Ghostcrawler tells us this time about the statistics in the team. It raises the interesting situation in which they are seen when developing the loot tables of the bosses. Certainly, having so much loot available in a boss is quite exasperating because you end up having very little chance of being touched but, if in return they homogenize the attributes more, we would end up throwing many more people for each piece.
Ghostcrawler comments on the design point of view they want to pursue but nonetheless ask the community for feedback. How would you solve the team problem?
You can read the full article after the jump or in the Community Blog.
[blue author = »Ghostcrawler» source = »http://eu.battle.net/wow/es/blog/2129865#blog»]
"A Coffee with the Developers" is a blog that provides a glimpse into the ideas and discussions emerging within the World of Warcraft development team. In our first post, Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street laid out some ground rules:
- No promises are made on the "A Coffee with the Developers" blog.
- Don't read too much between the lines.
- Nothing to complain that the subject does not interest you.
Developers often talk a lot about the distribution of stats on gear. In Cataclysm, we've made some major changes to the stats that appear on armor and weapons, and we regularly review how things turned out.
One tip that comes up quite a bit, both internally and externally, is to make gear more specific to each talent spec. (The truth is that sometimes we get the impression that we have 30 different classes in the game). We could have bosses that drop mesh of intellect hitting the Elemental shaman. We could go back to the legitimate bear gear. There might only be one spec (or less if we're talking about the two spec system in a Feral tree) that would be interested in such loot.
The problem with this approach is that the boss loot tables would be very long. Let's say you're a Restoration shaman who won some chainmail gloves last Tuesday. If the boss had dropped his alternate model instead, those gloves might not have appeared. In this alternate universe, the boss dropped the Elemental gloves. There is a reason why there is the feeling that Argaloth, and others like him, are like slot machines: because they can drop so many objects, that the probability that the piece they drop will be the one you want is very low. This works on the Tol Barad boss because he's so easy to get to and we want to encourage players to go over and over again, week after week, so that most of them can benefit from the gear he drops. But it could be quite frustrating if all bosses were like Argaloth.
There is another option that we talk about sometimes, which is to make the equipment more universal. We could easily blend hit stats with spells and spirit for classes that are casters, just like we did with Elemental, Balance, and Shadows. Then only the cloth of intellect would exist, and would be wanted by everyone from Destruction to Discipline. Maybe you think it would be great, things would be less fragmented. But then think about how you would feel if you were one of those who wear cloth. In a 10-player gang, there may be three people rolling the dice for the same loot as you. In a band of 25 players, that number can double.
We could go even further. In a previous article I have discussed the fact that hit and proficiency are not very attractive statistics for tanks and that even if we made it difficult to maintain the threat, tanks would simply limit themselves to increasing survivability statistics and they would be frustrated to see that they lose agro. Since we did not change the Stamina or Armor on the tank equipment (except perhaps with jewels, slot perks, enchantments, and gems), this means that the tank stats are actually dodge, parry (except for druids) and mastery. It wouldn't be that difficult to convert, for example, haste to dodge and critical to parry. Plate stats are now Hit, Expertise, Critical, Haste, and Mastery (in addition to Strength and Stamina, which are always present in predictable proportions). Boom.
Plate Tanks now share the same equipment as Plate DPS. When plates are dropped all Death Knights, Warriors, and two of the three Paladin Specializations may want to get them. Is that a better world? Fewer things would be wasted, but there would also be more competition. You can feel less unique as an individual and things could start to look a lot alike when you go from playing as your Protection paladin to your Fury warrior. Although it is also true that moving to an alternative specialization would be easier because you would not need to carry a complete secondary equipment.
I've mentioned two of the three paladin specs above. That third specialization has been a thorn in our side for a long time. Paladins in general have a special talent for this. It's a joke. (Or not). I'm talking about Intellect Plates. We don't like Intellect Badges, but we haven't been able to come up with anything that could serve as an alternative. The options we hear about often have downsides that we don't like. Yes, a Holy paladin could wear mail ... so his silhouette would look very similar to that of a shaman rather than a paladin. Yes, Holy paladins could draw their spell power from force ... so they would start to strike with their weapons almost as much as Retribution paladins. Yes, we could turn all strength into spell power, and transform strike into spirit, and expertise into mastery or whatever. Conversion of spirit or hit might sneak in, but it's not very fancy or intuitive. I'm not sure we want to go any further on that design.
Unless we have a really compelling reason to change gear stats, we'll probably stick with the Cataclysm model in the near future. But we are interested in hearing your opinions. Would universal equipment make things more fun or less? Do you like to compete for items that a lot of people want to take away, like Deathbringer's will or even Cho'gall's shoulder items? Do you feel bad when tank plates come out long after the tanks have already been equipped, or do you feel good that you can leave them for the Retribution or Fury player for their secondary specialization? Would the druids wish they had real tank equipment? Are Protection warriors jealous of the Feral's equipment model? Is this one of those cases where the game would benefit from a simpler layout, even though it's a less fun layout? In this case there are no wrong answers, only complainers. It's a joke. (Or not).
Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street is the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft. Usually tank with a two-handed weapon. With a shaman. Boom.
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