Mittwoch, 8. Juni 2011

World of Warcraft Blueposts: Über Items und Content im Feuerlande Patch 4.2

Das Thema Items reißt aktuell in den Blizzard Foren nicht ab. Viele Schamanen sind mit der Agility/Einhandschwert-Problematik unzufrieden und sehen Klassen wie Rogues stark bevorteilt. Hier nimmt Daxxari in einem Posting Stellung dazu und führt u.a. an, dass es auch Items wie z.B. Sturmschürer gibt, welches für verschiedene Klassen interessant ist und man sich bei Blizzard vorstellen könnte auch wieder in diese Richtung zu gehen.

Im weiteren Verlauf der Diskussion erläutert er noch einmal, dass es nie geplant war für jede Klasse in jedem Tier immer das perfekte Item zu präsentieren. Einige der Spieler kritisieren, dass einige Klassen früher an gute Items kommen (bei leichteren Bossen) als Andere. Hier bemerkt er, dass es ja auch nicht geht alle Waffen in den Loot-Table des ersten Bosses zu setzen. Es soll immer noch ein bisschen “interessante Abwechslung” im Game sein und die Loot-Table sollen nicht wie festgenagelt wirken was die Itemverteilung angeht. Hier wünscht er sich, dass die Community Blizzard weiterhin etwas Freiheit in der Verteilung der Items zugesteht.

Den Schamanen gibt er als Info, daß man plant zwei Verstärker-Waffen in den Feuerland-Raids einzubauen bei denen man Ragnaros nicht töten muss. Eine davon kann bei allen Bossen droppen. Er sagt weiterhin, daß es in den Drop-Tables keine Schwerter mit Agility geben wird, die Einhandplätze belegen.

In einem weiteren Blupost schwärmt Lylirra in einem Rundumschlag über Patch 4.2 und stellt noch einmal heraus, dass es hier für Jeden etwas spannendes gibt. Von den über 60 Tagesquests bis hin zum Instanz-Raid-Inhalt. Hier steht eigentlich nicht viel Neues

Allerdings gibt es auch einige Spieler, die mit der Menge des Contents in 4.2 nicht zufrieden sind, denn sie sehen Tagesquests nicht als “echten Content”, sondern als Beschäftigungstherapie. Einige wünschen sich mehr Quests. Hier sagt Bashiok, dass die Tagesquests seiner Meinung nach sehr spannend gestaltet sind und Quests über den Level-Cap für viele der Spieler nicht mehr so interessant sind, da man sich anstelle des Levelns mehr um Item-Ausstattung und Raiden kümmert. Ebenfalls räumt er ein, daß es für viele Spieler auch noch Cataclysm-Raidcontent gibt, den sie noch nicht gesehen haben und der mit den Balanceänderungen möglich wird.

Hier die Originalpostings:


Itemization and “niche” items
This kind of itemization isn’t that unusual, nor is it peculiar to this situation. As others have pointed out, there are slow off-hands available which aren’t broadly useful.

There’s enough room in itemization for some flexibility, and that allows us to create niche items like slow off-hands or 1-handed swords with agility on occasion. Of course, if a particular item has a comparatively narrow niche, then it’s more likely that fewer of those items will be introduced. Or, perhaps we’ll place an item like Stormwake, the Tempest’s Reach which potentially appeals to several different classes.

Itemization in raids and in the Firelands
Upon re-reading, I should have been more clear, no question. What I was getting at is that that there’s enough room to itemize for everyone, even if we’re designing items that aren’t 100% efficient. I’ll clarify further, though.

Generally speaking, we don’t set out to provide perfect itemization for every spec in the game for every tier of content (though we don’t want to leave anyone totally out in the cold, either). Sometimes the item a particular class or spec wants is going to be a bit tougher to get. While that’s not an ideal situation and some specs are more prone to the effect than others, it is the kind of thing that is going to happen sometimes – otherwise every desirable weapon would be sitting on the first boss of every dungeon. We like to put weapons on end bosses because they feel exciting. I know some of you are frustrated about where it ended up, but we particularly wanted to put the axe on Nef because he also dropped one in Blackwing Lair.

We work very hard to keep itemization, including loot tables, from feeling too formulaic. We don’t want shaman to use swords for the same reason we don’t want druids using swords. Itemization would certainly be easier on us if every player could use every weapon in the game, but we also think it would be a lot less interesting. We’ve done some stat streamlining to make things easier, but we don’t want to do so much that every weapon in a tier seems to be the same item with a different model.

With an eye to the future, we’re looking forward to two weapons suitable for Enhancement in Firelands that do not require killing Ragnaros. One of these weapons can drop from multiple bosses, so you can hold out hope that even if the first boss doesn’t drop what you’re looking for, the next one might. There are also no agility swords this time around to take up those one-hander slots.

Finally, some of you may be relieved to hear that the Shatterskull Bonecrusher was fixed to be 2.60 speed some time ago.

Is there anything to be excited about in Patch 4.2?
I’d say the new daily quest areas are pretty darn exciting. Ditto for the upcoming Firelands raid. They both have that sexy fire theme and introduce quite a bit of new content for players to experience.

I mean, on the one end, you’ve the daily quests. There’s over 60 of them spread between the Regrowth and the Molten Front, and the hubs are designed to offer as much questing variety as possible (a lot of the quests are randomized, which means you won’t get the same ones every day). You also get to unlock new vendors with cool items to buy, watch the world change right before your eyes, and kick some hot Druid of the Flame boo-tay. A lot of the quests are loads of fun to play through, too, so I wouldn’t write anything off as “a grind” just yet.

On the other, you’ve got the Firelands featuring seven brand new bosses with some epic mechanics and a whole new tier of gear. Currently available raids are also having their overall difficulty reduced, which we hope will open up the content to players who’ve not yet had the chance to experience it (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2580598159). And if you’re a collector, there’s a variety of new pets, mounts, and vanity items being introduced with the patch to hunt down and hoard.

So, while I wouldn’t say “there’s something for everyone,” because that’s a bit of a broad sweep, there’s definitely a lot of different things to do — and, for a large portion of players, that in and of itself is exciting.

Patch 4.2 Daily Quests
Over 60 new quests were created for the Regrowth and Molten Front daily questing areas, but they won’t all be available at once. Instead, a lot of quests will be randomized into smaller groups. So, while there might be 10 possible quests available from one cluster of NPCs, only 2 to 3 of those quests would be available on any given day.

[...] You can unlock both sets of dailies — the Druid of the Talon dailies and the Shadow Warden dailies — with a little time and effort. After you have both sets unlocked, though, you can only complete one per day.

While both sets are positively epic (OMGFIRESPIDERS, FLAMEWAKERSPEWPEW), we like the idea of players getting to choose which group of allies they’re going to assist each day. It feels strategic, and — perhaps more on point with your concern — will help keep your daily quest load to a much more manageable level.

(Just FYI, once everything is unlocked, you’ll be able to pick up 17-18 quests in total from the new daily hubs.)
Patch 4.2 Raid Content
Well, quite a lot of people do raid so I don’t think that’s a fair assessment. You do not appear to have thus far, but with the balance changes in 4.2 I think you should absolutely be able to pug the Cataclysm raids. That’s a lot of content you haven’t seen yet.

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