Rise of Shadows Q&A - April 22, 2019

[MeanBob-1146 (Liv Breeden)]

Khadgar says they’re Extortionists. Vile. Immoral. Louts.

[Celestalon-1160 (Chadd Nervig)]

@Naramo-2597

One of your current design goals this year seems to be refining and defining the specific strengths and weaknesses of each class.

Where are you in that respect? What are the distinct design philosophies of each class?

This would be a great topic for a designer insight or blog post down the road

Indeed, better refining and defining class strengths and weaknesses is a big goal of ours this year. That does sound like a good topic for a designer insight or blog post!

[darkmagicpi-1281]

That was the argument for standard shudderwock yes, but as doppelganster exists in wild completely untouched and not a problem: the argument doesn’t hold up in wild.

Yogg being a neutral board wipe was powerful enough for competitive play in standard, and would probably continue to be in wild. (My nerf to Yogg would have limited it to class spells, as it lives now is a travesty.) Competitive Wild exists less than once a year so it wouldn’t be a problem there either.

[Jetz-1946]

Any of you got a favorite card design or mechanic, that had to be scrapped because it was impossible to balance or fundamentally flawed in some other way?

Or one that sounded cool on paper but turned out to be much less fun in practice for some unforeseen reason?

[Zambiealex-2811]

Harbinger Celestia Buffs or reworks?

[Joshua497-1406]

Have you thought about the possibility of giving monthly rewards for playing in standard and other rewards for playing wild? I feel that it can encourage more people to play wild if they receive a separate reward for playing both formats.

[Kazakus-2206]

What was the idea behind printing a crap Legendary like Duskfallen Aviana?

[Phobetor-1708]

What do you think of the bourgeois oppression of the proletariat?

Oh, wait: wrong thread.

What do you think about adding Whizbang the Wonderful to the Classic set in order to replace Sylvanas Windrunner or Ragnaros the Firelord? There are countless reasons for this, and indubitably you have heard and discussed them all, so I will not waste your time listing them.

Additionally, Toki, Time-Tinker is a card that can really only work in Standard. I know you have never changed class before, but do you think you could switch her with a Neutral Legendary, such that she becomes Neutral and the formerly Neutral one becomes a Mage Class card? Mild flavor notwithstanding, she seems to make much more sense as a Neutral Legendary; and she would then be the perfect candidate to replace the other of the two Legendaries sent to the Hall of Fame, should you be amenable to adding Whizbang the Wonderful to the Classic set.

Thank you for your time and consideration!

[MyLittlePony-21851]

Hey all.
My few Questions:
1: Do you have plans to add some synergies, if you destroy your own Mana Crystals, like Felguard and Blastcrystal Potion?

Since Tar Creeper looks the Felguard a bit… weak.
Wingblast or Vendetta are, for me, better than Blastcrystal Potion.

2: Do you have plans to add Supportcards for Lord Jaraxxus, like for C’Thun?
Maybe change the Hero Power, like the second Shadowform or give Lord Jaraxxus +3 Health (wherever he is)?

3: Illidan Stormrage reprint?

PS: Sorry for my bad english.

[Dream-1795]

When will the solo content of Rise of Shadows, The Great Dalaran Heist, be released or more info about it?

[MeanBob-1146 (Liv Breeden)]

@Sindragosa-2432

Do you have any plans on releasing new legendary spells and weapons?

This is something we’re considering. I don’t think we’ll get into a formula for “Mages always get a Legendary spell” and “Warriors get a Legendary weapon.” But I think now that we’ve done Legendary spells and weapons, we’re more likely to just do it when it feels right.

[LegendaryFox-1727 (Peter Whalen)]

I heard a rumor from Dr. Boom that it’s actually “Explosive Varmints Importing Loot.”

[kingofswing-11333]

What do you think about adding a new game mode where it is dungeon run/monster hunt/ rumble but you play other people instead of computer

Also can you say what you plans are for ros single player or when you can say. I can’t wait.

[Celestalon-1160 (Chadd Nervig)]

@Richman-1682

Hello developers, just a quick question:

Vereesa Windrunner has a special voice line when facing Garrosh (“You’ll pay for Rhonin!”). This is a great addition, but it left me wondering:

Why was there no voiceline for Vereesa being played against Alleria? I was very excited to see the final Windrunner sister put into the game, but it makes me sad that neither Sylvanas nor Vereesa recognize Alleria.

These little hidden interaction voiceover lines are super fun to add. We try to do them where they’ll be most impactful, but not clutter things up with having too many. Rise of Shadows features a ton of lore-important characters, and so we picked the lines we liked best, and tried to spread them out between multiple characters. I’ve seen people notice and comment on a few of them, but I’m not sure if anyone’s found them all. I believe there are 8-9 (depending upon how you count it) of these in Rise of Shadows!

[Beta-1242]

Are there any specific mechanics/cards that you can say for certain are NOT going to be introduced?

What is a question that you were really hoping someone would ask today?

[HiddenTorby-1612]

When will we be getting the Classic set replacements for Naturalize, Divine Favor, and Doomguard? And can we expect to get some for the Neutrals that were HoF’d.

[Paradoxal-21172]

Will we see any replacements for HoF’d neutral cards?

[Celestalon-1160 (Chadd Nervig)]

@Naramo-2597

Team 5 mentioned that the bulglar effect would change to “from another class” instead of your opponents class going forward.

Since Pilfer is in the classic set and will remain there forever will you change it’s effect?

That’s the philosophy going forward, and we’re OK with letting the old-style cards just rotate out of Standard and stay in Wild.

But as you point out, Pilfer is a special case; it’s in Classic. Because of that, we are considering whether we should change it. But, we haven’t settled on a fix just yet.

[MeanBob-1146 (Liv Breeden)]

@Jetz-1946

Any of you got a favorite card design or mechanic, that had to be scrapped because it was impossible to balance or fundamentally flawed in some other way?

Or one that sounded cool on paper but turned out to be much less fun in practice for some unforeseen reason?

One of the earliest cards I pitched in Knights of the Frozen throne was Mass Teleport: “Fill both sides of the board with random minions.” It sounds really silly and fun on paper, but once you realized the opponent always had initiative over your minions, you just died. 100% of the time. I thought “Well maybe as a dreamy card it’s fun. Or what if the enemy has a full board?” But it just never happens. It SOUNDS SO COOL. It feels awful to play it every. single. time.

[ichwill-2720]

Question concerning the competitive format: are you pleased with specialist format?
On the other hand, are there any plans to allow dual class format (eg. druid/warrior or rogue/warlock…) as it appeared during a brawl in order to have an alternative to standard & wild?