Ion Hazzikostas Interview
Today's interview is with Ion Hazzikostas (Lead Encounter Designer) by Method. A summary of the main points is below, but reading the full interview is worth it if you want to see the full answers!
- Item upgrades will have an effect similar to the Dragon Soul nerfs, making raids easier over time.
- The raid Feat of Strength achievements will be removed in Patch 5.2. It isn't clear yet if there will be progressive nerfs or not this time, as players are not stuck yet.
- Upgrading your items is meant to be a progression, but the new raid gear in Patch 5.2 will be better than your upgraded items, so upgrading everything isn't mandatory.
- In Asia, all 25 player bosses have 8% more health and do 8% more damage. They also drop gear that is 8 item levels higher.
- Balancing all of the progression systems for alts is something that is being looked at.
- Daily quests are being used to tell the story and get players involved with the conflict between factions.
- For now, daily quests will remain the only source of Lesser Charms.
- Ion is working on a post about some of Blizzard's philosophies in regards to tuning and raid hotfixes.
- Patch 5.2 information is coming Soon™.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
PvP on PvP Servers
I could try to reword a previous post by Daxx, but I'll just link it here: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...2467?page=5#85
The only thing I'd add to that is something I said over and over during BC when the big complaint was about Halaa: world PvP is not fair. We're not limiting who can do it, or in what amounts, and inherently some people will want to gank lower level players. Of course we later added areas like Wintergrasp and Tol Barad which attempted to balance the sides, but outside of those, world PvP is inherently unfair. Whether factions are imbalanced, or it's just a coward looking to trounce lowbies and run at the sight of an even-leveled player, world PvP is not fair. We've got battlegrounds and arenas if you want matched fights, and you can level almost exclusively in battlegrounds all the way to 90 if you want to, or dungeons for that matter.
The big issue here as I see it is that, and again Daxxarri's post above says it well, PvP realms weren't really proper PvP realms for many years, and now that they are again it's catching people off-guard. That doesn't change that they're working again as PvP realms. In most cases there's a solution to being ganked, whether it's calling on guildies or people from your faction, or escaping and hitting a different zone, BG, or dungeon for a while. We do have policies for very extreme cases when it crosses into ongoing harassment, but even being camped for hours is something everyone should be prepared for.
As it's been a fact of how PvP servers have worked since launch, it's not too surprising that others will respond with recommendations against being on that type of server if you don't want to accept everything that comes with it.
I like me some BGs, but leveling on PvP servers is just too frustrating. I've tried it, I hate it, and that's ok. It's not going to be for everyone. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Transmogrification Rules Feedback
They should never do this. many grey items are 'fun' items and are in no way suitable for transmog. We would see way too many people outfitted with fishes as weapons, pots and pans, wearing nothing but a thong, or whatever funky 'fun' item that is out there.There is plenty transmog gear out there, choose from that.
This. It's true that transmog already opened some doors to some very silly outfits by allowing green items to be used, so one could argue that we could simply extend this to white and grey items and let the silliness go wild in Azeroth and Outland. But I don’t think that’s what devs had in mind when they added transmogrification though.
It was supposed to encourage players to hold onto items with sentimental or aesthetic value. Now, I’m not saying that silly outfits are bad, sometimes I can’t stop laughing at some of them, it’s great fun, but allowing grey and white items to be suitable for transmogrification would probably be a bit over-the-top.
Personally I feel that transmogrification brought some coolness and freedom to the game but at a certain cost, everything seems a bit chaotic now. I actually somewhat miss the possibility of recognizing someone’s progress and gear by just looking at them, but oh well, I’m getting nostalgic here.
Also remember that we have the following note in our transmogrification rules “a select few of these items will be prevented from being used to transmogrify if they are inappropriate“, so if we were to open this up to grey + white items, I’m sure that this blacklist would have to become much larger and I suspect that would create too many exceptions and become confusing to players.
As always, we’ll let you know if anything changes regarding this though. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Season 11 Gear
Unfortunately the latest information I have is that the Season 11 Cataclysmic gear will probably only be added with patch 5.2, we wanted to add it sooner but we had some issues with it and had to postpone it.
Whenever they are added back to the game, you will be able to purchase them with Honor Points from the legacy armor and weapon vendors in Area 52.
Since Kris is saying that the gear is there, it's possible that the devs were actually able to add them already, I can't confirm this right now, but if they aren't there, you know when to possibly expect it. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
PvP
Is there a reason why we can't have PvP and PvE gear more similarly? In PvE you are hurt by RNG and in PvP you have to grind.
