World of Warcraft's upcoming Liberation of Undermine raid will build upon 20 years of raid design, while also introducing new mechanics and potentially limiting the influence of player-created mods, according to game director Ion Hazzikostas.
The Liberation of Undermine: New Twists on Old Mechanics
The Liberation of Undermine, set to launch with the 11.1 Undermine(d) update for The War Within expansion, will feature eight bosses and bring new twists to familiar raid mechanics. Hazzikostas emphasized that the raid's environmental framing will be a key part of the experience, moving beyond the concept of simply dropping a boss in any old room.
"There are certainly new encounters built upon lessons learned and things tested in old ones, but part of the encounter team's job is to evolve those experiences...They put a fresh coat of paint on old mechanics, but also come up with some genuinely new mechanics that no one's ever seen before..." - Ion Hazzikostas
The Arms Race Between Players and Designers
Over the past 20 years, player tools have evolved significantly, from basic guides to sophisticated add-ons like WeakAuras. These mods often automate and trivialize some mechanics, leading to an "arms race" where designers create even more complex encounters, and players develop mods to conquer them.
Blizzard has experimented with making some mechanics unreadable by mods, but players have found ways to circumvent these efforts. Hazzikostas noted the complexity of setting up these mods and emphasized their potential to make fights feel overly complex or underwhelming, depending on whether or not players rely on them.
Moving Away from Mod Reliance
To address this, Blizzard plans to remove some functionality from raid mods, while providing players with more in-game information and time to react to mechanics. The aim is to create engaging encounters that feel elegant and rewarding without requiring players to rely on external tools.
"We can't be ignorant to the fact that many of our players are using add-ons, and it will shape the feedback we get about how engaging an encounter feels." - Ion Hazzikostas
Hazzikostas believes that moving away from total mod reliance will make encounters more engaging for players, and avoid the situation where mods essentially "play the game" for players, turning the combat into a series of reactions to mod-generated prompts.
By offering a more balanced and engaging experience for all players, Blizzard hopes to usher in a new era of raiding in World of Warcraft, combining the rich history of past encounters with innovative and challenging mechanics.
