Mastery System Preview
Written by Wildchild.
Last week, we gave you an early look at the changes we’re making to the stat system in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and explained how these changes will ultimately provide players with more interesting gear choices and make stats easier to understand. Today we’d like to go into more detail about a brand-new feature that’s an integral part of this overhaul: the Mastery system, a set of new game mechanics designed to allow players to become better at what makes their chosen talent tree cool or unique. With this system, we want to accomplish three things: give players more freedom in how they allocate talent points, simplify some of the “kitchen sinky” talents that try to do too much at once, and add a new stat to high-level gear that makes you better at your chosen role.
Here’s how the system works: As you spend points in a given talent tree, you’ll receive three different passive bonuses specific to that tree. The first bonus will increase your damage, healing, or survivability, depending on the intended role of the tree. The second bonus will be related to a stat commonly found on gear desirable to you, such as Haste or Crit. The third bonus will be the most interesting, as it will provide an effect completely unique to that tree — meaning there will be 30 different bonuses of this nature in the game. This third bonus is the one that will benefit from the Mastery rating found on high-level (level 80 to 85) gear.
One of our primary goals with Mastery is to give players more flexibility to choose fun or utility-oriented talents rather than make them feel obligated to pick up “mandatory” but uninteresting talents, such as passive damage or healing. (For examples of the kinds of powerful but boring talents we’re talking about, take a look at the talent tier just above the 51-point talent in many of the existing trees.) In a sense, Mastery makes it so every talent in (just for example) a rogue tree essentially has an invisible additional bullet point that says “…and increases your damage by X%.” This way, if you choose a talent like Elusiveness (which reduces your chance to be detected while stealthed) or Fleet Footed (which affects movement), you won’t feel like you’re giving up damage in exchange for utility.
There will still be talents that boost damage, of course, but those talents will also affect the way you play. For example, you can still expect to see talents like Improved Frostbolt, which reduces the cast time of the Frostbolt spell; it increases DPS, but it also affects the mage’s rotation. Piercing Ice, however, is just “6% more damage” and is the kind of talent we’re trying to eliminate by implementing the Mastery system.
As we get closer to Cataclysm’s release, we’ll go into more detail about the changes coming for each class, including individual talent-tree adjustments and how Mastery will affect them. In the meantime, here are a few examples to demonstrate the three kinds of passive bonuses we described above. Please keep in mind that we’re still working on this system, and the handful of examples we’re providing here are, of course, subject to change.
Holy Priest
For each talent point spent in the Holy tree, the priest also gets:
* Healing – Improves your healing by X%.
* Meditation – Improves your mana regeneration from Spirit in combat. This would likely replace the existing Meditation talent from the Discipline tree, which many Holy priests consider to be a “must-have.” Regeneration will also probably be determined by whether you are in or out of combat, and not the “five-second rule.
* Radiance – Adds a heal-over-time effect to direct heals, such as Flash Heal. Mastery on gear would boost this bonus, and no other talent tree would grant it.
Discipline Priest
For each talent point spent in the Discipline tree, the priest also gets:
* Healing – Improves your healing by X%.
* Meditation – Improves your mana regeneration from Spirit in combat. This would likely replace the existing Meditation talent.
* Absorption – Improves the amount of damage absorbed by spells such as Power Word: Shield and Divine Aegis. Mastery on gear would boost this bonus, and no other talent tree would grant it.
Frost Death Knight
For each talent point spent in the Frost tree, the death knight also gets:
* Damage – Improves your melee and spell damage by X%.
* Haste – Improves your melee Haste by Y%. This might allow us to remove some of the Haste in the Icy Talons line of talents.
* Runic Power – Improves the rate of runic power generated by abilities. While all death knights want runic power, Frost death knights would generally have more runic power than Blood or Unholy death knights (who would receive a different benefit from their respective trees). An Unholy death knight who sub-specs into Frost would still be able to benefit from this bonus, though because they’re investing fewer talent points, they’d benefit to a smaller degree. Mastery on gear would boost this bonus, and no other talent tree would grant it.
A couple other things to note: Currently, we’re not planning to retrofit the Mastery stat onto current level-80 gear when we roll out the stat-system changes prior to Cataclysm’s release. However, Mastery will begin appearing on select quest and dungeon items. You will also gain a small amount of Mastery by wearing gear of your intended armor type (such as plate for paladins). For players with dual specs, when you change between your two chosen specs, the Mastery bonuses and the benefit you receive from the Mastery stat on gear will adjust automatically based on your new spec.
