Of all the stuff said in the long and interesting BlizzCast, there are a few highlights for WoW players from Nethaera and Bornakk’s interview and Q & A session.
Unfortunately, most of the news in the BlizzCast has already been announced on the official boards in the last few days, but it is still nice with a reaffirmation and some additional insight as to the motivations. The info includes detailed history on how the lore came to be, what we can expect in Wrath, current things like Subtelity Rogues, Retribution Paladins, new BGs, Talent respecs, Tanking PvP spec, the ever present discussion about PvP vs PvE gear, and some insight into raid dungeon design, such as Magtheridon’s Lair. Read on!
Metzen. Always a special one. In this case, Karune hardly gets a word out, but that is what we love about Mr Metz, right? Perhaps I am just biased as I am the same type of person. Apparently we also share a very short term memory.. Who knew! Still, I do feel sorry for whomever wrote the script =)
- Currently doing lore on a very high level. Conceptualizing zones and expanding content. Works with broad strokes.
- Looking through quest lines every week.
- Metzen has “cut down” on his busy schedule: He now only have a meeting every hour of the day, not triple bookings.
- He likes being busy and changing gears all day long. From level design to casting actors.
- As he is known for, he admits to geeking it up and let his mouth run on unrelated meetings.
- Still, too much is bad, and there is no laser guns in WarCraft.
- Mentions that Blizzard as a company sometimes add in story elements in the last second before finishing the game.
- Metzen says there is a difference between comics and films versus video games. The former relies heavily on scripts, while the latter is more “molten” and hammered out as they move along.
- Future games, such as StarCraft II will contain a lot more cinematic experiences, such as ingame cinematics.
- The WarCraft universe has dominated Blizzard for a long time, and StarCraft II team members have also been part of the creative process there.
- Metzen is looking forward to StarCraft II and Blizzard of yesteryear, with more balanced content, not just WoW.
- WarCraft III and WoW was developed concurrently. Metzen in charge of Creative Development.
- Metzen felt he had most of that licked down. From the new lands to, eventually, the Frozen Throne. They took that snapshot and put it to a broader spectrum, the MMO.
- WoW started out rather static, but changed gradually from the AQ event.
- More linear in Burning Crusade again, but just one chapter, one year. Wrath of the Lich King is the next chapter. Expansions has built on the story line again.
- BC is a war between good and evil in outer space. While there you ask questions like: “Whatever happened to Gnolls and Kobolds?”
- Wrath is back on Azeroth (still not promising Gnolls or Kobolds) with mroe classic fantasy setting. Will include themes like the titans and the creation of the world. The function of Azeroth, why it has been so central in many events.
- More info on the Dwarven origins, the dragon flights and the Horde and Alliance after all the epic events in the WoW patches and Burning Crusade. What have these events had for effect?
- Wrath will show us what all these things have resulted in? New are coming to the forefront and may or may not challenge the status quo for both factions.
- Death Kingths and their story will look at all those Mograine and Ashbringer storylines in the plaguelands and bring them to full circle.
Nethaera talks with Game Designer Geoff Goodman about the dungeon Magtheridon’s lair, the 25 man raid you find in Hellfire Peninsula:
- They felt it was too hard as an “introducing” raid originally, and wanted something more like Onyxia pre TBC.
- As a it’s the first dungeon you can see when entering, it should be the in first tier raiding.
- The changes they have made are heavily influenced by feedback.
- Need to balance it without breaking the encounter. Avoid gutting it completely.
- It’s bad when phase 1 is harder than later phases. Don’t want something that is hard initially, and then boring.
- Instand death mechanics are hard to do right. They should be possible to avoid, and can be a positive thing if it keeps you active.
- When changing something, it doesn’t have to be stats, it can be to make the encounter more clear, like mroe visible rocks falling before the damage.
- Switching controls and getting the Mind Exhaustionwas debuff was a bit too tricky for an introduction raid. The idea was to switch people around to feel useful, but it made it too hard.
- People have been avoiding Magtheridon because of it was too hard, so with these changes they will also change his loot.
Bornakk has a Q & A session with Tom Chilton, the World of Warcraft Lead Designer:
Retribution Paladins
- Over all they want the different specs to use more of the same gear. Problems with doing separate gears for every single spec (for one thing, less chance of useful at your average dungeon!). Retribution Paladins will be geared more like Warriors.
- Will be changes across the board with Seals, Judgements and Paladin abilities should follow that scheme
Battlegrounds
- In essence, you could pic “capture the flag”, and end up in the classic WSG, or one of several new BG’s with similar design (but probably still different style).
Subtelity Rogues
- Used to be Combat-Daggers for raiding and Mutilate specs that were popular in the past, and more people moving away from daggers.
Talent Respecs
Tanking Specs in PvP
- They have no plans to make tanking specs eng-game-Arena viable.
PvP vs PvE Gear
- Significant changes in 2.4 to offset this. Making it more flexible. Added a lot of PvP-oriented loot to different areas of PvE.
- Dungeon-quality PvP gear from reputations.
- Karazhan tokens for Season 1 gear.
- Tier 5 and 6 tokens and turn those in for Season Two quality PvP gear.
Bornakk also reminds us we can play Wrath of the Lich King at the World Wide Invitational in Paris, June 2008. You are coming, right? =)
Bornakk sounds like he’s about 17 lol