Mumper
Latest
Mumper shares original design for the Tempest Keep dungeons
The Arcatraz, Mechanar and Botanica are some of my favorite dungeons from the Burning Crusade era, and so, when Cory "Mumper" Stockton decided to share the original design of those three dungeons, I knew I had to show y'all. Original layouts for all 3 of the TK dungeon wings. Was fun designing these as a group, such a great theme! #TBT pic.twitter.com/n6FsCrRc8T - Mumper (@mumper) May 9, 2014 What I really love about these little looks back into WoW's past (we've seen things like this first draft of Dalaran from Cory before) is how they inform current design, and also, how they make me wonder how things could have been different. The names in particular definitely needed work. It's just so cool to see these things, get a sense of how the game developed behind the scenes.
Garrisons and their role in Warlords of Draenor
We're all talking about garrisons these days. Whether it's how they're going to work, where they're going to be, or what we're going to do with them they're the big new feature for Warlords of Draenor and we're all constantly worrying at the bone to try and squeeze more information out of them. It's understandable. Players have wanted something akin to player housing for years, and the garrison goes beyond that - it's effectively your own fortified town. It brings back memories for players of old school pen and paper RPG's like me of hitting the end of the expert levels in D&D and getting a dominion. We've recently found out that the garrison will be heavily integrated into the leveling experience, requiring it to have a stable location (Frostfire Ridge for Horde, Shadowmoon Valley for Alliance) and that there will be specific racial-themed buildings for the professions section of your garrison. There's even going to be group content for garrisons. Mumper has even assured us that the garrison will not be required to level. Meanwhile, Muffinus has asked players who, out of the entire World of Warcraft, would they want as a follower - I'm personally pulling for Rexxar and Marhsall Windsor. Yes, I know. What this all means is in flux, of course, as Mumper himself acknowledges - design is iterative, and changes happen. We're still waiting for more details, but what I wanted to talk about now is how the garrison is shaping up to become one of those rare things, a feature that can completely transform your playing experience in fundamental ways, yet not directly.
Shadowmoon Valley behind the scenes
If you guys have noticed, we like to feature the various throwback thursdays that developers have posted to twitter. Today we have another doozy from Cory Stockton. Previously he's shared really awesome looks back at places like Dalaran, today he gives us this look at Shadowmoon Valley in its conceptual stage. Looking it over you can see that things are still in the 'generic name' version, for instance 'Dwarf' and 'Broken Draenei Village' instead of names yet, but most of what we recognize as the Shadowmoon Valley of The Burning Crusade is on there. Considering we're going to be getting a look at an entirely new SMV as an Alliance starting zone, I find this look back very interesting.
Cory Stockton's first draft of Dalaran
We've seen quite a few of these behind the scenes peeks at Blizzard's design process, from Alex Afrasiabi's pictures of his Benediction design and the Rhok'delar pages, to these pages from Cory Stockton and Jonathan LeCraft including Death Knight and class designs. Now Cory Stockton's back with this, an early look at how Dalaran's layout was designed. My 1st pass layout of Dalaran for WotLK. Made a few changes along the way, but it came out pretty damn close. #TBT pic.twitter.com/EFwX0hJk5a- Mumper (@mumper) February 28, 2014 It's striking in how familiar it is, and yet places like the Dragon Embassy (later relocated to Wyrmrest Temple), the lack of clearly demarcated Horde and Alliance sections, and the presence of the Violet Citadel as a separate instance definitely set it apart from the Dalaran we ended up with. As always, interesting to see the game that might have been.
The earliest beginnings of the death knight and other class abilities
Following Alex Afrasiabi's example, both Cory Stockton and Jonathan LeCraft have posted some of their earliest design brainstorming notes to Twitter. Stockton's notes focus on the death knight class and what you're looking at was originally penned back in 2006, before Burning Crusade was even launched. Now that's planning ahead! It's interesting to see what aspects of the class survived those initial thoughts scribbled down on paper, such as no shield for tanking and runes as a resource. LeCraft's notes (image after the break) date back even further to show the earliest workings of class abilities like Ice Lance, Snake Trap, and Spellsteal. Rogues and warlocks, you were once considered for that latter spell but it appears the mages won that round. The "jumpy heal" didn't end up in the druid's spellbook and instead went to priests as Prayer of Mending. It's a fascinating look into WoW's development process and makes one wonder what notes are being scribbled today for expansions we don't even know about.