We’ll have more details to share about these and other changes we’re making in Cataclysm in the future, and we’ll do our best to answer your questions about the Mastery system here on the forums. For information on many of the stat changes being made in Cataclysm, please check out our earlier update at -
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23425636414&sid=1
(Source)
WoW BattleCry Mosaic Complete!
Written by Wildchild.
Thanks to the combined effort of Warcraft players from around the world, we have reached twenty thousand submissions, and the final piece of the World of Warcraft BattleCry Mosaic has been revealed. Head over to the World of Warcraft anniversary site now and check out the complete mosaic, which can only be described by one word: epic.
You can now look at the complete mosaic using the site’s mosaic viewer, download the original artwork wallpaper, and of course view the legendary-sized mosaic wallpaper. And while you’re there, make sure to also check out all the previously unlocked content.
http://www.wow-europe.com/wowanniversary/battlecry/
Thank you to everyone who sent in their pictures to help us create a little piece of Warcraft history, and thank you to all our players around the world for your continued support. Lok’tar!
Check out the BattleCry page now, as well as our our updated special Battlecry Gallery.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/misc/battlecry-gallery.html#30
(Source)
Tom Chilton (Game Director)
Written by Wildchild.
In this interview, World of Warcraft Game Director Tom Chilton talks about the hectic final months leading up to the game’s launch, crafting an MMORPG for a wide range of play styles, and the ongoing effort to improve the game through expansions and content updates.
http://www.wow-europe.com/wowanniversary/interview/tomchilton.xml
(Source)
Cataclysm Stat & System Changes!
Written by Wildchild.
As many of you know from panels at last year’s BlizzCon and posts here on the forums since then, Cataclysm will bring about major changes to familiar character stats such as Intellect, Armor Penetration, Defense, and others, ultimately designed to make the effects of stats more easily understandable and make gear choices more interesting. As these changes will have a significant impact on how stats work and relate to one another, today we wanted to offer you a closer look at exactly what’s in store and explain some of the rationale before Cataclysm arrives.
The most obvious question these changes raise is “Why are stats being changed, and why now?” As the game has matured, we’ve run into increasingly complex issues with the current stat system. Many stats are inherently confusing, and the way they interrelate can feel convoluted. Attack Power, for example, currently translates to damage, but so does Armor Penetration. Defense provides five different statistical benefits of varying utility. Mana regeneration involves understanding multiple stats and rules and often ends up being irrelevant anyway. In addition, the difference between a “good stat” for a class and a “bad stat” can be extreme. Some casters want Haste but not Crit; hunters want Armor Penetration but not Haste. There are other overarching issues, as well, such as Intellect not being very exciting for casters despite it being a core stat — and these are just a few examples.
Our ultimate goal is make gear a more interesting (and less confusing) choice by making each stat valuable to more players. While the reasoning behind some of the following changes may be clear, we understand that you may have questions about some of the less obvious alterations, and we’ll do our best to answer any questions you may have here on the forums.
What You’ll See on Gear
Stamina – Because of the way we will be assigning Strength, Agility, and Intellect, non-plate wearers will end up with more Stamina than before. Health pools will be much closer between plate-wearers and other classes.
Spirit – Come Cataclysm, this stat should only be found on healing gear. Non-healing casters will have other systems in place to regenerate mana, and we are designing special solutions for Elemental shaman and Balance druids who often share gear with healers (more on this below). Raid buffs that currently boost Spirit (such as Blessing of Kings) will only boost the primary stats of Stamina, Strength, Agility, and Intellect. We are also likely changing the five-second rule and other quirks of the current regen system.
Intellect – Intellect will now grant Spell Power (more on this below). Intellect will also provide less mana than it currently does.
Haste – Haste will become more attractive for melee classes by allowing them to recover resources such as energy and runes more quickly. Our intention is for Haste to let you “do stuff” more often.
Block Rating – Block is being redesigned to scale better. Blocked attacks will simply hit for 30% less damage. Block rating will improve your chance to block, though overall block chances will be lower than they are today.
Parry – Parry no longer provides 100% avoidance and no longer speeds up attacks. Instead, when you parry an attack, it and the next attack will each hit for 50% damage (assuming they hit at all). In other words, Dodge is a chance to avoid 100% of the damage from one attack, Parry is a chance to avoid 50% of the damage from two attacks, and Block is a chance to avoid 30% of the damage from one attack.
