Blizzard Interview with Icy Veins, Raider.io and Wowhead - Interrupt Trackers, Visual Clarity, Addons

Wowhead, Icy Veins and Raider.io teamed up in an interview with Andrew De Sousa, and Taylor Sanders to discuss interrupt trackers, how the removal of computational addons has gone, the visual clarity improvements and more!

This interview was a joint effort between Wowhead, Icy Veins and Raider.io. Please check out their content as well!

These three websites teamed up to interview:

Andrew De Sousa, Lead Encounter Designer
Taylor Sanders, Lead Encounter Designer

Wowhead Questions

Here are Wowhead's questions and a summary of the answers.

Given the inclusion of at least one council fight and the rising amount of low target cleave in the recent raids, are you happy with the shift in raid design moving away from more single target encounters? Is the design direction of classes something that is considered when looking at the encounter style of an upcoming raid?

They always consider class balance and work closely with them.
They always want to make sure there is a variety of encounters and challenges across the entire PvE season.
There's a lot of focus on the back end of the raid, as well as high end Mythic+ to make sure there is a variety there in DPS and Healing profiles.
Just because this tier has a little more multi-target and 2 target cleave, but it's not necessarily a shift for the game as a whole; sometimes it's where the creatures take the encounters.
They want to make sure there is a good variety of challenges each Season, so every class has their own encounter to shine.

One of the points of feedback from testing was the overwhelming amount of trash in the raid. Have you made any changes to that since testing, or can players expect about that amount on live, which includes the blood channeling mechanic?

They're always making changes to things on the PTR.
There's still raid trash, but what they've been trying to do more in raids is more non-standard gameplay, such as the Frogger hallway or the BWL trap room.
There are a few different places in the Venomous Abyss which are more unique.

Looking back at encounters like Mythic L'ura, where third-party tools became almost expected to manage the Memory Game, what lessons did the team take forward into designing Atal'Utek? Can we expect to see more mechanics use information asymmetry in the future?

There's still a lot of things to iterate on with regards to additional tools and addons. One of the major goals is if you're returning or a new player, you shouldn't feel obligated to have a large package of addons just to function.
The other goal is computation addons. There were a few that high end Mythic players still felt obligated to get in the 12.0 raids.
Starting with 12.1, addons can no longer access their information, and they have separated out what addons can access. They're hoping that computation addons can fully be put to rest.
We definitely can see more information asymmetry mechanics in the future. They're experimenting with it in a few ways. They're going to keep experimenting and listening to feedback.

We've seen an increase in Midnight on pure "knowledge checks" on bosses, where you need to know how to do this mechanic, or else you and/or your group dies. For example, soaking the 4 beams on the last boss of Altar of Fangs, or the 2nd boss of Altar of Fangs. Is this intentional, and are you okay with a group wiping due to one player not knowing the mechanic in a 5 man dungeon?

This is co-op PvE at the end of the day.
There is often one thing that you need to know on this boss in order to defeat it, and it's on them as encounter designers to make sure they're signaling that you're failing.
Another technique is something like on Kasreth in Nexus Point where the beams change color to indicate you should do something with it.
If there's a single core mechanic they want you to learn, that's part of the mastery of WoW.

Are there any mechanics in Season 2 that you feel like you couldn't have done with computational addons?

One of the examples is on the Entombed Sentinels, as they have given excessive visual effects for this mechanic — in the past they would just assume that players would have an addon for it, which forces them to design towards that at the most competitive levels.
This puts a number of debuffs over your head, and you need to find your matching player. This is something that would be offloaded to computation addons in previous expansions, but they can now rely on players to solve that in a more emergent, dynamic way.
In Mythic+, not directly driven by it but it definitely helped — it contributed to them updating line and cone visuals.

Full Summary

Lessons from 3 Raid Tiers

They really wanted to follow the story, and that's something that drove them to the split raid tier.
One of the positives that they saw from that was the separation of raid content, and for players that had little time, they could still go in and see a lot of success.
The Dreamrift's loot definitely helped, but they saw a lot of pugs get a bite size of raiding into their week.
This is why they have 2 raids this tier, and they're hoping that the Tidebound Grotto will help fill that same gap.

Mythic L'ura and Addons

There's still a lot of things to iterate on with regards to additional tools and addons. One of the major goals is if you're returning or a new player, you shouldn't feel obligated to have a large package of addons just to function.
The other goal is computation addons. There were a few that high end Mythic players still felt obligated to get in the 12.0 raids.
Starting with 12.1, addons can no longer access their information, and they have separated out what addons can access. They're hoping that computation addons can fully be put to rest.
We definitely can see more information asymmetry mechanics in the future. They're experimenting with it in a few ways. They're going to keep experimenting and listening to feedback.

