Ghosts of K'aresh - Developer Interviews

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Ghosts of K'aresh - Developer Interviews
Some outlets had the opportunity to ask the developers some additional questions. We've recapped some of the highlights below.

MMORPG
MMORPG had the opportunity to interview Stephanie Yoon, Assistant Lead Quest Designer, and George Velev, Senior Game Producer.

• Manaforge Omega was set up to bring Dimensius back to life
• Players will sneak into the raid and see Dimensius growing below them creating a sense of urgency.
• Some of the rewards for the Manaforge Vandals' renown are debuffs to weaken trash in Manaforge Omega and various movement speed buffs.
• The team generally does simpler set bonuses for the first season or two of an expansion to give players time to learn new systems, abilities, and talents. Season 3 is far enough in that they feel comfortable doing more complex set bonuses.
• Warrants require players to gather materials to craft keys that will unlock a boss fight for a small group. If players don't want to do the gathering they can buy keys from other players on the auction house or just join a group for the fight.

MMORPG also talked to Assistant Lead Quest Designer Stephanie Yoon and Senior Game Producer George Velev in another interview.

• The team wanted the story around Xal'atath to feel right, so they created a giant board to look at how events are going to play out so that players feel that they have no choice but to accept this alliance of convenience with Xal'atath. There was a weekly writer's room to make sure that they were true to all of the character's motivations in this story.
• The Dimensius fight got a lot of attention to make it great. The team didn't want you fighting someone's toenails for 3 minutes or having a fight that goes on too long. They focused on different aspects of the gameplay in a fresh way.
• Players will earn Renown from each boss once per week, regardless of difficulty.
• The team was happy with how Dinar worked last season and took into account a lot of feedback.
• There are lots of asynchronous features coming to delves.
  • Slayers - Creatures that have killed another player within the same delve. You'll see them, with a "Slayer of (Person)" title. You'll get a buff if you manage to slay them.
  • Gravestones - Mark where other players have died
• The feedback for the latest Mythic Plus season has been overall very positive.
• When the team brings back older dungeons for Mythic Plus, they want to spend the time to make sure it is up to the parity with the current dungeons. Expect more updates to keep the dungeon pool fresh.
• The goal of class balance is to ensure that everyone is having fun. Making it so that people can do LFG, Mythic+, and PvP no matter what class or spec they are playing is important.
• The team is trying to make sure that solo players aren't falling over constantly in Delves, especially if they are DPS.
• There has been a lot of feedback about ways to improve Hero Talents and the team is looking to make some of those changes in Season 3.
• Adding or removing buttons might not make everyone happy, but the team tries to do it between seasons so that people have time to react to the change.

But Why Tho?
But Why Tho? had the chance to talk to Assistant Lead Quest Designer Stephanie Yoon and Senior Game Producer George Velev.

• Raid trash gives players a break between bosses, letting them hang out in Discord to talk to their friends instead of constantly being focused on a boss.
• Players can skip The Soul Hunters once they no longer desire the rewards from it, but it is required for Hall of Fame status.
• Nothing to announce about a third void spec for Demon Hunters. Just exploring some narrative beats around Demon Hunters in the raid.
• There will be a new setting to control allied player visuals in a riad, reducing them if desired for performance.
• Umbral Essentia was added after the team saw a lot of top-performing groups rely on Shadowmeld for certain strategies. It gives other players the opportunity to try the strategy without needing a race-change.
• Phase lost weapons are discovered in phase diving and allow you to uncover transmogs. Once you collect all of them, you get a grand reward.

The Bench Podcast
The Bench Podcast had the chance to talk to Assistant Lead Quest Designer Stephanie Yoon and Senior Game Producer George Velev.

• The Turbo Boost events turned out well.
• Dragonflight Talents and Hero Talents added more hybrid utility, defensive, and self-healing tools for damage dealers. The team knows that it comes at a cost, especially when it comes to encounter design and how healers feel. No plans to reduce defensive skills right now, more likely to happen with an expansion.
• There isn't an easy fix to get more players to play tanks or healers. They have tried to incentivize it with rewards and can probably do a little bit better there.
• Tanks in the upcoming PvP season will be more impactful when holding a flag instead of relying on damage dealers.
• Some players will do the new dungeon before the raid, but the raid epilogue and story tie-ins won't be visible unless you are on the epilogue. No spoilers if you do things in a different order.
• There has been a lot of internal discussion about story mode, with the question asking if they would consider opening it sooner so players can see the story themselves before seeing spoilers.
• The team likes when players can take on bosses without relying on external tools like addons.
• There are internal discussions about how addons should work in WoW and how they can impact combat. No timeline on addon changes, but no major changes are likely in Patch 11.2.
• Patch 11.2 raid tuning is focused on making sure that each boss feels like an approachable challenge after completing the previous encounter. Players shouldn't feel like they have no shot at the next boss after defeating one. It should be smoother curve than previous raids.
• The team has been discussing ways to connect like-minded players across all types of content.
• There are no planned changes to Resilient Keystones.
• The one button rotation feature has had overwhelming positive feedback across all sorts of audiences. The team is happy with the current penalty in place.
• The team really wanted to use Lorewalking to hint at where players would be going in Ghosts of K'aresh and provide some background lore.
• Season 3 set bonuses are a little more impactful and complicated because Season 2 set bonuses felt a little too passive.
• Over the course of an expansion, people learn their systems and the team can add more with set bonuses.
• Set Bonuses also add another tuning knob for mid-patch tuning.
• The team has heard feedback that between tier sets and other slots it feels like you don't have many real item choices. They avoided adding new cloaks in Season 3, but did add new cloak cosmetics for players to purchase.
• The team wants to see broad spec representation across all content and roles, while still being able to explore unique reasons to bring a class or spec to a raid.
• The team wants to see if they can carve out a space for Death Knights with Death Grip and maybe Anti-Magic Zone. They don't want to give everyone a 60 minute buff.
• Encounter design tries to carve out opportunities for all classes and specs to shine.
• When Anti-Magic Zone was changed, it was a flat value, so they'll take a look at it in Mythic+

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