We at MeinMMO had the opportunity to conduct an interview with the Game Director of World of Warcraft. We spoke in detail about Patch 10.1 Embers of Neltharion.

Blizzard has already introduced the Patch 10.1 Embers of Neltharion and we took the opportunity to directly interview the Game Director Ion Hazzikostas. He answered our author Benedict Grothaus’s questions and addressed all (or at least most) pressing questions regarding the next chapter of World of Warcraft.

In the interview, we discuss the new raid, the overhaul of the gear system, and also about Mythic+ and the criticisms of the affixes. Have fun!

The Zaralek Caverns – the new content of Patch 10.1

Benedict from MeinMMO: Fyrakk mentions that he wants to use Aberrus and the fires surrounding it – but the Djaradin live there. Does that mean he is allying with the Djaradin?

Ion Hazzikostas: That’s a good question. I think there are some interesting things that can be discovered there. The Djaradin are definitely an important presence in Zaralek and historically, the Djaradin and dragons have certainly not been friends. But that is something we will see from our cunning adversaries – that they sometimes set aside their ideology and form alliances to achieve their goals.

That is part of the story we want to unfold – so what the three incarnations, especially Fyrakk, are doing down there.

Down there also live the Niffen. What can we expect from their glory path?

As you might already notice from their appearance, the [Niffen] are not necessarily ridiculous, but rather an amusing extension of the inhabitants of Azeroth. This is a case where we had the idea to go underground and wondered what a mole-like people would look like. Our artists created some concept art and we quickly fell in love with them – and off we went.

They have a variety of activities in the world connected to glory – treasure hunts, general events spread across the area, and also repeatable quests, but ultimately fully integrated into the environment of Zaralek.

Will there also be high-level gear? Or are the rewards rather cosmetic?

The approach we took to glory in the main part of the Dragonflight expansion … we want to continue it, of course updated for a new season and a new level of rewards.

We want glory paths not to feel like a chore for high-end players engaging in mythic raids or high Mythic+. However, we want there to be item progression for players who prefer to play in the open world – alongside cosmetic or useful rewards. Everyone wants new goals to work towards; in a glory path, crafting or high-level items could be part of that later in the path.

Will the other glory paths also be updated?

No, we do not plan to update the other glory paths. However, the rewards of some events and repeatable tasks in the original zones will be updated to remain relevant as the game progresses.

I think these glory paths have an abundance of cosmetic rewards and are important for crafting. We do not want to change them retroactively. When people enter the expansion later, it should not feel like they have to farm glory from the Tuskarr – it’s okay to move ahead and play the current content.

All raid difficulties opening simultaneously

Aberrus opens simultaneously on normal, heroic, and mythic, as did the Vault of the Incarnations. Are you satisfied with how that went? Is this now the new standard?

This is not necessarily the definitive standard for all raids in the future, but it is what we are doing this time as well. I think we want to vary a bit from how it was last time. We received a lot of reactions to it. For many guilds that are not quite at the forefront, it meant very little. It is definitely a better experience for people who also play Mythic+.

This oddity from the past, that first week of a season where a Mythic+7 or Mythic+8 was the highest reward obtainable – that was a weird state for the game. It’s not really intuitive for players. And when a dungeon-focused player asks: “Why is that?” Then the answer to that is: “Because of that other type of content, to keep it competitive” – that is not a truly satisfying answer.

Without question, there were a few issues balancing the Vault of the Incarnations and the first raid tier [of an expansion] on Mythic.

To be honest, our team doesn’t see it as a problem that there was not a full heroic week [for the raiders], but rather that one had to learn a lot from the player base regarding what was possible with the new talent system. Also, how much optimization was possible, with single-target focus or AoE focus, and so on.

Some of our numerical targets were simply wrong. Not necessarily for Mythic, but for the raid as a whole.

I do not expect it to be the same with Aberrus. We know very precisely what players can achieve on the live servers and what gear they will have. Yes, there are a few new trinkets and minor changes – but we can assess this much better this time.

We have also heard positive feedback from some heroic raid guilds, who were able to start on mythic in the first week. They defeated the raid, beat Raszageth after 4 or 5 days, and were then able to start the mythic raid during their last raid night before the reset, instead of having nothing to do for the rest of the week.

