I interviewed Blizzard about Cataclysm Classic...

I got the honor of doing an interview with two main devs, Clayton Stone and Linny Cooke. I only had 30min to ask as many questions as was allowed! Hope you guys enjoy it and good luck in Cata. Let me know in the comments what you think!
Check out my Icy Veins guides, where I wrote all the Warlock guides. We also have all the Cata guides done for EVERY CLASS. www.icy-veins.com/cataclysm-c...
0:00 Intros
0:40 About the Raids/PreNerf/etc
5:24 About Phases
7:50 About class balancing
8:50 About Extra loot/valors/legendaries
12:10 Mythic + and Dungeon changes
13:27 Bad Luck protection for Archeology?
16:06 About PvP
17:04 What happens with our SoD characters?
19:55 MoP Classic
21:00 More communication about Cataclysm?!
22:35 Vibing with Devs.
27:45 Outro

[@CrixGuides]

Hope you guys enjoyed the interview! I tried to ask all that I was allowed to. For those complaining about the Post Nerf decision, I also wish it was Pre-nerf, but the right now on the Beta raid testing, the Post nerf shit is pretty rough. Even my guild wipes a shit ton on these bosses. But yeah I hope they make Firelands hard af

[@plac1197]

The fact that they aren't giving us bad luck protection in archaeology to get pre-raid bis before the raid launches is bull shit. They essentially said "get fucked nerds".

[@lasse4]

​@@plac1197 you rly want everyone to run around with archeology weps that were rare even in cata?, why tf would they give bad luck protection, thats some retail shit.

[@Lepatats]

@@lasse4 Nah man you don't get it, it's not about getting those weapons easily, it can be a very long grind and there's no problem with that. What people want is to know we are doing progress towards the objective, because right now it's simply playing a slot machine, with some guys getting their weapons at 20 solves and others loosing their sainity at +2000 solves and not a single epic (like me).

[@dennism6790]

I checked multiple bosses. Magmaw, Chimaeron and other all have the same HP as back then on 25 HC. Also, the mechanics we are getting are pre-nerf. For example: Chimaeron is doing 3x slime casts per 30 sec cycle. The Blast Wave cast on Nefarion is 1.5sec. So, what's nerfed? This is all based on some reddit post that only checked 10m normal magmaw health. We might not be getting Week 1 release versions from back then, but this version of the bosses is pretty much what private servers have been using for as far as I have checked.

[@xxbrutal1ty94]

I hate that they doing it post nerf. I never got a chance to play cata so I was looking forward to hc shit. They want nerfed raids but don't wanna up drop rates? Weirdos

[@rhynory]

I literally cannot believe they just said that there are people out there that like to dig for 100+ hours. Insanely out of touch devs.

[@col.hanslanda2013]

My guildies swear how they are insanely fun for them. People act tough and stupid. It's Blizzard's role to not believe their bullshit.

[@ZeRO65432]

Typical Blizzard stuff, they take decisions based on exceptions just to be able to please everyone and their cat.

[@dylanwright6632]

if you dont like to dig, then don't.

[@morgaine2501]

people that got your weapon early like it

[@williamferguson1817]

Believe it or not these people do exist. I’m sure as fuck not one of them but a few of my guildies love that shit

[@bachstrad1994]

They actually think we want to be digging all day. Nobody enjoys digging all day, Clayton.

[@CrixGuides]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@ehuglen]

if there is anyone that actually enjoys grinding hours of digging (barring those people who got their epics immediately) they are an extremely quiet minority. this shit is just not fun, which is the whole point, and i haven't heard a single person say "oh this is actually kinda fun"

[@andromidius]

@@ehuglen It had a chill vibe to it for the first few hours. But the honeymoon is over now.

[@himboslice_]

I have a bunch of guildmates who just got a bot for archa lmao

[@Lepatats]

Exactly, nobody likes this grind because it's NOT FUN, and there is no actual progress to the objective so it can't be even called a "grind", it's more like playing a slot machine.

[@fattymcgirthy9829]

Thanks Crix you did a great job. I'm disappointed how many of your questions were met with "we need to discuss further with the team". Launch is in 6 days for crying out loud

[@andromidius]

Translation: "We aren't on the actual dev team and are just here for PR with a talking sheet, and that question isn't on here."