Cory Stockton on Garrisons
Cory "Mumper" Stockton has been tweeting up a storm about Garrisons, and since I'm fairly keen on this upcoming Warlords of Draenor feature, I figure it's worth collecting some of the juicier tweets for us all to savor. Among the ones I found the most interesting - .@thox6 Exactly. Both the stables and pet stable will let you display your favorite pet/mount for all to see. Starts with 5, upgrades to 10. - Mumper (@mumper) January 18, 2014 Garrisons will allow you to gather without having gathering professions depending on what you choose - 'All comes down to what you want to build on your plots.' There will be storehouses that will buff your ability to gather via your Garrison. They're considering having portals back to capital cities inside the Garrisons. With an Inn and a Flight Path already there, it would just be convenient. There will be monuments that let you display PvE and PvP achievements as well as the stables and pet stables for pets and mounts. Garrisons are really starting to sound pretty awesome. Now all they need is an armory to let me display all my transmog sets. And more storage space.
The ongoing mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
Earlier in patch 5.3's PTR cycle, developer Cory "Mumper" Stockton revealed the Unborn Val'kyr, a new wild pet coming to Northrend. That very night, players began scouring the PTR for any trace of it -- to no avail. A few days later, Stockton asked users on Twitter whether or not they'd found it yet. They hadn't, but as it turns out, at the time of those tweets, the pet had not yet been activated on the PTR at all. Whoops! However, it has been active for quite some time now, and the community at large is still not entirely sure how it works. According to the information we've been given, the Unborn Val'kyr is not a pet that is randomly spawned, but rather only spawns under specific, unique conditions. The pet has now been found and caught, but the conditions under which it spawns to begin with are still unknown.
New raid pets, wild pets, and hit chance system coming to pet battles in patch 5.3
Earlier this afternoon, Cory "Mumper" Stockton revealed a new wild battle pet coming in patch 5.3: the Unborn Val'kyr. If we can all ignore the creepy implications of its name, this will likely turn out to be an awesome addition to everyone's pet collections. Even if it turns out its battle abilities aren't very impressive (and we don't know yet either way), who doesn't want a tiny little val'kyr following them everywhere? In addition to the Unborn Val'kyr, patch 5.3 datamining has revealed the achievement Raiding with Leashes II: Attunement Edition which will add pets to Burning Crusade-era raids, much like those added to classic WoW raids.
Mumper clarifies seasonal battle pets
There are a number of achievements available for pet battlers, but one in particular has eluded us all. Not because it's particularly tough to earn, but because we're all waiting for MoP's first Summertime in-game. The Qiraji Guardling is said to only spawn during Summer, but there's been a bit of confusion surrounding when WoW's Summer actually is. See, the Raw Summer Bass begins spawning on the first day of Spring here in the real world. With a name like Summer Bass, you'd think that'd make it Summer in-game, right? As it turns out, no. The Summer Bass is a Spring/Summer fish, just like the Winter Squid is a Fall/Winter fish. Players sought clarification on fish versus pet spawning seasons from Lead Content Designer Cory "Mumper" Stockton, and received it: Seasonal pets will follow the pre-existing seasons starting in patch 5.3. Note that the existing fish are available for spring/summer (1/2) - Cory Stockton (@mumper) March 22, 2013 and fall/winter. The pets are available only in the Summer and Winter seasons so the dates are not the exact same. (2/2) - Cory Stockton (@mumper) March 22, 2013 So, the seasonal fish span multiple seasons, and the two seasonal pets span single seasons. Single seasons that loosely mirror our real-world seasons. Be on the lookout for the Guardling around the time Summer hits the Northern hemisphere -- in-game we're guessing it'll be May or June. Are you ready for your Zookeeper title?
