WWI '08 Notes from the Dungeons & Raids Panel
by Jennie Lees 
Jun 29th 2008 at 4:45AM
At the Worldwide Invitational, the Dungeons and Raids panel is about to begin. We'll be bringing you updates on the anatomy of dungeons and raids straight from Blizzard's mouths, and of course any tidbits of information about dungeons and raids to come, all after the jump. Stay tuned!
10:45 AM CEST: The panel's about to begin and the audience's impatience is palpable. Instead of the panel beginning, we're treated to a panning camera showing us.. ourselves. Well, it's better than nothing I suppose. Finally, Blizzard devs take the stage.
10:52 AM: Cory Stockton, lead level designer; J. Allen Brack, lead producer and Tom Chilton, lead game designer are on the podium. They'll be talking about WotLK plans and theory, with a sneak preview towards the end of the panel.
10:54 AM: What's new for WotLK? 10 and 25 player experience for every raid dungeon. Probably the biggest change they've made - allows them to have a lot of new content, compared to earlier separate development on 10/25 man content. Now they can double the amount of content.
Heroics will return: really happy with the way heroics played out in TBC, want to bring it back. Lots of plans for heroics, more tuning, changing things up from standard 5-mans. Thinks players will like the direction.
More nonlinear content. More choices for players, don't always have one path to take in dungeons. Give players a bit more of a choice so dungeon is a different experience if you do it more than once. The Occulus is a good example.
New gameplay scenarios. Been trying to do this since shipping WoW. Gauntlets, timed events, nonlinear play. Being able to do things in a different way, so not every dungeon is the same thing that just looks different. Different experience too.
Spirit shard reward system for all raids/dungeons based on Wintergrasp PvP. Whoever controls Wintergrasp can get spirit shards from all bosses in all dungeons/raids in the game. Use them to buy unique items, enchants, etc. Still working on reward system but connects pvp with pve. Help the two merge together over time, somewhat separated, same goal for player: advancement.
4 level 80 dungeons. Heroics for all Lich King dungeons. So total 12 5-mans, 12 heroics. Three first-tier raid zones.
10:59AM: Why 10/25 man raids? Opens up raid content to a larger audience. Takes more organisation and planning but doesn't mean that content shouldn't be available. Sometimes the hardest part of a 25 man raid is getting 25 people. So why not give that experience to people in smaller guilds?
Loot separation. Separating loot by a full tier worth of stat points, ultimate endgame content is 25-man so ultimate rewards. Still get great rewards in 10-mans. More loot per boss kill in 25 player raids (because there's more players). Been talking about giving more loot in 25mans for a while, will see that change in Wrath.
Filed under: News items, Raiding, Worldwide Invitational, Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rovec Jun 29th 2008 5:01AM
I love that last bit about a spirit shard type items around the whole of Northrend based on Winterspring. If the rewards are good, that alone might be enough to keep Winterspring popular, but with daily quests, a zone wide buff, and other rewards I'm pretty confident that Winterspring will be a success.
Camaris Jun 29th 2008 5:21AM
Although the original spirit shards were basically only marginally useful during levelling and early level 70, if that sort of mechanic is scaled up to all dungeons it would make it quite interesting. I hope it will be on a similarly long-ish lockout though, to give the poor Horde on our realm a chance of spirit shards too.
"Really trying to allow dungeon quests to have interesting goals"
That would be one of my main gripes with TBC instances. Especially the higher level instances seem to have very little in the way of lore and quests (Arcatraz? Botanica?). Especially the raid instances seem to be somewhat lacking in actual quests, except for Black Temple and Sunwell. Zul'Aman's lore is frankly quite terrible (random neutral Indiana Jones factions aren't very convincing), and SSC is a bit odd in that there's the whole of Zangarmarsh that sort of builds up to it, but in the end it all remained quite unclear to me.
Rovec Jun 29th 2008 7:00AM
This may be leaked info, I can't remember. So read at your own risk.
But how I understand it lake Wintergrasp will constantly be giving the loser an advantage and those advantages will become bigger and bigger the longer a faction can't take over the keep at Winterspring.
