Demon Hunter 1.0.4 Guide, Diablo Statue, and DPS Calculator for Android
Zone Previews: Krasarang Wilds, Dread Wastes, and Townlong Steppes
As we get closer to Mists of Pandaria, now is a good time to take a look at the new zones. You can find this preview again in the menu at the right side of the navbar. Below are edited videos by BaronSoosdon that adds some eye candy to the zone!
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
PvE
Your tidbits about 10/25 don't do the topic justice at this point. Any chance on a more detailed thought in the near future?
Yeah, it would make a good watercooler / coffee article. Good idea.
How will the mounts from Sha of Anger/Galleon work? Will they be random internal roll chances for players like the other loot?
Yes.
Challenge Modes
I'm assuming challenge modes won't be able to be done with a friend on Real ID?
I'm pretty sure you can. Battle Tags too.
Do the Challenge Modes have a lockout? Is it possible to restart a run once the timer has started?
You can reset them if you realized you screwed up.
Are Challenge Modes Heroics with a timer or do they come with increased enemy damage and health etc?
Both. The timer won't be very relevant for Bronze. You just need to finish.
Do challenge modes and heroics have separate lockouts?
Challenge modes have no lockout.
They do reward VP
But so do a lot of things and there is a VP cap.
Do you expect players to be able to jump into challenge modes in blues? or will set-bonuses make that non-viable?
Challenge modes are harder than level 90 heroic dungeons and we don't scale gear upwards. Set bonuses also are disabled.
How will trinkets work in challenge mode? Are there a few that will be accepted or will they be scaled some how?
For now they all work.
Based on internal and external testing/feedback, which Challenge Mode dungeon appears to be "hardest" at present?
I'd say Brewery. Scarlet Halls is up there too.
LFR
Is the Bag of Gold from LFR in case you win the roll but no loot is available on their loot table or do you get 1 every time?
If you don't win an item, you win gold. All LFR MoP bosses have deep enough loot tables.
So why does LFR exist when it requires little to no effort?
LFR is like a roller coaster. It's not hard but it can be fun.
But it completely removes the purpose of raiding - to see the awesome content. 1.1M drop in subs wasn't just cause of diablo 3
I don't raid just to see the content. I raid to hang out with my friends and strategize to beat the boss. LFR can't do that.
If you're "pushing secondaries", should elixirs be a viable option over flasks?
Have you looked at their stats?
Why do you lie that Raiders don't need LFR when legendaries drop there?
The items that drop in N and H are higher ilevel. RF would at best tide you over a couple of weeks.
Previous Raids / Reasons to Raid / Raid Difficulty
"We took the resources and put them back into FL" Does this mean the official stance on FL is that it was not terrible?
Nope. I was really happy with Firelands.
As we approach MOP and Dragon Soul becomes irrelevant.....will you admit that it's the worst raid to ever be made?
I liked DS. It went on too long as final raids tend to do. There are some things we'd do differently.
I didn't hate DS, and I know we got better since ICC, but DS was also considerably easier and shorter than ICC was.
Not the length of a single raid. The number of months when there was nothing else. The raid itself was probably a little short.
Tell us what you wish you could have done differently other then get MoP out faster
Some new architecture, less teleporting, maybe 1-2 more bosses. Maybe 1-2 more new boss models. More DW in the DW fights. I should add that we are our own harshest critics. That should not be interpreted as we hate the work we do.
People liked the difficulty and the raid when it was fresh and muchness nerfed. The worst raid thing is just boredom
Players drop out of raiding when there is no sense of progression. That can mean too easy or too hard. It's a myth that hard content just inspires people to keep trying. Dedicated players might make 400 attempts. Others just quit.
but simply the fact that the progression through content/gear was interrupted and restarted every patch cycle.
Yeah, when you catch people up too quickly, you do erode the desire to stick with tough challenges. Easier to wait than wipe.
Also, don't nerf Heroics unless you plan to introduce Challenge raids. Heroic-bound raiders don't want it.
Not actually true. Heroic raiders quit when they see no progress after weeks of wiping just like everyone else.
You didn’t Nerf Black Temple or sun well. Pretty sure they are better then any cata raid. Even if they were harder.
They were good raids, but very few players saw them. At the time, things like leveling alts or professions were fun alternatives
(Tweet missing, about leveling alts instead of raiding)
But once you level so many alts, it holds less attraction. Raiding = one of few systems we've come up with that keeps attention. Raids have a good track record for holding player attention so we like letting lots of folks raid.
