Battle for Azeroth Developer Q&A (June 14th 2018) Reaction

[02:26] all right it's time it's time ladies and guys do this [\h__\h] between yes what's going on guys we're back an hour and 45 minutes later I'm going to add this scene I haven't actually I'm gonna try and get this to work so I get

[02:42] a nice little sale by shreem in hindsight should have done I really should have done this before the stream but you know I'm a really good streamer so I actually didn't even think about it okay how is the audio levels how's that

[03:02] okay how is the audio levels how's that I mean we kind of we don't wanna

[03:17] down a bit I guess further July pre patch it's not time it's not the wow you I what do you seems good we're waiting to hear drop em - I'm

[03:30] good we're waiting to hear drop em - I'm Adam use a washroom see if I can scoop to be honest we don't need to twitch chat I'm gonna see if I can

[03:45] we're cooking with gas [Music] [Music] alright how's that guys beautiful

[04:03] what do you seems good listed wait till they talk hi my single player player they talk hi my single player player that asked did someone say hey guys welcome to the stream this is gonna be a short stream we are gonna upload this

[04:17] afterwards they are again let me know if the audio is ok if we can hear me and obviously here the how I'm a no music but yes sponsors if you're in the chat but yes sponsors if you're in the chat we do have we do have some new emojis we

[04:30] month so the first ones green like common then blue like rare and then it goes to epic and then it goes to legendary and then there is artifact for getting that anytime soon but just wondering if you able to hear the Q&A in

[04:44] your stream are you gonna talk over it I'm not gonna talk about it now we'll I'm not gonna talk about it now we'll we'll let them do their thing

[04:59] yeah I'm not gonna I'm not just gonna talk over the whole Oh will tell you what how many months you've sponsored all right so what are

[05:14] we expecting guys what are you expecting from the QA what is are you doing from the QA what is are you doing gameplay no this is just the QA

[05:28] model dude how [\h__\h] sweet without be even if they tease like a little bit of even if they tease like a little bit of it or something I'll be down for that

[05:40] patch release date sounds very very likely honestly I can actually see them doing the PTR today they'll be like yeah it's gone out I wouldn't be surprised it's gone out I wouldn't be surprised that I yes on the PTR now do you think

[05:52] they'll drop a bomb on us dude I love that for the QA every time they say it like a race thing I'm like yeah but no for they'll probably talking about PvP for like three hours and that's about it really but we'll see we'll see what

[06:05] minute to go will my question be answered probably will my question be answered probably not but we'll see how's the audio is that okay can everyone hear the amount of music noon what does it be cool

[06:19] Vol'jin still live dandy I don't think they'll show no model but it would be they'll show no model but it would be cool here we go let's see if your question gets answered do down [\h__\h] sick with a B it's never happened though

[06:33] I do ask questions every time but I don't see happening do I come away from to not pronounce names very well again I know I've never done this before so if I do end up talking too much or whatever just let me know like just say shut up

[06:47] just let me know like just say shut up powder

[06:59] what are they stream is this on there on that YouTube channel I judge a girl water if you question I wanted I actually I'm not to put a link to the actually I'm not to put a link to the stream pleasures always need before we

[07:35] do one people who are paying attention may notice PTR for 8:07 up literally as know watch this pay close attention for this for the want to you know check out some of the things that we're gonna talk about today

[07:50] you can copy your character and see for yourself what that you know a dope like awesome yeah maybe a maybe a good time while that client downloaded as well if you if you don't already have it

[08:03] you don't already have it alright we good I think we're good sorry can I answer questions now okay first question of the day comes from eleven Cole on Twitter who asked are we getting blood trolls during the new expansion if

[08:16] yes what's going to be the Alliance counterpart base alliance counter were gonna be the Alliance how I'd raise shouldn't the question be who's gonna be the Horde counterpart I feel like the crazed cultists the worship the blood

[08:30] dog buffoon feel like a natural fit and that it for the ocean really enlist that it for the ocean really enlist their aid no sorry yes so there was an interview at e3 earlier this week sorry it's got a getting the trolling off to

[08:42] getting the tunneling off on the troll question yes it was interview earlier this week at e3 where one of the members throw out development team misspoke meant to refer to zandalari trolls as we all know is that lara trolls are indeed

[08:55] coming as a future horde allied race later on in battle phrase Roth and cult and that's kind of the culmination of the the core storyline blood trolls are

[09:07] in the months to come all right so no blood trolls don't worry about that just two missing it's a Miss speaking guys we've discussed Warcraft is not so much a world of black and white for the most part a lot of shades

[09:20] they're pretty black we're gonna kill them got it them got it next question from rhyme who asked is the Allied race system going to be a BFA system or is there a good likelihood of

[09:33] it being expanded on in future expansions so kind of like how the the garrison was a world of Draenor system the artifact was a legion system is our or could we see more of them in the future definitely could see more in the

[09:46] of battle France Roth and the story of you know reaching out and mustering banner to fight this war is a core part of this expansion I think looking ahead

[09:58] of this expansion I think looking ahead it's an awesome tool that we now have - you know where it makes sense for the story bring new races into the fold and allow them to join the existing factions I think that said I do want to

[10:10] note that we're not think of this as something that you know as we get past like alright what's gonna be the Allied race for this patch we don't want to be right on a road where five years from now there are you know 30 races to

[10:23] choose among and we're just you know kind of coming up with things not because we feel like we need to add new Aled races right but that said it's likely we're gonna come across awesome new allies and it will make perfect

[10:36] sense to have them join cool that's my question up next question comes from psy Carius who's asking are we gonna see a similar patch cycle for BFA like we did in Legion that is pretty much the plan yes I mean I think we'll have a lot more

[10:50] of our patches but the overall philosophy that we laid out 2016 I think played out as we hoped it would and we've heard a lot of great feedback from

[11:02] everyone throughout the course of Legion the sort of tick-tock structure of alternating large content patches that take us to new places in the world and advance the story with smaller dot five patches that add more evergreen features

[11:14] like expanded time walking and micro holidays and whatnot please and something always feeling like it's around the corner I think that's it's got to be one time you're very hot being excited to continue doing it yeah

[11:27] that a lot of our content release schedule nowadays is more focused around out and less around exactly when the patch is like we've seen with raids and such where because a patch will come out that has the the data for the rate in it

