Preach Shadowlands Interview with Ion Hazzikostas - Liveblog

Posted 2020/07/17 at 11:54 AM by Squishei

Liveblog Summary

This interview took more of a conversational form and we highly suggest you listen to the interview to hear the full context.

Locking Off Class Abilities in Covenant Choice

Identity vs Player Choice.

On one end of the spectrum is permanence -- there's no way to change your character once you pick it

On the other end are things that are not part of your identity. Things like your gear, consumables and talents you're tailoring to the fight.

The goal in creating a choice is to make it a difficult one.

The choice is what creates depth and creates more variety among the choices that they have taken.

Consequences of Choice - Trying Different Covenants

The scenario where you can't test and feel like you can't experiment with the other Covenants is a separate but solvable problem.

They could make a mode where you can try abilities from the other Covenants, even while in a Covenant.

A lot of it comes down to tuning and that is a challenge.

Back in Legion, the choice of which spec to play had more weight than choosing a Covenants, as Legendaries and other things were spec based.

RNG and Variance

RNG and Variance in combat in your damage is not satisfying.

Passive effects and talents should not have more effectiveness than things that affect your active abilities.

There should still be certain RNG aspects to be expected in an RPG.

More specialized players should have a slightly different experience than those who choose to more versatile.

Lore Reasons?

They could have told the narrative a different way to fit however they wanted to do the Soulbinds or Covenant system.

The Micro Choices

When preparing for an encounter, there's a lot of things that you'll need to consider in Shadowlands -- talents, gear, Soulbinds, which Soulbind tree.

They wanted to change something about a Fire Mage who can literally change every fascet of themselves.

RPG Customizations

If you decide to spec your DK to AoE, that's something that your raid can work around.

When something is completely flexible, there is a right answer.

Having complete control over something can remove your freedom by forcing them to feel optimal.

When applying for a LFG dungeon, and someone asks you what your spec is and you reply, there's a lot of things that people can immediately assume about you.

When everyone knows that everyone had to make a choice (and you chose this Legendary or chose this Covenant), that doesn't immediately have all these assumptions about you.

If there is a "best Covenant", then yes you may see a gravitation over time but if X mage is best for A and y mage is best for B, that's the goal.

Recently in the MDI we've seen triple hunter and all night elf groups, but that's what we see in PUG metas

Choice Should Have Payoff

There HAVE to be circumstances where your choice feels like it paid off.

As long as it's not super swingy, different solutions to each problem is something that adds depth..

In the Limit world, there will be a right answer.

Conduit Destructibility

Semi-permanence and really annoying grinds to overcome it by -- e.g. running for the same conduits over and over again they've identified as a frustration.

They learned that from Azerite Armor and the gold cost.

They are trying to come up with a solution for conduit destruction, but nothing to announce at the moment.

They know players will optimize conduit farming if it allows, so they're trying to find a nice middle ground so that you don't feel like you can't change your Conduits between every raid fight or between every dungeon but you don't feel like you need to farm a boatload of Conduits.

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Comment by ChaxtonHere's hoping that new and interesting questions get asked this time!

-t. post that will (hopefully not) age like milkComment by Matrixwolfinterview now or 6pm?Comment by aski4777RemovedComment by ValstreuIt is such a waste of time to ask him about the covenant swapping in regards to abilities. He gives the same answer and you lose 15 minutes of interview time. He is trolling all of us. Stop asking and just make posts and content in regards to that issue. They have acknowledged they see those videos. You are not going to be the light bulb in his head in a live interview.Here's hoping that new and interesting questions get asked this time!Comment by RaybezeIt is such a waste of time to ask him about the covenant swapping in regards to abilities. He gives the same answer and you lose 15 minutes of interview time. He is trolling all of us. Stop asking and just make posts and content in regards to that issue. They have acknowledged they see those videos. You are not going to be the light bulb in his head in a live interview.Here's hoping that new and interesting questions get asked this time!Comment by 1412075This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by KetsutoroIt really does seem like Ion never learns. They tried this same tact with their iLvl should be King thing and couldn't make it work. They also couldn't balance Secondary stats.Comment by instigRepeat after me: the vocal minority does not dictate the entire game.

I 100% agree with Ion. I think that's the right direction for the game.

You cannot say that "Players don't want this, players don't want that." You are not questioning all 7/8 million that play this game.Comment by KelleiIt is such a waste of time to ask him about the covenant swapping in regards to abilities. He gives the same answer and you lose 15 minutes of interview time. He is trolling all of us. Stop asking and just make posts and content in regards to that issue. They have acknowledged they see those videos. You are not going to be the light bulb in his head in a live interview.
Comment by 1412075This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by PeredhilRepeat after me: the vocal minority does not dictate the entire game.

I 100% agree with Ion. I think that's the right direction for the game.

You cannot say that "Players don't want this, players don't want that." You are not questioning all 7/8 million that play this game.Comment by KetsutoroIt is such a waste of time to ask him about the covenant swapping in regards to abilities. He gives the same answer and you lose 15 minutes of interview time. He is trolling all of us. Stop asking and just make posts and content in regards to that issue. They have acknowledged they see those videos. You are not going to be the light bulb in his head in a live interview.
Comment by juniordluk
Nobody likes this, but he's been trotting out this same line for years now. He's not going to change, and change will only come when someone new takes the reins.
Comment by skulxenRemovedComment by naxergss7/8 milion players ? LolComment by Mauaki"It's nuanced". Ion, 2020.Comment by 1412075This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by RazaronThis is such a pointless interview. I hope Blizz blacklists Preach from doing interviews from now on. I mean almost 50 minutes on 1 single question? Come on man, talk about unprofessional.Comment by etrnlaffair"In the Limit world, there will be a right answer."

This made me chuckle.Comment by LedxThis is such a pointless interview. I hope Blizz blacklists Preach from doing interviews from now on. I mean almost 50 minutes on 1 single question? Come on man, talk about unprofessional.

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