The top end beats it easily, and the bottom end gets stuck. There has to be something for them to do other than quit.
Exactly.
Bliz likes the idea of more people seeing content because it values the work more.
That's not really it. When players have a lot to do, they want to play. Simple as that. Raids give players a lot to do.
True but you also just confirmed what I said. The strength of BC was the amount of raid content. The present system of raids being obsoleted during their own expansion has caused a dramatic reduction in raid content - and this came about in large part because of the idea of making them more accessible.
I think the strength of BC was it was the first expansion. Making an alt was exciting and new. We didn't need Raid Finder then.
True but why did you need raid finder? What shifted so much in Cata? TBH I believe the benefit 25 mans brought was not realized until most of them went away.
What shifted in Cata was players needed something new to do. For many, raids were something new.
PvP
The guards on PvP realms are already weaker than the guards on PvE realms?
Not sure if that change is live. It is on MoP launch for sure.
Why does the bg downranking feature not work correctly?
You can down rank. We didn't say that would do anything. JK it broke at the last sec. We will fix.
Will you ever do something with the 2v2 bracket, since it's a joke or you'll ignore it becuase its hard to balance it?
We don't ignore it but it is hard to balance. Either you are force to have a healer or you don't. We try to go with the latter.
Will there be a rating decay system implemented into arena for mop to prevent teams sitting on rating? Or something similar?
That's always under discussion. We don't like rewarding people to not play. Rating systems always encourage weird behavior.
Future
Will we see options like brown orcs and wildhammer dwarves when you get around to the model updates?
Discussed a lot. We debate whether you would just pick the skin or whether we need to explain why some of them were now available.
Are we ever going to see changes to the blood elf areas and when will i get to fly through silvermoon city!
Fixing Silvermoon would take much longer than fixing Stormwind for much less impact.
Any chance of an Azjol-Nerub raid at some point? Would love to see more of that beautiful art.
Would love to see that too. (This is in no way an announcement of anything.)
My guild recently cleared vanilla and some BC raids. Thoughts on reusing those encounters? I'm sure it's a catch-22.
Yeah, you have to strike the balance between nostalgia and "rehashed content."
Are we ever going to see Path of the Titans?
Still love the idea, but I want to do it right, not some one off-thing. Needs to be a major feature.
Have you guys ever thought about making currency such as JP account wide? It would mimic the D3 system a bit.
We'd consider letting you transfer some. If it is all account level, you wouldn't need to ever play your alt.
Will we ever be able to transmog Legendaries? The amount of time investment to get some of them, deserves it.
Maybe. We don't want to see everyone running around with Sulf. Common legendaries aren't legendary.
Will there be any new melee animations? Especially DKs. Love to get something like 'slam; with DK flavor.
We would like to add new melee animations. No ETA.
He also seems to avoid Q's about Char slots and if they will ever be more then 11 per server
We just went from 10 to 11. Too soon to know if and when we'll increase it.
Terrible rumors of ICC & Ulduar 25 meta mounts being removed. Can you confirm yes or no?
Pretty sure we didn't touch those mounts.
Wonderful rumors of Naxx 10 & 25 meta mounts being returned. Can you confirm yes or no?
We haven't changed them.
Have the "Charm of Good Fortune" been removed or are they still planned to be released.
Charms are alive and kicking.
Could you clarify about Charms of Good Fortune. Only usable in LFR or usable on normal/heroic mode raid bosses too?
All. Boss dies. You decide whether to use a charm for bonus loot. Normal boss loot is distributed however your group does it.
Off the record, how do you feel about player housing at this point?
We've always said we'd want to do it right and want it to have a purpose. Neither is easy.
Is there any future plans to make tabards hidden? Will make it a lot better imo for transmorg?
So you're declaring your allegiance via a tabard, but don't want anyone to know?
You have often say that you dislike the fact sending mails to your alts. Would realm-wide gold be an option in the future?
Potentially.
Have you considered making the Auction House global to help less populated servers with their often dodgy economy?
Potential downsides are not ever being able to corner the market or even recognize regular sellers. I predict it would be less fun for sellers. Maybe easier for buyers, but easy doesn't always mean more fun.
As a resident of Trollbane EU, I can't help asking if that's worse than not having sellers, regular or otherwise.
