This past weekend, Blizzard fans from around the world descended upon Anaheim, California for the somewhat-annual BlizzCon. There, they got the scoop on all of the active Blizzard games, including Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, and of course, World of Warcraft. Those who purchased the Virtual Ticket were treated to watching all of the panels on the main and panel stages, but there was plenty going on elsewhere that is not available unless you were there. One of those things was a pair of Q&A panels held in the Community Team’s area built up to be the Darkmoon Faire. There, WoW devs answered questions from fans as well-known as Red Shirt Guy in a more intimate setting, but you more or less had to be there to learn what was said. That being said, here’s what was discussed during the second of those two sessions. This one featured Russ Petersen, Chadd Nervig, Jay Gill, Jonathan LeCraft, Craig Amai, and Kris Zierhut.
First up, the gentlemen were asked whether the other classes would feel as awesome as the new Demon Hunters. Zierhut replied that their goal was to improve the fantasy of each class and make them feel really different. He added that some classes are fine as they are, but the ones getting the most out of the updates are Survival Hunters, Shadow Priests, Demonology Warlocks, Subtlety and Combat Rogues, and Discipline Priests. Most other specs will get minor changes, but overall, Zierhut acknowledged that this represents the largest amount of class changes in an expansion so far. Tuning and balance will be given a proper review in the upcoming beta, and Nervig encouraged players to provide feedback beyond ‘this class is OP’. Their goal is ensure that each class and spec has moments they will shine, and other times when other specs or classes will shine.
The devs next discussed the notions of nerfing and buffing, with Nervig noting how they might nerf two specs and buff six simultaneously so that all 36 specs are on a more even keel, but they more commonly hear about the nerfs with little commentary on the buffs happening at the same time. When asked which class updates excited them the most, Petersen cited the Death Knight with its balance changes. He said that the DKs’ DoT extensions aren’t something they really do anymore, so they wanted to give DKs something unique via Festering Wounds and also help with their use of pets and the fantasy of raising the dead. Zierhut chimed in and added that they wanted to give each spec something unique so players could feel special in the world, addressing player concerns about homogeneity.
Warrior Order Hall
Turning to crowd questions, a player wanted to know what was going to happen with Elemental Shamans. Zierhut noted that mana didn’t really do anything for Shamans, so in Legion, only Restoration Shamans will use that as their resource. Enhancement and Elemental will use Maelstrom as their resource. When asked about those specs that would have a visible offhand and whether it would just be visual or have a separate item, such as Enhancement Shamans and the Doomhammer, they replied that there may not be an actual object.
A player then asked about Demonology Warlocks. Zierhut indicated that they went back to the drawing board and redesigned the spec based on the notion of a Warlock summoning various demons, something not currently seen a great deal in-game. He added that all Warlocks will once again go back to Soul Shards as a resource, but Demonology specifically will be focusing on summoning waves and waves of demons and that the talents will work around this concept. He encouraged players in the upcoming beta to provide feedback, because they’ll need plenty of iteration to make it work.
Next up, players wanted to know about the Mage class hall, and the developers said that theirs would be in Dalaran, and that players would be helping to reform an older Mage group (which we speculate might be the Guardians of Tirisfal?)
Going back to Death Knights, a player wanted to know about the new simplicity of Death Knights’ rotations with the change of the various runes to be the same kind, and how she felt that it was a bit of a faceroll. Zierhut pointed out that with the change, players wouldn’t need to only hit the buttons that were lit up but will have more control over how to spend their runes, whether to use them all at once or save them for specific circumstances.
Halls of Valor
Her next question was about how it would work for max-level characters visiting the other zones in the new area, whether players would still feel powerful or if it would be worth it for players to go back and do that content. Zierhut replied that players will want to go back for rewards that are suitable for a max-level character.