[11:42] but everyone's like you just released a raid like two weeks ago could you hold with a patch and then we'll wait and open it wouldn't make sense exactly where's people maybe very much ready for a new outdoor world zone to explore an

[11:54] doing the same stuff for months we can you know release individual pieces of content as it makes sense is something we'll continue to do cool sounds good makes sense next question from do Joey who asked can you can you talk about how

[12:10] flying will be handled they and most specifically will we have to level both Alliance and horde characters to earn it so I know a lot of people been looking at data mining and trying to figure out how to unlock flying on the on the beta

[12:24] really do at the moment what's going on thoughtfully if flying cannot be something that comes further on down the road and battle for Azeroth really we're looking to handle this exactly the same way it was in Legion the there were some

[12:38] display issues with the Pathfinder part one achievement that people noticed or it seemed to be requiring both cold here and an Zandalari diplomat or completing display bug it should be fixed in the next the bill that goes out next week

[12:52] the intent is basically it's one or the other for those sub parts so it's explore both explore both sub confidence get your appropriate factions reputations all the way up complete your factions war campaign your factions main

[13:07] story out the world storylines do 100 different world quests like it's the Pathfinder involved and you only have to play one faction to do it okay perfect and a lot of people wondering about their question here on a similar line

[13:23] from a Sarris who asked are you planning on keeping the Pathfinder achievements to allow flight in old zones warlords Audrina was two expansions ago and it's no longer current content so it wouldn't hurt removing it for new or returning

[13:35] players after a couple expansion is we've gotten a lot of questions about this over the last several months now actually people asking are we gonna keep the requirement to earn Pathfinder for older older expansions as time goes on

[13:48] we don't have any current plans to change it it's something that we something Britta Brax will be discussed internally occasionally I think you know obviously there's it's there's natural convenience arguments you know the

[14:02] it's something you're leveling through and of course it's faster and easier to be able to fly that said we're also we're a little wary of undercutting or earning Pathfinder in the first place

[14:17] don't even bother doing this it'll just end up being given to us for free wait a end up being given to us for free wait a little bit down the line yeah so that's something that we you know we want that the time spent earning those reputations

[14:30] and completing those requirements to mean something and that's that like leveling leveling free benches coming I was designed to be done on the ground instance yeah I don't feel like anyone's missing out there and we are very

[14:45] having modern content sending you back to those areas for long stretches of now if the reason why you want it is you know to aid collecting or pet battling or other things that you're doing there it's still something that you know you

[14:59] can work towards and recognize that account-wide benefit in a way that you know still still makes sense relative to the effort involved okay and there's exactly how does adrenaline just make it easier I think definitely still benefits

[15:13] to going back and doing it question here from I'm vapor who said can we get a rough timeline for specs that are still on the radar for major changes prior to on the radar for major changes prior to pre patch so a couple of a couple of

[15:27] points here at this point I would say the window for major changes is pretty sort of the the level of rework that we've seen obviously not even getting demonology warlock or whatnot sure way back in beta but even the more recent

[15:43] changes you'll say fury Warrior or balance druid we're still listening to plenty of room to me make tweaks to individual talents to certain interactions you know my tria for example I think Tigers Furies back

[15:59] off the GCD the ferrule and an X beta bill that's going out redly problem is most ya recognize like okay this thing is really just enabling your next button press it's not really damaged cool down as you know recklessness and arcane

[16:12] the same treatment those sorts of changes are so busy the reason here is and that's just be clear we're not saying we think all of our specs are anything because we know they're not it's an ongoing process it's a process

[16:27] fries are off launches and the discussion remains valuable the challenge is time is running out and making major changes is not something

[16:39] really get right on the first try right we're not just write you apart and reassemble a rotation and have it just work and so it's an iterative process that requires at the very least multiple weeks to play out and we're getting to

[16:52] the point where we don't want to make a large change that might end up making things worse without enough time to really react to that feedback and get things really fixed up before the game ships and in the meantime we also have

[17:05] to the extent there's no very good question concerns not just I feel really join a dungeon Grif it feels like I'm at the bottom of meters like that's the conjunction with all the different

[17:20] azurite powers to make sure that's you know it's best spec balanced around tanks healers and dps is competitive as we move into launch discussion of you know the feel of rotation pacing of rotations what must it complex

[17:35] awkwardness of button interactions all of those things are still ongoing but of those things are still ongoing but we're gonna start soon target 8 1 our first major patch for where those changes might land because we need the

[17:48] them right and you know some specs I know that we've been talking about recently based on a lot of form feedback enhancement Xiamen Shadow Priests I love until shaman to an extent and there may be room to make some changes sort of

[18:03] right terms of broad sweeping changes that's realize that's frustrating for you know players of those specks who wish they were in a better state from their perspective but ultimately you know

[18:18] stability and balance and making sure that battle Fraser off goes out and you know a good overall state precludes us continuing to tinker significantly with those specs at this stage yeah a couple other things that I would I would

[18:32] mention as well so one important thing to understand about how class balance that like you say it is an ongoing process the thing that we've learned over the years from like a patch comes out and there's a raid and then people

[18:47] sudden wait hang on things are a little bit weird I just have to come on just things sometimes players come up with ways to play specs that we were not

[18:59] completely not expecting so we always have to be able to know the actual PT we don't have to make it it's not like the other thing I would say is that while plans for like major overhauls or anything in the time leading up to

[19:13] preparedness to the best fix um sometimes we saw that the balance and tuning to do and sometimes balance and tuning can then end up feeling like a like we looked at this one talent and found out that it was just doing a third

[19:27] of the damage that it's supposed to be so then we buffed up this talent and now because now you take this talent and has an impactful effect on how you play your an impactful effect on how you play your class so it's tough to say no major

[19:40] happen as a result of balance and tuning very true and guaranteed there will be will consider major yes but I think I guess the the my definition of that as I'm reading this question is these sort of significant

[19:55] rotational overhaul that's let's say moonkin saw a couple of weeks ago that's come down the pipe at this ditch yeah we're not likely to be adding more spells or completely reworking how a spell even functions it's gonna be like

[20:08] mostly numerical from here that's right cool all right moving on next question cool all right moving on next question comes from Erik am gaming who asked any classes