Just because A > B, doesn't mean A is the best answer.
Classes
Have the Devs ever considered a series of class based quests that would reward an evolving class/spec weapon?
Yes. But then we have one less loot reward. The Borderlands devs did a great answer for why you can't build your own gun.
Out of curiosity: What mistakes, design and number wise, did you learn from with DKs that you haven't made with Monks?
Long discussion, but one mistake with DKs is we listened to forum community too much and just kept buffing them before launch.
Also, concerning "buffs" for DKs- did you mean number or concept wise? Curious because of how much of the original DK is gone.
Mostly ability mechanics. Lots of concerns about DKs being kitable until they ended up with crazy CC and ranged attacks. Should clarify that I am *not* blaming players for that. It was all my fault.
Are monks as hard to balance as DKs were?
It's less about the balance and more about the design in general. Players have different expectations without years of tradition.
Any chance of making it so hunters cannot roll need on melee weapons? Saw a tanking sword (+parry/strength) ninja'd by hunter.
We need to expand the smarter Raid Finder loot system to dungeons. Dungeons just know hunters can equip swords.
What do you think of hunters' current status on simcraft?
I don't know how accurate the various specs are in simulation craft. Are you comfortable vouching for its accuracy? Sims overall are better used for improving your rotations or making gear choices than for stack ranking all DPS specs.
When will the warlock/hunter pet agro bug & lack of avoidance be fixed? Been bugged since 5.0.4. Hurting raiding/heroics.
Avoidance works fine except for Wild Imps.
Any plan on making wands able to auto-attack without incuring a GCD? Was this even intended when you made the MH switch?
We don't want wands to be the high dps choice. Daggers and staves still need a purpose. Wands have the same stats as daggers etc. We didn't want them to trump other int weapons.
Are you satisfied with the current tanking paradigm? Specifically, DPS matters, threat doesn't, AoE is easy, manage cooldowns.
As a developer, I like it. As a tank, I want threat to matter but I realize that's not fun for everyone else.
Why the 8 second CD on purify-like abilities? Was there really a problem with them having no CD?
They were spammed instead of being used reactively.
Are you 100% happy with the talent system? Seems some classes have a lot of underwhelming talents while others seem amazing great
Pretty happy, yes. We still see a lot of "X is useless," but we also see a lot of knowledgeable players using them.
When you talk about choices on the forum, what do you mean when you say "interesting choice?"
An "interesting" choice is one without a clearly superior answer. Choosing between 5% haste and 10% haste is not interesting.
I keep asking #monk questions, and no answers! WHY!
Because the answers take more characters than twitter offers.
There are questions all over the beta class forums that are not getting answered either
Believe it or not, my job is not to answer questions. I try to get to them when I can.
Why did you nerf warrior healing by 33.33% when warrior healing is pathetic in comparison to ret and hybrid healing?
Paladins have better heals. Warriors have better movement. Apples to oranges. Compare classes, not abilities IMO.
Apples to oranges? My expectation of your response wasn't high to begin with but I'm very disappointed.
Why? Do you think all classes should have the same amount of self-healing? I'm legitimately curious.
You have a problem
I disagree. It's only a problem if the situation you describe means that the paladin is generally better in PvP.
Does that mean SW is 2%/sec officially? Last I heard you were likely to reverse. No big deal - still works fine - but curious.
SW is 3%. The current healing debuff makes it 2%. Hopefully no debuff at 90. If so, we might need special handling for SW.
Any chance spell plate will be eliminated or more specs will use it?
Would love to get rid of it, but we don't like any of the obvious solutions. Please Twitter don't spam me with obvious solutions.
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Why did you remove Hungering cold from Death knights?
We couldn't balance HC without a cast time, and the cast time felt terrible to a lot of DKs.
What do you have against DW tanking? Miss that on my DK and was hoping it would make a comeback with Monks
Just bandwidth. We went from 3 DK tank specs to 1 because we were spending so much time balancing DKs.
Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Can you give hunters any sign for quivers ? We would be happy to hear anything about that.
Quivers have been something we have discussed with the character art team for years. Would love to do it. No ETA.
Blizz Dev team said we will get quivers @ blizzcon.why not bring back the quivers which are in since the first day of WoW?
When we removed the bag we lost the ability to display them. We can fix that (and want to) but it's not simple.
