by Magistrate - 8 years ago     show comments

In our continuing detailed recap of World of Warcraft: Legion at BlizzCon, we look at lead class designer Kris Zierhut’s presentation on upcoming class changes. He discusses resource system changes, their goals for hundreds of new talents, and big changes for Discipline and Shadow Priests, Survival Hunters, Demonology Warlocks, and more.

Blizzard also wrote up some previews of the upcoming class changes, which we’ve covered: Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, Rogue, Priest, Death Knight, Mage, Shaman, Warlock, and Monk.

Class Redesign Goals

With other story-intensive features like Artifacts and Class Halls coming in Legion, now is the perfect time to re-evaluate each class and spec. Specifically, on how they show their respective fantasies through gameplay, animations, effects, and related components.

To “really deliver” on each class’s fantasy, the team focuses on three lenses: immersion, distinction, and empowerment.

Immersive Gameplay

The idea behind immersion isn’t to have you roleplaying in Wayfarer’s Rest or Goldshire. In terms of class design, the team wants “everything you do [to] contribute to [the class’s] fantasy.”

To illustrate this, Zierhut discusses some upcoming class changes to Demonology Warlocks, Guardian Druids, and Shadow Priests.

Probably the most hotly discussed, as soon as Demon Hunters were announced Demonology Warlocks knew something had to give. After all, it would be redundant to have two classes that use Metamorphosis to transform into demons. Although there are many Warlocks that might wish it otherwise (I include some close friends here), the Demon Hunter obviously wins out.

So what does this mean for the Demonology Warlock’s “fantasy?” For one, says Zierhut, it means returning to Warlocks’ roots in Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.

“Warlocks were about summoning demons, not turning into them,” Zierhut says. “[In Legion,] Demonology will have more new minions and types of minions to send out than ever before.”

Demonology will also focus on buffing and assisting their pets, much, as comes to mind, like Diablo II Necromancers or Diablo III Witch Doctors. For more on upcoming Warlock changes, see the preview.

Guardian Druids, Zierhut says, don’t have a problem with sharing their fantasy like the Demonologist. Instead, they have a strong fantasy as big, burly, immovable bears. However, in practice they don’t immerse players in that fantasy, instead focusing on avoidance and pocket heals and other weird things. For Legion, Guardians will receive changes like increased armor and health, as well as others, to develop this fantasy.

Last, Shadow Priests have always been sort of a DoT cousin of Affliction Warlocks, often struggling with the same identity crisis as Demonologists and Demon Hunters. For Legion, the team will bring together elements of the class like Vampire and Shadow abilities under the umbrella of Void magic through the Old Gods.

To that end, and to make their identity more specific to the Old God theme, Shadow Orbs are gone, replaced with Insanity and a revised Shadowform.

Insanity builds up as you cast spells, gradually darkening Shadowform and bringing out Void tentacles on the player. Once Insanity dings max, the player is transformed into Voidform, with access to empowered abilities. Voidform only lasts as long as your Insanity meter–as the meter drains, you can continue to build Insanity to maintain Voidform, but it won’t last forever, much like the fleeting power of the Old Gods.

Distinctive Gameplay

Arguably similar to the goals of immersion, distinction looks at how a class or spec is different from all others. Distinction is created through providing a major ability, theme, or gameplay style that is refreshing and new.

For illustration, Zierhut discusses changes to Survival Hunters, Discipline Priests, and Subtlety Rogues.

Survival’s changes have been one of the most interesting developments to come out of Legion. As shown in the Hunter preview, Survival has gone from a ranged spec with pets to a melee spec with a single companion, spear in hand, that goes “toe to toe” with the enemy.

This, Zierhut says, returns a playstyle to the class that hasn’t been seen since vanilla in 2004, although, he says, “is actually awesome” this time, with returning abilities like Harpoon, Raptor Strike, Lacerate, and Mongoose Strike.

Although somewhat less discussed, Rogues have many interesting changes coming with Legion. In addition to replacing the Combat spec with the Outlaw spec as seen in its preview, Subtlety is getting more subtle than ever.

To distinguish the spec better from its cousins, Subtlety will be the go-to stealth option, playing better into the fantasies of shadows and sneaking.

In addition to other changes, Shadowdance has been updated to a passive with a 20% chance per combo point to re-enter Stealth–one that can’t be broken by damage. This introduces gameplay that relies more solidly on Stealthing, sneaking between enemies, and executing openers, combos, and finishers.

Shadowstrike, a new ability, lets Subtlety Rogues teleport to a target anywhere on the battlefield and do “ambush-level damage as an opener.” The mobility is meant to let the class play more like a Ninja, quickly moving between targets as the battle progresses.

Additionally, some generic moves, like Honor among Thieves, will be replaced with more specific, spec-centric abilities.

Last but certainly not least, Discipline Priests are being redesigned to function as a new type of healer–one whose primary healing comes from dealing damage. Atonement is being revamped as a core mechanic, bringing out the fantasy of balancing between two arts–destroying enemies and healing friends.

Empowering Gameplay

Empowering gameplay means feeling in control, with the ability to accomplish what you set out to do, and letting you use the abilities you want to use when you want to use them.

Zierhut discusses empowerment as it relates to Death Knights, Fury Warriors, and Arcane Mages.

Death Knights, who have long been masters of rune magic, use a resource system that gates ability usage. Instead of three types of runes that “limit” what you can do, Legion will let players use one type of rune (with six charges) to use abilities how they choose. The idea, similar to Arcane Mages, being that players should focus more on the action in front of them than staring at UI elements.

Similar to Death Knights, Fury Warriors currently have to keep track of several buffs, as well as charges, to use many skills. In Legion, Whirlwind will AoE for several seconds after use so players won’t have to micromanage Meat Cleaver, and Raging Blow will no longer rely on charges.

Last, Arcane Mages suffered from an issue largely connected to their resource system, which was disguised as a red-outlined “buff” where debuffs normally show. Their reliance on not spending Mana to retain damage percentages meant that a wrong move or two could severely impact damage output for much of an encounter.

First, to increase visibility, Arcane Charges will now be shown like other class’s resource systems, underneath the health and Mana bars. Arcane Charges will also increase the damage of Arcane Blast.

Second, Mastery: Savant will replace the older one that essentially let you use only half of your Mana in a given fight. Savant doubles your Mana and no longer relies on the Mana-to-damage mechanic, freeing you to cast spells to your last Mana point without severely nerfing your damage.

Talents

In closing, Zierhut announced that the talent revision planned for Legion will be the biggest since Mists of Pandaria.

Each class will retain the same number of talent rows and columns, but there will be far more class-specific talents present on each tree, much like how Mages have different Bombs for each spec on their trees. Zierhut says this amounts to “hundreds” of new talents for Legion.

Additionally, talents will no longer be organized by theme rows, so your three big defensive talents won’t necessarily be exclusive. Personally, I’m unsure about this change–I feel like the required choice helped define my characters. But there are many cases where two or three options for mobility, defensive CDs, etc., didn’t really make sense for a spec or class, and with the new spec-specific talents, this may no longer be an issue.

That’s it for the class changes. To read more about your class’s changes in Legion, see our coverage of the class previews. Up next: professions in Legion–and trust me when I say that some of this stuff sounds amazing!