gamona: Tom, with the next patch you are going to change the instance system once again. Instead of one 10-man and one 25-man instance there will be a heroic version for both types. Why this change? Tom Chilton: There are a lot of reasons. First the instance system will be more transparent for the player. We think that hard modes, such as the ones in Ulduar, are too complicated. There is no red button everywhere like at Mimiron, who says: "Hit me for the hard mode". So it is hard for us to design the encounter, because we want to avoid that the player unintentionally triggers the hard mode. It should be a bit more clear for the player. The major reason for us is that we can tune the encounters more precisely. Now the different modes depend on each other and because of this, it is hard for us to change the hard modes, without changing the normal mode. gamona: So there will be no more hard modes? Tom Chilton: Not in the classical sense, like in Ulduar. Ulduar is basically one huge hard mode instance, in which you only trigger the individual bosses. In the future you will trigger all bosses, when you start the heroic 10 or 25man modes. gamona: You are changing the emblem system as well. With patch 3.2 all Emblems of Heroism and Valor drops will be replaced by Emblems of Conquest. Are you not afraid, that the players who are fighting through Ulduar feel betrayed now that everyone can buy the "big" items? Tom Chilton: I don't think so. It is like with our expansions - when they are released, the items for which you have fought hard, lose their value. To compensate for this there are the new Emblems, with which the hardcore guilds will be in front of the normal players. gamona: You touch upon the Emblems of Triumph. Beforehand you said that the players can earn them depending on their playstyles. What do you mean by that? Tom Chilton: It relates to the quantity of Emblems you can earn. Of course you will earn one Emblem of Triumph for each boss you have defeated, as usual. But if you don't die during the fight, you will gain bonus Emblems. So: When you die less often, you will gain more Emblems! gamona: The achievement system has proven popular - everyone hunts them. Will the players be able to spend their points in the future for items like pets? Tom Chilton: I don't think that it would be good to spend them, because then they would be lost. And we want them to be an indicator, by which the players can be compared to each other. It could be possible, that the player can unlock special bonuses if they reach a specific number, but the rewards would be only cosmetic, nothing game changing. gamona: In patch 3.2. there will be new challenges for experienced raid groups with the Argent Tournament. How would you rate the difficulty in comparison with Naxxramas and Ulduar? Tom Chilton: Our philosophy ordinarily is, that normal modes should not be much harder than Naxxramas. The hard modes however should be very hard - like how Ulduar is at the moment. The first bosses however shouldn't be too hard - but later it will be harder. Guilds, who are successful in Ulduar shouldn't have big problems in the normal mode, but in heroic you should have experience from Algalon and Yogg-Saron. We can't please everybody - even with four difficulty levels, because the abilities of the guilds differ too much. gamona: A lot of players complained over the difficulty level of Naxxramas, Malygos and Sartharion. How does it go with Ulduar? Tom Chilton: Funnily enough, there are huge differences between what the players say and what we see through our internal statistics. We got a lot of feedback from hardcore guilds, who complained about how easy Naxxramas was. With Ulduar we have apparently gone too far. Through our statistics we see a huge decrease in the number of raiders since Naxxramas. Most of the players are at Malygos or Kel'Thuzad. It is possible that we tune the content too hard and because of this we will stay true to our principles, so that the normal mode should be readily accessible. gamona: The plan was to release Icecrown Citadel and Arthas with 3.3. Is this still the plan? Tom Chilton: Yes, it is. We've been working on the citadel for a few months now. By the way, we started with Arthas, the final boss encounter and then we worked back to the entrance. We wanted to ensure that the fight is as epic and great as possible. gamona: In the Chamber of Aspects there is only Sartharion, will we get new dragons in the future? Tom Chilton: You will fight Sindragosa, the queen of the frost wyrms in the Icecrown Citadel. In the Chamber of Aspects, there will be additional dragons, but I can not say if this will happen with 3.3. But there won't be one in 3.2. gamona: Let's assume that you will announce a new expansion at Blizzcon. Rumors are Gilneas or/and Maelstrom. We know you won't give us concrete answers, so we ask the other way around: What would you personally wish for as a new expansion? Tom Chilton: (laughs) Purely hypothetical, I would predict, that there will be great new content, which our players liked in the past. A new expansion would have the "three thirds" goal: One third should be all new, one third should be carrying on old elements and one third should be existing content in a new view. gamona: A lot of players like to play old content - like AQ or Molten Core. Do you want to make the old content more attractive, for example through epic quest lines? Tom Chilton: We definitively want to bring back some old dungeons as heroic versions, like we have done with Naxxramas in the current expansion. We don't want to rework all at the same time, because it is fun to come back at a higher level to these instances and beat old bosses, that were scary not long ago. But we will re-release old dungeons over time.
Slorkuz on Regional Finals Coverage - Sunday (Source)In the very last World of Warcraft match of the day, we find SK gaming set to face off against TSG for the title of US Regional Champions and a hefty slump of money. Without much fuss we find the first round underway in the Ring of Valor. TSG open the match by Death Gripping Realz into the thick of things but are unable to capitalise on the play as Realz gets some assitance from Pooks and escapes using Pain Suppression to stay alive. From there SK turn the tide of the battle in an instant as they force Zilea to bubble only to have it Mass Dispelled. While Zilea catches up on the healing, SK swaps target to Valrath and drop him in the matter of a full duration Kidney shot. SK gaming takes the first round of the Grand Finals.Minutes later the second match starts as we watch Veex charging into Pookz on the Nagrand Arena. Enforcer gets caught in a fear by Veex but trinkets it and gets straight onto Zilea. On SK Gaming's end, Realz is forced to use Pain suppression on Pookz after he already had used his IceBlock. TSG, not willing to let the pressure drop, stick to their target and manage to drop him fast as there is no IceBlock of Pain Suppression to save him from the hard hitting melee. TSG takes the round and equalises the score to 1-1.The third round is pretty much all one way as SK Gamign open on Zilea, throwing both Imp CounterSpells and Kidneyshots his way. Zilea in return trinkets the kidney shot in order to get away. The match goes on for a few as SK keep the pressure up and finally are able to drop Zilea with a combination of Mass Dispel on the bubble followed by a second Imp CS. At this point, Zilea is dangerously low and it is not a hard task for Enforcer to finish him off. SK takes the lead: 2-1.In the fourth round of the Grand Finals, we can see TSG charging into Enforcer in hopes to keep his stuns off their paladin. Despite Zilea using his bubble to heal himself to full, as soon as he pops back out into the match SK swaps target once again to him and pretty much blows him up in a matter of moments. SK Gaming wins the match 3-1, securing the title of US Regional Champions and 5000 dollers each.With that set of power plays, SK Gaming have proved their ability to the world by claiming the title of US Regional Champions. We look forward to seeing them defend their honor in the WorldWide Grand Finals at Blizzcon 2009.Congratulations to them, and thanks to everyone who came to the venue to make the event as memorable as it has been.With that; Over and Out from the event venue here in Cologne, Germany.
