Legion Alpha Epic Stones Not Happening?

[Darolyn]

Brand new blue post:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic ... age=20#398

Not going forward with epics.

I can say I am relieved.

[Paladance]

My first feelings about that post were much more mixed than I had thought. I felt too confused to reply, but it's better now.

The initial news: "there will be epic pets" didn't seem to me discouraging, quite the opposite: I was just glad to see that there is any change at all.
These were the details that started to make a problem, at least to me. What we've seen from the Alpha news was a system based on the WoD one that just couldn't be good -- and I suspect that this overview has contributed the most to the general feedback.

I still would like to see epic pets if they are implemented in a smarter way. I mean, a CT-like adventure and pet epicness (not talking about the stones) don't have to be contradicting each other, hafta they?
But I'm not surprised that blues have deducted the other thing from the main thread.

Now I'm afraid a bit that each suggestion to make a change will be denied with an excuse "community is pretty conservative, look Feb 2016".
But I've seen proofs, like here that it doesn't have to be true!
Just not all people/opinions are vocal enough.

[Blue_frog]

I'm both relieved and worried.....


So what pet battle content is in legion? Are we getting anything other than the wod mess?

[Adumbledore]

I'm both relieved and worried.....


So what pet battle content is in legion? Are we getting anything other than the wod mess?

I think we're all pretty much wondering the same thing. I have some ideas of things I'd like to see that I'm going to post in that thread on the official forums here in about 20 minutes if you care to take a look.

[Paladance]

I think we're all pretty much wondering the same thing. I have some ideas of things I'd like to see that I'm going to post in that thread on the official forums here in about 20 minutes if you care to take a look.

I was thinking about creating Florals (plants that could be resistant to undeads to fulfill the Sunflower prophecy), but couldn't figure out the next one to make the number even (if we include Nether and Radiant ones too).
I can't response in the forums, so am moaning here.

[Blue_frog]

I think we're all pretty much wondering the same thing. I have some ideas of things I'd like to see that I'm going to post in that thread on the official forums here in about 20 minutes if you care to take a look.

I was thinking about creating Florals (plants that could be resistant to undeads to fulfill the Sunflower prophecy), but couldn't figure out the next one to make the number even (if we include Nether and Radiant ones too).
I can't response in the forums, so am moaning here.

I wouldn't mind new families. We have enough pets that got shoe horned into one that the devs could make a new one.

Quite frankly I just want more challenging content

[Merana]

Didn't Pokemon introduce new types several games in as well or am I missing something? Could have sworn Jigglypuff was normal type in red and blue and now everyone's saying it's fairy?!

[Shingetsu]

I somewhat expect a new tournament like the one on timeless isle.

[Adumbledore]

I think we're all pretty much wondering the same thing. I have some ideas of things I'd like to see that I'm going to post in that thread on the official forums here in about 20 minutes if you care to take a look.

I was thinking about creating Florals (plants that could be resistant to undeads to fulfill the Sunflower prophecy), but couldn't figure out the next one to make the number even (if we include Nether and Radiant ones too).
I can't response in the forums, so am moaning here.

I think Florals would be cool. I think I'll post the thread here so that everyone can reply, whether US or EU.

[Poofah]

The whole episode is very worrying.

Epic battle stones first appeared in the WoD beta files. We gave them substantial feedback at that time that epic stones were a terrible idea, and they didn't implement them. The reasons we gave were exactly the reasons that Kaivax cited in this most recent post. So there has been collective memory loss at Blizz about the whole issue, which strongly suggests that there has not been continuity in the pet battle design/dev process since MoP. @TheCrafticus was the pet battle dev in MoP, he transitioned away from pet battles toward the end of MoP and @Muffinus ostensibly took over, but clearly not in a full-time capacity. I have no idea who is steering the ship at this point.

Furthermore Kaivax cited the Celestial Tournament (which is not from the current xpac) as the best example of 'endgame' pet battle content. I think we all knew that already, but if Blizz was aware of the problem then why didn't they try harder to put proper endgame pet battle content in WoD?

One of the things we like about pet battles is that much of the early content stays relevant through all of the expansions. Similarly, the collection aspect of battle pets works well when it’s wider (more pets to collect, more variety in abilities) rather than taller (more levels). Both of these are very good reasons to avoid adding epic pet stones.

This direction also pushes us to create content that tests max-level-pet-battlers in a way that is not purely numbers, but use of abilities, use of specific pets, and memorization of enemy strategies. The Celestial Tournament was a good example of pet battle content that rewarded a varied and filled pet stable.

What he left unspoken is that adding epic stones would be *easy*, whereas designing and tuning a bunch of challenging tamer fights would not. It's heartening to hear them say that they're going to try, but after a full xpac of pet battles being on autopilot, I wonder if they're committed enough to do it.