World of Warcraft: Current Year

Mist · Jan 6, 2021

The runspeed and how spread out the mobs are is what really kills it for me.

moonarchia · Jan 6, 2021

Owl-idan?

Merrith · Jan 6, 2021

Ironically, playing BM for Torghast, movement speed is never a problem, because half the time they give us our talent where out of combat movement speed is increased by 30%, and another ability we can get where using Disengage up to 30 times permanently increases our speed by 3% each time, stacking to 90% total.

I do agree 18 floors is a bit much, at least with how they have some of the floor design currently.

Warmuth · Jan 6, 2021

I already dislike running 12 floors per week. There is no way I’m going to do 18 in one session. Well, I guess I’ll do it once because I have to but 18 floors is way, way , way too long. If progress could be saved somehow after certain points I could stomach it and go in for 30-45 minute stretches and it could be a thousand floors for all I care since I can leave and come back later. It doesn’t bother me that it’s there or that they keep it since it’s optional and there are no items aside from the mount that you can’t get because it’s fucking bugged.

kaid · Jan 6, 2021

The thing is with the twisting corridors is basically unless you enjoy it you are only ever going to do each layer 1 time for the rewards. I imagine once people start getting higher gear its going to basically be a joke to run through even the higher tiers.

Qhue · Jan 6, 2021

Did the 18 floor thing this AM and man was that a slog. I was just happy it was over and then annoyed at the paltry reward it offered.

jayrebb · Jan 6, 2021

Njals said:
Week 5 of no world boss loot after an Uldur clear with 2 pieces with one being a cloak which was also my time walking reward and is also 10 ilevels lower than my legendary cloak. They need to bring back those chance coins for people forsaken by RNJesus.

Agreed 2nd half of expac chance coins should make a return, as well as enhanced M+ rewards.

Its fine to begin the expac as raid-dominant, and I wouldn't argue otherwise. But the ending should be more BFA-like-- I think it was a superior system for the masses.

I never thought I'd say I missed some BFA mechanics. Shit, titanforging isn't looking so bad anymore.

Tauntworth · Jan 6, 2021

So, I soloed the first 4 layers in Twisted Corridors (as a DK) last night. They are starting to get dicey. Anybody poopsocked anything above layer 5, and if so were you solo? Don't want to slog through layer 5 only to find floor 16 or 17 absolutely fucks me.

BoozeCube · Jan 6, 2021

I have pretty much already stopped playing Shadowlands, the single player bad story telling design of the game with generic rewards just doesn't do it for me. Then I read shit like this and I am glad I dropped it early. Leveling is fun, doing the dungeons a few times is fun, I'll be back at the end of a couple of patches when they unfuck all the dogshit design choices they have put in place, gear up super quickly with no time gating smash out some shit and quit again.

Warcraft Radio Interview with Chris Kaleiki
Warcraft Radio is interviewing Chris Kaleiki, former PvP Developer and Game Designer for Shadowlands.

https://twitch.tv/WarcraftRadio/chat?popout&parent=www.mmo-champion.com

Click to load chat

The modern game has so many different ways to gear up, and the challenge for the team is that they want all of these sources to feel rewarding. However, not everything can be an upgrade or players would gear up way too fast.
The only way to address this is by either random chance or breaking the system up with a currency for upgrades or supplemental gearing.
Chris says that the feeling amongst the team was that BfA was too random, and they conceited that it went too far.
The trick is to make sure you learn from past challenges and designs that didn't work out, but not to go too far in the other direction.
Chris thinks that they have done a good job with this in Shadowlands for the most part.
Chris says that the team would like to think that players are holistic and enjoy using all parts of the game to gear, but this isn't always the case and it's a challenge. Ultimately, it's a question for the players to answer.
In Legion, there was a concerted effort to engineer comps in Arena with the PvP system, but it's now more reactionary.
Originally, there wasn't a set designer for each class in PvP. When Chris joined, he and some others started to take on focusing on specific classes. Today, it's a hybrid of the two.
Today, there has to be a consensus for a lot of changes in the game, which can often take awhile. It might seem like nothing is happening a lot, but behind the scenes there is a lot going on.
Unfortunately, sometimes PvP balance can fall in priority. It rises when something is really bad or there is a tournament.
You don't want to make too many huge changes before a tournament.
In BfA there were a lot of items designed for PvE that affected PvE and the Chris says that the team was more reactionary in their efforts to fix it.
A lot of the time it isn't the core classes that affect PvP balance. It's an outlying item. These are done by an entirely different team and sometimes the PvP team doesn't always catch it until it's live.
Chris believes having spells do different things between PvE and PvP isn't always easy as you want the game to be easy to understand and accessible. This is a challenge when trying to address balance issues.
Chris says the team wants the game experience to be enjoyable no matter who they are.
The team really wanted to keep the soul of the original bg maps when they upgraded them. Keeping the same collision detection was a challenge.
Ashran's inspiration was to be a PvP zone, and not a traditional PvP map.
There was an instance after Ashran was removed where Mike Morhaime was emailed by a woman who's favorite activity in game was Ashran, and didn't want to see it go. There is a lot of different things players enjoy in the game, and they have to be careful when making changes because of this.
Ashran was meant to be an endless battleground, and it didn't make sense to have the events in the epic bg rotation. This is why there was a separate brawl version.

