TomChilton
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How do we define 'melee friendly'?
This week, we got a special treat - Blizzard released a video with Encounter Developer Ion Hazzikostas (who is seriously my secret crush over at Blizz - my trapper keeper is full of little hearts drawn around his name), Production Director J. Allen Brack and Game Director Tom Chilton (they're dreamy too, but Ion's my fave) and it's got a cornucopia of interesting information in it for you all. However, one line of the interview, summed up by our Adam Koebel, caught my eye immediately. They realize raids need to be more melee friendly in the future and they are working on it, but they feel that Siege of Orgrimmar is one of the most melee friendly raids in recent memory. When I first saw this line, I chuckled bitterly to myself. Siege is melee friendly? This got me to wondering how we define melee friendly. Is it just the ability for melee players to contribute solid DPS? Because by that standard, Siege has some good fights for melee - the Fallen Protectors, Sha of Pride, Galakras and even Spoils of Pandaria are certainly fights where melee DPS can contribute a good deal of positive damage to an encounter. Phase 1 Garrosh is a place where melee with good cleave potential absolutely shines. So by that standard, a case could absolutely be made that Siege is melee friendly. Now, in terms of melee staying alive without making the healers hate every single one of them that the raid brings to the party? Siege of Orgrimmar continues in a grand tradition of blowing up the melee. By that standard, SoO is absolutely not melee friendly.
Tom Chilton talks Arena with Gotfrag
We aim to hold premiere events every year, and this year is no different. Our intention is to continue running topnotch competitive events that players want to take part in and spectators want to watch. This is what first leapt out at me when reading the new article over at Gotfrag. We've already seen the fine folks at Big Download quiz the folks at Blizzard about how Arenas are developing and affecting the overall gameplay of World of Warcraft, so it definitely seems like there's a renewed emphasis on PvP as an e-sport going on. Maybe I just missed the boat on them doing something every year for it... how is this going to work for next year, when Wrath of the Lich King has been out for a while?We're looking to add new Arenas for Wrath of the Lich King that may be a bit different from the current Arena environments, but we're not ready to go into specifics just yet.Frankly, new arenas sounds like a good idea to me, but I'd also like to see a new arena bracket. 2x2 has always struck me as being too small to really be anything more than glorified dueling, but I enjoy 3x3 (I'm not terribly good at it, mind you) and find 5x5 starts to get a bit hectic. I think 4x4 could be a fun addition to arenas, but I have no idea how popular it would end up being. The masochist in me would like to see 10x10 brawling, or even 10 man King of the Hill style arena matches where all ten players are hostile to each other, similar to the way Gurubashi Arena and the Maul currently work. It would be a means for single players to gain arena points but would be challenging and a change from dueling. They're also considering means to allow for spectators on arena matches, which I'd be interested in seeing. The whole article is up at Gotfrag.com so feel free to take a look and see what you think about the future of arena as put forth by the inimitable Mr. Chilton.
Patch 2.3: some PvP cloaks please, with a Hunter melee weapon on the side
In one of the rarest turnarounds I've ever seen on the forums, a couple of posters made doom and gloom posts with titles like "Tom Chilton doesn't care about healer people!" -- apparently because the developers didn't make a special PvP cloak available in the game. So then Tom Chilton, posting as the fearsome lich Kalgan, comes right back at them and says "one PvP healing cloak, coming right up!" followed by, "would you like fries with that?"No that's not actually what he said... but close enough. He really said:There's a PvP healing cloak in patch 2.3. The vital stats are... 34 stam 15 int 16 spell crit 23 resil +51 healing / +17 spell dmg But one poster objected that spell crit wasn't as handy to healers as mana/5sec ... so he changed it!Fair enough, the cloak now has 6 mana/5sec instead of the spell crit. Enjoy!I know. You're thinking, "if only every change was that easy," right? Actually, today it is. Read on...
Kalgan on class balance in 2.2 and 2.3
There is a huge thread rolling on the forums that starts off with a reference to Tom "Kalgan" Chilton talking about PvP at BlizzCon. There, he said that Warlocks (and other classes) weren't necessarily balanced for 1v1 PvP-- instead, the classes are balanced for arenas (moreso 5v5 than 2v2 and 3v3, but those as well). This, of course, brought a chorus of anger from players-- considering that lots of World PvP is actually 1v1, why should any classes get a break that way?Kalgan, in return, basically says it's one or the other-- there is no way developers can get everything balanced all the way across the board, so they tend to balance as much as possible, which leaves some places where classes are more powerful than others. A little bit of OP, in other words, is acceptable, as long as the other classes have their place to shine as well. I found this to happen at BlizzCon as well-- when the designers explain their position to you, it seems completely reasonable. But when you go back in game, and a Warlock deathcoils you into oblivion, all the nonsense about balance and 1v1 vs. other situations goes right out the window, and you just want them to fix the game again.At any rate, big changes are coming, says Kalgan, both in 2.2 and 2.3, in terms of class balance (specifically the DoT/Resilience change and the Mace spec nerf). As Boubouille says, it's looking more and more like 2.3 will be a "big" patch, with lots and lots of changes and revisions for each class in the works.
Liveblog: World of Warcraft PvP Panel at BlizzCon
Hey folks, we're still here live at BlizzCon, and just minutes away from the start of the PvP panel, with dev Tom Chilton. We expect to hear about balance between classes, PvP troubles (including how they're going to fix AV, hopefully), and hopefully some new info about PvP in the next expansion.Drysc just said it's time for a "calm and rational discussion on PvP" (with laughter from the crowd), so let's do it.
Liveblogging the BlizzCon WoW Class Panel
We're still live on the BlizzCon floor, and now we're liveblogging the WoW Class Panel after the break. Stay tuned for news about classes, talents, and everything you need to know about how Blizzard developed the class you chose for your character.
Wrath of the Lich King Demo panel: liveblogging from BlizzCon
We are live on the floor at BlizzCon, and in just a few minutes, the devs will sit down on stage and show us everything that the Wrath of the Lich King entails. Tom Chilton, Jeff Kaplan, and Lee Sparks will all be here right around 1pm (2 minutes by my clock), and updates are forthcoming.The liveblog starts right after the jump. Here we go!
The masterminds of WoW on gaming
Have you ever wondered what the names and faces behind WoW do in their off time? In the recent interview 1up had with Shane Dabiri, Rob Pardo, Jeff Kaplan, and Tom Chilton, we get to find out a bit about that -- at least in regards to some of the games that they're playing right now. Two of them were really no surprise to me: Guitar Hero II and God of War. Those two have been all over the gaming media and are a lot of fun to play, so it makes total sense. The two titles that caught me off guard were several mentions of Viva Pinata and Rob saying that he plays the PopCap game, Peggle. They also covered some great background information from their gaming roots, to some ways they think WoW has changed the genre. Check it out!
Warcraft Designers on Class Reviews
There's an interview with Lead Game Designer Tom Chilton up on the official site on the topic of class reviews. It gives us a bit of insight into how the developers approach the process as well as providing a bit of insight into what to expect for mages in patch 1.11. Chilton hints at some of the must have talents in the arcane tree (possibly Evocation and Improved Arcane Explosion) being made available to all mages, as well as reducing the mage's downtime and improving the viability of frost/fire combination builds.
