wow Windows Central Interview with Morgan Day: Covenant Balance, Switching, Renown Catch-Up

[Stan 5,046]

Windows Central talked to Morgan Day from the WoW dev team about balancing Covenants, classes, and more. Here are highlights of their interview.

Interview Highlights

• The devs feel like the biggest portion of player power will come from Soulbind Conduits, and they have a lot of balance tuning knobs that they can introduce with Conduits.
• They want you to have clear strengths and weaknesses with these systems, e.g., you're good at AoE pulls, but weaker when it comes to single-target fights.
• All elements that come from Covenants (Soulbinds, Conduits, Covenant Abilities) are all part of a larger package, so there must be some weaknesses that come from any of your choices.
• If you're not going to get invited to Mythic+ because of your choice, then that's something they must address.
• There is a max-level campaign, where you get unique content, based on the Covenant that you picked.
• In the Necrotic Wake dungeon, there's an automaton on the ground that you can interact with and repair. It grants your party buffs.
• They feel that Covenants are a holistic package that has plenty of interesting things to make you feel good about your choice.
• Blizzard is still working to come up with solutions for switching Covenants.
• Switching to a different Covenant if you regret your choice will not be taxing.
• There might be some tasks that you need to complete when you want to rejoin the same Covenant, but the Renown Level you had with them before leaving will be saved.
• Unlike Artifact/Azerite Power, Renown comes purely in levels; you will be given a level all in one go.
• Callings are a revolution of Emissaries and are strongly-themed after Covenants.
• There's a catch-up implemented for Renown; you'll receive it from Callings if you fall behind with Renown levels.
• They've received a lot of feedback on Grievous (affix) that makes bosses perhaps too hard sometimes, so they want to introduce some counterplay for the affix.

Don't forget to read the full interview here.

[Mugendai 48]

"They want you to have clear strengths and weaknesses with these systems, e.g., you're good at AoE pulls, but weaker when it comes to single-target fights."

 

And ONCE AGAIN they make it so you can't do raid and mythic+ with the same setup. And on top of that with a system they want to be more fixed and not easily switchable.

Thanks Blizzard for making annoying changes every single patch

[Whiterhino 31]

I hate having the choice between aoe and single target. I want to do good in both because i hit my rotation well not because i chose something i found more fun. Same with talents. Theyre supposed to be about choice, not situational. 

[Whisla 76]

7 hours ago, Mugendai said:

"They want you to have clear strengths and weaknesses with these systems, e.g., you're good at AoE pulls, but weaker when it comes to single-target fights."

 

And ONCE AGAIN they make it so you can't do raid and mythic+ with the same setup. And on top of that with a system they want to be more fixed and not easily switchable.

Thanks Blizzard for making annoying changes every single patch

I think thats kind of the point. Having a build thats just good at everything is boring. I like that you can change the soul binds pretty quick and easy so that part of the system I think is fine. The only issue I really have is with the cov ability being locked in. Its literally the only major flaw I see with the whole system. Those abilities do not look possible to properly balance

[Mugendai 48]

9 hours ago, Whisla said:

I think thats kind of the point. Having a build thats just good at everything is boring. I like that you can change the soul binds pretty quick and easy so that part of the system I think is fine. The only issue I really have is with the cov ability being locked in. Its literally the only major flaw I see with the whole system. Those abilities do not look possible to properly balance

I agree that the point is to have to make meaningfull choices when you make a build, if you need more AoE or single target damage. Even tho I think it's better to just change how you play, and your rotation, to be better in AoE or single target, instead of just having a build perfect for AoE where you have nothing more to do but then you'll suck at single target. Player skill is more important than just changing your talent IMO BUT

I don't agree that this is tied to a system where you can't change easily between dungeons because it's supposed to be more of a "permanent" change and is horribly annoying to change.

They should just make it like talents you can go to town and change, instead of this horrible system, and thank god they made it so they're not destructible

Edited July 23, 2020 by Mugendai