Giving players that freedom seems to be a better experience, than artificially stretching it.

We’ll see how it goes this time and what the community thinks – and we are also ready to continue developing it in the future.

Patch 10.0.7 is coming in a few days and is already gearing up the story:

While we’re talking about balance, there are currently some items that are essential – such as the bow for hunters or the staff for callers. How will you handle that?

In our Patch 10.0.7, which is coming in two weeks, we are reworking how this bow works so that it no longer scales with the attack speed of pets and is only a buff for the hunter itself. The bow will become weaker, but we will generally strengthen Beast Mastery hunters so that those with the bow see minimal change and hunters without the bow receive a nice buff.

Having these particular rare items is something that should continue to exist.

Over the years, whether it was a rare weapon drop from Ragnaros 15 years ago or something else, there have always been these exciting moments when you get it. I believe a world where such things do not exist is not that interesting.

Of course, we want to ensure that it’s not so much an outlier that you feel useless without these items. Where this is the case – as with the bow – we will change that at the start of the next tier. No one should feel that they have to go back to farm the Vault of the Incarnations in order to keep up when starting a new class.

Does this also apply to callers?

We currently have no specific plans for them, but we’re keeping an eye on Season 2. The bow was a particularly large outlier.

Will Fyrakk be the last boss of Aberrus?

No. The last boss of Aberrus will be Sarkareth. A Dracthyr, the leader of the Shardflame. Neltharion’s laboratory and Zaralek and Aberrus itself are all intertwined with the legacy of all kinds of dragons. The incarnations are drawn to it to learn the aspects and the secrets of their fallen brother, and of course the Dracthyr, both Emberthal and Sarkareth, are here to learn about their origin. In a sense, this is where they were created.

Therefore, Sarkareth will be the final boss of the raid, but there are also many other bosses there – we will have a blog about that soon, and then it will be up on the PTR.

So we’re not killing an ancient incarnation this time?

We are not killing an ancient incarnation now. We have to build a way to it. These are clearly major antagonists, but we’re not facing them in battle just yet.

Overhaul of Mythic+ – no new seasonal affix!

Mythic+ has received a lot of criticism in recent weeks. Are there plans to overhaul the entire affix system in Patch 10.1? Or would that be more something for the next expansion?

We have a few significant changes planned that we are currently looking at – planned for Season 2, i.e., the Embers of Neltharion. Here are a few things:

First: We will completely renew our dungeon pool … this will be the first time we have a season in an expansion with a brand new set of dungeons. We want to learn some lessons from season 1, particularly regarding the standard abilities.

As we look at the 4 Dragonflight dungeons that have not been in rotation, we are looking at the trash groups: How many abilities do they have? How much stuff on the ground do you need to dodge? How much is interruptible and how much is not? All these things.

We realize that many of the concerns are not just about the affixes, but also about the feeling that so much is happening at once that it becomes overwhelming.

We are also looking into camera issues and such, to ensure that the dungeons provide the best experience possible.

Separately, we are looking into whether seasonal affixes even make sense anymore and whether our focus might be better placed elsewhere, such as changing the other affixes more frequently.

The concept of a seasonal affix was introduced in Battle for Azeroth to address the issue of the stagnant dungeon pool. If we know that you’ll be running Freehold for the next 2 years, what can we do to make it feel different in month 8 than in month 14? And I believe the seasonal affixes have done a good job here. They changed how you approach the dungeon.

But now, with a brand new dungeon pool, the problem no longer exists. And seasonal affixes can bring more negativity than positivity.

As an example, we have the Vortex Pinnacle, which is returning in Season 2. If we have a seasonal affix, then players running higher keys would never experience this dungeon without that affix.

If the affix then makes it more frustrating for some specializations than for others, it pulls the entire season down for those specializations.

Instead, we want to introduce a few new affixes and update existing ones, especially the level 7 affixes. We will have that ready for testing soon. But we just want to have a few new affixes in the rotation that we can change regularly. No single one should be active 100% of the time, but if it goes well, we might aim for a model where every new season gets an update to the affix selection. A few affixes would then disappear temporarily and a few new ones would be added. That would be the level of change we want, instead of a seasonal affix that changes.

