Neth lays down answers on Wrath release, leaks
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 14th 2008 at 1:00PM
Nethaera was in an answering mood this weekend -- she opened up a few cans on all kinds of player questions, and clarified a few answers we weren't so thrilled with before. The biggest question, of course, was the release date for Wrath, and rather than just giving the usual "soon" answer, Neth actually made sure to say that Blizzard has definitely not finished the game yet.She also gave a much better answer about why Blizzard is opposed to the leaking of talent data from the game. Before, all we heard was that leaking the data was "extremely offensive and inappropriate" (that comment's been deleted from the forums, actually). And this time around, Neth is much more reasonable -- the reason they don't want data leaked is because they want players to theorycraft from gameplay, not from talent data. Of course, that still doesn't mean hearing about the data earlier is a bad thing, for the players or devs, but she has a point -- reading talent data isn't the same as playing the class.
Other than that, the questions aren't too great. People ask if Blizzard is going to do anything original, and of course they are -- Blizzard's great ideas don't come out any sooner than "when they're ready," but when they do, they're almost always groundbreaking and fun. It's completely understandable that Wrath is taking their focus, and while yes, the waiting is always the hardest part, Blizzard has never shown us that the wait for their games is anything less than worth it.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sonmerlong Jul 14th 2008 1:17PM
Dang Xpack needs to get here already.
Hone Melgren Jul 15th 2008 7:43AM
Lolz Somner get back to work !!! XD - Love Blu
Haderic Jul 14th 2008 1:19PM
The wotlk launch date is not as important as what Blizzard plans to do to combat boredom in WoW right now. With no content planed to be released before November (the estimated WOTLK date) many players are getting bored. Blizzard should release some not that important features into the game to refresh the feel. Features like the dressing room make the game feel "new" by implementing these Blizzard could keep people interested before WOTLK.
darian Jul 14th 2008 1:20PM
When it comes to the death knight class, I can definitely see that theorycrafting from numbers is largely spurious. There's not much to be gained from it without the insights provided by actually playing the class.
However, barring class altering abilities (like Lifebloom or Steady Shot) I think it's entirely reasonable to theorycraft on the classes one already knows. You're already aware of 90% of the mechanics involved, so a little guesswork as to how the new talents and spells fit in is not out of order.
Theorycrafting off gameplay is better, but has still always been tempered and founded in the basic mathematics of the situation. They're symbiotic, and unseparably so.
Smurk Jul 14th 2008 1:25PM
"reading talent data isn't the same as playing the class"
But you guys squeeze so many blog posts out of reading the talent data!
(I keed, I keed.)
Markymark Jul 14th 2008 1:30PM
patience young Padawan.. Patience. I'm glad to know their not rushing to meet so dumb deadline. I'm as anxious as the next Joe Schmo but you can clearly tell they are nowhere near finished. On a personal note I hope they give mages something really worthwhile.
censorman Jul 15th 2008 12:21PM
As many gripes as I have about the company and their crappy pvp...I must applaud Blizzard for continuing the tradition of quality. They don't ship crap.
....wish Funcom paid attention to that lesson (or even played an MMO before)
Tabi Jul 14th 2008 1:38PM
"they want players to theorycraft from gameplay, not from talent data"
yeah, right. They've been doing this long enough to know that these data were going to leak out and people would be theory crafting long before WotLK's release.
The real reason probably has to do with PR, and the fact it reduces their ability to offer the information as an exclusive to some gamer magazine or website.
bdew Jul 15th 2008 2:34AM
THIS: "reduces their ability to offer the information as an exclusive to some gamer magazine or website"
In totaly unrelated (and not really new) news: you can get ready for use, without any special software or server, talent calculators from the latest alpha here: http://rapidshare.com/files/123572442/8472-3.zip
In case your yet-another favorite site get's C&D'ed into removing them ;)
Fletch Jul 14th 2008 1:46PM
I had a brief look at the updated talent calculators, but more out of curiosity than any attempt to glean any insight into potential killer builds. Personally, I don't think anything of importance can be gained from the talent calculator until we get the chance to put those talents into context by playing the character. However one thing I would say is that if Blizzard want people to learn from experiencing the class then perhaps they should remove what I believe is the completely ridiculous feature of having to pay every time you want to respec your character. For high level players this is perhaps nothing but a minor annoyance, but for new players this cost can quickly become prohibitive and they are exactly the ones that need to experiment with different talents and playstyles
vlad Jul 14th 2008 1:54PM
good grief mike. with the amount of bloggers your guys have i would think someone would at least go to mmo-champion once a day.
