BlizzCon 2010: World of Warcraft Q&A Panel Highlights

Fans ask (and ask... and ask... and rant and argue and hog the mic), and Blizzard answers.

 

I managed to catch two back-to-back World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Q&A panels here at BlizzCon 2010, wherein Blizzard invited fans to take the microphone and ask about whatever WoW-related issues were on their minds. Here are a few of the highlights from the class-specific panel and the general open Q&A that followed.

World of Warcraft Class Q&A Panel

• Hunters are awesome all day with their new Focus resource mechanic. A lot of Hunter players are still what WoW players derisively refer to as "huntards."
• Shadow Priests are currently really heavy on burst damage, which creates a bit of an imbalance between player-versus-environment (PvE) and player-versus-player (PvP) content. Blizzard plans to address this once they've collected more data after Cataclysm launches.
• With Rogue weapon specializations removed, daggers are supreme to other weapons groups, due to superior weapon speed. Blizzard's OK with this -- because Rogues use daggers, fantasy nerds -- but they may play with the mechanics down the line.
• Blizzard is fine with the Warrior's Inner Rage ability staying as a passive, rather than an active, skill.
• The Warlock's level 85 Demon Soul ability is designed as a nichey skill to provide a bit of burst damage capability.
• The Rogue's Combat talent tree is relatively weak now, and it's getting buffed soon. The Rogue's Mastery skill will soon see a quadruple increase in effectiveness to compensate.
• Hunter weapon scopes will be re-evaluated at some point; Blizzard feels they're currently pretty boring.
• The Hunter's minimum attack range creates issues when groups employ strategies that involve stacking up on certain raid bosses. Blizzard acknowledges that the situation is not ideal -- but at the same time, Hunters can also do things like shoot while moving.
• Where did the Paladin's holy power bar come from? Answer: It's a meaningful resource decision that doesn't gimp you once the bar's dry (AKA mana). It's similar to the thought process behind the Hunter's new Focus mechanic.
• Blizzard has never considered implementing a class change feature -- leveling is pretty easy at this point, and heirloom items help to address the facilitation of alt characters.
• Will racial abilities ever be a bit more normalized? Blizzard says they're fine; some races are better at PvE, some races are better at PvP. And Blizzard likes it that way.
• No comment on whether murlocs will ever be added as a playable race. We can dream!
• On the subject of Death Knight raid viability, Blizzard feels they're fine, and very flexible, and can act as a main tank for any raid. Bottom line: Learn to play your class well!

World of Warcraft Open Q&A Panel

• An automated raid party-finder would be pretty tricky to implement, since so much care goes into class composition for endgame content.
• Blizzard is looking into ways to better customize endgame characters and make their appearance more distinct.
• No plans for a guild-merging mechanic. Cataclysm's guild perks and achievements should make players want to stick with their guild long-term.
• Female-specific Druid forms may be a possibility in the future.
• Blizzard feels Cataclysm will bring avbout a lot more interest in battlegrounds, possibly at the expense of arenas.
• Talent trees will receive more tweaks as Blizzard collects data from Cataclysm players.
• Blizzard wants crowd control to be a bigger deal in Cataclysm's instanced content. As PvP goes, they're trying to slow down the encounter speed overall -- which should reduce the impact of crowd control as well.
• The lack of a legendary (orange) dagger is due to how few classes could benefit from using it (as Blizzard wants each individual legendary weapon to be desirable to several classes).
• Blizzard's still committed to balancing classes in arena PvP combat.
• No additional plans for the Mage's water elemental, but it might be up for consideration in future expansions.
• The Rogue's Subtlety tree is "supremely difficult" to balance -- hence Shadow Dance's current use to allow safe energy replenishment, rather than employing it as a big damage-enhancer.
• Further use of the Emerald Dream and its associated fiction is a "when" -- not an "if."
• Achievement points still won't allow you to buy power, people. They're just fake points -- or, as Blizzard puts it, something of a "high score" counter.
• Legendary weapons will be available to both 10- and 25-man raids. Balancing their scaling is a tricky prospect, but Blizzard wants them to stick around far longer than normal items.
• More account-bound items are coming, including a guild mount.
• A storage solution is incoming at some point for festival items and other collectible stuff.
• Some achievements will be removed in Cataclysm, due to geography and faction changes.
• Pandarens may make an appearance in the game at some point -- no clear answer yet.
• Additional character slots are not on the horizon.
• Sidekicking systems have been discussed, in order to address friends playing together despite large level disparities. This might be added down the line.
• A tabard tab is in the works.
• New customizable dance animations, via a "dance studio" mechanic, are being worked on.

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