Blizzard Interview with Icy Veins, Raider.IO and Wowhead for Patch 12.1 - Class Tuning, Myth 9/6

Posted 2 hr 28 min ago by Squishei

This interview was a joint effort between Wowhead, Icy Veins and Raider.IO . Please check out their content as well below!

Paul Kubit, Associate Game Director

Rachel Vought, Lead Quest Designer

Wowhead Questions

Wowhead

In Season 1, we got a class tuning roadmap. How did you feel like that worked out, and can we expect something similar for Season 2?

We should expect something similar to the Class Tuning Roadmap for Season 1

They know roughly when they want to do class tuning, and they think it went pretty well this season.

The only issue was the message also said "we may also do additional tuning passes here and there" in a not very visible spot.

This should release in the next couple days.

Wowhead

Mythic+ now has an exclusive season only mount that is awarded to the top players, and PvP has this for a while with the Glad mounts. Are there plans to have a similar mount for raid?

Part of the problem with an exclusive top 1% mount for raid, would be how you determine a percentage for raids.

There is an exclusive mount from the final boss of right, but nothing specific right now for a top % mount.

Wowhead

Are there plans to have a quick way to get to the Coiled Isle? Or will players have to fly out there every time.

The Coiled Isle is part of the Eastern Kingdoms and you can hop on a flying mount and fly there.

Prey is getting updates in Patch 12.1, and one of the new benefits that you can get is Quick Travel to the island.

Wowhead

The Coiled Isle features a unique combination of a fully flyable outdoor zone and a walking-only underground segment. How did this impact the design of outdoor activities and quests compared to previous patch zones? How are players incentivized to interact with both forms of content?

Because there's only ground mounts in the Vaults of Atal'utek, navigation becomes part of the gameplay.

The map is actually going to help you find where others are killing things.

Once you're inside the temple, it's ground mounts only -- but you might be in the air much more than you can think. There's a lot of cool things you can do to get around faster.

Wowhead

Can you explain more why you decided to increase the power of loot from the last two Mythic bosses to Myth 9/6? Many players have expressed frustration that they feel incentivized to raid. What goal are you hoping to hit?

Mythic raiders are challenging some of the most difficult content in the game and they want to be appropriately rewarded.

The Great Vault is getting updated so the rewards in the raid vault are a tier upwards from what you would normally get.

That's going to be great for Normal and Heroic raiders, but for Mythic raiders, they want to give them something that sets them apart and their challenge is appropriately rewarded.

The increased loot from the last two bosses is a good reflection of the effort that Mythic raiders put in.

Full SummarySolo Dev vs Team on Quests

The main campaign quest has quite a few people working on it, with a lot of oversight, especially due to big and popular characters

They also want to tell those personal tales in the local stories (side quests). They do a lot of that as a team as well, with playtests and gathering feedback.

Zul'jan

They're very happy that people are resonating with Zul'jan and Zul'jarra since they're completely new.

Zul'jan has always been on a different path than his sister.

They always knew that they wanted to focus Patch 12.1 on these characters and Zul'jan on his path.

No story spoilers, but there's some things regarding the story that hasn't been seen yet.

Take a look at the details that were added in the Curse of Ula'tek, and there might be details on where we're headed to next.

Release Cadence of Story Quests

On the PTR, the Arator part of the campaign was released early just for testing purposes.

Arator's chapter has to follow the Venomous Abyss raid.

There's potential for this to tie into the story one-boss raid in Patch 12.1.5

Teleporting to the Coiled Isle

The Coiled Isle is part of the Eastern Kingdoms and you can hop on a flying mount and fly there.

Prey is getting updates in Patch 12.1, and one of the new benefits that you can get is Quick Travel to the island.

Class Tuning Roadmap for Season 2

We should expect something similar to the Class Tuning Roadmap for Season 1

They know roughly when they want to do class tuning, and they think it went pretty well this season.

The only issue was the message also said "we may also do additional tuning passes here and there" in a not very visible spot.

This should release in the next couple days.

Mythic Raiding and Myth 9/6

Mythic raiders are challenging some of the most difficult content in the game and they want to be appropriately rewarded.

The Great Vault is getting updated so the rewards in the raid vault are a tier upwards from what you would normally get.

That's going to be great for Normal and Heroic raiders, but for Mythic raiders, they want to give them something that sets them apart and their challenge is appropriately rewarded.

The increased loot from the last two bosses is a good reflection of the effort that Mythic raiders put in.

Bonus Rolls

They saw that a lot of players were really excited to earn bonus rolls in Season 1.

They liked the additional choice that players had where they could take the gear immediately from the Great Vault, or take that Bonus Roll into a form of content and target something that you wanted.

They've heard the feedback that if you take something from the Great Vault it should be knocked off the list of Bonus Rolls. It's not how it's going to work in Patch 12.1, but they're listening and hope that players are going to make the coin of gear now, or coin later in different ways.

Housing and New Features

Nothing is off the table for where housing goes in the future.

Pet beds and blueprints are coming in Patch 12.1!

They're not slowing down on housing and have a lot of cool ideas in the future.

Exclusive Mounts for Raid

Part of the problem with an exclusive top 1% mount for raid, would be how you determine a percentage for raids.