I apologize for being annoying but do you not have any info from my question this morning? Throwning weapons never to return?
Unlikely. Throwing weapons aren't handled well by the engine for hunters.
Could you please give us hunters Volley back?
Can you explain how Volley was fun? Channel, snooze, repeat.
Does an ability have to be fun in order to stay in the game?
Ideally, yes. Volley was designed in an era when AE was for Strat rats. Now AE is common and we like to keep you awake.
You noted the rogue spec flavors. Thoughts on hunter spec flavors? Beast guy, Military sniper, Feral woodsman?
Hunters harder. MM and BM emphasize guns or bears, but we've never quite nailed a kit for SV. Currently tricks and traps.
Can BM Hunters be viable tanks? Will we be able to queue LFD as a tank ever?
Would take massive changes to convert a DPS spec to a tank AND be fair to current tanks. Not every BM or Demo wants to be a tank.
Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Could you please talk to the ww monks regarding FoF rooting us in a raid setting?
Not sure what there is to say. We like it. Some forum posters don't.
Would it be possible to get some of the numerous class based questions from ama answered such as the monk ones
We can consider it. It's very easy for class Qs to just be arguments. "I don't like X. Are you going to change it?"
Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Paladins already lost the stam buff that you guys just gave us last week?
Don't think so...
I keep seeing holy pallys topping both dps and heals in bgs as ret it irks me is this intentional or will be fixed?
We hotfixed Holy Shock damage. Need to look at Denounce too.
WoG's proc of divine purpose is extremely high,even cast with 1HP,a macro is made to proc DP then use more WoG or SoR. A bug?
I think there is a bug where WoG can roll for the proc twice.
Currently, WoG with no CD and Bastion of Glory is awesome. But are you going to end up putting CD on it again like 4.0 to 4.1?
No, because all tanks have active mitigation now. The problem before was it would have been a huge buff to paladins alone.
If you don't mind my asking, what was the rationale behind making Consecration prot-only? Was such an iconic 'Paladin' move.
We didn't think Ret had room for it with the shorter cooldowns on J and CS. Ideally, we want 4-5 abilities in rotation.
The recent hotfix to Divine Purpose, does this mean it can no longer proc off itself?
We'll make a forum post on Divine Purpose. It's complicated.
Using free week of WoW. Tanked on Paladin after 1.5 years. Why go back to the clunky rotation from Cata beta? 3sec CS HotR ftw
3 sec CS means every other attack must be a CS. The new rotation gives you more flexibility (and TBH has been more popular).
Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
What is your response to people saying that rogues "weren't updated as much as other classes in MoP"?
Our goal isn't to change for the sake of it. We improved poisons and tried to distinguish rotations.
How do you see WoW's rogue? Assassin, Swashbuckler, Thief, Dirty Fighter, or all of the above?
We try to cover those archetypes with the different rogue specs: poisoner, sneaky guy, duelist.
Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Why does it feel like you guys ignored shaman and gutted the class? Nothing Synergizes, currently low low dps. Furthering the point: they actually do less things than they did before.
Players always tell us we ignore *their* class. In what circumstances (85, 90, PvP) is your dps low? You mean stuff like losing Strength of Earth and gaining Capacitor? What specifically do you miss?
What happened to cool shaman totems like repulsion totem? did they just not work or did you just not love shamans anymore?
Repulsion specifically had too many tech issues. It would have been easy for other players to cheat.
Elemental fury doesn't work on such magic damage like enchanting or trinkets
Ele Fury modifies spells by school, so it won't apply to effects that aren't shaman spells.
That make the 4pt14 useless for us ( Tidal Waves always up )
We think this is a fair concern. We'd consider changing the set bonus slightly - still Tidal Waves but in a different way.
Have you considered removing SLT? It's pretty clear many dps shaman hate being balanced to a totem and other players actions.
We like Spirit Link Totem and don't balance Elemental damage around its utility.
Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
What are your thoughts on Crit > STR for Warriors in stat weight values as Arms & Fury, were the #'s balanced around this?
You rarely choose Str vs. crit for gear except for gems, and we're pushing the secondaries a lot anyway in MoP.
Misc
I think you focus too much PvE balance on raids & numbers and overlook the rest.
We balance for raids and PvP because that's where tuning matters the most. We design for ALL aspects of the game though.
Do you plan raids to be completed in an amount of time or is that not a factor to consider?
