In the latest episode of WoW Source, lead encounter designer Ion Hazzikostas, lead class designer Kris Zierhut and senior game designer Brian Holinka discuss the upcoming player-vs-player and class changes for World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor.
Warlords of Draenor is the fifth expansion to the popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The new content takes players to Draenor, home of the orc and draenei races, in addition to raising the game's level cap and adding new content. Speaking about the game's PvP, Holinka explained that adjusting crowd control effects from the previous expansion was a "very high priority."
"There's a couple of big problems that we had in PvP [in Mists of Pandaria] that we really want to address," Holinka said. "Things that players complained a lot about."
Crowd control effects are many in number and can be hard to understand, Holinka said. To prevent players from reaching mental fatigue or frustration about being dosed with effects over and over, the team implemented a system of diminishing returns. This means that if players are hit continually with effects, the effectiveness will decrease. Crowd control is still necessary to the game to keep it interesting, Hazzikostas added.
Another aspect the team wanted to address is PvP gear, which will now have a second level that only activates in PvP. As soon as someone is attacked by a fellow player, whether in an instance or out questing, the item in question will bump to its PvP level.
The dev team also talks briefly about Ashran, an island zone that acts as a "PvP playground." The island will host different objectives and PvP battles for players to take part of, but still act as a place for exploration, Holinka said. Check out the video above for a look at the island's layout and more.
Announced at BlizzCon 2013, Warlords of Draenor is expected to launch this fall. The expansion entered alpha testing earlier this month.