There is an exclusive mount from the final boss of right, but nothing specific right now for a top % mount.

Lairs

They're really excited for lairs to come in.

World bosses used to be very different historically. They usually had a lot of corpses and bones, and world bosses don't work like that anymore.

Lairs allows them to make different difficulties including World Difficulty where you can just walk in and it will auto group you, with a difficulty that should be equivalent to a typical World Boss.

Success of the lairs system would look like a lot of people play it and have fun.

Difficulty would probably be something like early Venomous Abyss encounter.

Zul'jan

They knew where they were going after Zul'Aman and it was a big technical challenge building a new island off the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms.

They have a lot of designers also very passionate about Zul'jan and want to make sure that his portrayal is accurate.

Favorite Creatures

There's a baby snake with a Mohawk from one of the local stories.

There's baby wind serpents that are super cute.

There's one "vaguely raccoon shaped thing" somewhere in this update that they can't say much about.

There were these humanoid snake like creatures, that run on two legs but have a snake-like body. They were originally called "snake-oids". They were then called the Children of Ula'tek, they look cool, but also because they called Snake-oid.

Corrosive Codex Lessons

The Corrosive Codex learns form the Loa Blessings from Zul'aman and the Voidstorm talent tree.

One of the big things is shouldn't feel compulsory.

The Corrosive Codex is bigger, and is based on your self-reinforcing power inside the Temple of Atal'utek.

You feed these coins into a skull and a lot of these things are going to give you more coins!

Flying and Non-Flying on Coiled Isle

Because there's only ground mounts in the Vaults of Atal'utek, navigation becomes part of the gameplay.

The map is actually going to help you find where others are killing things.

Once you're inside the temple, it's ground mounts only -- but you might be in the air much more than you can think. There's a lot of cool things you can do to get around faster.

Blizzard Survey Results

They do a lot of surveys to get ideas from players.

Nothing to announce anything regarding those surveys right now but at some point they might have something to announce.

Comment by Allakatter2And what about the efforts of top M+ players?

Why does +20-23 keys or something not drop 9/6 gear as well?

Out of touch as always.Comment by TastelikelemonThey missed Resto Druid tuning by a planet or two to the point where such class no longer exist, so bad that even F tier wont do it justice.Comment by aaron000I'm all for rewarding Mythic raiders as they deserve, but it sucks as a M+ player to always be behind unless I raid, which is not something I actively enjoy. Maybe that'll change in 12.1, but not in the cards currently.

I don't envy them for constantly having to balance the reward system of M+ vs Mythic raid.Comment by st1flerAnd what about the efforts of top M+ players?

Why does +20-23 keys or something not drop 9/6 gear as well?

Out of touch as always.Comment by HinakoThey know roughly when they want to do class tuning, and they think it went pretty well this season.Comment by XxandesThey know roughly when they want to do class tuning, and they think it went pretty well this season.Comment by LyndiaaPlayed PTR and you are shamelessly dilusional!

Once you're inside the temple, it's ground mounts only -- but you might be in the air much more than you can think. There's a lot of cool things you can do to get around faster.Comment by pwhitf16There will not be a meaningful increase in mythic raiding with 9/6 change. There will be a meaningful decrease in other endgame activities because of it. Just reverse it now.Comment by KarthusTeemoWhen they say players have resonated with the story......which players are they referring to?Comment by aaron000When they say players have resonated with the story......which players are they referring to?Comment by ShiftyrAnd what about the efforts of top M+ players?

Why does +20-23 keys or something not drop 9/6 gear as well?

Out of touch as always.Comment by Setsuna665When they say players have resonated with the story......which players are they referring to?Comment by aaron000When they say players have resonated with the story......which players are they referring to?Comment by BegroovedAnd what about the efforts of top M+ players?

Why does +20-23 keys or something not drop 9/6 gear as well?

Out of touch as always.Comment by SchattensangWhen they say players have resonated with the story......which players are they referring to?Comment by SaraVin2I'm all for rewarding Mythic raiders as they deserve, but it sucks as a M+ player to always be behind unless I raid, which is not something I actively enjoy. Maybe that'll change in 12.1, but not in the cards currently.

I don't envy them for constantly having to balance the reward system of M+ vs Mythic raid.Comment by aaron000I'm all for rewarding Mythic raiders as they deserve, but it sucks as a M+ player to always be behind unless I raid, which is not something I actively enjoy. Maybe that'll change in 12.1, but not in the cards currently.

I don't envy them for constantly having to balance the reward system of M+ vs Mythic raid.Comment by ancineniRaiders are already disproportionately rewarded with "I win" items (often even on lfr ilvl).

You increased track for all other raid difficulties in the vault and simultaneously cranked up the mythic raid ilvl.... This game really is just a numbers must go up game, is it?Comment by FraptorAre raiders seriously envious of pvp rewards? I mean, they should be - we get an amazing Back Pennant for reaching Legend in SS. I'm surprised they didn't ask for that reward instead...Comment by voidoxWhen they say players have resonated with the story......which players are they referring to?The main campaign quest has quite a few people working on it, with a lot of oversight, especially due to big and popular charactersThey have a lot of designers also very passionate about Zul'jan and want to make sure that his portrayal is accurate.