[20:20] not have their class buffs and we're very close to launch many were active it's not going to feel good to only have a few classes having buffs while others do not so obviously referring to things like power word fortitude I think in the

[20:33] Blizzcon build we had mark in the wilds right what's going on there so I think right what's going on there so I think yeah but player saw last an experiment that we've pulled back from in some areas out of concern that what we're

[20:47] trying to accomplish here is balancing the NAM throughput things that classes the damage that you do the healing that you do what's the reason why you're

[20:59] happy to say to see oh sweet we have a druid in this group or we have a mage in this group or if you're a pug leader trying to put together a raid and you already have two of one class but none of another what's

[21:11] the thing that makes you actively look for yeah let's get a warlock in here let's get a demon hunter in here specifically because we lack one we want to make sure that there are reasons for all the classes to feel special and it's

[21:25] I think in some ways it's overly simplistic to just say okay the reason throughput buff and that was the world that we used to live in some years back a couple of expansions ago with a sort of buff matrix and yeah little UI

[21:39] element that ticked off the ones that you had versus we're missing and it just felt like a very straightforward solution to a puzzle no one really feels meaningfully different it's just like okay yeah I bring crit you bring int she

[21:52] okay yeah I bring crit you bring int she brings you know primary stat whatever so instead we've looked at multiple long one was coming back what classes are bringing that makes them special different from others and where it made

[22:06] sense to bolster that package by bringing back some classic buffs like prayer fortitude that's not something there is something all right let's get the couple of buffs on the raid before we pull it's a little

[22:18] bit of you know ceremony - it doesn't need to be ten mark of the wild you know in the case of druids druids have pretty great utility you know once they gone great utility you know once they gone back on barter but between

[22:33] a new battle res innervate from moonkin and many other things you know the the talons think they can opt in to you in terms of control people are happy to see wondering like i'll why would I ever want to bring a druid to this dungeon

[22:47] group and so adding mark with a wild on top of that felt gratuitous to some extent it's not to say that it could never return but we didn't want to do it just to satisfy some form requirement it was more question of what was needed

[23:01] where and that's where these buffs and debuffs came from cool makes sense moving on a question from Chaz Amin who says well classes play like they are on beta during the BFA Prix patch or will there be some temporary adjustments to

[23:15] compensate for things that might not play as well before getting to 120 and having as a right gear etc okay I was gonna put in the our focus for valves of gonna put in the our focus for valves of tuning is the post BFA world we are

[23:28] taking steps to make sure nothing feels overly broken that people aren't going back and finding content that they used to do more challenging or you know farming and tourists you should go back and farm in tourists during the 800 pre

[23:41] expansion period your set bonuses will still work just fine you'll still have like you'll basically have everything functioning except for description which are deactivated once you move into a toe but we are retuning the game around that

[23:57] but we are retuning the game around that missing power right and you know beyond that there will be some differences in rotations but it should still be a functional yes straight back and and will like Ian said early there's still a

[24:09] lot of numerical tuning that needs to happen so if you're looking at the the your looks I think you are right away and going wait hang on I I don't do my my artifact traits that's likely something that will resolve because I'd

[24:24] people are copying in the next day or two and going to you know solo old raids or go run a dungeon with some friends to see how things are different those numbers are actually farther off from the intended final results than even

[24:39] Battlefront beta we've really been focusing on the 111 to 120 tuning because that's what we've done iterating on now as we shift anywhere gonna pay very close attention to existing balance at 1:10 and making sure

[24:53] that it's not a disruptive transition for players but we haven't quite gotten there yet so like the values that you're seeing or roughed in but don't freak out if something seems way harder than it used to that is not the intent yeah do

[25:06] out of whack but just sub Breyer in mind that we just haven't gotten around to fixing it yet next question from an asked soon who says are we going to see the new systems talents and stats squish early at pre patch release and any info

[25:21] if it's going release we all go said it's in the process of coming up if it's in there and see what all the new systems and everything are on there but the some of the stuff that's coming in pre patch yeah not necessarily at lunch

[25:36] so I mean really for those who haven't been through a pre patch cycle with us before the battle for us are off the pre expansion patch Edo pretty much contains all of the systems updates class changes talent changes new systems and features

[25:50] like I think unities or the revamps two professions all those are going to be in there right away from day one the only things that you won't be able to access our content and systems that are specific to battle for Azeroth

[26:04] so obviously going tickle Tiaras on to law or islands or war fronts or the heart of Azeroth and azurite armor all of those are available content after level 110 in the new lens but everything else will be there right away and so

[26:17] eager to hear your feedback from it up from all of it and that's you know includes both PTR today and that pre patch period and in terms of released gonna make it community obviously you know where you can probably start to

[26:29] couple of months away from the expansion launch itself and that er just went up exact date will be announced closer to you know the actual pre-plan events based on testing and you know stabilizing bug fixing all the process

[26:44] coming weeks cool yeah we really do wait until we know that we have a product ready to go out before announcing these release states it's gonna depend entirely on well if you can help us out with testing

[26:56] on the PTR that will help quite a bit yep think it's worth going over I totally will war mode be available in the battle

[27:08] for Azeroth pre patch so war mode being the source a new approach to the concept of a PvP server where rather than at server select deciding whether or not just decide when you go out into the world yeah I want open world actually

[27:22] I completely forgot this when listening the other systems yes the PvP system changes are there right away in the a Dupree patch as well so that includes the new honor talent system where you're picking three active talents from a

[27:35] large pools right amazing visual wrote selections pretty cool and then war mode Orgrimmar if your alliance go to Stormwind and through your talent you I opted into war mode when you venture out into the world you will be on you know

[27:49] players who've made that same decision and it's a foundation upon which we can build exciting new world PvP we are looking to have a couple of more events see down the line so we can start exercising the potential of that system

[28:06] it's on the PTO and you know if you're leveling but you know if you're still that experience bonus from being in war mode or if you're doing world quests at max level you'll get a bit of extra gold or other rewards accordingly

[28:18] and that's a reminder that's there to offset the inherent loss of efficiency from having PvP active you know if you're even if you're winning all your getting into these skirmishes is inherently gonna slow you down the goal

[28:32] just based on the roads that we're still alive is to make it so that people who love world PvP feel confident in playing that way they don't feel like they're hurting their own efficiency significant significantly by turning that on and