[@wormy3811]

Yeah talking through their arseholes huh, clueless dweebs and I'm usually very leniant with devs

[@wormy3811]

​@@andromidius I personally thought this was the madigras myself, I hear you though

[@williamrothwell2898]

Somehow this interview has given me even less faith in blizz. Bad take after bad take. Raid difficulty, raid loot, archeology potentially fixxed long after it become irrelevant.

[@Alexensualtv]

this is probably the best proof yet that the classic team is being run by interns.. good interview

[@matthuckleberry5238]

Alex no one likes you

[@matthuckleberry5238]

alex no one likes you

[@kristianszabo6666]

I see your point about archaeology needing to be grindy, but like in an MMO game, players want to feel a sense of progress for each activity. Spending 100 hours digging without any visible rewards or indication of progress towards epic loot can be frustrating. It’s crucial to address design flaws like this to improve the player experience.

[@Lepatats]

That's exactly the point, it can't be even called a grind if there is no actual progress, we are playing a slot machine. If at least it was fun, like the process was playing dungeons, raids, or pvp content, then ok i get it, but digging its just not fun.

[@col.hanslanda2013]

It's optional reward that doesnt mess with the final objective.

[@twoinch]

@@col.hanslanda2013 Tell that to all the raiders who will get benched because they're missing a 5-15% damage increase.

[@Lepatats]

Devs completely out of touch with the player base. I can't believe they said there's people that enjoy this slot machine grind, digging is just NOT FUN and you're locking pre-raid BiS items with a bad designed system. Everybody is asking for a change, it's not like a divided opinion, only people that don't care are either casual players or people that got really lucky with their drop and have fun seeing other people suffering with this braindead grind. By the way you asked great questions Crix, its a shame most of the answers were "wait and see" "we don't know yet" "yea not for now but maybe".

[@genova3266]

I agree

[@AldousHuxle6662]

But you'll all be good little pay piggies and keep playing because you Addiction

[@Lepatats]

@@AldousHuxle6662 I mean if you consider trying to stay at a competitive level in the game that you like an "addiction", then sure mate.

[@AldousHuxle6662]

@@Lepatats this is why They'll never respect the player base because you'll always pay to be " Competitive"

[@Lepatats]

@@AldousHuxle6662 We pay the same amount as a person who is casual, i don't know what you on about man but let's just agree to disagree 😂

[@mcway360]

Do they know how arch works? She says it’s supposed to be gathering for everyone to get a “yellow dot feel”. Fishing actually has yellow dots and arch doesn’t until you go to a specified zone and click a spell in your spell book. You’d have to try pretty hard to “randomly” run across a dig site too (aka you’d probably never be in one if you weren’t trying). What does she mean keep THAT part alive? 15:44

[@AR15andGOD]

She doesn't know, she is a diversity hire with no history of playing

[@iriseteru]

No one enjoys the "grindy-ness" of Archaeology. The way the current system is implemented is beyond toxic. I have 1,300 total solves and NOT ONE of the 359 epic items. I've spent over 100 hours on this grind and have nothing to show for it. Please, please, please reconsider adding bad luck protection. The time is not "later, sometime in the middle of the raid tier". The time is NOW.

[@Phyllain]

If they dont add anything for ach before the raid any fix is pointless. Since there are only worthwhile rewards for phase 1.

[@evilmerc2039]

100%. They don't get the only reason a lot of people are doing this is to get pre-raid items that are only valid until raid comes out, they are so out of touch.

[@mr.anderson2257]

​@@evilmerc2039 They're boa and will be used for alts.

[@Nordic13]

Exactly, thats the main reason people really grind all these hours for it. Its replaced in the first heroics but since it's BoA its a must have for many ​@@mr.anderson2257

[@Maverick_v23]

@@mr.anderson2257 no way I am farming archaeology when cata is released. Too busy grinding Rep/Hc dungeons for main and first alt. I rather not waste another 100+ hours on a potential acc-bound item, when in these 100 hours i can get more sigificant upgrades on several slots.

[@helzing5114]

no fix for archeology until after launch 🤐🤐🤐

[@OreNoObentou]

I love digging for 14 days and seeing no epics, so fun!

[@Sammysapphira]

You don't have to

[@moklofoni9567]

​@@Sammysapphira how cool u felt when typing this?