How many hours for one run or how many weeks the content lasts?
Any attention going to be given to low-level dungeons? These need to be a learning experience again, rather than "gogogo."
Not sure I agree. When low level dungeons are hard, folks just skip them, because we can't make the loot motivating enough.
Any idea what the plan is before raids in MoP will be Real ID friendly?
Will likely be that you can do previous tier cross realm. You can do DS now. When 2nd MoP tier comes out, you can do 1st.
Would you be able to clarify on Cross Realm Raids - We'll not be able to use it for ''current'' content?
Correct. You can do it for current tier -1. I did it last night with a friends's guild. Very cool.
After CRZ release do we have any chance to get RealID raids for actual content?
Let's see how it goes. Cross realm is cool but so is having an actual guild on your realm.
World
Will cross-realm zones be active in Pandaria zones on release? I feel like this could mess with realm first achievements.
No, they will not.
Will we be able to quest with friends cross realm in Pandaria as soon as it comes out?
Yes, assuming you mean Real ID or Battle Tag friends. I think playing with friends is one of the big sleeper features for MoP.
Quick Q about CRZ...is it intended for people on diff server types (PVE/PVP) to be able to quest with one another? Or a bug?
If you invite them, they can join your realm. You should never be merged PvP to PvE or RP at random. Inviting the PvP players to a PvE realm doesn't let them gank you.
Any ETA on that post that was mentioned during the AMA re: CRZ? lotsa vague references to "misinformation" but nothing yet
Still coming AFAIK.
Will Pandarens, more specifically monks be able to group with other races before lvl 10 as they have no faction until then?
There are no other races on the Wandering Isle. You can group with other (non-aligned) pandaren if you'd like.
Character
Why can't you ignore players on other realms?
We will get ignore and report working ASAP. /who is tougher but we want to get that eventually too.
Hey GC, can we please have a "Every Woman for Herself" racial on Human Females? It's so weird to click it as "Himself"
TBH it bugs me too.
Any Reason Why "Blue Banner" Achievements don't credit their points to other characters? - seems wrong
Those are account level achievements. Your whole account should get them and the points.
In which case I'd expect to see a new character start with a total above 0 in the guild roster listing - right?
Might need to log in with each character to get the achievement points totaled correctly. But yes. Guild UI may not be updated.
Lovin the 5.x changes. Achieves account-wide = awesome BUT in guild panel it shows indiv toon points. Will you fix?
Yeah, we just overlooked that.
Any plans to make classic PvP titles and transmog account wide?
Not at the current time no.
You mentioned the other day that you'll be able to get multiple legendary gems. Is that a long process? Or should players hold off on slotting the gem if they think they're going to get the next version soon (e.g. a couple weeks)?
It was in the AMA. Think of it like a faction, with the gems at revered or whatever.
Will the legendary gem quest be for every raider in the raid, at same time?
Yes. We didn't want the politics and competition. Trying not to spoil it all.
When are you guys gonna repair the pet journal bug so I only have 1 copy of the pet?
Not a bug. You can sell the others. Seemed mean to delete pets if someone had them on each character.
Will we have to re-log at midnight for MOP launch to start getting XP?
The plan is no. /crosses fingers.
Professions
Have you looked at profession leveling. With leveling improvements it now takes a dedicated grind to keep a profession up
Check out Cooking and Inscription in MoP. Those are examples of ways we can improve catch up for all professions.
Misc
Did opening up the beta to (I'm assuming) so many more people help you guys or was it just to give people a preview of MoP?
No, it helped. Beta is not just about player feedback but also about what we observe with so many players playing.
Was patch 5.0.4 kind of an open beta for MoP?
We do like to have a few weeks to catch systems issues before the new content appears. Like a "soft opening" for a restaurant.
What's the official pronunciation: PAN-da-ren? pan-DAR-en? pan-DARE-en? Ditto for the continent name
We use pan-DARE-en and pan-DARE-ee-a (as I said before, like "bacteria").
How can you be proud of the way the armor looks in MoP? the armor looks like crap, hire a new art team already
Are you suggesting art is subjective?!
Was Ulduar always meant to host yogg saron?
IIRC he was originally in the Azjol raid. Ulduar merged with it. I might be misremembering.
If Yogg wasn't originally meant to be the end boss of Ulduar, who was?
Could have been Loken, or the four, or maybe we just hadn't gotten there yet. Really cant remember too well.