[28:47] playing in war mode we also don't want the rewards to be so lucrative the people who dislike world PvP feel pressured or punished for not preferring that game play cool we have another warm one question here next one actually from

[29:00] nom P and I know we've talked about this one a bit but it does seem to be a point of commuting confusion so we'll go ahead and clarify here question is there seems on RP & RP PvP good question will we be sharted own

[29:15] with players from our own realm who have war mode turned on or off or will things war mode turned on or off or will things stay the same so I mean in the sense so role playing realms now part of the role-playing rule set is accepting cases

[29:29] of extreme server load like expansion launch or the running of the gnomes and launch or the running of the gnomes and and similar events where our RP servers only see by defaults people from their own server you can form cross river

[29:43] own server you can form cross river groups willingly but we're not going to Sam's own between servers that's that's part of the roleplay rule set because RP something that we've you know heard repeatedly from those communities for

[29:58] war mode this is just gonna work along those same lines if you are an RP server and you turn on war mode you will see players from your server out in the world specifically again if someone joins a group cross server you'll see

[30:13] some folks coming in that way but by default let's say hypothetically you're around in war mode you're gonna see emerald dream names all around you and different server was invited there by someone on your server to join them and

[30:26] in terms of realm classifications in a toe there's really only two realm types now there's normal and role-playing because we don't need this separate PvP server type you play on you have equal access to world PvP gameplay and server

[30:42] type isn't the boundary anymore right cool just moving on next question here from faith who's asking are the cross realm restrictions on mythic raids still going forward so asking basically just to rephrase is a living rates been out

[31:00] for wha the requirement that mythic raids be all on the same server at least raids be all on the same server at least initially so yes but so I think there's a lot of value and Prevention's opt on out observing what remains of server

[31:13] identity and guild identity and the high end mythic progression competitive race occurring between guilds that are based on specific servers in regions throughout the world that said we've seen and with the increasing rise of

[31:28] there are many heroic raid groups that are very successful that maybe spend the first couple of months of a tear working through the raid on heroic and their cross-server group but then as soon as they finish the last boss they

[31:41] continue into mythic nylons that are downloaded on server traditionally we haven't unlocked this until the next tier comes out we'd like to look at that's a bit too restrictive [\h__\h] you harsh given where most of the player

[31:55] base is not these days so we have we're trying to your plan to try something a little bit different and battle for Azeroth some close observers achievements that have popped up under guild feats of strength yeah they they

[32:11] straightaway there's Hall of Fame Cahoon for both the Alliance and for the Horde and this these achievements are awarded to the top 100 guilds of each faction in the world to kill the final boss of old ear on mythic difficulty and our plan

[32:27] currently is to actually have a sort of web archive where those leaderboards are maintained for posterity and we'll just rank the guilds in order of timestamp for their kills on the Alliance side and on the Horde side once 100 guilds have

[32:41] on a given faction have killed the boss the achievement will still be available for the rest of that raid reset we don't want to penalize people who happen to raid on a Monday race is a Saturday or whatever but after that okay bleep horde

[32:53] leaderboard is full horde Hall of Fame achievement no longer available once both horde and Alliance leaderboards are full so once 100 Alliance kills and 100 horde guilds have defeated mythic ahuna we will open up cross server mythic

[33:06] rating for good for a year that is that is the plan going forward is the plan going forward let the my tentative race unfold and then once that's concluded that next tier of Raiders many of whom are cross

[33:18] server groups can enjoy the benefits of cross river rating it's awesome so it's kind of like okay the world-first race is pretty much over at this point now is pretty much over at this point now it's it's safe for us to open it up

[33:35] said will the artifact be disabled after the retirement quests or will it automatically be disabled like on beta doesn't make any sense story-wise for a something the character has not yet encountered so yes so the art the

[33:50] encountered so yes so the art the artifact traits will be disabled in NATO if you copy your character to the PTR right now you will see the artifact is a that increased silent level but the traits are inactive and will remain so

[34:04] this is you know it's for both mechanical and story reasons as part of artifact and replacing it it would not be actually really possible to ever replace that weapon with any sort of conceivable eye level if all the traits

[34:17] remained active it's just that much power story was you know there's always a mix of players personal actions and just events that happen and advance around you even if you haven't personally completed and tourists you

[34:30] Azeroth and yet our pre patch if you go to silithus you're gonna see his giant sword sticking out of the earth even though you personally didn't contribute happen it has now happened in the world as a whole similarly the due to events

[34:44] that have yet to unfold the power of the artifacts will you know concentrate something that's going to affect everybody whether they've done the quests involved or not okay next question in the drama de Griffin's on a

[34:59] similar note when we retire our artifact weapons will we just lose the artifact sorry will we just lose the artifact power abilities or will they also lose the relics that gave them their boosts in I just said that this was just

[35:12] increase atom level that will be how it works for leveling players you'll get your ashbringer and as you level up or do any quest or dungeons or raids along the way you sock it in three relics to increase its total item level and it its

[35:27] relics item levels and they obviously because the traits have been retired to any traits or any things like that it's just going to be cool yep uh next

[35:39] question from I'm gonna say Drake the ninety or Drake if ninety not sure can you please reconsider locking artifact skins behind specialization when we were actually using the wagons but once BFA hits a class restriction

[35:53] fantasy and so kind of coming from the notion of if I play a mage I'd like to be able to have the skin of the frost staff based

[36:05] have the skin of the frost staff based on my problem and stuff like that so our artifact transmog is a bit of a special case on the one hand yes there's definitely there are very strong fantasy connections between specific

[36:18] specializations and the you know weapons them and when you see somebody with ashbringer when you see somebody with you know dragon headed flail and a shield that should immediately indicate what specialization they are but the

[36:34] breaking some other rules here to make sure that you can always transmog or in appearances that occupy both of your hands and especially in unusual ways you

[36:47] can transmog them over basically anything even breaking the regular rules so some notable examples if you're a holy paladin wondering oh wait how am I ever gonna use this artifact transmog going forward because I'm really gonna

[36:59] use a one hander and shield we will let you transmog your two-hand artifact appearance over a one hand and she that's pretty cool similarly obviously in the case of you know druids who feral druids can't really you can't do a wheel

[37:12] thing you can do yeah don't worry you'll be able to transmog that over whatever fire mage who happens to get a great staff in a raid can still use the one artifact that they've grown accustomed like you kind of like that and so mixing

