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Have faith. Paladin changes are coming.


The Paladin class hasn't gotten much love from Blizzard from what we've seen so far in the development of the Wrath of the Lich King. Of all the class updates delivered during the recently concluded Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France, the Paladin was one of two classes (the other was the Mage) that didn't receive much by way of news. On the other hand, leaked information from the Alpha revealed some new whopper spells for Mages, including cool and explosive (literally) 51-point talents. Hunters don't have new talents yet, either, but the exciting news is that in WotLK, their pets will.

From out of the blue.
But good things come to those who wait. Tipster Delsin helped shed some Light on the slow development pace by linking to what is purportedly a forum discussion with Ghostcrawler, a developer of the new expansion. The responses from the blue were supposedly sprinkled over a couple of weeks, with the first and oldest post revealing little we didn't already know. It detailed the design directive the developers were taking, noting four important points:
  • Retribution Paladins need to have better utility in raids
  • Holy Paladins shouldn't feel so punished during encounters which require lots of movement
  • Protection Paladins need to be great tanks not only for 5-person content but also for raids; at the same time, all four tanking classes should maintain their niche
  • Paladins, more than any other class, need diverse sets of gear depending on their spec and role. Itemization is being fixed across the board to make it easier for healers and tanks to do damage without needing a whole new set of gear
These key points illustrate that Blizzard has a good grasp of what plagues the class, and is moving in the right direction. In two more responses in the same thread, the developers explain why the Paladin developments are taking so long and the issues they're looking at. Read more after the break.

Continue reading Have faith. Paladin changes are coming.

Who's Jay Wilson?

Jay Wilson is on stage at WWI right now, showing off Blizzard's new game, the very hot-looking Diablo 3. But just who is Jay Wilson, and why is he in charge of the new Diablo game? Wilson's worked with Blizzard on World of Warcraft, and he's even got a character named after him.

Previously, he'd worked for a company called Relic Entertainment, and was the lead designer on Dawn of War, a Warhammer 40000 (Warhammer, but in the future, kind of like Starcraft to our Warcraft)-based RTS game. The good news is that the game was fairly well reviewed, but of course Diablo 3 isn't an RTS game, it's a hack-and-slash, so we're not sure how Wilson will do on that front yet.

In this interview, Wilson was known to be at Blizzard and supposedly working on Starcraft II but of course now we know better. This new Diablo could be the chance for this developer new to Blizzard to claim his place in history.

UPDATE: Our very own Joystiq caught up with Jay Wilson at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. Find out what Diablo 3's lead designer has to say about porting to consoles, the next Deckard Cain rap and the notorious dupe exploits of previous games.

J Allen Brack: EverQuest is "the big foundation" of World of Warcraft

Blizzard Producer J. Allan Brack also talked in the latest issue of PC Gamer about Wrath of the Lich King, and while he doesn't drop any major bombs, he does speak pretty candidly about what Blizzard is doing right and wrong with content, and what they hope to achieve from World PvP in the future.

Perhaps most surprisingly, he gives away just how closely Blizzard is watching their competitors in the MMO world to see what's worked and what hasn't -- on the issue of updating the graphical engine and just general influences, Brack has no compunctions about citing EverQuest as a huge influence on World of Warcraft, even going so far as to call it "the big foundation" of the game Blizzard made. He also notes that Blizzard pays a lot of attention to their own game as well -- they track how fast players are going through content, and how players do it. He specifically says that Lake Wintergrasp PvP will work like the Spirit Towers in Auchindouin, in that the battle will go down at a certain time, so everyone knows when to get to work and fight there. Battlegrounds and arenas aren't being neglected, either -- there'll likely be "at least" one of each added to the game with the expansion.

Finally, he also agrees that "level separation" (the difference between the characters you've got and your friends who just joined up at level 1) is a problem that Blizzard is keeping an eye on, and while he doesn't mention any solutions yet, he says they'll change it if they feel they have to. Sounds like Brack and his team are well on their way to hammering out the expansion.

Helping addon developers help you

Many of us take full advantage of the hard work of a small community of addon authors, often without considering how we can give back. Whether you're using a few must-have raiding mods, or you've completely changed the default UI to something more to your liking, your fifteen clams a month don't actually help support the men and women working in the addon community.

The goal here isn't to make you feel guilty, but rather invite you into a more active role in creating and evolving the third-party software we call "addons". Many of you may not possess the requisite coding skills to write your own, but based on Mike's recent Breakfast Topic on addon requests and recommendations, many of you have the ability to communicate new ideas and suggestions about how to improve mods or even for new ones. So let's take a look at some ways you can help addon developers in practicing their craft.

Jump in after the break for some ideas.

Continue reading Helping addon developers help you

Breakfast Topic: The secret lives of Blizzard employees

Tom "Kalgan" Chilton, in his interview we posted yesterday, said that one of Blizzard's class designers was the guild leader of one of the world's best known PvP guilds, but he wants to keep him anonymous. Wait, what?

Chilton meant that Blizzard has solid ties into the community, but should it worry us at all that those ties might be a little too close-knit? We already know that Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan has major ties to a guild in the game (he was actually hired by Blizzard from his Everquest raiding guild), and quest designer Alex "Furor" Afrasiabi also comes from a guild that is still active in World of Warcraft. In fact, we've already seen Blizzard get in trouble by their own admission for treating the devs' guilds differently -- is it right for them to keep their guild associations anonymous?

On the one hand, obviously it's much easier to keep the developers' ingame identities anonymous, otherwise they wouldn't be able to play the game at all without getting approached with questions and complaints every time they log on. But on the other hand, not only is there the potential for favoritism in terms of game design, but what if the PvP guild mentioned in the article was one that won an eSports or the Arena realm tournament? Is it right for Blizzard's developers to keep their guild associations anonymous?

Breakfast Topic: If you could change one thing...

In this case, the title says it all. I don't think I know a single player who doesn't at least occasionally think themselves smarter than the game's development team, so I ask you this: if you could change one aspect of World of Warcraft, what would it be? Does the PvP system frustrate you? Is the endless reputation grind no fun? Is large-scale raiding not your thing? Is the game just right as it is?

If you were on Blizzard's development staff for a day, what would you change?

WoW Insider and Xfire at Blizzcon


You may not have realized this yet (I didn't until just now), but we are only a week and a half away from Blizzcon. On August 3 and 4 in Anaheim, CA, Blizzard will host its second huge convention, and WoW Insider will be there covering every second of it. From top to bottom, from start to end, from sign-in to close, we've got you covered. Whether you're going or not, we'll have exclusive interviews, tons of pictures and videos, and everything you need to know about Blizzard's premiere event.

And to make our coverage even better, we're teaming up with Xfire-- they're also going to be at Blizzcon, and they'll be hosting live online chats all weekend long, as well as posting their own Blizzcon coverage as well. Various WoW Insider staffers will show up on their service as well (for a few exclusive chats), and they're even planning to do a live chat directly with the Blizzard team.

Things are going to get crazy in the next week, and even crazier as the world of Azeroth heads to Anaheim. If you're coming to Blizzcon, we'll see you there, and even if not, stay tuned for the best Blizzcon coverage on the 'net. Blizzcon is almost upon us-- ready check!

Have Questions for the WoW Developers?

Well, World of Warcraft Stratics has been given the chance to interview the game's developers and is taking questions from you.  They will be selecting 15 of the best questions to forward on to the development team.  So if you have questions, here's a chance to get some answers.  The deadline for entry is May 7th, so you have a couple of weeks to consider.

WoW dev chat transcript available

Dev chat transcriptWarCry hosted a chat session with some of the WoW developers, and they've posted the logs online for all to see. The topics discussed include UI addons, spontaneous PvP, the Black Morass, Nefarion and -- of course -- the Burning Crusade expansion. If you didn't manage to make the session, check it out for an interesting read.

 


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