Blizzcon

Patches

• Ashbringer - This storyline will be finished in Patch 3.3 (a good while after release). (src)
• 3.1 - Ulduar 10/25 man raid, already done.
• 3.2 - A mystery raid which "players will find very cool."
• 3.3 - Likely Icecrown Citadel.
• Future Patches - They are always 3 patch cycles ahead of the live game in terms of content design, and usually working on next expansion.

Future Features

• More Guild Achievements - Achievements based on guild accomplishments a possibility. (src)
• Guild Ratings - Guilds could receive a rating based on their PvE and PvP performance. (src)
• Dance Studio - Likely won't be seen until a content patch, players can create a new dance and string together multiple moves.

• 11:02 AM: Mike Morhaime, president and a co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment: Opening address and thanks to the fans.
• 11:07 AM: Fans are attending from 27 different countries. "If WoW was a country, it would be the 75th most populated country in the world."
• 11:10 AM: Highlights from WWI 2008.
• 11:12 AM: WoW as competitive gaming. 2008 season ends this weekend for WoW gaming. First ever Starcraft II tournament will be this weekend. $200,000 in prizes to be awarded in tournaments this weekend.
• 11:14 AM: Developers will be meeting players and signing game boxes on the day of the Wrath release in Anaheim, CA and NYC. More info in coming soon...
• 11:15 AM: Wrath beta is going well! It is continually being polished.
• 11:16 AM: Wrath cinematic screened.
• 11:19 AM: New Diablo 3 class announced: Wizard. Class cinematic shown.
• 11:23 AM: Blizzcon features this year: Jay Mohr is back. New contest: /silly. Attendees attmpt their best comedic one-liner. Comedian Patton Oswald hosts the closing ceremony later, including music from Video Games Live and Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain.
• 11:24 AM: Mike Morhaime says goodbye, thanks everyone.

See the WCRadio.com Schedule Page for upcoming broadcast information! Check the Blizzcon page for a link to the Opening Ceremony audio broadcast as soon as it is available.

• 12:00 PM: WoW UI panel begins!
• 12:02 PM: Derek Sakamato (D-Sak), UI developer, on UI design philosophy and upcoming features. New UI elements for the expansion: Achievements, Death Knights, etc...
• 12:05 PM: Blizzard's game design philosophy: Gameplay first priority. "Minutes to learn but a lifetime to master." Polishing finished everything off. New players versus hardcore players, something to challenge people at all levels, while keeping learning easy. Lots of uber-geek code talk.
• 12:06 PM: Achievements UI took 9 months from start to finish. Started out on paper and then as a Photoshop mock-up before they even decided to implement it.
• 12:10 PM: Achievements interface early mockups. Early versions of the interface has a lot of features, but were very rough. The layout of the Achievement interface was hard to nail down. Too dark, and then too colorful. Too many Horde or Alliance colors. "Too Disney! Too ugly like your face!" Where do you put it on the screen? Finally settled on a parchment-like design. Summary page, sorting features, and Statistics were added late in the process.
• 12:14 PM: Jeff Kaplan wants a room in his house based on the Achievement UI parchment/"old library" motif... O.o
• 12:15 PM: Blizzard tries to stick to a certain process. Doesn't always work out.
• 12:16 PM: Death Knight UI development process: Started with "programmer art." Basic, junky, fast design. Redesigned into the runeblade-like graphic for Blizzcon 2007. Runic Power was taken out and put back in at various times during the process. Runes were continually being redesigned. The art had to be very specific, to show as much data as possible for the hardcore min-maxers. Had to take into account the localization to many different countries (for example, China can't have skulls in the UI). The Shaman Totem Timers UI display was hijacked to display the runes. Lots of experimentation at every step. Finally figured out what worked by trial and error.
• 12:21 PM: The Main Menu Bar: Very reactionary process. Designers needed space on the front page and so the devs all locked themselves in a room to has out a new version of the main menu.
• 12:23 PM: More bag space means design issues! Thought of putting sub-bags onto the bottom of the main bag panel.
• 12:24 PM: Designers wanted to get pets and such out of bags. Dev Serena proposed the Pet/Mount "bag" UI and a light bulb went off. Took a lot of work, including new code to have pet/mount items teach spells.
• 12:25 PM: New currency menu. Was going to use a fly-out type menu, but that idea was vetoes as "really weird." Changed it to a tab on the character page, but there were too many tabs, so they pulled out the PvP Menu and gave it its own screen. PvP and Achievements buttons were added by shaving off 2 pixels from around every bag button. Screen real estate is srs bznz!
• 12:26 PM: Blizzard has a set design process built around their core beliefs for how the game should work, which is very important. You have to follow a process, but be flexible, because every teams works togetehr differently. The Achievements UI was a long back and forth. Death Knight UI was iterative. Menu Bar was a bag way to design an interface. Too reactive, but it all worked out in the end.
• 12:28 PM: Blizzard has UI designer positions open! Apply now!
• 12:30 PM: Q&A session starts.

Q: Main backpack. Is it going to be made bigger/switching it out?
A: There were talks to expand it, but now with currency and pet changes, space has been freed up enough that it has been tabled for now. Possible for future.

Q: Pet UI. First time you log into Beta, you don't know how to get onto mount! Will new players get a tip on how to do this?
A: It's in the patch notes and on the website, but also in-0game the character and pet tabs flash when you gain a new pet or mount item. Hopefully there will also be new tips and hints for all the new features. They are trying to "bread crumb" you as best they can, but it's not rocket science.

Q: Why no skulls in China?
A: It's a sociological thing. In Germany you can't have red blood. Devs have no idea, that's just the way it seems to be.

Q: There is an addon for focus frame. Any official way to have a focus frame as well as a target?
A: There is a focus frame being added, yes.

Q: Confirmation boxes for talent trees. Misplaced talents mean you have to pay for a new respec! Can a system like on the website be added so that you can add/remove points and then confirm your selections? (Applause from the crowd.)
A: There is going to be a dual-speccing interface, hopefully a simple one, at some point after the expansion. They will be revisiting the speccing process at that point.

Q: Talked a lot about how UIs were made, but how do you discuss the details in the beginning? "Reactionary" designs don't sound pre-planned. Who comes to UI devs and says they need things done?
A: Usually there are not too many things going on at once. Game designers put togetehr basic designs, and then the UI team iterates it, making it even more functional and polished. Wrath has a lot of new UI features, so there were a lot of design feature "collisions" and craziness like never before.

Q: Will there be compatibility issues with addons? What sort of education should a UI designer have?
A: Compatibility should be OK. No huge LUA engine change this time. No keybinding resets. A lot of addons may just work the same as before with no issues. In terms of education/experience, data management and a focused interest in UI are common elements. One of the UI devs has a degree in architecture, but a lot of web design experience.

Q: Graphic user interfaces. Will there ever be more options? "Skins?"
A: They has been though about. They want to add the ability to move things about a bit. The problem is that in moving some things, it can interfere with elements that occur later in the game, are not available at low levels, etc. Issues with that can frustrate users. They are thinking about it. They want to do it in a "clean" way. The UI is some complex now that it's necessary. Devs prefer to let the amazing interface design community make all these options. Keep things customizable.

Q: As a raid leader, Pally Power is very useful. Is there a plan to integrate buff addon functionality into the game?
A: Not at this time. They try to stay away from class-specific UI elements. They don't want to tell players how to play or step on any toes. Sometimes they do take up concepts that work, but only when the addon targets a general need. They let addons target very specific needs so that every time they change gameplay they don't have to make huge changes to the UI. One example is Totem Timers. They added that functionality, despite its class-specific nature, because ALL shamans use totems.

