Josh "CM Lore" Allen took the World of Warcraft Twitch along with Game Director Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas for a Q&A regarding the ongoing content development of Legion last Thursday. Here are the highlights of the Q&A.
Q: Any updates on the plans for artifact appearances post-Legion?
A: Nothing has changed since this was brought up previously. The only appearances that will be off limits post-Legion to obtain are the challenge/skill required ones such as the Mage Tower.
Q: Will we still be able to use the new Druid forms (Bear, Cat from artifact weapon) after Legion?
A: Yes.
Q: How will upgrading our Legendaries to 1000 work when the raid releases?
A: This will work similarly to the ways they have done it previously via a repeatable quest.
Q: Will legendaries become more available in 7.3.5 or in the future of Legion?
A: They will be keeping an eye on the drop rates of Legendaries and will adjust if needed. Legendary tokens that been previously datamined by Wowhead for the upcoming patch. The token will allow you to create a legendary for a specific class. You will earn these tokens if you have acquired ALL the legendaries for your class. This will be used to help alts. You can read more about this on Wowhead here. The tokens that have been datamined are below:
- Bone-Wrought Coffer of the Damned
- Demonslayer's Soul-Sealed Satchel
- Living Root-Bound Cache
- Deepwood Ranger's Quiver
- Spell-Secured Pocket of Infinite Depths
- Hand-Carved Jade Puzzle Box
- Light-Bound Reliquary
- Coffer of Twin Faiths
- Hollow Skeleton Key
- Giant Elemental's Closed Stone Fist
- Pocket Keystone to Abandoned World
- Stalwart Champion's War Chest
Q: Any plans for balancing under-performing specs before Antorus?
A: Most likely not has the gaps are much smaller than normal for Tomb of Sargeras.
Q: Are there any plans to reduce the viability of the old set bonuses? Having 6 slots locked behind tier feels really bad.
A: They agree, they have adjusted some tier 19 bonuses. A 6th slot was added for more flexibility and to make room for the Legendaries. They are are working on it.
Q: What is the philosophy behind certain tier sets forcing a very specific play style (ex. Havoc t20 - t21) and will we see changes towards more "neutral" bonuses (ex. Havoc t19) going forward?
A: The first couple of tiers were simpler, but as they went along this did go too far by locking players into a build without choice. They have tried to have sets that vary your gameplay a little bit. This is something that they would like to pull away from that level of extreme change moving forward, but also don't want it to be totally passive.
Q: With the success of MDI, how do you see the team expanding on M+? What do you think of having 'seasons' every tier, like how WoWProgress tracks players?
A: They are really happy with Mythic Dungeons. They are going to continue to expand on this system. They already have kind of mini-seasons where they reset the board and rewards. They will continue to do so. They already have leaderboards on the website for tracking but expect to see that be expanded on in the future.
Q: Has the Mythic Dungeon Invitational given the team more insight on what classes need help with defensives and/or utility?
A: Yes it has been insightful. This was also helpful for the community to see different ways of using things like that. Ideally, they would like everyone to have a time when a class has abilities for a given situation where they shine. The would like to see situations were you approach a dungeon differently depending on what you do have and value the classes for the unique things they will bring will encourage class and spec diversity.
Q: Can we expect better mission rewards after followers are 950? Current rewards don't seem commensurate with the increased resource cost and counters required; is the new max level merely for access to Antorus raid missions?
A: When the Antorus mission is available you will need 950 ilvl followers to complete them and will gain better rewards.
Q: Can you make Argus Whistle upgrade account wide?
A: Yes, there will be a hotfix in the next day or two to have Krokul Flute account wide.
Q: How do you feel about PVP seasons being sync'd with patches? Is this going to continue to be the norm, or just coincidence?
A: This will happen sometimes, but not all the time based on what is being added in regards to PvP. They are getting away from patches being tied to certain content. Since 7.3.2 is not bring any PvP class balancing they see no reason to begin a new season when the patch is live.
Q: Will world quests be account wide in Krokuun and Mac'aree?
A: Due to the way these zones work, no they will not.
Q: Will the Artifact Knowledge cap be going up again? If so, when?
