Developer Chat on Twitter [Updated with Info]

[Mania]

Straight from the WoW forums:

We will be holding our next developer chat on Twitter this Friday, April 16, at 5:00 p.m. PDT with two members of World of Warcraft's class design team. This chat session will focus on the recently released Cataclysm class previews that you can see here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... 0683&sid=1

Questions will be taken live through Twitter, so be sure to sign up for a Twitter account and follow @Warcraft (http://www.twitter.com/warcraft) in order to participate!

To submit a question for the developer chat, please tweet using the #BlizzChat hashtag between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. PST on April 16. Due to the character limitation on responses within Twitter, all answers will be posted on the World of Warcraft forums in a dedicated thread.

Link to the last developer chat: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... 4394&sid=1

Since this chat will be focusing on the class previews, I suggest that everyone who can break out the Twitter and ask the questions that really concern us about pet changes, like:

• What kind of pets will new level 1 hunters get? Can we keep them after we hit level 10?
• What's going to happen with exotic pets? Will they still be BM-only? Will they be better than other pets, and in what ways?
• Will the pet talent trees be staying as they are? Will families be assigned to trees as they are now?
• How many inactive pets are we talking about here? 5? 10? 100?

Oh yeah, and you can ask about other hunter stuff too, of course.

[Saturo]

I'll remember your questions Mania, but emphasis for me is changes to MM.
Lookin' forward to it.

[Mania]

The chat is getting close to starting. Developer responses will be posted in this thread: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... 08&sid=1#0

Feel free to post any interesting tidbits here for discussion. I'm going to try to keep up also, but my husband keeps bugging me.

[Mania]

Ooh, good question on mounts. I was curious about this.

Q: Do you intend to have all 280% flying mounts scale to 310% when a 310% mount is earned, or will only purchased mounts do so?
A: Our current plan, is that in Cataclysm, you can learn a new rank of flying that lets all flying mounts move at 310% (even current 280% mounts). That will probably be as fast as mounts will ever get. We don’t like it that when you get a 310% mount that you stop using your old ones.

[Mania]

New pets, but maybe not new pet families. Odd, I would have expected them to have made up their minds about this already.

Q. Will there be any new pet families added, or will we simply see more additions to existing ones?
A. We're not sure yet whether we’re adding new pet families or not. It’s possible. Expect to see some monkeys, foxes and other new pet possibilities though!

[Mania]

More on flying in Old Azeroth. That's a nice change, not having to buy another skill just to do what we can already do elsewhere.

Q: If 310% speed is becoming trainable, does that mean we'll be able to fly in Azeroth from the get-go?
A: We have considered the concept of “Old Weather Flying.” Just kidding. More than likely, you’ll just be able to fly from the beginning.

[Mania]

Ooh, camels!

Q: Where is my moose?
A: Well, we’re looking for a zone where moose would really fit. Unfortunately we did the perfect zone for them, Grizzly Hills, already. On the other hand, let’s just say we have a large, Egyptian-themed desert zone in Cataclysm….

[Mania]

And the chat is over. Well, there wasn't less news than normal ... And we do have one interesting response on potential pets, at least.

[Mania]

Whoops -- one more hunter thing that snuck in after the end of the chat:

Q: Does the Marksman mastery (Double Shot) work like the Wild Quiver talent (provide a free autoshot) or like the Lightning Overload talent (a free whatever spell you just cast)? In other words, can Double Shot fire a second Chimera Shot?
A: Double Shot is a half-strength autoshot. Wild Quiver will increase the damage of the autoshot to 60-70% (or something similar). Lightning Overload (the talent) will likewise increase the magnitude of the Elemental Overload mechanic.

[Bulletdance]

Hmm an Egyptian mount like a moose. It'd be fun to guess on that. A Sphinx maybe or some kind of jackal...hmm or a snake.

[Adam-Savage]

Q: If 310% speed is becoming trainable, does that mean we'll be able to fly in Azeroth from the get-go?
A: We have considered the concept of “Old Weather Flying.” Just kidding. More than likely, you’ll just be able to fly from the beginning.

I'm not sure if I read this correctly but what I got out of it is that we will continue to be able to use our flying mounts in Azeroth. If so.. That's epic. They would have to make the quest adjusted to flying mounts or it would just be way to easy to quest.

Thoughts ?