No experience multiplier for Elite Battle Pets, working as intended
I started my Beasts of Fable quest line for the first time after 5.2 went live and was curious about how much experience a low level pet would receive when defeating an Elite Battle Pet. I was pretty excited. Would my newbie little Crawling Claw instantly complete most of his leveling journey? Nope. He earned 224 XP. Which, in the scope of battle pet leveling, is peanuts. Not even worth bringing a low level battle pet in to soak experience. But these are Elite Battle Pets! What's the dealio? Could it be a bug? I took to Twitter to find out, and was pleasantly surprised to receive an answer from Lead Content Designer Cory "Mumper" Stockton. @kristin @cm_zarhym @ghostcrawler Yes, this is intended. They have higher drop rates for rare stones and alt panda pets. - Cory Stockton (@mumper) March 7, 2013 So, we should just stick to power leveling battle pets elsewhere. At least we have a great chance to earn rare Battle-Stones and cute pandas while plowing through the Beasts of Fable.
Pet Battle Q&A with Blizzard Devs
Amongst all the excitement about pandaren and monks, it's easy to forget about the arrival of Pet Battles with Mists of Pandaria in a few hours. Blizzard CM Kaivax is definitely not a forgetful soul, and has posted an in-depth interview with Lead Content Designer Cory "Mumper" Stockton. It's a great interview, in which Cory clarifies some design philosophy behind the Pet Battle system. The 100 gold cost, which makes pet battles pretty out of reach for new players, is intentional, and part of the design of the feature. As Cory says, everyon playing pet battles should be playing World of Warcraft first, and pet battles as an aside. It's an addon, an additional feature to make use of in your spare time, so Blizzard don't support players who only want to do pet battles. Once a new character reaches level five, though, as long as they have a generous benefactor they can get going and battle some pets right away. This also means, of course, that players on trial accounts will find it pretty impossible to play pet battles, as they can't trade, can't auction, and, even if you're thinking "I could vendor enough stuff to get to 100g", they have a cap of 10g. And trainers don't seem to accept instalments. Cory also clarifies some important points with regard to PvP realms, including what happens to your pets if you get killed, and what happens if you die while trying to capture a pet. And, he talks at some length about recent changes in the pet battle philosophy, and more to come in future! Hit the jump for the full post.
Mists of Pandaria: Pet battles confer PvP vulnerability
Cory Stockton (Mumper on the Mists of Pandaria beta forums) has posted a clarification to a forum thread about pet battles and PvP that explains exactly what you pet battle collectors on PvP servers can expect. Mumper - Clarification Requested: PvP Vulnerability The fact that players are vulnerable to PvP attacks while in a pet battle is intentional. However, a couple features that go along with this are not implemented yet. First off, the exact pet you were fighting when you were broke out of pet battle will be respawned. Same quality, stats and skin color. Second, you will get a 3s damage shield that absorbs 50% of incoming damage to help negate the fact that you need time to recover after exiting the pet battle interface. Both of these will be in for the next build. We feel its very important to keep the PvP aspect of the game intact and if you choose to play on a PvP server, you will certainly be fighting for those rare spawns. (This rule effects PVE servers as well but only in contested areas.) source So yes, if you're on a PvP server (like I currently am) and you intend to take part in pet battles and collecting wild pets (unlike me), then you'll have to contend with PvP in the world. The fact that you'll at least get to try again after you kill that rogue has to be of some comfort, but I personally didn't even expect that much. The damage shield to give you a fighting chance goes way beyond what I was expecting, quite frankly. On PvP realms, let the battlers beware! It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Many pet battle changes in next build
The pet battle quests in the current MoP build are largely incomplete and due for extensive updates in the next build, according to Cory "Mumper" Stockton. One significant change is making the tamer battles account-wide and therefore only completable on one character. This does not apply to the dailies, so individual characters can still complete those quests once per day. [Edited because I originally misinterpreted Mumper's statement, though it is not entirely clear.] The same character who completes the initial battle that opens up the dailies does not have to be the one to complete them. So any other character on your account can still do those quests once per day. (You know, because they're dailies. Captain Obvious needs to stop whispering in my ear.) While Stockton says that "significant updates" will be coming in the next build, he lists highlights of what they "have been working on." This distinction may indicate that some of the updates will not necessarily make it into the next beta patch. Mumper's full post is after the break.
