Lead Level Designer
Cory Stockton (right)

Tom Chilton (Lead Game Designer), J. Allen Brack (Warcraft Lead Producer), and Cory Stockton (Lead Level Designer) were on the stage to discuss dungeons and raids in World of Warcraft at Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational 2008 Specifically they offered what they learned from the Burning Crusade (BC) and how it would be applied in the Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) and gave several sneak peeks of new instances that will be featured in WotLK. Cory Stockton lead the presentation and sneak peeks. In this article we will cover the discussion with the sneak peaks being posted as previews of each instance separately.

Upcoming Changes

As previously announced the biggest change will be the change from 25 man raiding to 10/25 man raiding, where all raid content will be available to both 10 and 25 man groups at the same time. Blizzard is doing this to open up content to a much larger audience than previously. However while it will be open to everyone they want to make the loot distinction very clear, therefore there will be a full tier of loot difference from the 10 to 25 man version of the raid. Blizzard also stated that the 25 man version of the raid will drop additional drops compared to previous 25 man content. This is so that more players in the raid get gear. Overall it is felt that having the raids available to both sizes Blizzard can create a lot more high quality content for many more players.

More non linear and specialty type events will be brought into instances and raids. The feeling is that instances should not feel as a-z as they currently are. As a result many of the new instances will have non-linear sections where you can do the bosses in any order that you chose. More other elements will also be introduced such as gauntlets and timed events.

The Occulus, an
instance in Northrend.

Lessons Learned

The lessons that Blizzard feels they learned from the Burning Crusade were numerous and it sounds like a lot of improvements are on they way.

One of the things they really did like was the options available in instances and in WotLK there will be roughly the same initial content as there was in BC. The plan is for 8 level up dungeons (for levels 71-79), 4 max level dungeons, and 3 first tier raiding dungeons. These will be spread across Northrend and in the Caverns of Time.

While they stated that they liked the Heroic system and have had lots of positive feedback on it, they felt it was slightly too hard. They would like to make them more accessible, so that if you can not find a protection tank you could still run them, or a non-holy priest. It was also stated that they were not entirely happy with dungeon length in BC and were tuning so that most dungeons should be able to be run in roughly 60 minutes.

The summoning changes in BC are also here to stay, such as summoning stones and warlocks being allowed to summon into instances. They do not want travel time getting to an instance from disqualify you from participating. Even if you are all the way across the world, getting to an instance should be easy and convenient.

Quests are being looked at as an area of improvement and as such will be tied more closely with dungeons this go around. Blizzard felt that in general players viewed the quests too much as a "just kill the last boss" type thing, and players never got to understand the lore or reason behind the dungeon or boss.

Lastly they are aware of patch order issues and will be watching it closer this time around. They felt that they released the Black Temple too early and Zul'Aman too late, and would have better served the players by reversing that order. They are going to be watching where content is needed by the players more closely this expansion and if a new 5 man is needed that is what they will release, if a new raid is needed then they will focus on that.

Naxxramas

Next up was the Naxxramas discussion which opened up with the question "Naxxramas... Again?" to which everyone cheered. Cory replied that, "Yes that's how we feel as well".

Players and Blizzard alike feel that Naxx is one of the best raids ever made by Blizzard and that it was released too late in the original games life cycle, therefore it is being brought back in the WotLK as a 10/25 man raid. Blizzard is extremely proud of the raid and feel they can tune this gigantic non-linear instance with over 15 bosses to be even better in the new environment. Its imagery and lore also fits Northrend Perfectly. As such it will most likely be the first raid instance in the expansion.

Itemization

Itemization was discussed and we found out that PvP gear will become more available through PvE so that players can start to gear up for arenas and battlegrounds while doing PvE. While it will not be the best gear it will give players a start. As previously discussed more gear will drop from 25 man raid bosses to allow better gearing up for raids. Also, items are being looked at to make them desirable to more classes.

They are not happy with the current itemization were something may drop that is only good for Retribution Paladins and if one is not there the item is useless. They are trying changes with item stats and bonuses that would allow them to have gear that is usable for three classes of specs.

Faction

Instances and faction is being looked at for WotLK as well. While they liked the original system it sometimes felt like a chore. Therefore they are testing a new system called championing. What this system will ado is allow you to wear a tabard for a specific faction in any instance and gain that factions reputation in addition to the base instance faction. This would allow you to gain the faction you need no matter the instance you are running. The instance faction will have a representative outside of each instance and faction requirements to enter instances are being removed. This means that you can enter heroic versions having never entered the dungeon previously. They are also looking to fill in the faction rewards with many more choices including more PvP options, trade skills items and more.

Death Knights and Instances / Raids

It was joked that for several months after the release it will probably be impossible to find a group without a Death Knight in it. However, Death Knights should be able to tank or DPS in any instance, heroic or raid. They are not meant to replace any given class, but supplement a group. One of the factors that was a deciding factor in adding a fourth tanking class was that there are still not enough tanks in the game. Many groups fail because they can not find a tank to start with. The decision was "more tanks = more dungeon runs".