The RIFT

Many thanks to Katabriof Tank Telara for helping out with this week’s notes!

Adam Gershowitz is our interview today, but the interview was done before the delay of Phase 2 of the World Event, so some mention will be made to the event going live on the original date.

These notes give a synopsis of the interview. To hear the full answers, please listen to our podcast!

[1:40] Can you give us an overview of what the objectives for class balance were before 1.1 went live?

Finish resolving issues from Beta 7, and then we looked at feedback from when the game went live. We had endgame feedback at this time, and we spent a lot of time adjusting and fine tuning based on that feedback.

[2:22] Has 1.1 succeeded in addressing that or did it raise some new issues that will be addressed in upcoming patches?

Every patch we do is always going to create something new that is going to have to be addressed later on down the line. As a whole, we are pretty happy with 1.1. We wanted to get left field builds back into more normal areas so that we can buff and improve other classes.

[3:42] Is there a way as a player that we could get a “to do” list of what’s going on in future patches, since patch notes let us know what’s already been done?

No.

[5:20] What exactly do you look at when you balance classes?

We want to have fun classes to play, and there a ton of different ways to play. We don’t balance for PvE or PvP. Sometimes we have to balance for a raid and we balance those JUST for those cases. Usually, if there is under-performing or over-performing in one area, it is usually an issue in both cases. Damage parses against practice dummies don’t really give a true overview of any problem in particular. We have to look at issues from 3 different views, the solo experience (target dummy works in this case), the small group situation and in the “OMG we have every buff imaginable” raid situation.

[8:20] Are you looking at the rogue?

There was a lot of outcry from the saboteur changes, but those changes are solid. But now we can see to the performance issues in the other rogue builds.

Warrior:

Pretty happy on this front. Not looking to make some dramatic changes, but we have seen the bugs with threat generation, and that is being addressed.

Mage:

Pretty happy with the changes, there is definitely a question on Pyromancer balance. We’ll be looking at the rest of the builds to bring them in line.

Cleric:

We want do do a number of things, Inquisitor and Cabalists will be looked at. Most of the shifts will be small.

[11:38] What spurred the recent changes in healing over all, and did 1.1 give you the desired result?

A lot of the healing changes were based on the fact that there was a lot of passive raid healing. People weren’t actually “mashing buttons” to get the desired result. It was just coming from secondary situation. In a group situation, it was ok. But we needed to make changes from the raid group perspective. We did watch this closely, and we are pretty happy.

[13:05] Since the patch, getting the corrupted souls to open a raid rift has become very time consuming. Is there anything going to be done about this, or is it working as intended?

This is something that we are addressing quickly. The things that were supposed to be dropping the souls, aren’t. We want to get this fixed, and then we’ll see how things play out.

[15:12] Why was the change made to the rift reward system, and how hard is it now to get the same rewards for the individual?

Well, the OMG fix the contribution system threads disappeared. Basically, we took out the competitive attribute from the reward tally. Most players won’t see much difference, but players who thought they were not getting rewarded enough should see some improvement.

[16:52] On to the World Event. After the 3rd phase, Telara will be forever changed, is that correct?

Phase one is timed, phase two is the world changer and will open up the raid, phase three is clean up.

[19:02] Is this the way new raid zones are going to be introduced in the future, with a big world event leading up to it?

We are a service. We want to give players new stuff to do, and that doesn’t mean just endgame raiders. We have a ton of things our designers want to do. New content should come out with a bang and not a whimper. We want all players to have something to do around all of our new content.

[20:39] Are Expert Dungeons really to hard?

We want the content to be accessible, but we don’t want them to be show up, mash buttons for 30 minutes, walk away with plaques. We need to walk the fine line between “are they just learning it” and “execution and precision.” And right now, we feel that people are still learning the encounters and there is an awful lot of learning curve still going on.

[22:17] Is the Looking For Dungeon Finder in the works?

I would expect you’ll hear more about it “soon.”

[22:29] Profession Plaques seem harder to find than a needle in a haystack, by the time people have the plaques, they no longer need the crafted item. How are you addressing this?

We never quite got as much crafting content as we wanted in at launch. With the next patch, hopefully we’ll have a number of new opportunities in place for people to get plaques. The crafted items can actually be made better than they appear by using the augments. We do want to make the plaques more obtainable.

[23:55] The dungeon plaques are easier to obtain, is it supposed to be faster than before patch?

Short answer: yes.

[26:20] Is there a plan for more items from the plaque vendor? Some of us have a lot of spare ones.

Save some, you need them to purchase raid gear. We are planning on expanding it, but we have no timeline on that right now.

[27:20]: Confirmation box for purchases?

We get asked almost daily for buy back. It is high on the list of things to do, but I can’t give you an ETA.

[28:00]: Why group PvE server clusters with PvP server clusters for Warfronts?

It came down to ensuring queue quality for everyone.

[29:30]: Why does the dye vendor keep going on vacation?

There was a bug that allowed him to give away dye. People were “buying” up a ton of it, and then selling it back when the vendor came back. We have (we think) finally fixed it. We took away his vacation time.

[31:20] Is there anything else about 1.1 you would like to share with us?

1.1 is our first live patch. Overall, we are really happy with what we put out.

[33:05] How have things been going from the community end of things?

Very, very busy! We can’t give the community answers until we actually have them. That’s why we don’t address something until we have an answer that we are 100% chance of answering correctly.