GCD, Covenant Utility, Castle Nathria - Shadowlands Interview with Morgan Day and Preach

Shadowlands Posted 2020/05/12 at 2:51 PM by Squishei

Watch Interview with Morgan Day of Blizzard from Preachlfw on www.twitch.tvShadowlands System GuidesHighlights

Based on community feedback, they're now consider a mode to infinitely play Torghast for Prestige Rewards.

The next build will (hopefully) have all Covenant abilities testable in Torghast. The Covenant will rotate on a daily basis.

Portions of the Covenant system are still not online -- Soulbinds, Conduits, Legendaries. Conduits can be made to fill in gaps between Covenants

They agree that multiple buttons in a row is a problem, but don't necessarily agree that removing them from the GCD is the solution. They're looking for feedback on the worst offenders of the GCD issues.

Nothing currently to announce about Shadow Priest, but they know it's an issue.

LiveblogBlackwater Behemoth

They set out to design an underwater boss and as long as people didn't completely hate it, it's considered a success!

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're still 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, Mists of Tirna Scithe, 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 on the testing cycle, 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 identify 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?

No updates today but on the radar.

Unpruning and the GCD

Ion in Sloot's interview said to give feedback on specific problems.

They agree that a problem is pressing multiple buttons in a row that are just cooldowns.

However, they disagree on removing them from the GCD is the solution. It was mentioned that maybe Mirror Images should be made a talent instead.

They have more work to do here and could use the communities' help in identifying the worst offenders. They added initial healing to Ascendance as an example from this expansion.

Some abilities could be redesigned as utility versus DPS.

1 234

Comment by iYeetmeisterI don't understand why they keep bringing up the topic of GCD. Its obvious that it is the one thing they really don't care about in terms of player opinions. There is a vocal majority that just want them to revert all GCD changes and they either try to re arrange it for a SMALL portion of abilities that really don't impact much of the combat. It completely removed a lot of the fast paced gameplay/decisions and most of the time you are sitting there pressing big cooldowns for the first 15 seconds of a boss fight, losing even more time of the first few cooldowns you've pressed before. You're losing so much time and damage potention because you have to WAIT to press things.

Please Blizzard, just go back to how things were in MoP. The GCD was one of the worst decisions they have made for WoW, and they released Draenor and BFA.Comment by NecroposUgh. Rogue-like content seems to be a love it or hate it thing, and I'm definitely in the latter camp. For every 1 person I know who enjoys it, I could probably name 3 that can't stand it. If that's the way they're gonna go with this, then hopefully there's nothing super important involved with Torghast. I might clear it once, but no way do I have the stomach for multiple/endless runs.Comment by ChunkyCoffeeUgh. Rogue-like content seems to be a love it or hate it thing, and I'm definitely in the latter camp. For every 1 person I know who enjoys it, I could probably name 3 that can't stand it. If that's the way they're gonna go with this, then hopefully there's nothing super important involved with Torghast. I might clear it once, but no way do I have the stomach for multiple/endless runs.Comment by StackoBearTorghast seems like it might have a lot of inspiration from the Palace of the Dead in FFXIV.Comment by LautnerWe need the extra systems, otherwise we're playing the same game for 15 years. I'd take another Legion over WoD any day of the week. Hell, I'd take BFA over WoD. BFA took it too far. Azerite Armor was too random and thus too grindy. They bandaged it with Essences, which was the right call, and then they tried out Corruptions. I enjoy Corruptions, but I also see it more as a 'break the game' mechanic for the end of the expansion.

I look forward to the Covenant system and all it brings with it. I'm thankful that loot is no longer warforged, and that we dont have an endless AP grind. Smells alt friendly to me.
<3Comment by Nevcairiel
How is it a "risk" to macro a bunch of spells?

Blizzard barely touched classes for Shadowlands, so you see that Blizzard is very far away from thinking that this is a class design issue. They simply think its fine like this, which it is not.Comment by Alanray43
How is it a "risk" to macro a bunch of spells?

