That’s true. We need something to balance out all the times Horde characters have been killed by Alliance characters to give them characterization.
Such as the bag vendor from Camp Taurajo, the wyvern trainer from Camp Taurajo, the one leatherworking trainer from Camp Taurajo, or the new NPC they just made up for Camp Taurajo.
Also bare in mind that this is a unverified leak, may or may not happen. But…I totally see it happening.
I hope that Turalyon doesn’t die. I really actually like him, and he’s the last of the five first human Paladins D:
Was weird that he led the Lightforged but as a character I think he’s a pretty cool dude
That actually hits me hard. I wish they’d played that up a little more. Maybe have some occasional events in Stormwind where you can see him visiting graves for the other four.
I REALLY wish they didn’t make him leader of the Lightforged and I’m glad they have a chance* to stand without him. But it’s sad to see the end of that era. Uther, Tirion, Alexandros, Turalyon. Super cool guys.
*Assuming Blizzard actually gives them the screen time TO stand on their own.
Shadowlands Interview with Lead Encounter Designer:
Blackwater Behemoth
Leveling Alts to play Torghast
The main goal of Torghast is to create a piece of content or game mode that hasn’t been seen in WoW before.
The possibilities are endless and lots of developers are playing rogue-like games themselves.
They knew early on that the Jailer and the Tower was part of Shadowlands and some people wanted to climb it.
What Will Live Torghast Look Like?
Torghast is still evolving and something they’ve still be talking about.
This is a piece of content that can scale from playing solo to a party of 5. They learned a lot from Horrific Visions and the tuning.
Based on community feedback, they are considering revisiting the idea of playing Torghast infinitely that could have cosmetic rewards.
This infinite mode was compared to the Mage Tower and the prestige rewards but there will also be the “regular” mode that will require keys that will drop Legendary components.
Class Fantasy in Torghast
The focus in Torghast is class fantasy, not necessarily spec fantasy
While all druid specs can use Growl, a Guardian Druid may value this slightly differently than the other specs.
Class Testing in Torghast
They didn’t think of testing class changes in Torghast.
There are a lot of Anima Powers and its possible that some Anima Powers may actually make it as Legendary Powers!
Dungeon Length
Dungeon length being shorter isn’t necessarily a goal.
Halls of Atonement and Necrotic Wake are level up dungeons, so they probably aren’t as long as some of the max-level dungeons seen in the past like Arcway or Siege of Boralus.
This is Alpha, and the dungeons could also be undertuned.
The next dungeon on Alpha, (Zone #13334), is also the only 3 boss dungeon and it has a unique Trash section with a Trickster.
Affixes and Dungeon Design
They want to avoid feelings of “this dungeon is dead” like Waycrest and Sanguine.
If a dungeon is slightly harder or easier in a week because of affixes, that’s fine. The issue is when the delta between weeks is massive.
They’re considering turning on Mythic+ early, compared to BFA beta, to smooth out some of the rough edges early even if the Seasonal affix isn’t ready yet.
Castle Nathria and Environmental Mechanics
There are quite a few environment-based bosses in Castle Nathria
They want it to feel unique, so they only want to use it when it makes sense.
On the Denathrius encounter, you’ll be falling to a new floor and it’ll be a multiple-floor fight.
It was also hinted that Sire Denathrius could also have an interesting past.
Mythic Only Phases
They are really really cool, and Mythic phases like Cho’gall made sense when there’s an interesting story hook.
When they do a Mythic phase, they want to make sure it’s exciting and not a routing standard.
Covenant Swapping Update
They’re not done making stuff yet – Soulbinds, Conduits and Legendaries are still coming online.
They want to get these out as soon as possible, so that they get more time for feedback.
They’ve identified Conduits would be a great tuning knob for unique benefits. If they indentify that Kyrian Warlock is very single target, they can create an AoE conduit.
If there’s something that appears to be way out of line, they’re working on changing those – for example changing the Paladin Covenant ability Ashen Hollow.
Character Progress on Raid Release
At max level, you’ll get to choose a Covenant which gives you a Covenant Signature and Class Ability.
You’ll also get to Soulbind to a member of your Covenant, and as you continue to play you’ll unlock more tiers of your Soulbind.
Paul Kubit mentioned that Torghast will be available right on launch.
New Covenant Abilities in Next Build
The next Alpha build will include all the Class Covenant and Signature abilities available in Torghast.
Each day will rotate between the Covenants and you’ll be able to test each Covenant ability!
Many of the Covenant abilities (except for Paladin and Rogue) are ready for testing, even if the zone isn’t!
Covenant Utility and Raid Encounters
They talk this often because it can cause a lot of balance concerns.