[37:28] that with removing spec restrictions would lead to a lot of potentially very odd outcomes in terms of animation sets and abilities you're using well they're never really in the end to be able to use we could have explored some more

[37:42] complex version of the design that overrides those restrictions only for some specs but not others but it we opted not to go down that road just on the interest of a straightforward system well yeah I think it's cool to say like

[37:55] impactful the artifact has been over the course of Legion I think it's cool to say artifacts are special artifacts kind of break the rules a little bit they thing going on in terms of translation stuff forward I

[38:09] pretty cool and I think and we're all be looking at as preserving the status quo the players who have grown accustomed to over the last couple of years and if you are a fire mage you might want to use your frost a for to use Allen F while

[38:21] still being virus back and it's not some kind I've been able to and so we're just preserving kind of the way the rules have played out the last couple years so have played out the last couple years so I guess TL DR on that yes it will remain

[38:34] spec specific but you will be able to transmit over whatever you happen have transmit over whatever you happen have equipped as that spec cool next question here from J funk gaming who asked you can't switch any gear well

[38:47] us right now in BFA he's gonna say this intended obviously referring to test yes yes players have noticed this in the last few days this is intended so it's really interesting seeing the discussion unfold

[39:00] interesting seeing the discussion unfold around this change it so this is this is consistent with our philosophy on changing spec or talents or more recently the 7:35 dungeon wide battle res limit you know a lot of ways if you

[39:16] think about gear switching plenty of people would love to if it were possible change gear sets or otherwise we customize their character in the middle of a multi stage raid boss right between phase 3 and phase 4 you probably want a

[39:28] different loadout for the ads heavy phase than you do for the final burn phase but as you're approaching the encounter you have to pick a singer think of this no doubt that's gonna balance the needs and demands of the

[39:40] encounter as a whole when it comes to dungeons we view the entirety of the dungeon as the encounter that you're undertaking it's longer than the rating calendar for sure but that's actually where the variety unfolds in the

[39:53] different situations that we place players in kind of come together to create a balance challenge so when you start that timer you you are signing up for the mix of the bosses that may have intense burn phases a require group-wide

[40:07] healing or thanks a facts that need crowd control in certain areas or powerful defensive cooldowns and so forth and with the way decision-making many of our options whether their talents whether their

[40:21] trinkets whether they are azurite powers are a bit situational by design there are some that are clearly better for burst AoE versus sustained single target or defense versus mobility or crowd control versus your own you know

[40:36] control versus your own you know survival and in a specific situation I right answer you you know if you Oh fighting us two packs of five mobs each I just need burst AoE and if I can talent into any AoE stuns I want to do

[40:51] those those correct answers are very straightforward whereas and again if the best answers are also straightforward now it is more interesting and nuanced decision-making when you're balancing those two against

[41:04] each other and choosing will do I want to be better this part of a dungeon at the expense of being worse at that part of the dungeon for the oak is overall what's stressing our group these are decisions that we have been accustomed

[41:17] to making when it comes to how we spec for quite some time and so extending it regard it's also some mechanical issues were in practice gear swapping is often and load outs or any add-ons to swap between them quickly on the fly because

[41:32] otherwise would be very cumbersome to do so that's not a great thing to have as part of the default competitive experience here and to be clear the vast majority of players at most levels of mythic plus including pretty high ones

[41:44] aren't actually swapping gear shots on a regular basis yes I realized that if you're pushing you know twenty fives and up on live right now it's hard to imagine not being able to swap in your pride as or defensive set up for

[41:56] situation room our trinket to survive some crazy burst without you know having to lock that in for the whole dungeon but as with all these changes the game as a whole will be balanced around this landscape sure I mean if we find that by

[42:10] removing this the overall difficulty or success rates of the dungeons are going compensate it the intent here isn't to make it harder it's more to have it you

[42:22] single cohesive encounter look at your group look at your composition plan out what if you accidentally put a look mean you take your buddy here on that yeah and looking forward to battle for Azeroth also I think just to sort of

[42:37] think there could easily become a point where it becomes widespread that if you are these certain specs or whatever the quote-unquote right thing to do is wear this set of azurite armor for clearing trash then when you get to boss switch

[42:52] to this set of azurite armor and that could really end up being very like it being really bad for those specs in terms of getting people to actually like well I don't want to invite the rogue because then we're gonna have to

[43:05] stop before every boss fight like I know as a as a tank I tend to just join everything together I mean it's that or or it's actually just the burden on what you have to do yeah I'm competitive it's in a lot of ways if you're switching

[43:17] between one armor loadout and another that has you know three of one trade 2/3 of another that's very much like respecting or recounting in some ways and now you if you're trying to be competitive you also probably feel like

[43:29] you need both of those complete loadouts at a high level exactly actively pursue at a high level exactly actively pursue multiple gear same way that probably you balance the system that's designed for more mixing and matching and creating an

[43:44] overall well-rounded setup that suits your gameplay style you'll still have making the decision at the start of the dungeon what matters most to me right yeah I'll even change to give and come back want things that when you wreck and

[43:57] boost my cooldowns or my execute ranged I have a good a lot of have to use a Legion example this is a high tyrannical you know wrath of a Shara or whatever and that's actually gonna be a you know a big factor yeah in terms of shaving

[44:10] so ominous I'm gonna use an execute loadout for this dungeon that kind of thing is the decision to be making at the start rather than the sort of no-brainer okay we're getting to wrath of a Shara I'm gonna push my execute

[44:23] gear such gains coming back right yeah and swap that in yeah making the making the choices interesting by making less choices is actually a thing so let's move on to the next question comes from NIT arena who asked it's actually

[44:36] perfectly time when will we learn more about the new bf a mythic Plus affixes affixes so when will you learn more right now so when will you learn more right now when is there testing right now so we're

[44:51] actually sue we're actually not doing the significant medical overhaul to the I think you know we're having to tweak a couple of them I think we just actually nerf in a chronic from 3% to 2% to reflect some changes and overall tank

[45:04] survivability and we'll make some other tweaks about we're pretty happy with the variety of how they've played out over the course of Legion and not looking to change and throw out a bunch of stuff that's working well and have to you know

