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Dev Watercooler: Watcher on encounter tuning
While it isn't quite the PvP watercooler post that some of you have been looking for, Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas, the Lead Encounter Designer for the World of Warcraft team, published a blog post earlier today regarding encounter mechanics. It offers excellent insight behind various decisions to nerf or buff bosses. He went on to deliver the reasoning behind hotfixes to Heroic Gara'jal earlier in the expansion and how the Ring of Frost talent for mages made Heroic Will of the Emperor easy. In addition, Ion covered: Creative use of ingame mechanics vs exploits Adjusting the difficulty of encounters Unintended strategies How mages make life difficult for encounter designers Read on after the cut to see the full post!
Ion Hazzikostas interviewed by MMO-Champion
If you didn't notice this weekend's big show over at the Battle.net World Championship, you missed a lot of cool World of Warcraft stuff. The folks over at MMO-Champion snagged one of the coolest, an interview with Ion Hazzikostas, Lead Encounter Designer. It's a big interview, so we'll just pick out one part to showcase it. Q: Patch 5.1 contains an extremely interesting questline involving the Black Temple and a lot of warlock lore, is there anything more you can tell us about this? Is this quest for all classes or just for warlocks? A: The Black Temple thing in Patch 5.1 is a Warlock specific class quest and it is building up to something. It was datamined as a scenario, but it is not a scenario. It is just a small one off class quest for Warlocks. When it makes sense for the lore and assets we are trying to introduce, it is cool to have these little one off quests like we added for the Monk as they level up with skill challenges. It is just something nice we thought we would do for the Warlock class. It is not a big deal. I'm very sad I won't get to see any of this. But I do like having it clarified. Head on over to the interview to read a lot more about what's coming in patch 5.1, about how Blizzard feels the return of world bosses has played out, and lots more. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Interview with Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas
At the Mists of Pandaria launch event in Irvine last week, I had the opportunity to talk to Ion Hazzikostas, lead encounter designer for World of Warcraft, about Mists of Pandaria's raids and dungeons, lessons learned from Cataclysm and beyond, and the road ahead. WoW Insider: State your name and position! Ion Hazzikostas: My name is Ion Hazzikostas and I am the lead encounter designer for World of Warcraft. What does that job entail? I'm the lead on the encounter team, which is self-explanatory; we make the dungeon and raid content, primarily. We're specialists in multiplayer PVE combat. On top of the dungeons and raids, we also help with outdoor raid bosses, scenario bosses, things like that. What would you say that your biggest goal going into Mists of Pandaria was? Particularly on the dungeon and raid front, to provide content for everybody, for all kinds of players. And we recognize that there's a massive spectrum of millions of people who are playing and enjoying World of Warcraft - a huge range of skill, frankly, and time commitment, the whole casual-hardcore spectrum people always talk about. And one of the things that we've been doing over the evolution of the game is to add additional difficulties, additional ways of consuming that content. So, you know, we now have LFR, normal, and heroic raids, and now we've introduced challenge modes, a sort of new tier of actually legitimately difficult five-player content. It's one of the biggest differences from Cataclysm at launch; one of the things we heard from people who were in guilds with friends and they'd say "these dungeons are awesome, we're having a lot of fun" ... but the people who queued up in Dungeon Finder would have a miserable time.
Convert to Raid talks to Ion Hazzikostas: Theramore, Raiding, and more
This Sunday, September 23, raiding podcast Convert to Raid will be broadcasting an interview with Blizzard Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas, a.k.a. Blizzard Blue Watcher. Convert to Raid's host, Pat Krane, a.k.a. Zhug, was good enough to give WoW Insider a sneak preview of this weekend's broadcast so we could give you some snippets to whet your appetite! You guys just released the Theramore scenario, and I wanted to check how the feedback was from the players? I think we're learning a lot from player reactions to the Theramore scenario. A lot of it is what player expectations were going into it, it was never really designed to be the epic world event prior to the expansion, things like the zombie plague come to mind. It was a story-driven little sneak preview of what the scenario system had to offer, and showing players a glimpse of one of the key events that's going to lead to greater conflict between the Alliance and the Horde... Something we've learned from repeatable content is that players don't always want very lengthy dialogue or cutscenes or cinematics...
Challenge Mode for Stormstout Brewery enabled in beta
Blizzard Blue Watcher, a.k.a. Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas has been back on the forums with his challenge-mode-master hat on. He's delivered the exciting news that the first of the leveling dungeons, Stormstout Brewery, has been enabled on the beta in challenge mode. Now, you can't just walk into Mordor, and the same applies for challenge modes. You have to be level 90, and you have to have completed Stormstout Brewery at least once on heroic mode. Now, having run Stormstout Brewery a lot of times on normal mode, and a few times on heroic mode, as a healer, I haven't really noticed any big differences. Mostly, the heroic mode tuning seems to be that things which really hurt in normal mode really hurt in heroic mode. Of course, since I last did the dungeon, it's entirely possible that things could have been changed or added. In the meantime, do check out our walkthrough, 5 things you need to know, and bosses in 5 seconds guides on the Stormstout Brewery if you're planning to check out the challenge mode. And if you're planning to head straight into the beta with four of your friends after you've read this article, you should know that the barrels are currently bugged. Blizzard are working on a hotfix.
