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.

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Comment by Gradywhite
Did you even read the interview before commenting? They said they are considering an infinite mode... it's RIGHT THERE.Comment by MegooverWhy can't they just go to HELL with their moronic position on GCD? Why do they even collect our feedback at this point? If they don't care they can just do their own thing without bothering us, and watch their game fail.Comment by CapsterIf they give us an infinitely repeatable rogue-like with nothing but cosmetic rewards I will flip, it's the type of game I play outside of WoW and would be so excited.Comment by kabookiejoeGCD is a cancer to this game.Comment by Aesiria"When they do a Mythic phase, they want to make sure it's exciting."

He means like the N'zoth one?Comment by MurzacWhy can't they just go to HELL with their moronic position on GCD? Why do they even collect our feedback at this point? If they don't care they can just do their own thing without bothering us, and watch their game fail.Comment by 1412075This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by Megoover Point there being, why does removing spells from GCD have to be the only possible solution? Especially when people talk about it taking 5-6 GCDs to get your damage rolling, I think that's less of a GCD issue and more of a class design issue.Comment by charlefine I think I see where Bllizzard is coming from with this though. If you just take a bunch of spells off GCD what you very easily risk is that players are just going to macro them into a single button and forget about it. From a game design point of view that's pretty garbage. Only looking at the GCD is a ridiculously narrow way of looking at the problem because that's just one solution to it. Like if the problem is that you need to press a bunch of little cooldowns at the start of a fight then maybe either merge some of them together to reduce the number of buttons that you have to hit or remove some and buff others. Or if the issue is that you need to pool up enough resources at the start to get anywhere maybe add a new spell with a semi-lengthy cooldown that you can hit right away to kickstart your rotation. Maybe even add a talent or something so that it resets when you kill an enemy so that in open world you'll also get more use out of it and can go from fight to fight much easier.

Point there being, why does removing spells from GCD have to be the only possible solution? Especially when people talk about it taking 5-6 GCDs to get your damage rolling, I think that's less of a GCD issue and more of a class design issue.Comment by AhdeeIn my opinion, WoW feels a bit clunky with the implementation of GCD bacause the animations end too quick (because WoW originally didn't have GCD, so the animations were usually short). Then the character looks like it has nothing to do. And there is not much choice in offensive abilities that is off-GCD to be weaved in between that 'nothing to do' gap.
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Take FFXIV for example. They have long GCD, but the animations are also long. And they also have off-GCD abilities to be weaved in between those empty gaps. Most of the attacks with GCDs are free of charge (but have to do it in sequence / in combos for bonuses). But off-GCD abilities requires mana / energy / combo points / separate bars.
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Thus, to make the play looks smooth, Blizz has to either synchronize the animation to match with the GCD, or make certain abilities off GCD to fill in the empty gap. The first solution is the easiest though since the latter will need nerfing and stuff.Comment by wallrochaMost classes press all their buttons on raid boss pulls and proceed to use it again when its up. I doubt they can change that...Comment by KylosAm i the only one thats excited about the mention of cosmetics like mage tower?Comment by jon041065How about make a separate GCD just for your throughput CDs? Two separate GCDs. That way, you cannot instantly apply lots of these CDs, but they don't interrupt your ability to follow your rotation. So instead of having to cast Avatar and then Charge and then Demo Shout *and then* begin your rotation, you just charge in and use them one after the other as you start Shield Slamming and Thunder Clapping while you're also using your off-GCD defensives (Shield Block and Ignore Pain).Comment by bobbis91Like others I'm also sceptical of their planning with systems coming in due to "legion syndrome". It's not fun, the difference in playing my hunter, which is 470, and has the 3 BiS azerite peices and 4 best essences and hc skitra bow, vs playing my wife's with 1 decent azerite and maybe 2 essences, is huge. I get that gearing means more dps, but it also completely smooths out the rotation and cooldowns to such a stupid extent.

Sure having access to them all earlier would have been nicer, which looks like the plan, but should they be there in the first place? Such huge changes only available at the very end of the game?Comment by dwolf010let me ask one thing to you gus. waht do you rather have. GCD as it now is with a few buttons off GCD. or no GCD like how it was before they introduced it a few years back. but having spell not being able to marco (atleast not multiple in the same marco so you can still use mouse over and stuff).Comment by AzraelUltimaTorghast seems like it might have a lot of inspiration from the Palace of the Dead in FFXIV.Because thats the easiest solution and they still haven't offered us another one in 2 years. Maybe before taking our bicycle away and giving us car they shoud give that car wheels?Comment by IamtheLexxClass Testing in Torghast
They didn't think of testing class changes in Torghast.Comment by TheRedRogueI genuinely hope the GCD is cut back on a lot of classes/specs, to me it doesn't make the gameplay more intuitive or calculated, it's just a hurdle to get over. I'm sure some people don't mind it, I'm just personally not a fan.Comment by Agamand93Just make SHADOW priests SHADOW AGAIN!

Bring them back to wotlk-mop levels. Where we had multi-doters, spike-blast ST rotation... etc, etc, etc....

SHADOW priests are SHADOW priests! NOT VOID!Comment by YortalI'm all up on the infinite grind cosmetics mod for Thorgast it would be really nice.

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