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 revamp took some utility away from hybrids, but their DPS was buffed in response. It's imperative to keep pure DPS classes doing very good damage. They should be at the top but not leaving hybrids behind. Good DPS should be more about pl;ayer skill than class.
Q: Kael'thas fight is great the first time around, but thew 10th time around there is a bit much talking and you have to wait. Will there be any big scripted waits like that in Wrath?
A: We'll try to keep that chattiness down. We had a long conversation like this with Brann Bronzebeard in a dungeon, but it really needed a way to fast forward it. They'll look into that.
Q: Achievement points. They are pretty easy to get. Will you ever offer Tier 9 epics for Achievement points? Please say no.
A: Devs do not want Achievements points or Achievement Rewards to ever effect gameplay. They will not be used for in-game items.
Q: A lot of new Rogue talents are dagger-specific. Will combat/swords be fleshed out?
A: Combat was indeed falling way behind. Recent changes have been made to buff up Combat and swords. Vitality and Aggression talents, specifically, were changed. Devs think Combat may scale too well in the endgame. They will keep an eye on it.
Q: Daily quests get repetitive. Will we every have a special bag for the daily quest items that suck up your inventory?
A: Dailies do get repetitive. They want to have more randomized dailies like the cooking and fishing ones. On the To Do list is a big revamp to the quest UI that will happen after the release of Wrath. They want to upgrade the quest interface a lot.
Q: Hunters. Will Aspects ever be off the GCD? They are very clunky right now to change.
A: I would not rule it out.
Q: Paladins. What's the plan for Sacred Cleansing?
A: Devs do not have an answer for that. it's on the list of things that still need to be talked about,. Devs know it is a concern.
Q: Warriors. Warriors have a lot of spells like Berserker Stance that hurt them in order to make them do more damage. A lot of drawbacks. Any plans to change this?
A: That's not necessarily a part of the Warrior class design. Titan's Grip is a special situation. You have to balance that extra DPS form 2 2h weapons. They did consider changes Stances to more current design philosophy (bonuses without direct detriments). That might still happen.
Q: We're taking over Northrend this expansion. What's next!
A: Southrend! Something else! Starcraft 2! Something else that you don't expect. Chris: Unbelievable boldness is next.
Q: Next Hero class?
A: We already announced it. it's the Bard! ..... April fools!
Q: Death Knights are a tank. They tank through damage, much like Druids. Where do you want tanking Death Knights to stand in the ranks of DPS?
A: Tank-specced DKs should be around the same as Protection Warriors when they are trying to DPS. While tanking, Death Knights should not be, and are not currently, top DPS.
Q: How do you plan to keep people active in boss encounters without just recycling old boss encounters?
A: You are saying we should be more creative? How dare you, sir! (Laughter.) We don't have any shortage ideas, we just have a shortage of manpower and time. Malygos is completely unique. Chamber of Aspects is unique in that you can do it in completely different ways to change the difficulty. We have countless ideas. Ulduar Raid will have things never before seen, including PvE siege weapons and destructible raid buildings!
Q: Female feral druids turn into male animal forms! Could there ever be customization for female animal forms? Maybe through glyphs?
A: Are you asking if we are adding genitalia to the forms? We're a teen rated game (Laughter.) We've had a lot of druid form questions, even in the Art Panel, and we'd love to do something with it. it's a matter of time, but all the Devs want to do something.
Q: Should Holy priests be worried if Shadow and Discipline Priests can heal as well as them as well as survive better?
A: Circle of healing, for instance, is very powerful deep Holy talent. We tried to make it, with spell power changes, so that healers could do a bit more DPS. Everyone needs a bit more survivability. DPS should not be super-fragile. Holy Priests can also heal themselves. Devs are not too worried about healer survivability right now.
Q: When the 3.0.,2 Patch hits, will be be able to make Death Knights? It could help prevent lag at release.
A: Death Knights come with the expansion. They will not be released before.
Q: Will Paladins and Shamans, etc, ever see their relic slot items on their characters?
A: The silhouette of a character is very important to the art. There are no current plans to add, for instance, a waist slot where relics would hang, but as armor systems improve it's something that they could see happening.
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