Transmog yourself into an Avenger!
6 blue posts to read before Diablo 3's launch
Cross-realm zones coming soon
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsTom Chilton on what's coming in patch 3.1
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 8th 2009 at 1:30PM
Our old friend Jessica Citizen has an interview up with Blizzard's Lead Game Designer on World of Warcraft, Mr. Tom Chilton. When Jeff Kaplan shipped off to other pastures in Blizzard to work on the new MMO, Chilton says he took over Kaplan's meetings, so right now, he is the flag leading the big ship of WoW. In the interview, he talks a bit about dual specs -- the system was originally planned to go in with the Lich King expansion, but it had to be pushed back to 3.1. And Chilton says he's already expecting to answer questions about triple specs at this year's BlizzCon, but of course, there's a balance there, as there has to be some choice on the part of the player as to what they decide to specialize in.He also talks about the Argent Tournament and Ulduar -- the Tournament, he says, will be a boon to solo players and players who enjoy daily questing, with the jousting minigame mixing things up a bit. And Ulduar's hard modes, as we've heard before, will bring raiding back to the difficulty that players expect. Chilton fesses up to an error that GC hinted at yesterday -- Blizzard nerfed PvP items at the same time that they made raiding more accessible, and the result is that people flocked to PvE while ignoring most of the PvP options. "We kind of over-solved the problem," he says.
In the end, he calls 3.1 "the most ambitious content patch we've ever done for World of Warcraft." We'll have to see -- given that Noblegarden should show up with the new patch, it ought to be implemented by at least April 26th.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Blizzard, PvP, Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Robert M Apr 8th 2009 2:47PM
You are correct in that they do, but every major content patch has (in size I believe) been bigger than the previous, so they are at least being honest if they are approaching their claim from that angle at least.
RodDawg Apr 10th 2009 11:34AM
If they keep coming out with better, it's true :P
Same thing compared with Cars and Computers, they just keep getting better and better. As technology gets gets better, gaming graphics and capabilities increase as well, allowing for "best thing ever"s to happen a few times a year.
Candina@WH Apr 8th 2009 2:28PM
Am I the only one that thinks that the percipitous drop off in arenas has more to do with 'meh, been there, done that' than with the 'ease of the Raiding content'?
Areana Junkies are a minority. People played Arena in BC because it gave an easier (yes easier) path to Gear than raiding (to get top end gear in raiding required two to three nights a week and LUCK (less luck than Vanilla, but I digress), where as mid-flight arena gear could be had for 10 matches a week.
Without the carrot of 'easy' gear. Those who are not hard core got bored and went to the 'shiney new content' which Blizz had made 'more accessible' (easy).
But I think that Blizz will find that people will stay with the raid content, as it will be new and shiney, and that season 6 will have the same participation level as season 5. Hopefully less. I hope that the Arena's die out.
smiley Apr 8th 2009 2:48PM
Candina, I'd like to extend an olive branch as a PVP oriented player and perhaps get you to step over and look at our side.
I love PVP over PVE, PVE is fun, its something to do between arena matches when the battlegrounds aren't going stong and wintersgrasp isn't up. I have champ of the frozen waste title on most of my 80's and cna honestly say that I enjoy PVE content, raids are time consuming but hey i enjoy the vent joking aorund more then anything so it makes it worth it
Now as a PVP player I am very much against FotM people who roll just to Be OP, in fac tI shelved my LVL 80 DK because it was to easymode, I also don't 2v2 on my holy pally for similar reasons. PVP atm is harder than PVE it is where I consider the true test of a Player, can you go toe to toe with an euqaly or greater geared player (or players) and win. Boss fights have timers, you know roughly when they cna do stuff, try keeping track of when a DK uses his deathgrip and freezez my hunter and trying to keep frosttrap ready so when he grips he is frozen, or masterscall the ice.. or disengaging it.. it takes timing, it takes pacience, and it takes skill to knwo what to do against a player of any class and and spec at any situation.
Pre Wrath in BC I played PVE for the exact opposite reasons, I enjoyed Sunwell and took pride giving the BE back thier(my) sunwell
Some of us go where the challenge is, and you have to admit that is not in PVE atm.
people go for easy purples so pve is more popular than ever but make no mistake, if the two were exactly on par you'd see peopel much ahppierto step into the arena or ht enearest BG just as many times as the step into an instance or raidgroup.
Candina@WH Apr 8th 2009 3:13PM
And this is why I hope arena's and their supporters go away:
'...it is where I consider the true test of a Player'
No. The true test of a player is, is he/she having fun?
I PVP in the battlegrounds, because I enjoy shooting at targets that are not scripted. I PVP in battlegrounds because it is a team effort, fast paced, and fun.
Arena's could be played with a calculator. Who's gear is better? They win. And the exceptions you will bring up only serve to prove the rule.