Q: Minimaps are crowded with addon buttons. Any possibility for a separate button dock?
A: Blizzard doesn't want to impose that on the addon community. Thye minimap is a great place to put addon and other UI controls. They don't want to force people to use it or not. As another option, the new Options UI gives the addon community the ability to add to it and make new Blizzard-style controls.

Q: As player progress they get more skills and larger bags. Any plans to redo the bag UI? More action bars? One large bag?
A: More action bars may be added in the future, but they feel that if they need to do this, they are doing something wrong. Players shouldn't have a confusing choice of a hundred different things. It should be more streamlined. Class devs have been trying to consolidate some abilities and make that valuable action bar real estate really meaningful. There are no current plans to have one large bag. A lot of Blizzard devs really like the separate bags. They'll leave the one bag to OneBag (and similar mods).

Q: Will there be a /castrandom for Mounts/Minipets with the new UI system?
A: (Devs laugh.) Cool idea. We'll write that one down!

Q: Will mod authors have an easier way to add items to the minimap tracking menu or the minimap itself without having to do so much translation of server-side info and coordinates?
A: Not really. They want to keep that process a bit obtuse to help prevent botting.

Q: At last Blizzcon it was mentioned there might be a built-in boss timer or item rack...
A: There are a lot of things like that still on the plate. There are only so many features they can put in every time. Those two specifically they thought they would get to, and they want to put them in, but they do not know when it might happen. They want to make sure those features are properly implemented and that they "feel right."

Q: Can a terminator be added to castsequence to make certain codes easier?
A: There are some stop-casting issues that cause exploits. The castsequence system is tricky. Had to compromise to prevent ubermacros that do a whole fight with the press of a button. Changes like Auto Shot not clipping Steady Shot help streamline these issues.

Q: Would it be possible to have an instanced training area with dummies and free respecs that could give really accurate parsed info so that people can better test out talent specs?
A: The instanced testing area is an interesting idea, but more a gameplay thing. They will bring it up with devs.

Q: Will Hunters every have the quiver not use a bag slot?
A: They have been generally trying to free up bags, but there has been no specific talks about quivers or soul shard bags. The Hunter/Warlock devs feel your pain.

Q: Threat UI: IS the beta threat meter UI final? Right now you see threat as % of main tanks threat. Will there be an option to show hard threat numbers?
A: Yes, the beta version is final. Instead of hard "techy" numbers, they wanted an easier-to-read, polished gameplay experience. Organic version number crunching. The API, tho, gives all those numbers if you want to make your own more numbers-intensive version.

Q: Many UI additions seem to be based on mods that are popular. Does Blizzard give any credit to those original mod authors?
A: Putting it in is a great compliment right there! The UI devs talk to the big addon authors quite a lot. When Blizzard uses an idea similar to something from the addon community, it is rarely done in the very same was as addon devs implemented it. The devs go on to thank the addon community.

Q: The new threat meter is great,especially for 5-mans where everyone might not have had a threat meter once. In 10/25-man raids, tho, the larger packs with many mobs tend to clutter up the screen. Any fix for that?
A: Currently, when someone is about to pull threat off the tank, a text message come up over the mob that will lose aggro. This helps a lot in AoE threat. Originally they put a mark over the head of the raid member that was about to pull aggro, but it ended up being way too busy. The devs hope that this new threat meter and more accurate numbers will allow the addon community to get really creative with threat mods.

See the WCRadio.com Schedule Page for upcoming broadcast information! Check the Blizzcon page for a link to the WoW UI Panel audio broadcast as soon as it is available.

• 1:34 PM: This pre-panel music is awesome. It makes me think of Dune...
• 1:40 PM: Tom Chilton and Greg Street (Ghostcrawler) introduced. Ghostcrawler is a guy!
• 1:41 PM: "Who thinks their class is overpowered? (Some applause.) Who thinks there are overpowered classes in the game? (Lots of applause.) OK now, who thinks their class is the worst? (Even more applause.) You've just learned all there is to know about class design... (Laughter.)"
• 1:42 PM: They are going to talk Death Knights, general game changes, the questions.
• 1:43 PM: One thing they wanted for Death Knights was to fill another tank roll, since there was a shortage. But they didn't want to have a Tank/DPS/Utility tree. They wanted all three trees to be able to tank with the use of Presences. Death Knights start at a higher level with a great starting zone and some of the coolest quests in the game. They wanted Death Knights to share itemization with existing plate classes.
• 1:44 PM: They wanted a different style of play for Death Knights. They came up with Runes as a resource as a new type of mechanic and a way to tie into the iconic Rune Weapon. You have the keep track of their cooldowns. They originally tried to bring the rune weapon into the UI, and they went through a lot of Rune setup iterations. Originally they wanted to have customizable amounts of each rune, but that ended up just sucking. It made gameplay imbalanced and made players ignore certain abilities. They added in Death Runes (which count as all types) to allow some variability in rotations. Runic Power also allows variability as you can unleash it to do cool things.
• 1:46 PM: They wanted diseases to be a big deal. Originally there were about 25 different diseases, but it was way too complex. Now the system is a bit more like combo points. You pout all your diseases on and then use abilities that play upon them to heal or do extra damage. There is a bit of a learning curve to the class but not too much.
• 1:47 PM: They wanted all the trees to have options for any playstyle, melee or tanking. This is something they are actually trying to do for all classes.
• 1:48 PM: Hunter: The pet systems is completely overhauled. This class attracts new players, so they didn't want the clunky old pet system to chase them away. The system of taming temporary pets to gain abilities was too confusing, so they did away with it. (Crowd applauds.) Hunters had a very complex DPS rotation, and people tended to use mods to make them all work togetehr. They tried to clean it up and make it more about player choice than timing. Hunters complained that they got shewed up by melee, so they changed Disengage to counter that. Freezing shot adds remote trap deployment to give Hunters a bit better long-distance CC, especially in 5-man groups.
• 1:50 PM: Priests. Overhauled the buff/debuff system. Shadow priests utility as a mana battery has been removed (audience boos), but in exchange they get to DPS! (Audience cheers.) They want Discipline to be a viable raid healer. They want Priests to have another viable DPS ability, so they gave them Mind Sear. Priest racial abilities were a cool thing, but it was a dated idea, so they revamped racials.
• 1:52 PM: Mage. Frostfire bolt is a new signature ability that matches Frost and Fire into an "Elementalist" build. Mirror Image is a cool new move as well. Devs feel pretty good about Mage DPS right now.
• 1:53 PM: Druids. Needed a lot of work. They are underrepresented in arenas, for example. Balance Druids had lowered DPS because they had so much utility (like running out of mana!). Druids were given indoor Entangling Roots for more 5-man CC ability. No more Oomkin. Their DPS is looking pretty good now. For Resto, the HoT healing niche was too limiting. Great for PvP but hard for 5-mans and raids. Nourish is a good new Flash Heal kind of spell. Wild Growth gives some AoE healing. Druids finally get an OOC rez. Feral druids were a hybrid tank/DPS spec, jack of all trades and master of none. They focused on making a tree that could be specced into tanking or melee DPS. Take all the Bear talents and you become a good main tank. Take Cat talents and you have higher, better DPS. You can also still hybridize.
• 1:55 PM: Shaman. Totems are such a great, unique gimmick. The functionality has never been quite were they want it to be. They are physical now, harder to dispel. They have a bit more life and last longer. They filled in wholes in the Shaman repetoire with Hex as CC, Riptide healing, and Lava Burst spell DPS.
• 1:56 PM: Rogue. Filled in certain tools they needed. AoE DPS was sorely needed. When you think Rogues you think Daggers and Poisons, but no one seemed to be using those things as often. Purchasable poisons and buffed dagger specs will help to fix that.
• 1:58 PM: Warrior. Warriors were the big main tanks. Without crushing blows, Port Warriors could have become less popular,l so a lot of talents were revamped. Mitigation talents were condensed to allow more points for other, cooler talents. Traditionally Arms was PvP and Fury was PvE. They want to vary that up. Battle Stance will be more desirable, as will Overpower and Rend. Bladestorm and Sudden Death are big, fun abilities. Fury Warriors have Titan's Grip (audience cheering). The Devs really love and are pushing this ability.
• 2:00 PM: Warlock. (Audience boos.) Warlock has a lot of pets that were considered useless in many situations. They want all pets to be useful. They want a more fun rotation than Shadowbolt spam. Chaos Bolt was added. Affliction may still be too complicated. Demonic Circle and Metamorphosis are the big new abilities.
• 2:02 PM: Paladins. (Big cheers.) Pallies are delicate snowflakes that can solo Onyxia! (Laughter.) Protection Pallies were great off-tanks but not great main tanks. They want to fix that. They want Paladins to focus on protection gear instead of spell power. Holy Paladins were great, but too many encounters required them to move around a lot. New heals should help that, though they do not want them to be a HoT class. Retribution needs to do good DPS without running out of mana. They were great with a ton of buffs, but without them they did not shine.
• 2:04 PM: Group flexibility. There are 30 specs, but only 25 spots now! Who gets to come? This should be very flexible. The buff/debuff system was too complex and had a lot of stacking issues. Bloodlust, for example, got a bit out a hand with moving Shamans around. Canceling raids because a certain buff was unavailable was not desirable. Most buffs now affect the whole raid, and you can get them multiple ways, but now none of them stack. You can get all the buffs with a pretty small number of players. Now you can make up raids by "bringing the player, not the class." Player skill should have more to do with the amount of damage a class does, not some inherent flaw of class design.
• 2:07 PM: Consumables were out of control. Potions are cool, but farming for them is not. So are drums. Drum rotations and consumable preparations were way to burdensome. Skill should always win out over buffs.
• 2:08 PM: A ton of itemization has been changed to allow flexibility. Spell power consolidated a lot of gear. It also allows healers to do more damage when needed.
• 2:09 PM: Tank classes overlap a lot more now, so you can bring whoever you want for most fights. Tank threat is alos much higher, making it easier and less worrisome to tank. Fights should be more about skills than wiping due to random lost agro.
• 2:10 PM: They are working on a dual spec system! It's going to be awesome. They want you to be able to switch specs in the middle or raids in a simple way. You will not be able to switch specs in the middle or an arena, per se, but it will make things much easier on the whole.
• 2:11 PM: The Class Q&A session is starting:

Q: Dual spec system: Will there be a fast way to switch gear without taking up a lot of bag space.
A: There has been discussion of a gear changing UI, like Wardrobe or similar mods. They want to make those improvements.

Q: Warlocks: Affliction is great in T4/T5, but in T6 is was lackluster DPS. Fix for that?
A: Yes, we definitely are trying to get Affliction back into a raiding spec.

Q: Warlocks: Will Infernals and Doomguards ever be more useful? Maybe Infernals as a Destruction pet?
A: Getting rid of the ability of those pets to break free and such is a big step in that direction. Also they have made Infernals usable indoors.

Q: Warlock pets: A lot of talents are geared to one pet or another. Pets are hard to switch. Fixes for this issue?
A: They do want to make pets easier to summon and use.

Q: Druids: Please respond to the forms forum thread! Feral mana and shifting is an issue. Fixes for that?
A: Feral mana is on the list to look at. They don't want intellect on feral gear. They are looking into it.

Q: Rogue poisons: Endgame bosses are mostly immune to poisons. Will this change?
A: They would like more bosses with less poison immunities. They would like to have rogues less reliant on Windfury.

Q: Mages: They are a food table and a teleport. Now cooks can make food tables, and Mage DPS isn't so amazing right now. Will Mages really be viable in Lich King?
A: Mages making food tables really should be a "niche" since it kind of sucks. Frost and fire DPS is actually pretty reasonable right now. They want to "massage" arcane a bit more. Running out of mana is their big issue, but recently mana costs for Mages were revamped and they still want to do more of that.

Q: Mages: 51-Point talents seem lackluster. Should be baseline.
A: They want to increase Living Bomb damage and maybe play with the mechanics a little bit. Any spell that does a lot of damage is fun! With Arcane Barrage they wanted to mix up the Arcane Mage's damage rotations. They also want Arcane to be more mobile and more about speed. They thing with 51-point talents is that most classes have a lot of buttons to push. They wanted the new major talents to be more situational.

Q: Druids: Are feral druids going to get abilities to differentiate them from Rogues in Arenas and PvP?
A: Ferals have been kind of a "B" PvP spec. They identified a few issues with them: The lack of a healing debuff, raw damage output, a few other things. They have given them some new tools, but they want to watch it. They have not seen a lot of Feral Arena play in the Beta, so they want to keep an eye on it in live.

Q: Mages: They are the only clothies that can't heal themselves. Maybe a new shield or some other function?
A: They want to keep classes unique. Mages are the "get out of jail" class. Very mobile. "Slippery glass cannons." For instance, a mana shield that doesn't expire, could be too good or horrible. it's a delicate balance.

Q: Shamans: Will Windfury and its cooldown be revisited to resolve the issues that have come up with Flametongue and slow weapons?
A: The new cooldown on Windfury has encouraged the use of Flametongue. They want to see how it plays out.

Q: Druids: As a Balance Druid it's hard to play in Moonkin form. Will there ever be a way to kill someone in Moonkin without running away so much?
A: Typhoon gives some knockback to counter melee. Balance Druid DPS has been increased. Devs feel really good about their DPS but they want to keep an eye on survivability.

Q: Paladins: Retribution burst DPS is pretty crazy on Beta. What do the devs have in mind to balance their burst damage to make it less massive in PvP and still good in PvE?
A: In Beta Paladins were really bugged. Things got ridiculous. Now devs have to figure out if their DPS is good or not, now that that bugs are fixed. ("Don't nerf me bro!") They want Ret Paladins to have more control of their damage. They don't want them to have to rely on lucky crits.

Q: Tanking: Tank homogenization is rampant with the changes recently, especially to AoE tanking abilities. Will there be more uniqueness added back in later?
A: A lot of classes feel they need all the same abilities to be similarly viable. Devs have to be very careful to give them all the abilities

Q: Dual spec system: Did you actually say you want people to be able to switch spec mid-raid?
A: Yes, that's the idea.

See the WCRadio.com Schedule Page for upcoming broadcast information! Check the Blizzcon page for a link to the WoW Class Panel audio broadcast as soon as it is available.

