The new expansion Wrath of the Lich King for WoW Classic will be released soon. MeinMMO spoke in advance with the two lead developers, and we received answers to questions about various design decisions.
Actually, Wrath Classic will be released on September 27, 2022, but the pre-patch can already be played now and causes a huge surge with queues in WoW Classic. Tens of thousands want to play again and prepare for the expansion.
Because the new class can already be played in advance. Death Knights are the first new class that WoW ever received. And those who play one even get a mount in modern WoW for free. For many players, these are sufficient reasons to play now.
To go into a bit more detail, we spoke with the lead software engineers Ana Resendez and Brian Burmingham, who jointly lead the development team for WoW Classic. The Classic version is often criticized as being just “reheated code”. The leads show that this is not the case.
In the interview, among other things, it is about why Death Knights are so much stronger than you, how elaborate the development actually is, and why important things like Wintergrasp are different than you remember from the past.
Watch the preparation trailer for WotLK Classic here:
“Every expansion brought new challenges”
MeinMMO: After working on Vanilla and The Burning Crusade, how difficult was it to recreate Wrath? After all, it was probably the most popular expansion ever.
Ana Resendez: “Every expansion the team has worked on has brought different challenges. And they were all exciting. First, there was this puzzle with Vanilla. Recreating World of Warcraft, this relic—everything was new, and we didn’t know exactly how we were supposed to do it. Or… the team didn’t know it; at that time, I wasn’t part of it. The team tried different approaches and came to a conclusion.
With TBC, we were able to draw lessons from the overhaul of Classic. But we had to keep in mind that the content in between has changed significantly. This is different for every version. Every time we worked on a new expansion, new challenges arose.
With that in mind, from the design point of view, when Classic came out, we tried to stay as true to the original as possible, with only a few changes like layers. But over time, we saw that the community has evolved over the years. Some of the same people are still playing, but it is a different era. We had to consider that, but at the same time, we wanted to maintain the spirit of Classic and Wrath of the Lich King.
We want you to log in and say: ‘I remember that! I remember when I was here! I remember the feeling of playing Wrath of the Lich King!’ That’s what we wanted to keep.”
MeinMMO: The “Rushing Journeys” buff feels really good. I love leveling in Classic, and the buff feels like leveling has always been meant to be. What are the chances you’ll keep the buff so that new players can catch up faster?
Brian Burmingham: “We have always been clear: If you give players an advantage, they get used to it the longer they have it, and they don’t want it to disappear again. And we wanted to ensure that we communicate a planned end as far in advance as possible.
So yes, at launch on September 26, when you go to Northrend, the buff will disappear. This is partly because we want everyone to experience the game as it was originally intended. But also so that we can understand how this interacts with heirlooms.
Heirlooms are not in the game yet, but they will be with Wrath of the Lich King. We want to ensure that it doesn’t go too fast before we can actually see the impact of it all.
We are open to looking at future possibilities. The best thing about the buff right now is that everyone is pulled into the same activities. There are new players trying the game, and with the new players, some might want to level their twinks. A buff that encourages these activities feels like a good way to bring those players together. The world feels more alive.”
For reference: Heirlooms in WotLK provided a big XP bonus. The XP bonus was removed only in 2020.
LFG and Dungeon Finder: “We want to encourage people to open up for groups”
MeinMMO: You mentioned ‘small changes’ earlier. Instead of the Dungeon Finder, you now have an LFG tool like no other in Wrath Classic that we’ve ever seen in WoW. Why didn’t you just take the tool from retail?
Ana Resendez: “That’s a good question. Brian can tell you more about the design philosophy of Wrath, but I can explain a bit about the LFG tool. The tool is a project the team worked on because we didn’t want to have the Random Dungeon Finder in the game initially.
We talked to the people working on Shadowlands and Dragonflight. We worked with them, drew inspiration, and also partially used the technologies of their tool to build the LFG tool that you see in Classic now.”
