BlizzChat on Twitter, Arena FAQ, Blue posts

#BlizzChat Developer Chat on Twitter
Quote from: Bornakk (Source)
Q. If damage and healing is too much per health ratio, then why don't you have battlegrounds/arenas give a -30% damage/healing debuff?
A. We have been talking about solutions like that. It might feel a bit awkward, but it might also solve the problem and maybe it's okay in the last season before an expansion to experiment a little bit.

Q. Is there talk of a fire shield spell for elemental shaman to use like water shield for restoration shaman?
A. Not at this time.

Q. Do you still have plans to implement guild housing?
A. Guild housing isn't a priority. Aside from the huge development involved it gets people out of cities and into these private areas other players can't see. We like cities to feel populated. But I'm not sure anyone expected WoW to be going as strong as it is after five years, so who knows in the future.

Q. Can you please explain why Feign Death is still on the Spell Hit metric, especially in raids?
A. It's a known issue, but just has to do with the way the spell is set up. Melee and ranged attacks mean a very specific thing to the game engine. We're hoping to be able to clean up some of this with the Cataclysm overhaul.

Q. All specs get a proc weapon from ICC25, except frost death knights and feral druids. Any plans to give these specs ICC25 proc weapons?
A. It's tough when you get into the design mode of "everyone must be able to get something from every boss." We try to cover a reasonable spread of players, but as with the Ashen Verdict rings and the Quel’delar, there are going to be some specs skipped over. We still love you.

Q. What is your stance on fire mage single target dps in comparison to arcane?
A. Fire mage is a little low. It's also somewhat self-selecting because the most dps-obsessed players know arcane is higher and will gravitate accordingly. Fire will do better on multi-target fights, but there just haven't been a lot of those so far. (We have adds, but they come in slowly.) Ideally fire would be closer to arcane.

Q. Icecrown introduced new gameplay mechanics similar to that of platform games/consoles. Will you continue this trend in Cataclysm?
A. Many of you guys and many of us have been playing WoW for a long time. We think it's important to keep introducing new things to keep it feeling exciting and fresh. Some things work and we try and improve them over time. Some don't work as well and we move on. We try to never move too far away from the core experience of swinging your sword / tossing a spell though.

Q. Any plans to increase the size of the backpack?
A. Yeah, it's something we discuss a lot. On the other hand, the madness has to end somewhere. I'm not sure I want a 100 slot bag with that much stuff to manage. We'd need to make sure you could easily upgrade the existing backpack; we wouldn't want anyone to manage to just be without any bags.

Q. Siege weapons were a unique game mechanic for Ulduar. What was the reasoning for not adding some form of Siege engine encounter in ICC?
A. We didn't want to overdo it. In some ways the Ulduar vehicles was our chance to show that yes we can make vehicles a lot of fun (after say the experience of Malygos). Flame Leviathan was unique. The boat battle in Icecrown is unique. Not every raid needs siege tanks.

Q. Why were party leader rewards for the random heroic daily removed?
A. We didn't want to encourage players who had no business leading groups to do so.

Q. When we reach level 58 in Cataclysm on Azeroth do we need to go to Outlands or can we continue leveling in Azeroth?
A. You eventually need to do the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content. Azeroth will have a break in content between 60 and 80.

Q. Any plans on looking at balance druids, in particular to Eclipse procs? RNG sometimes is detrimental to our dps.
A. We don't mind the RNG aspect that much per se, but losing an important proc because it happened at the wrong time (say just before you moved) is a problem. We have a pretty cool solution for Cataclysm if we can make it work. It makes Eclipse cooler but also gives Balance more of a kit in general.

Q. Paladin armor has gone all dark and gothic. When will we see armor that better represents iconic holy warriors?
A. Northrend is a pretty dark and gloomy place. Cataclysm will have more of an emphasis on say elements and dragons.

Q. Why is it tanking or healing that makes an encounter hard or easy? There isn't much other than high dps to consider for damage dealers.
A. There are berserk timers that usually rest on the shoulders of the dps to beat. There are adds that need to be burned down, etc. Tanking and healing aren't that hard on Deathbringer IMO (for example). Managing the adds is the key.