Sargeras coming back in a Kael'thas fashion. Emerald dream was cut with a the book. Any hints? is Sargeras lurking, biding?
Sargeras is out there. Burning Legion grows in strength. While Azeroth is focused on war, some already look ahead to that fight.
As a team, how do you decide how to balance change for people who hate change and people who thrive on it?
We debate that a lot. One way is to have some classes not change much.
Have you considered doing detailed feedback/discussion sessions with players about particular specs or one class at a time?
Problem is it builds up so much expectation. Whoever is last has to wait months, which then easily leads to disappointment.
Please note that my QQ comes from love of my class, not hatred of the game
Player passion is a good problem for developers to have.
You've taken a ridiculous amount of abuse over the years. Do you sometimes wonder "why do I bother?"
No. I love my job. Having passionate players is a privilege not a burden.
The best thing about having you on twitter is the eu fan base can finally interact with you.
Agree!
Will Blizz ever make Naga a playable race? Is the whole naga riding mounts the reason why they havent yet?
It's hard to fit legs or boots on naga...
Will the date for the SoR change any time soon?
I haven't tweeted about SoR or RaF because I don't want to get the details wrong off the top of my head. Not trying to ignore anyone. Some tweets are areas outside my realm of expertise or I feel have been beat to death in forums.
Could we please get a search bar for mount page similar to the one on the companion page? Would be brilliant.
Yeah we need one.
Is there a specific design philosophy behind vanity items/toys being short lived with long cooldowns?
In general, they can have big visuals which are annoying (and maybe less special) if spammed.
I know this is very subjective... but can you please explain what makes RNG fun? It's seems so much more frustrating than fun.
RNG is a barrier for players to overcome. I often describe it as the curves that make a racing game interesting.
Do you plan on reviving the mystery of WoW? Still remember getting no mans land in hyjal and thinking "what will it be?
Players are so good at documenting and data-mining everything now that it is certainly a challenge to maintain mystery.
Am I going to have to play FarmVille to get Tillers rep?
We'd prefer you play World of Warcraft to get Tillers rep.
Personal
Do you visit MMO-Champion and if so do you troll people on there.
I visit most active WoW sites and forums. I never post as a normal dude.
How much time do you (and the others) spend on trawling other sites (e.g. EJ and maintankadin) for opinions with higher STNR?
A lot. We find players are more honest outside of our own forums.
Have you ever played Wow on a public server with players who didn't know it was Ghostcrawler they were playing with?
Yes. Without sounding vain, it's funny when they quote me to me.
Is it funny when they misquote you, and you can instantly correct them?
No, I ususally say "He sounds like a clueless jerk."
Do you like being the face of blizzard to players?
Honestly, no, just because it doesn't give enough credit to all of the other people that pour their souls into the game.
Do you plan on remaining active (ie posting stuff) on the forums after MoP goes live?
Unlikely. I can't give the forums the amount of attention players seem to need. Too much "You're ignoring my class" or "You answered the wrong thread.
While we can't replace Ghostcrawler the community team will still be there and will keep relaying his wisdom.
Can't stress what Neth says enough.
Good to see ya on the tweets. Love how your to the point and say how you see it. Question whats your fav expantion.
Have a soft spot for BC because I was just one of the guys at a midnight launch standing in line.
I've found this "Twitter" challenges my verbosity. Does it suck seeing great questions and not having room to reply?
Yes, but it is liberating in a way too. Players have no expectations of gigantic answers to every bullet.
You've said a thick skin is necessary, but do you ever get tired of the conspiracy theories? (like the current 'plays mage')
I'd say the annoying ones are the ones that persist, almost to the urban legend degree (e.g. BK dictating class design).
Just curious but when did you get employed by Blizzard?
I started on Sunwell.
If you mind elaborating, what's your definition of "casual"? has it to do with regularity or quantity of playing time?
It's not a great term. It's hard to play WoW a lot and not become hardcore to some degree. By "casual raiders" I usually mean folks who might raid only a couple of hours a week or regularly skip a lot of weeks. It's fine if they don't progress as fast as 3 night a week raiders, but they do need to progress (or they stop playing).
What is your favorite mount? You can pick one land and one flying!
I'm partial to the nether rays. For ground, I might say the Grand Expedition Yak, because I worked on it a lot.
