Bitch Thread for Warlords of Draenor

[Paelos]

Yes I think it's that damning assuming they count things the same way.

I'm not sure if it counts LFR, and I'm assuming it doesn't, so I would imagine that's where the huge drop comes from. In addition to sub drops.

[Merusk]

I'm pretty sure it counts LFR as those grant the same achieves as actual raids, outside of heroics.

[Paelos]

I'm pretty sure it counts LFR as those grant the same achieves as actual raids, outside of heroics.

If that's the case it's about 5x worse then in my mind.

[Simond]

Took you long enough to steal this from GW2, Blizzard!

CONFIRM_BUY_REAGNETBANK_TAB - Do you want to purchase the Reagent Bank for:
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[luckton]

Female Undead and Tauren skins got patched in, but no models yet

[Tannhauser]

Took you long enough to steal this from GW2, Blizzard!

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Oh very nice!

[Rokal]

Fun article on the Tier 0.5 quests if you want to take a nostalgia trip today:
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/05/11/wow-archivist-tier-0-5-and-the-birth-of-modern-dungeons/

Second/final half in the link below. I don't think I ever made that far in the quest chain myself, but I remember that pain-in-the-ass dragon boss at the end so I must have helped some guild-mates who finished the whole thing.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/05/25/wow-archivist-tier-0-5-the-epic-conclusion/

You can imagine a crazy quest chain like that having more appeal in a modern expansion with transmog gear. Could reward armor sets similar to what you get out of challenge modes for doing something similar, etc.

[luckton]

Four part preview of Garrisons begins NAO!

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/14001702/garrison-preview-part-1-your-base-on-draenor-5-28-2014

tl;dr - We were super serious about making Garrisons part of leveling, and now you get an outpost in every WoD zone to go with it to influence your questing track.

 

[Lakov_Sanite]

Build your own quest hub, customize the landscape of azeroth to your liking, forget this is an mmo but still pay a subscription because, money?

[Paelos]

Sounds like a good idea, it's sort of housing but not really. I'd want to see what kind of customization options they have, if any.

[Hutch]

Goddammit. I really like what I see in that Garrisons article.

[Simond]

Sounds like a good idea

Who are you, and what have you done with the real Paelos? 

[Paelos]

Goes to show you I don't complain about good ideas, only the bad ones. 

[Fabricated]

That's a lot of work on a thing that no one will ever touch again after the next expansion.

[Merusk]

You mean like the Cataclysm world revamp? 

[Hutch]

Every expansion, including Vanilla WoW, has had a ton of work put into content that goes immediately unused as soon as the next expansion arrives.
At least this garrison concept is the sort of thing they can carry forward into future expansions.

[Paelos]

Every expansion, including Vanilla WoW, has had a ton of work put into content that goes immediately unused as soon as the next expansion arrives.
At least this garrison concept is the sort of thing they can carry forward into future expansions.

Raid content basically becomes useless every xpac. I don't mind that either. Timeless Isle is going to become useless, but it was a great idea. They need to do more stuff like that instead of rehashing old content.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Having one base of operations you can customize sounded really cool when they pitched it.  This just seems like you'll be able to customize your questlog  bit which isn't bad but it's definitely not as cool.

[Paelos]

Yeah I'm sure the implementation will be like farms. Meaning you can upgrade stuff but customize very little.

[Lakov_Sanite]

But from what it reads it'll be just one building per zone meaning you'll have to fly taxi to another zone to use another one if you need it for something.

[Zetor]

The entire Timewalker concept (scaling your character down to do dungeons/raids from previous expansions) seems to imply that Bliz isn't quite finished with rehashing old content yet.  

[Paelos]

The entire Timewalker concept (scaling your character down to do dungeons/raids from previous expansions) seems to imply that Bliz isn't quite finished with rehashing old content yet.  

Yeah I'm thinking that's an option rather than the norm. I'd still like to farm MC occasionally by myself.

[Hutch]

Wow, here's some chutzpah. "We're not going to let you fly in the next expansion. Here's a 35% sale on a flying mount. Buy now!"

[Paelos]

Best quote from the comments section:

Get ready for many more deals. We got a couple more quarterly reports to "boost" until WoD.

 

[Rokal]

New blog up on WoD stats:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/14322443/dev-watercooler-stat-updates-for-warlords-of-draenor-6-4-2014

Spoiler: they still have no idea what the fuck they are doing and have scrapped a bunch of the proposed new stats. This expansion is never going to come out.

[Paelos]

Do you think the current devs realize how badly they are fucking their own game with these delays and restructures?

[Rokal]

I'm not convinced anyone at Blizzard is aware of how much their design philosophy hurts their games, TBH. The never-ending revamps of stats/classes/abilities/questing that they seem to be going for with Warlords doesn't feel much different from the pre-launch changes Diablo 3 constantly underwent for 6+ years.

Cycle seems to be:
1) Have ideas for how to improve the game
2) Not be satisfied with the implementation of those ideas, redo it
3) Delay product
4) Not be satisfied with the implementation of redone ideas, redo it
5) Now being 6-24 months behind schedule and still not satisfied with implementation, create something quick & dirty instead and finally launch. Alternatively, scrap the idea and launch.

Examples of #5 are nearly endless: Archaeology, stat system in Diablo 3, Versatility as a new stat in WoD, Path of the Titans, etc.

[Paelos]

This expansion could be called "GARRISONS! and some other shit. We promise."

[Lakov_Sanite]

Archaeology

God damn it I forgot how much I wanted to like this.  Hell the entire tradeskill could have been just clicking obkects and getting some lore but they made it the most unfun, grindy thing possible.

[Typhon]

New blog up on WoD stats:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/14322443/dev-watercooler-stat-updates-for-warlords-of-draenor-6-4-2014

Spoiler: they still have no idea what the fuck they are doing and have scrapped a bunch of the proposed new stats. This expansion is never going to come out.

I'm torn by this post.  I laughed, and I enjoyed it.  Then I felt bad for you, because I know you like this game and want it to improve.  This thread usually brings me great joy, but today it's bitter-sweet.  (I've been drinking, so this is actually sincere).

[Simond]

New blog up on WoD stats:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/14322443/dev-watercooler-stat-updates-for-warlords-of-draenor-6-4-2014

Spoiler: they still have no idea what the fuck they are doing and have scrapped a bunch of the proposed new stats. This expansion is never going to come out.

Counterpoint: Go look at MMO Champion right now. 

[Lakov_Sanite]

Scrapping ideas wholesale + alpha starting = good?

[Paelos]

Scrapping ideas wholesale + alpha starting = good?

Any release of information by Blizzard is good to some group of people.

My hope originally when they hinted that 5.4 was going to be the last content patch, that they would have the next expansion ready in 9 months. After all, working on basically nothing else for 3 quarters should be enough time to put out some focused content.

Instead, we're here.

[Rokal]

New blog up on WoD stats:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/14322443/dev-watercooler-stat-updates-for-warlords-of-draenor-6-4-2014

Spoiler: they still have no idea what the fuck they are doing and have scrapped a bunch of the proposed new stats. This expansion is never going to come out.

Counterpoint: Go look at MMO Champion right now.  

According to MMO Champion, more Alpha test invites are finally going out. As a reminder, Alpha testing started ~4-5 months ago which is why we've had datamined Alpha client info for ages. This isn't a big milestone that indicates how close we are to release: this is a reminder of how far up shit creek they really are.

In 3 months subscribers will have been playing the current content patch for over a year. At the current rate they will be delivering the expansion right around the deadline they gave themselves with pre-sales (late December), and likely with a lot of stuff they've been working on, such as new stats, scrapped.

Edit: Only the horde starter zones in WoD are available for testers at the moment if you needed more proof how under-baked the expansion currently is.

[Paelos]

I honestly wonder WTF they are working on. If I was Activision, I would be all over these guys to put something out in the next 3 months, or heads will roll. They've had basically a year non-stop to carve this out, and they are wasting time.

Revenues are already dipping on that end, and ATVI is trying to move away from WoW as their main cashflow source. But this kind of delay is going to push that from transition to exodus. Q1 was the first time in a long time that cash flow came out negative for the quarter. I can't imagine Q2 and Q3 are going to be a lot better at this rate.