[@Ronin779]

It was nice to see some clarifications but I very much dislike releasing the content post nerf. It feels like the decision was made for people playing SoD or Era to not filter them which is fair but it feels like those people won't play cata long term anyway. We would be playing it with at least soft nerf anyway because of final patch talents. Later comment about people being full bis also lacks self awareness "if everyone gets it, does that make it special", well... items would be special if they would come from somewhat difficult bosses. Pre nerf T11 is still miles from retail mythic raiding and they could always nerf it mid tier if needed, it doesn't work the other way around sadly. Let's hope for Firelands

[@irveria]

Yeah, they said "with the playerbase that we saw consuming our VARIOUS classic content". Tbh Vanilla and SoD players won't play Cata for long. Who cares that they enjoy easy content? And for easy content you can still do normal raids, imagine what they are in the game for. Let's be honest here. Post-nerf raids and bad luck protection for archaeology would mean that you would have to do something. Many features were cut because it would have meant work. Also, many features are not even ingame, without announcement why. Spell Acitvation overlay is completely missing. The guild interface is half-assed, with the last hotfix they even removed the dropdown menu which was part of the new guild interface in Cata (e.g. you could browse the professions of the guild members completely including recipes).

[@mirrodin14]

F. Digging, release us from this stupid chore

[@TeeRoyTV]

My biggest issue with archeology is the fact that you're not playing your character you hit survey and click the item over and over

[@JurpiTV]

No plan for bad luck protection for archeology.. It's so messed up because, they are basically saying the KPI for time played metric is up and they like that. They need to add a fix now, the profession becomes pretty much irrelevant once players step into raids.

[@Olerolin]

God no wonder we are fucked in cata....

[@mr.anderson2257]

Lol devs 100% not playing cata

[@XxGollumMW2xX]

Their answers regarding archaeology show a serious amount of disrespect for the time that we put in as players. For an accelerated expansion, serious raiders shouldn't be spending 100+ hours doing nothing but mindlessly work on a secondary profession to grind out a pre-bis item. This isn't even a mob farm. Flying around for some ridiculous low-weighted item (We don't even know the true weighted % chance btw) and they have the gall to say that some people like it, so it's fine. The potential adjustment after raid-release is a massive kick in the face to those who have put the time in and have yet to receive anything for that. Let them dig for themselves and decide after 2000 solves without the item they're looking for is rewarding. You can be the guy that *laughs in Staff-Acquisition after

[@riccidolan]

Imagine thinking you have to do grind out a pre raid bis item.

[@Trigzbunneh]

this whole grind is self imposed tho. you wanna be a "serious raider" then u gotta do it, you dont have to tho.

[@Asonde]

"There are people who enjoy the grindy-ness" Who are these people? One of the many bad takes that I heard in this interview. I appreciate that they are finally communicating however if they had done the communication sooner I'm sure the overwhelming opinion would have been that people *dont* want nerfed raid content, they *do* want bad luck protection for archeology, and they *do* want T12 to be significantly longer than T13.

[@andromidius]

I enjoy a grind. The problem is, I enjoy grinds with a visible end to work towards. A 1% chance that can come in a hour or never... isn't that.

[@The0riginator]

@@andromidius 1% good joke, even .5% is too high of a drop rate with the numbers we're pushing.

[@Frostshaitan]

Estimates seem to be around the 0.2-0.3% mark​@@andromidius

[@andromidius]

@@The0riginator Yeah, it was just a rough guestimate. Me and my friend have been terribly unlucky (she has a few epics due to grinding a lot more then me, I have nothing) - meanwhile a guildie has everything and hasn't done as much as I have. It hurts.

[@adrianolabusta6620]

the grind sucks they needed to fix the archaeology grind before ever releasing it look at the ratio of people who got everything in 5 mins to nothing in 200 hours and thousands of solves the cataclysm team obviously isnt focusing on anything important and is trying to blow through the content as fast as possible its horrible for the state of era as they obviously just want to roll through every expansion in like 3 years so they can get rid of this and just have people playing retail which will never happen retail is dogshit

[@Panzerkuh]

Ending every sentence in an upward inflection

[@samdonald741]

I feel like Clayton Stone doesnt actually play the game hes talking about

[@qlida4465]

When the weakaura that tracks the progress on archeology is named PAIN in caps, people don't enjoy it, it is something people do cause it is the best way to prep for Cata raids, ESPECIALLY for healers where the trinket will be best in slot for even firelands progression. It is absurd that they actually think that people enjoy solving the same gray item for 100+ hours. On top of that there is no guarantue to ever getting it, you can get 5000 solves without getting an item that could be considered mandatory for i.e. firelands progression.

