action using their own actions bars in pvp combat.
Q.
Getting to exalted status with the factions in the Warsong Gulch and
Arathi Basin battlegrounds can be really long and difficult to obtain,
are there any plans to change this?
A. For these factions
specifically, we think it's a badge of honor for players who complete
them. It's not like there's a huge benefit for them.
Miscellaneous
Q. Where is my moose?
Did you see that Ghostcrawler?
A. That was so epic. I was
sure the screenshot was shopped until we saw the actual video. I guess
we're going to have to do a moose now...
Q. Will Ghostcrawler
duel me for a large cash prize?
A. You are not ready.