[45:17] whole new set of dungeons we're gonna be exploring after all rats more than enough we actually that was really that's why I think you push the music from we are making just a couple really so first off as people on beta will have

[45:32] noticed by now tyrannical and fortified are actually available right away from a level 2 key on up they're actually the baseline change the difference between mythic zero or just baseline mythic and the first level of mythic keystone is

[45:47] fortified and nothing else so you'll either have tougher bosses or tougher trash this one of the big things this does is get rid of that really artificial spike in difficulty and breakpoint going from 9 to 10 that just

[46:00] rewards you know early on in Legion before people really nowadays people are before people really nowadays people are over that hump you long 15 but Adam that could cruise through a nine and then just wipe for 45 minutes to some

[46:15] boss on tyrannical 10 yeah and that just that felt wrong I remember getting through a like right after launch getting through a halls of valor getting up to the end on an eighth key and being like alright now we have to wait because

[46:28] like alright now we have to wait because if we to chest this I'm gonna be mad yep and so so that that's one change so what's happening at mythic 10 and so looking forward to the first groups being able to sort of push ahead and get

[46:41] their keys up to that level as they learn the dungeons and we're making some tweaks to tuning to make that more accomplishable there is a new affix and this is ace what we're calling a seasonal affix so we have its new lady

[46:54] season 1 for PvP for raid in the sense well dear as the raid every minute dungeon some Kahoot and the ethics for season one is actually themed after our friendly blood god Cahoon the final boss

[47:08] of all dear his forces and his his his influence and corruption or spreading influence and corruption or spreading throughout Azeroth and so the level 10 ethics is called infested and this will be present every it's not something that

[47:21] rotates though the way it plays out may change from week to week and when infested is active there is basically a parasite of Cahoon that will have boss units throughout the dungeon parasite powers those units making them

[47:35] more dangerous resistant to crowd control and when they're killed or jump out and make its way towards another unit at which point it can be killed before it gets there can be crowd controlled stun interesting down it adds

[47:48] controlled stun interesting down it adds an extra layer tactical planning to how have ordinarily been a low priority target can quickly become the number one priority target in the poll and that will change from week to week the way

[48:02] I think that loadouts isn't the right word but patterns in terms of how the ethics applies it's not completely random we wanted to make sure that you don't have just the unlucky roll we're really rough pairs of mobs both get

[48:16] infested so it's all hand chosen by us cycling through a set of options lieutenant mobs that tend to be infested other times it'll be smaller you know fodder but the way it plays out will will vary there and so the thought is

[48:30] that is the season 1 mythic Keystone ethics once in a later patch once will be retired and we will have a themed ethics for that next season this those who are pushing the higher end of keys to contend with and for people just

[48:47] doing lower Keys and getting loot there there there won't be too much that has presence of tyrannical and fortified from earlier on and yeah we're really and to have a more structured approach to something that was sounds good you

[49:03] Legion and I think we looking back feel like it was a very successful experiment and so now we're trying to enshrine it 60 days before World War Craft and get the patch should be going live alongside PDP and writing really that's pretty

[49:19] that and that also means that like mythic plus sort of changes as time goes through the hierarchies will change as time goes on whereas previously like doing mob souls number one versus mob souls well mother souls ten plus number

[49:35] one versus mom Souls ten plus number 288 there wasn't really any particular difference exactly we need a couple of changes over the course of Legion to you and moth souls were generally pretty weak so we made them a bit tougher or

[49:47] little bit but other than that those were just hand tweaks day one experience was pretty similar to the you know day 500 experience ten cool all the week before awesome moving on next question from Aneta who asked how competitive is

[50:03] gear from mythix mythix East owns intended to be compared to raids and will azurite effects scale up when it drops in higher Keystone levels nothing in this regard I think we're happy with how that structure has played out

[50:17] generally you know at the very high end a mythic ten will yield the best possible loot once everything is fully unlocked a month or so into battle for getting heroic older your quality items

[50:30] from the chests at the end of those runs and a mythical deer quality item on a weekly basis from your weekly chests I think and that's the that structure of roughly being parallel to the best raid gear available has felt like it worked

[50:43] out we don't like reading without radio cool and some the the part about the azurite effects scaling up when it drops and higher yes so I mean so the power of azurite effects is proportional to the power to the item level of the item that

[50:59] power to the item level of the item that contains them and so as a right armor of we ice right armor drops separated by tiers it can't war for Titan Forge and so you know trying to find room for the exact numbers off the top of my head

[51:12] right now I correct me I'm probably wrong on this but I you know it's like 350 365 create the item levels I think for normal heroic mythic and so those by the way yes exactly no it's it's know their actual I craft Lich King go level

[51:27] I define a weak but but you should use them anyway but anyway yes those those want to create 5 eye level azurite armor upgrades because as much

[51:40] trying to do across itemization in battle for Azeroth we want a large full tier jump in item level to be a guide to hey to say hey you should just equip this item rather than having to compare a whole matrix of you know three sets of

[51:54] powers versus three others to decide and look simulate and look up whether it's worth the 5 eye level loss or game right the 15 or more it's much clearer but anyway so yes they think of mythic Keystone enum kid comes with swords do

[52:09] level increments as we're at armors an exception from that there'll be certain break points I think we're currently thinking at around mythic four mythic seven mythic ten where those new affixes come into play that's where you'll start

[52:22] to see normal heroic and mythic raid quality azurite armor come from your quality azurite armor come from your weekly chests one note actually for how endgame once you get past blue quality pieces

[52:36] dungeons all the endgame sources of asteroid armor are from some sources that are gated by some lockout and not just endlessly spammable so raids by definition you can only kill a boss once a week in PvP it'll come from conquest

[52:52] and from mythic plus it'll come from your weekly chests and we can be more we significantly more generous than we are with regular items when it comes to these but it also this will this allows for a much greater certainty instability

[53:07] in the rate at which these items can be awarded to make sure that the average that they need without creating a loophole we're okay if you just spam mythic plus for you know 50 hours a week you can get all the ads right armor with

[53:20] every power from a chest only the game we just want to encourage that the best way to play to be in PvP healthy variety and diversity of the activities that you pursue and no feeling of obligation to just grind your face on the old little

[53:35] disciplic reward really awesome cool moving on next question from Fumi 24:07 who asked on launch how a mythic dungeons gonna work i believe in legion that the first re first three weeks were locked to 845 item level so actually