[@yalksen]

This 100%. I don't even want it for free - it is ok to grind a little - but there HAS to be light in the tunnel. There is none right now. NONE.

[@Brejas03]

Having heroic raids be post-nerf is such a stupid decision Normal exists for a reason

[@CrixGuides]

I agree! Normal for the easy ones and Heroic for those of us that want to bash our face in

[@dennism6790]

it's not post nerf. The boss health values and mechanics are all pre-nerf. youtubers and redditors are just having a moment. Maybe it's not the week 1 release values like all the discussion was about back with Ulduar, but this is the version of the bosses that you see on private servers as well.

[@trunks41061]

I disagree. If they would bring post nerf and i had to grind that shit for weeks (ok 10man with 10 good ppl will work anyways) but imagine 25mans in a not nerfed Raid...are you guys smoking Crack?! Who tf wants hard content in that old ass Game. Go play completly unbalanced private Servers or Retail.

[@GenesisZerox]

@@dennism6790 Categorically wrong. Magmaw ate a mechanics nerf (Constructs dropping fire which prevents them being cleavable with the boss) as well as HP nerfs (145m down to 120m in the case of 25H). That's what is currently being tested on and this applies to several other bosses. The tests are being run on the Feb 2011 patch (4.0.6 I believe) alongside any other changes/bugfixes they did up to that point, on top of last patch class balance which changes the dynamic of how the raid is going to go. They can't possibly know if pre-nerf is doable or not because they aren't testing for it thus I think it its bit of copout for them to just take the easier approach for THEM to put up the easiest versions of the fights and justify it with general notions of "people enjoy stomping content" when talking directly about HEROIC content. As noted in other comments, N/H divides exists for a reason, and them trying to speed-run eroding that concept AGAIN just speaks more to the ill future of the classic projects (See Cata Pre-patch, SoD Bonfire, Rise of Turtle WoW).

[@tomsawyer7230]

the main reason has to be them just not wanting/being able to put the work in and come up with this excuse. They can still nerf it after and normalmode exists. Just ruins it for people that want to reexpierience cata.

[@markmichael6529]

The pause when you asked “what do you like about cataclysm” LOL

[@Medio2507]

What the hell Blizzard? If this is the caliber of people we got working on the game suddenly the shocking state of prepatch and the soon to be disastrous full launch makes a lot more sense. I wouldn't trust either of these 'devs' to watch my dogs for a weekend let alone any position of actual responsibility to paying customers. It's truly sad how far they've fallen.

[@DownsyMB]

The fact that they think prenerf dungeons and raids are too difficult for the average player is crazy. They have no idea of the difference between the average player now vs then.

[@rustyshackleford3316]

Yup. The bottom one looks exactly like I thought current blizzard devs look.

[@Medio2507]

@@rustyshackleford3316 Yea, if you've somehow managed to make it to adulthood still dressing yourself like a clown you can't really expect for anyone to take you seriously. Really hard to believe out of the thousands of applications they probably get a day this was most qualified person for the job.

[@Vraellko]

Guys COME ON! Who the hell wants to grind endlessly without ANY progress? Like what is this?! How can a GAME DESIGNER say such a thing! It destroys the whole meaning of MMORPG! It is all about the MEANINGFUL grind... Seriously disappointed by the answers towards archeology and also very disturbed by the view of pre-Nerf vs. post-nerf. It is a very lazy decision to make it post nerf immediately. You can ALWAYS NERF! But behind the scenes, it means you need to analyze data, listen to the community and sensitively nerf = WORK. At least you came out of the cave and gave us some insights. Thanks Crix, gonna continue to dig but I am gonna give it a few more hours and then fu*k it... Trinket would amazing for my discipline priest but "this is NOT the way"

[@MikeandWhit]

"We're open to LFR if the community wants it but not increasing chances at Archeology epics". Cool take guys.

[@Jonah0]

This makes a lot of sense. At least we can see what is running our games

[@foolipe1903]

Great interview, I just don't get the hesitation with rng protection on archaeology considering it'll only realistically be relevant until people start getting raid gear, so it's lifespan is limited to these few weeks... Rewarding people's effort instead of having a mindless and potentially endless grind should be a given no? Anything like a increased drop rate after a certain amount of solves to give it a visible progression; or a rare "old currency" that's found via digging that after saving up 10, 50 or whatever depending on drop rate, you'd be able to just get the item you wanted from some rp vendor. Anything really, just something. After how willing blizzard has been with fixing past game issues such as old bugs (ignite munching), pre-raid gearing in middle-late phases (alpha, beta, gamma dungeons and their currencies), even before that with world buffs (chronoboon) - this is where they draw the line? Just doesn't make sense to me, especially given improving the system to remove SOME of the RNG would encourage more players to do it.

