IRC Developer Chat - Round 2 (May 21)

Docjowles · 05/21/07, 12:45 PM

Ok folks, let's try this again. Blizzard has rescheduled their IRC developer chat for today, May 21, at 3pm PDT.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...04490769&sid=1

Originally Posted by Nethaera

Come join us Monday, May 21, at 3:00 p.m. PDT until 4:30 p.m. PDT in the #StraticsHoC channel. Players will be able to submit questions ahead of time for World of Warcraft Lead Designers Tom Chilton [Kalgan] and Jeffrey Kaplan [Tigole], who will be in attendance.

Stratics question takers will be collecting your questions up to 48 hours before the chat. Please note that no questions will be taken during the chat. Attendees will also be able to talk with each other in a separate channel before, during, and after the chat in the #worldofwarcraft IRC room.

For more information about Stratics IRC, please visit WoW Stratics (http://wow.stratics.com/index.php). We look forward to seeing you there!

Let's please try and stay mostly on topic this time; the last thread degenerated into general CM-bashing, and I know we can all get our fill of that from the official forums.

Fugazor · 05/21/07, 1:18 PM

If anyone wondering (I did) it is 22:00 GMT+0 (PDT = GMT-7).

Skulli · 05/21/07, 1:33 PM

PDT is -8 i think, so 23 GMT

Dozer · 05/21/07, 2:14 PM

3PM pacific time, 6PM Eastern, so 11PM GMT.

Weigraf · 05/21/07, 2:30 PM

GMT does not move over to daylight saving time, so PDT is GMT -7 (PST is GMT -8). Due to summer time it's GMT + 2 in central europe, and GMT + 1 on the British isles.

Emeraude · 05/21/07, 3:24 PM

Hopefully Peon4Hire won't invade and ruin things for us again.

Feorthas · 05/21/07, 6:27 PM

Would anyone mind posting highlights once all is said & done? (thanks in advance!)

Turik · 05/21/07, 6:34 PM

*Ladson* Are there any plans to move forward with classic realms where the level cap is 60 and there is no content beyond Naxx?

No.

<Brannoc> *Grogzor* With the changes to encounters in TBC and the development of KTM threat meter, Safe DPS is not as important as it was 2 years ago. Also, many raids are dropping down to 1 or less hunters with only MD in mind. Tack that onto the most difficult method of DPS in the game, the buffs given in 2.1 seem to be nice but they will not be enough to bring hunters back into raids so my question is...What are you going to do to save th
[17:24] <Kalgan> We'll keep ratcheting up hunter raid dps as needed.

Those are the general kind of questions being asked, and the general kind of answers.

My favourite was when someone mentioned Priests being under-valued in PvP/PvE, Kalgan immediatley quoted the Paladin nerfs? WTF?

Oh and saying how he was looking to move away from enhancement being a leveling spec, and said in paranthesis, Ret Paladins too.

Except, he was the only person to label Ret as a leveling spec, not us. Their hypocricy is underrated infinitely.

Feorthas · 05/21/07, 6:39 PM

Originally Posted by Turik

Those are the general kind of questions being asked, and the general kind of answers.

Oh and saying how he was looking to move away from enhancement being a leveling spec, and said in paranthesis, Ret Paladins too.

That's... disappointing to say the least.

However, I bet a LOT of people leveled as Ret/Enh (albeit the less informed ones) so I guess their comments are valid. Somewhat.

Gwaihir · 05/21/07, 6:41 PM

Heres a good one.

[18:30] <Brannoc> *Mazrael* With the advent of multiple tanking classes in The Burning Crusade, Paladins and Druids are now competing for the role of main tank in 25-man raiding content, extending from Karazhan up through the Black Temple. Has WoW development reviewed the game mechanics of Crushing Blows? In 2.1, the Glancing Blow mechanic has been changed to assist DPS classes - has any similar discussion been undertaken for Crushing Blows
[18:31] <Kalgan> Yes, we have had a similar discussion regarding crushing blows. We feel they add too random an element for players in endgame content.
[18:32] <Kalgan> We expect to deal with this issue at some point in the future (although it may not be immediate)

That's a pretty damn big deal, depending on where they go with that.

Grayson Carlyle · 05/21/07, 6:47 PM

This is pertinent:

Originally Posted by Kalgan

[18:39] <Kalgan> omg patch tomorrow

Vulpes · 05/21/07, 6:49 PM

This the full(er) quote

[16:38] <Brannoc> *Tesurly* Are the harsh keying requirements for entry level->end game raid zones going to stay for future expansions, or will some sort of backflagging option be available?
[16:39] <Tigole> First off, players will be happy to know that there are some *limited* backflagging solutions going into the game tomorrow. It's not for all zones but for a select few.
[16:39] <Kalgan> omg patch tomorrow
[16:39] <Eyonix> omg!
[16:39] <Tigole> Regarding the keying process, I think a certain amount of keying is cool... it allows for guilds to separate each other from one another.
[16:39] <Kalgan> jeff is so fired...
[16:40] <Tigole> Most of the keying issues have become issues more because of tuning.
[16:40] <Tigole> The Karazhan key isn't terribly hard to obtain.
[16:40] <Tigole> btw
[16:40] <Tigole> Patch tomorrow =P

• malthrin · 05/21/07, 7:13 PM

[19:05] <Brannoc> *Panacea* My question is regards to buggy/overpowered encounters, I want to ask how they get left like this, taking in example Al'ar, as I've done him myself, during Phase 1, if DPS is not high enough, after about 4-6 minutes, he starts spawning adds after every teleport, I can only assume this was purposely implemented as some kind of "enrage" timer, to make phase1 a DPS phase, but regarding that, how much testing was done
[19:05] <Tigole> Nothing was deliberately left broken -- I can assure you of that
[19:06] <Tigole> Lots of testing on the Burning Crusade raid content was done before many of the item and balance changes were complete.
[19:06] <Tigole> This makes it harder to get accurate raid testing done

No wonder?

Nite_Moogle · 05/21/07, 7:18 PM

Originally Posted by malthrin

No wonder?

Good grief. Mechanically sound fights with only a rough eyeballing of real tuning? And they had to wait four months to update that? That's a damn crime.

heel · 05/21/07, 7:18 PM

<Tigole> Also, not a lot of guilds (read: 0) made it to A'lar on the PTR's

Considering the fact that my guild spent three nights on the Al'ar on the PTR - and actually got a kill on the newly-tuned encounter - this statement is pretty disheartening. If the devs are unaware of our significant time investment on this encounter, it stands to reason that they also have no knowledge of the current state of Magtheridon (as far as I know, no other guilds bothered to test him). Not good.

Ashiya · 05/21/07, 7:19 PM

... He means the beta testing, surely?

Pater · 05/21/07, 7:19 PM

@heel: wow, that's mind boggling.

♦ Praetorian · 05/21/07, 7:19 PM

Originally Posted by heel

<Tigole> Also, not a lot of guilds (read: 0) made it to A'lar on the PTR's

Considering the fact that my guild spent three nights on the Al'ar on the PTR - and actually got a kill on the newly-tuned encounter - this statement is pretty disheartening. If the devs are unaware of our significant time investment on this encounter, it stands to reason that they also have no knowledge of the current state of Magtheridon (as far as I know, no other guilds bothered to test him). Not good.

He means pre-release.

Originally Posted by Nite Moogle

Good grief. Mechanically sound fights with only a rough eyeballing of real tuning? And they had to wait four months to update that? That's a damn crime.

Why is that a surprise to anyone? Tier 5 raids were obviously the very very last thing on their agenda leading up to the release push. Obviously Al'ar isn't tuned. Obviously Vashj isn't tuned. And so forth.

They didn't have time, and decided to wait until the big 2.1 overhaul rather than make piecemeal changes (except small things like removing Hydross's crushing blows).

I'd be more upset if they came out and said that, yes, they tested these fights extensively, and what we see was their best effort.

Elendril · 05/21/07, 7:20 PM

Pretty sure he's talking about prior PTRs and/or beta.

• Viator · 05/21/07, 7:21 PM

Originally Posted by Nite_Moogle

Good grief. Mechanically sound fights with only a rough eyeballing of real tuning? And they had to wait four months to update that? That's a damn crime.

Heh, yeah. Tigole's statement didn't actually make me feel any better.

Gwaihir · 05/21/07, 7:22 PM

He probably means open beta, not the current PTR. Or, we can HOPE he means this, considering he actually commented about going back and testing TK/SSC things.
The way it was worded in the context of the comment points to him meaning open beta.

The comment in context
[19:00] <Tigole> Lots of testing on the Burning Crusade raid content was done before many of the item and balance changes were complete.
[19:00] <Tigole> This makes it harder to get accurate raid testing done
[19:01] <Tigole> Also, not a lot of guilds (read: 0) made it to A'lar on the PTR's
[19:01] <Tigole> Luckily in 2.1.0 we've had an amazing turnout on the PTR's

Wibble · 05/21/07, 7:22 PM

Edit: Beaten, sorry to take up the extra space!

Axanor · 05/21/07, 7:23 PM

<Tigole> Also, not a lot of guilds (read: 0) made it to A'lar on the PTR's

To try and blame that partially on the guilds when they sent Raid Guild invites incredibly late in Beta and did nothing to accellerate gear progression (like with the BT testing) is just ridiculous.

duostrike · 05/21/07, 7:23 PM

Would it be possible for someone there and logging this to host/post the transcript once it finishes in its entirety?

Gwaihir · 05/21/07, 7:24 PM

Sure, although I am certain that it will be posted on the Stratics site as well. They mentioned they would post a transcript on their site at the beginning of the chat.