Curse's interview with Tigole and Kalgan
Like many other sites, Curse.com got a chance to visit Blizzard and take home some information on everything Wrath. They have an interview with lead designers Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan and Tom "Kalgan" Chilton, and a general writeup. A lot of it has already been covered in our previous reports, but here's what looked new to me:- Karazhan showed Blizzard that 10-man raids could work, and were good for more casual players; on the other hand, more hardcore raiding guilds were upset about having to break into 10-man groups. Thus Wrath's split 10-man/25-man raid system.
- Naxx is going to have to be tuned way down, since it's now an entry-level raid instead of a top-level raid.
- Class balance as we know it is going to change drastically with the new talents for every class (at least in their current, secret, developmental state).
- WoW was always planned out with item inflation in mind, so don't worry about it too much.
- There will be a Northrend kick-off event.
- Kaplan would rather we did dailies for gold instead of farming primals, since it's less repetitive; on that note, he wants to make more of a varied experience, like the cooking daily or the daily dungeon with randomization built in.
- They're planning a new item type that will bind to your account, specifically for twinking. You might get it in a dungeon, and you can mail it to your alts, but you can't sell it on the AH or anything.
- There will be a new battleground, with siege weapons and destructible buildings.
- The Paladin is designed to be the best AoE tank, and the Warrior the best tank for sheer mitigation; the Death Knight is designed to be the anti-caster tank. These distinctions should be fairly irrelevant in 5-mans -- any tank class should be able to tank a regular or heroic dungeon -- but they will come into play in the more difficult raids.
- They're experimenting with daily quests being used during the leveling process.
- The Arena gear will come in two tiers, to mirror the quality of the 10-man and 25-man raids.
- 10-man and 25-man gear will be recolors of the same models, and you will be able to wear them together for set bonuses.
- Arthas will not be in the game from the beginning, but will be patched in.
Filed under: News items, Expansions, Interviews, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Brimoonfang May 9th 2008 1:19PM
What about us Druid tanks?!?
Blizzard hates hybrids, I know.
Eliah Hecht May 9th 2008 1:11PM
Yeah, I had the same question when I read that. Especially since I'm currently leveling a druid with the intention to tank with it.
Brimoonfang May 9th 2008 1:25PM
I have some bad news for you, Eliah.
I have a lot of experience in Karazhan (nearly Exalted with Violet Eye), but virtually all of it is DPS in cat form. I'm only allowed to tank Maiden because our Paladin is on decurse duty. Otherwise our Paladins and/or Warriors get all the tanking glory.
It was even worse pre-level 70. Almost every time I would advertise Tank LFG, PUGs would add me and then say, "We
want a Warrior to tank." and drop me. I ended up having to bribe groups to run Steamvaults with me. Once I paid a healer 96 gold for the run.
If you really want to be popular as a Druid, go Resto and
do arenas. Maybe Boomkin. Feral? Good luck.
Todd May 9th 2008 1:21PM
Another worried druid tank here. I don't want to heal!
Dotixi May 9th 2008 1:25PM
Hybrids seem to be self-hating...
Ryan May 9th 2008 1:36PM
Ferals are fine. They shine most on high physical damage fights. Get a new guild or l2p.
Chuddy May 9th 2008 1:51PM
"I have a lot of experience in Karazhan (nearly Exalted with Violet Eye)"
ooooo. NEARLY exalted with VE? Surely you jest. What heights you reach that give you credence to speak with such zeal!!!! While I do not discount your own experience, You'll find as you get out of entry level bc raiding that druid tanks are very much widely used. Even in Kara,gruul and mags, they are. Your experience is not common. A tank is a tank.
Charlie Taylor May 9th 2008 1:53PM
Brimoonfang:
I have no idea what your talking about, some of the best tanks in our guild are feral druids. (oh, and 'almost' exalted with Violet Eye is not a lot of experience, I hit exalted with them 6 months ago) Feral's are great for hard hitting bosses because of their high armor and health. We even had a feral get some FR gear together and tank the demon phase in Leothras when our lock wasn't available, and he did amazingly.
As a rogue I love feral tanks because of the +5% crit and the buff to bleed effects (any rogue should be using rupture on boss fights).
So maybe it's not the class, but the player?
PeeWee May 9th 2008 2:57PM
You hit Exalted with VE after like 6 or 7 runs through Kara. You, sir, are not "experienced".
I've only got some 32K armor, capped defence and 40%+ dodge, but I can easily tank Karazhan, Zul'Aman, Gruul and Magtheridon.
Remind you though, I'm still considered to be in the beginner-stages of raiding.