[@fuckthatgimmedagat]

back to the mines, foolpipe! (love your mage contributions

[@EB-bl6cc]

this is why I haven't messed with archaelogy. You're doing hundreds of hours of work to (maaaybe) have a 359 that you'll likely replace in the first couple weeks of raiding. Terrible, terrible reward to time ratio

[@andromidius]

@@EB-bl6cc Its so class specific as well though. For Hunter there's literally nothing. For Mage its the second best item of the phase that you may still have in Firelands if you get unlucky with loot drops.

[@samdonald741]

"there are actually people who like this grindyness, of course there are those other people out there who are trying to prepare for the raid - so its a complex problem to solve keeping both sides happy". Dude doesnt seem to get that the ONLY reason people are doing this is to prep for the raid, maybe 1% of players are just out there looking for pets or vibing like says, yet hes making it out that its a 50/50 split

[@Dotblooded]

Crix - “What’s the thing you as a developer are most excited about?” Intern- “Uuuhhhh, ahhh, uuhhhh, all of these exciting changes, uuuugh, ummmm….”

[@ThatFoxGirl]

I can’t believe you’re dumb enough to actually think this. She was recalling exact quest names, and it was for a quest line that, as far as people who *actually* played through all of Cata, was fondly remembered by most. Of course it took her a moment to remember what it was called. I’m sure she could have avoided it and just said “The quest line leading from Silverpine into Hillsbrad”, but she didn’t, and what she did say I think is almost an indicator of her knowing more, not less.

[@ThatFoxGirl]

And before I get a million responses from people like “lol questing, what a casual”, if you haven’t done that questline, go do it. One of the best things in Cata was it’s questing, and it’s not the fault of everyone else that your grind to get to 85 as fast as possible means you missed out on what I would consider some of the best quest writing Blizzard has ever done. I raid heroic on Retail and Wrath, liking quests has nothing to do with being casual, get a life.

[@Ganon999]

Boy, they really decided to just totally make Cata feel like a burden to them. Rushed pre-patch, slow communication, post-nerf content, and mixed answers for logical changes to compensate the increased content cadence. I was super excited for Cata but my expectations have been diminished. I just hoped to see it get the same care and attention that TBC and Wotlk got, Cata could've been the perfect middle ground to bring the player base together from SoD and Retail.

[@andromidius]

Yep. Meanwhile SoD gets all the attention for months on end. Its quite insulting - SoD is effectively a side project that has a limited release, Cata is the gateway into the future of Classic. Priorities matter! If they botch Cataclysm its going to have a knock on effect for MoP, pretty much 100% confirm WoD is going to be not worth playing and then there's no playerbase for Legion and Classic ends.

[@evilmerc2039]

Really good interview Crix, good spread of questions, especially the one about communication dropping off a cliff since SOD. Bit disappointed with a lot of their answers, a lot was just no or we have no plans, but hopefully some of the "wait and see" aspects do get some attention.

[@CrixGuides]

Thank you!

[@genova3266]

Yea nice job @CrixGuides

[@Shlnigamii]

so here is the thing. Keep diging until raid release and then we do something about it.!!

[@ronaldfutcher7239]

Once cataclysm launches nobody will have 100 hours to grind archeology for a few 359 items.

[@VideaBoss]

1,6k solves later still digging for the Dwarf staff. The disrespect to the time of the player is pretty brutal. Even leaving the last fossil rare pet to be lvl 85 so you cannot fully solve fossil to get less fossil sites is baffling. Feels terrible to have 500+ fossil solves with 300+ of them having nothing left to unlock. I did not envision my entire pre patch being spent doing archaeology instead of leveling in the new zones and other new stuff.

[@yalksen]

This is so true.