Are you also discussing “Tyrannical” and “Fortified” in this regard?

We are looking at them, but we currently have no plans to change them. We have adjusted them over the years, but the team feels there is value in having that simple “from week to week” change where you use combat frenzy or how the bosses scale, without adding much complexity compared to some other affixes.

“We need to be more active from the start”

Some of the dungeons in Season 1 and also already in Shadowlands were quite poorly balanced, especially the older dungeons. On one side the Shadowmoon Burial Grounds, on the other side the Jade Temple. What have you learned from the past seasons regarding this balancing?

We need to be more active from the start. With the launch of Dragonflight and the following holiday season … by the time we realized that Shadowmoon Burial Grounds was too easy, that the time limit was too forgiving compared to other dungeons … it just felt like it was already too far into the season [to change that]. Many had already completed high keys here, and had we retroactively made it harder, it would have been frustrating and unfair for players who had missed their chance.

But just as we actively work to make some of the “too hard” dungeons more accessible and to tone down special focuses, we also have to ensure not to miss the target at the other end. If there is an outlier dungeon that is so much easier than all the others, where people feel they can complete it at +2 or higher than the other dungeons, we need to intervene sooner. Otherwise, that is also disruptive.

If some keys feel “gifted,” then all others feel significantly less valuable. We want a very balanced mix of dungeons.

I really look forward to Freehold, Misty Depths, and Neltharion’s Lair – but why the hell are you bringing back the Vortex Pinnacle?

When looking at the dungeon pool, we consider the length, linearity, the layout of the dungeon, just a variety. We thought about Cataclysm because some of the original dragon and elemental themes come from there, and that felt like a good synergy [with Dragonflight].

It’s something the team agreed on as “a fun dungeon we should look at”.

Updating old dungeons, especially those that never had “Mythic+”, is an interesting experiment for everyone involved. Therefore, we are excited to see how it works when the dungeon is unlocked on the PTR and we get feedback to make further adjustments.

I believe this is the oldest dungeon we’ve reworked so far, and it’s important to get a feel for how that works and which other dungeons from that era we might still be able to use.

Old dungeons can come back – even the really, really old ones

In our last interview, you mentioned that it was unlikely for us to see dungeons older than Mists of Pandaria. Yet now we see a dungeon from Cataclysm. Is there a chance that we might see dungeons from The Burning Crusade?

Anything is possible. But the further we go back, also regarding the art and level of detail, as one must modernize the “look & feel” of the dungeon. Because… even if the gameplay is solid… if we ask players who come into the game in 2023 to spend a lot of time in an environment created 15 years ago that feels like it’s from a different era – that doesn’t present WoW in the best light.

But we are certainly open to doing that – definitely. We still have dozens of other dungeons to experiment with before we do that. But we know there are some fan favorites among the very old dungeons and we would welcome discussions about which dungeons from the old days fit best into the modern “Mythic+” – excluding the art and level of detail.

We are open to considering anything.

Cross-faction guilds are coming. Does that change how the Horde and Alliance can interact in the open world, such as questing together? Or is it focused more on social aspects?

It focuses on social aspects and is an expansion of the cross-faction system we already have and a response to player feedback. We are still trying to be cautious here and not completely eliminate the concept of Alliance and Horde and the narrative of the game world. But we want real-life friends and others to be able to unite and play together in a way that makes sense for them.

When cross-faction instances came out, we received a lot of feedback. Stories from people who had switched factions because they always wanted to play the other side, but then had no access to guild chat or other shared systems. This made it really impractical for them to play with that group.

We want to fix these issues but focus on people who already have some relationships [with the other faction].

This of course affects the Hall of Fame. We will merge the Hall of Fame into a single one and keep the system otherwise. But in a world where faction no longer matters in which guild you can be, there is no need to still make a distinction here.

The story of the dragonflights in the rest of Dragonflight

There have been hints that the blue dragonflight plays a bigger role in the next update. What will its role be?

I always try to avoid story spoilers in these discussions. We intentionally keep some of our story moments encrypted during testing. We prefer that to be a surprise and a shared discovery when people experience the new content and play the patch.