Death Grip Mandatory

They try to make sure that when a class has a very transformative ability such as Gorefiend's Grasp or Death Grip, there are other ways that maybe aren't as efficient, or aren't as powerful — but there are still other ways to complete the mechanic.
They want those things to be very powerful, but there's a difference between a spell that is the best of its form and a spell that does something super unique and cannot be replicated.

Trash in Venomous Abyss

They're always making changes to things on the PTR.
There's still raid trash, but what they've been trying to do more in raids is more non-standard gameplay, such as the Frogger hallway or the BWL trap room.
There are a few different places in the Venomous Abyss which are more unique.

No Mythic+ Trash Dungeon Journal

They've taken a big pass on simplicity on trash in Mythic+. Does everything need to have a cast bar?
When they see a bolt, they know what to expect.
They're making sure that players have enough time to deal with it, and pairing down the complexity. For the type of mechanic that is "you get a circle with a rim, and you just need to spread out," it's just enough to spread out and that's it for trash.

Lindormi's Guidance

The goal was intended at the entry points of Tanks to routing.
A mapping tool is more aimed at the high end and they don't want to confuse new tanks, which the system was designed for.
A mapping tool would be cool though.

Player Health / Creature Damage

They've been paying attention to PTR tests, and are doing almost weekly updates to the dungeons.
They're always looking for ways to shake up the meta.

More Council / Cleave Encounters

They always consider class balance and work closely with them.
They always want to make sure there is a variety of encounters and challenges across the entire PvE season.
There's a lot of focus on the back end of the raid, as well as high end Mythic+ to make sure there is a variety there in DPS and Healing profiles.
Just because this tier has a little more multi-target and 2 target cleave, but it's not necessarily a shift for the game as a whole; sometimes it's where the creatures take the encounters.
They want to make sure there is a good variety of challenges each Season, so every class has their own encounter to shine.

Raid Nerfs

There will be a similar system to the Season 1 raids that will buff players.
Buffing players vs nerfing bosses — they try to focus the powers on the players as they're the heroes of the story.
It's not a great feeling to show up to the raid and the boss is nerfed suddenly; they try to avoid that as much as possible.
For L'ura glaives, that's a lot more reaction time.

Popularity of the Mythic+ Season

The main driver was accessibility, and players could complete 10s, and then 12s were in reach, and then 14s.
A strong dungeon pool and fun class design also contributed.
It's making Andrew nervous to watch the score for the 1% title go up every day.

Knowledge Checks

This is co-op PvE at the end of the day.
There is often one thing that you need to know on this boss in order to defeat it, and it's on them as encounter designers to make sure they're signaling that you're failing.
Another technique is something like on Kasreth in Nexus Point where the beams change color to indicate you should do something with it.
If there's a single core mechanic they want you to learn, that's part of the mastery of WoW.

Boss Arena

They want to create interesting environment rooms that create interesting challenges. For example, with Queen An'surek, she's a spider and they wanted to add verticality to make it seem like you're climbing a spire.
Ula'tek should feel similar.
They always want to find ways to engage different movement utility.

Addon Changes and Communication

They wanted to cut back on some of the noise so that the things that are important can stand out.
They have a UI element where it lights up and glows when it's important.
They have a new VFX asset where it pulses on the creature to show you that something important is happening.
They're pulling back on pulsing and coordination where reasonable.
No plans for a proper interrupt tracker right now.

Missing Raid Leader and Accessibility Tools

They have nothing to share about additional tools for things that players have felt like they've lost with the Midnight addon changes.
One of the goals for all of the addon changes was to try to impact accessibility as little as possible in the earnest pursuit of removing computational addons and the effect that it's had.
They know that raid leaders and guild leaders are those who are driving large social groups together week after week.
So nothing to announce right now, but they want to continue to listen to feedback if players have ideas or tools that would be useful for the game.

Specific Mechanics Without Computational Addons

One of the examples is on the Entombed Sentinels, as they have given excessive visual effects for this mechanic — in the past they would just assume that players would have an addon for it, which forces them to design towards that at the most competitive levels.
This puts a number of debuffs over your head, and you need to find your matching player. This is something that would be offloaded to computation addons in previous expansions, but they can now rely on players to solve that in a more emergent, dynamic way.
In Mythic+, not directly driven by it but it definitely helped — it contributed to them updating line and cone visuals.