Brian Burmingham: “What we really liked about the Burning Crusade version of the tool was the ability to simply list yourself passively. To say: ‘I’m interested in a group but don’t want to actively search for one right now.’ So I can register as looking while continuing to level.
With the new tool, you can list yourself as an individual or as a group, and you can see people you can choose from. Or, if you want to put in the effort, you can actively look for people.
We hope that this encourages people to open up for group participation instead of constantly having to actively search for groups or members.”
MeinMMO: The pre-event and especially the LFG tool had some bugs. How are you ensuring that WotLK launches smoothly?
Brian Burmingham: “Yes, there were some issues, such as a bug that always listed you as a tank. I believe people were marked as tanks whenever they logged out.
That also has to do with the fact that you can select your default role in talents. Some people didn’t know that you should do that on the talent page. But we are working on that and want to ensure more visibility and understanding of these features.”
The new LFG tool from WotLK caused trouble among players, partly due to bugs and partly because it indirectly floods the chat.
PvP in WotLK: “Both factions can control Wintergrasp”
MeinMMO: Given the player data you have, how important is PvP in Classic?
Ana Resendez: “The team welcomes everyone from the diverse pool of players that World of Warcraft has. The unique thing about the game is that it brings players with such diverse interests together. For the Classic team, PvP is indeed very important.
We had various approaches and are constantly observing how different aspects of PvP look, from the honor players receive to the biggest change we made: removing arena teams from Wrath of the Lich King.
Wrath had the system back then, and we are removing the teams. […] Based on community discussions and our data, we realized that players want more freedom to play with certain people.
That’s why we looked at where it makes sense to be more modern in the sense of: We are in 2022 and have learned things along the way. For now, we want players to sign up for arenas and have the ability to try out different compositions. They shouldn’t feel like they have to stay in one team for the entire season, even though they may want to play with friends.”
MeinMMO: To dive a bit deeper: What impact will the new Wintergrasp have?
Brian Burmingham: “Wintergrasp was a cool challenge and one of the things that concerned us a lot at the beginning. Wintergrasp was supposed to be this open PvP zone where one faction controls it for 3 hours. So how can we maintain that feeling of conquering the zone and gaining access to its resources across different layers?
That’s why we decided to implement a system that opens different instances for region-wide play but can also accommodate a large number of players. More than an entire raid—currently, we are planning 3 raid sizes on each side.
So we have 100 players on each side fighting against each other, and when you win and return to your realm, you grant the entire faction on your server access to Wintergrasp and its resources.
So it still feels like you have attacked and won Wintergrasp. But with the new phasing technology, both factions can control the fortress and only see their own faction there and gain access to Archavon’s Chamber.[…]
But it also preserves the feeling of Wintergrasp being a target that you have to achieve with the other players from your realm. We think that this is now also possible for people from the smaller faction and across layers.”
Not only is Wintergrasp returning, but also the legendary cinematic Gate of Wrath:
MeinMMO: Just to clarify, if 2 people from different factions conquer Wintergrasp on the same server, could I just switch layers and enter the fortress?
Brian Burmingham: “You do not need to switch. You just go to the fortress, and on all layers of the realm, you will be phased so that you only see people from your faction. And the players from the other faction only see their people.
But in the rest of Wintergrasp, where you might farm elementals or ores, you will have PvP battles because both sides technically control the area and are fighting for the resources. So more PvP happens there.
I think there are special dungeon rewards for your faction in case someone from your faction has won Wintergrasp on your realm.”
MeinMMO: So as long as I have somewhat active PvP players on my realm in my faction, I basically always have access to Wintergrasp and Archavon’s Chamber?
Ana Resendez: “As long as they win, yes.”
Brian Birmingham: “There is still a match every 3 hours. We drew inspiration from the original design. Back then, each realm had its own timer. After the victory, the next battle starts 3 hours later, which you always had to watch out for.