[@FrexieFrex]

I dont think anyone enjoys grinding 100+ hours off archeology to prepare for the first raid tier

[@phaynt17]

All they gotta do for bad luck protecting for Archeology, is just use the Tablets/dwarf runes etc in game and turn them into some type of bad luck protecting instead of just solving 1g items faster. can make it like get x amount and u can unlock a random rare u havnt discovered yet. or like the Leggo Axe from Retail where you get items that drops from raid and just use em and they increase the drop chance for u on that character for the axe etc

[@sanmedina]

Thanks for showing integrity in this interview and pushing back when you thought was right, I understand you are risking a valuable business relation when you do that and I hope the viewers can see that you are making that sacrifice for all of us. Also thank you for not shutting down the discussion in the comments. You the realest

[@Dotblooded]

Homie couldn’t remember “conquest” when talking about currency, we’re screwed

[@johanjarvinen]

Nerfing the raid content is just such a let down. Everybody I know has been talking about looking forward to seeing the pre-nerf bosses. Is it so bad if some people need to run normal modes for a bit longer? Or nerf the hardest bosses later on when you actually know they're a problem, don't just use a decade old nerfs that might not at all be where the painpoints are with the current patch and strategies.

[@sewais2407]

a lot of people are going to quit, not "run normals for a bit longer"

[@johanjarvinen]

@@sewais2407 Those people aren't gonna be downing post-nerf heroics either way, so what's the point?

[@mathildahellblom1707]

You arent being responsive you are letting the dads ruin the fun for everyone else.

[@GIGACHADChadsmongold]

Well dads and casuals makes up most of the population of wow in general. Sweaties are now the minority since we all got careers, wives, and kids now and didn’t waste our lives away with wow. Maybe you should try doing the same. 😂😂😂

[@mijae1146]

That Crix guy is so gaddamn handsome

[@CrixGuides]

MY MANS. IDK about that, but I appreciate you. Hope you've been well

[@Icicleyo]

How is it that they always have $2 microphones from 1992? Its like listening to nails on chalkboard every time

[@cowbellsz7066]

Bad luck protection needed asap for arch! People on upwards of 1000 solves should not still be doing this grind ..

[@Knsy]

Can’t wait until Cataclysm devs go quiet when MoP drops just like Sod did. Recognise patterns early people.

[@shamshielder8853]

People/players love being out in the open world digging and seeing that little yellow blip on the map!...... The cat who came across the screen was more in touch with the player base.

[@enigmabis.]

they must change how fast you get the legendaries, otherwise theres only gonna be 1 staff per guild

[@mr.anderson2257]

That's fine! Too many trash ass players running around with val and smourne as it is

[@Preparation98]

Crazy to me that a company that makes so much money yet this team doesn't get the resources for internal testing periods, the way they're testing beta right now. The difference and end user with customer facing tools vs an internal tester with internal facing tools cant be understated here. I could be wrong maybe they do get testing time like that. the devs did a good job answering questions and it was a solid interview I just with they could give more perspective on talking points like that.

[@kevinrichter8977]

Yeah, grinding archaeology is not fun and doesn't feel rewarding at all.

[@totopunchertv]

i didnt hear if heroics raid are going to be available on raid release ??

[@chadgigadome]

Appreciate the interview. Huge slap in the face about Arch. For a first timers experience in Cata this is leaving a bad taste in my mouth and after all the negative feedback from the past it's not looking good...

[@J2911L]

Good interview amigo. Wont go into the whole archeology stuff, very strong opinions on that haha. Interested to know they're open to go into more difficult raid difficulty though

[@trevenyeager18]

Great interview, Crix! Solid questions. Thank you for asking about PvP. It felt like they were like 'Oh, shit... yeah... PvP... right...' The faster release going on, it felt like their answer about PvP was like 'I mean... no' when you asked about 'Are we going to acquire gear faster if the seasons are going to be significantly shorter?'. FeelsBadMan. The verbiage of "We don't have plans yet", "We'll look into that", "That's a good point, right now we don't have plans, but that doesn't mean we won't in the future!" Are good answers, but we all know what it means - "No." I hope they can figure things out. The game launches in 5 days and as of right now if you get Mind Controlled in a WSG, you get changed from the Alliance Team to the Horde Team... without being on the Horde Team either. It becomes a 3rd faction and you are rewarded no honor cause you're not on either team anymore. 5 days away from launch... Lord help us - I'm stoked for Cataclysm but this doesn't FEEL good right now. I'll stay positive - but if things aren't ready, PvP is on the backburner, and things are going to be rushed through... it just sucks being more excited for Cataclysm PvP than anything in Classic ever and... I don't know. Feels jipped out I guess :/

[@az9498]

Good interview Crix! Thank you for doing this.