Blizzard barely touched classes for Shadowlands, so you see that Blizzard is very far away from thinking that this is a class design issue. They simply think its fine like this, which it is not.Comment by Crusadyr"In Shadowlands there will be no AP"

LOL SYKE GOTCHA! FARM AENIMA POWER NERDS!Comment by Ernteschnitzel"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."
Crazy idea, what about not adding 27 new "legendary" systems but fixing the classes that feel horrible to play without those systems instead? Then there wont be a void after Shadowlands and you wont have to add 42 new "legendary" systems with 10.0.Comment by charlefine
How is it a "risk" to macro a bunch of spells?

Blizzard barely touched classes for Shadowlands, so you see that Blizzard is very far away from thinking that this is a class design issue. They simply think its fine like this, which it is not.Comment by Sielinth
How is it a "risk" to macro a bunch of spells?
Comment by Terukein WoW, most things you do involve combat some way.
So in the end what matters most is playing your character/class.
If playing a character will feel bad, no matter how good the xpack is, I for one will stop playing at some point.

And yes to mirror most everyone's concerns, i don't like World of BUFFcraft currently.

I once stopped to look at my gear and all of it was "chance to X" which annoys the hell out of me.
In Legion, the artifact weapon at least was linear progression, once i unlocked a trait or perk, i knew the next time and every time from there on onward if i pressed that skill i would get value each and every time.

They seem to have this weird obsession right now with xpack features that morphed into patch features.
The Benthic gear from Nazjatar has perks to help you in that zone only.
Then they came up with corruption, which you can use outside of the latest patch, but the memento stuff is there just to help with visions and nothing else.
Same with Mechagon, the items you get from there for the most part can only be used in Mechagon.

From what i understand the Torghast anima powers are there just for Torghast... It seems cluttered to me, the entire thing, there's so many things to do, yet it seems they want you to just pick one and stick with that for a long time.

I get the same vibes of a moba. I mean if you play a moba is generally the same thing yet different through permutations.
Every piece of WoW's right now feels like its own little thing with its own permutations. Disjointed from one another.

I don't know if i like it. Feels like Mists of Pandaria dailies again but packaged and present in a different way.Comment by RixvenWHY. ARE. THEY. BEING. SO. ARROGANT. ABOUT. THE. GCD.
90% of the playerbase hate it.Comment by RaizokaWHY. ARE. THEY. BEING. SO. ARROGANT. ABOUT. THE. GCD.
90% of the playerbase hate it.Comment by mazejakerIs Twitch taking a dump right now? The video player keeps having major issues, network errors, freezing, I've had to reload it like 4 times.Comment by DarvWHY. ARE. THEY. BEING. SO. ARROGANT. ABOUT. THE. GCD.
90% of the playerbase hate it.Comment by Amandor2012"In Shadowlands there will be no AP"

LOL SYKE GOTCHA! FARM AENIMA POWER NERDS!Comment by DraconaxUgh. Rogue-like content seems to be a love it or hate it thing, and I'm definitely in the latter camp. For every 1 person I know who enjoys it, I could probably name 3 that can't stand it. If that's the way they're gonna go with this, then hopefully there's nothing super important involved with Torghast. I might clear it once, but no way do I have the stomach for multiple/endless runs.Comment by Draconax"In Shadowlands there will be no AP"

LOL SYKE GOTCHA! FARM AENIMA POWER NERDS!Comment by AlakeiThancanI hate to bring negativity. I really do. But come on. It's been a year and a half since the GCD change. No matter how many times you'll chant "Changing it back is not the solution", you'll always be wrong about this. You tried to fix a problem that literally didn't exist, and instead you created a problem that you're now trying to solve through convoluted changes to spells. Cooldowns were cool to use BECAUSE you could cast them in between two spells, without breaking your rotation.

1 234