Mists of Pandaria not required for pet battles
Many readers have been asking in The Queue if an account that is upgraded to Mists of Pandaria will be required for participating in pet battles. Cory Stockton, aka Mumper, answered that question recently: No! Mumper The feature will go live with the box release date of MoP. It will be available to all players, MoP is not required. source It does look like the pet battles system will not be included in pre-expansion patch 5.0, however. We don't know the release date of Mists yet, unfortunately, so it looks like you have plenty of time to stockpile companions before being able to battle them. [via Warcraft Pets] It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Daily quest cap to be removed, "100's of daily quests at level 90" [Updated]
Lead content designer Cory Stockton took to the official forms today to let us all know some important news regarding daily quests in Mists: the current plan is for there to be no more cap. Initially the cap was at 10 daily quests, then 25. Now, however, it appears to be going away entirely. Why? Because according to Stockton, there are "100's of daily quests at level 90." The full blue post is as follows: Mumper Current plan is to remove the daily quest cap completely for ship. Just like what you see in the beta now. We literally have 100's of daily quests at level 90 and we want to make sure that players can pick and choose what they want to do. source Update 4:20 p.m. EDT: Yes, that really is 100's of new quests at level 90... @CM_Zarhym @AdamHolisky Correct.Keep in mind that the reason for so many is to have good randomization. - Cory Stockton (@mumper) May 24, 2012 It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Mists of Pandaria live developer Q&A transcript
Blizzard held a Mists of Pandaria live developer Q&A this evening. It was moderated by Community Manager Zarhym, with most of the questions being answered by Cory "Mumper" Stockton and Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street. The questions ran the gamut from serious to silly and offered a lot of great insight into the upcoming expansion and the inner workings of the development team. Highlights include, but are not limited to: The new Pandaria faction hubs New guild levels and perks New talent system Pet Battle system, including a possible spectator mode The possible abolishing of prime glyphs Ghostcrawler's feelings on #OccupyGregStreet Matticus. Just ... Matticus. The developers have already expressed interest in holding more of these chats, and I know I'm all in favor of it. For more information on the content of this evening's chat, check the official site, or stick with us after the break for a complete transcript.
The OverAchiever: New feats of strength in Cataclysm
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we discuss the achievements most likely to drive you crazy in Cataclysm. "Wait a minute," you say, in your continuing quest to point out that I am one card shy of a flush. "We've already covered feats of strength." True. But we covered the ones that are becoming feats, most likely in patch 4.0.3. Are you still waiting for the Zulian Tiger to drop? Of course you are. I can't do anything to help you with that right now, so I figured I'd add to your misery by covering all the maddening stuff you'll find in the game later.
Arenas hotfixed, more changes to come
I said it before, and I'll say it again: the new Arena maps suck. The gimmick-laden maps of the Ring of Valor and Dalaran Sewers are great fun in a Takeshi's Castle sort of way but are a bad idea in serious Arena play. You would've thought Blizzard learned their lesson with the cyclone effect in the Nagrand Arenas. The new Arena maps introduce unnecessary RNG that some high ranked Arena players don't appreciate. In fact, both of the new maps are banned from the recent ESL Arena Tournament in Germany.Blizzard applied some hotfixes over the past few days that should help make the maps less of a circus. The gates have been removed from the Ring of Valor, allowing players to engage as soon as the problematic elevators hit the arena floor. The moving pillars were adjusted to start the match in the elevated position, whereas they used to rise a few seconds after the match started. Most importantly, the damage from the flame wall was changed to break certain effects such as Fears and Roots after a certain amount of damage has been dealt. The last change is nice, but it's still problematic. The only thing that should damage another player in an Arena is another player.
