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Watcher: Proving Grounds and Heroic Dungeons In Warlords

by - 10 years ago

Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas hit the forums to clarify some colorfully mistranslated comments he made at the recent press event in Korea. Or, in his words:

To at least get everyone on the same page in terms of information, since a summary of a translated version of a translation of a few sentences in a single interview may not be the best foundation for a 24-page discussion, here’s an overview of our current thinking:

  • We will have Normal and Heroic versions of our max-level dungeons. (Note that we did not have Normal level 90 dungeons in Mists.)
  • There will be no special requirement other than basic level/ilvl requirements on queuing for Normal dungeons or LFR.
  • Level-up quest gear will get you into Normal dungeons/scenarios, and Normal dungeon/scenario gear will get you into LFR.
  • Heroic dungeons will be more challenging than the Normal version (not brutally difficult, mind you — just somewhat more demanding).
  • You will need a Silver Proving Grounds medal in a given role in order to queue for random matchmaking for a Heroic Warlords dungeon. If you form a premade group, you can zone in regardless and no such requirement applies.

How Watcher’s initial comments to this effect got translated into “Proving Grounds Silver will be required for LFR” I’m not entirely sure, but hey, it’s been a busy week in Crowland. He goes on to clarify the design history behind heroic dungeons and matchmaking, which is useful for putting the current decision into context. Additionally, he states that if Proving Grounds are going to be used as a gating mechanism (which is what this is, natch) then they are going to be more explicitly balanced to be of roughly similar difficulty for different classes and specs, which can’t be said of how they’re implemented currently.

With that in mind, allow me to offer a couple of PSAs to accompany Hazzikostas’ statements:

  • While the “our current thinking” line contributes to this, it can’t be overstated that all of this existing design is subject to change. We’re not even in the beta period yet, and Blizzard may decide that using Proving Grounds as a gating mechanism won’t work and may throw it out.
  • Given that this presents a substantial rework of existing Proving Grounds in order to function, one should not assume that PGs in Wod are going to be as challenging (or challenge-less) as they are for specific specs in MoP. Past is not prologue in this case.

Read the full text of Watcher’s post and then do two things: leave your thoughts in the official forums (so the CMs can chew on your delicious feedback) and also tell US what you think about it in the comments.


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


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