• 3:06 PM: There are 4 people on the world design team, and another 7 artists that work creating the physical zones. They use mostly pressure-sensitive Wacom tablets to work interactively.
• 3:07 PM: The zone design process. First there is a big brainstorming meeting takes place where anyone can come and talk about every aspect of the zone. After that, an Illustrator map is made that determines the zone's size, its mobs, its basic details and how it interacts with the zones around it. The next step is an internal Zone Editor layout, which creates a very basic 3D version of the zone in which devs can run around. Only at this point does the detailed concept art produced. This art functions as a "road maps" for the colors and atmosphere of the zone. Tilesets come next. These tilesets make up the repeating textures of the world, mostly its ground and basic elements.
• 3:10 PM: Trees are very important. The redwoods in Grizzly Hills, for example, give the zone its basic look.
• 3:11 PM: Once everything to do with the "look" is finalized, then the designers get down to actually building and placing the assets. (An example of working with a basic World Editing programs is shown. It promptly crashes.)
• 3:12 PM: Everything in the exterior world is hand-painted and hand-placed by individual members of the team. Very little is done procedurally. (Credit screen for the game artists is shown.) Only recently have they split up the art teams and made a very specialized world art team.
• 3:14 PM: The character design team works on all character/armor/weapon art.
• 3:15 PM: The creature design process. The Character team does all the work from model to texture to animation and implementation. First the model mesh is created, and then the texture is mapped on and checked in a previewer. The textured model is previewed in-game with lighting before final approval.
• Concept art for creatures also serves as a "road map". However, it is often done first and everything from the model to the animations are based on it. (An example of a creature in each step of development is shown.)
• 3:17 PM: All creatures and items for them are made in a variety of color variations. Textures are often done with a lot of iterations to play up certain elements of light, shadow, and expression.
• 3:18 PM: Concepting is sped up greatly by work done in other departments. Cinematics, for example, really help establish how large certain mobs should be and how they should be lit and textured.
• 3:19 PM: Some examples of new Wrath models are shown. New wrath mounts, including siege weapons with multiple seats. "Dynamic anatomy." The anatomy of a creature and how it is put togetehr plays into the creature's personality.
• 3:20: Armor system. Armor is textured all the way around in 3D. Armor also has a lot of texture variation produced. Textures are often created with "themes" that are recognizable even if you are only wqearing a few different pieces.
• 3:21 PM: New weapon examples shown. Weapons often get a very quick paint job to start with and then are refined as they are seen with various player models and armor types. Using different painted materials (stone, metal, bone, etc) can lend weapons a totally different look, even if they use the same model.
• 3:23 PM: Creatures are textured in the very same way as player characters. They can wear all the same kinds of gear, thought they often have their own unique looks or color combinations. Taunka and Tuskarr NPC models are shown.
• 3:24 PM: Effects art. Death Knight spell effects will be highlighted. Effects art and animations are separate departments, but work closely together.
• For the Death Knight, they tried to create a brand new, eye-catching, epic visual style that had more "pop" but was still Warcraft. The graphics engine was upgraded a bit to accommodate it.
• 3:27 PM: The Effects team toolbox uses 3DS Max, Photoshop, and some internal particle system software.
• 3:28 PM: To start with, the class designers tell the effects team what the new spells are all about, and then the effects teams creates new visuals for each one. A feedback meeting is called, and tons of feedback from the class teams are collected. Does the look of each spell really fit with the Death Knight class? A video with all the versions of Blood Presence is shown, representing about 2 days worth of work from initial concept to final spell effect. The original one was much more complex, including glowing eyes. Also some random new spell effects and a few that are not yet implemented in the game. Army of the Dead involved pretty much every art department to get the final spell effect finished, including all the summoned ghouls.
• 3:32 PM: Prop design team. The prop team creates all the little interactive items in the game. Dungeon doors, quest items, holiday items, etc. The barber chair. A dungeon setting with and without props is shown. Dalaran is shown with and without props. Items are placed in the world by level designers.
• 3:34 PM: Hundreds of unique objects are created for any given area, like Dalaran for example. Props are built over concept sketches and placeholders inserted by level designers. Many visual cues are taken from the zone's character and world concept art. Props are the final bits of dressing that bring everything together. They "blend in" unless they are specifically meant not to. In dungeons, there is often a more specific theme or look, and so often the concept process is skipped entirely. Prop items in Dungeons are often interactive, and so they have to be eye-catching.
• 3:37 PM: Holiday items are often the final things to be creative Holiday item examples are shown, including a disco ball.
• 3:38 PM: Dungeon art. The dungeon team works on the dungeons and raids, but they also work on the outdoor cities and the pvp objectives in world zones.
• 3:39 PM: A preview clip of Dalaran is shown. Dalaran took many departments working togetehr to create. A time-lapse video of Dalaran's evolution is shown, representing about 6 monthes worth of work. One modeler named Andy was the "gatekeeper" for all of the work done on Dalaran. The Prison and Underbelly/Sewer areas were handled by seperate individuals.
• 3:41 PM: The basic design philosophy behind Dalaran was "What would Elf and Human mages make if their cultures came together?" The original blocking of the zone was done with Stormwind assets, though eventually they had to be abandoned because they began to influence the design process. The architecture was a bit too colorful ("Candyland"), so they went back in and based it more on polished stone and muted mosaics.
• 3:43: One the basic blocking is done, then concept art is fionalized. After all concepts are done, modelling and texturing xcomes directly from that palet. All textures are hand-painted and all items are hand-placed. Lighting and particles effects/fog finish everything off.
• 3:45 PM: The Q&A session is starting:

Q: Can you tell us about the artists who do the amazing wallpapers and production art? Does he work closely with your departments?
A: Wei Lang is a Chinese illustrator who does a lot of the patch art. He's contracted to the creative development department. He often works from model screenshots and works with Chris Metzen and the art departments to make sure the images are true ton the source material. Otherwise he works on his own.

Q: Can Shamans please have some more pants? (Laughter)
A: Well we hope you are wearing pants underneath the kilts! You could plya a Paladin, they seem to wear the pants in the melee family... (Laugher)

Q: Seeing the Dalaran art, will there be a Caverns of Time instacne for Dalaran?
A: Maybe! You'd have to ask the Dungeon and Raid guys.

Q: Taunka females have the exact same models as female Tauren. Will they have a unique one?

• A: Time was an issue. There are no unique female Taunka or Tuskarr because of time constraints. There actually are female Tuskarr, they just have beards. Hot...

Q: Troll females do not blink. It's creepy!
A: There's no plans for that right now, but maybe the next expansion... (Laughter.)

Q: Male Draenei /roar is awesome, but Human males look awful...
A: He looks like he's pinching a loaf, thanks, I was constipating while painting that texture. (Laughter)

Q: Any plans to revamp other Heroes or Faction Leader like Varian Wynn was?
A: A lot of designers would love to.

Q: There are a lot of cool new Dungeosn and Zone. What is your personal favorite.
A: One dev answers Grizzly Hills. Another loves Azjol-Nerub. Another loves the starting zones and Utgarde. Another loves the Vrykul buildings and Utgarde. They really set the tone for the expansion. He also loves Crystalsong and the Sewers in Dalaran (What does a sewer look like when Mages have been dumping magical goo in them for ages?). They love them all!

Q: Is there really a Caverns of Time Stratholme instance? (WTF?)
A: Yes.

Q: MedievalDragon from IncGamers Network: What happened to the external zone of Azjol-Nerub that wasn't instanced?
A: That's more of a design question. You might want to ask Dungeons & Raids panel.

Q: Where did you get the idea for the Rogue helms for all the new tiers.
A: Samurai Showdown (Laughter.) There is definitely some Japanese fighting game and anime influence.