Mastery – This is a new stat that will allow players to become better at whatever makes their chosen talent tree cool or unique. It’s directly tied to talents, so what you gain from improving this stat is entirely dependent upon your class and the talent specialization you choose. We’ll talk more about specific Mastery benefits in the future.
Armor – The way Armor mitigates damage is not changing, but the Armor stat has been rebalanced to mirror changes to the armor curve in Cataclysm. As a result, bonus Armor will go down slightly overall. We are also changing the mitigation difference among armor types so that plate doesn’t offer so much more protection than mail, leather, and cloth.
Resilience – This will only affect damage done by players and critical damage done by players. It will not impact crit chance, mana drains, or other such effects.
Strength, Agility, Hit Rating, Expertise, and Critical Strike Rating – These will all still appear on gear as well. Aside from situations mentioned elsewhere in this list, in general these will function similarly to how they do now, though the details — such as how much Hit Rating you might need to effectively combat high-level creatures (more on this below) — are likely to change.
Being Removed from Items
Attack Power – This stat will no longer be present on most items as a flat value, though it will still show up on some process. Strength and Agility, which will be present on items, will grant the appropriate amount of Attack Power (generally 2 Attack Power per point of Strength or Agility) depending upon which stat a particular class favors. Agility may provide less Crit than it currently does.
Spell Power – Spell Power is another stat that you’ll no longer see present on most items. Instead, as mentioned above, Intellect will grant Spell Power. One exception is that caster weapons will still have Spell Power. This allows us to make weapons proportionately more powerful for casters in the same way they are for melee classes.
Armor Penetration – This stat will no longer be present on items. Armor Penetration will still exist in talents and abilities.
Shield Block Value – This stat will no longer be present on items, since the amount blocked is always proportional to the amount of damage done. Talents and other effects might still modify the damage-reduction percentage from 30%, however.
Going Away Completely
MP5 – This stat will be removed from the game completely. Holy paladins and Restoration shaman will be redesigned to benefit from Spirit.
Defense – Defense is being removed from the game entirely. Tanking classes should expect to become uncrittable versus creatures just by shifting into Defensive Stance, Frost Presence, Bear Form, or by using Righteous Fury.
Spell Ranks – Spell ranks will cease to exist. All spells will have one rank and will scale appropriately with level. The levels at which you can learn certain spells are being changed in order to fill in some of the gaps, and we will be introducing some new spells to learn along the way as well.
Weapon Skill – This stat will be removed from the game completely. Classes will start with all the weapon skills they need to know and will not need to improve them.
What Else You Should Know
Combat ratings – All ratings will be much harder to “cap out” at maximum gear levels. Ratings will be steeper in Cataclysm, and creatures in later tiers of content will be harder to hit or crit, similar to how level-83 mobs are harder to hit or crit than level-80 mobs.
Reforging – While these changes will go a long way to making a wider variety of stats more attractive, we understand that sometimes you simply don’t want more Hit Rating on your gear or you’d rather have more Haste than more Crit. In Cataclysm, we are going to give players a way to replace stats on gear as part of the existing profession system. As a general rule of thumb, you’ll be able to convert one stat to 50% of another stat. While some conversions (like converting Stamina to Strength) won’t be permitted, the goal is to let you customize your gear more.
Gems – We are changing the gem colors of a few stats as a result of these adjustments. For example, Hit is likely to be blue instead of yellow. We’ll have more details on this in the future.
Changes to Existing Gear
As with previous expansions, we plan to roll out these changes and modify all existing gear shortly before Cataclysm launches, though it’s still too early to say exactly when. For the most part, the gear you have will still be good for you, though there will be exceptions, such as warriors using leather and mail armor.
If you are a tank (druids excepted), expect to see:
* No more Defense on gear. Existing Defense becomes Dodge, Parry, or Block Rating.
* No more Block Value on gear. Existing Block Value becomes Block Rating.
* You’ll have as much Stamina as you’re used to, though you may notice your tanking plate has a bit less Stamina than a comparable piece of DPS plate, since we tend to take the gem budget out of your most attractive stat.
* Bonus Armor on gear will go down slightly.
If you are a melee DPS class, druid tank, or hunter, expect to see:
* A lot more Stamina. Bear-form Stamina scaling will be lowered as a result.