One of the really fun things about Dragonflight was, in any case, taking the time to dive into the lore, the stories, and the legacies of each dragonflight and the great characters. So far, we’ve seen a lot of the red and black [flights]. Now we are focusing a bit on the blue. And then there’s the bronze – with perhaps something happening later.

This is probably also a spoiler question, but are there any plans to bring back Malygos as a character?

That’s a good question. We’ve already experienced a few echoes in the past, like with Sindragosa. They have the ability to create a sort of simulacrum of themselves – so they can be a source of information, but it’s also cool for players to interact with a version of the lore of the dragons.

This is certainly something we could see for Malygos – as well as for some other well-known dragons we still need to encounter or who may no longer be alive.

And for the bronze flight, is there a chance that we’ll get more story about Nozdormu and Murozond?

Hazzikostas: We are getting there. I think you’ll see some of the seeds we’ve already planted over the course of Embers of Neltharion. The focus here is on Neltharion and the Black Dragonflight – who will lead them? But in the background, all these stories are advancing.

Will our choice of whom we supported – Furorion or Sabellian – have any impact?

It has an impact in your heart! You know who you prefer.

No, seriously: we want to keep these decisions “light” in the sense that they are there for the personal narrative. We do not want you to receive a very special reward or miss out on another because you chose one or the other.

But it was definitely interesting to observe the community discussions about the two.

The new content in the open world – is that intended for “Catch-Up” or is it better?

It’s a mix. It is meant to be catch-up and relevant, but I wouldn’t expect to get the best rewards from there. However, we also have new content taking place in the open world as Fyrakk rises and attacks various locations. That’s new content with new events, and it provides better rewards on the same level as all the other things from Season 2.

In the presentation, it was mentioned that there will be updates to existing systems, including the user interface. Can you reveal what’s coming?

We are continuing the evolution of the interface. I believe the updates to the user interface with the launch of Dragonflight were just the foundation that we can now build on. So we are looking at other frames and observing player feedback. Can we make more things accessible in edit mode? Can we improve the functions of the raid frames? We are looking at how group loot works and how it is displayed, to make it simple rather than entering /loot or using addons. Or also how special resources of certain classes and specializations need to be displayed better.

This is an ongoing project that the team will work on over several patches. In the meantime, it is especially driven by the community’s feedback. They tell us which areas most need improvement or which addons they’d prefer not to use [but would like integrated into WoW].

Item upgrades will be easier across the board

I think we are through with the questions. Is there anything else you want to focus on in the next patch?

Sure! I think one thing that will please players quite a bit: We are making some significant changes to our item upgrade system in Embers of Neltharion. We realized that we have many different systems that do similar things but slightly differently with different currencies. This can feel confusing. It can also feel strange that there are little nuances like: If you play Mythic+, it can be better to convert an item from this into a set item rather than getting the set piece directly from the raid.

We want to consolidate all PvE upgrade systems into a unified system. Valor is going away.

Instead, there will be a currency called “Flight Stones” which you get instead of Valor, but you also receive them from raids or from the open world. A mix of the Flight Stones and the “Shadowflame Crests” that indicate the tier you’re playing at – that is, for heroic raids up to this item level – will be used.

This universal currency system allows raid players and dungeon fans to upgrade their gear. You can get an item from the raid and upgrade it with dungeons, or vice versa, and this also applies to the open world.

We will soon release a detailed blog on this and believe that it is a clear “win” for players of all playstyles.

If you’re only doing dungeons and nothing else, not much is changing – it’s just a new name for the currency. But if you do anything else, it gives you the freedom and flexibility you didn’t have before.

Players often engage in various activities and we want the game to support that better.

One more question comes to mind: What about the professions? There are discussions that it might be a problem in the future if items exceed 418 – especially since you cannot redistribute knowledge points and catching up is difficult. How will that be countered?

We have plans to implement a new tier of reagents so that items can be raised to the level of Season 2. Players do not need to worry about going back to gather sparks or whatever – the new tier will make that directly possible.

We are still discussing things like “catch up” and how that should work – we want to ensure that players can still get into professions if they start a bit later. But we need to weigh that against players who have invested a lot of time and energy into professions to have an advantage.

I can’t provide details on that yet, but we’re keeping an eye on it.

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