Q: You can easily see where a player has been by their armor, except for Druids! Any plans for armor on Druid forms?
A: You mean like adding some attachments points for armor on forms? They discuss it from time to time. Should we do it? Let's do it! (Applause) Throw the shoulders on the Bear. And some pancakes on his head too!

Q: Helms and Shoulders have great effects. Wings, etc. Are there any plans to add some flash to the other pieces of armor? Flaming capes or frosty shoes?
A: There are some technical constraints. Helms and Shoulders are more speertae from the character model, so they are easier to add elements to. They'd like to do more with other pieces.

Q: Barber shops are amazing. Are their plans to add more styles?
A: We had to make sure the new styles were not so superior to the old styles that they looked like an entirely new game. There were also some texturing issues. They'd like to be able to do more with them,, including new facial hair, earrings, etc.

Q: Varian Wynn's redesign is great, but could his son please have a redesign instead of being like every other Stormwind orphan?
A: We may be able to throw a Burger King crown on him! (Laughter). Varian has the spotlight right now but he'll catch up, don't worry.

Q: Where do you come up with the inspiration for world design? Do you drive around the country or something?
A: Talking about Grizzly Hills specifically,m we always wanted to do a Redwood forest. So a dev did go up to the Redwoods in California and took some pictures to base the pallet on. For Dragonblight, it started out as one thing and was completely done. And then a designer came up with a brand new tree and the design team took some extra time on their own to add in the new trees and completely redefine the zone.

Q: Will Druids in tree form ever be able to change their leaves?
A: Never! (Laughter) One designer is always on their case. They'd love to add more color and options to forms (Cheers.)

See the WCRadio.com Schedule Page for upcoming broadcast information! Check the Blizzcon page for a link to the WoW Art Panel audio broadcast as soon as it is available.

• 10:35 AM: Ton Chilton (Lead Game Designer), Greg Street (Ghostcrawler - Lead Systems Designer), and Corey Stockton (Lead Level Designer) introduced.

• 10:36: New arena features. Dynamic line of site (LOS), pillars moving, fire!

• 10:36: Ring of Valor is the new Orgrimmar Arena. It's always been in Org, just unused. They like to keep the Arenas rooted in reality instead of just a random instance. The biggest feature in Ring of Valor is animated platforms that move in non-random intervals. They don't want random aspects. They'd rather arenas be based on skill. The moving pillars interrupt LOS. You can also ride up on the pillars when they move to get away from combat. There is also a periodic strip of fire that turns on periodically. It damages you with a 10% damage DoT, so they've done a lot of tuning on it. If you get CCed in the fire, it doesn't keep damaging you. It only gives you three ticks. People were using at as part of their strategy before they made that change. Players have to now make a choice weather to avoid or move through the fire. Another RoV features is very close starting positions. You start below like an old Roman arena, move up, and the fights start right away, very close in to each other. It's very different and makes people think on their feet. The designers really wanted something that felt different, but still very skill-based.

• 10:40: Ring of Valor gameplay video shown. Shows player entering on rising platforms, new hazards, dynamic LOS. The fire hazard goes the whole width of the arena. Pillars move at opposite intervals to the fire. Players have to make a choice. Each pillar has a unique texture ontop, which lets players in coordinated games call out which pillar they are on. "Axe" or "Horn" pillar.

• 10:43: Dalaran Sewers is the second new arena. They wanted to make a small arena, but with lots of new gameplay mechanics. It had to fit into the look of Dalaran's seedy Sewers. "Fight Club" kind of vibe. You can actually see the arena through the grates in the floor of the sewers. Scripted NPC fights go on down there. At the center of the Arena is a timed pillar of water element that dynamically breaks LOS. Also, it has a knockback if you are standing near the water pillar when it turns on. "Area denial" when the water is on. Makes the arena even smaller. There are no mounts allowed in this arena, though you can use Druid and Shaman travel forms. You start in raised pipes across the Arena from each other, so they had to come up with a way to keep people from hanging back in the pipe. So they added in a water element that pushes you out at the start.

• 10:47: Dalaran Sewers gameplay video shown. Shows the dynamic water features, including the LOS issues with the water pillar and the stairs. Part of the water feature tuning allows you to fight very close to it without the knockback. You actually have to run into it or stand under it. Crate stacks on corners of the arena area provide permanent LOS hiding places.

• 10:50: Strand of the Ancients is the new battleground. They wanted to do an attack/defend map. How could they integrate it into WoW in a way that fits? The destructible building/seige engine technology in this expansion made this battleground feel right. You get to play both sides in the battleground. On the attacking team, however long you take to get to the fort, that is how long the other team will have when the battleground flips. So, attacking faster means that the other team has less time to try attacking later. It is a 10 versus 10 battleground, but it is being upped to 15 versus 15 (NEW INFO) and there will be double the amount of siege vehicles that it currently has to allow more players to use them. The lore behind the bg is that it is a Titan island with tiers of destructible walls defending a central keep which both the Horde and Alliance are trying to capture or defend. Players can pick up mines, or use the large vehicles, to kill the gates. Melee can actually disarm and place mines when not in vehicles to give them something cool to do as well. The design of the island gives you choices. Do you go right or left? All the destructible walls have unique colors and names to help organize games.

• 10:55: SotA gameplay video shown. Shows players entering on actual moving boats. Shows seige vehicle action, the main keep objective, players using mines. Defenders can jump into destructible cannons on the walls and kill siege engines and enemy players.

• 10:57: Lake Wintergrasp is the now non-instanced PvP zone in Northrend., It was a huge step for devs; something they had never done before. A lot of the goals they had for it sometimes did not work out. They want huge battles with hundreds of players. They feel that it is going very well on Beta. The devs watch the live games on the premade Beta realms and they have never seen anything like it. Wintergrasp is also an attack/defend map, where the attacking team breaks down the main keep's walls to take it over. You can choose to kill any wall. Lots of choices. In order to use siege weapons, you have to earn ranks, which require honorable kills to gain. This makes sure people are participating. Right now it takes 2 kills only to get involved. They are tuning this number. You gain vehicles at the Siege Factories at various points on the map. Between each game there is a cooldown. Right now it is at 2.5 hours (used to be 4) Each game is 30-40 minutes, and then the winning side controls is during the 2.5 hour downtime. If Horde owns it, per se, they can port in from Dalaran during the 2.,5 hour period. There are also unique daily quests for the winning faction, as well as a brand new raid instance with a boss that drops both PvP and PvE loot. Archavon, the boss, is on a one-day raid timer, and anyone from the controlling faction can attempt him. The team that wins one round defends it in the next round. During that 2.5 hour controlled period, the controlling team can also loot Spirit Shards from all dungeon and raid bosses, used to buy a huge selection of items from Wintergrasp vendors. This keeps players coming back.

• 11:04: Wintergrasp gameplay video shown, captured live on the Beta premade server. Shows all the destructible elements of the main keep, which is just about every bit of the walls. The battles are "crazy" with things blowing up constantly and lots of AoE. Devs worked hard to balance players and vehicles. If you have enough players you can take out a vehicle. They are still vulnerable and need protection from players on the ground. One of the vehicles leaves a plague patch on the ground with gives players a DoT. Devs have spent a lot of time making sure the servers can support the amount of players they expect without a lot of lag. Shows the raid portal to Archavon.

• 11:07: Ton Chilton introduced to talk about the future of PvP.