[Nimizar]

Hmm an Egyptian mount like a moose. It'd be fun to guess on that. A Sphinx maybe or some kind of jackal...hmm or a snake.

Mania already covered that one - camels would be at the top of the "Eqyptian themed beast that is kinda like a moose" list.

We can definitely expect plenty of snakes, crocolisks and cats in the zone as well.

[Akyo]

New pets, but maybe not new pet families. Odd, I would have expected them to have made up their minds about this already.

Q. Will there be any new pet families added, or will we simply see more additions to existing ones?
A. We're not sure yet whether we’re adding new pet families or not. It’s possible. Expect to see some monkeys, foxes and other new pet possibilities though!

gasp! does this mean that we actually get foxes!? 8O

[Bulletdance]

Hmm an Egyptian mount like a moose. It'd be fun to guess on that. A Sphinx maybe or some kind of jackal...hmm or a snake.

Mania already covered that one - camels would be at the top of the "Eqyptian themed beast that is kinda like a moose" list.

We can definitely expect plenty of snakes, crocolisks and cats in the zone as well.

Ahaha it seems so obvious now! Good thinking Mania

[Adam-Savage]

Ooh, good question on mounts. I was curious about this.

Q: Do you intend to have all 280% flying mounts scale to 310% when a 310% mount is earned, or will only purchased mounts do so?
A: Our current plan, is that in Cataclysm, you can learn a new rank of flying that lets all flying mounts move at 310% (even current 280% mounts). That will probably be as fast as mounts will ever get. We don’t like it that when you get a 310% mount that you stop using your old ones.

So if they are gonna make the flying mounts 310% then why bother with the holiday events to get a 310% mount ? It's like your getting ripped off.

[Mania]

So if they are gonna make the flying mounts 310% then why bother with the holiday events to get a 310% mount ? It's like your getting ripped off.

Well for me, I still want a bright purple proto-drake.

[Adam-Savage]

So if they are gonna make the flying mounts 310% then why bother with the holiday events to get a 310% mount ? It's like your getting ripped off.

Well for me, I still want a bright purple proto-drake.

I don't like the animation of the proto drakes. Thing is we don't know when the expansion will be out. I have to wait till brewestfest before I can get mine. I will keep doing the holiday stuff so I can atleast hopefully enjoy the speed boost before everyone else gets it. This will make the taxi's useless for most as I believe there speed is 310%. So for hunters and paladin's the 310% mounts will actually be faster then the taxi. It's funny how blizz said while back to no focus so much on the expansion and yet there just pumping out all this info about it lately. I can't wait till beta comes out. That's when floodgates of info will come.

[Nimizar]

It's funny how blizz said while back to no focus so much on the expansion and yet there just pumping out all this info about it lately. I can't wait till beta comes out. That's when floodgates of info will come.

I think Blizz learned a lot from the wotlk info website that popped up during the Wrath F&F alpha. The massive leaks that happened meant that they basically lost control of the way information about the expansion was presented for a while - most people were getting their news from the datamining and alpha forum leaks that were going on, and Blizzard weren't in a position to freely clarify misconceptions. Once the beta opened up, Blizzard were able to make things much clearer.

They postponed the Cataclysm information glut until after the Lich King had been available for a while (and downed on 25-heroic at least once, I believe) to help keep the focus on ICC and the pinnacle boss of the current expansion, but now that the beta is just around the corner, I imagine they wanted to release some of the major class mechanic changes before the datamining sites get a crack at the beta client downloads. This gives them better control of the message than would have been the case if they had just started right up with the closed beta.

[Mania]

I can definitely see that, and it's not a bad way to go about it at all. They're still going to have a minor fuss with data-mining once beta starts, just because players will have specific questions about the class changes that have been communicated and will freak out over spell descriptions and whatnot before they can play with them personally, but that would have happened anyway.

I just want the damned beta to start. I'm going crazy with curiosity. And since I was crazy to start with, that's not good at all.

[Rhyela]

This will make the taxi's useless for most as I believe there speed is 310%. So for hunters and paladin's the 310% mounts will actually be faster then the taxi.

Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty certain that taxis are 330% speed, paladins with Crusader's Aura (forgive me if I flubbed the name) fly at 320%, and the base flight speed of the super-fliers is 310%. So either way, whether you're a paladin or not, the fliers are still slower than taxis. The only difference is that you don't have to take the "scenic" route on your own flier (flyer?...whatever).