Now we have a schedule. Every 3 hours on the hour, the battle starts, and you have 30 minutes to sign up for Wintergrasp. If you get in and win, your faction will control the fortress with all the benefits until the next battle.”
MeinMMO: Is there a chance that you will remove the requirement to dismount when flying over Wintergrasp? Back then, you would get a warning and be thrown from your mount to parachute down. Is that still the case?
Brian Birmingham: “I don’t really remember how it was back then. Do you remember, Ana?”
Ana Resendez: “We do not want you to be thrown from your mount anymore. The original reason was that the battle took place in the actual zone. Since that is no longer the case, there is no reason [for dismounting].
But if you fly to Wintergrasp while queues are starting, which is every 3 hours, you will be asked if you want to participate. If you say no, you stay in the zone, but there is no longer that decision to have to participate in the battle. […]”
Brian Birmingham: “I completely forgot that you used to be dropped with a parachute. I still remember that you were automatically asked if you wanted to participate, as we kept that. But I totally forgot about the parachute thing, simply because it is no longer necessary, as you already said.”
MeinMMO: So that doesn’t happen anymore?
Brian Birmingham: “As far as I know, no.”
MeinMMO: A great change!
TBC as a Season of Mastery: “That’s not off the table”
MeinMMO: Why did you decide against a Season of Mastery for TBC?
Brian Birmingham: “I wouldn’t say we decided against it. We are still deciding what the next season will be. The Season of Mastery was always meant to be our first attempt at seeing what a seasonal World of Warcraft could look like.
We are excited about how that went, but we also learned some things from it. As [the season] slowly comes to an end—Naxxramas is still live—we are discussing when we will move the transfers away from these servers for people who want to keep their characters.
We are looking at what future seasons should look like. Are there other options we can explore? So it is nothing that is completely off the table. We just don’t know yet what the next season should be.”
MeinMMO: So there could also be a Wrath season, hypothetically?
Brian Burmingham: “Hypothetically, yes. But I don’t want to promise anything that we have not yet decided. We are still figuring out what we want to do with a seasonal World of Warcraft.”
MeinMMO: A little about the future of the game: When Classic first released, there were thoughts about paths that WoW never took. Something like Classic+ or completely different expansions. What do you think about that in relation to what comes after Wrath?
Brian Burmingham: “We want to explore this mainly with the community and find out where their interests lie. We all know what happened after Wrath, but WotLK is our current focus. Ensuring that raid content looks right.
And this gives us plenty of time to talk with the community about what else they want to see. This also ties into the seasons question. In seasons, we can explore a little bit of what didn’t happen in original WoW. In the season of mastery, we could try out new raid mechanics and such. Many people enjoyed that.
[…] At the same time, there will be some changes to Wrath, but we want to make sure that it feels like the original Wrath of the Lich King, even if there are changes to appeal to modern players. There, we want to strike a balance between recreating the experience you remember and love and ensuring it feels appropriate for today’s time.”
World of Warcraft is “a huge team effort”
MeinMMO: What does it actually cost to operate two MMORPGs at the same time? Like Classic and Retail?
Brian Burmingham: “EVERYTHING! [he laughs] It’s a challenge, but one for many people. There are many distractions. The live team has to juggle different products in their minds. […] They need to remember that Classic works differently and has certain rules. […]
So it’s mostly a personal, cognitive ‘cost factor,’ I would say. We all have to pay attention to what the differences between the games are, ensuring that how we work on our version of WoW does not destroy the other version of WoW.
They share a lot of resources, a lot of code, and people who support them. We want to ensure that we’re all pulling in the same direction.”
Ana Resendez: “At the same time, to interject here briefly, we make an effort to share as much code and technology as we can to not fracture the minds of people. Sometimes we get things ‘for free.’
Our team develops something, and the retail team can just use it like that—or the other way around. That’s a good way for the teams to work together, and we can benefit from each other. And from a player’s perspective, you only need one subscription to play both.”