• 11:08: Over the next several patches, devs want to allow PvP rewards to be gained in a variety of ways. The PvP player base is more diversified than they imagined. Some people only love arenas, or only love bgs. Some people just love Wintergrasp. They want to support every playstyle. They are working on a way to reward some of the better PvP loot to the players that genuinely do best in the thing they prefer, no matter what that thing is.

• 11:10: They want to deal with the AFK issue.

• 11:11: They want to make it easier to queue for bgs from anywhere in the world. (Oh hai Warhammer Online!) They don't want players living in the cities so much and missing out on world elements.

• 11:12: Competitive battlegrounds. They want to find a way to measure player contribution in battlegrounds and develop a rating system, on that which takes into account people in pugs versus premades. They also would love to have rated guild battlegrounds. They want to foster guild competition.

• 11:13: They want players to be able to level up in the battlegrounds via daily quests as well as XP rewards for winning.

• 11:14: The Q&A sessions starts. The devs are joking amongst themselves about the amount of people.

Q: Hunters are the least represented class. They are weak with their pets and the inability to shoot in melee range. Disengage is a band-aid. Why can't hunter shoot at melee range like all casters can use magic in melee range? Why can't pets have resilience?
A: Pets can also be a significant advantage. Pushback with casters, and all new abilities. Yes you can lose a part of your character if they die, but they want to tune that. They want it to be a viable strategy to kill the pet to hurt the hunter. The new pet talent system allows more defensive pet customization. With regard to shooting at melee range, casters don't tend to be wearing mail armor. Hunters are also not effected by spell pushback. In the past elemental shamans have had a lot of pushback resistance, for example, they became able to tank a melee class while blasting them in the face. Devs feel Diengage is really interesting with a lot of potential.

Q: Players are glad devs are biting off WAR and meshing PvP and PvE. Will some older bgs and arenas get a face lift with some new dynamic elements?
A: Yeah, definitely. What devs see a lot on PvP side is content burnout. PvP content comes out slower than PvE. The maps have turned out to be more important than they imagined. Devs want to make a better effort to introduce more new bgs.

Q: Paladins in Arenas: Pursuit of Justice at 15% movement speed increase was a help for mobility, but so many spells could be dispelled. Will Paladins get more abilities to help them stay in melee range?
A: (Audience boos and someone yells: Go heal!) They do not have plans to do much to Paladin mobility. They want to help some of the Paladin's ranged abilities, tho. There is a glyph being added to increase range of Hammer of Justice, etc. Ret Pallies are doing pretty well in Beta.

Q: Will there be a buff to help deal with population imbalanced in Wintergrasp?
A: Yes. The buff is Tenacity. It detects the population difference in Wintergrasp dynamically and scales the buff to let you take less damage and do more damage (as a percentage) as your side is more outnumbered. If you are outnumbered 5 to 1, you should be able to take on those 5 players. They are still tuning these numbers. The "psychology of defeat" effect where the losing team is demoralized needs to be undermined.

Q: In Wintergrasp you can AFK and get honorable kills, still. Will there be a fix for this?
A: Wintergrasp does not have a forced groups system like bgs to to help combat this. The Ranks also reset with each cycle.

Q: Will there be any balancing factors for the fire in Ring of Valor? Will ranged be at an immediate advantage?
A: The fire is timed. You can anticipate it and make decisions. Melee CAN shoot across it, tho, and that is soemthing you will have to figure out how to deal with.

Q: Resto Druids have been very powerful. Can you balance it without nerfing Balance or Feral?
A: Devs do not think the current balance will hold in Wrath do to massive talent and ability changes. Lifebloom, for example, will not be able to keep people up all by itself anymore. That is just one example. The game is being changed quite a bit. Devs do not know exactly how things will play out in live, but they will keep an eye on it.

Q: Arenas and racials. Will there be a way to balance it bit more so you actually see Draenei Warriors running around?
A: Devs like racials. They think they are quite fun. They don't want to put too many limiting rules on arenas. They have already limited consumables. Wrath sees quite a few changes to racials. Devs are also considering other option to give players other alternatives, whatever that means.

Q: Resto Druids in Wintergrasp: It's very difficult to heal when not grouped. Will Wintergrasp have an auto-grouping mechanic?
A: Devs have avoided grouping mechanics in Wintergrasp to avoid exploits. If they can fix the AFK issue, they would like to make grouping friendlier for Wintergrasp.

See the WCRadio.com Schedule Page for upcoming broadcast information! Check the Blizzcon page for a link to the WoW PvP Panel audio broadcast as soon as it is available.

• 12:04 PM: WoW Dungeons & Raids Panel starting. Corey Stockton (Lead Level Designer), Scott Mercer (Lead Encounter Designer), and Travis Day (Itemization), and Lee Sparks (Producer) are introduced.
• 12:05: Five-man dungeons. The Halls of Lightning! A level 80 Dungeon in Storm Peaks. It fits in with the Titan Lore. They wanted to tie all dungeons closely to lore and lore questlines. HoL is a Titan-themed Dungeon. Titans crafted Azeroth. There is a lot of new history here. The Dungeon is to be epic, huge in scale, like nothing you have ever seen before. All the creatures have unique abilities. You can't fight Titans right away, of course, so they came up with new creatures that fit in well.
• 12:07: Instead of showing maps, they will run you through Dungeons during the panel!
• 12:08: There is a lot more story to deal with in this expansion, so they could make each boss unique and meaningful. Instances are shorter, which players like, but with an epic feel.
• 12:09: Hall of Lightning in-game play shown. As you level in Storm Peaks, you learn the purpose of the dungeons. They wanted to make the space feel huge, but not have an actually huge gameplay space. The first boss roams a bit on his platform, so you can choose where to fight him. The second boss can be seen from below him, earlier in the dungeon. It gives you a sense of suspense and space. A large room of statues made of constellations is shown. Iconic Titan imagery helps identify areas of each Dungeon. The third boss is an air elemental with a custom model. Tons of brand new models were made for the expansion. Boos models look so cool that devs often want to reuse them, even though they cannot. Each boss being unique lends the player a sense of accomplishment on kills. In this bosses room, you can look out the windows onto the world. It helps ground the player in the world, makes it look less like an instance. The final boss, Loken, has a ton of story involved with him. He is a messenger to the Titans and his fight includes two cinematic sequences, before and after the fight.
• 12:14: Ahn'Kahet, the Old Kingdom. This is an Azjol-Nerub dungeon. They had to make a decision about how much of Azjol-Nerub to use, since technically Azjol-Nerub goes throughout all of Northrend under the ground. As you go deeper into the Dungeon, more influence of the Old Gods is seen. The creatures get stranger and more unique. The Faceless Ones make an appearance here. The instance is entirely underground. New technology allows them to make instances in a huge interior cave, mixing indoor and outdoor elements. This Dungeon has some very unique, customized fights. The Bosses have been influenced by the Old Gods in unique ways.
• 12:17: Ahn'Kahet, the Old Kingdom in-game play shown. The starting area is huge, with a lot of things in the distance even though you do not get to travel through all of it. The art style of the Dungeon was based from Naxxramas, since that dungeon was part of Azjol-Nerub before Arthas pulled it out of the ground. Some new Nerubian models are shown. The first boss is a fight in which adds are hatched with both offensive and defensive capabilities. Not just a typical AoE fight. The second boss is a vampiric Blood Prince who stuns a player and feeds on them until the other players beat him back. The third boss is part of the Twilight Hammer, a cult of Old God worshipers from old Azerothian lore that have been brought back. The third boss sacrifices her minions and worshipers to gain buffs. The final boss is a Faceless One with a very interesting fight using a lot of new technology, including Phasing. It involves a mechanic where the Boss phases each party member out into their own little phase in which a player is attacked by their own party mates! As party members break out of these phases, you can assist your fellows and then get back to the Boss fight. There are a lot of scripted elements.
• 12:23: New Raid zones. All Raids will have 10 and 25-man versions, a huge new change meant to make raiding accessible for all sizes of guilds/social groups.
• 12:24: The Chamber of Aspects/Obsidian Sanctum. Designed as an introductory Raid. In TBC, Mag and Gruul were both so hard for new players that they wanted to have a real intro-level Raid.
• 12:25: Obsidian Sanctum gameplay shown. This boss is based on the Black Dragonflight, with its leader, Sartharion, as the final boss. It is unique in that you can choose your level of difficulty. The three easier mini-bosses come first. These fights involve a lot of cool mechanics, including Phasing and portals. If you want to run the Raid on easy mode, you kill att three Drak bosses and then Sartharion. If you want more of a challenge, you can fight them all at the same time, the Drake minibosses adding into the fight as it progresses until they are all involved. Devs expect people not to be able to fight all bosses at once until at least a patch after release. The loot dropped from Sartharion is dynamic. You get more depending on how many Drakes you leave up before attacking him.
• 12:28: The Eye of Eternity. They wanted to do something very special and go all out here because Malygos is such a huge lore character. Unique model, unique spells, lots of time spent on it. Uses destructible building and vehicle technology. The raid dungeon looks very very small when you enter it: it's just one big platform. You get the key to start the encounter from Sapphiron in Naxxramas. They did not want you to be able to beat Malygos all by yourself, since he is so strong, so the Red Dragonflight lends you a hand partway through.
• 12:32: PvE itemization. One of the things they wanted to address the expansion was the way world dungeon itemization was done in TBC. Normal and Hard versions had the same loot. Now all Heroics will be up a tier in ilevel from Normal dungeons. They always wanted to address Badges of Justice. They liked the system, but people still farmed the same dungeons for months and months. Now the harder dungeons in Wrath drop a different type of badges with which you can buy better loot. Basically, players at high levels should not be farming "beginner" Heroics and 10-mans for their uber loot. 10-Man and 25-Man sets work together to make set bonuses.
• 12:35: The Q&A sessions starts:

Q: People tend to fall asleep late at night at the keyboard. You have to wait for them to disconnect. Can you add in a way to kick people who are AFK for too long from instances?
A: Devs really like this suggestion. It's a matter of time, but they would like to do it. They want people to be able to keep raids going.

Q: Legendaries in 10/25-mans. Will they be random or quest-based? Will they have tiers like the gear?
A: Devs are still thinking about it. They do think they need new caster and healer legendaries. Devs are not so big on random legendaries now. They'd rather have Atiesh-like quests.

Q: Are you designing raid encounters with the new dual spec system in mind? Where people will be wanted to switch within a fight?
A: (All together.) No. (laughter.) They would rather design encounters around roles and not people switching specs.

Q: What about unopened Azeroth instances like Uldum?
A: They are always on the table. They have to choose what dungeon or raid fits in best with the new content. When the time is right it will happen.

Q: Balance druid itemization was helped a lot with spell power changes. Will there be some loot balancing since so many people will want to roll on spell power items?
A: Assuming numbers don't hate you, caster weapons should still drop in the same ratio to melee that they always have.

Q: In Kara for instance, tier pieces would drop without the classes that can use them being there. Can there be a check system for this?
A: They have heard and thought of that complaint. One thing they have done in Wrath is that 10/25-Man emblems can be used to purchase class set pieces. So if people are having issues getting set pieces to drop, that could help.

Q: Keying quests are pretty epic and cool, though they were taken away later on. Will there be level 80 attunements?
A: In Wrath the only real current key at all is having to kill Sapphiron to fight Malygos.

Q: Hunters now have tanking pets. Can they tank 5-mans or off-tank content?
A: The base intention for pet talent trees and defensive pets is to have them able to off-tank.

Q: Is Tenacity PvP balance mechanic being used in PvE as well?
A: Not really no. There will be no mechanics, really, where if you go in with a smaller group they will buff you to help out.

Q: In TBC, Gruul and Mag were nerfed a bit and the step up to other dungeons was steep. Will there be a similar ramping up to Sunwell level in Wrath?
A: Devs do not know if they will make encounters so insane as in Sunwell. 500 attempts on Mu'ru is a bit much. People can up with insane solutions for Sunwell, but it hurt more guilds than it challenged. They want things to be challenging but fun.

Q: Looking back to Blackrock Spire, it was very pugable in an hour or two. It helped new players step up into raiding. Kara was a huge step up into raiding in TBC and the lockout was too long.
A: Lockouts have to be there because of the level of the gear you get. They might revisit it in the future, but right now the lockouts / reset timers will be pretty much the same as in TBC dungeons. In Wrath we definitely tried to make the step from Heroic Dungeons to Raids a lot less of a leap. Some TBC Heroics were way too hard and some were way too easy. They want a smoother progression, even for pugs.

Q: Kil'Jaeden was a great encounter. One of the cool parts was the dragons. It let players do different things than just DPS flat out. Will there be more creative skill usage in Wrath?
A: Short answer is yes. They love that sort of thing. In the Oculus you use the abilities of Drake vehicles instead of your own abilities to keep thing interesting.

Q: Dungeon design. TBC was way different than classic. Much shorter. More winged Dungeons, but there was no internal connection between the wings; no passages between wings like in Dire Maul. Any plans for that in Wrath?
A: Devs love this idea and thing about it. They try to make wings cohesive with each toehr. They have been talking about "the epic 5-man" where the dungeons chain together. You finish one and you can keep going or stop. They are looking to do this in the future.

Q: Are you still using the tier gear tokens? And can you make it so that one each drops, perhaps, to avoid people missing out on gear pieces when the tokens do not drop?
A: One thing we are doing is dropping more loot in general. Four or might items per boss in 25-mans. We don't want to do one of each token, really, but certain set pieces will be available to be bought with Badge tokens. This should help you complete some sets if you are unlucky with drops.

Q: With the number of dungeon difficulties you have now,m how long will it take a top-end guild to "beat" the expansion?
A: (Audience member shouts: "Two weeks!" Laughter) People devour content at an insane pace. Arthas will not be seen for a few patches down the line, but devs are anticipating seeing people move through content very fast.

Q: Is the content being designed around the average guild or hardocre players? Will there be ultra-hardocre Sunwell raids?
A: We absolutely want to have dungeons that "normal" guilds can complete but top end players will blow through. Devs do not want the high end raids to be as painfully inaccessible as Sunwell was.

Q: Will Ashbringer drops still be available in Wrath? Will there be more story for Ashbringer?
A: A lot of the previous items like Atiesh from Naxx will be gone IN A DAY OR SO (3.0.2 will likely be out on October 14th) so get them while you can! Yes, the Ashbringer storyline will continue.

Q: Can we have a better way to mix and match set bonuses, since so many of them are very awesome?
A: Devs do not want this, really, because it lends itself to people finding one set bonus and keeping it forever. That's a mistake on the Devs' part of that happens.