For this reason, I'd prefer the battles to take place more quickly then in the Bone Wastes. Rarely, if ever, can I participate in that because it happens so often. However if the Winterspring event happened say, every hour (with warnings going out Northrend wide as to when it will be up again?) I imagine many more people could get in on the action.
With mounting advantages to the losing team this would probably also ensure that Winterspring is held at least a few times a day even for the most outnumbered faction.
Hufke Jun 29th 2008 5:13AM
This guy doesn't sound or look cocky at all. They should let him do all the talking. Maybe if he nerfed every class except the mages, we would actually get away with it.
pegaiai Jun 29th 2008 3:10PM
omg not only mounted combat but FLYING mounted combat nice. but loving all of these updates
Dustin Jun 29th 2008 5:24AM
The oculus sounds like a great dungeon
Camaris Jun 29th 2008 5:30AM
Oh man.. stop focusing on the man's face when they're showing video and screenshots! Just show the presentation and have him as voice-over...
FórTheAlliance Jun 29th 2008 5:41AM
WTB working stream, /sigh
Jamie Jun 29th 2008 7:17AM
'Choose a specific faction to earn rep with, system will use tabards, put tabard on in any heroic and every kill will give rep towards the faction whose tabard you're wearing as well as dungeon faction.'
This is a very, very nice idea. No need to wait for a group to a specific dungeon, just go help out a random group needing an extra man, you still get what you want.
Seth Jun 29th 2008 5:54AM
yeah that really stood out imo. they should get this out before the expansion. been to lazy to go run tk instances for rep ;p one thing im interested in though is will this apply to raids as well?
Heilig Jun 29th 2008 7:12AM
Yeah, great idea, as long as I have a Tabard bag with infinite slots like my keyring. No way am I carrying around a dozen new tabards just to get faction rep.
gameleon Jun 29th 2008 11:51AM
There is something called a bank.
Anyway Oculus and CoT Strat sounds great. Don't know about Halls of stone tough :S
Angus Jun 29th 2008 10:45AM
I would be happy with that even now.
Lower City can bite my beefy butt. Auchindoun was designed by a sadist with a bad attitude. The most horribly designed instances for their rep, with some almost impossible to do bosses for certain group make ups, and horrible add mechanics.
About the only rep I have gotten with them in a year has been from the orphan quests.
I'm exalted with everybody else.
Lori Jun 29th 2008 2:42PM
Rep tabards sounds like a good idea to me as well.
Heilig: Agree it needs to come with tabard bags.
Gameleon: Yea, heard of banks but if a whole new set of items is introduced they need to come with a storage system.
Nogun Jun 29th 2008 5:58AM
Talking Dungeon and Raids without Tigole is like watching football without a ball.
Really missing his non politically correct statements.
Chris Gardner Jun 29th 2008 7:27AM
Actually, it's more like watching football with that loud-mouth, racist coach on the sideline. He may get his team to win, but goddang it is he annoying.
Zoidberg Jun 29th 2008 8:55AM
It sounds as though they're working on a lot less Heroic content than for BC. It sounds like there's only 12 hours of Heroic content.
I enjoyed the heroics. I'd be sorry to see so little.
Takamuri Jun 29th 2008 10:21AM
2 Hellfire Instances - 0 70 Instances
3 Coilfang Instances - 1 70 Instance
4 Terrorkar Instances - 1 70 Instance
3 Netherstorm Instances 3 70 Instances
= 5 BC 70 Instances
= 7 BC Leveling Instances
vs. 8 WOTLK Leveling Instances and 4 80 Instances
12 heroics vs 12 heroics... sounds the same to me...Zoidberg.
Angus Jun 29th 2008 10:48AM
2 Hellfire Instances - 0 70 Instances
Shattered Halls?
Caverns of Time: 0 70 instances 2 Leveling Instances.
So add 3 to your count for TBC heroics.
Amrod Jun 29th 2008 10:50AM
If you have more than one toon you better decide now which is the main because this expansion is not alt friendly.