Shadowlands Interview with Ion Hazzikostas and Tonton - Open World Lag, Swapping Covenants, PvP Power

Beta Posted 2020/07/09 at 12:25 PM by Squishei

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LiveblogCovenant Abilities and Soulbinds

You can use them everywhere.

Once you hit max level and join a covenant, and have a soulbind, it's part of your character.

Covenant Abilities in PvP

They have the ability to have custom tuning in PvP.

The last thing they want to do is disabled something completely.

Will Covenants become the new factions?

The Covenants aren't exactly enemies against each other.

The can occasionally come into conflicts; there may be some PvP stuff that might be Covenants v. Covenants when it makes sense, but only when it makes sense.

PvP Problems

BFA was systems on top of systems and created some pretty broken systems and complexity.

They're learned from some tuning mistakes from things like corruption and essences -- passive dots or effects aren't exactly a reflection of skill.

Mage Tower

Down the line, there's room for additions. The Mage Tower was partway through Legion.

There are a number of customizations that can be earned from challenges like from the Covenant's Path of Ascension or Torghast's Twisted Corridors.

Larger Rewards for Mythic+/PvP

A portion of the reward is ego.

They don't want to push the reward ladder too high - every class can complete a +20 in time, every class can get 2400 in time.

They admit that they're not perfectly balanced but they don't want people to have a pressure there for in-game rewards.

PvP Power

PvP Power was an internal experiment that was datamined.

There are no plans to add a stat like that -- they want to make sure that it's clear what spells perform best.

They've decided that PvP only stats are not the right thing for the game at this time.

Shadowlands Launch

It's a little early to say if there will be anything special for the Shadowlands launch.

Changing Covenants and Being Meta

Covenants are set up to be a different choice than specs or talents.

WoW is a series of interesting choices -- from buttons to gear and talents to class and faction

Covenants are intended to be part of your identity.

There's a lot of customization, if you go into a dungeon, you pick the AoE conduits and the AoE soulbind.

Nadjia which was shown yesterday is more single target focus and you can socket single target conduits and use that as your single target conduit.

When returning to a Covenant, it's going to be much harder to prove yourself back to the Covenant since you left via a quest.

It should be a similar choice to deciding between Mage and Hunter.

Battleground and Arenas

New Arena in Bastion, no new Battleground

Tertiary Stats

Tertiary stats will probably be about how it is now.

Lag in Open World Battles

It's been going back all the way to WoTLK and Wintergrasp.

They've been working on it over the past year.

The problem is the game is more complicated, there was a preach video that speculated what was going on and he wasn't too far off.

However, it's an explanation, not an excuse. Ion knows it feels terrible and they're been working on many optimizations

Prepatch

Will probably be a few weeks before Shadowlands launch

Level squish and systems will be live.

Inspired by the Scourge event from WoTLK

They're gonna tell the story of how the Heroes of Azeroth are gathering in Icecrown and preparing for the Assault.

Comment by MauakiIt should be a similar choice to deciding between Mage and Hunter.Comment by AarkanThe problem is the game is more complicated, there was a preach video that speculated what was going on and he wasn't too far off.
Comment by TobiasAmaranthThe problem is the game is more complicated, there was a preach video that speculated what was going on and he wasn't too far off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCJWYUuKAZoComment by Leodagan38PvP Power

•PvP Power was an internal experiment that was datamined.
•There are no plans to add a stat like that -- they want to make sure that it's clear what spells perform best.
•They've decided that PvP only stats are not the right thing for the game at this time.Comment by TOMRUS
It should be a similar choice to deciding between Mage and Hunter.
Comment by GulfosIt should be a similar choice to deciding between Mage and Hunter.ALL THE TIMEComment by JustaProvidenciaPvP Power

•PvP Power was an internal experiment that was datamined.
•There are no plans to add a stat like that -- they want to make sure that it's clear what spells perform best.
•They've decided that PvP only stats are not the right thing for the game at this time.Comment by WowheadCommenterIt should be a similar choice to deciding between Mage and Hunter.Comment by MauakiIt should be a similar choice to deciding between Mage and Hunter.ALL THE TIME
Are you sure you have that the right way around? People will certainly much more quickly choose not to bring you because of your class rather than a choice you made within that class.Comment by xeravThe last thing they want to do is disabled something completely.

Great so if i choose a class + covenant level it and then realize it does not work "completly" i am pretty much f... Blizzard plz .. enable em or disable em not some "oh right well in chase x ability y behaves different but you have to go all the way to find it out and then wasted tons of time sry mate".

Sry for being negativ but we all know frostnovas not breaking from damage is bs... and there are other super broken ones too...Comment by phoenicksIt should be a similar choice to deciding between Mage and Hunter.Comment by phoenicks
It should be a similar choice to deciding between Mage and Hunter.
Comment by Ertzak"I want to be able to do everything"..well ok, let's make all classes do everything then...

"no ! no class should be able to do everything, some specs/classes are good in pvp, others in pve, don't ruin the game making you being able to do everything".. oh ok, so choices should matter, let's make covenants too

"nooo i want to be able to do everything".

If covenants should be able to changed Easily, then let me change classes too, just like ff14. I want to do to m+, let me take monk...oh pvp? i'll go warlock...old content? DH it is...

but yeah, pretty sure people who are complaining about the covenants would not like that idea.Comment by 1412075This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by LautnerPeople look for specific classes to fill their raid, arena and RBG teams. They look for specific SPECS within those classes. In the exact same way, they'll expect specific covenents, with specific soulbinds and specific conduits.

However, you can still clear every facet of the game with any class and any spec. Same with covenants.

1% minmax does not matter when a difference in skill level can be the difference between 15kdps and 30k dps. That would bring the 'bottom' dps up to 16.5k, while the goofy guy who went Kyrian is still at 30. :p It happens every day.

So unless you're world-first mythic raiding, this stuff doesn't matter.

Choosing a covenant is like choosing a class. Just more variety for our characters, and we need to look at it that way. It's a faction we represent that gives us advantages. Weigh the pros and cons, pick the one you like the most. Be warned that balance tuning can lower the 'best performing class' in a patch, just as easily as it can 'best performing covenant'.

:p

It's why mythic raiders tend to level three characters side-by-side. So that if one gets nerfed or buffed, they can swap. They'll bring that same level of dedication here. If Kyrian is stronger for something, they'll do that quest and change. That in no way should mean that these should be a toggled talent, though.

For 99% of us, this is a non-issue.Comment by Wombat62
It should be a similar choice to deciding between Mage and Hunter.
Comment by criolloPvP Power

•PvP Power was an internal experiment that was datamined.
•There are no plans to add a stat like that -- they want to make sure that it's clear what spells perform best.
•They've decided that PvP only stats are not the right thing for the game at this time.Comment by warglaives91No one's gonna miss u. Later @#$%^