this is two days old.
worldofraids, curse, wownews and others all had this. i would think the first wesite that comes up on google and yahoo when you search for "wow news" would try to at least stay on their game :)
Michael Jul 14th 2008 1:54PM
I think you missed the best tibbit in this Q/A... the blizz poster said that they are not going to release any new content before WotLK. To me that was the most interesting point.
Urthona Jul 14th 2008 2:02PM
Hm that is odd. I was sure they'd pop another patch just before WotLK allowing for trade between Heroic Badges and possibly a Dragonhawk Flying Mount, among other cosmetic items. Big bags for a few thousand gold isn't the Big Big money sinks I would expect.
Clarick Jul 14th 2008 1:59PM
I think that Blizzard is doing a good job building anticipation for Wrait. Things like the construction site in Stormwind and letting little bits out once an a while are good things. We all would rather the game works really well before they realease it so we don't need to endure bi-monthly patches.
I do think that the odd "cookie" needs to be thrown in during patches till then to keep the anticipation alive. Things like an emisary from a new race showing up in the cities to move the story line along.
We all remeber the dark portal before BC came out. I thought that was great.
Those are my opinions on the subject...keep on teasing us Blizzard just as long as you keep WoW fresh!
Oneiroi Jul 14th 2008 1:59PM
I think they overreact about the leaking of stuff.
The only negative I can see about it, is it makes people whine even when none of this is even close to finished. But I'm sure there are some good critiques even in there.
MechChef Jul 14th 2008 3:12PM
I wonder what preliminary theorycrafting has to say about the indications thatpoint to rogue daggers getting buffed. /curious
Smurk Jul 14th 2008 4:35PM
Whoa, first I've heard of this. I'm an unrepentant subtley-specced rogue who uses daggers, and it'd be nice to get a buff. I'm also waiting to see what happens to resilience, since it can't just increase indefinitely and it would be useless on level 71-79 gear.
Ircasha Jul 14th 2008 2:20PM
Blizz needs to do something to increase interest in playing pre-Wrath. As of now, 90% of my friends/guildies have stopped playing (and their subscriptions) until Wrath comes out.
I'm keeping myself occupied leveling a druid (the only class I haven't leveled to 70) and helping out a friend that just recently starting playing, but I've been looking at some other games to play to fill in the time until Wrath as well. The game feels too stale and I've pretty much done everything (multiple times) that I'm going to do with the game at this point.
Something new would definitely be an incentive to keep paying my monthly.
Eternalpayn Jul 14th 2008 2:22PM
Something new like Sunwell?
Ircasha Jul 14th 2008 3:07PM
@Eternalpayn
Been there, done that: Exhalted on several toons, been through heroic 5 man many, many times.
So what? Are You suggesting that running endless dailies should keep me entertained for the next several months?
Raid progression, while important to many, doesn't hold any interest for me. I burned out on raiding in EQ and have no desire to see anything beyond a 10 man in WoW.
It would be very interesting to see some intro quests for Wrath, something along the lines of opening AQ (but different, since 'opening' Wrath isn't something that could be server based). There are many lore threads that could be opened that lead into Wrath that could be made available now, etc. It would also be cool to get a head start on the faction grinds that are coming in Wrath.
Sunwell, although well done, was consumed as content within weeks of its release. For the sake of retaining their customer base, it would behoove Blizzard to keep folks entertained in-game, as well as building hype outside of the game. Most of the people I play with are bored with the game and see any grinds toward level 70 gear (arena, honor or PvE) as being futile since there is a gear reset on the horizon.