Tom Chilton retrospective interview on Wrath of the Lich King
by Basil Berntsen 
Feb 18th 2010 at 4:00PM
- They are looking into extending the dungeon finder to 10-man content.
- Chilton hinted that we may see a new boss in the Ruby Sanctum before Cataclysm launches
- They have a "general philosophical approach of getting the hybrids to where they're close to the DPS classes when it comes to DPS roles. Otherwise, those specs just turn into joke specs."
- They feel warlocks could use a boost to their DPS.
- Tol Barad, the Cataclysm equivalent to Wintergrasp, will be more of a Isle of Quel'Danas style daily quest hub instead of a farming zone.
- Before settling on death knights for Wrath of the Lich King's hero class, they specifically debated necromancers and rune-masters.
- They feel that with all the accessibility work they did on end game PvE in Wrath, end game PvP has become harder to get into by comparison.
Filed under: Blizzard, Interviews, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Alderkin Feb 18th 2010 4:12PM
From the linked article:
"We had this vision for Wintergrasp that when the battle wasn’t going, it would behave a lot like the Elemental Plateau in Burning Crusade. Back in Burning Crusade, players would go there to farm their primals, and there would be spontaneous world PvP that happened as a result of that. But that didn’t really play out in Lich King the same way that it did in Burning Crusade. It just turned out that farming for elemental fire in the Lich King wasn't as central to the game economy as it was in Burning Crusade."
It also didn't help that most of the 'gatherers' are bots using a 'hide underground' exploit to avoid getting ganked. Things may have turned out quite different if that had ever been fixed.
BoomingEchoes Feb 18th 2010 6:22PM
Agreed, and it also doesn't help that they're entire goal in Wrath was so that people didn't have to do outrageous farming to make gear like they did in BC as opposed to getting them into raids where things will drop.
THEY DID THAT, NOT US.
Honestly if Chilton is going to complain about the lack of world pvp through farming in WG he really needs to remember their plan meetings from about 3 years back where they itemized things. He's flip flopping what they wanted with what they have said many times that they didn't want.
Tharina Feb 18th 2010 4:14PM
Hopefully they revisit the necromancer class, I would love to try that out.
Also, hopefully the needed warlock dps boost makes it in relatively soon, as in while my guild is still progressing through ICC. Our dps isn't horrible by any means but it is lagging behind a few other classes for no apparent reason besides poor scaling.
BoomingEchoes Feb 18th 2010 6:25PM
Talk of this class isn't new.
It was planned before Warlocks even came into the picture and 'locks replaced it. Then they said in an interview shortly after Wrath hit that because of warlocks they didn't want Necromancers as a hero class because they'd play almost exactly the same.
dkhar Feb 18th 2010 7:08PM
Yea the perma ghoul pet makes the necromancer class never come into existence i'm afraid. Same thing with warlock's getting demon form from the demo tree, never going to see demon hunter's now. I actually could go on and on bout a lot of the hero classes. The only one that seems still viable is the runemaster that they were working on prior to deciding on the DK. I wish they were not so ad-versed to the idea of just putting in a regular class though, this game needs and has always needed ranger's, guess they could make that a hero class but can't see that working to much(ally=ranger, horde=dark ranger).
Here's to hoping! :)
Natsumi Feb 18th 2010 9:27PM
Ranger = Hunter
Der.
ChasW Feb 21st 2010 9:20PM
I'd love a necromancer class that could fill all roles. I'm sure they could do something that could differentiate itself from the warlock for dps. Or, they could take it a different route: a debuffer/buffer class. It would increase others' powers through dark pacts and debuff enemies through curses, kind of like Diablo II. It would possibly wreck havoc with players' perceived perceptions (aka Recount is all powerful), but it could be a really fun class if that's what people like.
It could also be a healer. Make a talent tree that maxes out their buffing potential for protection pacts, and you could have a unique healer, a mirror to the "Light" healing of priests and paladins. Maybe do something with linked hp pools, fun stuff. Different stuff. It could work from both a flavor and mechanical standpoint.
As for tanking, a pet tanking class would be kind of cool, I think. Imagine something along the lines of the Blood Golem from Diablo II, where the necromancer's and the pet's health are linked, and affecting one affects the other. It could drain life, healing on the necro could go to the pet and vice versa, everything would be linked through necrotic magics (because you don't want a tank class that doesn't risk death).
I think it could work. It would require some restructuring, and we would be forced to shift our ideas about how to make a group. I admit, I kind of miss the buffer/debuffer role that seems to have faded away from MMOs. The shaman was a great class in EQ, darn it!! So, I'd love to see a necromancer that looks nothing like a warlock, and I think it is perfectly possible.