No nerfs, no lockouts, no consumable restrictions for Challenge Mode dungeons
Blizzard's Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas, a.k.a. Watcher, has taken to the forums a few times lately, along with Community Manager Zarhym, to provide clarification on Challenge Modes. With all the bad air swirling around Blizzard from certain minority groups within the WoW community about catering to casuals, challenge modes are something they seem very keen to stand firm on. When asked if challenge modes would ever be nerfed, Ion replied as follows: Watcher If at all feasible, we're not going to be adjusting the content itself. Persistent leaderboards are the backbone of the system, and if we make the dungeon easier, then your 14:13 time last week might actually be more impressive than my 14:05 clear today, but there would be no way of knowing that. It's conceivable that we might adjust the actual Gold/Silver/Bronze cutoff times slightly if it turns out we were badly off the mark with the tuning, but we're pretty confident in our numbers. source Zarhym also weighed in with his own input on the nerf question.
Best Buy hosting Mists of Pandaria Developer chat on Tuesday, Sep. 18
Best Buy Unboxed, the forum community for Best Buy stores, will be holding a Mists of Pandaria developer chat on Tuesday, September 18 beginning at 6pm CST. Included on the developer panel are a few familiar faces from the recent Reddit AMA -- Lead Systems Designer Greg Street, Lead Content Designer Ion Hazzikostas, and Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak. Also included on the panel is Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton and Community Managers Zarhym and Crithto. To participate in the chat, all you need do is visit the official page on Best Buy's forums when the chat itself goes live. If your question wasn't addressed in the Reddit AMA, or if you simply missed the opportunity to ask, this is an excellent chance to get all your questions answered. It's nice to see the developer community so active, particularly on the eve of a new expansion's launch. Be sure to hit up Best Buy Unboxed on September 18 whether you've got a question to ask, or you just want to watch the show. 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!
Reddit AMA transcript now available
Yesterday, several members of the Warcraft development team had a massive AMA on Reddit. AMA stands for Ask Me Anything -- and players responded with a deluge of questions on everything from Cross-Realm zones to story and lore. For the sake of convenience, Blizzard put together a transcript of the entire post on their website earlier today. The questions and answers are separated by the designer who answered them. Game Director Tom Chilton focused on PvP, gameplay systems, cross-realm zones, character models and development timelines. Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak focused on lore, novels, characters, and quest and zone design. Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas focused on dungeons and raids as well as loot and talent systems and endgame progression. And of course Lead Systems Designer Greg Street focused on classes, as well as gameplay systems, cross-realm zones, and dungeons and raids. There is a ton of information contained in the AMA, including some clarification on the purpose and mechanics of Cross-Realm zones, something that a lot of people have been wondering about. Check out the full transcript for an information overload of Warcraft goodies. 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!
Reddit AMA with WoW developers today
Community Manager Zarhym will be hosting an AMA (or Ask Me Anything) in /r/WoW on Reddit this evening at 5:30 p.m. PDT (8:30 p.m. EDT). Joining him will be Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, Dave Kosak, Tom Chilton, and Ion Hazzikostas. For those who don't know, an AMA is where you post questions for the people participating and they are supposed to answer them all -- or as many as possible in the time allotted. Because this will be a heavily attended session, they will be answering the questions that are upvoted the most. WoW Insider will be monitoring the AMA, so we'll keep you posted on any important news items that arise. Zarhym's post with all the details is after the break.
Blizzard clarifies the raid finder's role in gearing progression
Blizzard blue Taepsilum posted today on the EU forums regarding the role of the raid finder as a key part of the gearing ladder. It has been regularly mentioned how the raid finder in Cataclysm became a vital part of gear progression, offering items that were an upgrade from Firelands normal gear and -- with procs and set bonuses accounted for, as well as the half-tier increase in item level for drops from Spine and Madness -- upgrades from Firelands heroic gear. I posted a while back about the purpose of the raid finder and how while it was intended as a means for folks who didn't have access to a raid team to see content, it became a rung on the gearing ladder. Well, it seems that Blizzard is taking steps to change that. Matt Rossi posted earlier with more information on the loot changes, and Taepsilum's post only serves to add weight to the notion that the raid finder will be adapted to serve its intended purpose. This shift was mentioned yesterday on the Q&A with the Devs at Gamescom, but it bears repeating for all the raid finder naysayers out there. When Blizzard knows millions of players will see content, it makes it easier for them to justify allocating resources to it. It's really hard for Blizzard to justify putting the huge resources to design a raid into something a fraction of players will experience. WoW Insider had a message direct from Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas in which he restated this point: The existence of LFR justifies the creation of more raid content for casual and hardcore players alike. See Taepsilum's post after the break.
Gamescom Raid Q&A with the Devs: Nerfs, the raid finder and more
You may have spotted Monday's post on how to design a raid, which was the first half of the Gamescom 2012 Raids and Dungeons round table with Ion Hazzikostas and John Lagrave. The second half of the Round Table was a Q&A session in which many interesting questions were asked, shedding light on some hot issues as well as simply providing a little more insight into the Blizzard Encounter Design Team's creative processes. Again, these aren't verbatim quotations from Ion and John, as I simply can't write that fast, but the overall statements are accurate representations of their responses. Are there any encounters Blizzard have had to alter or leave out due to technical constraints? There was a boss leading up to the Lich King who you had to heal (Valithria Dreamwalker), and that was a huge challenge for their existing technology. If you think about it, Ion explained, up to that point, every healing spell in the game was designed to be cast on a friendly target, that is to say, a player. So the devs were faced with the task of reworking every healing spell in the game. They didn't want players to only be able to use certain spells on her, as that would have been bad, so they redid every healing spell. The technical team changed the game's design so that the boss basically became a raid team member. Ion and John explained that it's all about working out creative ways to implement the designers' ideas.
How do you make a raid?
Over at this year's Gamescom, I was lucky enough to be among a small group invited to a Blizzard round table on Raids and Dungeons, where we sat down with Blizzard's Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas and Lead Game Producer John Lagrave. These two high-end content creators opened the round table by talking the audience through the process of how the Blizzard team goes about making a raid and the trials and tribulations they encounter along the way. This was fascinating to listen to, so I thought I'd share the insights with WoW Insider readers. This is not verbatim quoting throughout, as I simply can't write that fast, but it covers the raid-making process as they described it. How do you make a raid? You start with the lore. Ion and John talked us through the process of making the Firelands raid, so they began from a set of conditions. As Ion put it, "We consider what the idea is. What is this raid going to be about?" So they sit down with the encounter design team as well as the game producers in a meeting room and talk it out.
Blizzard Insider previews Mogu'shan Vaults raid
The most recent Blizzard Insider interviews Scott Mercer and Ion Hazzikostas, lead encounter designers, to discuss the Mogu'shan Vaults raid coming with the release of Mists of Pandaria. Quite a few details about the upcoming raid are to be had, including the following: It will launch with the raid finder, 10-man and 25-man normal, and 10-man and 25-man heroic modes, for a total of five different modes for the raid. "Observant players may even notice a certain 'titanic' influence in lair's defenses." Since the mogu (and most other Mists of Pandaria races and settings) are entirely new with this expansion, the design team had to design their "kits," the kinds of monsters and art you'd expect to see in dungeons featuring them. The mogu kit includes the terracotta warriors, the quilien statues, and certain Titan-based themes.
Why survivability matters in Cataclysm class design
Blizzard has told us again and again that survivability is going to matter more in Cataclysm, and it sounds like we may have to unlearn a lot of the bad habits from Wrath. I think this point was really driven home by developer Ion Hazzikostas in the class Q&A at BlizzCon 2010. A player was complaining about being forced to take utility talents to reach the bottom of her tree, and she gave as an example a talent that reduced the magic damage taken. She pointed out that the only time you'd take damage was if you stood in fire, which should never happen anyway. Ion could have pointed out the many, many boss encounters in which the room just pulses unavoidable AoE damage throughout the fight, but instead, he went in what I think was a very insightful route when he responded: In an ideal world, none of these things would be needed, right? In an ideal world, something like combat rez wouldn't be a useful ability because no one should ever die. In reality, people die. This is pretty much spot on. We've had a lot of discussion recently about combat rez changes -- but just like no one should ever get hit by a void zone, so too should no one ever die if everyone is doing his or her job. But they do, and combat rez is a great ability. With healers at risk of running OOM in Cataclysm, anything that reduces your damage taken or increases your self-healing is going to help your raid. After all, dead DPS do no damage, and wiped raids kill no bosses. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
The Light and How to Swing It: BlizzCon paladin info roundup
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Please send screenshots as well as any comments to my email at gregg@wow.com. So this is pretty much going to be a collection of blurbs from the BlizzCon 2010 class Q&A panel. Some questions that were asked throughout the day were things that have come up in the past, but others had new information that hadn't even hit the beta servers yet. The panel members from left to right consisted of Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street (WoW lead systems designer), Kris Zierhut (WoW senior technical game designer), Owen Landgren (WoW game designer), Ion Hazzikostas (WoW game designer) and Chris Kaleiki (WoW associate game designer). I went back and tried to do a much more thorough job at transcribing the information than we do in our live blogs (because none of us can type as fast as Ghostcrawler speaks). Also, I've added a "too long didn't read" (TLDR) version of each question at the beginning for those of you who don't read the whole post before commenting. For the rest of you, there is a full transcript as well as links I've found to videos of the panel on YouTube and linked directly to where the question is asked, if you want to actually see what was happening. This isn't official video, so it might get pulled for copyright issues, but until then, it's a great reference.
