Classquests - what happened to them?

#0 - Feb. 24, 2009, 2:48 p.m.

Ok, firstly, let me get this straight - This is NOT a "Bring back vanilla WoW!" thread. I really enjoy WOTLK, and I like the way blizzard went with WoW, mostly. I have my own set of opinions about this whole thing, but that doesn't matter in this thread.

Classquests! Do you remember finally getting your quest item from Majordomo as a hunter, and go ahead and travel Azeroth finding these dangerous demons, which you had to face alone and defeat? The epic feeling of that, the feeling that your class means something? Or what about you fellow Warlocks, when you heard in whispers there is a shady outcast, one who practices the fel magics beyond the limits you could possibly dream of, deep inside the cursed Blasted Lands, behind a legion of dread Demons, that had the key, the formula to a ritual that could summon forth your very own Doomguard? Just finding this mystic Warlock was a challenge, but the following challenges were beyond your worst nightmares.. Retrieving blood from lethal Demons in southern Winterspring and even the depths of the Dire Maul.

There are a lot more examples, but you get my point. I doubt there are people who didn't find the class questlines simply epic to do, it felt defining for your choice of class and like an ultimate adventure. I don't get why blizzard decided to stop with them after the launch. TBC was all about Demons, I'd have loved to have a few warlock-specific questlines there, perhaps a new long cooldown demon added, say a Void Terror or one of those floating eyes.

I just find it a pity, back in vanilla WoW, when doing these questlines, it felt like a real epic quest on a search for power, I felt like a real Warlock, digging through dangerous rituals and reagents in dark places for more power. I don't know how other class quests really "feel", as I've never done them, but I'd imagine they are really defining too.

Well personally I'd really love them back, what about you guys?

Vaneras

#13 - Feb. 24, 2009, 6:34 p.m.

Most classes indeed have to complete one or more quest chains to give them a class-defining skill or ability, like for an example Shamans and their totems, Rogues and pickpocket, the Warrior stances, Warlock pets and so forth and so on. But these quests kind of disappear after about level 20 or so. And it is true that we in some cases may allow those skills or abilities to be learned easier, because we do not want to hinder the game experience for players who might have missed a quest giver. Also, we do not want to force players to put on low level quest tracking to find the right NPC to get an ability.

The people who seek immersion or wish to learn more about the lore behind classes can for the most part still complete those quests if that is what they want to do.

In regards to the epic quest chains, such as the Warlock Dreadsteed mount one, this is something that we feel makes sense to be trainable, because completing those quest chains today the way it was originally intended is not really possible anymore. Today, you would either bring in a level 80 character to help you steamroll through the quests, or you would wait until your character is level 80 and then steamroll through them yourself. If a quest chain that was previously a challenge and required an effort to complete, but today is now easily bypassed with the aid of high level characters, then we would prefer players to instead move on to more exciting things. We simply do not feel it is a good thing to force players through a quest chain that no longer provides a real sense of achievement, when options like these are available.

That being said though, we do want to do more class quests in the future. However, creating and implementing such class quests for all 10 classes takes time. All classes want their own class to get quests, which we think they indeed should have, but adding such quests bit by bit for a couple of classes at a time does not work very well. In the past we implemented class quests for Hunters and Priests, and although we did receive feedback that those quests were fun to do and had nice rewards, all the other classes felt left out.

Vaneras

#16 - Feb. 24, 2009, 6:52 p.m.

Q u o t e:
But still, I'd personally like a few more soloable chain quests that award cool leveling items. Something like that paladin quest for Verigan's Fist. Not "endgame", but leveling. Say, level 75~ quest chain in Northrend, or something. So it would be completely option whether or not a person completes it, but he still has that option.

I presume you mean more quests like for an example the level 50ish class specific ones that sends you to Sunken Temple?! (although those aren't really soloable at that level)