Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsTom 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 4 of 5)
(cutaia) Feb 18th 2010 5:54PM
As far as only having the "short" raids...why? You could just split up long raids into their wings (they already did this with some of the older superlong 5-mans in the dungeon finder). Add in some additional achievement checks so it doesn't put you in the end of a raid without your ever having seen the first encounters (like they did with the new ICC 5-mans) and that solves that problem.
The lockouts is definitely an issue, so I agree that these would have to be non-lockout affecting.
Gear? Honestly, I wish Need Before Greed had a little more intelligence to it anyway. For example, additional checks that stop people specced as DPS from rollling on items with defense rating, etc.. Perhaps this will be a reason for them to further flesh out that system.
vanye111 Feb 19th 2010 9:28AM
Or you could have a random lockout and a regular lockout, IE you could pug it once and do it deliberately once.
Al Feb 18th 2010 5:13PM
Especially since Malygos just fell down a pit and that was that...
Cue "EoE was merely a setback".
Al Feb 18th 2010 5:15PM
Fail response to Ringo.
No edit button, and the Respond button barely works.. is there a time-line for when the posting function will break, or will that be a surprise?
Al Feb 18th 2010 8:13PM
The one from two weeks ago?
Sorry if I didn't read the 3rd party book or whatever the hell even invented some Elf King long after the game.
If you're looking for more than that, I strongly advise you go get some sunshine and fresh air instead.
Mort Feb 19th 2010 2:36AM
This guy is amazing... I can see him, his face weary after relentlessly scouring every WoW.com post for the last 14 days, looking for your name, Al. Finally, he has found his prey. He smiles, knowing that his hunt is over. He carefully copies the response (which he's been meticulously wording for a fortnight) from the .txt-file and pastes it into the text box with the same grace and care a mother might take lay her babe to sleep. Then, he strikes. Slamming down on the Add Comment button, he lets rip a fierce battlecry.
"For righteous vengeance!"
His work is done. Finally, he can rest. Justice has been served, and all is well in the land.
Al Feb 19th 2010 5:36AM
It's also amazing he didn't spot me before now as well.
And I thought people only started flame wars over insignificant backstory minutae on Imdb.
Lethality Feb 18th 2010 5:39PM
Don't forget this entry from supposed "fake" 3.1 patch notes...
"The Ruby Sanctum
For thousands of years, the Chamber of Aspects was used as a secret meeting place for the five great Dragon Aspects. Since the formation of the Wyrmrest Accord and the war on Malygos, the portals leading to the dragonflight sanctuaries remained dormant...until now. Trouble has arisen within the Red Dragonflight's Ruby Sanctum! Queen Alexstrasza and the Red Dragonflight are seeking able bodied adventurers to find out what lies within."
Cephas Feb 18th 2010 6:11PM
The Chamber of Aspects and the Caverns of Time are no-brainer instance hub locations. Predicting that new sanctums and timeways will open up some time in the future are pretty safe bets.
Condor Feb 18th 2010 5:53PM
Ahhhh-- so in non-lore terms, one of the doors next to Sarth will open up and we'll get to fight another dragon.
Al Feb 18th 2010 6:23PM
Lore, door, more, war.
alpha5099 Feb 18th 2010 6:11PM
RUNEMASTERS?! I love runemasters! Come on, next hero class!
dkhar Feb 18th 2010 7:29PM
I agree, its like having a monk, but much more badassery! :)
DeathPaladin Feb 18th 2010 6:31PM
I can see why they didn't go with Necromancer. The class strikes me as basically Warlocks, but with Zombies instead of Demons.
As far as I can, the reason they only added one Hero class in Wrath, and the reason they aren't adding one to Cataclysm, is that new classes throw in a lot of balancing challenges, and it's hard to make a new class that isn't derivative of one that already exists.
astianax Feb 18th 2010 6:35PM
I absoultely hope they follow through with the 10 man raid finder. A lot of people will cry that Blizzard is making guilds less and less necessary. But to that I ask so what? I thought people joined guilds because of the social bonds it created not because of the phat purpz. For us casual players the number one barrier to us seeing 10 man content isn't the difficulty of the dungeon but other players. Specifically the fact that we don't meet the imaginary Gear Score for whatever dungeon.
