The Starting Zone BlizzCon 2017 Interview - Unique Island Rewards and Hybrid-Role Consumables

Posted 2017/11/10 at 1:54 PM by perculia

The Starting ZoneIslands Expedition Overview

Islands used similar tech from Mists scenarios - fast queues, role-agnosticism. However Blizzard has learned a lot, for example, the Island NPCs are much smarter and more difficult to fight.

Blizzard wants to play around with the concept of not requiring the 'holy trinity' of roles - tank, healer, dps. You will find a seafaring vendor on your dock every day who will sell consumables allowing you to fill in holes for your spec.
For example, one day your Arms Warrior could find a vendor selling consumables so you could essentially be a tanky Arms Warrior.

Or if you're on your Mage, perhaps you'd find items allowing you to become a Healing Mage!

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battle-for-azeroth islands

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Comments

Comment by Xuldarinar

A mage healer.. Well, now you have my attention.

Comment by 1183893

Friends and I used to joke about a Caster Rogue, maybe it'll finally happen! :)

Comment by vegeta0585

15 minutes. Ew. What is with WoW's need to do things so ridiculously fast. That's not fun.

Comment by SpencerHD

Thanks so much for covering this, we really enjoyed doing the interview!

Comment by darquis

I hope that these items let any one of your team choose to fill a role rather than "oh you have plate, they're the tank" every time.

Comment by stym

15 minutes. Ew. What is with WoW's need to do things so ridiculously fast. That's not fun.

Then just ignore those and raid. There are lots of players (including me) who also enjoy bite-size content that does not require too much of a time commitment.

Comment by perculia

I hope that these items let any one of your team choose to fill a role rather than "oh you have plate, they're the tank" every time.

I would love the return of the Warlock tank!

Comment by jpop2887

15 minutes. Ew. What is with WoW's need to do things so ridiculously fast. That's not fun.

Since it's based on the 3v3 MoP scenarios and it's "PVP" there's no need for them to be longer than 15 minutes. Imagine queuing for a 3v3 arena and it takes more than 15 minutes to kill the other team, that would be brutal.

Comment by Lemai

imagine something like healing with blizzard or frozen orb, that would be dope!

Comment by tcrivers

Not to mention, you'll be able to grind out plenty more since they'll be shorter. For those that are in it for collectables, or even maxing azerite, the length will be beneficial.

Comment by DarknessinZero

So we're gonna feel bad for killing the enemy. Why can't they just be faceless monsters?

Comment by 1261445

I don't understand why people say scenarios had no challenge. There was definitely a challenge to it, it's not like you had infinite healing. They haven't demonstrated that Islands are different scenarios except for them being randomized scenarios, which isn't all that exciting to me. World Quests are randomized copies of campaign quests, but they're not random enough that I haven't done the same ones hundreds of times. It's hard to be excited about something we've done before, just because we're told "it's better now."

Comment by cordell9

this feels a lot like that argent tournament raid where you faced off against that NPC team. I remember how hard that fight was on release.

Comment by Joshmaul

15 minutes. Ew. What is with WoW's need to do things so ridiculously fast. That's not fun.

According to who?

Comment by Sw1ft

Healing Mages? The two people who love each other and can ressurect each other? This is what I want. Stories. They make combat REAL.

Just like the end of this upcoming expac? We're going to have Sylvanas and Anduin as buddies.

Or they'll both die. :P

Comment by bass679

I'm very excited for this. I loved Heroic Scenarios in MoP. Being role agnostic is going to be a challenge though. I mean, we all know how our community is. It's going to be min-maxed as much as possible.

Comment by livie

Am I the only one who thought this was about the Allied Races' starting zones? hahaha

Comment by seiretsym

15 minutes. Ew. What is with WoW's need to do things so ridiculously fast. That's not fun.

I beg to differ. Spending 30-45 minutes in this kind of instance would be incredibly tedious and unfun. No thanks.

Comment by FTLNewsFeed

Will there be the "n00b NPC" who doesn't know how to play its' class? The Moonkin who just constantly dots, or the Frost Mage who just constantly Ice Lance's? That sort of play range -- the n00b to the master -- and everything in-between could be fun.

Comment by DemonIced

15 minutes. Ew. What is with WoW's need to do things so ridiculously fast. That's not fun.

I, for one, like to have different kind of options for content depending on how much time I have at my disposition.

Let's say 10-15 min for those Islands things (maybe longer on higher difficulties?)

15-20 min for dungeons

20-30+ Mythic+

1-2h for raids

If not, World Quests for a quick fix.

Not everything should be long or else they become a chore. It seems between Warfronts and this, we already have a couple of different options of content in addition to the regular Dungeons, Raids, Battlegrounds and Arena.

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