* Strength if you wear plate. Agility if you wear mail or leather.
* Existing Attack Power becomes Agility and Stamina.Armor Penetration becomes Haste or Crit.
* No Intellect on melee gear. Hunters won’t need Intellect since they will no longer use mana. Shaman and Retribution paladins will get mana and spell damage in other ways.
If you are a DPS caster, expect to see:
* A lot more Stamina.
* All of your Spell Power converted to Intellect and Stamina.
* No Spirit. You won’t miss Spirit, though, because you won’t need it for DPS or mana regen.
If you are a healer, expect to see:
* A lot more Stamina.
* All of your Spell Power converted to Intellect and Stamina.
* Spirit instead of MP5. You’ll probably be happy with Spirit, though, because mana regen is going to matter more than it does currently. Healing paladins and shaman will benefit more from Spirit than they do currently.
If you are a Balance druid or Elemental shaman:
* You will still share gear with Restoration druids and shaman.
* Your gear will have Spirit on it. It won’t have Hit on it.
* You will have a talent that converts Spirit to Hit. We will adjust talents accordingly so that you want about as much Spirit as, say, a warlock wants Hit.
* Hit on rings and other such gear will still benefit you.
* Raid buffs will no longer boost Spirit, so you shouldn’t find yourself unexpectedly over the Hit cap because of buffs.
Many lower-level items with nonsensical combinations of stats, such as Agility and Spirit, will be changed. We’re also updating quest rewards, trade skills, and loot drops to support better itemization for class builds that weren’t widely available or used prior to The Burning Crusade (such as Balance druids).
We’re aware this is a lot of information to take in, but this is still only a piece of the larger picture, and many of these changes rely on integration with other systems we haven’t yet discussed in detail. In the weeks and months ahead, we’ll continue to tell you more about these changes, along with all of the new and exciting features we have planned for Cataclysm.
(Source)
BlizzChat Developer Chat on Twitter 2/26
Written by Wildchild.
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: 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: 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: 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.
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.
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: 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: 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: 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 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.
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.
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: 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: Will existing races get a more “epic” start to the game, similar to the goblin/worgen starting experience?
A: 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: 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: 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: 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: With Illidan you removed attunements to give players accessibility. Why limit pre-Ulduar-geared players from even entering Icecrown Citadel LFG?
A: 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: When will we get new info and updates on Cataclysm?
A: Soon, but not too soon. Ragnaros would be pissed.
Q: Will there ever be cross-realm raiding?
A: This is something that we are looking into. There are a lot of design issues that need to be addressed before we could implement something like this, but we are definitely interested in the idea.
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: 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.
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: The new gear stats will affect both old gear and new gear. Time to reroll!
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: Do you consider Algalon a successful raid encounter, and will we see more hardmode-only bosses in the future?
A: Yes, we like it. The model in general is a good way to offer challenges to the extreme hardcore without making the final end boss of a raid something only a few people see.
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.
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: 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.
Q: Is there any info you can share on future plans for holy paladins?
A: I hear they need more healing spells.
Q: Will any of the new race/class combos be available before Cataclysm is released?
A: No.
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.
Q: Will new race/class combos be available before Cataclysm release (i.e. with 4.0)?
A: Nope, these will come with Cataclysm.
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: 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: 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.
Q: Why did the Night Elves bring the Worgen into the Alliance, and were described as “old allies”?
A: The men and women of Gilenas were the “old allies.”
Q: Why have we not seen world bosses in this expansion?
A: 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: 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 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: 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.
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!
Q: Will Ghostcrawler duel me for a large cash prize?
A: You are not ready.
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: 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.
Q: Why are you answering the same questions twice?
A: We’d never do such a thing.
Q: Will we get some info about the other zones Cataclysm revamps, like Stranglethorn Vale or Tanaris?
A: Some Tanaris goblins wisely invested in desert real estate and reaped the benefits when it became beach-front property.
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.
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: 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: 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: 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: 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!
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: If you could go back and redo or remove some features that were added with Wrath of the Lich King, what would it be? Why?
A: I would have really liked to see more Battlegrounds in Northrend. That is an area that I feel we fell short on. We have big plans for Battlegrounds in Cataclysm though and I think that rated Battlegrounds are really going to fire players up to get back into the Battlegrounds.
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!
And for the final question…
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.
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!
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