As a combat designer, it is their job to make players have unique tools.
As a encounter designer, it is their job to make puzzles that players can solve, taking into account the player’s tools, including Covenant abilities.
The problem comes up when there isn’t enough variety in the puzzles during an encounter and that leads to severe class stacking.
e.g. Ragnaros Phase 2 required Burst AoE, but Phase 3 required something else.
Covenant Ability Hybrids
Covenant abilities and Shadowlands are focused around the class and that’s why classes with multiple specs have hybrid damage and healing abilities.
Because of this, there are some additional design constraints on hybrid classes like Druids because they need to work across multiple roles.
Removal of Expansion Systems and Classes
“Legion Syndrome” is real, which is the removal of expansion systems and the class feeling like you’re missing something. e.g. At the end of Legion, the loss of the Artifact and those systems wasn’t filled in by the Azerite Armor system.
Legion and Battle for Azeroth had systems on top of systems but the idea of Shadowlands is to have legendaires, soulbinds, conduits and more systems to fill in the void immediately.
Shadow Priests?
Unpruning and the GCD
Taking some things OFF the GCD is incredibly a solution.
Take prot warriors at the beginning of BfA. Ignore Pain was on the GCD, meaning that other abilities got in the way of, you know, THE MAIN MECHANIC OF THE SPEC.
As MM, my essence, double tap, Trueshot, and Hunter’s Mark are all on the GCD. Hunter’s Mark is the biggest problem of them all, given that it needs to be on the target for me to be optimal. Taking HM off GCD would be a huge help, though the spec needs a lot more to feel better overall.
That’s my one real complaint about their post; I guess the rest is okay.
Yeah, not sure if inflating the GCD was a good solution to an issue of folks stacking CDs. No idea if they ever took trinkets off the GCD. That one flabbergasted me.
This makes me extremely happy. As the guy who lowkey predicted Torghast, I feel the prediction would be incomplete without this mindset, and I’m glad they’re thinking ahead about ways to fullfill player desire to be able to play this mode for prestige and fun in a way that doesn’t impact the mode played for progression.
Agreed. It shows that feedback does matter when in early development. An infinite mode for cosmetics is good, which the normal/heroic requiring game participation for good rewards also makes sense. Keys are dependent on your participation in the game so we’ll see how rare they actually are.
I will never get over the fact that one of the community figures Blizzard interacts with most is named Sloot.
Turalyon is a weeb. I hope it is true.
One less human in our hero pool? I see this as an absolute win.
I would rather not get rid of Turalyon, especially not at the hands of Sylvanas. I’ve gone on at length before why it’s just not a good idea to keep doing this to players–not that there’s really that much interest or support for Turalyon in his current state.
And frankly, I like the story of some of the old human paladins. There doesn’t have to be a lot of them, but as long as they keep a couple around, develop them. One for the Silver Hand. One for the Scarlets, or whatever an evil paladin looks like in the future. I’d like it if Anduin just had more of a combat identity.
Although, of course, ideally I’d like that for all of the races and their various class identities. At least one shadow hunter that we see regularly. At least one… whatever class Akama is. I want more of what Akama is.
I don’t think they did for some. Galecaller’s Boon is macro’d to my Trueshot, but sometimes Trueshot doesn’t go off, only the trinket.
Thank goodness cosmetic grinding will be infinite. I hate waiting a week to try getting the chance for one thing.
Also, more to the current topic–it absolutely is a solution to take things off the GCD. It’s just not a solution they like.
Blizzard is just allergic to at least one thing, and maybe two. Definitely to admitting they were ever wrong about anything when ‘anything’ happened less than a few years ago, and probably to some overly reductive perception of their game, one where you just press buttons really fast and it’s not “slow” and “deliberate” like Classic or something.
I like Vanilla, but the encounter/class design of Vanilla is not something any MMO should strive for anymore, unless you’re going to change it some other way. For the people that liked it how it was, there’s Classic.
bring back off-GCD heroic strikes from wod gladiator warrior, i want to destroy my hand again
I always liked Preach. This is a fun stream to listen to.
Agreed, Preach is chill. Also, his kid having a heavier accent than him gets me every time. Different stream, but him tearing up in appreciation of folks support swelled my heart.
Soulbind Calculator is up [READ ONLY RIGHT NOW]:
Soulbinding it essentially the crucible from Legion, but you’re borrowing power from your ‘followers’ of your specific covenant.
Ex Soulbind:
Dark Star
Item Level 72
Binds when picked up
Throughput Conduit
During Lunar Eclipse, Starfire has a 20% chance to Moonfire your primary target.