Polygon also recently interviewed Ion Hazzikostas and shed some more light on the upcoming Rise of Azshara patch.
- Heart of Azeroth
- Some of the active powers on the Heart of Azeroth will be things like shields or buffs.
- One of the ways the team has fallen short this expansion is realizing that the Heart of Azeroth isn't as important to players as the Legion weapons, which were a part of the player's story from start to finish.
- Ion says that the Magni, Azeroth, and the dying Titan plot is coming to the forefront in Patch 8.2.
- The Battle over Azeroth will actually turn into a Battle for Azeroth, and the Heart of Azeroth is getting gameplay reworks to match the emotional importance of the story.
- New Zones
- Both Nazjatar and Mechagon will be flying enabled.
- Nazjatar will be a little more of typical zone with new things.
- Mechagon is described as a sandbox-y, unpredictable playground.
- Character Growth
- Ion admits that the culling of abilities, loss of legendaries, and lack of endgame talents makes your character feel less fun to play at max level from Legion.
- For the rest of Battle for Azeroth, the team will be looking at talents from a tuning perspective and a diversity perspective. Talents no one picks may be designed and improved.
- Changes to talents as a whole will be something for a whole other expansion.
- In the past, talent trees had filler talents that felt mandatory to play the class, and they weren't infinitely extensible.
- The reasoning behind not adding a new row of talents for level 120 was that many classes didn't need three new abilities, and so the row would have been filler or shore up weaknesses in classes and remove counterplay. Ion admits this may have gone too far though.
- The team is looking at ways for characters to improve meaningfully and permanently at the endgame, and Nazjatar and Mechagon will be new ways to try rewards that aren't tied to core gameplay loops for each class.
- Story and Player Role
- There has been a lot of strong opinions on the story so far because there are a lot of strong connections to the characters.
- The team realizes that in trying to evoke emotion in the story, going to far with it can put the player in a situation that they don't want to be in, and this is why player choice has come into certain quests.
- They want people to stick around and see the end of the story that they are telling.
- The Horde is not blind to the fact that they have gone down dark paths before with Garrosh in Pandaria.
- Garrosh had different motives than Sylvanas. We still don't know what her true goals are.
- There will not be a trial where Sylvanas is in chains. She is not a character that would find herself in that situation ever.
- There will be more player decisions in the future with real consequences.
- The team intends to avoid false choices or the illusion of branching narratives.
- Ion hints that the Alliance doesn't have the choices the Horde faces...yet. They don't want to force it because the Alliance doesn't have the same division in its ranks right now.
Cross Realm Mythic Battle of Dazar'alor Next Reset
The Alliance Hall of Fame reached 100 Guilds clearing Mythic Lady Jaina Proudmoore yesterday. This means that as of next reset, players will now be able to clear the raid on mythic cross realm. For Alliance guilds still working on Jaina, you have until reset to still receive Hall of Fame: Lady Jaina Proudmoore (Alliance). After that, it will no longer be available.
Darkmoon Faire
The Darkmoon Faire is in town once again! Earn those prize tickets for your Darkmoon Dirigible! We recently posted Blizzard's updated guide for the event, and this marks the first time players can ride the Darkmoon Roller Coaster or fish up new cosmetic fish heads!
Keep in mind the Darkmoon Top Hat buff and the WHEE! buff as you work on earning reputation with the Battle for Azeroth factions or leveling Allied Races.
https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/84 ... Faire-Live