Another lady asked about Discipline Priests and the ratio between healing and damage after the updates. Zierhut said it would be approximately 70% healer and 30% damage, and Jay Gill spoke up to note that Disc Priest Power Word: Shield spam is a thing of the past and that Atonement will be something much cooler than before. He added that players would have to balance their healing with their damage by marking allies and then healing them when the Priest then uses a DPS spell on an enemy. It’s going to be a much more complex and skill-based spec in Legion.
The next player wanted to know about Windwalker Monks’ Storm, Earth, and Fire ability and Nervig observed that Windwalkers were intended to be stronger at 3-target DPS, not grouped up. He felt that they were not quite there on single-target DPS in Warlords, and even the buff they gave it wasn’t enough to make it be a superstar. There will be a new Storm, Earth, and Fire and it will be less cumbersome and more intuitive than it is now, and the icon isn’t helpful. It will be a toggle where if it’s on, the character splits into three, and when it’s off, the player is their usual singular self. When toggled on, the AI-controlled selves will not attack the same target as the player but will find a suitable nearby enemy. The downside is that the player doesn’t get to pick those secondary targets.
Talent trees were the next focus for the discussion. The big thing about them is that the trees won’t be rows of similar abilities, such as one row having three different CC options. The devs want to mix it up so that if a player wanted to have all the CC options, they could possibly do that depending on the way the grid is set up. They used Rogues as an example, particularly Combat Rogues, who will be known as Outlaw in Legion. They wanted to make Rogues more effective so that at least 5 of their talent rows are straight throughput. There will be more spec-specific talents that will play into the spec’s fantasy. In Warlords, very few talents did this, but in Legion, about 2/3 of them will. For Outlaw Rogues, who can play into the fantasy of being a pirate, there are talents with names that harken back to that fantasy, such as Cannonball Barrage. Continuing with this same theme, the devs brought up Fury Warriors, stating that with no talents selected, the rotation was very simplified. However, players could add up to 5 active abilities via talents or select more passive options, leaving it up to them to decide how complex they want their rotation to be.
Suramar
When players asked about Hunters and pets being part of that fantasy, the devs replied that most of the Marksmanship Hunters took the Lone Wolf talent, so they elected to make it the norm for that spec. Beast Master is now the go-to for pets and Hunters, although Survival will still have pets as well. Zierhut added that many of the cool procs currently in Survival are going to become talents for Marksmanship. Gill chimed in to add that they meant to have these sort of distinctions throughout the entire game.
The next question asked was about healing and how they were going to keep it challenging and interesting for players. Gill replied that healers will now be doing more damage in their spare time, becoming more useful to the raid when they’re not actively healing. Zierhut said they wanted to make sure that healers can play and level solo, with Druids getting Thorns back. When asked about changes to Absorbs, Zierhut said there will be far fewer of them in Legion, and with a longer Power Word: Shield cooldown, Disc and Holy Priests will have a greater challenge and will be more useful. For Shadow Priests who like off-healing, Zierhut said that Flash Heal/Heal will be gone, but a new spell called Shadow Mend will replace them, to give a Shadow Priest a heal option that is more tactical, and he added that it’s actually a better heal than Flash Heal.
Turning to Artifacts, players wanted to know how changing spec mid-stream would affect leveling of an Artifact. The devs replied that the further behind a player was, the easier it would be to change things up. While the cost of talents is cheaper for an off-spec’s Artifact, it’s not an immediate swap if one is maxed out and the other one has been disused for some time. Zierhut got applause from the crowd when he noted that toolbars will change out on the fly as well if a player switches specs. He added that they didn’t want players to change specs, they wanted to encourage players to change talents on the fly out of combat for free instead.
The next player asked about Holy Priests and how they’re now often lost in the shuffle with other healing classes, and Zierhut pointed out that they used to have the single biggest heal in the game, but said that they wanted to get back to that notion. After observing that Chakra is going away, he said that Power Word: Serenity will become the biggest heal in the game, but cautioned that it had a bit of a cooldown. They were going to separate the ideals of Disc and Holy to make Holy more of the full-on healer, and the Serendipity mechanic was going to be changing to be a cooldown reducer going forward.
Paladin Order Hall
The new transmog system came up next, and a player wanted the devs to clarify whether all items from old quests, even class items and ones that are no longer in the game, would appear in the new system as soon as a player logged in. LeCraft said that as far as he knew, that was correct. He added that there might be one or two quests that got missed, but they’d deal with that case-by-case. Craig Amai jumped in and said they can’t delete quests, just hide them, so they should have everything there. Zierhut said that the only possibility was if a quest rewards had been changed, but they’d find a way to figure out what they used to be and get those items back.
The Melee Problem ™ was next up, with players noting their concern that the Demon Hunter may bump Survival Hunters in raid composition. Nervig admitted they could do better on melee vs ranged but their data suggests that players change more from melee to ranged specs and their changes now are intended to push back against the perception that more melee is bad.
Moonkin was the subsequent topic, and Nervig joked about the new model, but seriously added that they’ve had a couple of failures with them over the past couple of expansions. He continued by noting that they were reworking the spec. He said players were spending more time playing the UI and not playing the spec itself, so they were going to change things up so that abilities will have their strengths and weaknesses and times it would be better to use one over the other. Gill joined in with noting they were still focusing on the fantasy of Moonkin pulling stuff down from the stars, so the core skills such as Moonfire and Starfall were still there.
The next player was concerned with boss movements and tank-swapping, and Petersen interjected ‘We’re fixing it with 6.2.3’ (the patch that goes live on 11/17). The player’s next question involved Active Mitigation and if there were any changes. Zierhut said they felt it was too strong and too important, so if it went afoul, things went sideways. He added that it will become more friendly to new tanks learning the fights but would still be useful to veteran tanks.
Druid Order Hall
A Resto Druid spoke up next and said he missed Innervate. Zierhut said that it was coming back, but not to Resto. Balance Druids will get it as one of their cool abilities. Stampeding Roar will be specific to Feral or Guardian (no more Balance or Resto). A powerful variant of Mark of the Wild will be available to Resto Druids that is single-target only. Feral druids will lose Rejuvenation in Cat Form but will have new talents, but the devs indicated they felt they were already in a pretty good place. Zierhut said they were going to trim abilities that hardly anyone used, but going to have Affinities added, where a player could be Feral but have an Affinity for Balance, so they’d get a few extra abilities that focused on Balance, rather than a mishmash of abilities that covered all three other specs. This would be useful in situations where a Guardian Druid shifts to Cat Form to do damage while he or she isn’t the active tank. They wanted to bring back the bearcat or moonbear playstyles, and the devs noted that a Guardian Druid with Balance Affinity would have Moonkin form.
Resolve is now a thing of the past, per Nervig. He said that at the time, Resolve served a purpose, but with the upcoming changes, it wasn’t needed, and players really liked that change. The next player asked about the Rogue ability Killing Spree, and Zierhut replied that they didn’t realize that it would affect the whole raid, citing the story of a fellow employee who deliberately used it on cooldown and got kicked from the raid before it was over. He added that they were considering removing it for that reason, but it’s now a talent and that there will be other AoE talents for Rogues.
Demon Hunter
The final question asked in the session involved the possibility of a female Felguard and the transmog weapon glyph for Felguards. Zierhut gently broke the news that it wasn’t happening this expansion because animations are one of the most expensive things to create, and it was the same for the male succubus. He then said that because the random weapon glyph wasn’t a major one, it would likely still be around, as all major glyphs are going away with the expansion, many of which will be baked into regular abilities instead.
In all, it was a rather meaty Q&A, much more informal and intimate than the one held on the main stage. There were tons more details brought up about the new expansion for World of Warcraft over the entire weekend, and many players are noticeably excited to see their classes improve. Legion is scheduled to launch next summer, with beta coming in the next few weeks, and is already available for preorder.
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