I know you have a personal vendetta against warriors but please dont nerf them... Nerf something op like a mage
I find that arbitrarily nerfing classes I personally don't like is good for the longevity of the game. I actually don't. It's just easier for the internet to explain things they don't like that way. I know I sound like an ass, but don't you think I'd lose my job if I designed solely for my own classes? It's not logical.
Just out of curiosity, what classes you personally don't like?
If history is any indication, whichever one you are playing.
I certainly noticed in the class Q&A @ Blizzcon that one dev answered the DK and Druid Qs, others for other classes etc
It's hard for every designer to play every class equally, but we all contribute to design. It's a group effort.
That explains why GC answered the mage questions
I don't play mage.
What is your favorite piece of pandaria lore/storyline? Did anything suprise you as you tested the expansion?
I really liked the Emperor Shouhou story Kosak came up with. Feels a lot like mythology in a good way. Surprise. Hmm. Maybe that Lili was fun to have around when she could have been annoying. Oh and for a time Snowblossom was probably unbeatable. We called her the Destoyer of Men.
What is your dream race/class combo that currently doesn't exist in the game? (Either because it's not allowed or not in game)
Dwarf lock and druid troll were my dream, and we got them in. Pandaren & Blood Elf druid and gnome hunter & pal are most common requests. BE druid doesn't make sense from lore. It makes sense from Horde players who want a pretty druid. (Not judging.)
If you could play any race in WoW lore, what would it be? Why?
I've always been partial to orcs. Also liked the nelfs when they were fierce.
From a design perspective what has been your favorite raid boss encounter?
Design: Mimiron. To tank: Deathwhisper (or maybe Razorgore). To heal: Chimaeron. To DPS: New Rag.
Not sure I agree with either Deathwhisper or Razergore being fun to tank. Alys and Nef were better imo.
I meant the adds on both those fights if it wasn't obvious.
I used to really dislike you but your tweetreplies over the last couple of days made me reconsider. (and I even play a warrior)
Twitter is probably a better reflection of one's personality than forum posts.
I used to think you thought of your job as work. But reading your tweets makes it look like you really love it.
Yes, I do. It's not always an easy job, but I am very fortunate to have one I love.
Does it bother you that most people's frustrations with WoW involves self induced burnout?
Actually a little. I can understand them getting burned out but I wish they recognized that.
Here's a non-typical question: If you could make a perfect costume for your favorite character at Blizzcon, what would you be?
Sha of Fear.
How do you deal with all the negativity?
Gin.
How about some hard hitting questions then. Tea or Coffee when working? (Or something different altogether?)
I drink an unhealthy amount of coffee.
A shot for each negative comment you get. Take one that negates the 1st shot for every positive comment you get: how drunk?
I'd be dead.
Many Chinese players don't like you, one even said would kill you if he went to US. So how do you get thru these harsh words?
I meet with Chinese players at China Joy. They are always excited and gracious. So I don't know what the concerns are you mention.
Not always. From where I came, is a large Chinese WoW based forum. People there just blame everything they don't like on you.
Well, that's fair, but I need to know what they don't like in order to have a chance to fix it.
Shall we retranslate Chinese players' comments back to you? Some of them are pretty insulting.
Insults aren't helpful. Concerns they have that we can address are.
Do you guys get angry about that sort of criticism?
It's hard for us to get angry when the criticism has the goal of improving the game.
Greg, as you worked on RTS design before, any role on SC2 so far for you? Testing or advising?
I do a SC2 strike team too (see answer about D3). Not sure those guys need my advice.
Hey GC, what kind of college courses would you recommend for someone planning on becoming a video game developer/designer?
Depends a lot on whether you're looking at art, code or design. There are a few design schools, but almost any major will work.
How did you transition from your PhD to game design? Am a social sci doctor (PsyD) who wants to career change but how to start?
I read a lot about the industry and what studios were hiring. The trick is to make yourself stand out and networking trumps all.
Behind the Design of Mists of Pandaria
If the tweets aren't enough for you, The Escapist has a nice interview with Ghostcrawler about the thought process behind different aspects of the Mists of Pandaria design.
Curse Weekly Roundup
Pico brings us the weekly gaming news including: the November 18th launch of the WiiU, Guild Wars 2 sells 2 million copies, Steam Greenlight project is a go, Minecraft XBox 360 updates, Terraria comes to XBLA and PSN, and finally new NVIDIA GPUs have arrived!