Naus Feb 18th 2010 4:19PM
Not to hijack the thread, but yeah that is a good way of putting the hybrid tax. I'm certainly not the only person to have both pures and hybrids, but imho I I think my opinion is fairly balanced and I think as it stands now it's fair.
It's good to see a QuelDanas style zone - that was a fun zone.
DKs were the best choice by far, I'm glad they didn't try to necromance or runemaster their way into wotlk.
HeartStrikeMOAR Feb 18th 2010 4:21PM
"They are looking into extending the dungeon finder to 10-man content"
PUG raids + LFD random bads = OH SHI--!!
Seriously, I know I'm stating the obvious here, but that is a really BAD idea. I hope blizzard doesn't actually go through with it.
ToyChristopher Feb 18th 2010 4:19PM
YES DUNGEON FINDER FOR 10 MAN CONTENT! GO GO GO GO GO! DO IT!!!
jealouspirate Feb 18th 2010 4:27PM
"GO GO GO GO GO GO DO IT!!!!!" is exactly what will cause problems with a 10 man LFG system
Dashifen Feb 18th 2010 5:47PM
Since I can never get into 10-man content being a part of a smaller guild and not having a lot of time, I love the idea. Sure, it might be hard for me to play up to the level of others, but if it's semi-intelligent and knows to send me to Nax instead of ICC, then I, for one, welcome our new raid-finding overlords.
ToyChristopher Feb 18th 2010 6:04PM
I guess you might be right jealouspirate!
However, I really like the idea of raids following suit with the random dungeon finder and think blizzard would be wise to make it a priority. I have a lot of friends who would like to see raids, but there is still the hurdle of finding a group and getting in there. This process can take over an hour, of spamming, reading trade chat and the end product is no guarantee of the group even getting off the ground.
This has become worse with the introduction of the random dungeon finder, both because the raid browser is harder to find and trade chat has become the new looking for group. Maybe also more people just decide to do random dungeons instead because it is so much easier to get into a dungeon.
brammage Feb 18th 2010 8:43PM
I'd love to see a random raid finder. I've spent a lot more time looking for a raid group than I've spend inside one.
Todd Feb 18th 2010 11:12PM
I can only see a 10man dungeon finder working for single boss raids like Ony and Sarth. Anymore than that and you could end up locked to a raid where theres only one boss down and no way to finish it.
Mort Feb 19th 2010 2:18AM
Agree, Todd. I'd use it for things like Onyxia, VoA and maybe the new OS boss, if that becomes a reality, stuff that I usually pug anyway. ICC has been failtastic whenever I needed to PuG it. Yay for low population RP-PVP servers. You may be the long lost love child of Arthas and Jaina, and a Vampire-Dragon prince to boot, but that doesn't make you a good raider... -_-
Desmentia Feb 19th 2010 1:39PM
Here's my 2c on automatic/random LFR, even if no one cares what I think:
-LFR should not save you to raids your guild might run. This could mean either that LFR raids do not save you at all, or that the radom feature won't drop you in ICC (and possibly exclude ToGC and VoA also), or that there simply isn't a random feature.
-If there IS a random feature, let us use it as an alternative to the daily random 5man for our 2 Frost badges.
-Kicks on basis of merit (or specifically, lack thereof) should NOT be limited in the same way that they are in our 5mans. If some people are simply below the DPS to beat enrage, we shouldn't be stuck with them; gear checking does not replace the need for sufficient kicking power. Some similar standard of contribution should be held for Healers and Tanks.
-The system should recognise the fact that group makeups aren't as rigid in raids as they are in 5mans, and specifically try to build groups that are capable of running 1-2 tanks, 2-3 healers and the rest DPS. That is to say, attempt to set it up so people with multiple roles checked can respec to alter the composition by fight, if such people are available for forming the group.
jealouspirate Feb 18th 2010 4:20PM
Hmm. I'm not sure whether to be excited or dismayed about Tol Barad having a lot of dailies. In the interview he called it a "a core daily quest hub".
I love PvP, but on my server the Horde outnumbers the Alliance 3 to 1. I guess it's too early to say for sure how it will play out, but for servers with extreme faction imbalances having a "core daily hub" there could be trouble.
I wasn't around during the Isle of Quel'Danas, how did that play out for servers with large faction imbalances?
mel Feb 18th 2010 6:29PM
Imagine doing your dailies with a 3:1 tenacity buff. How awesome would that be.
havitech Feb 18th 2010 7:01PM
"I wasn't around during the Isle of Quel'Danas, how did that play out for servers with large faction imbalances? "
Large groups of the dominant faction regularly formed parties that went around slaughtering any members of the opposing faction they found doing their dailies.
It's a blast for the dominant faction, but it's really hard to survive and get anything done if you're part of the smaller faction.