Q: The LFG tool. Not many people use it. Does the LFG tool look at your spec to put a group togetehr with auto-join?
A: They are pretty sure it does. Devs want to make a lot of improvements to the LFG tool.

See the WCRadio.com Schedule Page for upcoming broadcast information! Check the Blizzcon page for a link to the WoW Dungeons & Raids Panel audio broadcast as soon as it is available.

• 1:35 PM: The Q&A has begun! Tom Chilton, Chris Metzen, J Allen Brack, Cory Stokton, Greg Street and Jeff Kaplan are introduced.

Q: Why is Perception so awesome in Arenas?
A: It's one of the few racials we seen swinging fights and changing way to approach a fight. Will of the Forsake, Warstomp, and Stoneform are all great, but it's hard for players to compete at times due to Human rogues. It was never their philosophy to have a racial that is only good in ones specific place, so they wanted to make ones that are broader.

Q: As a Holy Paladin in 5-mans and Heroics it can be hard to counter AoE damage. Any fixes for this?
A: Beacon of Light should fill that roll. Faster FoLs will help as well.

Q: Professions. At 70, Blacksmithing stuff seems to be pretty useless. Why can't professions repair armor and the like to be more useful? Also, only Enchanting, Alchemy, and JC are endgame at this point.
A: With the expansion they have tried to make endgame abilities for every professions. BS can socket things for themselves, for example.

Q: Are we ever going to find out what happened to Alleria and Turalyon. Will we ever see Deathwing?
A: Metzen: Working on it, and yes.

Q: In Sunwell Plateau there were daily quests for every level of player. Will there be a daily questing area for Arthas similar to this?
A: Arthas is accessible to everyone in Lich King. In Wrath, daily quests will ship with the expansion and solo players will have acess to big name characters right away.

Q: There is no law in China about killing virtual pandas. Why no Pandaren yet?!
A: We did run into some issues with China and Pandas. We want to be a global game and multi-cultural. They can't say it'll never happen, but they can't right now. We love Pandaren. Devs mention a possible Pandaren action figure!

Q: It's frustrating to spend a lot of time to get Tier gear and then get destroyed in PvP because you don't have resilience. Any fixes planned?
A: We are now offering the ability to turn in PvE tier tokens for one tier down of PvP gear. Devs want to support people doing a lot of different things.

Q: Spells that work indoors now that have not before.
A: Blizzcon exclusive! In the first content patch after the release of Wrath, mounts will BE ABLE TO SWIM! No more dismounting from ground mounts in water!

Q: PvE arenas with old bosses. What do you think?
A: It has potential. It's an idea that has been around since before the game launched. A lot of times with boss fights the location of the fight has a lot to do with it, so it's hard to bring into a generic arena./ Also, what sort of awards would be given? The encounters still need to be cool and give reward equal to effort.

Q: Timbermaw rep is rough. Will Championing be extended to old-world factions or some similar system?
A: We will hit that in a couple fronts. Devs want to see how Championing works out first. Devs are looking at old grindy reps. They want to add in better ways to raise them and they want to fix the broken Ravenholt rep.

Q: Personalization. There is a lot of it in-game already. Can we maybe have some customizations in our animations?
A: Devs are always discussing new ways to customize and the animation system. As it becomes more advanced they may look at adding some animation customization.

Q: PvP versus Raid gear. You needed Brutal weapons to do Bruttalus, but raid guides sharded gear with resilience that dropped. Balance fort this?
A: Devs found that PvP weapons were so useful in PvE, whereas gear was not. They don't want people to feel they need to PvP to get a good weapon this time around.

Q: New Bind on Account (Heirloom) items. Will Legendary items ever scale in this way or be able to be upgraded?
A: It's something to keep in mind. Remember that Legendaries are harder to get than Heirloom items. Devs don't want people to go back and do old content to get legendaries that will then scale up. They want legendary items to eventually be replaced.

Q: You can't mind flay a seige weapon. Shadow priests kind of suck against them.
A: We have been actively tuning DPS on that class in particular. Mind Sear helps with that situation. These last few weeks have been hardcore DPS tests, and they want to pump Shadow Priests up a bit more.

Q: Will 10-man tier loot loot different from 25-man tier loot to keep achievements separate and recognizable.
A: Devs would love all sets to look different, but it comes down to time and effort. Color shifting helps a bit. "Make more art faster, Chris!" Devs would like to do more and more separate sets.

Q: 11-Point talents have always been class-defining. Protection Paladins, though, do not seem to have one anymore.
A: Devs talk a lot about this. They want to give Prot Pallies a defining 11-Point talent, but they have to keep them separated from other tank classes, so they have to give it some time to find where Prot Pallies are weak.

Q: PvPing as a Holy Paladin. Withe new Judgement change, Holy Paladins have no big offensive hits in PvP.
A: Other healers definitely have more offensive utility, and Devs would like to help them out there.

Q: Warlocks. Any plans to help out Fel Domination so that Warlocks can change pets more easily?
A: Devs want locks to use more kinds of pets. They would like to make utility pet changing easier. It could be through Fel Domination or something else.

Q: Feral Druid pvP. Will Omen of Clarity ever be non-dispelable.
A: Devs are not entirely happy with the dispel system. They would like to eventually work on it after release when they can see how classes are balanced in the live game. A lot of classes are built around having cool buffs, and having them stolen in PvP kind of sucks, that that might be changed.

Q: Warriors. Could the weapons spec ever be combined? Having to respec to change from a Sword to an Axe and use it to the best of their ability it cumbersome.
A: Weapons spec talents are not so game-changing that the devs feel they need to change them. People don't switch weapons that often.

Q: Toward the end of TBC, most craftable gear was a bit obsolete. Tailors had very good gear even up to Tier 6, but other Professions did not.
A: Devs think the Frozen Shadoweave being so great was a mistake. They don't want to repeat it. They do want to give professions access to new patterns in each raid tier so they can make items as their progress in PvE.

Q: World of Wracraft feature film. And...go!
A: We're working hard on it! The story is very cool right now. If I say more I will be shot. Patience!

Q: Holy Paladins. Classes provide a framework and Talents allow specialization. Holy tree takes away the melee element of the Paladin class, tho. Any changes planned for that?
A: In this expansion we tried to deal a lot with tanking. Devs say healing is next on the list. We did add Death grip to the Death Knight to keep the Holy Paladin in melee range! (Laughter.)

Q: What are the iconic class abilities you do not want all classes to have?
A: It's hard to judge this in class design. What ability is too iconic to give away to another class? It's very hard to judge.

Q: Protection Paladins. Hammer of Righteousness spell sound is annoying. Also, three-target taunting is great, but it really makes single-target taunting hard. Maybe this 11-piont talent would be a single target taunt?
A: A glyph can lower it to single target, but that's hard to do on the fly. We don't want every tank to be the same. We ended up having to give a single-target taunt to DKs, but Devs do not want too much class homogenization so they are staying away from paladin single taunt for now.

Q: Priests. Why do I have to put 13 points into Discipline to get decent mana regen?
A: Devs feel maybe they went too far making people think they should spend all their points in one spec. Devs like cross-speccing and want to encourage it. They don't want it to mandatory, though. The mana regen and buff/debuff systems have been changed to help make things like this less mandatory. Mana regen is hard to measure based on feedback, though. They want p-layers to have to worry about it.

Q: Class balance. Wrath makes hybrids a lot easier to deal with. How do you protect pure dps classes from being overtaken by hybrids?
A: That is a totally valid concern. The buff re