We think the PvE way is better, but there is no good way to recreate that with PvP vendors and drops in PvP would be weird. (Source)
you made it so rep is easier to get on ALTs, what about conquest gear cheaper on alts?
We think something like "Valor of the Ancients" for Conquest is totally reasonable. We're discussing the right solution. (Source)
Hello Greg, I have a 2 part Question. (1) are you happy with pvp now? (2) Have you visited the arena forums lately?
We're never satisfied with any part of the game. Visit Arena forums regularly. (Source)
I think you'd encourage it, but others are interpreting your reply as being against it...which is it? oQueue = broken
We have no problem with queuing mods. They should still work. We do not like using them to get around premade rules. (Source)
Why aren't Blood/Prot/Guard/Brew players allowed to do Arena? You try to accommodate others why leave those 4 out in the cold?
Really hard to make Arena tanks fun for others. Guy who can't die or be controlled = max frustration. They have a role in BGs. (Source)
World
Did Bliz take into account the extra players CRZ adds when planning the spawn timers for rare pets like the scourge whelp?
Spawn rates are designed around intended populations not empty zones. May need to adjust some but rare is supposed to be rare. (Source)
Phasing really is pants when you can't help guildies out. Really needs a solution. Group lead should determine phase, maybe?
Yeah, would love a solution like that. (Source)
The label MMO is meaningless and people by and large don't care what you call it. They just want to have fun.
Disagree. It's not about labels. It's about feeling like there are other players in the world. WoW isn't MP but MMP. (Source)
CRZ won't fill up your guild or your AH. We know that. But it is a step. (Source)
Any chance you guys will respond the issues regarding CRZ such as: http://t.co/TmgGt8D9 and http://t.co/EK36xrxS ? Thanks
Gathering and rare spawn numbers assume competition with other players. "I have a zone to myself" isn't our vision for WoW. (Source)
Why is this sudden aversion to instanced content Greg? Why is so bad that someon doesnt want to be in the world?
.We have a ton of instanced content. We just don't want it all to be, which is how Cataclysm felt. Instance != MMO IMO. (Source)
Waiting in line for your turn at the Brawler's Guild != MMO either, I'd say.
Disagree. It's the definition of other players existing being a thing. Instanced brawls would be != MMO in my book. (Source)
You are vanguard in the MMO genre. If most of your players in the MMO like instanced content over the alternatives
the feedback we heard from Cataclysm was NOT "I want to stand around in cities and queue more." (Source)
I don't imagine you recieved much feedback saying MAKE JUSTICE POINTS VIRTUALLY WORTHLESS and yet here we are
I think in your mind feedback = do what players say. We use feedback to make informed decisions, but we still make them. (Source)
Couple questions I'd answer first about Silvermoon flying. Will new tech make it easier? Is it just a slight inconvenience?
New tech won't help, just tons of art time to make the city hook up for real. It would take as much time as making a new city. (Source)
Reputation / Questing
What are the chances that reputation commendations will be implemented for past factions, such as those in old expansions?
Let's see how these work out, but possibly. (Source)
For 5.1 can we have a short term (20min?) LFR buff that simulates the rep tabards for the last rep we did dailies with today?
Talking about some ideas. So long as someone can't finish rep in one weekend by chain running, we're open to it. (Source)
What about "Rest XP" for gaining Reputation via Tabards? The less you use it, the more you can gather (to a point).
Yeah, that idea comes up a lot. We like it. (Source)
Wowhead has 57844 openings for the Blingtron package and no mounts yet. Is there an issue or droprate really that tiny?
But that would spoil the surprise... (Source)
Misc
I always wondered, can you be 'ordered' to go on twitter for work purposes, such as looking for bugs found by players?
Nobody tells me to go to the forums / twitter. I do it because I value the feedback and to help give something back to you. (Source)
Do you guys ever discuss class changes with popular theorycrafters?
Yes. (Source)
"consensus" is subjective and vague without numerical data. It's not just GC making/suggesting changes. "Dev TEAM".
Yes, and one of the reasons we have a dev team that works together closely is to guard against potential bias. (Source)
You only try to milk longer sub times for a minimal amount of work. Since most of the wow team works on titan
two incorrect / uninformed assumptions I'm afraid. (Source)
We are here again, where you claim to be right only falling back on authority. Why should we just accept without any evidence?
Having to convince players to let us make the changes we want to make isn't going to be an efficient way to design. (Source)
Patch 1.6 went live this week, with a new Warzone, heroic Space Combat missions, new Cartel Market items, and other new items. See the full notes or Darthhater's coverage guide for more info.
Fan Art
Some nice fan art has shown up recently.
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