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Patch 6.1 - Dev Interview
Our friends over at MammyTwink had the opportunity to interview Ion Hazzikostas recently. The highlights of the interview are below, but be sure to watch the whole thing for more context.
Future Content
- The team is hard at work on much more sizable and proper content patches that will be coming in the future.
- There are a lot of surprises and exciting stories in store for Patch 6.2. A lot of the information is laid out in quests so far and 6.1 quests will add some more story.
- The team will consider adding more heirloom slots, but they don't want to let you fill every slot with heirlooms, as you would never get any gear upgrades while leveling.
- New reputations will be added where they make sense, such as with new factions or rewards. Patch 6.2 could have some new reputations.
Garrisons
- The team is looking to add more reasons for you to visit a friend's garrison, starting with a few different things like quests and bosses in Patch 6.1.
- Guild garrisons are an interesting idea, but it comes down to who owns and controls the guild garrison. It would be a lot of fun for whoever is controlling it, but for everyone else it would just be something there that they can't control.
- The Garrison Campaign will set up the invasion of Tanaan Jungle, so there isn't any more story to tell in Patch 6.1. There are also players still working their way through the Garrison Campaign now, so this break will give them a chance to catch up.
Patch 6.1
- Patch 6.1 is adding the Heirloom system, Blood Elf Models, and content that gives you a way of interacting with the world that is already there in a new way, getting some new rewards, and revisiting things you haven't been to in a while.
- Many players already use social media to keep in touch with friends, share screenshots, and talk about boss kills / loot. The team has been thinking about Twitter integration for a while. It is a convenience for people that are already using Twitter, and not really an attempt to get people who aren't already using Twitter involved.
- Patch 6.1 class tuning is mostly buffs to weaker specs and talents, so it shouldn't drastically change things.
- Patch 6.1 gave the team a chance to polish the character models and tweak them according to player feedback. In general the team is happy with how new character models have worked out. The new models aren't completely finished though, the team will continue to tweak and improve them as time goes on.
Blackrock Foundry
- The team is happy with the reception of Blackrock Foundry so far.
- It has a very cool environment that is also integrated into the fights and feels like a real place, not an area just designed for a raid.
- Some of the introductory fights on Normal mode may be a little too challenging for people coming in from Normal Highmaul. The difficulty progression is okay so far other than that.
- The buff runes give you roughly a 1% increase in power and even the best guilds aren't using them regularly. They are being saved for when a kill is really close and you might need them to get that last 1%.
- Guilds that feel like they really need the buff runes (such as those working towards hardcore Mythic progression) are often the ones selling runs, loot, and achievements, so they can afford to purchase runes for raiders.
- Giving the runes to players in Raid Finder allows players to win something they can sell for extra gold, without directly adding more gold to the economy.
- High end raiding guilds used to buy a lot of consumables from players and then sell BoEs and epics back to players. The buff runes are a similar system.
Flying in Draenor
- The team is satisfied with not being able to fly in Draenor right now, as it allows the world to feel larger and more dangerous.
- Travel should remain convenient though, which is why Patch 6.1 has a few flightpath improvements.
- Quests that ask you to do things like free a prisoner from a cage now require you to fight through the camp to get to the cage, not just fly over a wall, land on the cage, click it, and fly away.
- Hidden treasures and jumping puzzles are also content that can be added with no flying. Patch 6.1 didn't change any of the reasons for having no flying.
- While the outdoor content remains in Draenor, not having flying makes sense, just like Isle of Thunder and Timeless isle.
- Players assume flying will never come back, even though the team is still making up their mind about it. There are differing opinions internally and it is still an ongoing discussion. If the team decides to not do flying in Draenor during this expansion, they will let us know.
- Being able to fly in most of Draenor but not Tanaan Jungle is one possibility.
Mythic Blackrock Foundry Progression
Method and Paragon both have 9/10 bosses down still, with no new guilds joining them yet. There are now 21 guilds at 8/10 bosses down. You can keep up with the latest progress on WoWProgress, our forum thread, and Manaflask.
New Colorblind Support in Patch 6.1
Patch 6.1 adds some official colorblind support to the game.
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Wowcraft Episode #18 - Mine Your Business
Wowcraft Episode #18 has been released.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/472 ... owcraft-18