[@hammerdance]

Amazing brother!! Good job on this.

[@mattsdehertogh6524]

should of asked them if they knew who the dragon was in their backgrounds because i have a feeling they dont

[@BeastAF]

THANKS FOR ASKING THE CONQUEST CAP QUESTION!

[@Maverick_v23]

really disappointing to hear their oppinion on bad luck protection for archa. grind to 450 and maybe some hours after that was ok, but now after 4 days full gametime just digging its just a slog. I can only motivate myself to do it, since there is nothing else to do at the moment. this changes with cata release on 20th. if the items don't dropp until then, i will not hunt them any further for sure. the effort-reward ratio is just off.

[@shoortey1338]

Sooo, actually what is the % of epics from archaeology?

[@iriseteru]

It's estimated somewhere between 0.2 - 0.3%, but we don't have an actual answer from Blizz.

[@yoshtheknife]

Correct estimate is 0.3% or 0.5% at the moment. I am leaning towards 0.3% myself.

[@iriseteru]

@@yoshtheknife it seems very, very unlikely it's 0.5% when people have over 1,000 in one race and no 359 item.

[@yoshtheknife]

@@iriseteru Completely unrelated but is that ur ff14 OC in your PP? Looks kinda cute ngl.

[@iriseteru]

@@yoshtheknife It's not my art, but it is a near-perfect representation of me and my husband's FF14 characters. Same main jobs and all. 😂

[@MrSiempreFresco]

Im actually not sure if they are laughing at us or something... We DO NOT love runnig around and digging 10+ hours a day. To put it simple: if u have the time and there's pre-bis gear involved, some players are gonna chase after it no matter what, so you are simply driving these guys nuts (including me). After the launch and with the raids being released in 10 days we wont have time anymore to dig, we will be on another grind.

[@decro3177]

Boy.. sure made playing any version of classic less appealing. Awesome questions, thanks for this. The very end with the insane silence was horrifying. lmao

[@Honzaj]

Really nicely done interview Crix! I'm just a little bit confused by the answers of the devs. It's not only about the "we don't know" answers, but I'm more concerned with the last part where they say "this cannot be played on modern WoW" (or if I understand correctly). But... all of the Cata content is available at Retail right? Like, it seems they haven't played the game at all and these last answers seems to be heavily scripted like they really "enjoy the game". Also, some microphones in corporate sphere for these kind of interviews would be nice, their quality is really bad, but thats not something YOU could somehow influence. Serously mate, great job, keep at it, you had the right questions :)

[@henrybustos6974]

Glad to hear the hint about future buff/bad luck protection on arch. I gave up on that shit after 20hr. It’s chill and kinda fun but gdam. Seeing people go 100+ hrs with fuq all, I can’t let myself fall into that kind of depression.

[@Mecton666]

Archaeology ruined my pre patch experience. Instead of leveling in the revamped world i digged for nothing because of bad rng ... They should remove the player power in this profession.

[@bingbay199]

Finally we get some answers on Cataclysm! Nice job Crix!

[@griffdk]

2030 solves. Surely soon

[@viagraisfornoobs]

Imagine losing out on a world first spot cause you didn't find your zin'rokh/staff. 😆Though I'm not a world first raider, I'm 1100 total solves with 440 trolls (tried 2nd character aswell sadge) only finding shield, while some guildies find em within 100-200 total solves. I get that life is unfair, but this is a god damn video game and people want to be competitive. So I would even accept needing to grind 1-1,5k or more, if it meant that I KNEW the weapon was coming on the next troll solve. Arch was pretty cool with so many in the world, but I can't help to sacrifice so much time trying to stay up to date with my friends so heroic raids will be much easier for us in a semi-casual guild. Please do something Blizzard so I can get back to my work IRL 😩

[@Marshe.Valias]

Grindiness going overboard is NOT FUN CONTENT. No one wants to do that for hours upon hours only to gain nothing, the epics are phase one equivalent. They sure like hearing things, but they sure don't listen to them. They also REALLY need to work on their communication, they've been absolute trash at it.

[@onisekai547]

nice interview! and surprise, surprise, we getting MoP classic xD

[@freetoplay-iw9fy]

Jesus .... They are so out of touch is absolutely insane....

[@I_BB]

What the hell is that creature?

