Since the end of February, a few of the big names from the World of Warcraft staff have been making rounds on various websites trying to fill the fans in on what to expect out of patch 5.2 In this process, they’ve covered everything from raiding, world bosses, arenas, battlegrounds, and even auction house questions. I’ve gone through all of the interviews and have condensed them down to their basic points while still retaining a bit of its original depth.
Gamebreaker’s Gary Gannon interviews lead quest designer Dave Kosak – February 27th, 2013.
At the start of the interview, the two discuss the poem in the WoW 5.2 trailer. Kosak goes into a bit of detail about the writing process for the poem.
After that, they lead into the raid by discussing Lei Shen’s original cause of death: (presumably) natural causes. This is important as it goes to show that there was no one in Pandaria strong enough to ever take him down when he was first around.
On the Isle of Thunder, you can collect lorewalker objects (scrolls) that give you bits and pieces of some of the last new bits of lore of Pandaria. After you collect enough, Lorewalker Cho will tell you the story of the Mantid’s worship of Y’shaarj, the Mogu’s serving the Titans, and how the two parties fought.
The big wall in Pandaria was made as a way to protect the Vale of Eternal Blossoms from the threat of the Mantid. The Vale was originally a sort of Petri dish for the Titans to experiment with life, much like Sholazar Basin and Un’Goro Crater were.
WoW 5.2 also fleshes out the relationship between the Mogu and the ancient Zandalari Empire. As Kosak puts it, “they were buddy buddy back in the day.” Despite the friendly relations, the Thunder King still saw himself as above the trolls. This will be seen in the raid.
The next two patches of WoW will deal with the war back in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Once 5.4 comes around, it will be the Siege of Orgrimmar, meaning bye-bye, Garrosh.
Regarding the origination of the dinosaurs we see on the Isle of Thunder, Kosak said “presumably, there are a lot of dinosaurs on the islands in the seas.” Some of them hail from the Isle of Giants.
As the Sha are manifestations of the dead Y’shaarj, there still remains a seventh Sha to go along with Y’shaarj’s seventh head. This Sha will eventually be revealed, although not in this current patch.
Gamebreaker’s Gary Gannon points out that dialogue from both Wrathion and Ra-den seem to lead the player to believe that they might end up working with or for the Titans. Kosak says that that’s some “cool speculation” meaning it’s probably close, but he did not confirm one way or the other if that’s what will actually happen in WoW.
In one piece of dialogue, Ra-den mentions a “yawning chasm of darkness.” This might or might not be the Old Gods. Perhaps it’s N’zoth? Next up, the Mantids and their service to the Old Gods is brought up. Kosak reminds us of one of the Mantids saying that if the Old Gods ever did come back, they would serve them.
No one will know whether or not Ra-den dies in the raid until he gets cleared. Considering he’s a heroic only bonus boss with limited attempts, this probably won’t be for some time.
Kosak said that they learned something about cinematics from overdoing them in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. They did them so much back in Cata because the technology was still new, but they have toned them down for Pandaria and will keep them toned down.
Gannon asks what Sylvanas is up to. Kosak explains that it is hard to show what she or other characters that aren’t featured in the current WoW storyline are up to due to the lack of interesting gameplay.
When the team sets out to tell a story, they need to have the perfect gameplay to go with it. Sometimes they need to focus on one set of characters for a while in order to make sure that they can develop the gameplay for it. Sylvanas will come back eventually.
What is true of the lack of focus on Sylvanas is also true for the lack of focus on certain WoW races like Blood Elves and Draenei. Kosak says that these thing will be fleshed out over time. Even the Draenei, too. “Their day will come,” as Kosak states.
Stay tuned for part 2 of WoW interviews!
Published: Mar 14, 2013 10:48 am