Brian Burmingham: “I also really like this promo we’re currently running. If you level a Death Knight in WotLK, you get a mount in modern WoW. It looks really cool. It’s nice to be able to connect such opportunities.”
This is the dragon in question:
MeinMMO: How many people do you actually need to keep both games running?
Brian Burmingham: “Oh. I don’t want to talk about exact numbers right now, but we do want to hire more people and are always looking for talent. That’s one of the things we want to ensure that we have people who are fully committed to these products while also supporting this shared structure.
It’s a huge team effort. The World of Warcraft team is responsible for all of World of Warcraft. Ana and I are just the leads of the Classic team, but we work closely with the rest of the team.”
Death Knights are really strong: “That’s somewhat by design”
MeinMMO: You just talked about subscriptions. Are there people who only subscribe for Classic?
Brian Burmingham: “That’s possible. But they always have the choice. There are people whose focus is to play Classic and people who are playing modern World of Warcraft. But there is always the option to switch back and forth.
It’s tricky to say: ‘Oh, these people only play Classic.’ Everyone has the version of the game they spend the most time in. But exclusively, that’s hard to say for sure.”
MeinMMO: I would like to return to the price, even though that is an uncomfortable question. The price of the Epic Edition was quite controversial. How does it actually break down?
Brian Burmingham: “I’m not really the person who can answer that for you. My focus is on development, and that applies to Ana as well.”
The Epic Edition of WotLK Classic costs 80 Euros and sparks heated discussions.
MeinMMO: Unfortunately. But then another question for both of you: Why is every Death Knight about 6.5 times stronger than me?
Brian Burmingham: “[laughs] I would guess we are currently looking at a balance for level 70. That was never taken into account when the Death Knight was created. One of the things we’ve discussed, which is very exciting about the Death Knight, is how overpowered it was at its release with Patch 3.0.
Over time, its power was somewhat restricted as people found new ways to combine their abilities and other things that the original developers hadn’t considered. But that was somewhat by design.
They knew it was a new class and asked players to take a leap of faith because they had to leave their old class behind to become a Death Knight. So they wanted it to also have an impact, be exciting and powerful. No one should think they made a mistake when playing the new class.
But by 3.3.5, the last patch of WotLK, the balance was significantly adjusted. […] The focus was on this content for level 80. And here at level 70, that is a change we decided on. Allowing players to create Death Knights during the pre-patch before they can go to Northrend, where level 70 is still the cap.
What if … Cataclysm wasn’t?
MeinMMO: A little thought experiment to conclude, which I have been thinking about for a while. How do you think WoW would look if Cataclysm never occurred?
Brian Burmingham: “[seriously] Rainbows and unicorns.”
MeinMMO: Looking at Diablo 3, I would be careful with that…
Brian Burmingham: “[laughs] I mean, no idea. It’s always an interesting thought experiment. Talking about how the world could be. And maybe we can explore that in the future. But right now, our focus is on discussing what happens when you confront the Lich King.”
MeinMMO: Then one last question: What do I have to do to get the Invincible’s Reins?
Brian Burmingham: “[seriously again] I think you have to defeat the Lich King and have real luck. That’s how it works, I’m very sure.”
MeinMMO: Well, for some reason, the item always goes to the hunter.
Brian Burmingham: “How you distribute the loot is up to you.”
MeinMMO: Too bad, I thought there was a secret trick.
Ana Resendez: “If there is one, I want to know it. I haven’t gotten it yet.”
Brian Burmingham: “Me neither.”
The mount is still popular today:
MeinMMO: Thank you for the answers!
Whether Cataclysm Classic comes or not, we don’t know yet. But first, WotLK is on the agenda – which most of you should still be familiar with. Because over 75% of the players here on MeinMMO who participated in our survey have been playing since WotLK or longer:
Most of you are true WoW veterans – you have been playing for ages
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