WoW: WoTLK Interview Transcript
Monday, June 9th, 2008 - 2:02pm
Here is a Link to an interview with Jeff Kaplan, Lead Designer for WoTLK. Very interesting stuff in there. He touches on stuff like badge rewards, CC, raid progression and instance design. I think Jeff really understands the psychology and social aspects of gaming and its this sort of talk that has me looking forward to WoTLK very much.
Shouldnt it be WoTLK?
Pharacon wrote:
Very nice. I also like how they directly addressed the claims that 10-person raids are "easy mode" while 25-person raids are "hard mode". Sorry, but the amount of people required isn't what makes it challenging. The encounter design is what determines that.
I still say that, of all three group sizes, I think 10-person content is my favorite overall. Large enough to allow for those more "epic" types of encounters due to a good variety of archetypes in the group, but small enough to still feel intimate enough and each person gets their moments to shine individually rather than being part of a zerg mass.
I would agree with you 110%
Nothing like feeling as just another cog in the wheel on a 40 man raid.
25 man content eased that up a bit but not as much as a good 10 man run.
Pharacon wrote:
Warcraft: Revenge of the Lich King!
My one problem with Kaplan is that he glosses over some points that really deserve to be looked at more closely.
Example:
Show me a prot warrior, enhancement shaman, moonkin, ret paladin and resto druid that can handle those 6-pulls with no cc, in ilvl 115 blues -- not even mentioning the stealther at that area. His statement that "not having cc just allows you to dps faster" comes out a little off too -- when was the last time a moonkin was able to out dps a similarly geared mage, even if the mage took 2 seconds to sheep a mob first? It's not impossible, obviously, but the deck is stacked against the moonkin. And even if it did happen -- how mad would mages be if a hybrid beat them on dps?
Not sure if anyone follows the WotLK wiki (http://wotlk.wikidot.com), but it looks like they're trying to assuage things somewhat -- druids, for example, will be pleased to note that roots now works indoors -- at least as of this alpha patch. =)
15 seconds of full CC on 2 mobs(cyclone), 2 potential offtanks, an earth elemental, Heroism/bloodlust(which should be blown before the boss anyway), a fear bomb, several stuns, and(assuming that the 5 have geared correctly) decent DPS? Sounds like a plan.
Hybrid DPS at lower gear levels is pretty consistent with their parent classes. You only really see the disconnect at higher levels, where the hybrids just can't keep up.
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams
Nah. World of Warcraft: Raiders of the Lich King! Northrend's gonna be full of Nazis!
WoW Blackhand Alliance
70s: Nukanatrix (M), Braun (P), Boreali (War), Heckfire (Lock), Jergen (Pal), Erissar (D)
Grumbar - 65 Hunter
You stick to your 10 and 30 minute cooldowns for each of the three 6-pulls in that room, I'll keep looking for a rogue for sap or a shadow priest for mind control. =) I'm sure it's possible -- I've read where 4 hunters and a priest just burned down everything in slabs, so clearly there's a lot of things possible -- but highly unlikely.
Also I don't agree that hybrid dps is consistent at pre kara levels -- enhancement shamans specifically suffer from a serious lack of itemization until they hit tier 4 and badge rewards and to my knowledge ret paladins are still practically required to pvp for gear.
The fact that a rogue or mage can do the job of a shaman or moonkin just as well (or better) as a dps hybrid, with access to crowd control, just makes taking offspec dps toons in a 5 man never a primary choice, and I think that's an issue that should be addressed by the developers, either through giving cc to offspec hybrids or through reducing the amount of ridiculous cc requirements in instances.
(Krindle and my prot pally friends, meanwhile, are saying "screw cc!" Can't make everyone happy. =)
I'd really like to see this as well. As I'm levelling an enhancement shammy right now, it worries me a bit. I think this probably does need to be balanced by Blizzard somewhere, either through improved itemization for the hybrids in their "off-spec" specs, rebalancing dps, making the other support roles (e.g. totems/blessings/buffs/etc.) better balance cc or just making cc more of a nice-have than must-have. The last almost seems to be the most difficult to me to do. CC will always make the fight easier by reducing the number of mobs you have to fight at once and thus the damage the tank will take, even if there are only 2 or 3 mobs. Without the non-cc classes able to bring something that ensures the mobs die significantly (in the statistical sense) faster, they would seem to be at an inherent disadvantage in comparison to the cc classes. I worry when I hear stories of folks having to respec resto in order to even get an invite to Magister's Terrace.
Then again, these sorts of balancing questions almost seem inherent to the world of MMOs, right?
BHA: Kamyndra - 70 Prot Warrior, Tyraan - 67 Enhance Shaman, Rahodius - 53 Priest
As long as offspec dps hybrids that don't have cc (literally: enhance/elemental shamans, moonkin, ret paladin) were given something (a cc totem, root indoors, and a 30 second duration on repentance), you'd be okay.
So true, can't make everyone happy, so you shoot for the middle. =)
Agreed, although I would almost prefer to see Blizzard do something else. I like variety (even though it makes balancing an absolute pain), and so would like to see some classes without cc but with something else to help balance. In my view, the ideal state is to have all classes with different non-overlapping skill sets as much as possible, but still have it set up so that any three dps can be added to any tank and any healer and figure out a good set of tactics in order to succeed. I guess one of the reasons I'm finding raids more fun than 5 mans is that this seems easier to accomplish with a slightly larger group (although it still seems like Blizzard has a tendency to gimp melee folks on occasion).
A bit of a (possibly unobtainable) holy grail, I admit, but...
BHA: Kamyndra - 70 Prot Warrior, Tyraan - 67 Enhance Shaman, Rahodius - 53 Priest
Ninja edit FTW.
Niiice
Pharacon wrote: