BlizzConline 2021 - World of Warcraft Interview Recaps
Several places were able to interview WoW devs this week on the information revealed during BlizzConline. Here are links to each of them with highlights and new information!
Blizzard Watch Interview - No Gold Cap for Classic Characters Moving to BC
Blizzard Watch interviews Lead Software Engineer Brian Birmingham and Executive Producer John Hight for more information on characters progressing into Burning Crusade Classic.
- Progression servers will take all of your gold, your guild, your auction houses, mail, and go directly to the Burning Crusade if that is what you choose to do.
- The team did not want to take away time and effort from people who have worked and planned ahead.
Eurogamer Interview - What to Expect in Chains of Domination
Eurogamer interviewed game director Ion Hazzikostas and art director Ely Cannon about what to expect in Shadowlands first content patch later this year.
- Taking the fight to the jailer will allow us to explore a range of epic environments that are unlike anything we've seen or done before in World of Warcraft.
- We will learn much more about the nature of death, the nature of the jailer and the foe that awaits us.
- Korthia, the City of Secrets, will be more relaxed than the rest of the Maw has been since launch. It will blend some of the Maw elements with traditional outdoor gameplay.
- The four covenant campaigns will continue in this patch.
- Ion describes Tazavesh, the new Broker city mega dungeon, as "the Harry Potter, Gringotts heist inspired dungeon."
- Flying will be unlocked solely by completing the campaign's main story.
- System changes in WoW are much more reactive than other content. They are a conversation between the team and the community.
- Evolution of class and covenant balance, loot systems, and Torghast will play out on the PTR with direct feedback from players.
- The team wants to address the sense of achievement in Torghast so that success of failure still leads to being satisfied and rewarded for your efforts.
- Ion said Battle for Azeroth's systems became "system soup". They were not launched in an extensible way and needed retrofitting with each patch.
Polygon Interview - The Maw in Chains of Domination
Polygon interviewed Jeremy Feasel and Frank Kowalkowski about the new features of the Maw in patch 9.1
- The Maw becomes a war zone in this patch, and so it will be a little less punishing to players.
- Korthia is dragged into the Maw, but it will not be a separate zone. it will exist seamlessly with the current Maw areas.
- There will be a pre-Korthia instance of the Maw for new characters.
- The covenants will establish safe-zone bases in the Maw.
- The presence of the covenants and having a home base there is going to ease up the effects of the Eye of the Jailer. This will allow you to spend a lot more time in the Maw.
- There will be a side-quest to teach players why the Eye of the Jailer debuff exists, and will allow them to cleanse themselves of the debuff over time.
- Players will also be able to summon their ground mounts in the Maw now.
- Flying will never be coming to the Maw.
- The goal was to have players feel liberated in the Maw now that the war is pushing into it, and this wouldn't have been possible without things feeling a little bit hard to deal with before this next patch.
PCGamer Interview - No Release Date for Chains of Domination Yet
PCGamer interviewed Steve Danuser on Chains of Domination.
- There is no date for Patch 9.1 yet.
- The Jailer is frantically looking for something within Korthia.
- They intend for Chains of Domination to really be a substantial furtherance of the Shadowlands' storyline. We will see the Jailer's plans evolve, and learn more about Sylvanas. This is an important chapter to further the story.
- The story of Chains of Domination is pretty heavy and dark.
- Tazavesh, the mega dungeon, will have not only not fighting a pirate dragon during an interdimensional heist at one point, but also have us try to fix a dysfunctional mailroom so that Shadowlands' citizens can get their parcels on time.
- There are encounters in Tazavesh that are different from what wee might have seen before.
- The first 5 bosses are in the city itself while the last 3 take place during an interdimensional chase scene across familiar locales of Azeroth.
SoulSoBreezy Interview - Story Campaign and Potential Empowered Conduits
SoulSoBreezy interviewed Johnny Cash and Kevin Martens about Chains of Domination.
- The campaign in Patch 9.1 will be largely the same experience regardless of which Covenant you chose because it revolves around the covenants coming together to assault the Maw.
- There will be special bits of content spread throughout the campaign based on covenant choice such as extra moments and custom dialogue where it makes sense.
- Accessing Korthia will be a quick process after getting baseline establishments such as your covenant ability and reaching max level.
- The team refers to some of the Maw content as "reverse assaults" as we are the ones assaulting an area now instead of defending.
- Unique gameplay elements, such as the Necrolords bringing an entire necropolis into the Maw, will be some of the cool additions with this patch.
- Flying is unlocked once the covenant campaign is finished, but this will probably not be on day 1. It will be account-wide once unlocked.
- They will likely expand the amount of legendaries and add new levels of conduits.
- They are playing around with empowered conduits right now, allowing players to take individual conduit slots to uncover more power or new abilities.
- Tazavesh is a Broker holding area, not necessarily where they are from.
- There will be an intro quest for context to unlock Tazavesh, but no attunement process.
- They will likely add more renown levels in the future.
- There is nothing to announce right now about more customization or new heritage armor, but they will definitely add it when the time is right.
MrGM Interview - BC Classic Experience and Leatherworking Drums
MrGM interviewed John Hight and Brian Birmingham on Burning Crusade.
- Burning Crusade Classic will utilize Patch 2.4.3 data.
- This patch included the adjusted experience curve to help players level to Burning Crusade faster, and so BC Classic will likely include this adjustment.
- This patch also included the change to allow your first mount at level 30 instead of 40, and so this will also likely be included.
- Players who have a collector's edition for Burning Crusade linked to their account will receive the collector's edition Netherwhelp pet in BC Classic much like the collector's edition pets for vanilla WoW were given to WoW Classic players who had a collector's edition linked to their account.
- The team is aware of the problem Leatherworking drums might play into BC Classic, and will likely be making minor adjustments so that they don't feel compulsory. The drums will still be a powerful advantage for leatherworkers, however.
The Starting Zone Interview - Stygia not Used in 9.1 Content, Dreadlords Return
The Starting Zone interviewed Jeremy Feasel and Frank Kowalkowski about Patch 9.1
- The story of 9.1 will start off in the aftermath of the events in the trailer.
- From Bastion, the Jailer will next turn to Ardenweald and we will have to protect it.
- Ve'nari
- There will be brand new Ve'nari content as well.
- Stygia will not be used past season 1. Feel free to use it now and not save it up.
- There will be a new currency that Ve'nari will utilize in Patch 9.1 with new things to purchase.
- Korthia
- A new event will involve a bunch of players fighting back the Jailer's forces.
- The central hub the covenants establish in the Maw is located in Korthia.
- The Mechagon visitor system (where new and random allies would show up with dailies) is being utilized in Korthia.
- You'll unlock new repeatable activities as you progress in the campaign.
- There is a new reputation to earn rewards with in the Korthia hub.
- There will also be new callings in Korthia.
- Korthia will dive into the keepers from Oribos and what secrets they have been protecting for eternity.
- The dreadlords will be returning in this patch and we will learn more about them.
- You will do quests for all covenants in the story. You will be caught up on the story of other covenants.
Launcher Interview - Vicarious Visions Team Working on Diablo II Resurrected
Launcher did a quick interview with J. Allen Brack and Allen Adham about the announcements.
- Vicaious Visions is officially confirmed as the team working on Diablo II Resurrected. They were the game developer that recently merged into Blizzard after remastering Tony Hawk games.
- Diablo II Resurrected will release before Diablo IV.
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