BillDoor May 9th 2008 3:00PM
Yeah, Feral tanking is very useful. We use at least one Feral for tanking Illadin's flames, and will use one at an Off-tank on Brutallus when we get there.
And I've tanked all of Karazhan as a bear, even solo-tanking some bosses like Attumen.
Mats May 9th 2008 3:40PM
Nearly exalted? So, you been there twice then? Of course you let the Prot warrior tank, thats ALL he can do, same with prot paladins. Feral druids can do DPS, prot warrior/pallys are worthless at that.
Using a feral druid as MT, when you have a prot warrior or pally in the group also, is nothing more then selfishness from the druid.
And from people saying that they want a warrior tank, it's might just be that you are a really horrible tank, and the word has got around, and they are just saying that to prevent getting you in a group. Most PuGs will take any form for tank, even a DPS warrior, or Retri pally, as a tank is the hardest part to get a hold of in any PuG.
No one should be afraid to level a druid tank, they are great for 5-mans, I would perhaps say better at 5mans then a warrior tank.
Diabla May 9th 2008 4:11PM
@Brimoonfang:
Your initial comment kinda shows how new you are to Druiding as far as raids. and being almost exalted with the VE, honestly doesn't even scratch the surface in be an experienced raider. All in all, I really have to disagree with you on alot of your comments in that second post you made.
I can't even remember the last time I got to Kitty in a 5man, much less a raid (currently in SSC/TK) Hell, Tbh I've never even heard of a Druid tank being passed over before unless they were worthless as tanks or really needed to seriously up thier gear(ie, they were just starting out). And to be *really* honest, Unless it's a certain situation where the encounter needs a warriors "o sh--" buttons everyone I know *prefers* a Druid or Pally..
o, And is it a thing where you choose not to tank for your guild or do they *really* not let you tank? or both? Being a tank *is* the majority of a Feral's value. Our DPS is no where near that of a pure dps'er (rogues, mages, warlocks ....actually,ok...
Diabla May 9th 2008 4:14PM
@Brimoonfang:
Your initial comment kinda shows how new you are to Druiding as far as raids. and being almost exalted with the VE, honestly doesn't even scratch the surface in be an experienced raider. All in all, I really have to disagree with you on alot of your comments in that second post you made.
I can't even remember the last time I got to Kitty in a 5man, much less a raid (currently in SSC/TK) Hell, Tbh I've never even heard of a Druid tank being passed over before unless they were worthless as tanks or really needed to seriously up thier gear(ie, they were just starting out). And to be *really* honest, Unless it's a certain situation where the encounter needs a warriors "o sh--" buttons everyone I know *prefers* a Druid or Pally..
o, And is it a thing where you choose not to tank for your guild or do they *really* not let you tank? or both? Being a tank *is* the majority of a Feral's value. Our DPS is no where near that of a pure dps'er (rogues, mages, warlocks ....actually,ok ...everyone. lol). But that's ok b/c that's not our strength. It's tanking. You don't need to be a Mookin or a Resto to be worth something in raids.
Diabla May 9th 2008 4:15PM
ok, wow. weird double post thing. sry about that folks
Adam May 9th 2008 5:55PM
Depends on your raid build, really - myself and another Feral trade off as MT on a lot of boss encounters - Ferals are great for spike physical damage encounters. Mags and Azgalor are great for druids. Warriors shine in fights where you need "Oh sh*t" buttons to survive specials (Illidan, for example). I think the devs have done a pretty good job for the most part on leveling out the tanking field - There are very few fights that can't be tanked by any class. Even our prot pallies get to MT some fights. What we've learned is that there is no one "right way" to down a boss, no perfect raid composition for most encounters. Given, some make it easier than others, but they really have put some work into making the fights flexible.
Baluki May 9th 2008 1:10PM
Cool, I like the idea of having an anti-caster tank. One thing I've noticed on my tankadin is that she isn't very good against casters.
It would be really cool if, in raids, you could take 4 tanks of different classes, and each was good for certain fights, rather than almost always relying on the warrior tank.
Heilig May 9th 2008 2:30PM
I read what he said about tanks as "druids and pallies will still be the kings of 10-man tanking. Enjoy respecing when you go to 25's"
Matthew Rossi May 9th 2008 4:54PM
Why would that be cool? In a 10 man raid, are you going to bring four tanks?
dAnixx May 9th 2008 5:04PM
Palas = aoe tank
Warrior= sheer mitigation tank
DK=anti-caster tank
Feral druids = respec resto lol
srsly what about druids?
Starlin May 9th 2008 1:15PM
Anyone else get the feeling that the expansion is still a long ways away?