BlizzCon Day 1 - WoW Class Panel

Update: Class Panel Video - Dual Spec Feature added.

UI Panel detailed report will be soon online aswell.

The World of Warcraft Class Panel was the second major panel of the day, and included both Tom Chilton -- Lead Designer -- and Greg Street -- Lead Class Systems Designer.

Greg Street took the microphone for most of it, as he's become known as one of the more vocal developers on the Wrath of the Lich King beta forums under the nickname Ghostcrawler.  Now we know why:  Ghostcrawler is the Lead Class Systems Designer for World of Warcraft, and is one of the people responsible for many of the positive gameplay changes you're seeing in the expansion for classes.

From left to right:

Class Panel Video - Dual Spec feature:

Death Knight – Design Goals

•  Runes and Runic Power for energy

•  Tanking & DPS Roles

  • But no tanking, DPS or PvP trees

•  “Presences” to generate threat

•  Amazing start zone and faction

  • Talents, blues, mounts as quest rewards

  • Phased, progressing zone

• Runes as a resource

  • Class distinction is key

  • Runeblade is core to Death Knight lore

  • Infinite, but 3 different cooldowns to watch

• Many UI Iterations

Death Knight – Mechanics

•  The Evolution of Runes

  • Rune customization → Death Runes

  • Rotations → Runic Power

  • Random Diseases → Combo Points

•  Talent Trees, style not role

  • Blood, melee and healing

  • Frost, burst and control

  • Unholy, diseases and minions

Current Classes, Part I

•  Hunter

  • Pet overhaul: talent trees, training, stable slots

  • Clean up shot rotations

  • Disengage

  • Freezing Shot

•  Priest

  • Let Shadow do dps

  • Let Discipline heal a raid

  • Mind Sear; No racials

Current Classes, Part II

•  Mage

  • Frostfire Bolt

  • Mirror Image

  • 3 (or 4?) dps specs

•  Druid

  • Balance: real CC and dps; no more Oomkin

  • Resto: Nourish (Flash Heal) and Wild Growth (AE)

  • Feral: cat or bear or hybrid

Current Classes, Part III

•  Shaman

  • Totem consolidation

  • Lava Burst, Riptide

  • Hex

•  Rogue

  • AE: Fan of Knives

  • Valid Sap targets

  • Return of poisons

  • Return of the dagger

Current Classes, Part IV

•  Warrior

  • Protection: more toys, fewer mitigation talents

  • Arms: Overpower, Bladestorm, Sudden Death

  • Fury: Titan's Grip

•  Warlock

  • Pet diversity

  • More interesting rotations

  • Demonic Circle

  • Metamorphosis

Current Classes, Part V

•  Paladin

  • Seal and Judgement overhaul

  • Protection: needs to care about tank gear

  • Holy: needs heals for movement and groups

  • Retribution: needs dps, mana, and got Replenishment

Group Flexibility, Part I

•  30 specs but 25 raid slots

  • More viable specs and death knights, but no room

•  Buffs felt out of control

  • Complex, inconsistent, stacking problems

  • Curse of Shadows – gg mages

  • Bloodlust rotations

  • Jimmy can't come → No WF → Cancel the raid

Group Flexibility, Part II

•  Buff and debuff overhaul

  • Most buffs affect the whole raid

  • Multiple ways to get the same benefit

  • But no stacking

  • Plenty of room to bring who you want

  •  Bring the player, not the class

  • Everyone buffs, everyone does dps!

Group Flexibility, Part III

•  Downplay consumables

  • Potion cooldown, gg drums

•  Gear and Skill >> Buffs and Pots

•  Just bring good players

Group Flexibility, Part IV

•  More shared gear

  • e.g. Spell Power – healers might not need second gear sets

•  Four main tank classes

  • Overlap niches

  • Healing and coordination >> threat

•  Dual Specs are coming – more flexibility!

At this point the slides and explanation stopped, and the mic was turned over to fans who had a chance to ask questions about World of Warcraft's classes.  Here's a quick recap of some of the important things learned from the Q&A with Tom Chilton and Greg Street.

Q&A Session

• Making improvements to UI for gear swapping.

• Want to see Affliction back in raids.

• Infernals and Doomguards no longer break, can be used indoors, but have a set duration.

• Want to reinforce the idea that Warlocks have a bunch of demons they can bring.

• Feral mana concerns are being looked at.

• Mages are being brought back as a strong DPS class to get over the issue of only being a drink table and teleport.

• Looking to increase damage of Living Bomb, mechanics could potentially be fun. Arcane Barrage; a way to mix up rotations for the Arcane Mage.

• Not really looking to give Mages more mitigation, especially through Mana Shield type spells.

• Interested in removing the cooldown on Windfury Weapon; mechanics in place to encourage use of Flametongue on offhand.

• Don't think Retribution burst damage is way off in beta at the moment.

• Giving tanks just enough abilities to get the job done, but not feel the same as each other.

 Don't forget to visit the Curse BlizzCon 2008 page, where you can find links to coverage across the network on Curse.com, Arena Junkies, and World of Raids.

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