A: No it will not. At this point, it does not make sense to raise it again.
Q: Dearest Ion, I am curious if whether or not the Spider world boss in Suramar will ever come back. As of writing this, it has been up only once since launch, and I really need rank 3 prolonged power recipe.
A: Na'zak the Fiend should be back again. They have adjusted the World Boss rotation to be more fixed rather than random. In regards to not having rank 3 of a certain recipe from a drop like that is something they like. They want some things to be in demand and limited but not impossible.
Q: If world bosses are to stay at their current ilvl (well below world quests) could we get them ALL up weekly instead of randomly?
A: Since they view that as content the rest of the game has passed by. They have served their purpose at the time with that story. They are ok with players not needing to go back to that content for better rewards since we have those rewards in current relevant gameplay in other ways.
Q: Will we see any development with the Sylvanas and Greymane storyline?
A: Yes. They often have to go into another story as we progress through content. Right now Argus, and taking the fight to the Legion is the story focus right now. We will get back to that story.
Q: You guys said that the Broken Shore buildings will at one point be ever-present. What about that?
A: They have adjusted the rate in which the buildings are built by reducing the number of supplies needed to complete. With us focusing on Argus, we have moved beyond that story anyway so it is unlikely we will never see them ever-present.
Q: Why does last boss on mythic difficulty only drop one mount and not two like MoP, it is hard to farm them for everyone in the raid group since new raids come so often.
A: With the single raid difficulty they reverted to the way the mounts have worked back in the day, per MoP. They are mindful of guilds going back and farming these thus have been careful to not include it for every final boss per raid.
Q: Why is there so much RNG in Legion? I understand RNG is a core concept of the game, but Legion blows the roof of it.
A: The randomness has always something that has been at the core of World of Warcraft and really of any RPG system. There is excitement in unpredictability, but do need to be managed. While there is a lot of RNG in Legion, the impact of randomness has been lessened. It is much easier to get a full set of epic quality items with systems in place like bonus rolls. They want to preserve some sense of the chase for rewards. (This answer was very in depth so I do recommend you watch that portion of the VoD time stamped here.)
Q: Is there gonna be a catch-up mechanic regarding the Netherlight Crucible for alts?
A: This is already in place with the AK global bonus. Since you get the AP in higher amounts as they get higher on the AK, this makes it easier to have the weapon level needed to unlock alt's tiers with the Crucible when the time comes.
Q: Any new information about connecting servers? Some small realms are really struggling again.
A: Yes, it is something they are aware of and are actively working on.
Q: Any updates on helping off spec weapons become as powerful as main spec weapons since AP has been restricted to a single spec?
A: With the AK global bonus, it is pretty easy to get it relatively close to your main spec weapon.
Q: Do you use any external resources (like Warcraftlogs and SimulationCraft) when it comes to class tuning or do you more depend on your own internal data?
A: They use both external resources, although they use Warcraftlogs more. They compare it to their internal data to ensure they are accurate and adjust as needed. This also helps keep their numbers in check by comparing to real-time information in regards to class balancing.
Q: I know the terrain in Argus is not (yet) ready made for flying, any chance to see flying possible in 7.3.x?
A: No, in prior expansions we have zones that remain no flying such as Timeless Isle and due to the nature of Argus and the disconnected zones, it wouldn't make sense to allow flying from an immersion perspective.
Q: How do you feel about active mitigation currently? Especially in light of the 100% uptime some tanking classes can achieve, like Guardian, while other tanks, like Protection Paladins, cannot achieve anywhere near that uptime.
A: Working to even things out is something they will continue to have active discussions on.
Q: Is there anything from the great Legion pruning that you regret removing, and may want to bring back in some form?
A: Yes there are and some of these things are being considered. Mainly in reference to class utility.
Q: Can Prestige or cumulative honor be account wide? Sucks I can't PvP on an alt as it hinders my mains growth appearance wise.
A: No, because it would not make sense to give this to a character you did not PvP on or have not earned the Prestige on. This diminishes the reward gained on the character you did the work on.
If you missed it, you can watch the full VoD below:
