Community Manager
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Edited by Kaivax on 5/31/11 10:31 AM (PDT)
Q: What happened with the Abyssal Maw dungeon that was supposed to come with Firelands? – Maryjanee (EU-EN), Espiritu (NA)
The case for Abyssal Maw pitch was that we could reuse a lot of existing assets (the fights were to take place in a giant shelled demigod like Nespirah), and while we are willing to do that, we thought Abyssal Maw would just pale in comparison to the magnificence of the Firelands. So, we put all of our eggs into that one basket. We’ve decided for now that the Vashj’ir quest line along with the Throne of the Tides dungeon does a pretty good job of finishing the Neptulon story. Q: A majority of the fights in T11 favored having little or no Melee DPS. Are there plans to fix this? – Merissa (NA), Espiritu (NA)
Whenever there are situations in an encounter that encourage grouping, the ranged often move into melee (with the occasional exception for hunters), but melee never move to ranged. Any of the fights that punish clumping also tend to punish melee more. We recognize all of these problems, as do many players, but it’s challenging to address them quickly. For example, without compensation, casters would suffer a lot in PvP if their movement tools were suddenly stripped away. In the meantime, we don’t want to over-constrain encounter design, or worse, make it feel very formulaic by getting to the point where players expect the “melee fight” to be followed by the “adds fight,” followed by the “Patchwerk fight,” then the “ranged fight.” We’re making sure that melee have some fights where they can shine in Firelands. To use just one example, the Sons of Flame on Ragnaros tend to be better handled by melee than ranged. Q: When Tier 11 content was first launched, the majority of fights in 25-person were explicitly easier than the 10-person version, such as Nefarian and almost every Heroic encounter. Do you have plans to make content for 25 players more appealing in patch 4.2? – Wynter (EU-DE), Nisana (EU-FR), Espiritu (NA)
There were some fights at launch where 10s were too challenging (and some fights where the opposite was true), but we view those as nails in a board that need to be either beat down or pried up until they are more even with everything else. Progress in NA and EU on the 25-player content was faster than on the 10-player content, but this was probably largely because most progression oriented guilds in those regions were already focused on 25-player raids. This is also a regional difference. In Korea for example, there are a lot of hardcore raiding guilds focused on heroic 10-player content. Q: Will we see anything of a sympathetic view of why Fandral Staghelm changed allegiances before he meets his demise? – Lorinall (NA)
Q: It can be anticipated that mana regeneration and maximum mana will increase from gearing up with the new Firelands equipment. Isn’t there a possibility that healers can spam big heals again (and more quick heals) just like in WotLK? If so, is there any plan to handle this without class nerfs? – Whitewnd (KR)
This is still a much better place to be than we were with Lich King content, where mana stopped mattering in the first raid tier. Aside from the mana changes we’ve already made to Innervate, Mana Tide Totem and paladin heals, we don’t think an overall regen nerf is necessary. Q: Do we have any plans to include events similar to the Wrath Gate? – Mushik (LA), 잔메르 (KR)
Q: Will there be weekly missions in the Firelands similar to Icecrown Citadel in where the players were required to alter the dynamics of each encounter in order to complete them and receive rewards such as promordial saronite and gold? – Orisai (LA)
Q: As I understand, Firelands monsters and bosses have no immunity on fire damage. However, this seems a bit weird because we are killing fires with fire. Is there any in-game explanation (eg. Our weapons are enchanted with some special magic)? – Whitewnd (KR)
Q: In Cataclysm, it has been hard to find unique raid mounts such as Siege Engines in Ulduar or Drakes in The Eye of Eternity. Can we expect to see battles using unique mounts or other objects among the Firelands raids? – 빛그리고사제 (KR)
There are several fight mechanics in Firelands that depart from usual “don’t stand in the fire” or ”interrupt important spells” routine. For example, you can fly during part of the Alysrazor encounter, you climb webs during the Beth’tilac encounter, and you steer Lord Rhyolith around in a manner very different from standard kiting. (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2682944) Q: Is Ragnaros gonna have a speech about setbacks? – Gerox (NA)
Archive: Ask the Devs - Answers #1: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2228225718 Ask the Devs - Answers #2: PvP http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2267599521 Ask the Devs - Answers #3: UI http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2301722463 Ask the Devs - Answers #4: Armor and Weapons http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2353015977 Ask the Devs - Answers #5: Achievements http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2369681189 Ask the Devs - Answers #6: Guild Advancement http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2416158906 Ask the Devs - Answers #7: Professions http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2522165843 |
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5/25/2011
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Edited by Mancake on 5/25/11 10:21 AM (PDT)
A lot of these questions do not seem to be based around Firelands but raid progression in general. It would have been nice to see more questions answered which pertained specifically to Firelands.
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Edited by Caith on 5/25/11 10:35 AM (PDT)
A good job of finishing the story? Are we playing two different dungeons? |
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I'm going to have to agree with this guy |
Really? Vash'jir is one of the best experiences I had on Cata and I was really looking forward to the Abyssal Maw dungeon. I'm VERY disappointed. |
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Edited by Palaurus on 5/25/11 10:30 AM (PDT)
*pop* *pop*
oh look, legs... MOLTEN CORE MERELY A SETBACK |
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How does the 5 man finish the Neptulon story when Neptulon is sucked up at the end of the instance? That's a pretty large cliff hanger to abandon there.
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When you summoned Ragnaros in Molten Core, Executus says something about how this isn't the true Ragnaros and it's merely a shadow of his actual power. It's sort of weird to hear people talking like it's the same thing as Kael'thas.
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We’ve decided for now that the Vashj’ir quest line along with the Throne of the Tides dungeon does a pretty good job of finishing the Neptulon story. You did the questline, right? And then you did the instance? And you killed the local leader of the Naga, her top faceless one lieutenant, and the giant squid thing she used to beat down Neptulon and actually invade. You have killed the invaders and allowed Neptulon to take back over his realm. What part isn't finished? |
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Edited by Fehnris on 5/25/11 10:39 AM (PDT)
Did you not do the instance? Ozumat sucks Neptulon up at the end of the fight. You don't win. I guess they can make it a plotpoint for the next expansion though since it will for sure focus on Azshara. |
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You did the questline, right? And then you did the instance? And you killed the local leader of the Naga, her top faceless one lieutenant, and the giant squid thing she used to beat down Neptulon and actually invade. We didn't kill the squid at the end and Neptulon was kidnapped....sounds pretty unfinished to me. |
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it's nice that we're getting answers, but they're not really answering much.
A question that still needs to be answered: in Cata promotion and tlak up, there was mention made that hit would be a "moving target", does this still apply? I.E. will we need to recap hit rating for firelands bosses? Also, Abyssal Maw please. Zandalari stuff is great, don't get me wrong, but "reboots only" for the non-raiders is pretty poor form. "Raid or Die" died for a reason, stop trying to resurrect it. |
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"We’ve decided for now that the Vashj’ir quest line along with the Throne of the Tides dungeon does a pretty good job of finishing the Neptulon story." I am begging - begging! With a /beg emote! How pathetic! - that this gets clarified. It's not clear, but it seems to imply that you're simply done with it for now, yes? Because the Neptulon storyline is far from over. After all, we FAILED in Throne of the Tides, the naga won! They captured Neptulon with Ozumat and successfully invaded the watery realm! |
I can totally agree with that. Doing the Uldum quests left me thinking "Aluri wouldn't do that". |
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Yea, the story isnt really finished if one of the Elemetal Lords is kidnapped never to be seen again |
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Edited by Fehnris on 5/25/11 10:47 AM (PDT)
Part of me wonders if they just don't want to give away what will be in 4.3 considering the Silithus revamp that has yet to be implemented and the daily area in the Steam Pools that mentions the Abyssal Maw (they are in the MMO-C and WoWHead databases). Then again maybe they just abandoned that all together too.
Either way the story is FAR from finished and better be revisited since the Abyssal Maw 5 man intentionally ended with a cliffhanger. That also doesn't mean you go 'o crap we gotta change that' and just alter the end of the fight (I'll have really given up all hope on Blizzard then). |