[53:49] asking about base mythic dungeons not necessarily mythic plus yes I think exactly the same as are very very similar to how Legion worked out a plan is we have this three week kind of preseason period where everyone gets

[54:03] leveled up everyone gets geared up baseline mythic dungeons are available I believe they drop 340 eye level gear in this new world there will be a lower forward your Titan forwards you can't no matter how lucky you are get some like

[54:17] mythic great quality Titan forward item before the rates have even opened and then after those three weeks the PvP season begins rated PvP begins old year opens and mythic Keystone's become available within that framework still

[54:32] quality of mythic Keystone rewards because mythic rate isn't open yet we parallel just like we did in Legion and then one week after that mythical deer opens and from that point on makes it all you know it's the full endgame and

[54:48] everything can everything is available or forging and Titan forging is open on non azurite pieces remember Indo Titan for daguan weapons and right things will play out like they did in Legion cool a question here from squishy who said how

[55:01] exactly does the ketchup mechanic for the heart of Azeroth work each week reduces the amount of AP needed by how much so yes so there is a background knowledge mechanism that is not fully and it's not an effect on beta yet but

[55:15] will likely be before the end of beta that works in the background just like knowledge does and has towards the end of Legion except whereas knowledge multiplied your artifact power gains every week I think it was something like

[55:28] x 1.3 that just kind of compounded exponentially here we're dividing it and I believe it's a similar 30% reduction it's that that may that may be tweaked it's something in that 25 to 30 percent range so again the idea here is if my

[55:44] the next level of my heart of Azeroth requires you know 15,000 artifact power if I do nothing next week number my bloodstream does if you haven't already eleven thousand ten thousand five hundred or something which means that

[55:57] that is the effective catch-up mechanic so if I'm coming to the expansion much later on I'm I will be able to get those first few levels much faster if somebody plays twice as much as me the end result is they'll probably be a couple of q3

[56:11] artifact levels about ahead of me they won't be double my artists know that time aren't drifting farther and farther apart over the course expansion the reason why we're doing it this way as opposed to like Legion is frankly when

[56:25] needed and you know you're opening your chest and you're like oh sweet this is like oh you know something billion AP item that's pretty silly those are those when you hit packs level for the first time leveling in Legion getting like 100

[56:43] you know one point six billion yeah this lets us actually keep the numbers in a compare them and think about what you're getting in a more predictable way you know doing the world quest will give you 150 or 200 and killing a raid boss might

[56:57] will stay throughout the whole expansion and so when you see a sources as an actually parse what that really means to you whereas right now I think people vaguely understand like I guess billion is a lot but who knows how that even

[57:13] know doing Sarah more quests back in the day it's not even possible to really anymore it also means that there's never a point where it's actually the wrong time to earn artifact power the wrong time to go through a quest like I know a

[57:26] lot of people would maybe do the surra mark West Chinese questioning on their main just to unlock everything and then on all to be like no I'm gonna save that knowledge is random with so much artifact it's winner I know that makes

[57:40] us but I ended up loving a lot later just a great way to catch up on an artifact our I mean technically technically those quest would still be like they'll get you more artifact levels if you hold off on doing them but

[57:55] in practice you know it's not a it's a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme other sources but the main desire here is just to keep the numbers a bit more comprehensible and also that this is all possible because

[58:09] the heart of Azeroth is a single artifact that works for all of your specs you don't have to carry a bunch of items around and decide which artifact you want to apply the AP to it just you're just leveling up your neck when

[58:21] your neck so there's less inventory management that also means that we can we can do this if we try to do this in Legion you would've just hoarded your become more viable each passing week and that would have been not good so good

[58:35] all right next question from AG hash who's asking can you expand on how loot will be distributed from PvP in battle for Azeroth I think it's gonna be I know we've talked about this a bit in the past I remember coming up at the press

[58:48] event a while ago we could come but it it kind of feels like people still don't really know what's going on there sure so okay so for loot and battle phrase Roth PvP we're looking to complement the sort of random ish end of match rewards

[59:03] that we had in Legion with something that's much more deterministic and reflects how conquest vendors used to work back in the day where you earn conquest and there were vendors with a series of you know requirements on once

[59:15] you've earned this many conquest points this season you can buy this item people would naturally just kind of cobble together their sets in a predictable way we know that relying completely on randomness can be very frustrating and

[59:28] want to make sure that people who are just focused in PvP is the preferred just focused in PvP is the preferred play style have a reliable from path to the gear that they want so there's three parallel systems that award loot in

[59:41] parallel systems that award loot in rated PvP and PvP in general so first off Walmart I'm just like before at the end of a match you'll have a chance to get an item you finish an arena match and you'll have a chance to get an item

[59:53] just like you did before similar to sort of the end of run mythic plus rewards this is the quality of the item will be based and proportional to your rating and your ranking so whether you're in

[1:00:05] the duelist tier or the gladiator tea or the challenger tier that will affect the quality of the rewards that you're surrounded yeah now in parallel to that your first battleground of the day first epic battleground of the day

[1:00:17] you'll be earning conquest points filling a bar at the top of your PvP UI and when you fill that bar you will receive a fixed reward that is you know a raid quality piece of armor or weapon that is part of us I see a sequence of

[1:00:33] think I think actually week one it's like a raid finder quality weapon that's system if you don't have a good weapon get this and then in subsequent weeks as you earn your conquest for the week you will get a raid quality as a ride helm a

[1:00:48] pair of boots a pair of gloves rate quality as alright shoulders etc until you have all of those pieces and then the cycle repeats with on the next year off of loot and so even if you fall behind if you miss a few weeks you come

[1:01:02] mechanisms in place to let you earn these rewards more rapidly to get caught know they've been doing conquest for longer than you this is the guaranteed baseline of rewards if you put in if you invest time and dedication to the system

[1:01:17] you will receive this full set of PvP gear over the course of the season just like you always were able to you know obviously you'll earn conquest more rapidly if you're doing it at a hunk but that's kind of the baseline guaranteed

[1:01:30] regardless of what your rating is as long as you're active as long as you invest in the system then the final piece and we've really looked at the mythic plus system as a very successful method of gear delivery that complements