Lunis · Jan 7, 2021

I literally skipped 90% of the cutscenes as i was leveling. I don't want long exposition scenes that break up gameplay.

Araxen · Jan 7, 2021

I've pretty much dropped the game too. I can only run dungeons so many times. I honestly don't know how people can run mythic dungeons over and over and over.

Daidraco · Jan 7, 2021

But not everyone gives a shit about PVP and the only reason its popular right now is because its one of the easiest, most assured ways to gear up with a specific piece that you need to upgrade. So now the PVP dev's are all front and center as if it was some huge success this expansion. Which, in regards to last expansion - bfa corruption removal would have made any PVP seem better. Them going full on "select your loot" this expansion for PVP and making any PVE player have to hope and pray for a piece of loot, much less a specific piece, is just retarded when thats your bread and butter type of player.

Made it to TC layer 8 today, floor 12. Ran into a stone wall with Patrician Cromwell and on that difficulty he is NOT a push over. I had no deaths before him and always seem to die to some huge spike in his attacks around 15-30%. He auto attacked me for 403k for some reason, according to the recap? lol I died to the red swirly missiles a couple times and I swear I wasnt in it. But.. Ill try again tomorrow. Its supposedly on some rotation so itll be different bosses/wings and Ill go less into DPS anima and more into Tank Anima and just gouge my eyes out killing random trash with a couple million HP for 3 hours.

Teekey · Jan 7, 2021

The fact that PvPing is the best strategies to most easily gear for PvE is asinine. But it's expected when you make loot rarer in all other content, then let PvPing target specific item slots with currency.

They seriously just need to make a currency that's shared across all content (PvP, M+, Raiding) with a weekly cap. Then you can do one or all if you so desire, but not feel forced to do any.

jayrebb · Jan 7, 2021

I think titanforging is going to need to come back to keep people interested. I don't see Mythic raiding alone being enough to keep subs up.

Teekey · Jan 7, 2021

jayrebb said:
I think titanforging is going to need to come back to keep people interested. I don't see Mythic raiding alone being enough to keep subs up.

I personally thought it was a pretty good system. I kind of understand the frustrations with practically never getting "BIS", but I think it was just an issue with people's mindsets.

If you looked at it as a nice bonus and not a primary gearing strategy, it felt pretty good IMO. I loved the idea that I could help my wife or other friends with lower level content, and I still had a chance (even if tiny) to get an upgrade. Nothing I did ever felt completely pointless.

Rime · Jan 7, 2021

Titan Forging just needed a cap. WQ can TF up to Normal. Normal to Heroic. Heroic to Mythic. Mythic to +8 of the max item level.

Feeling the need to run/do all of the content, for a chance at a TF BIS 0.01% roll is/was hot garbage.

They need to bring back set bonuses (They have stated that they intend to in the near future). They need to put a badge/currency vendor in for M+ AND Raiding. Having to PVP to gear up for PVE is as shitastic as having to PVE to gear up for PVP.

And how about some frelling damage buffs/nerfs for outlying classes.

Dalien · Jan 7, 2021

There's going to be a big spike in PvP battlegrounds next week because at Renown 22 you can upgrade all of the honor gear to 197. After that we'll see. Conquest gear goes up to 226 but you have to actually get a good rating to get it.

Ukerric · Jan 7, 2021

"It's a small indie company, give them a break..."

Placeholder Anima Powers in Torghast Cripples Twisting Corridor Runs

The 18 floor Twisting Corridors wing of Torghast offers players the chance to amass a huge number of anima powers, but several classes continue to find do-nothing placeholder powers which cripple their runs. Hunters, Monks, and Demon Hunters appear to be affected the most, making the activity...

www.wowhead.com

TL;DR: Several classes still have Placeholder anima powers in Thorgast (that is: none), which is becoming a massive issue when you need to do 144 maps...

Tauntworth · Jan 7, 2021

I generally agree w/ the sentiment that gearing feels off. Maybe I'm missing something but I feel kinda stuck. Our group only raids for 3 hours on Saturday in Heroic Nathria, which right now equates to 5 bosses. My only other real option is to do mythic +, however the time investment of 30-40mins on the slim chance that I'll upgrade my gear is disheartening. Not only that, but the item level increase of doing +10-15 mythics vs the effort required feels skewed. Broken record here.

jayrebb · Jan 7, 2021

I stopped playing at ilvl 208 on my main and permanently am on alts since last week as I don't really care for the PvP grind and groupfinding at the moment.

World of Warcraft: Current Year

REEEEeyore

The Scientific Shitlord

Golden Baronet of the Realm

Molten Core Raider

Blackwing Lair Raider

Tranny Chaser

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider

Ahn'Qiraj Raider

The Wokest

Blackwing Lair Raider

Golden Baronet of the Realm

Avatar of War Slayer

Mr. Poopybutthole

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider

Mr. Poopybutthole

Registered Hodor

Bearded Ape

Ahn'Qiraj Raider

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider