During the beta finale of WoW: Forever, we had the opportunity to talk with Blizzard developers Aidan Moon and Kris Zierhut about dungeons, raids and class balance.
This is the fourth part of our interview with Principal Designer Kris Zierhut and Senior Game Designer Aidan Moon before the launch of WoW: Forever. You can conveniently jump to the other parts via our table of contents. A concise summary of the key insights can be found on page 1.
MeinMMO: Time is running out, and I definitely want to discuss some other topics with you. The beta has, for example, shown how effective it is to enter a dungeon with all the quests. With over 30 dungeons, players who complete every dungeon with all quests gain massive experience points. Are you not concerned that leveling in the open world may lose its significance because of this?
Kris Zierhut: No, because the big dungeon quests require prior quest chains in the open world. For example, in the Halls of Thanen, the quest for the blue item requires completing a quest chain in Dun Morogh beforehand. It’s similar with the Defias quest chain in Westfall, which is needed to get the staff from Westfall in the Deadmines.
Additionally, we have reduced the experience points for killing mobs in dungeons and instead increased the quest reward XP to ensure that questing in the open world remains as essential as it has always been in Classic.
MeinMMO: A major advantage of Vanilla or Classic has always been the class-specific features, such as the class mounts of Paladins and Warlocks or the endgame quest chains of Hunters and Priests. But also the collaborative work on the Legendaries for the guild. Do you have any surprises planned for Forever in this area, without spoiling too much?
Kris Zierhut: We have already planned Legendaries for the first raid tiers. The very first legendary equipment piece will indeed require a massive, guild-wide effort to craft and benefit the entire group. Over time, we want to give each class and specialization a chance at a Legendary.
We are also introducing class-specific flavor quests, such as a moonlight quest for the druid’s cat form, a new quest chain for shamans to earn a weapon, and new paladin quests for undead paladins. We definitely want to bring more content of this kind.
MeinMMO: In the seasons, you experimented with offering different difficulty levels for endgame content but without the simple distinction between Normal and Heroic. I’m thinking here particularly of the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj. Is that off the table for Forever or do you want to try things in this area or even bring back some season variants?
Kris Zierhut: Initially, we want a uniform, clear base difficulty for everyone. However, we will early on include hidden bosses or special unlock conditions. We might look at mechanical hard modes like in Ulduar later on, once expectations have been set – but not at launch.
MeinMMO: You have just introduced the first raid content of Forever. Which version of Onyxia will we get? Some hope for the extended version from Season of Discovery.
Kris Zierhut: It is a Classic Plus version. It is largely the original Classic Onyxia, with a few minor surprises and bug fixes – her Deep Breath mechanic has been repaired so that she now uses it reliably, regardless of DoTs. The fight is designed more as an accessible 40-player guild fest rather than an ultra-hard encounter. Bring 39 friends and have fun, even though some characters are sure to die.
MeinMMO: What difficulty level can we expect from the two new raids – Depthgraves and Hyjal Summit?
Kris Zierhut: Slightly harder than Molten Core, closer to Blackwing Lair. The mechanics in the core are somewhat too simple by today’s standards. Our philosophy is that the encounters encourage thorough preparation: gathering raid buffs, packing consumables, resistance gear, and potions. Those who are well-prepared will succeed. Those who take it lightly may be caught by surprise.
Aidan’s final teleport takes us to Hyjal, the new endgame zone of WoW: Forever, which played an important role in Warcraft 3 and is playable in an alternate version during WoW: Cataclysm.
The mountain Hyjal is reachable in Forever through the previously blocked cave south of Winterhold, which leads into the Whispering Gorge and up the mountain. Halfway up lies the entrance to Depthgraves – the cave prison where Illidan was imprisoned for 10,000 years.
The raid area has multiple entrances across various zones, similar to Maraudon, leading to different locations. At the summit, players will encounter remaining forces of the Horde and Alliance from Warcraft 3 as well as the raid around the Wild King and countless demons camping up there.
MeinMMO: I prefer it here more than in the Cataclysm version of Hyjal. It really feels like Classic again.
Kris Zierhut: It is much wilder. The Cataclysm version focused on the Firelands. This here corresponds more to the original concept. And you cannot fly here; exploring Hyjal entirely on foot preserves the wild, original atmosphere.
More about WoW: Forever can also be found on the YouTube channel of MeinMMO:
Elemental Shamans get some love
MeinMMO: Unfortunately, time is almost over. There are still so many questions unanswered. Let’s briefly talk about the classes: How satisfied are you with the balance after the beta? Especially some of the hybrid specs have only been somewhat playable in original WoW. Do you have points on your list that you definitely want to address?
Kris Zierhut: In the beta, our focus was on class identity and gameplay feel, not on fine-tuning the numbers. Is a class fun to play? The tuning will follow only after the beta ends. For Elemental Shamans, for example, further adjustments are planned, while Warriors and rage generation already feel solid.
All 27 specs need to be competitive for raid spots, without one specialization becoming so overpowered that you have to bring them in large numbers. With hybrid classes, the versatility brings a moderate damage or performance penalty of about 5 to 10 percent – which is far fairer than the original Classic hybrid penalty.
But we are staying on it and keeping an eye on the statistics. What are people playing? Which classes are they bringing, which not? And then we keep working constantly to get all classes where we want them. So you can certainly expect many class changes in the first patches.
MeinMMO: In the podcast, you promised that my rogue will deliver top DPS!
Kris Zierhut: Rogues should definitely lead the damage meters in fights against a single target – that is their absolute core strength, as they have neither AoE nor healing or tank utility.
MeinMMO: Exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you for your time and these exciting insights. I wish you good luck for a smooth launch in November!
We unfortunately did not get to all questions in our tour through WoW: Forever, but we hope for a follow-up interview after the official launch. What do you think of the developers’ statements? What topics still leave you with the biggest question marks? Feel free to let us know in the comments!
WoW: Forever will be released on November 5th. Included: many old, revised, but also new Classic content. All important information about Blizzard’s official interpretation of Classic Plus can be found in our overview: Release, Roadmap, Beta – All important information about World of Warcraft: Forever
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