Hopefully the raid finder will help alleviate a lot of this. Blizzard will need to implement some sort of solution to the problem that will inevitably arrive though; That being the fact that certain elitists in the raid will try to vote kick players they deem not high as far as GS goes. I have faith though that Blizz won't let us down.
Frank Feb 18th 2010 6:51PM
"They feel warlocks could use a boost to their DPS."
WHAT??
that's it! i'm going to type out a strongly-worded letter to Archmage Pants!
Mennoknight Feb 18th 2010 8:06PM
I disagree with the 10man LFG, not because I don't think people should see the content, but because in order to do this, they will have to dumbdown content MORE!
Look at the average dungeon time.. it is 20-30 minutes (and that's pushing it) and you're done. Grab your badges, shards and go. as a dps it can take LONGER to find a raid
Now look at raids. The ONLY raid that could be completed this quickly is Malygos. The next closest would be TOC, IF everyone knew what they were doing and you didn't have downtime. (talking about at appropriate gear level) What do these raids have in common? A lack of trash, limited (and simplistic) boss encounters. but even these fail often with pugs before the final boss is down, even now when much better gear is easily available. A ToC pug run could take as long as 2+ hours if people are learning the fights, and that is NOT including afk downtime, people being kicked or logging out, etc.
Now look at "real" raids like Ulduar, ICC, heck even Naxx. It can take an hour or more just to clear a wing, and that's with a group that doesn't take breaks and rarely wipes.
In order to make this even feasible they would have to seriously dumb down content, remove all trash and make "raids" only contain 1-4 bosses, with no scaling in difficulty.
If you "don't have the time to be in a real raiding guild" then you don't have the time to do raiding.. there's a reason most raiding guilds take 2-3 nights to work on content, even casual ones.
Then there is the issue of class composition. Bosses would again have to be nerfed to be more forgiving if the LFG tool filled your raid with 5 ret pally's to dps, or they would have to split up Ranged, Melee, Replenishment, etc. would would lead to MUCH longer ques for a lot of "pure" dps classes. Not to mention the gear checks.
Now I know, GS is a cancer and I think people rely on it too much. My rule of thumb is, if you're not in full T9 (or close) level gear, and that gear isn't gemmed and enchanted with EPIC gems, I'm not bringing you. Why? Because badges are INSANELY easy to come by and if I am putting together a group for ICC and you don't have everything you can get from badges (if you didn't raid before this) you're not worth bringing. Why? because there are at least three others who can fill your spot who have that gear. (if you are still focused on GS, this is about 4800)
The rating system is messed up because it puts my tank (who at the time was very undergeared) in HoR almost every time I que. Now that I have decent (ICC) gear, it always pairs me with a fresh to 80 healer. And you want this system to try and pair 10 people?
I'll be willing to overlook someone who might not have the best gear (cause skill>gear) but if you don't have the gear you are wearing gemmed and enchanted with the best available, why should I bring you and let you roll on loot against someone who does know what they're doing when it comes to gear?
I understand about RL, and "I play how I want." and all that. But I'm the one forming the raid, and I raid for fun and wiping 6 times on a boss because a mage is under hitcap isn't fun. If you hate all the people forming raids with these "harsh" requirements then MAKE YOUR OWN PUG and accept whoever you want.
I agree that the requirements are a bit strict on most realms (my tank who OT 25man ICC was told he wasn't geared enough for 25 TOC because of Gearscore). But gear is SO easy to get, and while it might be different for you, a lot of the people I see complaining in trade on my server about not getting into pugs are still largely in questing blues/boe epics with not an enchant or epic gem to be seen (lets not start on shoulder enchants)
But honestly, I don't see how they can do LFG with Raids
Bryan Dare Feb 18th 2010 8:15PM
"Obviously, we’re digging up Deathwing for Cataclysm, so that should be big."
http://www.instantrimshot.com/
ben Feb 18th 2010 9:38PM
New hero class: dragon warrior!
Talent trees: red (tank) bronze (dps) green (heals)
dreamkin Feb 19th 2010 2:33AM
Really simple solution for random 10mans: being locked to a raid means you are only eligible for loot from a specific boss once per lockout window. But you can fight through the content as many times as you want.