With one caveat. Holy Pallys and DKs can overcome some gear differential because they are broken.
Arena and Balancing for Arena in an RPG doesn't make sense. It should go away.
smiley Apr 8th 2009 3:24PM
why can't being tested be fun, I love it, I have t most fun when those gates open and my mind rushes to prepare for a team guessing specs, how to coordinate attack, who to get down first, who to cc, where to send a pe tor minion....
I was saing thats to me, you obviously feel differently, and thats awsome, you enjoy the game how you play it. You liek Bg's thats great, spend your time there. You enjoy PVE great, more power to you, get them bosses down, have fun, it is a game, its about fun.
I am just saying let me enjoy the game how i like it.
although i will say arena is not a calculator, the best gear does not win, its the best player at that particular venue gear helps but I'll put my ele shamen in blues and take on any character in any gear from any class and i bet they'll struggle. but thats what I enjoy.
RP moment:
So let me kill the alliance so you can be safe in towns, and you take care of the dragons so i don't get eaten , agreed?
Clbull Apr 8th 2009 2:45PM
Imho, Season 5 sucked for me because:
1) Too hard to get rewards. I can barely get past the 1400 rating mark, HOW am I supposed to get to 1800 - 2250? Just so I can use Hateful Gladiator gear without spending ages farming in VoA.
2) Even with 700 resilience, I can die in about 2 seconds even with healing when the overpowered stunlock/snare and burst that some classes can do is focused on me.
Imho, if the rating requirements for gear is lowered or removed, so that you don't have to be some "pro" at Arena to actually get a reward from it, then I will definitely consider doing more.
FirstTimePoster Apr 8th 2009 4:14PM
If the issue is gear... Then why not have Arena-only gear? This is potentially feasible as there is the BoA gear that scales with character level... Area gear could "scale" to useless levels outside of the arena.
So for fairness, when starting the arena season, all players get a standard green set. As they gain honor and ratings they upgrade to blue and finally epic sets.
This solves the gear problem and it could aid in matching based on a teams total gear level.
smiley Apr 8th 2009 4:25PM
problems with this include... what about Battlegrounds, Wintersgrasp, and pvp servers, so i can't do my dailies without being ganked cause my gear changed to useless when I'm not in arena?
FirstTimePoster Apr 8th 2009 4:58PM
I guess I should have been more clear. My proposal was for Arena only.
With that said, As far as BG, WG, and world PvP go... those are all under the control of the player. If you roll on a PvP server you have agreed to potentially be ganked. While with BGs and WG, players chose to enter those PvP areas so enter at your own risk.
The problems I was trying to solve were 1) how can you make entry into arenas more fair and balanced. and 2) how do you prevent PVE and Arena PVP imba?
smiley Apr 9th 2009 8:51AM
i just don't thik you pve people understand pvp .
i prefer pvp to pve, but the gear I get through pvp would be much less valuble if it only worked in bg/arena, and i am not complaning abut being ganked, i expect it, hell i love it. when i am doign dailies for my little oracle friends and a ally tries to jump me it is challenging to assure i get my kills, kill him, and before my loot respawns or her get back to rez be there teabagging his corpse :D
i need my resil to acomplish this though.
I understand you don't like pvp , so do the style play you want, just don't knock those of us who do or try to get our hard earned gear taken away.
Utakata Apr 8th 2009 5:56PM
I don't exactly trust Tom. Maybe I read him wrong because he is never was as articulate and passionate as Jeffery was. But it always seems to me he's got an Arena biast over other content...which makes me weary fo him. So I am not sure what to make of this interview.
Though I will point out...there was nothing really stated about BG's. Which leads me to believe there will be a big Arena push over BG's despite been shown that this model of PvP is less popular than its ever been.
james Apr 8th 2009 10:14PM
Tom CHilton= worste man for the Job.
Pessipragmatic Apr 8th 2009 11:09PM
So Uldar wont be accessible by casual raiding guilds and they are forcing most PvEers back into the crap grind that is PvP? Sounds GREAT! CAN I HAZ OP DK WIT DAT!?!?!?
Jesus this game has gone downhill.
Wasuremono Apr 9th 2009 12:41AM
They "oversolve" every problem but I think they are downplaying a major reason no one does any pvp anymore. They don't enjoy it. Insane burst damage that kills you in the length of a stun is stupid.
smiley Apr 9th 2009 7:59AM
lots of peole do PVP, most pvp peopl just don't post here or on the forums, cause we don't have downtimes when we're not raiding >_<
pvp is fun you just need gear for it, it takes time to get decent resil and like raiding or instance sif you don't put the time into it you won't reap any rewards. hw long do you think a group of 25 freshly 80's in greens/quest blues would do in Maly 25?