Q. Why is there hardly anything in Crystalsong Forest? It is a shame to see such a beautiful zone go to waste!
A. Yeah, it makes us sad. Part of the problem is that it sits beneath Dalaran, which ended up being more of a resource hog than we had anticipated. We didn't want to draw too many more players to that zone. Initially the Crusader's Coliseum was going to be there, which is why some of the quests send you there. We just worried too much about the performance hit. Anub'arak ended up working out well though in Northrend.

Q. Wrath of the Lich King and Icecrown Citadel showed Blizzard using cut scenes more for dramatic purposes. Will you go back and add more for old world events?
A. We'd love to, but those things are not trivial to create so when we do more, I suspect they will be to tell new stories for Cataclysm rather than revisit old ones.

Q. When will we be able to fight the Lich King?
A. After you can conquer the Blood, Frost and Plague wings. http://www.mmo-champion.com/Smileys/classic/smiley.gif

Q. With the new skins for druid forms, what is the chance that warlocks might see race/faction specific demon skins or maybe a new one?
A. When you look around, there are a lot of say imp or voidwalkers we could use. It's something we talk about quite a bit. As for new demons, I hear warlocks are going to be getting some new spells for the next expansion...

Q. Why were no new daily quests (or something along those lines) added in 3.3?
A. We just have a limited amout of content we can do for a patch, even a big one. We try to offer something for everyone, but sometimes it's better to deliver something awesome in one area (in this case, the raid and 3 dungeon wings) than try and add a little bit everywhere.

Q. Both balance druids (moonkin) and elemental shaman feel like their dps is falling behind in Icecrown Citadel. Any damage boosts for these hybrid casters currently planned?
A. We have small buffs coming in the next patch. We'll see where they are after that when more encounters are open (including the hard modes) and once more players have tier sets and higher gear in general. We have no problem buffing them more if we need to.

Q. I don't have a question but just a thanks. Thank you for making the Looking For Group tool. It's sooooo useful.
A. Yeah, we love it around the office too. There was a lot of pressure to get it right after the first couple of attempts were lackluster. I try not to say stuff like this too often, but I think we really got it right. (Though there are a few kinks to unkink and polish we still plan to add.)

Q. How much will the incremental buff over time in Icecrown increase health, damage, and healing?
A. We haven't completely decided, but something like 5%, similar to the Luck of the Draw buff.

Q. Any plans to make early leveling dungeons (Maraudon, Wailing Caverns, etc.) more new-player-friendly (ie. take less time)?
A. Yes. We can't overhaul them all, but Cataclysm in a world with the Dungeon Finder means we should try and improve these.

Q. Were there any boss concepts you had for Icecrown Citadel that got cut? Any examples you can give?
A. There was early talk of different famous NPCs that could have been corrupted instead of Saurfang Jr.

Q. Arthas has been present everywhere in the expansion. Why haven't we seen Blood Queen Lana’thel, Professor Putricide or any of the other bosses in low level zones?
A. Because we hadn't created them yet. http://www.mmo-champion.com/Smileys/classic/smiley.gif You saw plenty of a certain undead dragon however.

Q. Will there be any more developments on enchanting as a profession? We would love to do fun things like daily quests.
A. Sounds like a great thing to add for Cataclysm. We'll have to wait and see though.

Q. Would you be willing to make personal bank storage look more like guild storage and available to all characters on a realm?
A. This is something we discuss a lot. It actually helps with keeping mail volume down as well as a player convenience.

Q. Will Mal'ganis have any involvement in patch 3.3?
A. He will continue to menace you in Culling of Stratholme. http://www.mmo-champion.com/Smileys/classic/smiley.gif

Q. Will mages ever get to be the true masters of ports? By added more than just the main city's or maybe decide our own areas?
A. We've been growing the number of places they can go over time. We'll probably never get to the point where mages ignore ships, mounts or flight paths.

Q. Will the various faction leaders such as Tyrande and Cairne play a part in 3.3 or will they be marginalized?
A. We have a lot of NPCs active in the Northrend finale already. I'm not sure those two specifically need to play a big part. At some point your cast of characters is just too big to manage. The finale is a pretty major lore moment though. You'll dig it.

Q. Have you considered making the Battered Hilt BoP?
A. Because better items would be available so quickly in the Icecrown raid, we thought we'd get more dynamic gameplay by letting players trade it. It also mirrored the first Quel as well.

Q. Will Ner'zhul ...




Fonte