[1:01:43] reading and it sounded like he says rated by thinking dimension DeMatha Lords are like your end of run with a class reward we also have when you fill up a Congress bar for the week you will earn a weekly one-time reward that will

[1:01:56] be available from the beta diluting your skills which in the new world and that has a higher tier peace one per week that is again proportional to your your

[1:02:08] rating into your ranking and that will be based on the highest bracket that you had at least one win in so obviously okay if you hypothetically carried a those gladiator rewards you need to actually badges yeah in the gladiator

[1:02:22] interior to be rewarded accordingly and you know those at the very high end will just like you know you did a mythic ten you did in 15 you open your weekly chest there this will be the PvP equivalent of

[1:02:35] that also three systems random end of match rewards fedora and hung with schedule over the course of season sucess and powerful weekly rewards based on your skill and rating awesome glad to hear it

[1:02:48] next question here might have to be our last question coming in from recross who says how long will PvP seasons last and BFA will they be similar in length to corresponding with raid tiers like in previous expansions we're thinking a bit

[1:03:03] longer than Legion and trying to parallel our our raid tiers and the reward schedule that we have seen LAN dout certainly going to span that longer tier as much as possible we'd like for our reward systems to parallel each

[1:03:18] other since you know that's sort of how the game as a whole works we know that open and we're giving out better raid gear from from their PvP needs to remain competitive mythic dungeons need to remain competitive and it's much cleaner

[1:03:31] if we can keep those systems parallel this is I think one of the challenges we often had in Legion where we tried to fit to PvP seasons into a single raid fit to PvP seasons into a single raid tier was that for the first the first of

[1:03:44] those seasons very often PPR would just feel weak like if you're looking around just wasn't as good as what you had because we had to leave room for this whole second season within the tier the alternative wouldn't really anything new

[1:03:57] alternative wouldn't really anything new from that in like 7 1 5 7 - towards the end of night hold it was a period where PvP gear was actually just strictly could get end of match rewards that were better than mythic night hold gear right

[1:04:10] skewed in the opposite direction the more we can keep all of those in-game systems moving in parallel I think the more classic and cohesive the endgame reward system will be cool and we're also we're doing like an end of Legion

[1:04:26] post season as well right it's coming in yeah so that's that's that's the other thought we have the ability to you know we want to be able to n PvP seasons with able to announce them but further in advance without necessarily giving away

[1:04:39] a patch date or having to tie ourselves to the fact that the season has to getting delayed a couple weeks no big deal we have a state poet that's basically we think of as a post season where you're no longer an in conquest

[1:04:53] your rating for that season was locked in for the determination of any final get but you can continue to play you could earn end of match rewards and there's an active ability to queue and we're gonna start off the 8o pre

[1:05:07] expansion period with what effectively will be the legion post season so we'll be in that state you can get some you know good catch up gear to help power know good catch up gear to help power you look ahead to be in the other new

[1:05:20] system works like Ewing against other other other players with a similar rating as you unlike exactly skirmish which is just kind of random exactly you're you're and you mean this would just be your rating and MMR and all that

[1:05:32] would be preserved from what they were at the end of you know 735 current you're still level 110 it's just a postseason continuation cool and yeah postseason continuation cool and yeah alright well that is just about all the

[1:05:45] much Ian for for coming on here and answering these questions yeah questions I think a lot of you know able to get a lot of information out and really excited to see more people jumping into PTR now that it's open to

[1:05:57] the whole world if you want to go check out changes to your class new UI war mode just jump in eager to hear what everybody has to say and we're listening yeah thank you and if you have beta access we're gonna be doing a play with

[1:06:10] the Blues in warfare tomorrow as well we're going to be using the muties well so keep an eye out we're gonna have fun definitely we made a sort of a small coming today on how you can get involved with that so if you do have beta access

[1:06:24] if you don't definitely check out the 8'o PTR and give us feedback on what you're experiencing there so yeah that's gonna wrap us up thanks again everybody for being here and we'll see you next time until next time all right well what

[1:06:41] do we say what do we say about that so I mean the big news I guess was the transmitting sound a pretty cool way you can say if you've got like a two-hander can say if you've got like a two-hander on your on your druid and you used

[1:06:53] transmog you get the two well I think it's daggers or something you have as a it's daggers or something you have as a fact that one look pretty cool anything else any other thoughts on it honestly that was pretty much it for me there was

[1:07:05] some PvP stuff which was okay I guess went straight s excited it's in a bit I don't know when normals gonna open it in my open normal after the heroic testing so probably won't be able to it tonight but I'm not sure the transport

[1:07:18] thing sounds cool yeah I agree no law questions it was pretty boring Q&A yeah yeah wasn't I mean they didn't really say much obviously the PTR's now ups guys so if you do want to do your class changes

[1:07:32] your stuff like that you want to see all the the bf8 changes to your classes and feature you want to look at straight back orgs that is all on the PTR right you don't need a flag on your account or anything like that for for that so

[1:07:46] literally just download the PTR and away you go and you can play see where you were or click like as a prior potentially and yeah I mean anything potentially and yeah I mean anything else any closing thoughts to be honest

[1:08:00] else any closing thoughts to be honest yeah a bit of a Q&A that was it that was the first time I've ever done a reaction of sorts just kind of listening in and stuff I hope you guys enjoyed it and yeah let's I think we're gonna enter

[1:08:14] you don't need a self to play on the PTR that is completely fine any other questions I guess for me I guess if you want on like I could probably maybe throw you in on something you might not be sure about the mythic stuff yeah the

[1:08:28] mythic class stuff was really cool yeah I I did enjoy that but beyond that I I I did enjoy that but beyond that I mean can we still get PvP artifact skins don't think so it was great thank you thank you yes it

[1:08:43] we'll do it again I'll have to do it again won't we the guys thank you so much for joining me on this one we might be back later on doing some we how tight

[1:08:56] is your busy I don't know what the hell of busy is but I'm sure it's a really of busy is but I'm sure it's a really funny joke does VTR show how we get front gear yeah that is that's pretty much it

[1:09:10] there's no day on the PTR on the live 8 point no but it's probably gonna be potentially but at the moment we are unsure so guys thank you so much for might come on later again for retesting we'll see how it's going but yeah guys

[1:09:26] thanks so much and subscribed I forget to subscribe and like this video if you to subscribe and like this video if you haven't already and yeah take it easy