[@guess_ill_fucking_die]

thats a magtheridon cosplay

[@druidinator923]

What the fuck, who are the players that enjoy archeology?? If you gonna add some bad luck protection for archeology DO IT NOW or never, because noone will do it after the raid releases. Its too late.

[@idah6773]

Actually awful, going to be breaking 2.5k solves today likely and still no sword or staff we don't want to be doing this. I would still be playing just doing things I actually enjoy like clearing old raids and stuff for appearances but i'm stuck digging.

[@robertj6523]

all i can say is 2.365 solves and no epics sad

[@nagybotond713]

I'd honestly like to see a graph showing how many players have actually got the arch epics vs how many did not (out of those who tried), 2k plus solves without either is extremely unlikely if you consider a 1% or even a 0.5% drop chance, very very unlucky. I'm just curious if it isn't just a "very loud minority" thing or do most ppl that put the effort in really just don't get anything.

[@vossvdb9551]

Realms faction balancing?

[@jonm8672]

After making a lvl 1 in cata and having played sod I’m of the opinion that cata would have made a great Sod 1-60 experience. It looks better it plays better and yep I’m one of the ones that just went from 80-85 back in the day and parked my toon an took a break after LK.

[@Doball9080]

As a fellow warlock main, I'm glad you brought up increased loot for Dragonwrath, haha.

[@chalo3427]

thank you for asking about MoP I hope they don't give up on it I'm sure a lot of people love MoP very much

[@CrixGuides]

I'd love MoP. I think it'd do great

[@Kamidake83]

My biggest question, does Garrosh still call Sylvannus a bitch?

[@Lego_91]

"Its a journy we build with the players". The Journy of endless digging :)

[@JAlvarez1104]

Honestly, one reason why so many more people are full BiS has at least something to do with the amount of split runs that people do now in guilds compared to originally.

[@cyboinc3583]

13:45 WE DONT DO IT CAUSE ITS FUN. I spend over 130 hours doing this shit next to my job for one single item which increases my performance in early raids dramatically, without getting it. Pretty much crafted every troll item 40x by now. Only people who would like this are the ones who have no real life anyway

[@Gatti333]

What are you excited about in Cata :D ? WoW Dev : That one level 20 quest :D ....despair

[@slumberingsam]

If people "enjoy the grindyness" then they can keep grinding nothing is stopping them... There should be some feeling of progression in the grind...

[@Mrxlongshot]

honestly this interview compared to the rest ive seen so far is really good, not a fan of their perception of digging being "fun" when you still need to use add ons to kinda find the spots. If they could add in a waytracker kind of tool for digging that like homing rod that just glows when you're close or just points in a direction (cough) tom tom (cough) it would just make doing it at least a bit better

[@natey2290]

"there are people who like the grindyness of being out there" (referring to arch bad luck protection) are those people with us in the room right now? im just wondering where these people are that ive never seen or heard of

[@MitchellWilliams-rd4wo]

No body likes archeology.

[@bradleybrown840]

BLUE HAIR. BLUE HAIR.

[@billypoker7822]

lol gotta be careful what you say here on that. lol

[@knaos]

I could say a lot but I will content myself with saying: what happened to the sound?

[@michaelb9099]

did they talk about why we cant transmog warglaives

[@mr.anderson2257]

Because they can't in retail either. Stop asking.

[@michaelb9099]

@@mr.anderson2257 retail has nothing to do with classic

[@fash0cs]

Amazing interview good answers

[@ezeess7239]

crix you should have asked why they skipped the prepatch event that many people were looking forward to. Or should have asked why they literally ignored even bringing it up at all

[@MrMittenshasatophat]

Post nerf dungeons/raids just killed my enthusiasm. I was planning on quitting WoW for good with Firelands but I was really hoping my final time in WoW (I quit retail in Cata) was with the prenerfs. But this will accelerate my leave. Man why can't these devs do anything right.

[@zeroresistance7203]

there's somethings i don't understand. 1. why are we allowed to transmog thunderfury but not warglaives? 2. why can't they give us, Precise information on how Low drop chance these aracheology items have. Because they are definetly not 0,5% as people say on forums. 3. when you complete a faction on aracheology. It spawn chance drops down by 50%. However, this should be 100% because there's no reason too continue doing a faction you completed. I personally don't mind The Grind but it feels GIGA Bad having to do 6 TROLL spawns in a row before i get a dwarf spawn.

[@Earpugs]

Buff honor gains and conquest gains!!!!!!!! Good job Crix